How’s winter in your city? Brrrrrrr… it is piercing cold in the place I live brrrrr…rrrrr….. To arrest such winter cold, cough and the shivering, I have in hand 5-minute Quick and Easy Soup recipes . This Simple Mushroom Soup recipe (Kaalaan Soup) is the mirror-mirror of my famous Indian Style Chicken Soup recipe, except that, chicken is replaced by Mushrooms. When I say it’s a 5-minute soup recipe, I mean it, okay! A spicy, thin mushroom soup that is made WITHOUT using butter or cream or milk or maida (all-pourpose flour) or cheese.

Before demonstrating how to make a Spicy Mushroom Soup, let me throw you a simple question. What makes a recipe to sound and taste like South-Indian? I would say, it is the Nalla ennai/Sesame oil/Gingelly Oil. Yes. When an Indian recipe demands sesame oil, you can easily guess that the recipe is from the state of Tamilnadu. At home, we use Idhayam Nallennai (Iddhiyam Sesame oil/Idhayyam Gingelly oil) , be it for poriyal or tempering the chutneys or gravies, especially the non-vegetarian varuval recipes (non-veg fry) and more importantly for soups. We add few drops of gingelly oil while making thin soups, like this kalaan soup, kozhi soup, mutton soup (aatu kaal soup) etc. Adding sesame oil gives a beautiful flavor to the soup and makes it taste utter Restaurant style! No, I’m not exaggerating. Find the readers’ praises in the comment section of my Tamilnadu Restaurant Style Chicken Soup recipe. The reader says, ‘After having it I felt the same taste as I could have from any popular chettinad chain such as Anjappar or Karaikudi’

Based on the heavy reception of my post - Best Kitchen Items for Indian Cooking, I decided to speak more about my travel experiences to my readers. This time I wanted to share about what all I carried from my home to the US (during the vacations) and then how I managed to store all of those items in my kitchen. These canisters help not just storing but to beautify your kitchen countertops. Whenever guests or neighbors visit your kitchen, they sure will exclaim, ‘hey wowwww…. Where did you get these? ’ Have a special friend whom you wanted to thank or simply send her a gift just to make her happy? These kitchen countertop canisters will do the job perfectly well. Each canister image has an associated link for your easy view and purchase. Celebrate beautifying your kitchen!

The two occasions when I see the husband getting excited are: 1. While watching a LIVE cricket match of India. 2. When I make non-vegetarian his native style non-vegetarian dish. So when I made this Mutton Sukka Varuval on a day when India played a LIVE cricket match, he was double excited! This Mutton Varuttha Kari recipe is from his native place Sivakasi. That means, the dish has a very simple profile like this Simple and Easy Sivakasi Mutton Kulambu (Gravy) recipe which I posted few weeks back.

I’m spinning here in my kitchen like a ‘diwali sangu chakram’, working on Diwali snacks and sweets for my family and of course for my blog readers, fans, and followers too!

I made my childhood days favorite snack called ’Nei Kadalai’. Made by deep frying the chana dhal and seasoning with curry leaves, garlic, red chili powder and salt. So very easy snack to make for any tea-time. Watch video for the recipe.

To my dear fans: The behind the scenes stories will be written after Diwali holidays

For now, watch this quick video for making Matris (Punjabi Salt Crackers) and stock them for this Diwali! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeEZy32gTTA

Happy Deepavali Readers and Visitors! Listing you the Top 10 Non-veg recipes from Cooking Jingalala. Choose and Prepare for this Diwali and get praises from your family . Keep scrolling down….

*CLICK each Image for Step by Step pictorial guide to make the recipe *

Let’s start with the Mutton Gravy Recipe ‘of’ and ‘from’ the City of Crackers – Sivakasi

Wishing you and your family a very very Happy Diwali. Joy is togetherness. Bring your family together by preparing these delicious snacks and sweets recipes at home this Deepavali!

Click image to check on Step-by-Step pictorial guide to make the recipe

Yummy Banana Halwa Recipe – Simple Sweet made with ripe Bananas

I have bragged about my Mother’s cooking, maternal Grandmother’s recipes, paternal Grandmother’s recipes, but, never did I mention about my Mother-in-law’s recipes in any post. Did I? This finding was done by the husband. So were the complaints too . In order to react to his complaints , like how people used to have weekly status calls with onsite/offshore team, I had week-end calls scheduled with my offshore team lead (you should understand it’s my mom-in-law, here )). During the calls, I noted down recipes after recipes like: Sivakasi Mutton Kuzhambu, Sivakasi Mutton Varuval, Soose berry, Rava paniyaram, Mundhiri Kotthu, Poori Masala, Maida Maavu Poori, Kotthamalli Chutney, Murukku, Butter Beans Poriyal, Vazhaikai Poriyal, Naattu Kozhi Kuzhambu, Sotru Vattral (Rice Crackers) and what not! My co-sister (who’s from Nagerkoil) helped me with hands-on for few of these recipes. I started to cook food in my mother-in-law’s way . Today, I’ve got many of her recipes written in my Recipe-Notebook.

I already feel like a restaurateur! Yes, I do! I made this Green Chicken Curry and it drifted that special aroma which used to linger along my favorite restaurant into my living room! Read on to see how you can make a Restaurant Style Green Chicken Masala.

The easiest way to make the husband pleased is by trying out different varieties of  curries **_non-vegetarian curries_**. My followers know that I spoke more about it in the posts **[Roasted Lemony Chicken Breast](http://cooking.jingalala.org/?p=5743 "Lemon zest, Spicy Marinade to Roast Chicken Breast - Step by Step")** and [**Lemony Mushroom Marinade**](http://cooking.jingalala.org/?p=5783 "Easy Mushroom Appetizer recipes - Party appetizer recipes"). This **_Haree Masala Chicken_** is a totally different curry than my usual **[Pepper Chicken Fry](http://cooking.jingalala.org/2012/12/pepper-chicken-fry-milagu-kozhi-varuval-chicken-pepper-fry-recipe/ "Tasty Pepper Chicken Fry - Dry version - Indian style spicy chicken curry")** or Kozhi Varuval (Masala Chicken Fry). Different because, unlike the other two recipes, the only whole-spice used in this **_Greeny Chicken Curry_** is _Cloves_. Cloves, for this recipe helps in giving a spicy-sweet aroma that can camouflage the raw smell of the meat. When I say, **_Green Masala_**, you might have guessed that it has _cilantro_ and _mint_ in it. Yes it does. But it has another **STAR ingredient** too. Any guesses? _Clue:_ It is **green in color** too. It gives the _tanginess_ to the _chicken curry_, but it’s not _green tomatoes._

Patra – An interesting savory snack from the state of Gujrat, India! Interesting, because, I experienced a complete medley of tastes from this snack. It has got a mixture of performance from the tangy tamarind, spicy chili, sharp ginger and sweet jaggery in it. Altogether, the taste is jumbled, but yeah it’s NICE!

I will have to write about my friends Megha, Shruti and Priya before I write about the Patra recipe. My first experience with Patra was at Megha’s house. She is a Gujarathi who was brought up in Andhra. She makes awesome laddus with wheat flour, kous kous and lots of ghee . When I visited her for Gokulashtami pooja, she asked me to try a frozen snack. As she thawed, she spoke about the snack. ‘Meena, you should try this. This is a Gujarathi snack. Savory. Will be awesome! I like it a lot. You know arbi? This is made from its leaves. But only few brands are good in the stores. At home we used to make it with fresh leaves. I don’t find the leaves in the grocery shops here….’ …_keeng..keenggg..keeeengg… microwave bell dinged. Steaming **_Patras** came out.