Category: News and Updates

It was great to see all the recipes submitted last month. I know it can be challenging to take something simple like a drink or smoothie recipe and make it stand out from the rest. I’ve selected the top 5 best recipe submissions and chose two winners below.

The winners are:

1st Place: Laura Bregman (Cucumber-Honeydew Cooler with Blueberry Ice)

2nd Place: Rashmi Krishnappa (Watermelon Blueberry Mint Spicy Lassi)

Congratulations to both of you!

I would like to very much thank the other participants this month:

• Simran Kaur
• Divya Vikram
• Pearl Irani Kadkhodayan
• Cecilia Baldini
• J’aime Musique
• Laxmi Priya Vemuri
• Saumya Saradhi
• Jyoti Sethia Babel
• Poonam Jadhav
• Navita Mehra
• Vedika Luthra
• Ajitha
• Paroma Chatterjee
• Sukanya
• Jennifer Lu
• Anu
• Anthony Gallagher
• Khushbu Majithiya
• Sadaf Afshan
• Sadhana
• Parul Garg
• Seema
• Rupal Patel

Teej is around the corner. As a child, I enjoyed Teej festival very much and have lots of fond memories of it. The Indian calendar is filled with many wonderful holidays that celebrate the Gods, the family or the welcoming of a new season. My mom loved celebrating festivals, as it was more of a joyous social occasion for her, rather than religious. I really liked how she chose to celebrate these special occasions.

Teej is a unique festival for women, which includes fasts and followed with delicious feasts. Typically this is a day for women and young girls to dress up and decorate their palms with mehndi (henna). I can remember the house courtyard being decorated and had installed rope swings for this occasion. The women would be swinging and singing Teej folk songs that were unique to the festival.

Once I moved to the U.S. in late sixties, most of the festivals were left behind. While my two sons were growing up, I would dream of the day I could celebrate Teej with my daughter-in-laws. Both of my sons got married. After my eldest son was married, we purchased a swing set for our backyard. I was overjoyed to use the swing set for Teej celebrations! Then as my younger son married, my dream of celebrating Teej with my two daughter-in-laws was finally fulfilled. This year Teej will be on August 2nd and I hope you will enjoy this holiday as I do.

The summer has started and it is getting really hot. This month’s contest is to make a refreshing beverage with the following fruit:

• melon (watermelon, cantelope, honeydew, or other melon fruit)
• berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, or other berry)

You can create a smoothie, or punch, or a lemonade twist. It is up to you, but I encourage you to be Creative with the recipe. You may also add additional fruits, but it should comprise mainly of the fruits listed above. I will be judging on presentation and creativity. I will be selecting top 2 winners. Good Luck!

Below is my checklist:

• Send the name of the recipe along with photo to contest@manjulaskitchen.com
• You must send an original picture(s) of the recipe – do not simply grab a photo from the web. Otherwise your recipe will not be considered for entry.
• The contest will be open until July 24th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

Cold Coffee (Iced Coffee) brings back many fond memories of my youth. In the summer months, I would often walk with friends to the nearby gas station that had a coffee shop kiosk. They would make the best cold coffee and freshly baked cookies. When I got married and moved to the US, I did not get to experience this cold coffee.

One day when my younger son was a senior in high school, he came home with a Starbucks iced coffee and wanted me to try this amazing treat. While I thought the Starbucks drink was good, I just knew I could make a better version. I decided to give him a surprise. A few days later when he was playing table tennis with his friends, I made cold coffee for them. He and his friends thought it was a Starbucks drink and were surprised that I knew how to make this drink.

Recently my son (who is now a father of two!) asked me to make this cold coffee again. He loved the cold coffee and suggested that I prepare a cold coffee video for the website. Based on his request, I am preparing a cold coffee recipe.

 

Recently my husband Alex mentioned that while he enjoys my usual tofu dishes, he would like me to prepare a new tofu dish. He wanted something with Asian-inspired flavors. I was ready to take on this challenge, as I am not too familiar with Asian cooking. He wanted to try a tofu dish that had more flavor and pizzazz!

So what did I do? Of course, I googled it! I searched under “tofu recipes” and liked the recipe for Sweet and Sour Tofu. However, I wanted my dish to be made with Indian flavors. I then tried out a tofu recipe with bell peppers, cabbage, mixed with tamarind and a blend of spices. To my surprise, it tasted great! Alex and I really enjoyed it. He thought it was good enough to be posted on this website.

Coming up with the perfect recipe is a matter of trial and error. Adding and taking out ingredients to come up with just the right taste is indeed a challenge. In fact, it took me about four tries before I was satisfied with my version of Sweet and Sour tofu! More importantly, Alex seemed to be satisfied with the taste. I will be posting the video soon. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Become a fan of my facebook page and enter to win a free Amazon certificate. Two winners will be chosen at random (like the last month). Spread the word, tell your friends on facebook – become a fan.

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Below is my checklist:

• You will not have to email me anything this time. Simply add me as a fan on facebook.
• The contest will be open until June 30th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

Thank you. I really enjoyed reading all the wonderful stories about everyones mother’s day experiences. Here are the two winners chosen at random from all the comment postings:

1st Place: Anke Jain (view story)

2nd Place: Neeta (view story)

This month’s contest is an easy one. Because Mother’s Day is approaching in a few days (May 8th), I thought it would great to hear some stories. I would like to hear about the special things you have done for your mother. Or as a mother, you can write what your kids have done for you. It can be any story from the past or even from this upcoming mother’s day.

The winners will be selected randomly from all the comments.

Below is my checklist:

• You will not have email me anything this time. You can simply leave a comment on this page (scroll to the bottom).
• You must leave a valid email address so that I can contact you after the contest is over. Don’t worry, your email address will not be public (only I will be able to see it).
• The comments will be open until May 28th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

What are authentic recipes? An authentic recipe varies from province to province, family to family and even person to person. In my thinking an authentic recipe is whatever I had eaten the first time and enjoyed it as a new dish, it becomes my reference point. I have tried to replicate some dishes to that same taste from 50 years back, but have not always been successful. I would like to think that I cook many of the traditional foods, which are modified according on the availability of ingredients, and tailored to my family’s taste. I enjoy cooking because I am in charge, so these recipes are what my family and I enjoy.

Having said that, I value your comments and feel very flattered. My feelings are not hurt in any way by your comments and suggestions. I am learning lot from your comments and also by creating these videos.

A Guide to Perfect Paneer and Sweets

Paneer, a mild and versatile fresh cheese known as “chena” in Indian cuisine, is a true staple across countless dishes—whether it’s in savory curries, appetizers, or delightful desserts. Its neutral flavor makes it an ideal canvas for absorbing the spices and aromas of any recipe.

When I make paneer, I curdle whole milk with lemon juice (vinegar or citric acid works too!). After curdling, I thoroughly rinse it to remove any lingering acidity. The key to a good texture is pressing out excess water, which I achieve by placing the paneer in a flat container under a heavy weight. After a few hours in the fridge, it’s ready for slicing. For certain recipes, frying the paneer beforehand helps it hold its shape.

Paneer for Sweets

• For sweets like Burfi or Sandesh, whole milk works best for a rich taste.
• Rasgulla, Chum Chum, and Rasmalai benefit from 2% milk, as this texture is ideal for these delicate desserts.

When making Rasgullas, achieving that perfect shape can be tricky—problems like flatness, hardness, or cracks often arise due to water content or under-kneading. But if things go awry, there’s no waste here! For example:

• Flat Rasgullas? Transform them into Rasmalai.
• Too hard? Cut into cubes for a creamy Kheer.
• Crumbled? Repurpose as Burfi or mix with vanilla ice cream, garnished with almonds or pistachios.

And yes, Rasgullas can be made in a pot! Try my Chum Chum recipe as a base, add a little extra water, and cook for about 20 minutes instead of 25. Enjoy experimenting!

This month, some of you submitted recipes other than an appetizer so unfortunately I could not consider them. I was really looking for something that was also fresh, as opposed to fried. Here are the winners that I selected. Congratulations to both of you!

1st Place: Priyam Saharia (Wonton Cups with Spicy Carrot and Cheesy Apple Filling)

2nd Place: Sita Badrish (Veggie Pops in Cucumber vase with Green Apple chutney)

Special mention also to the following:

• Deepti Sharma
• Pooja Soni
• Aarthy Krishnan
• Ranjitha Atvam
• Raji Vivekanandan
• Charu Nagi

I would like to very much thank the other participants this month:

• Lavanya Sriram
• Aruna Manikandan
• Cooking Veg
• Navita Mehra
• Sasmita Panda
• Rajendra Panda
• Rupali Jain
• Sreemanti Pathak
• Vidhya Venugopal
• Akhila Ratheesh
• Sowmya Gudimetla
• Roopa
• sanyukta gour
• Swati Malviya
• Anjali Bapna Shukla
• Katerina Simeonova
• Srinidhi Bala
• Sadhana
• Anki Jain
• Deepti Rao
• Bhamathy Umapathy
• Kayal
• Sahana Vidhya
• ravi jakhar
• Vijaya Laxmi
• Laura Bregman

April’s contest will be a fresh spring appetizer using two or more of the following ingredients:

• carrot
• cucumber
• celery
• banana
• apple

As usual, you will be judged on creativity, and presentation (in addition to the recipe as a whole). Most likely, I will be selecting the top two winners myself for this month.

Below is my checklist:

• Send the name of the recipe along with photo to contest@manjulaskitchen.com.
• Be creative with the recipe!
• You must send an original picture(s) of the recipe – do not simply grab a photo from the web. Otherwise your recipe will not be considered for entry.
• The deadline is April 22nd.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage with the new recipe and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

I know how much time it takes to create a new recipe and so would like to thank everyone who took part in this month’s contest. There were some very good entries and I had a hard time selecting the five best ones. It came very close. There were a couple of very good recipes that I had to disqualify simply because of incomplete recipe instructions. So please make sure next time to submit a detailed method and ingredient list.

Update (2011-02-02): I checked the voting logs and yes there was a huge discrepancy among the top 2 winners (charu and ruma). Additionally the other entries also showed something strange in the logs. So I’ve decided to discredit the votes altogether and select two recipes that I thought were the best out of the five. I set up the voting because I thought it would be fun and interactive for the users (actually many of you requested it), but never expected the abuse as we’ve seen in this month’s contest. In the future, if the voting is reinstated, I will make sure it is robust enough to thwart such abuse.

The winners that I’ve manually selected are the following:

1st Place: Aditi Gupta (Crunchy Bean salad with beetroot and fruits)

2nd Place: Spoorty Prasad (Bean Sprouts Salad Spring Roll)

Congratulations to both of you!

I would like to very much thank the other participants this month:

• Jaya Rai
• Vidya Sundararajan
• Priyanka Gulati
• Raghunathan And Lakshmi
• Vijaya Raghunathan
• Swati Madaan
• Priyanka Rakhecha
• Pooja Soni
• Sita Badrish
• Sneha sreejith
• Ranjitha Atyam
• Mandobi Bagchi
• Sheetal Purohit
• Raji Vivekanandan
• Krithika Rajgopal
• Gayathri Vignesh
• Madhulika Dev
• Shubha Sridhara
• Cadry Nelson
• Manasa Nagaraj
• Sanyukta Gour
• Jasthi kiranmai
• Hidemi S
• Anjali Bapna Shukla
• Madhuri Vishal
• Aisha Rafiq
• Terri Luciana
• Sugiyarti Jorgenson
• Hemavathy Velineni
• Anu Shoj
• Vineela Siva
• Swati Bajpai
• Devi Meyyappan
• Nayna Kanabar

For this month contest, I thought it would be great to do a fresh spring salad. Contestants will create a bean salad with spring colors, and home made dressing.

You will be judged on creativity, and presentation. I will be selecting the top 5 and let the viewers vote for the winners as in past contests. You can refer to my sprouted moong salad as an example.

For this month, I raised the stakes to $100 for the first prize!! Good Luck.

Below is my checklist:

• Send the name of the recipe along with photo to contest@manjulaskitchen.com.
• The salad must be accompanied by a homemade dressing.
• You must send an original picture(s) of the recipe – do not simply grab a photo from the web. Otherwise your recipe will not be considered for entry.
• The deadline is March 22nd.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage with the new recipe and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

Thank you everybody for sharing your Valentine’s Day stories. Some of them were very touching and I enjoyed reading through all of them. Sorry for the delay, but I’ve selected two winners randomly from all the comment postings:

1st Place: RockstarRain (view their story here)

2nd Place: Srinidhi Bala (view their story here)

Again, thanks everyone for participating. And thank you for your on-going support.