Chocolate Truffles

You would have heard of 'Chocolate Truffle' a lot many times. Before making these, I thought, I need to have a special talent for making these. That's how glamorous it sounded and still sounds. BTW, what are these truffles? Truffles are fungi that grow in the wild around the roots of the trees. An interesting fact, female pigs and dogs are specially trained for sniffing out truffles as they have a keen sense of smell.They are one of...

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Home Made Chocolates(Basic)

Homemade Chocolates is something I wanted to make for quite a long time. I would often see the moulded chocolates in the speciality stores sold especially around New Year's ,Diwali or Valentine's. For home made chocolates ,chocolate which is being used has to be first 'TEMPERED'. I learnt the technique of 'Chocolate tempering' during the process of making these homemade chocolates. 'Tempering' means a heat treatment which is given to the...

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Achari Mushroom/Achari Kumbh(Quick version)

Achari Mushroom has always been on my to-do list for dinner. This dish can be found on any restaurant menu in Northern part of India.'Achar' means pickle in Hindi. Ask any Indian, he would tell you how important 'pickle' is. No meal in India is complete without pickle in one corner of a plate. This recipe is quite unique as it calls for actual pickle paste(out of the jar!) to be used as an ingredient. You can find various kinds of pickles in...

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Arachuvitta Sambar(Spicy Lentil Stew)

Sambar is one for the most famous dish of South India. Be it any southern state of India, Sambar is one of the most common preparation for any lunch time meal. This is a thick lentil stew with tomatoes, onions, curry leaves and any vegetable that fancies the person who cooks it. Sambar without lentils is called 'kuzhambu' in Tamilnadu. More on that in a separate post. There are many varieties of sambar....its quite a long list. I don't...

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Baked Masala Eggs

Come Sunday, I would think of preparing  a very lazy breakfast.  Bread and eggs would always top the list. But then I thought...why not bake the egg and see how the results would be. I did some search on the net, but the recipes were eggs baked separately. I thought of going ahead giving the egg, a desi avatar and the result were really good. This a very fuss free recipe which would suit anyone on a Sunday morning.  Baked...

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