Diet - Twinkling Tina Cooks

Mexican Corn Salad is so simple that you won’t even realize you had made one! It can be enjoyed as a side, as a main with some Tortila or even your regular toast. You can fill in your tacos or just have it as a relish!

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LETTUCE, GRILLED TOMATO AND CHICKEN SALAD

lettuce-grilled-tomato-chicken-salad, salad,

Fresh salads are super good for your body and they look so appetizing. The Lettuce, Grilled Tomato and Chicken Salad is colorful, fresh and super yum. I made this for my breakfast today and made a healthy start to the day!

This #AtoZChallenge is making sure I am eating right this month.

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KIWI, GINGER AND BANANA SMOOTHIE – JAMIE OLIVER INSPIRED

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The Kiwi Ginger Banana Smoothie is my go to favorite smoothie in the summers. It’s fresh with the added dose of health in the form of oats. It takes just 10 mins – super Yuma and superfast.

This recipe is inspired by Jamie Oliver. [I love him and adore him.] Smoothies are a great way to ensure you are having a good nutritious start in the morning. If you are running late and don’t have much time put everything in a blender and have a nice fruity smoothie!

Continue reading KIWI, GINGER AND BANANA SMOOTHIE – JAMIE OLIVER INSPIRED

Egg Oats Omelette

Eggs are staples for breakfasts, aren’t they? Bread and omelette are like brothers. But have you tried an even healthier version of omelette? How about egg and oats omelette? I am currently bitten by the oats bugs and am trying to use oats in different ways.

So thought why not make a quick meal altogether in an omelette? This is pretty filling too.

HEALTH BENEFIT

Eggs are full of good proteins and minerals.

Rich source of Omega-3 fatty acids, A,B,D,E and K vitamins

Oats are good cereals with loads of fiber

Oats keep your heart healthy

This recipe can be modified with your choice of vegetables!

Egg Oats Omelette

Prep Time	Cook Time	Total Time
5 min	5 min	10 min

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Serves: 1 person

INGREDIENTS

Whole Eggs – 2

Red Onion – 1 teaspoon chopped

Tomato – 1 teaspoon chopped

Oats flour – ¼ cup [don’t get worked up, it’s just ground rolled oats]

Dried Oregano – a pinch

Salt & Pepper – to taste

Oil – for greasing frying pan

Cilantro/Coriander leaves – 1 teaspoon chopped

Milk – 1 tablespoon

INSTRUCTIONS

In a bowl mix – oats flour, salt and pepper, oregano

Break the eggs and whisk with a spoon

Add milk to the egg mix and whisk

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a frying pan and spread evenly

Pour the egg mix and spread evenly

Cover and cook for few seconds on low heat

Remove lid and sprinkle chopped vegetables on the omelette and cook for 2 minutes.

Flip the omelette and let the other side cook for 2 minutes on low heat.

Serve hot with tea or coffee!

TIPS

If you are greasing with a pastry brush, it will take very little oil

You can use any vegetable you like – mushroom, corn, bell peppers and even olives go well.

This is going to be the easiest thing you have flipped in a pan ever, because oats makes a good base

Enjoy a good healthy breakfast.

Until next time, Cheers!

Meanwhile check out what happened in the Emergency Room in my Writing Blog

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This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 5 Letter E. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

Cucumber, Tomato & Avocado Salad

This is health month for me and I am doing all healthy stuff, at least cooking and eating healthy! I did a smoothie and a breakfast recipe earlier so I’ll share a great salad recipe today.

Salads are great, aren’t they? They fill you up, low on calorie, you can have as much as you want! And hey, all salads are not boring. You can enjoy it as a side or a main. I sometimes like some good salad as munching snack in the evening.

Today we are making wonders with three very simple ingredients – Cucumber, Tomato and Avocado! It’s summers and these ingredients are perfect for the season! Crunchy Cucumber, Fresh Tomato and Buttery Avocado! Very easy and totally yum! Let’s get to know our Cucumber, Tomato & Avocado Salada little better!

HEALTH BENEFIT

Cucumber, however boring it may sound, is a gift

It keeps you hydratedand flushes out your toxins.

It almost doesn’t have any calories and provides loads of vitaminsand skin friendly minerals like magnesium, potassium.

Avocados on the other hand are a power house of dietary fiber, vitamin K, copper, folate, vitamin B6, potassium, vitamin E, and vitamin C

It also provides Alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and oleic acid

Tomatoes, I can’t tell you how good they are specially for your skin!

We won’t use any mayo or fatty dressing for the salad!

CUCUMBER TOMATO & AVOCADO SALAD

Prep Time	Cook Time	Total Time
15 min	0 min	15 min

Recipe Type: Salad main/side

Serves: 2 persons as a side or 1 person as a main

INGREDIENTS

Avocado – 1 pitted and diced
Cucumber -1 diced
Tomato – 1 diced (you can use cherry tomato in halves)
Red Onion – ½ finely chopped
Lime juice – juice of ½ a lime
Cilantro or Coriander Leaves – 1 teaspoon finely chopped
Olive Oil – 1 tablespoon for dressing
Red Wine Vinegar – 1 teaspoon
Tabasco / capsico sauce – 1 teaspoon
Salt & Pepper – to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine Avocado, cucumber, tomato, onion in a bowl.
Whisk together olive oil, lime juice, tabasco sauce, red wine vinegar and seasoning in another bowl and drizzle over the avocado salad
Sprinkle chopped coriander or cilantro leaves and serve fresh

TIPS

You can totally skip the tabasco part, if you don’t like the heat in salads

If you want to have it as a main, add some diced tofu and up the protein quotient of the salad.

Enjoy a good healthy snack.

Until next time, Cheers!

Today’s Question – Did I improve on my food photography skills? How is it? All photos shot on iPhone 5S.

Also check out how the camera shy girl in my Writing Blog

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This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 3 Letter C. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

A to Z Challenge Day #17 – Q for Quiche

Hello people so we arrive on our Q day. Deciding an indulgent recipe with Q is a challenge in itself but here I am sharing a super easy recipe of one of my favourites – Quiche. Quiche (in case you don’t know) is a savoury pie sort of a thing with a meat or vegetable filling topped with a layer of custard. You can Google for more information.

It is essentially a French Cuisine special. I love it because of its no nonsense taste and the fact that I can put fillings according to my taste!

The classic combinations are bacon and spinach or vegetable quiche or a simple chicken quiche. The one that I am sharing today has all that I like – onions, bacons, pork and chicken sausage as the filling.

Interesting? Okay now let’s hop into the recipe.

All that you need

For the Pastry crust

All purpose Flour – 2^1/2cups

Unsalted butter – 1 cup (chilled and diced)

Salt – 1 teaspoon

Chilled Water – 7-8 teaspoon

For the filling

Onion – 1 chopped

Bacon – 4-5 strands

Pork sausage – 3

Chicken sausage – 2

Salt & pepper to taste

Smoked Paprika – 1 teaspoon

Shredded Parmesan Cheese – 3 tablespoons

For the Custard

Egg – 2 whole + 2 egg yolks only

Milk – 1 cup

Cream – ¼ cup

Salt & pepper – to taste

Let’s Get Started

Making the pastry crust [It is very similar to the pastry crust that I made for Apple Pie.]

Combine flour, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and make a coarse crumb with

your fingers

Add cold water and combine them together

You don’t need to knead

Take the dough wrap in a cling film and freeze for 15 -20 minutes

Take out from freezer and roll it into a round pastry crust.

Transfer in a pie/flan dish and blind bake.

Making the filling

In a pan fry bacon till brown

Take out some of the fat and in the same pan fry onion and the sausages till they are done. Add seasoning and smoked paprika.

Take out the sausages and chop them, chop the bacon.

Making the custard

In a mixing bowl mix milk, cream and the eggs. First the whole eggs and then the yolks.

Make sure the milk is in room temperature or else you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.

Add seasoning

Combining the Quiche

Spread the filling on the blind baked pastry crust

Pour in the custard mixture

Spread the shredded cheese on top

Now bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

And your yummy quiche is ready. Enjoy with your favourite wine.

And so let me know if you found it HOT or NOT?

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Linking this post to A to Z Challenge 2014 for Day #17 – post starting with Q.

Visit A to Z and read awesome posts by bloggers.
I am also participating in this challenge from my writing blog and I’m writing fiction this time. Visit The Sunny Side of Life and show some love.

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Leave a comment below if you have liked the recipe and you want me to share some more recipes.

A to Z Challenge Day #1 – Apple Pie

Hello people… Howdy??

Are you ready for a month long indulgence?? I am so ready for it. And here goes my first recipe for the month long A to Z Blogging Challenge – its Apple Pie. I promised you indulgence, and indulgence it will be. As a kid I used to be a finicky eater and my mum used to find different ways of getting fruits in me. Apple pies, apple strudels and apple crumbles are those things that I enjoyed forgetting there was apple in them – which I quite didn’t like as a fruit (I still don’t like eating a whole apple) !

Okay I want to keep the post short and will have loads of photos. Let’s straight away go to the ingredients.

————————————————————————————
Level: Moderate | Prep Time: 50 mins | Cooking Time: 55 mins
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All that you will need for the pie crust (minus the apples)

All that you will need

For the pie crust

Plain flour – 2 ^{1/ 2} cup
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Sugar – 2 table spoon
Unsalted Butter – 1 cup (chilled and diced)
Cold water – ½ cup

All that you will need for the Filling

For the Apple Filling

Apple – 4 large
White Sugar – ¼ cup
Brown Sugar – ¼ cup
Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon
Raisins/ Sultanas – ½ cup
Cinnamon – ½ stick grated
Nutmeg – ½ grated
Salt – a pinch
Unsalted Butter – 2 tablespoon
Cornflour – 1 tablespoon

Let’s get our pie rolling!

Prepare the dough for the pastry first because it will take some time. Steps are for piecrust and filling separately so go through it carefully.

1. Sift in flour, mix salt and sugar in it in a large bowl.

2. Add butter and mix in with your fingers.

3. Add water and bring the dough together.

[There is no need to kneed the flour as you would do while making a bread or pizza dough. We don’t want the glutten to get activated. Mix the butter in gently with your fingers till you get light crumbles.]

4. Flour your work board/surface and gather the flour and butter crumbles and bring them all together.

5. When you find the dough’s coming together you are there.

6. Divide the dough in two halves, press them to make flat discs, wrap them in cling wrap and put in freezer for 15 mins.

[We will have a base pie layer, and a top layer, to add to the crunch.]

Unless it’s cold you won’t be able to roll them for your pie base.

7. After 15 mins, roll out 1 half of the dough that will make the base of the pie.

8. Put the rolled pie crust in a lightly greased pie dish and blind bake it for 12-15 mins in a pre-heated oven about 220 degrees C or 425 degrees F.

That is how you blind bake. Tip by Jamie Oliver

9. Take out and keep the pie dish in a wire rack once baked.

Apple Filling

While your pastry crust is bind baking start with your apple filling.

1. In a bowl add peeled and chopped apples, lemon juice (this will avoid discoloration), brown sugar, white sugar, raisins, salt, grated cinnamon and grated nutmeg.

2. Mix them well and leave it for half an hour.

Leave it till it leaves juices

That is the kind of caramel sauce you will get
from the apples

We are doing this to take out the juices, too much juice from the apple will make the pie crust soggy.

3. After half an hour, strain the juice from the apple and keep it in a microwave safe cup/bowl.

4. Add butter in that juice and microwave it for 3 minutes, you will get a wonderful apple caramel sauce out of it.

5. Add corn flour and this caramel sauce to the apple filling and mix well.

Arranging the pie

A good Egg wash with 1 whole egg will give you this
wonderful golden color

1. Arrange the apple filling in the pie dish.

2. Roll out the other half of the dough and cover the pie, sealing the edges carefully.

3.Take a knife and make several slits on the pie cover to let the steam come out.

4. Give it a generous egg wash with a pastry brush to get that lovely golden colour

5. Bake it in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes at 220 degrees C or 425 degrees F.

And you are done with your Apple Pie.

Leave it on a wire rack to cool down a little

You are ready to dig in!

I like my apple pie warm, I always heat it up in the microwave before digging in. You can enjoy it with vanilla ice cream also, the combination is awesome.

So there was my first Indulgent recipe for the A to Z Challenge. Watch this space for some more super awesome indulgent recipes this month. Tomorrow it’s going to be Banoffee Pie for all pie and dessert lovers.

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Linking this post to A to Z Challenge 2014 for Day #1 – post starting with A.

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Leave a comment below if you have liked the recipe and you want me to share some more pie/dessert recipes.

Doi Potol or Dahi Parwal

Doi potol is a hit vegetarian delicacy of every Bengali Kitchen. Pointed gourd or potol cooked in spices and yogurt. Learn how to make Bengali doi potol

As a kid I was a fussy eater and almost never liked any vegetables – green or otherwise. My mom used to have a tough time with me I am sure. Not that I really like vegetables now but still eat much more vegetables than as a kid.

There are these vegetables which are really popular among the Bengalis like ‘Begun’ (brinjal), ‘Bandhakopi’(cabbage), ‘Kochu’ – I have no idea what it’s called in English or Hindi or in any other language. And I hate almost all of these. But now since I have Mr. Husband who likes traditional Bengali food at times I have to venture into the kitchen to re-invent some of these.

This is potol/ pointed gourd. Image from Shutterstock

‘Potol ‘or ‘parwal’ as called in Hindi (its Pointed Gourd in English – that’s what Google told me) is also as popular in a Bengali household. You will definitely find a ‘potol-bhaja’ in the beginning of your menu if you are up for a hearty Bengali meal. Now that’s little main stream how much ‘potol–baja’ can one have? The next two famous things a Bong cooks up with this ‘potol’are ‘potoler dorma’ & ‘doi potol’.

This is Kundru. Image from Google

It’s difficult to get good fresh ‘Potol’ in this city. They also have this thing called ‘Kundru’ which almost looks like ‘potol’ but is much smaller in size and is hard when you are going to cut. So don’t get that ‘kundru’ if you want to make any Bengali ‘Potol’ preparation.

Over the weekend I had some time with me to cook up something little special and here I am with a traditional ‘doi-potol’recipe. Will do the ‘potoler dorma’ some other time.

So lets get to our ‘Doi Potol‘ recipe

All that you Need

Potol/pointed Gourd – 6-8 pieces
Fresh Yogurt – 1 cup
Paanch Foron – 1 tspn – If you don’t know what this is please refer to Tip #3 in Tiny Tips)
Mustard oil – 1 table spn
Turmeric powder – ¼ tspn + ¼ tspn
Red chili powder – ¼ tspn
Cumin powder – ¼ tspn
Coriander powder – ¼ tspn
Ginger paste – 1 tspn
Salt – to taste
Green Chili – 1

Let’s get Started

– Scrape the ‘potol’ lightly so that the skin comes out and clean them under water. Don’t peel but scrape it with the edge of a knife.

– Dust ¼ tspn of turmeric powder and salt over the ‘potol’/pointed gourd and keep aside

– Heat mustard oil in a frying pan

– Once oil is hot add the ‘potol’/pointed gourd and fry them lightly so that water (within the vegetable) dries up.

– Once the ‘potol’/pointed gourd is fried add the ‘paanch phoron’

– Add ginger paste and mix well with the fried the ‘potol’/pointed gourd

– Take yogurt in a separate bowl and mix all the dry spices – turmeric, red chili powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Mix well to form a smooth paste.

– Add this spice and yogurt mixture to the ‘potol’/pointed gourd in the frying pan and mix them well

– Add salt to taste and add the green chili. I refer to break the chili in two halves so that you get the flavor in your food with less heat

– Cook in low flame for 10 mins or till you see oil on the sides of the pan.

– Add little water in your yogurt bowl and use up all the spice mix that might be left over in the bowl. Since this preparation is a semi dry one don’t add much of water. Cook for 5 mins.

And there you go your Bengali traditional Doi Potol is done.

It tastes best with hot rice.

Try and let me know how you liked it.

Rustic Tomato Soup

It has been raining in Bangalore for like ever and its super awesome weather here. It gets quite chilly sometimes surprisingly at this time of the year God knows what’s in store for December. And I am again down with a running nose and cough – It has become a monthly affair almost.

So what’s better than some hot piping soup in this weather to keep my throat happy? Okay the Knorrs, and Chings and Maggi soups are little mainstream – nothing beats the old fashioned freshly made soups minus the corn flour. I am a big fan of fresh soups whenever I have time.

So here goes a simple recipe of a rustic tomato soup for all the soup lovers. And yeah it’s thick and no the watery kinds.

All that you’ll need

1. Canola oil – 1 table spoon – you can use Olive/Vegetable oil

2. Tomato – 4 large – diced

3. Garlic – 4 cloves

4. Red onion – 1 large chopped – you can use white onion also

5. Salt & pepper – to taste

6. Sugar – ¼ tspn

7. Basil – I have used dried basil about 1 tspn. If you have fresh basil then nothing like it.

8. All purpose flour – 2 teaspoon

9. Butter – 1 teaspoon

10. Fresh Cream – 1 tspn (totally optional)

Let’s get started

Take a large pot, heat oil and fry the onions and crushed garlic
Add the diced tomatoes in the pot and mix them well till they are juicy and gooey.
Once the tomato is cooked take a hand blender and blend it well. Transfer the mixture in a bowl and set aside.
Add some butter and let it melt. Add the flour and fry it in the butter to make the rue. This will give a very nice flavor and will add a good texture to the soup. It will also make it thick.
Add your soup to this rue and mix well so that there are no lumps.
Add seasoning and herbs and mix well.
Add a little fresh cream on top and serve hot with croutons/ toast or just enjoy it as it is.

And hey you are done before you can think anything else.

Wasn’t that easy? I am sure you’ll enjoy.

Let me know.

Product Review – Chingri Malai Curry with Hudson Canola Oil

Let me update on some more Bong food. ‘Chingri’, as we call the prawns, is very popular among Bengalis. We love batter fried prawns, prawn curries, prawn with vegetables and so many ways that we cook prawns. However, ‘Prawn Malai Curry’or ‘Chingri Macher Malai Curry’ takes the cake off when it comes to authentic Bengali Prawn preparation. Prawn is cooked in tomato & coconut milk without much of spices and has a very nice subtle earthy taste.

Sometime back I had got this Hudson Canola Oil for review. It came along with a quick recipe book which is quite handy. There must be lot of people who are unaware about this Canola oil. So I have some information about Canola oil. (This is from their website though).

What is Canola?

Hudson Canola Oil that I am reviewing here

Hudson Canola is a standard edible vegetable grade oil, a light oil with neutral taste and flavour. Hudson Canola can be used for all types, methods and varieties of Indian cooking: frying, roasting or grilling. Canola is neutral in flavour and aroma with no distinctive taste or smell.

Canola Oil is extruded from the seeds of the yellow Canola flower.

Canola Oil has the lowest saturated fat amongst all oils, very high monounsaturated fat, very high Omega-3 and rich Vitamin-E content.

Any ways, I have used it now and I am quite happy with the results. It’s light and doesn’t have any strong flavour. You can cook almost anything that you would otherwise do with vegetable oil or Sunflower oil. I have used it both for curries and frying and gives quite good result. It’s very popular in SE Asia. You can even bake with it. It’s a little costly than other ones but you can definitely give it a try.

Anyways let’s get started with our recipe

All that you need

Prawns – 1 Kg (you can use white prawns, tiger prawns or any prawn which you like. Don’t take lobsters though. I have used white prawn here for this recipe. De-vein and clean them)
Lemon – 1
Tomato – make a puree of 4 large tomato – you can use canned pure as well
Coconut milk – 1 cup
Oil – 2 table spoon (I have used Hudson Canola Oil here)
Salt – to taste
Sugar – 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds – ¼ tspn
Chili powder – ¼ tspn
Cumin Powder – ¼ tspn
Green cardamom – 1
Ginger Paste – ¼ tspn
Sugar – 1 tspn
Greem Chili – 1
Grated coconut – 2 table spoon
Soaked Raisins & Cashew nuts – ½ cup

Let’s Get Started

Place the de-veined prawns in a bowl and marinate the prawn with salt and juice of 1 lemon. Mix well and keep aside for 15 mins.

Heat a table spoon of oil in a wok and fry the marinated prawns lightly till they turn opaque & orange.

Take out in a bowl and keep aside. This will ideally take you about 2 mins. Don’t overcook the prawn at this stage else it will taste like rubber.

Add another table spoon of oil in the same wok and add the cumin seeds, green cardamom and a slit green chili.

Add ginger paste, cumin powder and red chili powder and fry for a minute.

Add the pureed tomato and cook till oil oozes out on the sides of the wok. Add little sugar and salt to taste.

Add the seared prawns and mix them well with the tomato gravy.

Add the coconut milk and cook it in low heat for few minutes.

Add the soaked dry fruits and grated coconut and cook in low heat for a minute.

And that’s it you are done. Isn’t it just simple?

An authentic Bengali Malai curry doesn’t have turmeric, onions or mustard oil (which are otherwise quite common).

It tastes best with rice.

So cook and enjoy and let me know how you liked it.

Category: Diet

Mexican Corn Salad

Jump To Recipe | Print Recipe

LETTUCE, GRILLED TOMATO AND CHICKEN SALAD

KIWI, GINGER AND BANANA SMOOTHIE – JAMIE OLIVER INSPIRED

Jump to Recipe | Print Recipe

Egg Oats Omelette

Cucumber, Tomato & Avocado Salad

A to Z Challenge Day #17 – Q for Quiche

A to Z Challenge Day #1 – Apple Pie

Doi Potol or Dahi Parwal

Rustic Tomato Soup

Product Review – Chingri Malai Curry with Hudson Canola Oil