Baked Jacket Potatoes

Everyone loves potatoes, I love them fried but also baked. Most of the time the potatoes I get are just small to medium sized, but when I do get nice chunky potatoes, baked jackets are on the menu.

You'll need:

4 large potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup cheese (any sort)
1/2 cup cooked meat or cold cut (optional)
Seasoning
Cayenne pepper to sprinkle


Clean and parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes in the microwave. They should be soft enough to just scoop out the flesh but not cooked.

Cut in half and scoop out the flesh as close to the skin as possible without the jacket breaking. You can use the scooped out potatoes to make mashed potatoes or for any other dish.

Coat the jackets (inside and out) with some olive oil and sprinkle some salt. Bake at 180 deg C for 30 minutes, or till it starts to brown slightly.

Take out from the oven and fill the jackets with toppings of choice. Bake for another 10-15 minutes till the cheese starts to brown.

Serve as a snack or side dish with relish or mustard sauce.

Pan seared fish with Shitake Mushrooms

I had some nice juicy seer fish (surmai) steaks and this recipe was light yet full of flavour.

I also came across some locally-grown and relatively inexpensive dried Shitake mushrooms, so it was a treat to mix both these items together in one dish. The mushrooms soaked the soy flavours nicely, and the ginger slices crisped up in the pan giving the dish an added texture.

You'll need:
3-4 dried Shitake mushrooms
1/2 cup hot water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 fish steaks cut about 1/2 inch thick
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt to taste
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and cut in thin strips
1/2 cup of bell peppers, thinly sliced
1 tbsp oil (sesame preferably)

Rub the fish with lemon juice and salt and let it rest for 20-30 minutes.

Soak the mushrooms in the hot water for 20 minutes. Once softened, remove the stalks and cut into thin strips.

(You could keep the water to use as stock in another dish)

In a bowl, mix the soy sauce and sugar. Soak the mushroom slices in it till absorbed. Keep aside.

In a flat pan, heat the oil and add the fish steaks. Let it cook on each side for about 2-3 minutes. Do not keep turning it.

Add the ginger strips and mushroom slices in the oil on the sides

When you flip the fish to cook the other side, add the bell pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Serve with plain rice and add some stir-fried vegetables for a wholesome meal.

Strawberry Smoothie

This one sounds like a no-brainer, but the secret ingredient makes it super awesome


Whizz together:
10 strawberries, destalked
2 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup yoghurt
1 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 cup water
5-6 ice cubes

Adjust yoghurt and water to the desired consistency. Use sprinkles if you want to brighten up the day further.

Makes 2 large glasses

Zucchini Pasta with Green Sauce

I find that Zucchini tends to feel soggy if you don't have them freshly-grilled, but as a replacement for pasta, it tasted delicious. Word of caution, use this as a side dish or salad because you will feel hungry soon after eating only this.


For the pasta, you'll need
1 large zucchini
1 red onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp oil
Pinch of chilli flakes
Seasoning
*You can also have it raw in which case you only need to season it

If you have a peeler that lets you peel the vegetable in strips then great, or use a regular peeler to get ribbons. You can use the ribbons as it is or manually cut them into thin strips to resemble pasta. I prefer to use the skin of the zucchini as well. It's healthy so don't throw it away. Peel it till the seedy core. If you want to use the core, then chop it up and add it to the mix.

In a pan, heat the oil, add the onion, garlic, and chilli flakes and cook till onions start to brown. Next, add the zucchini and season it. You don't need to cook it much - just a minute to get some flavour into it.

For the Green Sauce:
1/2 cup blanched and pureed spinach leaves
1 avocado, mashed
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Seasoning
Tortilla chips for crunch (optional)
*you could also add some pesto and/or cheese

Keep the spinach and avocado at room temperature and mix them together with the seasoning. Then add it to the pasta.

It is advisable not to heat the avocado but you could heat up the spinach with the pasta above then mix in the avocado after you take it off the heat. Or you could have it as a salad with all items at room temperature.

Add the cheese if using, and crush some chips on top before serving.

This serves 2 as a salad, and just 1 as a light meal.

Button and Enoki Mushrooms Risotto

I had tried the Enoki mushrooms in a regular pasta dish but I had preferred the regular button mushrooms that are cheaper and easier to get. However, by frying the enoki, it adds a different texture and flavour to the risotto and I now love it.

Also, I like a lot of veggies with each bite so I use a lot of mushrooms, but f you're happy with the creamy, cheesy rice then you can reduce the mushrooms you put in. Also, if you have other types of mushrooms at your disposal, it will add to the flavour if you mix it up.

I also used regular short-grain rice instead of arborio rice. I added some brown rice cooked for 7-8 minutes in the microwave as well. Because the brown rice doesn't turn all mushy like the white rice, it adds some bite to the final dish.

What I've learned about my many failures with risotto is that you need to go big or go home. Meaning, use stock instead of water; don't skimp on the butter and cheese; and don't take the easy way out by pouring in all the stock and letting the rice cook on its own - keep stirring it in by the ladle ful.

You'll need:
1 packet/bunch Enoki mushrooms, with roots removed
4-5 cups of chopped button mushrooms
2-3 cups of stock*
2/4 cup rice
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt/Pepper
Chilli flakes
4-5 cloves of garlic
3-4 sprigs of Rosemary**
2 tbsp cream
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

*I've used water when I didn't have stock but it makes a world of a difference in flavour
**If you don't have fresh Rosemary, you can also use parsley or oregano either fresh or dried

In a saucepan, heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter. Fry the Enoki mushrooms till brown. Keep aside.

Spread the button mushrooms in a single layer in a baking tray, and bake at 180 deg C for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, add in some salt and the rosemary and bake for another 5 minutes. Do not discard the water it leaves off - use it along with the stock.
-In the convection microwave, I use the grill setting and put in for 7 then 3 minutes.
-Keep aside.

Keep your stock ready by heating it up. You can also keep it on simmer if you want to do this perfectly.

In a saucepan, put in the remaining oil and butter on medium heat. Add in the chopped garlic and chilli flakes, and before it starts to turn brown, add the rice. Stir for about 30 seconds.

Add in 2 ladles of stock - or just enough to cover the rice. Stir it to release the starch from the rice. As soon as the water evaporates, add in another ladle or two. Keep doing this till the rice is cooked. It takes about 10-15 minutes of labour.

Don't keep stirring it the whole time, just a few rounds between each addition. As it nears to cooking, the regular rice will be prone to breaking so be gentle.

As you put in your last ladle of stock (note that you might not need all of the stock - just enough for the rice to cook), stir in the cream, seasoning, and the baked mushrooms.

The consistency should not be very dry, but smooth.

Remove from heat and mix in the cheese.

Top it up with the fried enoki and serve immediately.

Tahini Cookies with Hazelnut & Chocolate

This is the 2nd recipe I've tried from The Big Book of Treats by Bombay's most well known pastry chef Pooja Dhingra.  I made one small change - I used hazelnuts instead of almonds because I didn't have any, and I added chocolate chips.

It doesn't get cold in Bombay, but I imagine this would be great for places that do get cold. It would go perfectly with a cup of hot chocolate.

You'll need:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup castor sugar
2 2/3 cup flour (I used gluten free brown rice flour)
180 gm Tahini* 
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup milk
100 gm hazelnuts (I used them whole but you could chop them up)
1/4 cup chocolate chips (another 1/2 cup if you plan to dip the cookies in chocolate)

*I had a store-bought bottle of it but if you can't find one, lightly roast white sesame seeds on a pan and once it's cool, blend it with 2 tbsp olive oil and 2 tbsp warm water till you get a smooth paste

Wash your hands before starting because you won't get this done with a spoon.

In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, butter, and sugar till the mixture is crumbly and looks like breadcrumbs.

Add the tahini and lemon juice and again mix well.

Add the milk and mix again till you get a pliable dough.

Finally, put in the hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

Roll the batter into golf-sized balls and then flatten it out about1/4 inch thick.

Place them on a greased baking tray and bake at 165 deg C for 15 minutes.

*For Convection Microwave - I baked at 170 deg C for 20 min on the convection setting

As soon as I took it out of the oven, I found the cookies to be very crumbly (could be because of the gluten free flour), but I gently lifted them onto a wire rack to cool and it set well as it cooled.

Usually I find that cookie recipes turn out to be too sweet for our liking so I reduce the sugar amount. So with this I used just 1 cup but found that I should've added the entire amount required because it wasn't sweet enough. So I dipped the bottom of the cookie in melted chocolate (melted in the microwave in 30 sec bursts) and kept it chocolate-side up till it set to add some sweetness to it. It worked!

Makes: 20 cookies

Peanut Butter and Banana Pancakes

This was such a wholesome and delicious breakfast that it almost made me wish I woke up earlier in the mornings to make it more often. Almost.

You'll need:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup buttermilk*
1/3 cup peanut butter* 
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Butter to cook
1 Banana
Chocolate chips (optional)
Maple syrup

For the buttermilk, instead of using the milk method, I just used half and half of thick yoghurt and water.
For the peanut butter, I used the crunchy variety, but I assume the creamy version would blend better.

Thinly slice the banana and keep aside.

In a bowl mix the peanut butter,  buttermilk, egg and vanilla till they're blended.

Sieve in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Fold gently till the flour is mixed in well but don't over-mix - the batter should be a little lumpy.

Heat a small pan on medium flame, put in some butter to coat the bottom. Pour in a ladle of batter and gently spread it out.

While the bottom layer is cooking, top the pancake with some banana slices. You can choose to add the chocolate chips now or just top it up while serving.

Turn the pancake and cook for another minute.

Remove from heat and serve with syrup.

Makes: 4-5 pancakes