Raspberry Cheesecake

This is a vegan Raspberry Cheesecake. It is a simple recipe and tastes great!

Ingredients: (For Filling)

Soy Yogurt

Soy cream cheese/ Tofutti

Raspberry puree

Organic Sugar or Agave Nectar

Vanilla Extract

Potato Starch or Xanthan Gum

(For Crust)

Oats

Sesame Seeds(toasted with maple syrup, lemon rind)

Honey/Maple Syrup

Organic Brown rice flour

Lemon Rind

Soy Margarine

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the filling together.
2. In a separate bowl mix the ingredients for the crust.
3. In a pan heat the soy margarine and melt it. Add it to the bowl with the crust filling in it.
4. In a baking pan spread the curst and pack it in tightly.
5. Place the pan in a water bath and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.
6. Add the filling in and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until it is set.
7. Chill and then serve

Spice encrusted roast chicken with rice

This is a perfect recipe to get creative. You can pretty much do anything with chicken. I had bought chicken breasts and wanted to make a light and healthy meal with this.

Ingredients

Chicken breast

Rice, cooked

Chicken stock or water

Spinach

Peas(any vegetables you have around will do)

For spice rub: ( this is what I used but you can get innovative)

Garlic, minced

Chili powder

Ground Cumin

Ground Coriander

Ground Garam Masala

Salt

1. Mix the dry rub ingredients together and rub it on the chicken
2. Sprinkle some olive oil on the chicken.
3. Make sure you get both sides of the chicken
4. In a baking tray place the rice, peas and spinach and place the chicken on top of it.
5. Place this in the oven at 400 F until the outside of the chicken forms a nice crust. Should be around 10-15 minutes.
6. Reduce the temperature to 350F.
7. Take the pan out and put some chicken stock around the chicken. Remember not to put water on the chicken.
8. Cover the pan with foil and place in the oven
9. Let the chicken reach 165F. This should be around 30 minutes for a small chicken breast

This is a really great recipe. This is an opportunity to do whatever you want. You can even go for a lighter chicken just some lemon juice and some fresh coriander for the rub. That will taste really good too.

Pasta with Garlic and Chili Flakes

I wanted to make a pasta with garlic and chili flakes. But unfortunately there was no spaghetti available in the store so I had to use egg noodles. Was pretty good actually.

Ingredeints

Garlic, minced

Corainger (DHone pata), shredded

Spinach leaves, washed

Grape Tomatoes, halved (can use regular tomatoes cut small)

Pasta

Olive Oil

Chili Flakes

Cheese, shredded

Method of Preparation:

1. Boil the pasta and hold.
2. In a pan heat some olive oil
3. add some garlic and saute till golden-brown
4. Add the tomatoes, spinach and coriander.
5. once the tomatoes and soft and the spinach is cooked add the pasta and toss.
6. Add the cheese and chili flakes and salt.
7. Turn the heat off, cover with a lid and let it sit for about 5-10 minues

Momo

So I made momos today. I decided to make it with ground turkey to make it a bit healthier, but you can make it with chicken or even lamb.

Ingredients

Ground Turkey

Onion, chopped

Ginger, paste

Garlic, paste

Chilies(optional)

Spring Onions/Scallions

Lemon Juice(optional, but it tastes good)

Ground Coriander

Ground Cumin

Chili powder, very little

Wonton Wrapper

Mix the ingredients together with the meat and keep refrigerated overnight.

Spread the wanton sheets out and take a teaspoon full of the mixture on the sheet. Rub water on the edges of the wanton sheets and then fold as desired.

Put a pot of water to boil. You will need a steamer for this. Place the wantons on the steamer and steam for about 8-10 mins.

Sangria!

Sangria is something that is very easy to make. You can pretty much do whatever you want with it.

This is how I made it and it tasted pretty good!

Ingredients:

Red wine, choose any portuguese wine. Doesn't need to be expensive

Tequila, this is optional but I think it made it better

You can choose any fruits you like, I used:

Oranges

Apples

Mint

Lime Juice

Orange Juice

Lemonade/Iced tea (again your call, but it goes well with it!)

This is just a one step process:

1. Put the liquids together in a pitcher and mix well. Check the sweetness regularly.
2. Add the fruits and it is ready!

Chicken with ginger and scallion

This weekend I decided to make some Chinese food. The Chinese take out that is available here is very oily and frankly does not taste that good either!

This is a very very simple recipe which you can make while doing a million other things

Ingredients

Chicken breast

Oil

Soya Sauce

Ginger

Garlic

Scallions

• Bring a pot with water to boil. Add garlic, ginger and scallions to it.
• Once it has come to a boil add the soya sauce and the chicken.
• Let the chicken boil until it has fully cooked and remove.
• DO NOT THROW AWAY THE LIQUID.
• Cut the chicken into small bite size pieces and keep aside.
• In another pot heat some oil and saute the ginger and scallions. Add some soya sauce and bring to boil. Add some water and then add the chicken.
• Serve hot with fried rice or chowmein.

The water which I said that you should keep can be used to make Fried Rice. That is what I did.

Ingredients

Carrots, thinly sliced

Oil

Scallions, chopped

Onion, chopped

Rice

Peas

Ginger, chopped

You can pretty much put any vegetables or meat you want. I used some shrimp and I put eggs.

• Cook the rice on the side with the chicken poaching water and keep aside
• Scramble the egg on the side as well.
• I poached the shrimp in some of the chicken liquid. Throw the water away after poaching the shrimp.
• In a pot, heat some oil and add the onions. Brown the onions a bit and then add the ginger and scallions.
• Cook for about 2 minutes and add the rest of the vegetables.
• Once the vegetables are fully cooked put the rice, shrimp, egg and vegetables together and keep it on the heat for about 3-5 minutes.

Boeuf Bourguignon

OK, the beef recipe is a little different from the classic recipe. I know it is not good to tamper with classic tried and tested recipes but I wanted to just try something different and it worked beautifully!

Ingredients:

Beef chuck cut into 2" cubes

Thyme, chopped

Bay leaf

Butter

Onion, chopped

Garlic, chopped

Heavy Cream (this is the additional ingredient)

Red Wine

Sherry(also additional ingredient)

• Add butter to a pan and add the onions and garlic.
• once the onions are slightly brown add the thyme, bay leaf and the beef.
• Once the beef is nearly done add the wine and sherry to deglaze the pan.
• Once the beef is fully cooked add the heavy cream.
• You need to be careful with the heavy cream. Make sure that the pan is off the heat once the heavy cream is mixed. Otherwise the cream will curdle.

The final beef!

This was really yummy! Goes really well with bread and even rice.

So I had planned with my cousin Shamoni, who lives very near me in an even smaller town, that we will cook for my birthday. I as usual sent her a lot of links and we decided to make Boeuf Bourguignon. I wanted to make that because I had watched the movie Julie and Julia and thought it would be fun to make. So we decided to go with that and with that we would make a Gruyere Gougere. This is what we had planned! How often do plans work out? So, what we ended up doing was the beef, the gougeres, macaroni and cheese, sausage and broccoli with a pitcher of margaritas! We were very excited about this!

Shamoni was in charge of making the Margaritas! OK, this is what you need to do:

Mint Leaves (I wanted to use these and it made a huge difference to the taste, was great)

Thyme, i know this sounds weird but it goes with the whole drink

Tequila

Sugar

Lime Juice

Lemonade or Iced tea(also tastes great!)

The mint leaves should be muddled really well. I use a mortar and pestle to do that. If you don't have one just put the mint in a zip-lock and squish it to release the juices. Add the tequila, lime juice and sugar to a pitcher. Remember to keep tasting this. I just added the whole thyme leaves with the stems on it. I didn't want to separate the leaves. If you find lemon thyme that tastes better! Add the mint leaves after that and just keep it refrigerated. It tasted great!

The pitcher of Sangria

The rest of the recipes I will upload some time tomorrow. I have two presentations!

Need to wake up at 5am!!!! UUGH....

Goodnight.

Providence can be a boring place when you live here alone. Studying in JWU has opened me up to a whole new world of opportunities with food. One thing I do to make time go by faster is cook, every weekend! I love it! I love looking up new recipes and then going to the grocery store and cooking up a feast for myself! Then comes the best part: Eating it and sending the pictures to my friends and family in India!

I want to start a blog about all that I cook during the weekend. Let's see how this goes :)