Thandai Phirni
Phirni is a easy traditional Indian rice pudding like dessert which is prepared with full cream milk, basmati rice and sugar as main ingredients. Recipe by Alkajena.
Lauki Ka Halwa
A humble (and healthy) vegetable turned into a decadant luxury with this sweet, rich pudding made with Lauki (bottle gourd). Recipe by Anjana.
Coconut Laddu
This holi give yourself a rest and make these simple Coconut laddus. Quick enough for you to fix and leave plenty of time to spend with friends and family and play some color. Recipe here.
Baked Mawa Gujiya
Gujiya, Karanji or Chandrakala is a very popular dessert which is prepared in most households during festive occasions like Holi. Instead of deep frying try baking some. Recipe by Alkajena.
Saffron Infused Rabdi
When you cook sweetened milk at low temperature until it thickens to a creamy and rich texture, it becomes rabdi. To step it up a notch and to add another layer of flavor and aroma, cardamom powder or saffron is added. Enjoy this rich and creamy yet simple dessert this holi. Recipe here.
Peach Gujiya
A fun and seasonal twist to Gujiya, a sweet Indian twin brother of Empanadas. A flaky and slightly salty flattened dough wrapped around a sweet filling and then deep fried. Traditionally the filling is either made of mava/khoya. Recipe here.
Firni With POM Seeds
Firni is very much like kheer (Indian rice pudding) where you cook rice with milk reducing it to a creamy rich texture. Only for Firni, a thick paste of ground rice and cashews is used instead of whole rice. Make the rich dish pop more with some fresh POM seeds. Recipe here.
Kaju Katli
Give the beloved Kaju Katli a new twist with this Kaju Katli and Truffle recipe. Recipe here.
Carrot Cashew Kheer
An easy delicious dessert you can whip up quick and will be loved by your guests this Holi. Recipe by Food-filment.
Vegan Bajra Sugarcane Mini Cakes
Vegan Bajra Sugarcane Cake Recipe (Eggless & Butterless), a very healthy and an unusual combination of pearl millet, sugarcane and pumpkin in a cake. Recipe by Preeti Tamilarasan.
Fennel and Cardamom Spiced Carrot Rice Pudding
Stir some rice into almond and coconut milk adding just a hint of spicy warmth with cardamom and fennel seeds. Carrots and raisins add vibrant color and soft sweetness to this pudding. Recipe by Meeta Wolff.
Date Palm Jaggery Rice Pudding
A classic rice pudding from Kolkata prepared with date palm jaggery. Recipe by Kankana.
Apple and Almond Halwa With Orange Whipped Cream
The light airy texture and citrus notes of orange balances the apple halwa so well in this recipe, you will be amazed. Recipe by Kulsum Kunwa.
Doodh Ka Sheera
Soft balls of fresh paneer cooked in a sweet syrup and then plain milk to balance the sweetness. This take on a common kheer or rabdi will win many heart for you this Holi. Recipe here.
Jalebi
Last but by no means the least, nothing can beat, hot fresh homemade crispy jalebis. Recipe here.
It was not unusual for us to be waking up to the smell of something simmering, boiling or cooking in mummy’s kitchen. Or the sound of rice, wheat or dal being sifted and sorted outside in the angan, mummy’s backyard. Or the sound of doodhwala, the milkman knocking on the door to deliver some fresh milk straight from the cow to his canister and then to mummy’s milk pan. We were used to it growing up. So much so that we never stopped and noticed how special it was to wake up to a home where food was given the importance it deserved.
Festivals were always special growing up. Especially the big ones and especially in a country like India where all these religions grow and nourish together. All I remember as a kid growing in India are the mornings of Eid, my brother and I would shower, as advised, first thing in the morning and run to uncle Shabbir’s house to ask for our Eidi, a gift like money, presents or even flowers to small children by the other elders of the family. Or my friends and I sneaking into the gurudwara (a sikh temple) when the priest wasn’t looking, to steal some extra halwa, a sweet semolina pudding made in rich ghee, filled with gems of raisins and almonds. The head would itself bow if a group of Jain priests marched on the street in front of us and Santa never forgot to sneak in through the back door even in a hindu family like ours and even though we did not have a chimney. We always thought people in the West always exaggerated the chimney part!
Holi, one such special special day, would usually come around Eid. So the moment Eid passed, the anticipation of Holi would begin, or vice versa. Opening your eyes to the smell of all the goodness, mummy would be frying away in her kitchen. Plunge out of the bed, pulling half asleep little brother with his hand and rushing out on the street in hopes that the friends are already playing colors. Mostly to be disappointed to find the streets empty. With our heads hung down, we would drag our feet back in and then straight to the kitchen finding mummy cooking, whisking and frying away. Completely ignoring her sweating away in that stuffy, hot kitchen, for she still had that smile on her face and lots of goodies to offer. That’s how holi started for us every year. Slow and calm followed by madness, music, laughter and color. Lots of color and lots of food through out the day.
Masala Besan Papdi was one snack mummy made very year. A few simple spices, ground to chickpea flour, knead into a tight dough, rolled into thin discs and fried until crispy. Usually served with 
Things you need:
Method:
If using a pot, follow the same rules making sure the pot is placed at a spot that gets enough sunlight. Potted plants ask for lesser water compared to an outdoor plant so make sure you do not over water or underwater them. Best way to find whether your plant needs water- stick your finger in the soil, if its moist then the plant is happy but if the soil is dry then the plant needs to be watered.
I don’t know about you but when I am at a restaurant I like to try a food that I have either not eaten before (staying within the limits of my appetite for adventure!) or I order food that I love but I don’t necessarily cook at home normally OR there’s a third kind of eating out, and that is Chipotle! While I’m running from one place to other, starving, a pit stop where I can throw everything in a bowl and then quickly stuff my mouth with it, kind. Fast food you will call it but the being a “unbeliever” of fast food (if that’s even a word) Chipotle is as far as I can go.
Don’t worry we are not going to start a lecture on healthy eating or lash out on fast food today (let’s leave that for another day, but will get there so beware!). But I sure am in mood to lecture today so I will lecture on why to go out and spend big bucks on something that can be easily be prepared at home, with half the money you spend at a restaurant and for very little effort. I love such “restaurant foods” that are simple enough to put together and best part is I can cut down a lot on the amount of cream, sugar etc. when I am cooking at home. One such recipe that I totally adore is Methi Matar Malai. If you’ve ever tried making this dish at home you will realize it’s almost criminal to order it at a restaurant and even more so to serve it there.
If my MIL is joining us at an Indian restaurant then Methi Matar Malai always makes to the order, probably because it’s much less spicy than its other curry counterparts and also because being a vegetarian if she doesn’t pick paneer there’s only so many “rich curries” left for her on the menu. So I thought it’s about time I tackle the 3Ms (methi, matar, malai? bad one I know!) for the sake of people like my MIL who would rather make it at home if they knew about its simplicity. I added a third M to it, mushrooms just to add a protein to my curry. For those who are not very proficient with Hindi let me break down the dish name for you, Methi – fenugreek greens, Matar – green peas, Malai – cream and Mushroom – well, its mushroom! And for this recipe this is pretty much all you need other than a few very basic ingredients from your pantry to bring the dish together. So let’s get to the recipe.
Whether it’s simple everyday meals, special dinners or if coming from a Hindu family, Pooja meals, one version or the other of tamatar aloo always fits the menu. In the same way, you can find it at a road side vendor stall, a fancy restaurant and even at a railway station food court. Yup, that’s where I have the fondest memories of relishing my tamatar aloo. My brother and I, trying to stick our heads out from between the iron bars of the window, of the sleeper class, of our train. Failing miserably at it but still trying to keep our eyes stuck on Papa who was out on the railway platform, in line, behind several people, waiting for his turn to buy us some tamatar aloo from the food stall vendor who served them with hot, freshly fried, soaking in oil, pooris.
That’s just one story and one version of tamatar aloo. I know for sure for people who hail from where I do, everyone has their own recipe and their own story. The recipe I am sharing today is what my mother in law normally makes at home which my very wonderful husband cannot get enough of. I still think my version, the one I brought from my mum’s home is better but we just agree to disagree!
She loves baking more than stirring a pot of soup (or curry in our case) but I think that’s mostly because she’s afraid of the stovetop. Or let me correct that, I am afraid of her being too close to the stove top. So baking is an easier bet and if you see her in there you will tell that baking comes naturally to her. Cracking eggs one after the other, softening butter in the microwave, ten seconds at a time, sifting flour and whisking away like no man’s business. She loves it and she’s good at it too.
She has, by now mastered a few recipes. 
Ingredients:(Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated)
We would leave the market after picking some fresh butchered chicken and based on what he found fresh from the market that day we would decide what we were getting for lunch or dinner. If it was a Sunday there would be chicken and this Sunday since he was so enamored by the vigor of this cilantro, there will be a ton of it in our Sunday chicken curry. The dirt from the vegetable vendor’s farm, hugging the roots and body of this cilantro would be carefully washed and cleaned off. Then ground to paste with a few other ingredients that bunch of green cilantro would turn into dhaniye ke chutney.
Now this is the most basic recipe for a hot green cilantro chutney. You can get creative and add some nuts like peanuts or almonds in here. Pumpkin seeds also work great with this. Mummy makes her with mint and cilantro both half n half. Abhishek prefers his this way slowly that has become a norm in our household. But what I am saying is, feel free and play around with the recipe. Serve this chutney on practically anything. We serve it with fritters, vada pav, sandwiches, and even thrown it on chicken and out comes the world’s easiest and most delicious Cilantro Chicken (you will see the recipe soon!). Enjoy!
Availability of certain ingredients, a craving for something different and a kid’s cribbing about eating the same roti for days let me to creating 
When amongst the daily frenzy, my head cannot stay still, I crave for this time in hopes that I will reflect. For some strange reason though and to my disappointment, all I do is think of food. Food that I should test, food that I have tried, food that I liked and many that I did not, some I want to write about and some I will never revisit. Right now when I could write about any thoughts buried in the depth of my heart, I am thinking of dinner I made last night and sitting here writing about it. Mind can be so funny!