Chicken, Bean and Vegetable Soup in Pressure Cooker

Soup is synonymous with cold to me. Soup is quick. Soup is easy. Soup is nutritious. Soup is comforting. So is warmth. Soup is whole. Soup is hearty. Soup is complete. Soup is contentment.

Cong You Bing / Chinese-style Spring Onion Pancake with Ginger Dipping Sauce

Cong You Bing is a Chinese-style unleavened flat-bread, commonly referred to as Spring Onion Pancakes. It uses very few ingredients and is quite easy to prepare and yet has a very remarkable flavour. The dough is a combination of water, salt and flour. This combined with sesame oil, spring onions, salt and pepper and then being toasted in very little oil creates a delicious snack. The recipe here is from a Chinese colleague from years back.

Garlic-Herb Chicken, Spinach and Spring Onion Pizza

Friday evenings are synonymous with lazy evenings. You simply want to gather round with your family for a long chit chat or sit in front of the television to watch some exciting movies. More importantly, you want to wind down yourself after a hectic and heavy week.

Aloo Tikki: Potato Cutlets

Aloo Tikki is a North Indian street food, prepared with mashed potatoes, some herbs and spices. It is a very popular snack found in Chaat stalls. It is usually served with tamarind sauce and coriander-mint sauce and also at times relished, topped with chick peas, yoghurt, onion, green chilly sauce, tamarind sauce, coriander-mint sauce and sev to make a complete Chaat.

Fruit Salad Sundae

2012 just flew by. 2013 is here to stay. Wish you all a very Happy and Blessed New Year - a year with joy, peace, love, hope, share and care.

Eggs Benedict

Christmas is just round the corner and we are all busy preparing for and planning our Christmas menu. This is the busiest time of the year, and a few days to Christmas, everything is havoc.

Baked Eggs Wrapped in Bacon

Alright! Today isn't much of a recipe but a simple idea to prepare something different for breakfast. Eggs are a quintessential part of a Continental Hot Breakfast and can be presented in different ways. It could be scrambled, fried or poached and served just by itself with toast or together with bacon, sausages, spinach and mushrooms to make a Big Breakfast.

I am not really going big today. And no recipes today either. It is just a presentation of baked eggs wrapped in bacon served with garlic mushrooms and store-bought hash-browns. A simple, yet delicious way to whip up an easy breakfast that your family will enjoy on a Saturday morning. A dash of salt and pepper and what more could they want?

To prepare these eggs, line muffin holes with smoked ham or bacon, on the bottom and the sides. Place a few wilted spinach leaves on this. Then gently crack an egg into each muffin hole. Season with salt and pepper. Bake in a pre-heated fan forced oven at 160° C for 16 to 18 minutes or until the egg-whites are just set but the egg yolk is still runny. Remove from oven and stand for 2 minutes. Run a silicon knife around the sides of the bacon/ ham and gently remove from muffin hole using a silicon spatula.

Serve hot with garlic mushrooms and hash-browns (store-bought) with a sprinkle of parsley leaves.

Gourmet Pizza: Caramelised Onion, Mushroom and Sausage with Basil Pesto

Pizza (pronounced peetza) is an open pie of Italian origin, which has a bread like base and is traditionally covered with toppings like seasoned tomato sauce, cheese, meat, spinach, mushrooms, onion and olives. Pizza is the most versatile Italian dish that is now "not Italian" at all. There are countless varieties of pizzas available in restaurants and in every individuals' house. The toppings and the base can be varied according to one's choice and preference and is considered an easy Friday meal by most families with children.

Chinese Style Minced Beef Chowmein

My boys have lately fallen in love with Oriental flavours, where Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese top their list because they have more spicier options of the lot. So, as soon as they see any Oriental recipe, they want it to be prepared at home, simply for the convenience of eating it at any time they want. We saw this recipe for Minced Beef Chow Mein in an episode of Better Homes and Gardens almost a year back and have fallen in love with the flavours with our first bite.

HLT Mini Quiche

Quiche (pronounced 'keesh') is a French style egg custard, consisting of an egg-cream/milk mixture, cheese, fillings and some spices and is usually baked in a crust. It comes from the Lorraine region of France. The French detest the use of cheese in quiche because it is not meant to be there. However, the non-French have tailored quiche to always contain cheese and that is how I learnt to bake it too.

Prawn Rolls in a Bread

Lunch box ideas for children is a challenge for all Mums. The prerequisites, of course, are different. Some want to provide their children with warm food for lunch, while others are intent on packing up lunch the night before to be refrigerated, which can easily be popped into bags in the morning and carried to school. Some are challenged with the thought of getting something/ anything into their little ones' tummies while others are confronted with the idea of providing easy to eat but nutritious meals which their children can gobble up as fast as they can before they run to the play ground.

Vol-Au-Vent: Creamy Chicken and Avocado

Ah! Finally back with another post. It was crazy here for the last 4 weeks with the children falling sick and not attending school and then preparing for our Onam Celebrations with friends, which we always celebrate at least a month late. Now all done and packed, I hope to get back on track; with work, cooking, home works and activities. Before anything else, I wanted to get done with a post. So when some of my friends came over for dinner on Friday, I decided to make best of the opportunity with something simple - Vol-Au-Vents with a Creamy Chicken and Avocado filling.

Quick and Easy Fried Rice

Fried rice is a remarkably versatile dish that is good for a simple dinner or for a lavish party presentation. It is the simplest, quickest and most nutritious meal that every lady in today's fast paced world resorts to prepare at least once every week in her kitchen. Though its origins can be traced back to China, this rice dish loaded with veggies and sometime egg and meat, is a staple food in almost every household in every fast-paced country now.