Culinary adventure collection

Over the past two years I made some serious yummy eats in the hope of blogging about all of them. However, that did not happen. 

To give homage to evenings and weekends of hard work and delicious experiences, here is a collage of my culinary forays. 

Margherita pizza from scratch (including dough)

Across the border: quesadilla from scratch including tomatillo avocado dip

Potato bacon leek soup - slow cooker

Ravioli in tomato basil cream sauce 

Cajun spiced Orange Roughy with garlic greens and risotto

Maple spice acorn squash feta salad

Roasted sirloin barley stew with local red wine 

Kale red bean soup with fresh creme and home made rosemary bread roll up

Madras inspired 15 min South Indian lemony shrimp curry with ginger and cilantro

The B Word

I have a secret - I've been baking. Gasp!!!

The distaste of following measurements and recipes has somehow manifested into an "I adore baking" phase. I have recently been curious to see just how far I can evolve my recipes. Most people experiment with cakes, cookies, etc. Me? I jumped no leaped straight to bread. Bread without a bread machine AND without a cooking thermometer. You are probably wondering if this will be yet another "disaster" recipe post.

Much to my surprise, I made flipping delicious bread and I loved it! My first attempt was Whole Wheat Cinnamon Sugar Bread. I had no clue how to make this and I still managed to tweak the original recipe.

Update: so I had started on this post about a year and a half ago. Lots of life changes took blogging off the radar for more. However, this bread was sooooo good it inspired me for a little while to continue baking other such goodies. 

I am sad to say I didn't save my recipes. But life is an adventurous journey, one fine day I will recreate these gems again!

Here are some pics that I did manage to take of my baking adventures. And as predicted, they didn't last too long. :)

Other bread bakery adventures:

Rosemary cheese buns

Bagels 😨

When East Meets West - leftovers get a make over!

Leftovers can be tedious and more often than not force fed or trashed. I had a bit of a kitchen disaster a few nights ago. I made an Indian dish, Aloo-Methi, which consists of potatoes, fenugreek leaves (fenugreek), garlic, cumin and some other spices. Unfortunately, the "pre-washed" packaged frozen Methi wasn't washed at all. This was discovered after the whole dish was cooked. I took a large bite expecting soft potatoes and tangy fenugreek. What I got instead - a mouth full of crunchy grit. ICK!!

I felt really bad about throwing away those gorgeous bright yellow potatoes steeped in garlic goodness. So, I picked most of them out, rinsed them and set them aside.

A day or two after the fenugreek disaster, I had some left over black beans and no desire to cook (shocking right?!?). The urge to succumb to take out was overwhelming but thank-goodness my brain prevailed!

I ended up with the following creation - Curried potato hash with eggs and cilantro served with a side of frijoles el negro y limon.

Recipe:
2 eggs beaten (with a pinch of salt)
1 small onion diced
2 cups diced Potatoes (pre-cooked with turmeric and garlic)
1.5 cups Black beans (drained and sprinkled with some garlic salt)
1 tbsp rough chopped cilantro
2 tsp Lime juice
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Add lime juice to the garlic salted black beans and set it aside.

Heat a pan on medium heat, add olive oil and 30 seconds later add onions. Cook for 3 minutes until onions are glazed. Add potatoes, mix gently and cook for 5 minutes. Add egg and cook until hash is scrambled. Sprinkle cilantro and let it wilt in the heat. Serve while hot!

Eggs always seem to be my go to when I am low on ideas. They are oh so delicious! :)

Can it be? Guilt free Maggi!

I love Maggi. It's one of my top 10 go to comfort foods. As yummalicious as this spicy masala coated concoction is, it is a definite booster of waistlines.

Lunch has been hard to make each morning as usual. Given the fact that today was friday, I was about to give in to cravings and make a 2 min Maggi noodles for lunch (I always have these stashed away - on the hardest to reach shelf, of course).

Fortunately my good judgement returned around the same time as the water started boiling. How could I get the spicy Maggi flavor without the fat and calories? Is there a magic grain? The answer - quinoa!

To make this guilt-free "happy meal" follow the instructions below.

In a small pan add 2/3 cup of any frozen veggies and 2 cups water. Bring to rolling boil, add masala packet from Maggi. Make sure no lumps remain. Add 1 tsp chili powder and 1 tsp sriracha (optional). Add 1 cup quinoa. I wanted some extra protein so I also swirled in 1 beaten egg white.

I cooked it for 7 mins after or so after adding the above and took it off the heat. The quinoa should start soaking up all the liquid.

Short But Sweet

This post is all puns intended! I NEVER bake. It's not my thing and if I am going to be drowning in fat, sugar and deliciousness; I would rather the delicacy be made by an expert. Basically not me. :)

The annual meteor showers must be playing some trick on my brain. I got in a baking mood. My inspiration - Gina, my coworker. She is my Guru on healthy but tastes oh so good items. She baked this fabulous peach yellow cake. Best of all it was guilt free - she swooped the eggs and oil for unsweetened applesauce and egg white. It was deeelish!!

So I tried my hand at baking. Spice cake with bananas that were carmelized with sugar in the raw, vanilla essence and fresh grated cinnamon. Same as the peach cake, I made the spice cake with applesauce and egg whites. I was craving icing so I made low fat cinnamon cream cheese icing. I used 1/2 cup low fat cream cheese, 1/2 cup fat free cream cheese, made my own confectioners sugar, vanilla essence and fresh grated cinnamon. To make your own confectioners sugar just blend regular sugar in a magic bullet like appliance. It saves you time, money and chemicals like corn starch. So here it is one of my first attempts at baking healthy. I'm taking it in to work tomorrow. Wish me luck!! :)

Oodles of Noodles - Ohh Yeahhh!

Noodles are the second love of my life – rice of course being the first! Having recently returned from Kolkata, I’ve been going through Chindian (Indo-Chinese) food withdrawals. Once you’ve have Chinese food in Kolkata, US Chinese tastes like a low grade rip-off.

Jimmy’s Kitchen is one of my favorite restaurants in Kolkata. Our family has enjoyed their delicious tableau of assortments for the last 30 years. I have yet to be disappointed by them – and that’s a tall order when it comes to restaurants. One of my all time favorites is their Chop Suey Noodles with Gravy. It's a simple dish with noodles, julienned vegetables, chicken/shrimp served in a glazed gravy (sort of like the “white sauce” of Chinese restaurants in US). It is everything that a noodle lover can dream of. Crisp fresh vegetables, perfectly cooked noodles and succulent chicken smothered in a delicately spiced garlic glaze. I think I just drooled!

Having not been to Kolkata in eight long years, I forgot how amazing these tasted! Since I probably will not be going back to Kolkata until next year, it became imperative that those noodles be replicated in someway.

Obviously not all the ingredients are the same and I am sure Jimmy’s Kitchen isn’t exactly the poster child for healthy Chindian food. I decided buckwheat noodles would be a good substitute for regular chow mein or lo mein noodles. These are high in fiber as well as protein and cook pretty fast (about 4 mins). You can find them in any Asian food market. I added chicken, arugula and portabella mushrooms along with an assortment of veggies. I had some trepidation while trying to recreate the glaze but didn’t let that moment of mini hesitation get in my way of noodle heaven! 

So how was it? …….. Ohhh, these noodles were FAB! No exactly like Jimmy’s Kitchen (DUH) but so deliciously yummy. I will be making them again and experimenting with the ingredients in future! 

This dish ranks in my all time top 5!

Bliss

Ingredients:

Julienned carrots (1½ cups)

Mushrooms – (1 cup)

Wild arugula – (1 whole salad bag – about 4-5 cups)

Garlic grated (4 cloves)

Chicken – (1 cup diced: you can use precooked store chicken if you want)

Julienned onions (3 small ones)

Shredded cabbage (2 cups)

2-3 small green chilies (optional)

Buckwheat noodles (4 cups cooked per instructions and washed in running cold water to prevent stickiness)

Salt to taste

Olive or Regular Oil – 3 tsp

 

Sauce:

1 cup cold water (tap cold will do)

1½ tbsp flour mixed in the water

Cooking:

This is a quick dish to make and the veggies cook down quickly. It is best to cook this in a wok because there a lot of ingredients and the wok’s unique heat distrubtion prevents your veggies from being over cooked. 

Heat the oil up in wok and toss in the cabbage, carrots and onions. Cook down for 5 mins stirring frequently, add chilies, chicken and mushrooms. Add salt and black pepper to taste (extra black pepper in this dish taste heavenly!). Cook for another 5 minutes on medium-high heat.

Add arugula, coat thoroughly with the mixture and cover wok for 2 mins until arugula is mostly wilted. The veggies and chicken should have yielded liquid of their own by now. Add grated garlic and flour/water mixture to this wok. Add more to salt at this point.

Bring sauce and mixture to boil and then simmer on low for 5 mins. If you need more sauce, add ½ cup more water mixed with another teaspoon full of flour. Keep simmering for another 5 minutes. 

One sauce thickens enough to coat a spoon - remove from heat and add the noodles. Toss mixture carefully until all the noodles have been coated with the sauce. Let stand for 5 more minutes and serve hot.

 This dish freezes well and can be perfectly portioned for lunch or dinner!

My favorite 5 letter word .... Lunch

Warning: litany of rants and exotic lunch food ahead!!! :)

Weekday lunches are like firecrackers. Brilliant fun but deadly if handled incorrectly. Okay, so my analogy is a bit extreme but let's think about it. We all try to be healthy everyday (almost). We start our days off with a nutritious breakfast or at least a semi-nutritious one. And when we come home, at least one attempt is made towards a decent healthful meal for dinner. Where we can seriously go wrong is lunch. This 5 letter simpleton is a burr in my weekly saddle!

I love sandwiches but I just can't stomach them 5 days a week every week. Plus, just a simple turkey and cheese doesn't do it for me. It's got to be - turkey, cheese, spinach, sun dried tomato, maybe some mushroom or even a little arugula. High maintenance. Eating out is a great option but it drains the pocket. Seriously - I know! Also, even if you try to eat healthy, how do you really know whats in your lunch? Some days I wish I had a personal chef who could make me the perfect lunch every week day with just the right amount of variety.

But ...... I don't have one. So, to control my wallet and my waist line I've been attempting my own take on creative lunches. My general culinary forays have been whole wheat veggie wraps with hummus, left overs from the night before and when I'm really low down - canned soups. These have worked well for me in small doses. I had to find something that could be healthy and potentially mouth-watering.

One of my favorite lunches so far has been a recipe that my friend Haley shared with me - Tofu Surprise. Trust me, its not a culinary horror show like the much dreaded cafeteria lunch special. I modified the original (as always) to make an curry infused version of tofu, veggies and couscous. Over the last year, it has become one of my favorite summer lunches to take to work with a side of chilled grapes as dessert! I'll share full details and pictures next time.

Another lunch time favorite of mine is Quinoa. My love for rice is extreme bordering on obsessive addiction. I have to temper this love by finding healthier alternatives. According to Wikipedia, Quinoa become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%), it also contains a balanced set of essential amino acids and is a source of dietary fiber. It KO's most other grains by packing in a punch of phosphorus, magnesium and iron. It is also easy to digest and gluten free. See - sometimes even I make good choices! :)

Today, I really wanted something good for this week's lunch tableau. I had a bunch of left over veggies, some shrimp and a desire for some Thai Red Curry. I chose to make Red Curry Quinoa with Green onions and baby portabella mushrooms.

2 cloves of garlic, 5 stalks of green onions (minced), 1 packet of baby bella mushrooms, 1/2 packet of cabbage, 1.5 cups of peas 'n' carrots mix and a handful of pre cleaned pre cooked shrimp was my base. In a wok, I heated 1.5 tsp of olive oil (sesame might be good too), added the green onions and garlic. After sauteing for about half a minute, I tossed in a few red pepper flakes, the shrimp and the rest of the veggies. I also added a semi big handful of red chili powder (I like some serious spice in my red curry). Once the veggies start to sweat (this should take about 4 mins or so), I toss in 1/2 a can of red curry paste (found in any Asian market). To this I added, 2/3 cup of low fat coconut milk and my secret ingredient (1 ground up chicken bullion cube cube). Don't ask why this works so well - it just does! Once all of these ingredients started simmering, I added a 1.5 cups of Quinoa and 2.5 cups of water. I also added salt now (adding it earlier during the cooking makes you have to use more salt). This controls your sodium intake. Per quinoa box instructions, I brought this to a boil, covered wok and simmered for 15 minutes (more like 25 mins until the quinoa had soaked up all the moisture).

The end result was dee-lish! It certainly isn't as fabulous as having Red Curry w/ rice for lunch. But, it is a spicy sultry mid-day break that will wake up my senses this week. I plan on packing 1 and 1/4 cup of this every day this week. To add variety, I'll keep changing my post lunch dessert. I''m thinking - yogurt, grapes, or even fresh cucumbers. Who knows!

My taste buds are certainly looking forward to this culinary experience!....