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Friday, May 2, 2014

Whole grain Cranberry Orange scones in a food processor made easy

These delicious scones are suitable for breakfast or tea in the afternoon. Whole grains that are not only included provide nutritional value; You actually add a savory, nutty background taste that goes well with honey and orange flavors.

A food processor is the best tool, if each Scone recipeto make. It does all the hard work for you, often with better results than by hand.

Ingredients for 12 scones:

10 Ounces whole wheat flour (the about 2 1/4 cups)

4 Teaspoons baking powder aluminum free

1 / 4 Teaspoon baking soda

1 / 4 Teaspoon sea salt

2 Tablespoons olive oil extra vergine

2 Tablespoons cold butter (1 / 2-stick) or solid vegetable shortening

1 Tablespoon minced orange zest

2 Tablespoons honey

3/4 Cup milk

1 Cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees F. combine whole grain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the food processor work bowl with a multi-purpose blade or dough blade equipped. Pulse a few times until well mixed. Add the olive oil and pulse until just combined. The butter or shortening in small dice, cut and Add. Pulse a few times until the butter is the size of small peas.

The milk, honey and orange zest add and mix well. Select the food processor to "on" and slowly drizzle the milk mixture through the feed tube. Stop in combination. Using a spatula, gently in the cranberries wrinkles.

Turn the dough on a floured board or work surface, and split into two parts. Work quickly each in a circle, about 3/4 inch thick, dusting easy this is with flour also sticky to work with. Cut each circle into 6 even pie shaped wedges and transfer to a baking sheet with parchment paper lined. Bake for 12-16 minutes, or until golden brown are.

Tips and suggestions

Serve for a special treat with fresh home-made butter (its easier than you think with a food processor!) If additional sweet you want, drizzle with honey.

It is to note a few things in each pastry. Their dough must be cold, to make sure that the butter melting be prematurely. That is, at least, your butter must be well chilled. It is advisable on hot days, chill the flour. Over mixing causes a hard Scone. Once fetched the wet and dry ingredients together, sure to mix so little as absolutely necessary.

The food processor on Food processor reviewsfind this detailed recipe, along with many others specifically for that.

Heather Krasovec, creator of http://food-processor-reviews.net/, on the basis of their experience based food industry consumers make the best decisions when their kitchens smooth.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Baked Cauliflower in Tomato sauce

Okay, so there are people who dont like cauliflower and some who dont like me posting recipes with cauliflower in them ;) If you are reading this, youll know this is for you!

Winter is officially over in Hyd with temperatures raring to touch 40 C. At such times, I still find spotlessly white head of cauliflower waiting to be picked up and used, so what else can I do but that? The idea for this dish comes a recipe I found in the book- From Bengal to Punjab : the cuisines of India by Smita Chandra - which has a very interesting collection of recipes and most of them are available on preview in the link above.

Ive tried the recipe Gobhi Mazedar from this book, which turned out superb. In fact, the hubby and me ate off the stuff from the baking dish and that was our dinner that night.

This time to pair with the pasta, I tried an Italian version of this dish - which turned out as good. In fact if you have a good loaf of bread on hand, you can dish out an excellent meal with just the bread and this baked cauliflower dish. There are two ways to do the dish - either deal with the cauliflower whole or break into large florets which will cook / bake faster if you are short of time.

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Baked cauliflower in tomato sauce

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower roughly 750 grams - very fresh

10 medium tomatoes

2 tsp olive oil

3 medium onions

8 cloves of garlic

2 tsp chilli flakes

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp dried basil

salt and pepper

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated cheese of your choice (optional)

The Cauliflower

Remove the stalks of the cauliflower. Discard or reserve for another use.

If you have a pot big enough to hold the whole flower, then fill it with around 2L water. Add 2 tsp salt. Let it come to a boil. Meanwhile keep the cauliflower immersed in a large pot of salted water to remove any worms if present.

If you dont have a pot big enough or not enough time on hand, then break the cauliflower into big florets and keep immersed in salted water, until a pot of water comes to a boil.

When the water starts to boil, remove the cauliflower from the salted water and place it in the pot bottom down (if using whole). Cover and cook for around 10-12 minutes, checking until almost done. The florets will take shorter time, around 6-7 minutes, so keep a watch. Dont let them turn too soft.

Once this is done, drain, wipe thoroughly with tea towel and keep aside.

The sauce

Wash tomatoes well. Halve them and throw them in a pot. Let them cook in their own juices on medium heat. No need to add water. Stir around occasionally until they get mashed to a pulp. At this stage you could pass them through a strainer to remove the skins or keep it as it is (which is what I did). Remove and cool.

In a saucepan, heat 2 tsp olive oil. Add the cruches garlic cloves and sliced onions, stir until the garlic is light golden and onion is soft.

In a blender, place the cooled tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper - whir to a very smooth sauce. If you find this runny, which could happen if your tomatoes were very juicy, take this back in the saucepan and thicken with a slurry made from 1 tbsp flour and 1/4 cup water, simmer till thick and then proceed with recipe.

Assembling

Grease a 9" round baking dish. Place the cauliflower in it. Reserve 1/2 cup sauce to use while serving. For whole cauliflower, spoon the sauce between all the florets and whatever sauce remains, pour it and rub it over the top, so the flavours enter every nook and cranny.

For the florets, arrange the florets stem down - neatly in a baking dish that accommodates it all - pour the tomato sauce (reserving 1/2 cup) all over and around the florets, pressing well.

The dish can be prepared up to this stage, covered well and refrigerated for a day or two, to be removed and baked just before serving.

Baking

Cover the top of the dish with bread crumbs, cheese, extra herbs, pepper and bake in a 180 C oven for around 30 minutes, unthttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=23919567il cheese is melted and golden.

Serve hot along with a simple pasta (preferably not in a tomato sauce) or with slices of bread.

Please do try the original recipe Gobhi Mazedar. Youll enjoy browsing that cookbook online, it has a fantastic collection of recipes. Better still if you can lay your hands on it in your bookshop / library, you can see the book in its entirety. If the link does not work, you can try searching in Google ebooks for Smita Chandra Gobhi Mazedar.

This is a very hearty flavoursome dish which will make a great addition to your menu for an Italian party. I served this with Penne in Spinach sauce and the green and red complemented each other beautifully.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Thai Red Curry Beef in Grilled Flank Steak Form

This red curry flank steak recipe represents a departure from my usual game plan regarding marinating meat for the grill.

I normally dont try to make the meat taste like something specific, rather just use whatever vinegar is nearby, some garlic, herbs, and whatever spices strike my fancy at that moment.

This time I actually had an idea. I love Thai food, and in particular red curry beef. If youve never had this amazing dish, its basically chunks of beef stew meat cooked slowly in a spicy, aromatic red curry sauce until fork tender. Its clearly one of the top 50 recipes in the history of the world.

So, inspired by this classic Thai recipe, I decided to see if the same sort of flavors could be turned into some sort of marinade for flank steak. Im so glad I did. The results knocked my socks off.

I made a point to use only ingredients found in your typical higher-end grocery store (like Whole Foods). I really hope you make the effort to find these items, since there really aren’t suitable substitutions.One note about doneness – as I mention in the video, I like to cook the flank steak to about 132 on the grill which goes up another 5 or so degrees while it rests. This will give you something between medium rare and medium. Rare flank steak is very chewy, and I believe cooking it closer to medium gives a much better texture to the meat.

Having said that, it may look like the meat is a little rarer than that in the video. Thats because I started cutting from the thick end, which is going to be rarer – but as you slice towards the thinner end, it will turn medium, and youll even get a few slice of medium well towards the end.

For this reason flank steak is a perfect choice for a group, since the same piece of meat will provide a range of different doneness. So, go find those not-so-exotic Asian ingredients and give this delicious beef flank steak recipe a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 whole beef flank steak, trimmed
3 tablespoon fish sauce
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
3-4 cloves crushed garlic
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon red curry powder
1/2 teaspoon red curry paste
View the complete recipe

Friday, March 28, 2014

Lake Henshaw in San Diego

Its June and our venison supplies are running dangerously low. Rick and I decided to get fishing licenses this year in order to supplement our food stores for this blog, at least until we fly back to Nebraska this fall. As a matter of fact, we just booked our flight last week. November 8th to 17th!

In his younger days, Rick used to fish a whole lot, but hasnt done it for some time now. Since his nephew just bought a house by a lake, we figured wed be doing a lot more fishing anyway. 16 bucks for a one day license, or 50 for the rest of the year? Yeah, you do the math.

So this past Friday, we got up in the dark, packed our fishing rods and headed south to San Diego, which was 2 hours away. And if you knew me, youd know that I hate getting up early. Im not a morning person at all. But I will get up for fishing. I was so excited that I couldnt sleep a wink-- literally! So I just ended up feeling really sick in the car. Boo hoo.

But as we climbed deeper and deeper into the hills, I began to feel a little better. The sun peeped over the hills, lifting my spirits and launching my curiosity for what lived inside the woods. I no longer felt as haggard as early that morning. To my pleasant surprise, I saw wild turkey standing beside the road, watching us as we passed by. If turkey had thumbs, we wouldve stopped to let them hop in.

Finally, we made it to Lake Henshaw, just before 6 AM. Rick said that the most beautiful time of the day was the morning, with the sun just highlighting the rolling of the hills, which casted soft, dim shadows across the waking water.

That day, I agreed with him.

Lo and behold, Lake Henshaws office. We were hoping to get there early enough for catfish, which we did. But the lady who was supposed to open up shop never showed up. They had to send someone else, who had not worked the cash register for years. There was a line. Rick remembers those windows, where he used to look out as a kid. Hes been going to Lake Henshaw with his family for years.

Finally, we made it! For just $35 dollars, you can rent one of Lake Henshaws motor boats and take it out all day. Thats the best deal youre going to ever find in Southern California.

So we set sail across the water towards "Monkey Hill," which used to be "Monkey Island," with Rick as skipper and me as First Mate. Not that I made a good First Mate...

...Because I refused to touch the worms. I made the Captain bait my hook.

Lake Henshaw is much smaller than it used to be. Turns out, there is a fault that runs underneath the lake. Fearing that an earthquake will flood out the valley, the lake has been drained of much of its previous glory.

We waited and waited. And waited some more. Finally, after about an hour, I felt my line jerk while trolling with the breeze.

I caught my first crappie! And it was a beauty. Good eating too.

After my first crappie, Rick and I got super excited. Hoping to get lucky again, we sailed up to the dam to do some more drifting.

And we waited. And waited.

And waited some more. It was blazing hot as we entered the midday doldrums.

Needless to say, I got sunburned pretty badly. My skin is peeling as we speak. Ew?

By the shore, we spied a turkey coming down the hill.

Rick thinks it was a young male, or a "jake." It was pretty exciting for me to see wild turkey here, since Ive never seen them before in my life. Too bad it costs so much to hunt this land. The fees to enter Henshaws hunting club is beyond us.

The jake kept strutting along, coming closer and closer to a heron that sunbathed by the water.

The heron did not like this.

He flew down the shoreline to another spot.

So naturally, we sailed to the heron and committed the same crime the turkey did. Got this cool shot though.

It was passed two and we only had a couple more bites. The second crappie I caught was too small, so we had to throw it back. It was a bummer not to catch as much as wed hope, but thats fishing for ya. Fishermen and hunters are the most patient people in the world.

And thank you Big Bird for pooping on my car.

So we took our one lone fish back to clean. We talked to some other guys, and they didnt have much luck either.

Apparently, we were 1 month and 4 days too late. We heard that people were hauling in bales of fish a month ago, and then it just suddenly stopped.

Yum! But at least we came back with something, and we had fun. Thats all that matters. Just being outside and enjoying the great weather and fresh air is what matters most. The rest is just icing on the cake, as Rick always says.

You dont wanna look down that hole. I did, and it was gross!

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Monday, March 24, 2014

Cauliflower with fenugreek greens in spicy peanut gravy

Its nearing end Jan and finally we winter-starved Bombayites are finally feeling some cool. Afternoons are still hot. The tiled flooring does turn cold though. The cold water in the wash-basin gives me a little jolt as I sleepily open it early in the morning, reminding me that - Hey girl, enjoy this while it lasts.

I love all spices. Especially so, at this time of the year, when our body yearns for it. Ive gone all out with my spices in this recipe, dressed up the benign cauliflower in flavours it didnt know existed. Its like turning an ice maiden Aishwarya Rai into a hot sizzling Mallika Sherawat! If you dont know who these babes are, dont worry. Im sure you got the idea though. The peanuts were added on second thoughts, to make the gravy a little milder and creamier without adding any dairy cream. It turned out good. Real good. In fact, the day I made this, DH had an unusually long day at work. I for once didnt complain as I dug into the whole darn bowl myself. Yeah! That good. Try out and youll know Im sticking by my new year resolutions :D

And hey friends, I havent forgotten about the WBB 8 round up. I just got some respite from work and I wasnt in the mood for some more serious work like battling with blogger to do a round up. Itll come up soon with a new theme as well.

Cauliflower in spicy peanut gravy

Category: Vegetables, side, Indian curry, Spicy food, Winter food
Cooking time: About 20 minutes
Serves 3
Recipe source: My own

2 cups cauliflower florets - largish
1 cup finely chopped fenugreek leaves

For the masala

3-4 red chillies
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 small stick cinnamon
2 cloves
2 cardamoms
5-6 black peppers
1 sprig curry leaves
3-4 cloves garlic
2 medium onions - sliced
1 tsp salt or to taste

1/4 cup or handful of roasted peanuts
Salt to taste

Wash the florets in plenty of salted water. Drain and keep aside.

For the masala, on a low flame, roast all ingredients except the onions and garlic. Roast till aromatic. Remove from the kadai onto a dish and let it cool. Meanwhile, take a tsp of oil in the same kadai, put in the sliced onions and garlic with tsp of salt. Saute till translucent. Remove from the kadai and cool.

In a mixer, grind the roasted spices, onion-garlic and the peanuts into a very fine paste, adding upto half cup of water.

In a cooker or a pressure pan, heat a tsp of oil. Splutter some cumin seeds and then pour the masala paste. Stir around for a good 5 minutes or so. We wont wait for any oil to separate here because we didnt use much oil to start with. Throw in the cleaned cauliflower florets and the greens. Add upto a cup of water and let the florets simmer in the paste for around 3-5 minutes before closing the lid of the cooker.

Allow just one whistle to escape. Switch off the gas and take the cooker off the burner immediately. The remaining pressure in the cooker is enough to cook the florets just enough without turning them into a mash. Another reason why they wont turn to a mash is because we keep the florets big enough not to cook too soon. If you want to try this in a saucepan (no cooker scenario), then by all means break the cauli into smaller florets for faster cooking.

After 10-15 minutes, the cooker would have cooled. Open the lid carefully. Check for salt. Serve hot with any Indian bread or plain steamed rice. A cold salad on the side will complement the heat of this curry beautifully.

Tags: Cauliflower, curry, winter recipe, spicy curry, peanuts

Monday, March 17, 2014

Black Onion Relish – I’ve Never Wanted a Hot Dog So Badly in My Life!

This quick and very dirty recipe for black onion relish was quite delicious on grilled salmon, but with every bite I became more and more agitated, thinking about how utterly perfect this would have been on a grilled hot dog.

If you’re one of these enlightened souls that enjoy grilled onions on their ballpark franks, you will love this sweet and smoky condiment.

There’s something about how the onion roasts in its own charred skin, buried in the white-hot coals, which brings a goodness not achievable in a pan. Believe me when I say, my next hot hog WILL be wearing this relish.

As usual, I played it straight with the seasonings, but if I had a dollar for every way you could adapt this relish recipe, I’d have enough money to pay someone to think of a real ending for this post. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 1 1/2 cups:
2 yellow onions

1 red pepper

chopped parsley, to taste

cayenne, salt and pepper to taste

*Dress with oil and vinegar to taste - I used about 3 tbsp olive oil and 3 tbsp vinegar

Taste and adjust!

View the complete recipe

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Pot Roasted Brisket in Beer with Parsnips and Mushrooms

This is a really delicious recipe from BBC Good Food website. Easy to make, lots of long slow cooking and the dark beer with the mushrooms makes a rich and tasty gravy.

I used an Orkney Beer called Dark Island

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Egg Puffs Indian style curried eggs in puff pastry

Ingredients

Pepperidge farm puff pastry-1 sheet

Eggs-4

Onion large( thinly sliced)-1

Tomato large( chopped)-1

Curry leaves-2 sprigs

Red chilli powder-1 1/2tsp( +/-)

Cumin powder-1tsp

Turmeric powder-1/4tsp

Salt to taste

Oil required.

Method

Thaw the puff pastry sheet for 1 hour, place the thawed pastry sheet on a floured kitchen surface and cut one sheet into 9 equal squares. Hard-boil the eggs, remove the shell and halve them. Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan, when oil is hot add the sliced onions and curry leaves, saute onions until they turn light brown. Now add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they are mashed. Next add red chilli powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder and required salt. Saute for few more mins until the masala powders are cooked, remove pan from heat and allow onion mixture to cool. Pre-heat oven at 400F( or as per box instructions), place a parchment paper or a foil paper on a baking tray. Take one puff pastry square, slightly flour pastry square on both sides( so that pastry sheet do not stick to you fingers), place spoonful of curried onion mixture in the center of pastry square and place half boiled egg on the top of curried mixture. Slightly wet two corners of pastry sheet with water and bring both corners of the pastry sheet together pressing firmly with finger and place the prepared puff in the baking tray. Do the same for the rest of the pastry sheets. Place the baking tray in the center rack of the hot oven. Bake for 15mins or until the puff pastry turns golden brown and flaky. Serve Egg puffs hot with tomato ketchup or mint chutney.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

May the emperor of modern capitalism and co founder of Apple Inc soul rest in peace

Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2008. (Paul Sakuma, archives/AP Photos)

We miss you!!!!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Cafeteria Chic – Beef and Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers a Work in Progress

The last time I saw stuffed bell peppers, they were sitting in a steam table in a hospital cafeteria. I didnt get them, but it was tempting. I really love the flavor profile of stuffed bell peppers, or as they say in hospital cafeterias, I like the flavor of stuffed bell peppers.

The sweet bitterness of the roasted pepper, along with the aromatic, meaty filling makes for a very nice plate of food. And of course, any time you can get your meat, vegetable, and starch in one neat package, you have to love that.

As I say at the beginning of the video, Im still playing around with different fillings for this recipe before deciding on which version goes in the cookbook. This is pretty close however, and no matter what you use, the technique for prepping the peppers is basically the same.

Many people boil the peppers for a few minutes first. I dont, and have never felt the need to. Also, many recipes call for browning the beef first, then making the stuffing. I may try that out, but Ive always used raw meat, and think its probably a better way to go.

The biggest potential change to the recipe you see in the clip is the meat. For the cookbook, Ill probably use a sausage and beef blend. More flavor, and more fat, usually means a better recipe, but stay tuned for the final word on that.

The ingredients below are exactly what I used, but Ive made notes next to some with suggestions. If you give these a try, and come up with some incredible combination, please let me know. Enjoy!

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Ingredients:
6 bell peppers
1 1/2 pounds ground meat (I used all lean beef, but suggest you try 1 lb. beef with 1/2 lb. pork sausage)
1/2 onion, sliced
2 cups tomato sauce, divided (I would increase this to 3 cups, and use an extra cup in the baking dish)
1/2 cup beef broth (I would increase this to 1 cup)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
4 cloves garlic, minced fine
1/2 cup finely grated real Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano)
1 1/2 cups cooked rice

Monday, February 17, 2014

Yeah Yeah Im Still in the Garden

The pace of the gardening continues, although we are about to have to take a couple of days off as my father, his partner and my aunt are coming to visit this week. Time to clean the house instead!

This bed has been seen before, full of lettuces. There are a few remaining that will be pulled and eaten in the next week or two, but most of them are gone and chiles (peppers) and eggplants have been planted in their place.

All the spinach has been cut in the bed behind them. By the end of next week this should be planted with melons.

Beans are starting to come up. You can see a huge difference in the different varieties, and how quickly they germinate.

This strange looking bed is an experiment in potato growing. We laid down newspapers on the grass and filled it with compost.

Mr. Ferdzy dumps in the 12th and final wheelbarrow full of compost. The 4 foot by 16 foot bed took a bit more than a cubic metre of compost for the first layer - thats a lot of dirt and we will need a lot more. Weve planted long-season potatoes in it, and as they come up we will cover them with more soil and add more boards to the side to support it. The idea is, we hope, to triple our potato crop.

The boards we are using are rough spruce (?) otherwise known as construction strapping. Its the cheapest wood we could find. The potatoes we have planted are Russet Burbank (a personal favourite) and German Butterball, which we have not grown before. They were chosen because they have a long growing season, which is another way of saying they are indeterminate plants - they will keep producing potatoes as long as they can. Short season potatoes are determinate. That is, they will produce a set amount of tubers then declare themselves done. They are not suitable for this kind of growing as no amount of hilling up will encourage them to produce more.

The other thing our reading tells us is that once shoots appear above the soil, you have 3 days to cover them with more if you wish to change the stems to roots, that is, more potatoes. Otherwise it will be too late and they will stay stems even if you bury them. We have decided that we will check the potatoes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and cover or partly cover stems with dirt. Our goal: a two to three foot deep bed loaded with potatoes! Will it work? Stay tuned!

We planted tomatoes last week when the weather forcast showed no nights below 10°C. The weather forcast was wrong. We immediately had 2 nights at 6°C and as we are in the bottom of a valley we know their forcasts can be for higher temperatures than we actually get. Up went the hoop-house covers for a couple of nights. Tomatoes appear to be doing very well. Those hoop-houses are so handy.

These feeble looking little sprouts are sweet-potatoes. They are small but actually quite healthy and doing well. Looking forward to them taking off as the weather warms up.

And we finally tackled one of our two horribly overgrown beds. Here is the before picture - Mr. Ferdzy is just starting to string a line around it to redefine the edges.

While he did that, I pulled out all the remaining leeks in the bed. Man, we got some really gorgeous leeks. Leek and potato soup coming up!

Once all the weeds were pulled we dug a trench around the outside and put in plastic edging. We dont want it to get back into that weedy state again!

And finally, there it is - dug over, weeded, edged and planted with five kinds of bush beans. Now we just have to do the same with the ex onion bed. Planting is winding down. Theres the melons and corn to plant, and then the last big task is to dig three beds in the wetter part of the garden. Its been too wet to do it! But that will allow us to put in our pumpkins and squash, celery and leeks.

Weve been getting a surprising amount of rain this year. Weve had to do some watering but not too much yet. We planned to put in the "wet" beds to deal with our semi-perpetual drought, and so of course we arent actually having it at the moment. So it goes. Anyway, more work to do...