recipes

Diwali, the Festival of Lights

… is celebrated on October 17th, 2009 that marks a very auspicious festivity in our life. With a whole amount of muscle needed in coping with cleaning, baking, cooking and rituals performed, surprisingly I am still in a very high festivity mood. We ushered in the celebration by adorning new clothes and the house is brightly lit with diya’s all over.

I cooked so many dishes! But no photos, except for one. Sigh. Sorry guys! So occupied getting ready for diwali celebration with friends that I forgot to take some photos. Just one, taken in the afternoon to drool over. I made an Indian version of stir-fry with medley of vegetables. Drool away!

Medley of vegetable sabji !

With a full tummy, good company of friends and Disney fireworks, Diwali was celebrated with thoughts of family’s and friends back home. We miss you all. It gets very tough during festivities. Nonetheless, it was celebrated with loads of blessings and love from every one. Thank you all for showering your love and Diwali greetings via calls, sms, Facebook, Twitter and emails. Can we ever survive without technology? Not us! Come on, give us a break! We are so far away from every one…

Image courtesy: sneha1967.sulekha.com

Happy Diwali! Hope you had a blast celebrating it with your loved ones.

A fire extinguisher is not an option, but a necessity during this festivities or performing rituals. We do not want to be in the predicament as such. People should learn and practice safe fire etiquette’s. It’s not worth celebrating and mourning at the same time.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Stir-fry Tilapia with Asparagus

Many of you would know by now that I am a foodie and a photographer by hobby. I frequently love to feature photos of food prepared by myself. I consider this hobby as a learning curve. I am no way a professional photographer. Neither am I a great cook. Two months ago I featured a photo of my recipe titled “stir-fry tilapia with asparagus” on my photo-blog. A commenter by the name of Sadaf requested for the recipe and I thought to share it here with him and every one else. So here it goes!

Stir-fry Tilapia with Asparagus

Ingredients:

1/2 lbs fillet of tilapia or any firm fish
1/2 lbs asparagus
1 shallot
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp crushed red pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Salt & pepper fish slices to taste.
Heat skillet to medium-high, add 3 tbsp olive oil.
Fry fish till golden brown and remove from heat.
In the same oil, add shallots and fry till tender.
Add crushed red pepper.
Add chopped garlic and fry till fragrant.
Throw in the asparagus, salt and pepper to taste.
After 1 minute, add the fish and serve immediately with rice. Awesomeness!

After adding asparagus, do not overcook it. A little al dente, retains the color and taste. Bon appetite!

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bella mushroom & sun-dried tomatoes linguine

Though I do enjoy cooking, rather than eating out, it is some times difficult to get my mind around what I should cook daily. What should I cook today? What should I cook for lunch? I made some pasta for lunch yesterday and thought to share the ‘recipe of the day’ with everyone. I used linguine, but you use whatever pasta you have in your pantry.

1/2 box of pasta

2 1/2 cups of water

Pinch of salt

Method: Boil water. Add a pinch of salt and pasta into boiling water. Cook pasta between 8-10 minutes till al dente (have a bite to the pasta, try not to over-cook it :P).

As for the sauce:

2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 cup Mushrooms (any would do, I used baby bella)

1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes

1 large shallot

3 garlic cloves

4 pieces of sundried tomatoes (regular roma tomatoes would do)

3 tbsp of Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp of dried basil

Some Italian parsley for garnish

Method: Heat a skillet with e.v.o oil. Add shallots, pepper flakes and garlic. Fry till fragrant. Add mushrooms, and cook through. Toss in sundried tomatoes, dried basil, salt and black pepper. Add cooked pasta and stir up. Add some preserved pasta water to thicken the sauce. Finally, garnish with parmesan cheese and italian parsley. Voila! Bon appetite!

xoxo

p/s: Sorry folks, the photo that was taken is missing! This is the closest photo I could find on the Internet 🙂

{ Comments on this entry are closed }