Product: TILDA Basmati Rice

We have this joke about how I love me some rice. There's normal portions of rice and then my portion of rice (imagine, if you will, a pyramid).

It's ridiculous because it's TRUE.

And Tilda's Basmati is rice royalty. Fluffy, long-grained, and non-sticky.

I was ecstatic to collaborate with Tilda on their latest two minute rice packets.

I opened this one up right way and literally two minutes later, pilau (indian masala-spiced rice) was standing up to the other indian dishes on my plate, dishes that took way longer than two minutes, mind you!

If you've ever cooked rice on the stove or in a rice cooker, you know it doesn't take two minutes. And this is no Uncle Ben's two minute rice, this is gourmet, fluffy, long-grained, no-preservatives, BASMATI rice.

It's portioned to serve two (one, if you're talking about me).

I can't even tell you how pumped I am about this product. The other packets didn't last long enough to even try various recipes, I was just happy eating them as is.

And excellent addition to the pantry, well worth having, and so tasty, you may just start eating rice like me.

Recipes to try with Tilda's Steamed Rice Pilau: Tilapia Curry and Indian Style Beets.

Breakfast Beyond Eggs: Appam and Stew

Here's a little background on my childhood. I was born in Kerala, South India and grew up in Botswana, Africa, so breakfast was always very fresh and very local.

I was lucky to have farm fresh eggs for breakfast in the mornings. And incredibly fresh chicken. I have literally never eaten chicken as delicious as that, since. In fact, I have since stopped eating chicken!

But I digress.

With my South Indian background, eggs are just ONE of many options for breakfast, and sometimes are just an accompanying dish to other staples, like Upma which is something of a dry porridge made out of semolina flour. Upma with a side of eggs and optionally a banana with a sprinkle of sugar is delicious. Say what? Yes, it is certainly an acquired taste, but worth trying if you ever have the opportunity to do so.

Then there is my all-time favorite breakfast for special occasions: appam and stew. Appam is a fermented pancake made out of white rice. It's a breakfast treat, saved for birthdays, Christmas and New Year. And recently, my Mom has been making it for us whenever we go back to visit Toronto.

Sounds weird to have "pancakes" with something savoury like a stew, but appam is not a sweet pancake. If you've ever tried Ethiopian injera, it's similar but not quite as sour as injera and not served cold as injera.

So, if you're adventurous to try a different type of breakfast other than eggs, I'm sharing my Mother's recipe for Appam and Stew, which is her Mother's recipe and definitely tried, tested and true.

My mouth is watering already.

Thanks for the recipe Mummy! xo

Ingredients for Appam:

2 cups White Rice
1 teaspoon Yeast
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 and a half Table spoon Semolina
1 egg white
A little Milk

Preparation:

1) Wash rice and soak for 2 to 3 hours to grind.

2) SEMOLINA: Just before grinding the rice (in a blender), mix semolina in a cup of water and cook in low heat stirring constantly till it turns to a thick batter. Take off from the stove and leave to cool.

3) YEAST: Take litle luke warm water in a deep bowl and add the yeast and the sugar on top of the yeast and close it with a plate and leave it to rise for 10 to 15 minutes.

4) RICE: Drain water from the rice and grind the rice in a blender (USING ONLY MILK) little milk at a time to a smooth consistency. Batter should not become too loose by adding more milk (so be careful with that while pouring the milk). Divide rice and grind into two batches, instead of allat once. That will give more room to grind.

5) Add the cooled semolina mix and the risen yeast mix into the rice batter and mix properly and leave it to ferment for 6 to 8 hours. You may leave it in the oven, overnight. In warm countries it rises faster than in colder countries.

6) BEFORE MAKING APPAM: Take egg white and beat well with little milk and add this along with salt and one table spoon of sugar into the batter and mix well and keep it for another one hour before starting to make the Appams.

7) HINT: IF THE BATTER IS TOO THICK YOU MAY LOOSEN IT

BY ADDING MORE MILK AND MAKE THE APPAMS

THE SAME WAY YOU MAKE PANCAKES USING

A NON STICK PAN OR A CAST IRON PAN.

8) Don't FLIP the pancakes, just wait until they bubble and are cooked in the center.

CHICKEN STEW OR VEGETABLE STEW RECIPE:

(Ingredients are the same whether you cook chicken with potatoes or only use vegetables)

1) One small chicken whole or Only the chicken breast : 500gm.

2) Ingredients:

Onions, 3 medium size
Green chillies, 3 (or more)
Ginger, 2 teaspoon (if paste) or a medium size
Garlic, 2 teaspoon (if paste) or three small cloves
Cinnamon sticks, 4 whole
Cloves, 5 whole
Cardamom, 4 whole (you can use powder too)
Fresh Curry leaves 2 or 3 stems. (You can use Corriander leaves instead, if curry leaves aren't available)
Black pepper, quarter teaspoon at the end

3) You can add any of these vegetables or all while cooking the

chicken:- Potatoes, Carrots, Beans, Cabbage, Cauliflour,

Peas, Tomatoes etc or just potato with chicken. I prefer that.

4) Preparation: Heat pan, pour oil and put the chopped oinions,

cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and let it cook a bit.

Then add the green chillies, ginger, garlic, curry leaves.

Mix and after a little while add the chicken, salt with little water to

cook the meat. (At this time, you can add the vegetables of your

choice)

Once the meat is cooked add 3cups of whole milk. If you want

more gravy add more milk.

Now add the black pepper powder, mix and boil again (not long

though) and serve with Appams either with Chicken stew

or Vegetable stew.

Options: Whole milk or 2% milk or Evaporated milk or Coconut milk.

You can use any of these of your choice.

MA: Priya Indian Cuisine

Location:

1270 Westford Street, Lowell, MA

www.bostonpriya.com

Looking for amazing Indian food in Massachusetts? Look no further than Priya's.

Authentic north and south indian fare that's well priced and so delicious. We ordered half the things on the menu (some not pictured) and everything was excellent. Service, although friendly, is a bit slow. One of the tables beside us pre-ordered on the phone prior to coming in, which seemed like a good idea as they sat down after us but were eating well before us.

Still, a great place for indian food and big enough to host parties and functions. (Photos via underwater camera)

Boston: Kashmir

Location:

279 Newbury Street Boston, MA

Not only was it packed, which is one reason we thought it might have been a good choice, but it was packed with INDIAN people, which is sometimes a good indicator of a decent Indian restaurant. Not this time.

Kashmir has terrible, terrible indian food.

I'm from South India where we LOVE our rice to death. Present me with old rice (where it's clumped together, with bits of rice stuck to the outside rim of the bowl?) and I'm already an unhappy camper.

Tandoori salmon, which came out looking like steamed salmon with an aside of curry to be poured over it. How is that Tandoori salmon? It had not a single piece of evidence of having been in a tandoor oven. The sauce was the same as in the fish curry dish.

Our bhatura was initially forgotten and then brought out later looking flat, which a bhatura should not be.

Veggie samosas which were filled with mashed potatoes - seriously?

The eggplant was mushy and tasteless. The only item we liked were the Kashmiri naans, which were quite good. Makes sense to me now, why the place is called Kashmir.

Add slow service and disgraceful bathrooms to round up this review.

Oh, and when I asked to get the Kashmiri naans to go, big mistake. The worst thing, ever, that a server can do, is to place other dishes ON TOP of the dish you've asked to take home. Needless to say, our takeout was tossed right away.

Tell me Bostonians, where the good Indian food at?