Recipes

Cook with the ghaani

Everyday Indian recipes, made with Truly Cold Pressed oils and bilona ghee.

Moong Dal Halwa, deep golden-brown grainy halwa with visible ghee pooling in glossy amber patches
Festive Sweet

Moong Dal Halwa

An hour of stirring turns pale dal paste into grainy gold, with ghee pooling at the sides and a smell that reaches...

Prep 20 min Cook 75 min Serves 6

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Bisi Bele Bath, a generous mound of thick brick-orange bisi bele bath in a heavy brass vessel, visible cubes of carrot
Lunch

Bisi Bele Bath

Thick, hot, tamarind-sour rice and dal in one pot, with a spoon of ghee melting a slow yellow hole in the middle...

Prep 25 min Cook 45 min Serves 4

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Mohanthal, thick matte squares of dark honey-brown besan barfi with a visibly grainy broken edge
Festive Sweet

Mohanthal

Deep honey brown, grainy under the teeth, the ghee and roasted besan reaching you a second before the sugar does. One square...

Prep 40 min Cook 50 min Serves 20

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Beguni, five long beguni fritters
Snack

Beguni

A thin slice of brinjal in a lacy golden crust that cracks when you bite it, the inside gone soft and creamy,...

Prep 15 min Cook 20 min Serves 4

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Luchi with Aloor Dom, four puffed white luchi, pale and unbrowned
Breakfast

Luchi with Aloor Dom

The luchi swells into a white balloon in eight seconds. Beside it, small potatoes sit dented and dark in a mustard oil...

Prep 30 min Cook 45 min Serves 4

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Appam with Vegetable Stew, a single Kerala appam on a banana leaf
Breakfast

Appam with Vegetable Stew

Thin crisp lace at the rim, a thick soft white middle, and a ladle of warm coconut stew poured right into the...

Prep 25 min Cook 40 min Serves 4

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Bhoger Labra, a thick mixed vegetable stew in deep orange and gold, chunks of pumpkin half collapsed, wedges of potato
Side Dish

Bhoger Labra

Panch phoron pops in smoking mustard oil, then eight vegetables go in and slowly collapse into one another until the pumpkin sweetens...

Prep 25 min Cook 45 min Serves 6

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Aloo Pitika, a rough hand-shaped mound of pale creamy mashed potato, glistening faintly with raw mustard oil
Side Dish

Aloo Pitika

Hot mashed potato with raw mustard oil worked through it, sharp enough to catch the back of your nose, with raw onion...

Prep 10 min Cook 20 min Serves 4

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Khandvi, a row of pale yellow silky besan rolls the thickness of a pencil, tightly coiled and glossy
Snack

Khandvi

Pale yellow rolls the thickness of a pencil, soft enough to give way at the first bite, with mustard seeds and sesame...

Prep 15 min Cook 25 min Serves 4

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Aloo Gobhi, turmeric-yellow cauliflower florets with dark caramelised edges and thick potato wedges crisped at the
Lunch

Aloo Gobhi

Cauliflower with dark gold edges, potatoes gone crisp at the corners, turmeric clinging to everything and mustard oil sharp in the background.

Prep 15 min Cook 30 min Serves 4

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Khaja, a stack of four pale golden khaja
Festive Sweet

Khaja

You bite the corner and about forty paper-thin layers shatter at once, and the sugar syrup that soaked into them the night...

Prep 45 min Cook 45 min Serves 6

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Aam ka Achaar, chunks of bright golden-yellow raw mango coated in coarse red and brown spices
Pickle

Aam ka Achaar

Sunlight through a glass barni, mango pieces glowing yellow under dark oil, and that first sharp mustard smell when you open the...

Prep 40 min Cook 10 min Serves 40

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Creamy ven pongal with ghee, fried cashews and black pepper in a brass bowl
Breakfast

Ven Pongal

Rice and moong dal cooked until they lose their edges, crushed pepper and cumin through every spoon, cashews fried in ghee, and...

Prep 10 min Cook 30 min Serves 4

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Dark glossy tamarind rice with peanuts and curry leaves, served with crisp papad
Lunch

Puliyodarai (Tamarind Rice)

Dark, glossy, sour rice with crunchy peanuts and chana dal through it, resting in a covered vessel while the flavour settles. It...

Prep 20 min Cook 40 min Serves 4

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Mixed vegetable undhiyu with stuffed brinjals, yam and muthiya in a clay pot
Lunch

Undhiyu

Papdi, purple yam, baby brinjals and methi muthiya stuffed with green masala and steamed under a lid until everything is soft but...

Prep 50 min Cook 55 min Serves 6

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Glassy amber jaggery peanut chikki snapped into rough pieces on a brass plate
Festive Sweet

Peanut Chikki

Roasted groundnuts set into glassy amber jaggery, rolled thin and snapped into rough pieces. Two real ingredients and about ninety seconds that...

Prep 10 min Cook 20 min Serves 20

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Deep red carrot halwa topped with pistachios and almonds, piled in a brass bowl
Festive Sweet

Gajar ka Halwa

Red winter carrots cooked down in milk for forty-five minutes, then ghee and jaggery, until it turns glossy and pulls away from...

Prep 20 min Cook 60 min Serves 6

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Steamed pleated modak on a banana leaf, one open showing coconut jaggery filling
Festive Sweet

Ukadiche Modak

A steamed shell thin enough to see the filling through, tearing at the first press, with warm coconut and jaggery inside and...

Prep 40 min Cook 30 min Serves 12

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Soft rolled crepes filled with coconut and jaggery, arranged warm on a plate
Festive Sweet

Patishapta

Thin soft crepes rolled around a warm coconut and jaggery filling, cooked on a pan wiped with ghee. They rarely survive the...

Prep 75 min Cook 40 min Serves 6

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White coconut chutney in a bronze bowl under a mustard seed and curry leaf tempering
Side Dish

Coconut Chutney

Soft white chutney ground with roasted gram and green chilli, with a coconut oil tadka of popped mustard and curry leaves sitting...

Prep 10 min Cook 5 min Serves 4

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Small sesame and jaggery ladoos piled in a copper bowl, one broken open
Festive Sweet

Tilgul Ladoo

Roasted til and melted gud pressed into small warm ladoos that crunch and then give way. Handed around on Sankranti with the...

Prep 10 min Cook 20 min Serves 18

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Golden chana dal with fried coconut slivers and raisins, served in a small brass katori
Lunch

Cholar Dal

Soft chana dal, gently sweet, warm with cinnamon and clove, with crisp gold coconut slivers through it and a spoon of ghee...

Prep 15 min Cook 40 min Serves 4

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Creamy jaggery rice payesh in an earthen bowl, finished with chopped nuts
Festive Sweet

Nolen Gurer Payesh

Milk cooked down slowly with short fragrant gobindobhog rice, jaggery folded in off the heat, and fried cashews on top. Warm in...

Prep 35 min Cook 50 min Serves 4

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Deep brown ridged thekua piled on a brass plate beside a clay diya
Snack

Thekua

Dark, dense, jaggery-sweet biscuits with fennel and coconut through them, fried low and slow until they snap. Chhath keeps them, but they...

Prep 30 min Cook 40 min Serves 20

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