Labneh korat

Its no secret that I adore Middle Eastern food , I love the generous use of fresh produce , olive oil and simple clean flavours .

I specially enjoy mezze ....which is a term to describe little plates of food that are brought in before the actual meal . I love my hummus , muhmarra , pickled beetroots , baba gnaoush and tabouleh salad . But most of all I love my Labneh .


Labneh is just full fat yogurt thats strained to let all the whey (liquid) drain out for a few hours so that you end up with a creamy , tangy yogurt cheese .

Labneh Korat are simply savory little balls of yogurt cheese that are coated in dried herbs and drowned in olive oil . They taste FANTASTIC on toast , by themselves and as part of a mezze platter with hummus , pita and kebabs.

I often joke that my death row meal would look something like this !

LABNEH KORAT 

Start with 400g of full fat yogurt . Add 2 crushed cloves of garlic and 1/4 tsp salt and mix well into the yogurt .

Place a  piece of doubled cheesecloth or soft cotton fabric (preferably undyed and  clean)  over a deep bowl.

Spoon the yogurt in the center of a piece of the cheesecloth. You can also pull the corners  of the cheese cloth up and tie them tightly and then suspend from a stationary object over a bowl (to collect the whey) .

Leave to drain for 24  hours in the refrigerator .

Remove from the cloth and roll into balls using your palms. Roll into dried herbs I used red chilli flakes and dried Italian herbs .

Now place the yogurt balls in a sterile, air tight jar, cover with olive oil.

Store in the refrigerator preferably use after 6-7 hours so that flavor get a chance to infuse . Stays well in the refrigerator for 5-7 days as long as the yogurt balls are always covered with olive oil and no water enters the jar .

Serving suggestions :

As a spread on toast , by itself , with kebabs , with pita bread and hummus!

Poha Masala Powder

Poha or beaten rice is very popular all over Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Its easy to make , light and still counts as a good hearty breakfast/tea time snack.

 This is not another poha recipe ....I recently went to Bhopal and Indore and was amazed to see how differently poha is garnished and served there....

So this post is about how you can re-invent your poha recipe with just a few small changes .....

But before I tell you about Poha here are some pictures of everything that constitutes a Typical MPwalla Naashta ( breakfast)

There is garam garam doodh ( Scalding hot milk) that has been lovingly heated for a few hours in a kadhai resulting in lots of malai (cream) and thick fudge-y taste.....

There is jalebi crisp and hot to be eaten with poha or alongside your glass of hot milk....

Samosa and Kachori both very well made also constitute a good Bhopali / Indori Naashta

And now moving on to the Poha ....While in the train we were served poha with a garnish of Namkeen , lemon wedges and raw finley chopped onion....it tasted selicious even though it wasnt hot and was at room temperature . I was quite surprised because I dont fancy eating raw onions at breakfast but this tasted delicious.

At another breakfast pit-stop in Bhopal we saw a vendor with a huge mountain of Poha garnished with grated carrot and lots of chopped coriander ! Not only does the carrot add  color it also tastes great . There was also sev , fried green chillies and Poha masala ....

Poha Masala Recipe 

Chaat Masala..............70%

Red Chilli Powder..........30%

Salt ..................to taste

Simply combine chaat masala and red chilli powder (70:30 ratio) , add a little salt , give it all a good stir and store in a dry jar .



All to be eaten simply over a square piece of news paper.......

And here in Maharashtra we love our Poha garnished with grated fresh coconut and sometimes even coconut chutney!!!

So are you ready to spruce up your old Poha recipe?

Let me know if you enjoyed these suggestions....

Cashew Muhammara (Middle eastern roasted red pepper dip)

All good parties involve a lot of standing around gossiping and picking on finger food, and this is the kind of food you want table side to be picked from!

                            

This is a wonderful dip ....a velvety gunge of charred red pepper , onion and olive oil with mild undercurrents of garlic!

Serve this with Pita bread , lavash , cucumber/carrot batons and any crudites that you want to provide!

                                             

 I love serving dips & finger food at parties specially when my girlfriends are over! This is my new favorite dip and I hope you try it out!





























CashewMuhammara

1/4 cup of lightly toasted cashew nuts

1 red bell pepper (red capsicum)

6 cloves of garlic

1 onions chopped fine and cooked in 2 tsp olive oil

Red pepper flakes (to taste) or 1-2 dry red kashmiri chillies soaked in water

Sweet smoked paprika (optional)

1 bread slice

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

A dash of honey

Salt to taste

Procedure

Cant get any simpler! Just add to a blender and combine till smooth!

Will take about 5 minutes , serve in a bowl and garnish with some more extra virgin olive oil and some smoked paprika on top.

Serve with choice of bread / crudites

Tomato and garlic chutney recipe

      

Hello! I thought of sharing this very simple recipe......I love garlic in all its glorious forms .
This chutney is very potent and only for garlic and chilli lovers!

A small amount goes a long way ....its awesome with yellow daal and chawaal !

I hope you try it!

Tamatar and Lassan Chutney

2 red juicy tomatoes cut into 4's
10-12 cloves of garlic
a pinch of cumin seeds
2 teaspoons refined oil
1/4 teaspoon kashmiri red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Grind the tomatoes and garlic to a fine puree without using any water.

Heat oil in a Kadhai/wok and add cumin seeds. Once they splutter add the kashmiri red chilli powder, now very quickly tip in the tomato + garlic puree.

Watch out it may make you cough and sneeze :))

Cook the chutney for another 5 minutes till oil separates and raw flavor of garlic n tomato goes away.

You can double the recipe and store in the refrigerator !

Sirke Wale Pyaaz - Indian restaurant style pickled onions

Sirke Wale Pyaaz - Indian restaurant style pickled onions

Ruby red , crunchy , sweet and sour all at once these pickled onions were a standard accompaniment to all Indian /Punjabi  meals that you ate in  restaurants in the 90s .

For some reason I dont see them so much these days but I love them so I decided to make them . A little bit of trial and error this recipe worked the best just like the sirke walle pyaaz at Kumar Sweets in Dehradoon.

The first time I tried making these I just put onions in vinegar but that resulted in only a very slight pink color and not such a great taste! I guess thats how American pickled onions are made ......since thats all I could find on the internet .



 But this recipe is perfect....the secret to getting a nice full bodied color is the beetroot! :)

INGREDIENTS
Onions (the tiny kind ) : 200 grams cleaned 
Regular White Vinegar : 1 cup
Peppercorn : 7
Bay leaf : 2
Sugar : 4 teaspoons
Salt: to taste
Beetroot : 1 small beetroot chopped

DIRECTIONS

Boil vinegar along with peppercorns , bay leaf , sugar and salt for around 5 minutes .

Add thinly sliced beetroot.

As soon as you add the beetroot vinegar will change color to a ruby red .

Boil for another 2-3 minutes.

Put clean dry onions in a clean dry clean glass bottle .

Strain the red vinegar solution into the glass bottle .

Add a few pieces of the beetroot that you strained out into the bottle as well.

Keep in the fridge .

Eat after 24 hours , gets better with time as onions loose their sharpness 

.Keeps well for 2-3 weeks as long as it dosent come in contact with water!