27.6.14

(Chunky) Guacamole with tomatoes and bell peppers #French Fridays with Dorie

This is the first non-fishy French Friday of June. Boy ! am I glad ! 

So the Doristas picked Guacamole for this Friday. Though a Mexican dip, Guacamole has apparently become a standard in France.  Dorie says that in chic restaurants there, they serve it in tartines dotted with shrimps, as the base for salmon tartare, in layered crab salads or even as a garnish on gazpacho. I have already tried the 'crab avocado ravioli' and avocado with salmon in a different recipe and can image how good those French dishes with guacamole must be.

Dorie says that for most of their dishes, the French buy the guacamole, but she likes to make her own. She makes it two ways, chunky and smooth. For the chunky version, she mixes lime zest, chopped cilantro leaves, slices of  red onion, jalapeno and salt with a fork. Then adds chunks of avocado, chopped red bell pepper and cherry tomatoes to it. Squeezes some lime juice over it before seasoning the mixture with salt, pepper and some hot sauce and finishing with a garnish of cilantro leaves. For the smooth, she uses the same ingredients but blends them using a mortar and pestle. 


For want of a mortar and pestle I went for the chunky version and served it with chili and slices beer bread. The Guacomole and the combination as a whole was such a hit that the whole bowl was wiped clean over dinner that night. This recipe will certainly be a repeat in our house.

Visit French Fridays with Dorie to know what the other members thought about this spread. You can find the  recipe for this guacamole here . For more such delicious recipes order your copies of Around my French Table and join the Doristas in this tasty adventure.
I shall be sharing this spread at these parties...


26.6.14

Salmon Rillettes # French Fridays with Dorie (Catch-up)


This month I have been sitting off of the French Fridays with Dorie. The reason ? Well, so far June has been all about Fishy Fridays with Dorie. So I was staying away until I read some of the reviews and decided to try them out this week. First one I tried was the Salmon Rillettes.


The other Friday, while reviewing Dorie's Tuna Rillettes I had described what rillettes are and their place in French cuisine. I will not go into that, however I must mention that rillettes are fast becoming my favorite recipes for preparing fish. They are quick, easy and tasty !

Unlike the Tuna Rillettes, this one requires a bit of cooking.  Only a bit. You cut a salmon fillet into small cubes,  poach them for a minute in a simmering bath of half and half mixture of water and white wine speckled with tops of spring onion, some spices, namely red bay leaf, white peppercorns, coriander seeds and salt.  You then strain everything into a strainer, drain and discard the spices and vegetables, transfer the salmon cubes to a bowl and mash them with the back of a fork. Next you toss in some smoked salmon, lemon zest, a red chile pepper, finely chopped shallots into the bowl, mixture everything well, then add a dollop of butter, some lemon juice and bit of crushed pink peppercorns to it. Finally you adjust the salt in the rillettes and chill the mixture for two hours before serving. 


I being me of course upped the spices and simplified the steps further. I added an extra helping of peppercorns into the simmering mixture, discarded nothing, blended the poached fish cubes with spices and all into a not-so-smooth mixture, then stirred in the remaining ingredients plus a chopped green chile to it and chilled the rillettes until it was set. I LOVED the way it turned out and for once I was glad that I had the full bowl of fish spread to myself :D 


Visit French Fridays with Dorie to know what the other members thought about this spread. You can find the  recipe for the salmon rillettes here . For more such delicious recipes order your copies of Around my French Table and join the Doristas in this tasty adventure.
I shall be sharing this spread at these parties...



25.6.14

Breakfast Strawberry Cobbler



Over the Father's day weekend we had gone strawberry picking with my uncle and aunt. I had been planning to go berry picking for a long time and we really went  overboard with the whole picking thing-y. Plucking fruits from the plants can be so additive. You see fresh succulent berries and think... "just one more" and by the time you are done, you have a overflowing basket of juicy red berries and somewhat reddish finger-tips. It is all so exciting that you find it difficult to stop even when you know you should and if a toddler accompanies then every pick becomes even more fun....

22.6.14

Black Bean Quinoa Salad



The other day I spotted a few odd ingredients in the fridge.  A chunk of pineapple, some corn, a red bell pepper and some cilantro. Now what do you make with such odd ingredients ? May be a hundred odd dishes, may be delicious ones too... but I just wasn't in the mood to think and create. So I Googled and landed upon Guy Fieri's Black Bean Salad. The salad looked appetizing and I was sure that adding a little something would make it a meal. I decided on quinoa and minutes later was ready with a bowl of bright and zesty Black Bean Quinoa Salad.

19.6.14

Sun-dried Tomato, Chives and Goat Cheese Scones # Baking Partner's Challenge


After a long time, this month the Baking partner's were challenged to bake something savory. Archana of  Mad Scientist in Kitchen chose Tomato, Thyme, Sage, Double Cheese Tart from BBC Good Food March 14 issue and Cheddar and Sage Scones from BBC Good Food as the bakes for the month.  I being me, of course chose the quicker option and baked a batch of scones. And since combining recipes and tweaking good ones have become second nature, I did that and mulled over the goodness of the combined flavors throughout dinner that night. 

12.6.14

Chocolate Banana Cookies


Over the past two and a half years of parenting, there is one thing I have learnt, when travelling with a toddler, carry lots of food and lots of distractions ( read books, toys, coloring books and more toys.) While we are extra cautious about not forgetting the latter, sometimes we buy but forget to pack the perishables at the end. During a recent trip, that is what happened with a bunch of bananas. They simply got forgotten. So we returned home to a bunch of overripe bananas, seeking immediate attention. With Google at service, I soon found a million ways to use those and that is how these Chocolate Banana Cookies came to being.

11.6.14

Conchas using Scalded Flour Method


Conchas,  also referred to as "pan de huevo" are sweet buttery buns from Mexico. They are famous for their crumbly shell-patterned sugar topping and soft fluffy texture. They are eaten with coffee and milk but mostly with Mexican hot chocolate for breakfast or late supper- known as merienda, a tradition that dates back to the 16th century.

4.6.14

Hummingbird Bars


For a while I have had Paula Deen's Hummingbird Cake in my to-bake list. But baking a three-tier cake with cream-cheese frosting does not make much sense unless you are baking for a crowd. So naturally, I had put the idea off for the time being when the inspiration for this lightened and somewhat healthier version of a Hummingbird Cake struck... a Hummingbird Bar ! If you've been here before , you probably have guessed already when and from where the inspiration came... Yes it was those Chocolate Banana Bars !

2.6.14

Vadai thatti potta Mor Kuzhambu / Vada in South Indian Kadhi / Channa Dhal fritters in Buttermilk curry # SNC Challenge


As part of the South vs North challenge, this month Laxmi Priya of Samayal Diary challenged the members of the northern team to cook Vadai thatti potta Mor Kuzhambu aka Vada in South Indian Kadhi. Now I have cooked a Mor Kuzhmbhu, that is a buttermilk curry before (remember Venthayakeerai Paruppu Urundai Mor Kuzhambu !) and was pretty confident about doing it right. But in reality it took me three trials to cook the curry without curdling the curd. I just wasn't paying enough attention to the nuances of the recipe...

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