Weekend Cooking: Strawberry Bread

Its been a looooong time since I posted anything on this blog.... the reason being my new business venture - Madras Canteen, a home-based catering  service which specializes in Indian cuisine; and hey, what better way to get back into blogging action than to post a weekend cooking recipe for Strawberry Bread!!! 

I had bought a big bag of fresh strawberries last week and was looking around the internet for easy baking recipes and this is the result of that search.... a light, moist and yummy bread!!!

Preparation Time: 10 minutes            

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 12 slices ( 1 Loaf Pan)

Wet Ingredients:

Fresh Strawberries, sliced or diced - 1 & 1/2 Cups
Eggs, beaten - 2
Cooking Oil - 1/2 Cup
Pure Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Dry Ingredients:
All-purpose flour - 1 & 1/2 Cups + 2 tbsp
Granulated Sugar - 1 Cup
Cinnamon Powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp 
Walnuts, chopped coarsely -  a fistful

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. 
   
2. In a small bowl, sprinkle the diced strawberries with 2 tbsp of sugar and set aside to macerate.
3. Meanwhile, mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
4. Now blend in the beaten eggs, oil and vanilla essence into the macerated strawberries. (I just crushed the strawberries coarsely with my hand before I added in the remaining wet ingredients 'coz I like to have small bite-size chunks of strawberries in my bread)
   
5. Then slowly fold in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients till you form a thick batter. 
6.  Stir in the walnut pieces into the batter.
7. Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
8. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
9. Allow the pan to cool on wire rack/kitchen counter for 10 minutes. 
10. Turn the loaf out, and cool completely.
11. Serve a slice of bread with a dollop of whipped cream and some fresh strawberries ...

(The strawberry bread tastes equally good when had warm or cold but I personally like to have  it warm.)

This recipe is part of the Weekend Cooking meme hosted by Beth Fish which is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Weekend Cooking: Sprouted Fenugreek Salad

According to me, Summer is the ideal time for having some light, cool and refreshing salads along with our meals.... So this week I am going to share the recipe for my healthy and fresh Sprouted Fenugreek Salad....

Of late I have been trying to include some healthy ingredients in my daily cooking and what better way than to use sprouted beans!! Over the last month I have regularly used sprouted chickpeas, yellow peas and black peas to make salads and side dishes. I was casually mentioning this to my mom last week during our weekly chatting and that's when she suggested that I should try sprouting Fenugreek seeds and making a salad out of it. She mentioned that Fenugreek seeds have a lot of medicinal and nutritional value and are especially good for diabetics as it helps with the glucose control.

Though Fenugreek is a common ingredient in Indian cooking, I had never heard of it being used in the sprouted form ..... So, I immediately did a google search on Fenugreek seeds and I have to say, I did find plenty of articles stating its nutritional value and uses... If you are interested, here's the Wiki entry on Fenugreek. Anyways, I decided to try this salad since there can surely be no harm in eating sprouts and plus am a diabetic, so this salad is a must-try for me!! :)

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Fenugreek Seeds (aka vendhayam aka uluva), sprouted - a fistful

Small White/Yellow Onion, diced - 1

Tomato, diced - 1

Green Chillies, finely chopped - 2 ( modify according to spice level)

Mint Leaves, chopped - for garnish

Coriander Leaves/Cilantro, chopped - for garnish

Lemon Juice - 2 tsp

Salt & Pepper - to taste

The Sprouting Process:

1. Wash the Fenugreek seeds in water to remove any dirt and then soak them in a vessel with water overnight. 
2. Next day, drain the water from the seeds, rinse them and transfer the moist seeds onto an air-tight container. Place it in a cool spot in your kitchen for a day. 
3. Most likely when you check it the next day, it might have sprouted... if not then repeat step 2.
4. Once the seeds have sprouted, you can store them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for upto a week. 
5. Use the sprouted seeds as and when needed, in your dishes.
6. This is a generic process for sprouting any kind of pulses or lentils. Depending on the toughness of the skin on the lentils, the sprouting process may take anywhere between 2-4 days.

Method:

1. Now in a salad bowl, add the sprouted Fenugreek seeds, finely chopped onions, tomatoes and green chillies and mix them with a spoon.
2. Then add salt and pepper and sprinkle the chopped cilantro and mint leaves to the salad. 
3. Pour the lemon juice on top (Fenugreek seeds naturally have a bitter taste and the lemon juice helps reduce the bitterness and also gives the entire salad a zest!) and give the salad a quick toss....and..... our healthy and "yummy-licious" salad is ready!!!! :)

This recipe is part of the Weekend Cooking meme hosted by Beth Fish which is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Weekend Cooking: Biscuit Yule Log :)

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Today I am going to share the recipe for making a Biscuit Yule Log!!! I found this recipe at Edible Garden's blog and experimented it in my kitchen last week. This is a very simple recipe and does not involve any baking but at the same time its delicious and satisfies your craving for a rich chocolatey dessert.... :) 

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Marie Biscuits - 15 (You can get this in the International food section or in any Indian grocery store)

Cocoa/Hersheys Chocolate Powder - 1 tbsp

Unsalted Butter - 4 tbsp

Powdered Sugar - 4 tbsp

Instant coffee powder - 1/2 tsp

Warm Milk - 1/4 cup

Chocolate shavings - for garnish

Method:

1. Add the coffee powder to the warm milk. 
2. Then dip each biscuit into the milk-coffee powder solution and stack them on top of each other.  
3. Cream the butter and sugar together and slowly blend in the Chocolate powder into the mixture.
4. Using a knife or spoon, evenly apply/spread this mixture onto all four sides of the biscuit stack.
5. Refrigerate it for atleast 2 hours.
6. Prior to serving sprinkle some chocolate shavings on the yule-log.

Yummy and decadent biscuit yule-log is ready.... slice them and serve... :)

Now.... it can't get any easier than this...don't you agree??? Hope you all enjoy this dessert....


P.S: All credits (good or bad) for the pics for all my cooking experiments go to my dear husband... :)

Weekend Cooking: Beetroot Soup

 Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Today I am going to share the recipe for beet/beetroot soup ... okay... I can see most of you wrinkling your nose hearing the word 'beet'... well I was and still am not a big beet fan myself but my dear husband loves the vegetable a looooot and recently he put me up for a challenge to the likes of "Iron Chef" wherein my 'secret ingredient' for the three-course meal was beetroot!!! Initially I was a little shocked when he revealed the secret ingredient but then I have to say, in retrospect am glad he chose beetroot as the secret ingredient, 'coz that really made me rack my brains and look out for some innovative meal options and the beet soup was what I made for the appetizer course. I found this recipe at recipezaar and modified it based on the ingredients I had at home and the outcome was  a big hit with both my husband and me.... :)


So without any further ado lemme dive into my beet soup recipe... 

Prep & Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Olive Oil - 2 tblsp
Medium-sized Onion, diced - 1 
Carrot, scraped & diced - 1 
Medium-sized Beetroot, peeled & diced - 1 
Spinach, chopped - 1 small bunch
Garlic, finely chopped - 1 clove 
Orange Juice - 100 mL
Vegetable Stock - 500 mL
Salt & Pepper - to taste
Yoghurt/Sour Cream - for garnish
Coriander/Parsley Leaves - for garnish


Method:

1. Heat a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add oil, garlic and onions and saute for 5 minutes till onions become translucent.Then add the spinach and the chopped carrots to it. Saute it for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the diced beetroot and saute the vegetables for a further 5 minutes with constant stirring. 
4. Then add the vegetable stock, orange juice, salt & pepper and bring it to a boil.
5. Bring down the heat to a low and let the soup simmer for around 7-8 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat, drain the vegetables on a strainer and let it cool down. Retain the strained liquid in a separate container.
7. Once the strained vegetables have cooled down, put them in  blender and blend till a coarse paste is formed. You can blend it either to a coarse or fine paste depending on how you like to have your soup.
8. Then mix the paste and the strained liquid together and warm it slightly over the stove.
9. Then ladle the soup into serving bowls and top it off with  a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of coriander leaves. 

 Yummy and healthy beet soup for two is ready!!! :) 

Have this soup either for a starter course like we did, or you can have it with some warm garlic bread or french bread and make it a light and healthy meal by itself.... 

Lemme know your thoughts on beetroot and whether you like this recipe or not...  Looking forward to hearing your views....