Secret Recipe Club: Supposed Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry = Cottage Cheese & Veggie Stir Fry !

http://thruthebugsonmywindshield.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/chicken-broccoli-stir-fry/Amanda's idea of the secret recipe club is really working and with a 100 odd participants it is a really fun event to take part in. We are assigned a blog in secret and have to cook from it and all the particpants post on the same day... the fun part is looking through all the blogs and seeing who has cooked what!

This time around I was assigned Thru the Bugs on my Windshield a great blog written by Suz and all her experiences of travelling and eating along the way... she has some great recipes and pics and it was a tough choice to make but I will explain you why in a minute.

Last week I got back from a visit to my mum's and was ill with my sinuses playing up, a fever, a bad back and the works...

But let me hit on the highlights... going to your mum's is always great - don't you like how you get to kickback and relax while she says she has got everything in control.

You get to eat your favorite  foods without having to lift a finger and they taste so much better.

You child gets taken care of and he is actually having tons of fun and getting pampered silly...

When you get back, the hub has been missing you, so YOU get pampered silly :)

And then after my l'il illness I am off to another vacay with the hub and the bub... and will share all once I am back!

I am going to eat to my hearts content, not care about my weight (and neither should you on vacation), do as much site-seeing as the tot permits and drink in as much of the culture and atmosphere as I can...

Now, with the falling sick and packing and ensuring we are absolutely organised for the trip within 10 days of having come back from my mom's  (read: dumping clothes in washing machine, sending them to be ironed, ensuring baby has enough under garments, food to eat on flight, what's with the sudden weight restrictions on luggage, remebering to cart the potty seat - we don't like ugly pots and want to make them our own etc I had my hands quite full)

This recipe just stuck out the perfect thing to do with my leftovers... as I am in the process of winding up my kitchen. While you read this I am already off on my vacation... You can read this recipe here but basically I just made it my own... asi t easily adaptable!

I know you do not see Broccoli in my pics - I had to leave the day before I cooked and pictured this and my hubby and baby both are not fans of Broccoli so I just left it out. Also, I was using up the leftovers in my fridge...

Basically, take a huge wok, heat it with a little oil and then I added the veggies in a different order from Suz....with due respect to the original recipe it was supposed to be something to do with leftovers and I am blogging a couple of hours before I have to catch my flight with a very supportive hubby finishing all my last minute packing...

Ingredients:
Veggies sliced - whatever you have on hand depending on the portion of rice
I used one onion sliced
1/2  a small carrot
1 tomato cubed
4-5 mushrooms thinly sliced
6-7 cashews fried
1 egg
shredded chicken - my toddler decided to munch on while I cooked so I had to add some cottage cheese
1 cup cooked rice

Method
I added some onions / scallions and carrots, mushrooms (let the water dry off), tomatoes and then broke an egg into this and just scrambled it. I seasoned this with salt, pepper and a bit of paprika & soy sauce.

Yeah, the egg's my addition - my dad does this great egg fried rice and when I started doing this I had this sudden urge to get the same flavor in and I had one lone egg staring at me =  yeah, why not.

Then I added the rice into this and gave it a good stir so it absorbs the flavors... and ta da... we are done.

I topped this off with cooked cottage cheese  since the chicken I had planned to add was munched off in front of me by my toddler, some fried cashews for extra crunch (the only nut my toddler wilfully eats) and my leftover rice was ready!

The flavors are nice... the tomato adds a nice tang which we Indians are used to in our dishes... so I hope you go and try this out!

I really apologize for the pic as the camera has been packed and this is my very old cellphone trying to do it's work!

Mango Coconut Macaroon Tart... (Still can't seem to get enough of Mangoes!)

Things have been moving full throttle in the summer... after the baby got over a bout of cold and cough... it was the hub and the MIL that followed suit. The temperatures in Delhi are touching 40 C and all I can think about is sitting in my air-conditioned room and not stepping out. The only thing the heat is not stopping me from doing is eating... and I better watch the scales or I am going to have to buy a whole new wardrobe for my vacation!!!!

Besides the million things are craving my attention on the home front I have an aunt who passed away recently in a very untimely manner - but when I think of her - a very cheery face comes to my mind who was always smiling and ready to get into a kitchen and cook up a storm for her guests at a mo's notice - a very nice way to remember someone I must say and I wish I could always be remembered smiling but that is not one of my best traits - (*Note to self: Smile more often and spread happiness... it's very contagious)

Coming back to the tart, the heat, maid issues, baby adjusting to school have all been eating away on my time and earlier I managed to pack my baking at around 4-5am but by the time I hit the bed, I am asleep before my baby and manage to barely struggle out 7am. And, if I told you I had help to clean and swab and dust and put my utensils away some of you who do not live in India would be jealous but trust me I would not survive here without all the people helping me!

I wanted to bake something different (No chocolate) and got my hands on some desiccated coconut. You know I was obsessed with strawberries for a while but as the summer trudges along, mangoes are now, holding my interest! I wanted a nice nutty and nutritious tart base and had some ragi flour lying around (I had earlier used it while making biscotti and it had imparted a nice nutty, almost chocolaty flavor to my biscotti) - so in it went with a small amount of almonds and butter and that was my tart base. Now, all I needed to do was think of a filling and was very inspired by www.smittenkitchen.com!

Ingredients for the Tart:
1/4 cup almonds
1 cup ragi / millet flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
a little lesser than 1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C.  I just pulsed everything together in my mixer and cooled it a bit in a my fridge. Though, the pastry was still soft to roll out I almost had to roll it into the tart pan I was baking it into. It fit a 6" round tart tin.I blind baked it with beans. I rolled out the tart and put it in my tart tin. Forked it a bit. Put a parchment over it, added some lentils and beans (trick from Rachel Allen bake) and then baked it for about 20 minutes.

Ingredients for filling:
3 large egg whites
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1 large mango cut into bite sized chunks
100grams desiccated coconut

Method:
Stir together egg whites, coconut and sugar. Now spoon the mixture into the tart tin and add chunks of mango to the tart so the fruit is visible. Bake for 20-25 minutes till the peaks are browned. The filling of the recipe is taken from a book called Super Natural Everyday - waiting to lay my hands on it and the pairing they have used is Blackberries and Coconut and some pistachios pressed into the filling in the end (fresh blackberries are almost impossible to lay your hands on in the summer in India). I thought Mango and Coconut were yumm too!

The tart was really yummy and the filling really moist and coconutty. The only problem I had with this tart was that that mangoes kept losing moisture as the day waned... so I would put some sort of preserves on top of the mangoes after the tart is baked to preserve them if you are serving this later... must say this tart didn't last past a few hours! The base was very very soft and biscutty and perfectly paired with the coconut and mango!


This is also going to make the perfect entry to the Monthly Mingle - a great event started by Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey... I think I may have just made the deadline :)! This month's mingle is being hosted by Cook Sister - a very scary challenge for me since I had never ever baked a tart in my life!!! But alls well that ends well I say...

Melting in the mouth Mutton Kebab / Shammi Burgers from scratch...

I have been a non-vegetarian all my life except for a brief period of say 3-4 years when I tried to be completely vegetarian - but just didn't work. My hub and the child are hard core carnivores and are happy eating chicken a couple of times a week. I do cook fish and chicken in the house but I am not a fan of red meat and neither do we cook pork or beef in the house. But this kebab converted me completely.

Now, my MIL is over to spend some time with us and makes a mean mutton curry (more on that later...) but I thought it would be a treat to get her to make some Mutton Shammi Kebabs and turn them into Mutton burgers for dinner.

So, first we went about getting the Shammi recipe which is an age old and been in the family for a while and I got some pics of her cooking it too! So, you will have almost a step by step view of this dish and it is super easy!

It's basically a mix of meat and uses some lentils as a binder. An egg yolk here, some fresh bread crumbs added to the mix with tons of indian spices (garam masala) and we had our finger lickin' burgers ready. Ohh, since this was a night shoot the lighting is really bad so please pardon the pictures! We dressed the burgers up with a mayo-ketchup sauce, sauted onions and tomatoes and jalapenos - I know all of which seems hard to distinguish from the pics below!

Mangoes & Cream Icecream!

The summer offers a bounty of fruits in the prettiest of colors and shapes. Grapes, Chikoos, Strawberries, Mangoes - it is a delight to eat them as is or use them in cooking and cool desserts.

The focus has shifted from strawberries to mangoes in my house and we are getting plenty of them in India! Yummy, Perry's and Alphonsos, Safedas and Hamams - all these different varieties of mangoes are treats for us :)!

Anyways, I had some mascarpone expiring and wanted to make some dessert with it - had experimented with some Strawberry Mascarpone Icecream last year and with the temperatures soaring I thought why not try and incorporates some mangoes and whipped cream and make my hubby's favorite icecream... so I did this 4 ingredient ice cream in a jiffy and came up with some yummilicous Mangos and Cream Icecream.

My son liked it a bit melted with sprinkles and my hubby liked it off the stick since it had enough mango chunks to keep him busy. Thought I would leave you with some pics and post the recipe later.

Oat Scones with Strawberries

The heat has set in and the temperatures are soaring in Bombay and Delhi both. Feel like eating something sweet but light and dreamy without the calories (ofcourse!) 'coz summer clothes do not hide pounds! I saw an Oats and Maple Syrup scones recipe on the SmittenKitchen page and ever since then I haven't been able to think about baking anything else... there is something about healthy food that has me obsessed but the 160gms of butter used in this recipe doesn't make it very healthy! Ever since I have been a child hooked on to Enid Blyton books - I have always dreamed of munching on scones for tea like the Secret Seven or Famous Five. When I went to London with my parents I kept looking for scones. Little did I know that one day I could actually be able to bake them in my kitchen and without much running around with simple ingredients on hand. If you have ever read Nigella's recipes, she always like to use cream of tartar to add an extra lightness to her scones but for the life of me I have no idea about how to get my hands on it in Gurgaon!

Anyways, I was hooked on to the idea of baking the scones but was almost out of maple sugar and didn't want it too sweet so googled a few recipes and came across one very nice one from www.marthastewart.com - a mish mash of both recipes is what I am going to present here and it tastes mighty good except my lil toddler didn't seem to like it (Not sweet enough, Mom!). With the hubby away - I have about 8-9 scones to eat my way through and am enjoying each and every bite I must say :)!!!!!

I had this done and in the oven in about 15 minutes and it was great way to start the day knowing that the hubby is away for the week. I am hoping they last in the fridge and don't taste too stale tomorrow but I have been warned...

You can serve these with clotted cream, whipped cream, jam or butter or have as is with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar. How do you like your scones?????

Ingredients:
13/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1 heaped tablespoon baking powder
1 heaped tablespoon caster sugar
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cold butter cut into cubes

Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients together. Now you can add the butter to the dry mixture and rub it with your hands till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs or you can pulse it together - apparently both work equally well.
Then add the milk to this mixture and work it together into a dough softly.

Now, I divided the dough into two equal halves and brought it together. In one 1/2 of the dough I added some chopped strawberries that brought a lovely sweet and tart flavor to the scones. The other ones I left as is.

You can be fussy and cut it out with a a round pastry cutter or shape the dough into a large rectangle or square and then just cut it into traingles... that worked for me! Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes after giving the tops of the scones a quick wash of milk, cream or egg whites.

I must say with a cup of coffee, my breakfast was divine. And with a sprinkle of icing sugar and some jam it was a lovely after lunch treat!

Now I am sending my entry to the Oats Recipe Event - though my scones are not 100% oats - you can look up the event at http://myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/03/oats-recipes.html