Sugarcane and tofu pops

This is remotely like the cake pops I did last time but this was fabulous!!

This is originally a Vietnamese which uses chicken and a lot of Asian sauces but I used soy and vegetables and my own spice combination to flavor. Whats really cool about it is the use of sugarcane as sticks.. you are not supposed to eat them! it just adds flavor to the dish and also serves as a stick to hold I suppose you could call it a vegan variation of a chicken lollipop/wings/drumstick.

What you need:

¾ cup of tofu, mashed (store bought or homemade)
½ cup of mixed not too watery vegetables (peas, carrot, potato,corn etc; finely chopped)
1 onion finely chopped
1 green chili finely chopped
1 flake of garlic, chopped
1 tsp Coriander finely chopped
Salt as per taste
around 15 sticks of fresh sugarcane around 3 inches long each
2 tsp of corn flour
4 tbs of rice flour to coat
oil for deep frying

What to do:

1. Stir fry the vegetables for a minute and place in mixing bowl.
2. mash tofu and add to vegetables. Add cornflour and form into small balls.
3. Coat around each sugarcane stick dip in rice flour
4. Deep fry on medium till golden brown
5 Drain on paper towels, serve with ketchup




I know, I know.. its not the best picture.. but u get the idea.




Lets zoom in shall we?

GUEST BLOGGER

My sister is always surprising me with her wonderful desserts, actually, I get a preview when tantalizing smells emanate from the kitchen (also because of the sounds of the rebuke she gets from mommy for disrupting her kitchen!) so its not really a surprise, but I always anticipate the finished product. This little item which she conjured (and i say conjured because she made it in 20 minutes with scraps for ingredients!) was quick to make and QUICKER to finish. the biscuit base had some oats, walnut powder, butter and some other items (I only recall the crunching sounds which were made by this crisp, light (?) and taste bud pleasuring base)...oh ya! it had everything but biscuits!!
but what really got me going was the gooey from the inside and crisp from the outside filling which was made from butter, chocolate (er....this chocolate was the remnants of a big slab...it actually had some of my teeth imprints on it), coco powder to intensify the flavour (laa dee dah!), and an egg, yolk first followed by the white (i dont get why they are separated to eventually meet!) anyway, all this was put into the oven and baked for sometime (which felt like eternity people!) and, excuse the cliche, VOILA..... sintitilating chocolate tarty-thingie (hey i just do the eating!)
wanna know more about this sweet tooth's narcotic? ask the chef....I'm just a junkie.

Mulberries and smoothies

I remember that silly rhyme we would sing as kids, round and round the mulberry tree. The fruit is not silly though.

It resembles a blackberry but has these tentacle like thingies all over (forgive me for not knowing the scientific word, this is a food blog)

I bought some of these but really didn't know what to do with it. I remember Patrick Star (of Spongebob Squarepants) once say: "when in doubt, pinkie out!" (that REALLY did not help)

SO I created a new one "when in doubt, blender out!"

I made a dee-licious smoothie with the mulberries and strangely a larger quantity of other stuff.

What you need:

¼ cup mulberries
½ cup diced papaya
1 cup cold milk
honey to flavor (honey is perfect as a sweetener for this recipe)

What to do:

1.Blend all, preferably with some ice
2.Slowly sip and enjoy the flavor. And keep your pinkie out. Its Friday the 13th!




My beautiful mulberries.




My even more beautiful mulberry smoothie.

Frozen Yogurt

I have this archaic ice cream maker that I bought a really long time ago and never really used it. It's quite lousy as I learned soon after I started making my frozen yogurt..Never mind that it never really froze in the machine, my freezer came to the rescue and the result was FAB.

It was really simple and a lot of fun. I would do it again but maybe with a new ice-cream maker.



What you need: (serves: as much as you want)

A really creamy variety of yogurt or yogurt that has been hung in a cheesecloth for 4-6 hours
Vanilla extract/essence
Powdered sugar

What to do:

1. Beat the yogurt with the sugar and vanilla
2. Freeze as per ice cream maker manufacturers instructions.

Quick and Easy All-Dairy Pudding

I call this the All Dairy pudding. Because that's exactly what this is an all dairy pudding. I don't use anything to thicken it and it has no flours as such but it's still a pudding. Did I forget to mention, it has only two ingredients?

I absolutely adore this pudding. I could eat it everyday.

What you need:

1/2 cup of Thick Yogurt
1/4 cup of Sweetened Condensed Milk

What to do:

1. In a microwave safe bowl mix the two ingredients well. Add more or less condensed milk depending on your preference.
2. Important step: Microwave at 60% for 20-30 seconds till you see a very few bubbles come out. Do Not OVERCOOK! it will make the pudding grainy and weird. You just want to set the yogurt not curdle it.
3.When moved, the pudding should reveal water below from the yogurt. But it should be firm and not granular.
4. Refrigerate for an hour till chilled.


This isn't the best picture but yes it is the best dessert:

Super Easy Diced Salad

Its time for another Salad! I invented this last night. It was fabulous and one the easiest dressings I ever made!

I may sound idiotic posting this because you don't need to be a genius to invent this recipe but I have to tell you that it's the right combination of vegetables and fruits that make this salad a hit.


What you need: (Serves 2)

1 Cucumber, diced
1/2 an Apple, diced
1 small Carrot, diced
1 Pineapple Ring, diced
Sprigs of mint to garnish
2 tbs yogurt
1-2 tsp honey
a pinch of salt

What to do:

1. Mix yogurt with honey and salt and stir in the diced veg and fruit.
2. Enjoy!

Wholemeal English Muffins

I always look out for something interesting to make for breakfast because there are such limited nutritious breakfast choices. At my place It's generally eggs or cereal and it can really get monotonous for me.

These Wholemeal English Muffins (I pointed out the differences between the British name and the American name in my last post) are just so easy to make and can be eating with anything you want. I made these all the more nutritious by using a blend of soy, oat, barely and whole grain wheat flour another one of my concoctions.

What you need: (Makes 4 small sized muffins)

1 cup of wholegrain flour/ or you can experiment with different flours like I did.
5 gm fast-action dried yeast
A pinch of sugar
Salt to taste
water to bind

What to do:

1. Prepare yeast with warm water and sugar.
2. Mix flour with salt and place in a mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Add the fermented yeast and knead. Add water as per requirement.
3. Keep aside for an hour in a dry place.
4. When doubled in size punch back and form four balls with them and leave aside for another 30
5. A little trick that I use: I microwave the ball shaped dough for 1 minute on 60% power instead of waiting for them to rise again. It's a smart thing to do, it saves you time and you can be certain that you wont have partially uncooked muffins.
6. Heat a griddle with some pan spray or just a hint of olive oil and cook on both sides, covered; for about 7 minutes till well done. Do not let the griddle get too hot or the muffins will burn from the outside while remaining raw from the inside.
7. Cut in the center and serve with anything you like.


So how do you like them?

Sweet: (Nutella filling)


or

Salty: (omelet filling)

Cola Chicken

I came across this on Spark Recipes and actually read the ingredients twice. Who would ever want to make chicken in Cola??!!

But I love experimenting, So I went for it.

The original recipe is quite basic, has just three ingredients but just reading them make me shift about my seat. I needed something more. So I modified it as I usually do and I loved the results. This is supposed to be a Southern American/Texan type dish, but honestly it tasted too Chinese-y to me and it paired brilliantly with stir fried egg-noodles.


What you need:

1 full chicken cut into curry pieces ( about 1 kg)
1 (330 ml) can of Coca Cola/ Pepsi ( I used diet)
¼ cup barbecue sauce
¼ cup of tomato ketchup
2-3 flakes of garlic, sliced
1-2 tsp chili flakes
2 tbsp cornflour
Salt and pepper as per taste

What to do:

1. Rub salt all over the chicken and let it sit for about 15-20 min
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
3. Place the chicken in a nonstick roasting tin
4. Mix all the other ingredients together and pour over the chicken
5. Bake covered with foil for 1 hour. Then bake uncovered for 20-30 min more till sauce is thick and chicken is cooked.

Super Easy Ice Cream Cake

I will be really busy in the next couple of days so I'm writing two scheduled posts today.

OK so this was NOT low fat. Unlike my last post this one is loaded with calories and despite my diet, I did this one for a couple of friends who came over to work on a project. But only we know how much WORK we ended up doing *wink wink*

Anyway back to the cake. I love Nigella's show andI saw this recipe on Nigella Express and I just had to make it-- but of course with my modifications (a girls gotta have some individuality right?) Nigella made hers too rich with a lot of chocolate chips and way too much caramel sauce mine was even more express and lighter.

What you need:

1.5 liter carton of Vanilla ice cream
5-6 chocolate covered biscuit chocolate bars like Kit-Kat
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tbs butter
2 tbs single cream
1/4 cup water


What to do:

1. Make a caramel butter suace: Melt the sugar and caramelize it. When caramelising quickly add the cream and stir. Be careful it really splutters. Then add the butter as well stir until sauce is thick and of one consistency.

2. Crush the chocolate bars either with your bare hands or using a rolling pin or a like instrument, into coarse pieces.

3. Soften the ice cream and using a hand whisk or an electronic whisk on a low speed, incorporate the softened ice cream with the chocolate. Stir in some caramel sauce as per your taste.

4. Pour in a clip cake tin and set till firm. You can top a little caramel sauce while serving as well.

5. Cut into slices and as I always say, enjoy!

REALLY Low Fat Strawberry Cheesecake

I've been really trying to cut down on the calories but It's so hard to do with my sweet tooth. I almost always crave for dessert. I often just chew on fruits to curb my sugar attack but today I needed something more.

I made a cheesecake. You must think I must be totally out of my head to even consider that a term that contains the words "Cheese" and "Cake" could ever be low fat. I'm here to prove you wrong. I made a Strawberry Cheesecake without cheese and strawberries.

What you need:

1 package strawberry flavored low-fat, sugar-free pudding mix. [One that asks you to mix 750 ml (3cups) to it]
1 cup of low-fat yogurt, hung for 2-3 hours or just use a really creamy variety without the hanging
1 cup of muesli
1 tbs melted butter or yogurt whey
1 tbs powdered gelatin
1 bar strawberry fruit bar (optional)

What you need to do:

1. Prepare pudding as per instructions only one major modification: reduce the 750 ml(3cups) of milk to 500(2cups) ml of milk. You need to get a really thick and extra sweet pudding. Leave aside to cool.

2. Crush the muesli in a bowl and pour melted butter or whey (makes it slightly soggy but if your really cutting down this is the way to go) and line in a clip cake tin or quiche tin. Freeze for 10 minutes.

3. Puree the cooled pudding with the yogurt and pour into a mixing bowl.

4. Dissolve gelatin in hot water and pour into the pudding mix, stir vigorously. Pour over muesli lined tin. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours till firm and set.

5. Cut pieces of the strawberry bar for garnish.(optional)

6. Cut into REALLY large slices and enjoy; you can afford to!


The pudding should look this thick:





And that's the final cheesecake:

'Tang'y Fruit Salad

I'm on this whole health food kick.

I love eating fruit salad not only because its nutritious and all that, but because it is delicious especially when its made with the freshest seasonal fruits you can find. But what I look for in a fruit salad is the individual taste of every fruit and I hate when the fruit salad is so over 'tossed' that it tastes like one big bowl of fruit puree.

I don't believe in making something simple like fruit salad overly calorific by dressing it with any kind of rich dressing. But I have a trick that makes the most brilliant fruit salad while keeping it simple and low cal.

What you need:

3 cups. of a bunch of your favorite fruits, De-seeded and diced into small pieces. Choose fruits with a firm flesh so that they retain their shape after being tossed about. I used apples, pomegranate, oranges and kiwi (I know it mashes up but I put it right in the end)

1/4 cup. (optional) mixed nuts and dry fruits (almonds, walnuts, dried figs and raisins)
2-3 tsp. of Orange flavored 'Tang' or any similar drink powder.

1/2 tsp. (optional) Indian Chaat Masala- you can buy it or make your own


What to do:

1. Place the firm fleshed fruit in a big bowl

2. Put in half the nuts and dry fruit in the bowl and toss gently

3. Sprinkle tang and chaat masala all over and toss again. Let it sit for a while in the fridge.

4. Before serving sprinkle the remaining nuts and fruits and the mashy fruit if any and eat!


The Tang serves two purposes: an easy dressing and prevents fruit discoloration because of the citric acid in it. Isn't that cool?