Zomato Restaurant Guide 2012 - A Book Review

Zomato.com, famous for its online restaurant reviews has published the first edition of its restaurant guide for 4 cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Pune & Bangalore.

Mawa Cupcakes | Milk Cheese Cupcakes

For the recipe + step by step pictures of this spongy & delicious cake, please visit - http://foodomania.com/mawa-cupcakes-milk-cheese-cupcakes/

How to make Khoya (or Mawa) at home

I am one of those stubbornly self sufficient people when it comes to cooking. I love making everything from scratch. So, when I needed mawa to make Mawa Cake, instead of saving 2 hours of my life and buying it from the shop, I decided to make it on my own. Making it is so damn easy and involves almost zero labor!

Visit www.foodomania.com for the recipe & step by step pictures.
Link to this recipe - http://foodomania.com/khoya-home-homemade-mawa/

Spicy Mango Pickle (Avakkai)

There are a gazillion ways of making pickle. This mango pickle, or Avakkai Oorgai (read: aa-vuh-kkaay oor-gaai) as we Tamilians call it, is our family recipe. This is how ladies of my family have been making for generations.

Wholewheat Stuffed Buns

Who in the world doesn’t love the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven? It’s better than any smell my nose could possibly ... uh, smell. :D And mind you, my sense of smell is really strong. I can sniff food from far away and even guess what ingredients are boiling/ broiling/ baking/ frying away! :P But nothing like a loaf of bread, heh? Remember the Stuffed Bread Loaf I made sometime back? Well, this is pretty much like that. Same method, different output.

Rasam Powder

Say hello to Ma. She's been kind enough (or.. should I say, excited! :P) to share her 'secret' Rasam powder recipe with us. ;-) Rasam, Saaru, Chaaru, Saathumudhu... different names, one dish. A tamarind based south Indian soup flavored with various spices to give it a different taste every time. Rasam is an indispensable part of a South Indian feast.

Grissini (Italian Breadsticks)

I think yeast is starting to love me. ;-) How else would you explain every yeast experiment succeeding? (touch wood!!!) In fact, I've already made them thrice, in varying sizes. Homemade breadsticks are delicious! Plus there's an added satisfaction of consuming what you made - from scratch! Grissini, commonly known as breadsticks are Italian appetizers. They are perfect sides for a bowl of soup.

Chinese Vegetable Noodle Soup

I have said it before. I am not a soup person. But then, my idea of soup has always been blitzing the hell out of beautiful tomatoes and then further slaughtering by squeezing out the liquid from the puree! But if soups can look as beautiful as this one, then I'd like to change my opinion! ;-)

Double Chocolate Brownies

Visit www.foodomania.com for the recipe & step by step pictures.

Link to this recipe - http://foodomania.com/double-chocolate-brownies/

Homemade Caramel Sauce

I mastered the Caramel Sauce a while back. Remember this exceptionally fancy birthday cake? I gave the regular old chocolate ganache a twist by adding caramel sauce. And believe you me, it was excellent! Caramel sauce can have a pleasing effect on anyone who has the good fortune of tasting it. It is delicious as a topping on ice creams, cakes, brownies, pancakes and what not! In fact, it is worth spending the time to make this sauce just for the mere pleasure of licking it off the bowl!

Mixed Vegetable Curry

I know I’ve been MIA for quite sometime. I’ve been vacationing down south. Well, more like sweating truckloads & doing absolutely nothing! Since there was no scope for baking, (which I consider to be my specialty! :D) I resorted to writing simple gravy recipes. And now that I’m back from the fiery land of Chennai, I decided to test one of those recipes. A lot of people I know are afraid of making gravies. It is really funny, because there really is nothing simpler than making gravy! I kid you not. How hard is it to throw in some vegetables and spices and give it a quick blend? I hope this recipe will serve as a simple guide to making any gravy, anytime you want.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Use this recipe for baking a cake or a batch of cupcakes. I swear they would turn out soft and spongy. This has, by far been THE most successful experiments with ingredients I've ever had. This recipe exemplifies the saying 'Simplicity is profound'. So simple and readily available are the ingredients that go into the making of these cupcakes that you'll want to bake them everyday!

Noodle Burrito | Noodle Frankie

Noodle Frankie is extremely popular in my college. A thin tortilla stuffed with red hot noodles and other spices and rolled like a Burrito makes it an absolute delight to munch on during breaks. Bit by the nostalgia bug, (I graduated in March) I decided to recreate the same roll at home. And I believe I almost succeeded. A bit of tailoring the recipe here and there would give me the perfect homemade Noodle Burrito I've been looking for. What you see here is the perfect Noodle Frankie recipe (I hope so!).

Chocolate Mousse Caramel Ganache Cake

Uh huh... For the recipe & step by step photographs, you will now have to visit http://www.foodomania.com! :D
Link to this recipe - http://foodomania.com/chocolate-mousse-cake/

How to make Chocolate Shards - step by step

For the recipe + step by step pictures, please visit http://www.foodomania.comLink to this recipe - http://foodomania.com/chocolate-shards-step-step-pictorial/

Mango Ice Cream

There are so many different ways of making ice cream. With eggs, without eggs, with cream or with milk and so on. In my experience, the few ice creams I've made (without the ice cream maker) crystallized sooner or later. This time though, I was determined to find a solution to those irritating ice crystals. And I may have found it! :-D I do wish I had tried the Chocolate Ice Cream though. I'm not a big fan of fruity ice creams. However, that couldn't stop me from devouring a cup or two. ;-)