Cajun Spiced Green Beans

Of, all those  veggies out there stocked in the kitchen,when the question comes for cooking green beans, I always stare at the wall blankly and can't think of any recipe except Dal or veg pulao or mixed veg,of which all of them are over cooked and past their user friendly ratings. So, the moment I laid eyes on this recipe I knew I have to make this. It is a very different recipe for green beans. Whats great about this recipe that, one can serve it with roti, paratha or pulao. It can be served as an accompaniments with the roast or grill and what's more, it is super tasty.I don't know about you guys bit I always a weird smell out of it...may be it's me!! What ever it is, it camouflage the smell totally and you get a crisp sweet and spicy dish out of this boring tasteless veg. If you are serving it with roast or grill..it is better that you blanch the beans first, as it can get a bit tricky to maintain it's crispiness. As was going to serve it as a side dish for my rice  cooked it in the pan.But crispiness is always a personal choice. For me, for roast and grill it is crisp and for roti, rice and pulao's a wee bit well cooked, not cooked to death though. So here goes the recipe.....

Ingredients:

300gm  Green Beans,halved
1  Large Tomato, pureed
1  Tbsp Garlic,paste
3-4  Tbsp Cajun Spice Mix
2  Red Chilli, Dried
1  Tbsp Sugar
1/2  Tsp Sesame Seeds
2  Tsp Lemon Juice
2  Tsp Green Chillies, chopped (optional)
1/2  Cup Water
Onion Seed/Nigella Seed/Kali Jeera, a pinch
Salt, to taste


Method:
Heat oil in a pan, add the Kali jeera and the dried chillies. When the jeera starts to splutter and the chillies emanate smell, add the tomato puree and the garlic paste, Stir fry for couple of minutes or until the raw smell is gone. Now add those beans and stir fry for a minute,add water and cover and cook until it's soft but but holding it's shape. Add the Cajun mix and stir fry until the oil separates. It should be done in 1-2 min. Add the lemon juice and the chopped chilli, if using, toss and remove from the heat.



P.S. you can adjust the heat of the stir fry according to your taste,as the cajun spice mix is itself very hot.
Be careful about the water as it is supposed to be stir fry.So it should hold it's shape.
Always keep in mind that, when you add salt and cover bean will impart some water.
You can cut the beans in short, if you like. 











 

Ginger Apple Coffee Cake

Yesterday I made this recipe, as my fridge was stuffed with lots of apples, some bought and some free stuff!! Yes free!! As my husband  often gets free fruits from his office...sometimes there are other fruits too,orange or banana...but this time it is apple...I personally don't like apple much as my daughter. In this question me and my daughter are same...we both don't like red rose apple as everybody does..We rather like the green one.. According to me it is more crisp and tasty than the red ones...It's sweet and sour attracts me more!! So as coaxing didn't work much... and with a apple stuffed fridge, in my kitchen I used a sneaky way to feed her this 5 a day fruit!! And truly speaking not just her, the whole family!! I altered the recipe a little,  would rather say not altercation but addition...Coffee!! It turned out very nice...truly soft and not too sweet...the only hitch was, the recipe asked to add 1/2 cup of oil,which I didn't use, as I was out of vegetable oil at that certain moment!! You can ask how can anybody be out of cooking oil!! Yes I am a bit weird this way.. So it turned out tad  dry,but I am not complaining and my family,too.Apples, shredded and seasoned with lots of gingerbread spices, ground ginger and crystallised ginger pieces, melt into  this cake.Brown Sugar gives a caramelised taste.



 

Ingredients
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground star anise
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
4 eggs
150 gm(1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cool but still liquid
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 medium apples cored, peeled, and coarsely shredded
½ cup chopped crystallised ginger

Method:
Preheat the oven at 175C/350F.Butter and flour a 10''cake tin, tap out  the excess. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and all the spices. Sieve the mixture. n a separate bowl beat in a medium high  speed, both the sugars and the eggs for two min. Then add the butter and vanilla flavour and again mix for 2 min. Next add the grated apples,without it's accumulated juices. Mix it on a low speed, until just combined. Now stir in the crystallised ginger and pour the mixture in the previously ready buttered and floured pan. Bake it for 55-60 min or until a skewer inserted and comes out clean. When you can handle the pan remove the cake from the tin and cool it on a wire rack. Once completely cooled sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar.


Recipe Source: http://www.bostonglobe.com

Cabbage and Sausage Cream Soup

In my family every body always falls for sausages... my 5 year old only knows two food names...sausage and chicken...when ever I present a meal in front her she asks only one question"what is it?? sausage/chicken??" So yesterday when she is in those moody like ways, you know,every mother has to face it.."don't like eating"!!,way,I thought that there is quiet a lot of sausage in the fridge,lets bribe her...

Then there is that cabbage head which  I bought, keeping in mind, that ,I would try out something new other than "bandhakopir tarkari"(cabbage curry). I would think something out of the box...when ever I think of cabbage I can't go beyond that torkari,with peas and potato. It's like a staple, in Bengali winter!! But no.. I wanted something new this time...so surf, surf, and after lots of surfing on the net  got this delicious looking, bowl of soup, recipe!! As I didn't have exact ingredients I have to alter a tiny-winy bit.  didn't have celery so I added garlic and onion stalk cube...And also I didn't had those mentioned sausages...bratwurst, knackwurst or kielbasa,first two is I think German and the last one is Polish. I was stocked with regular Belgian pork sausage....so I altered it with that..and voila this, healthy to the body,good for the soul and above all,easy to cook, recipe is formed..So here goes my recipe friends!!


Ingredients:

1 lb   fully cooked pork sausage, sliced into 1/2 inch slices

3-4   potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 medium  onion, chopped

1/2 small  head cabbage, shredded

2 medium  Carrots, sliced

3-4 mushrooms, thickly sliced 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

3 cup   milk

3 tbsp   all purpose flour

1 cup  emmental, shredded

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 onion and garlic stock cube,crumbled

Chilli Flakes,optional

Method: 

In a big pan combine all the vegetables and sausages. Add the stock cube and 3 cups of hot water. Bring it to a boil and reduce the heat and simmer.When the potatoes are nearly half done add the cabbage and mushroom. Cook until all the veggies are properly cooked. Add half the amount of milk now. Mix remaining milk and flour and make a paste pour it over the soup. When it turns thick and bubbly add the cheese and ground pepper, give it a stir and remove it from the heat. Serve it with your choice of bread and extra dose of ground pepper and chilli flakes...I served it with a easy Cheese and Garlic Quick Bread!!

P.S. You can use any kind of sausage..chicken or those veggie kind. Or just boneless chicken pieces....or you can totally omit the meat and go for veggie option..In that case add some corn or green peas for the crunch and increase the amount of mushroom.. It will give a chewy and meaty  effect!!

Recipe Source:http://www.justapinch.com

 

Sujir Jhaal Nimki (Spicy Semolina Cracker)

 I was doing my usual scrounging  about recipe this evening!!...yeah you guys heard right..evening!! Hubby is late and after feeding my munchkin,she wanted to see cartoon!!. always it boils down to cartoon sometime I resist,sometimes I just simply give in. This time I did the last one,just gave in. So got some spare time and thought that should use it properly so started scrounging for my next project..some thing fancy..some thing great,some thing, by which I can prove that I am worthy of my kitchen...yes I know I am guilty of sounding wee bit melodramatic,but you get the point. I wanted something to challenge myself. So while foraging I saw some wonderful recipe and some awful,disgusting,strange ,down right weird recipes.  Weird flavours, strange ingredients...one cake recipe called for pickled cherry blossom!! Another asked sweetened adzuki beans...cherry blossom essence what happened to simplicity?? Simple vanilla essence or cocoa or strawberry puree, or anything except weird pickled cherry blossom!! I always prefer simple food,comfort food rather than the fancy ones. to me fancy foods ,fancy ingredients are not for eating or using stand them on the alter and worship..like a movie star..untouchable. Give me those over used, everyday ingredients any day and I'll create magic(or try to),don't need those costly and fancy or the weird sounding things.

So I settled on this simple and mainly QUICK snack!! This is another thing I like to eat..my favourite type of food!! Yah...yah I know it's not healthy..blah..blah..but who cares right!! Just like to hear the  munch, munch sound!! I think everybody who likes food would agree with me!! I made this simple,yeah,fried snack, Nimki(Flour Crisps), a very popular type of snack of my native land West Bengal.It is mainly evening snacks mainly eaten, in the evening with tea. But it is not just any nimki it is made out of semolina..which is always available in a Bengali pantry.So as a true bong gal,as I am, it was available in my Belgique  pantry,too. And my mind was crying for nimki for some days, those salty or sweet diamond shaped fried bliss...which is unfortunately not available here in Belgium..though not totally true, sometimes it is available though in the local Asian store,with which I defused my hankering for nimki,temporarily though,because I was not satisfied with the taste.it was bit greasy!! So I took upon myself to satisfy myself,which we should do it often.So while I was searching for the nimki recipe I came in contact with those some fancy, some straight forwardly awful recipe, which compelled to write these lots of words.But trust me,it will be ready in a lot less time!! Just spare some 10 min and bam you are enjoying it with hot tea or coffee!!

But now no more word except those which only give you the recipe.

Ingredients

1. Semolina – 1 cup
2. Nigella seeds – ½ tsp
3. Banking powder – 1 tsp
4. Coriander Leaves – chopped, as desired
5. Chili powder – 1 tsp
6. Black pepper powder  - ½ tsp
7. Salt – to taste
8. Water – as required
9. Flour – for rolling
10. Oil – as required

Method

• In a mixing bowl, mix together the semolina, baking powder, chili powder, nigella seeds, black pepper powder and salt. Add chopped coriander leaves, if desired. Mix a little water to make a paste of rolling consistency.
• Add 3 – 4 tbsp oil and mix well. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into a thin flat-bread. Dice it into desired shapes of small pieces. Heat oil in a frying pan, and deep fry the pieces. 
• Dry them in a kitchen paper to absorb excess oil. Serve warm with mayonnaise.

Chocolate Ganache Tart

 The first Sunday, of the starting of the summer month,we had our first ever bbq party!! It was a very small gathering..only about 10 head counts!! Though we (to be precise,hubby was cool as those cold summer beer) are very nervous..it was a first ever bbq...we have done lots of dinner or launch party but not bbq..because in India it is not popular or rather non existent...When we rented the house we promised we will do at least a bbq party and can boast that we are an all rounder at throwing party!! So we did and threw a party and decided to make my life more harder by deciding to make a chocolate tart!! Difficult because  never ever made one before and chose to do so on a party which was also new to us...something of a double accomplishment!!

I am always very scared about making pie or tart...it very tricky to handle..as I don't like to cheat..buying premade pastry case which is not available to the Belgium super market or pre rolled ones.I like to make mine from the scratch which always turned out tricky at all my previous venture...either it shrank or over cooked or under cooked!! So I chose this precise one as it don't have those tricky rolling and handling,though it has some challenge on its own..and I was also short of time as the filling doesn't require cooking ,though it needed some setting time which i was dubious about providing, between those handling of the meat and marinating or cutting vegetables and fruit for salads. But it looked easy and  took up the challenge...

There was another reason for taking that challenge..next day was Father's Day and wanted to have him some thing sweet,though one day earlier(though turned out I was a whole week early)...see I cheated..ultimately!! Where am I,...yeah pie making..this precise recipe needed no kneading and rolling ,just mixing and spreading and chilling and straight bake... Though the spreading turned out to be a bit tricky for me..It turned out very difficult for me to spread the base evenly..though i managed in the end by pressing it by hand when it was bit hot and soft and still spreadable..

In the end all went well, it set properly and every body enjoyed it with the game and I can say to you guys very proudly that I got a request to make it again! So here goes the recipe so that you can make it and hear the silence!!

INGREDIENTS
  Crust:

• 8 tbsp/120gm butter (1 stick), melted
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

   Filling:

• 8 ounces/225gm bittersweet chocolate
• 4 ounces/120gm semisweet chocolate
• 4 tbsp butter/60gm (1/2 stick), cut into small pieces
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar 

 Method

Crust

Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle.Combine butter, sugar, vanilla essence, and salt in a large bowl and stir until evenly incorporated. Add flour and stir until just combined and a soft dough forms.Flour a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Now transfer the flour mixture into the tart mould. Using a measuring cup or your fingers, evenly press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan, don't forget to flour the cup occasionally to prevent sticking.to the cup.Cover the tart shell with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Once chilled, prick it all over with a fork and bake until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.

Filling:
Place chocolate and butter in a medium bowl and set aside.Combine cream, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves and liquid is just at a simmer, about 4 minutes. Pour the cream mixture over chocolate and butter and let sit until melted, about 4 minutes. Gently stir until smooth.Pour the ganache in the cooled tart shell and transfer to the refrigerator. Chill until set, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
For decoration sprinkle icing sugar on the top and arrange some raspberries or strawberries before serving.

Recipe Source:www.allfood.recipes