Roasted Aubergines with Yoghurt Sauce

More Ottolenghi. I must say I had my doubts about this. Thyme? And then the aubergines came out looking all sad and pathetic. And I'm thinking okay I know I'm all don't over spice it, let the flavours of the vegetables shine and all, but maybe too much shining? But nope, it was perfect.

Stuffed Zucchini

My favourite cousin got me my first Ottolenghi book, Jerusalem, as a present in February, and then I went and bought Plenty at the book fair. They've been hanging out in my cookbookshelf all this time and, on the occasion of dinner birthday party for two beloved friends, I fished em out to plan menus. Now these recipes are a little daunting, partly because he seems to use a hundred things in each recipe, but also partly because I'm like erm...really? THIS combination? Are you SURE? But I finally picked some stuff and went for it, shearing it of whatever I couldn't be bothered to do of course, and the results! Oh my god the results. 

Corn Chowder

Back in November, I went on my first proper trip to the hills with friends since I moved to Delhi three years ago. Fuck more than three years now I come to think of it! Anyway, it was planned with The Writing Twins, and they brought friends with them. The six of us had a hysterically good time, ably assisted by the mascot and theme song, and have been planning a reunion hangout ever since then. We managed a crazy birthday party but haven't yet managed to do a six-of-us thing. So this dinner was planned, especially since three of them have never met The Balcony. But sadly people kept dropping out and it ended up being just three of us, all south Indian so I thought to myself I shall make sambar saadham. Only I woke up last night and had this...NEED to cook something warm and liquid and bland. And so I came up with corn chowder, grilled garlic chicken with mushroom bourgignon as sauce, mashed potatoes and butterscotch cake with caramel sauce.

Mushroom Bourgignon

Gosh I started making this recipe way back in 2009, and have been meaning to post it ever since. It's become a staple favourite of mine, especially in cold weather, and I have evolved so far from the original smitten kitchen recipe that I don't even know if it still is what I claim it is!

Bhindi, goddess style!

Bhindi/okra has always been one of my great loves. But it's slimy and gross and I would only eat it carbonated, as my father likes to say. This is true. Growing up spoilt there was always one bowl of it that had been cooked BLACK that as just for me. And I was VERY possessive of my burnt bhindi. As time went by though, learnt about deep friend bhindi, bhindi made north Indian style with shitloads of onions (my mother, to give her credit did try and introduce this to us, but she added tomatoes but I refused to eat them in those days), stuffed bhindi and so on. But my most favouritest bhindi is the one I have adapted from the Goddess's katrika (eggplant) recipe, one that caused minor heart attacks when I was home last and demanded it at every meal (I am famous for refusing to touch Indian food that's been contaminated by katrika).

Spinach, Mushroom and Corn Bake

There's a pub I love to go to, that has the most AWESOME bake. It's cheap too, and soooo yummy. But the pub is very far. So laziness, and of course, the buying of my staples spinach and mushrooms, resulted in this for dinner.

Spinach and Mushroom Soup

So the supermarket had the most GORGEOUS mushrooms and spinach yesterday. Of course, I bought too much. The joys of having a maid meant that when i got home from work I had me a big pile of chopped veggies! I figure it's time I made something here that's mildly healthy!

Veggie Cheese Pasta

Random recipe I keep making up as I go along, but figure I should write it down.

• Pasta
• 2 bundles of spinach, shredded
• 10-15 cloves of garlic, depending on how you like it, crushed
• 100 g cheese of choice (you can tone it down or up), grated
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1 bag mushrooms, sliced
• 2 small peppers (I like red and yellow), diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 300-500 ml milk, depending on how you want the sauce
• 2 tbs butter
• 4 tbs flour, pref wholewheat
• salt to taste

Boil pasta according to directions.

Fry onions and garlic in olive oil till onions are translucent. Add spinach, basil, oregano and salt. Cover and cook till the liquid dries up. Set aside to cool. Cook peppers and mushrooms till liquid dries up, if you like put some garlic in too! Salt to taste. When the spinach mixture has dried, puree it.

White sauce: Melt butter in a pan and cook flour in it until it smells like it's cooked - a bit like pie crust. Slowly stir milk in till lumps disappear. Add salt to taste. As it comes to a boil, stirring occasionally, add grated cheeses. Once it boils, turn off

Add spinach puree. Stir in veggies and pasta. Serve!

Goat Cheese Pizzettes

So this is a recipe I concocted based on the amount of peppers and goat cheese in my fridge that could go to waste...

You need:

Baby spinach
Goat cheese, crumbled
Onion, sliced fine, can use green onions too
Bell pepper, I used red, you can use any, sliced fine
Olive oil
Garlic cloves
Salt
Bread

Preheat toaster oven to 400F.

Crush two or three cloves of garlic into the olive oil. I used three cloves for 1/3 cup of oil.

Brush the bread with garlic oil. I used about 2 tsps for one slice. Put a handful of baby spinach leaves on the bread. Add sliced onions and peppers. Drizzle another spoonful of garlic oil on the veggies. Pile on as much goat cheese as you would like. Sprinkle salt to taste.

Bake in toaster oven for 10-15 minutes depending on how crispy you'd like the "crust".

Eat up! Preferably with nice red wine.

This is really easy, you can go wild with this. Add mushrooms, whatever. The only thing is that veggies have to be sliced fine otherwise they won't cook in time. You can also use pizza dough to make pizzas, in that case I woudl pre-bake the crust for about five minutes otherwise the spinach will die. I like the bread version because it uses up leftover bread and I don't risk contaminating my cultures the next day with any lurking yeast from the pizza dough (Yes, it happens, despite gloves!).

Quesadillas with Cheese and Vegetables

Quick-fix lunch for all us in Ye Forn Lands.

• Shredded cheese [You can grate if you're enthu enough. Trader Joe's Mexican blend for preference. Cheddar, queso blanco and Monterrey Jack]
• Tortillas [Trader Joe's sundried tomato and basil flour in this case]
• Veggies of choice, chopped long and thin [Onions and peppers are a good staple]

Heat oil in frying pan. Toss veggies in with salt, let them cook about 5-10 min. I hate crunchiness so I let em cook. Lay out a tortilla. Sprinkle cheese across half. Lay out veggies as you wish. Sprinkle more cheese. Fold over. Toast in frying pan till cheese melts. About 1 min each side should do. Eat.

Goes well with orange juice and the Colbert Report.

Strange Primavera Pasta

In delight at the success of this blog so far [snh snh] I've been cooking up a storm. This is the result of a pasta craving and a zucchini in the fridge. I'd say use what you have in the fridge, but I reccomend atleast some peppers, green beans and zucchini.

Serves: 2 and a bit
Cooking time: 30 min

6 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 medium red bell pepper*
1/2 cup green french beans *
1 medium zucchini*
4 tbs tomato sauce [not ketchup]
1 tbs dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
4 tbs milk [cream actually but I shudder at the thought]
1/2 cup white wine [optional]
1/4 grated edam cheese [substitute as you wish, it's what I had in the fridge]
2 tsp oil
salt to taste
as much cooked pasta as you like

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pot, I'm told the one I used is called a Peking Wok. Add garlic and toss. Add onions and when they are transluscent, add remaining vegetables. Add spices and stir fry for about 5 min. Add tomato paste and wine. Stir for 5 min, add milk. It might split. Don't worry. Add salt and allow it to cook for 10 min or till vegetbles are done. Turn off the heat and add drained pasta. stir in the cheese while still hot and serve.


*Try and cut the veggies to match the pasta, I used fettucini so they were [fancy cooking word alert] julienned.