Tag: vegetarian

Baking| Garlic & Herb Whole Wheat Crackers with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Dip … SRC

“Without garlic I simply would not care to live.”
Louis Diat

Garlic Herb Crackers with Creamy Bell Pepper DipIt continues to be a busy month, where blogging seems to get to the back burner even though it rules my mind 24 X 7. In the midst of this, it’s time for the SRC, an event that I am committed to; a deadline that cannot be missed! So here on fast track is a beautiful and delicious Creamy Roasted Red Bell Pepper Dip from my assigned secret blog – Sweet Beginnings … a blog about sweet, sugary treats, and home cooked meals.

The Secret Recipe Club, the brainchild of Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin’. The idea behind the club – Each month you are “assigned” a participating food blogger to make a recipe from. It’s a secret, so don’t tell them you are making something from their blog! Click on the link if you want to join the fun!!

Of late, the festival season has piled loads of sweet stuff upon our delighted palettes. So I explored Jaidas blog for savoury stuff, and happily, I found plenty! Loads of wonderful seafood, fish, chicken; posts tagged with inspiration of all sorts – Asian, vegetarian, What’s Baking, appetizers and then this wonderful creamy bell pepper dip which she served with a grilled chicken ‘sammich’.The grilled chicken sammich sounded just wonderful and I think what made it really stand out was this creamy red pepper sauce the talented girl created for a recipe swap. Of the sauce she says, ” The sauce is super-delish and also goes great with burgers…you should try it ASAP!” I did and it was yum!Festival season, school holiday on every other day for one reason or another, a wedding in the family, the hub BUSY at work … and me dog tired like never before.  Yet I snatched a moment yesterday to make crackers as the kids were feeling deprived that their Mama doesn’t seem to bake that much any more. These are crisp easy breezy crackers from a Mark Bittman recipe that I adapted to include some whole wheat flour. It’s a wonderful basic recipe that is takes well to any flavour you might like. I used garlic and dried herbs, and next time might do sesame, or sea salt with black pepper, poppy seeds … or maybe the bagel spice I used on these Same Day New York Bagels. The creamy roasted red bell pepper dip {sauce} is just what I wanted as a pairing for these crackers. Vibrant and delicious, I loved the way Jaida added cream cheese to it! I used a local substitute {cheese spread} and skipped the mayo as the dieting diva was dancing on my head!It still was every bit delicious as it looks. Simple and addictive, its a great sauce/dip for burgers, sandwiches, crackers, fresh veggies, crudites and possibly even wraps! I adapted the recipe a  bit, and I’m glad I got inspired  to follow Jaida’s basic creation.Add some balsamic or go with the mayonnaise, and do make sure you add the cream cheese … then sit back and enjoy! My kids loved these to bits. Crisp whole wheat crackers and finger licking good creamy roasted red bell pepper dip … healthy and addictive!
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Baking| Apple Brown Sugar Meringue Pies for BBC Good Food India … Life is sweet!

“Good food ends with good talk.”
Geoffrey Neighor

When BBC Good Food India wrote to me saying they would like to feature Passionate About Baking as their blog of the month, my heart skipped a beat! BBC Good Food UK is one of my favourite magazines, and their newsletter is one I eagerly await in my mailbox. This time around BBC Good Food was all set to enter the Indian market. I created these Apple Brown Sugar Meringue Pies for the feature!I love the way BBC Good Food follows seasons, is full of refreshing new takes on meals and recipes while offering you traditional fare alongside. The first issue of the India edition is pack to the gills with FOOD …  ♦ eat in ♦ eat out ♦ eat away ♦.The inaugural issue has over a 100 triple tested . Turn the pages to find mouthwatering standout Pan Asian, no fuss Mediterranean, stunning desserts, delicious one pots {veggie}, everyday value meals … and Gordon Ramsay’s panna cotta’. The cover tempts you with the words …  Life is Sweet!

To learn more about BBC GoodFood India you can stop by here and here. Also do join the BBC Good Food India survey which comes with the promise of great rewards. One lucky participant stands to win a culinary holiday to the Fontana fredda vineyards in Italy. Other prizes include a gift pack containing a voucher for two for a great dining experience at any of three fabulous restaurants in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore – Olive Bar & Kitchen, Manchester United Café and Aromas of China.

Not so long ago I made an Upside Down Mango Quark Cheseecake inspired from a recent issue of the BBC Goodfood newsletter. For my feature in the magazine, I decided to go with apples since they spell the essence of the season for me. I made these little pies, topping them with brown sugar meringues because I find meringues entirely charming!Apples suddenly seem to offer me never ending inspiration and each time I look at them, I think of the million possibilities. I had some whites on hand {waiting for macarons that didn’t take shape}, so I toyed with an apple version of the lemon meringue pie. The pies were fun, delicious fun!Each bite was full of autumnal warmth … apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, walnuts. Can’t go wrong with those flavours this season, can you? The brown sugar meringue reminded me of little Cocos tufts on her head. She’s always around … always curious!

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This recipe is off to “Cook.Eat.Delicious-Desserts!” @ Simply Food where the month’s theme is Apples .

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Frozen| Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream {Eggless} … quite the ‘Perfect Scoop’

“Ice cream is exquisite, too bad it’s not illegal!”
Voltaire

This very unusual and ADDICTIVE Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream would be illegal if Voltaire had his way! It is beyond exquisite … silky, velvety, deep, sensuous and nothing like I’ve made or bought before. It calls your name as you read the Bible of ice creams, The Perfect Scoop, a brilliant piece of work by Monsieur Lebovitz. His style of writing is charming, humourous and addictive as are his recipes. Bookmarking seems futile as I want to try each recipe, one tempting page after another!Coffee HAD to be my first pick for several reasons, primarily because it is my ‘favouritist’ flavour of all time. I am a HUGE coffee addict with a natural affinity to anything ‘coffee‘. Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream was also my first choice since the lovely lady who sent me the book from the UK, Jehanna @ The Cooking Doctor, included a bag of her favourite coffee in the precious parcel. The book itself had me singing, the coffee sent me into high pitched sopranos. Merci Jehanna!!Must be something in the air, the change of season, cooler weather around the corner, or then this coffee cupping session by the Indian baroness of coffee … filter coffee seems to be the only thing I want to use. My journey into the cup of coffee got more exciting all thanks to this hugely talented lady! It got even more exciting thanks to The Cooking Doctor!!

I also picked this eggless ice cream recipe as it uses ingredients easily available here in India {condensed milk and low fat cream}. Heavens knows how hard we try and overcome the non availability of whipping cream here, a daily culinary battle of sorts for many of us! A recipe that says ‘low fat cream’ is music to my ears. No substituting for once, and perfect scoops guaranteed! {I made this just over a month ago, hence the ‘melting moments’ as the weather was still warm}. Now I’m Ready For Dessert!!

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Baking| Apple Strawberry Basil Hand Pies from Beantown Baker {SRC}

“Looks like you could use an extra hand.”
American Pie

We’re already trotting through the second week of September, the days are whizzing by! Just when I thought I’d done the SRC for the month, a Plum Almond Ginger Summer Fruit, I found a reminder in my inbox. Whoa we’re into the next month, a race against time as always, yet this club is fun! I made delicious Apple Strawberry Basil Hand Pies that I picked & adapted from Beantown Baker, my secret blog for September.

The Secret Recipe Club is the brainchild of Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin’.

The idea behind the club – Each month you are “assigned” a participating food blogger to make a recipe from. It’s a secret, so don’t tell them you are making something from their blog! Click on the link if you want to join the fun!!

Jen @ Beantown Baker lives in Boston with her hubby and two cats. She works as an engineer by day, and is baker by night when she gets home and enjoys spending her free time in the kitchen. She loves all desserts and has a huge to-bake list. Her hubby serves as her number one taste tester and her lucky coworkers and friends get to enjoy baked goods on a regular basis. It was wonderful to explore her blog as we seem to have so much in common, beginning with a ‘love for baking’!  It was like a treasure chest, I flitted from one post to another, so much to do and so little time! I thought I’d bake these utterly delicious looking Strawberry Peach Basil Bars but sadly the stone fruit season has drawn to an end. Then I chanced upon these Strawberry Hand Pies …YES!! I’ve been charmed by hand pies forever but have never got down to making these sweetly delicious sorts! They reminded me of pop tarts! I went with whatever fruit I had on hand… apples and frozen strawberries. In a last minute moment of inspiration, I threw in some fresh basil! YUM! I also tried a few different shapes, including a roll up and a lattice!They turned out to be delicious, though I think I rolled the dough a tad too thin. As Jen says, “The pastry dough is VERY easy to work with. And quite tasty.”  I kept my pies vegetarian and gave the pastry a low fat cream wash, followed with a sprinkling of vanilla sugar. Hand pies are convenient food, great grub on the go and and can be sweet or savoury. Almost every culture has a version of their own, mostly baked.

Hand pies are semilunar-shaped pastries with either a sweet or savory filling, formed by placing a dollop of filling onto a circular piece of biscuit-style dough and then folding it over and crimping it shut. They may be baked, fried or deep-fried.

English Cornish pasties are said the most famous in this category, and go back to the 1800’s when miners wives would freshly bake shortcrust pastry with a beef filling, and pop the pies wrapped in a towel or newspaper into the miners pockets. Miners would hold the pies with the crimped edges, their hands dirty with arsenic and coal etc, eat the pie and throw away the crimped edge.
Many countries have popular versions of hand pies. India has the addictive samosa, a  savoury patty, deep fried and absolutely delicious. Traditionally with a stuffing of potatoes, peas {and sometimes cottage cheese and raisins}, the filling is wrapped in a triangle of pastry and deep fried. We munched through cartloads of these in school, college and while I was working. I have a Chicken Mince Cocktail Samosa posted here which makes for great cocktail / party snacks. Other versions include the Spanish empanada, the Italian calzone & Jamaican patties. Have you heard of any others? OK we have more … Malaysian curry puffs {thank you Jehanne@ The Cooking Doctor}, Indian gujiya {thank you Fahad @ Simply Fahad-istic}.
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Recipe: Apple Strawberry Basil Hand Pies

Summary: Delicious and comforting hand pies, charming bites somewhat like pop tarts. Dough from Alton Brown, filling from Dinner and Dessert, originally from Smitten Kitchen – makes about 15. Adapted from Beantown Baker

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Pastry Dough
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 75gm unsalted butter, chilled
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • Juice of 1/2 lime
  • Filling
  • 3-4 apples, peeled, cored, diced small
  • 1 cup frozen strawberries, chopped fine in processor
  • Juice of 1/2 lime
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
  • Handful of fresh basil, chiffonaded
  • Glaze
  • 2 tbsp low fat cream { or an egg wash of 1 egg mixed with 1 to 2 teaspoons water}
  • 1 sachet vanilla sugar

Method:

  1. Make the Filling
  2. Toss all ingredients well in a big bowl, and keep aside.
  3. Make the Pastry Dough
  4. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse for a few seconds and then pour into a large mixing bowl.
  5. Add the shortening and knead it into the flour with your hands until it is crumbly.
  6. Add the milk all at once and mix in with a spatula until it begins to come together.
  7. Lightly flour your hands and the countertop and turn the dough out onto the countertop. Knead the dough ball, folding over 10 to 20 times. {Thermomix: Add flour, baking powder and salt to TM bowl. Run on Speed 6/5 seconds. Add remaining ingredients and run on Speed 6/ 7 seconds. Turn to knead and run for 1 minute.}
  8. Using a rolling pin roll the dough to 1/3 to 1/2-inch thickness, then cut into rounds using a 2 1/4-inch ring. Roll each round as thinly as possible or to 5 to 6 inches in diameter.
  9. Spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling onto the dough, brush the edges of half of the dough lightly with the cream / egg wash, fold over and seal the edges together with the tines of a fork, dipping it into flour as needed. Gently press down to flatten and evenly distribute the filling and snip or cut 3 slits in the top of the pie.
  10. Brush a little bit of cream / egg wash on the outside of the pie and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.
  11. To bake pies, preheat the oven to 180C. Place finished pies onto a lined cookie sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
  12. Serve warm {after about 20 minutes as the filling can be very hot} or at room temperature. We liked them chilled too with a drizzle of unsweetened low fat cream as dessert!

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Baking| Roasted Peach & Plum Ice Cream … with condensed milk {eggless}

“…stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot oftener, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along.”
Robert J. Hastings {Tinyburg Tales}

This is one of those recipes lurking in my folder, adapted from a breathtakingly delicious looking post on Sips and Spoonfuls, devoured, yet for some reason it went ‘unblogged’! This eggless Roasted Peach & Plum Ice Cream made with condensed milk hit a nice chord after the Mango Fro Yo we got addicted to!

As we’ve bid adieu to stone fruit in our neck of the woods, I need to get this out for the lucky folk who are enjoying late summer stone fruit. I also enviously dream of the folk in the Southern Hemisphere who are now welcoming Spring and all the joys of berries & stone fruit! Condensed milk in ice cream is something very new for me, and had me pretty much intrigued as I read Sukaina’s post, devouring all her beautiful pictures. It was a post that sent me scurrying into the kitchen that same morningIn next to no time I had delicious aromas of stone fruit baking with vanilla wafting through the kitchen. It’s a heady way to begin a morning … for stone fruit lovers like me!It gets even more interesting if you are trying to take photographs and run helter skelter from a very inquisitive pooch, one who seems to enjoy every opportunity to ‘check out’ what’s on the menu! My days of ‘relaxed’ & ‘carefree’ photography are history, ones that I never cherished! Cut to now … I’m often glad to click a single frame without having to shoo Coco away! The hapless cocker gets nothing, not a crumb … and eventually snoozes! She is C.U.T.E. though, and even naughtier than before!!I absolutely love the depth of flavour that roasting fruit gets. Add a vanilla bean and it gets addictive. I had a bit of a struggle keeping the tiresome teen away from my beloved roasted fruit puree as she was looking at having a go at the bowl! Two spoonfuls and I literally shoved her out of my kitchen! Turned out to be quite a delicious, low cal ice cream. What’s not to love about the colours and glory of stone fruit!

[print_this]Recipe: Roasted Peach & Plum Ice Cream

Summary:I absolutely love the depth of flavour that roasting fruit get. Add a vanilla bean and it gets addictive. This turned out to be quite a delicious, low cal ice cream.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 6 peaches- halved, pitted
  • 8 plums, halved pitted
  • 1 vanilla pod, scraped
  • 3 tbs brown sugar
  • 200ml low fat cream
  • 200gm hung yogurt, well drained
  • 400 ml condensed milk

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
  2. Combine sugar and vanilla. Arrange the peaches & plums skin side down on a baking tray and sprinkle with the vanilla/ sugar mixture. Grill in the oven for 20 minutes or until the top of the peaches appear caramelized.
  3. Remove the skin from the peaches as soon as it is cool enough to do so. Puree the peaches and any juices in the baking tray in a blender. {I left the skin on}
  4. {Thermomix: Puree at Speed 10 for 1 minute. Freeze the puree in ice trays or silicon trays}
  5. In a separate bowl combine, the cream, milk, condensed milk and peach/plum puree. Adjust sugar if required. Adding peach extract, peach liqueur or a teeny bit of kirsch will enhance the flavours. Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.
  6. {Thermomix: Place frozen puree cubes and cream and condensed milk in TM bowl and process on Speed 10, 1 minute at a time, scraping as required, until smooth. Place in freezer safe bowl and freeze until ready to serve.}

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Baking| Apricot & Plum Cobbler … the Secret Recipe Club & a guest post

“You see things and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were and I say ‘Why not?’”
George Bernard Shaw

It’s July with the Secret Recipe Club and the inspiration behind this great idea continues. This month I was assigned to secretly invade Kims blog @ Everyday Mom. Kim has a delicious blog and for an everyday Mom {read 24 X 7} like me, it was an instant connect.I loved reading her posts, seeing how she involves her sweet kids in the kitchen, looking into her CSA box, seeing how she uses what turns up including these beautiful garlic scapes. That was what I intended to make for the SRC, but my next visit to Kims threw me right off course!

What did I see here? A blueberry cobbler? The passionate fruit baker in me was completely inspired and a cobbler it was going to be. No blueberries here in India, so a quick stock check brought up apricots and plums; on a whim I decided to throw in some frozen strawberries too. I cut back on the cream in the topping as I had less than half a carton on hand, and I added some almonds to up the ‘healthy’ factor… the cobbled bit was basically a happy result of whatever I had in the larder. My frequent impulsive dashes to the bazaar are now limited thanks to this pooch!She’s a full time job and is more full of beans than I could ever imagine. A plum rolled out of my bag in the kitchen and it caught her naughty little eye in a flash. There was a mad dash to the garden …… where she had a plum party! Off she was, tossing it, attacking it, licking it…and then making a meal out of it! This is where the rest of my time goes these days; behind the lens as she is too cute not to click!!You might need a wait a little longer for the recipe, inspired completely by Kim, as I committed a guest post to my dear talented friend Sukaina @ Sips & Spoonfuls for the 18th of July, not realising that it was the SRC posting date.

The Secret Recipe Club, the brainchild of Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin’. The idea behind the club – Each month you are “assigned” a participating food blogger to make a recipe from. It’s a secret, so don’t tell them you are making something from their blog! Click on the link if you want to join the fun!!

So here I am killing 2 birds with one stone, or make it 3 maybe? Sukaina has eyed my pots, pan and knives for long, and invited me to do a guest post for her. I couldn’t help but create a post for her around my favorite vintage pans.Coincidentally, she is hosting the Monthly Mingle this month and her theme is Stone Fruit {my favourite} so the recipe is an entry for the Meeta’s brainchild as well. You will need to catch the recipe there, and I have to say it’s well worth it. One so you get to discover her beautiful blog, and secondly of course because this cobbler turned out to be delicious in every way!Food blogging, food cultures, cusines and food props have made life so much more interesting. Sukaina is food writer and photographer living in Dubai, creates magic with her camera. She longs to come over and join me in food prop shopping, much like Shulie @ Food Wanderings and of course my twin sistah Jamie @ Lifes A Feast. Please do head across to Sips & Spoonfuls to get a taste of this good cobbler indeed, full of all the goodness and deliciousness that stone fruit offers, the juices that oozed over absolutely delightful. The sweet tartness of the fruit, the nuttiness of the almond meal in the topping enticing the palette … all good stuff! As the lad said, “This is REALLY good Mama; can I have more?” Scrape, scrape scrape … the teen just helped herself to seconds! Find it HERE!


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