Deviled eggs

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Dumplings

Mouth Watering Chicken

Mouth Watering Chicken - L10
Gourmet kingdom

An interesting cold dish.  We guessed the preparation - whole chicken is first boiled and then cooled in a bath of ice water.  The thick slices are then served in a spicy oil garnished with fresh cilantro. You can taste chillies, vinegar and a touch of sugar.  A great appetizer to begin a mouth-watering meal!

Mango Salsa

Mangoes came up in a discussion and I decided to have a bite.  Being a "self proclaimed mango snob" I refuse to eat anything but the best.  And the best is found in India during the harsh summer months.  In the US, there is Brazilian mangoes....not quite the same but will work in a salsa.  Even if I have offended you, do try the salsa recipe.  Its good.

1 mango ( just shy of completely ripe, we need the tarty sweetness)
3 medium sized tomatoes
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup green onion (white and green parts)
1/2 cup chopeed cilantro (sorry, parsley wont work!)
1 or 2 jalapeno peppers (you can reduce the heat level by removing the seeds and using only the green flesh)
Juice of half a lemon (again, based on preference)
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon Olive oil

Just chop all the vegetables finely and mix in lemon juice, olive oil, condiments etc.  Salsa is done!  I personally think it tastes better the next day when the flavors have had a chance to mingle.....but can you really wait that long?

The same recipe will also make peach salsa....just use peaches in the place of mangoes!

Sorry folks no picture, ate it all :).  

Overconfident cook!

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post "Stuffed Banana Peppers - Italian Style".  Now that I have become quite the over-confident cook, I posted the recipe here while the peppers were in the oven without quite waiting for the final outcome.  (Notice the picture in the original post is raw stuffed peppers waiting for the oven to heat up.)  Here is the little story of the aftermath.  Needless to say, Salil teased me to no end calling them "Pooping Peppers" and even made my failure public via facebook.  But, I am an honest cook and for the scores of friends and family who follow our blog and depend on us for the next big idea., I had to come out clean ;).

After spending so much time to carefully pipe the filling in the peppers through the small hole on the top, we baked them.  The stuffing swelled and out it came through the same little hole.

Well, I saw the recipe on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and decided  to make my own version.  After stuffing, they battered the peppers and deep fried them.  I guess the batter and an appropriate oil temperture held the stuffing inside.

I needed to skip the frying part and decided to bake them instead and found these delicate little stuffable peppers.  Lesson learnt - slit them lengthwise and stuff.  Apart from the accident, the whole thing was quite yummy :).

Thats what I love about failed experiments in the kitchen over failed experiments at my lab bench.....I can still eat them!!

Stuffed Banana Peppers - Italian style

For 2 portions

4 small banana peppers (choose small, straight for ease of filling)
2 tablespoons ricota cheese
2 teaspoons pesto (I used home made frozen pesto, store bought will do)
Zest of one lemon
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup ground roasted cashewnuts (or whichever nut you like)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 finely chopped de-seeded serrano peppe
olive oil to make a tooth past consistency stuffing

Cut the top off from the pepper and patiently de-seed it through the small opening at the top.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients to make the stuffing.  Using a piping bag (small plastic bag with a corner cut), fill the peppers with the stuffing.  It takes some patience to push it all the way to the end.  I used the blunt end of a skewer to push the stuffing deeper.

Brush some oil and bake in an oven at 350C for 10-15 minutes.