WHAT DO I MAKE...

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 "Spring" and "Fever" seem to go very well together!!! The term "Spring Fever" is a topic discussed and studied extensively by scientists and doctors. While it takes into account both physical and psychological shifts in how humans respond to changing seasons, in a more general/layman sense it's simply how most of us become hyper sensitive to the winter-spring transition. As we welcome spring, we also welcome - unintentionally though - fever, cold, sore throat and what not! With the flu epidemic going around, Niti and I have been taking turns falling sick and hence the MIA from cooking and blogging..well, we'll just be happy it's not the Swine Flu!!! We will be back soon unsick, motivated and charged up to cook up some spring special recipes!!! Till then, eat healthy, stay clean and AWAY from the bugs!!!

Rabadi is a punjabi dessert and extremely easy to make. Lately, I have been hearing that we post complicated recipes and that the ingredients may not be easily available everywhere. So, as a step in the easy-to-cook direction, here is a recipe of a dessert that I made in the microwave in 15 minutes, and with 3 (& optionally 5) ingredients, most of which are available at Walmart! I mixed a few recipes that I found online; if you google, you will find this is how most of them recommend you make your rabadi. Ingredients: Evaporated milk - 1 cup Sweet Condensed milk - 1/2 cup Paneer/Cottage cheese - 1 cup Optional: Saffron - 3-4 strands Cardamom powder - 1 pinch Garnishing: Slivered Almonds & pistachios & gulkand (dried and sweetened rose leaves) Method: Mix all the ingredients together and microwave in a deep dish for 15 minutes, stirring every five minutes. To garnish, use almonds, pistachios and gulkand. Optionally, you may use any crushed nuts to top. Serve warm or chille...

This is a recipe borne out of circumstances. Sid doesn't like the black dal in dal makhani. And I like it a LOT. So, I had to incorporate it into something he would appreciate and hence, this salad. I kept it simple so 'even a guy can make it'. Ingredients: Everything in the picture above, i.e., Yellow bell pepper - half Onion - 1/4th large sized Tomato - 1/2 of med. sized lemon - 1 med. sized Black dal - boiled - 1/2 cup Sweet corn - 1/2 cup Butter - 1 tbsp Paneer - crumbled - 4 tbsp Grated Parmesan - 2 tbsp Salt, black pepper - (optional & to taste) Bruschetta (Optional) Bread - 2 thick slices (preferably, of French Baguette or some Italian bread) Tomato - 1/2 - finely chopped Chives - 1 tbsp Basil - 2 leaves - chopped EVOO - 2 tsp Swiss cheese - 1 tbsp Salt, black pepper - to taste Salad served with bruschetta Method: Cut onion, pepper, tomato into small chunks. Microwave sweet corn with butter for 4 minutes. Let it cool. Mix all the ingredients except lemon. Sq...

The motivation for this dish was my sheer determination to use up the big box of spinach that was occupying all the space in the refrigerator!! Again, a similar story with mint and finally, the cucumber touch was inspired by a show on Food Network. Oh! btw, basil was clearly Niti's influence!! The next time, I wanna try adding rice to this soup :)) Ingredients: Fresh baby spinach - 1/2 - 3/4 lb Onion - 1/2 of a big onion, roughly chopped Frozen peas - 1/2 cup Fresh mint leaves - roughly 25-30 leaves Dried basil - 1/2 tsp (I think fresh basil - about 5-10 leaves - will be a good substitute!) Coconut milk - 1/4-1/2 cup (this depends on how green you want your soup to look!) Vegetable stock - 3 cups (water works well too!) Salt, pepper - to taste Fresh cilantro, hot sauce - to garnish Cucumber - 1 small, finely chopped EVOO - 1 tbsp Heat oil in a pan, add onions, mint, basil and saute till the leaves wilt and the onions turn translucent. Mix in the frozen peas and afte...

Here's a recipe from Noor - a good friend, a wonderful cook and the life of all our parties - well back in the (grad school) days when we used to have a party for just about anything!! Ingredients: Red bell pepper/red capsicum - 2 medium, roughly chopped Onion - 1 medium, roughly chopped Garlic - 2-3 pods Dry red chilis - 6-8 long chilis, halved Tamarind - 3" strip (if you can find a good tamarind paste - about 1.5 tbsp, I don't mean the black paste you get in the Indian stores in the U.S.!) Roasted peanuts - 1/4 cup (if you are adding salted peanuts you want to be careful while adding the extra salt) Salt - 1 tsp (or to taste) Oil - 2 tbsp Heat oil in a non stick pan and throw in the garlic and onion. When the onion turns translucent add the red chilis, red pepper, and saute. You could take the dry chilis out midway so that they don't turn black. Again, if you don't want the onions and garlic to turn dark brown, you could take them out before you a...

I love to make these puffs for an evening snack or supper. If you want a quick fix, plan a bit ahead of time, i.e., get the pastry sheets out of the freezer and into the refrigerator a night before. If you want an even quicker fix, prepare the stuffing the night before as well. Ingredients: Stuffing Puff Pastry Sheets ( I used pepperidge farms ' "Sheets" not "Shells") Red onion - diced - 1 small sized Potato - baked/boiled & mashed - 1 med. sized Paneer - 1/4 cup Feta cheese -3 tbsp Poppy seeds - 1 tsp Sesame seeds - 1 tsp Dried Cilantro flakes - 2 tbsp Dried Basil - 1/2 tsp Dried mango powder/Amchur - 2 tbsp Dried pomegranate powder/anardana - 1 tbsp Jaggery - powdered - 1 tsp Raisins - 2 tbsp Slivered Almonds - 2 tbsp Salt & black pepper - to taste (keep in mind Feta cheese is salty) Baby spinach - half a handful (!) Glazing Butter, or Egg wash - 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water Method: Preheat the oven to 400 degF. Mix all the ingredients above...