Basmati rice is a long grain and extremely aromatic rice grown in Northern India. It is one of the best varieties of rice available in the world. The name basmati is derived from the sanskrit word Vasmati which means "fragrant".

Cooking the perfect Basmati Rice is the key to having the best biryani, pulaos and fried rice. While basmati rice can be cooked in various ways but today I'm sharing the best way to make in rice cookers.

If you are a regular user of Rice Cookers, you will agree with me that while normal rice gets perfectly cooked, it's the Basmati Rice that doesn't come out well. After number of failed attempts and trying out various proportions of rice:water ratio, I have finally succeeded in getting the perfectly cooked basmati rice with grains separated. And ever since I have discovered it, I have started cooking all my biryanis in rice cooker itself which is more convenient than going through the traditional method of boiling bulk water and cooking rice to 90% and finally draining the water. Aah, life made finally easier!!!

It's pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it.

Qeema Aloo
Qeema Bharey Kareley
Qeema bhari Mirchain
Qeema Fara
Qeema Kachori
Qeema Macaroni
Qeema Palak

In today's time, Internet has made life much easier and all information required is available at the click of a button.

With the world getting technologically advanced at the speed of lightning, India too is not behind. Airtel is the first telecom operator to introduce Airtel 4G services, the fastest network service provider ever. It is getting rolled out nationwide with a wide reach connecting 296 cities in the country. Airtel is not only launching the fastest services but also providing it at a very reasonable pricing, and you won’t believe they are giving it at 3G pricing only. Isn’t that amazing!

Pomegranate Juice is very tasty, healthy and easy to prepare. Though you can enjoy pomegranate as a fruit itself, but juicing it is necessary if you have fussy eaters like mine at home.

This homemade juice is fresh without any additives and thus it is a powerhouse of nutrients and vitamins. These days I've stopped buying processed juices available in the market and rely more on homemade fresh juices. So, now you can look forward to more of juices and shakes recipes coming up on this page.... :)

Chickoo milkshake recipe is one of the easiest and healthiest milk shake recipe to prepare and indulge. I keep making various juices and milkshakes for my Iftars these days, you can look for more beverage recipes here Sweet Endings.

You can adjust the sugar according to the sweetness of the fruit or adjust according to your taste buds. You an even replace it with jaggery or coconut sugar as well.

"I believe that the greatest gift you can give your family and the world is a healthy you" - Joyce Meyer.

Cricket is the one sports that is followed religiously in our country. 

This is the second time that I'm featured at Lubna Karim's Annual Ramadan Event - Joy from Fasting to Feasting which is in its eighth year. Hers was the blog that I randomly hit upon during Ramadan which opened up the vast world of food blogging. It's such a pleasure to receive her invitation for her prestigious event.

Just like the previous two years, where I have shared some random clicks of my Iftar table during Ramadan, which you can see here and here. This year too I decided to capture some Iftar spread and present to you. Also, do check out the Ramadan Recipes page for more Iftar recipes.

In the meantime, have a peek at my Iftar spread...

Aamras is a very popular dessert from the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

It derives its name by splitting the word into two - Aam meaning mango and ras meaning juice, so basically Aamras means mango juice. Usually, Aamras is made using Alphonso mangoes, but you can use any sweet variety of mangoes. You can either peel and chop it or squeeze by your hands to extract the juice out of it.

You can enjoy Aamras as a dessert after a meal or with pooris for breakfast.

Summers have already started in this part of the world with temperatures soaring to 35 degrees during day time. And with it, here comes a recipe of Sweet Lassi - a very cooling and refreshing drink from North India especially from the state of Punjab.

In Punjab, they make this lassi very thick and serve in tall glasses which is very filling. They also add a dollop of makhan on top of it. I have flavored my glass of lassi with cardamom powder, you can also add few drops of rose water to make it more flavorful.

I happened to visit Singapore last year with my family on a short trip. I was amazed with the city and its culture. Infact, Singapore is not only one of the world's major commercial hubs but also one of the best travel destination. It has got four official languages - English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil. Just like their language and cultural diversity, their food too is an amalgamation of cuisines from Malay, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Peranakan and also some western foods. Most Singaporeans prefer to have their meals from take aways and from hawker centers or food stalls instead of going to restaurants. These stalls are available in plenty and offer wide variety of food at a very reasonable prices.

We too during our stay there preferred to had our food from hawker centers and take aways. We tried various dishes like chilli crab, the clay pot chicken rice, curry chicken noodles, fried rice, hainanese chicken rice and nasi lemak. For desserts we had egg tarts and for the breakfast kaya toast was the best. We also enjoyed their beverages and teh tarik, a Malay inspired tea was the best among all. Being an Indian, we mostly hogged on Indian influenced dishes like butter chicken, nasi biryani, roti prata, murtabak, naan and the list just goes on. I was really fascinated by the wide variety of Indian dishes available there.

But the food that I and my family loved the most was a Malay influenced Satay which is basically grilled meat skewers. It is a must try food item if you happen to visit Singapore. Actually, the concept of grilling meat on skewers is not something very specific to the region, but it is prepared world wide with each area having their own version of satay. While in the West it is known as grilled meat, in India, we call it by the name of seekh kabab, and in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, it is popularly known as Satay.

In Singapore, Satay is prepared by skewering marinated meat on a bamboo stick and grilled over a charcoal fire. They usually serve it in bunches of 10 along with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce. It is accompanied by ketupat - a malay rice cakes wrapped in coconut leaves, chopped onion and cucumber. Being a food blogger and food enthusiast, I kept my eye on the hawkers grilling the satay and casually chit chatted with one of them asking for the recipe. In a very friendly manner, he gave me the recipe and kept doing his work.

The recipe that he told me was very simple and he gave me the ingredients required for 500 gms of chicken. For making the marination we need to blend together 10 shallots, 2 garlic cloves, 4 lemon grass stalks (white part only) and 2 slices of galangal. Then add 2 tbsp of ground coriander, 2 tsp of ground cumin, a pinch of turmeric, 1 tsp of sea salt, 8 tbsp of unrefined cane sugar, 1 tbsp of thick dark soy sauce and 3-4 tbsp groundnut oil and mix well everything together. Marinate the chicken in this marinade overnight or for 24 hours. Soak the skewers in cold water for few hours to prevent them from burning. Now thread the chicken pieces on the skewers and grill them directly over the charcoal fire, basting with generous amount of oil to give it a well-browned glaze. He also gave me the tip of making it in an oven and grilling it for 5 minutes each side. But yes, I know nothing can be compared to the satay cooked directly on charcoal.

Mmmmm, my mouth is watering now and I feel like going to Singapore once again and enjoy these delicious Satay.

Paneer Butter Masala is a very popular paneer dish from North India. It is very easy to prepare and a good choice for vegetarians who can relish this instead of yummy butter chicken. When making this recipe always use ripe and red tomatoes which will give a nice colour to the gravy. Also the addition of cashew nut paste and fresh cream gives a creamy consistency to this gravy.

Nihari is a dish from the Indian subcontinent, which is a spicy stew of either mutton or chicken slow cooked for hours together to give that authentic taste. In my earlier post of Mutton Nihari, I had mentioned that I prepared Chicken Nihari too with the same Homemade Nihari Masala. Both of them tasted so good that I cannot describe here. So finally, I'm presenting for you to enjoy and relish with roti, naan or rice.

Well, this is the first time that I made Haleem using chicken instead of meat and the taste was just excellent. Whenever you are not in a mood to go for the classic way of having gravy, roti and rice, you can make these kinds of one pot meals, which does not only tastes good but also is very fulfilling.....

Today I'm sharing the recipe of a very easy, quick and simple mutton curry that I usually make. I'm still wondering why this recipe never made its way to the blog till now as this style is most preferred by everyone at home, may be I was too lazy to click a photo and post it here, hehehe..... Finally, this recipe is up and with very less ingredients it does tastes awesome. It can be had with roti/any flat breads or rice. Look below for the detailed recipe.

The first time I did my online grocery shopping was from BigBasket.com, the online supermarket, a couple of months back. With hubby's hectic schedule at office along with long working hours and a baby at home to take care, we were not able to go out for our regular grocery shopping. It was then that I stumbled upon this online store and made my first purchase. They had given a slot for delivery which was very convenient for me as I chose the time when my baby would be asleep so that I could take out and keep the things in their respective places. Its not that I had not done any online shopping before, but for buying groceries we were always skeptical. Since then, I have been using this site for making my purchases.

Today I am presenting a delicious and simple chicken qeema recipe. The same recipe can be made with mutton qeema as well. You can have this dish with roti, naan or rice along with salads. You can also use the same recipe for using it as stuffing for making samosas, buns or sandwiches.

Today I'm sharing a very easy recipe of maggi with a healthy twist. While I have used only carrots and capsicum, you can add any vegetables of your choice in making this fried maggi, . If you want to try yet another style of making maggi, then do look the recipe of baked cheese maggi which I had shared earlier.

ASUS has launched 2 new products last week - The Sleek and Powerful ASUS EeeBook X205TA tablet and The Ultra Portable and Perpetually Connected - ASUS All-in-One PC ET2040. Reasonably priced, both of them have got excellent features.

Have you got some leftover boiled rice and don't know what to do with it??? Or you are already bored of making and eating fried rice, zeera rice etc. or may be you don't feel like making any gravy to have with it. Then here is a solution, you can turn your plain boiled rice into a yummy biryani. The trick is to make a nice and spicy dry vegetable gravy and spreading the rice over it and giving it dum. You can use any vegetable that you prefer or have with you, there is no hard and fast rule for it. It gets done in a jiffy and this is how I'm using my leftovers these days.....:)