Sweet Potato Fries w/ indian spices

I have too much influence from FoodNetwork TV Program, Aarti Party.  I DVR every single episode of her cooking show. I LOVE indian spices. So exotic and flavorful. This is one of the easiest. If you are tired of regular potato deep-fried french fries, this will top that. Healthy baked sweet potato fries!! Yummy!

Serving : 4

Cook Time : 35 min

Ingredients:

Kosher Salt

3/4 teaspoon garam masala (it's a seasoning)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Freshly ground pepper

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch slices, then again into 1/2-inch sticks

Olive Oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450F (230C)

1. In a small bowl, toss together 1 heaping teaspoon of salt ( yamamori 1 teaspoon), garam masala, cumin and some freshly ground black pepper to taste.

2. Add the sweet potatoes to a large bowl, drizzle with enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with the spice mixture. Toss well to coat evenly.

3. Pour the sweet potatoes onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, making sure all the pieces are evenly spaced. Bake 30-35 minutes, flipping halfway through. remove the potatoes from the baking sheet and serve immediately.

Israeli Couscous w/ Mint & Lemon

Do you like minty lemony flavored salad?? This is it!

Serving :6

Start to Finish : 30 minutes

Ingredients :

Salt for pasta water

8 oz (1 1/2 cups) Israeli couscous (pearl couscous)

5 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced

5 scallions, thinly sliced diagonally

1/3 cup golden raisins

3 TBSP very thinly sliced lemon zest

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted ( you can toast in a frying-pan)

2 TBSP fresh lemon juice

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

1/8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

Directions:

1.Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add couscous, and cook until al dente. Drain, and drizzle with just enough oil to coat. Spread on a baking sheet, and refrigerate 10 minutes

Adding all the ingredients on top of couscous

2. Combine couscous and remaining ingredients. Sprinkle some salt for more taste. You can add more lemon juice or olive oil to your liking.  Let stand at room temperature for at least 30 min before serving. 

Pumpkin Croquette-- Japanese home cooking

Croquette is served quite often in Japanese household. It's not fancy meal like Sushi. It's more like everyday home cooking meal.  I made with Kabocha Pumpkin, but most commonly we use potatoes. We eat this dish all the time, served with other items to go with rice. 

Point : Kabocha Pumpkin is naturally sweet. But you can add some honey to have the sweetness a bit smoother.

Start to Finish: 45 min

Ingredients: using 1/2 Kabocha (whole is really big. If you want leftover for freeze, use 1 whole Kabocha Pumpkin, it becomes really good lunch!)

1/2 Kabocha Pumpkin

* Honey 1TBSP
* Butter 1TBSP
* Salt to taste

Flour
Egg
Breadcrumbs

Direction:

1.Peel the skin (green part) of Kabocha, Take the seeds out and cut in 1/2 inch diced. (3cm).. this is for microwaving purpose

2. Put some paper towel in heat-resistant cookware (this is to absorb the water), microwave for about 5-6 min till become soft.

3. While it's hot, mash the Kabocha with masher, add Honey, Butter, Salt to taste. You can adjust the honey and butter depending on how sweet and buttery flavor you like. 

4. Make patties in the size you like and dip in order of Flour, Egg, Breadcrumbs. Then deepfly. 

The best sauce to go with this dish is this! You can find it at any Asian store, or wherever sell Japanese food. This is MUST-HAVE sauce for Japanese food, especially, Pankocrumbed flied food!

If you can't find this, It's OK. My husband use Ketchup!

Fresh Basil Pesto Pasta

Pesto Pasta is BY FAR my most favorite pasta! Canned pesto is good but nothing is better than mixing fresh basil in our own food processor! This is my husband's recipe. Garlic, tomato and red onions are the only vegetable we added to this pesto pasta this time. Sometimes, we add chopped grilled chicken.

Serving : 4

Start to Finish : 45 minutes or less

1 red onion

2 roma tomatoes

Pasta ( I used angel hair pasta)

Salt and pepper

Pesto Ingredients:

1 whole garlic bulb ( not each cloves)

1/2 lb of fresh basil

1/4 cup of roasted pine nuts ( roasting can be done in a flying pan for more flavor)

1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup or more of olive oil depending on how oily you want the pesto to be

1. Put all the ingredients in the food processor and make pesto.

2. Chop 1 whole red onion. In a flying pan or wok (wok is better. it holds large quantities ), sauteed with 4 garlic cloves (chopped or sliced), then add the chopped tomatoes and pesto, then add the cooked pasta. Toss everything. You can adjust flavor by adding salt and pepper, more pesto, more garlic, vegetables etc.... 

Talah~  DONE!  Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper is good!

(optional 3. if you add Lemon oil, it gives more flavors but it's ok not to have it)

Marble Cupcake topped with CreamCheese Frosting

You won't believe how easy it is!!

I've been into this TV show called "cupcake war" lately. Every other week, I go to cupcakeries in town to treat myself. They are not cheap. The ones I buy are like $3-$3.50 each cupcake. Because I love them so much, my chef husband decided to bake for me. Less cost but more tasty! We used the silicon mold for baking so we didn't use the paper cup.

Serve : 8-12 cupcakes

Start to Finish: 30 min or less
 
Pastry Bag and Star tip ( to squeeze the cream on the cake) OR icecream scooper (you can just scoop the cream and place it on top of cake)

Marble Cupcake : 1/2 a package of cake mix ( I used marble cake mix) 

1. Bake in a cupcake size mold, follow the direction on the box

Cream Cheese Frosting :15 min

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
• 1.5 - 2 cups of powdered sugar,, depends on how sweet you want
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

2. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness and thickness.

3. Either spread on with a blunt knife or spatula, or spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cake or cupcake.

Pumpkin Pie

This Pumpkin Pie is so special! It's kind of weird to say by myself, BUT!! I had never had SUCH A YUMMY Pumpkin Pie like this in my life!! I think the usage of condensed milk makes this so special. Sweet, but not overly sweet. Very sophisticated flavor!  I HAVE TO share the recipe with you. It is so easy like you won't believe. I hope you can try soon!!! 

Prep Time: 15 min

Start to Finish: 1 hr 15 min

Ingredients:

1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree

1 (14oz) can Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

1 ready-use pie crust (9 inch)

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 425F degree. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk,  eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.


2. Reduce oven temperature to 350F degree and continue baking 40-45 min or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish with cool whip! The more the better :D

Chinese Sweet Corn and Chicken Soup with touch of Indian flavor

Because I COOK or PREPARE meals so far and between, I feel the need of blogging the recipes every time I cook. I know, it doesn't sound like I should be saying this as a wife of a man. hahaha. But this is our household ;-p  Today, I had an whole day to myself, just relaxing and catching up with things. When I called my husband about dinner tonight, he screamed and was letting everyone around him know that his wife was cooking!  I could hear on the other side of the phone.. :-D !

This recipe is from my favorite chef ,Aarti Sequeira, from FoodNetwork TV show. I DVR every episodes and always on quest of finding recipes I can try. And today, this is IT!!!  I had to drive to the grocery store real quick to get things I need. I always end up calling him from the store if we have 'this' or 'that' because he is in charge of items in fridge and cabinets. I don't always know about my kitchen well to the T like he does!  I think we make a good couple! 

Start to Finish : 1 hour

Serving : 4-6 people

1 leek, green parts too. sliced in half and wash well

1 carrot, chopped in half

3-inch chunk of fresh ginger (no need to peel)

1 tsp whole coriander seeds

1 tsp whole black peppercorns

2 big chicken breasts

3 (14oz) cans creamed-style corn

2 chicken bouillon cubes

3 tbsp finely chopped ginger

4 scallions, chopped finely

1 tsp sesame oil

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup cold water

2 egg whites

1 tsp rice vinegar (not regular white vinegar. If you don't have it, that's ok.)

Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

cheesecloth ( if you don't have it, you can use coffee filter and use any string to tie )..

1. Into a big pot, pour 10 cups water, leek, carrot and ginger chunk. Place the coriander and peppercorns into a small sachet ( like teabag, made out of cheesecloth or coffee filter) and throw that in the pot, too.

2. Skin the excess fat on the chicken breasts and throw them into the pot as well. Allow the pot to come to a boil, and turn it down and simmer. Cover it until the chicken is cooked and tender 30 minutes.

3. Remove the chicken and allow to cool. Strain the stock and discard the leeks, carrots, ginger and the sachet.

4. Return the stock to medium heat. Add the cream corn, bouillon cubes, chopped ginger, (hint of garlic power or paste if you have), scallions, and sesame oil. Let it simmer while you shred the chicken using fork.

5. Turn up the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil.  In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with water. Add half to the soup. Boiling will allow the cornstarch mixture to thicken the soup.  You can add more cornstarch mixture depending on how thick you want the soup to look.

6. Turn the heat back down to medium.  In another small bowl, beat the egg whites with a little water. Stir the soup in circles as you add egg whites. It should form white wisps on the surface of the soup.

7. Add the shredded chicken and rice vinegar. DONE!

8. You can add chopped scallions as garnish! I put parsley only because I LOVE parsley.

Tuna Avocado Sandwich

I have been really lazy about exercising and eating right. Chocolate everyday, pastries every morning, cakes here and there, and I can list more. I need to start watching what I eat. After all, YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. I want to do good to my body. Today is the day to start back again! Do you like avocado? How about tuna? This sandwich recipe is easy because all the ingredients are pretty much your everyday fridge and cabinet items. 

Start to Finish: 20 minutes
Serving: 2-4 depends on the size of bread you use

2 can (5oz) tuna, drained and flaked

2 ripe avocados, peeled, coarsely mashed

2 Tbsp lime juice ( fresh or bottle)

1/2 onion, julienne cut and sauteed (to give some color and to make it more flavorful) OR just a few red onion slices

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

6 slices multi-grain bread (This is what i used to make 3 sandwiches)

Tomato slices 

1.  In a medium bowl, combine avocado, lime juice, parsley, garlic salt and pepper. Gently flake and fold tuna in the mixture

2.  You can toast the bread if you like. Fill each sandwich with tomato slices, avocado filling and sauteed onion or just red onion slices.

3.  Done!

Tip 1 : It is better to use Tuna can that come with FLAKEY tuna. Some of the tuna can is pretty shredded and mixed too well. With FLAKEY kind, you can actually still bite into big tuna chunk. 

Tip 2 : For onion, I don't like raw onion flavor so I sauteed mine. I thought it was better because it added some sweetness to the onion.

Raspberry-CreamCheese Coffee Cake

Today, I became a bakery chef at home. I tried this recipe a couple of times before and my husband loved it. He requested today, so I made it. The kitchen is HIS space, so there are some things I'm not sure where to find. I am slow in the kitchen but very clean when production goes on. So by the time when I put the dessert in the oven, the kitchen was spotless! Anyways, I just wanted to share the recipe here!

Prep Time: 25 min

Start to Finish: 1 hr 35 min

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter

3/4 teaspoon baking power

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 eggs

1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup raspberry preserves

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1.  Heat oven to 350F. Grease bottom and side of 9-10 inch spring form pan with cooking spray; lightly flour. In large bowl, mix flour and 3/4 cup of the sugar. With pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 cup of crumb mixture.

2.  To remaining crumb mixture, stir in baking powder, baking soda, salt, sour cream, almond extract and 1 of the eggs until well blended. Spread batter in bottom and 2 inches up side (about 1/4 inch thick) of pan.

3.  In another small bowl, beat cream cheese, remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 egg until well blended. Pour into batter-lined pan. Carefully spoon preserves evenly over cream cheese mixture. In another small bowl, mix reserved crumb mixture and sliced almonds; sprinkle over preserves.

 4.  Bake 45-55 minutes or until cream cheese filling is set and crust is deep golden brown. Put a stick in the middle, if nothing sticks it's ready. (preserve may stick, but that's ok). Cool 15 minutes. Remove side of pan; leave coffee cake on pan bottom. Serve warm or cool. Store in fridge.