Spicy Snacks - Chekkalu

 

Snacks are something we eat with a cup of tea or coffee in the evening, at least that’s what was the understanding. In reality we have snacks all the time or anytime. Some snacks are attached to specific drinks or event. For example like popcorn we generally have with a soda and movie. Not that I can’t have it while I am at my work place but that's the traditional way I guess!

I recently made these spicy little rice crackers called Chekkalu from the video here. A speciality from Andhra. Its also known as chakkali. I simply followed the recipe in the video and they turned out to be great and although these are generally served with tea or coffee in the evening I thought of serving them with chilled beer. Trust me it went perfectly well. They are very easy to make and you can store them in an air tight container for a long time.

I miss South-Indian food a lot especially because may be I am still settling but I hear there are lots of Indian restaurant to explore nearby. I suppose there may be services like Foodpanda in Bangalore. It is an online food ordering website through which you can order food from a wide range of restaurant in most big cities in India. If you are in India and not yet used their service, then you might like to try it out. Meanwhile I will keep sharing my experiences with you here, so hang in there and have a great holiday season ahead. 

Review and Giveaway – LowLow Cheese Spread

Dieting and I don't go well together. Especially because most of the ones I followed or tried to follow has instructions like don't eat this and that. Usually these things will be my favourite things or something that I would like to eat. Hence invariably they failed. If I have been asked not to eat something I feel more attracted to that food than I usually  I am and in the end I end up eating it and there goes my diet plan, flushed away. Have a look at this video, you will know what i mean.

Recently when I received few coupons from LowLow to try out their product, I was tempted. And why shouldn't I, I like cheese and most morning my breakfast is toast with spread on and coffee. If I can get a low calorie yet tasty spread, which will make my mornings a little less guilt free, then why not?

Although initially I thought of having at breakfast, I couldn't resist having a taste in the evening. I got two types of these cheese spread one plain and the other one with crushed black pepper in it. I served it as a dip to our starter and believe me it went really well with a glass of red wine. I tried it on this crackers and the salami just to see how well it goes and it blends in perfectly well.

If you want to try this cheese spread then let me know by leaving a comment here or on my FB page within next 2 weeks and at the end of it I will pick two winners in random to send the coupons.Each one will receive £12 worth of coupons that they can use to buy any LowLow products. These coupons can be used in the UK only. So come on don't be shy, just leave a comment here or on my FB page for a chance to win.

Pesto Chicken–Easiest Recipe Ever

Now a days I have almost stopped cooking. Since my parents are here, I am having a great time with them. On top of that I am on the luxury of home (mum) –made food. Feels like my bachelor days, where I never cared about food or any household matters. I know this won’t last long but enjoying every bits of it till it lasts.

Even though I am not cooking much, that doesn’t stop me from chatting about food and recipes. I was having a chat with few fellow foodies and while discussing salmon recipes, it kind of struck me of making salmon with pesto. It was bit late for me to get salmon that day but I was not ready to let go of cooking salmon with pesto. After some time I compromised with the situation and decided to do the same experiment with chicken. Because that was the only thing available in my freezer at that point.

I took the chicken out, thawed it for some time and then marinated the chicken pieces in the red pesto I bought a week ago in the Foodie Festival. Used a generous amount as this is the only thing I was adding to the chicken. I had tried this pesto with pasta last week, so I knew I don't need to add anything else other than salt. Kept the chicken in the fridge for overnight but I guess this step is not necessary, if you are in a hurry then 4-5 hrs. of marination would do.

Before placing in the pre-heated oven I seasoned the meat and cooked for 45 –50 minutes in 180 degree C. Once done, rest it for 5 minutes and then serve. I served it with sliced red onion, goes very well as a starter. This is the easiest preparation I have done for chicken, which turns out to be really good.

Aloo Chaat

Who doesn’t love chaat? I love it! Although its meant to be an evening snack that people have between tea breaks but I am a huge fan of chaat and I can have it as dinner. In fact I did that once. I was in India and at home only me and my sis-in-law was there and both of us are chaat addicts. Everyone else were out and going to have dinner outside. So both of us decided on chaat dinner! It was a lovely one! Today when I was making the chaat I was reliving those memories. We had long chats over those lovely chaats she prepared.

Ingredients:

2 boiled and pealed potato cut in to small cubes

quarter of  a medium red onion, chopped finely

1-2 green chillies finely chopped

handful of fresh coriander roughly chopped

salt to taste

1 tsp dry roasted cumin powder

1 tsp of red chilly powder (optional)

Sev / Bombay mix

Sweet chilli tamarind sauce

Method:

Now this is real simple. Just mix everything together, check the seasoning and serve. I am sure you are going to love it.

An apology

It’s been ages I have written anything here. I feel so guilty about it. I have been very busy for last couple of months and didn’t have the motivation or energy to write something. Lots of changes and events happened within last few months that I hardly had any time for anything. But anyway here I am, surviving through all those tough months and now hoping for the best to happen. It’s a new beginning and I decided to come back with a double post, one sweet and the other is sour and savoury, covering the basic tastes of life (except bitter)

Chocolate cookies with chocolate glaze

Last weekend I was meeting one of my friends and her family after some time. She has a very cute little daughter who is three years old. The little girl loves people and is very friendly. I usually get to see her only on her birthdays but surprisingly she remembers me every time. I decided to bake Nigella’s chocolate cookies for this little angel. The cookies looked so adorable to me when I saw the video. I have halved (almost!) the quantity mentioned in the recipe but still got 25 cookies out of the cookie dough I made.  

Ingredients:

150gm soft butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

Topping:

4 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup boiling water

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Multicolour sugar sprinkles

Method:

Simply add all the ingredients except for butter in a bowl and mix well. Melt the butter and slowly add it to the dry mix. Make a soft dough out of it. You don’t need to kneed the dough a lot jut mix everything well and it’s ready. Now make small walnut size balls out of the dough and place them on an oven tray covered with grease proof baking sheet. Keep some distance between them as they will expand and take the shape of a cookie as the bake in the oven. Bake them at 170 degree C for 15-20 minutes. The top of the cookies will look a bit cracked but that’s fine as you will be topping that with chocolate glaze. Let the cookies cool down for some time. Meanwhile make the chocolate glaze. On medium heat in a saucepan add all the ingredients for the topping except for the sugar sprinkle and give it a good stir. you will end up with a shine chocolate glaze. Remove from heat and now pour a small spoon-full of chocolate glaze on top of each cookie and then sprinkle the multicolour sugar sprinkles on top of it. Leave it to set for some time and then once set place them in an air tight jar and store them.     

Jumbo Chilly Dip

In her own words a “Guilty pleasure”. Another delicious recipe from Nigella’s collection. It was Friday evening, beginning of a weekend, elaborate cooking was definitely not in my mind. Only thing in my mind was to sit back, relax and enjoy some movies with some tortilla chips and a glass of wine. All I needed a nice dip to go with it.

Ingredients:

1 can of roasted red pepper

1 clove of garlic

1 bunch of fresh coriander leaves with stocks

3 green chillies (with seeds)

Jest and juice of one lemon

salt

100 ml oil (plain groundnut oil, nothing fancy)

couple of mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Method:

In a blender put everything together except the garnish and blend them till it forms a smooth paste. That’s it! Serve with tortilla chips and enjoy with your choice of drink. Although Nigella’s suggestion was to  serve it with Americano cocktail (The original James Bond drink!). We just had it with some Pinot Noir.

 

Hot Canapés

I have been posting a lot of sweet dishes lately, primarily because I love desserts, especially if it involves chocolate. The only problem is you cannot have dessert all the time. Hence to change the taste, here is the recipe of savoury hot canapes that I made this weekend (on Friday night actually).

These canapes are really easy to make and requires very few ingredients. The important thing is that you can prepare and serve them under 15 minutes. Something that is quick and easy to make is very handy when you are hungry and tired, or if you are lazy like me and have an attitude of "will do it later" for any work in hand. This is an ideal nosh to make you feel good and it will be an absolute delight to your tastebuds.

Ingredients: 

1 Baguette 
Some red pesto
1 block of fresh Mozzarella cheese
Few slices of salami 


Method:


Heat a non-stick pan. Slice the baguette in to half inch thick pieces and place them on the pan for 1 minute on each side. Turn on the oven on grill mode and adjust the temperature to 100 degree Celsius. Spread the red pesto on one side of the bread slices. Place couple of salami slices on top of it. Now place one slice of fresh mozzarella. Place the bread slices on a baking tray wrapped in kitchen foil and bake it in the oven for 7-9 minutes or until the cheese on top is bubbling. Let them rest for a minute and then serve hot. Enjoy.

Cheesy Mushrooms

Cooking is not always following the recipe to its last word. For everyday cooking you can't follow recipes all the time. If you cook on a regular basis you got to be trying and testing with different ingredients. 

Usually I start thinking about dinner when I am on the way back home from office. If I can't decide by the nearest supermarket to my home, I usually sneak in to the shop to see if I can find something I fancy at that very moment.  

During my one such visit to the supermarket I had picked up some big flat mushrooms and was wondering what to do with them. I thought of using them in pasta but then I changed my mind and did something different. I had read about the this starter recipe of mushrooms before. Traditionally it is made with Portobello mushrooms but I had these big flat mushrooms already, so used them instead. I also had some cheese left in my fridge, so I combined these two key ingredients. Here is what I did.

  

Ingredients:

4 Big flat mushrooms

Cheddar cheese, grated (you can use your choice of hard cheese)

2 cloves of garlic

Freshly crushed black pepper

Salt

Olive oil

5-7 roasted cashew nuts, crushed (I didn't have any pine nuts left so I used cashew nuts instead)

Method:

Wash the mushrooms first then wipe them with a tissue. Finely chop the garlic and mix it with the grated cheese and the freshly crushed black pepper. Place each mushroom individually on aluminium foil (enough to wrap the mushroom) and season it. Fill in the flat face with cheese and garlic mixture. Drizzle some olive oil on it and then cover them with the foil. Preheat the oven for 200 degree Celsius and place these mushroom parcel on a baking tray and place it in the oven for 5 minutes. 

Take the parcels out, open them and place them back again in the oven for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Now bring it out and plate them. Sprinkle some crushed nuts on top of it before serving. 


Note: These mushrooms can be served  on a bed of fresh green salad leaves. 

I had it with a wine which I picked it up on the same day from the shop. It was awesome. A very smooth Californian Merlot for a great price.

A Day Spent In The Racecourse

Last week I had a chance to spend an entire day in a racecourse - nicely dressed up, pamper myself to the posh, gorgeous looking delicious food, watch the races with great company, bet on the horses, get exited, enjoy and at the same time relax and have lots of fun. At the end of the day I realized how poor betting I had done as I lost most of the money that I bet, believe it or not in one race my horse actually came last, but I enjoyed it a lot. I left the race course with a very warm, relaxing and a genuinely happy feeling. 

It is not something I would like to do very often but definitely once in a while this sort of break is essential to take you away from your work and routine life, all your worries, stress, problems and all sorts of nasty thing that ties you so hard that you almost forget that you are also allowed to have little fun in life!  A bit of pampering, bit of indulgence, bit of decadence that's all you need to charge you up and ready to face the battle again .

So my pampering day started by getting up after 9 am in the morning (on a week day!!), got ready, went to office and waited for the coach to arrive. This was a corporate event so most people chose to take the coach as all of us can enjoy the ride together (official version). Actually it's the reason below, 

We arrived at the racecourse by 11.30 am and been escorted to our private dinner hall! We were welcomed with drinks. While we were seated a person from the racecourse staff explained to us how the betting works and how we can participate and enjoy the race. We were given booklets to guide ourselves towards betting (loosing money actually!!) Then we were served with the delicious four course meal. Here goes the menu.

The Starter

Poached salmon and prawn  tian with a cucumber , caper and lime salsa

The Main Course

Slow roasted loin pork glazed with honey and chinese five spice

Served with spring onion and new potato cake and buttered wilted greens

The Dessert

Pistachio and apricot bread and butter pudding with a Cointreau custard

The Cheese 

Mature cheddar, Somerset brie and stilton cheese served with in-house chutney and biscuits

Finally...

Coffee and chocolates

No no, it doesn't end there! After demolishing this lavish meal we went for racing and betting on horses, after 2 hours of continuous loosing money, we came back to our dinner hall for some proper English afternoon tea and enjoyed the last match on large LCD screens.

Finally at 6.00 pm we headed home and called it a night!  

Deviled Egg

The typical continental version of deviled eggs is that of a cold starter. As a child, I remember, my mom used to make deviled eggs which were covered in spicy batter, deep fried and served hot with tomato sauce. So out of curiosity, I did some research and found that deviled eggs originated in ancient Rome as cold hard boiled eggs stuffed with spicy filling. The reason it is called 'deviled' because the dish used to be heavily seasoned. However back home in India, it is done in a very different way. Its served as a hot appetizer instead of a cold starter. Well, I like it either way because for me these are two different egg dishes with the same name and honestly who cares about what it is called, when you have something mouthwatering in front of you.

I made my own version of deviled egg and it tasted great. Try it, it's very easy, takes hardly 10 minutes to prepare and you can make it in advance and keep it refrigerated until served. Enjoy!

Ingredients:


6 hard boiled eggs 
1 tsp harissa sauce (you can get this in many supermarkets and speciality stores these days)
2 tsp mayonnaise
Few fresh coriander leaves

Method:


Halve the hard boiled eggs, take the yolk out and keep the egg white separately. Now mix together the harrisa sauce, mayonnaise and the egg yolks  well. Spoon it back to the boiled egg white halves. Garnish with the coriander leaves and keep them refrigerated for an hour or so. You can also keep them for longer if you wish and serve them as a cold starter.