Beet and Cabbage Salads

These vegetables are served as an on-table condiment at Chez Navarre. They are also great served side by side on their own or with beef or pork.

Ingredients:

Beet salad:

2 tablespoons Sherry wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
5 tablespoons safflower oil
3 large raw beets, peeled, coarsely grated
Cabbage salad:
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
5 tablespoons safflower oil
6 cups very thinly sliced green cabbage
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Preparation:

For beet salad:
Whisk vinegar and mustard in large bowl. Gradually whisk in oil, then mix in beets. Season with salt and pepper.

For cabbage salad:
Whisk vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar in another large bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Mix in cabbage and mint. Season with salt and pepper. Let salads stand 30 minutes and up to 2 hours at room temperature, tossing occasionally.

Green Beans and Zucchini with Sauce Verte

Sauce verte is French for "green sauce." In this recipe, the sauce gets its vibrant color from basil, green onion, parsley, and capers. Any leftover sauce can be stirred into couscous or rice, or served with grilled chicken or fish.

Ingredients:

Sauce verte:

1/3 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves
1 green onion, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons (packed) fresh Italian parsley
2 tablespoons drained capers
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, peeled
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Vegetables:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound green beans, stem end trimmed
12 ounces zucchini, halved lengthwise, each half cut lengthwise into 1/3-inch-wide strips
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley leaves (for garnish)

Preparation:

For sauce verte:
Blend first 7 ingredients in processor until finely chopped. With machine running, gradually add olive oil. Process until coarse puree forms. Season sauce verte to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

For vegetables:
Heat oil in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add vegetables; stir until coated. Sprinkle with salt and 3 tablespoons water. Cover; cook vegetables until almost crisp-tender, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Uncover; cook until vegetables are just tender, about 2 minutes longer. Stir in enough sauce verte to coat vegetables generously. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Greek-Style Braised Lamb Shanks

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
6 12- to 14-ounce lamb shanks
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
6 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 drained canned anchovies
2 cinnamon sticks
2 small bay leaves
2 fresh thyme sprigs
5 juniper berries or 2 tablespoons gin
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 750-ml bottle Merlot
1 14-ounce can low-salt chicken broth
1 14-ounce can low-salt beef broth

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Heat oil in large ovenproof pot (wide enough to hold lamb in single layer) over medium-high heat. Sprinkle lamb on all sides with salt and pepper. Add lamb to pot and sauté until brown, turning occasionally, about 10 minutes. Transfer lamb to plate. Add next 10 ingredients to pot. Sauté until vegetables brown, about 20 minutes. Mix in tomato paste. Add wine and all broth; boil until liquid is reduced by half, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Return lamb to pot, arranging in single layer; add any accumulated juices. Bring to boil.

Place lamb in oven and cook uncovered until tender, basting and turning occasionally, about 2 hours. Transfer lamb to plate. Skim any fat from top of roasting liquid. Press all liquid and enough of vegetables through sieve set over large bowl to make sauce with gravy consistency. Return gravy to pot; add lamb. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated.) Rewarm lamb over low heat. Transfer to platter and serve.

Chocolate Pudding

Pudding is an easy dessert and when it is served in chocolate flavor then it does not take long to finish. Here I have shared an easy chocolate pudding recipe which does not require any special cooking skills. When served hot, it is usually used as toppings for brownies otherwise it can be cooled in a fridge and served as a separate dessert

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1 cup sugar (or to taste)
2 oz chocolate
1.5 ltr milk

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar to make smooth paste. It hardly takes 5 minutes by using electric beater.
2. In a sauce pan, boil milk on medium heat.
3. When milk starts to boil, add the egg yolk mixture in it and mix. Cook it for 5-10 minutes until the mixture boils and keep stirring the mixture while cooking.
4. After that, put the chocolate bar in the mixture and cook until all the chocolate melts.
5. Chocolate pudding is ready and you can serve it in both styles either hot or chill.

Mashed Potatoes Recipe

Talking about vegetarian cooking and here we have one of those healthy meals that I enjoy to cook. These are mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are prepared by a variety of methods and are considered easy and quick meals that can be made and served at all times.This recipe is of Indian mashed potatoes which is also called “Aloo ka Bhurta” in Pakistani and Indian Cuisine.

Ingredients:

3 big potatoes
1 medium onion (julienne)
4-5 dry red pepper
Salt to taste
3 tbspn oil

Preparation:

1. Take some water in a deep pan to boil potatoes. It takes 20 mins approx.
2. In a pan, put oil, add onion and peppers to it and fry till onion become brown and crispy. To make crispy fried onions always put onion in cold oil and continually stir while frying.
3. After that drain out fried onions and pepper from the oil and let it cool.
4. Sprinkle salt on the onions and pepper and crush them using hands.
5. Remove the skins from the boiled potatoes and mashed them well.
6. Mix the crushed onions and pepper in the potatoes and make smooth dough by using few drops of oil.

French Fries

French fries are the most popular fast food item specially among children. These can be made in very less amount of time. Cooking french fries at home is real easy and simple and the use of french fries cutter will make the job easier and will also save your time. This recipe is special in the sense that these fries are as crispy as fries you order in a fast food restaurant. So make your own home fries when ever you desire.

Ingredients:

4 Potato (Peel using potato peeler and cut into wedges)
1 tbspn corn flour
1 tspn salt
Oil for deep frying

 

Preparation:

1. Boil water and put potato pieces in it for 5-6 minutes then drain out water
2. Dry all the potato pieces completely.
3. In a covered plastic bowl add 3 tbspn corn flour and put all the potato in it and shake well after cover it.
4. Using drainer, take out the excess corn flour form the potato and put them in freezer for 15-20 minutes so that flour completely stick on it.
5. Heat the oil gently, put potato in it and fry for atleast 5 -7 minutes on high flame until the fries become crispy. Serving:

Sprinkle salt on it and serve with chicken wings or KFC fried chicken.

Shrimp Tempura Recipe

Tempura, one of my favorite Asian food is prepared in a variety of method by different ingredient for example they can be made of chicken, prawn, shrimps, vegetable etc. But the one which is more popular is shrimp tempura. When cooking any tempura at home keep in mind that the batter for actual tempura remains same.

Ingredients:

10 pieces of shrimps
2 egg yolks
2 tbspn plane flour
2 tbspn corn flour
Salt to taste
1 tspn baking soda
Water as required

 

Preparation:

1. Take a piece of shrimp and make light cuts on it using knife very carefully in diagonal direction and turn it to press, the shrimps will become straight.
2. Make batter suing egg yolks, flour, corn flour, baking soda, salt and little water. The batter should not so thick and thin.
3. Now Heat oil in a deep pan of appropriate size so that prawns would fry well, dip the shrimps in heated oil one by one and let them fry for 1-2 minutes only.
4. Take out the shrimps from the oil and serve your shrimp tempura with ketchup.

Easy Dessert Recipe

Those of you who do not want to make dessert on stove because of the lack of time , they can easily prepare this dessert. Just mix the ingredients shown in the recipe and allow to cool down for an hour and your healthy and delicious dessert is ready to serve. Its very healthy because it has lots of yogurt but still it is very cheap dessert and it looks great when presented in fancy looking dessert plates.

Ingredients:
½ Kg Yogurt
1 cup condense milk
1 cup fresh cream
1 cup pineapple (small pieces)
1 packet fruit jelly powder (any flavor)

Preparation:

1. In a bowl beat yogurt well to make a smooth paste.
2. Add fresh cream and condense milk and mix well again until the batter will become smooth.
3. Add jelly powder and pineapple and mix it.
4. Leave the mixture in refrigerator to chill it for 1 hours.
5. Garnish it with pineapple pieces.

Souffle

Souffle is very well known dessert in western cuisine. It can be of any flavor of fruit or may be chocolate. Cooking souffle is not very difficult. Since it is a dessert made from dairy food, as it contains whipped cream, so it is a healthy desert. It also consists of sugar and any fruit flavor ( like strawberry fruit ) . This is a strawberry souffle recipe which is very simple and easy to prepare at home. Present it on a regular souffle dish and your guests are going to love it.

Ingredients:
500 gms strawberry yogurt
1 cup fresh cream
1 cup strawberry paste
3 tbspn gelatin powder
Sugar to taste

Preparation:

1. In a bowl mix yogurt and cream.
2. Make a paste of gelatin powder using ½ cup water.
3. Boil water in a deep pan and put the cup of gelatin paste over it make sure that the cup don’t completely dip in water otherwise boil water enter into the cup.
4. Stir continuously the gelatin paste on medium heat. When gelatin completely melts, mix it in the yogurt mixture.
5. In a blender, put strawberries according to your taste (250 gms) and add little water to it to blend.
6. Add the strawberry paste in the mixture.
7. Put the soufflé in the freezer for one hour to chill.

Chicken Corn Soup Recipe

Soups are healthy and nutritious . Cooking soups is very easy and even simple when making chicken corn soup. You can see the picture of soup above . By adding chicken to this recipe , it becomes more tasty and everyone will enjoy it .

Ingredients:
4 cup chicken stock
2 cup corns with stock
Black pepper to taste
Salt to taste
Chinese salt to taste
1 tbspn soya sauce
1 tbspn chili sauce

Preparation:

1. Boil corns with 4 cups water. Make sure corns completely cook (it will take more time approx: 45-60 minutes depending upon the corn).
2. In a deep pan add chicken stock, corn with stock, salt pepper, soya sauce and chili sauce and cook for 5-10 minutes.
3. In a bowl dissolve 3-4 tbspn corn flour in ½ cup water.
4. Slowly add corn flour paste in the stock mixture (add corn flour according to your need how much you want thick soup)
5. Beat one egg and pour very carefully in the soup so that very thin layers (strips) of egg form.