Pasta with pepper stuffed with cheese and sundried tomatoes.

Vegetarian Pasta with pepper stuffed with cheese and sun dried tomatoes . 

This recipe was to try out using the stuffed peppers and sundried tomatoes I came across in Cold Storage.

1. Stir fry Chopped onions, capsicums, cauliflowers on high heat with pepper and very little salt . the pesto will have salt on its own and so one needs to be very careful on salt.  I added the sun dried tomato half way through and the stuffed pepper towards the end when I felt the vegetables had cooked .

2. Add pesto and mix properly . Be careful not to break the stuffed peppers. I  used James Olivier's garlic chilli pesto ..

3. Add the cooked  pasta ( boiled al dente) to the vegetable pesto mixture and serve warm.

Bon Appetit! 

Pumpkin raita

Pumpkin raita... Steam pumpkin, mash it, add mustard paste .  My  friend's mom used to make fresh paste, I used readymade english mustard paste.  Now add a little sugar and  salt to taste .. I had no chillies at home to chop and add... to this mixture  add an equal amount of yoghurt/ curd. I have added a chonk / temper of dry red chilli, mustard and kadi patta/ curry leaves... was not sure of adding kadi patta / curry leaves but did it all the same as I love the smell of kadi patta / curry leaves.....  anyway the tang of mustard as u take a spoonful of the raita is awesome and makes this raita a winner... Whenever I eat this, I remember my friend's  mom's cooking fondly ...😊😊

Bengali Raw mango chutney / Aamer chaatni

Pulao in our house is invariably accompanied by chutney.. Tomato and date chutney/ chaatni as we Bengalis call it or  Mango ( called Aam in Bengali )  chaatni or Pineapple chaatni.

Abhit cooked a very delicious Multani biryani. I made an aamer chaatni  and warm lemon pudding cake to do justice to the biryani.

To make the mango chutney, cut a raw mango into long slices and boil it with a little turmeric and a little salt. Once cooked and softened, mash it up with a spoon. Take a pan and add a little oil to it. When it heats, temper it with paanch phoron . Paanch phoron is a combination of five spices which Bengalis use for tempering.  Add the mashed mango  mixture . Add water more or less depending on the sonsistency you want. Once it comes to boil, add sugar to taste. It should be khatta meetha .. ie sweet and sour.. the sugar should not drown completely the sourness of the mango. In the mean time, heat another pan. Dry poast a teasoon of paanch phoron and half a dry red chilli.  When it starts emitting an aroma, shut the gas. Let the spice cool and then grind it to a powder. When the sugar has dissolved in the chutney and the chutney is ready, put off the gas/ fire and sprinkle the powdered spice. It is the aroma of this ground spice which gives a totally different flavour to the chutney. Bon Appetit! 

Warm lemon pudding cake

Baked this from a recipe Swati Palekar had shared on face book. The original link to the recipe is

http://www.seasonsandsuppers.ca/warm-lemon-pudding-cake/?m&m

Paneer Pasanda

Paneer Pasanda

1. Chop Paneer into triangles

2. Make a stuffing of crumbled paneer, chopped coriander leaves, chopped cashew nuts and raisins , salt sugar to taste.

3. 

Slice the triangles from the centre , and place stuffing between the two slices

4. Smear tandoori masala on both sides.. You may smear any masala as per your choice . Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for ten minutes on each side.. Brush each side of the paneer with oil or butter

5. You may serve them as kebabs directly with coriander chutney , onion rings, lemon wedges

6. Or you may make a thick curry and pour over the paneer kababs to be had with rice or rotis.. For the curry, fry onions, ginger, garlic, chopped tomato, turmeric, salt to taste till the tomatoes soften . Cool and make a paste of it . In a little ghee or oil, add the ground paste along with chopped cashew nuts and raisins, kastoori methi, a little crumbled paneer.. Till the oil / ghee comes out from the sides.. I kept the gravy thick as we had it with pulao. Bon Appetit!

Garlic and black pepper Tofu

Today's lunch was inspired by Fat free vegan's recipe with the same title . The link to the original link is  http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/05/thai-black-pepper-and-garlic-tofu.html

I had bean sprouts at home which I had to use before they got spoilt and wasted  . I also wanted to make a one pot dish of veggies and proteins . And the aforementioned recipe gave me just that . But knowing me, I tweaked it with whatever I had at home ...

Since the meal was just for two , I took a slab of 200 grams firm tofu . I chopped them into rectangles and marinated them in a mixture of dark soya sauce , one crushed garlic, crushed pepper corns , rice wine and regular vinegar . When I was adding rice vinegar , I was startled to smell an  aroma  of spirits. I took a closer look at the bottle I had just opened and it turned out to be of rice wine . Oops ! So added a little regular vinegar to make do ..😁😁

I marinated the tofu just for half an hour . I then baked the tofu in the oven at 200 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes , turning over the tofu after 15 minutes.

In a pan , I heated  a teaspoon of oil, swirling the oil to grease the entire pan . After the oil had heated to a high point , I added two finely chopped ( in length ) onions . After a minute when it had started browning , I added a zucchini chopped in squares. Stir fried it for two minutes . I then added a mixture of crushed garlic ( five very large pods) and crushed pepper corn . After a minute I added sliced mushrooms . After another minute I added 200 grams of bean sprouts and one capsicum  chopped lengthwise. In the mean time I had some light soya sauce, a small teaspoonful of spicy Sriracha sauce , a teaspoon of honey, a little vinegar . I next added this mixture to the vegetables and continued to stir fry for five minutes. By then the tofu had got baked .

While I added the tofu to the vegetables , the next time I will be tossing the baked tofu with the vegetables for a minute to let the tofu become a little soft .

It was filling for lunch  , tasty , not to mention quick to make and good to eat . This is a keeper too ! 😊😊

Bon appetit !

Tuna Avocado Sandwich

With just AB and me at home , my search for recipes is for ones that is just enough for two , with no left overs .. And also a healthy one with us getting younger by the day .. ;) ;) .... And the third of course is one with minimum effort and maximum taste . Hit on a keeper yesterday . I love eat Subway sandwiches here ( have not enjoyed as much the Subway products in India and Singapore) . My favourites being egg mayo and tuna melt . I had a tin of spicy tuna and an avocado  available at home and so googled for avocado tuna sandwiches.. And this is what we ended up eating ..

Toast bread absolutely crisp.
In a bowl, mash an avocado . To it add sunflower seeds, finely chopped onion, cranberries, finely chopped  tomato , drained tuna from one can ( I used the Lite Spicy Tuna) . I added a teaspoon of mayonnaise as I was not buttering the toasts . This quantity will suffice for  five open sandwiches.

Spread on your toast and Bon appetit! 😊😊

Egg in a cloud

Sumita Boudi had shared a link to this recipe on facebook  .. Am unable to locate the link unfortunately, to give due credit ... 

Separate egg white and yolk. Beat the egg white till they form peaks. 

Place a spoonful on baking paper.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 deg C for three minutes. 

Gently place the yolk in the middle and bake for another three minutes for a runny yolk and five minutes for a firm yolk.

While I sprinkled salt and pepper towards the end , the original recipes calls for finely cut chives and cheese to be gently added to the beaten egg white . Very easy in terms of preparation , uses no oil, looks good and tastes good ! Bon Appetit!

Goanese Cafreal Chicken

Weekend calling ... Goanese Cafreal Chicken.. 

Grind to a paste coriander leaves, spring onion ( leaf and all) , ginger, garlic, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, 2 tspns sugar, salt to taste, garam masala ( cloves , cinnamon , don't cringe but I added cardamom too) , green chillies in 4 teaspoons red wine vinegar. Marinate chicken in it . Heat oil in pan and fry onions in it and keep it aside. Add a little more oil and add the chicken pieces with the marinade. I cooked both sides of the chicken on high flame for around five minutes. Then lowered the heat , covered the pan and cooked it for another twelve minutes . Added the fried onions , couldn't get myself to add a dollop of butter. Mixed the onions and the cooked chicken . This is supposed to be a dry preparation . It is a lovely combination of the heat of the chillies, the sweetness of sugar , and the tartness of vinegar .. Bon appetit! It went very well with pita bread stuffed with salad ... 😊😊
For those looking for exact measurements and the original recipe, please google Aditya Bal Cafreal Chicken ..

Asparagus roll ups

Asparagus roll ups...

Roll the salami over three four asparagus. 

Top with cheese sauce... bake at 190 deg c for 20 mins...  Since it was a first trial, I was keeping my fingers crossed  if the asparagus cooked ...  Fortunately, it did.. These were baby Thai asparagus.  We had it with pasta in pesto sauce.

Orange Rosogolla / Rasagulla stuffed with candied lemon peel

I had some milk which was close to expiring. So decided to make Orange flavoured rosogolla / rasagullas . I took the basic recipe of rasagulla . Improvised it. 

All I have done is add saffron to the syrup to get the yellow colour. Added orange essence to the chenna and syrup to get a light flavour of orange. Stuffed two small pieces of candied peel since I had them in hand. 

Attaching the basic recipe I follow from Manjulas kitchen. Her recipes are very doable and her explanations are very easy to follow. 
http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/11/22/bengali-rasgulla/

Egg stuffed Tomato

Feeling very pleased with myself.....
1.  Kimchi Rice :  use kimchi instead of veggies to prepare fried rice) 

2. Egg Stuffed Tomatoes :  scoop out the inners of a tomato. Sprinkle salt inside, add a little butter, break an egg inside, sprinkle salt and black pepper. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 deg C for 30 mins  
3. asparagus tossed in garlic and black pepper...

Cucumber avocado rolls and Baked parmesan zucchini

Considering I find cooking tedious , it's ironic that it is the most creative thing I do presently.... 😄  😄
Cucumber avocado rolls; Baked Parmesan zucchini; a salad of roasted shiitake and capsicums to go with pan fried Salmon... Happy weekend !!

These are not original recipes but have been improvised from recipes on Pinterest.

 1. Cucumber Avocado Rolls : Mash an avocado and add lemon juice, salt, pepper to taste. Cut a cucumber thinly lengthwise with a mandolin. Apply the avocado paste to the cucumber slice and  sprinkle a little red chilli powder for taste and more for decoration. Chill it in the refrigerator till it is time to serve.

2. Baked Parmesan Zucchini : I had never cooked zucchini or seen a zucchini till I came to Singapore. But now it is one of my favourite vegetables as it is so easy to chop, cook.. ;) :)

Quarter zucchini length wise. Drizzle olive oil on it.  Sprinkle a mixture of grated parmesan, Italian seasoning, ground black pepper on the zucchini. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees centigrade for fifteen minutes or till cooked.  Serve warm.

3. Pan fried Salmon

Apply turmeric powder , salt and chilli powder to taste ( chilli powder is optional) to the washed salmon. Heat the oil till it is very hot. Fry the salmon on both sides till crisp. Serve warm.

Aalu Achaari , Aalu achaar

Aaloo achaar as learnt from my friend and cook par excellence Neeta Agrawal..... Chop two boiled potatoes and add turmeric powder - salt to them ( as I worry about burning the turmeric powder if I add to oil directly).  Heat mustard oil and give a chonk of methi seeds / temper with fengureek seeds . Add finely chopped green chillies and the potatoes. Saute them for some time. Add grounded roasted jeera ( say 1/2 measuring teaspoon) and coarsely grounded roasted sesame seeds ( say 1 measuring tablespoon) and saute for a minute. Sprinkle lemon juice and put off the fire... It tastes lovely, achaari and its different like the Maggi sauce ad goes..😊😊

Eggless ginger walnut banana cupcakes

Eggless ginger walnut banana cupcakes.. This recipe by Sunita Bhuyan uses atta / whole wheat flour  and so works out like a good snack too for those who would like to minimize use of maida / refined flour... The next time, I  will bake them longer and in smaller cups ... 1.25 cups of atta/ whole wheat flour  sieved with 2 teaspoons  of baking powder and 1/3rd tsp of baking soda + 1 over ripe banana+ 1/2 cup almond milk + 4 teaspoon ground ginger + chopped 12 pieces of candied ginger + chopped 8 pieces of walnut + 1/4th tspn nutmeg powder + 1/2 cup oil + 4 tbspn brown sugar.. Bake at 180 deg in a preheated oven for 20 mins or till an inserted toothpick comes out clean.. For the original recipe and some excellent recipes, do checkout Sunita's blog sunitabhuyan.com

Cointreau infused Nutella Hazelnut chocolates

I came across this lovely post in  Sunita's World  on Nutella and dark chocolates truffles. My son loves nutella and I had some baking chocolate and  Cointreau ( orange liqueur) sitting in my refrigerator -- seemed just the right moment to try out these. I made a basic chocolate .. To make truffles -- finish and all , please do check out Sunita Bhuyan's post the link of which is attached herewith ..

http://sunitabhuyan.com/?p=2909

Ingredients :

1 bottle Nutella ( The packaging we buy here has 375 gms per bottle)

100 gms of dark chocolate

4 tbspns of honey

1 tbspn of ghee (clarified butter)

Hazel nuts (Dry roast and cool)

1 tspn Orange essence

1 tspn of Cointreau

Take a glass bowl . Add the nutella, the dark chocolate broken into pieces, the honey and ghee. Microwave for a minute or less till the dark chocolate melts or softens. Remove from oven and  add the orange essence and liqueur.  Mix properly . The liquid will turn solid as you mix and it cools. You will find the mixture coming out slightly from the sides.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate for an hour. Take small portions. Put a hazel nut  or a filling of your choice while rolling into balls. Place in mini muffin cases. Makes around 42 chocolate balls.

This simple recipe is very versatile and can be tweaked for variety. You may roll it in melted chocolate or cocoa powder or desiccated coconut for different finishes. You may add different fillings inside. You may also divide the mixture into different bowls and add different essences in each making a different flavor . Bon appetit!

Cranberry Orange Lemon Tea Cake

Oh well, the original post calls it a bread -- but for me it is an awesome cake and yes I have it with my evening tea.. And so it is my orange lemon cranberry tea cake... :) :)

Ingredients

1.5 cups Flour

2 tsp  Baking powder

3/4th cup sugar

1 egg

1/3rd cup oil

1/3rd cup milk

a pinch of salt

1 tspn vanilla

Zest of one orange.

1/2 cup cranberries

1/2 cup candied lemon peel.

You may also use one cup of cranberries as in the original recipe. I wanted to increase the taste of orange and candied lemon peels was the nearest thing I had to recreating the taste of an orange.

Procedure

Sift the flour and the baking powder thrice. Do not ask me why , but I have this thing of having to sift thrice. ( Penny! Penny! Penny! ) 

 In a bowl, take the sugar and add the orange zest. Mix it properly for sometime till the sugar becomes orange and the oil of the zest pervades the entire house... Trust me, it smells wonderful. And it allows you to increase the flavor of orange zest in the cake. I picked this up from Dorie Greenspan's French Yogurt cake ( see post) .  If you are in a hurry, you may skip this step .

Add the oil, egg, milk, salt, vanilla. Mix them properly. Add in the cranberries and lemon peel. The recipe says bake it for 20-25 minutes. But she did not mention any oven temperature and so I preheated the oven at 180 degrees and baked it for all of 50 minutes!! And it still did not brown as beautifully as the original post. I guess I need to increase my oven temperature to 200 degrees centigrade and bake it.

Do check out the original post of the recipe at the villagecook.com

http://thevillagecook.com/cranberry-orange-bread/

Bon appetit !!

Bhaja Pithey

Ma , as I call ab's mother, was a wonderful cook.  I was introduced to bhaja pithey at his house and  Poush sankranti or Makar sankranti meant bhaja pithey, shoru chakli ( to be eaten with cabbage sabji) . With baba also having passed away recently, the need to reach out to the life which I had known in Baroda became stronger . And I took the courage to try out this recipe. Thankfully it was a success or  that would have been the end of my journey to continue a tradition ;) ;) .

I do not have the weights / measures for this recipe as I recreated this from memory. 

Steps:

1. Dry roast yellow moong dal. Wash and boil it with salt to taste in minimal water till very soft in a separator in the pressure cooker. Using a separator allowed me to cook with minimal water. As you can see in the picture the dal has hardly any water. If you end up with  more water, you may like to dry up the water.

2. Mash it in the mixie to a smooth paste with chilli powder to taste and very little jeera powder, two spoons of maida to bind and two spoons of rice powder to make it crisp. 

3. Mash again with hand and roll into smooth balls. Stuff each ball with a small ball of sweet khoya or coconut mixture. My stuffing is a coconut jaggery mixture. In the picture below, the whitish balls are the moong dal balls and the brown shaped things are the jaggery coconut mixture.

4. You are actually supposed to pat it to a crescent shape but oblong is all I could muster..  

5. Deep fry in very hot oil so that it does not crack while frying. It does not require frying for long as all the ingredients in it  are already cooked. Your bhaja pithe is ready.. 

When u eat it, u get the taste of a savoury and sweet alternately... Bon Appetit! We had it with shoru chakli ( urad dal savoury pancakes) and a cabbage sabji.. "Tradition" as the song goes...  

If you are looking for a bhaja pithey recipe with exact measurements, you may like to checkout this blog by the multi-talented Sayantani .. And when you are on her blog, do not miss out on her breathtaking nokshabori...

http://www.ahomemakersdiary.com/2012/01/mug-daler-bhaja-pithe-or-muger-puli.html

Vegetarian Burgers

Ingredients for the burger patty :

• 1 can Chick peas/ Garbanzo beans/ Boiled chana ( one can is of 450 gms, the drained weight is 250 gms. So if you are boiling chick peas at home, the net weight without any water post boiling should be around 250 grams)
• 2 bread slices
• 2 boiled potatoes small
• 1 tspn each of cumin seeds , dry roasted and ground
• Salt , sugar, pepper to taste.
• Dried mango powder ( aamchur)  or lemon juice to taste
• Chopped coriander leaves
• White sesame seeds

1. Take a can of chick peas (or boil chana), mash it up with 2 breads, 2 boiled potatoes, 1 tspn each of roasted jeera powder, sugar, pepper each, sugar optional ( that's a Bong touch) , aamchur/ lemon juice and salt to taste, chopped coriander leaves. 

2. Prepare patties of the mixture.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on a plate  press either side of the patty on sesame seeds .

3. Heat a flat pan/ tawa.  Add a little oil and fry either side of the patty.  If you like it  deep fried in lots of oil, you may do so too. 

4. Prepare a spread of mayonnaise , wasabi ( optional, u may add mustard) , grated carrot and cucumber.

5. Slice a fresh soft bun. Apply the spread , patty, cheese slice , lettuce pieces. I skipped the cheese. 

 Had some strawberries in the freezer, used it to make a yogurt strawberry smoothie to serve it along the burgers...

Manjula's kitchen is a treasure trove of very doable vegetarian recipes. I first came across her site in search of a recipe to make rosogulla which incidentally was a  great success. I found tinned rossogullas thereafter .. ;)...  Her site is my regular hunting ground when I am in search of vegetarian recipes,  particularly recipes  which do not use onion garlic / Jain recipes as they are popularly called in India.   You may have noted that this recipe too does not have onion and garlic. The link to the original recipe on her site from where I have taken this recipe is attached herewith
http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2014/01/17/spicy-chickpea-patty-sandwich/

 .. Have a great weekend all!!