Hummus
Well, I have to admit that this is still not the best taste that I would like to achieve if I eat hummus with Arabian bread, Tatziki, cheese and olives. Nonetheless, this one worked great with my sandwiches and bagels.
So thought of penning down this one that I have come to after at least 5 trials. Hopefully will get to the blissful hummus some day :-)
For this one, I soaked chickpeas (gorgonzola beans) overnight. Next morning, I boiled the peas with salt, and enough water.
For the hummus, I took
* 2-3 bowls of boiled chick peas
* cumin seeds
* Fresh Coriander twigs with stem - 2-3
* Olive Oil
* Garlic - Two cloves
* Red Chilli Powder
* Fresh lemon juice - 2-3 tbsp
To make the hummus,
I added all the above (except lemon juice) in a blender and crushed them till they make a consistent paste. If the paste becomes too thick, I add more olive oil to it.
Finally I just took the spread out in a bowl, and added some olive oil and lemon juice on the top for garnishing.
I have used this with the bagels (that consists of a nice Danish bread, olives, jalapenos, fresh salad, tomato, Onions, cheese) and this hummus spread works well with that. However, if you plan to eat it just with Arabian bread, then perhaps this is not the right recipe yet.
I am yet to get there :-)
History of hummus: http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20120727-hunting-for-hummus-in-israel (Ref: BBC.CO.UK, 01 AUG 2012)
Guacamole
I received this wonderful recipe from my dear friend Bethany :-) This reminds me of a story that I read during the MBA of an American gifting a chocolate recipe to a European and finally this guy made a huge company. Unfortunately my little memory has forgotten the name of this company, but I am sure you get the idea. A simple recipe as a gift can do wonders ;-)
So lets start. I must admit I have made some changes to the original recipe and altered it to my taste, and I completely loved the end product.
What I used for this:
2 ripe (and not overripe) guacamole
1 clove garlic crushed
1 green onion (finely chopped)
cilantro or fresh coriander - 7-8 twigs with stems and finely chopped
Creme Fraiche - around 3-4 tbsp (In case you dont have this, this can easily be replaced with fresh thick milk cream or malai)
Salt - 3 tsp
Red Chilli - 1 tsp
black pepper powder - 1 tsp
1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice
To make it,
I added the chopped onion, garlic, cilantro to a bowl. Then I carefully scrapped the fruit out of the avocado. This was my first time that I dealt with the fruit and used an online video to understand how to cut it. The trick is simple - this fruit should not be peeled as then you can lose a lot of flesh with the skin. So the best is to carefully slit it into two halves. Then pop the seed out, and make vertical and horizontal cuts across the flesh of the fruit. Be careful and dont hurt yourself while doing so. Finally scoop the fruit out with a spoon and add to the bowl.
Now I added the cream fraiche, salt, red chilli and black pepper, and gave it a nice mix with a spoon. Finally added the lime juice and stirred again.
Guacamole is ready, and I love to eat it as a spread on my sandwich, or with nachos/chips. Hope you will like it :-)
Kheer
One of the best Indian deserts, easy to make and absolutely delicious to eat. Well, it does take some time (close to an hour) to cook, and I had been thinking for days about making Kheer or reading the MBA stuff. As usual, Kheer won!!
Looks like I will be a manager who would have lot of food to offer to employees ;) Hehehe. Just Kidding!!
Well, to keep it short, lets quickly go through what we need and how do we make it.
What we need for Kheer (Approximately 4 bowls):
- 1 litre milk (half-cream milk / letmælk or fullcream milk / sødmælk) (I used Letmælk)
- 1/2 cup rice basmati or small rice
- Nuts, whichever you like - Cashew nuts, Almonds, Raisins etc.
- 1 big Bay Leaf
- 1 tbsp Ghee
- 3.5 tbsp sugar
- Saffron (3-4 strands)
How to make it:
I first boiled the milk. When the milk is a few minutes from boiling I added the bay leaf in it and let it boil. Once boiled, I set it aside.
Then I took a bowl and heated the ghee in it, taking care that it doesn't burn. Then I added the nuts and raisins, and took them out once they are bloated up.
In the same bowl, I added the rice and stirred them carefully so that the grain doesn't break. When the rice grains are translucent, I took this off the flame and added 2-3 tbsp of boiled milk it it. Finally added this rice-milk mixture to the bigger portion of boiled milk.
Now I added the nuts, keeping some back for final garnishing. At this point, I also added the saffron strands, and put this whole mixture back on medium heat.
Now its all about patience and stirring the kheer from time to time making sure that the milk neither boils over nor gets burnt at the bottom of the pan.
After almost 1 hour, the milk starts to thicken and give a nice color. At this stage, I added the sugar and let it heat for some more time, stirring continuously. I like to leave Kheer a little less thick towards the end, as it gets thicker when cooled. So once it was enough thick, I took it off the flame and let it come to normal temperature.
Then I added the remaining nuts & raisins to garnish and placed the bowl in refrigerator for cooling off. :)
We are done. Some people like Kheer Hot. I like it chilled, and you may choose whichever way you like to eat it.
Tip: In the southern parts of India, people sometimes also garnish Kheer with coconut powder, and that also tastes awesome.
