Peas and Potato curry

A fast and easy dish to make. Simple flavours but a classic curry that makes a good accompaniment to any rice dish or chapatti.

Ingredients:

240 grams peas (fresh or frozen)
2 medium potatoes peeled and diced.
2 medium tomatoes de seeded and blended to a puree.
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmrric
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon tomato puree
1 tablespoon fresh chopped coriander leaves.
2 tablespoons olive oil
100 ml water
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds.

Method:

1.Heat oil in a pan , when it is hot add the mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter.
2. Saute the garlic in the oil and  add the blended fresh tomatoes and tomato puree.
3. Add the salt, turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and cook till the tomatoes start to separate from the oil.
4. Add the potatoes and peas and the water.
5.Bring the curry to boil then turn down the heat .Cover and cook till potatoes are  fully cooked.(approx 10 minutes)If you want more gravy than add a little extra water.
6. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the fresh chopped corriander.

Serve with Rice or chapattis.

You may like :

Masala aloo in green gravy.

Submitting to:
Flavours of Rajasthan event by simply.food guested by Sonu of Palatecorner

GIVEAWAY- Free Tickets Foodies Festival Battersea Park London.

Battersea Park London

 Join us in the heart of the Capital for a celebration of fine food and drink and culinary talent at the Foodies Festival Battersea Park London.

• Meet Michelin-starred and top chefs in the Chefs Theatre
• Award-winning chefs prepare their favorite dishes live on stage, passing on hints and tips for you to try
• Taste, sample and buy
• Shop for ingredient from local producers selling fresh seasonal produce and buy speciality food and drink
• Try hands-on food and drink masterclasses led by industry experts, with plenty of tastings
• Enjoy signature recipes and seasonal cocktails
• Taste signature dishes from London's leading restaurants
• Sip summer cocktails from top bars
• A great day out for all the family
• Relax with live entertainment
• Cooking with kids masterclasses for budding young chefs

Does all sound Tempting??? Well think no more simply.food have two tickets to Giveaway  for this wonderful event.

I have one pair of tickets worth £ 30.00 to give away to a lucky winner courtesy of Foodies Festival.  The winner will be chosen at random from the comments list and will be announced after the giveaway closes on Saturday 23rd July 2011 -6 pm. This giveaway is only for participants who are over 18 and residing in the UK. (The winner will need to provide a UK mailing address to receive the tickets by post.)

For more details of the show please click here.

There are 5 ways to participate, each comment will count as one entry.

There is one main way to enter and several ways to get bonus entries.

You must leave a separate comment for each bonus entry otherwise they will not be counted.

5 ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment saying why you would like the tickets and what part of the show you would enjoy the most.

2. For a second chance to win become a follower of simply.food and leave a comment saying you have done so.

3.For a third chance please follow me @simplyf00d on twitter again commenting to tell me you have done so with your twitter username

4. For a fourth chance to win please tweet this post using the tweet button below and leave a comment telling me you have done so with your twitter username

5. For a fifth chance to win please share this announcement using the face book button below and leave a comment saying you have done it.

Good Luck.

Cherry Ice cream

Delicious creamy and smooth icecream with succulent pieces of cherry . A subtle hint of vanilla  flavour compliments the sweet cherries making this icecream not only a visual treat but a gastronomical treat to the palate too.

Ingredients:

480 grams black ripe cherries
2 oz sugar
60 ml water
240 ml Double cream
387 grams sweetened condensed cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Stone the cherries and place in a heavy bottom saucepan.
2. Add the water and sugar and bring to boil, keep stirring the mixture till the cherries soften and break down slightly  and a sauce begins to form with cherries and sugar.(Approx 10 minutes )
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
4. In a bowl whip together the condensed milk and cream and the vanilla.
5. Fold in 2/3 of the cooled cherry compote  into the cream mixture and  chill the remaining third for serving with ice cream.
6. Transfer mixture to a tupper ware container and place in freezer.
7. After 2-3 hours remove the ice cream from the freezer and stir to break any ice crystals.
8. Repeat this process at 3 hourly intervals twice more.
9. To serve the ice cream remove from freezer and allow to stand for 2-3 minutes.
10. Scoop the ice cream into serving bowls and top with the chilled reserved cherry compote.

NB -If you have an ice cream maker  steps 6-8 are not needed , instead freeze ice ream as per ice cream maker instructions.

You may like:
Strawberry Ice cream

Submitting to;
 Torview Food palette series - purple
Only Icecream event by Pari guested hosted by Kaarasaaram

Triple Roses, buds and leaves melon carving ~ Fruit and Vegetable Carving.

I am continuing with my carving classes and the theme this term has been carving roses . Starting with simple carrort roses  which progressed to roses on potatoes, apples, radishes and also squash. The different textures of fruit and vegetables give different results and all are fun and interesting to carve as you can also get a combination of colours depending on the fruit or vegetable you use.
Having tried many of these fruits and vegetables , I have now attempted to carve larger fruits such as melons. These are particularly good as you can combine flowers, buds and leaves  and make beautiful carvings.

These are my 1st attempts as creating a multiple rose, bud and leaves combination on a melon. Although I have a very long way to go to get a professional  and polished finish I am really enjoying the beauty of the carvings.

You can get ideas of how to do these carvings by watching this video, although the video  is showing a melon carving the basic principle is the same and as a learner it is easier to carve these roses on smaller vegetables such  potato and pumpkin.
Here are more detailed videos.
Rose melon carving part 1
Rose melon carving part 2

Fruit and vegetable carving  can produce really pretty garnishes and simple decorations. It does not need any specialist tools , just a simple sharp knife.
If you want to have ago check this link out for a beginners  videos.
To purchase a simple basic carving knife  click on the below amazon links to purchase.

You may like:
Melon Rose
Submitting to:

May Create n Carve ~ Fruit and Vegetable event by simply.food guest hosted by Linda of learntocarve

Black Cherry Tarts

Delectable tangy and sweet and  plump black cherries baked  in flaky melt in the mouth pastry.

Ingredients:

480 grams black ripe cherries
120 grams Sugar
60 ml water
1 teaspoon cherry essence
Ready  rolled puff pastry.
Plain flour for rolling pastry and icing sugar for dusting.

Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed pan add the water and sugar and simmer on low heat till sugar melts.
2. Wash and remove stones from cherries and add to pan with the cherry essence.
3. Simmer the cherries in sugar syrup till they start to break down and syrup becomes thick.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool
5. On a  flat surface dusted  with flour roll out the puff pasty sheet and cut into 3 inch circles with cookie cutter.
6. Place the circles on a greased baking tray lined with parchment paper.
7. On the pasty circles with water wet the position 12 o clock, 3 o clock , 6 o clock and 9 o clock with water and pinch together  really hard at this points to form a square basket. Leave to dry for 10 minutes otherwise baskets will fall  open during baking.

8. Fill baskets with cherry compote  and bake in pre heated oven  220 degrees / 400 farenheit for 20 minutes till parcels are golden brown.

9. Remove from oven and cool .
Once cooled dust with icing sugar .

You may like :

Pastry Desserts

Submitting to:
Food palette purple series  by Torview

Double rose carving - Create n Carve ~Fruit and Vegetable.

This squash carving shows attempts of  joining two roses with a few leaves inbetween.

This is my second  term of attending carving classes and this term I have been practicing carving roses from vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, turnips, squash and different types of melons. Staring with carving basic single rose the next task is to try nad carve  multiple roses on to the same fruit with aweave of inticate leaves in between.

You can get ideas of how to do these carvings by watching this video, although the video  is showing a melon carving the basic principle is the same and as a learner it is easier to carve these roses on smaller vegetables such  potato and pumpkin.
Here are more detailed videos.
Rose melon carving part 1
Rose melon carving part 2

Fruit and vegetable carving  can produce really pretty garnishes and simple decorations. It does not need any specialist tools , just a simple sharp knife.
If you want to have ago check this link out for a beginners  videos.
To purchase a simple basic carving knife  click on the below amazon links to purchase.

You may like:
Radish Flowers

Submitting to:

June Create n Carve ~ Fruit and Vegetable event by simply.food guest hosted by Linda of learntocarve

Summer Fruits Yoghurt

A burst of summerfruits folded into smooth creamy yoghurt. A perfect kick start for  breakfast .

Ingredients:

240 ml natural low fat yoghurt
240 grams mixed berries- raspberries, strawberries and blackberries.
1-2 tablespoon icing sugar to taste

Method:

1. Place a muslin cloth in a colander and pour the yoghurt into it, leave to drain out the water for 1-2 hours.(This is called hung yoghurt)
2. Chop up half the berries and put them in a blender, coarsely blend them.
3.Transfer the yoghurt to a bowl and add the icing sugar and mix well, fold in the blended berries .
4. Transfer to serving dishes and garnish with remaining berries.

Serve immediately.

You may like :
Strawberry and melon smoothie

Submitting to:
Breakfast Club#11 -Berries event by Helen of Fuss free flavours guest hosted by simply.food.

Water Melon Rose ~ Create n Carve Fruit and Vegetables.

Watermelons carvings make wonderful  centre pieces  for a dessert table or a centre piece as a table decoration for a dinner party.
My 1st attempt at carving arose from a watermelon.

This video shows simple way to carve roses on to a watermelon. The video shows multiple roses .I only attempted to carve a single rose as the watermelon I used was quite small.

You can get ideas of how to carve  roses from watching this video, although the video  is showing a melon carving the basic principle is the same and as a learner it is easier to carve these roses on smaller vegetables such  potato and pumpkin.
Here are more detailed videos.
Rose melon carving part 1
Rose melon carving part 2

Fruit and vegetable carving  can produce really pretty garnishes and simple decorations. It does not need any specialist tools , just a simple sharp knife.
If you want to have ago check this link out for a beginners  videos.
To purchase a simple basic carving knife  click on the below amazon links to purchase.

You may like:
Radish Flowers

Submitting to:

June Create n Carve ~ Fruit and Vegetable event by simply.food guest hosted by Linda of letslearntocarve

Apple and Carrot Roses~ Fruit and Vegetable carving

These  pretty roses are all carved from  apples and carrots. They make beautiful salad garnishes and decorations for a dessert table.
To see how to carve them do check out the video here  and  here. This method of carving roses can be done with any hard fruit or vegetable such as potatoes, apples, melons, turnip, squash, radish and beetroots.

To Carve these carrot roses you will need large fat carrots and they have to be really fresh.

Apple carvings are easy to do but try and use apples that are firm and crisp.

To stop the apple from going black soak the carved fruit in water with lemon juice added to it.

Carving can be fun and very rewarding. If you wish to try some basic carvings do check out the simple video tutorials here.

You may like :
Fruit and Vegetable carvings

Submitting to Create n Carve ~ Fruit and Vegetable June , event by simply.food guest hosted By Linda of Learntocarve

Event announcements and event roundups.

http://the

Our culinary travels in the "Flavours of " series had a two month stop at Priyas blog where we were sampling bengali cuisine during Flavours of Bengal . The event was very popular and Priya received an amazing 86 entries and she created an wonderful round up which you can find here.

With our culinary experience over in Bengal we now embark on our journey onwards to Rajasthan for our next event Flavours of Rajasthan which is being guest by Sonu of Palatecorner .Do check out her space for more details and to send your entries.As this is Sonus 1st event please do encourage her by supporting the event and sending her your entries. Check here for details.

Create and Carve~ Fruit and Vegetable event May was hosted by Harika. She had some pretty entries. Click here to check them out.

The June Create and Carve ~Fruit and Vegetable event is being hosted by Linda of learning to carve fruit. Linda has a wonderful blog where she posts her beautiful creations together with video tutorials also for people who wish to learn this beautiful art.
To participate in this event please do drop by Linda blog for more details.

During May simply.food hosted the Only Coolers and Mocktail event By Pari of Foodelicious. It was wonderful trying to concot so many wonderful drinks and the support for this event was tremendous with 60 entries.

You can check out the round up here
Roundup part 1

Roundup part 2

The Month of June simply food will also be guest hosting the Breakfast club event#11 -Berries.Please do check it out and send your entries.

All these events can be found at Foodie Events Diary - The Food Blog Diary . This blog is run by Jacqueline who so kindly updates it so that al lthe on going events are in one place and easy to find.

Breakfast Berry Smoothie

A refreshing and flavour some smoothy that is healthy and delicious too.

Ingredients:

12 strawberries
2  extra ripe pears
120 ml apple juice

Method:

1. Hull the strawberries and chop them up into small pieces
2. Peel and chop up the pears.
3. In a blender add the fruit and blend to a puree.
4. Add apple juice to get the desired consistency.
5. Pour into chilled glasses and serve immediately.

NB- Sugar is not needed as the sweetness from pears will be enough although if strawberries are a little sour ,add a tablespoon full of honey to add extra sweetness.

You may like :
Strawberry and melon smoothie

Submitting to:
 Breakfast Club#11 -Berries event by Helen of Fuss free flavours guest hosted by simply.food.

Only Coolers and Mocktails round up Part two and the Winners.

This is the second part of the Only coolers and mocktail round up.

Honey Dew, Lemonade 

Rabdi Falooda Glass , Mocha Orange By Vaishali



Faalsa Sharbaat , Pink Lady  By Vaishali

                                                    

Almond Milk by RS

Ice apple badam gheer by Sudha

Ice apple nungu by Shanthi

Minty Tangy water melon juice , Apple dates milkshake by Sobha

Red cocktail Cooler by Jaleela

Grape and Cherry Punch by Chitra

Nongu Paal-Palm Fruit drink by Ayeesha

Sagu Jaava, Quick and easy cold coffee by Sravani

Apple Lemonade by Prats

Cranberry Lemonade by Madhusmita

Mixed Fruit Juice and Cucumber water by Vatsala



Banana smoothie by Sonia

Watermelon shake by Nashira

Watermelon mint lemonade by Sukanya

Sunrise surprise by Cooking foodie

Oats and Fruit shake  and Buttermilk avocado milkshake by Prathibha

 

  

 Rose milk  and Minty green cucumber juice

  

  

                                                                     

Many many thanks to all the participants, the response to this event was amazing, simply food really appreciates all your support , visits and inspiring  comments  that you all so generously  leave .

This event is the brain child of Pari of foodelicious and she had kindly donated two books for prizes  for  two winners to be selected from any participant residing in India.

In total there were 60 entries , All the entries were awesome so the winners were chosen by random org.If anyones entry is missing please email me and I will add it to the round up.

32 entries  were from India  which  were numbered and were put into the prize draw in order of receipt of entries. Random org selected the winning numbers 8 and 15

The two winning entries  for the Tarla Dalal books are:

Shobha of Food Mazza  entry no 8 Minty pineapple juice and Vaishali of Ribbon's to Pasta's entry no 15 Rabdi falooda glass

Congratulations to both the winners. Please email me your address so that  the books can be sent to you.