Pasta Alla Norma

This is the first time I came upon this blog where in they pair bloggers and have to create from their site, I got tempted as usual even though I am not upto date with my postings, This blog Taste and create paired me with Tasty curry leaf, I started to know about this blogger because of an other club I joined, she has some wonderful recipes and a really a versatile blogger who blogs food from all over the world, you must visit her if you had not, I really had a tough time to create something, everyone of them was quite interesting, Here is a recipe I created from her kitchen to mine!!. I have just wirtten exactly in her words about this particular dish where it is from and what is its speciality (that's one more thing you can find from her recipes she does a lot of ground work)!!. coming back to the recipe.....she says....

PASTA ALLA NORMA

Sicily is a largest region in Italy and has contributed much to Italian Cuisine that it is sometimes known as God's Kitchen.  Pasta alla Norma is a traditional Sicilian Pasta dish named so after the Norma-heroine of Bellini's Opera of the same name.

She says that in the Legend it says the opera was so successful and the chef who saw it was so delighted that he cococted the dish using all the Sicilian regional specialities and blended it with pasta and to show its perfection named it Pasta alla Norma honouring the opera, the artist Bellini who was born in Catania, Sicily and also the dish itself !!.

This dish uses eggplants, tomatoes and other flavourings and herbs available in Sicily and is blended with tubular pasta like Penne Rigate or even thin string Spaghetti is widely popular in Sicily. Here is her version of Pasta alla Norma.
Actually I showed this recipe in her blog and left it for my girls to recreate as my second daughter loves making pasta, both said they would do it!, I helped them to make pasta by just adding the seasonings so I will not be able to write the exact measurments as she always makes quite large quantities and loves keep eating them!!. I have written the exact replica what she has posted in her blog!. Please do check any more details in her blog.
The only thing I changed in this recipe was adding fresh Tomatoes pureed in a mixie which is what I have written in italics, The original recipe is in the Normal font.

INGREDIENTS:
2 Cup Penne Rigatte
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 Small Red Onion
1 or 2 cloves Garlic
1 medium Eggplants
1/4 cup Tomato Puree
1/4 cup Ricotta Cheese
1 and 1/2 cup Fresh Tomatoes pureed in a mixie
Fresh Basil leaves few
Salt as per taste

SEASONING:
A pinch of Dried thyme (I used 2 to 3 sprigs of fresh thyme)
1/2 tsp Red Pepper flakes
1/2 tsp Pepper
1 tsp of Italian dried spices

METHOD:
Chop the onions, garlic, eggplant and keep aside. Take a wok heat olive oil then add garlic, Once it browns, remove them from the wok add chopped onions and stirfry then add the chopped eggplant (she says add salt to the chopped eggplants prior and keep aside for 15 minutes, this helps in removing the bitternes if any but as I had no time to feed my 3 M's I just chopped and fried in the wok) Once they get cooked add tomato pureed in a mixie (I tweaked a little bit I added nearly 300 to 400 gms of Tomato as I had loads of tomatoes which had to be used and I used the tomato puree as said in the reicpe) Yup, quite a lot of tomatoes I added.
Now cook until the raw smell of the tomatoes disappear, and is well cooked, add all the seasonings  and cook for few more minutes now the sauce is ready.
Meanwhile when the sauce is getting ready cook pasta as per the packaged instructions till al dante (firm but not hard).
Now add the pasta to the sauce with ricotta cheese and garnish with basil leaves and serve.
My pasta has different look than hers as I added more tomatoes and the kids added lot of cheese it turned into white in colour!!

Anyways the kids just loved it!! as I am not a big fan of pasta, I just tried a little bit (may be I could have more if there was not more cheese in it!!).
Thanks to curry leaf for this lovely delectable pasta just enjoyed both her recipes.

Chocolate Chip Ginger Muffins

This is another recipe I tried from Tasty curry leaf as she says the combination of chocolate chip and ginger is heavenly which she tried from Chocolate chips and Candid Ginger Muffins from Baking bites, which I tried and was really delicious!!. She even says that this recipe was made with Eggs and she made it eggless so here goes the recipe.

CHOCOLATE CHIP GINGER MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:
1 and 1/4 cup All purpose flour
1/2 tsp Powdered Ginger
9 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt

Wet Mix:
3tbsp Butter, unsalted and melted and cooked
1/2 cup Butter milk
1/4 cup Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
3 tbsp Candied/Crystalline Ginger chopped into fine pieces

METHOD:
In a big bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients of flour, sugar, salt, ginger powder, baking powder and soda.
Then in an other bowl mix together all the wet ingredients.
Make a well in the centre of the dry mix and pour mix and pour in the wet mix. Mix everything together to obtain a thick batter, fold in the choc chips and chopped ginger into the batter, as she says do please refer the original recipe if you wish to add eggs, the original recipe says it uses 1 egg and as she had halved the recipe she replaced with the required quantity of yogurt.
Pour this batter into the muffin cups, I filled 3/4th of my muffin cups and baked them in a preheated oven at 375F/190C for 20  to 25 minutes until done that is when you insert a toothpick comes out clean.
Please do check both their blogs for any more tips and instructions.
Thanks curry leaf enjoyed the muffins particularly my friends than my kids as they were not happy with the ginger!!! :(( :))

Carrot & Fenugreek leaves (Methi) Stir fry with Andhra style Dhaniyalu Podi (Coriander Powder)

I love fenugreek leaves, If you haven't tried you must, I say so to lot of my friends here, when you cook them, the whole house smells so great!, My kids always notice the smell when I cook methi !.
It's a simple Dry Curry but I have used Dhaniyaalu Podi as the masala which gives such a great taste, As I have always said, I love the spiciness of Andhra dishes, the taste buds tickle, the nostrils flare, eyes start watering !, with a Glass of water in the left I just devour the delicassies of the Andhra delights!, Mmm.., when swapna's mum visited this was an other podi I learnt, earlier (long back) I had a posted a recipe learnt from her, which my friends and family tried and said it was great!!, swapna is right now in India and I am hoping she would get me more authentic delights from her mom's kitchen as promised :), and I will definitely pass it on to you!. When I visited them she made carrot dry curry with this podi, I just added methi leaves to it, and it was good, Now I add this masala podi with lot of my dry curries, which gives a wonderful aroma, which the family really enjoy, thanks to swapna and her mom.

CARROT AND FENUGREEK STIR FRY

INGREDIENTS:

250 gms Carrot cubed

1 Small bunch of Methi leaves (fenugreek leaves)

1/4 freshly grated coconut

2 tbsp of oil

1 sprig of curry leaves

For tempering:

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1 tbsp chenna dal

1 tbsp Urad dal

1 tsp Turmeric powder

METHOD:

Wash, peel and chop the carrots into small cubes,

Take a wok heat oil add mustard seeds, once they crackle add the dals once they change colour add turmeric powder and then the chopped carrots and curry leaves, mix well sprinkle little water close the lid, Meanwhile wash the Fenugreek leaves chop them and add them to the wok, mix well and allow both the veggies to cook well, Unitl all the water gets dried, (do not add lot of water carrots cook very soon) .  Add salt as required and Dhaniyaalu podi mix well and leave for another five minutes, with closed lid, so that the veggies absorb the masala powder then remove the lid add grated coconut mix well, and serve hot with chapatis or rice.

This carrot curry Participates in Healing food carrot an on going event in Suma's blog started by Siri

The Dhaniyaalu podi recipe I have already posted.

Dhaniyaalu podi (coriander powder) Andhra Style

In my earlier posts I have mentioned that I have used this Andhra style Dhaniyaalu podi which I learnt from swapna's mom, she told me in Telugu in what do say as eye measurments (kann alathe), I mean to say not precise measurements !!, I still do not find that taste of which she did, I have asked swapna to get the exact measurements so I would get that real authentic taste, If any of my Andhra friends or readers do know about this powder and would like to send the recipe to me I would love to hear from you!, I will try out your recipe and post it in my blog as an other version of this. Hope you people like this and enjoy this powder as I do.
This powder according to swapna's mum can be eaten with hot Rice with a dollop of Ghee and can be used as a palya pudi as we do in Karnataka, to all the dry curries !, and also tastes very well with the famous Pappu of Andhra this can be used instead of Chilli powder, which I have already used in some of my pappu's!!.
Coming back to the recipe.....

Ingredients:
1 Cup Coriander Seeds (Dhania seeds)
5-8 Red Chilles (Guntur-Badgi chillies)
4 to 5 tbsp of Urad dal
10-12 pods of Garlic with skin
1 -2 flakes of Tamarind

METHOD:
In a wok heat a tsp of oil and fry all the Ingredients above except for Garlic until they turn golden brown in colour, or until there is a nice aroma coming out of it!
When it is cool Grind it in a mixie to a coarse powder then add Garlic and give a pulse so that it doesn't become too mushy otherwise the powder becomes like a paste.

This above mixture can be used for the Dry curries and the pappu or can be used instead of Sambhar powder.

VARIATION:
IF YOU WANT TO MIX IT WITH RICE AND EAT
You can fry 2 Sprigs of curry leaves and 2 to 3 sprigs of Coriander leaves with the frying Ingredients and when grinding add salt as required, which gives a lovely smell and taste to the Dhaniyalu podi, which can be eaten with hot rice and ghee.

This powder can also be given convalascent mothers as the first morsel in their food with Ghee and hot .

Egg and Eggless Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce

Today My eldest was browsing through my collection of recipe books and she was so adamant that I should try out something from one of the books, because she always complains that I have these books on dessert and I never try out anything!. So, we both sat and rumbled through this recipe book of James Martin - Desserts and both decided to try out this recipe!, I love this book as it has a fabulous collection of recipes with basic techniques and is well explained. I could say that it is a fool proof recipe book I have 4 to 5 recipes from this book and all of them have turned out so well, I will post each one of them soon! (?)...
Once we decided upon what we are going to make, I told her we will make this into half and I will add egg to the one half and the other half I will try eggless!, she was not quite happy with it, but then she agreed (thank God!, I had my fingers crossed as I wanted her badly at my side, because I needed somebody to wash up all the things used when I am going through with it!, I always do the washing then and their when I start with the process, so both of us in do the chore!).
So, well when everything was set we were ready to go, she made the mixing of the egg based one and I made the eggless one!

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING WITH TOFFEE SAUCE

As James Martin tells in this book that

' the origin of sticky tofee pudding are mixed. Some people say it comes from the Sharrow Bay Hotel in the Lake District while others claim it comes from the The Udny Arms Hotel in Aberdeenshire., for me, I like to think Francis Coulson or Brian Sack, the original owners of the Sharrow Bay, invented this dish in their fantastic hotel on the banks of Lake Ullswater, All I've done over the years is to tweak their recipe. I make it with a really rich toffee sauce- let's face it, if you're going to make a pud like this, you've got to do it properly!'.

Mmm.., the pud was really grate with that toffee sauce, even my sweet loving daughter thought it was too sweet for her, If you love sweets this toffee pudding with toffee sauce is just right for you!!!!.

I could just have the toffee pud, but the sauce was too much for me, and what a fool proof recipe!, the pud was so soft and was just like a sponge, I couldn't believe that it turned out so well!.

Coming back to the recipe check out the Ingredients:

The coloured ones in brackets is what I used as I had earlier told you that I made half with egg AND  the other half without eggs......, is what I made with this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

75gms of Soft butter (50 gms butter)

175gms Dark brown demerara sugar (100gms sugar)

200 gms Self- raising flour, plus extra fr dusting (100gms flour)

1 tbsp of Golden syrup (as it is I used)

2 tbsp of Black treacle ( as it is I used)

2 eggs (1 Egg)

1 tsp Vanilla extract (as it is I used) 

200gms pitted dried dates (as it is I used)

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda (as it is I used)

Another important thing I changed in this recipe was I used 2 completely riped bananas. So, one banana for each cake!!. got it....

The Print in the black is the Original recipe but as I said earlier the one in the red is the recipe I used, so what did I do then ?

well, as I had planned earlier I will use half of the original ingredients with egg and the other half with eggless, I had to equalize the recipe first as I could not measure in equal quantities the measurment given above so I increased the quantity of butter and sugar but used the other ingredients as it is and used only one egg.

METHOD:

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degreee centigrade/400 d F/Gas mark 6.

Grease a tin (23cm) thoroughly with 25gms of butter, then dust the inside of the tin with flour.

I used a square tin and a cake tin, to make both the cakes.

Using a mixer, blend the remaining butter and sugar together (I used my spatula), Slowly add the golden syrup, treacle, egg and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and continue mixing. Then add the flour, Until all the ingredients are well combined together.

Place the dates in a saucepan with 300ml water and bring to boil. Puree the water and date mixture and add the bicarbonate of soda. While it is still hot, quickly add this mixture to the egg mix. Once the mix is combined pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until the top is just firm to the touch.

My Verdict: I made the date puree just as said above but it was not hot when I mixed it with the cake mixture. I blended all the wet ingredients first and then I added the flour little by little not mixing too much but well blended with the wet ingredients, then baked as said.

Remove the pudding from the oven and allow to cool, then turn out of the tin and cut into squares.

EGGLESS STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING WITH TOFFEE SAUCE

INGREDIENTS FOR THE EGGLESS CAKE:

1 Ripened banana mashed

2 tbsp of Linwood's Organic milled Flaxseed, sunflower and pumpkin seed powder

3 1/2 tbsp of Canola oil (instead of 50 gms of butter).

First I took all the ingredients as said in the first recipe, expect for butter and eggs, I mixed all the wet ingredients first then pureed the dates made into 2 equal proportions, then to the first portion I added butter and eggs and then the flour.

For the second cake I again took the pureed dates into the mixie then again gave a nice whisk with flax seed powder and canola oil and blended them well in the mixer. To the mashed banana I added all the other ingredients without the butter and egg, combined well and poured into the baking tin and made a round cake.

Hope you understood what I have explained so stupidly, scroll down so you could understand what I was trying to tell you :) :( !!! ????, Please contact me if you have any doubts.

I put both the tins together into the oven both of them almost took the same time to bake, just insert a skewer to check to know when it is done.

TO MAKE THE TOFFEE SAUCE

100 gms soft sugar

100 gms butter

200ml double cream

This was the ingredients given in the book, again I halved the ingredients and made the sauce, it was absolutely delicious, just like the toffee, absolutely yumillacious, too sweet for me!!

METHOD:

To make the sauce, melt the butter and sugar together in a small pan, add the cream and bring to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce reaches the desired consistency ( I made it until it was a semi thick batter).

To Serve, you can re-heat the sponge in a microwave or heat for 5 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees /Gas mark 4. Place onto a plate with lots of the sauce on the top and a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you wish.

Jamie even says that the sponge and sauce can be made in advance. The sponge can even be frozen and both can be plated up and re-heated in the microwave.

Make it and tell how it turned out!! enjoy .......... have a good day ahead and lovely weekend.

The flax seed powder is what I use in all the recipes where I have said flax seed powder to make my eggless bakes!!

I like to send this to champa's bake-of event.... Happy Baking

Nangainallur Rasam, Potato-Onion Roast and Tomato Pulikaachal

This was one Night our Dinner (?), we all enjoyed it so well!!, Thanks to this lovely Lady, I still have to try her different Unusual Named recipes!!, My clicks are super good (?),  I always keep writing that my clicks super stupid!, so I thought form now on I willl think positively (God knows how long I will think like this) and post the recipes which are just piling up in my computer!.
As I said earlier not everybody gets these kind of chances to live and travel to different places and meet different people, but this lady seems to have really enjoyed this opportunity and has learnt lot of dishes with different names and most popular and a wonderful person, someday I hope to meet her, she never misses to update her status and lovely comments in my blog, I thank you lathaji! for your encouragement, advice and Of course how can I miss those lovely recipes!.
I made this Nangainallur Rasam and Tomato Pulikaachal from her blog, and this Aloo-onion Roast was my side dish to the main dish!

NANGAINALLUR RASAM, PULIKAACHAL AND POTATO-ONION ROAST

NANGAINALLUR RASAM

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium sized Tomato

1/2 cup Toor dal

2 flake Tamarind

salt to taste

1 tsp Rasam powder ( Recipe given below)

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp Black pepper and Cumin powder

1 sprig curry leaves

few coriander leaves

ghee for seasoning

RASAM POWDER

2 cups Red chillies

1 cup Coriander seeds

1/5th cup Black pepper corns and cumin seeds

Roast them in a wok without oil and powder them in the mixie

METHOD

I have made rasam in the usual way I make, she has used microwave in making this rasam, I used or rather use microwave only to cook the tamarind, this way I can cook rasam very quickly and need not have to wait for the tamarind to soak!, I cooked tur dal and tomatoes with turmeric and water (1 to 1 1/2 cup)in a pressure cooker until they are soft (3 whistles) and mashed them.

Take a vessel, extract Tamarind juice from the tamarind and allow it boil with another 1/2 cup of water ( I asked you to add an extra 1/2 cup of water as I usually soak tamarind in just 3/4th cup or sometimes 1/2 cup of water), once it starts boiling and the raw smell disappears ( keep an eye when it is boiling and add litle bit more water if needed and see to it that the vessel doesn't get discoloured) add the mashed cooked dal and boil it again with Rasam powder and allow it to boil for few more minutes in the end add pepper powder, cumin powder then temper mustard seeds and cumin seeds, add them to the rasam with finely chopped coriander and curry leaves and a bit of asafoetida give 2 more minutes to boil then immediately switch of the gas and close the lid, this keeps the aromatic goodness of the rasam! 

TOMATO PULIKKACHAL

INGREDIENTS:

250gms Firm ripe Tomatoes

1 tbsp Tamarind paste

6 Red chillies

6 Green chillies

5 tbsp Sesame oil

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

curry leaves a sprig

few cilantro (coriander leaves)

1/2 tsp Turmeric

A pinch of Asafoetida

METHOD:

Take Tomatoes in a vessel and pour water until they are drowned and start boiling it, Let the water boil until all the Tomatoes get cooked and skin starts peeling off, Now drain the Tomatoes but do not throw away the water reserve it.

Allow the Tomatoes to cool and then peel away the skin and puree them. Add salt, tamarind pulp and resereve water.

Put oil in a wok and once it is hot add mustard seeds, after they splutter add asafoetida and turmeric break red and green chillies put them in the pan and saute for a minute

Then add the pureed tomato and bring it to boil, lower the fire to medium and simmer for 20 minutes until oil separates out, Garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves.

I tweaked the recipe a little bit: 

I did not throw away the peel, I grinded them completely with red chilles (I used Badgi chillies which gives colour and a little bit of spiciness too), and again added 2 bits of red chillies (Guntur). Above I have given the exact recipe of  hers, the spiciness you can change to your liking and of course the chillies we use!, I had a little bit more Tomatoes than the weight indicated in the recipe and so I used other ingredients a little bit more or less according to the taste, the other thing I changed in this reicpe was I fried 1/2 tsp of Fenugreek seeds (Menthya) and 1 tbsp of Coriander seeds without oil and ground them into a powder, as it was not completely fine powder I put tomatoes and chillies in the same mixie and made them into a fine puree, I soaked tamarind in the drained water, so I did not use any extra water, as I wanted to use less water, Once the mustard crackled I added the Tomato puree and then the curry leaves, I never add curry leaves and asafoetida directly into the oil as I feel the curry leaves even though gives a lovely smell, might loose its value and I do not know why but my ayurvedic doctor long back asked me not to put asafoetida into the oil!, so I just blindly follow his instructions!, I always add it at the end. These were the little changes I made.

It was quite a lot I had made thinking it will stay for a day or two, but the next day when I was searching for it , I couldn't find the bowl, dear H had taken all of them in his dabba!!

So I don't have to say anything about how it tasted right? :))

POTATO-ONION ROAST:

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Kg Small Potatoes

2 sprig curry leaves

Salt as required

4 to 5 tbsp of oil If you want you can add more oil

To Temper:

1 tbsp of Chenna Dal

1 tbsp of Urad Dal

1 tsp Mustard seeds

2 Green chillies (optional)

To Grind:

1 Onion medium

4 to 5 Red chillies

2 thin sliced brown breads (powdered in a mixie)

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

METHOD:

Pressure cook the potatoes, and when cool peel the skin of and keep them aside if they are little larger you can cut them into small cubes, Meanwhile Grind all the ingredients given under Grind to a fine paste, then add this ground mixture with salt and curry leaves to the peeled potatoes, mix well and leave it for 1/2 an hour or so to marinate.

Once it is marinated, Take a wok heat oil and add mustard seeds once it crackles add channa dal and urad dal, once it changes colour add little more turmeric and then the marinated potatoes, mix well and cook in a medium flame until well roasted and gives a brownish and golden colour.

Serve it hot with rice and rasam!

Perfect Roast Potatoes and a DESSERT, Aishu & Chondu's Creation !

Thirunalvelli halwa da, Thiruchimale koteda, Thirupati ke laddu thanda saamidaa, unnakke naambo sapdrdakk panni kuduthome paathiyaa, aapdi an solraa yen ponnu!!, just kidding mum!!, howzthis ?, You Saw the Starter and Main course from my daughters creations, Now this will be my the last two of their creations for that day, I am posting the side dish and the dessert especially my eldest daughter created!!. I did not know what to call it so I just decided I will call it a dessert.
You must be wondering what those words in Tamil are, My second daughter  is a lovley girl, and always keeps making jokes, so, that day when we all sat and ate she wanted to tease me these are the words she told me, As it is in Tamil, taken from a film called Saami, what it says is Thirunallvelli is famous for its halwa, Thiruchimale has a firm fort, and of course everybody knows that No laddu can beat Thirupati ladoos!!, she was teasing me saying all these things that If I think myself a very good cook, and nobody can cook like me, just see how we have beat you to it!!. Ooops that was a cool one right ?.
This perfect roast potatoes was especially created my second daughter because she is just mad after eating potatoes, and she was convincing us all that it was a perfect side dish.

PERFECT ROAST POTATOES

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 Kg cut into cubes (choose from floour potatoes such as King Edward, Maris piper or Desiree - peeled and cut into even sized chunks.
3 tbsp Olive oil
2 to 3 cloves of Crushed garlic
few sprigs of Thyme leaves
1 tsp of powdered pepper

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees/Gas Mark 7, Bring in a large saucepan of salted water to boil, add the potatoes and cover and cook for few (5 to 7 min), they will still  be firm , Remove from the heat.
Meanwhile take oil in a cup nicely mince the garlic, pepper and thyme and mix them well with oil.
Drain the potatoes, On the stove top take a Roasting tin or Sauce pan add the infused oil add the potatoes, mix them well and cover with a lid and shake it now and then so that the surface of the potatoes is roughened, to help give a much crisper texture.
Remove the roasting tin from the oven and carefully tip the potatoes into the hot oil.  Baste to ensure that they are all well coated with the oil.
Roast at he top of the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until the potatoes are browned all over and thoroughly crisp, turning only once halfway through the cooking time and bastng, otherwise the crunchy edges will be destroyed.
Carefully transfer the potatoes to a warmed serving dish, Sprinkle with a little salt and serve at once.

I was monitoring them as it was involving oil and oven.

This Dessert was created my eldest daughter, she loves to create the desserts and always encourages me to bake and create them, not that I do a lot!.

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YUMMILACIOUS DESSERT!!

I had made Some short breads few days back and my second daughter had made a sponge cake in school, she powdered both of them together and placed them in the bottom of 7 glasses, she took 1 cup of pineapple juice and poured 4 to 5 tbsp of it on the biscuit base, then she used some fresh Tangerines & Cherries with seeds removed and spread them on top of it, then she used 300ml of whipping cream with 3 to 4 tbsp of Icing sugar and whisked it until soft peaks are formed and poured it on top of the fruits, then she melted chocolate with a tbsp of butter and a tbsp of Icing sugar in a double boiler method ( I helped her!) and she poured them on top of it, then she scooped Vanilla Ice cream on its top and served it chilled!!

Ooops that was quite an explanation for me to write, as my friend who visited us doesn't like eggs, Aishu chose this dessert so all of us would enjoy.

It was quite a dessert with different flavoours in it, everybody fisnished it of, thanks girls for the lovely treat, lots of love from your mum...........

Hope you all enjoyed my girls cooking......... 

c u soon with more recipes.... have a good day!, take care......

Vegetarian Paella - Aishu & chondu's Creations

Continuing from my last post, This was our Main course!! Vegetarian Paella, The colour might not be same as the book because they used fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes give a rich colour to the tomatoes, I think they add some colouring agent in them. The rice had a different spiciness and taste because of the Italian herbs in it!!
Totally it was quite tasty and I was proud of my kids!!, I just thought if I fall sick my kids can manage to cook something for me and for themselves.

VEGETARIAN PAELLA

INGREDIENTS:

4 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp Paprika (the book called for 1/2 tsp)

350 gms Long grain brown rice

1 1/2 pints Vegetable stock ( store bought cubes)

6 oz dry white wine ( skipped)

400 gms can tomatoes, plus juice, chopped (used fresh chopped tomatoes with juice)

1 tbsp tomato puree

1/2 tsp dried tarragon

1 tsp dried basil ( used 2 sticks of fresh basil leaves)

1 tsp dried Oregano

1 Red pepper seeded and roughly chopped (used yellow pepper instead)

1 Green pepper seeded roughly chopped

2 sticks celery finely chopped

225 gms Mushrooms sliced

55 gms Mangetout chopped

115 gms Frozen peas

55 gms cashew nut pieces

salt and freshly ground black pepper

chopped fresh parsley,

lemon wedges and olives to garnish ( we were out of these)

METHOD:

Heat oil in a saucepan or paella pan and fry the onion and garlic until soft

Add the paprika and washed rice and continue to cook for 4-5 minutes until the rice is transparent , stirring occasionally

Add the stock, wine, tomatoes, tomato puree and herbs and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the peppers, celery, mushrooms, peas and Mangetout and continue to cook for a further 30 minutes, until the rice is ooked, stirring occasionally, add little extra stock, or water if necessary.

cook until everything is well cooked (we closed the lid of our pan to cook)

Sprinkle parsley and Basil leaves and fried cashews to garnish and serve Vegetarian paella with lemon wedges and olives.

The book says you can use Apple juice instead of white wine if preferred, and mixture of brown and wild rice for a change.

Kids mixed all the veggies and spices together close the lid and cooked it like pilauv/pilaf, we ate it with cucumbers and sliced red onions., the dish was full of colourful veggies, and quite an interesting taste.

Water Cress Soup - from Aish & Chondu's kitchen

How do you feel when you just sat their with a cup of tea, and your kids do the cooking!!, yup, that's right this saturday night, My kids (my girls) said I have to be out of the kitchen and they would take over, and this was what they cooked for 7 people. isn't that fantastic, here are the recipes which they cooked by the book!!

For a starter they made water cress soup, Main course - Vegetarian Paella, for the side spiced Roast potatoes, and a dessert (don't know what to call - you can choose one for me!!), and Garlic bread (bought from the store). They used 2 books
1. Vegetarian Cook book by parragon books
2.Vegetarian book by Rebo productions.

WATER CRESS SOUP

INGREDIENTS:

200gms of watercress, thoroughly washed

40 gms butter

2 medium sized Red Onions

225gms potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

2 1/2 pints vegetable stock /water

1/4 tsp of Nut meg

125 ml ov creme fraiche to garnish

salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

Remove the leaves from the stalks of the watercress and set aside, roughly chop the stalks.

Melt the butter and in a large sauce pan over a medium heat, add the chopped onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 4-5 minutes until softened but not browned.

Add the potatoes and mix well with the onion. stir in the water cress stalks and stock.

Bring it to boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmmer for 15-20 minutes until the potato is tender.

Stir in the water cress leaves and heat through, Remove form the heat and leave to cool slightly, using a hand blender, blend the soup until smooth,  and return it to rinsed-out saucepan.

Reheat the soup, season t taste with salt and pepper and add a good grating of nutmeg if desired.

serve in bowls with creme fraiche spooned on top.

They made croutons by cutting the bread into cubed pieces and fried them in oil and placed them on the kitchen towel.

To be continued.............,

As always she took the clicks.......... !!