Food Frenzy and Fun!

This is a story of when the excitement of making a "side dish/ a dip" decided the entire main course menu.

Miss V is currently on a rotation class at her school for Home Economics. A part of her curriculum was focused on fun recipes. She has been excitedly sharing this with us.  So on a nice Saturday Morning, as we chat what to make for lunch.?She chimes in, "I want to make Hummus" Hmm, so we changed the menu and being the(awesome) supportive parents decided to make a Mediterranean Meal instead!

What a feat.

I have made falafel before and I did want to try the Air Fryer! For hummus however I leaned in on Miss V. She looks up the recipe, on a cold snowy morning we head to the stores, get what we need and ta-da!!!

Our platter was quiet significant

4 types of Hummus

1. Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

2. Roasted Serrano Pepper Hummus

3. Original Hummus

4. Olive Hummus

Falafel: Pan baked and also made using Air Fryer

Pita

Salad

Yogurt Dip

A picture just to make you salivate a bit! And yes, it was delish!!!

Cooking with Chatter Box and Little Lady  is always fun. But of course, She lost her temper more than a few times since "I was not following instructions", I was on the edge a few times since "The kitchen looked like a war zone".

In the middle we called truce and decided to experiment! And hence the 4 different types of hummus!

The recipe should come from her, so I will have a guest post sometime soon!

But all in all, a delish meal and a wonderful experience.
The girls and I try to cook together (mainly in winters!), we have baked cakes,made crumbles, assembled onion rings, executed a "homemade restaurant" and above all we bond over food, over the mess, over the laughter and enjoy the experience. 

Open up your recipe book, have the kids bookmark what they want to eat and go for it! Just be prepared for the mess, eye rolls and lots of deliciousness coming your way!

I highly recommend it!

An Impromptu British Evening!

In case you haven't read, Chicago has been cold, unseasonably cold. Which I feel is the story of every year and we forget.

After a long dentist appointment and it being as cold as it was, I just didn’t want to cook. I wanted to go out and break the monotony of us complaining about how cold it is!

As I stood in the cold, waiting for my uber to get home, any "wanting to eat out" enthusiasm I had just fizzled out. So we did the next best thing: Cook and make an evening of it

Cooking is less science and more of the pure passion of eating delicious food.

Simple.

 Case in Point: A friend of mine keeps saying, she barely cooks. But her Paneer Makhanwalla is the best I have EVER eaten. Less Science, more of her passion of eating the delicious food she makes!

At Tagore Villa- Kolkatta

Back to this cold, dreary evening, Sumit and the Little Lady by value of association decided on the menu.

(Deepak means Diya, means rememeber when in Calcutta we went to see how Diay's are made, means remember Calcutta, means remember the Baked  Beans on Toast at Flurry's)

Yep, logic of association makes sense, complete sense ;-)

Flurry's Baked Beans!

The menu decided was "Baked Beans on toast" and headed to the store to get the Special Baked Beans needed for this!

As I got home and waited for them, mind became active and I was likeI need more than Beans on toast: 

How about a "British evening" .The menu expanded to

1. Baked Beans on Toast
2. Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie
3. Which was to be followed by a Cup of Tea! (Never happened, since we have over-stuffed ourselves)

Recipe for "Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie:

Ingredients: 

For Filling

1. 1/2 cup chopped each
1. Carrots
2. Green Beans
3. Onions
4. Bell Pepper
5. Celery
2. 2 cloves Garlic finely chopped
3. 2 tsp Butter
4. Spices per taste: Salt, Black pepper, Dried Oregano, Cinnamon
5. 3 tomatoes pureed
6. 2 tsp Maida/ All Purpose Flour

For Topping

1. 3 medium potatoes boiled and mashed
2. 1 tsp yogurt or 1 tsp egg-less mayonnaise
3. 1 cup shredded Cheese
4. 1/2 cup Panko/ Breadcrumbs: Optional

Process for Filling

1. On a hot skillet, add butter. Once melted add onions, garlic and sauté till translucent

2. Add carrots, beans, bell pepper and celery, sauté for 2-3 minutes and cover and let it simmer on slow flame
3. Puree the tomatoes with the all purpose flour. Feel free to add 1/2 cup water for ease of blending

4. Once vegetables are tender, add the tomato - flour paste and add spices.

5. Let it simmer till the sauce thickens, taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
6. Turn the flame off

Process for Topping

1. Mix Potatoes, 1/4th cup shredded cheese and the yogurt/ egg less mayonnaise. The consistency should be of mashed potatos.
2. Feel free to add some salt/ black pepper per taste

Bake:

1. In a baking dish, layer the filling first.
2. Add the potatoes on top to cover all filling
3. Cover with the remainder 1/4 cup cheese, top with panko

4. Bake in the over for 20 minutes at 375 F.

5. If you like the top crispier, feel free to leave in the oven for additional 10 minutes

Enjoy with the hungry kids, missing your Brit friends and definitely make a "British Evening" just because!

Fireplace and a warm hot meal with the family!

This was a true hit with the kids and Sumit also approved of this Pie! Even going as far as, we need to make again and admiring: Is this all made from Scratch?

Yes it is, please refer to Recipe above Mr. Hubby so you can make it next time!

Made from Scratch for sure!

Stress week or Food Frenzy week

When I am super exhausted or just very stressed, I do one of two things, I dress up fancily or I cook fancily.
Considering I have no where fancy to be at on a day to day basis. I have been cooking fancily.

The last few days in my house have been the following
Saturday: Daal Baati with all Maru accompaniments! Of course celebrating the birthday of the one of the strongest individual I know had something to do with this

Monday: Indian Chinese complete with hakka noodles, fried rice, paneer chili, Gobhi Manchurian. Having kids ask me to open a restaurant after this meal was the best compliment I could ask for.

Tuesday: An Ethiopian street food dish called 'Ful' gobbled up very quickly by all of us. Me missing my mum and sharing food pictures with them made it up

Wednesday: Chaat Corner: Paani Puri, Dahi Puri, Sev Puri! Sumit saying that the paani puri is close to his Jaipur days! Oh man, I am in bliss.

I feel food gets us all together on our dining table, makes us laugh, cherish the limited time we get even more. As working parents with busy lives and busy work, we dont get as much time as we would like with the kids. So this is me saying Quality over Quantity.
The weekday evening dinners makes my fondest memories with the kids (YEs even yelling at them to finish fast sometimes!).

I am sure my family wants me to stay stressed so I could make more elaborate meals(!).
I am sure my weighing scale begs to differ though!

So what's your stress buster?

A full filling falafel evening

One good thing about blogging about recipes is when I want to re-cook them, I know exactly where to look and what to do, since it’s my own already simplified and modified recipe for a  Quick Food Fix, I blogged about them in 2015 and 2016 so making them again was way over due!

That’s what Monday night was… a full filling Falafel evening. Everything was laid out and kids made and enjoyed their own Pita Sandwiches!

 A picture to tempt you (and also to show off)

A simple thing that my older one said in the evening: “Mummy hoping this satisfies your craving” I melted. 

Over my California trip in December one evening walking on the streets of San Diego (Gas Lamp Quarters), I mentioned to the Chatterbox that night, I am craving Falafel. And that was it… but weeks later, she remembered, and last night over the delicious sandwich she said “Mummy hoping this satisfies your craving”. Oh Yes, It did and so much more!

It also reminded me that simple conversations with the kids may have a lasting impact. Hearsay, an example, a story, a conflict: Kids keep absorbing and absorbing and I have no idea what will shape their little sponge like malleable minds. J So keep it as simple as possible and as honest as possible. These kids continue to amaze me and I learn everyday (and also pull my hair out on most days!)

So how was your Monday after the Holiday season and settling in back to routines?

Monday Bites: Quick Food Fix: Paneer Bombay Style Roll

Research proves that having dinner as a family is a big deal.

I wish I had a "magic wand":  Dinner is piping hot and ready by the time we come home, center candle is lit, and we can all sit peacefully, laugh, chuckle and enjoy the dinner while sharing about how our day went.

Snap.
Yes, a dream, a beautiful yet impractical dream.

So we do the next best thing that we can, improvise the implementation. On most days we will eat as a family and have hot piping food, but just "quicker" and "self effort" filled!

This Roll Recipe has been a hit with the kids and adults equal. It fits my "under 25 minute" rule and is rich, delicious and healthy
Here is a variation with potato I had made a while back" Potato Kathi Roll.


Name: Paneer Bombay Style roll/ Kathi Roll

For Filling
Ingredients
1/2 Onion: Chopped in biggish squares
1/2 Bell Pepper: Chopped in biggish squares
1/2 Tomato: Chopped in biggish squares
1/2 cup Paneer: Chopped in biggish squares
1 tsp ginger
Olive Oil
Spices
1 tsp Jeera
2 tsp Shahi Paneer Mix
Salt: per taste
1 tsp Chia Seeds
1/2 tsp Cinamom

For Roll
Frozen Malasian Paratha
Sliced Onion: 1/4 cup
Bhujia: per taste
Yogurt: less than one cup
Spicy chutney

Process:
For filling:
1. Heat the olive oil and add the jeera
2. Once spluttering, add all other filling ingredients
3. Let it simmer and saute till onions are cooked
4. Mix well: Note you can add 1 tsp of yogurt for a creamy texture.

Assembly:
1. Prepare the Malaysian Paratha on pan per instructions
2. With a butter knife, spread yogurt
3. Add the filling (I also added left over rice, but optional!)
4. Add Bhujia, Sliced onion and spicy chutney/ achaar per taste

Roll in Foil and Enjoy!!!

Here is our version of "Bombay Wraps/ Kathi Roll/ Paneer Roll"

A quick dinner served with style!

Kids devoured it and I shot myself in the foot, supportive husband said: Well, now this we can make at home, so no restaurant needed for the "Roll Fix"

Potato... or poh-ta-to

Recently, I had an animated conversation with a few friends about my favorite vegetable to cook with and eat as well.... potato.

I have no clue how we landed in that discussion in midst of the cacophony of the kids, but yes the animated conversation of potato continued.

Here is what I realized:

• Amongst my friends, I was the only ONE who shared her love for this amazing and versatile vegetable, potato (I may have to look for new friends)!
• The ones who did like potato choose not to buy it. Health reasons they say (uuuh, I never did think about potato as healthy well unhealthy as they reminded me!)
• A friend jokingly asked me what do I cook with it. And the list of things I make with potato rambled off my mouth, even quicker than when someone asks me, how Old are your kids! (Yup, I also need to re-evaluate my priorities)

Potato.... aaah, the golden bliss vegetable, which makes everything easy, to bind the patty, to cook as a quick fix dinner, to broil for a wonderful impromptu gathering, to fry to crisp seasoned fries and above all my favorite dinner companion!

Mind you, I use a lot of colorful vegetables in my cooking, but the simple Potato is my go to.

So turns out, my friends were right! I could do more without the potato and throw in different concoctions with alternatives. They suggested a few, I mentally noted them down!

Now, in conclusion: Nope I am NOT changing my friends, however taking their recommendations/ gentle nudges forward... and will begin the journey of "No Potato" (GASP!) for 3 months.

Now don't go calling Child Services on me... I will still cook it for the kiddos, but for me, I will attempt to go potato free (for 3 months!)!!

I made the claim above and the friends rambled off food/ potato stuff I will miss out on!!!

SO yes, I MAY have to re-evaluate my friendships after-all!

Jokes apart: You tell me: Potato or Poh-ta-toh... No more, will I survive it?

What a week!!!!

I feel wonderfully relaxed and rejuvenated after a vacation and it feels good. This time around the Holiday's it was a stay-cation for us.
The vacation started with an exciting trip to the water park, followed by a week dotted with lazy lunches and even lazier dinners, meeting friends and sprawled on the couch. We  did manage to complete a couple of (time consuming) home projects, we slept in and above all we played a lot of board games and danced a little more!

Come January 1st, we are slowing waking up from the slumber of the vacation and getting ready for the back to school, back to work, back to scheduled life mode. As I call it, "Regular Scheduled Programming".
But on that last day of stay-cation, I wanted to end it on a bang!
I didn't want left overs from deliciousness before, it was too cold to step out for dinner and definitely didn't want to order in! But I wanted good food!!!

So I got cracking on it. Making one favorite dish for all 4 members for the dinner

Menu:
Cucumber Sabzi: For myself
Palak Paneer      : For Little Lady
Kadhi                 : For Miss Chatterbox
Ajwain Paratha  : For Sumit

I dont know what it was, whether the softness of the paratha, the heat of the kadhi or just the kids hogging the food without nagging (yes, even little lady) or us four sitting on the dining table and laughing through the meal, dinner was perfect!

A wholesome meal is a brilliant way  to kick start the Year !!!!

Munch Bunch: Fried Banana Fritters

Munch Bunch: 4 like minded couples meet on a rotating schedule, choose a cuisine to make and experiment with and spend the time to cook, critique and enjoy.

With the kids getting older, they experiment eating it, not all is successful, but hey, which 5 year old can say brag they have tried home made sambussa, or a Spanish ensemble, A Greek Night or a zesty Cranberry relish with a Thanksgiving Feast!!

Mission Successful!

Theme Vietnamese!!! 
And as always it was a feast! This time around, I chose Dessert. I love sweets and desserts and suck at making them, plain and simple! So munch bunch is the best way to experiment!

Fried Banana Fritters!
Honestly, you search for eggless Vietnamese Dessert and this one is the first thing comes up. I was surprised, I always thought of fried banana/ plantains are a South American/ Peruvian thing. Happy to learn

Serves 16 (greedy people!)
I made it in three distinct steps
1. Fried Banana (of course)
2. Caramelized Banana (Since I was being fancy)
3. Assembling (with Vanilla Ice Cream)

You will need Sugar Syrup, This is the best recipe to make this! I did use Brown Sugar though!

Step 1: Fried Banana Fritters
Ingredients:
Banana for frying: 6 medium well done
Wheat Flour: 2 cups (give or take)
Cinnamon: 2 tsp

Process
1. Mash the bananas really well and add flour
2. The batter should be like a thick pancake batter, feel free to add more flour
3. Add cinnamon

Only fry, when you are ready to eat!

Step 2: Caramelized Banana (This step is optional)
Ingredients:
Banana: 2 sliced medium

Sugar Syrup and caramelizing the banana

Process
1. Heat the 6 spoons of sugar syrup in a shallow pan until thick
2. On low flame add the sliced banana, let it crisp and then flip over
3. When both sides are crisp, let it cool off!

Note: This is a time consuming process, you can add caramel, however I am mortally afraid of burning myself with hot caramel, so I stick to sugar syrup!

Though long and painful, I loved how the sugar crystallized over the banana!

Step 3: Assembling

When ready to eat, please fry the banana fritters then, there is nothing better than warm fritters with cold ice cream!

Process
1. Fry the fritters in medium round shapes till brown
2. Place in the sugar syrup for 1-2 minutes
3. In a serving dish
a. Place the warm fritter
b. Top with Ice cream
c. Add caramelized banana

Enjoy!

Hosting a Vegetarian BBQ Party

Summer has ended, luckily for us in Chicago, the weather is still awesome. And that’s not something that we say often! This summer, we grilled and grilled a lot! With time I learned that hosting a BBQ party is very different from regular ones!

Here are a few tips that helped us host grilling evenings at a frequency of two per week :-)

Be safe: Ensure to instruct the kids to be away from the grill when you are cooking. We generally keep some games (Ring toss/ bean bag throw/ water guns) at the other end of the deck. It keeps them entertained and I am not stressed.

Imagine a triangle. Grill being on one corner, the kids activities on the other and the drinks on the third corner. This layout helps keep the party flowing well, kids away from hot grills and drinks cooler!

Planning:

Menu: Have a broad idea of what you are grilling. Raid the produce section and be well stocked! For a vegetarian grilling event, have 2 mains which are heavy and then a lot of accompaniments to go along with it.

Food Prep & Cooking:

- Appliances: Apron, Gloves, Grill cooking utensils, grill mats and foil! Be always safe and these are one time expenses and totally worth it!

- In our house, I prep/ marinate and Sumit grills. Admist the coversations and relaxing, he tends to forgets that food is still on the grill and then I jump into the rescue (You see how I slid that in)

- One thing I recommend is 1-2 things at a time! Start with the lighter items, one at a time and then progress. I have realised with time, though you may have 6-8 items ready to be grilled, your party will always be more relaxed on the deck!So just taking is slow and cooking 1-2 things at a time is highly recommended. This way everyone including you gets to enjoy the weather, the conversations and the food!

- We grill in a 'sequence' defined by increasing order of flavours and cooking time. Implying things that grill quickly go first! Simple reason, at the onset you are hungrier and food should come in quickly, as the evening progresses you and your friends would enjoy the breaks in food!

Drinks:

I highly recommend a main cool drink, be it sangria, a punch, jal jeera. It just makes me feel nice to pour cold jal jeera then opening a can of La Croix, I am just saying!

Keep a mini cooler/ Ice box ready and stocked with the group favorites. Have a variety of cans/ bottles ready for serving!

I have learned over time and now attached a bottle opener to my cooler, this way I am not scrambling for this essential item

Water: I prefer just having jars/ reusable bottles ready with water and ice! We as a family have been trying to avoid plastic bottles and considering we host a lot of friends over BBQ, having the reusable bottles is ideal (and cheaper!)

Condiments:

I have a tray ready with my essentials: Salt, Pepper, Chilli Flakes, Lemon Wedges, Hot Sauce, Ketchup, Chaat Masala etc. and definitely a knife!

Of course there are edits to these based on the menu for the evening.

Serve Ware:

- Food Prep: If you use skewers, pre-soak. i generally avoid them. I use  glass containers for the marinated vegetables and then use the same ones for serving after grilling. (Read less clean up time for Sumit!)

- If your space allows a a table where you keep the marinated food and then eventually the grilled food. I line up the marinated food in the order that Sumit will grill (Read FIFO- First in First out), makes it so much easier

- Have ample serving spoons, forks etc handy... you do go through them very quickly!

- Keep paper plates, bowls, napkins, flatware ready. I highly recommend using the paper dishes, since you will be grilling a variety of things and walking and chatting around! (Read less clean up time for Sumit!)

- Thrash Can: A MUST. keep it lined, empty and ready to go. If you recycle (which you must), keep a double bagged paper bag ready!

(Read less clean up time for Sumit!)

Pot Luck/ Grilling:

- Most of my grilling gatherings have been with dear friends over and I enjoy the cooking process, so I tell them, please come and enjoy!

But if you are hosting a larger party, keep it simple for yourself as well. A salad, a dessert, some drinks are perfect and simple requests for your guests to bring along!

Menu Ideas:

- Always keep a cold appetizer/ fruits ready for the evening: Simple things like a tossed salad, chopped watermelon helps. You can be fancy and have fruit skewers ready, but trust me if you grilled as often as we did, you want a simple repeatable model

- Finger foods like chips, salsa, pretzels etc should be served but in smaller portions, you would rather have the guests fill up on grilled gorgeousness!

- Marination: If you want marinate the night before it helps with the flavour in the vegetables/tofu/paneer what ever you are planning on. If your evening is more impromptu, fret not, increase the qty of herbs and spices in the marination by a little and even 30 minutes of marination is enough.

- Grilled vegetables with cold dips is always a hit: Think Grilled asparagus with a creamy pesto dip, delish!

- Think concoctions, you have 10 beans and 1/2 pepper lying around, slice them up marinate in olive oil, salt and pepper! Tada... Gril and then serve with crubled goat cheese (Ready!)

- For kids, encourage them to try everything coming off the grill, they will enjoy the 'not sit down and eat' type of meals. In addition, if you have more kids may be have a main like Mac N Cheese or something as a back up is a great idea!

- Trust me when I say this, a cold pasta salad is a hit with the kids and more with the adults!!!!

So have fun, enjoy the process and remember: Grilling parties are fun, simple, can be impromptu and you tend to eat a lot more...

Berry Pie- Peach Pie and my cutie pie's

Such a big difference 2 years is making, I swear!
This was us 2 summers ago baking a crumble and fast forward to now.... the girls 9 and 4 are making the pie/ crumble now pretty much on their own and the cherry on top.... they are also cleaning up after!

So here is the Pie/crumble recipe, kids edition!  The girls made two crumble's this past weekend, so except the fruits being different, both of them followed the recipe step by step identical to each other!

Little Lady: 4 year old used 3 cups of berries (Mixed- Blueberries, raspberry - Strawberry)
Miss Chatterbox: 9 years old used 3 larger peaches. She sliced most of them herself
(Yes I was a hawk watching her)

For the rest of the recipe-I will use the term 'fruit' instead of berries or peaches just to keep it simple

Ingredients:

Fruit Base: 
Fruit of choice : See portions above
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp ginger grated
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (Again, I used the home made one my friend gifted me at Xmas!)

For the crumble topping
4 spoons Bisquick
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 tsp baking powder

For baking or cooking with kids the best thing I have learned over the years is keep all ingredients, measuring spoons out on the counter and then walk the kids through the process step by step.

Let them lead, ask questions, get messy and above all let them include the variation they want! Of course with that said, i am starting a new tag 'Cooking with Kids'

Make them wash their hands, before, during and after!

Process: 
1. In a ready to bake Pyrex dish mix all the ingredients of the fruit base.
2. Let it stand for 20 minutes for the fruit juices to release well
3. In a deeper vessel, mix all the ingredients for the crumble topping (dough like consistency)
4. Layer the crumble topping on top of the fruit base.

Note: The little one definitely needed help with this steps since her natural instinct was to press the 'dough'. I learned that telling them 'Layer the topping like a blanket on the fruits' worked like a charm!

5. Bake the crumble at 375 F for 20-25 minutes, you could brush the topping with additional butter to make it 'brown' better.

Note: I am paranoid about the oven, so this step I led completely.

While the pie/crumble is getting baked... have the kids clean up.

Both girls washed their hands off after they licked their fingers with the delicious dough topping.

Again the kitchen clean up was a simple one... the older one helped in putting all the ingredients from where they came and the little one helped with wiping the counters and the floor.
And yes, of course I had to wipe up a little more after them, but I really did enjoy them helping me out and taking the initiative of 'Leaving the kitchen as they found it'

The highlight was the girls were sharing with everyone at the dinner party the recipe, the baking process and above all ' I made it, you will love it!'

So go on... let the kids lead a little and you will learn a lot!