Spinach and Avocado Salad

Spinach and Avocado Salad

(Recipe Source: Pam’s For the Love of Cooking)

Ingredients:

Baby spinach

1-2 avocados, diced

Cherry tomatoes, quartered

Red onion diced

Craisins

Orange

Croutons

Parmesan cheese, shaved

Simple Vinaigrette (recipe below)

• Place the baby spinach in a large bowl then top with the avocados, tomatoes, red onion, craisins, croutons, and Parmesan cheese.

Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup canola oil

1 1/2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

1/2 red wine vinegar

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp sugar

Sea salt and Freshly cracked pepper, to taste

• Make the vinaigrette at least 30 minutes prior to serving the salad so the flavors have time to mingle. Combine the ingredients together and whisk well before serving.
• Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad to taste; toss until evenly coated. Serve immediately.

Baked Chocolate Cake Doughnuts

This is one of the best baked doughnuts I have had till date.

Vegan Popcorn Chicken

Sausage Rolls

Sausage Rolls

Ingredients:

2½ cups bread flour

3tbsp+2tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg

½ cup milk

120g tangzhong (recipe below)

2 tsp instant yeast3 tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

Method:

• Combine the flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add in all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong. Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed and knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading.  Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic, about 18-20 minutes. Each mixer may vary. When the dough is ready, you should be able to take a chunk of dough and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it breaks. When it does break, the break should be form a circle.
• Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil.  Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
• Transfer to a clean surface. Divide the dough into six equal portions. Knead into balls.  Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.
• Roll out each portion of the dough to form a long rope.  Take a sausage and begin wrapping the rope around the sausage, starting at one end and ending up at the other end.
• Place each rolled sausage on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Let them rise until double the size, approximately another 40-60 minutes.
• Beat an egg and brush egg mixture on top to create shiny egg wash finish.
• Bake at 350°F / 175°C for approximately 30 minutes. The sausage rolls are best eaten hot, when the crust of the bread is crunchy.

 
Tangzhong 
Ingredients 

1/3 cup  bread flour
1 cup water

Method:

• Mix flour and water together and whisk until it is completely dissolved and no lumps remain.
• Pour mixture into a small pot and turn on medium heat. Begin stirring constantly as the mixture heats up. It will begin to thicken.  When the temperature of the mixture reaches 65°C, turn off the stove and take the mixture off the stove to let it cool. If you are continually stirring, the mixture will start to have “lines” and then it is done. (You will start to see lines around the same time the temperature reaches 65°C)

  

Muglai Potatoes

If I remember correctly I got this recipe from Sanjeeve Kapoor’s Khana Khazana TV show long back. Ever since then this is a frequent dish in my kitchen. This goes very well with Indian flat bread or with poori or Batura.

Back after a wonderful vacation.......

We are back in Kuwait after an awesome trip to Europe starting with historic Rome, romantic and enchanting Venice, a fairytale cruise on Costa’s brand new flagship “Favolosa” with port calls at Bari (Italy), picturesque Katakolan / Olympia (Greece), ancient port of Izmir, captivating Istanbul and the amazingly photogenic town of Dubrovnik (Croatia); and finally a 3 day stay at Disneyland Paris which was definitely my little one’s favorite :)… We enjoyed every moment of this long awaited holiday and now I am busy packing for our next trip to Kerala this Friday… Here are a few pictures of Rome from our trip and I will post some more pictures from the trip in future :)…

Thank you for all the lovely comments for the posts I had scheduled before I went on vacation… I will be away from my blog for one more month but I have scheduled some more posts to keep this space alive… I hope I will find at least some time to reply your questions and doubts while I am in Kerala….. please bear with me if I fail to do so……

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II