Vindu

Here is a nice, relaxing, cool drink for summer time.  I was researching about antioxidants the past few days and here is the net net: Tea is your best bet.  Green tea/white tea even better.  Berries are rich sources too but they are seasonal. Cocoa is good too(they say its the best).. but only if consumed dark to benefit from the antioxidants.  So going with the calorie vs. antioxidants ratio, tea is your best bet.

source: thenibble.com

–ingredients—————————————

• Orange Pekoe tea powder - 1 tsp
• Ginger - 1/2 tsp
• Cloves - 6 (adjust according to your palate)
• Honey - 1 tsp

–procedure—————————————-

1. Boil 1.5 cups of water in a kettle with the tea powder.
2. Place the cloves and ginger in a cup, pour the boiling water and cover the cup.
3. Let it steep for 3 mins and filter into a cup.
4. Mix in the honey and serve cold.

Tah Dah!

-Mythili

I like recipes that don’t involve grinding at all.  Its a mess to clean the blender and I am lazy. I totally dig those where I can do without using a blender/mixer. This recipe calls for onion paste and I totally omitted it.  I just used fine-cut, no-tear, easy-peezy onions. The newest addition to my kitchen - Kuhn Rikon Twist & Chop is totally awesome.  Easy to clean and easy to store!

Here you go - recipe for Dal Makhani : lentils cooked in buttered sauce. 

–ingredients————————————-

• Whole urad dal with skin - 1 cup [soaked overnight and boiled]
• Kidney beans - 1/2 cup [soaked overnight and boiled]
• Heavy cream - 2 tbsp
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Oil - 1-2 tbsp
• Onions very finely chopped - 1 cup
• Green chillies - 4
• Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
• Jeera - 1/2 tsp
• Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
• Red Chilli powder - 2 tsp [adjust this to suit your palate]
• Coriander very finely chopped - 2 tbsp
• Fresh Mint - 4 leaves
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp [I go through the grinding ordeal once every 2 months]
• Fine chopped tomatoes - 1/2 cup
• Star Anise - 1/2
• Cinnamon - 1 inch stick

–procedure————————————–

1. Heat oil and add jeera, anise, cinnamon stick.  After 10 secs add curry leaves and hing. 
2. Add onions, ginger garlic paste, green chillies and tomatoes.  Cook until well done.. in fact they should form a paste (with tomatoes’ juices)
3. Now add the lentils (soaked and boiled blackgram/urad and kidney beans/rajma ) along with 1 cup of water.
4. After 2 mins, add mint, turmeric, red chill powder and garam masala powder. Stir well.
5. After another 5 mins, add heavy cream and stir well.
6. Cook on low heat for 10 mins.
7. Finally add butter and coriander leaves; simmer for another 5 mins and turn off the heat.
8. Serve hot with bread or cooked brown rice.

-Mythili

Cherry Tomato + Fresh Mozzarella + Basil + Olive Oil and then some more.

This is how made it.

Heat 1 tsp of Olive oil, add 1/2 garlic clove crushed and fry a couple basil leaves.  Cool it and keep aside.  Prepare Balsamic vinegar reduction(Take 2 tbsp of Balsamic vinegar, preferably from Modena, Italy and bring to a boil. Continue simmering until its viscocity is close to a glaze. Cool and keep aside)

Chop cherry tomatoes into halves, mozzarella and avocado into bite sized pieces. Take a tooth pick and assemble one by one. Finally add a fresh basil leaf.  Pour Balsamic vinegar reduction and Olive oil over the prepared tooth picks.

Ta-da!

-Mythili

The simplest most tasteful dessert ever has to be Tiramisu!  I ‘Live Search’-ed around for some recipes and came up with this one.  I don’t like raw eggs in my Tiramisu; eggs are completely omitted in this recipe. 

–ingredients———————————–

1. Coffee liquer
2. Orange liquer (optional)
3. Mascarpone cheese
4. Heavy Whipping cream
5. 2 tbsp sugar
6. Dark Chocolate
7. Espresso
8. Premium Scotch
9. Lady finger cookies - 8

Preparing Mascarpone mixture

1. Take 1 cup of heavy whipping cream.
2. Add 2 tbsp of sugar and beat smooth.
3. Take 1 cup of mascarpone and beat until smooth.
4. Fold mascarpone in to cream and mix well.
5. Add 2 tbsp of Orange Liquer (optional).  Keep aside

To dip Lady Fingers:

1. Pour 1/2 cup Kahlua in a bowl.  Add 2 tbsp of espresso and 2 tbsp for scotch.   Mix well and keep aside.

I assembled the dessert in separate glass cups. 

Assembling the dessert:

1. Dip lady fingers in kahlua solution, break down into pieces and line the bottom of your glass.
2. Add a layer of mascarpone mixute.
3. Then add another layer of dipped/broke lady fingers.
4. Finally finish with a layer of mascarpone mixture.

 The dessert has to be refrigerated for 10-12 hours.   Before serving sprinkle chocolate shavings and ground cofffe powder.  I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate.

-Mythili

**Update on 7/27 - added photos ** 

So we were watching Return of Seven last night. Does anyone think Yul Brynner is gay? I think he is.. anyhoo.. the point is, we were watching the movie and it was so boringggg that I had to kickstart my senses with something crazy.

I have this perennial marinating jar where chopped nuts steep in a solution of rum and wine. I checked the refrigerator and saw that we had no eggs.*gasp* *gasp*  I did read here that applesauce can be used as a substitute for eggs. Then I got fancy… so here goes.

–ingredients————————————

• Applesauce- 1/4 cup
• Chopped nuts steeped in rum and wine - 1/4 cup
• Whole wheat pastry flour - 1 cup
• All purpose flour - 1/4 cup
• Salt, Baking powder, baking soda - 1/2 tea spoon each
• Milk - 2 tbsp
• Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp(yes, just 1 tbsp, thank you very much)
• Grated dark chocolate - 2 tbsp
• Coffee - 1/2 cup ( 1 tsp of instant coffee in 1/2 cup of boiling water)
• Cayenne powder - 1/2 tsp (N, sorry baby.. I hid this from you. I know you wouldn’t approve of Cayenne in the cake)

–procedure————————————–

1. Mix all the wet ingredients together. I mixed them in this order - applesauce, milk, oil, and finally coffee. Stir well.
2. Add the flours, salt, cayenne, baking soda and powder.  Mix well.
3. Finally add the grated chocolate and the nuts.
4. Preheat oven to 350C.
5. Grease a cake pan with butter and pour the cake batter in it.
6. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes clean, about 35 minutes.

Wise readers will note that this cake has no sugar in it. You see we(read “I”) wanted to eat the cake with Nutella , the elixir-almost of life :D   If you don’t like Nutella, please add 1/2 cup (or more according to your taste) of sugar to the recipe.

Crazy cake + nutella = mm, mm, mmmmmm! yum.

I baked this at 11.30pm last night.  Will update with photos tonight.

-Mythili