#somicious

I’m starting to become quite fond of overnight oats simply because of how easy they are to make and how delicious they turn out to be. It really is a lazy person’s dream come true! Minimal effort and maximum flavour+health. Almost every morning I have one dilemma- what should I make for breakfast. And it really does suck having to start your day off with such difficult questions. Your brain isn’t fully awake yet and you’re forcing it to function. This recipe, hence, also helps start your day off on not such a difficult note ^_^’ 

Here’s lazy recipe #2 :] 

Ingredients:

45g rolled oats

30ml espresso

30ml hazelnut milk, (recipe here)

sunflower seeds

hazelnuts

Method:

Combine the oats, espresso and hazelnut milk together in your bowl.

Mix well and make sure all the oats are covered up well. 

Cover it up and leave it in your fridge overnight.

In the morning, toss up some sunflower seeds and some hazelnuts and put them on top of the oats for some crunch and health.

You can add fruits or spreads along with this if you’d like (I added some banana slices and pomegranate seeds along with some nutella for sweetness.)

This bowl is packed with goodness of coffee and hazelnuts and oooooh it smells absolutely divine. 

I have been living in chennai for one year now.

Here's why:

In August 2014 I moved out of Mumbai. I had gotten accepted into the Oberoi group's Systematic Training and Education Program a.k.a. STEP. In this program you get to work in an Oberoi/Trident property within India for 3 years while also simultaneously doing a correspondence course. So by the end of it you get 3 years of work experience and a degree.

This course was designed in a way where most of your learning happens by hands on experience and observation.

We work five days a week, get one day for studies and one day as our weekly off.

And yes. We get paid a stipend as well. We're pretty much employees, except we're not. We're STEPs.

Anywho, I received an email informing me that I was accepted into STEP for the Kitchen Operations program. In Trident, Chennai. 

To be honest, I was a little bummed out that I got put in Chennai. Its a great program and I got through and that made me happy. But the thought of moving away from home to another city, a city I’ve never been to, all alone; scared me. New people, a new language, new surroundings. It was all very overwhelming. But after a lot of thinking and overthinking, I finally chose to go forward with this.

Hence I’ve been living in Chennai for the past year. And in all honesty, it hasn’t been so bad. 

Sure, I might never know what a college life is like. But hey, I’m having tons of fun here. I have a great bunch of friends(more like family) who I live with, work with, eat with and live with in a nice little flat. Its kind of like a dream, maybe?  

What have I been upto:

So the whole point of STEP is to learn by working. And that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing. I’ve been working. Not your regular 9-5 shifts, oh no. In the hotel industry, a regular shift is 9 hours long. Only on paper, though. In actuality, its almost illegal(?) how long the work hours are. I’m not saying that there are never days where you will do a 9 hour shift and leave. There are such days. But on most days 10 hours is your minimum. (not trying to scare all you hotel management aspirants, i swear) 

...moving on.

I was primarily a pizza chef for most of my first year. That involved making these babies for actual paying guests. It made me feel cool. Very responsible and grown up and all, but mostly, extremely cool.  

As of now, I’m in my second year of STEP, and I’m finally making a career out of something I love doing. And it feels amazing. Currently I’m working in the western kitchen. So far its been amazing experience. 

The hotel industry is hectic and extremely stressful on most days, but very fun as well. Lets just say it grows onto you.

This post was long overdue. I will not be able to post like I used to as work keeps me occupied on most days. But I will post as and when possible. 

Lasagne is a dish I make very frequently. Its delicious and wholesome. Everybody loves it. I mean, whats not to love? Its loads of cheese, white sauce and pasta! Its kind of like a pasta cake. Not that quick a meal, but my, oh my its absolutely divine. 

Ingredients:

For the filling:

200g minced chicken

2 onions, diced

3 tomatoes, diced

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

100ml-150ml tomato puree

1/2 a head of a small cauliflower, cut into tiny florets

1 capsicum, diced

1 small bundle of spinach, shredded

Salt, pepper, chili flakes to taste

1 tbsp of olive oil

1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese

For the Bechamel Sauce:

1 1/4 cups of milk

1 1/2 tbsp butter

1 1/4 tbsp flour

Salt, pepper to taste

1/3 cup of cheddar cheese, grated

Method:

For the filling:

Heat a saucepan with one tablespoon of olive oil. Add the minced garlic and  the onions and cook till they are translucent and soft.

Add the cauliflower and the capsicum. Cook with the lid on for about 5-7 minutes(or until they are cooked) on medium heat. 

Add the tomatoes in and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the tomato puree a little at a time. Make sure the mixture isn't too dry. The mixture needs to be moist.

Season with salt, pepper and chili flakes.

To this, add the spinach and cook for about 2 minutes on high.

Add the minced chicken to the mixture. Mix well and make sure the chicken is cooked. (In case you want to make to make a vegetarian lasagne, you can skip this step.)

Begin preheating your oven to 180oC at this stage.

For the Bechamel Sauce:

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour until the flour and butter form a paste like mixture. Do not let it brown.

Add the milk and make sure you're constantly stirring so that no lumps are formed. Soon enough, the sauce will begin to thicken.

Bring it to a boil. Then lower the heat and add the salt and pepper.

Remove from heat. Add the cheddar cheese and stir till its mixed in.

Arrangement:

In a greased 9 inch baking pan, put a layer of the filling all over the base. Make sure its an even layer.

Put a couple of lasagne sheets over it to cover most of it up.

Spoon over some of the bechamel over the sheets, making sure you cover the sheets in bechamel completely.

Then repeat the first step. Keep doing these three steps till you reach the top. Make sure you end with bechamel as the topmost layer. (I manage to make two complete layers in my pan)

Arranging order is: (1)Filling (2) Lasagne Sheets (3) Bechamel Sauce

Now completely cover this with cheese and bake for around 30-35 minutes.

Keep checking your oven to make sure the cheese doesn't burn. To check if the sheets are cooked, just poke a toothpick into it. If it goes in smoothly, the lasagne sheets are cooked.

My mother has always loved this soup. Whenever we go out for Thai food, she just HAS to order it. So when we had Thai food night at home, she obviously asked me to make this soup. I admit, I may have cheated, just a little bit. Because to be honest, I just don't understand how the paste goes red. So well, I added a few drops of food colouring to make it  look reddish-orangeish-yellow. 

Ingredients:

For the Tom Yum Paste:

2 tbsp finely minced lemongrass

3 cloves of garlic

thumb sized piece of ginger or galangal

1 red chilli or 1/2 tsp-1 tsp of dried crushed chilli (you can add more if you want. This soup is supposed to be fiery hot)

1/4 cup of coriander, stems included

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp of lime juice

1.5 heaping tsp of brown sugar

1-2 spring onions, sliced

1/2 tsp of salt

This recipe serves 3.

For the soup: 

375 ml of Vegetable/Chicken broth

1.5 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp the Tom Yum paste

3-4 Kaffir lime leaves

Some lemon grass

2 green chillies, sliced lengthwise

4-5 mushrooms, chopped

A few drops of Yellow-Saffron food colouring (Unless you want to serve your tom yum soup green)

Salt/fish sauce to taste

A few basil leaves/coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

For the paste:

Chuck everything into a food processor and blitz till it becomes a fine paste. If you want it the paste to be less thick, you may add a tbsp of coconut milk. Your tom yum paste is ready! You can even use this paste as a marinade for chicken or fish. Make sure its super spicy!

For the soup: 

In a large saucepan, bring the broth to boil.

Add the tom yum paste and garlic for about 2 minutes.

At this point, add the food colouring. 

Stir in the kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass.

Add in the chopped mushrooms. Add the salt/fish sauce, chillies and lemon juice.

Continue stirring until well blended.

Serve hot and garnish with coriander or basil.

Mom said I almost nailed it. Well everything except the colour. I still have to work on that -.-'

Saturday lunches are usually never something to think about since mommy always has something up her sleeve. But this saturday was different. She wanted noodles. And she wanted both of her daughters to cook. So we did. I cut all the vegetables myself for a change. With my big big chef's knife. That knife sure does make me feel all grown up. :')

Anywho. I needed to make something quick and easy since I had to study for my exams(which are starting on 2nd November, oh noes). This recipe fit the profile.

Ingredients: 

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into matchstick size strips

100 g bean sprouts

1 medium green capsicum, chopped lengthwise and thinly

4-5 baby corns, chopped lengthwise and thinly

1/4 cup Soy sauce

1 tbsp Fish sauce

1 tbsp Red Chilli sauce

220g pack of Hakka Noodles

1 stalk fresh basil, leaves chopped

1/2 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced on the bias

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

Method: 

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. (Note: Make sure all the food is cut and prepared according to directions before you start.)

Place a wok over high heat, and once hot, add the oil. Add the onion and garlic to the wok and stir-fry for 2 mins, or until the onion softens slightly. Add the carrots and bean sprouts and stir-fry for 2 mins, or until the carrot is just tender. Remove the wok from the heat and add the sauces.

Place the noodles in the boiling water and cook for 2 mins or until the noodles are al dente. Drain the noodles and add them to the wok. Toss well to combine. Place the noodle mixture on a large serving platter and garnish with the spring onions and serve.

I've been very very happy as our board exam results finally came out on 19th May 2012. And I managed to get an 85% and that makes me a happy girl. When I'm happy, I bake. So I decided to bake a cake for celebrating my success. My sister wanted something with coffee but since the rest of my family doesn't like coffee that much, I made a universally loved chocolate cake and made coffee icing to keep my sister happy. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

For the Nutella Cake:

1 cup+5 tbsp all purpose flour

1 1/4 baking powder

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup of sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup of Nutella

For the Coffee Buttercream:

4 cups icing sugar

1 cup butter

4 tbsp milk

2 tsp coffee extract

Method:

For the cake:

  Preheat the oven to 180oC. Line the cake tin. I made two small cakes with this batter.

In a small bowl combine the flour and baking powder.

In a large bowl, cream the butter smooth. Add sugar gradually until fluffy. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Add nutella and mix well.

Add half the flour mixture and half of the milk, and mix. Add in the rest of the flour and milk and mix until it is smooth.

Bake it for about 45-55 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

For the Coffee Buttercream:

  In a bowl, whisk the butter until smooth and well blended. Beat in the coffee extract.

Slowly add in the sugar to the bowl and gradually beat the sugar into the butter.

Add the milk and beat the frosting for about 5 minutes until it is light and fluffy.

If you want to add certain food colouring to it, do it.

Plating:

I managed to destroy one of my cakes so I had to work with just one. I cut the cake right through the centre, horizontally of course.

So after that's done, just spread the frosting in the centre and then sandwich the two pieces together.

Now spread the remaining frosting all over the cake and pipe out whatever you want on it. You can decorate the cake as you please. Finally this is what my cake looked like

:

And here is the frosting. It looks dark but actually is pretty light.

Things I've learnt:

Cooking/baking when you're in a good mood always yields pretty awesome results.