Stuffed & Baked Pattypans

A seasoned patty pan flower :)

ready to eat!

These are beauties from my garden and after browsing plenty as to how to cook ‘em, I decided I will make a stuffed bake out of it! These squashes are as easy on the eyes as they are on the palate

The joy of cooking home grown abounds and “homegrown” will probably be my most favorite words for the summer!

This is a super healthy recipe and SO easy to make – I feel so good and pleased if I make a wonderful new dish and it is SO easy to make!

Ingredients

Pattypan squash (as many as you need or have)

Stuffing Ingredients

2- 3 tomatoes

1 onion

1 cup of cottage cheese

Spices:

Oregano

Pepper

Basil

Green chili 2-3

Turmeric

Fresh sage

Fresh Garlic chives

With the turmericborders

Preparation

Slit the pattypan head exactly where the flowery edges are and scoop the seeds out – keep the head of the squash to use with a different recipe (hope to blog this too)

I used Turmeric as a decoration around the edges of the flower and for more beautiful pictures, besides of course the wonderful flavors it brings to the dish

Make the stuffing

In 1 tbsp of olive oil, sauté the stuffing like you would a sauce, making sure to add the cottage cheese last and set aside

Prepare the patty pan by adding the same spices and some sea salt, so that it does not taste blah by itself

Now add the stuffing into the scooped hole in the patty pan

Grate some parmesan on top of it and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees

Eat hot…
As always, love you all and see you in your blogs soon

My homegrowns

Pattypan takes centre stage :)

Their heads with the top scooped off for future recipe

Cutting the rim like a surgeon - my dahling hubs

Now he scoops out the seeds

Ta-dah!

The saute

Stirred in

Oven ready

Exciting announcements

I won a cook book my first ever from Cooking creations! YAY!! and thank you – I have heaps to read from that one!

Sorry it got uploaded sideways :(

I am also excited to announce that NOW SERVING will be haing a 3^rd guest segment soon…. Stay tumed

And last but not least my blog event FAST FOOD NOT FAST FOOD EVENT will be hosted by my sweet blogger friend, Vardhini Koushik of Vardhini's Kitchen - Do check out her wonderful blog for event details and send in your entries -
That's really it mes amies - bon soir until the next time!!!

Purple Cauliflower Pulao

Purple Cauliflower Pulao

This was one of the tastiest and fastest pulaos I've made! As you all know it takes just a few minutes to cut a cauliflower! This dish not only looks fancy and dresses up a dinner when you have company, but is exotic in its wonderful flavor! A quick dinner hosting idea -with all the right ingredients and spices, you got yourself (or in this case, I got myself a winner dish :) Purple cauliflowers are not easily available and are quite expensive when they are - One flower does not go a long way if you are to make a dry sabji of it or a side dish -I have earlier blogged this as a side for a Pasta dish, but as a rice, it satisfies immensely, lending its wonderful flavor to the rice and nicely infusin the wonderful aromas of the Basmati unto itself!

Here is the recipe
1 cauliflower
2 cups Basmati rice
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 purple onion
2-3 green chilies finely chopped
1/2 tsp of crushed dry bay leaves
1/4 tsp of cumin seeds
1/4 tsp ginger powder
3 tbsp Olive oil
cilantro and roasted cashews to garnish

Preparation
Wash rice and keep
Heat oil, splutter the cumin, green chilies, ginger powder.
Next, add the garlic, onions and cauliflower florets and toss on high heat like your would a stir fry - for just a minute or 2
Now add the rice in the rice cooker/pressure cooker
Add the cauliflower (it should still be crunchy)
Add required salt and cook like you would for pulao
Amount of water is crucial to get the flowery, separate rice .. so go easy on the water without making it too dry...
Once cooked, transfer into serving platter and garnish with cilantro and cashews if you wish
Enjoy with family and/or friends :)

Baked Sweet Potato

Baked Sweet Potato

So glad to be back doing what I love doing best – writing J Thanks to all the lovely friends who sent me messages about missing me – let me tell you, I missed you all too… It was fun to have my family visiting. I saw my brother off yesterday at Dulles Airport – No matter how stoic and unemotional we tried to be, the pangs of separation do hurt for a bit, and I will tell you that the thought of coming back to my blog made me perk right up!

It has been a veritable food fest with me cooking a bunch of recipes for my family and managed to take some pictures of at least a few of them – so I can have a bank of recipes to get back into the groove with.

Before adding the Masala

I am starting with a simply ‘sweet’ potato recipe – a healthy baked sweet potato – no big shakes you might say… but the little marinade that goes with it is what makes this dish super delicious….If you want a wholesome dinner, want to avoid carbs in the form of rice, chappatis/bread this is a hearty meal which will fill you up in the nicest possible way – add a salad to it and this may well be the best “I ate healthy today” meal you’ve had in a while!

Here goes:

Ingredients (for 5 people)

5-7 medium sized sweet potatoes washed clean

For the marinade/dressing – you can do pretty much with this but here is what turned out to be a huge hit!

3-4 tbsp olive oil

Bruschetta mix (anything you can find locally)

Garlic flakes

Chili flakes

Basil flakes

Ground pepper

Sea salt

Herbs de Provence

Bake at 400 for 1 hour – See the pictorial presentation for how to – Ending on a Denverish note – Hey, it’s good to be back here again; Sometime’s this blog seems feels like a long lost friend, yes and hey, it’s good to be back here again:)esame seeds

The Masala

Poke holed with a fork

Brush with Olive Oil

Mummified and oven ready :)

Watermelon Sorbet

Watermelon Sorbet

It's been blazing 100 with humidity! Not cool, seriously!
This is the easiest sorber to make- all I did was add the watermelon with the juice with a half cup of agave and 1/2 tsp of pure lemon extract. This is another  ice-cream maker deal where you freeze the inner maker pot for 24 hours and then prepare this for 25 minutes. Freeze for 2-4 hours. Simply Superb, folks, trust me---- If you are making with an ice cream machine, simple add the contents used and stir into the watermelon along with the juice and freeze for 2-4 hours.... 

Come on, Dig in!

In the ice-cream maker

Homegrown Luscious Summer Salad

This is one news I have been dying to share with you all – My beautiful veggie patch garden – Yes indeed, my very own “organic” romaine lettuce, tomatoes, squashes, beets, carrots, cabbage, chilies and zucchinis – This is another pleasure without measure, to pick veggies from your garden and make dishes with them- Supreme satisfaction – I started my homegrown recipes with a salad that was fresh, crisp and intensely delicious.

Here is my recipe for a quick summer salad and a simple yet very tasty dressing

Ingredients
Romaine lettuce (washed and chopped)

1 can of garbanzo beans

Dried Apricots (cut in 4) (this is your deal breaker(:

Pine nuts/walnuts/almond slivers

Fresh grated parmesan

(sunflower/shelled pumpkin seeds optional)

For the dressing

2 tbsp agave nectar/ 1 tbsp of maple syrup

2 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette (or)

2 tsp of lemon juice

1 tsp salad seasoning mix (or to make your you add ½ tsp of sesame seeds, crushed red peppers/paprika/dry oregano flakes, garlic flakes etc)

1tsp Dijon mustard

Two twists with a pepper mill

Whip until mustard has blended in with the rest of the ingredients

IMPORTANT

Keep all the ingredients and the dressing ready and make only when you are ready to eat

And if you plan to make it a little in advance, prepare and refrigerate until you plan to serve.

Here are some pictures of my veggie patch

Lettuce Patch

Washed and Ready :)

Tomatoes on the Vine

Squash

flowers on the the yellow squash

garlic chives

Carrots

Beets

Chilies

Sending this to Tastebuds Fresh From Your Garden Event

Add caption

Mushroom & Green Onion Tartlets

Guess what folks! My sweetest hubby gifted me a Kitchen Aid Mixer – a Mother’s day gift which finally I picked, because mixers come in so many wonderful colors and it was difficult for me to choose – but i finally went with my favorite color – orange – and I’ve been meaning to test it our for a week – But now finally I got the time to do this and decided to go with a recipe that came with the mixer – These came out brilliantly and my friends who came over for dinner were totally appreciative of them… Isn’t it a great feeling when you follow a recipe and get it to look like the pictures shown?!! I certainly felt that satisfaction.

Here is the recipe and the pics – mine and the ones from the recipe book for a comparison, just for fun (:

Ingredients

4 ounces of lite cream cheese

¾ cup of all purpose flour + 1tsp

8 ounces of roughly chopped mushrooms

1 cup of chopped green onions (spring onions)

1 egg

½ cup of grated Swiss cheese

1 tbsp butter ( I used a garlic & herb infused butter)

1 tbsp olive oil for sautéing

Preparation With a mixer (for without do like you would any baked item)

Add the cream cheese and butter and whip for 1 minute using the flat beater on level 4

Scrape off the sides and add the flour and blend for another minute or until the batter starts coming together on level 6

Remove and make a ball and refrigerate for 1 hour

In the meantime, in the olive oil sauté the mushroom and spring onion – I used some spice mix to bring out the flavors (purely optional)

In the mixer, using the same flat beater, crack your egg and add the 1tsp of flour and then add the grated cheese and the veggies and mix for 30 second on level 2

Set the oven for 375

Grease a mini muffin pan and keep ready

When the 1 hour is up, remove from fridge and make small balls and flatten into the muffin pan

Add the mushroom filling

Bake for about 15-20 minutes

Enjoy warm

Beets Pulao

I had this at my friend’s house and loved it and decided to make my very own version of it based on some of the flavors I know go into Pulao rice – And believe you me, this is one of the tastiest and best efforts at Pulao I’ve made – The rice was cooked to perfection as the pictures will attest (:  the spice and everything turned out just right and I was mighty pleased with this recipe as were the others who ate it – so much so I am repeating this for some of my friends who are coming over for dinner tomorrow J

Try this one out if you want to put something very colorful and aromatic out for your guests – you will blow them away, trust me!

Time taken 15 min prep time and time to cook the rice!

Ingredients

5-6 medium sized beets, peeled and shredded

1 medium sized red onion chopped finely

3-4 green chilies cut in strips

½ tsp each of

Cumin,

Crushed bay leaves

Ground coriander seeds

Black pepper

Turmeric powder

2 Dry red cayenne peppers ground

1 tsp crushed ginger

2 cloves of garlic

A really small pinch of cinnamon

Salt to taste

2 cups of Basmati Rice

1 tbsp of olive oil

Cilantro and cashews to garnish

Preparation

In a wide shallow pan, heat the oil and sauté all the ingredients starting with the garlic and onions, adding beets and all the spices next

Let it cook on high heat for a about 2-3 minutes

When the flavors start wafting switch off

Now wash the rice and get your rice cooker ready

Add 4 cups of water to the washed rice and pour the beets preparation into it

Remove once cooked and place in a serving bowl. Add chopped spinach as garnish and some cashews if you desire. And you have yourself gourmet rice J

Linking this to RICE LOVE EVENT