Year: 2011

Baking Bread – In all shapes and sizes

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The warm yeasty smell, the soft fluffy touch, the chewy satisfying taste, the golden yellow sheen – it can only be Bread!! I love bread. I love it so much that I want to sleep on a pillow of freshly baked bread… Sweet dreams for sure. Of course no one really bothers to try to bake bread – not without a bread machine. It’s too cumbersome, when you can just run out to the bakery that’s been making it for generations and pretty much knows how to earn their dough from it! But everyone wants to ‘try’ to bake bread. This attempt was one to scale my personal Everest of the year. Yes, some climb mountains; I make mountains of a mole hill challenge! Anyway I was mighty impressed with the results. *Patting myself on the back*. Just thought I’ll gloat to you guys as well 🙂 Basic Bread Recipe Prep time: 15 mins Sitting time: 2+2 hrs Baking time: 30 mins for loaves; 15 mins for buns/ rolls Makes: 2 loaves or several fun …

Watermelon Vodka Cooler

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It’s a Friday and what better way to kick start the weekend than with a nice drink. My alcohol choices have become milder and milder as age catches up (sob sob). No longer can I knock down multiple shooters and wake up with my head on my shoulders. So now I have to be satisfied with a drink that knocks my head off with flavor rather than the alcohol content. In college, we used to cut a chunk out of the watermelon and then pour vodka into it. Refrigerate the whole fruit for a couple of hours then cut up the watermelon into cubes and you have a boozy party fruit!! College always had a way of making even the good ones bad! Of course no one ever complained! So to go down memory lane (albeit in a milder more grown up way) I give you the watermelon cooler. Have a great (Hic!) weekend! Watermelon Vodka Cooler Prep time: 10 mins Makes: 4 cocktails What you need: 2 cups fresh watermelon juice 1/4 cup fresh …

Happy Birthday – Food for Swaps turns TWO!!

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Happy Birthday to you… Happy Birthday to you… Happy Birthday dear FoodforSwaps…. Happy Birthday to you! So we enter our terrible two’s today 🙂  I must say, the journey has been supremely fulfilling. What started out as a way to document all the things I tried out in the kitchen has now turned into something that inspires me to try out things! It gives me a space to play out my food obsession and my photography. It’s my little window to the world of foodies – you guys, who stop by the blog and send me little words of praise, encouragement and new ideas. So today, I just want to leave you a comment – Thank you for rocking this party for so long! I have a few additions to the blog, to mark the anniversary. An ‘About’ page – yes I know, I do like to wax eloquent. And a ‘Food Blog searcher’ – more foodies more fun! So enjoy and keep stopping by!

The world’s best Hot Wings!

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I know people exaggerate when they say something is the world’s best. You’re thinking, a.Their world is really small or b. They have false ideas of grandeur. I have fallen prey to both statements many many times, but (and this is a big BUT) Not this time!!! Firstly, I can say with conviction that if there is a restaurant I have visited and they list hot wings on the menu – I have tried it. And I eat out very often. So my world of hot wings is not small. Secondly, I am in no way partial to any food, so if something blows my mind – it firmly earns it’s place in my heart and taste buds! As these Hot Wings satisfy the above criteria – they are, according to me (and my entire clique of hungry friends and family) The World’s Best Hot Wings!  Hot Wings/ Buffalo Wings Prep + Marinating time: 1 hour Cooking time: 20 mins Makes: 20 wings What you need: 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour 1 tsp Salt ½ …

Penne with Bell Peppers Roman Style

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I had two lovely yellow bell peppers in my fridge. After four days of racking my brains to come up with a mind blowing recipe, I chickened out. I could not see them go to waste for my lack of creative genius. Thanks to the gazillion cook books I own, (yes, I am cookbook cuckoo!) finding a recipe was a breeze. I would like you to believe that I put in considerable amount of effort picking and choosing just the right recipe, but the truth is I like a good gamble. So I closed my eyes and put my finger on the peppers list in the index! I give you here – Pasta with Peppers Roman Style. The Roman bit is because I had a crush on Julius Caesar. Ok, am playing with you now! Traditionally, tiny black wrinkled olives grown in the Lazio region of Italy are used in this roman dish. But I used Spanish olives. Oops! Don’t declare a war till you’ve tried it. iBuen Apetito! Penne with Peppers Roman Style Prep …

Minted Pea Soup

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Is it a guy thing, to be repulsed by the idea of green food? No seriously, even before tasting my pea soup the co-resident faked fullness of the belly, courtesy a late lunch. The office mate nearly choked on his food before being forced to try it. The other colleague acted like he was part of a science experiment before gingerly licking the back of the spoon! Men I tell you… gutless, literally. That said, they all concluded that it was ‘not so bad – for pea soup’! And as an afterthought grudgingly added that it was actually (gasp gasp) tasty! I for one, love this version , cause the mint really uplifts it and its really easy peasy! Minted Pea Soup Prep time: 5 mins Cooking time: 25 mins Serves: 4-6 What you need: 2 Tbsp Butter 1 large Onion, coarsely chopped 1 Tbsp all-purpose Flour 500 gms frozen Peas 5 cups (1.25 lt) Vegetable/ Chicken Stock ½ tsp Sugar 2 large Mint Sprigs Salt and Black Pepper Shredded fresh Mint for garnish What …

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

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Here’s a tricky one. The recipe uses raw eggs. Don’t freak out, I’ve been relishing carbonara for many years and I still live to tell the tale. The reason I said it was tricky is because of the technique. You need to keep everything hot, so that when you add the eggs at the end, they just cook in the residual heat but do not scramble. Otherwise we would have scrambled eggs with spaghetti – not the best combo! That said, it’s the quickest and yummiest thing you can have with pasta. Also when the final result tastes like restaurant goodness in under ten minutes, your guests are sure going to sing praises of your effortless magic. Shall we say Nigella style? (It helps if you wear lipstick! Wink wink 😉 Spaghetti Alla Carbonara Prep time: 10 mins Cooking time: 10 mins Serves: 4 What you need: 450gms Spaghetti 1 Tbsp Olive oil 225gms rindless pancetta or lean bacon, chopped 4 Eggs 5 Tbsp light Cream 3 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese Salt and freshly …

Nutella Cupcakes

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Here’s a little treat for my sweet tooth! One – it’s a cupcake, Two – it’s got frosting, Three – Its nutella frosting. I nicked this recipe off the official nutella website – not promoting them, but boy was it worth it! You can’t really replicate the taste of nutella with anything else. Am I glad my supermarket had a buy one get one free offer. Considering the co-resident finished one whole bottle by just digging in a spoon and licking it all off, I needed to use up the other in more productive ways. So yes, this is an attempt at productivity – though it resulted in sheer indulgence! Nutella Cupcakes Prep time: 10 mins Cooking time: 25 mins Makes: 12 What you need: 1/4 cup butter, at room temperature 1/4 cup canola or mild vegetable oil 3/4 cup sugar 3 large eggs 1 tsp. vanilla 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4-1/2 cup Nutella, at room temperature What to do: In a medium bowl, beat the …