Greek style Orzo Salad

Ingredients

2 cups boiled whole wheat or white Orzo Pasta
 1 cucumber peeled, chopped
1 cup diced grape tomatoes
1/4 cup feta cheese crumbled
2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
 2 sprigs green onions chopped
 1 sprig mint chopped
1/4 tsp salt
Juice of half a lime

Method

 In a big bowl toss all these ingredients together. Serve chilled or room temperature.

Lebanese Rice

Ingredients

 1½ cups Long grain basmati rice
¼ cup clarified butter/ghee ( recipe included below)
 ½ cup angel hair pasta broken in 2 inch pieces
 3 cups boiling water
 1½ teaspoons salt
 1 tbsp minced fresh parsley

 Method

 Place the rice in a fine mesh strainer and rinse thoroughly using your fingers to rub off as much starch as possible.
 Set aside.
 In a large, deep pan heat the butter over medium heat until melted.
 Add the broken pasta and roast till it turns slightly brown, stirring frequently.
 Be careful to not let it burn.
Add rinsed rice to the pan and stir into the vermicelli and butter.
 Toast the rice for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.
Carefully pour boiling water into the pan and stir once.
 Add salt then stir again.
Bring to a boil, stir and reduce heat to low and cover with a lid.
 Cook for 15 minutes.
Remove pan from the heat and fluff rice with a fork before sprinkling with fresh parsley to serve.

Ghee Recipe

1 lb unsalted butter

Place butter in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. 

Bring butter to boil. 

This takes approximately 2 to 3 minutes. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium. The butter will form a foam which will disappear. 

Ghee is done when a second foam forms on top of butter, and the butter turns golden. 

Approximately 7 to 8 minutes. 

Brown milk solids will be in bottom of pan. 

Gently pour into heatproof container through fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. 

Store in airtight container being sure to keep free from moisture. 

Ghee does not need refrigeration and will keep in airtight container for up to 1 month.

Chicken Tikka Kebabs

10 chicken tenderloins
1 cup greek yogurt
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
 1/2 tsp cumin pdr
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp ginger pdr or 1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove of fresh garlic crushed
1/4 1 tbsp olive oil
5 bamboo skewers

 Make the chicken marinade ahead of time and add some time for it to come to room temperature. Take a big bowl.
 Mix the Yogurt, salt, paprika, cumin, masala, ginger, garlic, olive oil with a whisk.
Now add the chicken one by one, coat them in the marinade.
Place the chicken pieces together such that they are submerged in the marinade as much as possible. Keep this covered in the fridge for at least 5 hours.
 When you are ready to grill the chicken make sure you remove the bowl from the fridge and leave it on your counter for an hour.
 Heat your oven to 350 deg F
Now take your bamboo skewers and wash them.
 Take one piece of chicken and thread it on the skewer in a zigzag fashion. repeat on the same skewer with the second tenderloin and the third.
Thread another 3 tenderloins to the second skewer.
 Then finish the last two skewers with two tenderloins each.
 Place all the skewers in a baking tray.
Bake for 15 mins on one side.
Then flip to the other side and bake another 15 mins.
 Then increase the oven temp to 375 degrees.
Bake the chicken kebabs further for another 20 mins or until the center of the chicken isn’t pink anymore.
 You can grill these on the BBQ…with other veggies on the skewers like onions, zucchini, sweet peppers.

Oven Fried Chicken

6 chicken tenderloins

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup flour 

1/2 cup Panko crumbs

1/4 cup rolled oats that have been pulverized in a blender till a crumb consistency

2 tbsp olive oil

3 pinches salt to flavours the coating 

1/2 tsp oregano

Seasoning for the marinade

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Method

In a shallow glass dish mix the marinade seasoning and the buttermilk.

Add the chicken to it and coat the tenders with the marinade using a pair of tongs.

Cover and let it marinate in the fridge for about 1 hour.

When ready to make preheat your oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

Take a 13 by 9 inch baking tray and line the bottom with baking foil.

Spread the olive oil on it.

Now take a large gallon size ziplock bag.

Add the Flour, Panko, oat crumb, salt and oregano..

Seal and give the crumbs a good shake and a mix.

Bring the chicken out from the fridge.

Remove the excess marinade by blotting each piece on a paper towel.

Discard the towel.

Now place the baking tray in the oven for a few mins. While that heats get the chicken ready.

With tongs add each piece of chicken into the crumb bag.

Seal and toss the chicken in the bag.

Make sure you use your hands to coat all the chicken pieces with the crumb.

Remove each chicken piece, open the oven door and place it on the heated tray.

Repeat with all chicken till they are lined up on the tray evenly.

Bake the tenders for 11 minutes on one side.

Then flip them to the other side and let them crisp up for another 8 mins.

 Once done remove from oven and serve warm with steamed veggies or with your favourite dipping sauce.

Middle Eastern Sweet Coconut cake

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

6 eggs at room temperature

2 cups corn oil or canola

1 cup milk

2.5 tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp cardamom pdr

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 cups flour

3 cups of shredded unsweetened coconut..can use fresh or dried

1/3 cup roasted pistachios crushed coarsely as garnish.

For the Syrup

2 cups water

2 cups sugar powdered

2 tsp rose water or 1 tsp rose essence

Prepare the syrup ahead.

First dissolve the sugar and water.

Then bring it to a rolling boil for 10 minutes.

Take off the heat.

Add the essence and let it cool till your ready to add to the cake.

Now for the cake.

Preheat your oven to 350 deg F.

Blend together with a wire whisk the eggs, sugar, milk, oil, lemon juice, cardamom pdr.

Combine your flour and baking powder together in a bowl.

Add this gradually to the wet mixture and incorporate well.

Now add the coconut and stir well into the cake batter.

Grease a 13" by 9" baking tray or an oblong baking tray. I used a deeper oval digs that yielded a thicker cake by size and I had to bake it a further 4o minutes so the center got done evenly.

Add the cake batter to the pan.

Spread evenly with a spatula.

Tap the edge of the pan so the batter sits well in the cake pan.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Once it bakes remove from the oven.

Use a fork to score little holes all over the cake.

Now with a ladle slowly pour the syrup on to the hot cake.

Make sure you evenly distribute the syrup throughout the cake and that it's absorbed all over.

Cool and serve topped with crushed pistachios.

This cake can be eaten with whipped cream on top or just plain with a drizzle of honey!

Mumbai style Potato Fritters

4 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled and coarsely mashed

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp turmeric pdr

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp grated garlic

1 green chili deseeded and chopped fine ( optional , you can skip it)

3 tbsp chopped onion

3 cilantro sprigs chopped

1 1/3 cup garbanzo bean flour/ Besan

1/4 tsp cumin pdr 

1/2 tsp salt for the batter

A little over 1 cup of water

Oil to deep fry

In a wide plate with your hands mix together the potatoes, salt, turmeric, ginger, garlic, onions, chili, cilantro until you have a sort of homogenous mixture.

Wash hands.

Then with slightly dampened hands divide the mix into equal parts of 25 portions.

Form each of these portions into smooth balls.

Set aside.

In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, cumin pdr, salt and if you like more heat you can add 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper powder to this batter.

Gradually add the water into the flour mix and blend till you get a batter that's only slightly thinner than pancake batter.

Now in a deep frying skillet or a small wok heat around 3 cups of oil.

Your oil is ready when you drop in a tiny dash of the batter and it puffs up and rises to the top.

Don't have the oil on super high heat. A mellow medium high will do for deep frying.

Now carefully one at a time dip the potato ball into the batter, coat and drop into the hot oil.

Wait for the batter to set on the first ball that's in the oil before dredging the second ball into the batter and dropping it into the oil.

I reccomend frying only two at a time so you can get an even result.

Use a slotted spoon to fry them.

Let the two balls fry for a few seconds before turning them over in the oil.

Your Vadas are ready when the intensity of the oil bubbles subside and the outer covering of the Vadas are firm to touch when you tap the slotted spoon over it.

And you have a nice golden exterior.

Remove them into a plate covered with draining paper towels.

Repeat the process with the remaining balls, frying them two at a time.

Serve them as warm as you can, sandwiched between two halves of an English muffin that's been smothered with the sweet tamarind sauce and sprinkled with the Chili Garlic Dry Chutney....

Mini Falafels

1 cup garbanzo beans that have been soaked overnight drained

1 tbsp garbanzo bean flour

3 tbsp water

1 sprig mint chopped

1 sprig parsley chopped

1 pod garlic

2 tbsp onion chopped

1/4 tsp allspice

1 tsp salt

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Oil for shallow frying or pan frying.

Grind the beans, flour, water, onion, garlic, parsley, mint,lime juice and salt.

Try not to add anymore water or your batter will get really loose and will not adhere.

Also you need a coarse not fine batter at the end.

So if needed use a spatula to scrape the sides of the blender jar to incorporate the beans better.

Keep the batter aside in a bowl.

Pour around 1/4 cup oil to a cast iron skillet.

Heat to medium high.

Divide your bean batter into 24 portions.

Using slight damp hands form tiny burger shapes with the batter .

Fry 5 of them at a time .

Make sure they are flat in the oil and turn them as soon as they brown and crisp on one side.

Cook on two sides and drain on paper towels.

Continue the same with the rest.

Serve hot with your favourite dipping sauce.