Are you looking for a recipe that will stimulate your taste buds? Then you are reading precisely the right one.

I’m lucky to live in Greece and so I have access to really fresh organic vegetables. I also have a source of home-produced Feta cheese, which is so much tastier than the packaged stuff that you find in supermarkets. You really should buy only Greek Feta, but of course, Balkan cheeses are similar and cheaper.

If you grow your own basil, as I do, this will enhance the flavour of the tomatoes and the finished dish. You can use your favourite pasta to go with the sun-dried tomato sauce.

If you don’t fancy the almonds, go for roasted pine nuts instead and whizz them in a food processor. You can dry-fry the nuts in a frying pan to roast them.

This recipe serves three to four people, depending on how hungry they are!

Ingredients

8 oz pasta of your choice

half a cup (or 4 ounces) of sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

20 large basil leaves, shredded

2 tbsps slivered almonds (not the salted ones)

2 tbsps grated Parmesan cheese

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced (optional if you really don’t like it!)

4 ounces of Feta cheese, crumbled

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

First cook the pasta in boiling salted water. I add a little olive oil to so that the pasta doesn’t stick together. Keep a cup of the water you cooked the pasta in.

Put the rest of the ingredients (except for the Feta) in a food processor and whizz them up until they are finely chopped.

Put the mixture into a bowl and stir in half of the water, adding more if needed.

Add the pasta and Feta to the bowl and toss well to combine all the ingredients.

If you like sun-dried tomatoes, why not make a pesto sauce with them?

Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

For two people you will need a four-ounce jar of sun-dried tomatoes which you can reconstitute by leaving them in hot water for 5 minutes.

You can use the pasta of your choice, but remember to reserve a cup of the water you cooked it in.

Ingredients

4 oz jar sun-dried tomatoes drained

20 large basil leaves (approximately)

1 garlic clove

2 oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Blend all the ingredients except for the Parmesan. Put this mixture into a bowl and stir in the Parmesan.

Add the pasta and as much of the reserved water as you wish.

Toss the pasta to coat it and serve.

With the heated summer season, the work process to make some interesting recipes which can be preserved throughout the year starts in many houses. Amongst these recipes is the tangy pickle ones. The delicious, crunchy pickles make the meal complete. In the majority of Indian homes, it is a common sight to find a jar of freshly made pickle kept on terrace or windowsill. This process eventually helps the pickles to develop flavours by maturing the ingredients.

In this fast moving world, where women are flying with vibrant colours may not find time to recreate their mother’s or grandmother’s recipe. She has to rush to the office and deliver presentations. As the process of preparing pickle is time-consuming and tedious, hence, a majority of people are now attracted towards the easily and readily available pickles in stores.

In the process of making the pickle, the most important ingredients are salt and oil, apart from the farm fresh vegetables you choose. Salt inhibits bacterial growth in the pickle by absorbing moisture and thus, acts as a preservative. Oil keeps the ingredients in the pickle moist and prevents them from drying off.

Pickles are made from carrot, chillies, blueberries, etc. as main ingredients. But the most popular are tomato and mango pickles. Mango Pickle is the all-time favourite amongst the pickle lovers. The tangy tomato pickle is irresistible.

Recipe for Mango Pickle:

Ingredients:

Raw Mangoes 1 kg
Salt 100 grams
Fennel Seeds 2 tbsp
Fenugreek Seeds 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder 2 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder 2 tbsp
Asafoetida 1/2 tsp
Oil 250 ml

Procedure:

Wash and cut the raw mangoes into small pieces.
Take a pan and preheat. Add fenugreek seeds and fennel seeds into it. Roast for a few minutes, to remove the moisture present in the spices.
Allow the spices to cool by switching off the flame and removing them into a plate or bowl.
Grind the spices coarsely.
Heat the oil and then add the grounded spices, salt, asafoetida, turmeric powder and red chilli powder.
Then mix it well with the mango pieces.
Store this pickle in a glass jar and keep it under the sun for few days for ageing.
Mango pickle is ready.

Recipe for Tomato Pickle:

Ingredients:

Tomatoes 1 kg
Fenugreek seeds 2 tsp
Mustard 2 tsp
Mustard seeds 2 tsp
Red chili 2 tsp
Curry leaves 5-10
Salt As per taste
Asafoetida 1/2 tsp
Oil 250 ml

Procedure:

Dry roast fenugreek seeds, switch and allow to cool
In a hot pan, add mustard, allow it to cool and powder them separately.
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chili and asafoetida.
In another pan, add tomatoes and salt. Stir, cover, and cook.
Then add the oil seasoning to the tomatoes.
Cook for 10 minutes, till the moisture is evaporated.
Cool and store in an airtight container.

Homemade pickles are the best in taste. It is hard to find some really delicious and mouth-watering pickles as many brands fail miserably in terms of taste. To have really exquisite and tempting pickles, choose from the best makers. The fresh ingredients used in the pickles impart an authentic and refreshing taste to the pickles.

While buying the pickles choose from the farm fresh organic manufacturers. Apart from giving the quintessential taste, pickles are a great dose of probiotic required by the body every day. Instead of drinking probiotic drinks, it is best to eat a few pickles along with the meal.

Chicken can be a bit boring, but there are so many ways of cooking it. I concocted this yesterday and was pleasantly surprised with the result, so decided to share the recipe with you.

You need three or four chicken breasts, depending on their size, aluminium foil and a roasting tray.

This dish can serve 3-4 people depending on how many chicken breasts you use.

Ingredients

3 or 4 chicken breasts

the juice of a lemon

1 inch piece of ginger

1 or 2 cloves of garlic

a small bunch of parsley

1 teaspoon of sweet paprika

1 red onion

olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

Make pouches with the chicken breasts so that they can be stuffed easily. Lay them on pieces of foil on a roasting tray.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, 400 degrees Fahrenheit, or gas mark 6.

Put all the other ingredients, except the olive oil, into a blender and whizz to make a paste.

Spread the paste evenly on the chicken breasts and close them. Drizzle them with the olive oil. Cover tightly with the foil and bake for an hour.

Turn the oven down to 150 degrees Celsius, 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or gas mark 2 and roast for a further half an hour.

Turn off the oven and leave to settle for 10 minutes.

You can serve the chicken breasts with pasta, rice, other grains and mashed potatoes, or a salad, depending on the season and how you feel.

This dish can be served hot or cold.

If you like spicy food, you could add a teaspoon of red chilli powder to the blender, or some fresh rosemary and thyme. You could also add 2 chopped tomatoes and use fresh basil. There are so many variations, you need never get bored with this simple dish.

The beauty of this dish is that apart from lowering the temperature of the oven, you don’t need to check that the chicken breasts are OK. When you cook them in foil, all the flavours are retained and the chicken is succulent.

If you want a more lemony flavour, you can rub lemon juice into the pouches you have made of the breasts.

This will become one of your favourite chicken recipes, not only for its simplicity, but also for its taste. And of course, the ingredients are not expensive. Why not try it this weekend and give your friends and family a treat?

A yummy treat that can be a bit habit forming to eat is the Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies. As the saying goes, “I bet you can’t eat just one” of these. When made properly, they are small and they are bite size. They are like little “poppers” that you can pick up and pop right in your mouth.

The Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies are a mouth-watering sweet treat that can satisfy the sweet tooth craving. One bite, IF you can eat just one, can satisfy that craving.

The recipe below has become one of my favorite homemade baked goods for the holidays, however they can be made at any time of the year. These Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies can be made for any occasion – weddings, baby showers, bridal showers, birthday parties, anniversaries or any time you want to make a special treat for your family.

If red raspberry is not your preferred flavor, you can replace with strawberry, blueberry or any other fruit flavor that you desire.

The ingredients needed for the Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies are as follows:

8 oz room temperature cream cheese
1 1/3 cups softened butter
2 2/3 cups flour

Mix the cream cheese, butter and the flour. Blend the ingredients well. Once your ingredients are well blended, you will have a nice soft dough. Separate the dough into five (5) dough balls. Wrap each dough ball separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Roll dough ball on lightly floured surface to form circle. Cut into approximately twelve (12) wedges (however, if you wish to have smaller, bite size cookies; you may wish to cut the dough ball in half before rolling to form a circle to make smaller wedges).

Spread a thin coat of Red Raspberry Jelly (or your preferred flavor) on the rolled out dough circle – wedges. Roll the wedges to the point and shape in crescent formation.

Bake at 350 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes. The bottoms will be lightly browned. Cook them on a rack.

After they are cooled, you will want to drizzle with the frosting.

The ingredients for the frosting is as follows:

1 cup confectioner sugar
4 tsp lemon juice
Blend these ingredients well and drizzle on the cookies.

Helpful tips:

Butter should not be replaced with margarine.

Be sure to refrigerate the dough overnight. There is definitely the need for refrigeration-for a minimum of no less than 10-12 of refrigeration.

When spreading the jelly on the rolled out dough, be sure that it a thin layer. If you put too much jelly on the dough, it will squish out, baked out of the cookies and cause your cookies to stick to the pan and/or cooling rack.

Do not drizzle the frosting on hot cookies. They need to be cooled. Otherwise, the icing will melt and run off of the cookies.

These Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months (sometimes longer, if package properly in a nicely sealed container.

Don’t leave them out on the counter unless you want them to disappear quickly, as each person passing by with “pop one” and before you know it, they are gone. Enjoy!

When you talk about Punjab, everything ranging from its ‘saundhi mitti’ to the state’s ‘punjabi mutiyaran'; and from its dance forms – the famous ‘bhangra’ and ‘giddha’ – to its extra-amiable environment; is popular around the world. Well, and now, when we are talking about Punjab, it would be really unfair to miss on the punjabi food.

Probably, none of you would feel surprised. ‘Punjabis’ would be left all incomplete if we do not talk about food, a wide variety of which they love to have at any occasion (ordinary or special). Whether the cuisine is vegetarian or non-vegetarian, they simply are die-hard food-fans. Simple and healthy, yet delicious foods are on their plates. Also, unlike other boroughs using marinades like vinegar or lemon to add taste, the full of life Punjabis use ‘masalas’ for their first choice always includes a spicy cuisine.

Mornings are often incomplete for them if simple or stuffed ‘parathas’ with a bountiful ‘desi ghee’ content are not served. Even afternoon and evening meals are taken with a big role of ghee in them.

No doubt, Punjabis find rice as a fascinating dish, especially when ‘rajma’ is served along with them. The simple-to-make combination but is liked only occasionally. On a daily basis, as we all know, they prefer wheat over other things.

On the other hand, a colossal range of cuisines that Punjabis bring to us is famous not only in the Northern India, but in the whole country as well as outside India. Talk about vegetarian food such as sukhi dal and jeera rice or non-vegetarian like chicken kofta and keema kabab, desserts like kheer or flour preparations like aloo paratha or sweets such as gulab jamun and firnee, everything has its own sub-range. Besides, each single dish is lip-smacking and the assortments overshadow Bengali dishes, Mughali or even South Indian dishes.

Of course, after such lauds for Punjabi cuisine, you would like to try preparing one. So, let’s talk about a few finger-licking dishes you would surely love to have. ‘Makki di roti’ (corn chapatti) and ‘Sarson ka saag’ (mustard leaves curry) are amongst the tempting cuisines. So, the same would be perfect to start with as well.

How to Prepare:

The meal is a perfect combo of taste and nutrition. The ‘roti’ is simple to make. Knead the ‘Makki Ka Atta’ adding salt and ‘ajwain’. Sprinkle some water drops on both the sides of the ‘peda’ or ball, press it and put on a seasoned Tawa. Leave to cook for a few minutes, put atop ghee and flip. Your chapatti is all ready to be served hot with the ‘saag’ and a glob of butter.

To prepare the ‘saag’, you need a bunch of mustard leaves with water, oil, onions, tomatoes and ginger. Besides, salt, garlic, garam masala and red chilly powder would be added as required. Just wash the leaves, chop, boil, let them cool and then cook with the addition of fried onions and tomatoes later to garnish. The sunny winters would be embodied so well and easy, you won’t believe.

Lassi – Visit any Punjabi ‘Dhaba’, the chilling and authentic drink made up of thick curd and milk with fresh cream, sugar and cardamom powder added to it would give you that cooling effect, which is much-needed all through the scorching summers. Serve adding water-soaked skin-removed ‘badam’ and rose petals.

Dal Makhani – Easy to prepare, the recipe needs whole ‘urad daal’ along with ‘rajma’ (the red kidney beans). All you need to do is pressure-cook the daal and rajma, adding salt and water. Fry oil, garlic paste and cumin seeds as well as green chilies, tomatoes, dry masalas, stir and add daal. Your mouth-watering Dal Makhani is ready to be served with butter on it. Naan can be a best match.

Punjabi Kadhi – Make small balls using a mixture of gram flour, potatoes (chopped), onions (chopped) with ajwain, salt and red chili powder. Deep fry the ‘pakoras’ in a kadhai with heated oil until golden brown. Prepare kadhi with yogurt and gram flour and appropriate masalas and serve hot with rice.

Don’t wait! Start preparing now.

With this article, you will learn to prepare the famous punjabi foods which leave everyone licking their fingers.