Wednesday, October 24, 2007

From yours to mine, the modified versions, and a Salad Dinner.

My husband informed me that we will be having the parents of one of his friend coming over for dinner, and it was his closest collegue from college, so I need to serve them well. Condition was "No experimenting on them, please..they are in their late 50's, one of them is diabetic, and the other is having cholesterol..so you have to careful with the ingredients, Sona".
.
So, as a proof to him that I will not make this couple my white-rats, next day showed the blogged links of these dishes below. They are tried and tested, so are fool proof. My first thought was to go the Diet Food Event, see if any posts had come up, but couldnt find what I was looking for then..(will wait for the roundup). So, gave a try , and could very well serve them, a Salad Dinner !!!
.
Prepared this Mushroom Noodle soup, by replacing chicken with mushrooms from this recipe, by The happy cook, of My Kitchen Treasures, all the way from Belgium. I used vegetable stock cube for my soup.
.

Pasta- Coleslaw, from Foodie's Hope, of dear Asha. Click here for recipe. I made the addition of cooked macroni, and raisins to it, to make it similar to the ones servred by Pizza Hut (forget KFC for a while!), used low fat milk, and Light Mayo. Did not add vinegar to this, as it was in hand for the ones below.
.
Simple cucumber salad: Cucumber sliced very thin, mixed with white vinegar, garlic powder, dry parsley , sesame seeds and salt to taste.
.
Tabbouleh, an Arabic Salad, with finely chopped parsley, onions, tomatoes, and baked to crips, arabic pita bread (kubos), mixed with extra virgin olive oil, white vinegar and salt to taste.
Warning : Add the bread pieces just before serving, lest it gets sogged by the moisture of the veggies. (Learned from my own experience. Prepared it few hours before my guests arrived, and by the time it got served, it was all soggy...hummmmmm)
The salad tastes best when the bread is really crisp.
.
Mixed Raita : Low fat curd (shop bought), mixed with chopped onions, tomatoes, cucumber, baby corn, pomogranade seeds (a few), finely chopped dates, and cilantro leaves.
.
.
Saffron Rice: Fry various spices...cardamom, pepper pods, cinnamon, cloves, cumin seeds, mace in butter, fry the rice too, and cook with exactly double quantity water with salt to taste. Add saffron strands to low fat milk, and mix with the rice, to get the required colour. Serve by decorating it with with fried raisins, cashewnuts and onions.
.
Naadan Kozhi curry, the Kerala Style Chicken....from Seena of Simple and Delicious, except that I added tomato as puree instead of pieces, and added a 4-5 table spoons of cashewnut paste too, to make the gravey really thick. You find the recipie here.
.
Easy custard, which even a policeman can make. Tapioca custard powder, mixed with low fat milk, and few strands of saffron added to the milk, to get a mild yellow colour. Boiled, cooled and off to set.
.
At first glance, it looks very much similar to custard prepared by the regular shop bought powders. Yet, in taste, this was different.
.
Didnt have the time to play around much with it, so decorated the same way, as you would have seen earlier in one of my posts...
.
Cut the set custard in triangles, laid a slice of mixed fruit jam over it, and what you see above on top, are my "flopp" choco-curls !
.
Hope you all enjoyed my spread. The guests enjoyed too !....Happy cooking...
.
Usually, the cookery events in the blogsphere merrily decides, what we need to cook. That was exactly the case, which made to use saffron for the rice and custard, so off it goes to the Think Saffron Event., hosted by Sunitha.
.
But, as far as diet food is concerned, it was just the other way round. Had the meal prepared, and later did I realize..well..i can sent it off to Hima of SnackORama too !!!
.
Two birds in a shot!
.
Ceyaa..catch you later !!!


11 comments:

  1. wow...what a feast Scientist....Every dish looks awesome dear :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW!! Sona, that was a feast! How clever to add Pasta to coleslaw.I would love it as cold Pasta salad, thanks girl!:))
    Everything looks great, specially Seena's chicken.Good job:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow your hubby must have been really glad that you did all the work for his friends parents. And hey good to know that you used my recipe for the soup.
    All the other dishes look great and love the kerala chicken.

    ReplyDelete
  4. All the dishes look so fabulous sona. That is a great feast, no wonder your guests were happy tasting all those dishes. Great entry and thanks for sending them to me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow, u did all of that??? amazing. I am sure ur guests had a hearty time.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am stuck at that Kerala chicken curry :( Its lunch time here, wish I could have some of it!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey, Sona, am your neighbour, don't forget to invite me next time...All lovely dishes, very tempting..

    Have added this link in Kerala chicken curry post..

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's amazing how we foodies always have to make enough dishes to cover the entire surface of the dining table! :D A most delicious spread.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Sona I wish it was me coming for that wonderful meal wow! Great recipes they look so yummy and healthy too. Lovely! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. wonderful treat to my eyes:) saffron rice looks so comforting! loved the soup too.

    ReplyDelete
  11. love the way u write:)

    ReplyDelete

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

From yours to mine, the modified versions, and a Salad Dinner.

My husband informed me that we will be having the parents of one of his friend coming over for dinner, and it was his closest collegue from college, so I need to serve them well. Condition was "No experimenting on them, please..they are in their late 50's, one of them is diabetic, and the other is having cholesterol..so you have to careful with the ingredients, Sona".
.
So, as a proof to him that I will not make this couple my white-rats, next day showed the blogged links of these dishes below. They are tried and tested, so are fool proof. My first thought was to go the Diet Food Event, see if any posts had come up, but couldnt find what I was looking for then..(will wait for the roundup). So, gave a try , and could very well serve them, a Salad Dinner !!!
.
Prepared this Mushroom Noodle soup, by replacing chicken with mushrooms from this recipe, by The happy cook, of My Kitchen Treasures, all the way from Belgium. I used vegetable stock cube for my soup.
.

Pasta- Coleslaw, from Foodie's Hope, of dear Asha. Click here for recipe. I made the addition of cooked macroni, and raisins to it, to make it similar to the ones servred by Pizza Hut (forget KFC for a while!), used low fat milk, and Light Mayo. Did not add vinegar to this, as it was in hand for the ones below.
.
Simple cucumber salad: Cucumber sliced very thin, mixed with white vinegar, garlic powder, dry parsley , sesame seeds and salt to taste.
.
Tabbouleh, an Arabic Salad, with finely chopped parsley, onions, tomatoes, and baked to crips, arabic pita bread (kubos), mixed with extra virgin olive oil, white vinegar and salt to taste.
Warning : Add the bread pieces just before serving, lest it gets sogged by the moisture of the veggies. (Learned from my own experience. Prepared it few hours before my guests arrived, and by the time it got served, it was all soggy...hummmmmm)
The salad tastes best when the bread is really crisp.
.
Mixed Raita : Low fat curd (shop bought), mixed with chopped onions, tomatoes, cucumber, baby corn, pomogranade seeds (a few), finely chopped dates, and cilantro leaves.
.
.
Saffron Rice: Fry various spices...cardamom, pepper pods, cinnamon, cloves, cumin seeds, mace in butter, fry the rice too, and cook with exactly double quantity water with salt to taste. Add saffron strands to low fat milk, and mix with the rice, to get the required colour. Serve by decorating it with with fried raisins, cashewnuts and onions.
.
Naadan Kozhi curry, the Kerala Style Chicken....from Seena of Simple and Delicious, except that I added tomato as puree instead of pieces, and added a 4-5 table spoons of cashewnut paste too, to make the gravey really thick. You find the recipie here.
.
Easy custard, which even a policeman can make. Tapioca custard powder, mixed with low fat milk, and few strands of saffron added to the milk, to get a mild yellow colour. Boiled, cooled and off to set.
.
At first glance, it looks very much similar to custard prepared by the regular shop bought powders. Yet, in taste, this was different.
.
Didnt have the time to play around much with it, so decorated the same way, as you would have seen earlier in one of my posts...
.
Cut the set custard in triangles, laid a slice of mixed fruit jam over it, and what you see above on top, are my "flopp" choco-curls !
.
Hope you all enjoyed my spread. The guests enjoyed too !....Happy cooking...
.
Usually, the cookery events in the blogsphere merrily decides, what we need to cook. That was exactly the case, which made to use saffron for the rice and custard, so off it goes to the Think Saffron Event., hosted by Sunitha.
.
But, as far as diet food is concerned, it was just the other way round. Had the meal prepared, and later did I realize..well..i can sent it off to Hima of SnackORama too !!!
.
Two birds in a shot!
.
Ceyaa..catch you later !!!


11 comments:

  1. wow...what a feast Scientist....Every dish looks awesome dear :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW!! Sona, that was a feast! How clever to add Pasta to coleslaw.I would love it as cold Pasta salad, thanks girl!:))
    Everything looks great, specially Seena's chicken.Good job:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow your hubby must have been really glad that you did all the work for his friends parents. And hey good to know that you used my recipe for the soup.
    All the other dishes look great and love the kerala chicken.

    ReplyDelete
  4. All the dishes look so fabulous sona. That is a great feast, no wonder your guests were happy tasting all those dishes. Great entry and thanks for sending them to me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow, u did all of that??? amazing. I am sure ur guests had a hearty time.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am stuck at that Kerala chicken curry :( Its lunch time here, wish I could have some of it!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey, Sona, am your neighbour, don't forget to invite me next time...All lovely dishes, very tempting..

    Have added this link in Kerala chicken curry post..

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's amazing how we foodies always have to make enough dishes to cover the entire surface of the dining table! :D A most delicious spread.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Sona I wish it was me coming for that wonderful meal wow! Great recipes they look so yummy and healthy too. Lovely! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. wonderful treat to my eyes:) saffron rice looks so comforting! loved the soup too.

    ReplyDelete
  11. love the way u write:)

    ReplyDelete