Varada's Kitchen and Garden

My husband loves tea, strong tea, especially Masala Chai. I dislike tea and have never taken an interest in making strong tea. My husband makes his own cuppa every morning and evening. Unfortunately, some times he forgets he has the pot on the stove and leaves the kitchen. Many a time he has had to spent time cleaning up the mess. When I heard chai can be made in the instant pot my immediate reaction was "No hovering around the kitchen stove!". This is my attempt to make two cups of tea using the instant pot. My husband liked it. My opinion does not matter as I am not a fan. If you had guests or had a lot of cups of tea to prepare in a hurry then this would be a really good option. You will need 1 cup water 1 cup milk 1 1/2 tsp. tea powder 2-3 peppercorns 1/4 in cinnamon 2-3 pods cardamom, shelled Add all the ingredients to a small stainless steel pan. Insert the trivet in the instant pot and add 1 cup of water. Place the pan with the ingredients for tea on the

I first tasted these baked peaches at a restaurant and fell in love with them. I have always wanted to try this recipe at home. The caramelized sugar infused with the juices of the fresh peach makes a fabulous sauce for the soft baked peaches. It is a very simple recipe but every summer for some reason or the other I never got around to making it. Last weekend on our weekly grocery trip I insisted on taking my time finding perfectly ripe peaches that were perfect for this recipe. I also bought a small tub of vanilla gelato made by a company called Talenti. It was the perfect combo with the baked peaches. You could use any stone fruit for this recipe like nectarine or apricot. Make sure the fruit is ripe. The recipe works even if the fruit is not ripe, but for best results use ripe fruit. You will need (4 servings) 4 small ripe peaches 8 tbsp. brown sugar 2 tbsp. butter Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cut the peaches in half and remove the seed. Keep aside. Cut the butter i

This is one of the tastiest condiment you will ever make. When I first decided I wanted to try spring rolls I noted down this recipe from a magazine. I never got around to making it until I finally made fresh spring rolls. This sauce was the perfect condiment. My daughter who is not a fan of nuts fell in love with the sauce. It is the perfect combination of sweet and sour. It goes perfectly with the flavors in the spring rolls. The amounts listed against the ingredients are estimates. Adjust as per taste. You will need 1/2 cup peanut butter, smooth and creamy, not chunky 1/4 cup warm water 1 tbsp. lime juice 1 tbsp. soy sauce 1 tsp. sugar For the garnish roasted peanuts, chopped coarsely Whisk all the ingredients for the sauce in bowl. Garnish with chopped roasted peanuts. The sauce is ready Enjoy!

Spring rolls is all forms have been on my list of recipes to try for the longest time. When my daughter was home for spring break we visited the Asian supermarket and brought home rice stick noodles and rice paper. For some reason it just sat in the pantry until she came home for summer. Finally one evening, even though dinner had been cooked in the morning, I decided I was going to make the fresh spring rolls for a snack. I made a peanut dipping sauce to go with it. My daughter loved the rolls so much she decided she would have them as dinner. The rolls are addictive and it is hard to stop after one. I am glad I am able to post these rolls to this space. You will need (for 12 rolls) 12 rice paper wraps nickel size bunch of rice stick noodles 1 carrot, shredded a bunch of green leaves, I used kale 1/2 cup cabbage, shredded (I skipped this as I ran out) Prep the vegetables. Boil water in a glass measuring cup or any microwave save bowl. Place the cup/bowl on the count

I am excited to post this wrap today. It has ingredients I do not normally combine. The summer has been very hot so far and no one is hungry for the same old recipes. Coming up with new combinations to the same recipes is a fun way to tackle the summer woes. I had bought a shiny fresh eggplant to make eggplant chips . I decided to present these in a wrap as opposed to having them as a side. I had heirloom tomatoes and they go well with eggplant. Next I chose olives and feta cheese. Not sure why I put these together other than a feeling that they would all go well together. The wraps made for a nice weekend lunch and were very filling. I am not a fan of eggplant. It cooks up mushy and I have problems with mushy texture. My husband and daughter love it. When they feel like eating eggplant they buy, cook and eat it. I usually have nothing to do with the whole process. The only two recipes I make with eggplant are the eggplant chips with the large eggplant and the stuffed mini eggplan

Sometimes you put ingredients together just because you need to get a meal ready quickly and end up with something delicious. This wrap is one of those. It was not planned. I made the ultimate mixed vegetable salad for lunch and then we headed out to run errands. We got delayed and got home just before dinnertime. All I had was some leftover salad, some pita bread and some feta cheese. I put it all together in this wrap and it was all gone very quickly. Luckily I had the foresight to click pictures. While there was no reason for this combo to taste anything but good, the flavors blended so well it was a total surprise. What started out as using up leftovers to make dinner turned into a keeper recipe. I wanted to put the filling in the center of the unopened pita and wrap the pita around it but since the vegetables were diced into small pieces and not bound together very well I decided to cut the pita bread into quarters. This made it easy to eat. I guess any salad with a lot

Coleslaw is a very basic salad with few ingredients. It is near impossible to get this recipe wrong. It is also the first salad I tried in a restaurant and loved as a child. I have always loved the chilled crispy cabbage with the flavorful dressing. The little pieces of carrot peeking through an otherwise white salad. I like the slaw a little dry and not loaded with dressing. My daughter adores this salad too. Last month I realized I did not have this recipe on my blog and decided to set things right. My daughter wanted to try it so we bought the cabbage and I waited. She got busy and the cabbage was used up for some other recipe. I shredded some more cabbage and waited for her to make the coleslaw. Finally this afternoon she brought out the mayo and other ingredients and we put this together. I am happy. I finally have coleslaw on this space. We enjoyed this salad with our dinner. You will need 2 cups shredded cabbage (about 1/4 of a large cabbage) 1/2 carrot shredded 1/4 cu

This salad is put together like you would assemble a salad at a salad bar, a little of this and a handful of that. It reminds me of a trip I took a long time back with my Dad to Mumbai, India. It was a work trip to Gujarat via Mumbai and I had tagged along. In Mumbai we visited a new pizza place and they had a salad bar. I was in school then and had never seen a self serve salad bar before. I took my time choosing the ingredients and I loved it. When my daughter was little I frequently took her to the local salad place. Luckily she is not a picky eater and enjoyed the salad. I remember when she was five an elderly lady from the next table commented on how she and her husband were pleasantly surprised to see a little girl enjoying her vegetables. As a family we enjoy salads and love salads as lunch especially in the hot summer months. I have been working on salads as meal substitutes for a while. I started with 4-5 ingredients and worked my way up. With my earlier efforts my daught

This salad was an experiment. Everyone in my family loves watermelon eaten on its own. I rarely make anything with watermelon. On this space I have a cooler and a jello made with watermelon. Both were great but not made frequently. Then I saw the pictures of this salad. They are everywhere and I I had to try it. I got a watermelon and cut it up into cubes. Luckily, I reserved a quarter of the melon to be cut later. By the time I got ready to make the salad the bowl of the cut up watermelon was almost empty. I had forgotten to tell the family that I needed it for a recipe. I chopped up the reserved quarter and forbade anyone from even looking at the sweet juicy fruit. This salad has a very surprising blend of flavors with the salty feta, the olives and the sweet watermelon. I added mint as a garnish. If I make this salad again I would use a watermelon that is not as sweet and juicy as the one I had. In fact this salad would be perfect to use a watermelon that is not very sweet

Kobichi wadi is a Maharastrian preparation of cabbage. It is a very healthy dish with besan used as the binding agent. As is the norm with Maharastrian cooking this dish has a perfect combination of sweet, sour, spicy and savory. It is a nice alternative to cabbage bhaji. A few years back I made this recipe for the family. My daughter loved the flavors and announced this was her favorite cabbage preparation. I make it frequently and everyone loves it. Two weeks back my daughter wanted to try coleslaw. So we added cabbage to our grocery list. The only cabbages available were large but we got one. When I did my weekly vegetable prep I shredded half  the cabbage and stored it in the refrigerator. She was supposed to make the coleslaw. Last week my daughter had a 12 hour shift on her very first summer job. She was exhausted and took it easy the rest of the week. This past Saturday morning I found the shredded cabbage was still waiting. I decided to use it up and make our favorite

Cucumber Raita has to be the easiest recipe. It is perfect during the summer heat. This raita is a little different from a cucumber koshimbir. The raita has more yogurt than solids and is better served as a side for rice based dishes. A koshimbir works well as a side to poli or Indian flatbread. In Maharashtra koshimbir can be made with or without yogurt. I tried to find the link to the yogurt based cucumber koshimbir and realized I do not have one on this space. Have to fix that soon. This is the Khamang kakdi another traditional salad made with cucumber. My daughter loves to have a lot of raita on the rice. Adjust quantity per serving based on how much raita you like with your rice. You will need (4-6 servings) 2 cups yogurt, do not use Greek yogurt 1 cucumber, diced fine 4-5 sprigs cilantro, minced 1/4 tsp. roasted cumin powder 1/4 tsp. paprika or red chili pepper powder salt to taste In a bowl whisk the yogurt till smooth. Add all the remaining ingredients and

Kadhi is a simple common everyday recipe in India. It is one of those recipes where every family has their own version. This recipe is a Maharashtrian version, the way my mother made it. It is warm and comforting on a cold winter day. It is also an easy way to use up yogurt. I had a lot of fresh and sour yogurt that I needed to finish. So I made it on a hot summer day. I usually make this Kadhi with khichadi and papad. Today I made it with poli and a vegetable side. You cannot go wrong. It works with most Indian recipes. Weekend summer lunches can be challenging. I like to go out and hang out with my daughter but that takes time away from cooking elaborate meals. The only way out is to cook first thing in the morning. In any case the cats don't let me sleep in, they need attention at the same time everyday. The best part of cooking early morning is everything is done before it gets too hot. We get to go out and come back to freshly cooked lunch. You will need (4-5 servings)