Cranberry Orange Chocolate Cheese Cake

 Today being Christmas, I wanted to make something with Cranberries in them. I like those little red jewels, how they make everything look a bit more "Christmasi " 

The original recipe called for white chocolate chips and all I had were Orange coloured whiye chocolate chips. Hence my cheese cake turned out to be orange in color.

But this is one of the best cheese cakes I made yet!!!

Here is original cheese cake recipe

Cranberry Orange Chocolate Cheese Cake

Ingredients for crust:

1. 12 oreo cookies scrapped out of the cream (reserve this) and pound into powder
2. 1/4  cup melted butter

Ingredients for cheese cake:

1. 16 oz 1 pack  or 2 packs of 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
2. 2 large eggs
3. 1/3-1/2 cup white chocolate chips of your choice of color
4. 1/3-1/2 cups dried cranberries (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the ingredients of the crust and prepare a 9 inch round pan. Add the crust mix and press it onto the bottom and by the sides

For the filling, beat the cream cheese with the melted chocolate chips. If some of them do not melt completely , do not worry...they turn out to be extra fun in the cheese cake . Add the eggs one at a time and  mix again until everything is incorporated. Add cranberries if using. Add the filling to the pie pan and bake for 45-50  minutes. Let it cool and freeze for 1-2 hours before serving. Enjoy

Buffalo chicken rollups from scratch

 These buffalo chicken roll ups are so easy to make and so delicious to make, I think I found my new favorite.

You can use the pillsbury crescent rolls or pizza dough if you do not want to make the dough from scratch . But because I did not want to use the pillsbury crescent rolls and they are a bit sweet for me for this recipe, I made my own dough, which is also super simple to make

Buffalo chicken rollups from scratch

Buffalo Chicken Rollups

Ingredients for Buffalo Chicken Filling

1. 1 12.05oz canned chicken breast drained completely
2. 3-4 tablespoons Frank's hot buffalo sauce
3. 1 tablespoon each of ranch dressing mix, sour cream or mayo
4. 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Recipe for the Dough

Mix all the ingredients for the chicken filling .

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts and roll it into 8X6 inches rectangle about 1/3 inch thick. Lay the filling on the sheet about 1 inch away from all side. Roll it jelly roll like.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cut the log into 1 inch bites and lay them 1 inch apart in a prepared sheet to bake. Bake them 30 minutes .

If you want you can melt 2 tablespoons of butter with a tablespoon of Italian seasoning and a pinch a salt and apply to the sides of the roll ups. Enjoy!!!

Here is another recipe Chicken Stromboli

Grilled chicken

 This grilled chicken recipe is super delicious.

Do not want to grill...pan fry it with a bit of an oil and its equally delicious.

Serve it with Naan, Pita bread, rice, spaghetti..whatever you live...eat it on the side with a salad as the main dish. 

Grilled chicken (Chicken marinated with Indian spices)

Chicken grilled on stove top grill

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
2. 1 small/medium small onion ground to paste
3. 1 inch x 1 inch ginger peeled
4. 2-3 cloves of garlic
5. 1 tablespoon each of oil, fresh lemon juice or white vinegar
6. 1 teaspoon each of salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala
7. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon chilli powder

Grind the onions and ginger and garlic into paste. Mix all the ingredients together and marinate the chicken 30 minutes to 4 hours

Heat a pan or a grill. If you are grilling it, put the pieces of chicken on skewers and grill on a pan, else all the "masala" (onions and spices) will fall on the grill fire and make a mess.

If cooking in a pan, heat the pan and on high heat cook the chicken for 15-20 minutes until it becomes dry and light brown in color. Enjoy

Garlic baked Salmon and Broccoli

 This is a super easy and super delicious recipe. The Salmon and Broccoli just flew out of the pan

Garlic baked Salmon and Broccoli

Ingredients:

1. 3-4 Salmon Fillets
2. 2-3 crowns of broccoli and cut into florets
3. 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
4. 1 teaspoon salt
5. 1/2 teaspoon pepper
6. 1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat oven to 400°F or 375 degrees for dark pan. On a large rimmed baking sheet, lay the Salmon fillets and the broccoli.  Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the fish and the broccoli. Run the chopped garlic onto the fish. Drizzle with oil all over. Bake for 15 minutes.

Turn the fish and broccoli and bake for 10 more minutes. 
Enjoy Salmon and Broccoli with some brown rice 

French Toast

 My mom was wayyyyy ahead of her times in many many ways. One of the ways she was way ahead of the times in India was cooking. She used to make some of the dishes that I have no idea where she got the ideas from.

And on top of it, some of the dishes were baked and of course we did not have an oven in India in those days. But every single one of those items she made, was amazing.

But this French Toast doesn't seem that extra ordinary...in those days...back in the mother land...we barely ever had bread for breakfast...heck...we rarely used to get bread in the first place.

Stuffed French Toast

Ammi's French Toast

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup milk
2. 1 egg
3. 4-6 slices of few days old bread
4. 1/2 teaspoon water
5. 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and chilli powder
6. butter or ghee for frying

In a wide bowl (wide enough to lay the entire slice of your bread flat), melt the salt and chilli powder in 1/2 teaspoon water. Now add milk and add the egg and beat it.

Heat a griddle.

Dip the bread for few seconds until it soaks some of the custard. pick it up and hold it over the over the bowl for excess liquid to drip back. 

Add some ghee/butter to the griddle and carefully place the bread on the griddle. Fry for 1-2 minutes and flip. Add some more butter/ghee and fry for a minute or 2 again. Enjoy!!!

Stuffed French Toast

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup milk
2. 1 egg
3. 4 multi-grain (or 7 or 12 grain) bread slices 
4. Peanut butter, Nutella, banana sliced into 1/4 cm circles
5. butter or ghee for frying

In a wide bowl (wide enough to lay the entire slice of your bread flat), add milk and add the egg and beat it.

On 2 slices spread peanut butter and on the other two Nutella. Spread the banana slices and put the nutella topped bread on the peanut butter and banana slices and smoosh it a bit. 

Heat a griddle.

Dip the bread for few seconds until it soaks some of the custard. pick it up and hold it over the over the bowl for excess liquid to drip back. 

Add some ghee/butter to the griddle and carefully place the bread on the griddle. Fry for 1-2 minutes and flip. Add some more butter/ghee and fry for a minute or 2 again. Enjoy!!!

Shanghai Scallion Pancakes (Cong You Bing)

 Some time ago, one of kids' friend's family invited us fo dinner. They were from Shanghai. The food she served was so different from what we call "Chinese" when we go to the restaurants here. It was amazing. Like, when people come to my house and say ..."oh you mean to say you do not eat Tandoori chicken or Butter chicken every SINGLE day???"

Anyway, that day she served these delicious Scallion pancakes, which were so much like the layered paratha were have in India.  Which is our favorite kind of paratha. So finally yesterday I decided I would make it and it was so great. It takes a while to make but at the end the results are delicious. The original recipe is here

Shanghai Scallion Pancakes (Cong You Bing) (Pan fried layered flatbread with scallions)

Shanghai Scallion Pancakes

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups all purpose flour + more for making the bread
2. about 1 cup hot water
3. 2 cups finely chopped green onion or scallion
4. 3/4 teaspoon salt
5. oil for brushing and pan-frying

Ingredients Oil Mixture:

1. 1/3 cup vegetable oil
2. 2 tablespoons cup AP flour
3. 5 scallion whites

Make the main dough: Slowly stir the hot water to the flour. Wait until cooled down and knead until it forms a smooth dough. Or knead the dough with a stand mixer for 5-7 minutes with low speed.

Rest the dough: Cover with plastic wrapper or a wet cloth and rest for at least 30 minutes. So the gluten can be well rested and we can easily roll the pancake out.

Make the oil-flour mixture: heat oil over medium fire and fry green onions until browned. Discard the green onion and keep the oil. Pour flour into a small bowl and stir in the hot oil slowly.

Roll out the dough: Cut the dough into 4 equal portions and roll one portion out to a large rectangle wrapper. Sprinkle salt and top with a layer of oil-flour mixture and then another layer of chopped scallion.

Roll-up the dough: Starting from the long end, roll the dough up like folding a hand fan. Slightly stretch and roll one side up to the middle and then the other side to the middle too. Overlay the two ends. Cover the dough and rest for 15 minutes or so. Repeat the process and finish all of the remaining portions. The former twos with more layers are assembled with the hand folding fan methods, while the two in the second line is made with simply roll up method.

Roll each portion to a large pancake (around 5 inches in diameter). If you plan to cook the pancakes later, package each of them with an air-tight bag and freeze up for 1 week.

Frying the pancakes: add around 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan and fry the pancakes until golden brown on one side (takes 3-4 minutes over medium fire), turn over the fry the another side for 3 minutes too. After turning over, slightly press the center of the pancake so they can be fried evenly.

I served with with Soya sauce dipping sauce 

Soya sauce dipping sauce 

Soya Sauce dipping sauce

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 cup soya sauce
2. 1/2 tablespoon sugar
3. 1 tablespoon Sambal chillie paste
4. 1 tablespoon rice vine or white vinegar

Mix all the ingredients together well to incorporate

Pecan Banana Bread

 So...the kids have been asking for Bananas and me and my husband went out one day and both of us got Bananas. As the story of any house with kids goes...after eating a couple of them the kids were done with bananas. So...what does a good mom does...uses the leftover fruits in different ways. And one of those ways of using Bananas is Banana Bread ofcourse.

This Banana bread turned out to be so yummy...here is the original post

Pecan Banana Bread

Pecan Banana Bread

Ingredients

1. 1 Stick (½ Cup) Butter
2. 3 Large Ripe Bananas
3. 2 Large Eggs
4. 1 teaspoon each of Vanilla Extract, Baking Soda, poppy seeds (optional)
5. 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
6. 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
7. 1 teaspoon½ teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon
8. 1/4 cup walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter and set aside.
Add the stick of butter to a large bowl and microwave for 1 minute, or until melted.
Add the bananas to the same bowl and mash with a fork.
Add the vanilla extract and egg to the bowl and use the same fork to mash and stir until no yellow streaks of egg remain.
In a second large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and poppy seeds..
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together with a spatula just until combined. Add the nuts and mix one to combine .
Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.

Optional Glaze:

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar melted with 2 teaspoons milk and spread over the bread when it is hot. Enjoy!!! with coffee