Showing posts with label pepper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pepper. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
A Jammy Weekend Recipes for Strawberry Balsamic Fig Vanilla Black Pepper Jam
A little cafe surrounded by a kitchen garden - windows with fluttering lace curtains - a big oven on one side - cinnamon, yeast, vanilla scents in the air - sounds of happy chatter - the aroma of fresh coffee brewing - people waiting in anticipation of a simple good time - a cup of good coffee or choice of tea with a scone or a muffin topped with some homemade jam - A girl can day dream right?
On Thursday, I ordered more fruit than I usually do for a week, especially strawberry and figs, with the intention of making jam. Im not much of a jam sandwich person. Give me a Mumbai style coriander-mint chutney and cucumber sandwich any day. But when you have a little boy at home wholl say Im hungry at the most unpredictable times of the day, it is good to have a loaf of bread and some spreads handy to make a snack in 2 minutes. He likes my Chocolate coconut Peanut Butter - well, I like it a lot myself and each batch gets over in a matter of 2-3 days. So I decided to make some jams anyway. What better way to preserve the goodness of seasonal fresh fruit for a couple more months?
Theres a lot more Id like to write about on jamming but the weekend chores beckon and I promised a few people that Ill be sharing the recipe on my blog before the end of the weekend, so here are the recipes for the two jams.
If you always wondered what the difference was between jelly, jam and preserve, read this.Id say my recipes are in between a jam and preserve, because while they do have a chunky texture, it is not that chunky because the fruit was fairly finely chopped to begin with. Contrary to popular belief that jam making is the job of old matronly housewives who wish to slave in the kitchen all day and night, these jams dont take more than 30-45 minutes each, including fruit chopping time, especially because were making only a small quantity at a time. Also, in both these jams, we dont need any added pectin because both fruits are full of seeds inside them which are a natural source of pectin. As for fig jam, most recipes from international websites dont ask for the fruit to be peeled, but Indian figs are very thick skinned, therefore better off peeled.
Strawberry Balsamic Preserve
Recipe adapted from Epicurious
Ingredients
750 grams strawberries (washed, patted dry and tops removed- I bought 1 kg and this was what I got after eating a few and removing the tops)
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp water
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp butter
Directions
- Finely chop the strawberries-youll get roughly 2 1/2 cups of chopped fruit
- In a heavy bottomed steel or anodised pan, put all the ingredients together, on a medium flame, bring this to a simmer.
- The butter prevents the mixture from foaming and splattering too much. In fact, mine didnt splatter at all.
- Simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the mixture is thick and translucent. Keep stirring off and on. Dont worry if its still a bit flowy and it will thicken further on cooling. So, switch off before the jam turns thick.
- Remove pan from heat and cool thoroughly.
- Meanwhile place two empty clean and dry glass jam jars bottles without their lids in the microwave for one minute. This is to quick sterilise the bottles.
- Once cooled to room temperature, spoon the jams into the two jars. Id say I got roughly two jars of 300-350 grams each.
- Close them tight and keep in fridge. Use within a month.
Recipe for Fig-Vanilla-Black Pepper Preserve
Adapted from Taste
Ingredients
Roughly 1 kg fresh figs
1 cup sugar
half a vanilla pod (or use a cinnamon stick + 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice or balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp butter
Directions
- Wash, dry and remove stems of figs. Peel and chop finely.
- Slice the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds with the end of the knife, add this to the chopped figs.
- In a large bowl, add all the ingredients, including the scraped vanilla pod, cover and keep overnight. [at this stage you could either keep the bowl of ingredients covered in the refrigerator overnight and proceed with jam making in the morning or proceed with the process immediately. I left it in the fridge overnight]
- After the mixture has sat in the fridge overnight, transfer them to a heavy bottomed steel pan or anodized pan, bring to a simmer on medium flame.
- Keep stirring off and on so that the sugar does not stick to the bottom and burn.
- In around 20 minutes, the mixture will start to thicken. Remove from flame. Cool thoroughly.
- Meanwhile place two empty clean and dry glass jam jars bottles without their lids in the microwave for one minute. This is to quick sterilise the bottles.
- Once cooled to room temperature, spoon the jams into the two jars. Id say I got roughly two jars of 300-350 grams each.
- Close them tight and keep in fridge. Use within a month.
Chettinad Milagu Kozhi Kuzhambu Chettinad Pepper Chicken Gravy
Chettinad is famous for spicy non-veg items. These pepper gravies of chicken or lamb are specially made during the mass prayer to the ancestors which we call padappu.To serve the big crowd the gravy will be little watery but the taste can’t match the carefully made gravy made at home. In the padappu they use only pepper for hot taste. But for the small quantity we make at home, I feel that little chili powder should be added .I recommend the use of a glass of coconut milk also since the chicken and pepper are hot and especially during summer coconut milk will compensate little bit of heat. This preparation which I have blogged is one of our favorite item in a mess in our town. I personally met the old woman who cooks this in the mess, a member of the family who runs the mess and got the recipe. My elder daughter also loves this gravy and wanted me to blog it today itself so that she can serve it in my grandson Siddarth’s Birthday party tomorrow. He is turning two today.
Ingredients
Chicken -3/4 kg
Big onion chopped -2 cups
Tomato-2
Garlic-10 pods
Ginger garlic paste-1 table spoon
Curry leaves-little
Red chili powder-1 table spoon
Pepper fennel powder- 2 table spoons (keep some powder extra so as to add according to taste)
Coriander powder – 1 table spoon
Coconut milk thick- 1 cup
To season
Cinamon-3 small pieces
Bay leaf-1 small one
Clove-3
Pepper fennel powder
Take 4 table spoons of pepper and two table spoons of fennel seed (perungeerakam).Powder it well and store in a container. Use the required amount.
Procedure
Marinate the chicken pieces with the 1 table spoon chili powder and little salt and marinate for an hour.
Keep the kadai in the stove. In three to four table spoons of oil season the gravy with the items given in ’to season’. Add the garlic pods first. When it turns golden brown, add the ginger garlic paste, chopped onion and sauté well. Then add the tomatoes.Saute well till the tomato pieces are soft. Now add chicken pieces.Saute well till water oozes out from the chicken.Then add the coriander powder and half of the pepper fennel powder and sauté well.Close the kadai checking in between that there is water in the gravy. If there is no water to cook, mix 1 cup of water to ½ cup coconut milk and add. Cook for 15 minutes in low fire .This cooking time absolutely depends on the quality of chicken you use. In US I have found the chicken getting cooked very fast.But here in India it takes pretty long time to cook in an open kadai. When you feel the chicken is almost cooked add the remaining pepper powder and the salt needed too. Always be careful while adding the pepper powder. Be sure that you don’t make it very spicy. So use your required quantity. Cook for 5 minutes. Now add the remaining ½ cup thick coconut milk and cook for 3 minutes. If you want the gravy to be little watery add 1 or ½ cup water to the coconut milk. Today as a whole I used 1 cup milk adding 1 cup water.Sunday, May 4, 2014
ANGLO INDIAN BONE PEPPER WATER
BREAST BONE PEPPER WATER is the Anglo-Indian Version of "MULLIGATAWNY"
Serves 6 preparation Time 45 minutes
½ kg soup bones and pieces of meat preferably from the breast portion
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons chilly powder
1 teaspoon pepper powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
2 large onions chopped
2 large tomatoes chopped
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
½ cup tamarind juice
½ cup coconut paste or coconut milk (optional)
Cook all the above ingredients with about 4 cups of water in a pressure cooker first on high heat then on low for ½ an hour till the meat and bones are soft and the pepper water is quite thick. Season with mustard, curry leaves and chopped onion. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with plain rice and any chutney.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
TwoFaced Red Pepper
"TwoFaced Tuesdays" is a joint venture between CupcakesOMG! and Jenna from The Paleo Project. Each week, we select one secret ingredient and put our own paleo spin on it. You can catch up on the entire series here. Also, if you have any special ingredient requests, you can always tweet us (@MHeraldo and @ThePaleoProject) using the hashtag #TwoFacedTuesday.
In todays first order of business: do you guys like the recipes that Jenna and I are coming up with each Tuesday? I mean, for weeks now, weve been toiling away for hours in the kitchen, whipping up innovative and delicious Paleo-friendly recipes to suit your every whim. Your EVERY. WHIM.
And because we both crave constant validation and admiration, were gonna keep going, knowing that, at some point, you will give us the approval we so desperately need/want/expect. So with that, we bring you complementary recipes. Yes, were taking TwoFaced one step further this week by not only using the same star ingredient, but also two dishes that are designed to be enjoyed together. Dont get it yet?? Please, to see the roasted red pepper walnut dip I made below:
Be sure to check out the fantastic recipe Jenna made that would pair amazingly with this dip!!
Roasted Red Pepper Walnut Dip
Adapted from Everyday Paleo
- 1 cup walnuts
- 6 oz. roasted red peppers (about half a jar)
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil (you can also use coconut milk--you might need more to get the right consisitency)
- 1 Tbsp. chives
- 1 clove garlic
- salt and pepper to taste
- Add walnuts to food processor. Pulse nuts into fine crumbs.
- Add remaining ingredients and pulse until creamy and dip-able. Add more oil or coconut milk to reach desired consistency.
- Serve with sliced bell pepper, carrots, cucumber, or Jennas recipe.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Beef with Bell Pepper and Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 lb beef
5-6 med-large yellow potatoes
1 large red bell pepper
1 tsp BTB (Better than bullion)
Salt, pepper, bay leaf, parsley flakes
Butter, oil
Enjoy!!!!!!
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