Pasta with Poblano Chilies, Corn and Cilantro Cream

October is 'National Pasta Month', so I wanted to post a pasta recipe before the end of the month. Thanks to Usha for her pasta post, without which I wouldn't have known about it.

Last month's Vegetarian Times magazine had a whole spread of pasta dishes that can be made under 30 minutes and are perfect for weeknight dinners. This dish has Mexican flavors with poblanos, corn and cilantro. I used wholewheat penne pasta and the sauce is made with 3Cs -- cilantro, corn and cream. Dish also has ground cumin to emphasize the Mexican flavor.

Read more »

Argentina - Creme Caramel with Dulche de Leche

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: A for Argentina
Dish: Creme Caramel with Dulche de Leche

This month, our blogging marathon group is setting off on a culinary journey around the world. I have to say this group is filled with hyper active women who get crazy ideas and thanks to our ever enthusiastic leader, Valli, we are able to channel all our energies into something interesting and exciting at the same time. So after our A-Z Indian cooking series, we started thinking on what the theme for the next mega marathon would be and A-Z International cooking series was the next obvious and logical choice.

Starting today, we will be visiting a different country and enjoying a dish or two from the local cuisine. I've always loved the concept of Passport to a certain country by making and enjoying their dishes right at home without even leaving your kitchen. Rachael ray used to make some of these passport style dishes in her '30 minute meals' years ago.

Deciding on one country to cook from a whole list was a difficult task for me. To make things simple, I decided to cook from countries that I'm really familiar with. Since my husband travels a LOT and gets a chance to taste the local food, I've cooked from the countries he visited. Also I'm lucky to have a very diverse group of friends from different countries. I've asked them to share their favorite recipes that I can cook for this series. For a few countries, I played it safe and cooked simple dishes that I'm sure the whole family likes. 

A for Argentina: Starting off the series with Argentina. It is located in the southeastern South America and one of the countries that my husband frequently visits. He likes the country, but says it is really difficult to get vegetarian food there. Not surprisingly because Argentina has the highest consumption of red meat in the world. But he found some authentic Italian restaurants that serve amazing Italian food that he enjoys a lot.

Argentina is famous for its Tango and for delicious milk based desserts like dulche-de-leche, alfajores and so on.

Read more »

Baby Corn-Peas Masala Curry

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 1/ Day 2
Theme: Cooking with Corn
Dish: Baby Corn-Peas Masala Curry

I bookmarked this recipe from Valli's blog the minute I saw it. For some reason the combination of baby corn and peas sounded very appealing. We get canned baby corn here and I usually keep a can in the pantry, so it comes in handy when I'm running out of fresh veggies. Baby corn is also a great addition to Indo-Chinese dishes.

I have had baby corn in rice dishes and fried as appetizer, but never cooked by itself in a curry. I remember eating Chili Baby corn in a restaurant in Hyderabad and it tasted awesome. There are a ton of recipes online and may be one when I'm ready to deep fry I'll make this.

Read more »

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

Blogging Marathon# 30: Week 3/ Day 3
Theme: Kid's Delight - Summer Special
Dish: Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

Day 3 of Blogging Marathon# 30 and today's kid approved Summer treat for Chef Mireille's Kid's Delight: Summer Special event is this cool and creamy Milk Chocolate Ice cream. This is a very decadent dessert, perfect on a sunny day (or any day for that matter). 

I've been making eggless ice creams for quite sometime now and I've had good success with it. But this recipe uses 4 egg yolks. I had frozen some egg yolks after using the whites in making Strawberry birthday cake for 2 little girls who share the same birthday. As I was looking for recipes to use up the frozen yolks, I found this recipe for Milk Chocolate Ice cream on Annies- Eats. The recipe sounded amazing and the pic was too tempting, so I gave it a try and the resulting ice cream was super creamy and delicious.

After visiting Annies Eats I realized that July is National Ice Cream month. 3rd Sunday in July (that is the 21st of this month) is declared as 'National Ice Cream Sunday'.

Read more »