4 C Stale bread (2 days old or dried in the oven)
2 C Tomatoes
1 C Cucumber
1   Red Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
¼ C Kalamata Olives
Handful of Basil leaves torn

2 Cloves Garlic chop fine
¼ C Balsamic Vinegar
½ C Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

You can even use the light Italian dressing.

Dice all the vegetables and bread. Mix garlic vinegar and olive oil. Pour over salad season to taste. Enjoy!

Hello everyone

Valentines is round the corner and we have decided to conduct a workshop for those who are interested to learn how to cook and bake.

Perfect for Valentine’s Day: Join us for a unique chocolate tasting and cooking experience that’s sure to be both romantic and memorable. You and your partner will heat up the kitchen as you learn cooking techniques and prepare an array of international gourmet items with hands-on instructions.

The menu will include an appetizer, salad and desserts!
WHEN: 12/13th of Feb, 2011 1pm – 2:30pm and 3:30pm- 5pm
COST: 2500 for couple
WHERE: Market Café, 8, Middle Lane, Khan Market, Delhi

We have designed fresh seasonal menus for the event. Guests don’t need cooking experience to attend. The price includes cooking instruction by me,recipes using the finest, freshest ingredients, copies of the recipes, chocolates, and the camaraderie of cooking with new friends!

To register, please pay registration fee by mailing us at learn@foodaholics.in or simply drop by the cafe itself!

YOU CAN CHECK OUR VALENTINES SPECIAL AT http://www.foodaholics.in/index.php/valentines-spl

This month has been crazy, sort of not so great for me. Grand dad sick in hospital, too many weddings to attend and a crazy painful stomach! I have started feeling that somewhere just because I am a chef I am not really watching what I am eating.

Watch what you eat...

Overindulgence you see. I dont wanna turn up like the lady in the pic So I am going to watch what I eat now. Winters vegetables are great. Will go for more salads and soups and forget the shaadi food! Ahh my heart breaks thinking about not trying this and that…and at the same time I know I got to do it.

I have been working on some Christmas goodies for you foodaholics out there. One of the few items that will be available will be fudge with lots of different flavours which will be available through the website. Watch out the space for the upcoming goodies.

I have been bad with blogging and I will probably post some in post date to show what I have read over a period of time. To begin with try the Kanji recipe I saw on face book. Give it a try!

Why am i telling you this recipe..well one its the season second its really healthy!

Swapan writes some very interesting daily tips.From something nice: a dish, a restaurant, a wine, a place to stay in, a pickle to buy, a cd to listen to, a dvd to watch, great places to get food from, artists to collect, books to read. He posts a tip a day. Check it out here

It’s that time of the year when this becomes mandatory drinking. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 kg dark carrots

2 teaspoons Rai Dana ( Mustard Seeds)

4 teaspoon salt.

2 teaspoon red chilli ( less or more according to your taste)

5 Pudina Leaves ( Mint leaves)

4 litre water

Instructions:

1. Wash and scrape the carrots lightly.

2. Cut the carrots in 1 inche long pieces.

3. Take the mustard seeds and dry grind them in a mortar and pestle.

4. Take a mixing bowl and add mix the carrots with salt, red chilli, Mustard Seeds. ( Take a steel bowl or heat proof mixing bowl, otherwise it will crack)

5. Take 4 litres of water and bring to boil.

6. Now add the hot water in the mixing bowl.

7. Let this mixture cool down.

8. Add this mixture on cooling into an airtight wide mouth jar or bottle.

9.Now keep this bottle in the sun for 5 days, during the day just shake the bottle once or twice. ( Each night bring in the bottle and keep at room temperature. )

10. After 5 days keep this bottle in the fridge.

11. Serve chiiled with some mint leaves.

2 Minutes Maggi

Do you have craving for maggi? I do that too in the middle of the night!

In my school days when mom made boring food (now I love it) like ghiya toori and tinda I would ask her too cook me maggi with green peas and eat it with chapatti.

All of us have weird taste buds and sometimes we have the most annoying combination of food. I have gf’s who love to eat cheese with sambar- gross isn’t it!!! But they relate to there hostel days with it .This post might seem dumb or what the hell is this for few people but I decided to blog about maggi. We can’t deny we all have junk food.

Maggi- they have some really cute commercials and as they say everyone has there own story of maggi. Maggi is a big brand with soups, sauces, stock cubes .I can’t think of any Asian country esp. South East Asian that doesn’t carry this brand. Maggi noodles are a big hit – esp. there tag line 2 min noodles!

Maggi noodles recently introduced a new variety of its noodles, to cater for the health conscious like ‘No MSG’, ‘Less Salt’, and ‘No Trans fat’. A whole wheat flour based noodle variation marketed by the name “Vegetable Atta Noodles” has been introduced in India. My personal favourite is Maggie Masala.

My best memories of Maggie – I was living in San Diego then and I was visiting home. I decided to go Vipasana Meditation course with My friend Krishna and her portuguese bf Diego in Dharam Kot(Close to famous His holiness Dalai Lama’s House).having maggi in the mountains has a different feel. May be it’s the water or the chilly weather; I don’t have words to explain. But it was an aesthetic experience having Maggi after 14 days of Satvik one time meal in the meditation camp!

Tell me what are your memories of Maggie??

So a couple of days back I had sent my driver to pick up some fruits and veggies on his way back from a cake delivery! While he was shopping for the stuff I also called him to pick up some green onions. I was thinking I’ll make some Chinese food. This is how the conversation went:

S: Ji didi?
K: Sunil get some hara pyaaj also!
S: Ji didi!
After 15 mins I call him to check if he had enough cash!

K: Sunil pese hai na tumhare paas? (Sunil do you have enough money?)
S: Ji didi abhi mene apne paas se de diye hai. (I have given money from my side)
K: Pyaz kitne ke aaya?
S: Didi Rs.150 ka!
K: What …kesa kaunsa pyaz kharida hai??

I just put the phone down and cracked up! When he came home I realized what he did. He picked up 2 kgs of it! Like I had to cook for a wedding! Why what was the reason I really couldn’t understand and I just looked at him and said u had to get 100 Gms!! What happened…he was so confused himself I just let it be!!

So what do I do with 2 kgs of green onions? We sent some to the neighbours; we add that in all the vegetables as garnish! And we still have a lot left…

So mom decided to make some Green Onion Sabzi. I quite liked it myself. Simple it was!

Take some mustard oil heat it add some potatoes and sauté them till golden brown and partially cooked. Cover for 5-10 mins and cook it all the way…And add the chopped green onions. Add salt pepper and Red chilli powder to taste.

Quick and delicious!