Cherry and Blueberry Clafoutis

Have you ever noticed the difference in taste when you buy fruits from the supermarket and the ones that you buy from the Local farmer's market. If not.. than let me tell you that the local farmer's markets always sell fresh fruits grown locally .and organically and thus the taste is always much much better than the store bought fruits. Though they have short shelf life, I love the fresh taste of their fruits.

So, for me farmer's market is my favourite place for buying our fruits and veggies. We always make it a point to go there once in a week to buy fresh produce. And during one of my visits to the local farmer's market, I grabbed these juicy and fresh cherries.They were so sweet and tasty and not to forget about their freshness. And I had bought too many cherries that week, so I decided to make Clafoutis with them. Actually this post was looong due (more than 2 months) in summer ..but as I was not very active in my blog, I am posting this now.Anyways, its better now than never..right?

Clafoutis or clafouti pronounced kla-foo-TEE is a very famous baked French dessert made commonly with fresh cherries layered in a dish and covered by a thin batter. And served with generously dusted icing sugar.It is traditional to use the cherries with their pits as it is believed that the pits release a nice aroma to this delicious dessert.And here in this recipe, I have used the cherries with their pits. But, I know that many people out there would not like biting into the pit in their dessert. If you are among those, you can pit the cherries before baking.

CHERRY AND BLUEBERRY CLAFOUTIS

Ingredients:
400 grams of cherries
100 grams of Blueberries
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 large eggs-lightly beaten
4-5 tbsp fine sugar
250 ml milk
50 grams unsalted butter-melted
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract and
Icing sugar for dusting

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/350 F. Butter a shallow oven proof dish . Place the cherries and berries in the dish. In a bowl, mix the flour, milk, sugar, eggs , melted butter and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. pour over the fruits and bake in the pre heated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. When warm, dust with icing sugar and serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or crème frâiche.

Notes:
Don't over beat the mixture. Just mix very lightly until well blended and smooth.
Like I said earlier, I have used the cherries with the pits. But one can pit them, before using for clafaoutis with a cherry pitter.
I had blueberries, so I just added them to this clafoutis. But you can entirely use cherries or with any other favourite fruit of yours.

This yummy French dessert is off to DK's event AWED hosted this month by Priya of Priya's easy N tasty Recipes and AWED is celebrating French cusine this month.

Bhindi do Pyaza /Stir-fried Okra

As I had written in this post that,how the other I was having a good time cooking all vegetarian food when my hubby was not in town. And also was soo happy to cook food specially for myself, which I never bother to do otherwise. So...when I cooked Tawa Pulao I wanted a vegetarian side dish instead of the usual non-veg ones. And I decided on this Bhindi do Pyaza , which I had learned from one of my friend. And loved it to the core.

Bhindi known as 'Okra' in English or 'Ladies finger' as we had always known it in India has always been my fav fav vegetable of all. I just love any and every dish with Okra. And whenever I go to an Indian store for grocery, I never fail to pick some fresh Okras (ladies finger). My favourite sabzi (side-dish) with roti has always been Bhindi. And this easy Stir-fried dish goes well with roti or rice.

This dish is called 'Do Pyaza' because of the double quantity of onions used than that found in any other style of preparation. there are many variations to this famous dish.Some use tomatoes and others even use yogurt in its preparation. But I always love to cook this with just lots of onions and some simple spices. But let me assure you that it still tastes awesome and very tasty.

BHINDI DO PYAZA

Ingredients:

400-500 grams of fresh Okra /ladies finger,
3 onion- thinly sliced,
1-2 green chillies,
1/2 tsp cumin seeds,
1/2 tsp kalonji (nigella) seeds,
1/4 tsp turmeric powder,
1/2 tsp chilli power(optional),
juice of 1/2 lemon,
2 tbsp of cooking oil and
salt to taste.

Method:
Wash the okra and dry it thoroughly by wiping it with a kitchen towel. Cut them vertically into slices. Heat the oil in a wok/ kadai and add the the sliced okra to it and stir fry for few minuted until, they are half cooked. remove them from the oil and keep aside. In the same oil add the cumin seeds and nigella seeds. When they splutter, add the finely sliced onions and slit green chillies and cook, till the onion turns very light brown in colour. Now add turmeric powder, chilli powder(if using) and salt to taste, immediately add the stir fried okras, lemon juice to the wok and cook for further 5-8 minutes or until the okra is cooked. Serve hot with Roti or as a side dish with rice and curry.

Notes:
The first step of stir frying the Okras, is to avoid them from getting slimy and mushy, but one can skip that step completely but cook it for more time after adding the Okras. just make sure you don't cover the wok and cook for a long time, because it will end up as a slimy okra dish.

Also make sure that there is no moisture on the Bhindi/ Okra before you slice them. Even little moisture can make them slimy.

Tomato Souffle

Happy Eid-ul Adha to all my friends !! And Phew !!!After much procrastination, I finally managed to write this post, which was for sweetpunch-November as I had mentioned in my previous post.... I had made 2 dishes for this month and I was supposed to post this last week..but never got time to do so. But I finally managed to post it today :)

A souffle is a light and fluffy baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with other ingredients and served as a savoury main dish or sweetened as a dessert. But I had always seen and tasted souffle as a dessert. So, When I saw this recipe from Maria's Menu, I really wanted to give it a try and I must say it was a very tasty savoury Souffle. And I would definitely make this again and again. so, without further ado, goes the recipe for this tasty Tomato Souffle.

TOMATO SOUFFLE
(Recipe source : Australian Woman's Weekly via Maria's Menu)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup bread crumbs – firmly packed
45 gm Butter
1 medium Onion –finely chopped
2 tbsp Plain flour (maida)
1 cup milk
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp fresh Basil –finely chopped (optional)
3 Eggs –separated
1/4 tsp pepper powder
Grated Cheese (mozzarella)– a handful

Method:

Grease 4 souffle dishes (1/2 cup capacity), sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Melt butter in small saucepan, add finely chopped onion. Stir over low heat for 2 mins ( or MW on HIGH for about 2 mins). Cook until onion is soft, it doesn’t have to become brown.
Stir in flour and stir over medium heat for a minute. (or MW on HIGH for a min). Remove from heat, gradually stir in milk, bring back to heat and stir over high heat until mixture boils & thickens & reaches a thick sauce like consistency. (or MW on HIGH for about 3 mins).

Transfer to large bowl, stir in tomato paste & basil leaves. Cover the dish & let it stand for 5 mins. Beat egg whites in a small bowl until soft peaks from. Add egg yolks to the onion & milk mixture & mix well. Fold the egg whites into the mixture in 2 batches. Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared dishes. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Bake in the preheated oven at 350 F/175C for 20- 25 mins or until lightly browned. Serve hot with garlic bread or soup.

Healthier version:

Use brown bread crumbs & low fat milk. Also use yolks of only 2 eggs & white of 3 eggs. Use only lesser qty of butter, I used only 20 grams of butter.

Notes:

The above qty serves 2 adults (main course) served with garlic bread or soup. Souffles can be baked in any oven proof dish or for individual serving, use ramekins. I baked them in small ramekins and some in an oval oven-proof dish.

The Souffle looks very puffed up wen comes out of the oven and it falls rather very quickly.So, its better to serve it hot ..just right out of the oven with some warm soup.

Verdict:

My Family just loved this to the core...specially my kid loved this. coz from past few weeks(after starting school) he has stopped eating spicy food and is always asking me to cook something less spicier than our usual India food. He was soo happy after eating this that I heard him telling his dad that night '' Dad.. I want to grow as tall as you (that would be 6.3'') so that I can beat some eggs and make tomato foushlle( for Souffle) with mommy in the kitchen :)

Instant Eggless Chocolate Mousse

Back with yet another punch, seems like just few days back I posted Molten Lava Cake and here comes another choclatey post - an instant and eggless Chocolate Mousse.Yes !! Instant Chocolate Mousse... coz it tastes only 1 hour to set unlike the version with eggs , whick takes atleast 7-8 hours to set.

This month we were given 3 recipes to choose from..One of them was this easy peasy Eggless mousse and there other options were Chocolate mousse(with Eggs) and a Savoury Tomato Souffle. I chose to make this recipe and also tried my hands at Tomato Souffle (wil post it next).

Now this recipe need only 5 ingredients and the main ingredient that helps this mousse set is Marshmallows. As marshmallows contain gelatin, I had a hard time searching for Halal Marshmallows...but finally found them in an asian store and was soo happy to try this eggless version of mousse which I had bookmarked loooong back from Nigella Lawson's website.

EGGLESS INSTANT CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
Recipe Souce :Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:

150 gms Mini marshamallows (you can use regular marshmallows too)
50 gms Butter- softened
250 gms Chocolate( preferably dark Chocolate)-chopped into small pieces
60 ml Hot water
284 ml Cream and
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:

In a heavy-bottom saucepan, melt the marshmallows,butter,chocolate and water together, stirring every now and then, till evrything melts to form a smooth sauce. Let the Chocolate cool while you are whipping the cream. Meanwhile, whip the cream with vanilla until thick (firm peaks).

Fold the whipped cream into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth mixture. Pour or pipe into individual ramekins or glasses and let it set in the fridge for about 1 hour. Serve with whipped cream and or with strawberry / raspberry. Or just sprinkle some grated white chocolate :)


Verdict:
A smooth and divine Mousse which you will definitely fall in love with. We just loved indulging ourselves in this dessert . And this is a very easy and eye-catching dessert for any party. So do try it and see for yourselves :)

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Tawa Pulao

First of all A very happy Diwali to all the readers !! Coming to today's recipe...its a very easy and yummy rice , which can be ready in few mins if you have cooked rice or left-over rice at home..There days when I crave for pure vegetarian food for my lunch..and thats possible only when hubby dear is out of town, because even if I cook vegetarian main dish, there has to be atleast 1 non-veg side dish with it for him. So, on one such occasion, when my better half was out of town for few days, I decided to make Tawa pulao which I had bookmarked from DK's Chef In You. Though I had tried this recipe from her blog almost 2 months back, never got a chance to post it here (as you all know how busy or rather lazy I have been past 2-3 months)

And fortunately when Priya of Priya's easy n Tasty Recipes announced that she has chosen Chef In You as the blog for this months Tried and Tasted-an event started by Zlamuksha and taken over now by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles , it gave a a perfect opportunity to post this recipe.

I must admit that this pulao was soo yummy and flavourful that I have sooo fallen in love with its taste and have cooked this many times after that day. I sincerely thank DK for sharing with us this tasty recipe.

I have followed her recipe except for some changes here and there..like I added some own spices because I didn't have Pav Bhaji masala at home and instead of using both butter and vegetable oil, I used only vegetable oil. For original recipe hop over to her lovely space here .

TAWA PULAO

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups of cooked rice
1 1/2 tbsp of vegetable oil,
1 large onion-chopped,
2-3 tomatoes- finely chopped,
1/2 red bell pepper(capsicum)-chopped,
1/2 green bell pepper- finely chopped,
1/2 cup frozen green peas,
2-3 green chillies,
1 tsp ginger paste,
1 tsp garlic paste,
1 tsp cumin seeds,
1/2 tsp fennel seeds,
1/4 tsp turmeric powder,
1/4 tsp garam masala powder,
1/4 tsp amchoor(dry mango) powder,
1/4 tsp of red chilli powder,
1/4 tsp black pepper powder,
Cilantro for garnishing and
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat the oil in pan or kadai and add cumin seed and fennel seed. When they splutter, add the chopped onions, salt and green chillies. Saute for few minutes and add ginger- garlic paste and saute for 5 more minutes . Now add the chopped tomatoes and the capsicum and cook till all the tomatoes are cooked and the oil separates from the pan. Add all the dry spices and stir well and lastly add the green peas, cooked rice and chopped cilantro. Toss it to coat the rice completely with the spices and cook for further 2-3 minutes on low flame. Serve hot with raita or any vegetarian side dish. I had made Bhindi Do pyaza (recipe to coom soon).