Jazz it with Zucchini

Zucchini may not be a fancy thing, looks bland and boring and not the top of mind ingredient when you're thinking of 'pizza'. But sometimes these humble vegetables surprise me the most.

A simple stir fry zucchini in olive oil with some salt and pepper, till it's nice and crunchy, is a tasty snack on its own. Fry some onions as well in the left over oil in the pan, till they caramelize a little, and layer these over a pizza base. (layer the base with some pasta sauce if you wish) Grate some fresh feta or mozzarella and a bit of Parmesan, and pop it into an oven for about 15- 20 minutes.

The stir fry zucchini can also be a yummy crisp garnish for your pasta. I tried it with an older recipe of pasta al limone- and it was lip smacking delish!

The best Cinnamon walnut bread pudding

Bread pudding is one of those comfort foods, that we all love to dig in on nice lazy weekends. This recipe is neither too rich or heavy and takes not more than fifteen minutes to make, with ingredients almost always available at home.

Pull out a portion of thick bread and cut it into small cubes. Take a handful of raisins and chopped walnuts. Toss all this into an oven friendly bowl.

A cup of milk and a cup of fresh cream. 3 tablespoons of honey. A few drops of vanilla essence. Bring them to a near-boil in a pan. Turn off the heat. Pour this into the bowl, just enough to cover the surface of the bread. Dust some cinnamon powder and brown sugar on top. If you prefer it sweeter, add more sugar.

Place the bowl in the oven pre-heated to 200 deg c for about 20 minutes. Let the bowl cool while you take in all the lovely cinnamon aroma, and drool over the lovely brown crunchy crust. And then... when you dig in it's sweet n sticky and gooey.

Charred n yummy

Charred vegetables are the yummiest thing ever. Onions, garlic, tomato, green chilli, capsicum, anything semi burnt is delicious!

Start by pre heating the oven to about 200 deg c. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on the pan and toss in the baby potatoes first. Then after a few minutes the garlic cloves, then the onions, and finally the tomatoes. So the potatoes take about 15-20 mins to get soft, while the tomatoes need about five minutes to char around the edges but still juicy towards the center.

Transfer the vegetables into a bowl and sprinkle some parmesan over them and have it like a snack. Or make an open face sandwich with the vegetable and cheddar cheese. For this you need to place the vegetable along with cheese on bread slices and toast them in the over for about five minutes more.

Five minute broccoli crunch

I was really hungry when I got back home. Tempted as I was to make a cheese sandwich, I opened the fridge saw some broccoli left over from last night.  So winged this quick and healthy snack.

You need: Chopped broccoli florets, 4-5 cloves of garlic(unpeeled), a tsp butter, olive oil, grated parmesan

Place the broccoli and the garlic on the oven tray. Brush them thoroughly with butter and olive oil. Sprinkle the cheese over and pop into the magic oven. 200 deg- for about 5-10 minutes or till the broccoli start browning a bit. You can probably give them a stir midway.

Once it cools, peel the garlic cloves. The garlic inside would have slightly hardened and browned. BANG delish! The parmesan is nice and crisp. Broccoli crunchy. Salt and pepper. Bang bang flavor!
Gone in 60 seconds.

Christmas cupcakes

Ram made so much fun of me. I got a box cake mix, and I was trying to substitute the eggs with buttermilk. That's what all the websites said! Half a cup of buttermilk for an egg. IT DOES NOT WORK. The first batch sank, didn't cook and tasted horrible. Simply put, there is no 'better' substitute for egg, if the recipe calls for it. Luckily I had used only half the cake mix, and for the next batch I followed the instructions and used the egg. They turned out very light, moist and fluffy.

Shortcut chocolate icing: Melt a bar of chocolate by popping it in the microwave for 30 secs. Add couple of cubes of butter and a tiny amount of milk, and stir till smooth and silky. Spread generously over cupcake and leave it to set for 5 minutes in the fridge. I used an almond walnut chocolate, for a nice crunch.

The best fennel potato pie (with zucchini and carmelized onions)

Today, I tried fennel for the first time! I have seen them prepare it in a hundred delicious ways on Masterchef, I don't know why I haven't bothered cooking it before. So for dinner, I made up my own version of a fennel pie, and tried to incorporate in all the veggies I had at home. It was an experiment, but it turned out brilliant!

You need: for pastry

• 2 ½ cups plain organic flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced into 1cm cubes
• 170g cheddar cheese
• ½ cup ice water

for filling: 2-3 bulbs of fennel, 2 potatoes, 2 onions, 1/4 zucchini, garlic (4 cloves) sherry wine (1tbsp), balsamic vinegar (1tbsp), cheese (any kind), rosemary and thyme- a few sprigs, butter, 1/2 cup milk, a spoon of fresh cream.

There are 4 basic processes, that you need to juggle around a bit.
1. Pastry
and for the filling....
2. blanched fennel and zucchini
2. Caramelized onions
3. potato mash

We need to get started on the pastry first. It is a very simple process, it's the same method I used for the apple pie I posted earlier (http://pinkpaperlanterns.blogspot.in/2012/12/dreamy-apple-pie.html)
With the pastry in the fridge and out of the way, lets get on to the veggies.

In a vessel blanch coarsely chopped fennel and zucchini in boiling water for about 5 minutes, and set aside.

In a shallow pan, saute chopped onions and garlic in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Add the sherry white wine after that, and balsamic vinegar. Add some salt and pepper and herbs and saute in low heat for another 5 minutes. Don't let the onions burn at any point. Set aside.

Meanwhile chop the potatoes fine and boil them. Once they are soft, mash them coarsely and toss in a cube of butter and a spoon of fresh cream. Add the mash to the onions, along with milk, and combine till the mixture gets all smooth and gooey.

Assembling the pie:
Drape the pastry into the pie dish.  Pour the filling (the onion potato mash and fennel- zucchini) into the pastry lined pie dish. Gently pat down to even off surface and dot with diced butter, crumbled feta and shredded gruyere. Cover the filling with rolled out dough and pinch the edges to seal the pie.
Make a few slits on the surface and brush it with a bit of olive oil before tossing it into the oven for about 30 mins at 200 deg c.

 

You can improvise by using any other vegetable- carrots, peas, broccoli. And it's quite filling, couldn't have more than two slices!

Minis

Ram wanted to eat something light tonight, so made this really simple and quick snack. I had picked up mini quiche cups in Godrej Fresh yesterday, with some mushrooms, spring onions and cheese these made for a delicious bite.

Chop the mushrooms and spring onions. Saute them in olive oil and some butter for about 15 minutes, till the mushrooms shrink and let out their juices. Along with salt and pepper, you can even add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar for a punch in flavor. Just before taking it off the pan, season it with some oregano and fresh rosemary.

Toss the mushrooms into the quiche cups and sprinkle some Gruyere and crumbled feta before popping them into the oven for about 15-20 minutes at 200 deg. Enjoy!

jlt

Sweet Potato - orange n thyme chips

These didn't last fifteen minutes after we made it!

Slice the sweet potato. Grate orange peel(about 2-3 tbsp), and mix it with olive oil(3 tbsp).
Glace the baking tray with olive oil and line up the slices. Brush the tops with the olive oil and orange rind mixture, and sprinkle fresh thyme, salt and pepper.

Bake @ 160 deg for about 20 minutes, or till they turn crisp.

Dreamy apple pie

Sugar n spice n everything nice. That's what apple pies are made of. Poe's kitchen- a regular cookery show but the other day I saw her making a beautiful apple pie. Non fussy easy recipe. So I quickly ordered a pie mold online and got on with it.

You need

• 2 ½ cups plain organic flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced into 1cm cubes
• 170g cheddar cheese
• ½ cup ice water

Mix salt with flour, then add the butter. Grab small handfuls of the mixture and rub the fats through the flour until you achieve a dry crumble. Add cheddar and repeat this process. When you feel the fats and cheese are thoroughly incorporated, add water, but only a bit at a time.  You only need enough water for the mixture to just hold together. Divide into half, shape into a ball and then squash into thick disks. Cling wrap and refrigerate for minimum of 30 minutes

Filling
• 1 ½ kg of peeled, cored and cut into 5mm slices, red apples
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup organic plain flour
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 50g unsalted butter, diced 1cm cubes

Combine all ingredients (except butter) in a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat until apples collapse but aren’t quite tender. Allow to completely cool. Set aside.

Remove pastry from fridge and rest for 10 minutes. Flour both surfaces of 1 disk and roll until 3 mm thick. Drape pastry over rolling pin and transfer to pie dish. Lift the overhanging bits and gently tap the pastry into the corners of the pie dish. Trim the sides off with a knife and chill for 15 minutes.
Pour filling into a mound, into the pastry lined pie dish. Gently pat down to even off surface and dot with diced butter. Refrigerate while making lattice.

 After making the basket weave lattice, trim excess pastry off, pinch the edges and seal. Pop it into oven immediately and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, turn heat down to 180ºC, then glaze thoroughly with a brush.(eggless glaze- whisk equal amounts of oil, sugar and milk) Return to oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden.

Pumpkin- nut loaf

I got up early today. With Ram still in bed and nothing interesting on tv, I was looking at a really long lazy Saturday ahead of me. I had bought a wedge of pumpkin from the supermarket for making a soup, but then the bread seemed like a perfect baking project for the day.
Making this loaf involves two very basic steps- Making the pumpkin puree mixture and folding it into the flour mixture. (maida+atta+salt+sugar+cinnamon)

You can add dry fruits, nuts, muesli just about anything crunchy to the batter before tossing it into the oven for about 45 minutes at 170 deg c.

Notes: I added a bit of vanilla essence, you can add maple syrup to the pumpkin puree.
For an extra kick you can add more spices like nutmeg/ cloves to the flour mix.

Broccoli and Onion Feta Galette