Category Archives: In The Kitchen

How many of us get time for a healthy breakfast every day? I can see you staring guiltily at the screen. Well, my friend, it’s not anything new, most people are so busy taking care of their jobs these days that they quite forget to take care of their health and the results are pretty much disastrous…always! So, what do you do?

Most often you don’t have the time to prepare a wholesome healthy breakfast, so why not prepare it the previous night? Try this spinach frittata and if you’re worried about putting on weight, this recipe uses egg substitutes instead of whole eggs which means less fat and calories!

Ingredients:

Sliced, fresh mushrooms – ½ pound
Chopped Onion – 1 cup
Fresh bag of spinach – 10 ounce
Egg substitute which is equal to about 10 eggs
Minced cloves of garlic – 3
Feta cheese – ¼ cup
Freshly ground black pepper – ¼ tsp
Dried thyme – ½ tsp
Fresh dill – 1 tbsp
Olive oil – 1 tsp
Water – 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put onion and garlic into an appropriate sized skillet and sauté the two for about five minutes in the olive oil. Then add the thyme and mushrooms and keeping cooking for, say five more minutes. Then remove your skillet from the flame.
3. Put the spinach in a different saucepan and add the tablespoon of water. Then cover it and cook until it gets softened and just begins to wilt. Drain and then set it to cool in a colander. Squeeze out the liquid, if any and then proceed to chop the leaves.
4. Put in pepper, dill and egg substitute in an appropriately sized bowl and then put in the spinach, mushroom mixture and also the feta cheese and then clean your nonstick skillet. Spray it with a healthy dose of cooking spray.
5. Then return to a medium high flame. Finally, when it becomes hot, pour in the egg substitute mixture and put it in the oven, keeping it uncovered. Your frittata should be checked from time to time – first after ten minutes and then every five minutes until the center becomes firm. Make sure not to overcook though.
6. Then put a large sized serving platter on to the skillet and flip it over so as to serve. Cut it into six pieces and it’s ready! So dig in to your yummy breakfast!

Custard is comfort food. Most of us think of all the custards with apples that our mothers used to make us when we were young when we are sad and unhappy and long for them, but they’re not at hand. There is also the little matter of the fact that custard isn’t exactly the healthiest of dishes. Or is it? Ever tried custard with Tofu? I bet not, here’s a new recipe to help you get started!

Ingredients

For Preparing Sauce
Lemon Juice, fresh – 2 tbsp
All-fruit blueberry preserves -1/4th cup
Fresh Blueberries – 3/4th cup
For Custard
Eggs – 3
Fost or silken tofu – ½ cup
Plain soy milk – 1 and ½ cups
Honey – 2 tbsps
Firmly packed brown sugar- 2 tsps.
Honey – 2 tbsp
Canola oil – 1 tsp.
Lemon extract – ½ tsp
Lemon zest – 1 tsp
Vanilla extract – ½ tsp

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 300F and lightly coat a ramekins (3/4 cup) with the canola oil, use only 1/4th teaspoon.
• Put in the soy milk and tofu into a blender and mix until smooth, this takes about half a minute.
• Put the eggs into a bowl and whisk until they’re well blended. Slowly stir in lemon extract, lemon zest, honey, brown sugar and vanilla. Then add the tofu mixture and remaining cup of milk and mix well.
• This is the custard mixture, which is then poured into the ramekins. Put ramekins into an appropriately sized baking pan, then pour hot water into the pan so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins then bake. Do this until the custard is more or less set but the center remains soft and gooey, this takes about fifty minutes.
• Remove the ramekins then and finally let the custard stand for fifteen minutes until it is properly set, then cover and put inside the refrigerator for about four hours.
• In the meanwhile prepare the blueberry sauce by mixing the preserves and lemon juice together. Whisk the two until it forms a well blended mixture and then stir the blueberries in.
• Finally, before serving, loosen the edges of the custards with a knife and then turn the ramekins upside down, on a plate. Then add a healthy dash of the blueberry sauce and your healthy custard is ready!

So dig right in and remember that comfort food can be healthy too!

Fiber. That’s a layered word! Everyone keeps telling us to consume more fiber on a regular basis. But, try as you might, you can’t completely modify your diet. How can one give up EVERYTHING? Well, my friend, there are innovative ways of adding fiber to your diet. For example, did you ever think that your dessert could have a healthy serving of fiber? I bet not, but here’s a recipe to change all of that…and what’s more, it tastes great!

Ingredients:

• Dark honey – 2tbsp

• Butter, unsalted- 1 tbsp

• Bread (multigrain variety, cut into cubes of side = 1 inch)- 12 ounces

• Allspice – 2 pinches

• Firm, yet ripe pears – 3, large

• Lightly beaten eggs – 2

• Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp

• Low fat (1%) milk – 2 and ¾ cup

• Vanilla extract – 2 tsp

• Turbinado sugar- 3 tbsp.

• Ground cloves – 1/8 tsp.

• Canola oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and coat a baking dish lightly with fat free cooking spray (9 inch).

2. Arrange the cubes of bread on the baking dish and bake until they become toasted (lightly), this takes five minutes.

3. In the meanwhile prepare the pears by skinning them. Remove cores and halve them and make thin slices.

4. In an appropriately sized frying pan, put in 1 and ½ tsp of butter and melt at medium temperatures until it becomes frothy. Put in the canola oil and stir it in. Put in half of the pear slices and cook until they become medium brown for ten minutes. Then, add a pinch of the allspice into the pears and then transfer to a plate. Repeat the entire process with the remaining pear, butter and oil.

5. At the bottom of the baking dish which was previously prepared, put in half of the bread cubes. Top it up with half of the sautéed pears and add the remaining bread cubes in the form of a layer on top.

6. In an appropriately sized bowl, add milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar, eggs, cinnamon, honey, cloves and vanilla. Blend them well until they are thoroughly mixed and then pour this mixture on top of the bread. Then, proceed to cover it with a plastic wrap and let the mixture be for about half an hour, press from time to time to ensure absorption into bread.

7. Then remove wrap, garnish with remaining pears and sugar and finally bake for about 45 – 55 minutes!
Presenting: your healthy dessert!

Italian is a favourite of foodies globally. A taste of Tuscany is indeed something which can only be expressed as pure bliss. If you are someone who takes pleasure in the art of cooking we have just the thing for you. Find below the recipe for Crostini ai fegtini, in simpler words Chicken liver crostini. Prepare this yummy Tuscan delicacy and you are sure to crave for more.

Ingredients:

• 250 gm chicken liver

• 60 gm capers

• 4 anchovy fillets

• 1 finely chopped onion

• 45 gm butter

• 125 ml dry white wine

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 125 ml beef stock

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1 long loaf of firm texture white bread, cut in 1 cm slices and toasted in the oven

• Salt to taste

Method:

The first step in making tasty crostini ai fegtini is to remove the discoloured parts of the chicken liver. Trim all the connective tissues of the liver. Chop the chicken liver into small pieces and then keep it aside. Once you are done chop the anchovy and capers together and keep them aside.

Heat a non stick pan on medium flame. Add 30 gm of butter and melt it in the pan. Then add chopped onions to it and sauté them. Keep stirring till they turn out to be nice and tender. Check if the onions have turned golden brown and then add the chicken liver.

Cook the liver for the next five minutes and then add the seasoning. Now pour some white wine to the preparation and cook for 12 to 15 minutes. Don’t stop stirring and add the stock when the mixture is quite dry.
Now remove the skillet from the flames. Leave it to cool down for some time.

Once it is cool enough place it on a chopping board and chop the entire thing finely. Once you are done with finely chopping the entire preparation heat some oil in the skillet on medium flame. Now add the liver along with the anchovies and capers.

Stir it well and then add all the remaining butter in the same. Cook this preparation for around 10 minutes. Once it is ready you will need to spread the entire mixture on toasts and store them in the oven so that they remain warm for some time. Take it out from the oven just before serving so that you can have it hot.

Chefs across the globe prefer a lot of liquid diets these days. A liquid diet does not necessarily refer to a 100 percent liquid edible item. It also refers to food composed of a good amount of fluids. Bekti Soaked in Pomegranate juice with mustard infused potato topped with apple flavoured asparagus is a good example of the same. It is a foodie’s delight. Read on to find out all about its preparation.

Ingredients

• 400 gm bekti fillets

• 50 ml milk

• 100 ml pomegranate juice

• 50 ml apple juice

• 5 gm pepper corn

• 100 gm potato

• 10 gm Dijon mustard

• 150 gm asparagus

• 15 ml cream

• 15 gm butter

• 10 gm chopped garlic

• 1 lime

• 30 ml olive oil

• 15 gm salt

• Sugar to taste

Method:

Firstly prepare some pomegranate juice by using some fresh pomegranate. Mix it well with milk, salt and a small amount of sugar. Now take the fish fillets in a bowl and add this mixture to it. You will need to keep it aside for at least 24 hours before you can actually use it. The next step is to take a small amount of asparagus and blanche them in apple juice with some sugar and salt. Once you are done with this step take out the asparagus from the mixture and let the juice cool down. When the juice is finally cool you can soak the asparagus in it for around 2 hours.

Meanwhile start working on the potatoes. Roast them well and then mash them. Heat a non stick pan on medium flame and heat the butter in it till it melts. Add chopped garlic to the heated oil and keep stirring it for some time. Now add mustard, cream, salt and half crushed black pepper corn and sauté them. Now get the potatoes and add them to the mixture. Sauté them a bit more till it turns tender and soft.

The next step is to place the fish on a tray and pat it dry. Add the chopped garlic with the juice of one lime and the remaining black peppercorn. Season the fish and grill it with olive oil. Once you are done with this step keep the mustard potato in the centre of the plate and then place the grilled fish on its top. To make the dish a visual delicacy garnish it with the apple flavoured asparagus. Serve hot.