Beetroot Pasta

 

In a pan, saute the dried red chillies, garlic, onions, capsicum, followed by the grated beetroot and basil leaves. Cool, blend with soaked almonds and cashews and use.

Green Marinade

 

One Green chilly

Half a handful of coriander leaves

Handful of mint leaves

A few curry leaves

1 large ripe tomato

Salt

Blend and use as is. No cooking required.

Mexican Spaghetti

 

1. Steam or lightly boil broccoli, set aside. 

2. Heat up oil in a pan. Fry Mexican seasoning and Kashmiri chili powder. Add 4 to 5 tomatoes. Cook, cool, blend to make sauce. Set aside.

3. In the same pan, stir fry red and yellow capsicum with purple cabbage. Just salt and Mexican seasoning. 

4. If you have cooked black beans or canned, keep aside two tablespoons worth. 

5. Boil and drain spaghetti

6. Coat mushrooms/paneer in a slurry of wheat flour with salt and Mexican seasoning, panko crumbs and deep fry. Set aside. 

7. Add everything to a pan, season with salt and Mexican seasoning. Stir fry for a few seconds and serve.

The Nutzaurus!

These bars are wonderful for breakfast or as a tea time snack. Full of nuts and seeds, which are flavor bombs, the bars also have some chocolate flavored malt and dark choco chips to add just the slightest bit of richness. Sweetened with dates syrup, the bars additionally have dried fruits and protein. They are simply jam packed with flavor and nutrition. The almond butter which ties everything together isn't really butter at all. You basically blitz the almonds until they give up and become creamy!

 This recipe is vegan and gluten free. Doesn't get any better than this!

Ingredients:
Almond Butter:
 Almonds- 330 grams

Roasted ingredients:
 Cashews - 65 grams
 Walnuts- 60 grams
 Pumpkin seeds - 45 grams
 Pistachio nuts- 50 grams
 Flax seeds - 35 grams
 Oats- 150 grams

Other ingredients:
 Dried apricots- 5, chopped
 Dried figs- 4, chopped
 Black raisins- 32 grams
 Dark choc chips- 50 grams
 Chia seeds- 35 grams
 Bournvita (malt powder)- 3 tbsp
 Soy protein isolate- 32 grams
 Homemade Herbal roots powder for bone strength- 1 tbsp, heaped

Sweetener:
 Dates syrup: 250 grams, approx.
 (Optionally: Use honey, maple syrup, caramel etc.)

Preparation:

To make the almond butter, place the almonds on a baking tray and heat them up in the over at 180 C for 10 minutes. Then place them in a blender with a S blade and blitz. Stop from time to time scrape down the sides. The almonds will become powdery, then more granular and finally creamy. It will take about 25 minutes. Do not add water or oil.












Roast the ingredients listed at 180 C for 8 to 10 minutes.

Place the roasted ingredients and other ingredients in a bowl and mix well. To this, add all the almond butter and with a big spatula, mix by pressing down. As you do so, add the dates syrup until the mixture stops being crumbly and can be shaped.

Place the mixture in a baking tray and press down on top and the sides so that it forms a firm block. Bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes at 170 C.

Cool and cut into bars. Store in the refrigerator.









Priced at :
Rs. 849 / 600 grams
Rs. 1699 /1200 grams
Free delivery within South India
Courier charges as applicable to the rest of India

Bread Jamun

There's this new trend- cooking out in the open, usually in an Indian village and posting the video to Youtube. The cook is often an older gentleman or lady and the recipe a modern one or a modern spin on a classic.

I must say - I like it! It's cute, seeing a villager make pizza or a sponge cake on an open fire, sitting on the ground and sharing a story or two.

My favorite is Mastanamma. The name is fun, and she's got the kind of aged, wrinkled face that the cameras love. The kind of face you'd look at it and imagine to be a repository of wisdom. I decided to try one of her easiest recipes- Gulab Jamun made with bread. Its ridiculously simple, takes 20 minutes tops. The only recommendations I have is to add a pinch of baking soda to the mix, fry the bread balls in ghee instead of oil, keep the sugar syrup bubbling when you add the fried balls to it and allow it to soak for at least 6 hours. It vastly improves the texture and taste. I won't type out the recipe because Mastanamma is here to demonstrate :)

Croissants

Back in 2007, I was churning croissants out at an astonishing rate. My family had come together, a rare event, and croissants were my way of saying,"Here, enjoy and be fat." After almost a decade, I'm at it again and this time, for no reason at all.

Soft, buttery, delicious...and nerve racking. Placing the croissants in a warm space to proof before baking sounds easy enough, but it isn't fun to be constantly checking them every ten seconds to see how much they've risen, wondering why one batch rises more than another and generally worrying. On the other hand, watching them plump up like soft, light pillows is nothing short of miraculous. I bow my head to these creatures we call yeast.

Add caption

The recipe is right here :

https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/classic-french-croissant-recipe/

I followed it as is except for the measuring out of the croissant triangles, which I thought too finicky. It's a great recipe, provided you keep in mind the pressure points
1. Get a kitchen scale if you don't have one. It's a great help.
2. Get great quality baker's yeast.
3. Test a batch in your oven to get the baking times right.
4. When you roll out the triangles on day 3 to stretch them out, be gentle. Too much pressure destroys the layers. Also be quick, the butter melts as you handle the dough. This is something you need to be kind to yourself about because it may take a batch or three to get the hang of.

It may sound complicated, but this is actually a relaxed, easy process. And the rewards are well worth it!

Mushroom Potstickers with Mint Sauce

I am constantly reminded that I am Indian when I cook. It's tough for us to show restraint- we have too many masalas. When a traditional gravy is made, I usually go for the entire line up of spice powders on the shelf. Pick, open, shovel, dump, repeat. You don't even have to think about it. That's why I like cooking non-Indian dishes. It's challenging. Like some food pervert, I have to stop my hands from grabbing those bottles.

Potstickers. What can I say. They're always a hit. But this is the first time I made a simple western herb sauce and I tell you- you could pour that thing on stale bread and I'd wolf it down. Beautiful. I'll be making this again.



Mint Sauce

6 sprigs of mint (1 tbsp blitzed mint leaves)
1.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tbsp white vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.




Mushroom filling

1 cup of button mushrooms
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying.
1 large onion, finely chopped

Slice the mushrooms and place them on a frying pan with a dash of oil. Season, fry both sides on high flame till golden brown and set aside. (Traditionally chopping up mushrooms and cooking them all together results in a soggy mess- which isn't bad, but I prefer this drier version albeit its complex cooking process) In the same pan, add a dash of oil, add the onions, season and fry lightly. Mix it in with the mushrooms.

Potsticker dough

1 cup plain white flour
1/4 cup of boiling water
1 pinch salt

Mix all the ingredients together and knead thoroughly for 10 minutes. The dough would be stiff and firm. Cover with a wet cloth in a bowl and set aside for 2 to 4 hours.

Assembly





Roll out the dough into a log, portion it into 7 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rough circle. Use a cookie cutter or small lid to make a perfect circle. Gently use the rolling pin to make the edges thinner than the middle. Place filling in the center, run a wet finger along the edge and seal the edge. Pleat it gently.

In a pan, add 2 tbsp of oil and place the potstickers in it. Fry for 1 to 2 minutes till the bottom is nicely golden brown. Then add about 3 tbsp of water, cover with a lid and cook for 5 to 8 minutes. Serve potstickers with mint sauce.