favourite recipes for everyday cooking and baking

I made these deep-fried curry puffs over the weekend when we had friends over for lunch (I figured just serving chicken rice might not be enough). As usual, I posted photos of these on facebook and a friend commented that it was his favourite. Actually, he thought that these were " gujia ", which I later found out through Dr Google that it was a type of sweet Indian (Rajasthani, to be specific) deep-fried pastry filled with nuts, dried fruit or coconut. Mmm...this sounds like something right up my alley (and something for me to experiment with next!).  In fact, if you think about it (or do a bit of research), there are many versions of these pastries around the world, like empanadas for example. The name " empanada " comes from the Spanish verb empanar , meaning to wrap or coat in bread. Empanadas, which are prevalent in Latin America, are pastry turnovers filled with a variety of savoury (or sometimes sweet) ingredients. The variant of these stuffed pastries in Ind

Mutter paneer is a popular North Indian dish consisting of paneer ( cottage cheese ) and peas (mutter) cooked in a spiced tomato-based gravy, and it tastes fantastic especially when eaten with boiled basmati rice. I enjoy the paneer for its "bitey" texture that can be described as almost "meaty", and all of this combined together makes a delicious meal that can be quite addictive. I must admit I wasn't really a fan of paneer nor vegetarian food right up till middle of last year when I had some friends visiting from India and we frequented a few Indian restaurants. What an eye-opener it was for me. Indian vegetarian cuisine wasn't just all about peas and lentils, but very much about spices, colours, textures and exotic flavours.   I first tried mutter paneer at Curry at the Rocks, and became an instant fan. I put it on my to-cook list immediately, and was thrilled at how my recipe for this turned out. It tasted really authentic (which Mr G concurred with),