Showing posts with label an. Show all posts
Showing posts with label an. Show all posts
Thursday, April 24, 2014
An unusual pizza for lunch
Yesterday was one of those days, when I was famished for lunch and the only thing ready was the cauliflower-potato curry made in the morning. Besides this, there was some thin crust pizza base languishing in the fridge since last Saturday, and there was the hummus that I had made a couple of days ago. I also had some ready pizza sauce( Pizza Mazza - Maggi) which I always happen to keep on hand nowadays, for these last minute affairs. (It is quite good!)
Putting all of the above together and a minute in the microwave, a delicious pizza was ready in under two minutes....and Im all set to beat Rachael Ray at her own game - Hahahaa
Ingredients
1 thin crust pizza base
1 tbsp pizza tomato sauce
2 tbsp hummus
1 cup cauliflower-potato curry (used 1 potato instead of the peas in the recipe)
1 tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions
Start with the spreading a thin layer of tomato sauce on the base, followed by a thick layer of hummus. Spread the curry evenly over the hummus. Top with cheese (as much as you like). Nuke this for a minute at high power in microwave or bake for 5 minutes in a regular oven (if you have the patience for the pre-heating ritual). I sometimes use leftover pita bread or even leftover / frozen parathas as a pizza base, in times like these.
Eat as hot as your tongue can take it. I did, thats why I kept those cold cucumber slices by the side, for first-aid.
Burp!
That reminds me, we won two movie tickets thanks to DH reviewing a restaurant on Burrp that got selected as review of the week. We love this site, that is an exclusive restaurant review website, covering many of the Indian cities. Each time we have to decide on a place to eat out over the weekend, this site along with the Times Food Guide is a great resource.
[Disclaimer: I have not been paid to say this. And I have been using the site much before we won any prize there :) Just want to bring it this helpful website to the notice of my Indian readers! ]
And this is what has kept me busy all of today morning...I was planning to make Foccasia to take to a friend, and a search lead me to these hot cross buns...I have already devoured one piece of the 12 with a spot of orange marmalade and its yummy - will share recipe in next post! I know one of my dearest blog friends has made this too in the near past, and i hope we end up posting this together - like how true soul sisters should :)
Monday, April 14, 2014
An unpleasant incident and a concern
Someone has publicly accused me of getting inspired by her recipes as a means of finding a solution to my Writers Block. I dont know if anyone has faced a similarly embarrassing problem in the food blogosphere. It’s taking me a lot of effort to bring this out in the public, so that people who have faced something similar can give their advice on the matter.
The person gave me a link to her archives for me to find out how I have lifted her stuff. The only common recipes I could find were the ones involving bread, eggs and curd rice. After all people in the food blogging world do have similar interests and somewhat similar ideas. And since when have bread, eggs and curd rice become anyone’s copyright? Bread and eggs are universal and curd rice is the life-blood of every South Indian. And then, there are trends-there was a ridge-gourd trend, now I see a Ven pongal trend. Priya of sugarandspice in her venpongal recipe has graciously mentioned names of others who have posted a recipe for the same. In my case, I would have done the same, had I actually spotted the aforementioned recipes in someone’s blog earlier. I have absolutely no intentions of stealing someone’s thunder, let alone recipes
I love cooking, and I can humbly say that it is a God given gift, and that any permutation-combination I’ve tried, the results have never been un-edible. It’s the love and passion that goes into making ‘food’ out of just ‘ingredients’. And the same love and passion goes into writing about them. In such a scheme of things, when someone accuses one of ‘lifting’ recipes to cure a Writer’s Block, it is extremely hurting. At this very moment, I have over 50 pictures of various recipes that I want to blog about. I actually wish I develop a Writer’s Block sometime so that I can take a forcible break from blogging. Because, the love of cooking and writing combined, is turning out to be a time-eating proposition-and a very enjoyable one at that.
I definitely admit the fact that I have visited the concerned person’s blog off and on, but probably didn’t stop to comment. That doesn’t mean that I’m anti their blog. Come on- we visit about atleast 10 blogs a day, on an average and spot 2-3 new recipes on each. It is not really possible to comment on each and every recipe that one spots. And not leaving a comment doesn’t mean that we are giving any less credit or praise for that person’s effort. Also, the sitecounter that most of us have on our sites- will tell that I visited a particular blog, and if I left my connection on, on one particular page for over an hour while attending to chores, it can’t probably mean that I have spent that much time on one site trying to rip-off content from the archives. If the person had a sitecounter for those particular recipes that she’s talking about, she would have realized that I have never ever visited those pages, until today. That too only because she pointed it out.
At this point of time, I would like to appeal to all the friends- to tell me how we can protect ourself from such allegations which are emotionally disturbing than anything else. It is not quite possible to visit each and every food blog before we post entries to make sure no one else has posted a similar entry. So what is the solution?
To the person concerned: I’m sorry you felt the way you did about me-I only wish you could have asked me personally or raised your concern instead of jumping to that conclusion. Personally, I know my high level of integrity and I owe no explanations. But what I can do to assuage is this. I can assure you that you will never see my IP address / blog name on your site-counter henceforth-so that you can be sure that anything I post is not a result of getting inspired by you.
Read More..
The person gave me a link to her archives for me to find out how I have lifted her stuff. The only common recipes I could find were the ones involving bread, eggs and curd rice. After all people in the food blogging world do have similar interests and somewhat similar ideas. And since when have bread, eggs and curd rice become anyone’s copyright? Bread and eggs are universal and curd rice is the life-blood of every South Indian. And then, there are trends-there was a ridge-gourd trend, now I see a Ven pongal trend. Priya of sugarandspice in her venpongal recipe has graciously mentioned names of others who have posted a recipe for the same. In my case, I would have done the same, had I actually spotted the aforementioned recipes in someone’s blog earlier. I have absolutely no intentions of stealing someone’s thunder, let alone recipes
I love cooking, and I can humbly say that it is a God given gift, and that any permutation-combination I’ve tried, the results have never been un-edible. It’s the love and passion that goes into making ‘food’ out of just ‘ingredients’. And the same love and passion goes into writing about them. In such a scheme of things, when someone accuses one of ‘lifting’ recipes to cure a Writer’s Block, it is extremely hurting. At this very moment, I have over 50 pictures of various recipes that I want to blog about. I actually wish I develop a Writer’s Block sometime so that I can take a forcible break from blogging. Because, the love of cooking and writing combined, is turning out to be a time-eating proposition-and a very enjoyable one at that.
I definitely admit the fact that I have visited the concerned person’s blog off and on, but probably didn’t stop to comment. That doesn’t mean that I’m anti their blog. Come on- we visit about atleast 10 blogs a day, on an average and spot 2-3 new recipes on each. It is not really possible to comment on each and every recipe that one spots. And not leaving a comment doesn’t mean that we are giving any less credit or praise for that person’s effort. Also, the sitecounter that most of us have on our sites- will tell that I visited a particular blog, and if I left my connection on, on one particular page for over an hour while attending to chores, it can’t probably mean that I have spent that much time on one site trying to rip-off content from the archives. If the person had a sitecounter for those particular recipes that she’s talking about, she would have realized that I have never ever visited those pages, until today. That too only because she pointed it out.
At this point of time, I would like to appeal to all the friends- to tell me how we can protect ourself from such allegations which are emotionally disturbing than anything else. It is not quite possible to visit each and every food blog before we post entries to make sure no one else has posted a similar entry. So what is the solution?
To the person concerned: I’m sorry you felt the way you did about me-I only wish you could have asked me personally or raised your concern instead of jumping to that conclusion. Personally, I know my high level of integrity and I owe no explanations. But what I can do to assuage is this. I can assure you that you will never see my IP address / blog name on your site-counter henceforth-so that you can be sure that anything I post is not a result of getting inspired by you.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Cajun Chicken Ragu – An Old and Misspelled Mardi Gras Classic
Not sure what to call it, the inexperienced, but handsome cook described it as a, “sort of Cajun ragout of chicken,” which made it on to the specials board as, “Cajun Chicken Ragu.”
Yes, I was that young cook, and the following recipe is pretty close to that historic dish. While I did enjoy it over the grilled bread back in the day, a gravy this awesome really deserves to be served over a big pile of rice. These are the kind of things you learn as you mature. That, and make sure you spell out your specials to the disinterested waiter writing the chalkboard.
Anyway, since I’m not going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras (I’m allergic to feathers and drunk tourists), I thought I’d dust off this old, personal favorite, which while not totally authentic, certainly celebrates those fabulous Cajun/Creole flavors.
As I mentioned in the video, this works with any kind of chicken, raw or cooked. As long as you simmer the gravy to an appropriate thickness, and make sure your meats are fully cooked, and heated through, you should be in bon shape. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 4 large portions of Cajun Chicken Ragu:
6 slices of bacon, cut in 1/4-inch pieces
1 large onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
large pinch of salt
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 cups cold chicken broth
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
8 oz andouille sausage, sliced
2 or 3 cups pulled chicken meat
1/4 cup chopped green onions, plus more to garnish
*check for salt and seasoning, and adjust at the end!
View the complete recipe
View the complete recipe
Saturday, March 8, 2014
An Almost Cinco de Mayo Salsa Cruda
Cinco de Mayo, or as I like to call it "Mexican St. Patrick’s Day," is almost here, and as everyone knows, the cornerstone of any great CDM celebration is the salsa cruda. It has to be homemade, and it has to be awesome. Actually, if you serve enough margaritas you could get away with store-bought, but for the sake of this post, let’s just go with it.
Salsa cruda simply means a raw sauce, and that’s really the only rule. This is also commonly called “pico de gallo,” which means “roosters beak,” apparently because it was originally eaten by “pecking” or pinching small portions from the bowl with your thumb and forefinger. I’m going to ask that you please use a chip.
One word of warning: make twice as much as you think you are going to need…this stuff is seriously addictive. By the way, as I just informed my faithful followers on YouTube, I pronounce, “salsa,” “sal-za,” simply because I find it more festive. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, cut into a small dice
1/2 cup finely diced white onion
1 or 2 large jalapenos, seeded, minced
1 serrano pepper, seeded, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
About 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
2 tbsp minced mint leaves
1/4 tsp dry oregano
1/2 bunch cilantro leaves, chopped
pinch of sugar
pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
View the complete recipe
View the complete recipe
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