The Hash'n'Tots

Friday food has to be funky fun :) (Extra points for alliteration)

Ham and cauliflower hash with tater tots.

THE HASH

Dice ham. Blanch cauliflower florets. Toss together in a little oil with chopped garlic and onion, salt, pepper, a little cayenne, oregano, and a sprinkle of breadcrumbs just for fun. Top with a fried egg.

THE TOTS

Parboil potatoes; then peel and grate. Add a spoonful of flour and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Make little tot babies. Fry till golden and crispy and delightful.

Happy weekend!

The Healthy McHealtherson

WARNING: Could get way too healthy to handle.

Asian cabbage parcels! The veggie version. Vegan, if you want.
(Will turn non-vegetarian if you add fish/mince/egg and fish sauce)

Blanch cabbage leaves (submerge in boiling water for 2 minutes and then run under cold water to stop the cooking process) and keep aside. Toss up a whole bunch of finely chopped veggies in the oil - stuff you'd put in a stir fry. Good stuff to put in would be carrots, corn, mushrooms, cabbage, beet, scallion (spring onions), maybe even tofu. If you eat egg, you could throw in scrambled egg. Toss in a little soy sauce and garlic chilli sauce. Take off the heat.

Lay out a blanched cabbage leaf and cut out some of the hard stem part. Add a little mixture from the stir fry onto one side of the leaf and roll. Steam the "parcel" for a few minutes (3-4 maybe). If you don't have a steamer, boil some water in a pot and put a metal colander on top (not touching the water) and put your parcel in the colander. Serve with a little soy sauce for dipping!

GUILT FREE WEDNESDAY.

The Shawarma

Shawarma is my life.

I grew up in Saudi Arabia, which basically means I had these 2 Riyal awesomenesses at least 2000 times a week. Well, or I tried to, at least.

So I made this one with toum rather than tahini sauce, but only because I love toum on anything. (Toum is that amazing Lebanese garlic sauce that they serve with shish taouk. Basically just crushed garlic with vegetable oil and lemon.) But you get both on the market, and typically shawarmas have tahini sauce in them.

Sauté shredded chicken in very little oil with salt, cumin and coriander powders. Set aside. Slice up some lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. Heat a khubz (Arabic flatbread) on a pan only for a minute (else it gets brittle) and put the chicken, toum or tahini sauce, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles and roll it up. I like to put the rolled up thing in an oven for a few min and then eat it. Done!

The New Year Splurge

Happy 2016, everybody! Who wants to start the year right with some delish nom nom?

Cue Butter Chicken.

I've tried to get this recipe right without reading about it anywhere for ages, and I made such a simple mistake every time that when I finally got it right this time, I couldn't believe how stupid it was.

There's no onions in this recipe. (WHAT)

Marinate boneless pieces of chicken in yogurt, ginger, garlic, salt, turmeric, garam masala, cumin and coriander powder for an hour minimum. Then tava-fry or grill the pieces till cooked and brown. Set aside.

Puree tomatoes (I used 2.5 for 1 kg of chicken). Puree a handful of cashews too. Heat a slab of butter and put in some cumin seeds. When they sputter, put in the tomato puree and cook. Add the cashew puree and freshly ground and roasted garam masala and a little tandoori chicken masala, and chilli powder. Some might add a pinch of sugar (not me). Add a little light cream and simmer. Taste it to see if it tastes like butter chicken. Add the chicken and simmer a little more till you're happy with the consistency. Serve with a small garnish of cream and nice hot rice or roti!

The Healthy 2015

Eyy it's Newsletter Wednesday, it's the last post of the year, and it's a healthy one! (I'll ruin all that with my butter chicken recipe this Friday)

Indian cream of spinach soup with skinny ham salad and crackers

This actually turned out to be a super yummy combination.

SOUP

Saute garlic, ginger, onions, chilies and tomatoes in a little oil. Add a little cumin, coriander and garam masala powder with salt. Add spinach. Take the entire mixture and blend with a few pieces of paneer and a tiny bit of light cream. Drizzle olive oil on top while serving!

HAM

So typically, ham salad, like tuna salad and chicken salad, is made with mayonnaise. I replaced mayo with Greek yogurt. Yay.

Blend that leftover ham from Christmas till it's super-chopped. Add chopped celery, Greek yogurt, a little mustard, and whatever seasoning you want. I also added a barbecue sauce drizzle. Yum. Serve it up real nice with crackers of your choice.

The Bengali Scotch

Dim er devil = king of leftovers.

I had mashed potatoes from the Christmas dinner, and I always have boiled eggs. This is typically an evening snack, but since it's the long weekend here we had these for breakfast. Bad us.

Boil eggs. Boil, peel and mash potatoes with ginger-garlic paste and green chillies, and chat masala. Cut the boiled eggs in half. Make a ball of mashed potato mix (after it's dry and cooled) and flatten. Make a half egg sit in the potato flattened ball and have the potato cover the egg completely. Set up a breading station: roll the egg-potato ball in flour, then egg wash and then bread crumbs and deep-fry. Serve with kasundi!

PS: If you have minced meat left over, include that (cooked) in the potato mixture.

The Easy Christmas

Christmas dinners do NOT need to be complicated. Here's what we had:

Honey-barbeque glazed ham with mashed potatoes, salad and cinnamon cream cheese tarts.

Sounds like a mouthful, but it should take you no more than ONE HOUR.

HAM

Skin the giant leg of ham. Run knife in a criss-cross fashion on the surface and stick cloves in the Xs. Make a glaze of honey, barbeque sauce, mustard and a little olive oil. Baste half of the glaze on the ham and stick in the oven for 20 min. Baste again with the rest of the glaze and return to the oven for another 20 min.

POTATOES

Boil, peel and mash potatoes. Mix with butter and make it smooth. Season with salt and pepper and serve with gravy of your choice.

TARTS

Mix a cup of softened cream cheese with 4 spoons of sugar and some cinnamon. Stuff into tart shells (got mine from store) and stick a half-strawberry on top. Refrigerate.

Serve with salad and wine and listen to Carol of the Bells!