Super Blogger Sunday: Cilantro

This week's featured blogger is Cilantro from Cilantro-Cilantro..Check out her blog for her wonderful recipes, some interesting travel related posts, cooking basics, tips and more..Not to forget her event "Global kadai" is an interesting concept that would stimulate the creative side of all food bloggers..Read more about her -

EC: Tell us something about yourself

Cilantro: Thank you EC for giving me this opportunity. Cilantro will turn ‘2’ in Jan 2010. I am a homemaker living in the beautiful State of Washington. Apart from cooking, my hobbies are travelling, gardening, music and photography. Cooking has always been my passion from a very young age. I started helping my mother with small chores in the kitchen from the age of 10 and later managed to cook a decent meal before my marriage. With the guidance of my mother and mother-in-law, I learnt the techniques and nuances of cooking. Having lived most part of my life in Hyderabad I was introduced to a variety of cuisines from India and along the way managed to learn a few of them.

I believe cooking is an art and any art needs patience. A small dose of love and patience will help create a great tasting meal.

I usually post one recipe a week, but I do not cook specially for posting it on my blog. I take pictures of what I cook and document them. The reason for starting my blog was my interest in cooking and also to maintain a cookbook for my daughter.

EC: Who and what inspired you to start food blogging?


Cilantro: My Mother had gifted me her handwritten recipe book and I wanted to do something similar for my daughter who is my foremost inspiration to try new recipes. Looking at Mahanandi, Sailusfood and other food blogs, I was inspired to start CILNATRO which would eventually become a gift for my daughter.

EC: How did u come up with this blog name. Also tell us something about Cilantro-nized recipes.

Cilantro: Cilantro which has a special place in Indian cuisine is also one among my favorite herbs and hence my blog name CILANTRO. I wanted to name my blog Cilantro and never did I check if one existed.

I have a section named CILANTRO~nised where a Non-Indian recipes are modified with the spices and ingredients familiar to Indian cuisine.

EC: Your signature dish that is a hot favourite among ur guests


Cilantro: Biriyani is a favorite among my Indian guests & Butter Chicken among my Non-Indian guests.

EC: Your pictures are so attractive..Pls share some tips for food photography..


Cilantro: This is a great compliment for me. I am yet to learn a lot about photography and therefore I do not consider myself an expert to give any tips. I read a lot about food photography on other blogs and find answers online.

What I do is: I take multiple pictures of the same dish at different angles and settings. Natural light which is very important for food photography is rare in Seattle so I adjust the white balance accordingly. I take pictures in Macro mode with a low ISO setting and use timer along with the tripod. I use tools like Flickr & Picasa for editing the pictures.

EC: The recipe index has a variety of cuisines. Which one do you love to cook and enjoy the most?

Cilantro: I always love cooking Indian Food and enjoy them as well.

EC: Any interesting incident related to blogging that you would like to share


Cilantro: My Mother-in-law during her visit to the US met with her very old friend after a long time. During their conversation her friend had mentioned trying the Murukku recipe from a food blog that she had been following and she had printed copies of other recipes as well. My Mother-in- law was pleasantly surprised to see that several of them were from Cilantro and mentioned to her friend that CILANTRO recipes were actually from her daughter-in-law! I was equally thrilled to know about this incident.

EC: Your favorite vegetarian recipe

Cilantro: Each recipe in Cilantro is tried and passes out only if approved by my husband who is great critic. If I were to choose one then the first post is always dear to me, therefore I choose Boondi Laddu.