Caprese Salad

In Summer gives whole bunch of fresh vegetables, fruits and its upto us to use it. It gives potful of basil too. So why not to use it in daily dishes and feed the hungry tummy. We been to one Italian restaurant and we ordered caprese salad, and my son loved it. He didn't remembered the name of it but he knows it has only 3 ingredients or say Italy's flag color. So one day he demanded (yes demanded) that before dinner could you please make appetizer of Italy's flag. I think about for a second and light bulb. I said ok but you have to finish the dish , he said I will. So luckily I had fresh mozzarella in fridge that time and have to use it so made this with 3 simple but when its combine a flavorful salad. You can use cherry tomatoes and put it this 3 on toothpick and it's a perfect party appetizer. But since summer gives nice big roma tomatoes I used this way.

Ingredients

2 big juicy roma tomatoes
1 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese
As needed fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper as per taste
Little EVOO and balsamic vinegar to drizzle.


Method:

Cut the tomatoes in nice thick slices.
Cut the cheese same way too.
Wash and keep aside basil leaves.
At the time of serving, put tomatoes first, then cheese and then basil. Put the toothpick in middle so its easy for little hands to eat it.
Sprinkle salt and pepper on it and drizzle EVOO and balsamic vinegar on top.
Enjoy the bounty of summer

Savory French Toast

My mom used to make this for breakfast back home 35 years ago. That time we didn’t know it call French toast , she makes it and we eat it with tea and stay full till lunch.  After coming to US , saw it sweet French toast, concept was same, dip the bread in egg but with sweet spices and cook it . Since then I was so intrigued to make this and share it with you. So here is the recipe which we grew on it.  Its hardly takes 5 minutes but the weekend breakfast is so filling that you are good to go till you can have your next meal.  I just added spices in it and cook it , just to make sure you cook it on medium flame so egg cooks in the middle of bread too. You can soak the bread in egg mixture nicely so it coats from all the time.  For me one egg can use for 3 bread slices but it depend upon egg and bread size.

Ingredients

1 Brown Egg (that’s I always used, Eggland’s best)

3 Slices of Whole Wheat Bread

Salt , pepper, red chili powder as per taste

1 tsp. finely chopped ginger

1 tsp. finely chopped garlic

1 tsp. oil

Method

Beat the egg in a bowl , add your spices and ginger and garlic and mix it.

Heat the nonstick pan. Add oil in it.

Dip one slice of bread in egg mixture and flip it with fork to the other side, coat that side too and slide it in the pan.

If your pan is big size , you can cook two bread slices together.  If not cook one.

When it’s nice and brown on one side , flip it over and cook it on other side.

When it’s done , take it out on plate and put it on cooling rack, which you use for cookie to cool. Because if you put hot bread in dish, the side which touches the plate will be soften with the hot air and then water make it soggy.

So until you are not ready to eat, keep it on cooling rack.

When you are done with everything, serve it on plate and enjoy hot with hot masala or ginger tea.

Hearth and Soul blog hop: December - Zesty South Indian Kitchen

Kerala Style Mango Pickle

I love homemade pickles, it taste fresh and you can control oil and spices as per your choice and above all homemade is best, don’t you all agree? I had my share of Gujarati pickle but this time I wanted to try something different so got raw mango from Indian Grocery store and thinking to make which state I can go for the pickle. Then my mind went straight to South and did little bit research and asked one keralian friend about how you can make mango pickle and she told me and made it that way , now I am not claiming this is original recipe, but it might be from her home recipe so now sharing with you and yes we still get raw mango here so we can use it any time.

Ingredients :

1 big raw mango, cut in small pieces

3 tbsp. Pickle masala

2 tbsp. Vinegar

2-3 cloves of garlic

1 chopped green chilies

Few leaves of coriander leaves

4 tbsp. oil (this will depend upon how big is your mango, mine was pretty big so I needed 4)

Method:

Cut the mango , chili, garlic and keep it aside.

Heat a pan, add oil in it.

When it’s hot, add garlic , chili, curry leaves and cook till you get nice aroma from all 3 ingredients.

Then add mango pieces along with pickle masala and vinegar.

Cook on low to medium flame till mango pieces are nice and tender.

Check the salt level in pickle masala, if its salty enough you don’t need to add extra salt but if not then add salt.

Mine was perfect masala so didn’t add any salt in it.

Shut the flame off and let it cool completely.

Add store it in glass jar only and enjoy it with your meal. You can keep this bottle outside no need to put it in fridge but if it’s very hot then put it inside.

Hearth and Soul blog hop: December - Zesty South Indian Kitchen

Vermicelli Upma

On weekend morning, feel like eating hot breakfast in compare to weekdays where you can just grab bread or cereal or muffin. So I always try to make something hot to go with tea and kids milk. Had enough of poha, parathas , usually I gave my daughter for lunch her version of yellow rice which is like lemon rice but instead of rice I use vermicelli. So this time I make upma from vermicelli. This goes to sweet to savory dishes, and I just love to use it both ways, either make it sweet seviyan or spicy upma, one bag of this goes a long way.   You can again use your favorite vegetables in it , no limit on that. Due to my husband’s health and kid's choice of vegetables, I keep it simple.

Ingredients

1 cup of vermicelli (roast it and keep it aside or you can always use roasted one)

Few curry leaves

1 chopped onion

1 tsp. Mustard seeds

1 chopped green chili

Salt as per taste

Lime Juice as per taste

2 tbsp. oil

Method:

Heat a pan, add oil in it. On other burner, boil 3 cups of water.

When it hot, add green chili and curry leaves.

Add mustard seeds and cook it.

Then add onion and cook till it becomes pink.

Add your roasted vermicelli and salt and mix it.

Add boiled water, one cup at a time and cook on a medium flame, till noodles are cooked perfectly.

Add lime juice before serving and have nice hot breakfast along with your tea or coffee. 

Hearth and Soul blog hop: December - Zesty South Indian Kitchen

Bitter Gourd Salan | Karela ka Salan

I was tired of making karela with onion or potatoes or even stuffed, wanted to make something new with my favorite vegetable. Since we all make eggplant and mirchi ka salan why not to use that delicious salan gravy to make this humble vegetable who many of you might not even like it. So made the salan, add shallow fry karela in it and enjoy it with rice and roti and my diner is done. Happy with the results so here I am sharing with you all.

Salan Ingredinets  :
2 tbsp. sesame seeds
2 tbsp. grated coconut
2 tbsp. raw peanuts
1 tsp. chopped ginger
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 tbsp.. turmeric powder
1 tsp. coriander and cumin  powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. tamarind pulp

Method:

Combine the sesame seeds, coconut, peanuts, ginger, garlic and onions in a pan and dry roast them over a slow flame till the flavors are released and the ingredients are lightly browned.
When it's cool, put the roasted mixture in grinder add the turmeric powder, coriander  & cumin powder, chili powder and tamarind paste and grind it to a smooth paste using ½ cup water. Keep aside.

To Make it with Karela

2 Bittergourd - Cut it in half and remove all the seeds from inside
2 tbsp. oil
Few curry leaves

Method :

Heat a deep dish pan, add 1 tbsp. oil in it , add cut karela pieces and cook till its 75% done.
Take it out.

Add one more tbsp. oil in same pan, add curry leaves when its give nice aroma, add the salan and cook till you get nice consistency, if its too thick add water, if its too thin cook it till you get your desire gravy.
Add shallow fry karela in it with salt and cover and let them cook together so it mixes nicely.
Serve hot with steamed or jeera rice or your favorite roti or paratha.

I like it thick gravy so I made it that way, if you like runny gravy you can adjust the water part.

Sprouted wheat Salad with Feta

I used to make this salad with just regular salad vegetables in it like onion, tomato, cucumber , lime juice and chat masala. It taste awesome too. But this time I wanted to take a different route so make it little Greek way. You can skip feta and paneer too, no harm done. Food is a food , you can enjoy your way and your style , just don’t say that it’s your own original recipes. Now a days on social media you can see lot of videos of easy and mouthwatering recipe so sometimes I think why to waste my time and efforts to post it on blog but then I think it’s my recipe, my collection  and my cookbook which I can pass it to my kids when they grow up and they wanted to know how mom cooks all these yummy food. So that gets me going.

With my busy schedule now a days just posting once a week, tell you the truth doesn’t feel like posting. It’s like if you don’t go and visit fellow bloggers they don’t bother to come and drop a comment. I know their limitations too. but still have some good friends who doesn’t think that way and still drop by at my page and comment it so for those thanks from the bottom my heart.

Now the recipe, it’s no cook salad recipe, just cut everything and toss together and enjoy it.

Ingredients :

1 cup of sprouted Wheat ( I soaked overnight in water and then take the water and put it for sprouting)

½ chopped onion

½ chopped carrot

½ chopped red and green capsicum

3-4 tbsp. Feta cheese

Salt and black pepper to taste

Pinch or two red pepper flakes

2 tbsp. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

2 tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar

Method :

Cut all your vegetables.

Put them in a bowl, add wheat & Feta  in it, add your seasoning (oil, vinegar, salt , both peppers)

And leave it in that bowl for good 10 minutes to get those flavors to mingle.

After that enjoy it for quick lunch or as a side dish.

For me it was a lunch with orange juice.

Chanar Payesh ( Bengali Style Cottage cheese Pudding)

Beginning of this year , I promised myself that I will try to explore East Indian cuisine more, because I was borned  and brought up in West, had very heavy influenced of South and North Indian Food. So East Indian delicacy just stop at Ras malai and Sandesh or say sweets only . Thanks to blogging other cuisines doors also open.

So I had some milk which gone bad so I made paneer out of it. And was thinking what to make out of this one cup of paneer, didn't wanted to make savory, and just finished my ricotta rasmalai and it taste was still on my tongue so I just searched the Google about this and find this dish. I saw two recipes and both were totally different, so I just use my gut feeling about this dish and basic idea and make this one. It taste just like rasmalai but crumble one , but boy, it was heavenly dessert. If you have not enough paneer to make ras malai , I suggest please make this one and you will love it.

Ingredients :

1 cup fresh Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese)
1/2 can condensed milk (start from half , add more as needed)
6 cups Whole milk
nuts as per your choice, I used almond and pistachio
pinch of cardamom powder


TO make paneer, take 1 gallon of milk, after one boil add vinegar / lime juice in it and mix it, separate the whey and cheese , strain the whey thru cheesecloth and hang the cheese so water get out. If you are making sweet dish out of paneer make sure you washed paneer so no sourness left inside. otherwise your sweet dish will ruin.

Method:

Heat a heavy bottom pan, add milk in it and boil it till it becomes thick. Stir it continuously so it doesn't stick at the bottom.
Add condensed milk and check the sweetness and add more if you need.
Add nuts and cardamom powder and mix it.
Add crumble paneer in it and cook it on low flame for only 3-4 minutes because you don't want your milk to curdle.
Take it out in container and when its completely cool, put it in freeze and serve chilled as it is or with ice cream.

Don't cook more after adding paneer because it might curdle your milk, so thicken the milk before you add paneer in it.

you can use any flavor in it, add saffron, rose water, kevra water, any nuts. Go nuts for the flavoring.

Make sure you wash the paneer before use it and drain it completely too.

It will thicken more once its cold, so don't thicken the milk too much , otherwise add more milk.

Swathi's event    hosted by Sathya
Gayathri's WTML event and 
Swathi's hearth and soul blog hop
recipeoftheweek-26th April to 2nd May
Kids Delight hosted by PVR Blog
1st anniversary celebration event by cookclickdevour , my favorite recipe from her blog is Mango saffron smoothie, cause i am a big mango fan.
Eat your veg and Banger Mash chat
Raksha's Kitchen: Contest Announcement - Indian Dessert Recipes, 2 People To Win Flipkart Vouchers  sponsored by zoutons.com and collegedunia.com.

Green Apple Pickle

Did you see my  Apple and Sprouted Chana Aachar, now this is just regular pickle masala but with granny smith apple to replace raw mango in pickle. I like fresh pickle a lot so instead of making a big batch of it and never touch it after few times, I make it in small batches and finish it up fast. Try this in any season and enjoy it as a side dish to your dinner, goes very well with rice.

Ingredients : 

1 Granny smith Apple - cut it in small cubes
2 tbsp. rai na kuria - split mustard seeds
2 tbsp. Methi na Kurai - Split fenugreek seeds
Salt as needed
Oil 2-3 tbsp.
Few pinches of red pepper flakes for some kick


Method

Cut apple and put it in salted water so it doesn't go black till you done with whole apple.

In a one bowl, mix all the spices along with oil and mix it nicely.

Take the apple out of water, drain it and put it in spices.

Mix very well. and put it glass jar and leave it as it is for one day /night  for 8 -10 hours.

After that enjoy and finish it asap so you can make it again.

Merry Tummy

Tandoori Tempeh Tikka

As you know my husband needs to eat fermented food, so I got two packets of tempeh, he finished one but didn't warned to eat second one.  So he told me that I can use it for my purpose. Ok I am all in. Didn't wanted to make same Chinese dish with it, wanted to try something new. So made tikka from it and added green and red capsicum along-with onion and pineapple pieces and my diner was done. Tempeh is nothing but fermented soya ,stacked in patty form , its good to make burgers, i made meatballs from it. It has very distinct taste so if you are up for challenge then you can have this.

Ingredients :

4 oz. tempeh, cut in cubes

1 each green and red capsicum cut in cubes

1 onion cut in cubes

1/2 cup fresh pineapple cut in cubes

2 cups yogurt

1 tbsp. ginger, garlic chili paste

3 tbsp. tandoori masala , i like spicy so I added 3, you can adjust as per your taste.

Salt as per taste

Method:

In a big bowl, add yogurt in it. add ginger, garlic, chili paste and tandoori masala , salt and mix it. 

Add cut vegetables and tempeh and let it marinade for 2-3 hours. I knew that I was going to make this so I keep it in marinade for 4 hours.

When its time to cook , you can grill it on grill, stove top , oven , its your choice.

I did it in my grill pan on stove top.

Cook it till you get charred vegetables and it cooks but still have some bite.

Take it out and enjoy with green chutney. 

You can make a wrap out of it too.

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop: October 4th week - Zesty South Indian Kitchen

Watermelon & Feta Salad

We get nice and big watermelon in summer, to consume as it is , its a big challenge, so I try to make something out of it. Sometimes just make a simple juice out of it, eat it as it is, or with chat masala , make watermelon sparkling water. But this time I wanted to eat melon but in different way, and happen to have feta in the fridge too so made this watermelon and feta salad with home grown mint on it. It's no cook , healthy, tangy salad and  ready in no time. 

Ingredients : 

3 cups chopped watermelon

2 tbsp. Feta cheese

1 tbsp. mint leaves coarsely chopped

Few strokes of black pepper

Method:

Put the watermelon slices on plate.

Add feta and mint leaves on it,

Sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper on it and enjoy some delicious watermelon salad.

No Croutons Required - Call for Vegetarian Soups and Salads Submissions for March | Lisa's Kitchen | Vegetarian Recipes | Cooking Hints | Food & Nutrition Articles

http://www.tinnedtomatoes.com/

Vegetable Tortilla Pizza

We means kids and me were eating regular pizza but my husband can not eat tomato sauce pizza , he used to make it pumpkin sauce and then make pizza but that day I didn't had pumpkin so no sauce, so he made this kind of pizza. It doesn't have any sauce but full of vegetables and cheese and above all no flour , no kneading. Used readymade whole wheat tortilla , spread grilled vegetables and cheese and baked it till cheese melted and tortilla is crispy. Take it out, cut it and enjoy it. You can add your favorite vegetables but here I had red and green capscium, carrot, yam, carrot and zuchhini.

Ingredients :

1 each red and green capsicum - slice all vegetables in similar shape so its easy to cook
2 carrot
1 small Yam
1 Zucchini
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
3 Whole wheat tortilla

Method:

Grilled all the vegetables and cut in similar shapes and size if possible.
Preheat the oven at 350F.
Take the tortilla and spread vegetables and top it with cheese.
Baked it in the oven till cheese melted and tortilla become little crisp.
Take it out, cut it in 4 pieces and enjoy guilt free and healthy pizza.