Mini Aubergine Tomato and Mozzarella appetizer

I love this super easy party dish and since it's the season of parties, let's go for it!

What you need is:

6 mini aubergines
1 packet buffalo mozzarella
2 tbsp basil leaves chopped
Some basil leaves for decoration
Parmesan Cheese
Salt, pepper to taste
Tomato Concasse (when i don't feel like making it, i use the ready made pasta Arrabiata sauce that comes in jars

For the tomato Concasse if you want to make it:
Puree of 3 tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic chopped
half an onion chopped (2 tbsp)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp (or one nice dollop) tomato ketchup
1 cup old white wine (optional)
Paprica Powder
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp mixed Italian herbs

Method for the concasse:
take olive oil and heat in a non stick pan
Put in the chopped onions and saute
Add the Chopped Garlic and Sautee for a bit
Optional step - add the white wine
Add the tomato puree and mix in the tomato ketchup, paprica and a little bit of salt and put on a slow flame
Let this cook slowly till the mixture starts to thicken the flavours will all concentrate once it thickens so watch out how much salt you put in
Stir it occasionaly until it becomes really nice and thick
so you see why I just simply buy the stuff right?

Ok, the aubergines also need to be sliced and salted and put in a collander so that all the excess water drains out of it
Once that's done, take kitchen tissues or towels and just dab the aubergines dry completely

Other stuff you will need: Oven, Oven Proof dish, Vegetable oil for lining the oven dish. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees centigrade

So the assembling:

Take your aubergine and lightly put salt and pepper on it.
on top of that put a small piece of mozzarella on each of the aubergine pieces
Top with a dollop of Tomato Concasse
Sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese (be generous!)
Top with finely chopped basil leaves
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes till the aubergine is cooked through but not soft and mushy and the cheese has all melted
Top with a fresh sprig of Basil and enjoyyy!

This may not be something that can be picked up with a toothpick or something but is great for an appetizer when you want to sit down and eat with a fork.

Sometimes I make a full layered baked dish with this by repeating the layers twice:
Aubergine, Mozzarella, Tomato concasse, Parmesan, Aubergine, Mozzarella, tomato Concasse and Parmesan with Basil on top and bake the whole thing for around 30 minutes in the oven. this can totally be served as one of the main courses in a buffet style party

Ladies Night - Orange Juice Fish

Just made this totally healthy and totally awesome baked fish. Unfortunately don't have pictures to show you how it turned out but it was delicious!! I love the subtle sweet and tanginess of the Oranges as the base for this dish. I've used a white fish (Basa) as my base as it has the mildest flavour of it's own and goes very well with the tangy and vibrant flavours in this dish.

Ingredients:
1 fillet of Basa or Surmai (around 200gm)

For the Marinade:
Juice of 2 oranges (you need around 1 cup or 200ml)
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1/4tsp pepper powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil

To Garnish:
A good handful of chopped coriander - like 3 tbsp full

Others: you will need an oven, oven dish, aluminium foil and some oil spray or like 2 drops of oil to line the dish

Method:
I took an oven tray, put an oven proof dish on top of the tray and line the tray with a little bit of oil. on top of that put a big chunk of aluminium foil and put the fish on top of that foil.
Put the marinade on top of the fish and top with coriander
Wrap the foil completely around the fish so that it is completely sealed
Keep marinated for around 15 minutes or even overnight in the refrigerator
Preheat your oven at 160 degrees and once the oven is hot, put the oven dish with your fish wrapped in aluminium foil and bake for 20 minutes

Once you Have baked it, keep it closed only until the time you need to serve it so hen you open the foil, you will be embraced by the hot and fresh tangy and sweet and salty aroma of this lovely fish.

I had this fish with some sauteed spinach, the recipe of which I will share with you soon and some baked potatoes which I baked at the same time as the fish.

Voila, fancy meal in minutes!

Tuesday Quick Tip: Taking food stains.odors off your hands

Sometimes when you are working with beetroots and other such super coloured veggies the stains just simply do not come off. It's the most horrid look in the world. You almost look like you've murdered someone and the blood is still on your hands!!!

In these cases, add lemon juice straight on your hands and just keep for a few seconds and watch the magic. It just absolutely disappears!

I also always try and avoid being in direct contact with garlic or fish when chopping or cutting them and would highly recommend you to use gloves when dealing with this stuff as well. But I've found that if you are in the most dire of situations in terms of stinky hands, soak your hands in a mixture of vinegar and soda and it seriously helps. You have to wash your hands thoroughly after that but it will take off the horrid garlicy or fishy smell from your hands for sure!

Pick me up Salad - Strawberry Yogurt

This is such a comfort dish for me and I Love to have it anytime of the day. Especially now in the winters where I have to motivate myself to get to work and actually do some work when all I want to do is laze around and just watch tv this provides a little bit of "pep" to help me get through the day.

Since it is Strawberry season I love to put loads of Strawberries and put less of yogurt simply because I love the tartness and tanginess of the strawberries. This can also double up as a dessert if you add a little sugar to it.

Ingredients for 1 cup:
10 Strawberries
4 tbsp Yogurt
Walnuts

Method:
Clean and Chop the Strawberries
Crush the walnuts with your hand
Whisk the Yogurt separately with a pinch of salt, half a tsp honey/sugar till smooth
Add the chopped strawberries and crushed walnuts
Mix and enjoy!

Quick note: Mint leaves do really good with this and look great as well if you like

Sorry I have been busy

So sorry guys I've been really crazy busy lately, have had absolutely no time to think and do anything for the blog and I'm really sorry for that.

i'm leaving for a wedding to Bikaner (YAY!) on the 9th coming back on monday evening the 12th December 2011 and will resume writing from then on.

Until then, have fun and keep me posted on all your fun New Year's plans coz now it is time for feasting until new year's when resolutions will be started and kept!! :)

Food Tip: Food Face Scrub

I used to dread this so much when I was a child. This was the dreaded scrub that would be put on my hands and legs and face to make me look lovlier, fairer and have smooth soft skin. But over time I realised that I actually quite like this home made scrub and it does actually work really well so here's a basic tip for a nice foodie face pack - cum scrub that you can use anytime

1 cup channa atta (besan)
1 pinch turmeric powder
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp yogurt
half a lemon - juice

Mix all this together and put it as a pack on your face and body. Rub vigorously on skin to make sure your skin is smooth and glowing.

Wash it off and enjoy the benefits. Ideally, you should step into the shower and do this whole routine as it tends to be quite a messy and sticky affair.

:) 

Monday Salad:Rocket, Parmesan and Melon Salad

I saw this Salad on the menu of this new restaurant 5 all day and am going to try and give you a rendition of the same. I love the peppery and pungent rocket leaves and the Parmesan absolutely compliments the whole thing. The melon add this lovely sweet mellowness to the pungent and rich flavours and balances it out well. Another good addition to this for my hardcore non vegetarian buddies is some fried bacon. You get yummy chicken bacon which you put into a pan without any oil and just saute it. Chop it up into bits or leave it as is for a lovely crunchy salted flavour to the salad.

Ingredients:
2 Handfuls of Rocket Leaves
Juice of half a Lemon
20 grams of Parmesan Cheese - either you can take a peeler/slicer and make thin long strips or then cut into small squares
1 cup Honeydew Melon peeled, de-seeded and cut into small squares
Salt and pepper to taste
Chicken Bacon (optional) as above

Method
Put a pinch of salt and pepper into the lemon juice, stir and keep aside
On a plate put a bed of Rocket leaves
Top this with melon pieces
Add your lemon juice on top of this mixture
Decorate with Parmesan Cheese and (optional) Chicken Bacon

Enjoy!

Sunday Treats: Pound Cake

This post is dedicated to Niks who had requested me for this recipe. A pound cake is simply 1 pound each of butter, sugar, flour and eggs. It's as simple as that! However, it has a hundred different recipes and lots of different variations. It is the most simple and satisfying cake one could ever come across. It is full of butter and seriously delicious. Simple yet right for any occasion. According to me the best way to have pound cake is straight up without any of the fuss of chocolate or nutella or fruit or cream (though they all taste excellent i must say). Plus the left overs can be made and used in a fruit trifle (recipe coming tomorrow for Sunday treats).

This is my forever tried and tested recipe that has worked for me for years.

Ingredients:
400gm Flour
400gm Butter
400gm Caster Sugar
4 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (soda bi carb)
1 tsp vanilla essence
Some extra butter and flour for lining the cake tin
Optional: Powdered sugar/fresh cream/strawberries/ chocolate sauce to decorate

You will need a cake tin and an electric whisk
Also, quick note: this is a good opportunity to use your fancy cake tins with all the weird and wonderful decorations because the cake is so plain and simple, this just adds a little pizzaz to the final cake and can give this simple cake a wow effect.

Method:
First it is important to have all your ingredients at room temperature. You should take them out of your refrigerator at least 2 hours before your actual cooking time. This is a very important tip for a successful cake.

• Grease the cake tin with butter and then dust with flour so that you have an even and thin coat of butter and flour in your cake tin. Remove excess flour
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade. 
• Mix the baking powder and baking soda in the flour and sift the flour and baking powder together
• Break the eggs in a bowl, add the vanilla essence and beat together lightly
• Take the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with the electric whisk

• Once this mixture turns light and fluffy, add the egg mixture and flour mixture in alternating batches
• With this I mean to say first put half the egg mixture, then half of the flour, then the other half of the egg mixture and finally the flour
• Each time you must mix till everything is just incorporated
• Now your cake batter is ready and you can put it in your lined cake tin. 
• Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean

Be careful with your pound cake and do not handle it or try to take it out of the cake tin when it is hot. Leave to cool on a wire rack and once cooled then you can do as you please with the cake. 

Niks: 6 cups of flour is waaay too much flour to make any cake with. If you want to equate the above in cups then it would be 2 cups flour, 2 cups butter and 2 cups sugar. If you absolutely want to use 6 cups then take 6 cups of all the quantities and use around 10 eggs for the same.

Easy Delicious Dessert: Coconut Cream

I just made this dessert today and it truly turned out superb. The only one issue I had with it was how to decorate it to really give it it's due credit as one of the leading contenders in the yummiest desserts in the planet race. I wanted to put some strawberries or pomegranate to the pristine milky smooth layer of dessert but I felt like the tangy nature of the fruit would sort of ruin the delicate flavour of my precious. So I decided to leave it as is. What is a great idea to out however, is sugar flowers in pink or lavender which will really make these look as beautiful as they should.

This dessert is not a killer on the calories either, even though it does have condensed milk.

Ingredients:
You have to ask your coconut vendor for coconut with sweet water and thin "malai." You need two such coconuts
1/2 can condensed milk
1/4 cup gelatin powder

You will also need a gas stove, a strainer, a hand blender and the skills required to open up a coconut and scrape the malai out yourself (you can outsource these skills as well), loads of ice. I like to set this in Individual bowls because it's easier to eat then but you can set it in one big bowl as well.

Method:

• Take the gelatin and soak it in 1 cup room temperature water and keep aside
• Take a large steel vessel, put the water and "malai" of the two coconuts into the vessel
• Add half the can of condensed milk and whizz up with a hand blender until everything is a united thick mass of deliciousness
• Take a break to have like 4 - 5 spoons to "make sure it tastes alright"
• Take a larger flat plate or thaali and fill it with ice
• Place the vessel of coconut heaven on the ice and keep aside for a bit
• Put the vessel with gelatin on the stove and heat on medium till the gelatin has melted
• Take a strainer and pour the gelatin through the strainer into the cold coconut mixture and quickly whizz it all together on the ice
• Pour into individual moulds and put into the fridge to set

You can have this almost everyday, it's so light to eat and I always feel like i'm eating clouds when I eat this. Love it!

Cheese and Pesto Mini Cups

Mom and I were sitting at home on a Sunday morning when we suddenly decided to make these cheese cups for breakfast! Yes it was quite a crazy idea but we both got up and were so excited about our devious plan to greedily guzzle calories first thing in the morning that the plan became our morning's agenda. We bunched up some of the most delicious ingredients, put them all together and created a wonderful new recipe which I think would be an awesome party canape as well.

You get these ready mini cups that are crunchy and cute little mini tartlets that you can buy anywhere around the world and in your local markets. I very easily popped around 8 - 10 of them, but then again I'm really greedy. I think 4 tartlets per person is a good estimate for normal people.

Ingredients: for 24 tartlets
24 Tartlets
250gm Mozzarella Cheese
120gm Feta Cheese
200gm American sweet corn kernels, boiled

120gm Pesto

A bit of Red and Yellow Peppers and Olives chopped fine for decoration

You will need an oven pre-heated at 180 degrees before you start assembling

Method:
Take all the tartlets and place them in your baking tray
put a little bit each of mozzarella, feta, pesto and corn in the tartlets and toss it in the oven for 5 - 10 minutes or until the cheeses have melted
Take out of the oven and top with the peppers and serve!

Chicken Teriyaki

What I love about pseudo Chinese food is that it's sooo easy to make! why I say pseudo is because Teriyaki is actually a Japanese sauce or preparation but what i tend to do is give all these sauces some sort of Indian "masala" twist and put it under the Chinese banner. This may sound really horrendous to some of you, but I don't mind mixing and matching my Indian-South East Asian and doing it with pride. Why I love Oriental food is that (1) it's really easy to make (2) I can make it with a few easy steps and (3) it looks like I've totally cooked up an international meal!




The Teriyaki sauce I've used is Kikkoman's Teriyaki with Garlic sauce. It's really quite delicious.

Ingredients:
400gm Chicken boiled in 4 cups of water with 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste, 1 tsp green chilli paste and a pinch of salt
1 bunch Bok Choi
400gm Mushrooms cleaned and chopped into quarters
2 cloves Garlic
3 tbsp Teriyaki Sauce
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

• Take out the boiled chicken pieces from the stock and strain the stock so that it has no sediment
• Mix the teriyaki sauce in the chicken pieces so that it gets a chance to absorb the flavours a little bit and keep aside
• Clean and separate out the bok choi and cut out the bottom root part (maybe 1/2 an inch from the bottom)
• Take oil in a wok and saute the garlic
• Once the garlic starts to turn slightly brown, then add the mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes
• Add the chicken pieces with the teriyaki sauce and stir for another 30 seconds
• Add the stock and mix everything together
• Bring to a boil, switch the flame off and Add the bok choi just before serving. If you are making this in the morning to be re-heated and eaten in the evening, then add the bok choi in the evening Otherwise it will wilt and become very unappetizing. 

Enjoy! 

Food Tip: Making Caramel

I want to share with you this amazing food tip on David Lebowitz's website on how to make Caramel.

He gives you the best tips and the best ideas when trying to make your caramel so that it turns out perrrefct. The only tip I can give is to put a little bit of Salt in your caramel so that it has a wonderful balance and it's not too sweet.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/01/how-to-make-the/

Also, Here is a recipe that you will not forget because of the great photography as well as the most amazing results. I've tried this recipe and yields awesome results and I store it in a jar and use it on EVERYTHING! However, just a warning, this sauce is sweetness personified so you can't just eat it by itself like this caramel sauce that I make here (click HERE to see recipe) but it's really good nonetheless.

The picture is also taken from this website to give you a hint of how good the caramel sauce will be that you will be making.

http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2011/01/step-by-step-honey-caramel-sauce/

Potato, Spinach and Tahini Salad

You know there are days where you just don't want to eat anything? Firstly, I never have days like those, for me the danger is the days that I decide to go the junk food route and just go ballistic. I love my food, I love everything about my food. That's why, for me it's so important to have my salad fixes because without them I'd just go on eating without limits!! Fortunately I love salads Plus they fill my stomach so that I am guzzling down the right foods and get full-ish before the wrong foods arrive. This salad has all the good creaminess of a mayonnaise based salad, but without the fattening element. It's ideal plus it's really yummy. I like to sometimes put sautéed chicken sausages in this to give more colour and spunk sometimes as well.

Ingredients: for 4 people
300gm Baby potatoes boiled in salt water and halved
50gm Green Beans cleaned and boiled in salted water
Spinach leaves washed
Chicken Sausages cut and sauteed
50gm feta cheese crumbled

For the dressing mix together all of the following: 
2 tbsp tahini paste
5 tbsp yogurt
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp pepper or to taste
juice of half a lemon (around 1 tbsp)

Method
Take the spinach as a bed on the bottom
Mix the potatoes, green beans and sausages together with the dressing

Put this mixture on the bed of spinach
Top with feta cheese and serve fresh

Sunday Treats: Black forest Cake

There is nothing as comforting as a lovely blackforest cake. I had one last evening from the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai and it was divine. I totally think they make some of the best cakes in the world!

So I got inspired from it and thought that I'd not make the fancy version that I ate, but I'll make those wonderful comfort food versions full of cream and chocolate shaving and those canned cherries that I totally love. I felt like I was at the Taj Pastry shop a hundred years ago. I realized that this cake is just all about assembling and is super easy to make and it's not so fattening if you use a vegetable based non dairy whipped topping (you can ask for Rich's Cream). All the fun with less calories!!

Yes I know some of you will be thinking, man this girl's taken all the short cuts to make this cake but really I feel like if I'm going to come back after my long day of work, I don't want to spend hours in the kitchen as well as buy expensive ingredients that I may not use after like kirch and all. However, I will say that when I can lay my hands on real cherries, the fresh ones, I totally prefer using them. I always buy like a kilo of cherries when I want to make some cherry based dessert because I know that I am going to end up eating quite a few along the way...!!

Ok so here we go!

You will need:

2 full chocolate cakes. The ready made mix ones will do just fine
2 litres of this Cream topping - whisked/whipped and kept ready in the fridge
2 tins of Cherries
If you are using fresh cherries, you will need Sugar Syrup - 2 cups sugar, 1/2 a cup water mixed together till the mixture becomes homogeneous. if not then you can use the juice of the canned cherries

A string to cut the cakes
loaaaads of chocolate shavings. You get a separate packet of only chocolate shavings and can find this at your nearest gourmet store (I get it from Sante in Bandra)

Method:
Kepp some good looking cherries that are de-seeded on the side for decoration
Take your two ready and cooled chocolate cakes and take a string.
Put the string around the cake like shown in the diagram


Cross the string and pull so that the string cut fully into the cake and you have two horizontal pieces of cake

Put the first cake on the plate and put a little bit of sugar syrup on it. Don't put too much on the bottom layers because it will get too mushy and soggy at the bottom


Slap some whipped cream on top and smoothen it out
Add some cherries that have been de-seeded on top of the layer


Repeat these layers till you are done with all four of the cake layers
Put Cream on the top and on the sides of the cake to make it look decorative. Decorate with whipped cream and cherries and you are totally good to go!

Love it!

Friday Dessert: Brownie Sundae

So easy to put together, so delicious and gratifying to eat!

Ingredients:
Brownies
Vanilla/chocolate/Stracciatella/Butter Scotch  Ice Cream
Walnuts, Cashew Nuts, and Almonds
Chocolate Sauce
If you want to top with cherries or strawberries to make it look good

Method: 
Heat the brownies in a microwave or on a non-stick pan
Put them in individual colourful bowls top with ice cream, Chocolate sauce and Cherries/Strawberries and top with nuts
Enjoy your Day!! :) 

Thursday Appetizer: Honey Mustard Chicken

This is really easy and delicious! You can use this as a Salad, Appetizer but I like to put this on a nice piece of French bread on a bed of lettuce and serve it like that as an appetizer. Make sure that you put a little low fat mayonnaise or some butter on the bread if you are using it as a bruschetta as it may get a bit dry if you don't.

Ingredients for 2 people:
1 Chicken Breast
1 tbsp Mustard
1 teaspoons Honey
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
I like to put a little coriander on top as well but it's completely upto you
A bed of lettuce to put below the plate or the piece of bread

Clean the chicken and cut it into small pieces
Fry the chicken in Olive oil and salt (will take around 5 - 10 minutes to cook)
Put the mustard and honey in and switch off the gas
Check the salt
That's it you are done, just put that on a bed of lettuce and put it on the plate or a bruschetta

Wednesday Ladies Night: Baked Sausage

This Recipe has been given to me by my friend Amrita and I'm really grateful to her to give me this seriously easy and delicious recipe that can be made by people who don't even cook. This is ready in very few and easy steps and is just to be shoved in the oven at the given temperature, that is all. So I would definitely encourage you to do the same. For the vegetarians, there is vegetarian sausages or then alternatively you can use soya kebabs with the same preparation. The Soya Kebabs will take a little more effort and those kebabs will be fried, but it will taste divine! I have slightly changed the original recipe to make it slightly easier to understand.

Ingredients: 

*    200 gm Ripe cherry Tomatoes cut into halves

*    1 - 2 Fresh sprigs each of thyme, rosemary and parsley roughly torn up

*    Good quality sausages

*     3 - 4 cloves of garlic chopped

*     2 - 3 tablespoons of Extra virgin olive oil

*    1 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar

*    Salt & pepper to season

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Centigrade
Take a baking dish and add half the cherry tomatoes, the garlic, herbs, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and the sausages and mix together well.
Season with Salt and Pepper

Place the sausages on top of the mixture and bake for 15 minutes, then take out the tray, add the rest of the cherry tomatoes, turn the sausages around and bake for another 15 minutes

Voila! it's ready! you can serve this with mashed potatoes, steamed or sauteed vegetables or just have this as is! 

Tuesday Food Tip: How to use Balsamic Vinegar

Balsamic vinegar comes from Italy and is truly unique in

taste and texture. Balsamic Vinegar is made from the juice

of certain grapes and then aged in barrels for years. It has

 a wonderful balance of sweet and sour with a silky

smooth texture.  Balsamic vinegar is best used as a salad

dressing with or without olive oil. I love the richness and

velvety smoothness of this vinegar. However, when you

are using balsamic vinegary ou must be really careful not

to use too much. Take a little at a time and keep tasting

before you put more in any dish.

There are 3 kinds of Balsamic vinegar: 
(source: www.wikipedia.com)

1. Authentic traditional artisan balsamic vinegar, the only kind that may legally be described as Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale
2. Commercial grade balsamic vinegars produced on an industrial scale.
3. Condimento grade products, which are often a mix of the two above

The really good stuff is obviously the first one. Balsamic vinegar can be "aged" almost like the process of aging wine in barrels except that you do not ferment the grapes for vinegar but you ferment the grapes of wine. These Balsamic Vinegars sometimes are aged for hundreds of years, those are obviously really expensive ones as well. Balsamic vinegar is healthy and I would encourage you to definitely use more of them in your everyday life. 

Ways in which you can use Balsamic vinegar:

• With Vanilla Ice Cream
• Take one tbsp Balsamic Vinegar, 2 tbsp Sugar with 300gm strawberries and boil. to be used over dessert
• Take 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and top with 1 cup red wine/water with 5 figs cut into half, to be slowly cooked together and to be used as a dessert
• To be used in Salads with Tomato, buffalo Mozzarella and Basil leaves
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar to 1 tbsp olive oil with a small pinch salt and freshly ground pepper to dip your bread with (yummy!)

Monday Salad: Pomello Salad

Sarah (my sister) introduced this salad to us when dining at a restaurant in Bombay. We have loved it ever since, "copied" the essence of this salad to simplify it to make it at home and love to make it as well!

It's easy, absolutely delicious and it's finished in just a few steps. This also looks really attractive with the pink of the grapefruit, the green of the spring onions and the white of the cashew nuts all comes together really well.

Ingredients:

1 grapefruit
2 spring onions chopped (the green part only)
1/2 cup cashew nuts
1/2 cup oil (to fry the cashewnuts)

For the sauce:
1 tbsp Soya Sauce
1 tbsp Lemon juice
1 tbsp sugar or honey
1/4 tsp red chili powder

Method:
Take the oil and fry the cashew nuts. Cashew nuts need to be supervised when frying. You need to keep stirring them and the moment they start turning golden brown you need to take them off, drain out the oil and put the cashew nuts on a paper towel.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce together and keep aside
Take the fleshy fruit part of the grapefruit and place it in a bowl
Mix in the spring onions and cashew nuts and top with the dressing
Serve immediately

this Salad doesn't store very well so make only as much as you want to eat at that point. This is good for around 4 people having it as an appetizer

Sunday Treats

Ok so you caught me! I'm completely not prepared to write today's article. I've just woken up to the realization that I have no way to get you all a witty, smart, informative, delicious article today!!

So I'm sending you this link for some inspiration, it gives you a list of the 100 best foods in the world which has been compiled by CNN Go. It's a great way to start your day with good food, or even the thought of good food!

http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/eat/worlds-50-most-delicious-foods-067535?page=0,2

Friday Easy Dessert: Cocoa Delight

This is the first dessert that I have ever made because we learnt this way back in school. This dessert has 3 ingredients but it is just a comfort food for me, really good and easy to make. This dessert required absolutely zero cooking and can be decorated really nicely in individual coloured wrapping paper and served like large “sweets” to guests as well. 

Ingredients:

1 packet Marie Biscuits crushed to a powder

½ a box of condensed milk

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Mix all the ingredients together. Add the condensed milk slowly to make sure that the biscuits and cocoa powder are just about bound together by the sticky condensed milk. There is always a tendency to put more condensed milk and then you end up with a sticky mass… just be careful of that. Roll into balls and serve to your waiting guests! Cocoa Delight is a good cooking class idea for kids who are bored at home and is an easy, fun and delicious activity to do together. 

Thursday Appetizer: Minced Lamb Samosas

Prianca, this is on your request!

                                

 These are a typical non-vegetarian starter that turns out soo delicious. Yes they are fried, but you can bake them just as easily as well. I’ll give you both the options, but you can’t beat the taste and the softness and juiciness when you fry something.

There is a brand called Switz which sells samosa dough in long leaves and they are the best to use when making samosas

Ingredients:

250 gm minced lamb meat

1 inch piece ginger

4 – cloves garlic

3 green chilies  

Salt to taste

½ tsp chili powder

¼ tsp haldi powder

¼ tsp garam masala (optional)

1 tsp dhania jeera powder

3 spring onions chopped fine

1 cup coriander leaves chopped

1 cup mint leaves chopped

Oil for frying

Wedges of lemon and tomato ketchup for accompaniment

A long brutal workout the next day to make up for eating too many of these

Method:

• Take the ginger, garlic and chilies, make a paste and keep aside
• Clean and wash the Kheema
• Take a little water and boil the Kheema in the above ginger garlic and chili paste with salt until fully cooked
• Put the pot of boiled Kheema on a high flame and add the red chili powder, haldi powder, garam masala, jeera powder and sauté till all the water has evaporated from the minced lamb meat and it is dry
• Wait till this mixture cools down and only once it is cooled then add the spring onions, coriander leaves and mint leaves
• Check the salt to see if it’s ok and adjust the seasoning for the same
• Now it’s time to fold the samosas and this is the only difficult part in the whole operation. You need to take 1 tbsp of wheat flour and mix ½ a tsp of water in it to make a thick paste with which you will “stick” the samosa together
• I’ve taken an appropriate diagram from http://www.korasoi.com/blog/?p=91 to demonstrate how to fold the samosa and give it the right shape

Even if they are not so perfect it’s all good. You can stick up all the cracks and crevices with this flour and water mixture and practice some more till you get better at it

Fry these delicate parcels of joy in hot oil till the samosa turns a golden brown, take out and enjoy!

Wednesday: Quinoa Rissotto

Quinoa (pronounced as Keen-Wa) is one of a world's super foods that has been with the South americans over centuries. Recently discovered to us in Bombay, this is super healthy and can be super tasty too! There are many simple and tasty recipes that you can use with Quinoa and here are a few. 

Quinoa can be made like a pulav (I like to call it risotto just coz it sounds fancier. Think about it Quinoa Risotto vs Quinoa Pulav? There's obviously no question about which sounds fancier!! 

Quinoa can be made just like rice, except that you need to put some more water. So for every measurement of Quinoa that you will put, you need to put 2 cups of liquid. Look I'm not guaranteeing you the best tasting dish of all, but I know it tastes good and is super healthy so it makes up for it. 

I made this easy and yummy Quinoa Risotto with a few easy steps for 2 people eating only Risotto or 4 people who have an appetizer and the risotto

1 cup Quinoa

1 cup boiled Soya Seeds (the green ones) boiled with a little salt

1 cup tomato puree

1 cup stock (chicken/vegetable)

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 an onion 

1 clove garlic

1 bay leaf

Method:

Take the olive oil and heat in a non stick saucepan 

Saute the Onions and the Garlic till the onions are translucent

Add the bay leaf and saute for 2 minutes more

Add the quinoa and saute for 1 minute till the oil coats all the quinoa

Add the tomato puree and the stock and give it one mix and leave to cook 

Add salt to taste depending on the saltiness of the stock

It will cook for around 10 minutes till the liquid has absorbed and the quinoa has cooked

Add the Soya Beans and serve hot

Correcting lumps in your Gravy:

I know there have been loads of times where we have had lumpy blotchy gravy. This happens especially with white sauce and these three fail proof methods that may help you make wonderful silky smooth gravies.  Ou will never be terrorized by white sauce ever again!

Tip 1:

You can use a hand blender and whizz the gravy together into one smooth liquid

Tip 2:

You can put the gravy in a smoothie maker or a liquidizer and it will convert itself into a smooth and wonderful gravy

Tip 3:

If you don’t have any equipment or none of the above work, then you can pass the gravy through a sieve ad you will get the lumps out of your gravy in a jiffy

Monday Salad: Cream Cheese Dip

I got inspiration from this dip from the Mexican Bagel that we serve at my restaurant Wich Latte. this is a super awesome dip to have with tacos, chips, lavash and even with Cucumbers and Carrots. It's tangy, tasty, creamy and really scrumptious. I like to have this as a quick salad before my meal. sometimes I eat this as is and sometimes I indulge and have it with fries.. heaven!!

Ingredients:
100 gm cream cheese (you can use the Amul cheese spread as well)
200 gm hung yogurt (you need 400 gm yogurt hung for 2 hours)
1/2 yellow red bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green capsicum
1 small onion chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp tabasco sauce
1 green chilli chopped (optional)
1/2 tsp black pepper

Method:
Mix it all together, and put in the fridge to chill.
This is really colourful and lovely 

Sunday Treats: Brownies with Salted Caramel

I've got this recipe from this awesome book called Baked by Matt Lewis and Tony Poliafito and made them with great results. You need to be really careful that you don't put the caramel on the sides of the brownie and it remains in the centre only otherwise you will have a problem taking the brownie out of the  mould. I have also given you some tips on how you can decorate your cakes with icing sugar so in the future when you are making cakes or brownies or anything you can decorate them very easily. I have very slightly tweaked their recipe to suit my tastes.


Ingredients: 

For the Salted Caramel:
1 cup castor sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup
3/4 th cup Heavy Cream
1 tsp salt (the refined salt)

For the Brownie: 
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
300 gm dark chocolate chopped up
200 gm butter
1 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence


For the decoration:
Walnuts
Sugar
Sugar Confetti
Icing Sugar

Method:

To make the Caramel:
This is really easy but required a bit of patience to make -
Mix the salt and the heavy cream together
Mix the corn syrup, sugar and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan and heat
Let it boil till it starts getting that lovely caramel colour and smell
Add the heavy cream and mix together. Be careful because this mixture will bubble very vigorously and you could get burnt
Keep aside to cool

To make the Brownie:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Centigrade
Grease your baking dish/oven tray and dust with flour
Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler
Mix the flour, cocoa powder and keep aside
Add the eggs two at a time until just combined, do not overbeat
Fold in the flour mixture carefully into the batter
Pour half the brownie batter, then pour 1 cup caramel sauce on this and top with the rest of the batter
Bake this for around 30 minutes (it should be a little moiist still at the centre)
remove the brownies from the oven and cool
Take butter paper and cut into strips
Place the strips onto the brownies

Sprinkle icing sugar onto the brownies

Take off the strips and decorate with walnuts and sugar confetti

Easy Dessert: Melon Sorbet

This dessert literally has three ingredients and is so delicious! I normally like all my sorbets smothered in vanilla ice cream. So what I do is I always serve this with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream on the side, it really enhances the flavour of the sorbet. This is so fresh and delicious I promise you, you will just keep wanting more

This can be done with fruits that yield thick juices: Peaches, Mangoes and Melons

You will need:

8 cups Fruit, cleaned, Washed, skinned, cut and whizzed up
Icing Sugar to taste (depending on the sweetness of the fruit) I always put at least 2 tablespoons at least

Whizz this up together with a blender so that it is really smooth and there are no bits

Now comes the really important part:
You need to put this in an airtight box and put in the freezer
Take out after 2 hours and use the hand mixie on it again to break it up, and put back in the freezer
Take out again after 2 hours and again use the hand mixie to break up this sorbet mixture
Take it out one last time after 2 hours, whizz it all up again and keep to set

What you can do if you don't have an issue with it, is put one egg white into the sorbet mixture. There will be no egg taste and your Sorbet mixture will be airier and smoother in texture. You have to make sure that there is absolutely no yolk going into this mixture because it will smell immediately.

Ready!

Eating in a Thaal

Shraddha, my veteran half Bohri, I thought so much about you when writing this!! :)

Growing up in a Bohra Household has made me love and appreciate the "Thaal" way of eating. It is absolutely unique and has been around for ages. No Bohra wedding is complete without the "Thaal" system of eating. So I thought I would give you a bit of a lowdown on what eating in a Thaal is like.

I was just at a wedding last evening and thought I'd share this delightful way of eating with the menu with all of you.

WARNING: if you are vegetarian, please stop reading NOW, Bohra weddings are all about the meat!

There is the Saffra (Suf - rah) which is like a tablecloth but it goes on the floor where everyone will be eating

On the Saffra, you put something called either: Kunli, Chumli or Tarakhti (Tur-akh- tee) to support the Thaal so that it is at a good and comfortable height for peopel to eat

There are spoons and glasses given in advance that are distributed to the people sitting in the Thaal. 

There are around 7 - 8 people who will sit in the Thaal together with you. These could be either your family and friends (if you have that many people who all want to sit together) or you could even be sharing this meal with other strangers

There are some weddings where women and men dine separately. There is a section with the Men's Thaals, and a section with the Women's thaals

You cannot sit cross legged in a thaal, it is considered bad manners. You have to sit with your legs folded

All the courses come in one bowl and everyone shares from that common bowl or plate. 

First Course:  Salt - there will be a small bowl with salt in it which everyone tastes before starting

Second Course: Some rice which has been sweetened with sugar in a really tiny plate. This is considered to be auspicious

Third Course: Ice Cream (this is the most common beginning, if not ice cream, then something sweet)

Fourth Course: Chicken. normally a Chicken Starter, Chicken Baked Dish or something that's like a starter. Seekh Kebabs, Miscellaneous Kebabs and Fried Chicken are the favourites

Fifth Course: Another Sweet dish. Now in the fancy weddings you get brownies, cheesecakes and other such delectable sweets. Mithais or Indian sweets are also common to have here

Sixth Course: Mutton. Either a whole leg of Lamb, or some lamb gravy with parathas are served

Seventh Course: Rice and Soup. Biriyani is the most common, but there is a variety of fancy rice pulavs that are served

Eighth and Ninth Course: If that isn't enough, normally the meal ends with dry fruits and fresh fruits. Sometimes they even have a fruit Sorbet

Tenth Course: Paan

Whew! It really is a feast