recipes

Recipe – Mushroom Coracles

After a long day at work, slaving over a hot stove was the last thing on my mind. A quick survey of the fridge revealed a decent load of produce and no leftovers.

Hmm… Secretly thanking my stars for buying those large mushrooms on sale, I started off…grabbed some mushrooms and some vegetable…a quick sauté here,filling there, stick it in the oven and Voila!

A sumptuous dish 🙂

Here is what you’ll need

Mushrooms Large- 2

Zucchini – 1

Shallots-10

Bell Pepper-1

Celery- ½ stalk

Garlic-2 or 3 (according to your tolerance)

Spinach- 2 handfuls

Olives- For topping up (any kind is ok or maybe omitted also)

Cheese – Freshly Grated Parmesan – Optional

Condiments- Salt, Pepper, Paprika

Extra Virgin Olive Oil-2 tablespoons

Herbs- I tablespoon of chopped parsley or celery leaves

Yogurt – Served on the side, or sour cream or just plain omitted

Method:

Preheat your oven to 400 F

  1. Pluck the stalks out of the mushrooms. Wash the mushrooms and pat dry.
  2. Roughly chop the Zucchini, Shallots, Peppers, Garlic and Celery. Feel free to include other veggies that can cook at a similar pace. Since I was lazy, I threw the vegetables into a mincer. But, the laziness dictated that I don’t check the blade attachment until half the veggies were crushed to a pulp.
  3. Add one tablespoon of olive oil in a sauté pan and sauté the vegetables for a minute. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Spread some olive oil on your finger tips and rub the outside of the mushroom, season lightly (use less than ½ tablespoon or omit) Stuff the mushrooms with veggies
  5. In a baking pan/tray, grab a handful of spinach and make a bed for your mushrooms. Sprinkle some olive oil, salt and paprika and place the mushrooms on them. Put it in the oven for 15 -20 mins (depending on your oven and size of mushrooms)

As an afterthought I realised that I had some tomatoes on the vine and freshly sliced olives from the deli. I washed the tomatoes, poked two holes in each, seasoned lightly, drizzled ½ tablespoon of olive oil and put them in the baking tray during the last 10 mins and threw some olives on top of the mushrooms. At this stage you may add cheese if using.

Served hot from the oven on a bed of fresh spinach with yogurt on the side… the yogurt looks green because it met the blender blades along with mint, cilantro and half a green chilly with some salt.

Filling
Bed of spinach in a tin older than the sun
Come at me yummy plate
Delicious
Mushroom Coracles

The mushrooms juicy and not rubbery, vegetables tender and steaming, spinach with the wonderful juice from mushrooms… mmmm…

Note: You can use butter instead of oil for sauteing and cream cheese instead of yogurt  for rich flavor and displaying anti-diabetic sentiment. But for obvious reasons, I have used substitutions. 

7 Step Fried Ice Cream Delight!

Fried Ice Cream… the concept wooed me. Contrary to popular belief, fried ice cream is not an ‘innovation’. It has been around for quite sometime. 

Ok… the number one thing you need for making fried ice cream is -TIME. You’ve got to plan ahead. 

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Here are the ingredients you will need:

  1. Ice cream – Start with a 1/2 litre tub of your favourite flavour. I used London Dairy’s Vanilla. Classic and open to a world of combinations.
  2. Plain Corn Flakes – One standard box or two small boxes
  3. 2 large eggs 
  4. Oil for deep frying
  5. Topping – Chocolate sauce or honey or whipped cream

Let’s get down to business:

  1. Using an ice cream scoop or spoon drop 5-6 dollops of ice cream on to a tray lined with baking sheet.Don’t bother if they are not round 
  2. Put it in the freezer to firm up for a minimum of 2 hrs. (I put it in the fridge before heading off to work in the morning)
  3. Put 2 cups of corm flakes into a zip lock back and go at it like you’ve seen a roach making a beeline toward your Christmas pie. I did this after work and is a good stress buster! Reserve the rest or make another batch to use later. 
  4. Take the ice cream out (one at a time) coat it in the corn flakes (shape them as you go and do it fast) and return to the freezer. Go to bed feeling excited and anxious about your treat for tomorrow evening.
  5. After they have firmed up overnight, crack two eggs, still cold from the fridge, into a bowl, whisk lightly. Drop the ice cream balls one by one in the egg mixture, immediately roll them in the reserved cornflakes (coat them well) and return to the freezer. 
  6. When  they have firmed up, heat oil to medium high. Remove them one at a time from the freezer, deep fry for about 10 seconds, drain for less than 5 seconds on a paper towel and serve immediately with topping.
  7. Topping can be chocolate sauce, warm honey with some berries, whipped cream… just about anything you like.

This is a fry-and-eat-as-it-come- out-of-the-kitchen-recipe. Your guests will probably have to line up 🙂

Watch the magic as it disappears in seconds!

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Stuffes Peppers quick Dinner

10 Step Easy Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Here’s the thing. There are days at work where you get so frustrated that all you want to do is just come home and snuggle up with your beau on the couch. Unfortunately in the muggle world, making dinner is a tad more complicated than waving a wand.

And it came to be at the end of one such day, I found myself in the cereal aisle without realising how I got there. No, dinner can’t be cereal… I mean there must be something simpler. My thoughts flashed back to what was available at home. Left over brown rice, uncooked baby button mushrooms, one questionable onion and white wine… er mom that’s white COOKING wine (Aside: it isn’t).

I picked up a pack of coloured peppers and sliced brown bread and hightailed it out of there.

Dinner was ready in a flash. Here’s how:

Turn the oven on to preheat.

  1. Peel three to four cloves of garlic and roughly chop the questionable onion checking if it is good to eat.
  2. Make a thin slice out of the pepper’s bottom so it can sit upright in the baking pan
  3. Take the top off and dig the seeds out turning the peppers into colourful holding vessels
  4. Meanwhile, throw a pan on the stove and pour one or two tablespoons of olive oil in it.
  5. When it is warm, add garlic, sauté and then add onions and sauté
  6. Add mushrooms (whole or sliced) and sauté at high heat
  7. Once all the water has evaporated, add two tablespoons of dry white wine (skip this step if you don’t have it) to deglaze the pan
  8. The wine will cook off in a couple of minutes, turn off the stove, add the rice and toss with salt and pepper (Cumin powder is an alternative for an asian touch – goes well with feta cheese!)
  9. Fill the mixture into the prepared capsicum and Crumble feta cheese on top, (low fat mozzarella will do as well, but I recommend feta) and place in lightly oiled baking tray
  10. Season on top and put it in the oven for 15 -20 mins depending on the oven temperature and how you like your peppers (capsicum). Longer time in the oven would mean overcooked rice and capsicum/peppers

Serve with toast or soup or whatever else you can whip up in a jiffy. If you don’t have rice, just use more mushrooms. Bacon, shredded chicken – basically if you feel something would taste good with peppers, stick them in and bake the pepper!

Make your starry eyed husband take off his shirt and use it as a backdrop for a quick picture 😉

Stuffes Peppers quick Dinner

Stuffed Peppers with mushroom, brown rice and feta

United by food – Divided by distance: Congee Recipe from Eva

Gourmet version of a humble meal. 
Eva truly understands flavors and her passion is infectious! Beautiful photos, thank to her husband and elegant blog design makes hers the first ever Food Blogger to be reblogged on Soulsez.
Please feel free to leave comments on her website.

-Archie

Spicytones

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I hope I didn’t freak you out with the title of this post. What the heck is angelica acutiloba??? Well, we Chinese don’t call it like that obviously.  We call it ‘当归/Dang Gui’ or ‘Dong Quai’; and it is commonly known as one of those super Chinese herbs that cures almost everything particularly for women. 😉 A must have Chinese medicine for people who are physically weak like women who just gave birth or people who had a surgery. I already knew about Dang Gui since I was a kid because it was often added in our soup and chicken dishes. It has a distinct herbal aroma and bitter in taste. I’m sure you already know about goji berry. I didn’t know that it was a super food, but my grandmother used to tell me that goji berry is good for your eyes. She also used to tell…

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