Herbs and spices

Found a wonderful wonderful list. Just what everyone needs,
Check this CNN site on different types of herbs and spices!

Subway Sandwiches

This blog is not just about food I make. It is about stuff that I love eating too. And right now there is nothing that I love more than Subway sandwiches. Not just any sandwich. 

Here is what my order ALWAYS is

6 inch. Jalapeño bread (sometimes I use Parmesan Oregano or Italian Herb). Buffalo chicken and American cheese. Toasted. With cucumber, jalapeños, olive, the spicy tomato mix, green pepper and honey mustard sauce.

$4.51 of pure awesomeness.

PS: I tried foot long sandwich for the same thing. It was too much. I tried other sandwiches. It was not as great. 

DAMN!! Now I want that sandwich again!

Blog-Life has been updated

OK,

So I just finished cut-copy and pasting all my recipes from before. From now on I shall have my new recipes here. Of course that will be with better spelling, better grammer and definitely better idea of measurements for people who want to make what I have made.

Though I have given this suggestion to Ishu Di (I hope she starts blogging soon...her food is simply out of this world), I will also try to write about some of the nice places that I have eaten at. That ways, one wont always be stuck with what I make. I will try and rate the place too.

I am excited again!!

Super Simple Cake

OK this was such an easy one to do....I wonder why I didn't do it before.

The ingredients

• Flour...about a cup
• 1 tin condensed milk
• About 50 grams butter....unsalted of course
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder

Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.Melt butter.Let it cool but don't let it solidify (makes mixing the ingredients easier.Whip the eggs together...I just used the food processor.Then put all of this and the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.Mix them well so that no lumps are formed.Grease a baking pan well.Pour the batter in.Bake for about 30-35 minutes...you know what to do with a toothpick.

Avocado Grape and Lentil Salad

I made this salad one evening at around 11 o clock when I was SO hungry I could have eaten a horse.And I am so glad I did because this has become my favorite salad till date.Super easy to make....super tasty and super healthy.

This is what you need

• zest of 2 lemon (which is nothing but grated outer covering of the lemon)
• cucumber
• red pepper
• red grapes (no problem if you don't have red grapes....green grapes are just fine...its just that adding the red grapes gives the salad a delicious colour)
• green grapes
• avocados
• lemon juice
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste.
• any lentil...I used masur....red lentil.

Take some water and bring it to a boil.Add some salt to this water and boil the lentil in it till they are just done and not mushy.Boil them and drain them just like you would do a pasta.Set them aside to cool.

For the dressing...take the Olive oil, juice of the lemon and salt to taste and whip them together well.

For the rest of the veggies chop them to bite sizes...or whatever size you want and mix them well...add the cooled lentil and the dressing.Mix and enjoy.

YUMMMMM....like I said.The bestest Salad ever!!

Parsi dish with lentils and potato

One of those days when I had a carbs craving....

OK the stuff I used were the day to day stuff that is found in any Indian kitchen, viz,

mung dal...about 1 cup.I didn't know what mung dal in English was so I have attached a picture of it here.Tell me what these are called in English OK?

Some water to boil the mung dal in.

OK take the 2 together.And boil it for about 30 minutes so that the dal is cooked but not soft.After they are done drain and set aside.

Next we need,

• Around 5 medium sized potatoes peeled and diced to about 2 inch cubes.
• Some oil
• Cumin seed
• About 4 large green chilies finely chopped (yes the dish is REALLY hot)
• about 4 garlic cloves...chopped
• Some amount of ginger....grated
• Some turmeric...powder one.For yellow colour in the food.
• Some chili powder (as much as you can take)
• Salt to taste
• Some sugar (Bengali's use a lot of sugar in their food.Even in their meats....I used to laugh at them...and would even go as much as to say 'ewwww' you people don't know how to cook.But I added sugar to this this...and now I swear by sugar in all my dishes.Of course for health reasons I wont put sugar in ALL the food I cook.But there will be sugar in my special meals...the flavour changes when you put sugar in the meal..try and then see)
• Some curry leaves
• About 1 and half cup tomato puree
• Cumin seed powder
• Cilantro/Dhania to garnish

OK so now heat the pan and pour some oil in it.When the oil is very hot....fuming...add the cumin see till it starts popping.I love the smell of cumin in HOT oil...reminds me of my grandmother :) Anyways once the cumin is done add the chillies ginger and garlic....stir continuously else the 3 will burn.To this add turmeric....just a little.Once this mixture had been cooked in high flame add the tomato puree.Add salt to taste and about 1/2 tbsp of sugar.Add the chili powder as well.OK now once the tomato is done add the potatoes in...and cook it thoroughly.You can also parboil the potatoes and put them in ....but I like to cook the potatoes in the sauce so that the flavour goes in well..Anyways if you decide to cook the potato in the sauce then you should add a little water at a time so that you don't burn anything.When the potatoes are almost done add the mung dal in it.Add a little water and cook till the potatoes are completely done.

The consistency of the food should be gravy like.

To be served with chappatis/rotis.

OK like I have mentioned before I don't like saying add 1/2 tsp this and 3/4 tbsp that...the flavours and the taste is entirely up to you.Even once a week in the kitchen is enough to teach you how much to add what??

Flan

OK before I made this thing I didn't know 2 things...

1. Flan is a super-easy to make Mexican sweet dish

2.There are things called evaporated milk which is available in cans.I looked up Wikipedia...turns out its a milk in which 60 percent water has been removed.That means...if you boil milk for real long, till it turns real think, that's evaporated milk.OK?

So lets get started

You need:

3/4 cup sugar

About 250 ml evaporated milk

About one can condensed milk (Milkmaid).I don't use the entire can.I cheat and pour it on the dish and leave a lot behind so that I can lick it off as I cook...I know.I am disgusting....but I cant help it.I LOVE milkmaid :)

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

Put the sugar into a heavy bottomed dish (that you will be using later to bake in, so make sure its oven safe) spread it evenly and heat the dish.Directly over gas.So that the sugar starts melting (caramelizing).Make sure you stir the sugar occasionally.Once the sugar melts it will start turning brownish.Don't let it burn...just brown.Remove from heat when it becomes that colour and leave it to cool.With a spoon coat the sides of the dish a little with the syrup.

Now put the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl and mix it well.Put this mixture over the caramelized sugar (be sure that the sugar is cold).

Now put this vessel in a water bath.You know...bigger vessel with about 1 inch boiling water.

Now bake this entire thing for about 45-50 minutes. I had a little bit of mix left with me so I tried making that in simple water bath..instead of baking it.Turns out, it doesn't work.Not in the same time anyways....maybe it will if you boil it longer.But boiling for over an hour is a pain...and i firmly believe in 'save energy save life'...so make life more comfortable.just bake this thing.

After the mixture gets all firm remove it carefully from the water bath.Cool.

Put the flan in the fridge for minimum 4 hours before serving.

To serve just invert the flan onto the serving dish.There will be liquid in the dessert so make sure the serving dish isn't a flat plate ...

PS: I found the dish a bit TOO sweet for my taste.So well adjust accordingly.Just the caramelizing sugar though.Nothing else.

Buttermilk Roast Chicken

OK so the picture looks sad....there are just 2 pieces there.The thing is we forgot to take pictures and we realised this only when we had these 2 pieces left

Anyways here's what I used :

chicken..drumsticks preferred but you can use any fleshy chicken i suppose.6 pieces is enough for 2 people :)

1 cup buttermilk....curd and water in equal parts.mix well.that's Indian buttermilk i suppose.That's what i used anyways.

Vegetable oil.

Garlic

Chillies

Salt

Ground cumin...jeera.

Maple syrup (now the thing is...since i bought this syrup i have a big bottle of it....the concept of small bottles is unheard of in the US....pity; but ya...since i have this bottle the next few days i ll b making a lot of things which has maple syrup in it)

So this is what you do:

Put the chicken drumstick and the buttermilk together in a bowl and mix.put a little bit oil to it.Now peel 2 garlic cloves...2 pieces of garlic and smash it.I saw Nigella do it with a flat part of the knife so i do the same.you can use your fist if you want...but i strongly advice against it.So after you smash the garlic once put it in the bowl too.Now chop the chillies real fine and put it in.Salt to taste and about 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup (yes I had to buy a bottle of it for 1/2 tbsp) put it all in and mix well.

Cover it up and put it overnight in the fridge.If possible stir it once in between.

OK here's the thing.The book I was reading from asked me just to pick the pieces up and roast it.But there seemed too much of buttermilk mix to waste...so well,,,i went ahead and poured it all in....

anyways so preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.line a baking dish with aluminum foil.put everything (chicken mix i mean) in.pour in a little oil over the chicken.Roast for about 30 minutes.

Serve.We had it without anything else...oh ya I had maaza and Mono had White wine.but well...no food side dish.

Yummm

Banana Smoothie

A super breakfast for lazy people like me..for people who wake up 15 minutes before they have to leave for work.And for those who can bare squeeze in time for breakfast.

All you need is a banana, sugar to taste, chocolate powder and a blender.

Put all of it together and blend.

Have it cold.

Its tasty and its filling.No more rushing to work with nothing in the stomach.

I refuse to put up pictures for this one.

Spicy Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans

Now no one thought of a combination of pork with beans....but Mono insisted we make this and we did....my only condition was that we wouldn'tleave the beans uncooked like half the dishes here in the US are...instead we will completely cook the beans and that's that.he agreed and this is what it turned out to be

ingredients

1. 3 tablespoon soy sauce

2. 1/4 tbsp black pepper (the recipe called for white pepper....i swear to god i hunted for it....for so long that the department store people said 'miss we are closing for the day' ....so well black it was!!)

3. 1 pound ground pork (yes...since i have come to the US i too have HAD to convert to pounds....but mono gave me a rough estimate, 1 pound is about 1/2 a kg, 0.453 kg to be exact...but 1/2 kg works fine for me).And yes, the very rude guy in the store told us that he had run out of ground pork, so we bought boneless ones and put it in the mixer.....the mixer got spoilt in the process but yeah we got semi-ground pork....all's well that ends well :)

4. 1/4 cup chicken broth

5. 3 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce......i wish i could find a replacement for this one...but well i have not met a Chinese/Japanese guy till now so till then.....no replacement.

6 1/2 tsp red pepper....we didn't have one so we replaced it with chilipowder...we probably did it all wrong :D

7. 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

8. 1/2 tsp cornstarch

9. 1/2 cup peanut oil

10. green beans (the recipe says 12 ounces...but that's beyond my mathematical part of the brain....so how-much-ever you want)....cut into 4 inch pieces

11. 3 tablespoon thinly sliced garlic

12. 1 1/2 tsp dark Asian sesame oil ( i didn't know what Asian sesame oil was so i went to the Asian aisle of the store and picked up the sesame oil there....dunno how that made any difference)

See the LONG ingredient list?? that's what happens when you leave your regular cookbook and move to another one....in my case it was from Nigella Lawson to Emeril Lagasse...whose book we bought on a whim....its called 20 40 60...good book....cuz the 2 things that we have cooked from it are pretty good....only thing is that he uses a lot of fancy ingredients which may not be very simple to obtain if you were living in small towns in India :)

Anyways back to the recipe

Combine 2 tbsp of soy sauce, pepper and the ground pork.Mix well and set aside.In another bowl put in the chicken stock the Hoisin sauce chili powder, rice vinegar, corn starch and the remaining soy sauce.Mix and set aside this one too.Then heat a pan and add the peanut oil.Heat the oil till it smokes then put in the green beans till it wrinkles (kina chauris mariche,aafnai raaga le.............i dunno where there one came from.just popped into my head.something my dad used to say...its about black pepper...'why did u get all wrinkled black pepper?" "because of my anger (heat)"....something you would tell a person who gets angry all the time....anyways.i diverted again).Add in the garlic, after the garlic is golden add in the pork mix and cook till its cooked...ie till its no longer pink.Lastly add the sauce and bring it to a boil till it thickens....put the green beans back to the dish once the sauce thickens.and drizzle the sesame oil over it and then cool..Serve with the jasmine rice below..

Good dish...very filling.very tasty.

Aromatic Jasmine Rice

I know I said I would make things that everyone would be able to cook.....but well I HAD to try this out because it had something called Jasmine Rice and it sounded so Aladdin...Actually I thought Jasmine rice would be scented like Jasmine or something.I dunno what I thought, but for all who are concerned...its an aromatic rice.Somehow the aroma reminded me of the rice we got from our villages back home....locally known as 'busty ko chamal'...but with longer grains....a bit like basmati rice.but the jasmine rice had a stronger aroma...

Anyways so here is what i used...

2 cups jasmine rice (but like i said, you could probably replace it with any aromatic rice)

About half an inch of ginger...grated.

Grated zest of 1 lime

1 1/2 cup of coconut milk

1 1/2 cup chicken broth

salt to taste

1 tbsp chopped cilantro/coriander....i love cilantro in my food so i was extra generous with it

Put everything except the cilantro and cook like you would make normal rice...not in a pressure cooker though.garnish with cilantro.

Serve with the pork dish that is next in the blog....

Its good.Trust me it is.

Mint flavored baked chicken

1.Chicken...drumsticks without the skin will be good.however we used all parts of chicken that had meat in it :)...about 3/4 kg

For the seasoning

mint...about 3 fistful of leaves

coriander....about 1 fistful

half an onion

about 2 inch long ginger

4 big garlic cloves

salt to taste

make a paste of the seasoning stuff. coat the chicken with it.leave it in the fridge for about 15 minutes.then bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (of course after pre-heating the oven). after 30 minutes..remove turn the chicken around and then bake it again for 20 minutes.that's it...the chicken was YUMMY...we dipped it in curd while having it.

PS: after we coated the chicken with the sauce we had some left over sauce...i had a bright idea of cutting large potatoes into 4 long pieces (with the skin) and baking that too...baking takes only about 30 minutes.these were equally heavenly...no marination was needed.

PS : note that no oil was used in the cooking process (apart from the little that was used to line the baking pan)....so that means this food was low cal.....Yahoo

Hot Toddy

Now today i plan to put up around 5 recipes...i will not guarantee pictures in all 5 :)

The first one was something simple....for all people who suffer (i mean this word..real suffering involved) from common colds frequently

You need :

1 cup bourbon/rum...get prepared to be drunk cuz this goes in neat,

1 tablesppon honey

1 teaspoon lemon juice

skin of a lemon,,,the size of a 2 rupee indian coin

1 clove

put the liquids in a saucepan.heat it.pierce the skin of the lemon with the clove and put it in the saucepan.make the drink HOT.be careful though....it didnt happen in my case but since there it alcohol in the saucepan it MAY flame up.dont let that happen.

drink it.and go off to sleep.

mono swears by this drink..the morning after he always says "honey it really works....see there i am cured" (this is usually followed by a deep 'nasal' inhalation.....which is clear surprisingly)...i do think he exaggerates a little cuz it involves alcohol.....men will afterall always be men :D

Cucumber Raita

ok this one is one of the simplest dish to make.and very low cal and very very healthy.

this is what you do.take cucumber and chop it into small pieces (you can substitute cucumber with anything of your choice...fruit, onions and cucumber....go crazy in your head).add 1/4 cup curd to half cup of this chopped cucumber.to this add salt according to your taste.add a pinch of rock salt.and 1/2 teaspoon of chat masala.and 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder

and thats it.this shouldn't even be included as a receipe..

Chicken Biryani

Ok now this may not look that good....but trust me this was one of the best things i have made till today...an all time favorite dish of mine whether i make it or whether i eat out...i love biryanis...

though i must warn everyone...i made this dish today and had it.that means my diet for the past 2 weeks has gone down the drain...ok so lets get started...

we will make this in 2 parts.

This is what is used for the first part...the chicken...

Butter....LOTS of it...everywhere

3 onions, sliced

1.5 kg chicken pieces (i used the ones with bones but while i was eating the biryani i realised boneless would have been better)

2 tsp grated ginger

1 whole garlic, crushed

2 tsp of of the mixture of following spices mixed in equal quantities...cumin, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom..i love cinnamon so i was a little more liberal with it.also i like all my spices freshly ground whether i am making biryani or plain sabji at home.

1/2 tsp flour

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup yogurt

1/2 cup cream

salt to taste

heat the butter and fry the onions till golden brown.set aside.

take chicken in a vessel and cook it.yes just like that..no oil nothing...after sometime the chicken will secrete lots of fat and then it will cook in its own oil.anyways cook the chicken till its golden in color.set aside.

take oil in another pan (yes i know thats 3 vessels already...there will be more) put in the garlic, ginger, the spices and flour.cook for sometime then add the stock, yogurt and cream and cook continuously.after about 10 minutes of cooking and stirring add the ckicken and half the onions and cook it till the the chicken gets just cooked.remove it and keep it covered...dont want all that aroma drifting away do we?

now for the rice this is what you need.

butter.lots of it.

1/2 tsp saffron

big cardamom seeds...keep them whole

salt to taste

1 cup basmati rice,well washed

4 cups chicken stock

take the butter and heat it.put in the cardamom seeds, saffron and rice.fry it for sometime.put in the chicken stock and boil till the rice is cooked.cover it and let it stand.

now take an oven proof dish.put in a layer of rice.above the layer of rice put the chicken.cover the chicken layer with another layer of rice.above that put in the remaining fried onions.cover and put it in a preheated oven.at 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes.

garnish with roasted cashewnuts.serve with raita.

yummmmmmmm!!!

Honeyed Roast Chicken

Ok so now that i baked that cake yesterday i got into the cooking mode and well cooked up a storm today...

i made 3 things.all from this awesome receipe book my friend gave me.

the first one was a receipe using quail...but i substituted quail with chicken and i was happy with the result...

Ingredients:

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/4 cup soy sauce (though go a little easy on this one...if used in excess it turns the coating slightly bitter in a muddy way...trying tasting raw soy sauce and you will understand what i mean)

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sesame seeds (the recipe didnt call for it but i used roasted sesame seeds)

about 1/2 kg chicken.

To make the coating, put oil, soy sauce, honey, lemon juice and sesame seeds in a small vessel and cook stirring continuously over a low flame...till it thickens slightly.

Boil the chicken in water with a little salt.not to cook the chicken but just to 1/4 cook it (i didnt know what half of semi was..basically i mean boil the chicken for 5 minutes)

Now drain the 1/4 cooked chicken and coat it with the above mixture and roast it..for about 15 minutes or till the chicken is cooked.

So easy no?

Coffee liqueur

For the cake i made yesterday i used coffee liquor...which i am sure available readymade somewhere out there but i decided to make my own...

this is what is needed

4 cup. water

3 cup. (up to 3 1/2 3/4 to taste) sugar

3 tsp. vanilla extract (i read somewhere that 1 vanilla bean (slice lengthwise in 2) can also be used)

1 cup. instant coffee

1 fifth cup vodka

Boil water and sugar for 5 minutes. Remove. Add coffee . Heat to boil; cool for 1/2 hour. Put vodka and vanilla in gallon jug, add other mixture when cool and mix. If using bean, put in dark closet for 6 weeks. If using extract can use immediately. Make 3/4 of jug full.

Coffee liqueur cake

well...it has been a long long time i wrote somethin here.thats because i was bogged down with the thought that i would not put anything sweet up here.but then turns out i stopped cooking altogether...so salty things will have their share sometime later....cuz "i are baking!"

anyways last time my frens had come over i made death by chocolate...that required me to make some coffe liquor.a lot of that had reamined over so i thought i will use it for the new cake i would bake today.

today i am not putting up the ingredients...will move straight to the receipe.so i took frozen butter sugar and one egg and beat them together.i read somewhere that the key to making soft cakes was to have solid butter bits.thats why i used frozen butter...no amount of beating will make it completely smooth.anyways to this pasty thing i added flour, baking powder and soda bicarb (i dunno why they use soda bicarb...but there is one cook show in which the lady who cooks puts soda bicarb in all the baked products she makes...so i thought i would give it a go too)...then over this i put lots and lots of coffee liquor.probably enough to get me drunk if i was to have it neat.anyways it was enough to make the batter into cake like consistency.i put the batter in a greased baking dish (yes its still the square one....we have not actually got down to buying a new one) and baked it in a preheated oven...180 degree celcius for 22 minutes...and this is the result...



the white thing on top is powdred sugar....icing sugar if u must...that i used to visual effects.

i was about to eat it i was like whats a cake without some amount of chocolate in it...so out came my hershey's syrup and well here's the final product...

Sristi Veggie Pasta

ok so it took me sooooo long to make a non-sweet dish.anyways finally made my own creation...let me name it...umm.. creation veggie pasta...i know thats the most boring name with which a food has ever had the misfortune of bein named...but well the food cant complain.after all it was created by me :D

anyways it was one of those days when i was like i wanna have pasta...and good one at that...now i have this small guy in my house called gokul...he makes pasta...but well his pasta making is like put everything together and put sauce on top....like our local 'chowmein'....strangely it tastes good...but well..

so again i asked my digital best fren google as to what to do...but today he didn help me very much (yes its a he....girls dun like me and vice versa)...he came up with some fancy names which of course wudn b available here....so i went sadly to the kitchen and saw what i had?they were

• pasta...penne types
• mozarella cheese...lots of it.... as much as u like..all has to be grated
• tomatoes...i used 3 big ones
• garlic...1 whole thing...sliced and chooped....of all things i like chopping garlic
• processed cheese cube ...1 cube
• basil...every hindu house has a basil plant...its a religious thing to have.so obviously we ALWAYS have fresh basil in the house (thats y my mom doesnt get very happy when i use basil in food.i particularly like basil leaves in ginger tea.but like i said it is holy so i dun get to have much of that...i dunno what logic.ask mom)...and i was lucky again.since it is winter the lower parts of the plant also had some dried leave...so i had a combination of fresh and dried leaves...i took a handful of it...
• mayonnaise..i had garlic mayo but i think simple one will also do.
• olive oil...little bit
• pepper..according to the taste
• lastly salt.

i put the pasta to boil.with a little salt.while this was boiling i made tomato puree.and shredded the basil with hand.who's going to waste the smell of the leaves on a knife??after that i heated oil in a pan.once it was real hot i put in the garlic and saute-ed (is that the spelling?basically i just moved it around with a spoon)till it was golden brown.then i added the tomato puree.and let it boil for a while in a low flame.by this time the paste was done.i drained it and washed it with cold water then i mixed this thing with the salt, pepper,shredded cheese and garlic mayonnaise (i think garlic or simple doesnt make much difference...afterall we already used garlic for the sauce).i mixed the thing with my hand.spoon was too difficult to use and anyways i thought the spoon wud break the pasta (the bonus bein i got to lick off the cheese mayo combination)this mixture i microwaved at 540 for 6 minutes (all these temperatures and the time was whatever numbers that tickled my fancy...) while this was being done i put the basil in the tomato sauce..and contiued to cook it in a low flame.i like basil slightly raw thats y i removed the sauce before the leaves actually cooked.you can leave it on till the leaves get cooked completely it doesn make a difference to the taste.this i know cuz when i re-heated the sauce to give the pasta to dad the leaves got cooked completely.i tasted it...not much difference.anyways whatever you sauce is like take it and pour it over you pasta...which should be done by now.then grate a cube of processed cheese over it and microwave it fr about 5 minutes at 360...or till the cheese over the pasta melts.
serve...today my cousins had come over so it was fun eating it...cuz like penelope cruz says 'the most important ingredient is sharing your food with someone you love'.....he he he...ok so i can get pretty ummmm .....cheesy sometimes!