Vegetarian

Mediterranean Summer Bread Pudding

By Ria / Entrée, Vegetarian / 2 Comments / May 22, 2014

This Sunday, I have a party to go to. And I’m planning to make a bread pudding with lots of lovely stuff – white chocolate, bananas, cranberries – in it to take along. But then, that is only on Sunday… and people have to eat till then, right? I was not in a mood to go food shopping in the middle of the week. Looking in the refrigerator, I realised I had bits of different cheeses that I needed to use up. But how? And remember, I had bread pudding on my brain… voila, the end result is this Mediterranean summer bread pudding!

Why Mediterranean summer? One thing I wanted in the dish was baby spinach… always have it on hand. So we have assorted cheeses and spinach. What goes with that? Of course, olives and lemon! The combination reminds you of a lovely Mediterranean summer, doesn’t it? 🙂

This dish would shine with feta cheese as stated in the recipe, but I used an assortment of cheeses, the leftovers from earlier recipes… a bit of gouda, bit of mozzarella, and even a bit of brie. And of course some pecorino on the top. It tasted so yummy!

Once I arrived at the theme, the rest was easy. Add the standard spices that go with the cuisine… allspice, cumin, red chilli flakes, and oregano.

You can make this with white bread as well, but of course, whole wheat bread is always better*. Whichever bread, make sure that it gets ample time to soak up the juices, before you pop it into the oven.

Finally, I like to grease the baking pan with butter. If you prefer, you can use olive oil for this purpose.

* Hey, doesn’t that sound like a slogan? “Whole Wheat Bread is Always Good!”

~Ria

Mediterranean Summer Bread Pudding

Author: Ria

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Ingredients

6 large slices whole wheat bread
1 cup baby spinach, tightly packed
5 artichoke hearts, thinly sliced
12 black olives
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
4 large eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tsp allspice powder
½ tsp cumin powder
1 tsp red chilli flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp shredded pecorino cheese
Unsalted butter to grease the pan
Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree fahrenheit and butter a 9 inch baking pan.
Cut the crusts off the bread slices and cut them into ½ inch cubes.
Cut the baby spinach finely.
Slice the artichoke hearts thinly.
Slice the black olives into thin circles.
In a large pan, mix together the bread cubes, spinach, artichoke hearts and olives. Make sure that the vegetables are not wet so that the bread doesn’t get soggy.
Transfer the bread and vegetable mix to the buttered baking pan and spread evenly.
Spread the crumbled cheese evenly over the bread mix.
Beat the eggs well with the milk. Add olive oil, lemon zest and juice, allspice and cumin powders, red chilli flakes, and oregano. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix thoroughly.
Pour this mixture over the bread and cheese.
Keep aside for 30 minutes to allow the bread cubes to soak in the liquid.
After 30 minutes, gently press down the contents of the pan and sprinkle the top with the pecorino cheese.
Loosely cover the pan with aluminium foil and place in the heated oven.
Bake for 30 minutes. Then, remove the foil and continue baking uncovered for another 10 minutes or till the cheese starts to get brown spots.
Slice and serve with a tomato salad on the side. A semi-dry white wine goes well with this Mediterranean summer bread pudding.

Cilantro Pesto Pasta

By Ria / Entrée, Vegetarian / 2 Comments / April 28, 2014

There is no easier go-to food than pasta… In the time that the water takes to boil and cook the pasta, you can get the sauce done. And if you are in a hurry, nothing is faster than a pesto sauce. However, just because it can be done quickly, it doesn’t mean that pesto is a simple thing; the flavours in a pesto sauce can be complex and intriguing. What is more, you can experiment with different combinations of ingredients.

Basically, a pesto sauce needs a nut base to give it body. Add to it any green herb to form the foundation of the flavour. And olive oil to bring it all together. The rest is entirely up to you… you can try various accent flavours to focus on, till you find your favourite combinations.

The pesto sauce I have used here is very basic, with cashew nuts and cilantro. Flavoured with garlic, ginger and lemon juice. You can keep this pesto sauce in the refrigerator for a week, in an airtight jar.

This pesto is rather versatile. You can use it with just vegetables or a combination of chicken and vegetables. If using chicken, the easiest way will be to either grill it or pan cook it and then slice it into thin strips. Here I have used just vegetables, a combination of peppers in three colours, mushrooms and egg plant.

Also, you can use any kind small sized pasta for this dish. However, I always prefer spaghetti to go with a pesto sauce. Nice to swirl around your fork!

Enjoy!

~Ria

Cilantro Pesto Pasta

Author: Ria

Recipe type: Dinner

Ingredients

½ cup cashew nuts
1 cup cilantro, measured after cleaning and chopping
½ cup + 2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
A small piece ginger root
2 tsp lemon juice
1 jalapeño or any variety green chilli
1 pinch sugar
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 cups mixed vegetables, cut into thin long pieces (any combination of peppers, squash, broccoli florets, mushrooms, egg plant, etc)
½ lb spaghetti

Directions

Soak the cashew nuts in sufficient water to submerge for an hour. (If you do not have the time to soak the cashew, you can as well use pine nuts which do not need to be soaked.)
Pick only the leaves and tender stalks of cilantro and chop.
Remove the skins of garlic and ginger.
Carefully remove the stem and seeds of the jalapeno.
In the blender, add the nuts, cilantro, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, lemon juice, and sugar, and blend well. Add salt and black pepper to taste. When blended into a paste, drizzle the olive oil in a thin stream while the blender is still running. When all the oil is used up, switch off the blender and set the pesto sauce aside in a container.
Cut the vegetables into long thin strips.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, on high heat. When the oil is hot, add the vegetables and stir fry for three minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.
Add some salt to a pot of water and bring to boil. Add the spaghetti and cook uncovered. After 8 minutes, check for doneness. When you can bite into a strand of spaghetti easily, but there is a bit of resistance at the center, it is done enough. Drain the water off the pasta and transfer the pasta to a largish dish. Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over the pasta and shake together to coat.
Add the stir fired vegetables to the pasta. Drizzle the pesto sauce over the pasta and vegetables and carefully mix together.
Serve hot with extra pesto sauce on the side.

Verineki

By Ria / Entrée, Vegetarian / 4 Comments / April 17, 2014

When I used to work in downtown NYC, one of our lunch places used to be this Russian place on Fulton Street. Walking distance from work, it offered very good food. Recently, when I read a review of the book ‘Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking’ in New York Times, I really wanted to try out some of those dishes. Fortunately, it was just a matter of sending out a request through email, for offers of authentic Russian cookbooks to be forthcoming. And today I made Varenikis, following a recipe in a book lent to me by my friend Olga. Thank you so much, Olga!

Vareniki is a kind of dumplings, made of fresh dough. The dough is a simple one with flour and eggs. And then you fill it with stuff and boil it in salted water. In fact, the literal meaning of the word vareniki is just ‘boiled thing’!

Traditionally it has fillings like meat, cooked potatoes, sauerkraut, cheese, fruit etc. Here I have used a mixture of cheese and dried fruit filling.

The best part of it is, you can make whatever you want of it, with a variety of fillings. Now that I have successfully tried it, the next step would be to try out some new combinations of fillings!

One fact common to all dumplings is that it is so easy to determine when they are done; they float up to the surface when done!

The recipe recommends serving the varenikis with sour cream, but I think it could go with many an interesting sauce or aioli. Next time…

~Ria

Verineki

Author: Ria

Ingredients

2 cups flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp cold water
½ tsp salt
½ lb cottage cheese
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1tbsp butter
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup glazed cherries

Directions

To make the dough, mix the salt into the flour.
Beat the eggs and cold water together, and add to the flour.
Mix together and kneed into a smooth dough. Keep covered with cling wrap.
For the stuffing, chop the raisin and cherries. Beat the egg.
Mix cottage cheese, sugar, beaten egg, vanilla extract and chopped fruit together.
Form small balls of the dough.
Make a depression in the center of each of the dough balls with your thumb and fill with stuffing. Carefully, form into an oval shape.
Bring water to boil in a pan, adding a teaspoon of salt to the water.
When the water starts to boil, drop the formed varenikis carefully into the water. Let them cook for a few minutes.
When done, the varenikis will float to the top. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and place on a plate.
Brush them with melted butter. Serve with sour cream.

Palak Paneer – Cottage cheese and spinach

By Min / Entrée, Vegetarian / 4 Comments / April 14, 2014

Conducting cooking classes for my friends and colleagues was something I really enjoyed doing. We had so much fun during those classes where we cooked together and then devoured all the fruits of our labour afterwards. Though I didn’t manage to hold many sessions, I will always remember those fun filled classes with a smile. Palak paneer and chicken tikka masala were some of the most popular dishes among my friends so naturally, I received many requests to make these two in the sessions.

Palak paneer is a dish prepared mainly in Punjab, a state in northern India. It makes for an excellent accompaniment to rice or naan, Indian flat bread. The combination of palak and paneer is not only nutritious, but is also a delicious blend of taste, textures and flavours. No wonder so many wanted me to teach how to make it!

Palak is a type of spinach with rounded green leaves that don’t have a big network of veins, making it a good candidate for blanching and puréeing. So it’s not surprising that blanching the palak is the first step in the process. Simply put all the spinach into a pan of boiling water and boil for 2 minutes without using a lid to cover the pan. This is important because if a lid is used, the volatile oils in these leaves will not be able to escape with the steam and this will result in bitter leaves. After the 2 minutes, transfer the palak into a bowl of cold water with some ice cubes to refresh it.

Paneer is cottage cheese and can be made at home quite easily. I was bitten by a lazybug a few days before I last made palak paneer so I didn’t bother to make my own and used the store-bought paneer instead. It really is quite simple to do though and I will post a nice and easy guide on how to make your own paneer soon!

Normally paneer pieces are just fried or added plain into the prepared curry at the end. I always marinate these cubes of paneer with a little lime juice, salt and half a teaspoon of cumin powder for half an hour to make it more interesting and add more flavour to the dish. I then sauté these cubes in a little oil to make them firm so that they won’t crumble when added to the palak.

As palak is not very common in certain parts of the world, I wanted to try making this dish with chard or collard greens. But it just never happened. See, still being lazy…I shall post the result when (or if!) I eventually try it out.

~Min

Palak Paneer - Cottage cheese and spinach.

Author: Min

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

Palak (spinach) 300g
Paneer 200g
Roasted cumin powder ½ teaspoon
Lime juice ½ lime
Onion (finely chopped) 1 big
Cumin seeds 1 ½ teaspoon
Ginger (crushed) ½ inch piece
Garlic (crushed) 4 cloves
Green chillies (finely chopped)1 – optional
Tomato ( puréed) 2 medium
Coriander powder 1 tablespoon
Cumin powder 1 teaspoon
Chilli powder ½ teaspoon
Salt to taste
Cream 4 tablespoons
Or Full cream milk ½ cup
Sunflower oil (any refined oil) 3 tablespoons

Directions

Cut the paneer into 1 cm cubes, marinate with the juice of half a lime, ½ tsp cumin powder and salt for 10 minutes.
Blanch the spinach, refresh in ice water and grind into a fine paste. Set aside.
Shallow fry the paneer cubes until light brown in a tbsp of oil and drain on a kitchen paper.
Heat the rest of the oil and fry cumin seeds until it changes colour to a darker tone.
Add chopped onions and sauté till transluscent.
Add crushed garlic and ginger, followed by green chilli and fry till the onion becomes slightly brown. Add corriander, chilli and cumin powder and fry for a minute.
Then add the tomato puree and fry for 4-5 mnts stirring often. Add salt to taste.
Once the tomato mixture is fried add the spinach puree and paneer cubes. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Add cream or milk and simmer till a glaze appears on top of the liquid.
Add a squeeze of lime (optional) and serve with a swirl of cream.

Pumpkin Soup – tasty and healthy

By Min / Soups, Vegetarian / 1 Comment / March 24, 2014

Pumpkin and papaya were two of the vegetables I detested most during my childhood, but once I started cooking that slowly changed. Pumpkin found its way into my culinary escapades as my husband was very fond of it and papaya was only made appealing to me by the lovely Pawpaw man.

Now, I love pumpkin almost as much as my husband, not only because it is actually really delicious but also because it's really healthy. Pumpkin is good source of vitamin A, B, C and E. A 100 gram pumpkin provides 100% of the daily recommended Vitamin A while containing only 20 calories. Even the seeds inside the hollow of the fruit when dry roasted with some salt are a good low calorie snack.

Pumpkins are so versatile that they can be used in both sweet as well as savoury dishes. My favourite way of making pumpkin has to be pumpkin soup which is a big hit with my daughters. It's always on the list of things they want me to make for them when they come to visit me. The last time I made my pumpkin soup, I made a very large batch and decided to freeze half of it to save me the trouble of making it twice. It worked really well and I would definitely recommend it as it's always nice on those lazy days to simply heat something up and have a great, healthy meal with no fuss.

Here I’ve used fresh pumpkins as it’s easily available but canned pumpkins can also be used. The soup is already full of flavour especially with all the roasted cumin and paprika, but you can always tweak it to your taste by adding more garlic or chilli flakes or whatever else you think might make a good addition to the soup. When making the soup for my girls, I always use cream as it is best suited to achieve the smooth, creamy texture but full cream or semi skimmed milk make adequate substitutes when considering the calories.

~Min

Pumpkin Soup – tasty and healthy

Recipe type: Soups

Ingredients

Pumpkin 250 grams (3 cups) - peeled and cut into cubes
Onion 1 medium sized – sliced
Garlic 6 cloves
Chilli powder ½ tsp
Paprika 1 tsp
Roasted Cumin powder 1-1 ½ tsp
Bay leaf 2
Vegetable stock cube 1
Cream / full cream milk ½ cup
Salt to taste
Chilli flakes 1 tsp (optional)
Olive oil or any refined oil 1 tbsp

Directions

Heat a thick bottomed pan with oil.
Add garlic, sliced onions, bay leaf and sauté till onions are transparent.
Add chilli powder and half of the cumin powder and sauté for 2 minutes.
Add the cut pumpkin cubes, sauté for another 3 minutes, pour 1 cup of water, crumble stock cube and salt, cook till the pumpkin pieces are tender.
Blend this after removing the bay leaf into a smooth puree.
Heat the puree. You can add more salt and chilli flakes, if required, at this point.
Once it starts simmering, add cream and the remaining cumin powder and remove from the heat.
You can add more milk or hot water to the soup to attain the required consistency.
Serve with a small dollop of cream or some croutons.

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