poetry: my little bro

Earlier this month my brother celebrated his birthday back home and I missed him. I missed him more when I counted how old he turned and how far he has come. And then I started to think he'll get married in a couple of years and life will change when his wife will become his priority. And then, I tried to pen down my feelings and wrote a poem after a long, long time.

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Green Curry Flavored Paneer Empanada | Fusion Food | Appetizer Ideas

Last month I went to an event where some 100 attendees brought 100 bite-size pieces of their fusion food (appetizer, dessert, etc).  The creative combinations they came up with blew my mind (will share pictures from the event soon).  After thinking for weeks, I had finally decided on taking green curry flavored paneer empanada as my fusion dish.

I grew up in Bangkok, Thailand, and that's where the inspiration behind my recipe came from.  I used the authentic and vegetarian green curry paste brought from Thailand.  To add fusion to a Thai green curry paste, I used homemade paneer (Indian), and to fusion-ize it further, I shaped them like empanada (a touch of Latin America).  Since the theme of the event was ‘green’, I used spinach puree to add color the little cuties.

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Shimla Mircha ka Salan: Bell Peppers in Spicy Peanut Gravy

When I hear "salan" I relate it to mirchi, biryani, and Hyderabad.  'Salan' means gravy and is popular in Hyderabad.  It is mostly made in three ways: with shimla mirch (bell pepper), with chili peppers (long chilies), or as a plain spicy gravy which is a superb accompaniment to biryani.  What I'm sharing here today is the one with bell peppers: Shimla Mirch ka Salan - bell peppers in a spicy peanut gravy.

I like to make my Salan spicy, a mild Salan is no fun.  Here's how to make one -

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Simple Spinach Soup Recipe

There are some blogs I have come across that write lengthy introductions unrelated to the post.  Not that I have a problem with it, because if the multiple paragraphs are not exactly providing more information about the recipe then I'm usually skipping them.  But it amazes me how some people can write so much.  I really have to think for days what to include in a post!  Would you tell me whether you like to read such blog posts all about the author or do you prefer getting to the point?

For now, I'm sharing a simple spinach soup recipe.  There's no story behind it, no reason to stretch this post unnecessarily, and no point in blabbering.  The weather was good one day, there was a lot of spinach in the huge bag we got from Costco, and I felt like making some simple, easy, and delicious spinach soup.

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Vegetarian Spinach and Mushroom Crepes for Breakfast

I'm sharing wonderful spinach and mushroom crepes today that will be perfect for your next brunch.  You can definitely have these spinach and mushroom crepes for dinner, as they are quite satiating with the paneer and cheese filling.  We relished our crepes for breakfast with some freshly squeezed pineapple juice.

Do your kids like to eat colorful food?  Then these green crepes would be great to also get them to eating spinach, because spinach puree has been used instead of any artificial food coloring to make the crepes.

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Vegetable Stuffed Bun Recipe | Eggless Baking

The thing with baking breads is ... once you try making easy stuff like a loaf a few times, or a baguette a few times, you feel like going to the next level and try something like a pretzel or a challah.  Then you want to try some more shapes, sizes, and types of bread.  Not that bread-making has any such levels.  But you basically want to experiment different kinds of breads, because it's a challenge.  Because it's fun.

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