Hearty chicken loaf and weekend shopping spree

I remember clearly when my hubby had announced our new posting to Beijing two and half years ago, I could only think of shopping and nothing else cropped up my mind. I had heard from my friends that it is a shopper paradise and for a person like me who goes crazy to see the Knick knacks would just love the varieties of porcelain potteries, paintings.

Name anything you would desire under the sky, this is the right place and that too all of it bargain able. Since it is now time to bid adieu to Beijing after such a long sojourn my friends suggested visiting this flea market which is a house for all the antiques and great paintings at throw away prices.

It is truly the equivalent of the Mecca, for all Chinese arts and crafts. Bargaining is the biggest mantra & way to go in Beijing, It is skill which u need to excel at and this knack of yours will help u succeed in getting the price in your own favor..

Last weakened we visited a great place called Panjayuan flea market, this was truly remarkable with almost 3000 shops spread over 48500 square meters under one roof selling all that stuff u love to collect .A must see in Beijing






Hilary Clinton also could not escape paying a visit to this flea market




We wanted to get some paintings so this was the right place to visit.





We had this quick loaf for brunch and were all set for the weekend shopping spree.

Ingredients

2 chicken breast minced
1 hard boiled egg
3 tbslp coriander chopped
1tbslp mint chopped
1/3 cup bread crumbs
fresh chilies diced
3tslp onion minced
1tbslp garlic mince
1tbslp ginger mince
2tbslp lemon juice
1 tbslp garam masala
1tsp cumin powder
1tsp coriander powder
1tsp chilli powder
1 egg beaten
Handful of nuts (pistachios and blanched almonds)

Method.
Mix all the ingredients except the boiled egg and marinate for at least an hour. Grease a loaf pan and fill the mix placing the boiled egg in the middle. Bake at 180’c for one hour in a preheated oven.



Check with skewer test and serve it with salad and spicy coriander chutney.







Coriander chutney

1 bunch coriander leaved chopped
2 fresh green chillies
½ tomato chopped
1./2 onion chopped
salt to taste
2 cloves garlic
Blend all the ingredients and thick chutney is ready to go !!!!!

This is my contribution to the event hosted Shriya of

spictyandtasty

Hugs and Chocolate kisses for my little prince

It was Rohan’s morning session at school and the date and time had been completely wiped out of my memory.

So waiting at the bus stop I was planning to schedule my time when my little monster is away at school. It is freedom for 4 hours & all to myself .Well I do need an occasional break from constantly chattering and concocting tales and answering to his endless barrage of questions.

When the waiting time for the bus got extended and I glanced at my watch, loudly exclaiming “oh it is late”, I gave a call to the bus monitor to find out what was up. Stuck up in the Beijing traffic I reckoned.

Oh no!!! I missed my freedom today & my complete plan crumbled like a pack of cards. No more uninterrupted long showers, no going to gym, oh boy!! Now the biggest challenge was to keep him occupied. I hate the idea of him sitting in front of the idiot box with nothing penetrating his mind and just dumb characters dancing their merry tunes.

He was bored & so was I .And I just hinted him why not bake some chocolate kiss. I had bookmarked this recipe. But I made some variation by altering the flour required. Instead I supplemented it with some almond meal as any concerned mom would do for her kids to get more and more nutritious diet.

I have now consciously put my foot down to reduce the amount of butter in the cake and cookies , even if we do sacrifice a bit of the moist and crunchiness’ I have started with a simple measure of reducing the number of tablespoons to just 2 tbslp , If the recipe calls for 5 tslp I reduce it to 3 tbslp. So this how we ended up making our peanut butter cookies.

The whole process was therapeutic and the apple of my eye enjoyed the baking .Later I forced him to take nap, ha ha ha.
So we both got what we wanted in the end.

Ingredients

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tbslp butter

1 egg

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon soda

1 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 pkt Chocolate kisses

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift flour, and soda. Beat butter until soft.Add the sugar gradually and blend until creamy. Beat in eggs.peanut butter, salt and vanilla . Add the flours to thebatter and mix well.

Make small ball and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Bake them for 8 to 10 min. remove soon and while still hot place the chocolate kisses and press them slightly.
When cool it will automatically settle down.

OR you can Roll the dough into small balls Place them on a greased cookiesheet. Press them flat with a fork (to make the traditional markon the top of the cookie. Bake for about 8 to 10 mins.

Oh some don’t have kisses. But I enjoyed with a cup of Chinese tea while he was taking a siesta.

This kisses are my entry to monthlymingle hosted by Mansi of Funnfood , even started by Meeta of whatsforlunchhoney.

Minty Raspberry Sorbet

Weekends are quite relaxing for me except for taking Rohan for his extra curricular activities. My little prince straight away heads to a Baskin Robbins outlet after he is done with his kick boxing sessions The outlet is just a stones throw distance from his class.

This is in fact one of the precondition that if he does well he gets a treat but this has somehow turned into a routine irrespective of performance he urges me to have a treat.

Well he deserves it, at just 4 year old and the youngest among the team, he is good at kicks and punches.

But I have been noticing him that he prefers to have sorbet instead of the creamy ones. This baffled and intrigued me if it was the color or the taste that is drawing his attention.

So I decided to roll up my sleeves to set myself the target to create a fruity sorbet. I had of couple of frozen Raspberry boxes and it worked well for this recipe. The only thing that I skipped is sieving the seeds May be I was too lazy to bother.

It was perfect with a blend of mint and a sprig of mint leaf for the connoisseurs touch. We all loved it and relished it after a lazy weekend lunch.

Ingredients

250 gm Raspberry frozen or fresh

1 /2 cup sugar

1-cup water

¼ chopped mint leaves

2tsp lemon juice

1tsp lemon rind

Puree the Raspberry and blend the lemon juice and rind. Using a strainer sieve the puree and remove the seeds. Add ½ cup f water.

Boil water, sugar and mint to boil and simmer till the sugar is dissolved for 2 mins.

Cool it for 15 to 20 minutes and discard the leaves.

Mix together the puree and the sugar syrup and freeze it for one hour. Remove the mixture and blend it and then freeze it again for couple of more hours before serving it.

Remove and just thaw for 10 mins and it becomes easy scoop.

Scoop and garnish it with mint leaves and relish it!

This is second contribution to Dee of Ammaluskitchen hosting AFAM Rashberry.
Check out other recipe at the round up using this divine fruit.

Avo’s + char grilled veggies+ homemade bread = delectable sandwich

Let me tell you how my taste buds got hooked to this avocado sandwich and mesmerized me !!!!!
Few years back I had a golden opportunity to see one more continent in the southern hemisphere, yes South Africa, I was accompanying my husband on business trip for three weeks, It was a perfect holiday, smashing adventure and ample of time to relax.
No cooking and no baking!!!!!!

Although we were provided with a fantastic serviced apartment still I didn’t bother to carry my lentils and masala box. But believe me we were not starving, On the contrary It was one of our best culinary journeys that we experienced.

With such an astronomical array of worldly cuisine at our fingertips, one finds every excuse to escape the heat of the kitchen in Randburg close to Jo burg.

Breakfast and dinner was always a lavish affair as my hubby wouldn’t dare to compromise his food for work, we both damned care about the calories, but my inner core of the heart would not dare me to gorge on heavy lunches. I was trying to rely more on natural food and more of fruits.
So one day casually strolling I bumped into a delicatessen serving freshly baked bread with a variety of sandwich filling, I came across this wonderful grilled sandwich generously topped with avocado and grilled veggies of ones choice, it was so delicious that I got hooked and I ate it every alternative day for three weeks. I guess u will also love it if u are die hard fan of avocados like me!!!!!!!

So lets not waste time dwelling on my past memories. Roll up your sleeves and fire up your oven and have your grill pan ready!!!






Ingredients

Bread.

1 ½ cup plain flour
1tsp- instant dry yeast
1tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
1 cup warm milk /water.

Filling
1 avocado
Bell peppers- Green, red and yellow
Button mushrooms
Eggplant ( optional)
Tomatoes
Cheese slices
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Method.

Bread- Mix together flour ,yeast, salt, sugar and gently knead to a soft dough adding warm water. keep kneading for at least 5 mins, more the better.

Keep the dough cover in warm place for 1 ½ hours.After the dough has risen double the size.Punch the excess air and shape the dough in to a desired shape and brush the top of the loaf with milk and sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds (optional) .

Preheat the oven to 180 c and bake for 30 mins. To check if the bread is baked , tap the bottom of the loaf and if u hear a hollow sound that means your bread is done.

Avocado dip or guacamole.
Half the avocado and mash it with fork , Add lemon juice . Season it with salt and pepper.


Grill the veggies in grill pan and season them with salt and pepper.

Slice the bread , toast it and generously top the bread with guacamole, layer the grilled veggies, and cheeseeeeee !!!!!!

Enjoy and savor it.

This is my contribution to the sandwich festival hosted by

Anupama of http://food-n-more.blogspot.com/

WALNUT PIE …….it’s WICKED !!!!!!!!!!

Pie’s and tarts are some of the desserts that I die for, but I need to share these desserts after I bake it, eating the whole pie would make me repent my whole life.

I do try to cut down sugar-laden desserts but sometime the taste buds do not agree to compromise so these dessert pops out of my stored database and shake me up!!!!!!!!!

Just sorting my recipe data base, a delicious pie tingle my taste buds, I love pecan pie and I used to feast on pecan pies when we were staying in Sydney where pecan was not a scare nut, unlike here in Beijing where the prices reach the sky!

But still that too posed no major hindrance to my determination of making this dessert, I substituted pecans for walnuts and they tasted equally divine.

Well I should have given it a pass but the taste lingered on my mouth and the recipe kept on buzzing in my head for me to try them again! My savior angel kept saying NO!!! NO!!!

I need to come out of this paradox, so finally checked my pantry, WOW! I had a good stock of walnuts. That solved the mystery. And the muscle of my sweet tooth overpowered me and my decision was made on whether I should go for it or not.

Here is the list of ingredients

For the pie crust

all you need is


2 cups plain flour
100 gms butter
1tsp salt
2 tbslp sugar.
Chilled water to knead.

And for the filling

2 eggs
1 cup light syrup
70gm Sugar
2tbslp-flour
¼ salt
1tblsp Vanila extract
1 ¼ Chopped walnuts







Step 1- Mix the plain flour , salt, sugar and butter.Rub it till the mixture resembles like bread crumb. Gently add water and knead to a soft dough. Wrap it with a cling wrap and pop it into the refrigerator for at least 15 mins.

Step 2. Beat eggs in a bowl,, add vanilla extract , plain flour, light syrup and salt.

Step 3- Roll the dough into a flat circle enough to fit the pie dish of 21 cm. Grease the bottom of the pie dish and line in with a parchment paper.

Step -4 Gently spread the rolled pastry sheet and tuck it to the edges and remove the excess .

Step-5 Spread the walnuts evenly and pour the blended mix over it.

Step-6 Preheat the oven and bake it for 40 to 45 min at 190’c.

Step -7 Remove and serve cool with a dollop of ice cream or cream