Veggie Wiz

This post has been pending for a long, long time. I’ve had many small breaks from this blog before, due to travel or shifting homes or just the lack of desire to cook when it’s too hot. But this break has a whole different story behind it. I never imagined that I’d be away from blogging for 6 months at a stretch…..but something kept me super-busy all this while. And when i was not busy, I was super-exhausted!

Some of you might already be aware, but for those of you who don’t have a clue…..the thing that’s been keeping me busy is THE GOURMET JAR! Yes, I started a small food business of my own 6 months back! It’s a range of gourmet food products that are completely handmade, fresh and preservative-free. The products include jams and preserves, granola and flavoured nuts. But the focus has been on the jams and preserves! Why, you ask? Because they are not your usual jams….they are boozy jams! Yeah, I’ve introduced a line of alcohol-infused jams in India! What I offer is super-fresh jams, preserves and marmalade, that are kicked up a notch in flavour with the addition of alcohol like rum, whiskey, cointreau etc! This is not to say that I don’t have a few flavours without booze….I do! Like Apple Pie Jam, Pear Caramel Jam, Mango Jalapeno Jam etc.

The whole idea behind my venture is to offer healthier, fresh, pure and natural products that are unusual and thus can help you brighten up your eating-at-home-experience! And of course, my aim is to keep the flavours as seasonal as possible, so you have something new to try every few months…..and for me, there’s always room for experimenting!

It’s been an amazing 6 months for me! I’ve already achieved more than I could have ever imagined…..and have learned so much! But there’s still a long way to go! And I’m enjoying every moment of being an entrepreneur.

To learn more about my new venture, please join my Facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/thegourmetjar I promise you it’s a lot of fun out there! And I will strive to blog here more often……am surely not going to have such a long absence again!

This month, for The Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned the blog Baking and Creating with Avril.  Avril’s a lovely girl and care-giver from the United States, and her blog features many yummy recipes. One that I really liked was the S’mores Brownies. I finally made her Restaurant-style salsa.

I absolutely love salsa. Apart from the fact that’s so easy and quick, I just love the tangy taste and the flavour it can add to many different dishes, even the non-mexican ones! When I saw Avril’s recipe for the salsa which she in turn got from The Pioneer Woman (whom I adore), I knew I had to try it out.

And this one turned out delicious! The addition of sugar and cumin gave it a whole different depth of flavour, I just loved it! I think I added a tad too much of the cilantro, so it was more greenish than red, but it tasted awesome nonetheless. The only change I made was that I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned ones, and used canned jalapenos instead of fresh ones.

Ingredients:

8 whole tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/4 cup chopped yellow onion

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons chopped jalapenos

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup cilantro

1/2 whole lemon, juiced

Directions:

1. Combine the tomatoes, onions, jalapeno pepper, garlic, garlic salt, sugar, cumin, lime juice and cilantro in the bowl of a food processor or blender.

2. PULSE until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like.

3. Test with a tortilla chip for taste/seasoning and adjust as needed.

4. Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour before serving.

5. Serve with your favorite chips or cheese nachos.

Last month I took part in something called The Foodie Exchange, a fun and interactive initiative by the lovely Charis of Culinary Storm. The idea behind it was to pair up food bloggers from different parts of India, and each person would send their partner a foodie care package with interesting food and/or non-food items, preferably something local and different. When Charis asked me if I was interested in taking part, I immediately gave my consent! It was sure to be an exciting activity!

My foodie partner was Poorna, a foodie n cook from Calcutta, of the yummy blog Presented By P. I was instantly curious about what Bengali goodies I could expect and what North Indian yummies I should send her. I must say that she was super-quick and I received my package just a week or so after the foodie exchange began! I was rather tardy in comparison, and sent out my package just a few days before the deadline.

I was thrilled to receive such a generous and diverse foodie package from her. Filled with different spice mixes, chutney powder, local namkeen and biscuits, pasta, noodles and finally organic incense sticks to help me relax while cooking!

Out of all the lovely items I got, I was instantly curious about the Sukto mix, something I had never heard of before.  Supposed to cool the body down in the summers, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

The other thing that I was thrilled to use in my cooking was the little pouch of Chinese fungus. It was indeed the icing on the cake for me!  Thank you Poorna for such a lovely package and my apologies for the delay in posting.

The moment I got my assignment for the month of April from The Secret Recipe Club, I was super-excited! Why, you ask? Well, my assigned blog was Fried Ice and Donut Holes. With a name like that, I was sure it was going to a be a fun blog to go through! This blog is run by Melissa, and you must visit her About Me page to understand the name of her blog.

Though I spent a lot of time browsing through Melissa’s recipes, I knew very early on as to what I would be making. I stumbled upon this recipe for Wild Rice Patties during my first few days on her blog, and I knew this was it. The reason for that being, that I had brought back some wild rice from a trip to the US last year, and I’ve been looking for different things to do with it. The only thing I used it for till now was a Wild Rice Pilaf. Now you don’t get wild rice in India, and I brought back hardly half a kilo, so I’ve really been stingy in using it. For this recipe, I used a mix of red and wild rice. I also substituted the mushrooms with artichokes, as I’m not a big mushroom fan. It was a fairly simple recipe, but the patties did not really hold together very well, and I had to be extremely careful while turning them around. But the taste is so good, that you wouldn’t mind even if they break! The taste of the red and wild rice is so nutty, the texture nice and chewy, and the flavors were just perfect. If you can get your hands on wild rice, or even red rice, this is a must-try!

For 8 patties: