Kala’s Vegetarian Scotch Eggs

Scotch Eggs are usually served at festive meals. The eggs are wrapped in cooked mince meat and fried after coating them with egg and bread crumbs. You can find any number of recipes in books and on YouTube. There are one or two recipes using potatoes instead of minced meat, but they are all traditional Indian ‘bonda’ flavoured eggs. Since Scotch Eggs are totally western, I decided to prepare a product that is very similar to western Scotch Eggs but using potatoes so that egg eating vegetarians can consume them as well.

Kala’s Vegetarian Scotch Eggs in a bed of Dill leaves

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Kala’s Sausage and Potato Fried Rice

Happy Easter in advance! I love to create festive specials using rice. When I was going through my collection of recipe books I came across a Mexican sausage rice recipe. Though the ingredients of the recipe did not appeal to me, the concept did. I studied sausage preparations, especially in a volume of the Encyclopaedia of Creative Cooking on pork. This dealt with various kinds of pork sausages, particularly combined with potatoes. Inspired by this I created a fried rice using sausages and potatoes, suited to the Indian market and kitchen. This was a tremendous success. My family loved it, and it was finished with not a grain of rice left. The flavour is very mild but rich in taste. It goes amazingly well with my Sweet Brinjal Pickle.

Kala’s Sausage and Potato Fried Rice

Venn Pongal and Thengai Chutney (Savoury Rice with Coconut Chutney)

January is the harvest time in Tamil Nadu. Pongal is the harvest festival and is the most important festival for Tamilians. It is celebrated on the first of the Tamil month Thai, which usually falls on January 14^th or 15^th. Pongal is the name of the dish made to celebrate the harvest and gets its name from the boiling over of the rice. Traditionally it is cooked in the front yard of the house on firewood, in a new mud pot. I modified the traditional recipe for those who do not have front yards, firewood, or mud pots.

Venn Pongal and Thengai Chutney (Savoury Rice with Coconut Chutney)

Mocha Brownies for New Year

A New Year is when we make resolutions to better ourselves, such as starting a diet. Before we deny ourselves delicious treats we should end the old year with one last hurrah – a decadent delight of calories and protein in the form of Mocha Brownies. The fragrance of the coffee in the brownies will make the entire neighbourhood come to your house on some excuse or the other 🙂

Mocha Brownies for New Year

Steamed Chocolate Pudding for Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I always wanted to have pudding for Christmas. Indians enjoy having a sweet as dessert after a fine meal, so I wanted it to be a chocolate pudding and it also had to be a steamed pudding because most Indians do not have a baking oven at home. I combined features from various recipes to arrive at an easy-to-make pudding in an Indian kitchen. I serve it with Vanilla Ice Cream or gelato, but you can use any flavour of your choice. Combined with ice cream, this makes an ideal dessert to end an Indian Christmas feast, because we have a fairly warm December. You can also pour chocolate sauce over the pudding if you do not want to serve the pudding with ice cream.

Steamed Chocolate Pudding for Christmas

Thirunelveli Mutton Pulav with Inji Thuvaiyal (Ginger Chutney)

This recipe was a Christmas treat in my family when I was growing up in Thirunelveli, but my mother did not make it on Christmas as there was already so much work to be done. Instead she would make it between Christmas and New Year. I simplified this traditional recipe a lot, allowing me to easily make it on Christmas Day as the main dish in the feast. This is traditionally served with the hot and sweet Inji Thuvaiyal (recipe below) and Thayir Pachadi.

Thirunelveli Mutton Pulav with Inji Thuvaiyal (Ginger Chutney)

Thirunelveli Kari Vadai (Thirunelveli Mince Patties)

Christmas is the special time of year when people suddenly remember you and drop in hoping for a tasty bite or two 🙂 Carol singers may also pop by to delight you with their enthusiasm if not their talent 😀 This Kari Vadai is my grandmother’s recipe, which I used to enjoy in my Thirunelveli days; it is easy to make and a delight to consume – a guaranteed guest pleaser! It can be served as a snack or as an accompaniment to the Christmas feast along with onion rings and lemon wedges.

Thirunelveli Kari Vadai (Thirunelveli Mince Patties)