Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Fake sun-dried tomatoes

A few weeks back I stumbled upon Shaheen's food blog, the purple foodie. I immediately fell in love with the layout of the blog. With further exploration I also realised how much she loved to cook, especially bake. Sifting through some of the recipes, I decided to try 'oven-dried tomatoes' partly because the ingredients were lying at home apart from my liking for sun-dried tomatoes. 



The recipe is easy, and a little lengthy, but certainly not as complicated as real sun-dried tomatoes!

Ingredients-
  • Tomatoes - if you find the seasonal deshi-tomatoes, then even better!
  • Garlic
  • Oregano
  • Pepper
  • Salt
  • Oven
Method-
  • Cut the tomatoes in half or smaller pieces depending upon your liking (I bought the non-deshi tomatoes which were small in size and hence halved them)
  • Scoop out all the seeds
  • Roll the cut tomatoes generously in salt and keep them skin-up for upto one hour to remove any excess water (After one hour I drained the water and re-applied the salt as the tomatoes were still watery)
  • Once most water has been drained off, coat the tomatoes in oregano, pepper, finely chopped garlic and lay in a baking dish
  • Sprinkle a little olive oil on it
  • Put the dish in the oven for about 2 hours at the lowest possible temperature. (I kept it for 3 intervals of one hour each on 110 degree Celsius If you think the tomatoes are still juicy, you can keep it in the oven for longer.)
  • Eat with sandwichs, pizzas or as a snack!
My patience ran out so I did not re-bake the tomatoes after the 3-hours. My oven-dried tomatoes were a little moist but I loved them nevertheless! :D



Store the tomatoes in an air-tight container. Also, don't be too generous with the sprinkling of the garlic and oregano, it will take away the essence of the tomato!

Preparation time: approximately 4 hours
USP: Matches up to the real thing!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Lobster (or was it Cray Fish?!)

It's been a while since I wrote about Sunday Cooking, mainly because I'm hardly home for Sunday lunch! My aunt was making lobster a few Sundays back, so the foodie in me canceled the lunch plan with friends just to savour a lobster - my first!

Apart from how complicated the lobsters looked, there was nothing very complicated recipe. There was hardly any peeling and chopping involved, but cleaning the lobster thoroughly is a must and the smell can get to you sometimes. 

 

Here's the receipe my aunt followed-
  1. Clean the lobsters
  2. Marinate them with haldi (turmeric power) and salt
  3. In a pan heat oil and add onions, tomatoes, haldi power and red chilli powder. Stir until fried
  4. Add lobsters and cover for 2-3 minutes
  5. Grate coconut in the grinder and add it to the pan
  6. Add water and salt in the pan to make the gravy
  7. Cover the pan and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes, stir occasionally
  8. Take the lid off and serve the lobster curry with rice and salad!
  9. It's the perfect sunday lunch :)
My opinion about the lobster was that it is more chewy than prwans and has a stronger smell, but the meat seemed more flavoured :D

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