Recipe: Delish stuffed mushrooms in minutes!

One of the most flexible vegetables I have come across is the mushroom. Super delicious, super healthy and super flexible mushroom.

One of my favourite mushroom preparations is stuffed mushrooms. Baked mushrooms chock full of whatever catches my fancy. Yumm! The glaze on the cherry on the icing on the cake? It's ready in all of 20 minutes, making it the perfect after-work snack! 

Recipe -

• White button mushrooms
• Finely chopped onions
• Finely chopped bellpeppers
• Crumbled reduced fat feta cheese
• Paprika
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• Lime juice

Preparation -

Pour 1 teaspoon olive oil in a bowl. Add the lime juice, feta cheese, paprika, salt and pepper, onions and bell peppers. Mix well and keep aside.
Wash the mushrooms well and clean thoroughly. Break the stems.
Stuff the mushroom hollows with the feta cheese mix.

Place the mushrooms on a baking tray, drizzle with drops of olive oil (optional).

Pop into the oven for 8-10 minutes.

 Top with chilli flakes, basil leaves and serve!

P.S. - feta cheese can be substituted with paneer or cous cous.

Do let me know what you think about this recipe? What else can we used as feta cheese substitutes?

Garlic broccoli bruschetta: super easy snack in 20 minutes!

After moving to HK, we have developed a healthy appreciation for green vegetables like asparagus, celery, broccoli amongst others. These vegetables were not very easily available back home and therefore we never really got to experiment with them much.

One of my favourite greens is broccoli. An extremely versatile vegetable, it cooks quickly and tastes great with any sauce.

Here's one of my quick and easy broccoli recipes, garlic broccoli bruschetta. It makes for a great starter if you have company or is a wonderful snack if you're in the mood for a healthy homemade bite!

Ingredients:

Five pods of crushed garlic

1 whole broccoli flower, cut into florets

Salt and pepper

Dried oregano, chilli flakes, parsley

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 tablespoon soya sauce

3 teaspoon lime juice

Bruschetta bread or toast bread and cut into square slices

Preparation:
Add the oil in a non-stick pan for 2-3 minutes on medium heat
Lower the heat to sim; add crushed garlic and oregano
Once the garlic starts changing colour, add the broccoli
Stir and cover with a lid and for for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally
You can add a little water if the broccoli starts sticking to the pan
Once the broccoli is cooked (tender but not soft), add salt, pepper, chilli flakes, parsley and lime juice
Mix well, adjust the taste as required
Add soya sauce, mix and turn off the heat
Place one floret on one piece of bruschetta or toast and serve!
Optional - You can also grate cheese and sprinkle on top

Do let me know if you enjoyed the garlic broccoli bruschetta! Did you make any changes to the recipe? Can we substitute the broccoli with some other green vegetables?

Recipe: Chilli grapes and cheese

We hosted our first lunch at home in HK yesterday. While it wasn't the way I usually do things i.e., cook everything myself, it was fun nonetheless! 

We ordered in some Indian food and did the starters at home. I was delighted that nobody had to go running to the supermarket to get ingredients, everything was available at home! Starters included nachos and home made salsa dip, onion flavoured macadamia nuts, roasted almonds, fresh fruits and my favourite, chilli grapes and cheese.

Came up with the chilli grapes idea while staring at a box of grapes... very simple, very spicy, very fun.

Here goes the recipe -

Ingredients -

• Washed seedless grapes, green or black
• Assorted cheese, we used to smoked cheese and emmental
• Olive oil
• Paprika
• 1/4 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 3 tablespoon lime juice
• Pepper
• Lemon pepper

Method -

• Take 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• Add paprika, granulated sugar, salt, pepper, lime juice, pepper, lemon pepper to olive oil and mix
• Let sit for 10 minutes and then pour over grapes
• Toss the grapes in the oil mixture and put in the freezer about an 45 minutes before serving
• Keep cheese in the freezer as well, this will make the cheese easier to cut
• Before serving, take out grapes, toss again and serve with cheese on the side!
• Make sure you pour out the remaining oil mixture on the grapes - this will really bring home the tanginess and the cheese will pick up the flavours too! 

Do let me know if you liked this quick and easy snack! Did you make any changes to it?

Presentation makes all the difference!

Presentation surely does make all the difference! It can make humble smoked cheese, grapes and olives look really appealing; everyday pancakes seem exotic; an ordinary pear unique and make a mundane activity like tea drinking, exciting!

Do share your thoughts and tips on presentation! What are the tricks and tools you use to make your food look fancy and appealing?

Dinner for two

Over the week, the only meal the husband and I have together is dinner. So on the days I am cooking at home, I try to make something simple yet interesting. Simple because the husband has a habit of getting into the kitchen the moment he comes home and sometimes, that's not a great idea.

When he's home late and hungry, it's been a simple dish of hot beans in soy sauce and paprika with pearl rice.

 Beans in soy sauce with pearl rice, our latest favourite

On that rare day when there was time for starters and a couple of beers, there was tzatziki with Doritos and mustard sauce; followed by salt and pepper baby corn and broccoli accompanied by brown rice in tomato sauce and zucchini. All made in under an hour (I sure am getting fast at this!).  

And then there are days when the leftovers just come together to make an interesting meal. Like beans in soy sauce with zucchini rice!

The only challenge to cooking with speed is that I think as I cook and that takes time. This is a typical exchange in the kitchen while I'm cooking -

Husband: "What are you making?"
Me: "I don't know yet."
Husband: "Then why are you cutting so many vegetables?"
Me: "Just to see where this takes us!"
Husband: Grins, "sounds good to me!"

So, when I need to just cook fast and not innovate, Indian is the way to cook. Just follow mummy's recipes!

What can you cook with speed? My least favourite chore is cutting vegetables. What is yours?

Collaborative cooking

Over the weekend, a friend and I decided to make a fusion dinner at home while the husband was at work. My friend, a great cook, decided to tackle the baba ghanoush with sun dried tomatoes bread while I went with the tomato bruschetta, spaghetti aglio olio and stir fry vegetables. And all this was ready in under 90 minutes!

It is suffice to say that the husband was pleasantly surprised and the dinner a great success! :)

What do you 'rustle up' when time is short? What is your favourite go-to recipe? I would love to know!

Recipe: Herb Dip!

I decided to experiment and see where my culinary explorations will take me and started with the safest option possible - dip.

Now, a dip is as good a place as any to start because 1) it is a side and there are other things to balance it out if something goes wrong and 2) it's a BIG hit if everything goes right! 

Since I was focussing heavily on the main course and dessert that night, I thought I'd put together a simple dip with ingredients available on the kitchen slab. We are big fans of garlic and lemon which is a definitely a plus when it comes to curd based dips, so I used garlic powder with a liberal hand. The garlic and lemon give it a sharp tangy kick and the peanuts give texture and add crunch.

Here goes my recipe for the herby dip!

Ingredients:

Curd, even better if you use hung curd

Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

1 tbs lemon juice

Garlic powder

Chilli flakes

Dried oregano

Dried basil

Dried parsley

1 tsp olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Roasted and crushed peanuts (those allergic to peanuts can substitute with almonds)

To prepare:

Combine the curd and peanuts with the herbs and garlic powder in a bowl.

Add salt and pepper. Mix well.

Add lemon juice and olive oil and mix.

Garnish with parmesan - be careful with the quantity as a lot of people don't enjoy the sharp taste of this variety of cheese much.

Serve chilled and enjoy!

This is a perfect accompaniment for lavash, cheese sticks (as above), soya sticks, khakra, cream cracker biscuit etc.

Do tell me if you liked it - would love to hear from you, get feedback and learn from you! :)