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.

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.

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

All Reds Soup

I was very sceptical of using beets in my regular tomato soup because I have tried it in a smoothie with a lot of other ingredients to mask it and still didn't like it much. But this soup came out delicious and full of healthy goodness.

This makes soup for 2 healthy servings.

You'll need
3-4 large tomatoes
2 medium carrots
1 beet
1 cup water/stock
1 tsp garlic
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp crushed black pepper
1 tbsp roasted ground cumin
Salt to taste

Boil, purée, and strain the tomatoes, carrots, and beet. Add the water or stock for a soupy consistency.

In a saucepan, add the oil then the butter.

Once it's hot, add the crushed pepper, bay leaf, and garlic.

Add the purée and salt to taste. Add the roasted cumin powder and bring to boil.

Remove the bay leaf before serving it hot.

Veggie Burgers with Beets and Carrots

I found another way I can include beets in my diet - apparently it tastes good to me when it is masked by several other flavours.

I usually use beans instead of potatoes in my burger but this recipe tastes better with potato. I also added eggs to keep it moist and to bind it well, but it can be skipped. If you feel it doesn't mould well without the egg - just add more potato.

This recipe made 10 medium-sized patties

You'll need
2-3 large potatoes, peeled and boiled
2 small beets, peeled and grated
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 bowl of stringed beans, finely chopped 
2 eggs, whisked
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I just used crushed bread sticks)
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
2-3 tbsp oil to cook
Seasoning

In an oven, grill the beets, carrots, and beans till soft. I used a convection microwave on grill setting and it took me 14 minutes - at the halfway mark I took out the plate to stir so that the top layer doesn't get too dry.

Mash the potatoes, add the grilled vegetables, eggs, garlic, half of the breadcrumbs, and the seasoning. I used white pepper and salt.

Divide these into palm-sized balls and flatten them with your hand to about 1/2 inch thickness.

Coat each patty with the breadcrumbs.

If you're grilling them on a pan, heat some oil and gently place the patty in. Cook each side for 2-3 minutes. Don't keep turning it.

If using a convection microwave oven, use a baking-safe flat tray and drizzle with some oil. Brush some oil on the top as well On the grill setting, grill for 8-10 minutes. Then take out the tray, flip the patties and if they seem too dry then drizzle some more oil. Cook for another 8-10 minutes till the it is golden-brown.

For the assembly
10 burger buns
10 leaves of lettuce
Slices of onions and tomato (or use caramelized onions)
Mustard sauce
Pesto
Cheese slices

If you don't mind soft buns then you can just assemble the burger like a sandwich. I prefer the buns toasted.

Slice the buns, and toast them on a pan. If using the grill, place the lower half of the bun facing up with a slice of cheese, and place the top half facing down. Grill for 3-4 minutes making sure they don't get too toasty or it'll break up when you eat.

You can use either pesto or mustard, or both on each side of the bread. Add in the other elements being careful not to overload.

Serve immediately. Don't keep it assembled too long or it'll get soggy.

Grilled Polenta with Caramelised Onions & Stir-fried Mushrooms

The polenta cakes turned out to be very versatile. I'm looking forward to trying out some desserts with it. Meanwhile, I tried a different topping for the left overs I had from the previous post.

For the polenta recipe see previous post

For the caramelised onions
2 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions sliced thinly
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar

On medium heat, stir fry the onions till they start to brown. Add the vinegar and sugar and cook till all the liquids have absorbed. Remove from heat.

For the Mushroom topping:
A few sprigs of mint 
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup red pepper chopped
2 tbsp of ginger, garlic and chilli paste (1/2 inch ginger, 2-3 garlic pods, and 1 red chilli)
Seasoning

In a pan, heat the oil and add the paste. Shortly after, add the mushroom and salt and let it cook for 2 minutes till all the liquids have been absorbed. Add the red peppers and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from heat.

Assemble with the onions at the bottom, then the mushrooms, and top it with the mint.

Grilled Polenta Crostinis with Aubergines and Pepper

I've been holding on to a packet of polenta for a while now because I was wary of trying something new with the limited spare time I had the last few months. But I decided I shall finally inaugurate the packet and to my relief, found it the simplest thing to make. It's healthy and tastes delicious.

For the polenta:
1 cup polenta
5 cups water
1 tbsp salt
Few sprigs of rosemary
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1-2 tbsp Oil to grill

In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil with the salt and stir in the polenta. Keep stirring till it's thoroughly mixed to prevent lumps. Add in the rosemary and garlic.

Turn the heat down to medium to low and let it cook for about 5 minutes. (The packets have their own cooking times and directions, but even though mine said cook for 30 minutes, it was done in 5)

Check to see if it's cooked - it should not be gritty. Remove from heat.

Add the cheese and spread it on to a 14-inch oiled/Teflon-coated baking tray. The thickness should be about 3/4 of an inch. Let it cool. It sets at room temperature in about 30-40 minutes. You could put it in the fridge to speed it up.

Once cool and set, cut into cubes (or any other shape you prefer). It makes about 20 squares and can be kept in the fridge for a few days to be used later.

Before serving, grill it on both sides with the oil till it turns slightly brown. Serve with toppings.

For the topping:
Red Pepper cut in rings
1 tsp oil
1 red onion diced
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup of chopped aubergine or mushroom or zucchini
Seasoning
A few leaves of basil or coriander/parsley chopped finely

Grill the red pepper rings with the oil and set aside.

In a saucepan on medium heat, put in the butter and once it starts to melt, add the onions. Cook till soft.

Add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook for another 2 minutes making sure the onion browns but doesn't burn.

Add the vegetable of choice with the salt and pepper and keep on medium heat till it's cooked and the juices absorbed.

To assemble, place the polenta crostinis on a plate, put a single ring of red pepper on each. Fill the centre of the ring with the vegetables, and top it up with the chopped greens.

Pesto Pea Soup

I had some freshly-shelled peas during the season and wanted to make the most of it, and just happened to watch a cooking show that shared this recipe. It is easy, yet delicious.

You'll need:
2-3 cups shelled peas (frozen would do as well, but I find fresh ones have a better taste)
*1 tbsp Pesto sauce
Vegetable stock (just enough to cover the peas while boiling. Water will also suffice if you don't have stock)
Seasoning
1 tbsp cream (optional)

*If you don't have pesto on hand, then just add these directly with the peas
2 cloves garlic
4-5 cashew nuts or walnuts
5-6 leaves of basil
2 tbsp olive oil

Boil the peas with some salt till they're soft, for around 5 minutes.
Put the peas along with the water used to boil it in a blender.
Add the pesto (or the pesto ingredients) and blend till it's smooth.
Do not put it through a sieve - the slight texture adds to the flavour.
Add more water or seasoning to preference.
Top it with some crushed black pepper or cream.

Tomato Juice

I love tomato juice - V8 is my favourite but it has way too much salt. I wanted to try for a healthier alternative at home. It tasted good, but it was a bit more effort for the small output (2 small glasses).

You'll need:
5-6 large tomatoes
4-5 celery stalks (no leaves)
salt/pepper to taste
1 tbsp sugar (if needed)

Wash the tomatoes thoroughly. Pour some boiling water on it so that the skins come off.
Boil the skinless tomatoes in 1 cup of water for about 5 minutes.

In a blender, put in the tomatoes and celery stalks and blend till smooth. Add some water if the consistency is too thick (but not the water the tomatoes were boiled in).

Sieve the paste and add water and seasoning to preference
and taste.

Eggless Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

I wanted to send some cupcakes for my husband's team at his office after a successful project, but didn't have any eggs at home. A quick search led me to this recipe which I altered a little. It was easy to make and very tasty.

For the cupcakes:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cornstarch
*1/2 cup sugar 
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup yogurt (don't use the whey)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk

*(It's low on sugar because the frosting is very sweet - if making only cupcakes, add 1/4 cup more sugar)

Cream the butter and sugar well - just over a minute, then add the vanilla and mix some more.
Sift all the dry ingredients into a separate bowl.
In another bowl, mix the yogurt and milk.

Add the dry and wet ingredients into the creamed butter alternately, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

Once all ingredients are incorporated, put into cupcake moulds and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg Celsius for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool completely before topping it with the frosting.

It gave me 12 medium cupcakes.

Frosting:
200 gm unsalted butter at room temperature
200 icing sugar (sifted properly)
Food colouring (optional)

Cream the butter and sugar well. Make sure there are no sugar lumps as it will interfere when you pipe the frosting. I used a piping bag, but you could also lather it on with a spoon, or improvise and use a ziplock bag with a tiny cut in the corner.

Add sprinkles for joy!

Spiced Pumpkin and Lentil Soup

Just in time for the 'winter' months. Although it is not really winter here, it does get a little chilly in the evenings with strong breezes.

I made this in 2 parts - first the lentil then the pumpkin - then mixed it together for a nice drink on a chilly evening.

You'll need:
*1/4 cup uncooked split mung lentil or red lentil
1 cup of water
1 tsp turmeric
*250 gms pumpkin, peeled
1 large carrot
2 tomatoes
Salt to taste
2 tbsps roasted cumin, crushed
Cream to garnish (optional)
*You can adjust the quantity of the lentil and pumpkin depending which flavour you want dominant

Wash then cook the lentils in the water with the turmeric and some salt. I use a pressure cooker and leave it for just one whistle. Microwaving takes longer (about 15 minutes), and if using an open pot, then add some extra water. The lentils should be cooked thoroughly, and for a smoother texture, just blend it for 10 seconds. Keep aside.

In another cooker, boil the pumpkin, carrot, and tomatoes. Once it is soft enough, blend it in a mixer then sieve and season it with salt. Mix it in with the lentils.

While serving, reheat if necessary and garnish with cream (optional) and the crushed roasted cumin.

Kale Salad done Two Ways

After reading so much about the benefits of Kale all over the Internet, I finally found a place that stores these leaves in Bombay. 

I assumed I would use it as I do any other salad leaf, wash, pat dry, dress, and eat. It is fortunate I looked up recipes for kale salad hoping for a new salad combo I could try. It turns out kale is not to be used like any other salad leaf...it is a much tougher variety. So, the first step is to get the kale ready.

For the Kale:

1 bunch of Kale
2 tbsp walnut or olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar or white vinegar or lemon juice

Wash the kale leaves thoroughly. I soak it in salt water for 5 minutes then rinse it our with fresh water. Remove the stalk completely - it is too tough to be eaten. Roughly chop the leaves and put it in a large bowl. 

Add the oil and vinegar, then with your fingers, gently massage the oil into the leaves for a minute or two. Leave this to marinate for 15 minutes at least to 24 hours at the most. It won't wilt like regular leaves.

I used half of the leaves for a dinner salad (top picture), and the other half for lunch (bottom picture) the next day. It still retained some crunch and felt fresh.

Salad 1:

A bowl of the prepared kale leaves

1 chopped red onion

1 chopped tomato (or a few cherry tomatoes)

4-5 walnuts

2 chopped figs

1 chopped carrot

2 tbsp Ranch dressing

1 bunch of other salad leaves (I used rocket and celery leaves)

Mix it all together. I like something crunchy and a hint of sweetness in my salad. Here, onion, walnuts and fig do that, but you can substitute (with something like apples or oranges) or remove any of the ingredients.

Salad 2:
A bowl of the prepared kale leaves

1 chopped tomato

3-4 orange segments (peeled and seeded)

4-5 walnuts

This is a much simpler salad. It can be used as a side but it was a filling lunch for me.

Rice Pudding

This is a quick rice pudding with a nice texture. I substituted half the rice with steel cut oats (NOT the regular porridge oats please) and it gave a nice woody flavour to it.

You'll need:
1 cup rice (or half cup if you plan to add steel cut oats) soaked in water for about an hour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup brown sugar or jaggery
2-3 Green cardamoms, crushed
4-5 blanched almonds for garnish (optional)

After the rice has soaked for an hour, grind half of it into a paste. Bring the milk to a boil then on simmer, add all of the rice. If using steel cut oats, then add it directly to the milk. Keep it on simmer till the rice and oats are cooked.

Add the sugar and cardamom. Stir till the sugar dissolves, and the pudding thickens to a gooey paste. Don't dry it out too much because it will thicken some more once you take it off the heat.

Garnish with some blanched almonds. It can be either served warm or cold.

Grilled Buttery Lemon Fish

Fish is the quickest thing to cook. This was a quick meal...with some outside help in the form of packet baked potatoes, but they could have easily been made at home as well. There's a lot of garlicky stuff happening all at once in this dish because we love the flavour, but you could tone it down and remove it from any of the dishes.

For the Grilled Fish:
2 fillets of fish such as salmon or basa
3-4 tbsp butter
1/2 small lemon sliced 
1-2 cloves garlic
Seasoning

Heat butter on medium heat, then add the garlic and lemon slices. Reduce the butter for a minute or two, then put in the fish fillet. Spoon over some of the butter on top of the fish. Season and cook for about a minute and a half on both sides.
*Remember, if you are using salted butter then adjust the salt you add on top.

This could be cooked in an oven. Just wrap the ingredients in some foil and bake at 180 deg C for about 15-20 min.

Spinach Sides:
1 small bunch spinach, cleaned
1 clove of galic
1 tsp olive oil
salt to taste

In a pan, heat the oil and add the garlic. Add the spinach and cover for 3 minutes. Then cook on high heat to reduce the water. Season.

Garlic Bread:
2 tbsp butter at room temperature
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
Sprinkle of chilli flakes
4-6 Bread slices

Mix the garlic and chilli with the butter (if you are not using salted butter then add a pinch of salt). Spread it on to the bread slices as little or as much as you like, bake for 10 minutes at 180 deg C.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I used to get the packet mix pancake till I realised that homemade ones are easy to make and tastier.
This recipe makes around 4 to 5 medium sized pancakes, enough for 2 people for breakfast.

For the Buttermilk:
1 cup milk at room temperature
Add 1 tsp vinegar or the juice of 1/2 lemon
Let it rest for 5 minutes. It will curdle.

Pancake batter:
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 tbsp butter
1 cup Buttermilk
Additional butter to cook

Optional (any 1):
1 mashed Banana
1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix all the ingredients together, but not too smoothly. The batter should be a bit lumpy. Heat a pan and add some butter to the base. Pour a layer of the batter. Once it starts to set at the bottom, flip it and wait for a minute or so to cook completely. Remove from pan. Repeat for the rest of the batter.

Toppings (single or combine your favourites) :
Maple syrup (avoid the sugar syrup available in most stores)
Honey 

Chocolate syrup
Jam
Butter
Fruits (bananas, berries, apple, poached pears, etc)
Cinnamon

Chewy Oat Cookies with Candied Fruits

I had some candied ginger and cherries from my last holiday that I thought would go well with oat cookies. They made for a nice breakfast.

1 egg (slightly beaten)
1/2 cup of candied cherries and ginger
1/4th cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4th cup butter
3/4th cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
2/3rd cup flour
2 cups (250gm) porridge oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp boiling water

Melt the butter in the microwave and the sugar and syrup. Mix well. Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients, and add the egg at the end.

Arrange spoonful of the batter on a baking tray and bake at 180 deg C for about 20 minutes. (For a crispier cookie, bake at 160 deg C for about 25-30 min.)

Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 12
to 15 cookies. Store in an air-tight container once cool.

Oats Dosa with Onion Chutney

I don't like porridge oats at all. Many have tried to coax me to eat it, and I've tried, but it doesn't happen. Not wanting to miss out on the goodness of it all, I keep trying ways to make it edible for me. Cookies are one way. The other is this very simple dosa (crepe).

You'll need:
3/4th cup porridge oats
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
salt to taste
About 2 cups of Water

Oil to cook

This makes the basic batter that should be easy enough to spread on the pan.

For topping, finely chop and mix into a separate bowl the following:
2-3 green chillies
1 onion (or spring onion with leaves)
some corriander
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 inch ginger

Heat a flat pan on medium to high heat. Spread the batter with a ladle, and add some of the topping. With a spoon, pour some oil on the circumference. Keep an eye on the heat - turn it lower if the pan gets too hot. On medium heat, this doesn't need to be flipped over. Each should take about 3 minutes to cook.

Onion Chutney
Grind together:
1 onion
4-5 red chillies
1 tsp tamarind paste
2 inch fresh coconut (optional)
1/2 tsp salt 
Keep aside.

In a small wok, heat
2 tbsp oil

Once hot, add
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp Black gram (urad dal)

Once they start to sizzle, add the onion paste and cook for 2 minutes.

Serve with warm dosas.

Freeze!

I get lazy most evenings especially in the summer and end up ordering food from outside. But I've recently tried to fight the urge and have started to freeze as many items as I can to make it easier to prepare dinner.

When I get some time and patience I prepare the item to be frozen so I don't need to do it all at once. It has helped reduce our eating out on weekdays (weekends I like to take a break from the kitchen).

I prefer to divide it in 2-3 boxes or zip-lock bags by portion size usually needed for one meal so that I don't need to thaw the whole box when I only want some of it.

I also keep nuts like walnuts and almonds in the freezer because they stay crisp and don't get rancid. Same with spices that are not used frequently.

1. Pesto - When I make pesto at home, I usually make enough to be used twice. So half of it goes in the freezer for a quick meal some other day.

2. Spinach - This is best frozen on the day it is bought to avoid loss of nutrients. Boil water in a saucepan, and blanche the cleaned leaves for about 30 seconds, then remove on a sieve and immediately put under running cold water (or in a bowl of ice water). This will stop the cooking process and the spinach will not turn blackish. Chop it up or blend it in and put it in the freezer once cooled.

3. Avocado - Once the avocado ripens, scoop it out, mash it up, and add the juice of 1 lemon, or 1 tbsp vinegar for each avocado. It won't blacken.

4. Yoghurt - I wanted to make frozen yoghurt, so I let regular yoghurt sit on a fine sieve (or cheesecloth) for about 30 minutes to let the whey drain out. Then box and freeze.

5. Banana Ice cream - I had made this ice cream earlier, but added some chocolate in the mix as well.

6. Green Beans - I just washed, de-stringed, and froze the beans, but you could even blanche it as with the spinach and store.

7. Kidney Beans - Soak the kidney beans (1 cup) overnight. The bowl should be big enough as the beans with get bigger in size, and the water should be triple the quantity of the beans. Drain the water the next day. In a pressure cooker, cook the beans on medium for 10-12 minutes with half a cup of water. Add a teaspoon of salt if you are sure you'll need the beans only for savoury items.

8. Strawberries - Wash and remove the stems of the berries. freeze whole. Use it to make milkshakes, frozen yoghurt, or just have them whole once thawed.

Frozen Strawberry Yoghurt

This summer, there will be no store-bought ice-cream (ok, maybe just a few).

You'll need:
8-10 strawberries (cleaned and de-stalked)
2 cups yoghurt (put in a cheesecloth or fine sieve and let the whey drain out for 30 min)
3 tbsp Honey
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)

Blend all, and freeze. Repeat 2-3 times.
Add more honey or sugar as per taste.

Pesto

Sweet basil pesto has a charm of its own, but there are other leaves that will give you awesome tasting pesto as well.

I had an abundance of lettuce that was close to wilting and was in no mood to have that much salad, so I converted the batch into pesto - pretty much the same deal as with the basil version, except that I had a few more ingredients lying around I wanted to finish.

Grind together:
2 large heads of lettuce leaves (I had iceberg lettuce)
1/2 cup basil
1/2 cup mint
1/2 cup cashew nuts
1/4 cup walnuts
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan or other hard cheese (optional)

Since this recipe already has a lot of greens, I don't need to add any more to the pasta. If needed, cook the pasta, drain, and stir fry with some garlic, onions and chilli flakes. The sauce is creamy enough without adding cheese, but you can add cheese on top.

You could also make this out arugula/rocket leaves. I used 1 bunch of chopped leaves to make 1/2 cup of pesto. It could also be used as a sandwich spread.


You can also mix sweet basil to either of the pestos to add flavour. Or just use a cup of basil on its own for a classic.