Easy Peasy Guacamole.. fit for a Superbowl

What says Superbowl better than chips and salsa? Or in this case, chips and fresh homemade guacamole. 


Guacamole or Guac for short- It's taken me my fair share of attempts and following many different recipes to settle on what I think is the perfect guac. I remember the days when I was first introduced to Mexican food- sadly I think the first burrito I had was at Taco Bell in Canada. There, they shoot guac on your burrito from a gun. Blech.  Anyhow, as the years went on, my taste for mexican food developed and I went on the quest to find the perfect guac recipe. Not the slimy nastiness in a jar. :meh:.

People- I kid you not, once you start making your own guac, you will, GUARANTEED stop buying that ready made stuff. I am serious- it's easier than spelling out guacamole.

Ingredients:
-  2 ripe avocados
-  1 tomato, seeded
-  1/4 red onion (or green onion if you prefer)
-  juice of 1 lime
-  salt and pepper
-  1 jalapeno pepper, finely minced, deseeded.


Cut the avocado in half. There is a huge seed in the middle so watch out for that. Actually I'll stop explaining and let this video do the talking.


Now that you have the pit out, as shown on the video, scoop out the flesh of the avocado by scoring the inside of it and then removing the flesh (light green insides) with a spoon and dumping in a bowl.








Congrats! The hardest part of this creation is over. Next, gently mix in the diced tomato, onion and lime juice. No smashing allowed!!! 

Just gentle mixing so that the chunkiness of the avocado is retained. Add a bit of salt and pepper and you are done. I garnish with cilantro but then I love cilantro and throw it in almost all Indian and Mexican foods. That's certainly optional. Cilantro definitely needs its own blog entry some day.

Do you not want to eat this fresh creation as opposed to the slimy stuff from a jar? I've tried many different versions that includes smashing the avocado, adding sour cream, adding taco seasoning (that was a weird one) but nothing even came close to this.

Give this a try and tell me you could not eat just one spoon. It goes great with tortilla chips, as a condiment in tacos, burritos, take your pick!


Or really, all you need is a spoon.

Carrot Halwa {Old Post, New Pictures}

Happy Diwali- The Festival of Lights!

A new beginning! This calls for special dish(es) to be prepared in celebration. One of the sweets I can claim to be "experienced" in is Carrot Halwa- The Diet version ;-) 

Rather than trying to explain what halwa is, this is what it looks like:

It's basically a reduction of milk, carrots, sugar and a bit of spice. And it takes a looooong time, about 2 hours,  for the milk to reduce. So if you are in a hurry, this is not the ideal dessert!! But let me tell you, the end result is sooo worth it. And it's best consumed warm. 

I make mine the diet version with less sugar, and reduced fat milk and just a couple teaspoons of ghee,  but you achieve a richer texture and taste with full fat milk and a lot more ghee. 

Ingredients:
*  4-5 medium carrots- peeled and grated
*  1/2 gallon (2L for you Canadian readers) 2% milk
*  1/2 cup sugar
*  4-5 cardamom seeds (removed from the pod)
*  1/2 tsp vanilla extract
*  2 tsp ghee, preferable homemade (clarified butter)


Directions:

1.  In a large non stick Dutch oven (non stick is really the key), bring the milk to a boil and then reduce to simmer (medium-high). 

When the milk is partway reduced, add the sugar and carrots and cardamom and continue stirring every so often to ensure even cooking. Stirring also helps to make sure the milk doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.






Keep at this process of stirring for the next hour or more, until the mixture is considerably reduced and you can smell a caramelly aroma. 

Finally you will get a mixture that looks like this-

At this point you can shut off the heat, add the vanilla and ghee and stir well. 

Enjoy when warm!!!!!

Fun Flatbread(s)

I am having fun with my latest kitchen craze- bread/dough making. Yeah yeah  not all dough is the same, I realize that but for my humble, novice purposes,  bread dough is the same as pizza dough is the same as flatbread dough yada yada yada.....

Since my previous attempt resulted in moderate success, that was enough to encourage me to keep going. So couple days back I had an epiphany *insert dramatic dream music* to make flatbread. Flatbread is a rustic, free style thin bread that you can eat as is or decorate with several wonderful toppings. Recently I saw Bobby Flay make flatbread on the grill- looked like something interesting and hey it was an opportunity for me to try out something new!

Directions- 
1.  Layer up the sauce, add toppings and cheese
2.  Bake at 400F for 20 minutes and enjoy with a cold beverage!

I came up with a couple different kinds- 

Ricotta-Pesto Flatbread

Toppings-

- Ricotta cheese

- Pesto - I used readymade from TJ

- Zuchinni- thinly sliced

- few florets of broccoli 
- lots of black pepper

Marinara Flatbread

Toppings-

*  green olives

*  red onions

*  yellow peppers 

*  mozzarella cheese

*  marinara sauce
*  dried oregano

         

Bread Upma (homemade bread at last!)

I attempted to bake bread last week and this time I tried a few different things based on advice from different people.


1.  I used only AP flour. No whole wheat. I know it's not the healthiest option but I want to get the bread right one time with regular flour and then add complications. 
2.  I threw in the packet yeast with the flour and milk and warm water. 
3.  A different technique to let the dough rise - I placed the dough inside the oven with a container of boiling water in the lower rack. This creates moisture and heat needed for the yeast to activate.


The bread turned out pretty good- though not perfect but a huge improvement over the first time. 


Moving on, I wanted to make something different with the bread the following day. As I skyping with my sister, it suddenly dawned on me- BREAD UPMA!!!! I've not eaten this in over a year mostly because it's boring to make with regular store bought bread but this time the star of the show was produced in my oven. So it deserved to be made into something awesome! 


Bread Upma (pronounced oop-ma) is a dish made by sauteeing veggies, chilli powder and bread. That's it. That simple. But comforting. I have no translation for Upma. sorry :-(


Bread Upma

Ingredients:


*  one small loaf or 5-6 slices of bread cut into crouton sizes
*  1 tsp cayenne 
*  1/2 tsp cumin seeds
*  1 cup frozen veggie mix or cut up fresh veggies- carrots, green peas, green beans
*  1 medium potato chopped small
*  1 small onion chopped


Directions:


1.  In a large sautee pan, sautee cumin seeds and onion and potato for 5-10 minutes over medium heat.


2.  Add the bread and allow it to toast up nicely..Add a bit of butter for that yummy buttery taste.  Add the cayenne and mix well.  You could add garam masala too but I just stick to cayenne.


3.  Spread the bread out evenly on the pan and allow it to brown up nicely. 


4.  Add the frozen veggies and continue to sautee the entire mixture till veggies are cooked and bread is toasty.  


Bon apetit!

Lentil Enchiladas

Aaaaaah Mexican food - what's not to love? refried beans, warm tortillas, sour cream, corn, jack cheese.... you get the picture. Except I use lentils instead of refried beans which I find way too mushy and salty. I experiment with Mexican recipes a lot at home- pasta, soups, pizzas, chilli.

This particular dish is so satisfying especially on a cold evening when soup just doesn't cut it. You want something more "meaty". The origin of this recipe started out by one of my "imaginary" friends (LOL) - from a running forum I hang out on - as Lentil Tacos but I added my own spin on it and converted them into Enchiladas. They go really well with Guacamole recipe I posted earlier.



Lentil Enchiladas

You will need -

- 1 cup uncooked brown lentils
- a jar of your favourite salsa- I like Trader Joes Hot salsa
- 2 stalks celery (optional)
- 1 can corn (optional)
- 1 medium onion chopped fine
- 1 clove garlic
- cilantro
- 1 Tbsp Taco seasoning
- 1 jar Enchilada sauce - I use Trader Joes Enchilada Sauce
- Tortillas
- 1/2 cup shredded Jack/cheddar cheese

Directions -

1. Cook the lentils in a pot or pressure cooker. Cooking them in stock adds more flavour but water will do just fine too.

2. Sautee onions and garlic and taco seasoning for 5 minutes over medium heat. When they are soft, add the cooked lentils and salsa until fully combined. Add as much or as little salsa as you like. Let it simmer till the lentil mixture is a bit thick and not too watery. This makes it easier to stuff into the wrap without it falling apart.

Lentil Mixture

3. Warm the tortillas on a dry pan till soft- no oil needed, just warm them through. Usually takes a couple minutes on each side.

4. Spoon a a couple heaping table spoons of the lentil mixture into the centre of the tortilla. You could add a spoon of canned corn or finely diced celery for some additional flavour.

5. Roll to form a burrito.

6. Place the burritos in a baking dish. Pour some enhiclada sauce at the bottom of the dish and over the top of burritos.

7. Top with Jack cheese or a Mexican blend of cheeses.

8. Bake at 360°F for 20 minutes.



7. Serve with a side of Guacamole or sour cream.

Healthy and Satisfying!!!!!!

Roasted Butternut Squash - soup or cubes anyone?

Off late I've been roasting a variety of veggies.

Squash, Asparagus, Peppers, Eggplant (there is an awesome Indian dish called baingan bartha definitely blog worthy), sweet potatoes, grape tomatoes. And. So. On.

Of all I think I routinely roast squash the most simply because it brings out so much flavour - most out of all the cooking techniques I know. And it's really healthy too. And the applications are endless- once roasted, you can puree into a delicious soup, eat veggies as a side, or mixed with pasta.

[http://www.leftoverqueen.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/butternut_squash.jpg]

Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

- 1 butternut squash
- 1 onion diced
- 1/2 tsp garlic
- olive oil
- Vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp butter
- milk or heavy cream

Just spray veggies with olive oil or drizzle some of the real stuff over them, season with salt, pepper and roast for a given time depending on the vegetable.


In the case of Butternut Squash, I season with (liberally) extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and some cayenne (Indian red chilli powder) to counter the sweetness, and roast at 400°F for about 40-45 minutes until edges start to get golden brown.




Let cool and then enjoy with a bowl of pasta or puree into a soup as follows--

Sautee 1 medium onion with a 1/2 tsp garlic.

Puree the squash and onion mixture with a cup of water or vegetable stock and transfer to a pot on stove. Season with 1/2 tsp dried oregano.

Add a 1/2 cup of milk or a bit of cream if your waistline permits. Finally add a tablespoon of butter to make the whole thing extra smooth and special. If it's still very thick, you can always thin it out with more water or stock.

Variation- To add protein and extra body to the dish, you could puree in about 1/2 cup of cooked white navy beans too.

End Result- It honestly does not need a garnish.

Sunday Brunch- Veggie Tikkis and Summery Salad

I was slowly but surely getting tired of the "worst winter Nashville has seen in 30 years" .....Last weekend I decided to transport us to a nice tropical destination- India would do quite nicely no? Thought it would be a great day to make Veggie Tikkis (Patties), that are typically served with a side of channa masala (see references to chaat in previous post), but instead I served them up with a summery salad.


Usually Aloo Tikkis (Potato Patties) are deep fried and consist mainly of potatoes and green peas. Not that there's anything wrong with potatoes, but me- I'm not a huge fan of deep fried food and my husband and I enjoy eating tons of veggies. So my mother-in-law came up with this dish that is loaded with veggies, spices and goes great with ketchup (that's for me) or ranch (my DH). :p

Veggie Tikkis

You will need-

- one large carrot or 2 small carrots cut up in chunks
- one half of a beet cut in chunks
- one onion, finely chopped
- 2 small or one large potato cut in chunks
- 1/4 cup frozen green peas
- one handful of cilantro
- one slice of regular bread - ww or white
- 1/4 tsp cayenne or chilli powder
- 1Tbsp garam masala
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- Vegetable oil

The Method-

Cook all the veggies (carrots, beet, potato) in the microwave on high for about 5-6 minutes.

Drain add the onions, cilantro, spices and salt and mash everything with a potato masher.

Let it cool before you start making the patties.

Wet the slice of bread and tear it up and throw in the "batter".

It shoud not have a high water content... should be thick enough to make balls. If it's not thick enough, you could always add another slice of bread.



Make a large ball and gently press to form a patty.

Coat both sides of the patty in breadcrumbs and using a bit of oil, shallow-fry the patties. I use about a tbsp of oil for 2 patties in a non stick pan.

Summery Salad


This is hardly a recipe so here's what went in our salad-

1/2 head rommaine
1 pink lady apple- diced
1/2 fresh mango- diced
4-5 asparagus slightly sauteed
3 ribs cebery- chopped
2 green onion- finely chopped

Vinegarette- Extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice.

Good Morning Madam, Good morning Sir, Would you like some coffee or tea?

Those were the words we heard every single morning from our server at the breakfast table of our resort in Phuket, Thailand. Imagine waking up to breathtaking scenery

and then being treated to a 5 star breakfast buffet followed by this ever smiling server who brings you your choice of caffeine for the day, steaming in a small cup.

In addition to the traditional coffee and bagged English Breakfast tea they also served Masala Chai. YUM! You don't need to pay $4 for one of these delectable drinks.. it can very easily be prepared right in your own kitchen. But it takes a bit of practice to get it just right.

- Water
- Milk
- Sugar
- Chai masala: or these fresh spices ground up in a spice grinder: cardamom, cloves, ginger powder, peppercorns, cinnamon
- Chai leaves

Now I buy the Chai leaves as opposed to the bags because they give more flavour and are much more potent. And you really need only a teaspoon for a cup of chai.

Add one teaspoon of chai leaves to a cup of boiling water. Add a 1/4 tsp of chai masala. Let everything combine and your nose will tell you when it's done. Add some cold milk , say 1/2 cup and let it come to a boil.

Strain the mixture into your favourite Chai mug and add sugar and enjoy.

That's it! really. You can customize it by increasing the amount of water or milk or masala to your taste once you get the hang of it.

Happy Chinese New Year! Honouring the Humble Stirfry...

On the ocassion of the Chinese New Year I thought I'd post an entry on one of my all time favorites and easy go-to dish - a mixed vegetable asian style stirfry with tofu and lots of sesame. Each time I make it I change up either the vegetables or some other ingredient. The first time I made a stirfry, all I added were veggies and soy sauce. Then I started experimenting as I do so often, and ended up with something that looks like below.

Asian Vegetable Stirfry with Tofu and Sesame

Ingredients:

• Sliced veggies- peppers, onions, snow peas, baby corn, broccoli, celery, green onion, bok choy, mushrooms (any combination of these veggies works great).
  
• 1/2 block of tofu cut into little cubes
  
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2tsp Sriracha (chilli garlic sauce)
  
• 1 tsp chopped garlic
• Stirfry Sauce
• Low Sodium Soy Sauce
• 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
  

Directions:

• Brown up the diced tofu in a pan over medium heat
• Toast up the sesame seeds and set aside. Be sure to watch these carefully as they burn very quickly! I speaketh from experience here.
  
• Heat the oil in a large wok or large sautee pan, until its near smoking.
• Throw in all the vegetables including the garlic.
• After sauteeing for about 5 minutes, add 2 tbsp of the stirfry sauce and a little bit of soy sauce.
• Continue sauteeing for another few minutes. The vegetables still need to have a good bite to it.

• Finally add in the tofu and top with chopped green onion and the sesame.
  
• Serve over bed of rice and dig in!!

Variations:

• You could add crushed peanuts for texture and a nutty flavour.
• Instead of the soy and stirfry sauce, you could add a peanutty sauce made with PB, lime juice and a touch of soy. Maybe I'll post this version later. It goes really well with pasta too. mmmm.
  

For the Love of Bagels and Pizza

Last week I gave in and bought the dozen pack of bagels from Costco. Why 12 bagels for just my husband and I? Because they were so fresh and I'm a sucker for freshly baked goods. As good as they taste a cream cheese or even lightly toasted with a bit of butter, I was itching to make a pizza for lunch. So the Bagel Pizza was born.

Bagel Pizza

Ingredients:

• 4 or 5 mushrooms sliced
• 4 or 5 olives, pitted
• 2 bagels
• few slivers of onion
• dried oregano
• jarred marinara sauce
• cheese- mozzarella or cheddar or jack, any melty cheese.
• EVOO (Extra virgin Olive Oil). Yeah, I watch Rachel Ray's cooking shows!
  

Directions :

1. Slice bagel into half and drizzle EVOO to coat the top
2. Liberally spread some of the marinara sauce as the base layer like you would on a pizza. Since a bagel is fairly thick, you would need more sauce than on a thin crust pizza.
3. Pile on all the toppings, as little or as much as you like, the last layer being the yummy cheese- also as little or as much as you like.
4. Sprinkle a bit of dried oregano
5. Bake at 375 F for about 20 minutes.

And this is what it looked before I bit into it:



There's another version of this I make on a tortilla but as Alton Brown would say, That's Another Show!