Guacamole Paratha Wraps!

More than half of 2011 is already gone and how... The year has been quite eventful for us (in good ways) until now, and time seems to just fly away...and, somehow, amongst all these things, I really neglected my blog and haven't been writing regularly, or, for that matter, even trying out and creating new dishes took a backseat.

Today, I am posting a recipe which has been lying in my drafts for months now. Finally it sees the light of the day and after this I am on a blog-hopping mode, to check out what my friends have been upto. So beware :-)

 I try to include avocados in my diet plan at least once a week. And, today's recipe was created on one such day. I was cleaning up my refrigerator and wanted to finish off a lot of leftover green stuff before shopping for fresh veggies...you know what I mean, don't you? :-). Thus wre born these wraps - and, since that day, I have made these wraps a number of times and both my husband and I love them.

A special mention of my sis in law, who too is on an avocado spree these days :-) Try out this recipe and I hope you will not be dissapointed and just in case you are, then it's certainly the Avocados that are at fault ;-)

Ingredients

For the Guacamole dip

1 - ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and roughly chopped

1 - onion, peeled and chopped

1 tbsp - lemon juice

1 - green chilli (more or less)

3 tbsp - olive oil

salt and pepper according to taste

garlic (optional)

1 1/2 cup - whole wheat flour (aata), (may need more)

ghee or butter to brush the parathas (optional)

For the filling

1/2 cup - red bell pepper, chopped into cubes

1/2 of an aubergine, chopped into cubes

1/2 of a zucchini, chopped into cubes

1 - carrots, chopped into cubes

4 tbsp - olive oil

1/2 tsp - citric acid

1/2 tsp - red chilli flakes (more or less)

2 pods of garlic, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

100 grams - feta cheese, cut into cubes

Method

1. Put the avocado pulp, oil, onion, green chillies, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper (add coriander leaves if you have some, i ran out of them so couldn't ) in a mixer and grind coarsely.
2. Add the aata (flour) to the guacamole paste and knead. Cover the dough with a wet muslin cloth and keep aside for half an hr.
3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C
4. Put all the ingredients of the filling except the feta cheese in a baking dish and place the baking dish in the center of the oven and bake for approx 20 mins or until done.Don't forget to toss the vegetables a couple of times in between.
5. Add the feta cheese to the baked vegetables and mix well.
6. Divide the dough into 5 parts and shape each into a ball and slightly flatten them and roll out into thin parathas (approx 18 cms circumference)
7. Roast the parathas on both sides on a non stick pan, brushing a little butter/ghee on each side (optional) 
8. Put the filling in the center of the paratha and cover as shown in the picture and serve hot. 

 My hubby had them with yogurt-garlic-chilli dip (another refrigerator-cleaning-action!) and I loved them even without the dip :-)

Avocado Gazpacho

I am on Avocado high these days and experimenting a lot with this wonderful and nutritious fruit, trying out new things.

In fact, there was a time when I never used to buy avocados - funny looking fruit, I often wondered then, wondered about it's taste and wether I would be able to do anything with them, and generally conveniently ignored them at the fruit counter. Well, things have changed now, so has my taste, and we now have something or the other with avocados at least once a week. 

Which brings us to today's recipe. The inspiration came from a TV show. However, my timing was bad and I just managed to catch the finished dish which was "Cold Avocado Soup with Prawns", which immediately registered in my mind and I made this soup the very next day, and served it with tomatoes and mozerella. 

Ingredients

For the vegetable stock

600 ml - water

1 - small onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1/4 cup - red bell pepper, chopped

1 - bayleaf

4-5 - whole black pepper

3-4 - cloves

salt 

For the Soup

1 -  ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and roughly chopped

1 1/4 tbsp - lemon juice

2 tbsp - coriander leaves

2 tbsp - low fat yogurt

2 tbsp - olive oil

2 - cloves

salt and pepper to taste

a few thyme leaves
vegetable stock

4 pieces - baby mozerella

5 - cherry tomatoes

2 inch - ginger

1 - dried red whole chilli

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/4tbsp - olive oil

sprigs of thyme leaves

Method

1. Put all the ingredients for the vegetable stock into a big vessel and bring to a boil. Boil for approx 5 minutes. Sieve and let the stock cool. 
2. Put the avocado pulp, lemon juice, coriander leaves, a few thyme leaves, yogurt, olive oil, salt, pepper powder and the vegetable stock into the mixer and blend well. Sieve with a strainer and let the soup chill in the refrigerator. 
3. Heat the oil in a pan together with a few sprigs of thyme leaves. Add salt, pepper powder, ginger piece and red whole chilli. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook on a medium heat until the tomatoes are slightly tender. (I foolishly gave a cross cut on the tomatoes but would advise you not to). 
4. Arrange the mozerella and the tomatoes on to a skewer. Serve the cold soup with the tomato-mozerella skewer and a sprig of thyme leaves. 

Enjoy!

Almond Mint Drink

The weather in this part of the world is pretty decent these days, warm and sunny, with interspersed bouts of clouds and some rain. Both my husband and I spend our free time, whenever we can, in our small garden. Last Sunday, when we were having our evening tea and enjoying the nice sunny day in the garden, we suddenly saw a reddish-brownish flurry of movement - it was a large squirrel, a cute little furry thing, on about its search for nuts and other eatables. It hopped about from one place to another and inspected our garden. And finally found something to eat and decided to stay still for a minute in one place...Quicker than the squirrel, my hubby ran off to get the camera, to capture this beautiful little thing. He did manage to get a few good photos. 

 Isn't it cute? :-) 

This drink was made one such warm sunny day last week and was indeed quite refreshing. A perfect way to beat the heat. 

The mint and almond combination in a drink is unique in it's own way and the taste is great. Thanks to my mom for this recipe - moms are the best cooks, aren't they?

Ingredients

1/2 cup - mint leaves, chopped

1/8 cup - almonds

3 pieces - cloves

3 pieces - cardamom

1 1/2 tbsp - sugar (adjust according to your taste)

1 1/2 cup - water + a little to soak

almond slivers to garnish

Method

1. Soak together the almonds, cloves and cardamom for 3-4 hours.
2. Remove the water. 
3. Grind together the almonds, cloves, cardamom, mint leaves and sugar using  some water. 
4. Sieve/press through a muslin cloth and extract all the liquid and keep aside. Reserve the residue.
5. Put the residue back into the mixer and grind again using little water and sieve again.
6. Put the drink in the refrigerator to chill.
7. Garnish the drink with the almond slivers and serve.

Serves : 2

Enjoy!

Stuffed Cucumber Curry

Have you ever had a writer's block? Well, I am facing this right now...I am sitting in front of my computer screen, wanting to write something special, a thousand ideas running through the brain, but somehow not able to write anything. Words do not seem to come to mind and I am just aimlessly looking at the screen, waiting for my brain to convert the ideas to words that I can put together into a meaningful sentence...but I still go on looking at the screen (this could be a long evening.....!)

Well, now, I'm giving up for the day and just jumping to today's recipe. 

Ingredients

1 - long cucumber

For the stuffing 

2 tbsp - gram flour (besan) 
1 - green chilli, chopped 
2 inch piece - ginger, peeled and finely chopped 
1/4 tsp - red chilli powder (more or less)
1/4 tsp - garam masala 
2 1/2 tbsp - sunflower oil 
1/4 tsp - dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) 
1/4 tsp - whole coriander seeds, roughly broken 
1 tbsp - lemon juice 
4 tbsp - fenugreek leaves (methi), chopped 
1 tbsp - coriander leaves, chopped 
salt to taste

For tempering 

2-3 tbsp - sunflower oil 
1/4 tsp - panch phoran ( a mix of fenugreek, cumin, fennel, mustard and nigella seeds)
a generous pinch of asafoetida (hing)

Method

1. Peel the cucumber. Cut a 2cm wide "window" into the cucumber with a margin of around 2 cms at both ends as well as the bottom (see photo) Remove the cut out part. 
2. Rub some salt onto the cucumber all around.
3. Add all the ingredients of the stuffing to a bowl and mix well.
4. Fill in the stuffing into the cucumber Cut the cucumber into approx 5 cm long pieces. 
5. Heat the oil in a pan, add the panch phoran and hing. When the seeds start to splutter, add the stuffed, cut cucumber pieces and cook on a low heat, turning the pieces carefully every couple of minutes until they are brown from all the sides. (the cooked cucumber should not be too soft)
6. Serve hot with rice or rotis, or even as a starter!

Enjoy!

Back after a long break with some delicious Crumpets.

Apologies for vanishing suddenly from the blog world and being away for such a long time....and especially about leaving midway my two part recipe of Saffron Plum Compote with Crumpets. So, here am I again, and here is part 2 of the 2 part recipe. 

But first, a big Thank You to all of you who have left mails with comments and wishes - It makes me feel really special and happy. I sometimes wonder about this beautiful bond of friendship we share with each other - though we have not met, we are bound by a common passion - for blogging, for good food, for sharing our thoughts, our joys and sometimes our sorrows. 

This passion connects us in a special way, and I enjoy it, like it and even miss it when I am not active.

Today's recipe was lying in my drafts for a long time...I made it with a Saffron Plum Compote (recipe here). These crumpets (recipe taken from here ) went very well with the whipped cream (mixed with a little vanilla extract and castor sugar) and the fruity saffrony flavour of the compote. And it looked really pretty too!

Hope you like the crumpets as much as we did and I promise to be a regular again!

Ingredients

112.5 grams - all purpose flour

1/4 tsp - sugar

1/8 tsp - salt

1/2 tsp - dried yeast

75 ml - warm milk

75 ml - warm water

a generous pinch of cinnamon powder

Method

1. Place the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon powder and the dried yeast in a large bowl and mix well. Pour in the warm milk and water and mix well until well combined.
2. Cover the bowl with a cling film or a plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until the batter doubles the volume.
3. Remove the plastic wrap and stir the batter really well. 
4. Grease lightly a non stick pan and heat the pan over a low flame. Sit the greased crumpet rings in the pan and leave to heat up for a minute.
5. Pour in the batter to fill the rings just over halfway up the sides. Cook on a low heat until plenty of small holes appear on the surface and the batter has just dried out. 
6. Remove the rings carefully and turn the crumpets to cook further for  a couple of minutes.
7. Let the crumpets cool on a wire rack.
8. Serve the crumpets with some whipped cream and saffron plum compote.

With or without the cream these crumpets were simply delicious...

and this one is for you :-)

Enjoy!