Caramelized Butternut Squash

I saw this recipe on Martha Stewart's show and found it quite interesting. Also very easy to make. I prepared it last week and everyone enjoyed it a lot. So sharing it with all of you.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound butternut squash peeled and cut into cubes

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp brown sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Heat a pan and brown the butter. Be careful not to burn it while browning.
• To this brown butter, add the cubed butternut squash and keep stirring till the butternut squash is tender and coated in butter for about 15 minutes.
• Then add the chicken stock, water and brown sugar.
• Cook till all the water is evaporated.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Serve hot with any grilled meat or fish.

Kadai Paneer

A friend of mine has this very interesting food blog with a lot of mouth watering dishes. Most of them are South Indian dishes from Kerala. I was tempted to try out a few dishes from her blog. I decided to start with Kadai Paneer. This is because I had all the ingredients required for this dish at home.

I have tried making Kadai Paneer before, but I must say that this recipe is really good. I like it because it has a lot of vegetables included in it which makes the dish very nutritious. I didn't have a kadai so made it in a deep bottomed pan. My family simply enjoyed this dish.

Click on the link for this recipe http://adukalavishesham.blogspot.com/2009/09/kadai-paneer.html

Mexican Chili

This is a Mexican dish and I always wanted to know how it tastes. I had seen Chef. Roger Mooking prepare this dish on his show "Everyday Exotic". It looked really yummy. Well, I didn't follow his recipe completely. I used the ready made chili mix available in the supermarket and also incorporated a few of my own ingredients. To my surprise, it turned out really good. I prepared this dish and shared it with one of my friend who has tasted Mexican Chili before and she told me my dish was very close to what she had eaten and that she liked my dish a lot.

So, here is the recipe for all who would like to try it out.

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Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 2 hours

Serves : 6-7

Ingredients :

21/2 pounds of lean ground beef

1 packet of Old El Paso chili mix or any other brand

1 bottle of dark beer

250 gms of canned kidney beans drained and rinsed

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 red bell pepper finely chopped

1 big tomato finely chopped

250 gms of chunky hot mexican salsa

2 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp cayenne pepper

3 tbsp chili flakes

1 tsp roasted cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

salt to taste

pepper to taste

2 cups beef stock

2 tbsp oil

3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves.

Method :

• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, place the beef in it and cook it till all the moisture has evaporated and the beef is browned. You can do this in batches.
• Drain out the excess fat and deglaze the pan with half a bottle of beer. Add this to the beef and keep aside.
• In another pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and add garlic, onion and fry for about 5 minutes till the onions have turned slightly pink. Then, add the bell peppers and sauté for about 5 minutes.
• To this add the hot Mexican salsa and the chili mix and cook for another 2 minutes. Pour the remaining half bottle of beer to this and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Combine this with the beef mixture, add all the remaining spices, the beef stock and cover and cook on low flame for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Keep stirring in between, so that it doesn't stick to the pan.
• After 1 hour 15 minutes, add the kidney beans to the beef and mix well and cover and cook again for another 15 minutes.
• Finally, adjust the seasoning if required and remove from heat and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
• Serve hot with garlic bread.