Stuffed Cauliflower

O.K I know my picture sucks! But trust me this is a really nice recipe. I got it from my Tarla Dalal cookbook. Its so easy and really tastes good. This has been sitting in my inbox for days. When I first saw the recipe I wasn't sure about it. But I was so bored of the usual fare that i went ahead and made it. Its a nice side dish and i'm sure next time I make it i can make it look much better than this. The picture in the book was really pretty. You essentially cook a whole caulifower, stuff it with a corriander coconut chutney, bake it and pour a slightly sweet tomato sauce over it before serving. Next time I might use some cheese too.

Ingredients
One whole head of a culiflower

Marinade:
One bunch of cilantro
2 green chillies
4 tblsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste

For Sauce
1 tblsp all purpose flour
1 tbslp butter
1 cup tomato ketchup
1/4 tsp chilly powder
salt and sugar to taste

Method:
Grind all the marinade ingredients together in a blender to a smooth paste.
Boil salted water. Remove leaves of whole cauliflower and add the whole cauliflower to boiling water. Cook till almost done but not too mushy that it will break on touch. Let it cool. Apply the corriander marinade all over and in between florets. Place it in the oven on warm for atleast 20 minutes. Prepare a roux-melt butter and add flour. Cook till bubbly and brown. Add the tomato ketchup and seasonings. Just before serving pour the sauce over the cauliflower, garnish with cooked peas or put some grated cheese on top and bake till melted. Makes a great side dish.

No Bake Pumpkin Pie

It was a very action packed weekend. Nits was out of town, Sahana's first halloween so I wanted it to be fun. On Friday Sahana "the dragon" had a parade at her day care. It was really cute to see all the kids walk around in their adorable costumes. Sahana was a doll in her giant red and blue dragon outfit with wings and tail-super cute. Here's a pic of her trying to escape. At home I set about carving my jacko lanterns. I wanted to make something appropriate for this time of year. Then i remembered my Everyday Living- November edition had a no bake pumpkin pie recipe that was eggless as well. My inlaws don't eat eggs although gelatin is o.k so this recipe was perfect. Another one of Martha's recipes here. This was a relatively easy dessert, especially with the store bought graham cracker crust I used.

Ingredients (makes 2 pies)
One can Libby's pumpkin pie mix/or any brand pumpkin puree
4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
One can evaporated milk
One cup brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix
2 packets gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
2 store bought graham cracker pie crusts
whipped cream (to serve with)

Method
Whisk cream cheese into the pumpkin pie mix till well blended. Add gelatin to cold water and let it sit for 5 minuts. Meanwhile heat milk and brown sugar in a saucepan to a low boil, lower heat and simmer.  Add spice mix and gelatin and stir on low heat until all the gelatin dissolves. Add the milk to the pumpkin mix and whisk well until all the ingredients are well blended. Pour into pie crusts. Refrigerate for atleast 3 hours till set. Serve with whipped cream.

Homemade Plain Yogurt/ Dahi (using grocery store yogurt culture)

This recipe people is priceless. My MIL/Aai developed this after much trial and error and it works flawlessly every time. Plain yogurt or dahi is an integral part of the Indian diet. Many Indians complain about the store bought yogurt since it is full of pectin and tastes different from our lovely homemade dahi that all our Indian moms make. Also many think they have to get the culture from India to make it just like home. As you will see just use your regular store bought yogurt as culture and it works just fine. Quite frankly I didn't think eating store boiught yogurt was bad or mattered so much until i started eating this yogurt and now its hard for me to go back to my old ways. Just invest in one thing-the yogurt maker. Due to the temperature presure conditions in the united states, making dahi at home reuires a yogurt maker. Yogurt makers can cost from 20 to 50 dollars. I bought mine for 25 bucks online and i LOVE it. So if you haven't tried it yet, try this one for sure.

Ingredients

1/2 Liter whole milk
1.5 tblsp non fat dry milk (skim milk powder)
1/8th tsp store bought yogurt (yes very little, amount equivalent of 1/4 of your first digit on your finger) For me Dannon or Mountain High worked well, not so well with Organic ones for some reason.

Method

Dissolve milk powder in whole milk. Microwave on high for one minute. Stir. Milk should be lukewarm. Add yogurt culture and stir well. Place in yogurt maker for approximately 6-7 hours. This time can change depending on how much culture you use. Too much culture will result in faster setting but the yogurt can turn sour.The time of incubation can be adjusted for overnight setting by adding even lesser culture. Yogurt is ready when it is thick but not completely set and gelled. Place it in the refrigerator for atleast 2 hours and it will set to perfection. Serve chilled.

Almond Pistachio Rolls (Badam Pista Rolls)

Happy Diwali Folks! This is going to be Sahana's first Diwali so we are celebrating in full swing. Our lights are up this weekend and all the "faral/khaan" is getting ready. The idea for this roll came while my sister was once making fondant using marzipan. Marzipan is nothing but a sweetened almond paste. You can use it easily to make traditional indian almond sweets. I rolled out marzipan and stuffed it with pistachio and the results were just like from an indian sweet store. Please do try this one.

Ingredients (makes about 12)
One package marzipan
One cup pistachios (soak in warm water for 2 hours)
1/2 tbslp corn syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tbslp ground cardamom
a few drops green food color
ghee/butter-1 tbslp and some more to grease
a few sprigs of mild saffron

Method
Grind pistcahios to a smooth paste using a little bit of the milk. Heat sugar, cornsyrup and milk to boiling. Lower heat to medium low and add pistachio paste. Mix continuously and cook. The mixture will thicken and stick together into a mass that is soft (about 10-15 minutes). Before removing from heat add 1 tblsp ghee . Mix well.Grease two sheets of wax paper. Place pistachio paste on one wax paper and let it cool for about half an hour. Meanwhile roll out marzipan into 4x3 recatngles (or roll out one long rectangle) on greased wax paper. Make small cylinders using the pistchio paste. Place along the width of the marzipan rectangle.Roll marzipan over to form a roll. If you use one large rectangle, fill with a large cylindrical tube of the pistachip paste, roll to forma tube and the cut the big roll into many smaller rolls. Lightly press the front to flattent the pistachio filling in each roll. Place a sprig of saffron on top to decorate and eat away!

Macaroni Casserole

Oh I'm easyyyyyyy, easy like sunday morning! There's a new tradition at home now. The guys get to cook Sunday lunch. Yaaay for the girls. Its funny how Nits is looking over at the TV from the kitchen all the time craving for his Sunday football. This is how it works. I pick out the recipe and they make it. This week I picked Tarla Dalal's macaroni hotpot recipe. So easy and very very fingerlicking yummy. They did a very good job. Now if only everyday was a sunday.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni, boil in salted water , drain and keep aside

Two onions, sliced in rings

One large green pepper/capsicum, sliced in rings

One can baked beans

4 tomatoes, boil in water for about 5 minutes, skin and chop them (or use canned diced tomatoes)

1/4 cup tomato ketchup

4 cloves chopped garlic

1-2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

salt to taste

Method

Melt butter in a deep pot. Add onion rings and saute till transparent. Add green pepper rings and saute a bit more. Remove a few onion and pepper rings for garnish. Add garlic and tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Add macaroni, ketchup, beans and salt. Mix well and cook till heated through. Grease a casserole with butter. Add the mixture into it. Cover with onion and pepper rings. Sprinkle grated cheese on top. Bale covered for 20 minutes at 400 F. Serve hot with a side salad.

Vanilla -Raspberry Panna Cotta

I'm going to keep this short. Have to rush and finish my experiment before going to pick up Sahana from day care. If you're looking for a quick no-egg dessert....this is it. This is from my Betty Crocker cookbook. Super fast and easy. Replace the vanilla essence for any other essence for a different flavor and replace the raspberries for peaches or strawberries. A very versatile dessert.



Ingredients (serves 4)

Panna Cotta

2 cups half and half
1 1/2 tsp gelatin
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup sugar
dash of salt

Raspberry sauce

1/2 carton fresh raspberries (save remaining)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp cornstarch

Method

Sprinkle gelatin over half and half in a saucepan and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes to soften. Place half and half over medium high heat and stir constantly till gelatin dissolves completely. Do not let the cream boil. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, essence and salt. I had to put the cream mixture back on for a few minutes and stir to get all the gelatin dissolved. Cool the mixture and pour into ramekins/bowls and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

For the sauce mix cornstarch in water and sugar. Bring to a boil. Add the fresh raspberries and keep stirring as the mixture boils and thickens. Once the raspberries are completely dissolved and the mixture has thickened to a sauce like consistency remove from heat and run the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds (you can skip the sieving if you like the seeds in). Pour into a jar. This sauce can be refrigerated for upto a month.

Once the custard is set, pour sauce over the custard. Garnish with fresh raspberries and serve.

Meatless Enchiladas

This weekend was awesome. We drove down to Port Townsend and spent the day at the beach. Sahana loved the sand and had a whale of a time.


On Sunday decided to give my in-laws a taste of something new. They aren't really much into non-Indian cuisine and they're vegetarian so I thought of making something mexican for them to try. Here is my recipe for semi homemade enchiladas.

Ingredients (serves 4)

8 medium sized corn Tortillas
Oil
1 cup diced green, red and yellow peppers mix (or any pepper)
1 large onion diced
2 pods garlic, chopped
1 small can of refried beans (if you don't get this where you live, soak kidney beans for a couple of hours, slow cook with salt, cumin and red pepper till cooked to a mush. You can also completely omit this or replace with cooked black beans)
1 can enchilada sauce or to make your own try this recipe
Mexican cheese grated or any kind of melty cheese you get where you live

Method
Heat oil not to a frying temp but hot. Place tortillas in hot oil for a few seconds and remove. Place on a hot plate. Fry garlic onions and peppers in remaining oil till soft and tender. Take one tortilla and place onion pepper mix along the center. Add beans and cheese over it. Fold tortilla and place fold side down in a rectangular baking dish. Do the same with the remaining tortillas, lining up all the tortillas along the dish. Pour enchilada sauce over the tortillas till they are completely immersed in it. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake at 350 for 10 minutes till cheese completely melts.