Mofongo Relleno de Camarones

Mofongo with shrimp stuffing! Oh yeah! This Puerto Rican delicacy was inspired by a wonderful restaurant we ate at this past weekend! What is it you may ask? Well let me tell you! Mofongo is fried mashed plantains with lots of garlic and pork rinds. (I used bacon ofcourse!)

Here's what I did:

Mofongo

Ingredients: 2 green plantains, 3 garlic cloves, bacon and oil for frying. 

How to make it: Cut bacon into small pieces and fry it. Remove and reserve on power towels to soak excess grease. In the bacon grease, fry garlic for few seconds and remove and reserve. Then add some canola oil and fry the plantains cut into 1/4 inches (peeled obviously). Remove when done on paper towels. 

In a mortar add the garlic, crush and then add plantains few at a time and crush. Add bacon bits and more plantains until all is gone. Mofongo is ready!!! Recipe said it would be creamy but mine wasn't. But still yummy!

For the Shrimp Stuffing:

Ingredients: Jumbo shrimp (which is what I had), crushed tomato, a little bit tomato paste, garlic, sazon Goya, adobo seasoning, onions, carrots (coz I needed to use some up but u can add peppers to this dish) and cilantro (coz I had some)

What to do: sauté onion until translucent, add garlic, carrots, tomatoes and paste, sazon Goya and adobo. Add shrimp and cook until done and top with cilantro. 

Serve with mofongo! This stuff is yummalicious :)

When a girl wants cake!!

And it's below freezing outside, it's a great time to warm up that oven and make some yourself! I found this recipe for mini cupcakes but decided to make little cakes instead! 

 

Original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mini-Vanilla-Cupcakes-109045?mbid=ipapp

My verdict of the recipe? The cake is tasty but quite dense so you do need coffee or tea for it. 

Here's what I did differently? Nothing much. Added 1 tsp of vanilla and 1/2 tsp lime juice. Bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Frosting? Nutella frosting. Here is what I did:

2 tbsp butter, 4 tbsp icing sugar, 1 tbsp to 1.5 tbsp Nutella, 1/2 tsp vanilla and about 1/2 to 1 tsp half and half (or whipping cream or whole milk) and a pinch of salt

How to make it? Whip butter + sugar until smooth. Add Nutella, salt and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add half and half (start with 1/4 tsp) and increase until desired consistency is reached.

Poached Egg and Pesto on English Muffin!

Wanted something different than the usual egg, ham and cheese sandwich. I had recently made pesto so decided to do poached eggs instead.

It was very easy actually. Heat water + splash of white vinegar on medium heat until it bubbles but not boiling. Crack an egg in a small bowl. When water is ready create a whirlpool with your spatula. Slide egg in the middle and don't fidget. Let it cook without touching for a minute or two (until the white is opaque) and then you can then gently nudge it if it's stuck to the bottom of pan. Cook until desired done-ness of yolk!

Slide it between English muffins (cheese if you want any... I skipped it), pesto and slices of ham but I am thinking turkey would work here too!

Spicy Sausage Bread

Got this idea from Pinterest as well but I decided to make my own bread dough and filling.

Here's what I did:

For the dough: 

2 cups flour

1 cup warm water (room temp)

1 packet yeast

1/2 tsp sugar 

1/2 tsp salt 

To make the dough: Mix all the dry ingredients + add water until sticky dough forms. Put this in a floured surface and knead until the dough comes together into a ball and no longer sticky. Put in a bowl + cover with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to rise. On the side of the stove while you cook the filling is an excellent place in the cold. 

A tip: Oil the bowl you put the dough to rise. I didn't and it was not easy to take out.

For the filling:

1 medium white onion

1 pepper (I used yellow)

Couple of small cherry tomatoes or 2 Romas or 1/4 canned

Garlic minced 

Chili oil (coz I had some) + some olive oil (chili oil can be skipped)

Thyme, oregano and either paprika, chili powder or chipotle powder (whatever you have in hand)

Spicy Sausage (I used linguisa but this can be skipped for veggie lovers)

Mushrooms (baby bella)

Cheese (parm and cheddar shredded) but you can use whatever you have

To make: 

Sauté the onions in chili oil and olive oil until translucent. Add tomatoes and cook until soft. Add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant (a minute or two). Add pepper, paprika and chili pwd + sausage + mushroom and cook until dry. Add a little salt and tiny bit of sugar for taste. 

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 350F

Roll the dough in a floured surface, add the mixture in the middle + cheese on top and fold the dough from all four sides (use water, egg wash or buttermilk like I did coz I had some obviously!!) Brush the top with buttermilk + sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for 30 mins (which is what I did but it could be around 35 mins too depending on your oven..) Basically look for golden brown color or let your nose be the guide i.e. bread smells fragrant!!!!

Conga Bars or Blondies :)

Got the recipe from this months Yankee Magazine but use any chocolate chip recipe you like and add a cup of unsweetened shredded coconut to it. 

It's very good. I did not have coconut so I skipped it. Added almonds as my nut of choice then baked for about 25 mins until the stick inserted in the center came out clean! Must try!

Doro Wot and Berbere

I was actually feeling Moroccan but didn't quite want anything yellow. So I thought of Doro Wat and what a good decision it was!! This is an Ethiopian chicken stew and let me tell you it was fabulous. The spice mixture Berbere that is used in this a combo of a bunch of spices that well I happened to have. The recipe is on Savuer.com but obviously I modified (read skipped) it to suit me. 

For Berbere: Well... I never measure unless I am baking so all ingredients were eyeballed to abt 1tsp. I did skip fenugreek coz I didn't have any. I did add onion powder to the mix although I did find minced onion in the spice drawer! Used ground cloves and instead of whole chilies I used some paprika, chipotle powder and Indian Kashmiri chili powder (all approx 1 tsp or less if you like less spicy).

For Doro Wot: I actually followed the recipe except I only used half cup of ck stock and rest was water, added potatoes in with the chicken and at the last 10 minutes of cooking I added 1 can of drained, rinsed chick peas (remember was feeling Morroccan?!!)

For all the vegetarians out there, trust me, Try this recipe! Just chickpeas and potatoes will be fabulous but you can use  any veggies you like.   

For recipe: you can read the whole thing or just follow the pictures which is kinda cool - http://nomnompaleo.com/post/55432334180/doro-wat-spicy-ethiopian-chicken-stew 

German Apple Cake

I modified the original recipe according to my tastes. The taste testers (work peeps) agree that this was good. I double the recipe for work so had to bake for approximately 55-60 mins. Please refer to the bottom of the page for the original recipe

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
2 cups flour

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1tsp cinnamon +1 tsp apple pie spice (or 2 tsp ground cinnamon)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 cups apples (peeled and thinly sliced) - I do about 2-3

How to make: 

1. Preheat Oven to 350 F. Grease and flour the pan you are going to use. 
2. In a bowl, add flour + salt+ baking pwd + cinnamon and mix well to combine
3. Beat oil + sugar + eggs until smooth. Add vanilla + buttermilk and beat until combined
4. Add the flour to this mixture in 3 additions and use mix well using a spatula. The batter will be very thick and hard to stir. Build those muscles! 
5. Fold in the apples and build more arm muscles
6. Bake for 40 mins (I found this was enough) but go to 45 or until the stick inserted in the center comes out clean 

Original recipe:

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/7915/german-apple-cake-i

Chocolate Cupcake with Hazelnut frosting and Chocolate flowers!

Oh yeah! sometimes you find some good things on Pinterest. These flowers were one of them. I thought these would be the star of the show but the frosting was fabulous!

So here's what I did:

For the cupcake:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup Starbucks dark hot chocolate powder (or cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup hot water + instant coffee or 1 cup strong brewed coffee from early in the day

To make: 

Preheat oven to 350 F   

Heat water in micro for 2 mins and add instant coffee. Then add the 1/3 cup of cocoa or hot chocolate.

Mix all wet ingredients together + add the dry ingredients and beat until there are no lumps. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for about 30 mins. Makes about 24 cupcakes depending on how much you add in each!!!

Note: Bake 20 mins is making 2 9" cakes :)

For Hazelnut Frosting:

Ingredients: 

Half a jar of Jiff Hazelnut spread (you can also use nutella)

2 sticks butter (softened) - I like unsalted

1 tblsp vanilla 

Powdered sugar (eyeball it! Or taste as you go or judge by thickness.. maybe about 1 lb)

6-8 tblsp milk, heavy cream or half and half or milk (whatever you have at hand)

How to make: Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffly (it turns pale and kinda harder to stir), add half a jar of Jiff spread and vanilla (I found that Jiff has more hazelnut flavour than Nutella) and beat some more. Add milk 2 tblsp at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Transfer to piping bag with any wide tip you want.

For the Chocolate Flowers: 

Follow recipe here: http://sweetrevelations.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/dark-chocolate-roses/ 

My take on the flowers: Some Taste Testers (= work peeps) liked this while some thought it was too rich while others thought the consistency was fudgy! For me, I could still taste the Cornstarch and did not like it. For next time, hopefully I can find a way to mask that. 

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Aren't they cute? Yes they are! And thanks to my friend who got the idea from some lady on Pinterest. I didn't follow a recipe so sorry I cannot credit anyone. I made this all from scratch but I am adding short cut ones for everything. 

Here's what I did:

For the Filling:

1 pack chicken thighs (pre- boiled when I was making stock) or cooked rotisserie chicken

Fresh or frozen green beans

Frozen peas and carrots

Assorted peppers (what I had from my garden)

Onions

Garlic and ginger

White béchamel sauce or cream of chicken soup

Tiny bit of Dijon and hot sauce

Chicken stock

For crust: (basic biscuit) 

Pillsbury biscuit or the following:

2 cups flour

1 stick unsalted butter

1 tablespoon sugar and baking powder

1 tsp baking soda and salt

1/2 tsp white pepper (coz I had some but you can use black pepper) 

1 cup butter milk

Making the filling:

Sauté Onion, garlic and ginger. Add pepper and green beans and when beans are crisp (bright green) add frozen veggie and chicken. When veggies are done add béchamel or cream of chicken with a little Dijon and hit sauce. If its a little too salty add tiny bit of sugar. Cool. 

 

For quick mixture: add chicken, thawed veggies + cream of chicken with some sugar to balance out the salt. Add am little cheese with the mixture and use this for filling.

To make the crust:

Preheat oven to 400 F. 

Mix all the dry ingredients. Add butter and use pastry cutter to blend until it looks like corn meal. Add buttermilk and mix. Roll and cut into round pieces.

 

Assembly:

Put biscuit dough in a muffin pan, add filling in the middle and top with some Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 mins.

Tuna Kimbap

What is Kimbap you ask? It's Korean sushi rolls and they are yummalicious! 

Here is a basic recipe: 

What did I do:

Make the sushi rice according to package directions. When done add apple cider vinegar and let it cool. 

Prep veggies: Julienne carrots and cucumbers into thin strips. Pickled radishes is traditional but I didn't have any. So what's a girl to do? Pickle your own cucumbers. Apple cider vinegar+sugar and add julienne cucumbers to soak.

Prep the tuna: make tuna salad. TRUST ME!! Add little bit of mayo to canned drained tuna. If the tuna has no salt add salt and pepper to it. 

On sushi roller thigie (no idea what sushi rolling bamboo mat is called), put a sheet of sushi nori (seaweed - available in Asian markets). First add a thin layer of sushi rice (use cold water so that rice does mot stick to your hands), cukes, carrots, pickled cuke or radish, tuna salad and roll. Slice and enjoy with soy sauce!

Mushroom Gallete

Think of this as an open face savoury pie for mushroom lovers and vegetarians! I read this recipe somewhere a long time ago but I modified it to suit my tastes. The original recipe called for crescent dough as the crust so by all means use that as a time saver.

Here's what I did: 

Preheat oven to 400F

First made the pie dough. I like the recipe from Epicurous for this but you can use any standard good old pie dough recipe that you have.

For the filling: I used white button and baby bellas (my favorite mushrooms), fresh thyme, garlic, onions, salt and pepper! 

Sauté onions until caramalized, add garlic and thyme. When garlic is fragrant, add thyme, mushrooms and cook until done. Add salt and pepper to taste! Let cool.

To make the Gallete: roll pie dough, add filling and roll edges to make a bowl. Bake in 325 to 400 degree oven for about 30 mins (start with 400 for 10 mins and then lower temp and bake until done)

Sriracha Shrimp!

Need I say more? One of the easiest and quickest recipe I found on Pinterest. It is very tasty too.

The link to the recipe is at the bottom of this post. Here is what I changed:

- I love butter but I am not a cook my food with butter girl. So I added tiny bit of butter for flavor and used Olive Oil

- Added red onions before sautéing garlic in the oil

- Skipped the Jamaican long pepper coz didn't have any

- Topped off with cilantro coz well I had a lot of it :)

And here is the original recipe:

http://godofscrumprecipes.tumblr.com/post/19774544581/stir-fried-sriracha-shrimps-spicy-with-a-hint-of

Banana Bread

What do you when you have a few over ripe bananas?? Mush them and make banana bread of course :) 

Here's the recipe I used: 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Banana-Bread-108415?mbid=ipapp

What I did differently? I added almonds 

instead of walnuts and added a LOT of 

chocolate chips!

Anda (egg) Curry

Inspired by egg curry recipe That my friends mom made long time ago. She poached the eggs in the onion mixture and I decided to boil and keep them whole. These whole egg curry with caramalized onion are easy and scrumptious with rice!

 

What I did:

- Boil eggs

- Caramelize 2 small onions in oil on low heat

- When they are brown and sweet, add a little garlic, turmeric, paprika, white pepper and salt

- Add eggs, toss to coat. Top with cilantro.

 

Jalapeños and Kielbasa Cornbread

Easy peasy! Inspired by jalapeño stuffed with cornbread that my co-worked made for us. I decided to just cut up the jalapeño and make a cornbread instead. 

 

Here's how you make it: 

Ingredients: 1 box corn muffin mix (jiffy's is better... I tired the generic too so trust me), 1 jalapeño - de-seeded and chopped into little pieces, kielbasa chopped and roughly as much as jalapeño, cheddar or pepper jack cheese- cut into lil pieces and as much as kielbasa, 1/2 can sweet cream corn, 2 tsp sugar (can be skipped because corn is already sweet)

Make it: Pre-heat oven to 400F. Mix first 4 ingredients together, add the cream corn and sugar and stir. Let sit for 3-4 minutes. Pour in a greased loaf pan and bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Kielbasa and Shrimp Gumbo

Smokey kielbasa made me think if Gumbo! So I decided to make some. 

Here's what you need:

Kielbasa, raw shrimp, frozen mix veggies, oil, flour, thyme, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, onion, garlic + ginger paste, jalapeños (de-seeded and as desired), cilantro (optional), canned tomatoes, water or stock, paprika 

Here's what I did:

Make the roux: Heat oil on high heat, whisk in flour and lower the heat to medium low. Cook this stirring frequently until it is the color of milk chocolate.The ratio of flour and oil is 1:1.

When the roux is done, add onions, jalapeños and ginger+garlic paste. Cook until veggies are soft and fragrant. Add tomatoes little at a time if the roux is too thick. Add all the tomatoes, veggies and cut up kielbasa, water or stock, paprika, worcestershire sauce, little salt (watch the salt if you are using stock) and simmer for at least 30 minutes. 

Add the shrimp and simmer for another 8-10 minutes or until the shrimp is curled and pink. Top with cilantro or parsley and serve with white rice! YUM!

Peach Sangriaaa!!

Spring is here! Although it brings very many allergies for yours truly, it also brings colorful fruits. And how best to take your daily dose of fruits? With some alcohol of course :)

I was looking for peaches but could not find them in the store I went to. Didn't wanna go to a different store so I used mangoes and strawberries for fruits. I love mangoes and miss them very much. What you find in the stores in the East Coast seems like a mango flavored fruit... Awesome for sangria!

Here's what you do:

1 bottle moscato or Riesling (I prefer moscato)

1/4 bottle (big) peach brandy or peach schnapps

2 oranges juiced

1 mango cut up into little pieces

8-10 pieces strawberry cut into little pieces

Mix everything in a jug and keep in the fridge overnight. Top it off with sparkling water or a little soda for fizz while serving! Drink at your discretion! Haha

General Tso inspired Tofu!

It's been a while since I posted anything but I think I am in the mood again! So here is a tasty treat vegetarians and non vegs will equally enjoy. I had everything at hand so I whipped it up quick. Yummy with white rice!

I had firm tofu so if you have that handle with care and cut bigger chunks. I don't measure anything but I did put too much ginger but I love it! For those of you who measure here is the recipe:
http://www.grumpyshoneybunch.com/2009/05/general-tsostofu.html?m=1

Chocolate Cupcake with Mocha Swiss Merengue Buttercream

What can be better than chocolate cupcake with yummy mocha buttercream frosting? Well nothing. For those days when you are craving chocolate.

What I did different (Cupcake):
*I don't like really sweet anything so only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and about 3/4 cup of regular sugar. If you are not sure, make original recipe (half it first, experimentation needs lesser quantity and the original recipe makes about 2 dozen cupcakes) and adjust accordingly next time.
*Used instant coffee because I did not want to make fresh coffee so I put a cup of water in the micro and then coffee powder to hot water.
*I also didn't have cocoa powder so I just used 1/2 cup of Starbucks dark hot chocolate (I just added that with coffee to the hot water). If you use regular hot chocolate reduce the amount of sugar even further.
*Note: This really is very yummy and easy chocolate cake recipe. You just mix everything in, pour and bake. It might become my staple choc cake recipe :)

Cupcake recipe: http://www.diddlesanddumplings.com/2012/05/marshmallow-filled-buttermilk-mocha.html?m=1

Buttercream recipe: http://sweetapolita.com/2011/04/swiss-meringue-buttercream-demystified/

What I did differently: Only used 2.5 cups of butter. Melted chocolate and instant coffee and folded that to the buttercream after its done (about 5-6 chalets of dark chocolate melted in a double boiler)

Thai Red Curry Shrimp

So I bought this tin of red curry paste to try and see how I like it. It isn't bad but not as good as when you make it from scratch (which I have done before but that is another post).

What I used (coz I had them on hand): onion, ginger, garlic, frozen vegetables, mushrooms, coconut milk, red curry paste, fish sauce and shrimps

What I did: Sauté onions with garlic and ginger. Add frozen vegetables and a little curry paste (use your discretion as it can be pretty spicy). Add some coconut milk (I don't like it really creamy so I only added a little bit but adjust according to taste). Any extra coconut milk can be frozen in ice cube trays and then used as necessary. A little water or stock to thin the sauce out. Add fish sauce to taste (the paste itself is salty). When it starts bubbling add shrimp and mushrooms. Cook until shrimp is curled and pink. Garnish with cilantro (optional).

Serve over white rice (or any other rice you like). Vegetarians can skip adding shrimp and add any veggie you like. Thai eggplants are really good in this and so are peppers.

Kaiser Schnitzel with spaetzle

We recently went to a German restaurant for dinner and I had some Kaiser Schnitzel and since then I have been inspired to make this dish. So what's a girl to do? Look up the recipe and make it of course.

So I did. Here are the recipes that I used:
Kaiser Schnitzel:http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/3264234-Wiener-Schnitzel-with-Kaiser-Sauce
Spaetzle: http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/11793/german-spaetzle-dumplings

What I did differently:
Didn't change anything for spaetzle. It was delicious but next time a little less nutmeg. Maybe 1/4 teaspoon and I did put it in ice water as soon as I took it out of the boiling water.

For Schnitzel, use seasoned breadcrumbs. It was very tasty.

For Kaiser sauce, used lemon juice (abt a tsp, taste and adjust) instead of capers (of course I was not going to go buy capers). Used way more than 4 mushrooms but didn't measure anything else. I just love mushrooms :)

Emoticon cookies!!!

I was totally inspired to learn some cookie decoration. They look so pretty and fascinating!

I used the basic cookie and icing recipe from this website:

What I did differently:

For the cookies: I really like shortbread. So I used 1.5 cups of regular flour and 1/2 cup of rice flour to give my cookies that shortbread taste. YUM! Also after I rolled the cookies I put them in the freezer coz I only have one silicone mat so I baked them in batches. Needed to be baked only 6 mins in my oven.

For the icing: I made the small batch recipe and even that was too much! I did not use the entire 2 bags of icing sugar. Had about 1/4 bag left. Everything else I kep the same.

French Macarons!!

Oh yeah! I did it. I tackled the macarons a second time and it was a success. The first time I tried them, they were not a complete success. They became thin crispy wafers instead of puffy looking cookies with fringes at the bottom.

One of the best Macarons I had was at "Sucree" in San Diego when we (me and my good friend) went for "high tea". It was an excellent experience with tea, sandwiches, petite fours and some macarons to go! I would totally recommend their pear and Gorgonzola one.

Macarons can be touchy things to make so I would recommend a small batch first. The perfect recipe I found for that is here:
http://www.dessertfortwo.com/2011/05/french-macarons-with-nutella/

What I did different:
1. I ground up entire almonds without blanching them (the good stuff is in the cover right?)
2. When beating the egg white, beat it until stiff peaks form instead of soft peaks. Remember the time I made wafer thin ones? I think I did not beat them enough. If you really want to tackle this particular dessert, I also recommend doing a little research on them and watching a few videos on YouTube or from "Joy of Baking" site.

Next time I will reduce the amount of sugar and try some other flavors.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

Yup. Here's the recipe I used: http://kelseysappleaday.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-ever-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies.html?m=1

I also like the recipe outside the nestle choc chip bags :)

Modifications I made: used only half cup of butter and if the batter is too try add 1 tblsp of milk, buttermilk or water (whichever you have on hand) at a time until its just right. ENJOY with some milk! YUM!!!

For you vegetarians out there skip the egg completely and add 1/4 cup of buttermilk ! It will be a little more fluffier and biscuit like consistency :)

Chicken Stock

Oh yes.. Nothing like a hot pot of soup on cold cold winter days/nights. What you see here is Chicken and dumpling soup. I bought the dumplings this time but more on making them from scratch another time!

I usually make stock out of rotisserie chicken carcass i.e bones and some skin. Costco rotisserie chicken or even if you roast your own chicken, every part can be used. 

Here's what I do:

In a 5 qt stock pot add carcass, one onion cut up In chunks, carrots, about 5 small or 2 big ones, celery (4-8 stalls roughly chopped in big chunks), garlic cloves (4-5  - peel and just crush), ginger (abt 1/2 inch - can be skipped), herbs (use what ever you have or skip it)... I add parsley or cilantro stalks, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf depending on what I have. Sometimes it's just thyme or just cilantro, sometimes all, 1-2 tsp salt.. Fill it up with cold water. Boil for about 45 mins to an hour.

Drain and use right away or to store put it silicone ice cube trays, freeze and then put it freezer bags and store in freezer. Use couple of ice cubes or a lot more depending on recipe. 

Babaganoush

Can't have eggplant and not make baba ganoush. Call it hummus's yummy cousin. Or consider this a low calorie snack. Completely vegetarian/vegan. Love this with some pita chips or cracker of your choice or even some bread!

Here's what you need:
Eggplant, olive oil, tahini (sesame paste) you can add some toasted sesame powder or skip this if you don't have any), garlic, salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Here's what you do:
First roast the eggplant. Put the whole eggplant with some oil in the oven @ 400 F for about 30 mins (or 375 for 45 if you got the time) until its very soft and skin is browned [turn it to the other side after first 15 mins]. You can also roast garlic (skin on) for about 25 mins at the same time. If you are using roasted garlic use atleast 6/7 cloves. Roasted garlic gives it a subtle garlic flavour and some sweetness.

Note: you can even cut the top off and roast an entire garlic bulb. Use remaining as spread on crackers/ bread.

After eggplant is done, peel it and mush it lightly. Then in a blender or food processor add eggplant+tahini+ olive oil (lil bit) +garlic +salt +pepper+lemon juice and process until smooth. Watch out for raw garlic. Start with half or one small clove and add more as necessary.

Pita chips: cut pita into triangles, toast in a 400 degree oven for about 8-10 mins.

Eggplant and Pork stir fry!

Easy peasy dish to make on a snowy day. I bought an eggplant for something I don't remember anymore. So I had that and some leftover pork from the patties.

So here's what you do:
Ingredients: ground pork (1/2 lb or lil more), eggplant (small half), shiitake mushroom (coz I had some lying around) abt 6-7, lil bit onion (half of a half), half a tomato (coz I had that too), oyster sauce, ginger 1/2 inch, garlic (2-3 cloves) and sambal oleak or your favorite chili garlic sauce, parsley or coriander whichever you have!

Put some oil in a fry pan, add pork, break it down and cook until its no longer pink. Add ginger, garlic, onion, tomato and cook until fragrant. Add eggplant and mushrooms. Add oyster sauce (start with abt 2 tblsp and add more if necessary), sambal and some water. Cook until eggplant it done. I find that eggplant takes a while to cook so if the water is almost dry and it's still raw, add abt 1/4 cup water and cook some more. Obviously taste :) Add more oyster sauce and sambal if you want it spicier. Repeat the step of adding water and cook until eggplant is done. Add parsley/ coriander for garnish.

Serve with rice or couscous or this would even be great with mash potatoes.

English pasties and Jamaican Patties

Hand held pockets of goodness! Yup that is what I would call them. English pasties, Jamaican patties, Malaysian curry puffs and chicken patties that I grew up eating in Nepal. They are all very similar to me. My friend from Indonesia mentioned that they have something similar called pastels! Buttery pastry filled with meaty goodness although the ones back home have puff pastry on the outside.

I used a basic pie dough recipe so pick anything that you prefer or buy pre-made pie dough or even puff pastry (depending on degree of laziness for that day). For the meat filling I used pork but the same basic recipe can be used for chicken or even potatoes. I don't do beef so you are on your own there but if you are using curry recipe, beef would need a little bit more seasoning than pork or chicken. Here's what I did:

English pasties: ground pork, onion, garlic, wine, worcestershire sauce, thyme, salt: I just put it all in a pressure cooker but you can cook it on stove top but I found that pressure cooker makes it luscious and soft. Sautéed mushroom cut in lil pieces and mix with meat mixture. Stuff pie dough, bake @ 375 until golden brown (about 15-20 mins)

Jamaican patty: ground pork, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin pwd, coriander pwd, salt + lil water - cook in pressure cooker or on stove top. Cool the filling and stuff inside pie dough in any shape you want. Bake @ 375 till golden brown (abt 15-20 mins)

When life hands you Oranges...

make cocktail with it ofcourse! Someone sent us Honeybell oranges at work. These were wonderfully sweet and juicy! So here's what yo do: Juice one fresh orange, add a splash of Triple Sec with some Vodka or Gin and some fizzy water on top! YUM