French Onion Soup

I have been telling my friend DashGlowPrincess to come over for dinner for a while so I can cook her an awesome romantic 3 course meal just for funzies. Eventually after much fuss and persuasion she finally decided to grace me with her presence. I cooked up an absolute storm that night, if I can say so my self.. so the romantic dinner menu included:

Starter: French Onion Soup with Cheesy Garlic Bread

Main: Cheese Stuffed Chicken Wrapped in Bacon with Crispy Herbed Baked Potatoes

Dessert: Cheesecake Brownie Swirl 

Just realised that 'CHEESE' may have been the theme for the night. I didn't plan that one out well enough I guess. Oh well. anyway, one can never have too much cheese. we had a great time. and the food was pretty delish too. win-win!

Your  challenge: Cook some soup and give me a hoot!

Ready --- Steady --- Cook

French Onion Soup

INGREDIENTS (serves 6)  

60g butter, chopped  
2 tablespoons olive oil  
6 (1kg) brown onions, thinly sliced  
2 teaspoons brown sugar  
2 tablespoons plain flour  
4 cups beef stock    
3 cloves of garlic, chopped 

METHOD:

1. Heat butter and oil in a heavy-based saucepan over medium-low heat until sizzling. 
2. Add garlic, onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, uncovered, stirring often, for 45 to 50 minutes or until onions are very soft. 
3. Stir in sugar and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes or until onions caramelise.
4. Add flour to saucepan and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. 
5. Add stock and 2 cups water. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes to allow flavours to combine.
6. Ladle soup into bowls. Top with cheese, season with pepper and serve. 

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth
 

Chili Chicken

Back in 2008 my sister cooked this amazing Chili Chicken and Sticky Rice for my mom and I when we went to visit her in the UK. It was out of this world. super spicy and super awesome. I've been telling her to recreate that for years now but she has never been able to get it right. When they came to visit me in June 2012, she tried making it but wasn't as good because she made it a curry instead of a dry Devilled Chili Chicken. Yesterday, I was craving some super yummy chicken and also my food stock for the week had finished so I decided to try whipping up this amazing Chili Chicken. I must say that it turned out really really really well. A pretty close match to my sister's one. 

Your Challenge: Cook some Chicken in your kitchen!

Ready --- Steady --- Cook

Chili Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

300g Chicken (roughly 3-4 thighs)

1 Onion (sliced)

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

3 tbs Chili Paste 

2 tbs Sugar

3 tbs Sweet Chili Sauce

3 tbs Cooking Oil

Salt to taste

METHOD:

1. Heat the oil, add the garlic and onions and temper until onions are soft or brown and set aside.

2. Add the chicken to the pan with some oil and cook for 10 mins or until chicken is cooked.

3. Add the onions to the chicken and mix well

4. add the chili paste, sweet chili sauce and sugar and mix well.

5. add salt if needed

6. taste and adjust spicy-ness to taste.. if too spicy add more sugar, if you want it to be dynamite add more chili paste or dry chili pieces

Note: You can buy Chili Paste in any Asian shop or Supermarket. It's generally made with garlic, shallots, Thai dried chili peppers, tamarind, shrimp paste and palm sugar. Alternatively, if you want to go totally home-made, here's a thai chili paste recipe or the best one to use is this dynamite recipe.
You could also add some broccoli and red bell peppers to the chicken to make it extra Thai like.

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Pol Roti (Coconut Flat Bread) & Lunu Miris

One fine day I was on the train and I could smell someone eating a banana and for some weird reason I could also smell butter. The only thing that came to mind the moment that aroma hit my nostrils was -- POL ROTI. This probably doesn't mean anything to you. Pol Roti is a very traditional, standard Sri Lankan breakfast meal. Pol = Coconut, Roti = Roti/flat bread. We normally eat it with Lunu Miris, which is a super duper spicy dynamite onion sambol thingy, Onion curry or Dhal curry. Alternatively, kids like to butter it when its hot off the hot plate and eat it with a banana. It's soooooooo goood. You have to try it out, it's super duper simple to make, and super duper yummy. So here's the recipe to super duper Pol Roti:

Your Challenge: make some roti and feed a hottie!

 

Ready --- Steady --- Cook

Pol Roti

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Whole Wheat flour

1 cup Plain Self Raising flour

1 cup shredded coconut (or 3/4 cups desiccated coconut soaked in 1/4 cup of water)

1/2 onion chopped
Salt to taste

METHOD:

1. Mix the all the ingredients in a bowl. 

2. Next add cold water little by little so that all the ingredients come together to form a dough. Take care not to get it too wet.
3. If the dough is too wet add a little bit of flour.
4. Knead the dough and break into balls of about 2" diameter.
5. Flatten on a floured board or plate using your palms. If more crispy crust is desired, roll using rolling pin. on Cook in a heated heavy bottom pan till 6.golden brown on both sides under medium heat.

Accompany it with some Lunu Miris or butter and a banana.

makes: 10 - 12 Roti 


Lunu Miris

INGREDIENTS:

1 Onion diced

Chilli powder

Dry Chilli Pieces 

Lime Juice

Salt

Maldive Fish

METHOD:

add all the ingredients together and mix well. you can add extra lime juice to get an extra kick. 

once all the ingredients are mixed together, put it in a mortar and pestle and grind it. 

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Tosakanth's Sangria

Sangria is my new favourite chillaxing drink. Since Spring is finally coming along and the sun is out, I like whipping up some Sangria to relax to after a long day of doing nothing.

As usual, I used a sangria recipe to get the general gist of ingredients, but I make my own easy -6 ingredient- sangria for my daily merriment. 

What I pretty much do is put what ever I have at home into a pitcher and call it Sangria. Do observe:


Your challenge: Give it a go and let me know which one you prefer. I bet it's Tosakanth's Sangria that is more dear..

Ready --- Steady ---Drink

Tosakanth's Sangria

INGREDIENTS:

1 Granny Smith apple

1 Orange

few squirts of Lemon juice to taste

1/3 bottle Red Wine

1/3 bottle White Wine

1 can of Energy Drink (preferably V or Redbull)

METHOD: 

1. Cut the orange and apple into 0.5cm slices

2. Squeeze the juice from the orange into the pitcher and put the pieces in too

3. Add the apples in to the pitcher

4. Add the Lemon juice to taste

5. Add the Wine

6. Add the Energy Drink

7. Mix and chill in fridge

The Original Sangria Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
• 1 Lemon cut into wedges
• 1 Orange cut into wedges
• 1 Lime cut into wedges
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• Splash of orange juice or lemonade
• 2 Shots of gin or triple sec (optional)
• 1 Cup of raspberries or strawberries (may use thawed or frozen)
• 1 Small can of diced pineapples (with juice)
• 4 Cups ginger ale

PREPARATION:

1. Pour wine into a large pitcher
2. Squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon, orange and lime into the wine. 3. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and pineapple. 
4. Add sugar, orange juice and gin. 
5. Chill overnight.
6. Add ginger ale, berries and ice just before serving. 

If you'd like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice. However, remember that the best Sangrias' are chilled around 24 hours in the frig. - allowing the flavors to really marinate into each other. 

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Honey Mustard Chicken with Bacon and Mushroom

Had a few friends over last night just for funzies, and thought I'd make some delish chicken. Well I was actually meant to study with them, but it turned in to a rather messy drunken escapade. As we do.We have now named  the dish "P's Special", because Honey Mustard Chicken with Bacon and Mushroom is just too long and not very classy.

 

What I generally  do is, use the recipe as a base and then mix in other stuff to give it my own twist.. So with the flavouring of the Honey Mustard marinade I just added a bit of chilli powder to give it a bit of kick, and more lemon juice because when life gives you lemons you need to make a kick as marinade with it. Also, I didn't have Dijon mustard so I just used English mustard seed something something that was in my fridge instead. So basically, I changed the whole recipe. Whoopsy daisies.. But in the end it turned out really well. That's all that really matters at the end of the day. 

Your challenge: Give it a go and let me know, how your chicken goes with your bros!

Ready --- Steady --- Cook

Honey Mustard Chicken with Bacon and Mushroom (P's Special)

INGREDIENTS:

1 to 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
8 to 12 slices bacon, partially cooked
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Seasonings: salt, pepper, paprika

METHOD:

1. Make marinade by mixing together mustard, honey, and lemon juice. 
2. Add chicken breasts and refrigerate for two hours. 
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
4. Heat a small amount of oil (canola or vegetable) in a skillet and add chicken breasts, discarding marinade. 
5. Cook chicken a few minutes on each side.  Set aside.
6. Scrape out most of the juices from the pan, and add mushrooms.  Saute mushrooms until tender (a few minutes). 
7. Assemble chicken in a large baking dish: chicken, then bacon, then mushrooms, then cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. 
8. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.

http://www.everydayhomecook.com/2011/03/honey-mustard-chicken-with-bacon-and-mushrooms/

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth
 

Super Duper Awesomely Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Welcome to my first legit post.

This was one of the first things I ever made (March 2012), since I moved out of College catered halls and into this amazing realm of cooking independence at my new pad. I was hosting a small party at my new crib of awesomeness, which is more formally called 'Tosakanth's Crib of Awesomeness',  because my house-mate was on holiday and thought it would be the best time to host a little gathering for my little friendas in Sydney, and also because I love hosting things.

My friends are suckers for brownies. I think it's a Sri Lankan thing. Brownies are considered to be this divine food fit only for the gods, so you vacuum it up at the sight of it because no one cares about manners when it comes to gooey chocolatey goodness.

Anyway, moral of the story--- my friends absolutely adored it, which made me extremely happy. We also won the Cricket match against some country we were playing at some random tournament, somewhere in the world. Win-Win!

Your challenge : give it a go and let me know (oh-hey, I'm also a lyrical genius)

Ready --- Steady --- Cook

Super Duper Awesomely Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Makes 16 larger or 25 smaller brownies

 INGREDIENTS:

140g Butter
280g Sugar
85g unsweetened Cocoa Powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon Salt 

1/2 teaspoon pure Vanilla extract
2 large Eggs, cold
65g All-Purpose Flour
2/3 cup walnut, pecan, macadamia pieces (optional)

Cooking Chocolate chopped/Chocolate chips (optional)

 METHOD:

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 160°C. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.

1.   Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water (double boil).

2.   Stir from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test.

3.   Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot. It looks fairly gritty at this point, but don’t fret — it smooths out once the eggs and flour are added. [Note, this step works just fine in the microwave]

4.   Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon.

5.   Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one.

6.   When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula.

7.   Stir in the nuts and extra cooking chocolate/chocolate chips, if using.

8.   Spread evenly in the lined pan.

-Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes. Just keep an eye out, my oven takes various times to bake. Let cool completely on a rack. 

-To cut with clean lines, you can put it in the fridge or freezer for a bit.

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares. 

adapted from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Best-Cocoa-Brownies-108346

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth