Seafood potpie

 Pot Pies are always popular around my household. They look exotic . 
This time I made the potpie with mixed seag=food but did not add the crust on top. It just has the crust at the bottom.

And also I used shortcuts...I used store bought pie crust.

Seafood potpie 

Seafood pot pie

Ingredients:

1. 2 cans chopped clams in clam juice
2. 1 can oysters (chopped into 4 pieces each)
3. 1 can crab meat
4. 2 cups frozen tiny shrimp thawed
5. 3 cups whole milk
6. 2 cups chicken broth or clam juice
7. 2 tablespoons cream cheese
8. 1/2 cup while onions chopped
9. 1 cup chopped packed spinach (optional)
10. 2 big garlic cloves minced
11. 1/2-1 teaspoon salt (depending on how salty the chicken broth or clam jucei are)
12. 3/4 teaspoon each of fresh ground cumin, paprika
13. 1/2 tablespoon dried dill or 2 tablespoons fresh dill
14. 1 tablespoons butter +1/2 tablespoon olive oil (or use 1.5 tablespoons butter)
15. 1/2 cup all purpose flour +2 tablespoons if needed
16. 2 frozen pie crust thawed
17. 4 pot pie bowls

open all the cans and drain oysters and crab.

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees

divide the pie crust into 4 and lay at the bottom of the pie bowls.

Bake for 7-8 minutes. Take out of the oven and set aside

In a pan heat the oil+butter and add the onions and fry until they become translucent. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the flour and stir and cook on medium low flame for 5 minutes. Heat the chicken broth or clam juice and milk in the microwave for 1 minute.
Add the cream cheese to the pan and stir to melt. Add the liquids and stir until the flour and cream cheese mix well in the liquids. Add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. 
Ladle into the potpie bowls and top it with any pie crust if you want and bake for 20 minutes.

Cool for 5 minutes and enjoy

Mediterranean fish cakes

Fish cake are always a fav at my house. I have made fish cakes with many different ingredients but this one takes the cake...pun intended. These fish cakes have good amount of protein in them and I served it with a Tahini yogurt sauce and to make it a meal, I searched it on top of a salad and with toasted pita bread.

Original Fish Cakes

Mediterranean fish cakes (Fish cakes with canned tuna and chickpeas)

Mediterranean Fish Cakes

Ingredients:

1. 2 cans of Tuna in water, drained
2. 1 can chickpeas, drained, washed and drained
3. 1 egg
4. 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
5. 1-2 cloves to garlic chopped fine
6. 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
7. 1 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, ground cumin
8. handful of mint, cilantro parsley chopped
9. oil for shallow frying

Grind the chick peas...not to a fine paste. Leave it a bit more rustic.

Mix all the ingredients together until well blended.

Divide into 12 parts and make it into cakes about 3 inches wide. Make sure you press the cakes a bit so they stay together. Leave it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

Heat a griddle and add a tablespoon of oil and swirl it around. Fry the cakes 3 minutes on each side and enjoy

Tahini Yogurt sauce

1. 1 tablespoon tahini or white sesame ground to a powder
2. 3/4 cup plain yogurt
3. 1/3 teaspoon each of salt, pepper
4. 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
5. a few mint leaves or dill chopped
6. 1 garlic clove chopped

Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy with the fish cake

Banana Ragi muffins

 W The last time we got bananas we went out of town on a small trip...guess what the bananas did when we were not around. They got ripe and started getting their skin all brown and sad. So...no one will touch them. Hence I had to go hunting for recipes to use up those yummy sweet ripe bananas. So I found this banana muffin recipe and I modified it just a tad bit and made it more healthy and it turned out super delicious.

Ragi which is Finger Millet is supposed to have quite a bit of health benefits. Also I like it. It has a bit of sweet after taste to it. Also this is a vegetarian recipe...no egg

Banana Ragi muffins (Banana and Finger millet muffins)

Banana ragi muffin

Ingredients

1. 2 large or 3 medium sized bananas
2. 1/3 cup sour cream or plain full fat yogurt
3. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4. 3/4 cup sugar (You can also reduce this to 2/3) or any other sweetener of your choice
5. 1 cup each of all purpose flour, ragi flour
6. 2 teaspoons baking powder
7. 1 teaspoon baking soda
8. a pinch of salt
9. If you want you can add chocolate chips to it (1/2 cup)

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees

Mash the peeled bananas with a potato masher into smooth pulp. Add yogurt or sour cream, sugar , vanilla extract and mix until the sugar dissolves. 

Sift the flours and baking powder and baking soda and salt and add it to the liquid ingredients and gently stir until well combined.

Add chocolate chips if using and mix to combine

Line a muffin pan with muffin liners and spray with cooking spray. 

Drop heaped tablespoon of the batter and bake for 20-23 minutes.

Let them cool for 5 minutes before serving

Avocado milk shake

Any new country you go to, there is so much to discover. It opens up your mind in ways that is just not possible by not going to a new land. You see so many new places, new people, new foods and new ways in which people live their lives. Recently we went o Saudi Arabia. It was a very different country in ways I never knew. Other than the language barrier the visit was a pleasant one.
May be I would avoid going there in the middle of summer , or in the beginning or in the end of summer but I would like to visit Saudi Arabia again.
 The variety of food from various countries really surprised me. There were so many things I wanted to try but couldn't . If I ever visit it another time, I know what I would like to try.

One of the things which was a real surprise for me...were the variety of fruits and vegetables available in Saudi. Looks like they import a whole lot of fruits and vegetables from all over the world. The biggest surprise were the variety of drinks and milkshakes...obviously to keep cool and hydrated from the desert heat.

The one thing I would never imagine was Avocado milkshake

Mango, Guava, Avocado and Strawberry milkshake

Avocado milkshake 

Avocado Milkshake

Ingredients:

1. 1 ripe hash avocado
2. 2-3 cups milk or 2 cups milk 1 cup ice
3. 1 tablespoon each of honey and sugar (adjust to taste)

Blend all ingredients together into a smooth milkshake and enjoy

Copycat Cane’s chicken

Chicken fingers

 

Paneer chaat sandwich

 So…it’s one of those days where whatever I have is not what I want for lunch. So I was looking g for sandwich recipes and I found a paneer sandwich but of course that as a base…I made my own paneer sandwich and yum yum yum …lunch 😊

Paneer Chaat Sandwich (Sourdough sandwich with spiced Indian cottage cheese )

Paneer Chaat sandwich

Ingredients 

1. 2 -3 tablespoons grated paneer
2. 1 tablespoon thick plain yogurt 
3. 2 tablespoons each of boiled sweet corn, boiled black beans
4. 1 tablespoon each of fresh cilantro and mint chopped fine, fresh squeezed lemon juice
5. 1 green chili finely chopped 
6. 1-2 teaspoons chaat masala
7. Salt to taste
8. Sour dough bread + butter to toasting bread 

Mix all the ingredients to become a homogeneous mix.

Heat a griddle and toast the bread with butter on one side.

Flip and toast with butter on the other side 

Pull the paneer mix on the bread and cut it into your favorite shape and enjoy

Chinese cookies

 Lightly sweetened cookies

Chinese cookies 

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all purpose flour
2. 4 tablespoons each of butter, cream cheese
3. 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
4. 1 large egg
5. pinch of salt

Mix the butter and cream cheese into a smooth batter and add sugar and mix until its melted. Add the egg and mix well. Add the salt and flour and mix for a smooth dough.
Divide the dough into 15-18 parts and flatten them into 1/2 cm thick cookies.

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 15- 17 minutes. Enjoy!!!

NOTE : Add chocolate chips to these cookies and make them into choc chip cookies :)