[Meatless Monday] Creamy Sun Dried Tomato and Spinach Macaroni 'n' Cheese | Step by Step Recipe

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Learn the perfect way to make mac n cheese recipe. It is go-ey. It is creamy. It is as easy as whipping up any other pasta dish. Today's version is loaded with good stuff like spinach and has got nice tangyness from chopped sun dried tomatoes. Add anything from roasted veggies to thai curry paste as flavoring and trust me, you have got THE best comfort food ever known to mankind! :-)

Savory Vegetable Bread Pudding - a Step by Step Recipe

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[Update] This recipe has been featured on ..

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“The kitchen, reasonably enough, was the scene of my first gastronomic adventure. I was on all fours. I crawled into the vegetable bin, settled on a giant onion and ate it, skin and all. It must have marked me for life, for I have never ceased to love the hearty flavor of raw onions.” ~ James Beard (1903-1985)

Savory Vegetable Bread Pudding

{Simple and Easy Appetizers} Cornmeal Crusted Potato Wedges Recipe

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We simply love potatoes in our house and can be easily tagged as a perennial favorite. Basically we try to make, eat and taste them in every possible variation - with eggs, with balsamic vinegar, spiced up with kolhapuri masala, sometimes as mini pancakes, as rolls, as tater tots or even in a Christmas pie.

Today's recipe - Cornmeal Crusted Potato Wedges is a result of one such quest to experiment with this humble vegetable. This dish enjoys being different and scrumptious at the same time. These are so yum that once you taste it, you are bound to return for more with an instant craving. I promise.

Enjoy!

the cornmeal seasoning for the potatoes

potato wedges roasting in the oven..

{Recipe} Cornmeal Crusted Potato Wedges

Adapted from Simple Bites
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

4 medium sized potatoes, peeled
1-2 tbsp fine cornmeal (or polenta)
salt - to taste (~ 1 tsp)
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Preparation:

1. Cut potatoes into long wedges and boil for 10 mins. Turn off heat and drain in a colander. Keep aside.

2. In a bowl, mix together - cornmeal, salt, black pepper powder and chilli powder. Gently toss the boiled potatoes in the cornmeal mixture.

3. Preheat oven to 220 C or 425 F.

4. Heat a pan (oven-proof or cast iron skillet if you have one) and add a thin layer of olive oil. Add garlic. Let it sizzle for about 30 seconds and add seasoned potatoes in one single layer.

5. Transfer the contents onto a baking pan and roast for about 30 mins, turning them for every 10 mins. You can skip this step and directly place into the oven, if using an oven-proof skillet or cast iron skillet. 
Make sure you roast them until they are crunchy from out side.

Serve them with any dip and ketchup.

...ready to be served..

Sending this as an entry to Healthy Vegan Fridays and The Wellness Weekend.

This is Recipe 26 added to my The 100 Recipe Challenge for Year 2013. Check out the rest of the recipes too!

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{Simple and Easy} Mario Batali's Tortilla Española | Spanish Omelette with Potatoes, Eggs and Spinach | Spanish Tortilla Recipe

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Everybody has a dream.

...and mine is to go on a trip to Europe one day. It is a continent with such diversity in terms of weather, people & their living, architecture and of course food. Just to mention a few, think of a french baguette, italian pasta, neapolitan pizza, polish pierogi or a spanish tapas. yumm! Isn't it. I wish to taste and savor each one of them!

On my bucket list is also to view the magnificent piazzas in Rome, drive through those rustic, country-side roads of Tuscany (Italy), experience a day shopping (if my wallet permits) in fashion capital Paris, catch a glimpse of Eiffel Tower with a stopover at The Louvre, hit the bars in london and end with a quiet Spanish meal with tons of paella and tortillas. The very thought of it is so exhilarating and brings happy thoughts into my mind & tummy.

Do you have a dream too? I would love to know all about it.

I am not sure if this dream of mine will become a reality in near future, so I made myself Mario Batali's Tortilla Española for lunch today. Its basically a spanish omelet with eggs, onions and potatoes. I added some spinach as well. This dish is so easy to put together and the end result is so satisfying and delicious. Not just breakfast, this tortilla can be served as a wholesome lunch, brunch, snack or dinner.

This is indeed the best of all omelets! :-)

Enjoy!

{Recipe} Tortilla Española | Spanish Omelette with Potatoes, Eggs and Spinach

Adapted from Mario Batali's Recipe on Food and Wine
Serves 2-3 

Ingredients:

3 eggs
2 potatoes, washed, peeled and thinly sliced
1 bunch of spinach, washed and chopped
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
salt and pepper - to taste
few red chilli flakes

Preparation:

1. Heat olive oil in a flat bottomed pan and saute onions until they are translucent. Spread potatoes as one layer. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally  until the potatoes and onion are tender but not browned, about 10-15 minutes.

2. Add chopped spinach and lightly season with salt & pepper.

3. In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs and add red chillie flakes, little salt and pepper.

4. Scrape the potato-onion-spinach mixture into the bowl and gently fold in everything.

5. Preheat oven to 180 C or 350 F. Grease a baking pan with some olive oil and evenly spread the egg mixture. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until the tortilla is set and eggs are completely cooked.

Transfer the spanish omelet onto a plate and cut into wedges. Serve alongside with some bread, ketchup, any spread or enjoy as-is.

Note: The tortilla can stand at room temperature for 3 hours before serving.

This is Recipe 15 added to my 2013 Recipe Archive. Check out the rest of the recipes too!

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Quick and Easy Meals: Pearl Millet and Brown Rice Khichdi Recipe

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It has been a very long, tiring and hectic week from all fronts - at home, blogging-wise (NaBloPoMo) and at work. That's when my mind wheels around for some quick and easy meals. Put everything together in one pot and Voila, it should be done. Today's recipe - Pearl Millet and Brown Rice Khichdi  is such dish which I made today for lunch. Instead of the traditional white rice, I substituted the same with pearl millets and brown rice.

A small bowl of this khichdi with pickle and papads on the side is sumptuous enough for a busy weeknight or to spend your weekend, just lazing around without spending too much time in the kitchen. :-)

Enjoy!

{Recipe} Pearl Millet and Brown Rice Khichdi

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup pearl millet
1/2 cup moong dal
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp melted ghee
2 tsp finely chopped ginger
few curry leaves, corainder leaves
1 green chilli, slit lengthwise
4 cups of water
pinch of hing
salt - to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preparation:

1. Wash and soak brown rice, millet and moong dal for atleast 1 hour.

2. In a pressure cooker, add soaked brown rice, millet, moong dal, spinach along with 4 cups of water. Cook for 4 whistles. Keep aside and let the pressure subside.

3. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds, ginger, hing, green chilies, curry leaves and coriander. Once they brown up a little, add pressure cooked rice and dal mixture. Season with salt & pepper powder. Mix well. Cook for 4-5 minutes until everything comes together.

4. Just before serving, drizzle the rest of the melted ghee and Serve with any chutney/pickle & papads.

More Simple Weeknight Meal Ideas:

Barley Lentil Chunky Soup
Margherita Tortilla Pizza
Easy Vegetarian Bean Chilli Recipe
Spaghetti Aglio Olio
Brown Rice Bisibelebath
Home-made Coconut Milk Fried Rice 
Roasted Cauliflower with Whole Cumin Seeds
Gobhi/Cauliflower Paratha, with Pickle Raita
Easy Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce and Fried Egg
Jeera Aloo 

Today is Day 24 of my NaBloPoMo challenge. Check out all of the posts previously published here.

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***Giveaways for this Holiday Season***

Last Date: November 30th 2012

{Holiday Giveaway 1} A chance to win Canon Powershot Camera giveaway (Open for Indian Residents only ) - Try your luck here.

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{Holiday Giveaway 2} Win $25 Amazon and Olive Garden giftcards. (Open for everybody) - For more details, Click here.

until tomorrow,

Green Cabbage Lentil Rice Recipe + Canon Camera Giveaway (Open for Indian Readers only)

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Some tastes of childhood you can never forget and can never fade away. It is a taste you regularly try to recall. Sometimes it works and most of the time it does not, especially if you are in a foreign land away from your home where eating a home-cooked meal by your mother is a distant dream. I was in such a situation for 6 long years until we came back to India for good last year.

After hogging and devouring on festive food, my mother would always make this simple, one-pot meal of Cabbage with Lentil Rice. This year's Diwali was no exception. Its comfort food to the tee.

If you are here for to know more about and participate in the give-way , feel free to scroll down to the end of this post.

Enjoy!

Simple One-pot Weeknight Meal

Cabbage + Toor Dal 

{Recipe} Green Cabbage Lentil Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups basmati rice (or any other variety)
1 cup toor dal (yellow split pigeon peas)
2 cups chopped green cabbage
3-4 green chillies
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp chilli powder
few curry leaves
1 tsp garam masala powder
salt - to taste
1 tbsp oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
4.5 cups water

Preparation:

1. In a pressure pan, heat oil. Add green chillies, curry leaves, onions and ginger-garlic paste. Fry until light golden brown in color. Add garam masala, chilli powder and salt.

2. Add toor dal and cabbage. Saute for few minutes. Mix well.

3. Add rice and cook for 2 mins. Add water and stir everything once.

4. After 1 whistle, let the pressure cooker be on heat for 2 more minutes (don't wait until the second whistle) and turn it off.

5. Once the pressure has subsided, lightly fluff with fork and serve with any spicy accompaniment.

Below is a step by step pictorial of how to make Cabbage Lentil Rice. 

Rinse rice couple of times. No need of prior soaking.

In a pressure pan, heat oil. Add green chillies, curry leaves, onions and ginger-garlic paste. Fry until light golden brown in color.

Add rinsed toor dal . Saute for few minutes. Mix well.

Add chopped cabbage. Toss lightly.

Add rice.

Add water and stir everything once. After 1 whistle, let the pressure cooker be on heat for 2 more minutes (don't wait until the second whistle) and turn it off.. 

Once the pressure has subsided, lightly fluff with fork

Serve hot with any spicy side dish and/or raita. Yum!

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2012 Holiday Giveaway (Open for Indian residents only)

It is Holiday Season and best time to spread some happy cheer all around. Its time to give-away something special to my lovely readers who support me all along the way. One lucky winner who resides in India only (Others, Check these giveaways and enter there) will be chosen for an opportunity win this fabulous prize. A chance to win a Canon Powershot A810 Point & Shoot Camera (Choice of color - Black, Silver or Red) along with 4 GB SDHC Card + Case + Charger

Here is what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. As simple as that.

To increase your chances in the random drawing, do one or more of the following and leave a comment once you did so. 

2. Follow Cooking With Siri on Facebook and/or Follow me on Twitter. - @sirime

3. Subscribe to Cooking With Siri feed.

4. Tweet about this giveaway. Feel free to use the below text - 

{Holiday #Giveaway} #Enter for a chance to #win a Canon PowerShot Camera at @sirime's blog. Details - http://tinyurl.com/canoncameragiveaway 

If you are already liked me on facebook, following on twitter or subscribed to RSS feed, just leave a comment letting me know and you are entered in the giveaway automatically! This giveaway is open for Indian residents only and You don't have to be a blogger to win the camera.

Last date for participation is November 30th 2012 midnight IST and one winner randomly picked will be announced on December 1st 2012. . 

Today is Day 19 of my NaBloPoMo challenge. Check out all of the posts previously published here.

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until tomorrow,

Holiday Special: Vegan Christmas Tree Pie

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"When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know."  

~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox (American poet and writer 1850-1919)

The one place that reminds me when I think of Christmas and Snow together is - New York City. As a first-timer in 2007, I was mesmerized by its energy and sheer liveliness in almost every street. If you are one of them, who took long walks on Fifth Avenue, tightly hugging your snow coat with hood & woollen mittens on, strolling near almost every shop's window, while its slightly snowing, then you know what I am talking about. :-)

Food, if you wanna talk about that, then we can go on-and-on for hours and never get tired. Such is the vibrancy of NYC which is so infectious and many vivid memories are etched in hearts & minds of everybody who visits there.

Make holidays fun by baking these cute Vegan Christmas Tree Pies

Today's recipe is dedicated to the big Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony that happens every year near Rockefeller Centre, which marks the beginning of the holiday season and personally for me, it symbolizes how happy & fun holidays are..The tree, traditionally a Norway Spruce, is illuminated by 30,000 environmentally friendly LED lights on five miles of wire, and crowned by a Swarovski crystal star. :-)

..miss you New York City.. I hope we meet sometime, real soon!

Santa is here...to fulfil all our wishes..

Step 1: Roll a dough ball into almost a square. Fold opposite sides towards the centre to create a rough mark. 

Step 2: Fold sides back and make cuts perpendicular to the mark, as shown in the picture above.

Step 3: Place some filling in the centre area. 

Step 4: Start folding the strips alternatively from the top, until the very end..

Finally, it would look like this - a Christmas Tree Pie is ready to go into the oven..

Pie Filling - Cauliflower, Potato, Peas with Indian spices.

Perfect for potlucks, parties and these are so much fun to make for family & friends..

Christmas Tree Pie..cut open..

{Recipe} Vegan Christmas Tree Pie

Adapted from Veganlovlie

Ingredients:

For the pie crust:

all-purpose flour, 2 cups
canola oil, 4.5 tbsp
water, 5-6 tbsp (to form a soft, non-sticky dough)

For the filling:

cauliflower florets, thinly sliced, 2 cups
potatoes, cut into small cubes, 1 cup
(fresh/frozen) green peas, 1/2 cup
onion, 1 small, finely chopped
tomato, 1 small, finely chopped
garlic clove, 1 or 2, finely minced
turmeric, 1/4 tsp
salt, to taste (Note: Add a little less salt as the pie crust is already salted)
coriander powder, 1 tsp
red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp
olive oil, 2 tsp
soymilk with a pinch of turmeric, for glazing

Preparation:

To make the dough:

Mix oil into the flour and mix in with fingers until it look more like fine breadcrumbs. Then slowly add water, little by little and knead to form a smooth, non-sticky dough. Divide into 3 balls.

To make the filling:

1. Heat oil in a pan on a low-medium heat and add onions & garlic. Cook until translucent and raw smell goes away.

2. Add potatoes and cook them half-way through. Next add cauliflower. Mix in and cook until slightly tender.

3. Add peas. At any stage, don't add any water. The filling has to dry, so that you don't end up with soggy pies..

4. Add tomatoes. Stir and mix well.

5. Season with salt, turmeric, red chilli powder and coriander powder. Cook for couple of more minutes.

6. Allow to cool the filling completely.

Assemble -

1. As per the photographs above, roll, cut and fill the pies.

2. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)

3. Place the pies on a greased baking sheet and brush with some (soymilk + turmeric) mixture.

4. Bake for 30-40 mins until light golden colour. Serve and enjoy..

Note: If you are feeling too lazy to make the pie crust, then use store-bought puff pastry, thaw and follow the same procedure.

Happy Holidays everybody..:-)

until next time,

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Brown Rice Bisibelebath

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There are some recipes which sound just flawless, like this luscious, creamy lentil dish. When best of the two worlds meet and make love, this is what we get (to eat): (Brown Rice + Bisibelebath). I recommend to make this ultra simple bisibelebath powder at home instead of getting some store-bought brand. Go for the latter, only if you fall short of time. I have tried to make this recipe with both and the difference is very evident. Replace the *white glucose coated rice* with such healthy whole-grains as much as you can. Trust me, you will do better, you will feel better & you will automatically eat just right!

The Making of Brown Rice Bisibelebath 

This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite bloggers - Madhuram of Eggless Cooking. In my quest to find wholesome recipes using brown rice, I found this and loved it. The rice and dal proportions are just perfect and once fully cooked, there is no so chewy, gummy texture to the brown rice. All we taste is how smooth and silky the cooked dal coats the rice & with 4 full servings of veggies, this is a one-pot meal in itself.

creamy, delicious, silky textured bisibelebath..

Serves 4 -6

Preparation:

Wash and Soak 1.5 cup of brown rice with 1 cup of toor dal in 7 cups of warm water for atleast 20 minutes. Tranfer the same into a pressure cooker , on medium heat and cook until 5 whistles. Take off from burner and set aside until pressure completely dies down.

Bisibelebath powder: Meanwhile, in a small pan, heat 2 teaspoon of ghee, and roast one-by-one : 2 tbsp of chana dal, 1 tbsp of urad dal, 2 tbsp of coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds, 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns, 4 to 5 cloves, 2 inch broken cinnamon stick, 4 red chillies and 2 tbsp of grated coconut. Cool a bit and grind into a fine powder. We will not use all-of-it for this recipe. I had to use about half of it and saved the rest in a air tight container.

In a wide pan, heat 2 tsp of oil, add 2 tsp of mustard seeds, until they start to crackle. Then drop curry leaves, 2 cloves of minced garlic and 1 medium onion, thinly sliced. Saute for 4-5 mins until they become a bit translucent and then add all the veggies you want. - I used carrots, green beans, drumsticks, tomatoes, yam, cucumber, snake gourd and mango pieces, about 4 cups. Cook for 5-6 mins.

Then add 3 tbsp of tamarind juice (or more depending on your tanginess you want). Cook for couple of minutes more. Add about 3-4 tbsp of bisibelebath masala powder. (recipe above). Mix well and add 1 cup of water if desired. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Finally add the rice & dal mixture and season with salt. Add 1 tsp of sugar (optional). On low flame, let it simmer for 3-4 mins more (make sure the bottom is not burnt). Serve as-is or with yogurt and/or appadams on the side, like we did.

Notes: Make the bisibelebath powder, in advance and store it in a air tight container in fridge, for it to stay fresh. 

Hope you have a fun-filled week ahead.

[Update] - sending this the event I am guest hosting "WWC: Brown Rice" originally conceptualized by Sanjeeta .

until next time,
Siri