Snacks

Chillas are savoury Indian pancakes. They can be eaten for breakfast or as a snack. You can serve them plain, add fillings of your choice, sandwich them between slices of bread or roll into a chapatti. Serve with mint chutney or tomato ketchup.

A delicious and filling snack that's crisp on the outside with a soft bite inside. This recipe is by Renuka Gandhi, my friend’s mother, and the key to its success is her homemade garam masala. Measurements are for 20 kachoris.

An authentic recipe from the Bohra Muslim community given to us by Fatema Kakal, an aesthetician and a very meticulous cook. As with her kebab recipes (Nargis Kebab and Shaami Kebab) Fatema says the trick to these mince patties ('pattice' in colloquial Indian) is in the frying - get that right and you can master this dish in no time. 

An authentic kebab recipe from the Bohra Muslim community given to us by Fatema Kakal, an aesthetician and a very meticulous cook. These are perfect for special occasions like Ramadan and may look like a lot of elaborate work but are actually very simple to prepare. Fatema says the trick is in the frying - get that right and you can master this dish in no time. This recipe yields 3 large kebabs.

A pizza for potato fiends. You can experiment with what goes into the sauce - capers, anchovies, stir-fried mushrooms, salami, bacon etc. 

An authentic kebab recipe from the Bohra Muslim community given to us by Fatema Kakal, an aesthetician and a very meticulous cook. Fatema says the trick in preparing kebabs is in the frying - get that right and you can master this dish in no time. This recipe yields 12 small kebabs.

This is the recipe for a popular Gujarati snack shared by my dear friend Raj's mom. Healthy and delicious, Patra can be made ahead of serving time and simply heated for 20-30 seconds in the microwave and tempered once your guests arrive.

If you're a mother, you know what it's like to have kids who are home all day during winter or summer break and get hunger pangs every other hour! When I was young, along with snacks like mathri, kachoris and laddoos, my mother would make batches of sugar-coated peanuts as well. This was before the era of potato chips and Doritos, when snacks could still potentially be healthy! This is my mother's very own recipe of sugar-coated peanuts. You can substitute peanuts with almonds, walnuts, pecans and hazelnuts.