For the love of cooking

Baked Asparagus

This is an easy side dish and makes a simple weekday dinner look elegant. I love the taste of fresh roasted asparagus and this sauce just elevates it to another level.

Ingredients
1 bunch Asparagus
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1.5 tsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Butter
Olive oil

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Clean a bunch of asparagus and snap off the thick ends.
3. Place them in an oiled baking pan and spray with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, until tender.
5. While the asparagus are baking, heat a small saucepan.
6. Melt the butter and let it brown.
7. Add the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce.
8. Let the sauce reduce until the desired consistency is achieved.
9. Mix with the asparagus as soon as you take them out of the oven.

Serving Instructions
I served these as a side along with the no knead bread I mentioned earlier and a chicken breast (recipe to follow).

Notes:
1. Taste the sauce and change proportions accordingly. Please keep in mind that the sauce thickens pretty quickly. Also I used less butter to make it relatively healthy. More butter = More taste…
2. The sauce tastes very rich and can be served with a lot of other foods like steak etc.

 

Alton Brown's oatmeal

I once found a huge pack of steel cut oatmeal while window shopping for food at Costco. I tried making some oatmeal according to the instructions on the bag but did not like it a lot. So the pack stayed in a dark corner of a cupboard that was too high up for me to reach until I found this Alton Brown recipe. Its pretty easy to make and stays good for a week. Not enough time is no more an excuse to not eat a hot healthy breakfast in the morning.

Recipe serves 4-5.

Ingredients
1 Cup steel cut oats
3 cups hot water
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
Vanilla Extract (optional)
1 Tbs brown sugar (optional)
1 tsp-Tbs butter

Instructions
1. Heat the butter and toast the oats until they smell fragrant
2. Add hot water and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and let simmer until most of the water is absorbed (about 20 mins)
4. Add milk, buttermilk, brown sugar and vanilla extract, if using.
5. Cook on low for another 5 minutes or until the mix thickens a bit
6. Cook and store in refrigerator in an airtight container

Serving Instructions
This is a very flexible breakfast. You can sweeten the oatmeal with apple sauce,brown sugar,honey, maple syrup or any other way you like.
Mix in some nuts and fruits to make it a complete breakfast.
To make the oatmeal even more creamy and decadent, mix in some peanut butter or nutella

Notes:
1. I tend to use a little less butter just to save a few calories.
2. I make a mix of chopped nuts(walnuts and almonds) and dates and store it in an airtight container.
3. Every morning I heat the oatmeal with a dash of water and mix in the nuts along with a teaspoon of peanut butter. I then eat it along with half a banana, sliced. My husband who used to love his cereal more than me now asks for this oatmeal every day. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Thank you Alton Brown.

 

Cornmeal Cake

An easy to make corn meal cake. Makes about 16 servings. I came across this recipe at Gina's skinny taste, its a blog which features a lot of wonderful, low fat and healthy recipes.

Ingredients
1.5 cups coarse yellow corn meal
1.5 cups sugar
2 Tbs shredded parmesan
1 Tbs baking powder
2.5 Tbs Butter
4 Eggs
3 cups milk
1.5 Tbs All purpose flour

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Add milk,eggs,cornmeal,sugar,flour and butter to a blender and blend until well mixed.
3. Add parmesan and baking powder and pulse until mixed.
4. Oil a baking pan (13 by 9 ) and pour the batter into it
5. Bake for about 50 minutes or until golden brown.

Serving Instructions
This cake is best eaten warm.

Notes:
This cake keeps well in the fridge and can be warmed up in the microwave. It is subtly sweet and very filling.

 

Baked tofu is a delicious way to add some protein to your diet and texture and flavor to your salads.

Ingredients
16 Oz Firm or Extra Firm Tofu

Marinade 1
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Honey/Agave Nectar
2 tsp sambal oelek/sriracha
1 Garlic Clove, finely minced
1.5 Tbsp Green onions
1 tsp Sesame oil
1 tsp Sesame seeds

Marinade 2
3 Tbsp Orange juice
1.5 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder or a clove of garlic minced

Instructions
1. Slice the block of tofu into half and wrap in a double layer of paper towels or cotton kitchen towels.
2. Place a heavy object on the tofu blocks to help squeeze out most of the water. Change the paper towel after about half an hour and let it drain for as long as possible.
3. Cut the tofu block into roughly equal sized cubes and add the marinade.
4. Whisk all the ingredients under marinade.
5.Let the tofu blocks marinade anytime between an hour or overnight.
6. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400.
7. Oil a baking tray (covered with foil if you hate cleaning like me) and place the tofu blocks in a single layer.
8. Bake for 12 minutes and flip the tofu blocks. Repeat every 12 minutes.
9. Lower the oven temperature to 350 after the first 24 minutes and continue baking until you achieve the desired texture, for about an hour.

Serving Instructions
Baked tofu can be eaten with soups or salads or just as a snack.

Notes:
I like my baked tofu on the chewy side, so I baked it for an hour.
Adjust soy sauce and sambal oelek according to taste. Sambal oelek can be replaced by any kind of chilli sauce.
I marinated half the tofu with marinade 1 and the other half with marinade 2.

 

Pistachio Cake

I made this cake for a special occasion a year back. The recipe for the cake itself is from Pioneer woman website (again a beautiful site with hearty meals, pretty pictures and a lot of other stuff).

Ingredients

Cake:
1 box White Cake Mix
1 package (4 Ounce) Pistachio Instant Pudding Mix
1/2 cup Orange Juice
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
4 whole Eggs
3/4 cup Chocolate Syrup
1/2 cup Chopped Pistachios

Frosting:
1 1/3 cups cold milk
1 envelope DREAM WHIP Whipped Topping Mix
1 pkg. (4-serving size) Pistachio JELL-O
2 Tbs chopped Pistachios

Filling
1/2 cup Almonds/Pistachios
1/3 cup Honey
2 Tbsp sifted Unsweetened Cocoa powder
2 Tbsp semi sweet chocolate chips, melted
milk (as needed)

Instructions

Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour two round cake pans or a Bundt pan.
3. Mix all ingredients but chocolate syrup and beat for two minutes on medium-high.
4. Pour 3/4 of the batter into the evenly into each pan.
5. Add chocolate syrup to the remaining batter and mix well. Pour chocolate-laced batter on top of the pistachio batter.
6. Bake for about 45 mins (1 hr if using a bundt pan) or until a tooth pick comes out clean at 350 degrees.

Frosting:
1. Whisk milk, whipped topping mix and pudding mixes with electric mixer on low speed until blended.
2. Beat on high for 4 to 6 minutes or until mixture forms soft peaks.

Filling:

1. Blend the pistachios and cocoa powder in a food processor and gradually add honey.
2. Keep adding milk until the desired consistency is achieved.

Layer the cakes with the filling in between and frost it. Use the remaining filling to pipe and decorate the cake.

Serving Instructions
Serve with some coffee or just by its own.

Notes:
Even though I love baking, I am not very creative and hence my cakes don't score big on "beauty" scale.
I made this recipe a year back, so I am not very sure about the filling. You may have to adjust a few ingredients according to your taste.

 

Re: No Knead Bread

Thanks Vidhya, I will try to include more recipes that do not need an oven. Thanks for reminding me...

 

Hi hemalatha,

I am pretty sure you can use a basic white cake recipe instead of the white box mix. I will try to update the recipe for it soon. Roasting asparagus brings out a very different flavour than stove top cooking, so when I have the time I tend to cook my asparagus in the oven..... Unfortunately I am not too familiar with balsamic vinegar either, I am just going through my first bottle and its just a store brand vinegar. I really liked the browned butter balsamic vinegar sauce. You should definitely try it some time, it may change your mind about balsamic vinegar.... Do feel free to update any of your own recipes or make any corrections or suggestions.

-Misc