Lime marinated tilapia with a cornmeal crust. Served with brown rice tortillas these make a filling gluten free meal

Fish Tacos

V is a picky eater. He is not one who likes to experiment too much with his food. He can eat baingan ka bharta, toovar dal and roti every day of the week and still not complain. And till very recently he would not eat fish. When we moved to Dallas, I wanted this no-fish policy of his to change. I agree the smell of fish to some can make it a little hard for them to like it ( I am not a big fan of certain seafood too because I can not tolerate the smell) but with the health benefits that fish carry I wanted them to be a bigger part of our diets.

V, thankfully was receptive with the idea. Initially I made the fish with mustard and indian spices to suit his palate and then slowly have graduated to grilled fish and tacos. In spite of its relatively small amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, I stick to tilapia for V, because of its mild taste. Plus, it still is a great source of protein.

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Triple M Explosion @ PepperSmash Cocktail Kitchen

With V busy during the week, weekends are when both of us get to enjoy all that the Dallas-Fort Worth Area has to offer together, with Sundays reserved for trying out new places to brunch. Last Sunday we got the opportunity to try PepperSmash – a cocktail Kitchen at the Shops at Legacy, Plano. I had heard good things about the place, especially their drinks menu and was excited to try the place out.

PepperSmash boasts of making some innovative and out of the box drinks, and while I would recommend this place more for dinner, only because getting drunk during the day might not always be the way of doing things, they do have a pretty interesting brunch menu and specials. Mimosas are $3 and their bloody Mary’s (made from roasted tomatoes and a must try) are just $5.

PepperSmash- A Cocktail Kitchen

Maria, the bartender concocting our cocktails

PepperSmash- A Cocktail Kitchen

Colin, our server, with the cotton candy martini and the Triple M explosion

PepperSmash- A Cocktail Kitchen

Chef Zach

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Vegetable Rava Uttapam – easy and quick uttapams made with rava or sooji or semolina.

Vegetable Uttapam | The Novice Housewife

When I was in college in Delhi and staying in the AFWWA hostel, every Tuesday for breakfast we would get Uttapam. I generally never had time to eat breakfast; I was always running late. I would get the Uttapams packed and take it to college to eat later in the day, grabbing my fruit and eating that as breakfast. Even on days when I did have time to eat breakfast, I would make it a point to pack 2 or 3 since my friends had gotten used to them and looked forward to Tuesday Uttapams. I miss college days!

I don’t cook much south indian fare at home, even though I love dosa, idli, sambhar. I am more comfortable with cooking north indian cuisine and stick to that. My idlis are generally made from a packet or are the quick rava idlis I have posted before. The only time I have cooked dosas from a scratch batter is when my friend was kind enough to loan me some of hers. Once I did try fermenting my own batter but it was a huge fail. This was when I had just started cooking about 6 years back, and ever since I have just stuck to eating dosas outside or counting on my south indian friends to make them for me.

Vegetable Uttapam | The Novice Housewife

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