Stuffed Aloo Tikki ( Stuffed Potato Croquette )

Potatoes are my first love. I had never had Aloo Tikkis stuffed before, so when I saw this recipe in 660 Curries, I knew I had to try it out. I was not disappointed at all. Theses turned out quite delicious and the surprise crunch from the sprouted moong adds a nice texture to the dish.

This dish need for some pre-preparation, two day before you make this dish soak some whole moong dal overnight and then drain the water next morning and leave it covered on your counter top for another 24 hrs. It would have sprouted by then and would be ready for this dish. Alternately, you can also buy some ready-made moong sprouts from your Asian grocery store.

Bread Rolls

One of my guilty pleasures in life is ordering tomato soup, in restaurants, for the fried croutons that come with it ( no healthy baked ones for me, that would totally ruin my tomato soup experience ! ). This dish totally tops that pleasure any day. Can you say a giant, stuffed and fried crouton ? Well this is what this dish tastes like. Heaven !!!!!!!

What makes this bread roll recipe better than the rest is the tangy soaking water. Generally all the recipes call for soaking the bread slice in plain water, I have even seen a recipe call for soaking it in milk. However, in this recipe lime juice and cayenne/ lal mirchi powder is added to the soaking water elevating this recipe to the next level. Also you can cut of the crust from your bread or not, this all depends on your personal preference . In my personal opinion, I think that the bread slice without the crust stays enclosed much better than the bread slice with the crust on.


I have adapted this recipe from Sindhi Rasoi. You must check out her blog, she has some really cool recipes.

Ragada Patties

Another popular Indian street food is the Ragada Patties. I love the different flavors and textures in this dish. This ragada is my favorite. I adapted this dish from Raghavan Iyer's book 660 Curries. I love this book and the extensive index of Indian recipes it  contains. The only thing I would say is to taste the dish as you make it, as Raghavanji does like his dishes a tad on the milder side. So when he adds things like butter and cream to his dishes, do go easy on it and adapt it to your taste.

The ragada should not be too thick as you want the gravy to kind of soak into the patty. Also do not make the patties too thick.

Paneer Stuffed Spinach Parathas

This is one of the popular weekend breakfast items at our home. My son is fascinated by the different colors and loves to eat it. Also mentioning that it contains paneer does not hurt at all.


We are all paneer lovers at our home. Do try this paratha, it is very delicious. Crispy and flaky on the outside and soft from the paneer on the inside. The scotch bonnet peppers not only add color but some heat to the parathas. Nutritious, delicious and easy to make, is how I will describe this popular breakfast item. You can substitute the spinach with some fenugreek leaves or even collard greens if you fancy.


You might have some excess atta on hand after making the 12 parathas. Just roll out the excess balls like you would for plain rotis and these can be had as a snack later on or even for lunch.

Potato Kurma

This is a popular breakfast item in India. I love it throughout the day. This yummy sabji is served with hot puffed puris. At our home we have it for brunch on the weekends. It is easy to make and very filling and tasty. That way you can come out of the kitchen soon and enjoy the weekend with your family.

I used 6 green chilies, you can adjust according to if you want it more hot or a little mild. I made whole wheat puris to go with this dish. I have seen various recipes for Potato Kurma, some have a green gravy and some a yellow gravy. This recipe has a green gravy and you can keep the consistency of the gravy as you desire, mine is on the thicker side.

Vada Pav

Vada pav is the quintessential Indian burger. It is one of the most popular street foods in India especially Mumbai. In Mumbai you will see these everywhere; outside local train stations, near shopping areas, next to colleges etc.

It is quick, cheap, filling and most of all delicious and many a Mumbaite will have this for a quick lunch on the go. I practically lived off this stuff during my training in that city.

I have tried to create my favorite vada pav recipe. There are a lot of vada pav recipes on the web and they are all pretty much the same except for adding little more masalas or different chutneys. This is based on Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe . He is the king of Indian cuisine and I do love his recipes.


You can use dinner rolls or burger buns, in India they use the 'ladi pav'. If you are using the dinner rolls , you can make your vadas a little smaller, however, if you are using burger buns, like me, make the vadas slighly larger.

Try this popular Mumbai Burger and have it the mumbai-style with a hot cup of chai. This dish brings back so many fond memories.



Vada Pav

Dum Aloo Banarasi

Very rarely you come across the perfect recipe, a recipe that hits all the right notes, flavor wise. This is one of those rare treasures. Chances are if you have ever been to my house I might have made this for you. This is my no fail forget-about-finger-licking-you-will-lick-the-whole-pot recipe.

The dish is perfect and needs no tweaking. The gravy is ambrosial, it has the perfect balance of hot,sweet and spicy notes. I used baby red potatoes as I like their color and I do not have to peel them.

Recently on our trip to North Carolina we stopped by Morris Farms to check out their produce. We bought these beautiful baby red potatoes from there along with ripe strawberries, sweet peaches and boiled groundnuts (peanuts). We also had their tractor churned peach ice cream and strawberry shortcake and they all tasted luscious. Do try and stop by if you ever travel that way. However, do check their corn before you buy them, we bought a whole crate full and it was the most over grown hard corn ever.

 I got this recipe a long time ago from one of my google searches and I have since forgotten the source and thus I'm unable to give credit to that person. I have adapted it just a little to my personal taste and I can say with confidence that this is one of the best gravies I have ever had.

You can use this gravy in other dishes....I have even substituted the aloo / potatoes with paneer.

Farmers market baby red potatoes.

Aloo Paratha

It's raining potatoes.......fried potatoes and boiled potatoes , they taste good anyway you slice them. My grandfather still teases me about my love for them.

Now my son loves it too. His favorite being Aloo Paratha which he lovingly calls 'Alew Pratha'. This is a versatile dish and can be had as a breakfast item or lunch item. My son will even  have it for a snack.

When I am pressed for time and want to make it for him, I peel and roughly dice one potato and place it in a microwave safe dish, pour sufficient water to submerge the potatoes and microwave this on high for 5-6 minutes. Voila ! the potatoes are ready. Just drain it and add some salt and a little red chili powder and chopped cilantro. Mash it all up and the filling is ready for two aloo parathas.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on parathas, stating that paratha comes from the word 'parat' and 'atta', which means layers of flour cooked. It is mainly a punjabi dish but now it is popular all over India. Another tidbit of information I got from there is that when Indian immigrants moved to other parts of the world, they adapted the paratha to their new regional flavors and thus in Malaysia and Mauritius it is called 'farata', in Singapore it is 'roti canai' or 'roti prata', in Myanmar is is called as 'palata', in Trinidad and Tobago it is called as 'buss up shot' or 'boss up shot' or 'buss up shut', named after the method of striking the hot roti  thus breaking it up into smaller pieces. It would be interesting to find out more about the different parathas adapted by other countries.