The Pink Café

This is the best ever chocolate ice cream I made till now. And of course I got a very good response from both my boys, especially my big boy. This was the comment made by him, that too to my parents. "I have never tasted such an awesome ice cream in my life" and to me, "ice cream kidilam aayitund", meaning, ice cream is superb. The colloquial word "kidilam" is a mallus feeling, to express something is superb. And this word has the power to touch the right neurons :) So this ice cream was part of my 2018 new year late night baking cooking, where I planned all chocolatey stuffs, brownies and the extravaganza of chocolate chips, hide n seek choco chips, and lot of home made dark chocolate syrup. My little boy was giving me company when my hubby was out with his friends for new year party, saying, "amma, I don't feel like sleeping today. Today is new year and whole night we can bake and make stuffs in kitchen". But that excitement of

As said in my previous posts my little boy is a fan of fish recipes. And when it comes to steaks, he doesn't have a second option. This time I prepared the steak with asparagus and a sweet tangy sauce prepared at home and I had a guest at my home, my almost and always welcomed guest, yes my bestie Annie. The entire day cooking was done chit chatting with her, she being the moral support for all the experimenting. When we are together, there is not even a single moment without talking and cracking jokes. The fish of my choice for steaks is one with thick flesh and which can be cut without thorns easily. I used seer fish fillets this time. The sauce preparation was instant and there was no plan on what all should go in it. I opened my refrigerator and found apple cider vinegar, and the common sauces, mustard paste, and onion powder and I decided, ahh ok, I am gonna toss my fish fillets in this and try out the steak.  This fish steak went for a 2 step baking. First of all in

This is the time of year when I make plum cakes, and you know the reason why I call it Royal Plum cake? Ok let me tell you, because my Plum cakes would have all the nuts and dry fruits which I can catch hold of. Plum cake is the most loved cake at my home, and I used to bake big multiple batches of it and stock during this season. Made in bunt pan My amma and achan are not big fans of other cakes and they rarely even taste some of the buttery, creamy, chocolaty icing cakes I make. Same with my in laws. But Plum cakes are always their favorites and the whole family can munch over it during the family chit chats around a table. Very lately I realized that Plum cake is not an easy recipe and it is a cake choice of class. Growing up as a kid, I was thinking plum cake is the easiest and cheapest one, as it doesn't have any beautiful icing or designs around, and look so bare and naked. But realized that this cake doesn't need an advertisement, and it is the word of mou

Sweet potato is a long lost food of mine, one of the food I used to like growing up. In Kerala, cooking tubers is like a tradition, which I have seen in many homes. The standard evening snack in many old homes would be some form of steam boiled root vegetables. See our ancestors where even so particular about their health, and they don't want the evening snacks to be something junk, cooked in lot of oil or sweet. I have also grown up in such a home, where every crop was available within our premises or in our crop land. I still remember people bringing crops like rice, banana, tuber stuffs, vegetables and all from my grandfather's leased crop land as a gifts. See going back to my old memories itself is making me talk like a kid :P Now the time has changed that we are no longer relying on our crops, rather we buy everything from shops. People got lot busy with work and this fast life, and who has time for farming now! You know something, the things we wouldn't have app

Thought to rename my weekend stories to Healthy weekends, as basically the stories over here are food and health only. I had a very late Friday night, it's Friday night and it has to be like that :P Spoiling yourself in some  weakness of your's. I slept in between something and really don't remember when was it. Saturday started with a door bell ring, and I was thinking, who in this world at this early morning is ringing my door bell. Thought its my maid, cursing in mind, why she has to come so early, where she used to come at noon usually. And had a glance of the time and screamed, "Wow! its 10 30" and I am still sleepy creepy! So I opened the door to see the BigBasket boy waiting with my order in my door steps, saying, "Madam! your bigbasket order". I was still sleepy and ran inside to take the keys. I don't know what that guy would have thought, seeing a women this sleepy at 10 30 in morning. Ahh! anyways he gave the best morning gift,

Chinese flavors always adds a little punch to the recipe. Who won't love a Chinese recipe which is flavor full with all sweet, sour, spicy favors around.  Chilly Potato is such a dish, where the base is common for many of other dishes like chilly chicken, chilly paneer etc. It is the meeting of different sauces, chillies, with just the main ingredient changing. This dish is a secret love of vegetarians and non vegetarians. This dish has a "that factor" to go with any other cuisines as well, not Chinese main courses alone. Still my favorite combination of chilly chicken is Kerala porotta. Toasting potatoes, each side This time just because the health tag was on, the way the potatoes are fried is different from what we used to do in other chilly recipes. Instead of batter frying, which takes lots of oil, the potatoes were fried in non stick pan with 1 tsp oil, each side for 5 minutes, and cooked on some water afterwards. Also the baby potatoes used were sprout

So the birth of this recipe is purely situational, where there started a need for pre workout food, as my workout schedules are totally changed. Now a days I am having a late workout, as my office shift is afternoon till 10 and I would be so lazy to get out of bed. I could feel that I was starving during exercise and the old energy to do was missing. Breakfast is the important part of daily meal and I m like almost skipping it, as the first meal goes to my tummy around start of early noon. So I decided to find out some light meals that I can have before the workout. So the thought started on what can be the best food... I recollected having a breakfast bar from Etihad airways which calls itself an energy bar having less calories, I got it in their low fat meal plan. I m not pretty sure on all ingredients, but could guess some like sesame seeds and dates syrup. So it's deal now! I m going to make my own energy bar, which would be as good as a normal breakfast and good thing

This fruit cake was baked for taking to Gauthappan's school as Christmas, New year gift cake, which is been like a tradition for past 4 years now.  So this time of the year he will ask for the special cake for his friends and teachers, the reason being he would be seen privileged that day at school ;) This time I thought to bake a healthy fruity cake for the kids, which tastes like heaven, fluffy and; when I say healthy I mean it. It is an extravaganza of all rich nuts and dry fruits, that I had trouble cutting the pieces :D With good quality butter, eggs, fresh cream which was my experiment, by the way :D Adding to it is home grown passion fruit juice, as replacement to liquor, as it is for kids. Passion fruit has never ditched my experimentation. Everything cooked and baked out of my terrace farm passion fruit turned out awesome in past too. When I was planning for this cake in my mind I never thought it would turn out so good. Anyway the little boy tasted it first in the