BasaLe Soppina Koddel | Udupi-Mangalorean Style Vegan Malabar Spinach Curry

Learn how to make BasaLe Soppina Koddel ~ Udupi-Managlorean style Malabar spinach cooked in a freshly roasted spices and coconut gravy tempered with garlic

Do you dream about certain foods? After one long tired day, you close your eyes and then suddenly this delicious thing comes to your mind. All you can do at that moment is sigh and groan loudly matching the rumble of your stomach. You just wish that you could take one teeny-tiny bite of that scrumptious food you have had loooooooong time ago? Food that makes one want to weep as the nostalgia hits like a tonnes of bricks!

Yes… I am talking about such food, something you can’t find in a place where you are currently living. Apart from my family and friends, I miss quite many things that I had taken for granted in all those years I spent time in my country of birth. It is like inhaling the heady aroma of earth after first monsoon rain hits the mother earth, or the tingling taste of first tender mango rubbed with salt and chilli powder in hot summer days, or the feeling of happiness when you rest your head on your mother’s lap, or the satisfaction of hugging someone who loves you more than themselves, or the feeling of content that comes when you taste something specially cooked with lots of love by your loved ones… Yes, there are these few things that can’t be experienced anywhere else. And you miss them dearly, not just when you are feeling low but also when you are bursting with joy and happy thoughts. Because it is these few special people and interesting things that makes one’s life worthwhile.

Sprouted HuruLi Saaru And Usli Recipe | Sprouted Horse Gram Curry and Stir Fry

Learn how to make HuruLi Saaru and Usli ~ Horse gram sprouts cooked in spicy coconut gravy and garlic and Sprouted horse gram stir fry garnished with grated coconut

“Ajji, can I go out and play?” asked little girl pulling her grandma’s soft cotton saree pallu which was carefully tucked around her slim waist.

“Not today, my princess! It’s too hot outside and we don’t want the fever monster to return”, said grandma as she pressed her cool hand against little girl’s forehead to check her temperature.

“But I will play in the shade, Ajji”, said little voice laced with impatience as she longingly looked at her sister and cousins running around, screaming loudly as they chased one another in a large garden in front of ancestral home.

“I know, my darling! But who will help me with cooking then? Who will help me to open the dabba of bella (jaggery)?”, asked grandma smiling showing her trademark enchanting smile with twinkling eyes and red lips stained with the juice from ele-adike (betel leaf and supari).

“Bella?”, asked little girl with excitement oozing from her voice and eyes. “I will help you Ajji”, quickly came the reply.

“Don’t tell this to anyone, but you are my favourite grandchild”, whispered grandma who must have shared the same secret to every other 2 dozen grandchildren of hers! :)

The soft wrinkled hands lead the small chubby hands to the courtyard outside the kitchen door that connected to open kitchen at the end of the house. The family cook was grinding spices and coconut paste in a large stone grinder that made rhythmic music almost like a lullaby that would put the little girl to sleep as she lay down on her grandma’s lap on hot summer afternoons. But she was wide awake at that moment as the excitement of helping her grandma with cooking overpowered any other feeling! The grandma picked one of large brass container that was stacked neatly on the wooden shelf and placed it on the cool red-oxide floor. She then went and picked a large winnowing tray made of bamboo strands woven tightly onto a rattan frame and sat down on the floor stretching her legs in front. She looked up and smiled at the little girl and patted the space next to her suggesting lil girl to sit.

Mango-Coconut Chitranna Recipe | Quick and Easy Mango-Coconut Rice Recipe

Learn how to make Mango-Coconut Chitranna - A spin to South Indian tangy yellow rice of coconut and raw mango flavoured with generous tempering of peanuts and aromatic spices

The meaning of ‘home’ is ever evolving. When I was a kid, home was a palatial bungalow where I was born and surrounded by dozens of aunts, uncles, cousins, my grandparents and parents. It was a place where I woke up to jingling of anklets and bangles, clattering pots and pans, aroma of rasams and sambars bubbling in a large copper pots, sound of sizzling tadka and gossiping women in the kitchen. Home was the warmth of being held closely to my uncles chests, tickling fingers of my aunties, skipping and running bare footed with my cousins, splashing waters in a crystal clear streams, sleeping peacefully on a cosy bed of my grandpa’s chest, morsels of food being fed by my grandma under the star lit skies, and being sandwiched between my parents before drifting off to sleep.

When I was 6 years old, my parents moved to their current home to be close to the best schools and dad’s clinic and it became our home where we drove each other absolutely crazy one moment and made one feel like million dollars the next. It was a place which nourished me and always made me feel safe, loved, and cherished. Home was a place that welcomed me with open heart and a plate of amma’s home cooked meals peppered with spice and love!

BaLekai Sippe Palya Recipe | Learn How to Make Vegan Raw Banana Peel Stir Fry

Learn how to make BaLekai Sippe/Raw Banana Peel Palya ~ Vegan hot and sour raw banana skin stir fry with South Indian spices

Last one year has been a crazy year for us, with many twists and turns which made us gasp and halt before we gingerly stepped forward. It was not an easy year for us, but at the same time it turned out to be a very special and most memorable one.

When I wrote this post a year ago about starting a new chapter of our life in India, I had no idea that we will be back in Britain exactly in a year! It’s funny how we think that we have sorted out everything, smoothed the little wrinkly problems, prepared for every challenges that life throws at us and feel that we have planned even the minute thing to last detail, there will still be a little glitch that will pop up somewhere on the way of our near-perfect and well planned life! Well, it didn’t take long to learn even the best laid plans can fail sometimes. Life has taught me many things, and the recent lesson made me realise how important it is to live in a moment and not moan over things when they fail to meet our expectations. In everybody’s life there is a point of no return, a point where we can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point in our life, all we can do is quietly accept the fact and face reality. Well that the thing about lessons, you always learn them when you don’t or least expect them!

BaLekai Sippe/Raw Banana Peel Palya served with Kerala matta rice and banana crisps

Bimbli Mosaru Gujju Recipe | Simple and Easy Bimbli Recipe

Learn how to make sweet and sour Bimbli Mosaru Gojju ~ Bimbli in sweet and spicy yogurt sauce

Year 2014 came and went by in the blink of an eye. A lot of things happened in 2014; many exciting things, many stressful events, and a whole new beginning. 2014 was the year where many life changing events happened in our lives. We uprooted our lives from a place that had become our home and moved to a place which we hope to make a home that we all love. It’s not been an easy year to say the least, but we never settled for anything less adventurous.

Bimbli or Bilimbi or Bimpuli

Happy New Year dear readers who still patiently wait to read my rants! With my blog posts becoming so sporadic, I am not surprised to see dwindling readership to this almost abandoned blog. With my life getting maddeningly busy with things that are out of my control, the blog has to take a back seat. As much as I want to replenish my recipe repertoire and breath some life into this blog, the lack of motivation and writer’s block, which seems to have made a comfortable permanent home in my so-called creative side of the brain, are enough reasons to almost abandon this much loved part of my life! On top of that, the never ending personal task list and unrealistic deadline I have set for personal commitments in real life is keeping me away from virtual world.

Harive Soppu Bendi Recipe | How to Make Vegan Amaranth-Coconut Curry

Learn how to make Vegan Harive Soppu Bendi /Amaranth-Coconut Curry ~ Vegan green amaranth cooked in mild coconut gravy

Life in India is like living in food heaven for someone who loves fresh and local farm produce. One of the best things about living in India is availability of local and seasonal vegetables and greens in abundance without the need to travel for hundred of miles to Asian speciality stores! For someone who loves cooking and eating local produce, the early morning call from the vegetable vendors delivering the fresh vegetables and greens plucked with dew drops along with the mud and sand stuck on their skin and roots is enough to make my heart skip a beat!

Organic Tender Green Amaranth Leaves ~ Fresh from farm

Mild Amaranth-Coconut Curry

But what makes my heart sing is the fresh produce straight from our estate or from the farms of our extended families. There is no better gift than a fresh home grown, organic produce gifted by loved ones. Last time when I visited my Doddamma’s home, they sent us back with car boot full of home grown produce from their farm and backyard vegetable garden. One such produce was these tender amaranth leaves plucked straight from backyard vegetable garden. I didn’t waste time in making good use of it and made this simple coconut based curry from my native Udupi-Mangalore.

KaaTu Mavina Hannina Saaru/Gojju Recipe | Wild Mango Soup from Udupi-Mangalore

Learn how to make KaaTu Mavina Hannina Saaru/Gojju ~ Sweet, spicy and tangy wild mango soup/curry from Udupi-Mangalore

A big hello from India! :) It’s been 3 weeks since we landed here and the life has been, well, little chaotic trying to do hundred and one things at once! We have been struggling to come up with the fact that this is not our annual month long holiday with our loved ones and we are actually going to live here permanently!

Sometimes I feel it’s all a dream and I will wake up next moment in our old house in England listening to the howling wind, grey skies and rain drops splattering around! But that is not the case as every time I wake up here in my parents’ home, all I can hear are the noise of tweeting birds, bright sunlight streaming through the curtains and to the lull of ceiling fan… Life is so much different to the life that lived just a month ago… I will write more about our Indian adventure later as we are still living out of suitcases.

Gujje Podi Recipe | Vegan Tender Jackfruit Pakoda/Fritter Recipe

Learn how to make Gujje Podi/Tender Jackfruit Pakoda/Fritter ~ Vegan and Gluten-Free Tender Jackfruit Pakoda/Podi

When I was a kid, the everyday meal cooked using the ingredients grown in your own backyard was something that I considered ‘blah’, well, boring! There was nothing interesting in eating the food cooked using the ingredient that grew right in front of my eyes.

Gujje Podi/Tender Jackfruit Fritters ~ Deep fried goodness!

Bendi, simple coconut based curry made using large pumpkins growing in a vine? Boring!

Huli Menasina Kodhel, lightly spiced coconut curry made using ivy gourds covering the portion of wall and roof in the back of the house? Well, boring!

Tomato Majjige Huli, sour buttermilk and coconut based curry with tomatoes plucked right from the plant in a big planter? Let’s not even talk about it!

No Oil Spicy Cut Mango Pickle Recipe | Step by Step Indian Mango Pickle Recipe

Learn how to make Spicy Cut Mango Pickle ~ No Oil Spicy Raw Mango Pickle Recipe

Family recipes, the recipes that have been cooked for decades and some even for centuries are the most treasured ones and close to my heart. Our taste, preference and choice change with time, but certain recipes withstand the test of time as they tie us to our roots and happy memories. Recipes like these need to be treasured, preserved and cherished for honoring the previous generations and for the new generations who are yet to sample the goodness of life!

Chattambade Recipe | Spicy Chana Dal Vada Recipe

Learn how to make Chattambade or Masala Dal Vada ~ Spicy split chickpeas/Bengal gram or chana dal fritters

When you do something for a very long time, it becomes part of your life. It no longer remains a separate entity, but it becomes a way of life. It integrates into your life, your thoughts and the very core of your being! It becomes a habit, a routine and ultimately, part of you! Well, it’s no wonder that something that I have been doing for the last seven years has becomes inseparable part of my very soul! And today Monsoon Spice is not just a food blog, but my little place that treasures little snippets of my life, my memories, my dreams, aspirations and above all a place where I have freedom to express myself!

Potato and Peas Kurma Recipe | How to Make Vegetable Kurma

Learn how to make Potato and Peas Kurma ~ Potato and green peas cooked in creamy and mildly spiced coconut gravy

For the first 6 years of my life I never tasted north Indian food! My mom although is a wonderful cook, her knowledge was limited to south Indian cuisine at that time. One reason could be that we lived in a small town and grew up in a close knit community. Till I turned 6 years old, we lived in a joint family and the simplest food to cook was a south Indian food which she grew up eating and cooking for 30+ members of the family with steady flow of guests every single day. Our regional food of Udupi-Mangalore is something that everyone enjoyed in our family.

Mangalore Buns Recipe | Deep Fried Banana and Whole Wheat Poori From Udupi-Mangalore

Learn how to make Mangalore Buns ~ Mildly sweet deep fried whole wheat banana poori from Udupi-Mangalore

I am 80’s Indian child and feel extremely blessed and fortunate to have one of the best and memorable childhoods! My younger sister was my best friend and my partner in crime and we grew up with bunch of same aged children in the neighbourhood whose only mantra was fultu masti! While leafing through old photographs on weekend, I saw myself going back in time and walking down the memory lane… All that fun, adventure, mischief, break ups, make ups, bonding, arguing, laughter, tears, in brief my childhood flashed before my eyes in a techni colour film…

Ananas Sasam/Pineapple Sasve Recipe | Pineapple in Coconut-Mustard Curry

Learn how to make Ananas Sasam/Pineapple Sasve ~ Pineapple cooked in a sweet, sour, hot and pungent coconut and mustard curry

After spending one week at home, I am back at work today. Last Friday I found myself a target for one of the worst cases of migraine in the last couple of years and all I could do was just lie down on bed after popping few painkillers. The idiot box was quiet on and the book I was reading was left untouched on the coffee table. The heavy curtains were drawn close to stop the brilliant sunrays entering the room as I tried very hard to sleep in the dark bedroom.

Palak/Spinach Ambat Recipe | Konkani Style Spinach in Coconut Gravy

Learn how to make  Konkani Style Palak/Spinach Ambat ~
Mildly spiced Konkani recipe for spinach cooked in coconut and toor dal gravy flavoured with a hint of sourness from tamarind

Coconut + Vegetables = Awesome

Coconut + Spices = Awesome

Coconut + Legumes = Awesome

Coconut + Sugar = Awesome

Coconut + Fruits = Awesome

In short, Coconut + Anything = Awesome-st! (?)

Soute Kayi and Alasande Majjige Huli Recipe | How to Make Majjige Huli

Soute Kayi and Alasande Majjige Huli ~ Served with Rosematta Rice

Lil dumpling’s second birthday came and went… at lightning speed! We were planning to skip the birthday party and spend the whole day doing what LD like to do the best, that is running around in the open space chasing butterflies, bum bees (bumble bees;) and playing for hours on slides and in swings! But in the end we decided to have a very cosy birthday party, just like last year, with few special friends.

Mango Ginger (Ambe Halad/Ambe Haldi/Manganari) & Coconut Chutney | How to Make Simple Coconut Chutney

Mango Ginger (Halad/Ambe Haldi/Manganari) & Coconut Chutney

I miss home! Home as in India that sits on top of small hill surrounded by greenery! The open space and the fresh air, the swing on large balcony and the little seating area in front of house, the rustle of Amma’s freshly starched cotton saree and the jingle of gold bangles in her hand, the sound of turning the news paper and the clicking of grandfather’s clock from my Appa’s study, the aroma of fresh blooms of jasmines and roses from my Amma’s little garden and the noise of leaves swaying to soft breeze, and the heady aroma of freshly brewed filter coffee and the roasted spices from Amma’s kitchen! Oh, I miss them all and more…

Tondekayi Palya (Tindla Palya) Recipe ~ A Pictorial

Tondekayi Palya/Tindla Palya/Stir Fried Ivy Gourds ~ It starts from here

I have been feeling extremely homesick today and was leafing through the photos I took when I visited home in December. I found few food related photos and thought you, my dear reader friends, might find them interesting. So here is the pictorial of one of my favourite recipes, Tondekayi Palya or Tindla Palya or Tindora Subji, which is a simple stir fry of Ivy Gourds, cooked using few basic spices and then generously garnished with fresh grated coconut. I randomly clicked few photos while our family cook prepared them at my in-law’s farm house. This delicious Tondekayi Palya or simple Tindora/Ivy Gourd Stir Fry was cooked by our family cook using very old and traditional fire wood cooking technique. The smoke coming from wood adds smoky flavour to this simple stir fry. I will not be posting the recipe as it has already been posted some 3½ plus years back. So if you are interested to cooking this simple Tondekayi Palya or Tindla Palya, please click here for the recipe.

Sprouted Moong and Coconut Akki Rotti | Vegan and Gluten Free Sprouted Moong Beans Flat Bread

Sprouted Moong and Coconut Akki Rotti ~ Vegan & Gluten free

Motherhood! It’s a simple word. But you can never understand its real meaning of this very simple word until you become a mother. This one simple word has so much depth to it. It has some emotions that you never experienced and the love that you never felt. It has joy that makes your head spin with giddiness and fun that will take the definition of fun to new levels. The spectrum of emotions you go through with in a couple of minutes is something you will never experience until you parent a child. Well, it is true in my case!

Taro & White Bean Curry – A Guest Post by Chinmayie @ Love Food Eat

Taro and White Bean Curry

I have known her for more than two decades; we grew up on a same street and studied at same school. But we both lost touch when we moved to different cities for higher education. It was only last year when I met her again in my home town when she came to visit me and Lil Dumpling with her ma and gorgeous daughter and then we kept in touch through social network. Few month’s later she mailed me about starting her food blog and since day one, I have become a fan of her beautiful clicks, and what she cooks! It is my greatest pleasure to introduce beautiful Chinmayie of Love Food Eat, a food blog which is unique and simply stunning! Her blog may be just six months old but it is already studded with priceless recipes and beautiful narration. After one look at her blog and I am sure you’ll not want to miss reading her posts. So why not follow her on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook!

Balekai-Batate Palya | Plantain & Potato Stir Fry Recipe

Balekai-Batate Palya

What do you do when you are in no mood to follow a recipe (which happens most of the time) and bored of eating something you have already tried? Of course you wear a cap of recipe developer or recipe creator! Or dining out or ordering a takeaway is another option.