South Indian, North Indian, Rose Ice Cream

So vi and I were at this Indian fast food place and came across a Kulcha. A Kulcha is like a stuffed naan some people say that it is different from a naan in that it is made baking soda as opposed to yeast (not sure if its true) source. I got a spicy onion kulcha. It was paired with really homey maa-ki-daal (mothers' lentil soup) and a yummmy mint yoghurt and some side salad.

He tried Idli which came with the standard white chutney and sambar. The nice addition was the tomato chutney it was delicious

Lastly, we discovered rose ice cream. Where can you get this? It was such a unique fine. I didn't even know it existed until now. Not too well known is that rose has been integrated into Indian cuisine which involves rose drinks too.

My first Onigiri!

I really like the asian market near my place, and always find something new to try. This time it is the onigiri, which is a rice with a mini filling inside and seaweed wrapped around it.

The packaging was so lovely and even the inside was nicely done.

The two fillings that I got:

The seaweed was actually packed separately from the rice to maintain its crispiness and freshness.

My first attempt at putting it together was not too good as you can see. It tasted delicious and I paired with Genmaicha tea. mmm.....

Mentaiko filling....

The tart umeboshi filling....

I did a better job the second time :)

Yumm..........

Mixed Salad

This is a really nice summer salad recipe that I made before and will be making it this summer too. I was so excited to get some micro greens and a mixed bag of greens. In this salad, the greens were the star of the meal.

Ingredients:
Any salad greens
Baby tomatoes
Feta Cheese
White onions (optional)
Micro-greens (can be substituted with sprouts too)

Dressing:
Balsamic Vinegar & Honey (if you like more tart add more vinegar then honey, if sweeter then more honey than vinegar, or just equal portions if you are not picky about things)
Salt (according to taste)

Party Deviled Eggs

So here are the marbled eggs from before and there was a party in the evening so I made deviled eggs from the eggs I had at hand.

Ingredients:
Eggs (8)
Mayonnaise (1-1/2 to 2 tbsp)
Mustard (1-2 tsp, or more if you loooove mustard)
Lemon Juice (1-2 tsp)
Pickles (as much as you like)
Jalapeno (as much as you like)
Green onion (white part, optional)
Bacon (optional)
Cayenne pepper (optional)
Salt, Pepper to taste

Method:
First cut the eggs in half.

Then remove the egg yolks in a separate bowl....

Next, cut the green onion (white parts) reeeally finely, pickle, jalapeno, juice the lemon...

Then add 1-1/2 to 2 tbsp of mayonnaise, 1 tsp of mustard, and the rest of the cut green onion, pickle, jalapeno and 1-2 tsp of lemon juice (removes the 'egginess'), salt and pepper (add little by little, tasting frequently..........and might i say, taste little quantity each time ;) ). And if you like it hot add cayenne pepper.

I would suggest adding the mayo in little quantities to make sure the resulting mixture is not to runny.

Since I added everything at the same time and mixed it all up, there was no going back. But the taste was good so i was forgiven lol

Add the mixture to a ziploc bag so its easy to pipe into the egg whites.

After piping in the yolk mix, garnish with a few bits of pickles and jalapeno and if you like bacon dont be shy ;)

If its a yes to bacon, make sure you add little less salt than you would put normally to the yolk mixture, since the bacon is salty by itself.

Sprinkle some freshly ground pepper and viola!

Ooooff the gorgeousness!

Chinese Marbled Tea Eggs

I fell in love the moment I saw the beautiful eggs. It is such a work of art and very simple to make.

I made this some time ago and my family and myself were fascinated by the prints on the egg.

From the recipes that are available online, many call for the addition of soy sauce to the recipe for 'salting' the eggs. For my recipe I added what I had at that time and didn't add star anise or soy sauce. My main goal was to recreate and the marbling. It also gave me the option to season the eggs as I like after they were cooked.

Here are two recommended links for recipe with soy sauce and more of a 'traditional' Chinese preparation. Source 1, Source 2.

Ingredients:
Eggs (8)
Tea (I used the regular loose black tea. Tea bags can also be used) (3-4 heaping tbsp)
Whole Cinnamon sticks (4ish)
Few cloves (4ish)
Water
Orange peels (just a few 3-4 small pieces)

Method:
First pre-boil the eggs in water for about 5-10 minutes (time after the water starts boiling). Then crack the shells as shown below. It helped me to use a heavy serving spoon to induce the cracks on the egg shells better than cracking them against the table or wall.

Then put the eggs back into the pot and added the water, tea, orange peels, cinnamon and cloves. The amount of water should be level with the eggs an/or a little higher. One way of having a deeper and darker color is by adding more tea leaves.

Boil the eggs for 2-3 hours in medium heat and this is what it looks like:

Leave the eggs overnight for an even deeper color. When I did this, even the shells were dyed.

And viola!

Words can't describe how pretty they look.

The residual shells look really cool too. 

Here is the cross section. Deviled eggs any one?

How to jazz up plain ramen

Too lazy to go to the market? Want something that you can do without much effort? This is a nice way to make your instant ramen/noodles more interesting.

Ingredients:
Ramen noodles cooked as per instructions on the packet
Veggies (bok choy was used in this recipe)
Egg (soft boiled)
Chicken strips (chicken breast cut thinly against the grain)
Olive oil (for pan frying)
Seasoning for the chicken: salt, pepper, garlic powder

Method:
First boil the veggies until you can poke a fork into it with very little effort (or to the tenderness you like). Once its ready, put them in an ice bath (5mins) to preserve its color and also to prevent over cooking and avoiding the mushiness

Then drain it and let the water trickles downn like rain.. jk :)

Next soft boil the egg and season it with pepper only. Packaged ramen is usually very salty as it is, so there is no need to add more salt.

Then season the chicken strips with the mix and pan fry it. I cook it until I can see brown edges.

Here is what my ramen would look like just by it self (booooring...)

Here is what it looks like when it is put together with the fix-ins. You can make the ramen even more healthy by adding more veggies (adding volume) to the ramen aaannnndd ...... if you are ambitious you can also reduce the amount of ramen noodles and seasoning in one serving.

Here is another shot :)

Tea time - Genmaicha

So I had the pleasure of getting a sample of Genmaicha from an asian store. This tea is very good for the summer. It is not a pure tea in the sense that its contents include more than just grean tea leaves. The additional content is roasted rice. [source 1]

When I looked into it (btw...im a pretend tea aficionado ;) ) it seems to have two really cool stories of origin.

One being that looooong time ago it was the tea consumed the common man. The reason being that adding roasted rice to the tea would increase the overall 'volume' of the tea and hence make it less expensive to have over a period of time. This is the most frequent story i have come across. [source 1, source 2 ]. That was the story then, but now according to sources, it is coming into trend among Japanese elite. [source 1].

Before I mention about the other story look at the packaging I got. It was almost too pretty to open :)

For the second story of its origin (most interesting...btw) is based on a legend from the 15th century. At that time a servant named Genmai was serving tea to his master. As Genmai was serving the tea, a few rice kernels from his pocket fell into the tea. At that time tea was expensive and a commodity, so naturally as the rice fell into the tea, the master got angry. Since those times people didn't have human rights, poor Genmai was beheaded for his 'crime'. 

Afterwards, the master tasted the 'tainted' tea, and found it delicious! Not to bad for the anger he felt! For this reason this formulation of tea came to be known as Genmaicha (the 'cha' in Genmaicha means tea). [source 3] 

Simple Summer Salad

This salad was totally inspired by what was there at home. Its an easy way to get away from having an all carb lunch (rice, pasta etc). Its refreshing to replace heavy meals with light and fresh salads once in a while. I love adding fruits & nuts to salads.

Here is my simple recipe:

Ingredients:
Lettuce
Cucumber
Baby tomatoes
Pear
Strawberry
Any salad dressing of your choice
Chicken Breast cut into strips
Olive oil
Seasoning mix: salt, pepper, garlic powder, lemon/lime juice, mint (or any fresh/dry herb at hand. Mint goes really .. realllly ...well and I recommend using it when possible...no pressure! :P), chili powder (optional)

Note: The amount of ingredients (ex. lettuce vs. fruit vs protein etc) you decide to add to the salad is entirely up to you. That's the best part about making salads.

Method:
First marinate chicken with the seasoning mix.

After 10 mins or so.... fry the strips in the pan with a little olive oil. If the strips are cut thin, the chicken will cook very fast. For beginners, you can check the 'doneness' by splitting a strip in half and checking if the meat looks white. Stay away from pink. Here is what mine looked like after cooking:

While the chicken is cooking, cut the other veggies to your liking.

Here is what it looked like when put together. So pretty!