Cook thy love story- Valentine's day cook up for HER

Women loooove cheese and chocolate! Imagine how nice it would be if you present her great food with a compliment like, 'sweetheart you always ask me if you're looking fat and I have always said no! That is the reason why I am asking you to indulge only for a day'! trust me, She would be glowing with all that love! and then comes the grand cheese entree!

Grilled cheese with honey and walnut

Menu for your Lady: 


Grilled Camembert cheese with honey, walnuts and rosemary

This one is fairly simple. Buy good quality camembert cheese in a box. Now preheat the oven to 200 degree C.  Get rid of any plastic cover and put the cheese back in its box but dont put the lid on. poke the cheese on top at several places with a knife and insert pieces of rosemary and thyme into the slits. Drizzle on some olive oil and bake for about 8-10 minutes until such time that the cheese has melted at the centre.
Now in a saucepan heat up some honey and break some walnuts and sunflower seeds in it. heat until the mixture starts thickening more. drizzle on the melted Camembert and serve on wood platter. She would simply love it with a fruity white wine. bring it on!

Chocolate fondue fruit dip

Chocolate Fruit dip


Now this one is a sure shot aphrodisiac! with all the chocolate, strawberries and raspberries life's gonna get more lovey dovey and exotic. Here is all that you need:

A cup of heavy cream that needs to be whipped until peaks are formed. In another bowl whip up a packet or 8oz of cream cheese, 1/4th cup powdered sugar and a spoon of vanilla extract (not essence) until the mixture is shiny and smooth. Now gently fold in the whipped cream and adjust the sugar as per taste. Chill in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Cut some juicy strawberries, bananas and kiwi fruit and enjoy the aphrodisiac fruit with the heavenly chocolate dip.

With that, I hope you have a wonderful day full of exciting, colorful, sparkling love and joy! After all food's love..! Happy Valentine's Day.  

Cook thy love story- Valentine's day cook up for HIM

Love is in the air! While the world and its cousins..err partners is going to be at various party and food haunts, you may choose to make your partner feel really special by cooking something romantically wonderful for him & her.

Menu for your man:
Men love junk..absolutely...truly..madly! And what do you do the whole year? stop him from eating it. So, this valentine's day show some love. Make him some lovely belgian fries doused with cheese sauce for starters and a bacon wrapped chicken for the mains and let the magic unveil.

Fat Potato Fries
Aloo kisse nahi pasand! but when fried its lethal in calories and of course in TASTE. Here's how you are going to make it.

Thick potato fries with cheesy dip

Take the best quality potatoes and cut them into a centimeter thick pieces.  now simply take a ziplock pouch and shove the potatoes along with a spoonful of all purpose flour, salt, pepper and dried herbs. now shuffle the fries around so that they get coated nice and good. you can throw in a bit of garlic powder & chilli flakes as well.
Now deep fry the fries in vegetable oil for 3-4 minutes until they become golden brown.

Cheesy dip
Now there are n number of cheeses you can choose from to make the cheese sauce. if you like it sharp then use a sharp cheddar and then you can use a soft brie to make a more silky sauce.
In a saucepan put together 1/4 cup milk and 4 tsp of flour; bring it to a boil on medium heat while stirring constantly with a whisk. Now let it simmer for a couple of minutes until it thickens. Remove the saucepan from heat and stir in 1/3rd cup of grated cheddar. At this point removing from heat bit is very important otherwise the sauce may curdle. Lastly, season with pepper.

For the action!!
Make the dip before hand so u can drizzle it all over the fries when they come fresh out of the oil. serve in a basket lined with colorful hearts printed paper tissues!!! ooooo... cheesy!

Bacon wrapped chicken
Now what better love pairing than that of bacon and chicken. Imagine the look on his face when you loveingly present it on a plate...err..or.. get imaginative!! hahah!

Bacon wrapped chicken!

Take 4 chicken breasts and flatten them with a rolling pin to 1/2 inch thickness. To a 250 gms tub of cream cheese add chives or any seasoning of your choice and spread the same on each of the chicken breasts. Dot with a bit of butter and seasoning and roll up. now wrap each of the chicken roll with bacon strips. 
Now on a medium heat skillet put the chicken rolls seam side down and shallow fry until the bacon is crisp and the chicken is cooked. It should not take more than 2-3 minutes one side.

Serve with mustard mayo- to a jar of mayo add 3 tbsps of english mustard and a pinch of sugar and pepper. it serves as a brilliant combo with bacon and chicken!!

Now, for the boys there is another edition of the menu specially designed for the ladies. After all a good impression always lasts much more than just a day or a NIGHT :-))

Have a rocking Valentine's day!

Beetroot and goat's cheese salad

Two years ago when I visited France, especially the reviera, there was goat's cheese galore! Everywhere us three gals went 'chèvre chaud' (hot goat's cheese) followed :)
Honestly, at the end of our ten days I was quite sick of it. However now the sight of this unique smelling cheese and we all go crazy pouncing on it. Here I am sharing one of my most cherished and fun to make salad recipe that would see u through many a continental dinners.
Beetroot and chèvre salad
Ingredients

pic courtesy: http://www.taste.com.au

1 bunch of arugula leaves
2 peeled and cut beetroot
Fistful brown sugar
250gms of goat's cheese
150gms of boiled black lentils
100gms of baby tomatoes halved
A few basil leaves
For the dressing:
3tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 and a 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Boil the beetroot along with a cinnamon stick, star anise and a fistful brown sugar until the beetroot becomes soft and fragrant. Now on the bed of fresh arugula leaves, put the beetroot, halved tomatoes And boiled lentils. Lastly crumble the goats's cheese on top and then throw in some basil leaves. For the dressing, mix together olive oil and balsamic vinegar and seasoning. Drizzle on the salad. Let it seep in for 10 mins until the leaves soften a bit and then bit into this heavenly salad. Enjoy a piece of France on your plate :) Bon appetit!!

The invaluable Golden syrup

pic source: bbc.co.uk; golden syrup

There are a few ingredients in most of the dessert recipes that are simply gorgeous! Golden syrup is one such ingredient. You can use it on top of pancakes, as the special ingredient to cakes and puddings or just to dunk donuts in. While I truly believe its not worth the effort to make it at home, it certainly is a lot cheaper and a whole lot better when you take the effort to cook up this liquid gold. One of the patrons, Pinky Mistry happened to ask me for the same on mail, so I thought might as well share the good deed with everyone.. hahaha!

I took my recipe from Tod's kitchen, and although I buy one usually, this recipe worked brilliantly as an at home experiment for golden syrup. Here goes:

In a saucepan put in a 100gms of sugar and add 2 tbsp of water to it. put on heat. now keep stirring so that the sugar dissolves well and then start caramelising slowly and steadily. once the mixture reaches a dark golden color add 300 ml of BOILING water to it. Now stir around to loosen up the caramel so it takes to the boling water well. Now add 1/2 kilo of sugar to the pan and stir. that's it, now all that you need to do is to let this simmer for about 35-40 min. once done, the consistency of this mixture would still be liquidy. seive it into a sterilised bottle. let it cool for an hour or so. After an hour, this liquid should have turned into a honey like consistency. Which is when your golden syrup is ready :). You can store it for months at end in a cool dry place.

Will soon share the recipes in which it is the core ingredient. For now, as I said, enjoy the liquid gold'. 

Happy Foodie year to you- part 1

Baked mushrooms with ricotta & pesto

Something Stylish is in order for the new year bash you are throwing tonight. All you need to do is to NOT slave over the stove but bring a few shop bought ingredients together and impress your guests with this yummy starter!

You need to buy:
2 packets of button mushrooms
1 bottle extra virgin olive oil
250g tub of ricotta cheese (or any other crumbly cheese of your choice)
1 bottle of green basil pesto

pic courtesy-italianfoodforever.com

Ingredients:
5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 packets of button mushrooms
250g tub of ricotta cheese (or any other crumbly cheese of your choice)
2 tbsp green basil pesto
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or coriander to serve

 

 

Method:

Now preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius. Take a large ovenproof dish in which u can fit in all the mushrooms (minus the stems) in one layer. grease it with a spoonful of oil.
Core the mushrooms from the stems.
Mix the ricotta, pesto and garlic and fill the mushrooms till they are more than full up.
Just sprinkle over some parmesan and thrown in a bit of extra virgin oilve oil.
bake for about 20 minutes until the cheese is golden in color and mushrooms have cooked through. Serve with sprinkling of parsley leaves on top. Hot or at room temperature is just fine!

love, Anu

Happy foodie year to you! Part 2

Bringing in the new year with a last minute get together of friends. Here's a starter you can make fast with a lot of flavour and taste on offer. How you ask? There are three variations I offer that you can make in the same style of cooking. Saves time like how!

Kurkuri basket!!

Sounds quite appetizing already? The kurkuri basket will have a few vegetables, potatoes, paneer etc in their best that is crunchy form. and guess what? you can make a non veg platter for the same as well.

Ingredients:
1 cup each of boiled and mashed potato, sweet potato,
1 cup grated paneer
1/2 cup chopped mint and corainder leaves (dhaniya and pudhina patta)
1/2 cup of onion- optional
some chopped green chillies- as per taste
1 tsp cumin powder (jeera powder) 
pinch of aamchoor powder (dry mango powder)
salt to taste

for the batter:
1/2 cup of all purpose flour (maida)
1/3 cup of poha (flattened rice)


Method:
Bring together potato,onion,chilli and dhaniya along with jeera, aamchoor powder and salt and make into small balls. You can do combinations of your choice with mixing sweet potato with mint leaves and paneer with a bit of other chopped veggies and potato and give them any shape you like.
Now, in a flat dish combine the maida and a little water to make a smooth but thick paste.
Now dunk the potato, sweet potato and paneer balls in the paste and then roll them in the poha properly in order to get a good crunch!
Deep fry the balls until golden brown.
Drain extra oil on a tissue and serve in a cute basket with chutney and dips of your choice. I like the basic ketchup pretty good as an accompaniment.
Aint this a cool thing to do? you get three flavors in one go and they are something hattke from the conventional pakoras. Maze lo!!


Love, Anu

Chocolate on a spoon


Have a lot of leftover chocolates from various parties, places and return gifts sitting in your fridge?

Melt it all together in a double boiler. You can add anything u like to the liquid chocolate- dry fruit, canned fruit, rice crispies or flavorings like hazelnut extract etc. Now take small plastic paper cups (cutting chai cups are the best for these). Pour the cooled down chocolate into them. let it set a bit outside before refrigerating. Once the chocolate reaches semi solid condition, take a wooden ice lolly stick or a wooden disposable spoon and insert in the centre of the chocolate cup.
note: The chocolate consistency at this time should be such that the stick or the spoon stays straight and doesn't wobble down or slide out.

Chocolate on a spoon for any time hot chocolate!!!

Now you can happily let this refrigerate till totally set or the chocolate takes the shape of the cup. Once set, you can take the chocolate out of the plastic cup mold and wrap it in plastic with a tiny ribbon. you can use these chocolate on spoons to make instant hot chocolate. Just add 200 ml hot milk to your favourite mug or cup and dunk this spoon in it. Wait for it to melt slowly as you sip on the heavenly drink on a cold winter night.
hot tip: you can always pack some mini marshmellows, a stick of cinnamon or peanut butter on top of the set chocolate on a spoon. it would add the extra touvh to your cuppa hoooooottt chocolate.

Enjoy it!

love, Anu