Something new something fresh–part 5

4 posts to my friend's series and going strong still. And I have more coming up:)It just keeps getting better.Check part 4 here.) and part 3 here.)



I am very excited to introduce you to today's chef-Richa. Richa and I have been friends for over 2 yrs and she's a wonderful friend. A fashionista, who loves to sport the latest trends and designers, a go-getter, beauty with brains and sweetness personified is who she is. I can safely say that so far that I have never seen upset or angry even once and that's no mean fate :))Shes great..you get the picture, right?:)


Richa and I

The recipe Iam about to feature here was yummy- Bharwa Mirchi . She made this along with some other with a bunch of other delicacies and I truly loved it.Just the picture, makes me want to have some again.I assure you, you will feel the same way once you look at it.Here goes the recipe:)

You need:
Green Chilies: 13 large sized
Grated Coconut: 4 tbsp
Potato: 1
Fresh Coriander leaves: a few springs
Oil: 5 tbsp
Asafoetida: 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp
Aniseed powder:1/2 tsp
Cumin powder (roasted and grinded):1/4 tsp
Coriander powder (roasted and grinded):1/4 tsp
Amchoor: 1 tbsp
Salt: to taste

This is how you make it
Wash & wipe green chillies. Slit and deseed. Apply a little salt and keep aside for thirty minutes. Wash well and let drain.Boil, peel and grate the potato. Clean, wash and finely chop coriander leaves. Heat two table spoon of oil and temper with asafetida and mustard seeds .Add coconut and sauté till lightly colored. Add grated potato and sauté for another five minutes. Add red chili powder, aniseed powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and amchoor. Sauté till well mixed.Season and add coriander leaves. Remove from heat and set aside.Stuff mixture into chilies and keep aside. Heat remaining oil in a shallow pan. Place chilies, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove and serve hot. Yes, it was D-E-L-I-C-O-U-S :))Enjoy the Bharwa Mirchi.


Bharwa Mirchi

Something new something fresh–part 4

Yes its Thursday,(But Iam still thinking of it as late late Wednesday night so I can tell myself I made the Wednesday blog post).Iam putting together "Something New Something fresh part-4" at this unearthly hour ,that's how much I love this weekly feature. Incase you are wondering why I didn't feature this on Wednesday, here's my excuse ..Iam still celebrating my bday which mostly turns out to be week long, thats how lucky Iam :))(Read more here.)



And today Iam very happy to introduce you to my friend Ishita. This Leo Lawyer was born on August 15th(fantastic coincidence)and is a wonderful girl.If you read my blog ,you would know that she's the one who's baby shower we celebrated in March.(Read more here.)We have known each other a while and we are close now,close enough for me to think of her like a younger sister:)She's smart,spirited and knows how to speak her mind and I really like that about her.In June, she's going to be mommy to a baby Marisha:) Can't wait to see the little rock star.


Ishita and Me

This Bengali lioness loves Seafood and cooks it really well.So I pestered her to give me this recipe and she was sweet enough to give it to me right away. Thanks Ishi!Its called Bhapa Chingri (steam cooked prawns in Mustard sauce)and its delicious. I don't need to say anything because the picture from Chef Ishita says all:)

You need:
10-15 Prawns(depending on the size)- shelled, washed and deveined
1-1.5 tbsp - Mustard seeds
4-6 - green chillies
2 tbsp of coconut powder
2 tbsp of coconut milk (Ishita uses both as the coconut milk adds flavor and the powder adds to the texture of the sauce)
mustard oil(it is important to use mustard oil as it adds to the pungent taste which is the speciality of the dish)
turmeric powder
salt to taste

This is how you make it
After the prawns have been cleaned and washed, marinate it with salt and turmeric powder and keep aside. In a spice/coffee grinder, take the mustard seeds and grind it dry till it forms a fine paste. For the last few seconds put in 2-3 green chillies in the same grinder and grind it together with the mustard seeds. Take out the mixture and soak it in enough water to form a paste & keep aside.
Now, in a small to medium size stainless steel air tight box, coat the bottom slightly with mustard oil. now add the prawns, coconut powder, coconut milk mustard paste, salt to taste and turmeric to the box. Add a little water but not too much. Before shutting the lid, add a little extra mustard oil to the dish along with the rest of the green chillies slit vertically.
Place the tightly shut box on a bed of water in a large skillet and put it on medium high heat. as the water boils, it will heat up the box and cook the shrimps. Ensure that the skillet does not run out of water. Cook for 10-13 minutes(shrimp takes very little time to cook) and then take the box out of the water. leave the lid on till the box cools down and then open.

Enjoy the shrimp in mustard sauce with plain white/brown rice.

Bhapa Chingri

When it rains it pours

Pun Intended :)) I fell sick for about 10 days and then was recovering and then before I got in any kind of shape to post, my laptop gave up on me .I am working from a loaner right now and don't have access to a lot of my food pictures and thats why you saw hardly any posts from me this past week so I do have a lot of recipes to share...SOB! SOB!

But I have been well, alive and definitely kicking. Today is my birthday and Iam blessed to have a wonderful husband, family and friends who have things planned for me through the week. I look forward to returning with lots of pics from this week, eating at different restaurants and sharing those stories with you all :)


Cheers :))

I also wanted to thank Priya for giving me the "I love your blog" award. Priya thanks so being such a sweetheart and honoring me.I also ,really like your blog.You can follow Priya's blog here.



Will return with a ton of pictures and stories next week. Till then, watch this space for my "cooking with friends" section tomorrow, where I feature another wonderful friend and her recipe

Something new something fresh–part 3

Dear friends,I am stoked at your comments and words of encouragement on this series. It has galvanized me and I hope to feature more and more of my friends every Wednesday. It was such a bummer that I missed last week’s entry but you all know why that was:) I am just very glad to be back and posting again. Check out part 1 here.and part 2 here from the Something new something fresh series.



So without further ado, let’s just jump right in and I’ll introduce you to today’s Chef. She is..... Aparna.Will you believe me if I tell you, that we have never met...even once.Yet, I feel like we have known each other for many years!!She lives thousands of miles across the world and we are connected only through the world wide web and yet we’ve been friends for 4 yrs now.I look at that as an achievement in itself. Wouldn't you:)?

We met on a social networking site,decided to take a chance on each other and look how that chance paid off ..because today I consider her a really good friend (we have talked about all things under the sun). She recently got married to the love of her life V,who’s a great guy and also a very good cook.Needless to say, Iam very happy for this creative and artistic woman. All the very best on the exciting new chapter in your life, my friend :))


Aparna on her engagement day, Feb 09

Aparna's recipe has a fabulous name.It's called Ali Nazik and is a Turkish dish. (Aparna had this dish at a friend's place and loved the taste so decided to make it herself. She customized it’s a bit to suit her taste buds and it turned out well despite apprehensions). The dish is served in 2 layers on a serving dish. First comes the vegetarian part of it, and the beef part is layered on top of that. This sounds so yummy that I have to try it soon.Let’s get cooking

You need:
For the beef preparation:
260gm ground beef (you could use ground lamb if you don't have beef).
1 medium onion, chopped.
2 medium tomatoes, diced.

For the vegetarian preparation:
3 medium sized egg plants.
5 green capsicums.
6 cloves of garlic, chopped.
200gm yogurt (you could reduce or increase this as per your liking).

Spices and garnish:
(The measurements for garnish and spices vary according to personal liking.)
A bunch of parsley, chopped.
5 to 6 green chillies - sliced.
1 teaspoon of black pepper.
2 teaspoons of chilli powder.
1 teaspoon of coriander powder (a spice that i added on my own).
Salt (as per taste).
Around 4 tablespoons of olive oil.


This is how you make it
The Vegetables
Broil the eggplants and capsicums in the oven. (If you like her, don't have an oven, you could roast them over open flame, something that's done for making baingan-bharta, but without the oil).
After the vegetables have cooled down, peel off the burnt layers. Rinse in water.
Dice the capsicums and the egg plant pulp and mix them up together.

(Note: Usually, the capsicum-eggplant mix is not cooked over flame. Rather, olive oil, chopped garlic, chilli powder is mixed into the mix. She wasn't sure, how well she would have taken to the 'raw' taste of the mixture, hence this variant.)

In a deep pan, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium flame.
Add the chopped garlic and saute (don't let the garlic bits burn).
Add in the eggplant capsicum mix into this, stir will. Add in salt as per your taste and chilli powder. Stir and mix everything well.
Take the mixture off the flame. Add in yogurt (as mentioned before, you can reduce or increase the amount of yogurt; depends on your personal liking). Make sure that the yogurt is not watery. The mix that you get by adding the yogurt should be of a nice and thick consistency.
Transfer this mix to the serving dish.

The Beef
Saute the chopped onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a deep pan over medium heat.
Add in the diced tomatoes.
Add salt (as per taste), coriander powder, black pepper powder.
Keep stirring for a while so that the spices mix well with the onion and tomatoes.
Add in the ground beef and keep stirring until cooked.(Note: Its okay to add in some water in between, just make sure that the beef preparation is not 'watery' in the end).
After the beef is done, layer this beef mixture over the eggplant-capsicum mixture that you had put into the serving dish.
Garnish with chopped parsley and sliced green chillies.ENJOY


AliNazik

Back (with a Bang I hope)

One terrible week and Iam back as promised. This flu was quite persistent ,just didn't want to leave me the heck alone:) After losing my voice and trying to eat food that mostly tasted like cardboard ..I am raring to go to the kitchen and conjure the spiciest thing I can think of, but Iam still recovering and my system is not yet ready for that spicy jolt so I'll take it easy and graduate to some interesting food soon:))

Good to be back and THANKS so so much for your love, support and good wishes .Means the world to me and I REALLY appreciate it. Recipes coming soon:)

Down but not out

Hello Friends,

Hope you all have been well and posting regularly :) No post from me since Monday , that's because Iam under the firm grip of the flu and even though I would love to,I cant post recipes and stories right now. Looks like the Wednesday series might elude me as well.

I will be back in a few days, hopefully fit as a fiddle :))

Ciao
-Meenal

You asked for it "Grilled Lemon pepper Salmon"

Michele,who is a blogger pal for 4 years now had this to say to me recently “you can still take a picture of food and make it irresistible to the viewer. I’ll have to scroll and see if you have a fun and 'doable' recipe for Salmon. My kids are picky and I'm trying to get them to eat fish. So far, it's not working. But I keep trying because fish is so healthy!”

Thanks a ton Michele and not a problem at all :)I grew up eating a lot of fish and it’s an integral part of my diet.So a quick and doable salmon recipe is child's play for me. Some of you who are not into salmon ,must wonder ”what's the big deal??” Well,salmon is packed with Omega 3 fatty acids,amino acids and other minerals which make it perfect in every way.Lets talk some benefits, shall we?
•Muscles, Tissues, Enzymes, Hormones etc
•Cardio-Vascular Health
•Metabolism
•Eye Care
•Brain & Nerves. Read some more here.

Beauty benefits:(ladies do I have your attention now:)?
•helps improve the production of collagen, keratin and melanin.
•prevents dry skin patches
•prevents wrinkles :))Is that reason enough??
•boost's the skin's ability to retain water.
•improves skin texture and adds luster to eyes, skin, hair and nails. More here.

Are we still thinking ??? OK, in that case,lets go to a recipe ,that should surely convert you.Iam going to start with a easy-breezy recipe for salmon .I call it the Grilled Lemon-pepper salmon

You need
4 Alaskan salmon steaks
For marinade
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1.5 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

This is how you make it
Mix all ingredients of the marinate and pour over the salmon steaks. Cover and let the steaks absorb the marinade for about 10-15 minutes. You are now ready to grill the fish. Place the marinated fish on the grill and let it cook(you could pan fry it, bake,broil it,cook it in foil,whichever technique works for you). If the steaks are thin you could do each side for about 2 minutes and if they are thick , let them cook for about 4 minutes each. Be careful not to move or turn the fish too much ,as it could becomes really soft on cooking and disintegrate.

Garnish with lemon wedges, a sprig of cilantro and serve with salad, steamed vegetables, with rice or as is. Check out another of my salmon recipes here.



Grilled Lemon Pepper Salmon

Hope you and your kids like this one, Michele :)

Something new something fresh–part 2

Welcome back to my "Something new something fresh" – Wednesday series. Got a good response from my last week’s posting and Iam back with my second post for the series. Read more about part 1 here.



Today’s Chef is Vandana- one of my closest friends.Here's a little testimonial I had written for her once "Smart, pretty, confident, friendly ,caring and a great cook, V is a friend I would custom order, but didn’t have to because I got lucky enough to find her one fine day. One of the most genuine people I know, she’s a terrific mix of traditional and the modern……."And this was 2 yrs ago. Since then our friendship has only grown and she’s like family.


Vandana and I at Durga Puja ,2007


Vandana and I at Durga Puja,2008

Vandana is a Bombay girl(I prefer Bombay to Mumbai:)and loves her spicy street food. She comes from a close knit family and also loves corn, diamonds and Abhishek Bachchan (in no specific order) and claims that she did not cook at all before she moved to the US of A.Haha..Right!! I love her scrumptious dosas and rajasthani food. Finally, here’s the recipe I would like to share from V’s Pandora’s Box- Corn Bhel (an excellent appetizer, mid day snack and very healthy).She made it last yr at a get together and it was finger licking good.

You need
1.5 cups corn–(she used frozen corn)
1 large onion-chopped
2 large potatoes–(she used Yukon gold potatoes)
2-4 green Thai chilies finely chopped(Use 4 if you like it spicy)
2 chopped tomatoes-(optional -she doesn't use it because of allergies)
2 tablespoon cilantro chutney (recipe given below)
2 tablespoon tamarind/date chutney(she used store bought chutneys)
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
Lemon juice to taste
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon Chaat Masala
1 teaspoon Sandwich Masala (she gets it from Bombay)
1/4 teaspoon Amchur Powder - optional
Sev(Indian crispy noodles) for garnishing-(bought at any Indian grocery store)

Cilantro chutney
4 cups of cilantro leaves
2-3 cloves of garlic.
2-3 green thai chillies.
1 teaspoon (cumin) seeds
Salt to taste
Lemon juice to taste

This is how you make it
For Cilantro chutney:
Grind all the ingredients together and add a little bit of water for consistency. Add salt and lemon juice to taste.
Corn Bhel
Boil the corn with a little salt and turmeric. Drain the water & keep aside.
Boil the potatoes and peel and mash.
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients thoroughly and keep aside. This bhel can be served either hot or cold. When you are ready to serve, garnish with the sev.ENJOY!!


Corn Bhel

Soup for the soul

The Weather's been terrible here in Seattle lately but then its almost always bad (seriously,we Seattlites never know if it will rain,snow or be overcast the next hour.The Sun is always playing peek-a-boo,titillating us with occasional appearances through a cloud ridden sky and and then mysteriously disappearing on us for days on end.We are always prepared for the worst).

But even we, were not prepared for the snow storm in Dec'08 when it snowed continuously for week and we were forced to be under house arrest.Our state government was not equipped to handle all the chaos that ensued and all freeways and roads turned into free for all ski resorts.Though all that pristine snow is a sight to behold, its not fun after a week when one runs out of movies to watch,food to cook and people to call.A week then feels like a year.Arrgh, I never want to be in house arrest again with the weather holding me prisoner in my own home. For more pictures of how unforgiving snow in Seattle can be go here:)

Its almost April and we are still getting snow.As if that's not enough....the economic climate makes you want to throw up your hands in despair.With more 650,000 jobs lost in Feb'09 alone and the unemployment steadily climbing up(8.1%),we are learning to reach out for that comfort food,self soothe and just hang in there and hope it will get better.Or will It?

Its for times like this ,that I make my vegetable and turkey soup.A bowl of that, and I am instantly filled with a sense of well being and hope that all will right with the world again, for a few hours at least :) Try it, its good and did I say HEALTHY?

You need
1 tablespoon Canola Oil
1 cup chopped medium onion
2 cups ground turkey
4 cups water (you can use chicken or vegetable stock too)
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped Carrots
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms(any kind are fine)
1/2 cup Corn(fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup chopped zucchini
2 medium chopped Tomatoes
1 18oz can of black beans
1 cup Cooked baby shrimp ( I added them just for fun)
1 teaspoon cumin
2 Bay leaves
2 tablespoons Parsley
1 teaspoon cumin powder
Salt and Pepper -- to taste

This is how you make it
In a large pot,heat oil and add cumin and bay leaves.When they splutter add onions, mushrooms,carrots,bell peppers,zucchini,corn,black beans and ground turkey.Saute till the vegetables are soft and turkey looks cooked.Add diced tomatoes and saute till they are soft and done.Add salt ,pepper,cumin powder and water.When the soup begins to boil,add the cooked baby shrimp. Cook for a few minutes and stir in parsley.Simmer until done.Take off the soup and serve hot,as is or with bread. You can add a dash of lime juice to the soup.Feel better already? Mission accomplished :))



Vegetable and turkey soup

The Reappearance

Of what, you ask?I shall tell you in a moment or...two!! Well let me tell you a bit about myself first. Iam a marketing professional, also pursuing a course at UW(University of Washington).As part of the course, Iam working on marketing project for which me and my team mates meet every weekend and plan ahead for our project. OKKK, enough of the boring stuff already.The point is,the girls in the team are a lot of fun and we get along very well.Double that fun with food,drinks and conversation, Cheers to more of that:))

We met this morning-bright and early. Alix,our gracious host arranged for coffee bagels,strawberries and whipped cream.Elise got fruit and I got...that's right,this is where it reappeared,THE PINEAPPLE UPSIDE CAKE(TPUC).

One of my favorite cakes, TPUC is an absolute essential on my recipe arsenal.I learnt to bake it when I was 10 and associate it with a lot of special childhood memories.Needless to say, I have baked it again and again.I had blogged about it in Feb2006 when I hosted a party for the Superbowl.Read more about it(here).Back then I was a regular blogger.I suppose,the reappearance of this cake is a sign that I too,have resurfaced and this time no breaks for me.Pull out all the stops,Iam raring to go:)You can find the recipe(here)


Pineapple Upside Down Cake

How did the cake taste??I think I will let this picture do all the talking.All Iam going to say is,Iam so glad everyone liked it and posed happily with the cake.Thanks ladies!!


(From left to right:Elise,Catherine,Me,Holly and Alix)

This recipe is dedicated to team CoreConcepts