We Provice Recipes

Temperatures are warming up across the country which means its time to switch from soups to salads!  We eat a lot of salads in the summer time and Im always up for trying new ideas.  I saw this one over at Annies Eats and knew it was going to be a winner.  Lots of crunch and delicious flavors and even better - my kids loved it too!  There are quite a few steps, but if you cook the rice and chicken ahead of time, its pretty easy to put together.  Sometimes if I have extra rice from another meal, Ill pop it in the freezer to use for this salad later.  Chicken - same thing.



I also love salads that I can make ahead of time - especially in the summertime when we might be out enjoying the sunshine.  You can easily make this several hours in advance, or even the day before.  I love to get it done while my kids are napping!  This makes great leftovers for lunch the next day too.

(And a tip for shredding chicken that I just learned recently.  I boil it, and then throw it in my food processor with the dough attachment and it shreds it beautifully in seconds.  My friends does the same thing in her Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment and Ive heard you can do it in a Bosch too.  It makes it super even and its nice and fast!  I also use the food processor for grating the carrots and chopping the cilantro.)

Bok Choy Brown Rice Salad with Orange Sesame Dressing

*I havent been able to find baby bok choy, so I used one regular bok choy.  I use the green leaves and some of the white part, but the rest can be chopped up and used in a stir-fry. 

For the Salad:
4 c. cooked brown rice
1 1/2 c. cooked shredded chicken
1 1/2 c. shredded carrot
3 baby bok choy*, rinsed, trimmed, and thinly sliced
1/2 c. frozen peas, thawed
1/4 c. minced fresh cilantro
4 scallions, chopped
1 T. sesame seeds (white or black)

For the Dressing:
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 T. freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp. orange zest
2 T. rice vinegar
1 1/2 T. soy sauce
1 1/2 T. sesame oil
1 T. honey
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 c. canola oil

To make the salad, combine the brown rice, chicken, shredded carrot, bok choy, peas, cilantro, scallions and sesame seeds in a large bowl.  Toss gently to combine.

To make the dressing, combine all ingredients in a bowl or liquid measuring cup.  Whisk vigorously until well combined.  Taste and adjust seasonings, accordingly.  Add the dressing to the bowl with the salad, a bit at a time, tossing gently to coat.  Taste and add more dressing as necessary.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Source: Annies Eats

Move over Savina Habanero! The Indian Bhut Jolokia is here!

What is Bhut Jolokia?

Bhut Jolokia in Assamese means Ghost Chillies. The Bhut Jolokia is a naturally occurring hybrid native to the Assam region of northeastern India.

So why is it in news?

This chilli has been officially designated as the Worlds HOTTEST chilli as per The Guinness Book of Records.

How hot is this chilli?

Heat from chillies is mesaured in Scoville heat units. Bhut Jolokia registers in at
1,001,304 Scoville heat units (SHU).

Is that a lot?

The Red Savina chilli was considered the hottest until now, the heat of which is just half of the Bhut Jolokia at 577,000 SHU. Your average Jalapeno measures in at about 10 000 SHU. Now you know why the Bhut is REALLY hot.

In April last year, Dorset claimed to grow the Worlds hottest chilli, the Dorset Naga that beat the Savina Habanera by almost 60% higher SHU at 876,000. The Naga is actually sold with a health warning and it is found to have originated in Bangladesh. So now, we have the hottest as well as the second hottest coming from the Indian-subcontinent. If the Dorest Naga is supposed to blow your head off, imagine the power of the Bhut!

Now you tell me why the locals call it the GHOST CHILLI!

Until something HOTTER is discovered, we Indians can feel proud of the fact we are at present the SPICIEST in the world!

*Image courtesy: Alibaba.com

It was meant to be a continuation of this post, but then a few days have passed since then, and I cannot exactly recall what I meant to share with my readers in Early morning stories - Part II. Im sure there was something good and Im also sure it will come back to me sometime. When it does, I promise to share it.

What I surely remember and you also may, from my earlier post is this cute mushy pic of two heart shaped mini cake tins filled with an even mushier pink batter. By the way, let me share with you that Im not an overly mushy person at all. I do resort to tissues in some very sad scenes in the movies and especially the Bollywood movies where the sole motive of some directors is to squeeze the audiences lachrymal glands, a bit sadistic dont you think so? Thats about it.

Hey, which self-respecting girl doesnt like flowers or chocolates and for any lurking guys reading this blog - we dont need a Valentines day. Any day is good to show us some TLC and well forget all about the (marketeers mania) Valentines. Anyway....these heart-shaped pink-turned brown cakes can show how much you love, to whomever you serve them.

I made them sans eggs because the man in my life was off eggs for some reason. You can surely replace the egg replacement with two eggs and it will be as good, if not better. However, in comparison with the Carrot Cake I baked a while ago with eggs, I felt that the texture of this cake albeit eggless, was extremely spongy. When I removed them from the oven after the baking time, and pressing them down, they were SO soft that I almost thought them to be not-cooked through. A tester confirmed otherwise. So, here is a recipe for the Beet Cake. Not a serious dessert, but great with tea, if you have some friends over, or a weekend brunch kinda menu...which reminds me I must rant a bit more before giving you the recipe.

Update:
(Please find a detailed post on WBB update and list of guest hosts here)

This is a much-due announcement about Weekend Breakfast Blogging (WBB ) - the event that I started in an attempt to popularise breakfast among us food-bloggers. A Christmas event had been announced in December and 8 entries were received for the same, which due to festival time constraints and traveling, I couldnt do a round up then. And, as time passed by, I found it very silly (not to mention embarassing) to post a Christmas round up 3 months late. After quite some emails and enquiries I received about the status of the event, I thought it is high times to inform you all about my plans for WBB.

With due fairness to those who submitted me their entries in December, I shall do a round up in my next post and Id request you to write in to me, if you are interested in guest hosting this. Since it is a monthly event, Id like to plan six months in advance - so that we can have the hosts and the themes set out.

Please mail me your interest at saffrontrail@gmail.com and we shall jointly decide which month is convenient for each of us.

Recipe for Eggless Beet Cake





Eggless Beet Cakes
Time taken - 40 min - 1 hr
Makes two mini cakes or one 8" cake
Category - Low cal baking, healthy baking
Source - Adapted from this recipe of Taste Goblet

---

ingredients

1 cup all purpose / whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar or less if beets are sweet
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp finely grated ginger or ginger powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder + 1 tbsp oil + 2 tbsp warm water OR use 2 eggs

1/3rd cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup finely grated beets or a mix of carrots and beets
1 tsp orange zest (optional)

directions

Preheat oven at 175 C. Grease an 8" tin or two mini cake tins. Keep aside.
In large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients with a fork or sift to air them.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs (If using) or beat together the oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract, grated beets and zest for a minute.
Prepare the egg replacing mix, this will start frothing as soon as you add the warm water to the oil and baking powder. Put this frothing mix into the other wet ingredients. Give it a good stir.
Stir this wet mixture into the dry ingredients until they come together.
Pour into the greased tins and bake for 40 minutes or 25 minutes for mini tins until a tester comes out clean.
Remove and let the cakes cool in their tins for 15 minutes, before unmoulding them.

notes

• You could do a cream cheese frosting as in the original recipe or eat it as it is over a mug of coffee.
• Try substituting the beets with grated zucchini, and increasing the quantity of sugar accordingly.


• This cake is good when you want to sneak in some healthy veggies into your kids diet. You could also try this using natural sugars like jaggery for a healthier version.

tags

beetroot, healthy cake, low fat baking, eggless cake, WBB

This is an almost Turkish recipe because of the purple peppers. Purple peppers are rare in Turkey, and its impossible to find Turkish green peppers here. So, we have purple Indiana peppers stuffed a la Turkish style. Once cooked, the purple peppers turned green just like purple beans. Do not try to stuff regular huge bell peppers that you can find at every store; they are really hard to cook (their skin is too thick), are too big (you can almost spend half of the stuffing on one pepper), and are unfortunately not flavorsome. Try farmers markets. The purple pepper in the picture is from farmers market and the red one is from Lukes garden.

10 peppers
1/2 pound ground meat (beef)
1 cup rice
3 onions, chopped finely
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
1 1/2 tsp dry or fresh mint
1 tsp oregano leaves
1 tsp crushed pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tomato

-With the help of a knife or your thumb, take out the tops of the peppers. Wash and take out the seeds. Make tiny holes at the bottom of peppers with a knife or a fork so that they can cook thoroughly
-Mix ground meat, onions, rice, herbs, black pepper, salt, crushed pepper, and olive oil in a bowl. Stuff the peppers with this mix. Leave 1/4 inch space at the top; we will put a slice of tomato there. Cover the tops with a slice of tomato
-Place the peppers in a broad pot facing up.
-Mix tomato paste with water and pour into the pot. Fill the pot half way up with water. Put butter in small pieces on top.
-Cook on medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Let it boil, but not vigourously; that might be harsh on your cute peppers and also unstuff them. To make sure taste the rice. If the rice is soft, that means the peppers are cooked.
Must be served with yogurt!