Picnic snacks

My little daughter has a 'picnic day' at her kindergarten each week and she has to take a healthy snack in to school on this day. I could just pick up wholewheat cookies I guess but I'd rather not, well at least not every week!
So I've been planning a few things and here is a quick list of some of my favorite ideas that work:
happy face cream cheese sandwiches (eyes and mouth with raisins)
fruit cut into little pieces: strawberries/ blueberries and grapes work well
cupcakes with chocolate frosting no sprinkles
pretzels
I will be trying mac and cheese (homemade version) and let's see how it goes because it shouldn't become too sticky by the time she eats it.
Will think of more stuff and add on to the list.

Waffles

Pixie's new favorite food: waffles!

I have a simple basic waffle iron and my batter is easy enough, flour, 1 egg, sugar, milk and oil. Mix till creamy, pour 1 to one and a half tablespoons on a hot iron brushed with oil, cook 2-3 minutes till lightly browned. Tastes delicious! For a more grownup version, I add a handful of chopped walnuts to the basic batter.

Food notes

Baked potatoes is the new family favorite! I do it the most basic way, only thing is I rub the potato with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt on it before baking for a nice long time. Don't forget to prick it in several places with a fork before baking. Tastes delicious as it is but good fillings include boiled chicken mashed with cream cheese and coriander and in our noodle-crazy family try boiled noodles tossed with a few steamed shrimp and broccoli all lightly spiced and seasoned (i used a mix of a dash of cumin, tumeric and dried basil)-- a meal by itself and delicious!

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To add real flavor to a regular fried rice add cubed avocado just minutes before you take the fried rice off the heat (I use a mix of vegies like broccoli, mushroom, baby corn, chinese cabbage, snow peas in this fried rice). Delicious.

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A new breakfast I enjoy: whole wheat raisin bagel with a handful of walnuts and a hard- boiled egg. Washed down with fresh brewed tea.

Happy little treats

I am always looking for easy little food ideas to make for my two-and-a-half year old and her friends. She is a good eater which makes it quite a bit easier. Here are some fairly quick ideas that have worked out well:

Happy Face Sandwiches

Use a mix of wholewheat and white bread for an extra bit of color.
You will need:

1 loaf wholewheat and 1 loaf white sliced sandwich bread (depending on the number of sandwiches you want to make)
Diced well boiled potatoes
cream cheese
hard boiled egg
Raisins and thin slivers of carrot (for the happy face decoration)

Mash the poatoes with the cream cheese and season to taste. Keep aside. Use one slice wholewheat and one slice white bread for each sandwich. Butter the bread on one side lightly. Use a round shape (I used a small canister cover) and cut the bread into small circles (you can use leftover bits in your bread and butter pudding); put some cream cheese-mash potato filling into each sandwich; top the filling with a thin slice of hard boiled egg in some of the sandwiches and press the sandwich down firmly. Finally press in two raisins for eyes and the carrot sliver to make a smiley mouth. Of course you can use any kind of filling you like, this one works well for us and is easy to make ahead and keep.

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Tasty, quick fried drummettes

Some chicken drumettes (washed well and boiled for about 15 minutes with garlic and some salt)
dash of cumin powder, dash of tumeric, salt to taste

Cool the boiled chicken drumettes, then mix well with the cumin and tumeric powders and salt. Shallow fry very well making sure chicken is nicely cooked and crispy. Serve after the chicken has completely cooled down.

Mushroom omelette

My little one loves mushrooms, this omelette is easy to make with swiss brown mushrooms sliced fine. Simply add the sliced mushrooms to a well beaten free range egg, season lightly and cook gently in an egg pan folding over as it cooks to make a small delicious omelette.

Chocolate dip for fruit

2 150g bars dark chocolate
2-3 teaspoons honey or golden syrup
1 small pot single cream
1 tablespoon cornflour

Melt all ingredients together very gently in a double boiler. When cooled serve with strawberries and grapes on long bamboo skewers.

Tasty chicken

I like trying out new dishes that use a lot of ingredients and can get done in under 30 minutes. This morning I came up with this rather delicious chicken bake, I used a few pieces of chicken as the dish was small -- to serve one adult and a kid -- so I didn't need to add a whole lot of meat in, but like all my recipes the quantities are hugely adjustable.

The Recipe:
1 large tomato chopped
2-3 garlic cloves smashed + another 2-3 cloves whole
handful baby portobello mushrooms sliced fine
2 potatoes boiled and mashed
1/2 cup steamed spinach
1/2 cup grated good quality cheddar
organic chicken drumettes and wings
pinch tumeric
1 tablespoon good quality tomato paste

Boil the chicken in water with a pinch of tumeric; salt and two to three cloves of garlic for about 15 minutes. Add some olive oil to a heavy bottomed pan, saute the smashed garlic for a few minutes, add the tomatoes, spinach, mushroom, tomato paste and saute till nice and mushy. Add seasoning and cheese and keep mixing till the tomatoes have broken down well. Add boiled chicken to this mixture and finally the mashed potato. Take off from heat and spoon mixture into a baking dish. Cover with foil and bake about 25-30 mins at 150.

Serve warm with steamed white rice or flake the chicken, mix into baked tomato mixture and use this as a pasta sauce. Delicious either way.

Chicken soup for the soul

I believe in chicken soup. A clear rich delicious chicken soup can do something wonderful for you especially if you have a stuffy nose, heavy head and aching body. I like making a clean tasting soup, almost broth-like using fresh root vegetables, a few spices and organic chicken. Here is the recipe:

chicken wings and drumettes (8-10 pieces)
leek
carrot
potato
onion (about one each, washed peeled and roughly chopped)
2 bay leaves
handful of pepper corns
1 large tomato chopped
fennel cut into quarters
garlic (2-3 large flakes)
a 2" stick of ginger
salt and pepper to taste

Wash the chicken; put into a large stockpot with the vegetables (except fennel) and whole spices. Bring to the boil, then lower heat and simmer about 90 minutes. Add fennel just before the last 20 minutes or so. Check seasoning. Remove from heat. Remove chicken pieces and flake with a fork; discard vegetable pieces. You can serve this in a couple of ways:

*Add flaked chicken back to pot and serve just as a clear soup

*Put bits of flaked chicken in deep soup dishes, pour in some broth and top with freshly boiled udon or egg noodles and a teaspoon of soy sauce. Add a few pieces of thinly sliced red or green bird's eye chilli for extra zest

*Use broth in risotto or noodle dishes use chicken in salad/ sandwiches or as pizza toppings

Crunchy veg delight

I like making these nice, quick pie quiche-like dishes and of late I have started making them with a crumbly, crunchy cracker base. After experimenting with a few different types of crackers I've found simple saltine crackers to be the best. I bash them up in a small ziploc with a pestle and then mix the crumbs with a bit of olive oil and pack them tightly into the base of the baking dishes and then fill up the cracker shell with a delicious filling. The recipe below is a nice enough one:

1 medium tomato chopped

1 onion chopped

half a packet firm tofu crumbled

half cup chopped washed spinach

a generous pinch cumin powder

about 2 tablespoons grated cheddar

salt to taste

1 tablespoon flour

1 egg

Saute the tomato and onion in a little olive oil, till soft and mushy, add spinach and tofu and saute couple of minutes. Add cumin, cheese and salt stir well and remove from heat. In a large bowl combine flour and egg and bit of water, mix into a smooth paste and add cooled vegetable mixture. Mix very well and spoon over cracker base. Bake about 25 mins at 180.

Variation: Add other veg to this combination, swiss brown or portobello mushrooms, boiled potato, boiled corn. Eat warm or cold. Delicious!

Eat healthy

Ever since my father-in-law (a lifelong vegetarian who has followed a strict excess-free life) was diagnosed with colon cancer we are trying to eat healthier, to fight the carcinogens that have invaded our ecosystems, to make dietary changes that may help us all in the long run.

Certain foods and spices are known to have a positive effect in preventing and retarding growth of cancerous tumors. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, blueberries, tumeric just to name a few really do help. I have been reading up on this and it seems that betacarotene (or the orange/ yellow colored) foods are really good. Try pumpkin, papaya, carrots. Then avocado is another good food; good spices include cumin and ginger.

I am working on creating recipes that are anti-carcinogen + delicious. I came up with a pretty good 'barbati dhal'. Barbati beans are the black eyed peas lentil, I made this dhal with a shrimp stock, many veggies and spices and pomegranate seeds (another good food).

Try the recipe:

Ingredients:
barbati dhal (1/2 cup soaked overnight, then drained and pressure cooked with 3 garlic cloves, 1 chopped onion, handful or a little more of pomegranate seeds and 1 tomato till soft)
2-3 cups prawn or shrimp stock (make this by simmering shrimp, heads and tails with garlic, celery, carrot and onion bay leaf about 30 mins)
1 tsp haldi powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tomatoes
little oil
salt to taste

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Blend pressure cooked dhal with celery, carrot, onion from simmered stock + a few more garlic cloves.
In a heavy pan, add some oil, then add spice powder and tomatoes and fry very well till oil separates from spice and tomato mixture.

Add the blended dhal to spice tomato mixture + the stock. Add salt to taste. Simmer for at least half an hour before serving hot with plain steamed white rice.

Catfish stew with some interesting spices

Another of my experimental dishes that turned out very well. I had two skinned catfish steaks and I used them to make this delicious slightly tangy gravy that goes well with steamed Thai hom mali rice.

Ingredients:

a small chunk of ginger peeled and scored (you can remove this after the dish is cooked)
tomatoes (I used two medium)
1/2 teaspoon kalo jeera seeds (kalonji)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon tumeric powder
1 cup mushrooms (Swiss browns)/ snow peas/ potatoes (diced)
catfish cut into thick slices
unsweetened yogurt 1 tablespoon

Heat some olive oil; fry ginger; add kalonji, tumeric, salt and bay leaf. Mix well and add tomatoes, stir fry a couple of minutes and add vegetables and stir fry again a couple of minutes. Add the yogurt and stir very well. Add the fish and about 1 and a half cup warm water. Simmer on low heat about 15 minutes or till the vegetables are cooked.
Serve hot.

Picnic time!

It's beautiful weather time in Hong Kong right now and we are celebrating the glorious clear skies (a BIG thing in HK!) with weekend family picnics, of course it helps that we are on Lantau Island -- as unspoiled a paradise as you will ever get anywhere in the world.

The best part of our picnics -- other than watching my 2-year-old collect mud-covered stones -- is the food. I like packing light tasty and filling picnic-y things for us to eat. Like last week we had a small Gladware box full of soft white fluffy mini idlis, a quickly made coconut chutney to go with that and fried rice. For tomorrow's picnic I am planning on making pizzas and a small amount of udon. With homemade jam tarts for desert.

The good thing about homemade pizzas is that you can have fun with the toppings. I am planning on making one seafood and one 'veggie-yummy.' Look out for the pizza recipes next week!

I like making my udon with a thick peanut butter sauce. Here is the recipe:

Udon with peanut butter sauce (try using the organic peanut butter for a healthier less sodium filled taste)

Let udon rest in boiling water for about 5 minutes.

Cut up veggies you want to use in the noodles (tomatoes, mushroom, carrot, snow peas, green pepper, cabbage, spring onion etc in any combination)

In a little olive oil, lightly brown a garlic clove; add a beaten egg and stir quickly; add veggies and stir fry. After a few minutes add 1 teaspoon (or a little more than that according to taste) peanut butter and stir quickly, add soy sauce and a pinch of salt and then finally add the noodles and mix well. Remove from heat.

Something nice, by mistake!

Now that I am officially a 'committed playdate mom' thinking up finger food and easy snacks for the 4pm-6pm playdate slot is an important occupation. I've got a few favorites: rocky road fudge (my version omits the marshmallows and nuts); vegetable slice (frittata by another name); fruit salad (anything goes into this as long as it is fruit!); sandwiches.


I made an especially yummy frittata the other day and it was largely by mistake as I was basically trying to give my day-old potato waffle batter a new lease of life.

The recipe:

one red onion (medium sized) chopped small
tomatoes diced (2 work fine)
a handful of brown mushrooms chopped
a carrot peeled and diced

about a cup of potato waffle batter (mine had potato/ flour/ a bit of oil/ eggs/ milk and seasoning mixed in)
a cup grated cheddar
a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper

Lightly saute onions/ tomatoes/ mushrooms and carrot till soft. Remove from heat and mix in the waffle batter and cheese. Pour into a greased pie dish, season well and bake about 25 minutes in a moderate over till set.
Cut into slices and serve warm or at room temperature

Easy prawns and broccolli

This is an easy quick delicious prawn curry. Use deveined frozen prawns if possible.

Ingredients:

broccoli
1 packet frozen deveined tiger prawns (thawed)
a couple of french beans chopped into pieces
a cup of peas
2 potatoes in skins
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
tomatoes
dhania-jeera powder 1 tsp
haldi powder 1 tsp
salt to taste
mustard seeds 1 tsp

Method:

Mix prawns with tumeric and a little salt and keep aside for a few minutes while you cut the broccoli into small florets; cube potatoes and cut tomatoes into quarters.

Splutter mustard seeds in oil and then fry prawns in the same oil till they turn a nice reddish color. Add the brocolli, beans, peas, potatoes and tomatoes. Fry well. Add tumeric, dhania-jeera, salt and fry well. Add about a cup of water and simmer on low heat till vegetables are cooked through.

Add coconut milk, check salt and simmer another few minutes. Serve hot with white rice.

Food notes

Dosa is a staple breafast food in India's four southern states. My mother-in-law makes a crispy light dosa with a batter that is not over-fermented so it is nicely tangy without being too sour. My dosa batter is tangy too, but while my husband eats his Saturday morning dosas with 'gunpowder' (a fiery mix of coarsely blended dry red chillies, Bengal gram dhal, whole pepper corns, salt and 'hing') yogurt and unsalted butter; I make more adventurous dosas for myself (my toddler daughter loves these!)

A favorite is adding a spoonful of batter on the very hot 'tawa' and then breaking an egg into the bubbling batter and adding a pinch of salt. Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook for a couple of minutes on a low flame (the lid traps the steam helping to firm the egg yolk) then add a little more oil and flip over and cook on the other side. The end result is a crisp fried egg buried into a fluffy dosa. Yummy!

A one-pot rice dish

Rice is a staple food for us. I usually cook basmati rice at home, at times I use the short grained Calrose (Australian) rice to make dishes like risotto and mixed rice. This recipe is another of my 'improvised' quick meals that actually works quite well as a complete one-pot dish.

The Recipe

Soak half a cup of black eyed beans overnight. The next morning pressure cook the beans with some cloves of garlic.

Other Ingredients

one tomato
vegetable or chicken stock (2-3 cups)
1 cup basmati rice
half cup chopped greens like kale, baby spinach, green spring onion bottoms
salt to taste
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese


Put the rice, tomato and pressure cooked beans in a thick bottomed pan. Add the stock and bring to a boil and then simmer for about 25 minutes or till rice is done (add more stock as needed). Add the greens and cook another 6 minutes or so; add the cheese and salt as needed. Serve hot.

Favorite rice noodles

Rice noodles are delicious and can be prepared very quickly with any number of variations. I buy the house brand rice noodles from the local supermarket though the recipe that follows will adapt easily to any kind of rice noodles.


The Recipe

rice noodles
thinly sliced snow peas/ oyster mushrooms/ green cabbage/ spring onion bottoms/ carrots (all the vegetables together should be about a cup for 3 squares of noodles
1 egg beaten
2 cloves of garlic
oil for frying
salt to taste
soy chilli sauce (or any good soy sauce)


Cook noodles according to instructions, drain and keep aside

Heat the oil, saute garlic, then add egg and stir around quickly; add vegetables and stir-fry briskly for a few minutes. Finally add the noodles and seasoning and toss well. Serve hot.

Add and subtract vegetables according to taste; add shredded cooked chicken or pork if you want a non-vegetarian version; add tofu or shrimp if you prefer. Like I said the variations are endless.

A nice dhal

Cooking elaborate Indian meals with a toddler and no help can be very challenging. But because I enjoy the taste of traditional Bangla ranna and my husband enjoys his traditional Tamilian food, I often end up making meals I like to describe as 'adapated Indian'.

An example of one such dish was the black eyed peas (barbati beans) dhal I made the other day. The final dish tasted delicious and my daughter loved it though it isn't proper Indian it has all the elements of basic traditional cooking. And the best thing about the dish is that it took just a couple of minutes of actual preparation.

The Recipe:

soak a cup of black eyed peas dhal overnight
pressure cook this with a couple cloves of garlic and a small red onion the next morning

other ingredients:
paneer cubes
haldi powder
dhania-jeera powder
tomatoes (1 big or 2 medium)
salt to taste
curry leaves

Add salt, the masala powders, tomatoes to the pressure cooked dhal. Let it boil, then simmer for a while (till tomatoes are cooked through); finally add the paneer and curry leaves and cook for about 10-12 minutes more.

serve with hot steamed white rice

variations: you can vary this recipe in a number of ways: add potatoes during the pressure cooking stage; add spinach with the paneer or omit the paneer and add only the spinach; add a fresh green chilli while simmering the dhal; add a jeera/ kashmiri chilli tarka at the end

Make a quick risotto:

Calrose Australian rice (or regular risotto rice) 1 cup
Stock -- 1 and a half cups
garlic -- two cloves
spinach -- 2 cups washed and chopped
cheddar cheese grated - 1 cup
small knob of butter
salt to taste


Melt butter, add garlic.
Add rice and spinach, stir well. Pour in stock. Stir well and let rice cook (you may need to add more stock, you can also add a half glass of white wine here) ; add salt to taste. When rice is well cooked add cheese, stir in well. Serve hot and creamy.

Cabbage with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh coconut

I've modified this typical south Indian vegetable preparation with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes. I like using the dried tomatoes because it adds a richer flavor to the dish and these tomatoes are readily available from the supermarket any time of the year.


The Recipe


1 medium sized cabbage, washed and sliced finely
a handful of sun-dried tomatoes soaked in warm water for a while and then chopped into thickish pieces
2-3 red or green fresh chillies (slit)
2-3 tablespoons of freshly grated coconut
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
a pinch aesofetida (hing)
1 or 2 potatoes cubed (optional)
salt to taste
oil for frying


If using the potato, cube it and deep-fry the pieces till golden and keep aside.

In a hot wok, add some oil. Then add the cumin and mustard seeds and chillies. When this begins to splutter, add the cabbage and stir-fry gently for 2-3 minutes; add the sun-dried tomatoes and aesofetida and stir-fry again a couple of minutes. Add the fried potatoes, salt to taste and finally the freshly grated coconut. Give it all a good stir and remove from heat. Do not allow the vegetable to remain on high heat too long after adding the coconut, as fresh coconut releases some oil when heated and this may give the vegetable a greasy after-taste.

A nice additional garnish to this dish is to take a handful of raw (unsalted) cashew nuts and fry them in a little oil till nice and golden. Sprinkle the nuts over the finished dish to add a lovely crunchy texture.

Okra and tomato stir-fry (bhindi baaji)

This is a simple vegetable dish that can be made in about 15 minutes. It tastes particularly good with white rice, some nice dhal and a few crisply fried aaplams.


The Recipe

300 gms okra washed and patted dry on kitchen towel then diced
2 medium-sized tomatoes cubed
2-3 green or red chillies
1 teaspoon tumeric powder
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
some curry leaves
oil for frying
salt to taste


Heat oil in a wok, when smoking hot add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. After a couple of seconds (just as the mustard seeds start to splutter) add the okra and fry well. Add tumeric powder, salt and tomatoes and stir-fry briskly. Lowe heat and cover and let the vegetable cook for a while. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes or so.

OPTIONS: make similar stir-fries using other cubed vegetables like red pumpkin, zucchini, sweet potatoes, aubergines, beans in any combination you like with tomatoes, and sometimes try adding a few fenugreek seeds (methi) in the smoking hot oil along with the mustard and curry leaves. Do not let the fenugreek seeds burn.

Taste of heaven!

This is a picture of some delicious South Indian sweets that I bought from Little India. The dish has jhangris, rawa ladoo, coconut burfee and a balushahi in it. All the sweets are made from pure ghee, milk, sugar and flavorings like coconut and saffron.