Basil-Mint Lemonade.

SUMMER IS HERE! Well, its been here for a while but I'm still screaming because it's not over yet. Now, if you know me, you know that I am always looking forward to summers, regardless, the time of the year and to be honest I'm not ashamed of it. I look forward to summer because I love staying indoors on hot days sipping on a drink. I don't know about you but the reason I stay in is because I live in a very humid city and getting out during the day in the month of June is nearly impossible, so, I curl up with a book and a lemonade waiting for the sun to set. That being said, I'm here to share my favourite lemonade recipe, the one I sip quite often.
Keep in mind that this recipe yields one serving, so, double, quadruple, if needed.

Basil-Mint Lemonade:

Recipe:

1. 5 basil leaves ( I used Thai Sweet Basil);

2. 10 mint leaves;

3. 1.5 cups or 355ml of cold water;

4. 3 tablespoons ground up sugar;

5. 3 tablespoons worth lemon juice.

Procedure:

1. In a food processor, add in: basil leaves, mint leaves, sugar, lemon juice;

2. Blend until cooperated;

3. Pour out in a glass of choice and add in the water;

4, Add ice if needed.

I hope you love the recipe and find it soothing in this heat, until next time!

Vegan Milks: Almond, Rice, Oat.

Veganism is a lifestyle many are adopting nowadays and it is catching on everywhere, even, here in India. I have a few friends who have named veganism their primary lifestyle about a couple of months and probably, their main problem with their lifestyle is the lack of availability of non-dairy milks except for soy-milk. If you haven't tasted soy-milk, you wouldn't know that it tastes absolutely disgusting, so, here I have three delicious non-dairy milks for my vegan and lactose-intolerant friends.

1. Almond Milk: 

Recipe:

1. 1 cup almonds;

2. 4 cup water+ extra to soak. 

Procedure:

1. Soak almonds overnight;

2. Blend almonds and 4 cups of water in a blender, till frothy and creamy;

3. Store in airtight container for 3-4 days.

2. Rice Milk:

Recipe:

1. 1 cup cooked white rice;

2, 2 cups water.

Procedure:

1. Blend rice with water in a blender until creamy;

2. Store in airtight container for 2-4 days.

3. Oat milk:

Recipe:

1. 1 cup oats;

2. 2 cups water.

Procedure:

1. Blend oats and water together in a blender until creamy;

2. Store in airtight container for 2-4 days.

I hope you give these delicious vegan milks a try and enjoy them too! until next time!

Un-boxing of the Borosil Primus Juicer+ Two of my favourite juice recipes+ Review of said juicer.

There are only a few things in life I'll admit to, one of them being my ignorance towards the usage of a juicer. If and when I needed juice, I could go out and buy myself a pack of pre-made juice and that would be that folks.

Last month or so, I was walking around the mall with a friend of mine, you know, just Saturday afternoon window shopping, since we were bored out of our minds, we visited an electronic appliance shop and almost everything there was on sale, my friend pointed me towards the direction of a juicer which was 50% off but I neglected it and went on ahead. I’ve had my share of second thoughts on that very hasty decision.

So, when Borosil sent over this juicer for reviewing, I was like, “Ya, Okay, let’s see what’s all this about.”

After several minutes of thinking, I realized that a juicer is a useful kitchen asset and saves you those valuable minutes of above thinking. My kitchen is my sanctuary and almost every day, something delicious is created there. I am a huge fan of juice and this juicer came as a huge blessing. Fresh juice is better than packed juice because:

1.       It is free of preservatives and unnecessary sugar;

2.       It is fresh.

My mother wasn’t particularly happy about the juicer because, “saaf kaun karega?” (who’ll clean it?)

 Un-Boxing.

Now, unboxing the juicer was a breeze. The juicer was boxed perfectly and everything was intact, the juicer was pre-arranged to save your life and the instruction manual was as simple as it could be. The juicer, like any standard one, had a pulp collector, juice collector, food pusher, stainless steel micro-mesh strainer basket, feed chute, locking latch and a switch.

 Recipes.

Recipe: 1

I love green juice, probably any juice that contains green vegetables with fruit because then I’d have my nutrition and not have to put gross flavours into my mouth.

My first recipe is “detox and strength”. 

Juicing this recipe was a breeze, I just put all my ingredients into the juicer and dialled my dial to setting no.2 for I had apples in the system and juicing them would require more power. Now, when you’re making this recipe, be sure to layer the ingredients instead of just putting one ingredient after another, this way, you’re letting the flavours meet each other in harmony. Also, with this recipe, you have to juice the ingredients in two rounds because there’s only so much a juicer can take.

Ingredients:

     1 cup spinach;

          2 apples, roughly chopped;

        2 clementine oranges

       Now, just juice on setting no.2 and enjoy your delicious and nutritious juice.

Recipe: 2

I love orange, the colour and the fruit. Honestly, orange compliments all flavours; be it salad or chocolate but we aren’t talking about that today. Today, I’ll be sharing my recipe for a juice that’ll rejuvenate your soul.

-

My second recipe is “Rehabilitation.”

Ingredients:

1.       1 cup chopped carrots;

2.       2 clementine oranges;

3.       A dash of ginger;

4.       Juice of one lemon

Again, layer the ingredients up and this recipe also requires two rounds.

Juice it on setting no. 2 and blend that rehab of a juice up.

Verdict.

The juicer stands by its promise and gives you fresh juice under a minute. The juicer is easy to use and novices need not crack their brain open; the settings and instructions are clear.

While Juicing my second recipe, the sound made be the juicer sounded a lot like the audio derivation from Jurassic park but it was acceptable for it had to juice up a hard cup of carrots.

All in all, I loved this juicer; it is easy to deconstruct, clean and juice.

Shireen Review; 7/10.

Recommend it!

Vkusno!

How are you all? I need to tell/ask you guys something: did you know that dumpling has a fabulous Russian cousin? I bet you did, even if you didn't I’m here to tell you guys about it! The name of this dish is call pierogi, it follows the rule of the dumpling filling and the dumpling coat but has a different making procedure, by the way,  I wanted to make my own pierogis and photograph them but I’m unwell and my mother won’t let me out of bed, thank God for laptops, I've made pierogis several times before,so, I can tell with absolute certainty that these will taste awesome!

Ingredients:

For the coat:

2 cups of all purpose flour;

1 cup water.

Filling (Like dumpling, pierogi’s fillings have no confinements, fill in whatever you like!), I used:

1 cup finely chopped boiled baby corn,

½ cup parmesan cheese.

Paprika to taste.

Procedure:

Procedure:

Make the dough, add water to the flour and make moist dough;

Roll out the dough, with the help of a round cookie cutter, make small circles of dough;

Flatten out the circles one by one;

Add filling, be rational with filling, excess of filling might cause the dough to loosen up and open during the cooking process;

Close the opening the dough circles when the filling is satisfactory;

In a boiler, set water to heat up, when the water starts boiling, put the raw pierogis in it;

When the pierogis come up the surface of the water, remove pierogis;

In a pan, heat up oil and add in the pierogis, slow roast them and serve them hot!

Guysss! Important announcement, I am transforming this blog from food to lifestyle and food blog, I don’t know, this might be sick brain talking but I’m actually considering it, I will confirm this next week when I feel a little better!

Anyway,

YEST’ KHOROSHUYU YEDU!

GRILL IT!

Okay, first of all, I'm extremely sorry for not updating my blog last week, I was in a bit of a soup but it's okay now. Today's post isn't a recipe though, it is my very first restaurant review! the restaurant in question is Barbeque Nation, Kolkata. So here goes!

Preference : Okay, so this part of the review is bad, we were seated by 12:03, since Barbeque Nation is known for Korean grilling basis, what they do is that they place a small grill right at center of your table and bring in semi-cooked skewers and you get the privilege to skewer it yourself, we did not get our grill until around 12:23, while the table across already had skewers on theirs, which was kind of annoying.

Rate for preference: 2.5/5

Ambiance: The ambiance is a natural restaurant ambiance, nothing special and nothing too deranged, so, it was okay.
Rate for ambiance: 3.5/5
Food: Okay the main part, FOOD, the food was breath-taking, it was delicious. If you visit now, I insist you try the paan-kulfi for it was magnificent, it tasted exactly like paan.
Rate for food: 4.5/5

Service: Although, the preference part was annoying, the service was surprisingly good, the waiters were friendly and co-operative, there was a part where a waiter came up to us and asked how we liked the food, my father responded saying that the food was exceptional but the lamb wasn't up to the mark, the waiter brought in the chef and chef inquired about the lamb, my father responded saying that according to himself, lamb should be dry instead being in gravy, the chef took it on a serious note and insisted on making him a plate dry lamb, and so he did and that lamb tasted good, the co-operation and the service motive was a plus point.
Rate for service: 4.8/5.
Important suggestions to future diners:
1. I strongly recommend getting a reservation before hand and that too, 2-3 days before the actual dining plan. 
Address: K1, RDB Boulevard, Block EP and GP, Sector 5, Salt Lake, Kolkata.
Phone number: 033 60600000,
Cuisines: North Indian, Mediterranean.
Timings: 12 noon-2:45 P.M, 6:30 P.M-10:30 P.M.( Monday-Sunday)
Cost for two(excluding alcohol): Rs. 1600.

ENJOY!

Drum rolls, please!

Hey people! How's it been? So, a few days ago, I was craving a certain rice-pasta sizzler from one of my favourite places but like stated before, I have my exams going on so, I cannot go, *silent sobs* buuuttttt that doesnt really mean that I couldn't recreate it, I do not have a sizzler dish, so I made, *drumrolls* schezwan  rice-pasta, here goes:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pasta;

1 cup any choice of rice ( I used brown basmati);

1/4 cup tomato sauce;

3 red chillies;

1/2 tablespoon non-fruit vinegar;

2 pods of garlic;

1/2 tablespoon pepper;

1 tablespoon vegitable oil.

Procedure:

1. Heat up the oil and add in the garlic, roast till aromatic, put the pasta to boil.

2. In a food processor, add the chillies, tomato sauce, pepper, vinegar, salt and process till smooth.

3. In a pan, add some oil and add in the processed sauce, pasta and rice and cook on a low flame.

4. when cooked, serve on barbequed cabbage leaves. Vola!

Bon Appatite!

 

Traveling Back In Time.

Ah childhood! those amazing days and those amazing times, I vividly remember being a happy child, I loved being a child. Oh, wait, yeah! food blog. I talked a bit about my childhood and those lovely days, lovely days because it was filled with chocolate and peanut butter, this recipe is all about it, it has my favourite three things: chocolate, peanut butter and sugar-coated chocolate, now, let's get to the good stuff already!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour;

1/2 cup coco powder;

1/3 cup butter;

1/4 peanut butter;

3/4 castor sugar;

few m&m/gems/skittles;

1 teaspoon baking powder;

2 eggs.

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Melt in the butters with sugar, mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

3. Mix the eggs in the butter and sugar mixture, mix well to avoid lumps.

4. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients to avoid clumps yet again.

5. On a baking tray (if it's not a non-stick tray, use butter), make little balls off the mixture and put it on the tray, top the cookie dough off with the chosen sugar coated confectionery and bake it for 15-20 minutes at 180 degree Fahrenheit. 

Enjoy!