Mango Kulfi Pie…

I’ve attempted the mango dessert I’ve been wanting to try after making this Strawberry one. It’s actually pretty easy and it taste just like Mango Kulfi without all the work. Using only mango pulp, sweetened milk and some crushed cardamon seeds, freeze for 2 hours and my invention is made. I have this sitting in a wafer cookie pie crust.

Read Full Post »

French Onion Soup with Ciabata Bread

Tonight for dinner I needed to have cheese, its’ been so long and my favorite cheese is Fontina. So, what better idea than to have French Onion Soup. Perfect, light and satisfying…. I grabbed this recipe from Chief genius herself, Giada!

Read Full Post »

Spicy Okra

So, I’m on an Indian kick the last couple of days and I borrowed another recipe from Manjula’s kitchen. This is so tasty! The area of India my husband grew up in this dish is called Pinda. Very similar to how my mother in law makes it and so tasty. That’s the thing about India, there are so many different languages from the North to the South, so many different flavors of food from how one area makes it to the next. I know my mother in law uses chili powder and ginger garlic paste in almost everything she cooks and noticed in Manjula’s Kitchen she doesn’t, yet they both taste really good just slightly different. It’s interesting..

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb okra (bhindi)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons oil
• Pinch of asafetida (hing)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
• 1 tablespoon coriander powder (dhania)
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon mango powder (amchoor)
• 1 tablespoon gram flour (besan) (optional)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped yellow bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper

Method:

Wash the okra and pat dry. Make sure to completely dry the okra as wet okra will be sticky when cutting.

Cut off the both ends of the okra, and slice lengthwise in halves. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Test the heat by adding one cummin seed to the oil; if seed crack right away oil is ready.

Add the cumin seeds and asafetida (hing). When the cumin seeds crack, add the okra.

Stir for a minute and reduce the heat to medium.

Cover the okra for two to three minutes.

Remove the cover and add the coriander powder, red cayenne pepper and turmeric.

Next add gram flour (besan) and continue to stir-fry until the okra is tender. Add the salt, mango powder and bell peppers, cook for another minute. Salt is added last to avoid the okra becoming lacy.

Variations:

1. Adding colorful bell pepper is a great garnish for the okra and adds flavor to the dish.
2. You can substitute the bell pepper with sliced tomatoes as a garnish.
3. You can also slice the okra in 1/4 inch pieces and follow the same method above.

Read Full Post »

Indian Yellow Fried Rice

There are only two kinds of rice I enjoy eating, Thai Fried Rice and Indian Yellow fried rice, just scrumptious. If I can eat rice as my main meal and be satisfied that is how I know it is good, unlike plain white rice, Mexican or Chinese rice where it needs to accompany some other dish in order to enjoy it. I’m just not a fan of a plate full of food, your main dish needs to be so good that you don’t need a side dish, and rice usually is never a main meal, that is until I found a very tasty Yellow Fried Rice from Manjula’s Kitchen, I’m so excited to have found this blog, there are so many recipes I’m excited about trying in the future.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1/2 cup green peas
• 2 cups water
• 3 tablespoons oil
• Pinch of asafetida (hing)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed (jeera)
• 1 teaspoon mustard seed (rai)
• 4 whole red chilies (sabut lal mirch)
• 2 bay leaves (tajpat)
• About 1inch piece of cinnamon stick (dal chini)
• 1 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Method

1. Wash rice gently and soak it for at least 15 minutes prior to cooking.
2. After cooking rice expands to about three times in volume, so be sure to use the proper size pan.
3. Drain the rice and put into the saucepan. Add the water, green peas, 1 teaspoon of oil, and salt, bring to a boil and turn the heat to low, and cover the pan.
4. Cook about 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the water has evaporated. Turn off the heat and fluff the rice with a fork.
5. Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium high. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if seed cracks right away oil is ready. Add asafetida, cumin seeds, and mustard seeds.
6. After the seeds crack, add red chilies, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick and stir-fry for few seconds.
7. Add rice, turmeric, and cayenne pepper to the spices in frying pan. Mix it gently.
8. Stir-fry for about 5 to 6 minutes.
9. Serve hot with soup, dal or yogurt.

Read Full Post »

Chicken Marsala

I don’t use chicken breast very often when I cook, I prefer the taste of legs and thighs. So, aside from a few stir fry dishes, I make a tasty Chicken Marsala dish. It’s best to either buy pounded chicken or pound it down yourself to 1/4 inch thickness as the flavors of the sauce and a nice thin chicken piece taste better than a big thick breast of meat. I believe I started this recipe using all recipes, but added my own flavors each time I made this dish for more flavor. So my version is as follows:

For 2 Breasts-

1/4 cup of flour
1 tsp of cayenne
1 tsp of smoked paprika
1 tsp of Oregano
1 tsp of salt and pepper
mix and dredge the chicken in the spices once the chicken has been pounded thin. Sauté in 2 TB butter and oil. Brown and set aside.

Cut up 1 large onion or shallot, 1 package of Mushrooms of your choice and sauté in that same pan, add 2 TB oil and butter. Once this has become soft, add 1 cup of marsala wine, 1/4 cup of chicken broth and 1/3 cup of cream, whisk and let this cook for 20 mins or so, until the sauce has thicken slightly. Add chicken back to pan let that cook for an additional 15 mins coating chicken in the sauce and keep lid on. I make a side of sautéd zuchinni to go with it but you can also make whole wheat spaghetti pasta to sit this on top of as it is traditionally done this way for less carbs I cut the spaghetti part out.

Read Full Post »

Strawberry Frozen Pie

I’ve had this little Pillsbury baking book for almost two years now and every summer I swear to make this and don’t. Well, let’s call this my intro to Spring….

My great grandmother from my mom’s side of the family made this for us when we were kids. I can still remember my first bite of this dessert, I remember looking at mom and saying, “This is so good I can eat the whole thing myself.” The strawberry flavor is subtle, it is more like a vanilla creme with a hint of strawberry. Than you have chunks of frozen strawberries in it. My next attempt at this dessert will be with the use of Mangoes, simply because it is a all around favorite fruit in my house. Though I have witness the mangoes coming out all over the place in the stores recently I know they are not at the peek of their season yet so the color or juiciness is not right yet as it would be in the next couple of months. Though I’m not sure if frozen mangoes would do this type of dessert any justice I want to try it out to see.

You will have to email me to get the recipe for this. I’m okay with posting recipes from magazines and food bloggers because I can link them but when I get the recipe from a book I feel bad to post it because I’m sure the author would prefer the customer to buy his/her book instead of finding their recipes all over online. It kind of defeats the purpose of having a published book right?

Read Full Post »

Misoyaki Salmon

I think I stumbled on the most delicious Salmon Recipe yet… I found it at Stickey, Goey, Creamy, Chewy. The polenta I made to go with it was like eating paste so I will not bother posting that sucker.

(I’ve made the following adjustments to my recipe, I only used 1/2 cup of sugar and I’ve substituted yellow miso for the white and it is just as good.)

Misoyaki Samon (Inspired by Roy Yamaguchi and mmm-yoso) (Printable Recipe)

4-6 fresh wild salmon filets (about 1-1 1/2 pounds)

1 cup sake

1 cup mirin

1/2 cup orange juice

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups white “Shiro” miso paste

2 tablespoons red “Aka” miso paste

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon cooking oil

To make the marinade, combine mirin, sake, orange juice and sugar in a sauce pan. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Continue to simmer for 3-5 minutes, until the alcohol burns off.

Remove from heat and whisk in soy sauce, white and red miso paste until until mixture is creamy. Set aside to cool.

When marinade is cooled, pour it into a bog zip-loc bag with the salmon and seal. Gently massage the marinade into the salmon, coating the fish well. Marinate in the fridge for 1-2 days.

When ready to cook the fish, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Take filets out of the plastic bag and wipe off the marinade. Pat fish dry.

Heat oil in a large fry pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Sear salmon filets 2-3 minutes on each side.

Remove the pan to the oven and bake until fish is cooked through.

Serve plain or with the sauce of your choice.

Read more: http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/08/21/me-so-crazy-for-misoyaki-salmon/#ixzz0g7LUncNn

Read Full Post »

Porto’s Bakery- Happy Birthday To Me.. ;)

One of the best bakeries around town is Porto’s, and most people that love the taste of really amazing baked goods knows about this place. You must love sweets to appreciate this place. For my birthday today, my husband got me the triple white Chocolate Mouse cake…..Can I just say, how @*#@**^! insane this cake is? Big pieces of shaved white Chocolate on top…..

That’s very thin layers of white chocolate shavings you see on top and around the cake.

Read Full Post »

BBQ Smoked Shrimp

This is one of my favorite type of shrimp dishes to make. Though I’m not a big shrimp fan to begin with, it’s not so bad to have every once in a while. This recipe came from Food and Wine May 2006. Just by looking at the stove in these pictures, this was way before I got my new appliances that’s how long this recipe has been around, I most likely have been making it since the Food and Wine issue came out in May of 2006. I posted this recipe when I had my old blog and I’m honestly too lazy to take a new picture.

Sorry about the delay on getting the link, this was difficult to locate.

Read Full Post »

Some Kind Of Beautiful….

I had to share my beautiful pictures of the Mountain getaway trip we went on this weekend….
Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

Since we met up with some friends there, I decided to bake up a tasty apple pie, though I have posted pictures of it before I think it photos nicely before the top crust has been added.

Read Full Post »