saffron and pistachio ice cream (without machine)

Summer is absolutely here, the heat is going crazy. Temperatures were flirting around 3 figures before cooling off slightly. And with the heat in the suicidal range, nothing else comes to mind except icecream. And not just any kind...my favorite since childhood, saffron and pistachio ice cream.  As a kid I could eat any ice cream as a meal (I still can, I think), but this was my favorite, with butterscotch a close second. My grandma always stacked these in the freezer as a bribe and it worked quite well. "If you finish you homework by 6pm, I will give you some ice cream'. It was done before 5. The motivation was immense. 

With lack of my favorite flavors in the supermarkets, I had to take things in my own hands. And boy did I ever...with this fantastic 3 ingredient (few more for flavors), no ice cream maker needed deliciously creamy Ice cream. Ya heard!

I came across this recipe on Kevin & Amanda's lovely site. I have been looking for easy to make ice-cream without the maker for so long. This is so delicious, you wouldn't believe it was done within 5 minutes. It was even more delicious than I remembered...rich, creamy, just divine. Next time I might get a bit more adventurous and add some fruit, like papaya with pine nuts. Yum!!

Saffron and Pistachio Ice-Cream

Adapted from Kevin & Amanda

2 cups Heavy Cream

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/2 teaspoon Saffron strands

handful of pistachio, shelled and broken into tiny pieces

small pinch of cardamom powder (optional)

Reserve 2 tablespoons of heavy cream in a small bowl and add the saffron strands. Let this stand for 10-15 minutes till the cream turns the color of saffron.

In a large bowl whip the heavy cream till stiff peaks. Add condensed milk, vanilla extract,  cardamom powder, saffron cream and pistachios. Stir well till everything is mixed thoroughly

Pour in a covered container and freeze for 5-6 hours or till firm. Store the left overs if any, in the freezer.

How easy is that!!!

pea and crab salad

Mark Bittman is my hero (well, sort of). He boasts of cooking in a tiny kitchen, just like I do. Except, he own a condo in New York with a great view, a big freaking terrace with a large freaking grill. Nevertheless, he is a wonderful chef and writer, and I love his column in the New York Times. That's where I came across this scrumptious looking pea and crab salad. Now I am not much of a pea fan, especially in salads. But I am a big enough crab fan to give this salad a try. That being said, the salad was divine, peas and all. 

If I haven't said this enough on my blog, I love summers, but hate the heat. And that in turn  means I keep the cooking on absolutely necessary basis. So here is another salad recipe from me. I promise they will slowly disappear as fall and winter approach. But for now, here is a delicious salad that you will love. I served it with some simple baked fingerling potatoes and got myself a satisfying meal.

Pea and crab salad

Adapted from Mark Bittman

I have used frozen peas instead of fresh ones. Shelling peas is not labor of love for me, it's just labor. And it helps me skip the process of poaching them. But you can use fresh peas as recommended in the original recipe.

11/2 cups frozen peas, thawed (about 1 bag)
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped finely
1 cup fresh cooked crabmeat (you can use shrimp instead as well)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Handful of pine nuts

Freshly squeezed lemon juice from 1 lemon
Shredded basil for garnish

Salt and ground black pepper per taste

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients and add some salt and pepper. Garnish with Basil and serve!!!

Baked fingerling potatoes

1 bag of fingerling potatoes (about 20 potatoes)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

few leaves of rosemary

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven (I used my toaster oven) at 400 degrees. Mix everything and lay on a baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes or till the potatoes are fork tender and serve.

mango chutney in minutes

Month of May was one of my favorite times of the year. Other than the nasty heat, everything about it was great. It was the month when our summer vacation started, it was also the month before the monsoon started (my other favorite time of the year) and it was when the ever so beautiful Mayflower (Gulmohar) tree blossomed. But the most important reason was that it brought the mighty Alphonso mango in season. They don't call the Alphonso the king of fruits for no reason. You really have to taste it to believe. 

As soon as vacations started I would perch on my bed staring out the window that framed a gorgeous Mayflower tree fully bloomed with the blazing red flowers, a book in one hand and fork in the other. The fork was usually to pick the beautiful orange colored mango pieces in my bowl. A whole month of things I loved, what could be better? As soon as June arrived, the rains would erase the flowers from that tree slowly till it was almost naked. It was the start of monsoon!! Sadly the end of both Mayflower as well as the Mango. But it also meant corn was in season and the school was about to start in a week. What wonderful memories!!!

Here in L.A., I miss everything, the flowers, the mango and the rains. But just this last weekend I found some lovely looking Mexican Mangoes on sale. They taste nothing like the Alphonso, but they'll do just fine for now. In the process of letting it sit to ripen, I ended up waiting too long. Last night I found the once lovely mango start to shrivel. I had to do something. It's not fun eating an over ripe mango...so chutney came to mind. I have always wanted to try some mango chutney for a while, but never got to it. Now was my chance. It is by far the simplest recipe I have ever made. All you need is a mango, some sugar, and a microwave. You can then get fancy and add whatever spices you like. Yummy beyond words!!!

Mango Chutney in minutes
Adapted from Saffron Trail

Make sure you don't over-microwave it. The mango should not burn or turn to mush. So adjust the heating time accordingly. I believe this kind of chutney might be possible with many other fruits too, like pineapple, may be even tomatoes. If you try, do let me know how it turns out.

1 ripe mango, cut into bite size pieces

1 tablespoon of brown sugar (or jaggery if you have some) (adjust the sugar to your taste)

pinch of cayenne pepper

pinch of cardamom power (optional)

small pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix everything and microwave on on high for about 6-7 minutes. Make sure to stir it 2-3 times in between.

Done!!!

egg curry

Since I made the spicy egg salad sandwich a few days back, my husband has been secretly craving for the egg curry he loves. After hoping against hope he finally gave up on me and made some himself last night. Boy was it delicious!! And the best part...I got to be a couch potato for the night. With our daughter fast asleep, and my husband busy in the kitchen, I parked myself on our lumpy couch and nibbled on plantain chips while watching something brainless on the tv. The joy of doing nothing is just so wonderful.

Giving credit where it's due...

Egg Curry

Recipe by my husband adapted from vahrevah

5 eggs, boiled, shelled and halved

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon red chili powder 

1 tablespoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves 

4-5 kari leaves

1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste

pinch of turmeric powder

tamarind juice (soak a teaspoon of tamarind pulp in about 100ml warm water for 10-15 minutes) (you could substitute this for lemon juice, only and only if you looked hard and didn't find tamarind)

1 green chili, chopped

1 teaspoon sugar

salt per taste

Heat oil in a large saucepan and add mustard seeds. Let them splutter. Add cumin, chilies, fenugreek leaves and kari leaves to the oil. Stir for about a minute and add chopped onions and stir till they start browning.

Now add ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder and mix well. Saute the mix for about 5-6 minutes.

Add the tamarind extract and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add salt and sugar and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the boiled eggs and let it cook in the gravy till the curry thickens slightly, about 3-4 minutes.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot over steamed rice.

wordless wednesday

 

need I say more? delicious chocolate and toffee cupcake from Frosted for breakfast. Yum!!!

spiced egg salad sandwich with avocado

I can't say I am big egg fan. I really have to crave for them to make something out of them. My husband on the other hand loves them. So when he saw me crave for some eggs yesterday, he looked excited. I usually make his favorite egg curry or simply a yummy omelet. But I was feeling adventurous this time. It kind of upset him, but if I was eating eggs, they had to be absolutely delicious. 

I wouldn't eat an egg salad sandwich if you paid me to do it. (Well, if it involves 6 digit figures then it's a different story). But I wasn't feeling like making a curry in this scorching heat and omelet was just too simple. So I decided to Indianize the infamous egg salad sandwich. And I can't complain about the outcome. Simple ingredients, easy and quick...a bonus point was it was healthy too. Eliminating the mayo was probably why I liked it so much. 

spiced egg salad sandwich with avocado

4 hard boiled eggs, chopped fine (you can even choose to do egg white only salad)

1 avocado, chopped fine

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 cloves of garlic, finely minced

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper per taste

handful of baby spinach leaves, washed and dried

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

6 slices of a hearty bread (I used the 12 grain bread)

butter (optional)

In a large bowl add the first 7 ingredients and mix really well. The avocado will work as the mayo in this sandwich.

Toast your bread lightly and apply some butter. Put on a generous heap of the mix. Top with cheese, spinach and the second slice of bread. You can also grill the sandwich for the melted cheese effect.

garbanzo bean and zucchini salad

There are days when I feel blessed to live in Los Angeles. While rest of the country is burning up in 3 digit heat, we are enjoying the summer at 80 degrees here. But like most people in Los Angeles, including yours truly, have a way of complaining about everything...even the 80 degree weather. As I was extending my grumbling to my co-workers hoping for some empathy, almost all of them had the same reaction. "Aren't you from India? You should be used to this". Kind of pissed me off a little bit. Sadly it's true. From where I come from, you have just 2 seasons, hot and hotter with a few months of rain thrown in for good measure.

Coming back to the Los Angeles weather ...preparing a hot curry was beyond my scope of energy. I wanted something fresh, light, hearty and that which involved keeping my cooktop and oven turned off. Just last week I saw Giada prepare this beautiful summer salad. It looked delicious and I always love me some Giada in my kitchen. To my happy surprise I had all the ingredients that were needed, except for the lettuce, so I used Spinach instead. It is gorgeous light salad perfect for a scorching summer day.

 

 

garbanzo bean and zucchini salad

Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

The recipe called for 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. This much quantity in my salad kind of scares me. So reduced it a little bit to 2 tablespoons and still loved the salad. You can use whatever quantity suits your fancy. But make sure it a good quality oil.

Vinaigrette:

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Salad:

1 can garbanzo beans, washed and drained

2 medium zucchini, diced into small pieces

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

3 cups of baby spinach, wash and dried

2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese

For the Vinaigrette:

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper until combined.

For the Salad: 

In a large bowl place garbanzo beans, zucchini, corn, red onion, and spinach. Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss well. Top with the parmesan cheese and serve.