Pomegranate Margarita

Its pomegranate season - and whats more than to have a drink with the taste on the background. Making margaritas is fun. Here are the tips

1. To salt the rim of the glass - try rubbing the rim of the glass with a lemon wedge and then dip it in salt.
2. Proportion of fruit juice to tequila ( this can be altered based on your taste) - 1.5 cups of juice and 3/4 cup of tequila. A little bit of sugar syrup can also be added. Blend the mixture and pour on ice cubes and serve.
3. Make ice cubes of fruit juice and use them to blend with tequila for a smooth crushed ice textured margarita

Thanksgiving dinner

Hello all, Here's a shot of my thanksgiving buffet dinner table - Turkey, stuffing, corn bread with sundried tomatoes and rosemary, eggplant parmesan, caesar salad, gravy, cranberry sauce, wild rice pilaf with carrots, peas and mushrooms and for the ultimate dessert - angel food cake with berries. The recipes will be uploaded soon.

Angel food cake with mixed berries in a trifle dish

This is the easiest and the most prettiest dessert that will give a "WOW" expression from everyone - looking at it and also tasting it.

First - you have to make angel food cake. It can also be bought at stores. But i used the betty croker mix. Just follow the instructions on the box. I made two square pans cake with the mix. My trifle dish was round and i dont have round baking dishes at home - so just adjusted with the square ones - but it didnt matter in the end. Allow the cakes to cool down for atleast an hour. and then using a serrated knife to slice each cake midway into two halves. As the name suggests - The crunchy crust and the soft, super spongy cake all by istelf is heavenly.


Ingredients required:
2 cup strawberries sliced
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blueberries
1 cup black berries
1/2cup water
1/2 cup sugar
vanilla extract
Frozen Dessert whipped topping - Thaw this one in the refrigerator for 4 hours before use.

In a pan, put a tbsp of butter and put in all the berries. After a minute add the sugar and water. Allow the mixture to bubble a bit and the berries soften and then add vanilla/strawberry extract. I added a tbsp of corn starch mixed with water to thicken this syrup - so that it ends up with a spreadable jam like consistency.

Now for the decoration - be as creative as you can - any decoration will be good

First layer - I put in one layer of angel food cake, spread the mixed berries spread and also used some fresh berries on this layer,

Second layer - layer of cake with whipped cream spread

Third layer - cake with mixed berries spread and fresh berries

Fourth and top layer - put in the cake and add a heavy dose of whipped cream so that the it reaches the top of the trifle dish and then decorate the top with fresh berries. I also added few mint leaves for garnish.

Cover the dish and place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours before serving.

Wild Rice pilaf with peas, carrots and mushrooms

I didnt want a plain wild rice pilaf for the thanksgiving dinner. So I jazzed it up with peas carrots and mushrooms and a bit of indian touch and cooked the dish in an oven instead of the rice cooker. So here goes the recipe. The amount of vegetables and seasoning can be altered based on your taste.

Ingredients:
1. Uncle bens' wild rice and long grain original recipe (picture shown). This one comes with herb seasoning etc - 3 packets. Each packet contains approx 1 cup raw rice.
2. Peas (Frozen or canned) - 1 cup
3. Shredded Carrots - 1 cup
4. Mushrooms - 2 cups
5. 1 tbsp of coriander powder (Cannot get away with the indian roots :) love the coriander/ dhaniya powder)
6. chicken stock - 1 cup
7. Bunch of cilantro for garnish


In a non-stick pan, heat 1 tbsp of butter. Add the carrots and mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Meanwhile, wash and drain the wild rice and add to the carrots and mushrooms. Saute the mixture for 3-4 minutes until you notice the rice going dry.
Add the water at this point. For every cup of rice i add 2 cups of water - no less no more and I always stick to this proportion when i cook pilaf/pulav or biryani. For this one I added 6 cups (one cup chicken stock and 5 cups water). Vegetable stock can also be added instead. Every box of the wild rice has a seasoning packet. I added just one packet of seasoning for the 3 cups of rice and added 1 tbsp of coriander powder for a bit of indian touch. The seasoning packet already has salt. I added a tsp of salt. Adjust the salt content as per your taste.
Add peas at this point and then allow the mixture to simmer until all the water is absorbed by the rice. Garnish with coriander. Cover the pan and place in a pre-heated oven at 400 F for 25-30 minutes. The rice will be done perfectly.



I realize the "valli's kitchen" mark on my pictures might be annoying - but it is just to protect my work from plagiarism.

Corn bread with rosemary and sundried tomatoes

Corn bread is one of the side dishes in the thanksgiving dinner. I dont remember which show i saw this recipe in - is it emeril or rachel - i am not sure - but somehow knew(ie heard on food network) that rosemary will be a great addition to corn bread. And oh my god! when the corn bread was baking - the smell was awesome.

Ingredients:
1. Corn bread mix (I used marie calenders) - 5 cups
2. Sweet corn (Frozen or Canned) - 2 cups
3. Sun dried tomatoes - 1 cup
4. Few sprigs of rosemary (3 tbsp chopped)




Mix 1.5 cups of water for every cup of cornbread mix(as per the instructions on the package). Make sure the batter is smooth and there are no lumps. Add the rest of the ingredients -corn, sundried tomatoes and rosemary (chopped finely). If you are using frozen corn kernels - thaw them before mixing into the batter.Bake the corn bread at 375 F for 30 minutes - I have a picture of the corn bread baking in the oven.

To test if the corn bread is done - poke a knife/fork through it and if it comes out clean it means the bread is done. After the bread cools down - cut into pieces and serve.

Fruit salad - mango, raspberry, mint & basil

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ever tried mixing fruits with herbs? You ought to try this one and it can be one of the salads you serve on the thanksgiving table or as a dessert. Its part of my thanksgiving dinner table. My tryst with this salad happened at a display counter in central market. It was just mango and basil salad. The mint and raspberries are my addition to this recipe. The flavors in the salad are so distinct yet when combined - the salad is heavenly.

Ingredients -
1 cup chopped mango
1/2 cup raspberries (optional)
1 tbsp basil chopped
1 tbsp mint chopped
1 tsp lime juice

Mix the above ingredients and savour all the tastes that pop in your mouth. The mangoes i bought are a bit tart - so i added 1 tsp of splenda - artificial sweeteners or sugar can be added.

Kheema tomato curry

I already had two "fry" dishes on my blog. The third one ought to be different. So here I present a LAMB KHEEMA or KHAIMA (ground meat) curry with TOMATOES. Its super easy and super tasty. The curry can be eaten with roti or rice. I spread some curry on bread slices and make a sandwitch out of this - its really yummy and makes a great lunch.

The ingredients list.

1. Ground lamb meat - 2 pounds
2. Onions large - 2 (avoid the sweet varieties) - chopped
3. 2 green chillies (jalapeno peppers)finely chopped
4. 2 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
5. Tomatoes - 4 medium sized chopped ( i chop the tomato into larger pieces as I like tomato chunks in the curry)
6. Salt to taste (approximately 1.5tsp)
7. Pinch of turmeric
8. 3 tsp coriander powder
9. 1 tsp chilli powder ( this can be avoided if you want the dish to be less spicy)
10. Cilantro for garnish

In a pan heat 2-3 tbsp of oil. Add the chopped onions and green chillies and fry the onions until transparent(about 3-5 minutes). Add the ginger garlic paste and fry the mixture for another 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and allow the mixture to cook for 2 more minutes. The contents of the pan will look as shown

Now add the ground lamb, salt , chilli powder and turmeric and mix well. Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium low and allow the meat to cook for 10-15 minutes(Stir the mixtures once or twice midway to ensure uniform cooking). It is important to cover the pan when the meat is cooking. The water from the meat will accumulate in the pan at this point. Add the coriander powder and a pinch of any garam masala powder you have. And give 5 more minutes for this dish - and its done. Garnish with coriander before serving.