Cheers to me!!!

Successfully completed one month in blogging and havent got bored of it yet!
Looks promising.

Sandwich suggestions from Di

Courtesy : http://www.liketocook.com/50226711/my_salad_sandwich.php

After a small break..... V and me are having a tough time figuring out a lot of things. The whole of this week passes in brain storming sessions. Both of us havent been able to relax. V returned from Cleveland and we havent got to spend enough time together nor cook something different. V loves sandwiches and Di threw in her suggestions. V has been having sandwiches for the past 2 days and he says he likes them...
Suggestions from Di

As you can see I just love to cook and eat!!

Sandwiches at home are great with soup, pasta salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, seafood salad or chips and a side of fresh fruit….yummy!

Here’s some ideas and I can explain better if you need it.

Grill Cheese Sandwich

Heat a frying pan or skillet

Butter one side of 2 pieces of bread put at least 2 cheese slices (yellow, white) between bread and fry on both sides until crispy and cheese melts….it looks like toast with melted cheese when done.

I like to separate the sandwich after cooked and add sliced tomato…great warm sandwich.

Cold “Wrap” Sandwich, Pita Pocket Bread, or Croissants

You can use, different lunch meats…turkey, ham, chicken, roast beef or you can even use grilled chicken breast sliced up.

Spread either, mustard, mayonnaise, horadish spread on bread, and lay lunch meat with sliced tomato, lettuce, onion and wrap and eat.

Grilled Ham Sandwiches

Sub buns (long fat hot dog type buns)

Monterey Jack cheese or Swiss cheese

Thousand Island or Russian Salad Dressing

Tomato slices

Leaf Lettuce

Cut ham smaller slices to fit bun and slightly cook them in butter in a frying pan. Once you cooked all the ham you want you put as many slices on the sub bun and add cheese and wrap in paper towel or plastic and microwave to slightly melt cheese. Add dressing, tomatoes and lettuce…mm mm good.

For grilled ham sandwiches you can make these ahead of time and leave in frig for a few days. Put ham and cheese on buns and wrap in plastic wrap or Ziploc bag and when you’re ready to eat you microwave and then add the dressing, tomatoes and lettuce…these are good for lunches too.

Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are fun. Spread peanut butter (crunchy or smooth) on one slice of bread and add favorite jelly (grape, strawberry, etc) on another slice and put together.

I believe you know how to make the tuna salad, chicken salad and egg salad these are good on wraps, croissants, and even stuffed in pita pocket bread.

FAJITAS are easy good for dinner

Chicken or beef slices

Sour Cream

Taco Sauce (hot or mild)

Onion

Peppers

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Chicken or Beef slices (you can buy fajita meat already cooked in a bag in the frozen food section of the grocery store).

Heat meat in a skillet and then add lots of slices of onion and peppers (green, yellow, red) and fry until slightly soft not mushy.

Spread sour cream on fajita wrap (tortilla) then add meat mixture and lettuce and tomatoes and enjoy!

You can get small tortilla wraps and make these like soft tacos or use the large wrap for a burrito. Lipton’s has a pretty good Spanish Rice for a side dish and it’s easy to prepare and only takes about 7 minutes to cook.

Amma's recipe - Tomato chutney

Amma calls this arincha thakkali chutney.
Mom used to make this frequenty. She still does.
Its only me who is missing Ma's cooking.
Ra loves this chutney.

Appearance - Red, Looks delicious and mouth watering
Smell - Aroma rendered by tomato. Too good to be called chutney. :D
Taste - You will tick your tongue and lips together. Simply said SMACKING!
Rating - V said the proportions was right. He ate without complaining.
Cures - Homesickness atleast for me :)

Ingredients

1 Red Onion - chopped
2 Tomatoes - diced
5-6 Garlic cloves
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp urad dal
1 tbsp channa dal
1 tbsp chilli powder
a pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste
1 cup of water
2 tbsp oil

Tip - gingely oil will render more flavor than sunflower or vegetable oil

Method

1. Heat the pan and add 2 tbsp of oil.
2. As the oil warms up add mustard seeds, urad da and channa dal.
3. When you see the channa dal turn slight brown, add the onions and garlic.Saute them on low flame.
4. Once the onions start changing color add tomatoes. Saute for 2-3 minutes and add half cup of water and close the pan with a lid.This will help the tomatoes to become soft and settle.
5. After 5-6 minutes add the remaining water, turmeric, chilli powder and salt.
6. Mix well and add another cup of water if you want more gravy.
7. Close the lid and allow them to cook for ten minutes. Since all this is done on low flame, the cooking time will take longer but flavour remains intact.

The chutney is ready in a total of 15 - 20 minutes (includes post cooking time)

It can be served with idlis, dosais and chappathis
Love you mummy kutti. I never learnt it while I was in India with you.
But you have shared your cooking chromosomes with me :D

Pakistani Egg Briyani

Before I start my yada yada yada...

Appearance - Colorful
Smell - Aromatic because of the coriander
Taste - Good. Didn't make it too spicy so feels right with your taste buds
Rating - V didn't sweat but he said he liked it. What more would I want???

Back in India, whenever mom couldn't cook at home, we had the liberty of buying food from outside. This used to happen once in a blue moon. Mom never felt it was healthy to eat outside food.
The interesting thing about this ritual was when dad got me Chicken Briyani.
Apart from the chicken there was always this egg hidden and it was always a delight as a little girl who loved eggs, to find it.

I have always wanted to know how to make egg briyani.
Yesterday was the day when I experimented.
I browsed at least 50 websites before I got convinced with a website to prepare egg briyani.
I found this recipe and to my excitement a fellow blogger had recommended the same link.
WOW!!!
I was easily convinced :P

The recipe turned out real good. MRM was out of town. V,GP and me got together. GP totally liked it. GP wants me to do this one more time. Maybe this month end we might do a cooking night.

The link
http://www.angelfire.com/country/fauziaspakistan/eggbiryani.html

Corrections I made.

• Did not use coconut.
• Slit the eggs and fried them in little oil, 1/2 tbsp of chilli powder, 1/2 tbsp of black pepper and a pinch of turmeric before I tossed them into the paste.
• Mom's tip which I like to remember - Fry all ingredients for 2 -3 minutes before blending them to a paste. She thinks the raw smell will go away.

I have got my camera back from my friend's place. Hence recipes from now on will have pics accompanying them :)

Masala Capsicum Curry

Appearance - Good
Smell - Cook capsicum on low heat to retain flavor and aroma
Taste - Good. If groundnut is used in excess, groundnut smell dominates
Rating - V liked it. Didn't sweat though :(

Never liked to cook capsicum :|
Never knew the reason why :(
But I knew V liked capsicum ;)
Decided to give it a try :)

When I was looking for recipes, I came across Veena's recipe under http://www.bawarchi.com/contribution/contrib1009.html

The side dish turned out really well. I subtracted the coriander as I didn't have any. Added 1 more tbsp of chilli powder Turned out awesome!!!

Image Courtesy :http://www.pbase.com/maruetea/image/40273066

Masala Capsicum Curry

Ingredients

2 capsicums cut into big square pieces
1 onion cut into big pieces
1/2 cup of fresh coriander (cilantro) - I didn't use it this time
1/2 cup of fresh grated coconut
1/2 cup of ground nuts
1 table spoon ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp of coriander powder
2-3 green chillies
1 tsp of red chilli powder - added 2 to make it spicy.
3-4 tbsp of tamarind extract
1/4 th cup of oil - used less than this
1/2 cup of water
Turmeric and salt as much u require

Method :

1. Fry the onions with just one teaspoon of oil until the raw smell goes away. Roast the peanuts separately until they turn light brown and remove the skin later.
2. Grind everything together with little water (roasted groundnuts, onions, ginger garlic, coriander, coriander powder, green chillies, coconut, red chilli powder) and keep it aside.
3. Pour the oil in a vessel and fry the capsicum pieces until they turn color. Add the ground paste to it and cook it for some 5-6 minutes and then add tamarind extract as well as water and salt.
4. Cook it for 10-15 mins

Pudina Rice - Courtesy - STLK

For another version of Pudina Pulao
http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2005/06/21/pudina-pulao-mint-fried-rice/
I liked the image I saw there.
A green feast for the eyes

As said by STLK
Recipe for pudina rice: Grind pudina,coconut, jeera, green chilli. In a pan, add ghee, fry this paste, add ginger- garlic paste, add chopped onions, tomato puree, then add dhaniya pwdr, jeera pwdr, garam masala, salt n fry well ( can add pulav or biriyani masala for addtional taste). Add yogurt and fry a lil more (not too long). Frycashewnuts. Wash basmati rice. Add the above ingredients and cook in rice cooker.

Series of unexpected events

V didnt like Dhokla - atleast I know what he doesnt like now
Lost my mobile
H1 didnt get approved
Everyone at home are upset about my H1.

No mood to cook or to blog.
But guess what, I bought some essentials from Meijer to try out some new dishes this weekend.
Will post once I get into the groove.

Squash chutney

This was one of the recipes I learnt from my Bangladeshi friends.

Appearance - Good ( I think I will say Healthy)
Smell - smells of the veggie
Taste - bland but your tummy will thank you

Ingredients

Squash / Pumpkin
4 -6 Green chillies - finely chopped
Salt to taste

The Process

Get any squash/pumpkin from the vegetable market.
Remove the skin. Use only the fleshy part.
Boil it, mash it, add the green chillies and salt.

This can be mixed with rice or can be eaten as a side dish.

How to name it?

This is the easiest but yet a very good one for all the potlucks.

Ingredients

2 tbsps - ghee / canola oil
3/4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
3/4 elaichis
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp pistachio powder

1 onion - chopped
2 cups mixed vegetable

10 - 15 whole cashews
10 - 15 dried grapes
10 - 12 nutrela soy balls

mint - to garnish

2 cups of basmati rice
2 cups of water
2 cups of milk

Methodology

In a deep frying pan, fry the ingredients on low flame, and then add the onion.
Once the onion turns golden brown add mixed vegetables.
Add the fried ingredients to 2 cups of rice.
Add 2 cups of water and 2 cups of milk.
Stir and add salt to taste.

Slightly fry the cashews, dried grapes and soy balls and add them to the rice in the cooker.

Close and allow the rice to cook.

Voila! ITS ready.

Side dish

Lots of options available.
Easiest is raitha or thayir pachadi.

American Dinner

I dont remember when we did this.
But it was one of those days when my dearest MRM and myself came up with this brilliant idea of thematic dinners. The easiest one with a short time of planning was American Dinner.
Needless to say V loved it. He thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this meal.

I dont have the recipes for all that we made. I will try and post them all here.

Sides

Vegetable stuffed Omlete
Mashed potatoes
Macaroni and Cheese

Main Entrees

Lemon pepper Chicken
Green bean Casserole

Dessert

Chocolate brownie with fudge icecream topped with strawberry.

Of course whats an American dinner without wine!!!
We have nt had time to do themes but will do them more soon.

Taste Analysis of Grilled Salsa Chicken

Appearance - Looks spicy
Taste - tastes like masala chicken
Smell - cinnamon and masala

To note - cut down on the number of spice items added.
Salsa will be added after grilling
Absence of salt was not noticeable

I will be reworking on this recipe tonight.
Will get back tomorrow with something much better.

Grilled Salsa Chicken

The sound of this recipe might be a little weird.
This is what I tried today.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

Marinate

1 tablespoon of garlic paste
1/2 tablespoon of ginger paste
1/2 tablespoon of cumin powder
1/2 tablespoon of chilli powder ( u might also use the term paprika)
2 spring onions diced
a pinch of cinnamon powder
1/2 tablespoon of chicken curry masala powder
2 limes - squeeze the juice
2 tablespoons of salsa

I forgot the salt

I marinated the chicken in the mix, refrigerated them for a whole night.
Ideally I was hoping to marinate it for 2 hours.
But the chicken slept for the night.

Preheat the oven for 350 deg and grill the chicken for 30 minutes.

I will be trying for lunch. Will let you know on how it finally turned out.
Tomorrow, I will be retrying this recipe.
Will post a picture soon.