yummy - Travels for Taste

Baked Courgette Chips

June 16, 2013 by manjirichitnis 4 Comments

I often crave to munch on something like most of us do and just munching on something so different and bursting with flavour is satiating.

Plus there’s a lot less guilt munching on something that’s baked rather than deep-fried right?? Well, ahem! This recipe was adapted from one I found on All Recipes.

What I love most about this is that it’s done quickly, give it a prep time of 5 min, a cook time of 15 mins, and is ready in 20 minutes! What more can one ask for, just get that oven fired up people!

So here’s what you will need :

Manjiri Chitnis

Baked courgette chips

Easy, delicious and fun to make

Print Recipe

Course: Snack

Cuisine: Fusion

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

2 medium courgettes
2 tbsp Grated parmesan cheese
100 gm Golden Breadcrumbs
2 Egg whites
SmokedSea Salt as per taste
Groundblack pepper
1/2 tsp Mixed Italian herbs
Olive Oil

Method

Add the breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs, smoked sea-salt ( I use Oak-smoked Anglesey sea salt, it really packs a punch) ,ground black pepper, Italian herb-mix into a bowl and mix well
Pour the egg whites into another small bowl
Slice the courgettes fine, I use a mandolin to get wafer-thin round slices
Dip the courgette slices into the egg whites and then quickly into the bread crumb mix
Pre heat the oven
Line a baking tray with foil and using a brush apply some olive oil to the foil or use a low-calorie oil spray
Place the courgette slices onto the baking tray
Bake each side for 5 minutes at at 240°C / Gas Mark 9
Once completely cool, transfer to an air-tight container and consume within 1-2 days

I gobbled them up in one sitting! All washed down with a big cuppa of my steaming hot and sweer masala Chai, perfect for a summer afternoon when all you want to do is read that ”unputdownable” book! I am currently reading Dan Brown’s Inferno, what’s on your reading list?

I am guest hosting the blog linky ‘In My Veg Box’ again this year in March 2015 on my blog, an event run by Vegetarian food blogger Nayna Kanabar of Citrus Spice UK and the theme this month is Courgettes. Just added in my favourite Baked Courgette ‘chips’ recipe to the linky.

Would love to see all your lovely creations with Courgettes, do link up, all details on how to link up are available on my post here.

Sun Dried Tomato and Chilli Spiced Bread

June 5, 2013 by manjirichitnis 5 Comments

It’s amazingly sunny this week and my spirits are up so I decided to make some spiced bread with sun dried tomatoes and chilli, it turned out so yum I want to gobble it all up! This bread is a very filling,wholesome bread and is great for mopping up a thick gravy or having perfectly scrambled eggs with asparagus sprigs a dollop of butter – ah – sounds heavenly, my breakfast tomorrow for sure!

The oil from the sun dried tomatoes and the oil that goes in dough and really adds to the taste. It takes some kneading as I don’t own a bread maker (yet !) and didn’t really want to get into the hassle of trying the dough function on my food processor, still if you do possess one the bread bread dough tools, good for you!Recipe adaptation from here

Considering it was my first ever homemade bread, it turned out really nice, bursting with aroma and rich flavours and am now prepared to move on to well more bread making!

Ingredients:

500 gm strong bread flour
25 gm butter
Sun dried tomatoes and chillies about a large spoonfull
A sachet yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
280 ml water at room temperature
Plain white flour for kneading
Oil from the chillies and tomato
Oil to grease loaf tin
Cling Film

Method:

Sift the flour and add the yeast salt and sugar with a wooden spoon.
Ensure butter is soft and rub in the butter with your hands till the mix looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the finely chopped sun dried tomatoes and chillies and some of the oil and mix well.
Now add the water slowly, folding it using a wooden or plastic spatula and then knead to make the dough.Keep kneading till a soft dough forms, fold in some oil and plain flour as and when needed.It will take about 15 minutes, yes I know but its worth it!
While kneading use the same process as you would while kneading chapati/roti aata , kneading out from center and then folding sides back into the center.
Cover in cling film and coat with some more oil. Leave to rise for about 2 hours in a warm and dry place.
Now remove the cling film and knead the risen dough again at least for 8-10 minutes, you will notice that the dough will loose air and will almost go back to its original size.Its like mini air pockets getting tiny punches with your hands.
Repeat the cling film process and leave to rise for 30 minutes in a loaf tin in a warm place.
Preheat oven to 210 degrees , I have a fan oven,bake for 25 minutes,to ensure it’s well risen.
Cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then on the wire rack.
Serve sliced and enjoy with curries as a great alternative to regular wholemeal bread or as I plan to tomorrow with soft, perfectly done runny scrambled eggs, thinly sliced ham and asparagus sauteed in butter!

Clear Vegetable soup with an Indian Phodni

January 1, 2013 by manjirichitnis 3 Comments

Clear Vegetable soup – my way – Easy Cooking, Healthy Food

Happy New Year everyone! It’s a great way to start a new year on a healthy note hence some soup for new years day lunch light and easy !

Nothing warms us up in winter like a steaming hot soup, if it is filling , easy to make and wholesome it makes life even better! Agree? I love ordering clear vegetable soup when I go eating out and though this is not the typical chinese take away and is a very home cooking and simplistic approach it’s still what a soup should essentially be – wholesome…

You can add as many veggies as you like that would marry well with the basic list I think is essential, I basically use whatever is available in my vegetable tray on the said day !

The following roughly make for 2 large bowls of soup and a small leftover portion for Lunch next day, perfect I say !

Cauliflower 1/4th finely chopped
Small hand full green peas
2 – 3 large sprigs of spring onion finally chopped
Bottle Gourd – 1/4th finely chopped
2 large cloves of garlic
A pinch of cummin seeds
Half a tea-spoon ghee or low-fat butter example :Lurpack
2 small carrots finely chopped
Hand full french beans very finely chopped
1/4th tomato very finely chopped for flavour
Large bit of fresh ginger smashed with skin to add flavour

Optional : Brocoli, sweet corn,potatoes,cabbage

Method:

Boil all the veggies in water with salt to taste and the large piece of ginger with skin after its washed thoroughly , if it has too much mud on it please remove the skin , no knife skills needed just let yourself go, as Jamie Oliver would say !
While these are almost boiled ,take the ghee/butter in a tadka pan(image pasted below ) add the garlic cloves with skin smash them using a mortar pestle before adding and then add the cumin seeds when the gee/butter is hot and sputtering.Add this ”tadka” or seasoning to the boiled veggie water mix and serve hot.
The toasted garlic and ghee combination give off a sweet flavour and an appetising aroma.
An ideal accompaniment is a boiled sweet corn stub slathered in low-fat butter and a slice of your favourite baguette !

Cheers to good health , easy cooking , healthy and wholesome meals and of course winter warmers !

Christmas Pudding

December 31, 2012 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

Last year we had a supermarket pudding , the intense flavours, the dry fruits steeped in alcohol the soft delicious feeling of putting a spoon through a perfectly set pudding on christmas night ummmm… I decided that the next time I MUST make one at home !After sifting through a few recipes I knew it had to be Nigella’s Ultimate Christmas pudding.

I have now promised myself that I shall plan months ahead and soak the sultanas much in advance but well this year I soaked the sultanas and a nut mix for 2 nights in sherry. The variations in ingredients recommended by Nigella are my use of a regular apple, supermarket sherry and a currant and dry fruit mix off a shelf. But the resultant mixture and the process of slow steaming gave me a deep rich colour, a lovely texture and 2 yes two puddings instead of one and that is what was the MOST satisfying part of this process! Landing up with 2 awesome well set perfect puddings , one to eat at home and one to share with a special close pal made christmas special 🙂

Oh yes and a big thank you to Lakeland for making such an awesome product, my pudding steamer with a lid that fits so well and is really easy to clean. The pudding just slipped out after a gentle tap and sigh…. I couldn’t stop admiring the perfect shape, the dark colour …I almost burst into song !

Well now for the list of Ingredients:

150 grams prunes – mine were soaked in syrup and came from a cam but they served the purpose just the same, I squeezed the syrup out before adding them to the sultanas.If yours are out of a packet they need to be snipped into smaller bits.
150 grams sultanas
150 grams currants or a currants and nut mix for puddings available in all leading supermarkets.
175 ml sherry of your choice
100 grams plain flour
125 grams white breadcrumbs
150 grams suet – I used beef suet, if you are considering a vegetarian option I haven’t used vegetable suet , if anyone has tried it please share your experience.
1/4 ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon – I used a ready-made powder
3 medium eggs
150 grams dark muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 lemon large zest and juice
1 cooking apple (ideally) peeled and grated , I used 2 small red apples.
2 tablespoons honey
125 ml Vodka

Method:

This mixture gives 2 full-sized puddings , I have a 1 litre pudding steamer with lid from Lakeland and I had enough to make two full-sized puddings.
I must say our pudding is still sitting on a plate as I type this on the last day of 2012 , it’s asking to be microwaved and gobbled with some Remy Martin laced cream lying in fridge left over from Christmas, we had it Champagne cream on Christmas day and I assure you we had a feast and some very sleepy house guests after that …yes made me chuckle with satisfaction too.
Mix the sultanas,prunes and currants into a large bowl and let them steep in sherry overnight or upto a week. I let them soak for 2 nights.
When you are to start making the pudding mix take another large bowl and add all the ingredients in any order and then stir in the soaked sultana mix, scooping all of it off from the bowl.
Fill a large saucepan with enough water such that your pudding basin is soaked in it and use butter to grease the pudding bin and the lid as well.
Add the mixture into the basin and steam for 5 hours, checking ever so often and add some water to the saucepan. I must add that my pudding basin lid fits real well and after 5 hours were done it was quite easy to remove the basin from the saucepan and leave it aside to cool . No tying of strings , no foil and no danger of burning, besides like I mentioned cleaning is a breeze.
Keep aside your wonderful pudding which is done now, I peaked inside and it looked so good I had to really take a deep breath and stop myself from turning it onto a plate and start digging right it, but NO it’s meant for the Big Day!
Ok so now on D-day, steam the pud in its basin for 3 more hours, yes I trust Nigella’s recipes and hence the success for me a first time pudding maker 🙂
Well after it has had its steam and had cooled to an extent when you can open it and turn it on to a serving dish , it needs a gentle tap this basin and Viola! a rich dark well set pudding is there for you to admire and show off.
I did not add any charm before I started to steam it and I did not flambe’ it either but by all means use vodka and flambe’ to impress your guests !

Do leave your comments !

Borough Market – a slice of London’s History, Heritage and FOOD!

September 28, 2012 by manjirichitnis 6 Comments

If ever there was a memory I revisit connected to food, browsing, new experiences, and feeling that I LIVED and loved life to the fullest it is this Friday in July when I visited Borough for the first time ever…

Coming from India and have spent most of my life in Bombay I am no stranger to massive open food bazaars, haggling to get one free lemon or a bunch of coriander and feeling triumphant that I could get HAPOOS AAMBE – the king of fruits Alphonso Mangoes at a few rupees lower than the previous customer ….old memories of accompanying my mother as a child to the market every other day and helping her carry home-made cloth and nylon bags full of fresh vegetables and fruits. With these vivid memories in mind I set off with my pal N to visit the market.

Getting there by tube was fun and the first glimpse of the market sort of gave me that feeling of a newcomer to a large city, no not of feeling LOST but simply overwhelmed by the sheer variety of goods available,Of course the most beautiful part is the way all the sights and smells make their way into your mind, literally it was my nose leading me to the food !Set in Southwark, one is found staring at the SHARD as soon you exit from the Tube station, towering over the place it is an imposing glass structure.

The market is massive,has a really amazing old world charm thanks to its origin roughly dating back to the 1800’s when it started off as a wholesale market and continues to be,to this date.

Of course, we took a lot of pictures and ate many free samples along the way but the places where I feel silent with admiration were the Fresh Fish counter – for its sheer variety and activity surrounding the stall, the Mushrooms on display-I guess I had never seen so many colourfull, delicate and edible mushrooms in one place before! The Gamston Wood Farm with its exotic meats, yes as exotic as ostrich meat – left me totally speechless but owing to my many food allergies I didn’t experiment, but someday soon I do hope too! I purchased some ripe nectarines, ripe juicy tomatoes, and some crunchy salad leaf bunches.

The Market itself is divided into a few large chunks, we started by walking around the fresh fruit,vegetable and sea food shops, moving onto the inner food court where one find everything from superior Assam tea(which I did buy and got home in a cute brown paper bag and treat myself to some mornings with a generous chunk of ginger and plenty of milk, proper boiled sweet Indian CHAI!) to different varieties of cheese,exotic breads,organic foods,herbs,spices,nuts,dates,desserts sighhhh, then one is led to the many fresh food stalls where one can eat exotic burgers, hot dogs, rolls, pizza or sandwiches,soups,salads almost any imaginable snack packed with fresh meat,cheese and all things divine,I certainly envy all the office goers who can visit this place during lunch hour!Not to be missed are the bakery,patisserie and confectionary stalls, creative, hand-made and exotic all rolled into one, giving into those sweet craving is very easy indeed.Each trader no matter how small the stall exuded passion for their craft.Lot of international foods are available here in this massive expanse of a market each with its own spot under the sun so to speak.

There are many pubs and restaurants in the vicinity which sort of take over when the market itself shuts down for the day.

Simply walking past the fresh oysters and taking in all the gorgeous food aromas wafting around does good for any appetite.Aptly then Borough Market has won ”London Food Market of the Year” 2010 at the London Lifestyle awards.The sea food selection is the best in the city and it is also a great place to buy some amazing wines and spirits, from far-flung places across the globe.

”N” and I got ourselves ” The Spitfire” and a ”BBQ Banger” respectively from a friendly fella who happily smiled for my camera! Big Bonus points to him, am definitely going back for more yummy food!The rail-bridge crossing over this part of this market causes a bit of a rattle-shake-shudder when trains pass by overhead.

We took our hot meals wrapped in tissues and sat down in the compound of the Southwark Cathedral with many other and though it was windy we hardly noticed, eating our lunch like hungry school kids with sauce dripping off our face!

We then ate ice cream made from goat’s milk,thick,creamy and delicious are base emotions, it transported me to a green farm far away into the English countryside, I left I was on a patch of land watching women dressed up like village belle of times gone by carrying pails of creamy thick milk and barns full of healthy cows and other animals…. N had to shake me out of my dream world so we could continue browsing;)

Ice cream in hand and after much posing for pictures we strolled to the area with big shops which have been around for many years so much so that they have are food institutions on their own, one of them is Ginger Pig.When one enters the Ginger Pig shop,it’s almost like walking into a museum of oink oink 😉 EVERY possible cut,chop,slice,dip,garnish associated with cooking pork all under one roof – sigh ….

After strolling around some more and drinking in the sites, we decided it was time to leave but not before we spent some time browsing the flower stalls outside and purchased some magic potions from Neal’s Yard and some more relaxing tea for me, which I sampled at their store, it made me all drowsy and calm just what I recommend for a good nights sleep, count more deep sleep zzz’s after drinking this one folk…

Chocolate – the food fit for The God’s especially the one made by Hotel Chocolat‘….. the wooden interiors with the dim lighting and walls filled with chocolates so divine and varied that we just had to go in and have some liquid chocolate, mine was mixed with CHILLI! yes, awesome right? we also got to sample many of the new innovations and sat down on one of the massive wooden benches and sipped our hot chocolate and dreamt of ……well more CHOCOLATE!

Though the weather decided to play spoil sport,nothing could take away the feeling of a day spent pampering my senses….all I wanted to do was go home with my spoils wrapped in crinkly brown paper and sink my teeth into the nectarines and turn the tomatoes into a thick creamy soup.

If I could I would have written a poetry to describe my feelings when I left the market, I wish I could come up with some quotable quote to put all that happens in one’s mind in the market in a nutshell, but really , it wouldn’t suffice, no written word or picture can do justice to the beauty of this vibrant part of London’s heritage and history, treat yourself to a day out Visit Borough Market ….

Visit the official website for updates on opening times, events and news

Hover over each image to view the title.

Try some exotic french cheese ,please :)

Chilli Chocolate Milk ...they made me slip away into chocochilli heaven ummmm

My Partner in crime N is also lost in chocolate world ...sighhh

An Omelette with a twist

January 23, 2012 by manjirichitnis 4 Comments

Your regular omelette but better

What’s life without a bit of a twist I say!

So here’s one of my “different” omelette recipes, I love eating eggs in all shapes and forms and am more so obsessed with omelettes and scrambled eggs.

This recipe is for hungry morning times when you have a rumbling tummy and need time to hold the tummy quiet and prepare for rest of the day. It is a filling, satisfying yummy start to the day, I serve this with 2 slices of toast buttered with a generous blog of organic grass-fed butter and a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice to wash it down 🙂

Ok so you will need the following ingredients and a really easy short process to cook this yummy egg omelette

An Omelette with a twist

5 from 6 votes

Fluffy, delicious egg omelette

Print Recipe

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 6

Servings: 1 person

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Fusion

Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients

2 Eggs
1 large Red onion chopped lengthwise
1/2 Garlic cloves sliced very fine lengthwise again
1 Chicken Sausage
2 Green chillies
1 tsp Red chilli powder
Olive Oil as required or unsalted butter
Salt as per taste

Equipment

1 Non-stick frying pan
1 egg-whisk or fork
1 Spatula
1 Knife
1 Chopping Board

Method

Chop the red onion lengthwise and so also the garlic clove.
Heat frying pan over medium heat.
Sauté the red onion n garlic slices in a generous blob of butter on a pan until the onion starts to reduce turns a mild brown n stays ab it soft.
Transfer the onion and garlic onto a creamic plate and allow to cool down a bit.
Crack two eggs in a mixing bowl, beat them well using a whisk or a fork until you see loads of bubbles forming and the eggs have a nice thick consistency.
Now mix in the onions and garlic into the eggs, add the chopped chillies, red chilli powder.
Roughly chop the chicken sausage and add into the egg mixture, mix well
Heat the same frying pan on a medium add and add some more butter if you like, when the pan is hot , pour the egg mixture into the pan.
Cook with a lid for a few minutes, then using a wooden spatula loosen the omelette around the eggs, flip and cook until done on the other side without a lid, reduce the heat as required.
Serve hot with toasted sourdough smothered in butter, a nice strong cup of masala chai and some freshly squeezed orange juice or a slice of grapefruit.

Recipe Notes:

I like to chop the red onion and garlic lengthwise. Why, you ask? Because in an omelette the tiny square bits will loose themselves and vanish I like to chomp on and feel the taste of all the ingredients as I eat the omelette and appreciate each and every ingredient, it’s just so much more fulfilling and creates an immense feeling of happiness as a creator of a true mouth-watering masterpiece.
The red onion should be sauteed to the point it is still soft and light brown so that when you bite into it, it releases a sweet burst of onion taste on your palate.
Feel free to swap the butter for olive oil or an oil spray.
I prefer to use unsalted butter, I mean who wants to pump their body with extra sodium, not me, hellow normal blood pressure!
A fluffy, well-cooked omelette is a joy to cook and serve and even nigger pleasure to eat so it is imperative to get the timing of flipping it over absolutely spot-on and correct, it comes with practise and you will love it!
Feel free to innovate and improvise this recipe, throw in bits of sweet pepper, sweet corn, spinach that is about to go off, or some kale that is looking tired, add in your favourite cheese or not. I leave that to your imagination, creativity, and what is available at hand!

AAAHHH pure omelette pleasure.