Chilli Chocolate Cakes for Two
Here’s an interesting weekend treat!
Mawa Cake with Chocolate Kahwa Frosting
A superb recipe…on my must make list!
Homemade Scones with Plum Jam and Cream
Found this awesome recipe written by a friend…cuts the time and efforts taken to a bare minimum… a must try…with bacon jam 😉
Grilled Cinnamon Plums with Mascarpone Cheese
I love desserts. And I like them even better if they are easy to make and come with fresh ingredients–something I’ve learnt to indulge in post my die-hard fascination for MasterChef. Yeah I am a sucker for food shows and to meet Gordon Ramsay stands very high on my Bucket List. But till then I am happy to devour every cookbook of his and lay my hands on every recipe he has published. He seems to have the right knack of simplifying the most horrendously tricky procedures and making it super simple! But enough about my gushing love for him…
This is not one of his recipes, but is a version of Martha Stewart’s creation. And what I like about it, is its simplicity. My first restaurant, Skie Grille, in Utorda Goa was all about food off the grill, may be that’s why this recipe is close to my heart. Or may be it’s just the ease in creating it–all it takes is 5 minutes and can be made with ingredients found in every pantry.
Grilled Cinnamon Plums with Mascarpone Cheese
Time: 5 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 2 plums
- 100 grams mascarpone cheese
- 2 teaspoons honey (avoid for diabetics)
- 2 tablespoons sugar (can be made using sugar substitute too)
- 1 teaspoon cinamon powder
- 400 ml orange juice
- 4 tablespoons orange liqueur of your choice ( I prefer Cointreau or Grand Marnier)
- Sprig of mint
Method
- Halve the plums and pit them
- Grill the plum on the grilling pan placing the pitted side on the grill.
- Grill for 3 to 4 minutes till the grill marks are visible.
- Turn over and grill the skin side for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from grill and cool.
- MIx together the mascarpone cheese, half the cinnamon powder and sugar and cool it.
- Reduce the orange juice and liqueur together till it is of a thick syrup consistency.
- To plate up: Top a scoop of the mascarpone cheese mix on the grilled plum. Place it on a white plate. Drizzle the honey on it and top with the remaining cinnamon powder. Place a mint leaf in the centre of each plum. Pour the orange juice reduction over and around the plums.
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- Plums grilled without butter
Charred marks on the plums. At this stage you could brush it with unsalted butter.
Fat-free five-minute dessert
Slow Cooked Oil-free One-Pot Dish
I’ve often had to entertain large groups of friends and family who don’t want me spending time in the kitchen when they are around. And yet they expect, yes I do spoil the ones I love, a three or four course meal.
Stage 1: Slow cooked oil-free chicken in pot
The first time I was asked to stay out of the kitchen, I freaked! My meats and accompaniments were not done, the dessert was in the oven, the drinks were flowing but the starters were still being assembled. Disaster. There I was scooping out pies and spooning out fillings into little tartlets even as I guzzled my own ice filled glass of the poison of the day! Though the evening, or rather early morning, ended up with everyone being fabulously drunk on food and spirits, I ticked myself off mentally. No more last minute cooking for this group of friends.
So now I plan my meals for this group of 10.
And it does need plenty of planning.
For starters make sure your refrigerator is empty, I mean it. Secondly, make lists and plan the menu down to the last chocolate or coffee you are going to serve.
Next decide on a simple wholesome one-pot main dish, that needs little interference as it cooks. Even better if you can keep the entire dish ready and marinating a day prior. So here’s the one dish wonder that has been the talk of many a parties!
Preparation time: 20 minutes.
Pre-prep: 2 hours
Marinating time: from 2 hours to 24 hours, the longer the better
Cooking assembly: Cast iron pan, a must, and an oven that will cook at 100 degree C for at least 3 hours.
Slow-Cooked One-Pot Oil-free Chicken in Rum
Stage 2: Slow cooked oil-free chicken in pot
Cooking for 4 people
Ingredients:
- 1 kg chicken, cleaned and cut into 12 pieces, soaked in salt water for 2 hours
- 250 grams potato
- 250 grams onion
- 250 grams carrots
- 100 grams green onion
- 8-10 prunes, dried
- 8-10 apricots, dried
- 1/2 apple,. I prefer the acidity in Granny’s apple.
- 350 grams fresh orange juice
- 2 tablespoons dried thyme
- 2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
- 200 ml rum
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate pearls
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
Method
- Marinate the washed and cut chicken with ginger and garlic paste, barbecue sauce, salt, pepper and the thyme.
- In your cast iron pan, place the marinated chicken at the base. Then build on from there adding potatoes, apple, carrots, onions, prunes and apricots.
Stage 3: Slow cooked oil free chicken in pot
- In another pan reduce the fresh orange juice along with the rum, till the alcohol burns off and juice has thickened. If you do not have the time, add the juice and rum without reducing it, but reduce the quantities by half. This will result in a change in taste, but it’s yummy anyway.
- Pour the left over marinate over the layers and finally top with the reduced orange juice-rum concoction. Add the pomegranate pearls (optional).
- Cover the pan and marinate for at least 2 hours. If you can marinate it for 24 hours, place the pan in a refrigerator.
- Bring to room temperature before cooking.
- Place the pan in a pre-heated oven 100 degree C. And cook for 3 hours at the same temperature.
- When you are done, the chicken will fall of the bones. But the carrots and potato will still have a bite on them.
- The gravy can be reduced down or thickened as per your preference.
- To serve: Place the chicken towards one end, top with the vegetables and pour the sauce over it.
- Accompaniments: Baked potato, mashed potato, sauted french beans in mustard, bacon jam and hard crust bread to soak up those lovely flavours.
Stage 4: Slow cooked oil free chicken in pot
10-ingredient Burger Spice Mix
A fussy eater that I am, I’ve never found the right spice mix for my burgers. Having worked with spices and herbs over time, I’ve finally zeroed down on one that appeals to my senses. What’s better is that this recipe can be tweaked to suit different taste buds. As long as love the taste, who cares about fractions and permutations and combinations!
This recipe can be adapted to create a diabetic friendly and diet friendly version. The pure herb mix can also be used as a rub for pork and beef steaks.
10-ingredient Burger Spice Mix
makes 75 grams
Ingredients
- 1/4 cupbrown sugar (those cooking for diabetics and healthy eaters can avoid the sugar and make a pure herb mix)
- 2 tablespoons sea salt
- 4 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
Method
- Blend all the ingredients together and store in an air-tight bottle in a dry space.
Barbecue Sauce
Onions Sauted in Barbecue Sauce
This is one of my favourite sauces. Add it to a grilled chicken salad, fry onions in it for a sandwich or top it on chips or stuffed tacos…it lends flavour to any entree.
If you are looking to jazz up this sauce a wee bit more, feel free to add some whisky or rum to it, giving yourself enough time to burn the alcohol off during the cooking process.
If you use dark brown sugar, you will get a darker shade of sauce.
If you use whole grain mustard, the sauce will be denser, but you can use English Mustard too. The best way to make a sauce is to keep tasting it, and making your notes as you add ingredients. Once you find the right proportions to tickle your tastebuds, your recipe and variations with help you achieve the same product, time after time.
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow mustard
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
Method
- Cook all the ingredients together for 10 minutes.
- To add flavor you could add 50 ml whisky or dark rum of your choice and cook further for 10 minutes.
Burgers
Burgers have to be sloppy. There’s no other way to devour this gigantic piece of absolute delight. But that’s not where the expectations end! Every teeny-weeny morsel has to burst with a unique marriage of flavours that comes from its spicy, sour, tangy, meaty, creamy and fresh ingredients.
When I started creating these burgers, I knew little about flavours and textures and it was all about slamming a seasoned meat patty between 2 slices of a toasted bun. With French fries, tomato ketchup and mustard for an accompaniment, the meal was basic but filling and left me satiated.
However over time, I started to experiment with flavours and textures. Minced pork was added to minced beef, minced beef was mixed with minced chicken, pork and chicken were minced together with garlic and believe me each one of these different combinations, ticked different taste boxes. Once I found the meat mix I preferred, it came down to the texture of the onion and potato used in it—should it be grated, chopped fine or chopped and sauted! Should bread be added? How about the eggs, only white, both the white and the yolk? And what if I added boiled eggs? How about the spice rub, is one herb enough, or does it need a dash of oregano, thyme and rosemary? The permutations and combinations were endless.
Stuffed Cheese Hamburger
Then came the most important battle—texture. How do you get a cheesy centre and ensure the cheese flows into the plate when you cut the burger into half. This took the longest time to crack. And surprisingly the answer wasn’t about looking for a cheese that melts at a low or a high temperature but in simplifying the entire process and looking for something locally available.
Over the years, I’ve kind of found the taste that pleases my palette. I like my burgers cooked the old-fashioned way, plain beef, but feel free to experiment.
Hamburgers
Serves 2
Ingredients (for two 350 grams burger patty)
600 grams beef (you can use chicken, lamb or pork too)
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic-chillie paste
1 whole egg
½ potato
1 onion
50 grams sharp cheddar, grated
2 leaves romaine or crinkled lettuce
6 slices tomato, caremalised
1 onion, sliced, caremalised
3-4 jalapenos
caremalised onions on top of sliced onions, cheese, lettuce: the perfect bed for a succulent burger
Butter
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons 10-ingredient burger rub
Burger bun
Bread crumb
Cheese slice
Method
- Mince the beef (you can also use chicken, lamb or a combination of pork (250 grams, lean and chicken 350 grams), potato and onion together. Add the 10-ingredient burger mix and Adjust salt and pepper to taste. At this stage the mix can be refrigerated for almost 24 hours.
- When the mixture is at room temperature, divide it into 4 equal parts and flatten them.
- Stuff the centre of two with 25 gms of grated cheddar cheese. Place the other flattened disc over it and form a tight patty.
- At this stage you could fry or grill the patty directly on a well-oiled pan or you could coat the patty with seasoned (salt, pepper and paprika added) breadcrumb. Fry the patty on both sides till it is golden and crisp.
- Grill the bread and butter it when still hot. Add a layer of lettuce, chopped jalapeno, caremalised tomato and onion. Place the patty on it. Top with finely sliced roundels of tomato and onion.
- To make the monster burger I love to serve, I add another slice of cheddar cheese and an egg served sunny side up on top of the patty.
- Serve with French fries, barbecue sauce, whole grain mustard and tomato ketchup.
Pressure points:
- The burger may burst open if the patty is held together loosely.
- If the cheese starts oozing out of the patty, you will not get a gooey centre.
- If you are worried that the burger has not cooked through, you could cover the pan or just the patty and cook it for a minute on both sides.
- Do not flip the burger more than once. 4 minutes on each side should be good.
The Sloppy Burger: complete with caremalised onions, caremalised tomato, cheese, cheese stuffed burger patty, jalapeno, pickles and more!
Tandoori Pomfret
So, how does one start making a tandoori dish without a tandoor?
Leave that for the oven to figure out.
All you need to care about is–buy the best (read freshest) fish available, gut it, clean it, slash it and marinate it in this five minute marinade.
The coolest thing about it, is the longer it is marinated the more robust and enhanced are the flavours. Which makes it perfect entree for a party. The crispy skin, golden glow tandoori fish is quite a “pick-me-up” on any dinner table. What’s more you can garnish the plate with some onions that have been left soaking in vinegar, sugar and salt till they have achieved a pinkish tone; and freshly chopped tomato and cucumber to create an absolute down to earth, homely and eye-catching platter.
Traditionally tandoori food originated in Persia and came to India via Afghanistan and the tandoor was nothing more than a conventional clay oven with temperatures ranging at anything around 500 degree Celsius, which was used to bake breads called Naan. It was King Jehangir was introduced the first Tandoori chooza and chicken to the platter. Once the first protein was introduced the others didn’t take long to follow. Today crabs, prawns, fish, chicken and even various vegetables and milk products like paneer are cooked inside a tandoor, in spices that have traditionally come together to create the tandoori masala.
This recipe takes on all the flavours from the traditional procedure, but has been grilled (not baked) in a normal oven at home making it a recipe all of us can cook at home.
I’ve used a full pomfret here, but you can use King prawns, crabs, Indian Surmai (kingfish) or any other fish for the preparation. I’ve never tried river fish, but that because I don’t like the texture, but feel free to experiment!
If the fish weighs more than a kilogram, I suggest use slices, to ensure the cooking process doesn’t dry the juices out and cut the cooking time to 5-7 mins per side.
Ingredients
500 gms of fish of your choice. Wash it well and rub it with salt, turmeric and kokum or Garcinia indica (the use of kokum is optional)
Marinade
250 gms hung curd or Greek curd
2 tablespoons ginger, garlic, green chillie paste
1 tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon coriander-cumin powder
1 tablespoon Tandoori masala (or can use ready-made Everest Tandoori Masala)
2 thinly sliced onion roundels
Method:
1. Marinate the fish in the marinade for anything more than 2 hours.
2. Cover your grilling plate with foil.
3. Place a few roundels of onion towards the centre of your foil and place your fish on it. This aids the cooking process, flipping the fish and gives you a crispier skin. Plus the onions impart a lovely aroma, but more about that later.
4. Grill the fish in a pre heated oven 200 degree C for about 15 minutes, the top of the fish will be crispy by then. Flip the fish around, making sure the onions stay in place and grill the second side for 10 minutes.
5. When both the sides are crispy, set the fish aside. Remove the onions and stir them in a pan till they are golden.
6. Serve the fish with the sauteed onions and a salad.
Oil-free Tandoori Fish
notwithoutmyskillet 