Before I share the recipe I would like to alert my readers that the marinade has to be prepared two days in advance. Critical piece of information to be noted and followed.
Zucchini, a squash is considered to be a vegetable in the culinary universe but is a fruit in the botanical world. The Pennsylvanian joke that on 8th August of every year, children or adults often in camouflage sneak in at midnight and leave bags of zucchini at their neighbours' doorsteps and make a dash for their life after ringing the doorbell speaks of sweet friendships and neighbourhood sharing. True to this story, I also experienced this salad over a warm dinner at Neha and Glenn's home.
For the marinade/dressing; mix olive oil, oyster sauce,vinegar,sugar, soy sauce, chopped mint leaves, chopped Thai red chillies and minced garlic. All the ingredients except the red chillies are in equal proportions. Use half the quantity of red chillies. Store in the refrigerator for 2 days.
Slice zucchini, use both green and yellow ones. Toss with the dressing. Serve after 20 minutes. Serve cold.
Hey..wrong timing to put this up, no one is about to make a Jack-o-Lantern for months now. So be sure to try this recipe on 31st October and of course asap now too.
Warm 1 tbsp oil, you can use any white oil. Once warm, allow about 6-8 curry leaves and one long slit green chilly to sizzle in the heat. Chop a lovely red tomato into small cubes and add it in. To season we need 1 heap tsp coriander powder, best is the home roasted variety, salt to taste and 1/2 tsp chilly powder. Stir for two mins at low heat.
By now you needed to have cleaned about 300 g of a luscious orange pumpkin, skinned it and cut it into semi small cubes.
So now back to the wok, once the tomatoes are done, add the pumpkin and add 1 cup of hot water. Cook for 3 mins, remember your flame is low. It is time to pour in a large cup of coconut milk, if you are using a tetra pack, use the entire 200 ml one. Slow cook till the pumpkin is soft but it does not lose its shape.
Enjoy with brown rice!
This recipe is called the Tree Of Life as quoted to me by my pretty, attractive, ever-smiling and ever-thin friend, Sai. When we heard of it for the first time, we did laugh at the preposterous nomenclature. Though the giggles could partly be attributed to some rice wine and potato vodka, mostly, the funniness of the name in itself won hands down. I mean Tree Of Life has been used in science, religion, mythology and even philosophy as a concept. But in food and cooking, this was the first.
Having said all of the above, this rather step by step recipe does branch out into something quite delectable if I may say so and yes of course, pun intended.
We start by gently breaking off about ten cauliflorets from its base and parboil them for 8 mins in turmeric water.
Grill one red pepper and then chop it and put it in a blender. To this add one small chopped onion, 3 cloves chopped garlic, a dash of white vinegar, 1/2 tsp sugar and salt to taste. Then make a smooth paste.
Crumble 75g cottage cheese. Mix well with 2 tsp chopped coriander leaves and one finely chopped de-seeded green chilly.
Stuff the cheese mix into the florets. As shown below.
Now make some white sauce, about 8 tbsp. Flavour it with thyme and parmesan. Blend the red pepper sauce with the white sauce mix.
Set the stuffed florets on a baking dish. Pour the sauce all over it generously.
Bake for 12-14 mins at 160 degrees till the cauliflower is soft. Have it warm and fresh from the oven with some bread.
One interesting tit-bit about a traditional chowder is that crackers or biscuits are used to thicken the broth. Though in this recipe flour is used, many recipes use oyster crackers finely chopped to create body.
I took about 10 oysters for this recipe and this served well for two of us. Clean the oysters and rinse out the water well. You will need one medium size onion finely chopped, one small potato diced into smallish cubes, 8 cleaned button mushrooms, a handful of cleaned roughly chopped spinach, a cup of milk, a tbsp flour, some regular cheese and a cup of salt seasoned chicken stock. Spoon the flour into the milk and mix well. Chop the mushrooms into small bits.
In a wok, warm a tbsp of olive oil. Fry the onions till they are transparent pink. Once this is done add the potatoes, toss a bit and put a lid for 4 mins at low heat. Once the potatoes are a bit soft, throw in the mushroom and stir for 2 mins. Next add the spinach and again stir for 2 mins. Next pour in the milk and the stock. Bring to a boil and gently release in the oysters. Cook again in low heat for 5-6 mins. Grate about 11/2 tbsp cheese in the broth. Your chowder is good to dig in!
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This is where you can get late night cookies. This comes under the category of coffee house and cafe and they have a delivery system of late night cookies.
Back in India, we just make do by making midnight cookies ourselves. And why not? it is indeed just so simple, so quick.
Prep first. Preheat oven up to 180 degrees centigrade. Line baking trays with butter sheets or baking paper.
Next place 120g butter and 175g castor sugar in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Add one beaten egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla essence and mix until smooth. Sieve in 125g plain flour, 35g cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda. Beat and mix well.
Dampen your hands, roll lime sized dough into smooth balls. Place on the baking sheet keeping gaps. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 mins.
Transfer to a wire rac and allow it to cool. Bring it on! Its midnight!
PS-This recipe makes about 25 odd pcs
Mocha is the name of the largest port in Yemen where from African coffee is the most traded and transported. It is also a type of coffee bean. This recipe creates a rather evolved sense of coffee magic, an experience so refined and so subtle that one feels kind of elevated. Try it. In fact the first time that I baked them initially one felt that they were not kinda sweet. Finally even kids were devouring them. Of course different matter, these were hungry kids....
In a saucepan please take 85 g butter, 1 tbsp clear honey, 85 g sugar, 2 tbsp instant coffee powder and 200 ml of water and mix well. Place it on heat, stirring constantly. Once the sugar dissolves, allow it to come to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer for 5 mins. Keep it aside to cool till it reaches room temperature.
In a separate bowl sieve 225 g flour with 2 tbsp cocoa powder. Add it to the cooled above mix, fold in smoothly.
In 2 tbsp milk, add 1 tsp soda bicarbonate and make a paste. Fold in gently to the batter.
Now finally, add 1 lightly beaten large egg and beat the the mixture together until smooth.
Lace the cupcake molds with paper cases. spoon the mix into the cases.
Your oven should have been preheated to 180 degrees centigrade. Set in the cupcakes molds and bake for 15-20 mins or until well risen and firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
In the picture, I have not added any topping as we were carrying them on a trip. It is enjoyed the most with a swirl of whipped cream dusted with some sifted cocoa powder.
Ruth Wakefield was baking her regular divine butter cookies at her Toll House Inn in 1938 and one time she decided to chip some chocolates and add it to the batter expecting the chocolate to melt. Lo behold! The chocolate remained as soft chips thus going on to give birth to the world loved choco chip cookies. Ruth then wrote to Nestle about her discovery and the even then corporate choco giant printed her recipe on their wrapper in return giving Ruth a lifetime supply of delicious chocolate.
Back home Gautam Ganapthy's beautiful photographer mamma shared her way of baking her divine choco chip cookies with her DIL and Kavery then passed on this magical recipe to me. Trust me, it is easy.
Cream 1/2 a cup of butter in a bowl until light. To this add 3/4 cup sugar which in turn constitutes of half brown sugar and half white sugar. Gently whisk till the sugar butter mix is light and creamy. Now add one egg and whisk well for 3 mins. Fold in 1 tsp vanilla essence.
In a separate bowl, sieve 1 cup flour with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Gently blend in the flour mix to the creamy batter and once well blended, add 3/4 cup of choco chips. Once again fold in the chips gently and well into the mix.
Heat your oven at 350 degrees centigrade. Place butter paper on your baking rack and just blob little cookie dough with your hand on the paper one after the other. Bake for about 20 mins. This amount of dough should make you a batch of about 20-25 approximately. When you allow the baked cookies to stand, they become firm.
A cup of milk, a cookie and your book, sleep sweet soon!
