Sun Dried Tomatoes

Sun Dried Tomatoes 

When I saw Rhea Mitra Dalal from Euphorea's post about Sun dried tomatoes on the culinary group Chef At Large I knew I had to make the best of the sun which can probably wrinkle and dry me and so a kilogram of tomatoes were chopped and thus began that incredible journey.

Sun -drying tomatoes in places where you get plenty of sun is easy but in a tropical country like our's here are a few points you might find useful which I am sharing from my experience . While you can use any herb or make it any way I am giving you the exact measurement and ingredients which I personally have used

Mixing everything

So basically what you need is :-

1 kilogram of plump red tomatoes. I used the medium sized ones
1 tbsp paprika
1 heaped tsp dried thyme
Salt as per taste but here I would like to point out that salt is a preservative and so using a bit of extra salt wouldn't be a bad idea. I used 1 heaped tsp + 1 dessertspoon of salt.

Dried after 3 days

Chop the tomatoes in small pieces and mix all the ingredients and place preferably on a flat colander or just a big plate. Let it wrinkle up. It might take any number of days from 3 days to 2 weeks. It took me 3 days. Once done the texture will be dry and leathery . Now simply store in a  jar and fill the jar with olive oil, I used 5 to 6 dried cloves of garlic and 1 whole sun dried red chili pepper for extra flavour. let it sit for 2 days and enjoy the amazing flavour. use on pizzas, pastas , salads or even on bread

Here is an idea of what can be done with these gorgeous beauties. Spaghetti with Sun dried tomatoes.


Points to remember :-

1. Place the tomatoes side by side leaving a bit of space between them 
2. Once the sun goes down immediately put your colander in the refrigerator else it might form moulds in a  Tropical country like India. i did a test and put out one slice outside and put the rest inside and the one slice developed mould within 1 hour. 
3. Use a screen to ward off birds 
4. If living in a  dusty area use a muslin cloth on top but make sure it doesn't touch the tomatoes . use bricks on four sides. Remember our Grandmothers making pickles and drying stuff before pickling  

Mishti Doi / Sweetened Curd

Mishti Doi / Sweetened Curd 

The truth is sometimes we have the ideas in our head but until and unless we get 'proof of the pudding' from someone else we are too afraid to take up the challenge. You see I have always made thick curd at home. My trick, well its simple I thicken the milk a bit and strain it to remove all that unwanted layers of cream which does interfere with the curd's smoothness. I have often thought of adding sugar or jaggery to the curd while setting it but then backed out because I was not sure. Now there are a lot of recipes for the typical Bengali sweetened curd out there but most of them require you to bake it and that is perfectly logical but somehow I have a mental blockage. You see having been born and brought up in Calcutta I literally grew up with numerous sweetmeat shops around me and baking curd is not an option followed by any sweet shop in Calcutta and then I came across Swati Burman's recipe which simply used sugar and then set it like one would with normal curd. Simple enough for me. I did reduce the quantity of milk and what I ultimately had after overnight setting and 4 hours of chilling is thick luscious sweetened curd. I do use those big hot pots which keeps food warm.

Serves 5 to 6

Recipe Courtsey : Swati Burman from Ranna-Bati

So this is what I  required :-

1 litre of full fat milk
1 tbsp of store bought thick curd . In Calcutta I relied upon my local famous sweetshop which makes curd thick enough for one to confuse it with clotted cream
4 tbsp sugar , now the original recipe did call for 4 tbsp sugar for 2.5 litres of milk but that seemed a tad too less for me and so I did increase the amount of sugar
2 tsp clarified butter

So you begin by reducing the milk to half its quantity on low heat after you have added the clarified milk before you begin reducing. Please check notes. I took 35 minutes. Add the sugar after 15 minutes of reducing the milk. Now use a spoon and cream the curd in the bowl in which you are setting the curd.  I usually use a stainless steel bowl. You can only use the milk when it reaches a lukewarm stage, slowly add the milk bit by bit after straining it and keep mixing well with a whisk or spoon. I used a spoon, then cover with a steel lid and put it in a warm place. I put it in my hot pot and let it set over-night. In the morning it was a pot of thick luscious curd. I chilled it well and served it.

To be fair I did buy some of Bengal's famous 'Mishti doi' sweetened curd to just compare and found that the sweet shops use some more sweetener but the amount of sugar I used worked perfectly for me.

Note :Using the clarified butter does ensure that your milk does not stick to the bottom of the pan. I have heard that Earthen pots help you set the curd well. Since I have not used an earthen pot I cannot confirm this bit of information but to be fair all sweet shops in Bengal does serve the curd in earthen bowls.

Healthy Egg Chicken Sandwich in Whole wheat bread

Healthy Egg  Chicken Sandwich in Whole wheat bread 

To be fair I am a firm believer that what you make at home tastes best. Sure that jar of mustard, that bottle of hot sauce is superbly tasty but anything that comes out of a jar is something I do not use. My point is, if our grandmothers could then we can as well.

So on a day when I overslept while taking my afternoon nap I got up and realized that I hadn't really eaten much that day thanks to the oppressive heat which anyway kills your appetite at times. Lucky for me I had a freshly whole wheat bread sitting in my kitchen, a jar of homemade  hot sauce , a jar homemade mustard , some boiled chicken waiting to be made into a sandwich.

So my basic aim is to be keep this as healthy as possible and if you do not have homemade sauces do use the ones you buy from outside :) but what I firmly will say is there is no mayonnaise or butter involved. Ultimately the healthy sandwich was delicious enough for me to turn it into dinner.

Serves 2 as a snack and 1 for a meal

So this is what you basically need : -

4 slices of whole wheat bread . If you want the recipe for wholewheat bread , here it is
Roughly 1/2 cup of shredded boiled chicken.
1 boiled egg
Half a red bell pepper chopped into bite sized pieces
2 tsp Mustard sauce.
2 tsp hot sauce . If you want the homemade version here it is
1.5 to 2  tbsp olive oil
2 fat cloves of garlic sliced paper thin
1 tsp paprika
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp rosemary leaves

Heat the oil and saute the bell pepper and garlic with the chicken and rosemary and keep aside. Make thin slices of your boiled egg (I made 4 slices) . Now in the same pan toast the bread till it attains a light brown colour but make sure it doesn't brown too much. Now simply assemble the sandwich by placing some sauteed vegetable chicken ,placing two slices of eggs add some mustard sauce and hot sauce some more sauteed chicken vegetable and top up with a slice of bread. To make sure everything stays in place, place a heavy stone utensil on top of the last slice after assembling the sandwich, this way when you eat it everything would not come out. Enjoy a healthy snack or a healthy meal.

Sesame Chili Grilled Chicken

Sesame Chili Grilled Chicken 

The truth is I get these strange cravings at times. I mean I literally can taste the imagined taste that I crave in my mind and then until I satisfy my taste bud's cravings I feel very uncomfortable. So last evening, I had this particular craving for something spicy. Well, coming from the land of spices one might be confused when I further say that for me its more so a craving for hot food and not just any hot food but succulent juicy chicken with a dominant flavour of red chili.

So at 8 in the evening I went to marinate some chicken and what followed amused me. I was going to make my favourite marination where I basically throw in Garlic, apple cider vinegar, whole red chilies and olive oil when the jar of sesame seeds caught my attention. You see I have this incredible love for sesame and what I particularly fondly remember is my favourite blogger from Lebanon writing about a marination for a kebab where out of many ingredients sesame seeds and cumin were my favourite and the ones readily available to me. So ultimately this is what happened , I created this dish which can be part of no cuisine yet has its inspiration from the Middle East but writing down the recipe is for the lovely people I interact with on Chef at Large. You see when I posted the pictures for my chicken I seriously did not expect that some love members would want the recipe for my chicken where I threw in things would which isn't part of any cuisine. Well these indeed are the small yet delightful joys of life.

What you need for the recipe

200gm chicken with bones - I prefer the legs and wings

For the marination

4 large cloves of garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 tbsp sesame seeds
4 whole red chilies (The spiciest variety you can find)
I used my homemade hot sauce but in case you don't have homemade hot sauce increase the number of whole red chilies to 8
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt as per taste

Simply blend everything from the marination to a smooth paste and marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours or overnight and grill it. I use a Convection Oven from Samsung in India and I grilled it in the grill mode for 20 minutes on one side and 11 minutes on the other. My chicken was soft succulent, juicy and melt in the mouth .

P.S. When blending everything a few sesame seeds might refuse to become part of the marination , don't worry about it simply marinate the chicken with everything