Hyderabadi Vegetable Biryani

Paradise Hotel, a landmark on Sardar Patel Road in Secunderabad which is so hard to miss. A crowded road with equally crowded biryani house which has been serving thousands of people day and night since 1953. I still clearly remember,  6 years back when I first visited Hyderabad; lunch at Paradise was ranking very high on our must-to-do list. Their signature biryani was truly succulent, flavorful and aromatic! It was a delicious experience. When I first came across the recipe for Hyderabadi Birynai at Swasthi’s Indian Healthy Recipes, I knew I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to cherish my experience in my own…

VitaMAX Smoothie

The inspiration for this smoothie came from the ‘Power Juice’ recipe by Chef Parag. He used beet root and carrot juice together with lemon juice. I was looking for a creamy texture so instead of just using juices I decided to make a smoothie. Needless to mention it’s loaded with vitamins and mineral from beet root and carrots and hence the name! To make sure it’s perfectly sweetened I used dried figs and dried apricots and also raisins, I know I am genius 🙂 The result was outstandingly creamy, sweet, a beautiful pink smoothie which we have made a regular part of…

ulunthan kali

Ulunthan Kali

This was my first time participating in Indian Cooking Challenge and I was very excited about it. Srivalli had asked us to prepare a traditional sweet from Tamilnadu. I had never heard the name before and surprisingly none of my Tamil friends were familiar with its name – “Ulunthan Kali”. As Srivalli explained, its known by various other names such as  Kummayam or Adi Kummayam or more popularly Thiruvadhirai Kali. The recipe was given by Padma. The most impressive thing about this dish is its ingredients.; urad dal, rice, jaggery and sesame oil; all combined together to make a deliciously…