Food | allVishal.com

Toasted No-Knead Bread

Submitted by Vishal on Wed, 2012/04/25 - 1:13pm

toasted buttered slices of no-knead bread

A day later, toasted, and buttered (Amul, of course), my second attempt at no-knead bread is quite delicious.

(BTW, I used this recipe.)

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Adventures in Cheesy Baked Pasta & No-Knead Bread

Submitted by Vishal on Tue, 2012/04/24 - 4:28pm

baked pasta with spinach mushroom and cheese
I love pasta. I love baked things. So it stands to reason that I love baked pasta!

This dish was the easiest thing to do; I'm not sure which blog I saw it on (will link to it if I find it), because I just committed the recipe to memory weeks ago. Just sautee some onions, garlic, mushrooms and spinach (in that order), season, add in a can of tomatoes, turn the heat off and a 200g tub of Philadelphia cream cheese and mix until smooth. Meanwhile cook 300ish grams of dry pasta (macaroni or whatever), add it into the sauce.

Top with breadcrumbs (or cheese, if you like), then bake covered for 30 minutes at 180C, then uncovered for another 15 or until the breadcrumbs brown.

It's delicious. I promise you.

no knead bread
I also made a second attempt at No-Knead Bread. It's still cooling, but it sure looks right this time!

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Butter-Sautéed Gnocchi with Caramelised Onion & Vegetables

Submitted by Vishal on Tue, 2012/04/17 - 2:44pm

Butter-Sautéed Gnocchi with Caramelised Onion & Vegetables
Sometimes all you need for great tasting food is to cook it low and slow until everything becomes more than the sum of its parts.

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Thai Green Curry Risotto, Revisited.

Submitted by Vishal on Sat, 2012/04/07 - 10:38pm

thai green curry risotto in pot and on plate
What better way to break in a brand-new pot than to cook one of your favourite dishes in it? I've made this fusion of Italian risotto and Thai green curry before click here for the recipe), and it has been a while since I made either risotto or this variation.

The results weren't as creamy as the last time I made it (The culprit was a fairly unremarkable can of coconut milk instead of the one I usually use), but it was still delicious, and the new pot is the perfect vessel for making risotto; heavy bottomed, even heat distribution, and plenty of surface area for the rice to toast, and to coax out its starches as the liquid evaporates.

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Pot-head

Submitted by Vishal on Tue, 2012/04/03 - 3:42pm

yellow aluminium nonstick 6.5 litre pot

You can never have too many pots and pans. Well, actually, you can, but even in most enthusiastic home cooks' repertoire of gadgets and gizmos and implements, nothing beats a good solid pot that you can cook things in. I think I bought my first frying pan -- my very own -- when I was ten. It was a little nonstick omelet pan (guess what my favourite food was?) that promptly got scratched beyond use. For my thirteenth birthday I got a set of steel pots and a pan I still use today.

Once in a while -- every year or so -- I will expand my culinary arsenal with woks and cast-iron griddles and such. This big, 6.5 litre yellow pot is the largest vessel in the house now; overkill, perhaps, since I never really entertain large groups, but the added room over my other 2 & 3 litre pots is welcome for things like big batches of soups and risottos.

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Eggplant Zucchini Lasagne

Submitted by Vishal on Sun, 2012/03/04 - 1:15pm

eggplant zucchini lasagne

There's something both simple & complex about lasagne; it's an elaborate dish, but one that comes together over several hours of slowly-simmering sauces and carefully-roasted vegetables. This is a fairly simple one, just roasted eggplant & zucchini slices, a tomato sauce, and bechamel, stuffed between layers of noodles and topped with mozzarella cheese.

The very definition of comfort food.

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Freezer Raid Curry!

Submitted by Vishal on Mon, 2012/02/13 - 2:49pm

freezer raid thai curry and shrimp parcels

Aka the I-just-got-back-from-a-vacation-and-don't-have-anything-in-the-house curry. Looks nice, tastes okay, but everything on this plate came out of the freezer & pantry and was whipped up in half an hour.

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Bacon, Zucchini & Sundried Tomato Gnocchi

Submitted by Vishal on Wed, 2011/11/30 - 4:32pm

bacon gnocchi 01

This is lunch.

Sometimes I need to raid my fridge and pantry to put together odds and ends that aren't quite enough for individual larger dishes, marrying pantry staples such as pastas with stray vegetables that will spoil in a short while.

The results can be delicious, such as this dish. The Gnocchi (a pillow-like morsel made of potato flour, pronounced nyo-kee) was bought from the store and pan fried in a little butter, which gives it a bit of crispness (they can be boiled like fresh pastas too). The sauce was some turkey bacon browned, then garlic, onion & celery, followed by chunks of zucchini, then tomato, and finished with a spoonful of sundried tomato paste and a little squeeze of harissa. No water was added. The prepared gnocchi was stirred in and left covered for a few minutes to soak up the sauce, then finally tossed with a good handful of chopped parsley.

bacon gnocchi 02

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A Hankering for Noodles

Submitted by Vishal on Sun, 2011/01/30 - 4:55pm

ingredients for fried noodles
I am a lazy cook. No other way to say it. I have no patience for slowly stirred sauces, carefully watched pots, or preparations that need fifteen different components plated at the last minute. If it all sits together in a bowl and I can eat it with one utensil, then so much the better.

I am also a stubborn cook. Stir fries have often tantalised me, and every time I try my hand at one I learn a little more, make it a little better. I'm at the stage now where I can't quite bang out a hundred plates of noodles that all look and taste the same, but the outcome is generally tasty, and even when my own pantry conspires to throw me a curveball, I can generally deal with it.