Red Cocktail

 

Every week I tell myself this week I will post very often as I have so muchrecipes waiting for me to post but then sitting and writting something here that is really hard, especially I am lazy and then I am not good at writting.
But I have so much recipes and pics for these dishes in a file in my computer i think I should post more often, otherwise what is the use in doing all the work taking the pictures etc.

As usual I was in fb and then saw Aparna adding a delicious Toddy Picture in a fb group we are in and I was like wow that looks good and she gave the link to her place and I saw how yummy it was and that inspired me to do the post.

As she was posting for Simone's event which I always wanted to join but I forget or something else happens etc...

So I ratteled in my maps and saw I haven't posted this one, and very excited I say to myself yeah I will do this in my blog and looks for the recipe in a hurry, but I don't find the recipe in none of my cocktail book, not that we have so many cocktail book we just have four.

But then you know when one looks something in a hurry one don't find it.

So I will post the recipe in the weekend as I know it was a easy drink to make and also know I made them from one of the books we have.

 



Garlic Mayonnaise

My eldest sister always says to me why I never post any of my easy, simple recipes. When I tell her I am having a chicken salade or a prawn salade for lunch or dinner, she is like why you don't post them they are so delicious ( Hans showed her how to make them when he was once in her place and they love it now ) and I always tell her actually these things are so easy that it is bit silly to post in my blog.

To which she replies it is not because you think it is easy to make that everybody think it is easy to make.

So I think from now on I am going to post atleast one super easy simple recipe in my blog once a month :-)

Like this Garlic Mayonnaise, it is so easy that you can make in a flash.

Just have to make Home made mayonnaise which take less that 5 minutes to make,  and if you don't like to use to make mayonaise at home as it use raw eggs, you can always use shop bought mayo for making this.

I use this mayo for spreading in pita breads with meat or chicken filling, and especciall make these garlic mayonaise when I do Fondue Bouguigninne at home.

You can double the recipe if you like, depends on for what you use them and for how many people you are making for.



I cup Home made Mayonnaise If you are using my recipe of making home made mayo then add the garlic into the bowl together with oil, eggs etc.. ( you can also use shop bought one too)

1 to 2 garlic cloves ( we like the taste of garlic here at home )

 Add the mayonaise in a bowl, then add the garlic puree , I use a garlic press so that it is very fine, you can grate the garlic fine or chop it very fine or make into a paste. Mix everything well and keep in the fridge.

The flavours are much better if you make this mayonaise if you make it few hours befroe you use it.

Now did I say that it is such a easy thing to make.



Chicken Curry Noodles

 

You can see how much I love my Wagamamma Cookbooks.
I have been making so many dishes from the book and each time it is such a delight eating he dishes.
I have made the Sweet Chillie Sauce, which was super spicy delicious and then the Salmon Curry With rice Noodles which was super creamy delicious and after seeing teh recipe in my blog sis made it and her whole family just loved it too, have made theirvery famous Chicken Ramen something which I very often make here at home ,
I think if  Ilook in my blog the list will go on and on and also I don't take every time a pic for my blog when I make a dish.
That is how much I love both the books. If you want to buy the books you can check out Amazon.

This is yet another dish we loved from the book.



The recipe below serves 2. You can double it triple it depending on for how many people you are cooking for.
3 tablespoon Vegetable oil
150 gm boneless chicken breast diced
1 courgette/Zucchini diced
1/2 small Aubergine diced
2 spring onions cut into 1 cm pieces ( I didn't have so used normal onions)
1 garlic cloves peeled and finley chopped
3 cm piece ginger peeled and finley chopped
1 tablespoon of Green curry paste ( I used 2 tablespoon)
250 ml chicken stock

175 ml coconut milk
1 tablespoon fish sauce
100 gm medium egg noodles  cooked ( I used rice noodles)

Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoon roughly chopped corriander leaves.
2 tablespoon unsalted  roasted peanuts

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a hot wok over a medium heat and stir fry the chicken 3-4 minutes or untill golden brown. Remove and set aside.
Add the remaining oil to teh wok and stir fry the courgette and aubergine for 4 minutes or untill golden brown.
The aubergine tend to soak up all the oil at first and then release it.

Add the spring onions, stir fry for 1 minute and then add the garlic and ginger.
Cook for 1 minute and then stir in the curry paste.

Pour in the chicken stock, coconut milk and fish sauce, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the noodles and reserved chicken and cook for aobut 4 minutes untill the noodles are tender.
Add the lime juice and check the seasoning.
Serve sprinkled with the corriander and peanuts.

 

 

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

If you don't like people messing up a Traditional recipe, then I suggest you should not or make this recipe, as my Caronara recipe is not a traditional one.
I make a dish in my home, the way my family and I like to eat, so I might read up on a traditional recipe but then I make few changes according to the liking of my family.

I have had this dish in Rome a few years ago. I was like ok I am here now so I should eat as much as Italian food I can :-)
I ordered this and the dish was made with Guanciale mostly an unsmoked italian bacon prepared with pig's jowl or cheeks and the dish was given in a deep plate and on middle of the pasta there was a egg yolk, what you had to do was mix the yolk fast with you super hot pasta and then enjoy.
But as I mentioned I don't do all these I use what my family like to eat.


Pasta alla carbonara is an Italian pasta dish based on eggs, cheese (Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano),bacon  and black pepper.
The dish was created in the middle of the 20th century.
The pork is cooked in its own fat ^, then hot pasta is dropped into the pan to finish cooking for a few seconds.
A mixture of raw eggs, cheese, and a fat (butter, olive oil, or cream) is then combined with the hot pasta away from additional direct heat to avoid coagulating the egg, which must remain a liquid component of the sauce as it cooksGuanciale is the most commonly used meat, but pancetta^[and local bacon are also used.



2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium sized onion finley chopped
200 gm bacon chopped
350  gm dried Linguini pasta ( you can use normal pasta too, but I had this at home)
2 garlic cloves ( made into a paste)
4 eggs ( I only used 2 )
200 ml cream
In the recipe they asked to use 4 tbsp parmesan cheese and plus extra for serving ( I used all together 10 tbsp cheese)
Salt and black peper. (Don't add too much salt as there is salt in the bacon)
I also used a bit of parsley.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions for a few minutes add the bacon and fry till almost crisp, add the garlic and fry for a minute , then add the parsley, (in the mean time in a bowl, mix 6 tbsp of cheese with the eggs and cream and salt and pepper,)
Also cook the pasta according to the packet instruction.
Drain the pasta and add the pasta into the pan and then pour the cheese cream mix onto the pasta and mix it very well and serve sprinkling the rest of thecheese in each portion.



 

Cardamom and Coffee Marble Cake

Looks like I have been busy, I should not complain I don't have time, lazy etc..... if I really put my mind into it I know I can do a post, but I do have to say after Hans comming back from Delhi, I have been busy, there was a wedding to go as my nephew got married , then there was a concert Hans and Shyama were playing together, they both also played for the nephew's wedding and then there was all the parties here at home.

We never need a reason for partying, the day of the wedding after the Mass , in laws , niece and her boy friend came to our place before we left for the evening function, so then opend up wine and had a good time, then when Hans and Shyama had a concert, in laws, niece, and aunties came home for after concert party, which means I prepared snadwiches and we opend up few bottles of red wine :-).

I made this cake last week Wednesday when I asked my in laws for coffee and Wanted to Show the dresses Hans brought back from Delhi.

We all loved the cake, and loved the cardamom taste in it, there was coffee too in the cake but I think the cardamom taste over powered to have coffee taste.

I served with coffee and also everybody butterd the slices of cake before they ate which gave it a extra pluse undulgence and taste :-)

The recipe is from one of my favourtie Baking books, Baking From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan. I do have to admit what ever I have made from her book always comes out perfect and delicious. A book one should have if you love baking.



2 cups plus 2 tbsp of all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature.

1 cup sugar ( I only added 1/2 cup as we don't like our cake too sweet)

4 Large eggs

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

1 tsp cardamom powder

2 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder mixed with 1 tablespoon of hot water

Center the rack in thr oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Butter an 8 1/2 - x-4 1/2 - x-2 1/2 inch loaf pan, dust yhr inside with the flour and tap out the excesss.

Whisk together the flour , baking powder and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferbly fitted with a paddl attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on a medium speed untill smooth about 3 minutes.

Add the sugar and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time , beating well after each addition.

Don't be concerened  if the batter curdles and stays curdled - it will be fine.

Beat the vanilla.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and alternatley add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2  ( begin and end with the dry ingridients), mixing only untill each addition is oncorporated.

At this poin you are ready to divide the batter, add in on hald of the batter cardamom powder and in the pther half the coffee.

Sppon the batter out in long a alternative rows.

Bake the cake for 1 hour and 20 to 30 minutes, or untill a thin knife inserted deep into the center come out clean.

If the cake is looking as it is getting too brown during its bake, cover it loosley with a foil.

Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for about 15 minutes before unfolding, then cool the cake to room temperature.

 

Rajma Chawal - Beans and Rice

This is a something I made when Hans was not home last week. The time when Niv posted in her place A Dish a Day I have been wanting to make them, and as I was home alone I thought I will make them so I don't need to cook for two days :--)
I followed her recipie fully just that I used kidney beans cooked by muself than the tin.
It is really so good and so comforting. And the whole dish looks so good in your plate :-)

Have you ever felt like you are opening up a box from Ali baba and Forthy thieves or  box from Aladdins cave, well that is how I felt when I Hans came home very late almost midnight last sunday from Delhi.
His flight was two hours delayed in Delhi, so we were not sure if he would be able to catch his connecting flight from Frankfurt , and any way with all the delay's he could got the connecting flight to Brussels .
So he came home refreshed him self and I had made sandwiches and opend up a bottle of wine, so before all that he ipend up and took out the goodies he bought and then what Deeba had send with him.
To be honest I didn't know what to open up and admire, each packet I opend up it was like wow i love this and then I opend up another, i was like ok I change my mind I love this more :-) all to all it was indeed like opening up a treasure box with full of goodies.



Sending thie to My Legume Love Affair, created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook which is hosted this month by Sra of When My Soup Came Alive



Salmon Curry with Rice Noodles

The noodle is a type of staple food made from some type of unleavened dough which is rolled flat and cut into one of a variety of shapes. While long thin strips may be the most common, many varieties of noodles are cut into waves, helices, tubes, strings, shells, folded over, or cut into other shapes.

Noodles are usually cooked in boiling water, sometimes with cooking oil or salt added, but are often pan fried or deep fried. Noodles can be refrigerated for short-term storage, or dried and stored for future use.

In English usage, the word "noodle" is an inclusive term that denotes texture and culinary use, and to a lesser extent, shape, as many people may associate it with the more common string varieties, such as spaghetti or ramen. Material composition or geocultural origin must usually be specified. However, the actual word derives from the German Nudel.

Wheat noodles in Japan (udon) were adapted from a Chinese recipe by a Buddhist monk as early as the 9th century. Reshteh noodles were eaten by the people of Persia by the 13th century. Innovations continued, as for example, noodles made from kudzu (naengmyeon) were developed in the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (1392–1897). Ramen noodles, based on Chinese noodles, became popular in Japan by 1900.

Thankyou Wiki for all the information .

I love  Wagamama Cook books and I have two of their books.And I have tried recipes from both their books and each time it is delicious, light and so good.

So this salmon dish is from their book Wagamamma Way with Noodles.

You can see how much I like their book as I have made their Chillie Beef Ramen , then have tried thier famous Chicken Ramen and there are lots of dishes i have tried from the book which I have not posted here.
You can double up triple up the recipe according to how many ppl you are cooking for and that is what i do.



Serve 2

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp finley chopped shallots

2 tsp red curry paste

125 ml coconut milk

1 tsp muscavado sugar

2 tsp of fish sauce

Zest and juice of 1 lime

2 skinless salmon fillets each weighing aobut 100 gm

Small handfull of thai basil ( I didn't have so I used italian basil)

small hand full of mint leaves ( I used less mint)

100 gm of rice noodles

Heat a saute pan, large enough to accomodate the salmon over a ledium heat.

Add the oil and shallots and cook untill soft without colouring for 2 minutes.

Add the red curry paste and continius to cook for 2 minutes, stirring constanly.

Add the coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce and the lime zest and juice.

Bring to the boil, reduce to a gentle simmer for 5 minutes and adjust the seasoning.

Ease the salmon fillets into the sauce and gentley poach untill the fish is cooked. Almost 8 to 10 minutes depending on the size of your fish.

Add the basil and mint.

While the salmon was busy cooking , cook the noodles according to the instruction of the packet and drain and when salmon is finished cooking, drain and gentley stir the noodles onto the pot.

Serve with the lime wedges on the side.