Soulful Creations

  This month on the Tried and Tasted series hosted by Priya , the blog being featured is "Chef in You". It features as one of my daily haunts. Now I am not too fond of mushrooms but this time I let the wise guy pick up some, thought would use it in an omlette or may be even some good fried rice. But a quick search on Chef in you and this recipe was an instant click. So I ordered the wise guy to go for it and he actually made this recipe with minimal help from me. We did not have a few ingredients on hand, so like any good cook I went with my own substitutions which are marked in red. Ingredients , original recipe can be found here 1 1/2 cups chopped button mushrooms 1 onion, chopped 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts 1/2 cup cheddar, grated 2 tbsp grated parmesan 1/4 cup milk ( or replace it with egg) 2-3 tbsp chopped parsley 1 cup panko bread crumbs ( Italina style crumbs with herbs and spices adds more taste) Method In a non stick pan, add little olive oil and saute onions an...

I love a lot of the food blogs and eventually I begin to love the food bloggers themselves for their creativity. One such food blogger is Raaga- The Singing Chef. She has a lovely blog filled with wonderful recipes and stories. When Divya announced that Raaga's blog is being featured on Tried  and Tasted , I was thrilled and I had to make something from her blog. I chose a rice dish for a simple reason that Raaga puts it best herself "Pulaos are multipurpose dishes. They are showstoppers at parties, timesavers on weekend and lifesavers during weekday lunches." Cauliflower peas pulao from her blog Ingredients:  2 cup Basmati Rice 1 cup Peas 2 cup Cauliflower florets Salt to Taste 1-2 tbsp Oil ¼ tsp Asafoetida 1” stick Cinnamon 3 Cloves Masala (Grind to a Paste):   3 tbsp frozen Coconut, thawed 1 1/2 cup Coriander Leaves 3 Green chillies 1" piece Ginger 3 pods Garlic 1 medium Onion, roughly chopped 1” stick Cinnamon 3 Cloves  1 tbsp Khus-Khus, soak...

...and an asparagus soup. Yeah, the recipe for the soup is from Ganga's blog and the melon dessert is my own and therefore only alright. In my defense- it was 90F with the oven on at 375F and no AC. I had it today folks..it was a good work-out, I must say (LOL). For the soup, I followed the recipe closely from her blog, except for a few differences I have pointed out below Ingredients one packet of frozen small green asparagus a gentle herb – chervil if you can get it. I can’t so I used some lemon verbena and a tip of lemongrass (I also used lemon verbena (from my own garden) . 1.5 Tblspn extra virgin olive oil 1 Tblspn arrowroot (did not add this) 1 cup milk salt and freshly ground pepper large pinch of nutmeg 3 Tblspns thick crème fraîche or thick cream For how to cook this soup, you can check Ganga's blog. I also added some roasted asparagus for garnish. This goes to Yasmeen who is hosting this month's Tried and tasted event featuring Ganga's blog. The event w...

Today we got a lot of stuff from Ikea, which means we had a blast assembling them (well may be not a blast, we spent the entire day assembling stuff!) Lunch was at Chipotle- lot of food for a reasonable price (Read " not-exactly-healthy "). So after a day of hard work I decided to make some good food. I am not sure if I am on time for Tried and tasted event hosted by Kits Chow but I did make two recipes from a favorite blog of mine "Hooked on heat". I love her blog mainly because of the simplicity of her recipes and of course good photography. I made Alu fry and a rice with lentils and tomatoes. I followed the recipes through except for the alu fry I used yukon instead of red potatoes. Also for the rice dish I used long grain parboiled rice and omitted the garlic (did not feel like garlic today). I also garnished the rice with some nic e crisp brown rice. Judgement : I loved it. What better than good food for a really really long and tiring day. Here are the photo...