Red Cabbage and Beet Salad with peppered with roasted Pumpkin seeds

I don't think anything I've made has ever looked this good. And I can't even take any of the credit for it. This salad is quite the looker. And how can you go wrong, when you're working with such vibrant colors and delicious flavors? It's a simple recipe (adapted from here) that's hard to mess up, and still comes out on top, effortlessly.

Ingredients:

1/2 a red cabbage, chopped

2 medium sized beets

1/4 onion chopped

pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds

4-5 basil leaves

3-4 thyme sprigs

2 tsp olive oil

chili powder

salt to taste

Dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbsp balsalmic vinegar or sherry vinegar

1 Tbsp mustard

1/2 tbsp honey

salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Chop up the beets into small cubes and place on a baking sheet. Add the olive oil, thyme sprigs and salt to taste. Bake the beats for about 30 minutes until cooked. 

2. In a toaster oven, toast the pumpkin seeds with some chili powder and olive oil to coat. Toast for about 10 minutes. 

3. Once baked, combine the beets with the red cabbage, onion and basil leaves.

4. Combine ingredients for dressing, and mix into the salad. Throw in the roasted pumkin seeds. 

No-sugar Carrot Cake

I've been toying around with the idea of substituting natural sugars for processed cane sugar. I was somewhat skeptical at first, but I think I might try these tricks with other dessert options as well. Why use heavily processed white sugar, when you can just easily derive sweetness from natural sources? I still have to tweak the recipe further, to achieve the right consistency and sweetness, but this was a decent start to a whole new world of baking. Next time, I might experiment one step further, and eliminate the egg too. Clearly the possibilities are endless.

Ingredients:

2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 cup combination of dates and raisins
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup water
almonds or other nuts

Directions:

1. Cut up the dates into smaller bits and combine and dates and raisins with the water and bring to a boil  in a saucepan. Let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the dates and raisins are soft. Drain the excess water and pulse the date raisin mixture in a food processor to produce a pulpy consistency.

2. Sift the flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside.

3. Beat the eggs with a whisk or in mixer until lightly fluffy and add in the date-raisin mixture, the flour mixture and the rest of the ingredients. Combine well. Empty dough into well-greased cake pan.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F, and bake for 50-60 mins.

Vegetarian Kheema (Minced Vegetable Curry)

Yes, it's been a while since I last posted. Almost a year, actually, and that's a little bit ridiculous. This year has just flown by. I remember going out on New Year's Eve like it was just yesterday. Over the past year, I've managed to keep up the cooking and experimenting, but haven't done a very good job of documenting all the various recipes and taking pictures of them. I did take a few pictures with my not-so-great but passable iPhone camera, so until I resume taking pictures with my fancy dSLR, we'll have to make do with these. 

As is probably true with most people, my admiration and interest in home cooked food(especially my Mom's style of cooking) has grown exponentially as I've grown older. I find that my taste has developed to appreciate simplicity and minimal ingredients. I still have my sweet tooth, but I tend to be a little more discerning with my choices. Not to mention, it's also a conscious effort to develop a taste for healthier options. I used to believe that taste was mostly inherent. As in, either I liked x, y, and z or I didn't. I envied other people's healthier proclivities but didn't believe that taste could be adapted to. In just a few months of healthier eating, I find myself naturally gravitating toward salads, fruits and lots of veggies. Which, for me, is a HUGE sign of encouragement!

Coming back to the Kheema, I found that it's a pretty simple no-fuss curry to be eaten with chappati or naan. I actually like eating just the curry without anything to necessarily go with it, but I suspect that might just be me. 

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
1 medium sized Cauliflower cut into small bits
3-4 carrots thinly shredded
1/2 can tomato puree or 2 tomatoes, diced
1 cup peas
4 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
1 cup yogurt
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander seeds
salt to taste
coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

1. In a saucepan, sautee with cauliflower and carrots with about 2 tbsp oil for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are somewhat cooked. Set aside.

2. In the same saucepan, sautee the onions and garlic in another 2 tbsp oil until the onion is soft and browned. Add the chili powder and turmeric powder and sautee the mixture for another 5 minutes or so. Add in more oil, if needed.

3. Add the diced tomatoes to this onion mixture and cook for another 5-6 minutes under med to high heat. Throw in the ground cumin and ground coriander seeds.

4. Blend the yogurt into the onion and tomato mixture and stir for a minute or so. Add the cauliflower an carrot mixture with cooked peas to this and let cook for about 10 minutes. Add salt to taste.

5. After the vegetables are cooked, garnish with the fresh coriander.

Chocolate-almond bark

Continuing from the last post, we also decided to make a holiday bark to add to our collection of cookies to give colleagues and friends. Turns out, everyone loved the goodies, and this will mostly likely be an annual tradition here on out!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tbsp butter

3/4 cup almonds

1/2 lb 60% cacao chocolate

sea salt for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place sugar in saucepan and make caramel out of it under low heat. Do not stir; wait for edges of sugar to turn brown. Swirl slightly. After about 20 minutes, after the sugar has turned brown, remove from heat. Add in the almonds, and the butter. Stir until well coated. Transfer to baking sheet. and break to form caramel coated almonds. Set aside nuts to top bark. 

2. Stir chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water. Stir chocolate is completely melted. 

3.  Remove from heat and add in nut mixture. Spread chocolate nut mixture on the baking sheet. Top with the reserved nuts and sprinkle with salt.

4.  Chill until chocolate is set, around 3 hours. Break bark into pieces.

Cardamom crescent cookies

As part of making holiday cookies for colleagues and friends, we picked out recipes from last month's issue of Bon Appetit. These cardamom cookies looked especially delicious and capture the holiday spirit marvelously, while looking great too. I was sold on cardamom. It must be the Indian in me. As a kid, I remember drinking this great cardamom- milk drink sold at train stations. I can still taste it. I digress. I was mostly pleased with this cookie recipe, but I would have made the cookies a little smaller for next time around.

Ingredients( 24 cookies):

1 1/4 cups flour

3/8 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup pecans

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2. Whisk flour, cardamom, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Then combine, the sugar and pecans in a food processor and pulse until a coarse meal forms. 

3. In a mixer, beat the butter and vanilla extract until creamy for about 2-3 minutes. Add nut mixture and beat to blend. Then add dry ingredients and blend well. Then transfer to work surface and knead to form a ball. 

4. Form small balls and shape into crescent. Space the cookies about 1 inch apart on the baking sheets on the parchment paper. . 

5. Bake for around 12- 15 minutes until the bottoms are golden.

6.  Sift the powdered sugar. Roll the warm cookies in the powdered sugar. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

Almond-oatmeal crisps

For the holidays, we wanted to make a collection of cookies to share at work and with friends. Inspired by recipes we saw in last month's issue of Bon Appetit, we decided to try them out. I had never tried making oatmeal crisps before, but I remember eating them when my family bought them at Costco. They are still delicious, by the way. This particular recipe is super easy, and the results were super too. And they're pretty, and dainty, who are we kidding?

Ingredients(Makes 24):

1/2 cup whole almonds

2 tbsp oats

3/4 stick unsalted butter

6 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp honey

1 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

Melted chocolate to brush on

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 

2. In a food processor, chop and pulse the almonds and oats until a coarse meal forms.

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugars and the honey and whisk until well blended and the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add nut mixtur, flour and salt. Stir until well-blended.

4. Spoon the batter into 2 tsp portions onto baking sheets, spacing around 2 inches between each cookie portion. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes until they are dark golden and form a think layer.

5. Slide cookies onto parchment paper and let cool.

6. Brush half of each cookie with melted chocolate. Let stand until the chocolate is set, about 2 hours.

Chocolate Espresso Kahlua mini-cupcakes

For my friend Miranda's birthday, we decided to surprise her at midnight with cupcakes. I personally think that regular cupcakes are way too big and rich, but mini-cupcakes almost always do the trick for me. They are almost bite-sized, and quite a bit cuter too. I also wanted to recipe that had a considerable amount of alcohol in it, and seeing as how I love Kahlua, I figured this recipe would do the trick.

Ingredients (for 24 mini cupcakes):

For the mini-cupcakes:

 3/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp. instant espresso powder

3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/8 tsp. baking powder
3/8 tsp. salt
1 large egg

3/8 cup warm water
3/8  cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2tsp. vanilla extract

Kahlua, for brushing the mini-cupcakes

Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
5 tbsp. Kahlua liqueur
1 1/2 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line the mini-cupcake pan with liners. 

2. Combine the cocoa powder, espresso powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a mixer. Then add the egg, warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract to the mixer and mix on on Medium for about 2-3 minutes until the mixter has a runny and smooth consistency. 

3. Using an icecream scoop or spoon, divide the batter evenly into the 24 mini-cupcake liners. It should be about 2/3 full. Bake for about 18 minutes, and rotate the pans halfway through baking. Let the mini-cupcakes cool for around 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. 

4. Using a fork, poke holes on top of each mini-cupcake. Brush on the kahlua onto each mini-cupcake while still warm. Then allow the minis to cool completely.

5. To make the frosting, beat the butter in a mixer, until the butter is smooth and fluffy, for around 2 minutes. Mix in the confectioners' sugar. Add in the Kahlua and beat some more until the Kahlua is well-blended. Add in the heavy cream and beat on medium-high for around 4 minutes, until the frosting is light and fluffy.

5. Frost cupcakes and serve.

Baklava with pistachios, walnuts and almonds

This particular recipe has been in our family for a few years now. My aunt had made home-made Baklava and I had no idea how easy it was to make until I got down to actually making it myself. Not only is Baklava relatively easy to make, it is also fun to make! Making the filling and preparing the layers is easy and somehow makes for great stress-relief. I typically use a little rose essence in the syrup but you can substitute it with flavor of choice.

Ingredients:

Filing:

2 lbs mixed nuts. (I used a mixture of pistachios, almonds, walnuts and pecans)

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

Other Ingredients:
1/2 lb sweet butter

1/2 lb phyllo pastry

Syrup:

1 cup honey

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp grated orange peel(optional)

1 tsp rose essence

Directions:

1. In a food processor, grind or chop all the nuts to make a coarse nut mixture. I personally like my Baklava a little crunchy, but you can make it smooth, based on preference. Add in the cinnamon, allspice and sugar and set aside in a bowl. 

2. Melt the butter such that you can brush on the butter with a brush. Brush a 9x13 pan with some butter. Lay a sheet of the phyllo pastry on the bottom of the pan. Brush the sheet of phyllo with a layer of butter. Add another sheet and repeat brushing it on with butter. Every part of the phyllo sheet must be brushed with butter to bring out the flakiness.

3. For every 2-3 sheets of phyllo, add the nut mixture evenly throughout the pan. Repeat until you have used up around 9-12 phyllo sheets. I typically have 2-3 layers of nut mixture.

4. With a sharp knife, cut into the phyllo sheets and cut the phyllo sheets to make triangles or diamond shaped pieces. Insert a clove on the edges of the pieces, if you like. 

5. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour until the baklava has browned.

6. In the meantime, combine all the ingredients for the syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Strain, if you like, and let it cool.

7. When the Baklava has browned, remove from the oven, and pour the syrup over it evenly such that it penetrates into the layers. Let cool and then serve.

Tequila peach pie

My family celebrated Diwali this past weekend. Diwali, as is the case with all Indian festivals, necessarily includes lots of food and sweets. My sweettooth was only willing to oblige. For my part, I decided on peach pie. I had seen pictures of this beautiful peach pie my friend had made, so I couldn't wait to try out a similar arrangement. For recipes, I modified Not without Salt's awesome Tequila peach pie recipe and added some spices. The tequila gave the right amount of kick to the recipe. I was very pleased!

Ingredients: 

Pie crust (see below)
3 peaches
3 tbsp tequila
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup sugar syrup
3 cloves

1. Prepare the pie crust. Bake the pie crust for around 20 minutes at 350 F until brown.

2. Slice peaches into thin pieces and arrange on pie crust. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Mix in the rest of the wet ingredients and pour over the pie.
4. Preheat oven to 385 F. Bake for 45 minutes.

Vegetable pot pie

I have to admit, I did not know much about pot pies, and they didn't seem too interesting to me, until I had my friend's delicious pot pie that blew my mind away. They are simple, delicious and easy to make, and what can top a great buttery, flakey crust? This particular recipe probably doesn't count as pot pie, necessarily, but was delicious nevertheless. Next time, I would probably add more ingredients to the filling. The filling was rather dry, here.

Ingredients:

Pie crust
2 cups of an assortment of root vegetables- I used carrots, beets and sweet potato
1 Onion
2 cloves, garlic
tarragon

1. To make the pie crust, I followed Martha Stewart's pie crust recipe. 
2. Cut up the vegetables into 1 inch pieces. Cut the onion sideways to give long pieces. Cut up the garlic.
3. Season the vegetables with the tarragon, garlic, and salt and pepper.
4. Roast the vegetables for 30-45 minutes until vegetables are soft at 400 F.
5. Bake the pie crust for 20 minutes until brown.

6. Place roasted vegetables on pie crust and bake for 35 minutes at 385 F.

Egg-less chocolate hazelnut cake with LAYERS!

 Mapcap Cupcake 's amazing blog and this particular recipe got me into food blogs, in a big way, as I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog. I had been looking for a vegan (read egg-less) cake recipe for a while. I simply converted the vegan recipe to vegetarian by using buttermilk. I tried out this particular one, and I don't think I have had such delicious cake- with or without egg. This one is a keeper. I've made the cake at least three times before, and I have to say, it still hasn't lost any of its glory.

Ingredients:

Hazelnut Cake 

1 cup buttermilk
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup hazelnut flour
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 6-inch pans, and line bottoms with parchment paper. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together and combine. Add buttermilk with remaining wet ingredients and then add the dry ingredients to we ingredients. Bake for around 22 minutes. 

For the praline:

1 cup hazelnuts, skinned and toasted.
2/3 cups sugar

Line a baking sheet with parchment and lightly grease. Place sugar in a skillet and heat for around 10-20 minutes until the sugar stars to melt. After 20 minutes, if sugar has not melted, stir lightly.  Return to low heat and stir in the hazelnuts, making sure that the nuts are thoroughly coated. Pour mixture on parchment paper and let cool. Once cooled(it should be brittle) chop into small pieces, using a food processor. 

Hazelnut Buttercream:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup praline
1 cup milk powder

Using a mixer, blend sugar and butter. Add milk powder and water and combine. Add in the praline bits.

Ganache Glaze:

4oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp maple syrup

Heat the heavy cream, butter and the maple syrup(maple syrup can also be skipped) until the mixture starts to boil. Remove from heat and add in the chocolate chips. Mix thoroughly. 

To assemble the cake, carefully split the cake horizontally into 2 layers. Add the buttercream on the first layer and then place the second layer on top it. Glaze the cake the chocolate ganace, and decorate with more of the hazelnut buttercream, if desired. 

Hiatus, part two; and some pictures

Once again, for the second time this year, I've been away from from this blog for longer than 2 months. That doesn't make for a very good blogger, I suspect. I am still having trouble getting into the rhythm of blogging, and being comfortable enough to share it all so openly on a public platform. I suspect that is also my issue with writing. I can feel that there is a lot in me I want to express, but I sometimes struggle with how best to do it, or get bogged down while beginning to do it. I am going to try to make this blog a more personal blog from now on- with writing vignettes and other random postings about things I find interesting. It is after all about expressing myself- not to show anyone else, but see what I can do and achieve with this space, at least for myself.

I struggle with being organized and disciplined. Therefore, it is hardly surprising to me, that I cannot remember some of these recipes. Most are simple enough that a picture can inspire me enough to recreate, I hope. Here is a photolog of my food adventures only through pictures in the last couple months.


Tomato pesto goat cheese pizza

Beignets

Pasta with a tomato corn salsa

Spaghetti with pecan-pistachio pesto and tomato confit

Pesto is a fun way to add variety and color to pasta. You can get creative with it by changing up the greens, the nuts, make it spicy, make it colorful and even add texture. It's hard to mess up, and you can be done in less than half and hour. What's not to love?

Since I almost always stick to the usual basil-pine nut routine, I wanted to add some crunch and flavor to it by way of the pesto and the pistachio. I also thought the tomato confit would be a nice elegant touch.

Ingredients:


Tomato confit
cherry tomatoes- whole or halved
1 tbsp olive oil
some salt

Spaghetti
Cooked wheat spaghetti
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 cup pecans
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup basil leaves
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
salt

Directions:

1. For the tomato confit, preheat the oven to 320 F. Toss the tomatoes in olive oil and salt and leave them to bake for around 40-45 minutes, checking to see if they're done.

2. For the pesto, grind up the pecan, the pistachios and the basil leaves with the olive oil and process thoroughly. The mixture should be a brownish-green. You can either have it be a smooth mixture, or it can be crunchy depending on your preference.

3. Chop up the onion and garlic and sautee them in an additional tbsp of olive oil. Once the onions have become soft, toss in the pesto, and cook for around 2-3 minutes. Then add the cooked spaghetti to the mixture.

4. Top the spaghetti with the tomato confit and serve. 

Rose hazelnut macarons with chocolate ganache

So if you've been on Foodgawker long enough, you'll know that anyone who maintains a food blog is obsessed with macarons. I don't mean to imply that I consider mine a full fledged professional food blog, but given that all my entries so far are mostly food-related, it's the closest parallel for now. So yes, after months of macaron exposure and overdose, I decided I had best try this monster out. I'd heard horror stories on how difficult they are to make; how you had to be super careful with preparation and execution. I pretty much followed Eat.Live.Travel.Write 's recipe. She does a great job of describing exactly what worked for her, and what didn't. 

To add a bit of a twist, I added some rose essence instead of the regular vanilla, and paired the cookies with some chocolate ganache. I, for one, am totally addicted to macarons- both eating them and making them. Simply thinking of all the combinations and permutations makes me just so happy! 

Ingredients:

French Macarons

115 g hazelnut flour

230 g powdered sugar

144 g egg whites (I used 5 eggs)

72 g sugar

rose essense

1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate ganache

1 cup whipping cream

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Sift the dry ingredients. TWICE.

2. Dump the egg whites and the sugar into the mixer. I followed her instructions exactly. 3 minutes at level 4. 3 minutes at level 6, 3 more minutes at level 8. One minute at level 10. The meringue should be stiff.

3. Add the sifted mixture to the meringue and add in the rose essence.

4. Pipe the mixture into waxed or parchment paper.

5. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 F. I baked my second batch for longer- around 16 minutes. I liked the second batch better.

6. I had to make sure the cookies didn't stick to the pan. Baking them for longer helped. The cookies tasted great, but the shells were not perfect. Not bad for a first attempt though!

7. Heat the whipping cream to a simmer and add the chocolate chips forming a thick mixture.

8. Assemble by piping the ganache on one side of a cookie and attaching the other end to another cookie.