Naina's recipes

Bacon, Leeks and Peas Risotto

2010-08-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

You need a strong hand for this recipe-a lot of stirring involved. This was the first time I made risotto and no one better than dear Martha Stewart to learn from. This recipe is from her Everyday Basics magazine. I had bookmarked a few recipes I wanted to try and so had stocked up on all the ingredients i needed. I modified the original recipe by changing a few proportions and not adding any white wine. I also ended up using a lot more stock than she suggested. The key to a creamy risotto is stirring it well as it cooks. I hope you try this it was perfect comfort food and a lovely one dish meal with lots of flavors.

Ingredients (serves 4)
Bacon- four strips cut across into this strips
2 Leeks-white and light green parts, washed and thinly sliced
Arborio rice -1.5 cups
Chicken stock-8 cups (add water if you run out)
Frozen peas-1 cup
Parmesan cheese-1/2 cup
Lemon juice-1 tblsp
salt and pepper to tase

Method
Add stock to a pot, bring to a slow simmer. On medium heat, add bacon to heavy bottomed pan and cook till lightly browned but not crispy. Add sliced leeks and cook till keeks turn soft. Add rice and cook for about a minute till edges of rice look transluscent. Martha said this pre cooking the rice helps the rice cook evenly. Then add 1 cup simmering stock and cook on medium low stirring till liquid is abosrbed. Keep repeating stirring all the while until risotto turns creamy and rice is cooked. After addition of the last broth batch stir in peas. Stir till all liquid is absorbed. Total time from first broth addition to last took me about 30 minutes. Stir in parmesan cheese, remove from heat and cover and keep aside for two minutes. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Guest post: Stuffed Pomfret Fry

2010-07-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my 7th wedding anniversary. I really wanted a swatch watch for my anniversary but the only swatch store in Seattle closed and didn't want to drive to Portland for that one thing. So then Nits ordered one online and it turned up looking nothing like its picture-umph aargh! So taking matters into my own hands I walked into the mall and bought myself a 300 dollar watch and a few clothes. This as you can imagine lead to a LOT of guilt. To avoid thinking about my carefree spending I decided to work on this post which has been sitting for a while. You might have guessed by now that this blog is barely surviving. Between home, work, Sahana and summer activities I have no energy left in me to keep up with posting all the recipes (except the energy I find for shopping occasionally). I was cribbing about my dying blog to my friend Sonia (who btw has featured often here). She I guess felt sorry for this failing endeavour of mine and sent me this awesome recipe. Sonia's MIL made this and apparently its finger licking good. I haven't gotten around to trying it as yet but will post pics of my own as well when I do. Thanks Sonia and Dorathy aunty for this awesome recipe.

Method:

Wash the pomfrets with cold water and trim the fins and tails.
Make a slit along the upper periphery of each fish. Remove the inner organs carefully.
Make a slit in the upper lip of each fish. Remove the gills. Wash the fish thoroughly under copious amounts of cold running water.
Make 3-4 shallow gashes on both sides of each fish. Then apply 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of turmeric within and all over the fish. Keep aside.
Make a fine paste of all the ingredients indicated for grinding with minimal amount of water.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a kadai or wok till smoking. Add the ground paste and fry on medium heat till the oil leaves the sides of the pan. While frying, add salt to taste and lemon juice. Cool the fried paste.
Now fill the fish pockets with the paste. When done stuffing, apply the remaining paste all over the outside of the fish.
Secure the stuffed fish with twine to prevent leakage of the masala during frying.
Heat 3 tblsp of oil in a shallow pan. Fry the stuffed fish on medium heat. Once crispy on one side, flip it carefully and crisp the other side as well.
Take it off the pan, cut it into 2-3 pieces and serve hot with lemon wedges and sprinkled with chopped cilantro/thyme leaves. A great accompaniment with dal and rice.

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-04T15:37:00.003-07:00

Totally fell off the bandwagon this past year. Sahana is 14 months old now and life is coming to back to a much more normal pace. I get time to actually do stuff for myself-ha ha. I can't promise anything but will slowly get this blog back up and running. Made these cupcakes for a 4th of July party. Just regular chocolate cupcakes, frosted with plain vanilla icing and decorated with strawberries and blueberries for the -red-white & blue!
Wish everyone a happy and safe 4th!

Baked Brie

2010-01-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

This is my new favorite appetizer. We made this for New Year's eve and it was a big hit. I love it for two reasons. First it takes like 5 minutes to make and second it is soooooper delicious. All you need are a couple of store bought ingredients and you're all set. Thanks to Bethany and her mom for this one. Believe me this is worth a try.

Ingredients
One package Brie cheese
One freezer tube of Pilsbury crescent rolls
Hot pepper Apricot Jelly (or any other kind)
Crackers

Method
Cover the cheese with the crescent roll dough to form a large ball. Bake in the oven at 350 till outside is golden brown. Cover the entire dough with hot pepper jelly. To serve cut the ball into wedges and let people enjoy it over crackers. The gooey brie combined with the hot pepper jelly in buttery pastry--yummy yum yum.

Sahana's 8 month Rudolf cupcake

2009-12-16T23:15:00.000-08:00

Sahana is 8 months old today--oh how time flies! She is crawling now and can stand on her own by holding onto support. She is a super sweet firecracker! Well let me not start on about her or i'll never stop. I have made a cake for her for every month. Today, after work I was really tired and didn't have the energy or the time to do anything ellaborate (Sahana was crawling up my leg as I was making this). Plus I really didn't want to eat cake or for that matter anything that would hinder my efforts at losing these last few baby pounds. So i ended up
using a box yellow cake mix and since I didn't want to make or eat a dozen cupcakes, I took only 1/3 of the mix and adjusted all other pacakge ingredients accordingly. I added in some mashed bananas and chopped walnuts and baked them in my super awesome silcone cupcake tray for 20 minutes. I was planning on making the number 8, but slowly i just got caught up in the festive spirit and ended up making rudolf! After cooling the cupcakes I spread some nutella on top of the cupcakes, joined two of them together and then added the cherry nose and M&M eyes and buttons. I needed pretzels for the antlers but since i didn't have any, I stuck in some egg noodles. Isn't this cute? Happy holidays everyone. I head out to my sister's place on Christmas and will see you back here in the new year.

Chicken Mole

2009-12-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

Every girl needs that one great friend who she can talk to anytime about anything and everything- one person to share the good and the bad with. That friend for me is Sonia. We went to grad school together and were house mates. Oh! What a ball we had in those days. Over time we saw each other get married, get our PhDs, have kids etc and we have remained great friends. Since i've moved to Seattle I miss Sonia the most. We often talk on the phone and through emails and it feels like i still live next door. Can't wait to meet her next year and especially have her meet my daughter for the first time. Well, she is a GREAT cook. Parties (and there were many) at her place entail lots and lots of great food. Today she sent me a recipe. She said she mixed a number of diffrent recipes to make her own chciken mole. The fact that she sent me this recipe means, it has to be really good. She is scared that if my readers don't like it she will be blamed for it. Knowing Sonia, if this recipe doesn't taste good to you, chances are you messed up! Simply put Mole sauce as i knew it was a mexican sauce with chocolate in it but wikipedia enlightened me a little bit more here. I still haven't made this but definitely plan to this weekend. I'll add my pics soon in here as well. I just wanted to post this right away. Thanks a ton my sweet Sonia. I had hit a dry spell here on my blog, you got me rolling again. Enjoy everybody!

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breasts

one small onion-chopped fine

one bunch green onions-chopped

11/2 diced tomatoes

1cup tomato puree

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 tblsp peanut butter

1tsp cumin powder

½ tsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp nutmeg powder

½ tsp pepper powder

2tsp red chilli powder or paprika

3-4 cloves

4-5 sliced green chillies

1 ½ squares of semi-sweet baker`s chocolate - crushed

4tblsp oil

½ cup chicken broth

1tsp lemon juice

salt to taste

chopped cilantro for garnish

Method:

1. Clean and cut chicken breasts into small pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper

2. Heat 2 tblsp oil in a pan. Braise chicken pieces on high heat till just done. Keep aside.

3. In the same pan, heat the rest of the oil. Add chopped onion and green onion. Fry for sometime. Add chopped garlic and fry for a minute.

4. Add chopped tomato and all the dry spices and cook till tomatoes have dissolved. Add peanut butter and chicken broth to obtain a gravy consistency.

5. Now add the crushed chocolate pieces and blend in well. Stir gently but continuously to prevent chocolate from sticking to the pan.

6. Add tomato puree and salt. Let mole cook for 5 minutes (with continuous stirring). Check taste and sprinkle lemon juice if necessary.

7. Add chicken pieces, mix well and transfer all the contents to a baking dish.

8. Cover and bake for 40 minutes at 350°F.

9. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve spooned atop white rice.

Stuffed Cauliflower

2009-11-09T20:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-05T08:09:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-10-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-10-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T00:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

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.

I'm back with an awesome Plum Tart

2009-08-29T08:24:00.001-07:00

Hey people! I'm back from my big baby hiatus (or so i think). I went to watch the movie Julie and Julia and was inspired to get back on the blogging bandwagon. After the haze of the first 3 months, things have settled down into a smooth rhythm with good sleep schedules and lots of fun interactive times. I've gotten used to managing work and home (although I have my in laws helping me out now). Come October, Sahana starts child care with which life might hit some hiccups and after a few days I think the three of us shall sail smoothly on our own. So with my MIL taking charge of the kitchen little is left for me to do in there. I have still managed to sneak in a few recipes now and then. Here is one that came out really well. I came home to find Martha Stewart's everyday food magazine in the mail and it had a whole plum section in it. For the first time ever there in front of me were 6 giant plums sitting on the counter. Yaaaay! So began my first attempt at making a tart and as you will see it went pretty well.

It was my first attempt at making any kind of pastry from scratch and my first tart ever. So here is Martha stewart's recipe for a plum tart tweaked slightly by me.

Pastry:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (extra to roll pastry)
2 sticks COLD unsalted butter, cut into tiny chunks
8 tablespoons sugar plus one tsp more (maybe more if your plums are a bit tart like mine were)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup iced water
1/4 cup toasted almonds
6 plums (any kind: i mixed red and black plums)
Milk or cream to brush the pastry

Method:
Combine flour, butter, salt and 1 tsp sugar in a food processor and pulse the dough. Slowly add iced water till dough is crumbly but holds when squeezed. Martha says not to over mix. Shape the dough into a ball, flatten the top, wrap in saran wrap. Refrigerate for one hour.
Grind almonds, 3 tblsp sugar and 2 tblsp flour and grind into a fine meal.
Halve the plums, pit them and slice into thin slices keeping the sliced plum together.
Roll out dough into a 1/4 inch thick circle. Transfer to a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Transfer dough to the sheet. Sprinkle almond mixture onto the dough. Transfer sliced plums to the pastry and fan out the plums leaving a slight border. I arranged the plums if my fanning didn't work too well and also just placed pieces of plums in the center to not waste those not so perfect pieces. Fold the edges of the dough over the plums. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. Brush the crust with milk/cream. Sprinkle 4-5 tblsp sugar onto the tart (i sprinkled more since my plums were tart). Bake at 350 degrees till the crust is golden brown and cooked which was about an hour in my oven. Serve on its own or with vanilla ice cream.

Akbar Ali Sandwich

2009-05-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite brunch recipes. I learnt how to make these sandwiches from my mom. The sandwich is a variation of a type thats sold in the Akbar Ali area of Mumbai and thus the name. My mom made this for us when she came to stay with us when Sahana was born. Its a layered vegetarian sandwich but you can definitely modify and add whatever you want to it.

Ingredients

Bread: white or wheat

Fillings
1/2 cucumber fineyl chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
grated cheddar cheese
One onion sliced
Two large potatoes, sliced thinly
Butter or butter spread
Oil

Method
Add oil to a pan. Saute sliced onions till golden. Add sliced potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and cook till potatoes are done.

Chutney
1 cup cilantro
1/4 cup coconut
1 pod garlic
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
lime juice
Grind all these ingredients to a fine paste using water.

Assembling the sandwich.
Toast the bread. Take one slice of bread. Apply butter. Add generous amount of the chutney. For layer one add chopped cucumber and tomatoes and a little bit of cheese.

Take another buttered toast place on top of the first layer and add onion potato filling and a little bit of cheese. At this layer you can add tomato ketchup if you like. Top with another buttered toast.

Place the club sandwich on a hot pan greased with oil spray. Press down the sandwich using a spatula. Do this on both sides.

Remove from heat. Cut in half and serve with more chutney and ketchup.
I couldn't resist it: look i even took a bite out of it before I was done taking pics.

Mango and Vanilla Ice cream

2009-05-02T18:58:00.001-07:00

Between the 2-3 hour feeding cycles, I managed to find some time to surf the web for random baby items and kitchen appliances. I found this ice cream maker up for grabs on craigslist. I have been wanting one for ages and finally got a brand new one at half the price. Since moving to Seattle I have started to appreciate the importance of recycling, reuse and thrift store shopping to reduce waste in the world. Remember: one person's trash is another person's treasure!! With this began my attempts at making ice-cream. I wanted all the recipes to be vegetarian since raw eggs are not something lactating moms want to use. Here are my recipes for mango and vanilla ice cream.

Mango Ice cream

Ingredients (All ingredients should be cold)

2 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 cup chopped mangoes
3/4 cup mango puree/pulp
3 tbslp sugar

Method
This method is for my ice cream maker. Just follow instructions for your ice cream maker. Put ice cream maker insert in the freezer wrapped in saran wrap for atleast 24 hours. I tend to store mine in the freezer that way its always ready when I need it. If you don't have one, freeze the ice cream in the freezer and blend in the blender 2-3 times between freezes.
Combine all ingredients together. Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes to chill through but not freeze. Add into ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer instructions. In my ice cream maker I churn for about 20 minutes. Move into an air tight container and store in the freezer for an hour if you want the ice cream harder.

Vanilla Ice cream

Ingredients (All ingredients should be cold)

2 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 vanilla bean (i buy mine online from Penzeys spices)
3/4 cup sugar

Method

Slit vanilla bean length wise and using a thin knife scrape out the " vanilla meat" in the bean. Add the vanilla into the milk along with the left over bean. Warm the milk In a medium saucepan over low heat with vanilla. Remove from heat and remove bean. Cool milk in the fridge. Add cold cream and sugar. Combine and chill in the freezer to chill through but not freeze. Add into ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer instructions. I churn for about 20 minutes. Move into an air tight container and store in the freezer for an hour if you want the ice cream harder.

Sahana is here!!

2009-04-24T08:56:00.001-07:00

I'm a mommyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!! My baby girl came into this world on April 16th. If i may say so myself she is absolutely adorable. She's keeping me busy round the clock and I feel like a dairy animal ; ) but she is sooooo worth it.
Lots of recipes are piling up and I will slowly ease into posting them. Till then wish me luck with surviving all the sleep deprivation. Oh yes i also bought an ice cream maker so if any of you have some good ice cream recipes please send me a link to look them up.
More later.

Yummylicious Bread Pudding

2009-04-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I had this strong craving for bread pudding. Since we only eat wheat bread and I had never made bread pudding with wheat bread I thought twice before making this. Believe me it turned out just awesome. Plus it was super easy and fast to make ....remember a craving pregnant woman can't wait too long. The pudding had a rich caramelly bottom layer and the pudding itself was moist and smelt of cinnamon and vanilla. Do try this one out.

Ingredients

6 slices of wheat bread, diced
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup whipped cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
a dash of nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

For caramel sauce"
3tblsp sugar
3 tbsp water

Butter 1 tsp

Method:
Whip eggs together. Add milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract. Mix together. Stir in whipped cream. Add bread to the mixture and keep aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile add 3 tbslp sugar to a pot and let it caramelize and turn brown. Then add equal quantity of water and stirring continuously mix the caramel together and let the volume reduce till the mixture turns thicker but not too thick and sticky. Pour it into the bottom of the baking dish. Add walnuts to bread mixture. Pour the bread mixture over the caramel. Dot with butter. Bake at 400 degrees uncovered for 30 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes and serve warm.

Mamma's Chicken Masala

2009-04-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

Its April finally! I'm due in two weeks people and i hope this baby sticks to schedule and doesn't make me wait. Well with baby on the way I have my mom here with me. She made this really yummy chicken curry which tasted just like they make in the restaurants. It tastes great with rotis or nans. Its a bit tedious to put together but hey it can be made on a day when you have a bit more time. Try it out, its really good. I find it tastes better the day after its been made which allows all the sauce to nicely soak into the chicken.

Ingredients

1 pound chicken pieces, preferably bone in

Marinade
1/2 cup yogurt
ginger paste 1 tsp
garlic paste 1 tsp
corriander powder 1 tblsp
Cumin powder 1 tsp
chilly powder 1 tsp
turmeric 1 tsp
salt to taste

For the sauce
3-4 cloves
1 inch cinnamon
black pepper -5-6 seeds
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/2 tsp saunf/fennel seeds
1 tblsp khuskhus/poppy seeds
1 green chilly

Other ingredients

One large onion
3 tblsp tomato paste

Method
Mix all ingredients of the marinade together. Add to chicken and let it marinate for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile dry roast spices and poppy seeds. Then add coconut and roast for about a couple of minutes. Grind together all ingredients of the sauce using as little water as needed to make a smooth paste. Heat oil in a pot. Add one large chopped onion and fry till golden brown. Add tomato paste and fry. Cook till oil floats to the top. Add chicken without the marinade and fry till chicken brown a bit. Add the marinade slowly in batches cooking for a minute or two between each addition. When the chicken is half cooked, add the coconut gravy paste with 1/2 cup water and cook till chicken is completely cooked. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with nans.

Plum Compote

2009-03-11T14:38:00.001-07:00

Like many new expectant parents Nits and I finally succumbed and got our costco membership:hey have to save on those diapers! So as is all too common while shopping at these wholesale stores, I ended up with way more stuff than I needed. We bought this giant box of plums and it was taking forever for us to finish them off before they went bad. Finally I took the last half a dozen or so of the plums and made a nice compote out of it. I added rose water to the compote, a unique idea from 101 cookbooks, one of my favorite food blogs. This compote goes so well with toast, sweet and tangy and the rose essence makes it even better.

Ingredients

Plums 6, washed, and cut into pieces
lime juice 2 tblsp
Rose water 2 tblsp
Sugar: same quantity as plums (I had 1 cup diced plums and I used 1 cup sugar)

Method
Dice plums. Place in a bowl. Add sugar, lime juice and rose water. Let it sit for 30 minutes.

Add the plum mixture to a deep bottomed pot. Boil on low heat. Remove any froth as it forms. Once it stops foaming, remove from heat, add to jar and cool.

Almond Biscotti

2009-03-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

Finally a post after all these days. Now that I'm in the middle of my third trimester I have slowed down so much. I get so tired after work, all I want to do is put my feet up and lie on the couch. This has resulted in procrastination on making stuff and posting it. Well, last week our friend Danielle threw me a really beautiful baby shower. All our friends from work came and we had so much fun. I got beautiful gifts and i'm so grateful for all the love people showered on us and our lil one. Anyway, I wanted to thank Danielle and her girls for the beautiful shower. I saw this really cute cookie jar in target the other day:colorful and bright, something the girls would love. So decided to fill it with something homemade. Since Danielle is not a big fan of simple sugars, I decided to make a healthy cookie and whats better than the traditional biscotti. Using no fat, low sugar and lots of toasted almonds this indeed is a very healthy yet delectable treat. Biscotti is a twice baked cookie that is great for dunking in coffee. So here is my recipe:

Ingredients (makes 2 dozen)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup almonds, toasted and chopped
1 tsp almond extract (for a more intense flavor add 1.5 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup sugar (maybe 1 cup if you like it a little sweeter)
3 eggs
dash of salt
1 tsp baking powder

Method:
Preheat over to 300 degrees. Combine dry ingredients. Beat eggs with almond extract and vanilla essence. Add slowly to dry ingredients mixing with an electric mixer. Add almonds and continue mixing until a dough forms. Flour your hands and surface and form the dough into logs. This recipe will make two logs about 10 inches long. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place logs on the sheet and bake for about 40 minutes. Remove and let it cool for 10 minutes on a cooling rack.

Transfer to a cutting board and use a serrated knife to slice the biscotti diagonally.

Place each piece on the baking sheet and bake again for 10 minutes on each side. Remove from oven and let it cool. A nice touch is to dip each end of the biscotti in melted choolate and letting that cool to get chocolate dipped biscottis.

Meg's Irish Soda Bread

2009-02-17T14:55:00.001-08:00

Here is a guest recipe. Andy, my bay mate, sent me this recipe over the weekend. His wife Meg made this bread and sent me pictures et al. It looked so good I had to post it right away.
Here's the recipe in Meg's words:

No Knead Bread

2009-01-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I know I know i've slowed down to a crawl here. I've actually been cooking everyday but haven't made anything new that hasn't already been posted. I have nver made bread before. This recipe came to me from Gareth. Its actually a very popular recipe posted in the New York Times. Check it out here . There is also a youtube video of making this bread. I'm not much of a baker. I love breads but never ever ventured to make some on my own fearing all the kneading etc. This is an extremely easy recipe...it takes some time just for the dough to ferment and rise but is soooo easy its definitely worth a try. The bread is really really good.
I'm posting some of the pics of my bread making but not the recipe since the article has it. Unlike the recipe and as shown in the video I used my oven at 500 degrees instead of 450. Also, for some reason, maybe I didn't use enough flour on my towel, the bread stuck to the towel before baking and I had too pull it off losing a little bit of dough with it. This happened to Gareth too so I warn you to use maybe a thinner cotton towel that will easily come off. I also stored my dough after rising in the fridge and baked it the next day. That was fine too. I sincerely hope you try this one.

Yes we can

2009-01-20T09:21:00.001-08:00

On this historic day let us welcome the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack H Obama, and wish him the best in his task ahead. As residents of this country we should understand and acknowledge our duties and responsibilities to assist in the rebuilding of a peaceful and prosperous nation and world. Yes we can!

Peas Paranthas

2009-01-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

I love stuffed paranthas. It reminds me of my dad. He loved stuffed paranthas and being a vegetarian he always ordered this in any Indian restaurant. I can't believe he left us so early in life. Jan 16th was his 61st B'day. Happy B'day Pappa....this is for you. I remember him everytime I makes paranthas and can almost see him at the dining table waiting eagerly. I wish you guys had known him...he was such a sweetheart. The most important thing I learnt from him was always see the good in people and see the positive side of life whenever you're down. I read this food blog a couple of days back where the author was so called "venting" but she said such mean things about such trivial issues with her co-workers that I was shocked. However hard or long your work day was what bitterness do you hold within you that makes you say such terribly nasty shallow things about people who mean no harm. There's a thin line between venting and being downright mean. What a waste of blog space!! After reading her post I thought of my dad and his sweet outlook on life...because of it he was a happy man. Remember people keep the happy thoughts in, throw out the bad ones and use that "hate" word sparingly. Well I have totally digressed from my main point...here is the recipe for paranthas stuffed with peas in my dad's memory.

Ingredients
2 cups peas, cooked in water
2 green chillies
1 tsp cumin
salt to taste
Dough recipe

Grind together the cooked peas, green chillies and cumin with salt to form a thick mixture. Roll out the whole wheat flour dough into a 2 inch thick 6 inch diameter circle.

Add a spoon full of peas mixture in the centre. Fold the dough over it and seal the edges to form a ball. Flatten the ball in some flour and roll gently using flour to prevent sticking or tearing. This can be hard especially since the peas mixture is mushy. I just rolled a much thicker dough than normal and it was still good. So roll the paranthas thick so as to not tear the dough and spill out the filling. Heat a pan. Place the parantha on it. Lightly brown on one side. Turn over. Add oil to the browned side and flip again to bring a golden brown glossy colour. Cook this way on both sides. Do not press the paranthas too much as this makes them hard. Serve hot with yoghurt.

Potato Pancake with Eggs and Tomatoes

2008-12-29T06:10:00.000-08:00

Weekend mornings are perfect to experiment with new breakfast ideas. With the numerous snowed in days we've had I was bored of cereal or plain ol eggs. Using left over cooked potatoes I conjured up a potato pancake. Somehow it didn't seem enough so I dropped on a couple of fried eggs on top. That also didn't seem enough so I topped it all with some sauted tomatoes and onions. Mmmmmm it was sooooo good. Eaten with toast and a nice big glass of OJ...perfect.

Ingredients

2-3 potatoes cooked and mashed
2 large eggs
one small onion, chopped
One tomato, chopped
1 tblsp ketchup
a dash of salt, pepper and paprika
1 tblsp chopped parsley

Method
Season the mashed potatoes with salt and pepper. Form a large patty and pan fry to brown both sides. Place on a serving plate. Add oil to a pan and saute chopped onions till transparent. Add chopped tomatoes and ketchup. Season with salt and paprika. Add chopped parsley and turn off heat. Fry two eggs sunny side up till nice and well cooked with crispy edges. Place eggs on the potato pancake. Heap on spoon fulls of the tomato onion mixture on top. Serve right away. Optional: sprinkle on some grated parmesan cheese on top.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!

2008-12-25T01:40:00.001-08:00

Its the most wonderful time of the year!!! Just wishing all my visitors a very happy Holiday season and a fantabulous New Year. I have so many things that i'm looking forward to in this year. There's one particular event i'm super excited about. Guess what it could be?? Well to give you a hint in a culinary sort of way: there's a bun in the oven! Oooh i've been dying for months to give that away : ) . Hope all of you make resolutions you can keep this year. Lots of Love and happiness. Take care , stay warm and EAT those buttery cookies damn it!

Jambalaya

2008-12-23T08:31:00.000-08:00

Jambalaya is a perfect one pot meal to make for a large group of people. This cajun/creole dish is a Lousianna favorite and is similar to the spanish counterpart Paella. I made it as a main entree for our lab party. It could feed quite a few people with enough for left overs.

Ingredients

1 pound cut boneless chicken
1 andouille or chorizo sausage, I used chorizo, sliced
1 pound shrimp, raw, peeled and deveined
One large onion chopped
One large green pepper diced
4 stems of celery diced
One large can diced tomatoes
1 cup chopped parsley
2 bay leaves
3 tsp creole seasoning (I use Tony Chachere's)
1 tsp thyme
3 cups rice, washed and soaked in water for at least 30 minutes
7 cups of chicken stock
Olive oil 1 tblsp
salt to taste

Method
Season chicken and shrimp with a sprinkle of salt and creole seasoning. Brown sausage in a large bottomed pot. Remove sausage after browning and use fat from the sausage to brown chicken and then the shrimp. Shrimp should just slightly turn color but not completely cook.

Add olive oil to the pot. Add bay leaves, onions, green peppers and celery and saute till vegetables are softened. Onions, pepper and celery are known as the holy trinity of New Orleans style cooking.

Add tomatoes with juice and cook through. Add chicken and sausage back into the pot. Add salt and all seasonings. Mix well and heat through. Drain rice and add to the mixture. Mix. Then add all the chicken stock. Cover and bring to a boil on medium heat.

Once the rice starts boiling, simmer and cook covered for 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this cooking time. Once the rice is cooked and all the liquid is absorbed stir in the shrimp and half the parsley. Cook for another couple of minutes till shrimps cook completely. Garnish with left over parsley and serve hot.

Snowball Cake

2008-12-21T12:53:00.000-08:00

What a perfect day to post this recipe. Its been one snow storm after another here...the worst they've seen in the last 20 years. Yeah, it had to happen the first winter we were here trying to forget winters in upstate NY!! The good news was we had time off from work from Thursday. We spent all the time lounging on the couch and watching movies. We finally ventured out for coffee and cupcakes today after all the snow. It was nice to see all the people out enjoying all the snow around us. Here's what it looked like from our patio.

Anyway coming back to my recipe..there are so many holiday parties going on this time of the year. For one of my work parties I made this super duper easy dessert that is so right for this time of the year. Its called a snowball cake because it looks like a snowball. This dessert is definitely not meant for the calorie conscious people. With this recipe you can make two medium sized snowball cakes or one very large one. This recipe uses store bought ingredients and requires just putting the dessert together.

Ingredients

1 tub of store bought angel food cake
1 large tub of redi whip ( or two small ones)
2 packets of gelatine
1 cup sugar
One can crushed pineapple with juice
Half a packet of sweetened coconut flakes
Red cherries

Method
Soften gelatin in 4 tblsp of cold water. Meanwhile boil 2 cups of water. Add softened gelatine to boiling water and mix well till nolumps remain. Stir in pineapple juice with crushed pineapple and sugar. Refrigerate till gelatine just starts to set. Meanwhile break the angel food cake into bite sized pieces and keep aside.Take out the mixture and fold in half the whipped cream. Line a deep large round bowl with saran wrap. Add a layer of the cool whip mixture. Then layer with angel food cake. Repeat until the bowl is full ending with the cake mixture. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning overturn the bowl on the serving plate. The cake will come out looking like a ball.

Peel off the sran wrap and coat the cake with redi whip. Sprinkle coconut flakes on the "snowball" and garnish with red cherries. I was out of cherries and ended up using red skittles!

Fish Tacos

2008-12-19T23:28:00.000-08:00

This is a perfect meal for a busy work night. I took the Tilapia fillets out of the freezer and put them into the fridge before I left for work this morning. When I got back I put the filling together in 10 minutes. Using store bought corn tortillas I piled up my soft tacos in no time. It was yummy and perfect.

Ingredients (makes 8 tacos)

2 tilapia fillets or any mild fish
1 small onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red chilly powder
salt to taste

Corn tortillas (preferably the thin small variety)
Fillings for taco

Lots of fresh chopped cilantro, about a cup or so
1 lime
1 large onion chopped onion
1 large tomato chopped
Store bought or my salsa recipe
Sour cream

Method:
Heat oil in a saute pan. Add onions and green peppers. Cut the fish into small pieces and add to the onions. Add all the spices and salt. Mix well together and cook till the fish is well cooked. As you cook the fish cut the fish into even smaller pieces so its easier to fill. Heat the soft corn tortilla in a pan. Spread salsa on it. Add the fish to the centre.Squeeze some lime juice on it. According to your preference add cilantro, tomato, onion and sour cream in whatever proportion you prefer. Roll and take a giant bite.

Crab Curry

2008-12-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

What a hectic weekend this was!! I finally got all my Christmas shopping done. It was a lot easier than last year. I can't wait to go home to Boston and see my mom, my sister, my aunts and uncles. My cousin is getting married on Jan 3rd so i'm super excited about the whole wedding fun and I had to finish my shopping today. Plus I had to do the week's grocery so that i don't have to worry about dinner during the week. The grocery store this weekend was packed. I guess people are busy shopping for the holiday season...didn't seem like a recession is on there. Well the good news was that Dungeness crab was on sale for just 2.99 a pound! I love crab but i've never made it before. My mom or aunt always made it for me. My husband and i soooo badly wanted to eat crab that I decided to dive right in and do this right. The store guy even cleaned and cut the crab for me. At the end of the meal we looked at each other and gave this really satisfied smile...it was really worth it! I personally believe that crab curry should be eaten a day later, it tastes so much better. let me warn you,eating crab can be a bit messy (and that too a crab curry can be double messy) but I think that's the fun part. Just get a big napkin and dig right in.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

Dungeness crab -1 to 2 pounds
One large onion
1 cup cilantro leaves
1 cup grated coconut (buy store bought frozen)
1 pod garlic
1 large piece of ginger
3 green chillies
1 large tomato
curry leaves 5-6
1 tsp mustard seeds
salt to taste
lime juice

Method
Grind together the ginger, garlic, green chillies, cilantro and coconut with a little bit of warm water. Heat oil in a pot. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves. When mustard seeds sputter add onions and fry till golden brown. Add ground coconut mixture and chopped tomatoes. Cook till the oil releases from the mixture.

Add salt. Add in the cleaned and cut up crab.

Cover and cook on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve over steamed rice with lime juice.

Cinnamon dusted Sugar Cookies

2008-12-10T23:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays people! This is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. There are lights everywhere, people shopping, holiday parties and just an all out festive mood. Today I came home and had a tiff with my mom on the phone. I was so upset and I just wanted to feel better. What better way to give yourself a lift than having your home smell of baking cookies and cinnamon..mmmmm. Plus I can take these cookies to work tomorrow to share. So here is this super easy recipe of my favorite kind of buttery not so sweet cookies. They also make really nice gifts. Add them to a cellophane bag, tie the recipe to the bag with bright satin ribbon and a card. This recipe is also for my friend Leah. She was always into Christmas time a lot. She taught me how to cut out paper snowflakes and we would decorate our workspace with them. We also went to the outlets together to shop and it was so much fun. So here are some holiday cookies for you Leah!

Ingredients (Makes 4 dozen cookies)

1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

For the dusting:
2 tblsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method
Cream together the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla essence and beat till well blended. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix till it forms a dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. The dough will become less sticky after refrigeration. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Dust a clean working surface with generous amounts of flour. If needed dust the dough with little bit of flour as well. Take a small portion of dough and roll it out. Cut out cookies with any shaped cookie cutter. I used a sharp edged circular bowl and a duck shaped cookie cutter to cut out my cookies.

Transfer cookies to a cookie sheet. Mix sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle over cut out cookies. Bake for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

You can have two cookie sheets going in one after the other and the whole process will take no more than 30 minutes.

Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani

2008-11-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

I finally ventured into slightly dangerous territory here. I had never attempted a "Kacchi" style biryani in which you cook the rice and meat together on slow heat. I was always concerned that the rice or the meat won't cook to perfection. I attempted it finally to good success. Last night we were getting together to have dinner with our friends. NE was making a slow cooked leg of lamb and we decided to bring a rice dish. Whenever I need a main rice dish i always think Biryani. Pulaos are o.k but biryanis are special. I learnt that Biryani originates from the persion word Beryan meaning yummy and roasted. I have posted quite a few biryani recipes on this blog but this is the first time that I'm trying a Kacchi biryani cooked on slow low heat (aka dum). The rice in this dish is partially cooked at first and then cooked to perfection with the meat on a low heat. The trick is therefore to get perfectly cooked rice with perfectly cooked meat and the flavors to all blend in. This was exactly what I was looking to make.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)

For the rice
Long grain Basmati rice
Water
1 stick cinnamon, 1 green cardamom and 2 cloves
Oil
Salt

For the chicken mixture

Chicken 2-3 pounds, bone in, cut into small pieces
Fried onions 2 cups (buy from an Indian grocery)

Whole spices
2 sticks cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 pods black cardamom
3-4 cloves
2 green cardamom pods

Spices
3 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp red chilly powder
2 tsp cumin corrainder powder

Other ingredients
1 cup beaten yogurt
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tblsp grated garlic
1 cup mint leaves chopped
1 cup cilantro leaves chopped
1/2 tsp saffron strands soaked in 1/8 cup warm water
Oil
melted butter-2 tblsp

Method
Wash and soak rice in water for 30 minutes (very important step). Boil water in a pot with salt, whole spices and oil. Water should taste as salty as you want the rice to taste. Drain soaked rice and add to the water. Let the water come to a boil. Cook till rice is half done. Test this by squeezing a grain of rice between two fingers. The rice grain should get crushed but should still be uncooked and have a crunch to it. Drain and keep aside.
Wash chicken. Add to a large bowl. Add ground spices, whole spices, fried onions, yogurt, ginger, garlic, 3/4 cup mint leaves and 3/4 cup cilantro. Add salt and 1/4 cup oil. Mix together well. Keep aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

You can do this when rice is soaking . Heat 2 tblsp oil in a pot. Add chicken. Fry the chicken mixture on high heat till chicken is slightly roasted but not cooked. Heat a heavy bottomed flat pan. Place a large pot with a heavy lid on the pan. Add half the chicken mixture to the base of the pot. Layer with half the uncooked rice and flatten. Dot rice with butter. Add 1/2 the saffron mixture, mint leaves, cilantro leaves and sprinkle some garam masala powder. Repeat the layer one more time. On the top most rice layer, also sprinkle some fried onions.

Close the lid on top. Seal the edges with foil or with pieces of dough (as my mom did).

Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes and then low heat for 30-40 minutes. Just before serving garnish with chopped cilantro, mint and fried onions. Serve hot with raita.

Not Your Usual Green Bean Casserole

2008-11-27T13:34:00.001-08:00

I was aghast this Thanksgiving weekend with all the violence in Mumbai. Its hard for me to comprehend the idea that these people get up everyday with the sole idea of killing people. So many people lost their lives for the misguided and screwed up views of these people. So this Thanksgiving I counted my blessings and gave thanks for having family and friends who love us. I love the general idea of thanksgiving, even though its not a holiday that is a part of the Indian culture. At least one day a year get together with the people you love and be grateful for it and of course any festival centered around food is a plus. This is the most classic Thanksgiving/Holiday side dish.It makes a good Vegetarian side dish. Most grocery stores have a corner with all the standard ingredients for this dish all placed together. Also, almost every can of fried onions has a basic recipe on the back. Here is my "gourmet" recipe.

Ingredients (serves 6-10)

1 pounds fresh cut green beans or a 1 packet of frozen green beans (a good brand)
1 package sliced baby bella mushrooms, you can also use white button mushrooms
1 large onion chopped
1/2 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can condensed cream of celery soup
1 can fried onions
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
salt as needed
1 stick of butter
2 tblsp sour cream
2 cups chicken stock/ for a vegetarian version use vegetable broth or water
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 350. If you're using fresh green beans cook them el dente in chicken stock. If you're using frozen beans, give them a quick heat through in the stock. Drain and reserve 1/4 cup of the stock. Heat butter in a pot. Saute onions till transparent. Add mushrooms and beans and saute till mushrooms turn tender.

Add soup, pepper, garlic powder, soup mixes, sour cream and stock. Mix well and let the whole mixture heat through and let most of the chicken stock evaporate or get absorbed. Stir in 3/4 can of fried onions. Pour the entire mixture into a casserole dish. Top the beans with cheese and remaining fried onions. Bake covered for 25 minutes.

Chicken Samosas with Mint-Mango Chutney

2008-11-27T13:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving People. I'm going to head out for our Thanksgiving get-together soon. I was alloted to make samosas and a bean dish. I decided to make chicken samosas and my green bean casserole. I love samosas and all my American friends love it too. Its always an appetizer that I've been asked to make. If you've never heard of samosas before they are just savory triangular deep fried pastry stuffed with different fillings. You can pretty much fill it with any kind of filling you want, potatoes being most popular. To make the dough I got the recipe from Manjula of Manjula's Kitchen and she also has a nice video showing how to fold the samosas. So here is my recipe for chicken samosas.

Ingredients (makes about 30)

Dough

2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp sooji/semolina
1 tsp salt
5 tblsp oil
3/4 cup luke warm water

Filling

1 pound ground chicken, grind further in a food processor to have finely ground chicken
2 medium onions, very finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 pod crushed garlic, use a microplane
2-3 tsp garam masala
2-3 tsp cumin powder
1/4 cup chicken stock
salt to taste
Oil 1tblsp

Method

Add the semolina, salt and oil to the flour and mix well. Slowly add water and knead into a soft dough. Keep aside covered for atleast half an hour.

Meanhwile saute onions in oil. Add ground chicken. Add spices, salt and cilantro. Mix well till brown. Add chicken stock and cook uncovered till all the stock evaporates and chicken is well cooked. Take off heat and let the mixture cool.

Roll out a lime size piece of dough into a circle. DO NOT USE FLOUR TO ROLL DOUGH. The dough has enough oil to not stick. Cut the circle in half. Wet the edges of the half moon shaped circle on all sides. Form a cone as shown and seal the edges with a wide opening. Add about 1 heaped tsp of filling into the cone. Seal one edge of the opening on the seal side to the other edge. Fold the other edge over onto the seal side. Repeat to make others. Deep fry samosas in oil till golden brown. Drain on a paper towel. Serve with chutney or ketchup.

For a video check out part 2 of Majula's video.

Mango Mint Chutney

1/2 cup mint chutney in a jar from the store or 1 cup mint leaves
1/2 a semi raw mango, sweet n tangy
2 tsp sugar
1 cup cilantro leaves
3 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup cold water
salt to taste

Grind all ingredients in a blender till nice and smooth. Pour into a bowl and serve with samosas.

Pumpkin Pie

2008-11-25T08:06:00.000-08:00

Reposting this recipe in time for the big foodorama for Thanksgiving. The picture doesn't look like much but this pie is super duper delicious. I love turkey day...not because I love turkey or anything (its alright--yummy when deep fried)....but I love the whole idea of a day centered around eating. Plus i love the sight of the bird being brought out all dressed up and all the dishes laid out. This year since I'm on the other coast... sooo far from home (sniff sniff)... I'm spending Thanksgiving with my colleagues with a dinner at my boss's place. I am going to take my "special green bean casserole"--oh its not that regular kind BTW and chicken samosas (by popular demand). Both these recipes will be posted soon after gobble gobble day. For now here is E's oh so awesome pumpkin pie from scratch. Happy Thanksgiving folks!

This recipe was given to me by my ex-boss. Every November she makes this delicious pumpkin pie from scratch and its absolutely delicious. Although time consuming, this is a very easy recipe. I have not included the pie crust recipe here because i used a store bought pie crust.

Ingredients
1 small pie pumpkin (You need finally 1 3/4 cup cooked pumpkin pulp)
14 oz can condensed milk
1 large egg
1 cup hot water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger

OR supplement all spices with 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix

To cook pumpkin, slice it in half and remove strings and seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour until skin pulls away easily from the meat (the color of the skin will darken). You can also save the seeds, clean them and roast them for a tasty healthy snack.

Scrape away the skin and puree the pumpkin with the hot water in the food processor. This puree can be frozen and used at a later time as well.

To make the pie, pre heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat all ingredients together with pumpkin pulp and pour into a 9 inch pastry.
Bake for about 55 minutes. Cool and serve with whipped cream (don't chicken out on the whipped cream part--its absolutely essential with this pie).

Latin Style Steak with Beans-Potatoes and a Easy Tomato Salad

2008-11-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

Full credit for these recipes goes to Daisy Martinez. I saw her show Daisy cooks on Create TV and it looked so yummy that I had to make it. Plus I had all these tomatoes and beans from the farmer's market which I wanted to use. Since I didn't have many of the spices she mentioned (its a new kitchen ya c'mmon... i'm working on stocking the pantry) I improvised the original recipe which asked for a homemade blend of adobo seasoning. Looking back at my ingredients my steak recipe is significantly modified from Daisy's. Whatever........it still tasted good damn it! Frankly, I had never made steaks at home before. Actually I rarely eat beef except for that occasional juicy steak at a nice restaurant. In spite of my limited experience with eating steak I know one thing about cooking it--NEVER eat it well done...you'd rather eat a piece of leather (any real steak liking person will second me on that). Rare is too red for me frankly. My personal favorite is Medium, nicely browned on the outside with a nice pink line in the center. The meat is soft and juices flow out of it. So if you're grossed out by thinking its uncooked meat..believe me its perfectly safe and the meat is cooked..just to a different degree. Try it. O.k coming back to my recipe...

Steak:
Ingredients

1 pound thin flank steak or any other kind of cut is fine
1/4 cup vinegar (yes that much!!)
1 tsp chilly powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 pods garlic crushed
1 tbslp dark soy sauce

Method
Mix all ingredients together. Pour it over the steak in a glass dish. Cover with sran wrap and marinate for an hour or overnight in the refrigerator. Heat a pan till its sizzling pan. Cook the steak 3 minutes on one side and 2 minutes on the other. Take off the heat and let the meat rest for about a couple of minutes before serving. Keep in mind that during resting the meat continues to cook. Adjust cooking times for thicker steaks or for different levels of doneness. If you're new to this try using a meat thermometer. For rare have an internal temperature of 140 degrees F, medium:160 and well done 170.

Beans and Potatoes
Cook two diced potatoes till 3/4th done. Drain and keep aside. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add three pods of crushed garlic to the oil as it heats. Once the the oil sizzles add potatoes. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste and fry till potatoes are golden brown. Add fresh green beans and stir fry for a few minutes. I left the beans with a little crunch in them. Serve with the steak.

Tomato salad
Dice 2 Roma tomatoes and half a red or Vidalia onion. Add to a bowl. Add 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (or parsley if you want). Add salt, pepper and generous amount of good quality olive oil (about 3-4 tblsp). Stir and serve immediately. If you don't want to serve immediately hold off on the salt and olive oil until ready to eat.

Tapioca Fritters/Sabudana Vada

2008-11-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

Hey I'm back!! I missed blogging a LOT. I'm sorry i didn't post any food pics along the way...i didn't have the fastest internet access in the hotels. Anyway, i'm finally all moved and settled in into our new home. It was quite a bit of work moving across the country. Setting up the kitchen took a long time especially since we had to get rid of most of our stuff before we moved, I had to start from scratch. So my first couple of days here were gorgeous fall days but this weekend the rain finally came in (I was beginning to think it was all a myth). Even though I promised Andy at work that I would make something very unique to Seattle for my very first post....I had to start with this perfect rainy day snack. I promise my next post will include an ingredient I have not seen on the east coast (of which I found a lot at the farmers market) but for my first post in Seattle what better than a rainy day treat. When its cool and rainy outside these deep fried fritters or vadas (in hindi) are excellent. Oh and if you like me, are watching Bridget Jones Diary for the 100 th time with a plate full of these--- its even better. I love Colin Firth when he says " I like you just the way you are".....awwwww. O.k moving on..here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup tapioca pearls
ground roasted peanuts 1 cup
3-4 potatoes, boiled and mashed (left over mashed potatoes work great as well)
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp red chilly powder (optional)
salt to taste

Method

Wash tapioca pearls in water. Soak the pearls in water for 1/2 an hour, then remove the water and keep aside covered for 4-8 hours. Add all remaining ingredients to the tapioca and mix well to form a nicely incorporated mixture that is not wet. Form slightly dome shaped patties. Deep fry. The best way to fry is to add the patties to hot oil slowly and then don't touch or move the patties until all the bubbles die down. Drain on a paper towel. Serve hot with ketchup or any type of chutney.

Moving Hiatus!

2008-09-22T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hey Peeps. Writing this post surrounded by boxes, or stuff in piles that should be in boxes...... i'm procastrinating. We're moving on from upstate NY to the pacific Northwest. It literally is moving from one corner of the country/continent to the other. Its bitter sweet. I'm leaving behind friends from the past 7 years, a city I grew to love and know like the back of my hand and worst of all my entire family all of whom live within 6 hours of driving distance. Yes, we are excited about our big city move, our new jobs, a new exciting life, warmer weather etc etc but I like my cozy well and am not a big fan of changes. Anyway if I can leave India and move across to another country moving to a new city should be super easy. Plus i've already booked my tickets back to the east coast to visit home during Christmas...yaaaay...i'll get to meet everyone in a couple of months. So what this essentially means is that my kitchen is closed...or in the process of being closed so cooking anything worth posting is down to a halt. We are driving cross country, thought this a good enough opportunity to see the country as we head west and God knows when we'll be able to take such a trip again. So I'm guessing i'm not going to be able to post much for the month of October. I might post food I eat along the way: hey thats a good idea:tasty travels. Well we'll see how that works out. Anyway my fellow bloggers, blogging buddies, my regular visitors or a newbie to my blog:pleeeease don't forget me. I'll be back in a month's time , from a new kitchen and with some new recipes. See you soon.

American Chopsuey

2008-09-14T08:30:00.001-07:00

Oh how I miss Indian Chinese food! Those road side vendors with their red carts and hot manchow soup with crispy noodles followed by fried rice and manchurian...yum yum. Those days of roadside eating are far gone. Last visit to India proved beyond doubt that I no longer harbored the immunity that I had 7 years back. So now we just go to nice chinese restaurants and eat there...sooo sad..i like the whole roadside feel. My sister had two standard things she always ordered. She NEVER ever changed, much to my mom's annoyance. It was always sweet corn chicken soup, chicken lollipops and american chopsuey. She didn't want to try anything else ever! So couple of nights back I thought of that and started smiling to myself, remembering our childhood days with our parents, piling into our beat up Fiat and driving to Kamling for chinese food. That Fiat would break down often, right in the middle of traffic and then mamma and my sister and I would be pushing that thing till it started. Building up an appetitie my dad would say, and we would huff at him since he got to sit inside and drive while we pushed!! So in memory of those beautiful days I made american chopsuey. One thing with this dish though, you can't omit the egg on top...thats what makes it complete. Here's my recipe.

Ingredients (Serves 2-4)

Two packets egg hakka noodles
one pod garlic crushed
One inch piece ginger crushed
One large onion diced
One large tomato diced
One green pepper diced
Cooked chicken pieces (optional)
3-4 cups chicken/vegetable broth
4 tsp tsp soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
2-3 tblsp maggi hot and sweet chilli sauce (optional: for heat add chilly powder if you omit)
1/2 cup tomato ketchup (add more as needed for sweetness)
2 tsp sugar
2 heaped teaspoons cornstarch
Oil
salt to taste
Eggs (1-2 per person)

Method

Break noodles and deep fry in oil till golden brown. Drain on paper towels to get rid of excess oil. Alternatively, break noodles onto a baking sheet, drizzle with oil and bake at 400 degrees stirring often till browned and crispy all over. Remove and set aside. Heat oil in a pot. Add onions and fry till transparent. Add ginger, garlic, tomatoes, green peppers and chicken. Stir fry for 5 minutes. Add soy sauce, vinegar, tomato ketchup and maggi sauce. add broth, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil. Add cornstarch to cold water and stir to forma smooth paste. Add to boiling broth stirring as you add. Lower heat and cook for 5 minutes. Meanwhile cook and egg sunny side up in a frying pan. Add noodles to a bowl. Add a generous portion of sauce on top. Place fried egg on it and serve immediately. Yummy yum yum.

Dal Dhokli

2008-09-12T06:39:00.001-07:00

Who doesn't love one dish meals huh? Unlike regular Indian meals with 4-5 components one pot dishes make a busy day so much easier. I'd heard about this Gujarati dish. Aai (MIL) and my sis make it a lot but I had never tried it myself. It was a rainy evening yesterday so I felt like making something comforting AND that was not too much work. This was an ideal choice. It spicy,slightly sweet and tangy. Dal is the lentil soup while dhoklis are pieces of dough cooked in the lentils. I guess one can use old leftover chapati dough and left over dal as well. I serve it with chopped tomatoes, onions and crushed potato chips...mmmmmmm. I hope you like this.

Ingredients

For the Dal

1 cup toor dal/lentils
1 tsp red chilly powder
2 tsp dhania jeera powder/corriander-cumin powder
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2-3 tblsp grated jaggery (optional if you don't want a sweeter side to it)
1 tblsp lime juice
salt to taste

Tempering
1 tsp cumin seeds
1tsp mustard seeds
2-3 dry red chillies

Dhokli

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp red chilly powder
a pinch of ajwain/carom seeds
salt to taste
water to knead dough
1 tblsp oil

Garnishes

1 cup potato chips, crushed
1 large tomato chopped
1 onion chopped
1 bunch cilantro leaves
lime juice

Method

Add spices to flour and knead with water. In the end add oil and form a smooth dough. Keep aside covered.

Wash and soak lentils for half an hour. Pressure cook lentils. To cooked lentils add water to form a soupy consistency and add all spices. Bring to a boil. Adjust spices, salt and tanginess as needed. Roll out dough into a thin circle using dry flour to dust. Cut the rolled out dough into squares or triangles. Alternatively you can also just tear off pieces of the rolled out dough. I like cutting it to form nicely uniform pieces.

When the lentils are boiling well, add each piece one by one into the dal. The dough will cook in the boiling dal. Heat oil in a small pot. Add cumin, mustard seeds and red chillies to it. Once seeds sputter add to cooking dal. Stir and cover and keep on low heat. Meanwhile chop the tomato, onion and cilantro.

Mix together. Pour out lentils with "dhoklis". Add chopped tomato-onion mixture on top. Add crushed potato chips on top and slurp away!!

Sabudana Khichdi/Tapioca Pearls

2008-09-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up with this strong craving for sabudana khichdi. In college we used to visit the street vendor right outside our building for this afternoon snack. If you're a Maharashtrian or a Konkani you must definitely know of this dish.In my home it was known as sabudana usli/usal. It’s a snack food made out of tapioca pearls and peanuts. Nits and I both love this and I make it as a meal rather than a snack. Soaking of the sabudana (tapioca) is often said to be an art. I learnt it one way and this method has always worked so I always make it the exact same way. I have heard horror stories of sabudana turning into a giant congealed mass. Most often this happens due to bad soaking techniques and sometimes due to bad tapioca also. This is how I make it.

Ingredients (serves 2)

3 cups sabudana/tapioca pearls
1 ½ cups coarsely ground roasted peanuts
3 medium potatoes chopped and cooked
½ cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 green chillies
salt to taste
2 tsp sugar
lime juice (optional)

Method

Wash tapioca really well. Then soak in just 1 cm of water for 30 minutes, drain out water and keep aside covered for 2-4 hrs. The tapioca will turn larger and softer. Heat oil in a pot. Add cumin seeds, green chillies. Then add potatoes and fry for a minute or two. Add tapioca and ground peanuts. Mix well. Add salt, sugar and lemon juice. Mix, cover and cook for about 5 -10 minutes. Taste to add more sugar/salt /lemon juice as per your liking. Serve hot garnished with chopped cilantro leaves.

Palak Aaloo/ Spinach and Potato

2008-09-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to incorporate all these various greens into my diet and with a husband with absolutely no liking for leafy greens I have to come up with tastier options. This spinach recipe is really easy and tasty. It only turns out good with fresh spinach although sometimes I have mixed fresh and frozen together. Hope you like this one.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

2 bunches of spinach leaves, wash, dry and coarsely chop
2 red potatoes, diced with skin on
One large tomato chopped
One pod garlic crushed
Cumin seeds
Green chilly-1or2
Salt to taste
a dash of lime juice

Method

Heat oil in a pot. Add cumin seeds, green chilly and garlic. The add potatoes and fry for about 5 minutes. Add spinach and tomato. Mix well. Add salt and lime juice. Cover and cook on medium low heat. Greens will drastically reduce in volume. Keep stirring occasionally. Greens will release water. When spinach and potatoes are cooked uncover and dry out most of the water.
Serve hot with any kind of bread.

Modaks (rice dumplings with sweet coconut filling)

2008-09-03T05:16:00.001-07:00

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi everyone! Modaks (ukali che modak aka steamed modaks) are traditionally made in every Maharashtrian home on Ganesh Chaturthi. In konkani homes we make deep fried modaks. However you make it, these are delicious and so intimately connected to this day. I got up at 6 this morning to make modaks. I am so proud of myself! ha ha! When my mom-in law visited we made modaks just for fun. She is an expert so I took a video of her making them . I think if you see the technique of making the modaks its much easier than trying to struggle with written directions. I hope this video helps with that so do see it if you've never made these before.

Ingredients (Makes 10)

Rice flour 2 cups
Water 2 1/2 cups
1 tsp salt
Oil 1 tbslp and more for making modaks

Filling

2 cups grated unsweetened coconut (can use frozen)
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1 cup jaggery
1 tsp ground cardamom
a pinch of nutmeg

Method

Roast poppy seeds. Keep aside. Add jaggery, coconut and cardamom to a pan and roast till the jaggery melts and incorporates into the mixture. Add poppy seeds and nutmeg and cook till the mixture dries up. Let mixture cool.
Boil the water with salt and oil. Take off heat. Add rice flour to it slowly and stir after each addition to form a nice dough. Return to low heat and cook covered for about 5 minutes. Take off heat. Using a cup greased with oil knead the flour mixture while its hot. Divide the dough into balls. Form a cylinder with each ball. The make a central dent in the top of the cylinder and knead your way into the center to form a wide cup. Place filling in the center of the cup. Pinch edges together about 3-4 times around the modak and then bring the pleats in together to close the dumpling. Pinch off excess dough. (See video for exact method)

Boil water in a large pot. Line steamer with parchment paper and grease it with oil. Place a steamer on top of boiling water pot. Place modaks in the steamer and steam covered for 5 to 7 minutes. Serve hot.

Stuffed Green Peppers

2008-08-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry haven't posted for some time. First, I had some keyboard issues with my i-book which was not surprising considering the five years of continuous use. After two trips to the "genius bar" I now have a swanky new keyboard , Thank God!. There have also been some big developments that I shall tell you about soon. As for now I'm just about managing keeping up with work and home, leave alone blogging. Here is a recipe I promised long back but never got around to posting. I love stuffed peppers whether stuffed with potato as shown here or with meat and rice. I like to bake my green pepper to get that roasted pepper flavor. Hope you like this.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 large green peppers
3 large potatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 green chillies, slit
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
salt to taste
1 tsp lemon juice
Oil

Method

Cut the top off the green pepper. Scoop out insides to retain the pepper shell. If needed make a shallow horizontal cut at the base of the pepper to help it stand straight. Rub pepper with oil inside and out. Keep aside. Meanwhile heat about 1 tbslp oil in a pot. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and green chillies. As they sputter add onions and fry till transparent. Then add the potatoes and turmeric. Mix. Cover and cook on low heat. Add salt and lemon juice and cook for another minute or so. (Frankly you can use any recipe for the potato filling as long as the micture is not runny. Leftovers are great too). When the mix is ready cool a bit. Then using a spoon add the filling into the green peppers. Now bake at 400 degrees till peppers soften and are cooked to your liking (about 30 minutes depending on your oven). I like to leave my peppers slightly undercooked to avoid sogginess.

An Authentic Chinese Fare

2008-08-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing compares to the hospitality I experienced this weekend. My colleague Zhihuan (assisted by Li) invited our lab people over for an authentic chinese dinner at his new apartment. I was really looking forward to it because all the Chinese food I had eaten was either American fare or our Indianized version. And wow was I blown away or what! So the first thing that came to my mind as I was driving back home was that you can eat great food at a very fancy expensive restaurant and and you'll say "Hey that was nice". But if someone labors and makes you a really delicious meal and serves you with much love and hospitality you'll feel moved beyond your taste buds: it'll truely touch your heart. Zhihuan had clearly gone out of his way to make sure we enjoyed our meal and was such a caring host. I am so thankful for this wonderful evening. Thanks so much Zhihuan!

O.k so getting down to business:

The menu.
Zhihuan's hot chilly fish soup

Stir fried chicken wings

Black fungi and tofu

Mapo pork

Egg and tomato

Pork ribs and bamboo stew

Shrimp dumplings (i made those)

Pork egg rolls

Kung pao chicken

Wheat and milk buns

Steamed rice

My best dish was the hot chilly fish soup. It was catfish and bean sprout soup seasoned with a hot chilly oil. Simply delicious! I also especially enjoyed the chicken wings. They were stir fried with some greens, anise and chinese pepper corns.
The egg and tomato was like a scrambled egg with tomatoes in it: surprisingly good with rice. I wasn't too crazy about the black fungi. They had a different kind of texture which I might need getting used to. The pork ribs stew was a simmering pot of bamboo shoots and pork ribs with mild flavors and brothy. The Mapo pork was ground pork with stir fried tofu made in some kind of sauce which was very tasty. The Kung Pao chicken had dry red peppers and green peppers and was on the hot side. All in all you can see how much food we had. I couldn't even fit it all in one picture. I think I have never eaten so much in a really long time. Everything on the table tasted good and I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures and getting to know food from a real chinese kitchen.

Peeved! Upset! Fuming mad!

2008-08-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

I'm peeved man...super super super peeved. The reason: this site called taste of India (connect.sailusfood.com). It all began when one of my fellow bloggers asked me to sign my blog up on this site which creates a directory of blogs one can browse. I was using the user name Gromit then and I went ahead and signed up. Now i'm guessing what has happened is that anyone who uses Gromit as a user name is linked to MY blog and they send me messages telling me how their recipes are linked to my blog even though I HAVE NONE of their recipes on my blog. I contacted the moderator with this problem: no response! I changed my user name and registration at the site: no effect! I can't even unsubscribe my blog from her list!!!!!!! Its freaking driving me sooo mad. If you are one of those people whose recipes are getting linked to my blog because of the user name Gromit go ahead and change it. Thats the only solution I can think of. I'm sorry this is happening but I have nothing to do with it. Hopefully the moderator will some day resolve this issue. Till then this moronic glitch is bound to continue.
Oh Btw made some stuffed green peppers last night, shall post it in a day or two.

Adios people. Sorry, I had to vent my frustrations.

Note: O.K it turns out its not due to the username either. Its happening randomly. Poor Sharmila whose recipes are getting linked to mine pointed that out (see comments). Well both Sharmila and I are refraining from registering our blogs anywhere else. Once bitten you see.

A Nice Vegetarian Meal

2008-07-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

The first sentence is always the hardest for me to write. I sit and stare at the screen for a few minutes, type in something, delete, type again and then out of frustration just say something lame like "here is a nice recipe". There are many posts of mine which are just like that: sooooo flat. I like blogs where the writer spends time giving each post a personal touch, giving its readers a view into his or her life. Mine on the other hand can be a bit disappointing at times. I think the reason that happens is that unlike today, most times i'm blogging during a very busy schedule, after work, late at night trying to check everything off my list. What I need is a repertoire of recipe drafts with pictures ready to go. Then all I have to do is write how that recipe came about, a funny anecdote and post. Blogging is my favorite pass time, a great hobby. I don't want it to become a chore. Every new recipe, pictures of food and just everyday cooking has found new light in my world since I started this blog. When i'm stressed out I can just get onto my blog and go through my recipes and I feel nice recollecting the dishes i've cooked.

O.K with no connection to the blabber above i'm getting down to this meal. Yesterday, my husband's friend and his wife were supposed to come over for dinner and stay the night with us on their way back from their vacation. So I wanted to make a nice vegetarian meal kinda thali style.Thali means plate in india and a thali meal has lots of dishes served making a complete meal. So here is what I made. Most of these dishes i've already posted on this blog so i'm linking back to them. For others i'm posting the recipe below. You know what the sad part is though. Our guests got delayed and couldn't make it to our place till 1 am and didn't eat dinner!! Anyhow Nits and I really enjoyed this wholesome meal.

Chapatis
Rice
Dal
Bharleli vaangi (stuffed eggplant)
Mixed vegetable
Carrot Koshmibir (carrot peanut salad, recipe posted here)
Gulab Jamun (from the box: I cheated)
Aamras (recipe posted here)
Pickle
chutney
a wedge of lime (recipe posted here...ha ha...just kidding!)

Here are recipes to a few things on my list

Aamras

What do you do with a ton of mangoes from going bad: make aamras!! Aamras literally means mango juice and this is served with the meal.

Ingredients

3-4 large mangoes (I used the south american mangoes you get in the Indian store: Marathon or Kent or Hayden)
1/2 cup milk
cardamom seeds 3-4
3-4 tbslp sugar
strainer

Method
Wash mangoes well. Then peel the mangoes. Don't throw the peel. Place peel in the milk. Meanwhile using your hands (yes gets pretty icky so make sure before you start you clean your hands well) and squeeze out all the pulp into a bowl. The big mango seed: add that to the milk as well and get as much pulp out of the seeds and peel into the milk. Throw out the peels and the seeds. Add the milk to the mango mixture. Crush the cardamom seeds. Add sugar and cardamom to the mango. Blend the mixture using a hand blender to make a smooth pulp of mangoes. Strain the mixture through a sieve to get ready of most of the fibrous stuff. Place in a serving dish. Sprinkle some ground cardamom on top and refrigerate. Serve cold.

Carrot Peanut salad

You'd be surprised how many people like this salad. Although common in the maharashtrian community not a lot of other people have eaten this kinda salad. I love the peanut in this salad combined with the sweet carrot and tomato.My favorite!

1/2 packet baby carrots
1/2 cup ground roasted peanuts
1 tomato chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 green chilly
lime juice
salt
sugar 1 tbslp

In a food processor finely shred baby carrots. I use baby carrots coz they're sweeter. Add to a bowl. Add all remaining ingredients. Mix well and serve immediately. You can make the salad minus the salt, sugar and lime juice beforehand. Just add the seasonings before serving.

Shrimp Chilly Fry and Batman (The Dark Knight)

2008-07-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Continuing with my dinner and a movie theme here is my review of Batman that we saw this weekend. To go with that here is a really yummy shrimp dish that I like a lot. I especially like to eat this with steamed rice. One can adjust the sweetness by adding more ketchup. I sometimes add a tblsp of vinegar also to make it a like a sweet and sour sauce.This dish is very similar to one I saw on Sig's blog but she makes hers with chicken and adds other things to it. I used to add an egg to my flour mixture but after seeing Sig's recipe without egg I omitted the egg and it worked just fine without it.

The recipe first
Ingredients

One bag uncooked deveined peeled shrimp (30)
1 cup all purpose flour
One pinch Chinese five spice powder (optional)
One pinch pepper
salt to taste
Oil to fry shrimp
One large onion diced
3-4 pods chopped garlic
3 stems green onions chopped
2 tbslp Sriracha sauce
3-4 tbslp tomato ketchup
3 tbslp soy sauce
1 tsp ajionomoto (optional)

Method

Add salt,pepper and chinese 5 spice powder to the all purpose flour. Add water to the flour to make a thick paste. Coat each shrimp with the flour paste and deep fry in oil. Meanwhile heat oil in wok. When the oil is very hot working quickly add garlic and green onions and diced onions. Stir fry. Add all sauces and ajinomoto. Taste the sauce now and adjust sweetness/sourness as needed. Add deep fried shrimp and mix till the saucy mixture has coated the shrimp. Serve hot as an appetizer or eat with rice.

Batman (Rating 5 star: Violent, scary, funny, good acting, great stunts)
So finally this weekend Nits and I managed to get tickets to Batman: the dark knight. Oh and was it worth it or what!! This is definitely NOT a kids movie so if you were planning on taking your kids, forget about it. Christian Bale returns as Suave billionaire Bruce wayne aka Batman at night. However the person who definitely steals the show is Heath Ledger as Joker. He's funny yet scary and given this mentally deranged psychoanalytical side to Joker. There are scenes where I cringed but the scene moved so fast that it was not gory but violent none the same. I had heard a lot about Heath's joker performance but it really was as good as they said it was. A very nice twist to the joker character. I seriously had a nightmare with the joker in it that night!! The plot is typical batman style where batman tries to save Gotham city from the evils of Joker. It has some underlying mafia angle added in which I didn't much care for. Aaron Eckhart plays the good DA who is in love with Rachel (Not Katie Holmes in this movie but Maggie Gyllenhall) . Batman has all the action, stunts and amazing gadgets/tricks. My favorite part was when the batmobile transforms into the Bat bike and he rides it out with his cape flying behind him:AWESOME! The movie is a bit long and may be its one downside. I think it could have been shorter by half an hour. All in all a fun blockbuster which unlike other previous summer flicks had some really good performances. I definitely recommend it.

Nargisi Kofta (Scotch Eggs in Gravy)

2008-07-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

This recipe is an adaptation of a recipe from my Just Chicken cookbook by Sharda Pargal. Essentially nargisi koftas are scotch eggs served in a gravy. The gravy is mild and not too spicy. There are some tricks to making the scotch eggs so follow those steps carefully. The recipe is long and complicated so its not something you might make after a long day but when you have the time do try it.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

For the scotch eggs

1 pound minced chicken
2 tbslp chana dal/bengal gram (soaked in water for 30 min)
1 medium onion very finely chopped
1 large garlic minced
1 inch piece ginger minced
Green chillies 2
cilantro leaves 1/2 cup
1 tsp salt
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 egg, beaten lightly
8 eggs, hard boiled,peeled
Oil to fry

For the gravy

1 tsp ginger minced
1 tsp garlic minced
1 onion chopped finely
1 tblsp powdered cashew nuts
1 tbslp khus khus/poppy seeds
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tblsp ground dry coconut
1 cup tomato puree
2 cups chicken stock
2 strand saffron
1/4 cup heavy cream

Method

Wash the meat. Add meat, dal, onion,ginger, garlic,salt,chilly powderand garam masala to a pressure cooker. Cook under pressure till dal cooks (about 8-10 minutes under pressure/2-3 whistles). Let the cooker cook before opening. Once opended dry out all liquid in the meat by heating till all the water evaporates. To a food processor add the meat mix. add green chillies and cilantro. Grind to a fine paste. Add the beaten egg and mix well. The egg will act as a binder.

Take some meat mixture in your hand. Flatten it. Add a boiled egg to the center and start rolling the egg with the meat coating. Coat with the meat mixture working evenly to form a nice shell around the egg. Don't add too little or too much covering of meat. Let it sit uncovered for any moisture to evaporate.

Heat oil in a pot. It is critical that the oil be very hot.. This is important because the eggs are fragile so the meat has to instantly brown up when added to oil to prevent breaking. Add each egg to hot oil. Roll gently to get all the meat browned all over. This should take no more than 30 seconds. Remove and drain all excess oil on a paper towel. Repeat for all remaining eggs. Let eggs cool. Then cut horizontally in the center into two halves.

For the gravy, heat oil in a deep pan/pot. Add onions, ginger and garlic. Fry till onions turn golden brown. Add all spices, salt, cashew nuts, poppy seeds and coconut. Fry for a minute. Add tomato puree and fry till the mixture releases oil. Add chicken stock and cook covered for 15 minutes on medium low heat. The gravy should be thick. Add cream and saffron. let it heat through. Transfer the hot gravy to the serving dish. Place eggs very gently into the hot gravy with the yolk side up. Garnish with chopped cilantro and swirls of heavy cream. Serve with rice or naans.

DINNNER AND A MOVIE: German Noodles with Brown Gravy AND In Bruges

2008-07-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of the new feature I'm starting: Dinner and a Movie. Every weekend I'll post one recipe and the review of a movie I watched this week. Mostly its going to be movies that I enjoyed and you can give it a try as well. My husband and I watch a lot of movies. We hardly watch any TV. We have the blockbuster online subscription and we keep it going all the time.We love anything as long as its good: foreign films, action, comedies and I'm also a sucker for chick flicks. And of course how can any movie be watched without something hearty and comforting to eat. If its Friday night mostly I make something super easy (i.e when i'm not getting take out) and the german noodles featured here fall in that category.

O.K so first with the dinner:
This is not a recipe. Its an idea for a very easy yet comforting dinner. My boss is from Germany. When he had Nits and me over for dinner he made these traditional german noodles with gravy. It turns out these noodles are made in his home town of Spaichingen and sold here in the US in our grocery store, which pleased him immensely by the way. I had never eaten these noodles and especially never with gravy. His gravy mix was from Germany but I think our gravy mixes taste pretty much the same, at least to my taste buds. I really liked the combination. The noodles will go well with steak/chicken and a salad. I prefer to eat it just like that as a meal.

Ingredients
Serves 2
Black forest Girl brand German noodles (egg noodles,extra broad)-1
Brown gravy mix package-1

Cook noodles according to package directions in water with salt and a little bit of oil. Make gravy according to package directions while noodles cook. Add noodles to a bowl. Drizzle with gravy. Eat away! Isn't that easy?

Next up: The Movie

In Bruges is the movie of the week. It stars Collin Farell, Brendan Gleesan and Ralph Fiennes. Movie is set in Bruges (pronounced Brooje) in Belgium and is the story of two assasins hanging out in this small quaint belgian town after a kill. Both are awaiting a call from their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) for another job.

The movie is a dark comedy and the dialogues are exceptionally hillarious at times. The acting was amazing by both Collin farrell and Brendan Gleesan. I think the reason we enjoyed this movie was that we had not heard of it and had very little expectations from it. It turned out surprisingly enjoyable. Collin Farrell cannot stand Bruges and sees nothing in the town contrary to his partner Brendan Gleesan who loves historic architecture. However Collin Farell has a sad history which he can shift to from his annoying brooding character and you find yourself feeling sorry for him. Well I can't give everything away here or you won't watch it. If you're into these kind of NON BLOCKBUSTER kind of movies do give it a try. It was a welcome change from the usual. I give it a 4 star rating!

Cheese Pineapple Appetizer

2008-07-06T08:42:00.001-07:00

Talk about a super easy and a nice center piece appetizer. This makes great finger food for a party and also a nice palette cleanser if you have other spicy appetizers going around. I bet you to try it: your guests will find it very appealing.

Ingredients

One can pineapple chuncks, drain juice and reserve chunks.
One small block of cheddar/muenster cheese; cut into 1 cm cubes
One large orange
party toothpicks

Method

Cut the orange into half. Place peel side up on the serving plate. Take a toothpick. Skewer cheese and the pineapple onto each toothpick. Poke the toothpick into the orange. The key is to keep the cheese piece small. Too much cheese can be hard to complement the pineapple. Repeat until the orange is covered with toothpicks. I used party toothpicks which had orange cellophane cover that made the toothpicks look prettier. Keep in the center of your table so that people passing by can pick one and enjoy. Easy to have ready when guests start arriving.

Mango Panna Cotta

2008-07-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

I made this dessert when I invited SDs family over for dinner. We were 8 of us in all, so I wanted to make a dessert that was special yet easy to make for many people. I developed this love for panna cotta after eating a pistachio panna cotta at a restaurant. It was heavenly. I wanted to make some right away especially when Meetas' Monthly Mingle had a mango theme. This event also turned out to be ideal for my trial.

I looked up a couple of recipes from other blogs to help me make this. Most useful recipes were from Sig's live to eat and Pamela's kitchen. So here is my entry. My mango panna cotta turned out creamy and best of all it was so easy to make. I also drizzled some mango pulp around the fresh chopped mangos but didn't get time to click a snap as I had guests over and wanted to serve these right away. Anyway if you haven't tried panna cotta yet, do so. It can be made plain or with any flavor you prefer.

Ingredients (Serves 8): increase or decrease proportions as needed

2 Cups mango puree (I used alphonso mango pulp)
8 tsp mango puree (reserve to decorate)
1 cup chopped fresh mangoes
2 cups heavy cream
3 cups Low fat buttermilk
10 tablespoons sugar (add more if you need)
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 packets unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water

Method

Add the gelatin to cold water and let it soften. Meanwhile whisk together buttermilk and mango puree in a bowl till they are combined well together.

Heat cream in a pot. Add vanilla essence and sugar. Whisk very lightly to mix. When the cream comes to a boil, remove from heat and add softened gelatin.

Stir well till all the gelatin is dissolved. I still had a few tiny pieces of undissolved gelatin and therefore I strained the cream at the next step. Add the cream to the mango buttermilk mixture and whisk well. At this step I tasted the sweetness of the cream mixture and added more sugar as the buttermilk added a lot of tang which I wanted to neutralize. Mix well till any extra sugar you add is well blended. Pour into tall glasses(I used margarita and martini glasses) and refrigerate for 4 hours. To serve place chopped mangoes in the center on top of the panna cotta. Swirl some mango puree around the mangoes.

Cauliflower Rassa

2008-06-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

Rassa usually defines a thin watery curry and is especially popular in the state of Maharashtra. This recipe is a little different from the usual as it uses ground onions in its base. The curry goes well with any type of bread or rice.

Ingredients

Half a cauliflower, cut into florets
1 cup peas
1 large potato chopped
1 large onion
2 large tomatoes
2 tsp tomato paste
1 inch ginger
2 pods garlic
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tblsp lime juice
3-4 cups water
salt to taste

Method

Grind together the ginger, garlic, onion, fresh tomatoes and tomato paste into a smooth pulp. Heat oil in a pot. Add cinnamon and cloves as it heats. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When seeds sputter add ground mixture. Add spices and cook till the onions are well cooked and the paste does not stick to the sides of the pan. Add cauliflower, peas and potato. Add 3-4 cups water. Add salt and lemon juice. Stir and cook covered on medium heat till all the vegetables are cooked. Garnish with chopped cilantro .

Peanut Noodles with Tofu

2008-06-29T07:49:00.000-07:00

I have recently developed a new found love for tofu. I never really cared for it until I ate a dish at this thai restaurant and loved it. Tofu also turns out to be a great substitute to be used in konkani cooking. How can that be right? Well konkani food uses a lot of coconut. If you have heart or cholesterol issues substitute shredded coconut for shredded tofu and it works like wonders. Great tip huh? So coming back to my love for tofu, I bought some extra firm tofu and then stared at the package for a few minutes wondering what I should use it for. In the end I made these noodles. The ingredients came up on the fly. It was a mix and match of pad thai ingredients and some random ingredients I threw in to get the taste I was looking for. I used egg noodles but any type of noodles should be fine.

Ingredients (serves 2)

One package egg noodles
One package extra firm tofu, cut into pieces
2 eggs, beaten
Green onions-2, chopped
1 heaped tsp chopped garlic
2 -3 tbslp crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp tamarind
1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
1 tblsp sriracha hot chilly sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
crushed peanuts
chopped cilantro
lime
Oil

Method

Pan fry tofu pieces till lightly browned on both sides. Also, prepare a flat omelette of the beaten eggs. Keep both aside. Boil water in a pot. Add egg noodles and cook according to package instructions. Meanwhile heat a generous amount of oil in a wok till the oil is very hot. Add garlic, green onions. Working quickly add all the sauces and peanut butter. Fry for a few seconds until well mixed. Immediately add the noodles, tofu and egg. Mix well and fast till all the sauce is incorporated into the noodles. Serve sprinkled with chopped peanuts, cilantro and a splash of lime.

Tamarind Chicken Wings

2008-06-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

These chicken wings are really really good. They make a great appetizer, a change from the typical wings. You can make them just tangy or sweet and tangy depending on what you prefer. I made the non-sweet version here. Also, adjust the hotness as you like. This is also my entry to JFI Tamarind hosted this month by Sig of Live to Eat. Here's the link to the main JFI page at Mahanandi.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

8-10 chicken wing potions

For Marinade
1 tblsp tamarind concentrate (for sweet version use date tamarind chutney 2-4 tbslp, available in most indian stores)
1 tblsp soy sauce
1 tblsp very finely chopped garlic
1 tblsp worcestershire sauce
3-4 tblsp buffalo wing sauce (mild or hot on your preference)
2 pinches cumin (for the smoky flavor)
1 tsp red chilly powder
2 tbslp olive oil
Salt to taste

Method
Mix all marinade ingredients together. Beat well.

Add chicken wings to a ziploc bag. Add marinade. Close bag and mix in the chicken wings with the marinade. Keep in the fridge overnight (If you're in a hurry marinate for atleast 30 minutes at room temp). Wings can also be frozen this way. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place chicken wings on it and pour any extra marinade over the wings. Bake at 425 F for about 30 minutes till chicken is cooked. In the last 5 minutes turn on broiler and broil on high for 5 minutes till wings turn dark brown on top. Serve hot with bleu cheese or ranch dip.

spicy cabbage and shrimp

2008-06-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

What happens and you come home to a fridge that has only cabbage and shrimp: this recipe! Its 9 at night, I get back from work thinking I should have gotten take out yet wanting to eat something a little bit healthier. In the past months with a lot of gym workouts and eating less I've lost a decent amount of weight and now I want to keep it off. So I take my wok and throw these ingredients into it and since I was on a roll I made chapatis as well and there you have it, quoting Rachel Ray, "I had made a delicious and healthy meal from start to finish in 30 minutes". It was surprisingly tasty. I had never put cabbage and shrimp together before and the ingredients came out just right.

Ingredients
Uncooked peeled and deveined shrimp 20-30
half a cabbage sliced
One large tomato
2 tblsp sriracha hot sauce
1 tsp red pepper flakes
3 pods garlic sliced
1 inch piece ginger sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala

Method

Heat oil in a deep pan. Add red chilly flakes, ginger and garlic. Add Sriracha sauce. Add dry spices. Mix well. Add shrimps and mix into the sauce. The add the cabbage and the diced tomato. Add salt. Mix, cover and cook for about 5-10 minutes. Remove lid and cook till most of the water has evaporated. Serve with rice or chapatis.

Kerala Chicken Fry

2008-06-12T14:21:00.000-07:00

When my dad was commanding his own regiment in the army, we had a cook called "Rajan Bhaiyya". He made the most amazing food everrrrr. His chicken fry was soooooo good that I wanted to remake it the way he did. I remember when my sister got married he came to visit. He had left the cooking days of the army behind and started his own little store in his kerala hometown. He was such a sweet guy. I hope wherever he is, he's doing well. I poured over all the blogs and recipes so I could find a recipe for chicken fry that seemed much like his and this is what I came up with. This recipe is a bit on the "fatty" side so if you want to cut out the extra oil just omit all the frying in oil bit.

Ingredients

Bone in chicken cut into medium pieces
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp red chil powder
2 onions, one medium, one large, sliced
about 15 dry red chilles
1/2 package frozen coconut, thawed, about 150 g
1/3 cup corriander seeds
10-12 curry leaves
1 large cinnamon stick
3-4 cloves
2 potatoes diced
2 tsp tamarind pulp
salt to taste

Method
Season washed and dry chicken with salt, turmeric and red chilly powder. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Saute in oil till chicken pieces turn golden. Keep aside. In the same oil saute diced potatoes till golden. In oil saute one medium sliced onion.

Heat a deep dish pan. Roast red chillies and corriander seeds. Remove and add to the grinder. Roast coconut in the pan and add to the chillies. Add the sauted onions to the to coconut and red chillies. Grind the entire mixture with a little bit of water and tamarind pulp till it forms a smooth paste.

Heat oil in the same pot in which you fried the chicken. Add curry leaves and whole spices. Add the other large sliced onions. Fry till golden brown. Add the ground coconut paste.

Fry this mixture till the paste stops sticking to the sides of the pan and releases grease. This step is critical since it indicates the "ready" state of the base. If you are not patient enough to wait for this stage your base will not taste good. Once ready, add the chicken and potatoes. Mix and add salt and extra tamarind as needed. Cover and cook till chicken and potatoes are cooked through. Let it cook uncovered later to make the mixture as dry as needed. Serve hot with rice or chapatis.

Mixed vegetable

2008-06-08T18:09:00.001-07:00

Aai and Baba left yesterday. When we came back after dropping them at the airport the house felt soooo empty. We both were feeling kind of blue. To cheer us up I decided to make something that we both really like a lot. I love this recipe. Its so easy and tastes really good. Its a nice side dish to make when you have guests over. Try it, i'm sure you'll love it.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 large green pepper
1/2 a caulifower, broken into florets
2 tomatoes
1 can baby corn/or fresh baby corn
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
one large pinch asafoetida
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp Chopped cilantro
salt to taste
Oil

Method

Chop vegetables except baby corn into long slices. Heat oil in a frying pan/wok. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida. Add all the vegetables. Stir fry. Add garam masala,salt, sugar and lime juice. Stir. Cover and cook till vegetables are cooked through. Take care to not overcook the veges. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

No Egg Tomato Omelette

2008-05-26T05:38:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big breakfast person at all. But lazy Sunday mornings are ideal for a nice relaxed breakfast. Tomato omelette is a popular Indian vegetarian breakfast food. Frankly, I had never ever heard of it until my parents moved to the city of Pune. I first tried it at my favorite udipi joint, Vaishali, and really liked it. So this Sunday morning I made tomato omelettes for my in-laws and husband. Although I find chickpea flour quite heavy, its o.k if you eat just one of these. Its a good breakfast meal to make for your vegan/vegetarian friends. Go ahead and try one of these.

Ingredients (makes 4-6)

2 cups chick pea flour/Besan
Cold Water
2 tblsp tomato paste
one medium onion chopped
One medium tomato chopped
chopped cilantro
chopped green chillies
salt to taste

Method

Add tomato paste to flour. Add cold water and stir to make a thick paste. Then add tomatoes, onion, cilantro and green chillies. Add more water to make the batter more like pancake batter.

Heat a non-stick pan with some oil. Ladle in the batter to form a pancake.

Cover and cook on medium heat. Flip and cook till both sides are golden brown. Serve hot with ketchup and butter.

Leek Potato Soup

2008-05-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

This soup is my MIL's favorite. Everytime she comes to the US she wants me to make the "leek soup". The recipe is a modification of the original from my Victory Garden cookbook by Marian Morash. The book was recommended by my friend and coworker HDL. HDL always used to bring these enormous lunches and each day his wife would make him something very interesting. This soup was one of HDL's favorites and it looked so hearty and yummy I had to get the recipe from him. This recipe originally is very "rich". Butter and cream add great flavor to it. However I just can't get myself to drink bowl-fulls of such heartiness. So here is my reduced fat version. If you want to make the original full fat recipe substitute olive oil for a stick of butter and milk for heavy cream and you should be all set. The original recipe asks to use chicken stock but you can use vegeatble stock or water also. I recommend some form of stock. So here it is my leek potato soup for Aai.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)

1 tblsp oilve oil
6 cups of chopped leeks: make sure you have washed the leeks well to remove all the grit
2 stalks chopped celery
one large onion chopped
5 to 6 potatoes chopped
2 quarts of vegetable stock/chicken stock/water
1/2 to 1 cup 2% milk
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat olive oil. Add chopped onion. Saute till transparent. Add celery and leeks. Saute till they reduce in volume.

Add chopped potatoes and stock. Mix and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer covered till potatoes are cooked. Use a hand blender and carefully puree the soup in the pot till it turns smooth and thick and all the potatoes, leeks and celery are nice blended together. The soup in this form freezes well. To serve, add milk to simmering soup, stir. Serve hot garnished with parsley along with some crusty bread.

My first award!!

2008-05-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

Yaaaaayyyyyyy!! My first blog award. O.k O.K I know its no big deal but hey i'm super excited! Hetal from Isha's kitchen passed this award onto me. This award, started initially by Rupa is passed on from one blogger to others for the yummiest recipes and photos. The rules require me to state a couple of my favorite desserts that I have made or eaten. So here they are:
1. Pistachio Panna Cotta (ate this at a restaurant)
2. Pumpkin pie (with whipped cream most def)
3. Trifle pudding (I have an amazing recipe i'm going to post soon)
4. chocolate mousse (o.k i think i can go on and on....so i'll stop here)

Also, I am supposed to pass this award to four of my favorite bloggers so i'm giving it to the following four people (in no particular order).
1. Sig of Live to Eat
2. Shilpa from Aayis recipes
3. Arundathi of My Food Blog
4. Honey Butter

Congratulations to the new winners. The rules to winning this award are here. You have to post the yummy award logo, state the reason for the award, name a few of your favorite desserts and then pass the award on to four other bloggers.

Thanks Hetal once again for passing this award to me.

Crostinis

2008-05-18T09:19:00.001-07:00

This is an older post and I am reposting it for Mansi's Monthly Mingle on vegetarian appetizers. The monthly mingle event was started by Meeta. If you have the time, please do check out their blogs.

I love this really simple and beautiful recipe and its ideal for this event. As an appetizer its perfect. Its bite sized, easy to eat, good to taste, liked by all and really nice to look at. Plus, you can make many in no time at all. Its important to serve it right out of the oven when its hot and crispy. If you haven't tried this one yet, please do.

Ingredients

One french baguette, cut into pieces
One large onion chopped
Half a green pepper chopped
One tomato chopped
Italian parsley chopped, a fistful
balsamic vinegar 1 tsp
salt
black pepper
Olive oil

For variations: Add any fresh chopped herbs like basil or oregano.

Chop tomatoes, onions, green pepper and parsley.

Add to a bowl. Add balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and 1 tsp olive oil.Mix. Baste each piece of bread with Olive oil.

Top each piece of bread with the mixture. Broil on high for about 5 mintues. The bread toasts very fast so keep watching it or it might burn. Serve hot right out of the oven.

Banana Toffee Pie

2008-05-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

I know I know my blogging is reduced to a slow crawl. Its just that with my in-laws in town, I hardly have to cook on weekdays and the weekends are spent frolicking about so I have no time to try out all these recipes I want to. Today is my in-laws' 33rd anniversary...33 years can you believe that!! Wow! Well I wanted to make a vegetarian dessert for them and I was looking high and low. I found this recipe in a number of blogs namely here and at aayis recipes. So I tried it and it was really easy (although the boiling of the condensed milk takes time). Here it is.

Ingredients
Graham crackers-1 Box, I used 4 cracker packets makes 1 1/2 cups of crumbs
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
1 14 oz can of condensed milk
Large pot of water
3-4 large bananas
Whipped cream

Method
Boil water in a large pot. Place the condensed milk can in the water such that the can is completely immersed in the water. DO NOT let the water dry up above the can or it will explode. Boil the can for 2 hours. Remove and keep aside. The condensed milk will turn into brown caramel and can be stored unopened in your pantry. Meanwhile crush the graham crackers in the food processor into fine crumbs. Remove. Add butter to the crumbs and mix well. Add crumbs into a pie dish (I used a cake pan) and press down. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour. Alternatively just buy a pre made graham cracker pie crust from the grocery store.

Meanwhile peel and slice bananas into evenly thick rounds. Place onto graham cracker crust in a nice layered pattern.

Pour over the caramelized condensed milk.

Refrigerate covered with saran wrap for 2-3 hours. Add whipped cream just before serving.

Moong-Toor Dal Amti

2008-04-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

O.K I'm not a big fan of amti. Personally sweet amtis are not something I can eat everyday...but once in a while they do taste amazing. This one my aai (MIL) made and I particularly liked and I hope you do too.

Ingredients

Moong dal (1/2 cup), wash and soak for 30 minutes in water
Toor dal (1/4 cup), wash and soak for 30 minutes in water.
2-3 cups water
One onion, chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp jeera
1 large pinch asofetida
1 tsp jaggery/gud
1tsp dhania jeera (corriander cumin) powder
1 tsp sambhar powder
2-3 cloves garlic sliced
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tbslp tomato paste
1 bunch chopped cilantro
salt to taste
1 tbslp oil

Method

Cook lentils in a pressure cooker or in a pot till tender and soft. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds,asafetida. When seeds sputter add garlic and onions. Fry till onions turn golden brown. Add tomato paste, ginger paste, dhania-jeera powder. Cook for about 5-10 minutes. Add lentils and water. Add salt and sambhar powder. Bring to a boil. Add chopped cilantro. Serve with chapattis.

Coming up:Recipes from my mother in law

2008-04-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

This is a no-recipe post. Yesterday was a crappy day at work. My experiments turned out to be a mess and I was so depressed. I came home all sad and tired... and there was this really amazing hot Dal dhokli ready:comfort food at its best. How? My in-laws are visiting and my MIL cooks which is great coz when i get home from work there's hot food ready---isn't she super nice? Since she cooks while I'm at work I get no chance to take pictures of the steps in between. I will post her recipes with just the pictures of the final products. She makes amazing authentic vegetarian maharashtrian cuisine and i'm sure you'll enjoy her recipes. Thats it...see you back here with recipes from my MIL's kitchen.

Cioppino (San Francisco Sea food Stew)

2008-04-26T11:10:00.001-07:00

Cioppino is a sea food stew famous in the San Francisco bay area. This recipe was sent by my sister. The recipe itself was adapted from here. This stew goes really well with sour dough bread.

Ingredients
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 onions, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1 (28oz) can whole plum tomatoes, reserve juice, chopped
2 cups sea food stock
1 (1-lb) king crab leg, thawed
1 lb skinless tilapia fillets, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 lb large shrimp , shelled and deveined
3/4 lb sea scallops
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon dry basil

Method
Saute garlic, onions, bay leaf, oregano, and red pepper flakes with salt and pepper in olive oil on moderate heat until onions are soft and transparent. Add bell peppers and tomato paste and cook for about a minute. Add wine and boil until reduced to half. Add tomatoes with their juice, seafood broth and simmer covered for 30 minutes. While stew is cooking cut the crab legs through the shell into pieces. Add crab pieces and simmer, covered for about 5 to 10 minutes. Season fish fillets, shrimp, and scallops with salt and add to stew, then simmer, covered, until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Gently stir in parsley and basil and serve hot with bread.

Applesauce Panha (Refreshing Summer Drink)

2008-04-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

I love mango panha. As a child i remember drinking it every summer. Normally panha in India is made with raw mangoes in the summer months when mangoes are available. It is a tangy and sweet drink that is extremely refreshing on a sweltering summer day. I found this variation of the mango panha recipe using applesauce. This recipe was posted by one hot stove here. I made this drink out of curiosity and it was surprisingly similar to the original mango drink. Try this out for sure.

Ingredients

1 jar applesauce (about 3 cups)
1/2 cup jaggery (can substitute sugar/splenda)
Juice 2 limes
1 large pinch salt
2 tsp ground cardamom
6 cups cold water

Method
Heat applesauce in a pot till it starts to bubble.

Lower heat and cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add jaggery (or sugar). Mix till it dissolves completely. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add all remaining ingredients and stir well. Adjust sweetness or tartness as needed. Serve chilled with ice. Store in the refrigerator.

Bharleli Vaangi (Maharashtrian style Stuffed Eggplant)

2008-04-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

My mother-in law taught me this classic maharastrian dish made with small baby eggplants. The dish is slightly sweet and goes amazingly well with chapatis.

Ingredients

Baby eggplants- 8 to 10
One large potato
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp asafoetida
1 tsp turmeric
1 tblsp oil

For filling and paste

a small bunch cilantro
1 tsp tamarind pulp
1 1/2 cups grated coconut
1 cup ground roasted peanuts (optional)
4 to 5 tblsp goda masala
1/2 cup jaggery
salt to taste
1 pod garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
1 tsp turmeric

Method
Cut tips of small eggplants. Make a slice midway on one end with a knife. Make another slit on the other side perpendicular to the previous slit. Soak in water. Cut potatoes length wise and also soak in water.

Meanwhile add all ingredients of the paste into a blender and grind with very very little water to make a thick paste/filling. Fill the filling into each slit of the eggplants. Reserve remaining filling.

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric and asafoetida. When seeds splutter add eggplants and potatoes. Fry on medium high heat for 2-3 minutes. Lower heat to medium and cover and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Add remaining filling and about 1/2 cup water. Mix well. Cook till eggplants and potatoes are done. Serve hot garnished with cilantro.

Mint Chicken Pulao

2008-04-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

Holla! I'm back after my long hiatus. I'm beginning with this delicious pulao my sister makes. She makes it more like a biryani. I came upon this yummy dish when I arrived starving at my sister's place and raided her refrigerator. In there was a giant bowl of this left over pulao. I ate the whole bowl, it was that good. So here is the recipe. It can be made with any other meat or with vegetables as well. Do try it out.

Ingredients

Chicken (bone in or boneless) cut into small chunks-1 small store package
Rice 2 cups, wash and soak for 30 minutes in water.
Chicken broth 4 cups (can substitute water/vegetable broth)
2 tomatoes chopped
1 inch stick of cinnamon
2-3 cardamom pods
4-5 cloves

Mint mix
1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
4-5 green chillies
2 inch piece of ginger
salt to taste

Method
Grind all the ingredients of the mint mix with water into a smooth paste. Add the paste to the chicken and marinate for 30 minutes. Heat Oil in a pot. Add spices. Add chicken with the Mint mixture and fry well. Add the tomatoes. Cook till the tomatoes are well cooked into the mint sauce and the mixture has turned thick. Add the rice and more salt if needed. Add the chicken broth. Stir once and then bring to a boil. Lower heat and cover with a lid. Cook for 15 minutes or till rice is done. Serve hot.

I'm back

2008-04-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hi! Sorry for the lack of posts these past couple of days. I was away for work at a conference in sunny San Diego. Now I'm back and i'm ready to start posting some more recipes. Check back in a day or two for a new one.

Lychee Tangita

2008-03-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Here is my entry to Sig's Mixed Drinks Monthly Blog Patrol. The original blog patrol began here.I chose this recipe from Sig's blog itself . I know it was suggested to use a recipe from somewhere else but hey I wanted to try the Lychee Tangita. Unique Lychee drink concoctions are hard to find.I was looking for a lychee cocktail recipe which was not a lychee martini and Sig's Lychee Tangita looked so appealing. I have to say that this was one of the most fun blog events. The recipe was amazing as it was but we played around with some ingredients and tried out a number of different concoctions. By the end of it my husband and I were quite pleasantly buzzed with tasting all our trials. I am posting the original recipe with my modifications that suited my taste. I am giving the variations that worked for me.

Ingredients

1.5 cups of Lychee juice: I initially used Rubicon lychee juice (tetra pack) and that was too dilute. Using the canned juice like Sig suggested was better.
1/2 cup Tangerine juice: My tangerine juice (from Juicy juice) did not have much tang to it. I supplemented limeade once and orange juice the other time and both worked well.
2 tblsp Lime juice
Sauza Gold Tequila - 1/4 to 1/2 cup (I reduced the tequila a bit)
10- 12 Mint leaves
1 tblsp Sugar
Crushed Ice
1 can lychees
maraschino cherries

Method:
Everything else was followed mostly as Sig did it. I added the mint leaves and sugar to a mortar and crushed it with a pestle. Then added the crushed mint and all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shook it till it was well blended.
Serving ideas:
Pour the drink into a cocktail glass. Poke a toothpick through a canned lychee and a cherry. Add to the glass. Additionally slide some lychees into the glass. Also,make a slit in one lychee and place it on the side of the glass. Poke a cocktail umbrella into it. Serve immediately.The best part of this drink is to eat the lychees in the end. Yummy!

Tricolor Mutton Biryani

2008-03-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

Saturdays I usually like to make something more complicated than my usual quick and easy fare. This saturday was holi, the festival of colors. I was looking to make a biryani, something similar to what we get back home with a thick spicy gravy spread in layers between flavorful rice. I also wanted it to be colorful, it being holi and all.My mom used to often color biryani rice, using saffron to get the yellow color and food colors for other colors. I like a mild saffron flavor and so I didn't use saffron to color the rice. This dish is a little more complicated and uses a lot of pots and pans but the end product is really good.

Ingredients

2 cups Rice, wash and soak in water for atleast 30 minutes

Mutton 1 pound, wash.

Marinade for meat

1cup yogurt
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
salt

3 large Onions sliced
3 potatoes, diced into large cubes
4 large Tomatoes chopped
4 heaped teaspoons garam masala
3 tsp red chilly powder
2 teaspoons cumin-corriander powder
1 tsp pepper
salt
1 tsp lime juice
saffron, a couple of strands, roast for a few minutes, add water and keep aside

For Rice

a Large pot of water
1 tblsp Oil
salt
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 cloves
2-3 green cardamoms

Food color:red/green/yellow

Method

Wash meat. Add all ingredients of the marinade. Mix well with the meat. Keep aside for at least 30 minutes. I like to do this the night before and refrigerate the meat overnight. Really helps tenderize and flavor the meat. Add the marinated meat into a pressure cooker. Add water and cook for 4 to 5 whistles. Alternatively, add meat to a pot, add water, cover and cook till meat is tender, can take up to 3 hours.

Meanwhile heat oil in a pot. Fry potatoes till tender. Keep aside. Add sliced onions to the oil and fry till onions are dark brown in color.
Remove half the onions and keep aside. Add the meat (don't add the water yet) from the pot to the onions. Fry well. Add tomatoes and spices and keep frying for about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the mutton water and salt.

Cook till almost all the water dries up leaving a thick mutton gravy behind. Add the potatoes to the mutton and cook for additional 5 minutes. As the mutton dries up, heat water in a large pot. Add whole spices and oil to the water.
Bring the water to a boil. Add soaked rice and cook till rice is tender but not too well cooked. Remove and drain. Divide the rice into three portions. To one portion add red or yellow food color. Mix well. To another portion add green food color and mix well. The third portion leave white.

Mix all three rice together to form a tricolor mix.
Now take the main biryani pot. At the bottom add a layer of rice. Add some of the fried onions over it. Add about 1 tsp of saffron water. Then add the meat. Do not add too much meat just enough to form a layer.

Add second layer of rice and repeat until you reach the top of the pot. End with a rice layer. Sprinkle with fried onions and chopped cilantro. Cover with a tight lid and keep the pot on very low heat for at least an hour or so. Serve hot with a yogurt salad.

Paneer Bhurji (Scrambled Indian cheese)

2008-03-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

You know how the task of deciding what to make for dinner is more tiresome than actually making it. I have been using a devious plan to circumvent that issue. Every day after work as I'm heading home I call my sister up to check how her day went. Then I ask her what she's making for dinner (ha ha!!). If it suits me and I have the ingredients I go home and make whatever she came up with. Saved myself all that time staring into my refrigerator deciding what to whip up. This recipe here came about after Preeti told me she's making Paneer bhurji. I realised I have this big block of paneer at home myself--yay !! So here it is, my version of paneer bhurji. Bhurji usually defines indian scrambled eggs but this is the vegetarian version of it. Paneer is a type of indian cheese (the only type we have I think) and in this recipe its grated into a consistency like minced meat and scrambled with a onion and tomato mixture.

Ingredients (Serves 2-3)

1/2 block of paneer gratedOne onion chopped
One tomato chopped
1 tsp tomato paste
half a green pepper finely chopped
1 pod garlic chopped
1 green chilly slit
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilly powder
2 tsp garam masala
oil
salt to taste
chopped cilantro 1 tbslp

Method
Heat oil. Add green chilly. Add oions and fry till golden. Add garlic, tomato and spices. Fry well for 5 minutes. Add salt and green pepper. Cook for another couple of minutes.

Add paneer and tomato paste. Scramble all ingredients well together. Cook for a few more minutes. Serve garnished with corriander and eat with hot chapatis/phulkas.

Blogging and Me

2008-03-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize what I was getting into when I started my food blog. This food blog world man its quite a world to observe! There are the big blogs: you know those not using blogspot but have their own domain with adsense and cool graphics and features. Then there's mid-level blogs, use blogspot but have cool features and lots of visitors. Then there are people like me. New entries , no experience and a non IT professional who tries real hard to put in these html codes to make their blog better. However I don't know how much I'm into going to other blogs and leaving lame comments just to get traffic . That I don't like!! If and when I do leave a comment its because I did try their recipe or really wanted to give constructive feedback. I like people who take the time to read your recipe and let you know what they think.Comments on my own blog matter to me and if they are personal and meaningful i like that. One person I really like with this respect is Sig . Big blogger, amazing recipes and site and leaves comments that show that she took the time to at least go over your post. Thats my favorite blogger so far. I also love these food events. I'm slowly getting into it but I had a great experience with Sia's Ode to potato. When I saw my very first entry I was soooooo excited. That was fun!!

Well I'm chugging along slowly and surely. My recipes are not gourmet. I think they are more for the working woman, the Indian housewife looking for a easy recipe idea to make that night for dinner. Nothing super fancy but they sure do taste right.
Well thats it for this edition of my blogging update. If you're new into food blogging and feel like a small fish in an ocean drop me a comment, maybe we can start a new food bloggers group.

Easy Mixed Vegetable Rice

2008-03-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

If you come back really tired from work and want something super easy, nutritious and comforting--TRY THIS. I make this rice so often and its soooooooo easy :you'll love it. Pile in a bowl and eat away.You won't need anything else.

Ingredients

Rice 1 cup, wash well and soak for 15 minutes in water.
Frozen bag of mixed vegetables:corn, peas, carrot,lima beans etc 1 cup: thaw in water in a colander
1 tsp cumin seeds
chicken broth 2 cups (substitute vegetable broth if needed)
turmeric
1 tblsp oil
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
salt

Method

Heat oil. Add cinnamon and cloves as oil heats. Add turmeric and cumin seeds to it.Then add vegetables and salt. Stir fry.Add rice. Mix. Add chicken broth. Cover. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and cook for exactly 15 minutes. Rice is ready!
Its important to soak the rice before cooking or else rice won't cook well.

Chana Saar Upkari

2008-03-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

O.K it couldn't get more Konkani than this. This is a standard Konkani dish especially loved in my home. My Maharashtrian husband loves it as well. Its easy and kills two birds with one stone by making the saar and upkari together. If you haven't tried any authentic Konkani fare yet, try this. Served with rice its simply delicioso!

Ingredients

2 cups Black gram/kala chana, soak in water overnight
1 cup grated coconut
6 dry red chillies (bedgi variety)
1 tsp tamarind paste /Tamicom
6 to 8 pods garlic
Water about 4-5 cups
1 tsp mustard seeds
curry leaves 5 to 6
salt
oil

Saar

Cook gram/chana in water by boiling or pressure cook. In either case save the water the chana is cooked in.Add the water into a blender. Add 2 dry red chillies, tamarind paste, 1/2 cup coconut, 1/4 cup cooked chanas,2 pods peeled garlic and salt. Blend together in the blender. Heat the blended saar. Then heat oil in a small pot. Add 3 to 4 pods garlic which have been pounded slightly to break open.Roast garlic till golden brown. Add to saar as saar boils and immediately cover. Saar is ready.

Upkari

Heat oil with mustard seeds, curry leaves and 3 to 4 dry red chillies. When seeds sputter, add cooked chana. Stir well and cook for 5 to 10 minutes.Sprinkle in 1/4 cup shredded coconut. Mis cook till heated through. Serve with saar and rice.

Cilantro Pesto Pasta with Shrimp

2008-03-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make pasta with pesto but had no basil or parsley. What I did have was tons of cilantro. I came across a recipe by Rachel Ray for a cilantro pesto pasta which needed macadamia nuts (which also I did not have). So here is my revised version of cilantro pesto pasta. I added shrimp to it as well. For this pasta lover this dish was true comfort food.

Ingredients

Angel Hair pasta, 3/4 package, Smart taste
Water
Salt
Large shrimp, uncooked shelled and deveined --about 20

For the pesto

1 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp red chilly flakes
2 pods garlic
1 inch piece ginger
salt
pepper
lemon juice 1 tsp

Method

Season a large pot of water with salt. Bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 minutes or till al dente. Drain pasta after it cooks. As pasta boils grind all pesto ingredients together to forma smooth green paste. Heat a little olive oil in a pan. Add pepper to the oil as it heats. Add shrimp and stir fry till shrimp turns pink. Add pesto and pasta. Mix all ingredients well together. Serve hot. Easy Huh?

Easy Healthy Shrikhand

2008-03-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

I visited my aunt this past month. After a long drive we came home to a yummy Konkani dinner. For dessert she had made Shrikhand,a popular dessert in Maharashtra. Its a sweet yogurt pudding made with strained yogurt and saffron. There are many variations to the shrikhand like adding mango puree to it to make what is called "amrakhand". Since my Uncle and aunt are very health conscious in their diet, this shrikhand was fat free and sugar free AND it was delicious. I couldn't taste the Splenda in it or even tell it was fat free (no believe me i'm the first one to detect the fat free versions of dishes:this one you can't tell). Try it yourself if you don't believe me. This recipe uses a store bought greek yogurt (which is strained) cutting the time to make this dish down by almsot 70 percent.

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 small package 0% fat greek strained yogurt (look for it in your organic/health food section in the grocery store), cheaper variety is available in walmart in the yogurt aisle

5 to 6 strands of saffron, a little goes a long way, the picture shows more saffron because I had doubled the recipe
1 tblsp milk
3 tblsp splenda (or 4 to 5 tblsp sugar)
1 tblsp shelled pistachios, blanched and chopped

Lightly toast saffron. Add 1 tblsp warm milk to the saffron and let it sit.

Empty yogurt into a bowl. Add saffron-milk mixture and splenda. Blend with an electric whisker for a few seconds, the yogurt will become creamy. Add pistachios and mix. Refrigerate for atleast an hour. Mix well before serving. For amrakhand, omit saffron and reduce sugar or splenda by half. Add 4 to 5 tblsp of mango puree and blend.

Preeti's Goan Chilly Chicken

2008-03-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

I have been bugging my family to send me some of their favorite recipes. Finally my sister Preeti sent me this one. It really is an amazing recipe. I do hope you try this one and let us know how you liked it.

Ingredients

8 Chicken thighs
1 small sized onion (roughly chopped)
2 one-inch pieces ginger (roughly chopped)
4 cloves garlic (roughly chopped)
6 Green chillies (chopped)
Salt to taste
4 tsps Lemon juice
1 tsp Cumin seeds (jeera)
2 tbsps Coriander seeds (dhania)
2 Red chillies (whole)
3 Green cardamoms
4 Cloves
1 inch stick Cinnamon
4 tbsps Ghee
4 tbsps Tomato Puree
¼ tsp Sugar
A few sprigs Cilantro (chopped)
1 tbsp Vinegar

Method
Clean, remove skin and wash thighs. Drain thoroughly.
Make a wet paste of onion, ginger, garlic & half of the chopped green chillies.
Add salt and lemon juice and marinate chicken for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Dry roast cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chillies, green cardamoms, cloves and cinnamon. Grind to a fine powder in a dry grinder. (I strongly recommend Cuisinart’s dry grinder.)
Heat 2 tbsps ghee in a pan. Add marinated chicken & fry over high flame.
When the chicken is cooked a bit (it will turn slightly white, then pink-red), add the dry masala powder and mix well.
Add remaining ghee & tomato puree (I pureed one large tomato) and let it cook.
Add sugar, adjust salt and cook till the chicken is done.
Add the remaining chopped green chillies and coriander leaves.
Remove from heat, add vinegar, stir and serve immediately.
This goes well with rice if you leave a little gravy during the cooking, or else tastes great with fresh chapattis.

Fish cutlets

2008-03-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

This makes an excellent appetizer. It is again very easy to make and is ready in no time. In place of the tilapia if you use canned tuna, the prep time is reduced in half. I find the tuna smell too strong at times so I use tilapia fillets instead. This dish can be made with any other mild fish.

Ingredients

Potatoes 2 large
One onion chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic (1 pod)
2 Tilapia fillets
1 tblsp tomato paste
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp garam masala
chopped cilantro 2-3 tblsp
salt
pepper
olive oil 2 tblsp

Method

Boil potatoes and cook till tender. Drain and remove all water. Cook fish by boiling fillets, drain and keep aside. If using canned fish, drain all water and add the canned fish to the onions. Heat olive oil with 1 tsp chopped garlic. add onions and saute till transparent. Remove onions into a bowl. Add fish, potato and all the rest of the ingredients into the bowl. Mash well together.

Form patties. If you're making this as an appetizer make small cutlets easy to pick. If you're making this as an entree make larger patties. Brush the tops and bottom of the cutlets with olive oil. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes till golden brown. Serve hot with ketchup or a chutney.

Potato Nest

2008-03-05T12:03:00.001-08:00

Here's my entry for Sia's ode to Potato.Check it out at
http://www.monsoonspice.com/2008/01/announcing-ode-to-potato.html
I wanted to make a dish with the four ingredients I always have at home : onions, potatoes, tomatoes and eggs. I wanted the recipe to make something anyone can prepare, is fun to make and will be loved by kids. The idea for this recipe came from "The complete Vegetarian cookbook" by Chris Hardistry. I have changed the filling to suit my taste. This recipe makes essentially a bird's nest made with potatoes and the egg is cooked in the nest with a tomato sauce under it. This dish is perfect for the day after Thanksgiving as you can use the left over mashed potatoes. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Ingredients (Serves two)

3 large potatoes, cooked
2 tblsp butter
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 onions chopped, divide into two portions
One large tomato
a bunch of parsley
1/4 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp garam masala/all spice
2 tblsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic chopped
Two eggs
grated cheddar cheese 2 tblsp

Method

Mash the boiled potatoes with butter, salt and pepper (or use old left over mashed potatoes). In a pan heat oil with garlic in it. Add one chopped onion and saute till transparent. Add to potato mixture and mash well. Check taste of potato mixture to suit your taste (add more butter or condiments as needed).

Take a baking sheet and line it with foil. Grease the foil with oil. Place a large ball of the potato mixture on the baking sheet. Scoop out the center with a spoon and then shape the ball into a nest widening the opening in the center while keeping the outer ring intact. Make sure the center is wide enough to hold an egg and the bottom still has enough potato to hold a filling. Cover with saran.

Meanwhile in the same sauce pan heat oil and saute the other chopped onion till transparent. Add chopped tomato, spices, salt, pepper and parsley. Cook well till most of the water from the tomato is dried up to make a thick sauce. Add about 2-3 tblsp of the tomato mixture to the center of the nest. Break an egg op top of the sauce in the the nest. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the egg and add a tablespoon of grated cheese on top. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Slowly lift off the nest onto a plate using a wide flat spoon. Garnish the egg top with chopped parsley and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Serve with a salad.

Chicken lollipops

2008-03-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

This week I had to rush over to Chicago to help my sister who was quite ill. After a couple of days of good rest she was feeling back to her old self again. To cheer her up I decided to make her favorite chicken lollipops. This is the first dish she eats when she visits India and oders it every other day from our neighborhood store "Tasty Bites". This Indian influenced chinese dish is very very popular in India. The original idea for this dish came from our friend Amit who made this once for us and it was delicious. I din't have his recipe so I searched online and combined a couple of recipes to make this dish and it was perfect. Although making the lollipops can be a pain, once in the groove you can get it done quite fast. Makes a really popular appetizer with kids and adults.

Ingredients

1 large package fresh chicken wings
6 pods garlic
one inch piece ginger
6 green chillies (not the very hot ones)
1 tblsp soya sauce
1/2 tblsp red chilly sauce
1/2 cup all purposeflour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 egg
1/4 tsp red food color
salt to taste
Oil to fry

Method

To make the wings check out the first half of this youtube video. The recipe in this video is for some other type of lollipop but the method to make the lollipops is well depicted and easy to follow. Each wing, makes two lollipops.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fAwUCvm5egg&feature=related

Once the lollipops are ready, add them to a bowl. In a grinder finely chop ginger, garlic and green chillies. Add to the chicken. Add all remaining ingredients. Mix well. Marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.

Heat oil in a pot. Deep fry the marinated lollipops. Serve hot. You can see how much my little nephew enjoyed it.

West Indies Black eyed Peas with Pasta

2008-02-26T18:25:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the library and got myself a vegetarian cookbook. I wanted to try making some fancy new dishes that were healthy as well.I brought home "The complete Vegetarian cookbook" by Chris Hardistry. In this book I found a spicy black eyed peas recipe that I was drawn to for two reasons. One, it said spicy and being Indian that draws me to it right away. Secondly it said black eyed peas and I had a can on hand. I read the recipe and knew I might have to change the spice proportions a bit and also add an extra kick to it. So here is my modified version of the recipe served with healthy high fiber pasta (I prefer Smart Taste pasta as it tastes a lot better than whole wheat pasta). This is a delicious, simple and super easy recipe.

Ingredients

Smart taste Rotini
Water and salt to cook pasta.

1 small can black eyed peas, drained and washed. Reserve drained liquid.
1 tblsp olive oil
1 large onion chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground pepper
salt to taste
2 tbslp tomato paste
2/3 cup drained bean liquid plus added water
1 tblsp soy sauce
chopped parsley

Method

Fill a large pot 3/4 with water. Season water with salt. This is the only chance you can actually season the pasta so add salt to the water. Bring water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to the directions on the package. I use 3/4 package of the pasta. Meanwhile heat oil in a non stick pot. Add onions and garlic and saute till onion turn transparent. Add all seasonings and black eyed peas. Saute. Add tomatoes, soy sauce and tomato paste. Stir and heat through.Then add liquids and cook till sauce thickens up. Add chopped parsley. When pasta is cooked, drain the pasta. Add pasta to a large bowl. Pour a generous helping of the sauce onto it and serve immediately.

Green Peas Pulao

2008-02-26T18:01:00.000-08:00

This month my husband and I became extremely health conscious. We realized our lifestyles had become too stressful and unhealthy and we could feel it in our bodies. So we made a dramatic change to our lifestyles. We have started waking up early and getting to work early. We have incorporated an hour of regular exercise at the gym. Most importantly I have focused on the meal time. We started eating at the table(no more tv watching while eating) and eating healthier. The first thing we both saw was that we were eating too much meat. We actually felt a little sick of it. So for the past many days I have moved to vegetarian diet.No, i'm not becoming a vegetarian, I'm just going to eat meat occasionally preferring seafood and avoiding red meat.I want to enjoy meat when I eat it. You know that occasional perfect steak is unbeatable!! Anyways, so for the next few days I'm going to post mostly vegetarian recipes. I promise you these recipes are delicious and healthy. I begin the series with a recipe for green peas pulao (pulao is a flavored rice dish made in many different ways in India). It is known in my home as "GPP". Served with a mild vegetble curry it makes a perfect meal.

Ingredients

1 cup green peas
1 cup rice, washed and soaked in water for atleast 1/2 an hour
One large onion sliced
a large bunch of cilantro leaves
1 green chilly
1 pod garlic
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
2 cups vegetable broth
oil 1 tblsp
salt

Method

Grind together cilantro, the green chilly and the garlic into a smooth paste using water as needed.Keep aside. Heat oil. Add cinnamon, cloves and cumin seeds. Add sliced onions and saute till golden brown. Add ground cilantro paste and rice without any water. Stir. Add 2 cups broth. Cover and bring to a boil, then simmer on medium low heat covered for 15 minutes. Rice will be perfectly cooked. Serve hot.

Tiramisu

2008-02-23T14:27:00.001-08:00

Today our friends L and D have invited us over for dinner. D is a really great bread maker. He enjoys baking breads of different kinds. Today he's going to make homemade pizzas making the dough from scratch. We are taking dessert and wine. The french wine my husband picked is called Brouilly, a red Beaujolais wine. Its really really good. For dessert I settled on Tiramisu (sticking with the Italian theme of the dinner although the wine is French--oops!). This recipe is fast and easy to make and I chose it because I had only 3 hours to make and take this.

Ingredients

1 8 oz package of mascarpone cheese
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 packets Ladies finger cookies
1 cup dark roast or espresso coffee
3 tsp brandy or dark rum
cocoa powder 1 tblsp
chocolate shavings to decorate

Beat egg yolks with sugar using a whisk attachment on an electric mixer. Add 1 tsp brandy and 2 tblsp coffee. Beat till well blended.

In a trifle bowl, arrange cookies to line the side of the bowl.

Mix remaining coffee with 2 tsp brandy. Dip each cookie in the coffee mixture for about 3 to 5 seconds. Don't dip too long or the cookie will fall apart. Place in the center of the bowl. Break cookies as needed to fill the bottom. Add a layer of the beaten cheese mixture. Repeat with another layer of cookies and cheese mixture. This recipe makes three layers. On the last cheese layer, sprinkle cocoa using a sieve and decorate with chocolate shavings. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

2008-02-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

I've made sweet corn chicken soup many times, but never this way. I found this recipe in my Chinese and Wok cooking book by Shirley Gill. Its quite different from the ones i've seen and it turned out really really good. So how did I come about making this soup? Well, my husband has this really horrible sore throat and wanted some hot soup. Looking in the pantry I saw the ingredients for a sweet corn soup so thats what I made. I just wanted to look up some more recipes instead of making my standard plain version and I came upon this recipe. The amounts I used are different from the book. For a vegetarian version just replace the meat with vegetables and marinate just the same. Replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth. Here it is--enjoy it on any cold day!

Ingredients

1 cup ground chicken
1 to 2 tsp thin soy sauce
a dash of sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tblsp corn flour
One carton low sodium chicken broth
One can cream of corn
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 inch ginger crushed
1 tblsp oil
salt
pepper
2 large eggs, beaten
Scallion greens (1 stem) chopped (optional)

Method

Mix ground chicken with soy sauce, sesame oil, corn flour, salt and pepper. Keep aside for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oil in a pot or a wok. Add crushed ginger. Stir. Add chicken broth, corn kernels and can of creamed corn. Bring to a boil. Take a cup full of hot boiling soup and add to the chicken mixture. Mix and then add the chicken mixture to the rest of the soup in the pot. Stir continuously. Once the chicken cooks season with salt as needed. Then add the beaten egg in a thin stream very slowly stirring in a circuitous pattern. The egg should form threads. Serve hot garnished with chopped scallions or with a dash of soy sauce as I did.

Ragda Patties for my Valentine

2008-02-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

For valentines day I wanted to make something "hearty" for my husband. He loves this snack/street food called ragda patties that we get in the state of Maharashtra in India. Its essentially a potato patty served with cooked lentils, yogurt and a blend of sauces. Its absolutely delicious. In the north of India you get a similar dish called tikki and that essentially is the same with a different type of legume. So to "hearten" it up I made the potato patties in a heart shape and he thought that was cute.

For the Ragda

One cup dry green/yellow peas soaked in water for atleast 2-4 hrs.
One teaspoon garam masala / whole spice mix
One teaspoon red chilly powder
one teaspoon cumin
one teaspoon guda masala (a maharashtrian spice mix: totally optional)
Salt

For the patties

7 to 8 potatoes cooked and mashed
One teaspoon turmeric
chopped cilantro
salt
Heart shaped cookie cutter

For the toppings

1 cup plain yogurt beaten with a little water, 1tsp sugar and 1tsp salt.
1 cup date and tamarind sauce (from the Indian store). Add 1/2 cup water to it and stir.
1 cup green corriander chutney (from the indian store).Add 1/4 cup water stir.
Some ground cumin
Some red chilly powder
One large onion Chopped
Chopped cilantro

All above chutneys/sauces can be made at home very easily but I had these on hand.

Mix all ingredients for the potato patties together. Fill the cookie cutter with the potato mix. Press down and lift the cutter leaving behind a heart shaped patty. Oil your hands to make handling easier.

Pan fry patties in little oil on both sides till golden brown.

Cook the peas with all the spices either in a pot or in a pressure cooker till the peas are well cooked. Take a few patties in a bowl. Add ragda (peas) over it. Add yogurt, then the tamarind sauce, the corriander chutney. Sprinlkle chopped onions, cilantro and a pinch of cumin and red chilly powder. Serve.

Gobi (cabbage) Manchurian Golden Dragon Style

2008-02-14T06:57:00.000-08:00

So this past super bowl weekend our friends had us over for dinner for the game and the food theme was Indian Chinese food. If you're not from India you're probably wondering what that is. In India, Chinese food is very popular and the recipes have been spiced up to suit the Indian taste. I absolutely love it and Chinese food in India is one of the first things I want to eat when I go back home.Well anyway my friend Amit made amazing chicken lollipops just like we get back home and I am currently pestering him to give me the recipe to post on my blog. So this reminded me of trying out Indian Chinese dishes. One of my other favorite dishes is gobi manchurian, a vegetarian version of chicken manchurian. I have made this dish many times before but it was never like what we get back home. There is this Chinese food shack called Golden Dragon right by my home in India and I wanted to make gobi manchurian just like that. I tried a variety of combinations and came up with this semi-homemade combination that tastes EXACTLY how Golden dragon served it. You need the two store bough sauces together to get it to taste just right. So here it is:

Ingredients

For the cabbage balls

Half a cabbage very finely chopped
2 cups all purpose flour (maida)
1 pinch baking soda
1 egg
water

For the sauce

3 scallions (spring onions) finely chopped
Half to one green pepper finely chopped
2 pods garlic chopped
one green chilly chopped
one packet knorr manchurian mix (you get this in Indian stores or ask someone from india to send it to you)
One bottle Chings secret manchurian sauce (again get it in Indian food stores)

Method

For the balls: Mix all ingredients together to form a sticky thick mixture. Make balls or drop spoonfuls into hot oil and fry till golden brown. Remove and keep aside.
For the sauce, heat oil, add garlic, scallions, chilly and the green pepper. Mix. Add knorr spice mix, 2 cups water, the whole bottle of Ching's manchurian sauce and mix well. Let it come to a boil. Add cabbage balls. Mix and serve immediately.

Pork Dumplings (Jiaozi )

2008-02-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

Chinese new year begins February 7th. I wanted to make something that is made in every chinese home during this time of the year. So I aksed my colleague Yan for a recipe. She gave me this recipe for pork dumplings or Jiaozi. Reading up a little more about Jiaozi, I read that during the new year families in China gather and wrap dumplings together. Some believe that wrapping dumplings is equivalent to packaging luck for the new year. Dumplings are also very popular here in N America. Pan fried Jiaozi in America are known as potstickers. Here's my first attempt at making dumplings at home. Happy year of the rat everyone. Thanks to Yan for this recipe!

Ingredients

Dumpling wrappers 1 package from the Asian store (50 count)

Ingredients for dumpling filling:

ground pork 1 lb (can be substitute with ground beef, ground shrimp or turkey)
nappa bok choy cabbage about 5 leaves,chopped
chopped green onion, 4 chopped
salt to taste
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 garlic crushed
a dash of crushed ginger

Mix all filling ingredients well. Make sure the mixture does not have much water. If during mixing, water comes out, add a little flour (I did not have much water release). This is the filling.

To wrap the dumplings wet the edge of each circular wrapper with water. Add 1 heaped tsp of filling to the center of each wrapper.

Close edge in the center forming a half moon. At the edges make inwards fold and press edges together. To understand how to fold dumplings check out these two youtube videos. Wrapped dumplings can be frozen for future use.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1bViRTOSLPQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=F6AsQB1jK-M&feature=related

Boil a pot of water. When water starts boiling, add dumplings as shown in the second video using a ladle. Don't add too many, dumplings or they'll stick together. When the dumplings emerge onto the water surface, add 1 cup of cold water. When the water boils again, add another cup of water. Wait till the water start boiling. Dumplings should be fully cooked!

Remove dumplings to a pot of cold water, then quickly remove them into a serving dish. This is to prevent the dumplings from sticking together. Remove onto a platter and serve with soy sauce. Optionally to make the dumplings taste like potstickers, pan fry cooked dumplings to give it a crispy crust.

Fried Pomfret Served with Mamma's Red Chilly Sauce

2008-01-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

Pomfret is a very popular fish in south asia. I get it frozen in my Indian store. I have also seen it in our farmers market fish stand. This fried fish recipe is from my mom and aunt and I absolutely love it. Its a little more work than usual for the marinade but well worth it. It is important that the red chillies used in this recipe are mild, flavorful and not very hot. I usually freeze the marinated fish and then thaw and fry whenever I want to make it. My mom makes this really delicious chilly paste from the left over marinade. If you like spicy food, just mix this paste with rice and eat the fish with that,mmmmmmmmm totally amazing. Hope you like this one. I do.

Ingredients

Pomfret fish, cleaned and cut into slices

Dried red chilled (bedgi variety) 15, stems removed
Salt
juice of one lime
3 pods garlic
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbslp rice flour
More rice flour to coat fish

Grind chillies,turmeric garlic, salt,lemon juice, 1 tblsp rice flour to form a smooth paste. Add very very little water as needed to grind. Marinate fish with the paste for at least 30 minutes, better if overnight.
Coat fish pieces in rice flour and deep fry. Serve hot.

For the chilly sauce: Heat some of the oil used to fry the fish. Add the left over marinade from the fish, salt and lemon juice to the pot and cook it till the marinade no longer sticks to the pot. Serve with the fish.

Mutton Rogan Josh (Goat meat Kashmiri style)

2008-01-26T08:33:00.000-08:00

Goat meat also known as mutton is very popular in South Asia. This dish is indigenous to the beautiful region of Kashmir and has a blend of spicy and sweet flavors. The sweetness comes from saffron and nutmeg while the spiciness from the bright red chillies. The name essentially means red meat. This is how I make it.

Ingredients

For the Spice Mix

7 to 8 Dry Kashmiri Red chillies
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tblsp corriander seeds
1 tsp pepper corns

Roast above ingredients till they release aroma.

Goat meat 2 pounds

Marinade for goat meat

Kashmiri chilly powder (Deggi mirch)2 tsp
Crushed garlic-1 tsp
crushed ginger-2 tsp
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate meat with the marinade for 30 minutes to overnight.

2 large onions sliced
1 bay leaf
2 large tomatoes
1 pinch nutmeg
a few strands of saffron
two cloves, one stick cinnamon, one black cardamom, 5 to 6 pepper corns
2 potatoes diced (OPTIONAL:this is not normally added to rogan josh but i like potatoes in everything)

Heat oil in a pressure cooker pot. Add cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves and pepper corns.

When oil is hot add marinated meat. Fry on high heat till meat browns. Add water and pressure cook for 5 steam releases. Alternatively, cook in a covered pot till meat is tender. In all cases, save mutton broth.

Meanwhile grind roasted spices with one large tomato to make a thick paste. In a separate pot, heat oil and fry sliced onions till golden. Add spice paste and cook till the spice mix stops sticking to the sides of the pot, about 15 minutes.

Add cooked meat, broth and diced poatatoes. Add nutmeg and saffron.

Cook covered on medium heat for about 30 minutes. Serve hot with rice or bread.

Parmesan and Herb Crusted Tilapia

2008-01-22T16:39:00.000-08:00

This fish recipe is very simple and healthy. The fish is not spicy like many of my recipes, but is full of flavor. I served the fish with store bought frozen Perogies that I pan fried. Odd combination I know but I love perogies and they were a good starch choice. Also add a salad to go with it. Nice dinner huh?

Ingredients

Two Tilapia fillets
One large onion, chopped
One large tomato, chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
juice of half lemon
2 to 3 tblsp grated parmesan
salt
pepper
Olive oil

Season fish with salt, pepper and lemon juice on both sides. Brush with olive oil. In a bowl mix onions, tomato, herbs, parmesan and parsley. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tblsp lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Load mixture onto the fish. Sprinkle some more parmesan cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Bhindi Raita (deep fried okra in yogurt)

2008-01-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

If something doesn't taste good, just deep fry it! My husband's love and my dislike for okra (aka bhindi in Hindi) has brought about trials of a number of different okra recipes. This recipe came back to me when I thought about deep frying okra. My mom makes this dish, but instead of deep frying, she adds a tblsp of oil to the okra and nukes it in the microwave till the okra becomes crispy (about 15 to 20 minutes, maybe longer).I took the faster (and cholesterol rich) route and deep fried in a lot of oil. A raita in Indian cooking is a yogurt salad, served as an accompaniment with food. The bhindi remains crispy as the yogurt is added at the very last minute before serving.

Ingredients

1 pound fresh okra, wash and dry individually, cut into rings

One large onion chopped
1 green chilly sliced
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup plain yogurt
salt to taste

Deep fry okra till golden brown and crispy. Drain on a paper towel to get rid of excess oil. Add cilantro and onions to the okra and mix.

Just before eating, beat yogurt with salt and little bit of water. Add to fried okra. Serve immediately.

Batata Vada (deep fried potato fritters)

2008-01-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

January 16th would have been my dad's 60th birthday. He had big plans for his 60th. Sadly, we lost him last year to a terrible disease called COPD. My dad was a vegetarian who really didn't like vegetables. He LOVED potatoes. He had made up this fake grace to say at the table which went like this--" Oh Lord! I thank you for this meal and for making this wonderful vegetable/root called the potato". Batata vada was his all time favorite. Its a street food from the state of Maharashtra, eaten with a bun, much like a burger. So here it is, batata vada in memory of my darling father:much loved and remembered every day.

Ingredients

6 Large potatoes, cooked and mashed
2 green chillies
1 bunch cilantro leaves
3 pods garlic
2 tblsp lime juice
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt to taste

For the batter
Chick pea flour-1 cup
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
salt to taste
water

Oil to fry

Method: Grind chillies, cilantro garlic, lime juice and turmeric using very little water. Add to potatoes. Add salt and mix well together.

Form the potato mixture into patties.

Add chickpea flour to a bowl. Add turmeric, salt and chilly powder. Add just enough water to form a smooth paste.

Dip each potato patty in the chick pea flour batter. Fry till golden brown. Serve hot with ketchup/chutneys or more traditionally between a bun with fried green chillies.

Chicken Fry (From Coorg: Maybe)

2008-01-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

This chicken dish originates from Coorg, a region in Western India in the state of Karnataka (See end of post for some argument on this issue) . In most cities in the united states the Indian food we get in restaurants features mostly a north Indian style cuisine. I find it hard to explain to my friends how India has so many dfferent types of cuisines, each so distinct from the other. Not only do cuisines change from state to state but also within regions in a state. I originally read this recipe in my Thangam Phillip cookbook. Since then I have forgotten the exact proportions she had in her recipe, so here is my version of it. Eaten with rice its absolutely delicious. I love to scrape up the pan drippings on the bottom of the pan in this recipe. Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 package cut and skinless chicken pieces
2 pods garlic
2 green chillies
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp pepper corns
a handful of cilantro leaves
1 onion
2 tblsp white vinegar
4 to 8 tblsp water
salt to taste
Oil

Grind together all ingredients (except oil) in a blender to form a smooth thick paste. Add little water at a time to aid smooth grinding of all ingredients. Marinate chicken in this mixture for at least 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a pan. Add marinated chicken (don't add extra paste yet) and fry on high heat for 10 15 minutes. Once chicken browns, add left over paste and cook on a medium high heat till most of the water dries up leaving a nice thick curry sauce and the chicken is nice and browned. Serve hot with steamed rice.

It was pointed out, not very kindly I must say, that this dish looks nothing like real Coorg chicken (See comments). At first I was mad at this blatant rudeness but then Cariz is proud of being from Coorg/Kodava and didn't think my recipe was authentic. He was hurtfully being truthful. I guess Thangam Phillip who published this recipe is wrong or my cooking skills are so messed up that it looks nothing like authentic chicken from Coorg (Ha Ha) or Cariz doesn't know of the existence of this recipe. Thats the great thing about recipes. They vary from home to home even if they are from the same region. Which one is really "authentic". I know that in Konkani cooking that happens all the time. Anyway I have duly renamed my recipe in case it offends another proud member of the Kodava community. Howevr if I ever see a "not so authentic" recipe from the Chitrapur Saraswat Community, I will stop by and leave a comment that says "Hey, what a nice recipe. Different from what i've eaten I will definitely try it".

Corn Tortilla Chicken Roll

2008-01-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

This recipe was inspired by our trip to California. My husband and I did a road trip from Northern California to LA and it was one amazing ride along route 1. We stopped along the way trying out different cuisines. The one dish that stuck out and we always remembered was from this little convenience store in Santa Barbara. The shop lady called it Carnitas (they made it with pork). When I described the dish to my Mexican friend, he thought it was something else. Anyways, I attempted to recreate this dish in my kitchen and it came out just like the one we had. My husband was so amazed he asked me to post it on my blog right away. So here it is: my corn tortilla chicken roll.

Ingredients

Corn tortillas
three chicken thighs or breasts, cooked and cut into chunks
One large onion chopped
One medium onion sliced
Cilantro, fresh sprigs
Three large tomatoes
Two pods garlic
3 tblsp Knorr green chilly sauce
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp McCormick Fajita seasoning
Oil
Salt to taste

Grind together tomatoes, one pod garlic and chilly sauce to form a paste. Heat oil in a pot with one pod garlic added to the oil as it heats. Remove garlic, add one large onion chopped. Fry till onions turn transparent. Add tomato mixture, salt, spices and seasoning. Cook for 5 minutes. Add chicken and cook till most of the water dries up.

Heat a pan. Heat each corn tortilla till it is hot and flexible. Add chicken mixture. Add sliced onions and 5 to 6 sprigs of cilantro. Roll up and eat! This recipe cannot be made without the cilantro, the flavor of cilantro is essential for the final taste.

60th Birthday Cake

2008-01-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was my uncle's 60th birthday and my sister was coming down to my place to drive down together for the party. My sister started decorating cakes with the Wilton cake decorating classes. But she has moved far and beyond the standard techniques that the class teaches and has made some amazingly creative cakes. She and I slaved over this cake and it looked and tasted beautiful. My sister did all the intricate decorating making flowers etc while I mixed the colors and smoothed on the icing. I am not posting the recipe since the cake was made from a packaged mix and the butter-cream frosting is a common recipe made with Crisco. We used a "Funfetti" cake mix and a vanilla buttercream frosting. Read on to see how the the cake was assembled and decorated. This method can be used for making any "age" cake.

For the bottom we used two cake mix packages and then for the numbers we used two small round cakes (made from one package of the cake mix).We then carved out a 6 and a 0 from each of the small round cakes.

Mixing different colors into the icing and decorating was a lot of fun. Smooth on off-white icing on the bottom and then ice on the variously colored flowers and leaves to depict a garden. For smoothing use a steel cake spatula warmed in hot water.

Placed the 60 in the center and then smooth on a contrasting color icing. Border the edged with a pattern to hide unevenness.

Baingan Bharta (Mashed Egg plant)

2008-01-07T17:39:00.001-08:00

This recipe is a favorite in my home. The eggplants are roasted, mashed and then cooked further with spices. I use small baby eggplants because they roast quickly. The only drawback of this recipe is that if you are roasting the eggplants on an electric range it can smoke if left unattended and therefore has to be constantly monitored. It works best when the eggplants are roasted on a flame burner. Also, in winter time with the windows all closed the whole house can smell of roasted eggplant for a pretty long time (a peeve of mine with Indian cooking). Nonetheless, this is a delicious indian recipe that has to be eaten with phulkas (check Indian breads post for that).

Ingredients

6 small baby eggplants (Don't use the large eggplants)
1 large onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
One pod garlic, chopped
mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp
green chilly, one, slit
turmeric 1/2 tsp
red chilly powder, to taste
cumin powder 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
1 tblsp oil

Wipe eggplants dry. Place on flame or electric coil on medium heat. Keep turning eggplants with tongs to roast evenly on all sides.

The skin of the eggplant should look burnt while the insides should start to feel mushy. This is the critical step and should be done right. A pain yes, but well worth it.

Peel off the burnt skin and cut off stem and head. Chop the eggplant into pieces and then mash with a potato masher into a pulp.

Heat oil in a pot. Add mustard seeds, green chilly and garlic. Fry till mustard seeds sputter. Add onions and fry till transparent. Add tomatoes, spices and salt. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes till the mixture is well cooked, stirring often. Add eggplant pulp. Mix together. Cover and cook for 5 more minutes. Serve hot garnished with cilantro. Eat with chapatis.