Baked Pears

Now that I bought a oven, i am only looking for baking. With a hectic day at office, i wanted to try something simple and new.



I has pears at home and that is all this recipe required (mostly)

Ingredients:
Pears -2 (any kind)
1/2 lemon
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp water
vanilla essence - 2-3 drops
1 tbsp butter

Peel pears and slice them into half. remove the core and seeds.

Place pears in baking bowl, cut side up. Drizzle lemon juice and add the lemon leftover to the bowl.


Sprinkle sugar, water and vanilla essence over pears.

Bake them at 250C for half an hour. Pour the bowl juices over pears in between.


Turn the pears, smear them with bowl juices and bake for another 10 minutes or until pears become soft. prick the pear with toothpick and it should go till the bottom without resistance.

Serve it with vanilla Ice cream and Enjoy!

Bake: simple bread

My lovely husband got me a new oven over weekend. I was so excited about it and first thing i wanted to make was bread. Its been on my list for so long.

Ingredients:

Flour - 2 cups
salt - 1/2 tsp
sugar - 1 tsp
yeast - 1tsp
water - 1cup

Very simple ingredients.



Make yeast ready by following the instructions on the packet.



Take a big bowl, mix all dry ingredients in it and then add yeast and water. Mix the dough properly

Now knead the dough on platform for about 10 minutes



Put the dough back in the bowl and cover it with cloth. Let it rest for 1 hr. You will see dough would have become double its volume.

Now knead again for 5 minutes and let it rest in baking mold for another 1/2 hr.



Preheat oven at 180 C. Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes.

That's all...bread is ready.


I smeared some olive oil and toasted cut bread for a 5 minutes and rubbed garlic on it to make garlic bread.



My family finished it in a second...but was worth all the trouble. Next item on my list is cereal bread.

Enjoy :)

Shiny stuffed capsicum

A big task at hand, to impress my husband with his least favorite vegetable, capsicum.
I am making stuffed capsicum.

Ingredients:
3 medium capsicums
1 onion
1 carrot (boiled)
1 potato (boiled)
2 green chillies
Ginger
Garlic
Jeera
garam masala powder
coriander powder
Chilli powder
Salt and oil


Remove the stem and par boil capsicum. Add 2 tbsp to oil to a pan. once oils heats add Jeera, thinly sliced ginger, garlic, onion and green chillies. Once onions turn transparent, add boiled and mashed carrot and potato. let them cook for a min and then add 1/2 tsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp garam masal and 1/2 tsp coriander powder. Add salt according to your taste. Let this cook for a min on low flame.



Add this mix to capsicums. Coat them with oil. Now you can either fry them on pan or microwave for 5 minutes. Tasty stuffy capsicum ready :)


My husband loved it, but he only are the stuffing and left capsicum aside :)


Happy cooking everyone :)

Comfort Zone: Yummy peas pulao

Fresh peas are available at this time of the year and i love to cook with them.
I was thinking of making either peas pulao or peas parata.

I love rice dishes and simplicity of this recipe won over peas parata.
Though i made many varieties of pulao, i never tried peas pulao.




Ingredients:

2 cups Basmati rice
1 cup fresh peas (frozen peas will also do)
3 green chillies (adjust to your taste)
1 onion
curry leaves (optional)
Jeera (optional)
4 cloves
cinamon
bay leaf
1 tbsp clarified butter/Ghee/Butter
1 tbsp Vegetable oil
ginger-small peice
2 garlic pods
salt



You can experiment with lot of spices in this recipe. Go with your heart.

Soak basmati rice in water for an hour. Cut onions and chillies length wise. finely chop garlic and ginger.


Add ghee and vegetable oil to a thick bottom pan (i used pressure cooker).
once oil heats add all spices (bay leaf, cloves, small cinnamon stick, 1 tsp Jeera)
you will get great auroma once spices are added to oil.

Now add ginger, garlic, curry leaves, onion, chillies in the order.
Stir properly and cook until onions start to brown.




Now add peas and rice and cook for a min.




Add 3 and 1/2 cups of water and add salt. You can taste water to make sure you added right amount of salt.


Now you can either use pressure cooker or electric cooker to cook this rice mix.
You can also cook in a vessel, but you need to another add 1/2 cup water and be little careful.



I cooked on medium flame until 2 whistles on pressure cooker.

It was so tasty, just writing this recipe is making my mouth water.
My family was craving for more . My son was picking and eating all peas and i was fully satisfied.

For love: Mousse au chocolat

This post is dedicated to my love and to all those who are obsessed with chocolate.

I am little bit nervous about this as i read that this recipe though simple needs attention . Me and my tiny whisk are ready to take upon the challenge.

Ingredients:
80g dark chocolate (I picked a Bonneville from office store)
2 tbsp brandy (courtesy my father-in-law, you can use water also
Butter
3 fresh eggs



coarsely chop chocolate. Add chocolate and brandy/water to a bowl and place the bowl over another bowl with water. let the chocolate melt on low flame.



While chocolate is melting, whisk egg whites until firm. It was a quite a task...but worthwhile.

Once chocolate melts, remove bowl from heat and add 10g of butter. (I had difficulty with this step, I had to add some water to the chocolate as it started to become hard)
Now stir in egg yolks one after another.

Stir about third of egg white. Using a sharp edged spatula, carefully fold the rest of the egg whites into it.

spoon the mouse to whatever pretty glasses u fancy. Chill for 2 hrs and serve



I was not very happy with the result, but my family really enjoyed it. It is tasty for sure, but I doubt if it can be called mousse as it did not set properly. Will definitely give a try again.

My son was not willing to give his empty glass, he licked every bit it.

todays special: yummy carrot potato soup

Family and friends are very supportive and excited about this cooking blog.

After telling my friend that i have decided to cook a carrot potato soup, she was little disappointed...but i am sure after she tries this recipe she will love it.

I made vegetable soup many times, but never made it with home made stock. So i have decided to make stock and then soup. You wont believe how quickly i could do it.

Ingredients: Stock
1 carrot
small red onion
1 small potato
1 bay leaf (add which ever spice you fancy and readily available)
1 star-anise
2 cloves
2 garlic pod
6 cups of water.
olive oil (again you can use vegetable oil or any oil readily available)
salt

In a heavy bottom pot, add about a table spoon of olive oil. Add bay leaf, star-anise, cloves, crushed garlic. You will instantly smell all the spices and its a great smell. Then add cut potato and carrot. I also added peels of carrots and potatoes from soup recipe ingredients.

Cooking is all about enjoying. Don't worry too much, stick to you instincts and add what ever vegetable/spice you feel like.

After cooking these veggies for few minutes, add water and salt. Bring it to boil. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes. Stock will reduce to almost 4 cups. That's it, stock is ready :)



Ingredients: Soup
3 carrots
2 medium size potatoes
2 red onions
2 garlic pods
fresh black pepper
olive oil and butter
Yogurt

Peel carrots and potatoes (I added these peels to the stock)

While your stock bubbles away, cut garlic, onions,carrots and potatoes.
add a table spoon of butter and little olive oil to a deep pan. Once butter melts, add garlic and onions. lets onion cook until they become transparent. When they start to brown, add carrots and potatoes. Cook for 5 minutes. Once they become soft, add the stock (by this time stock would be ready) and ground pepper. Bring them to boil and let it simmer for few minutes under low flame.



let the soup cool for sometime and then mash it either with blender or mixer. I use a hand blender and its very convenient. I recommend everyone to buy one. I use it for so many things, i wonder how will i manage without it.

Yummy soup is ready!


Garnish it with yogurt and you can have it now.

Soup consistency and taste were great. But it was heavy on stomach than i expected.


My one year old son was more excited about soup spoons than the soup itself.

First recipe - Apple crepes

What better way than starting this fun activity with a desert.

I had crepes many times but never tried making them at home. I am very pleased that i am choosing something simple and something new for me. I was introduced to crepes in France and they always remind me of fun filled days i spent in France.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
1 Egg
Butter
Sugar
2 Apples
vegetable oil
salt
1 cup milk

The beauty of this recipe is that it does not involve any fancy ingredients. You can make it in just 15 minutes.

Procedure:

Take 2 apples, peel them and slice them into thin pieces lengthwise. The contract of vibrant red color of apple skin and color of apple pieces looks great on cutting board.

Take a nonstick pan, add a table spoon of butter. Once butter melts, add apple pieces. To that add 3 table spoons of sugar. let this cook for 5 minutes under medium heat. Stir once in a while.





While delicious apples cook, take a bowl add all dry ingredients (1/2 cup flour, pinch of salt, table spoon sugar). Now add an egg and one table spoon vegetable oil. mix properly. Now add milk slowly while mixing the batter.

You need to mix the batter properly until you see bubbles. I used a blender and batter was ready in a min.

place a wide pan on medium heat, coat it with little butter. Add about 1/4 cup batter to pan and spread the batter by moving the pan. Flip the crepe once you see it cooked and cook on other side for sometime. Thats all!




Once all crepes are done, add apple mix to crepe and roll it. Sprinkle some sugar over crepe. My family loved these crepes and my first day was a success.


see you with another delicious recipe tomorrow.

Long Due!

I love cooking.

Bad day at work, great day at work, bad news, bad mood, celebrations ...everything has one solution for me and thats cooking.

The flavors, textures, colors, tastes... everything about cooking excites me and while cooking i enter into different world where everything is yummy :)

I have been thinking of writing a blog with quick and tasty recipes for long time now.

So, this blog is mostly for cooking recipes i tryout in my kitchen . You can find recipies for some variety dishes i cook daily here (variety for south Indian kitchens)

Without a deadline nothing works...a small deadline for myself is to try new dishes and post recipes for WORKING WOMEN for next one month.(inspired by movie Julie & Julia)

Deadline: 22 March
Recipes: 28 (mostly south Indian)

Here i go...