All posts filed under: Recipes

Potato and Sausage Soup with Pesto

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I resisted for a whole month. I did. Honest. Everyone says I make too many dishes with pesto in it. But…. I love Pesto! And how could I not start the New Year with another way to use the glorious green?! This time I added it to a soup. And not just any soup – the quintessential soup for the manly man. The meat and potatoes soup! It’s technically a main course, but since it’s eaten out of a soup bowl (albeit a rather large one) we’ll still call it soup. As with all things creamy and filled with carbs and meat – this is a hearty one. Meditate on the word – Hearty. It dosen’t just mean ‘filling’, it means something that will make you all loving and giving once you’ve eaten it. Seriously, have you ever seen someone deprived of Carbohydrates? Bitchy bitchy. But not with this soup … all the nastiness just melts into the bowl. Don’t believe me? Try wolfing down a bowl of this and go take a look in …

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pesto

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When we think of pesto the first thing that comes to mind is the Basil pesto. But pesto has now become a generic term for anything that is made by pounding ingredients in a mortar and pestle. So the original form – the basil one, is now called Pesto alla Genovese. (That will always remain my favourite, but I am not won’t of trying other versions to increase my repertoire of dishes.) The other popular one’s are the Red bell pepper pesto and the Sun dried tomato pesto. I always work with what I have in the fridge at any given point in time – and yes Bell peppers it was. Pestos as you know are super easy to make and keep well in the fridge under a layer of olive oil. So it’s always wise to make more than you need and pack away the rest in the fridge. When one dish has more than a couple of uses, it climbs the ladder of success pretty fast. (i.e. I make it more often and …

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

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A conversation about Wimbledon led me to bake these. I know the natural train of thought will be tennis and the Wimbledon cup and how the hell is it related to cupcakes? But let me lead you to it…famously….slowly …delectably. Now Wimbledon is synonymous with tennis but what it’s also famous for is the tradition of eating strawberries and whipped cream by the spectators. Every year about 27,000 kilos of strawberries are eaten during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, together with 7,000 litres of cream. Phew! I salivate every time I think about it!! My all time favorite dessert is Strawberries and Cream. There – I’ve said it and it’s official now. So next time I claim something else is my favorite dessert you know I’m lying! I always know when its strawberry season in Bangalore. Am I some kind of seasonal food specialist? – Hell no! I just walk over to Corner House and when they start selling their Strawberries and Whipped Cream, the season has officially begun! And man do I tank up on …

Roast Chicken Drumsticks in a Pomegranate and Honey Pepper Marinade

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I know the title is mighty long and a simple Anardana Chicken would have cut it, but where’s the fancy shmancy in that?!  I’ve never really found a recipe with pomegranate that caught my attention till today. Always ate Pomegranate by itself or sprinkled over a salad. I know using pomegranate and chicken together might jolt some of you, but trust me and carry on reading.  This recipe from the Good Food magazine, seemed too simple. It made me doubt whether that was all there was to it.  I love pomegranates and have always known heard that we use dried pomegranate powder (Anardana) in Indian cooking. However,  the spice mix in this recipe seemed very Middle Eastern and I had a niggling feeling that this maybe Moroccon! I read the ingredients thrice over before finally deciding to go for it! (After all, as the magazine says – Every recipe is thrice tested, so how badly could I screw up?). So how did it finally turn out? It was Fantastic – moist, juicy, peppery and tangy. Excellent bang for the buck. It’s something …

New Year Treat – Bestest Brownies I ever made!

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Here’s a treat for you and me this 2012 – the Bestest (ya, I know Wren and Martin are turning in their graves) Brownies I ever made. So first – HAPPY 2012! May we eat, drink and be merry cause tomorrow we may have to die-t! (Mayan calendar doomsday prediction and all). And second – you guys HAVE to try this recipe. Make it your New Year resolution. At least you’ll end up keeping one! Why is this so amazing? Well, its made of cocoa not tempered chocolate. Yes, you heard me – Cocoa. I know all the purist will disagree that only molten, melting chocolate can produce the best brownies but I have to admit, your preconceived notions will be shattered like mine. This recipe is all over the net for the best brownies ever – so a thousand or so people can’t be all faking it. And more importantly I would not tom-tom my a$$ off about some not quite there product! (Well, atleast not till April Fools Day ;). So go ahead …

Tuna and Egg Salad Sandwich

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Some days you are just so lazy that the only option to a fulfilling meal = a Maggi. I have no shame in admitting that the choice for a meal for one, when the co-resident is away is to shove my face with the noodles in front of the telly. Their byline does it for me – Ready in 2 minutes. It’s another matter that its 400 calories of zero nutrition! (I still love you though, my darling Maggi Noodles!) What can I say, old habits die hard! One sunny Saturday afternoon (that’s when laziness is at its peak), I reached into the store cupboard for my customary lazy meal when … Gasp! I had run out of Maggi. Now the paramount rule of laziness restricts me from getting dressed to go to the store down the road to buy one. So my brain had to think of an alternative which would be ready in two minutes. That’s when I made my Tuna and Egg Salad Sandwich! (Well technically two minutes for the assembly, as …

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes – for that Festive Feeling!

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    Featured in TasteSpotting.com – 5th Jan 2012 and Yummly.com – 23rd Jan 2012 Deck the halls with boughs of holly (fa la la la laa, la laa la la), Tis the season to be jolly (fa la la la la ….and thereabouts)! Yes, there is definitely something festive in the air this time of the year! Better TV programming, people getting drunk on home made wine, Brigade road lit up with fairy lights… Oh yes there’s something festive! I’ve always had a double whammy during this time, Mom’s birthday is on the 24th and then comes Christmas! The co-resident insisits on buying me presents and who says no during the season of giving 😉 So it’s only fair to say, it’s my favourite time of the year! (Apart from my birthday of course, which I always thought should be declared a national holiday…No? Ok fine… half a day? No?… Grinches!) Anyway this brings me to the Triple Chocolate Cupcake. Yes, you heard me right – it’s Triple = Three = Tres = more the merrier! It’s a …

Methi Chicken with Coconut Rice

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I always hated all the weird green leafy things that my mom religiously included in atleast one meal of the day. It din’t matter if the greens were all different and tasted unique, just the fact that it was greens, was enough to make us wring our faces in disgust. We gave it a combined names of ‘Soppu’ which literally means ‘Greens’ in Kannada and left it at that. Methi or Fenugreek leaves was maybe the general of the green army. The fact that it was bitter elevated it to the hate list pretty quickly. Yes, it’s healthy and a fantastic source of Iron, but try getting that into our little brains. Now that my brain is slightly bigger (Ok, my head got bigger, fine?) I may have developed a taste for it….Gasp! (Don’t tell my mom!). Actually aging has a strange effect on the palate. You tend to appreciate other tastes apart from the sugar buzz that got you through high school! (Not saying that sweet somethings don’t get me all woozy brained and …