Parsley Dip with Garlic Zing!

So, you are not the kind that can eat salads or anything raw without a proper dip to go with it. Welcome On-board. It is not an unusual thing to not like eating salads. However, you can barely get by with some amazing dips that are custom made for salads.

One such Dip that is truly delicious to go with salads is a green cheese dip that is simple to make.

Ingredients

1 Cup thick hung curd
2 table spoons of chopped parsley
4 garlic pods
2 table spoons of lime juice
1 1/2 cup of cream cheese (unflavored)
Salt and pepper to taste
Green chilly Or Red Chilly to taste

Grind all the ingredients except cheese together in a blender or mixer. To this mixture, add the cream cheese and blend it well. Serve it chilled and can be refrigerated.

Delicious and Simple - Australian Lamington Cakes

Here is a WOW recipe for impressing your kids or Guests, in just about 5 minutes with some really easy cooking time and method. Simple Ingredients, available at all stores.

So, the Australian Lamington cake gets its name from being a speciality of Australia. Pound cakes coated with chocolate ganache and a good sprinkle of desiccated coconut.

Well, I just cut the method short by buying off the shelf pound cakes from the store. I bought tiny plain pound cakes that will serve off as a quick bite for desserts. Ofcourse, if you are enthusiastic enough, please try out baking a pound cake from scratch, which is quite easy as well.

So here goes my Ingredients list:

1.  A Loaf or pack of ready made store bought pound cake
2. 200 grams of dark unsweetened chocolate
3. A tea spoon of vanilla essence
4. 2 cups of dessicated coconut, dried
5. A cup of heavy cream OR half a cup of condensed milk

In a large saucepan place the dark chocolate, cream and vanilla essence. Place this saucepan on a vessel of boiling water. The bottom of the saucepan must not touch the water. Start whisking the 3 ingredients together till they get into a flowing consistency. Turn off the heat and let cool.

Arrange the pound cakes on a large tray. Coat 3 sides of the cake with the chocolate icing OR ganache. Sprinkle coconut on the chocolate coating. Lamington cake is ready.

Sweet & Spicy Dip/Chinese Sauce

One of my favourite flavors and cuisine is Chinese...I love Asian flavors and especially chinese for the strong Garlic tinge in the food.

Needless to say Chinese dips go very well with Raw salads as well as party starters. Here is one such Asian inspired Chinese dip that can get your party rolling.

Here goes the recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 Tsp Red Chilli flakes
1  Tsp Finely chopped garlic
1 Tsp lemon
1 Tsp Chinese Hot & Sweet Chili Sauce
1 Tbsp Corn Starch
1/2 Tsp Salt
Sugar or honey are desired
1/4 cup water

In a saucepan, bring water, sugar and lemon to a good boil.  Now at chopped garlic, red chilli flakes, salt, Chinese Sauce and mix well. Let the garlic cook well and the flavor blend in. At this time, dissolve the corn starch in 3 tablespoons of water and keep aside. Once garlic has cooked, add the corn starch liquid into the saucepan and keep stirring to desired consistency. Top it up with some good quality vinegar. 

A greek Fava for a glowing Skin!

When I was travelling in Greece, I was not searching for Greek Gods, rather I was searching for Greek goddesses. And I found. Not just one or two, so many of them, so beautiful and such a great complexion.  One of the secrets that they revealed was the consumption of Fava. A Fava is just loads of split yellow peas, cooked and smashed into a fine paste. Usually eaten with Pita breads, with a liberal topping of onions and olive oil.

Here goes the recipe for the Fava, that I made using Indian ingredients:

Ingredients:

A cup of yellow split peas
4 gloves of garlic
Salt
1 tablespoon of vinegar
Pepper as desired
Spring onions - half a cup

In a large pan, boil together, the yellow split peas, garlic and spring onions with a good sprinkle of olive oil. Once boiled nicely, let it to cool. Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor along with lemon juice. Serve with raw onions cut finely and a good drizzle of olive oil.

Skordalia - A Greek alternative to Hummus!

When they say Skordalia the greek dip can give Hummus a run for its money, they are not kidding. While Hummus is a more adult version of a dip, I found a new recipe in Skordalia that is perfect for potato lovers and both adults and kids would savour it alike. Potato, garlic and a lime zing are 3 killer combos that I personally love with fritters.

I bumped upon this recipe during my Greece travels, in one of home cooks' house. Here is a recipe that is simple, quick to make and goes so well with Pita OR Spicy Indian snacks to even out the Zing on your tongue.

Ingredients: (for one cup of Skordalia)

1. 2 medium sized Potatoes
2. 4 cloves of garlic
3. 1/2 cup of pure olive oil ( the more authentic the oil is, the closer to home the flavor will be)
3. salt and pepper to taste
5. A tablespoon of lemon juice.
6. A handful of walnuts and almonds

Method:

Boil the potatoes to a point where they can be nicely mashed into a smooth paste. Skordalia has to be really smooth and thin, So please take care to boil a little extra to mash them. Push the potatoes through a sieve or a potato ricer. Crush the garlic along with salt into a smooth paste. Mix the potatoes and garlic paste and add in the lemon juice. Add additional salt and pepper as needed.  Grind walnuts and almonds to a crumble and top up the dip with this. An alternate variation was to grind almonds with the garlic, potatoes paste with generous oil.  I purposefully avoided the use of vinegar, some variations add vinegar during the last stages of the grinding though.

I used a Indian mixer to mix the potatoes and garlic and then added some hot water to make them thin. When serving, add a little bit more olive oil and serve.

Spinach-Pineapple-Pomo smoothie

Ingredients

Spinach - 1/2 Cup
Ginger - A tea spoon, grated
PineApple - 1/2 Cup
Banana - 2
Soaked Oats - 1/2 cup
Dates - 4
Pomogranate seeds - 1 cup
Thick Yogurt chilled - 2 cups

Prepare 3 different layers of thick smoothie by blending seperately:

1. Spinach, Ginger, PineApple & Yogurt
2. Banana, Oats, Dates and Yogurt
3. Pomo seeds, Yogurt and optional Beetroot

In a tall glass, layer each of the smoothie in any combination that you like. Serve chilled.

Churros Pancake with Spicy Chocolate sauce

Here is the Recipe for a guaranteed delicious Pancake:

Ingredients:

For the pancake batter:

1 cup white flour and 1 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1.5 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups of milk

In a large bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients - 2 eggs, butter and milk. Set aside. In another bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and mix them so they uniformly combine. Fold in the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and bring it to the consistency of a light batter. NOT RUNNY, but light.

For the Chocolate sauce:

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of chocolate chip cookies
3/4 cup of heavy cream
1 table spoon butter
1.5 table spoon cinnamon powder
1 table spoon cayenne powder

In a medium sized sauce pan, heat water and bring it to boil. Place the chocolate chips on a small vessel container and keep it over the boiling water. The Vessel should be above the water and should not touch it. Melt the chocolate chips, stirring it in high speed, once it is completely melted, add the heavy cream and butter.  Finally add cinnamon and pepper. Mix thoroughly and take off the heat. let it cool.

Prepare the Pancakes. Pour small quantities of batter over butter on a TAWA and cook on both sides till golden crispy and fluffy.

Using a piping bag, drizzle chocolate mix over the pancakes according to your design. Alternately, one can also mix castor sugar and cinnamon and spread over the pancakes before drizzling chocolate.