Cooking Learning 04

Blogging Marathon #70 Week 3 Day 2 Theme: Shot glass Desserts Dish: Black Forest Sundae Taking a cue from the classic Black Forest Cake, this shot glass dessert is all you need to wow your guests for any party!! Who doesn't like Black Forest cake? Those layers of cream between rich chocolate cake? And the tart cherry jam in between and sweet cherries on top? The combination that was once the most popular is slowly losing ground to the more innovative flavors and modern decorations. However, for the vast majority of people, Black Forest still remains a personal favorite.  I have had these mini glasses of black forest cake sundae on my mind for a long time. So when Valli chose the theme for this month as shot glass desserts, I simply HAD to make this one. Crumbled chocolate cake interleaved with vanilla ice-cream and freshly made cherry jam, and finally topped with a vanilla cream and cherry.  This dessert is all you need to wow your guests this holiday season or enforce portion...

Blogging Marathon #70 Week 3 Day 1 Theme: Shot glass Desserts Dish: Rose Falooda Shots Today is day 1 of this week's Blogging Marathon and my theme for this week is desserts in shot glasses. I loved this theme and had so much fun making three tiny desserts for this theme. First up is one of my favorite desserts; falooda just reinvented to make perfect shots. A blend of milk, rose syrup, vanilla ice cream and other ingredients of choice, this one is an Indian classic. Most restaurants have it on their menu and people of all ages LOVE it. What was once only available in a couple of flavors like kesar and rose has now expanded to all sorts of flavors based on different nuts and fruits. However, the classic Royal Falooda is still served with rose syrup and has not undergone many changes over the years.  A very famous joint for Falooda in Mumbai is the Crawford Market based Badshah Falooda. They serve their signature faloodas in tall glasses made from thick glass and the quantity is eno...

We are coming to the end of November and it time to enjoy the winter bounty of fruits and vegetables. Plus, it is time for Thanksgiving and everyone is busy preparing a list of items they will make for the BIG day! Brussel Sprouts are in season and I cannot get enough of the green colored beauties. We love our sprouts in salads, stews and even as part of our Indian curries. Though I have used them quite a bit in the kitchen, this is the first time I am adding them to the blog. That is primarily because I saute them and we quickly finish the platter, having no time to click pictures! This time as part of the  Secret Recipe Club  the recipe has finally made it to the blog . For those who do not know about SRC, it is a recipe sharing club. We have a hostess, mine happens to be Sarah, who blogs at  Fantastical Sharing of Recipes . She assigns each person a blog from one of the other participants. You have to select a recipe from their blog and post it on the reveal day. ...

Blogging Marathon #70 Week 2 Day 3 Theme: Thali Dish: Parsi Thali This is the last Thali in the series for this month. I posted two other Thalis; The Gujarati Thali and Indo-Chinese Thali over the last few days. This one is a little from both those. And yes, this is pretty elaborate compared to the previous two. Hope you enjoy this one! For the longest time Parsi Community has been a small community in India with their rich culture, heritage and food. Except the Irani Cafes their food never reached the masses. But lately the entire scene has changed. With TONS of Parsi eateries starting all over Mumbai and other cities, now the flavorful cuisine is becoming mainstream!  From the Paneer Akuri to the Dal and Dhanshak, we now can relish all Parsi dishes at famous restaurants. It is wonderful to see how these places picked the cuisine and made it interesting to serve and enjoy while preserving their culture. If you happen to be the famous Soda Bottle Openerwalla, you will definitely re...

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #GiveThanksBeFull #CollectiveBias Thanksgiving is around the corner and it is time to reinvent the Green Bean Casserole. This lightened pizza made from puff pastry and green bean filling is perfect for any of your Friendsgiving dinner from now until the big day. The Friendsgiving dinner season is almost here and everyone is getting busy making their menu. Green Bean Casserole is a must-have on the table but it gets pretty boring to keep making it the same way each year. This recipe comes handy when you are in a rush and do not want to spend a lot of time cooking. Using store bought puff pastry,  Campbell's® Cream of Mushroom Soup ,  Del Monte® Blue Lake® Cut Gree n Beans  and  French’s Crispy Onions; this pizza is super easy to make. I was jotting down the items to make for this weekend's dinner. On my list was a new version of the Casserole. I stepped into Targ...

I posted an Indo-Chinese Thali earlier today. An essential part of the platter was Hakka Noodles. A non-spicy version of the famous Indo-Chinese noodles, this one is full of mixed vegetables and mild flavors.  If you are also like me, one who loves Indo-Chinese food; you would know there is no set recipe for this dish. Depending on which restaurant you try this at, there will be different vegetables in the noodles. Some add french beans, some baby corn and some add the colored peppers. Few leave out mushrooms or broccoli and some just add basic vegetables like carrots, cabbage and french beans. However, based on the condiments added, the noodles vary in color from white to dark brown. However, I LOVE all the versions of the noodles.  Not only do we enjoy these in the restaurant, we enjoy the noodles at home too. Just like the restaurants, I make small modifications to the vegetables or sauces to change the flavor at home. It is generally dictated by the availability of th...

Blogging Marathon #70 Week 2 Day 2 Theme: Thali Dish: Indo-Chinese Thali The first Thali I posted was the Gujarati Thali. Today, I am posting another Thali. This one happens to be my FAVORITE cuisine! For those who follow the blog, you would definitely know how much I enjoy making Indian Chinese food. And when Valli announced the theme for this BM as Thali, I wanted to include this one for sure. For the longest time we have all imagined Thali to be JUST Indian food. However, with time many restaurants now have a variety of non-Indian thalis, including Chinese, Thai, Mexican and Mediterranean. Diving into the definition of a Thali, it would be any combination of dishes that come together perfectly and can be served as a complete meal. Generally made up of various elements like carbs, fats and fibre; the elements should have flavors ranging from sweet and salty to spicy and sour.  When I thought of making an Indo-Chinese Thali, I was fairly confident of the elements I would include t...