Creamy Eggplant and Bell Pepper Stew with few rants

Dear Foodies,

I cant tell you how much i have missed blogging in last two weeks. I felt as if an important part of me was missing. I thought all my blogger friends will forget me :((( thats seriously a scary thought and gave me nightmares! Blogging started with a hobby and now has become a passion for me. This blog gave me lots of new things, a new identity, people from all over the world visit my blog and appreciate my efforts, its such a great feeling and thats what every blogger is craving for, right? I got so many new and extremely talented friends, whom i respect and love for their talent of creating marvellous dishes, this blog is also a place where i can share my views and of course my recipes and experiments!

Shifting to a new place has some serious disadvantages. I have misplaced so many things which i am not able to find, either they are taken away by JADOO (remember KMG?) or i have a ghost in my house! Every morning there is a treasure hunt going on, the only difference being there is no actual treasure to be won but only to find my misplaced things back. Boxes and bags are lying around and with working 12 to 16 hours a day I hardly find time to sleep forget cooking and unpacking. Seriously gals if you are living alone dont ever shift apartments, its bad idea. My new kitchen is quite smaller as compared to the older one, it finishes the moment i step in :( At first i thought its ok as this is only a temporary place and as i will be moving back to india in another 2 months but now it has actually started to bother me, which in turn is worrying me .....ah ....sigh....

Now in such a scenario i require something comforting to my taste buds. No traditional khichdis or rasams and rice but today i present you extremely delicious and easy "Stew". Stewing is a method of cooking meat or vegetables using small quantity of liquid at a moderate heat for a long time. This way of cooking helps in enhancing the flavors in the dish and also helps in absorbing the spices in the meats and veggies. More information on Stews here. Do read it, quite interesting! I have adapted the below recipe from Pooja's traditional Ishtu. Thanks Pooja for this wonderful recipe, its one of my favorites now :)

EC, Rekha, Sanghi Indrani and Muneeba all have passed the below wards to me, once again thank you gals, this drives me to deliver more....oooohh talking like an IT professional now, arnt i? Thank you for having faith in me. The tag i have answered in my previous post here.

Ingredients: 1 big eggplant chopped 1 bell pepper chopped (i used an orange one) 1 spring onion chopped 1 medium onion thinly sliced 1 can coconut milk (400 ml) 2 green chillies slit 1 tsp black pepper 1 tbsp olive oil 3 elaichi (cardamon seeds) 1 cinnamon stick 3 cloves 1 bay leaf 1 tsp ginger paste Salt to taste 1/2 cup of water Procedure:

• Heat olive oil in a pan, add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamon seeds , cloves, ginger paste and green chillies.
• Temper for a min, now add in sliced onions and spring onion, keep some greens aside for garnishing.
• Cook them until soft, now add in eggplant and bell peppers chopped.
• Saute for another 2 mins and then add the coconut milk, water, salt and pepper.
• Cover and cook on slow to medium heat for 15 to 20 mins, until eggplants have absorbed the flavors and are cooked.
• Garnish with some srping onion greens.
• Serve the stew warm accompanied with a bread or enjoy it with steaming rice.

Melon Feta Cheese Tarts, a touching experience and Awards!!

I know this sounds weird but trust me on this, melon with feta cheese is one of the most delicious combinations i have ever tasted! Last weekend I had a dinner invitation by one of my very close colleague, she lives in germany and i have known her from past 3 yrs Over the period of time we became good friends and a day hasnt passed without speaking to her! This was the first time I visited her place and it was really touching experience. As I am a veggie with exception of eggs in bakes, they had prepared the whole meal completely vegetarian just for me! I was so touched! An electronic Raclette Grill or Raclette Maker was placed in the middle of the dinner table with a huge bowl of mini boiled potatoes on top of it. A variety of fresh and pickled veggies, pulses and fruits were spread across the table like sweet corns, zucchini, radish, baby corns, chickpeas, melon, bell peppers, cucumbers etc. Traditionally raclette cheese is melted over fire and is accompanied by boiled mashed potatoes. Meal is incomplete without a wine, we had Red wine, this is the first time I have had wine more than a tsp, though I am not fond of the taste but suprisingly it went very well with hot melted cheese! I think it just takes sometime for the our taste palletes to get adjusted to the taste of wine! After dinner we went for a walk, my colleague lives near Stein, its a small town near Lorrach. A beautiful and calm place with lots of greenery around. I saw many different types of flowers and fruit trees like cherries, figs, chestnuts etc. Can you imagine living in a place where you can pluck fresh fruits right from the trees? a place where every step you take you get the scents of roses and lavendars! This was like my dream town, small, serene and beautiful! After the long walk, tea and croissants were waiting for us! I loved the croissants filled with red currants and cherry jam and guess what they were eggless!! You definately cannot make out the difference, i couldnt resist my self and immediately requested for the recipe. As soon as i get it i am making them and posting it! I made these mini tartlets with musk melon, spring onions and crumbled feta cheese. Hot cheese with sweet melon tasted out of this world. I have used ready made puff pastry sheet and cut round circles using a glass, and baked them in muffin pans. You can also make these using tart pans. These mini tarts are off to BSI:Feta currently being hosted by Zoe.

Its been raining awards for me!! Ivy from Kopiaste..to Greek hospitality, Jyoti from Food Seasons, Chaklere from Chak Le Re and Vidya from Humming in the kitchen have passed "One Lovely Blog Award" to me, i really wish to thank you all for support and encouragement ! I love your blogs too! Passing this award to 5 or 10 or even 20 is not enough for me, so i would love to pass this on to all my blog pals! Keep rocking gals!

Ingredients: 1 pastry puff sheet thawed 100 gms feta cheese crumbled 2 spring onions finely chopped 1 cup musk melon finely chopped Pepper to taste Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
• Grease muffin pans lightly, i used olive oil for greasing.
• Using a glass or cutter, cut round pieces from the pastry sheet and place them in the muffin pan, making small cups.
• Add in musk melons and spring onions. Top it up with crumbled feta cheese.
• Add some freshly grounded pepper and bake these for 30 to 35 mins until the pastry puffs are lightly browned.
• Serve them hot!

Cheesy Bell Pepper Swirls..little drops from heaven

I was planning to make these from a very long time but never got around to it. Finally I made them yesterday night and they came out like small drops from heaven, the crust was flaky and crunchy with cheesy bell peppers spiced with jalepenos,basil and chilli sauce....oh my just writing the post made me hungry. I had first seen these here, but the filling used was spinach and cheese, though the reviews were great, i was skeptical of the combination, me not a big fan of spinach or cheese, plus i dont like using frozen spinach, and i didnt have any fresh ones in hand. On the other hand i had lots of bell peppers, i always have them, thats the only veggie which is always available in my fridge. I created my own stuffing and it turned out to be perfect.

For the crust i had bought these small pastry puff sheets thought it would be easier with them, no kneading, rolling or cutting required but fate had something else planned for me!!!!! After coming back from office, i removed the pastry puffs from freezer to get them to room temperature and i started working on my stuffing. Stuffing really didnt take much time, was ready in 10 mins. It was written on the pastry puff packed to keep them at room temperature for about 40 mins so still 30 mins to go. Oh well i felt like taking a short nap but again fate ditched and sent some visitors uffff... These days i get lots of visitors coming in to view my apartment as i will be vacating the same in few months. A couple came yesterday from france and the worst part both didnt know english, only the wife could speak tits and bits of english words, I myself being expert in french with knowing only words like Merci, Bonjour didnt make the task easier :( The only words common between us was "OK", it was so tedious to try to make them understand using sign language, in normal circumstances it wouldnt take not more than 15 mins but with them it took me almost an hour to show around the house and explain the details. Between completely forgot about the pastry puff sheets!!!! i thought the sheets would probably be seperated with a parchment paper but to my horror they all were stick together so much for the easier way!!!! Ah but do i look like i'll give up on some stupid pastry puff sheets? nah...so here's what i did, i rolled the entire thing into one big dough, divided into 4 equal balls , rolled and cut them into rectangles and this way made my own pastry puff sheets!!! of course not entirely from scratch but did save a disaster from happening :) If you are a cheese and bell pepper fan..you ve got to try this even if you are not may be you'll become one after trying this :) its so simple and easy to make and yet tastes heavenly..i can go on and on for these :) I liked them so much that i'll probably keep them as one of the starter items in my wedding/engagement party.....ah naaa dont get any signals here...m still single and not ready to mingle, but doesnt hurt to plan right? Ah i think i have bored you guys a lot today, oh before i forget sending these to AFAM-Bell Peppers guest hosted by my dear friend Priya, mastermind of Maheshwari. Also sending these to BSI:Bell Peppers hosted this week by Jenn of Bread + Butter

Ingredients: 4 pastry puff sheets thawed* 1 big red bell pepper chopped finely 1 big yellow bell pepper chopped finely 2 spring onions with their greens chopped finely 2 medium jalepenos chopped (I like spicy) 1/2 cup grated cheese 1 tsp olive oil 1 tsp red chillie paste 1/2 tsp black pepper powder (optional) 1/2 tsp dry basil powder 1/2 tsp sugar (optional) Salt to taste Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 200 degrees C.
• In a sauce pan, heat olive oil, add in bell peppers, jalepenos, basil, spring onions, salt, pepper, sugar,red chilli paste and saute for 5 mins. You dont want to cook them mushy.
• Take a pastry puff sheet onto lightly floured surface, spread the bell pepper stuffing leaving little space on the sides. Top it with grated cheese and fold the sheet carefully into a tight roll sticking the sides together with little water if required.
• Cut 1/2 inch slices of the roll. Similarly stuff and roll the other 3 pastry sheets as well and cut them into slices.
• I have used my pizza dish to bake the swirls, you can use the normal baking dish.
• Line the baking dish with a parchment paper or foil and bake them for 20 to 30 mins or until light brown.

*Please Note: Number of pastry sheets may vary depending upon the size of the pastry sheets. Baking time may also vary , in the original recipe its mentioned to bake for 15 mins, but mine took more than 30 mins.

Sweet Potato, Cauliflower and Spring Onion Curry

After making sweet potato chips which i posted few days back, you can find the post here, i still had one sweet potato left in the fridge which was screaming to be used. I also had a big cauliflower and few spring onion sticks which i had bought on last weekend. I prefer to buy fresh veggies as in summer there are high chances of veggies getting spoiled if we store them for a longer period. I did not follow any recipe but created my own, for which i am really happy as the curry turned out to very very tasty...... :))

I served the curry with plain jeera rice and the combination was awesome...i definately will be making this again.

Ingredients:

1 big sweet potato chopped 

1 cup cauliflower florets

2 spring onion stick chopped finely

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp red chili powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

For Tempering:

1 tbsp oil

2 dry red chilli broken into 2

1 piece of cinnamon stick

4 cloves

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp nigella(onion) seeds

2 bay leaf

2 - 3 star anise

2 - 3 cardamons broken (elaichi)

a generous pinch of asafoetida

Procedure:

• In a saucepan, heat the oil, add in cumin seeds, nigella seeds, bay leaf, cloves, cardamons, star anise , cinnamon and red chillis.
• As soon as the seeds start to splutter add in a pinch of asafoetida.
• Now add in the chopped sweet potatoes and cauliflower florets.
• Cook for about a min.
• Now add in turmeric, red chilli, cumin and coriander powders. Also add in salt and sugar. Mix well.
• Add little water, cover and cook for about 7 - 8 mins, until half way cooked.
• Now add in the chopped srping onions (leave some for garnishing).
• Cover and cook again for another 8 mins or until done.
• Garnish with chopped srping onions and serve hot with jeera rice, enjoy!!!!