Harveen's Baking Affair

My savory fascination continues......so much for me being a slave to my sweet tooth. Hubby has an interesting theory about it..he says my case is now like the "halwai"...after a year of sweet bakes , I have developed an immunity against them !!! If what he says is correct, I fervently pray and hope it remains that way...would be so much better for my waistline !!! Back to savory...it all started with the  chana pulao  ..well at least on the blog...which was followed by the festive tortilla rollups  ...me ditching sweets on Christmas day must be indicative of some big change..right !My appetite for savory wasn't at all satiated....had to go for a non-sweet bake too ..what better than dinner rolls ? The only trouble ..I'm not a bread person so was avoiding baking one ..but it is the holidays and kids are home and mom has to be creative and try new things ...so how about spicing up the dinner rolls by adding cumin and onions? I admit that dinner roll

T'was the night before Christmas and I was still vacillating about my appetizer choice ...we had a get together at our place and though the main dishes had been taken care of..the appetizer choice was giving me a tough time...maybe the fact that my brain had slowed down contributed to the indecision ...blame all the brain activity on the holidays ..before I venture further into this tangent ,let me make clear that I  wanted the appetizer to be easy to make /assemble and in the traditional holiday colors.  Not a big fan of food colors , was looking for inspiration the natural way when Mother Nature in the form of Ree Drummond  came to my rescue. Her Christmas Tortilla roll ups were too perfect to ignore ! The only way in which I begged to differ from her was that I didn't use spring onions..Please don't ask why ...I might get a tad bit emotional. Firmly keeping my rambling thoughts aside , here is what you guys have to do if you want to wow your guests the next ti

So, if you had enough of all the sugary holiday cheer ..yes, we are talking about all those platters of cookies and fruit cakes ...and are now in the mood for something savory , welcome to the "no more sugar this holidays" club. Once you join the club, treat yourself you this scrumptious chana pulao ..wish I could offer free sampling of this tasty treat but geographical limitations prohibit me from doing so even though I am not lacking on the holiday spirit ! I could do the next best thing ..share the recipe with you with the trust that you will do full justice with it . Secure with that knowledge, let's move on to the ingredients and the method involved. Hey ... have to halt a bit ..wanted to mention a few things...first ,you can substitute the kabuli chana with black chana or green chana ...yes, go for it ...secondly, try to use a wide vessel while making the pulao ...leads to more "khile khile rice "...okay..instructions over..time to move ahea

Red velvet (cup)cake - the name evokes rich flavor and texture along with the characteristic red hue. Paired with cream cheese frosting , it has  become the new culinary obsession. I joined the bandwagon a bit late though . Not that I was unaware of it's hype but the  right place and setting was missing ... I got officially hooked when on a cold cold winter evening , had this warm tender cake at the  Ritz Carlton bakery in Charlotte.fell in love with the buttery taste and the fact that red is my favorite color must ahve played a part too !  Some tastes linger with you and apparently with your family members as well.Dearest daughter has her birthday coming up and was thinking of baking cupcakes as  birthday  treats for her native language school friends. Upon asking  as to what her choice of flavor would be for the cupcakes , her reply was ...you guessed it correctly...red velvet ...hence the blog pose !! they had my vote too ..with Christmas approaching..it was perfectly apt a

It's that time of the year again...time when supermarkets bring out their baking goods display right at the entrance to tempt us into baking . You can find anything ..say from the plastic gingerbread spatula to candied green cherries ...and speaking of glazed cherries...it is also the time for fruit cakes . Fruit cakes, the quintessential  holiday cake ...raise your hand if the mere mention of it  rings back childhood memories of feasting on them or helping your mom beat the eggs in order to bake one ..fruit cakes for me takes me back to my convent school days , when they were given as a  Christmas treat complete with Christmas carols playing on the intercom. No, I don't have the recipe for that particular fruit cake of my childhood , though it wouldn't hiurt to be in the possession of it .. purely for sentimental value. Enough of a trip down memory lane...coming back to the fruit cake mentioned in this blog ...This particular one does not require any pre s

Life throws a curve ball sometimes....encountered one recently . Without going into much details , let's just say that it has not been a great year ..and when you are facing tough times or as I like to say have dark clouds hanging overhead..you try to cling to mundane ordinary things that make you happy and restore some normalcy ...baking is one such "thing".....it keeps me sane and focused when things get chaotic ! Enough of a rant ...on to cheery things like baking pinwheels and getting  the Christmas cookie platter ready ... December is a great month for baking colorful cookies , so comes as no surprise  that my first addition to the Christmas platter are these pinwheel cookies. You may  also call them as "spin cookies " or "swirl cookies"...the possibilities are endless ! Wanted to bake them in the traditional holiday colors but hey ..what can you do if you simply run out of red and don't want to run out to buy it in gloomy weather ?

Finally , one of those Saturdays which come after a major holiday....in this case the one after the Thanksgiving potluck and Black Friday madness . After gorging on all the food on the aforementioned holiday and being invited to a dinner party the following day ...my body was demanding some mercy be shown and something light be consumed. It's not that I didn't pay heed it to it's first warning bell..remember the green smoothie I made with kale and left over cranberries but having biryani on the previously mentioned dinner party  didn't help at all. Anyways, coming back to the lazy Saturday , half of which was spent lazing around ..doing nothing and close to the other half on vacillating on what light soup should be prepared ? Asking my kids would not have helped matters at all  as they are extremely biased towards the cream of mushroom one. Green came to my rescue ..green smoothie..green soup..simple ! Spinach Soup was meant to be. Here is my adapted reci

We are celebrating our Thanksgiving the typical desi way ..yes, you guessed it right ..we are having a potluck party . Before you dismiss it as another boring affair , let me point out that we are doing something "different".. we are having a Thanksgiving brunch instead of the traditional dinner. While you may feel the need to compliment us for doing something "hatke" let me assure that it was more out of necessity. Black Friday sales have now formally invaded Thursday Thanksgiving dinner ..the lure of the all deals was just too hard to resist...so moved the potluck  early  from dinner to brunch. Cranberries are a staple of any Thanksgiving feast and I for one wasn't making an exception ? Have to admit that I was getting kinda bored with eating this antioxidant rich food as sauce only ...that too store bought are just nothing more than sugar jellies. Google came to my rescue and the possibility of baking  a  cranberry upside down cake got embedded in