Thoughts on the 31st December, 2007

It's that time of the year again when we think about the year that was and the year that will be. I'm glad that this love for food blogging has sustained its second year well. There have been the recent lows due to my regular broadband connection going AWOL, and google taking a full minute to load on my standby datacard. But that's history now. The broadband has been restored to its earlier glory and so will food blogging.

To capture all the action on Saffron Trail in 2007, I'd like to index all the recipes, category wise. The WBB round ups are all there on the left column. Saffron Trail had the honour of hosting Jihva for Ingredients in the month of July. Chillies were the chosen ingredient and the round up had 65 entries to make your mouth and eyes water!

Index of recipes blogged in 2007


Healthy Eating & Living
How to snack and lose weight
Detox diets – an overview
Weekend Detox plan
Vijaya Venkat's all natural lunch box ideas
14 ways to reduce your kitchen's carbon footprint

Breakfast
Breakfast Pancakes
Savoury pancakes with mushrooms and onions
Poro – Parsi Omelette
Onion Rava Dosai with spicy tomato chutney
Oats for dinner
Oats and mango in a glass
Farka – a Tunisian porridge
Vattayappam – steamed rice cakes from Kerala

Vegetables
Cauliflower and fenugreek greens in spicy peanut gravy
Bhindi Masala
Potato in Tamil Brahmin cuisine
Spinach mash or Keerai Masiyal
Bottlegourd in gravy or Dudhi ki sabzi
Snakegourd with lentils
Mushroom tikkis
Kovakkai Paruppu Usili
Bittergourd in spicy gravy or Pavakkai Pitlah
Chargrilled eggplant in yoghurt
Potato wedges
Potato for pooris
Ratatouille
Instant mushroom methi currry
Cabbage curry with Bengali spices
Steamed vegetable manchurian in gravy
Thalagam – Winter vegetables Tambram style
Green beans poriyal

Soups and salads
Red Soup
Cauliflower soup
Herby tomato salad with cheese and pine nuts
Yellow lentil and raw mango salad
Gobo inspired mango salad

Breads
Whole wheat pita bread
Beet milk bread
Zaatari parathas
Poori

Rice, Pasta, Noodles, Starches
Crispy bulgur patties
Cauliflower – Spinach – Pasta casserole
Thiruvadirai Kali
Fried rice with mustard greens
Onion rice

Lentils
Black eyed peas burgers
Instant green moong curry
Sambar with freshly ground spices

Sauces, Chutneys, Dips and Pickles
Homemade Marinara sauce
Mushroom & bell-pepper chutney
Tomato salsa / Instant tomato chutney
Eggplant dip and Red bean dip
Spicy yoghurt dip

Cakes, bakes, desserts
Carrot cake
Eggless beet cakes
The all Indian Strawberry Cheesecake
The easiest Brownies
Quick mango sandesh
Mango coconut icecream
Banana coconut semolina cake in 15 minutes
Seven cup cake
Cocoa ripple ring
5 minute besan laddoo
Eggless mava cake
Eggless banana cake


The most popular section week after week has been the Tamil Brahmin recipes where I jot down notes, taken over the phone (held between my shoulder and ear), while I'm hovering over the stove with a strong craving to eat food my genes are made up of. 2008 will see more of the rarer Tam-Bram recipes find their space on the blog. The piece written about Bhut Jholokia also seems to be on the top 5, at most times. This makes me wonder how many chilli obsessed people there are in the world.

Weekend Breakfast Blogging, the event started in 2006 to popularise breakfast as a meal and to get inspirations from food bloggers all around - found a different home each month from Feb 07 onwards starting with Eggs at Live to eat. The themes ranged from green leafy veggies to summer fruits, spices to oats. Breakfasts then went through Ethnic twists to leftover revivals, the most recent ones being omelettes and cornflakes.
A big vote of thanks to all the lovely hosts who spared time and effort to keep the WBB wheel moving. The event took a break in December, only to start afresh in Jan. (Watch this space!)


Here are some of my personal favourites from 2007

Black eyed peas burgers – Something so interesting from something seemingly boring

Dudhi ki sabzi – One of the best tasting zero-oil recipes ever made in our kitchen

Eggplant dip (Badenjan Dip) – Inspired from Nigella Lawson's show

Cauliflower spinach pasta casserole – my first attempt in casserole making and we fell in love with this dish

Strawberry cheesecake – First attempt and last attempt (by the time we'd eaten all of it, there was an extra inch on our waist)

Nupur of One Hot Stove has beautifully captured the year that's gone by and has asked fellow food bloggers to share the same - this section of my post goes to her.

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Plans for 2008
With the Applied Nutrition degree that will be mine in the beginning on the year, the focus will be on healthier, more nutritious food. Through the blog, I hope to share info on healthier foods, cooking techniques and nutrition fundamentals with all the health conscious folks.
The focus will also be on lesser known Indian regional cuisines. I'd love to discover newer healthy ingredients to cook with, making them more adaptable to Indian palates. Another thing on the agenda is to explore the vegetarian recipes from the cuisines of the world. I've also promised myself to better my photographic skills. Any pointers towards books and websites that help one do so are welcome.

A user-friendly index of recipes blogged so far is on the cards for long now. It should be up and running by end of Jan.

I'd like to thank all my readers for their continued support, the encouragement & caring from friends I have made in the food blogging world and of course my husband who has been super encouraging about any wild combinations I've come up with or anything new I've made him try, never making me feel foolish about something gone wrong or not tasting that great. He's been a huge positive influence for this blog. After all, every cook needs patient tasters right!

We'd like to wish all of you a wonderful 2008, that brings you tons of joy, love and good health and everything else you wish for.

Signing off and see you in the new year.
Nandita