Baked Potato Wedges

Some days you just need it. Quick carbs that is.

I had seen this interesting recipe by the purple foodie which she had adapted from lottie + doof to get a stronger garlic flavour.

I like love garlic but 8 cloves of them? too much for me! but still I loved the whole idea of baking them and she seemed so elated with the results I just had to try the technique.

It was a smashing success! fantastic fries I absolutely loved them!

However I did change the recipe quite a bit;

• I added a tablespoon of tomato soup powder – gave a great tangy tomato flavour
• reduced the garlic to 3 cloves
• used tapioca instead of cornflour – I prefer tapioca, it binds way better and faster than cornflour
• Increased the quantity of potatoes greatly! used 7 medium sized ones without altering the proportion of any of the ingredients- perfect proportions.

The best part is, I could salvage almost 3 tbs of oil post baking! so not much really went into 7 whole potatoes. This was brilliant.

So thats it! great, great, great stuff! I totally recommend it to everyone who loves fries and has an oven. Seriously.

You can check out  the purple foodie or lottie + doof for the detailed recipe and techinque follow whichever version you prefer.

Honestly, didn’t need the kitchen paper to drain

Stuffed Marrow + Hippo + Yakult

I’ve been trying to go easy on the calories and fat and all that jazz.

So I conjured this dish. Marrow is super low on calories and fat and has a neutral taste so goes pretty well with just about anything.

It was a success. Delicious and filling and more importantly so low in fat, cals and carb. I was wondering where  I could get a calorie calculator like the one you see on allrecipes.com

But for now I can approximate and tell you without a doubt that this one’s low calorie.

What you need:

1 med sized marrow, peeled and cut into three to four pieces

5 button mushrooms, chopped

0.25 cup Crushed tofu

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

0.5 tsp ginger, chopped

1 green chili, finely chopped

1 tomato, finely chopped

2 tsp Jordanian Za’atar

2 tsp Lebanese Za’atar

1 tsp surmac (substitute with lemon juice)

salt as per taste

2 tsp olive oil

What to do:

1. Heat one tsp of oil and fry onions, garlic, chili and ginger and fry for a bit. Add one tsp of each type of Za’atar;  surmac and salt. Roast for a bit.

2. Add the mushrooms, tomato and stir fry for 5 minutes. Keep aside.

3. Heat the remaining oil and add the remaining Za’atar and salt and roast the marrow pieces till coated.

4. Stuff the marrow with the mushroom mix and top with crushed tofu bake at 200 C (400 F) for 30 minutes.

There you go. Yum!  Now bear with me while I experiment with some new photo angles.. cool lighting and all that.. what  do you think?

I’m hooked onto these munchies.. Hippo Munchies.. perfect with the marrow.

And its low fat too.

Heres a peek into my fridge.

I love  this new probiotic drink! It just launched in India and apparently has something like 6.5 billion probiotic bacteria ber bottle.

Ras Malai: Best + easiest ever!

Literal translation: Liquid Cream.

Actually it has nothing to do with cream and it definitely has nothing to do with liquid cream or even liquid + cream. It’s just an absurd name- if you make it my way!

Ras malai is a traditional Indian sweet, originating from West Bengal. God I love the Bengalis for having invented this. It’s my favourite dessert ever.

These tiny balls of cottage cheese are soaked in a creamy milk and sugar and eaten with the milk.

It’s a tricky and complicated recipe BUT this version (handed down by my aunt) is easy, breezy and beautiful (yes it’s a cover-worthy dessert)

What you need:

For the Malai: Creamy balls

1 cup of Nido milk powder (or any other brand)

1 egg

1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the Ras: Milk Syrup

1lt milk

1/2 can unsweetened evaporated milk

1/2 cup sugar

Saffron strands

1 tsp cardamom powder

What to do:

1. Make Ras. Boil everything together and make sure that the flame is med, do not let it burn!

2. Make the malai. Sift the milk powder with baking powder, beat in the egg and knead to form a sticky dough. You may be tempted to add water, but resist the temptation. Form tiny balls (they will swell)

3. Put the balls in the boiling milk and simmer for 15-20 minutes till balls swell up and are soft in the centre.

4. Cool and serve nice and cold.

The balls can be flattened- the more traditional shape.

Good example of Watermark gone awry.

Quickest veg stir-fry with Za’atar

I tried Za’atar in Kuwait and I fell in love with that stuff. It’s a mix spice with a lot of stuff in it; mint, sesame seeds, oregano, sumaah, thyme, marjoram and a lot of other stuff I can’t figure out. Lucky for me I don’t need to.

I’ve bought enough Za’atar to last for a really long time (smart thinking)  But if you can’t get your hands on some of this stuff, then you can try making your own. That link seems to have covered it.

There’s really not much to talk about this recipe. Make it and you shall know.

What you need:

1 red onion

1 ts of ginger + garlic paste and more garlic if you will

about 250  Mix vegetables, or whatever you want to stir fry

2tbs  Za’atar

40gm cottage cheese/paneer/tofu

salt as per your taste-buds (or dietary requirements)

1 tbs (good quality) oyster sauce

20gm of grated processed cheese (optnl)

1 tsp oil

What to do:

1. Saute veggies in oil, starting with onions, ginger garlic paste and the harder veggies progressing to the softer ones. Throw in the paneer/tofu/cottage cheese

2. Add salt, oyster sauce and Za’atar. Cover and cook on a low flame for about 7 minutes or so.

3. Cover with processed cheese. Dig in.

I used mix veggies from a pack. So easy.

Frozen cubed paneer? Awesome, no chopping required.

My new comfort food? Definitely.

A bowl of this stuff would make me really comfortable right now.

2 Minute Lower Fat Chocolate Sauce

Ever NEEDED Chocolate? Like really really need it?

It happened to me one day. I needed chocolate. 

I completely believe that if you want to make a good chocolate sauce you need to use butter. Butter gives the right consistency and flavor to the sauce. 

But as I always try to watch what I eat (lame attempts) I couldn’t use large quantities of regular butter. I just couldn’t. 

Would you believe the ingredients for this sauce? Unusual no doubt but uniquely good.

 

What you need:

2-3tbsp Cocoa Powder (I used dark)

1tbsp Smooth Peanut Butter (yes, you read right)

1 tbsp Honey (yes, you read right again)

Couple of drops of hot water

 

What to do:

1. Mix the honey, cocoa and peanut butter in a bowl and stir like your life depended on it. Add or reduce any of the ingredients according to taste.
2. Mix hot water to get the right consistency.
3. Pour over anything. 

Messy but Quite a looker eh