So a couple of years ago, I discovered Cake Pops… And being an avid baker (well, I try anyway!) I just had to have a go!!
These are my results!
Messy, but Cake Pops, nonetheless!
But I loved these individuals!
The Cake Pop-ulation!
26 Feb 2015 9 Comments
in Foodie Pics Tags: Baking, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Cake Pops, First Attempt, Food Pictures
East West Chicken Biryani Ritu Style – Recipe
25 Feb 2015 17 Comments
in Recipes Tags: Biryani, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Chicken, Quick Dinners, Recipe, Rice
Now I know there are nights when you want a quick, filling meal, and here’s one I made tonight in just three quarters of an hour or so.
Ingredients
1 cup Basmati rice
2 cups water
2 diced chicken breasts
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
1 tablespoon Olive oil
Medium knob of butter
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 fresh chilli
1 inch ginger, minced
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion, diced
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
15-20 button mushrooms, halved
1 carrot, peeled and diced
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
Handful of tenders tem broccoli florets
Handful of green beans
Instructions
- Soak rice in warm water and set to one side.
- Melt butter and oil in a large wok or pan.
- Once melted, add cumin seed. Once these sizzle, add onion and cook off til softened and golden brown.
- Add garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add chicken, and when the chicken is starting to cook, add the yoghurt.
- Here, add the various vegetables and stir.
- Add the garam masala and salt to taste.
- Once the chicken is cooked, drain the rice that was soaking, and add to the pan.
- Add the 2 cups of water.
- Cook on a very low heat until the water is absorbed. Don’t stir too often as it can become a mushy pile instead! But take care that it doesn’t stick and burn at the bottom!
Enjoy, as I did above, with yoghurt, or a salad side!
You can vary the vegetables, add peppers, sweetcorn, whatever takes your fancy!
Banana Pancakes!!
18 Feb 2015 3 Comments
in Recipes Tags: Banana, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Egg, Gluten-Free, Pancakes, Recipe, Yum
Seriously lush!
So, following on from my last post, I remembered last year, during my diet, we were required to detox, and gluten etc was banned!!!
I discovered these beauties then, soooo yummy!
Banana Pancakes
2 eggs
1 banana
Fruit to garnish
Powdered cinnamon to sprinkle over if you want.
1) Whizz the eggs and banana in a blender til smooth.
2) Heat a pan with a little oil.
3) Pour eggand banana mix in and cook on a low heat.
4) Turn gently, they aren’t as solid as your usual.pancakes!
5) Once cooked on both sides, slide onto a plate and lovingly top with whatever fruit you like! My fruit of choice is strawberries!
6) If you like, sprinkle some cinnamon on top, the weight loss benefits of cinnamon are great!
7) Enjoy!
SIMPLES!!!
Indian, anyone?(Recipe)
10 Feb 2015 3 Comments
in Recipes Tags: Authentic, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Curry, Curry Base, Curry Recipe, Punjabi, Recipe
One of my curries with Paneer
A good while back I assured my good blogpal Tom I would post a simple, authentic curry base recipe. This is your true base for pretty much all Punjabi cuisine. I hope you might take the time to try it out with whatever variation you wish, and let me know!
Punjabi Curry Base
You will need:
Vegetable oil
Cumin
White onion
Garlic
Ginger
Green chillies
Salt
Chopped or fresh tomatoes
Turmeric
Garam Masala
Heat some oil in a pan, about a couple of tablespoons.
Add a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds.
When they start to sizzle, which will be rather quickly, add a large diced onion.
Fry on a medium flame for a while until the onions are nicely browned.
Add a couple of cloves of minced garlic and around an inch of minced ginger and fresh chopped chilli to taste.
Fry for a short while until these have also browned.
Top tip! If you find that this is starting to stick to the bottom, add a small amount of salt, it will stop the sticking!
Now add a tin of chopped tomatoes, half a teaspoon of turmeric powder, and half a teaspoon of garam masala powder.
Allow the mixture to cook on a low heat for a while stirring occasionally, until the oil starts to rise to the top.
This is the base for pretty much all home made curries!
If you want a curry with a bit of a gravy then add whatever you are planning on cooking, like chicken or lamb, with potatoes and/or peas, and coat in the mixture then add water to the desired amount for a nice gravy. Then allow to cook! Lamb will take around an hour, chicken quicker, but check periodically to see when the meat and potatoes are cooked.
You could put a tin of kidney beans or chick peas and potato, with water for vegetarian alternative.
For a drier dish you could add mince and peas, no water needed and cook in the base.
Or add whatever veg you like! If using potato, add that first as it takes longer than most other veg, then add others once it’s partly cooked, like cauliflower, diced carrots and peas, aubergine, that sort of thing!
Once cooked, taste to see if you want to add any more salt.
Hopefully this would create a tasty, authentic homemade curry for you!
Enjoy!
Pepper…
13 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in Recipes Tags: Cold Remedy, Recipes, Sneeze, Soup
I didn’t believe it before!
So, I discovered that pepper really DOES make you sneeze!
Cooking up a large batch of chicken and sweetcorn soup as the majority of the family are all bunged up (again!), and was adding the pepper, just a tad too much on my spoon so I sprinkled it back in the pepper packet, caught a whiff of it and, oh my! Sneeze City!!!
And in case anyone would like it, here’s the recipe from my Mother Dearest!
Chicken and Sweetcorn soup (kinda Chinese style, but not quite… if you know what I mean!)
1 whole chicken – skinned and jointed
Large pan with plenty of water
Tin of sweetcorn
Salt to taste
White pepper
Tomato ketchup
Tabasco
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp corn flour
1) Put chicken in a large pan with plenty of salted water. Allow to boil, then simmer gently for 1 hour.
2) Drain chicken, keeping stock ( important, very important!!! I managed to drain all mine away before, so we had boiled chicken… no soup!)
3) De bone and shred chicken. Put the chicken back into the large pan along with the stock.
4) Add drained sweetcorn
5) Add sprinkle of white pepper, dash of Tabasco, and a little squirt of tomato ketchup.
6) Mix the white vinegar and corn flour in a mug, then add to the soup.
7) Simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes until thoroughly warmed through.
Enjoy with Garlic Bread, and if you like an extra kick, in a bowl, cut some green chilli into little circles, add some diced red or white onion and top up with white vinegar. add these to your own serving of soup, to taste.
But I Smile Anyway... 