Yummy in my Tummy

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated a recipe, buttttttttt I have some SUPER EXCITING NEWS!!! I’m FINALLY starting my own business!! A catering company! I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and it kinda sorta got lost with school and other things going on, but when a friend was hosting a party she thought of me (THANK GOD) and asked me to cater & things just shot up from then!! You can check out my website kinjalskreations.com (which should be up within a week or so), follow me on twitter @kinjalkreations and like me on facebook at facebook.com/kinjalskreations !! Right now I’m catering to my clients. I’ll make dishes that you want and then figure out a per plate price dependent on the food, how many dishes etc etc. Also there are no minimums so it can be for 1 to who knows how many! I can do apps, entrees, desserts, drinks and anything else that you can think of. Tastings will be held of course for you to pick out what you want and everything is Swaminarayan friendly! (OF COURSE) but if you have an even special-er diet, I can see what I can do to accommodate, but deff can work something out! I’m super pumped for this so let everyone know! Thank you to all of my friends and family for supporting me every step of the way <3

So a couple of friends and I took a vow not to eat out for 90 days (our challenge to earn the raajipo of the satpurush)…so that pretty much means I make lots of meals now a days! This past weekend I really wanted a gyro, but maybe with a bit more protein packed then what we usually get, so I thought why not TOFU GYROS?!? Brilliant idea, yeah I know :) But I wasn’t the only one with the idea, as I usually am not haha. I Googled it to see how other people did it and what I tend to do with new recipes, I picked and chose my fav ingredients and put them together and this is what I came up with

Here’s what you’ll need:

tofu

flat bread

tomatoes (diced)

lettuce (shredded)

pickle

feta cheese (crumbled)

tzatziki sauce (listed below)

hummus would be a good add on (I didn’t use it, but wish I had)

for the marinade:

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

2 tbs soy sauce

juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tbs)

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp paprika

freshly cracked black pepper

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp ground corriander/cumin 

for the tzatziki sauce:

1 cup greek yogurt

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1 tbs)

salt

1/2 cucumber grated

First off we want to dry off the tofu. I sliced the tofu, laid some paper towels down in a pan, spread the tofu out and topped it off with a few more sheets of paper towels, a plate and a few cans as weights. Let the juices flow for about 10 minutes. (Tofu is like a sponge so in order to add flavor to it, you have to squeeze out all of the water so it can suck in flavorful juices).

Here’s the slices after all the juices have been squeezed out

(yeah I know they don’t look much different haha)

Then, take all of the marinade ingredients and put into a container (you can marinade the tofu in this container so easy clean up :D)

and whisk it up or put the lid on the container and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE ;]

lay the tofu into the container (I spooned some of the marinade on each slice and then had to layer the rest of the tofu slices on top and spooned more on the top slices) Let it sit for 10 minutes and then flip them (top on bottom & bottom on top and flipped the side that was facing up etc. - basically move them around to get them in contact with more flavor) and let it sit for another 10 minutes!

After the marination period, you can leave it in there until you’re ready to use them or take them out of the marinade - up to you :D

When you’re ready, heat up a skillet or a grill or a flat pan and get it screaming hot! We want to sear this tofu and get a nice crust on them! Once hot, lay the tofu on and don’t move for a few minutes (no need for oil since there’s some in the marinade) and give it a flip to give color on the other side. 

So while the tofu slices are marinading, I made the tzatziki sauce. Just take all of the ingredients (except the salt), dump them in a container(I tripled the recipe, so mine may look like a lot more than your’s - just a heads up)

 and mix away! 

(yeah it’s a different container - the other one wasn’t big enough for me to mix all of the ingredients) Now would be a good time to taste and adjust flavors. Then let it sit in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble & eat.

a quick tip: cut the cucumber in half the long way like this

and use a spoon to scoop all of the seeds out before you grate it

Also - I grated the cucumbers straight into the container, but if you’re looking for a thicker tzatziki sauce then grate in a separate bowl and squeeze the water out of the cucumber before adding to the rest of the sauce. (You could also draw some water out by adding salt and letting it sit for a bit.)

You may have some time to dice your tomatoes and shred that lettuce!

Now it’s time for assembly!

Warm up a couple of flatbreads in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

I laid tzatziki sauce on the bottom (if I had hummus, I’d put that on the bottom.)

Them some tofu (some ripped in the searing process - I guess I cut them too thin, so I just cut them in half sometimes or make them into chunks)

Then some tomatoes & shredded lettuce & crumbled feta.

Top it off with tzatziki sauce and half slice of pickle on each side!

So yeah, the order doesn’t really matter, I changed it up with whatever was closer ha ha! You could also add some fries to that - YUM and we topped them off with hot sauce!

Fold up and eat away ;D Beware - it can get messy so sit with lots of napkins!

ENJOY! :D

For those of us that do ekadashi, those 15 days always seem to move so fast; before we know it, its time for feraar food all over again. It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded a feraar food. Ready made hash browns were my go to meal until I realized there was cornmeal in them so we couldn’t eat them the day of; but then I realized making actual hash browns from scratch are super simple. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 potatoes (any work, but I used Russet)

olive oil

salt & pepper

If you want to make a pizza out of it you’ll also need some sauce & cheese

As you can see by the small ingredient list, it is very simple. Making it is just as easy. First peel & wash the potatoes. 

Then grate them into a bowl, they may discolor but don’t worry that’s just them mingling with some oxygen.

Add in the salt and pepper. I used about a 3/4 teaspoon of salt and pinch of black pepper.

Now here’s where you can get creative with it. You could grate in some carrots if you wanted or add in some bell peppers. My mom likes things a bit spicy so in her’s I added a pinch of cayenne and a small jalapeno pepper.

The two potatoes makes two fairly large hash browns so I split it into two so I can add the peppers into to my mom’s and leave mine plain.

Now add some olive oil to a pan and let it heat up.

Now dump in the grated potatoes (half of the total) & spread it out.

Now put a lid on it and let it cook for a few minutes.

See a little cooking turns them back to their white color :)

Check to see if the bottom has congealed by running a spatula around the edges and under the hash brown, if it is resistant then it’s not ready to flip, if it starts letting go of the pan then peak under to see if it has some goldeny-deliciousness color - if it does then flip it; if not, give it some time.

Now for the pizza part - if you want a regular ole hash brown then cook until the bottom is set and flip out onto a plate and enjoy alone or with some ketchup. If you want some pizza then here’s how you go about it. Pour on some sauce & sprinkle on some cheese.

Cover it until the cheese is melted and slide onto your plate!

I added a bit more cracked black pepper on top. But there you go! Easy and versatile as can be!

ENJOY :D

As the temperature is getting colder, there’s nothing better than a bowl of soup and curling up on the couch!

Makes for two or three:

2 tbs butter

2 tbs flour

1 cup stock

1 cup half & half

1/4 lb broccoli

1/2 cup carrots

4 oz cheddar

I actually recorded myself doing this with my iPhone so it’s not the greatest video considering there’s lots of moving and excess noises so I’d like to apologize for that! I’m VERY new with this stuff so please bear with me.

Here’s the link to watch me vlog :P 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5KMHzIhM0Q

For some written directions: here you go :)

Start off by making a roux with the butter & flour.

Then whisk in the half & half

and then the stock

Let it simmer for about 10 minutes

Add in the carrots & broccoli and let it simmer for another 10 minutes

Put it back on the stove and add in salt and the cheese and stir up

serve with a garnish of cheese :)

The soup was really thick, so I did end up thinning it out with some stock. (you could also use the thick version as a dip for some bread, chips or veggies!) Also, I would probably only blend up about half and leave some broccoli chunks the next time. 

ENJOY :)

Enchiladas are always something we tend to make with regular ole sauce, but with this recipe I decided to make a Mexican type of sauce or salsa for the enchiladas so I incorporated roasted jalapenos into the mix to give a nice flavor :D

Here’s what you’ll need

corn tortillas (I used about 15)

lettuce (1 head)

cheese

black beans (3 cans)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp corriander/cumin powder

1/8 tsp cayenne

for the roasted jalapeno & tomato:

5 jalapenos

4-5 roma tomatoes

1 can of crushed tomato

water

1 can of diced green chillis

salt & pepper

olive oil

Start off my roasting the jalapenos and salsa. If you think you don’t like heat, this is a great way to try it out because the heat is toned down with the roasting and it gives it a completely different flavor! Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the jalapenos & tomatoes in half and lay on a half sheet pan (aka jelly roll pan). I covered it with foil for easy clean up. Add oil, salt & pepper and toss to coat.

Roast for about 15-20 minutes per side

Now throw all of this into a food pro and pulse until smooth. Give it a taste and add salt if needed. I ended up with this

Now this alone was really good and I think if I was making a small amount, I would use this straight up; however I was making food for about 20 people so I added a can of crushed tomatoes with some water and additional salt. To bump up the flavor I added about a 1/2 cup of cilantro blended.

I also blended up a small can (on the side of the cup) of diced chili and added it to the mix. This is one of those personal blenders and its the smaller cup, so I used this because I had already put my food pro in the sink. Add some water to thin it out and taste at this point and add any necessary salt. This is what it comes out to be.

Now that we have our sauce, we can move onto the beans! For the tray I used 3 cans of black beans, but you could use as little as you need. Add the black beans, salt, pepper, cumin/coriander powder, and cayenne into the food pro and pulse until smooth. You could add some water if needed. I added a tablespoon at a time until I got a nice consistency.

Now for the assembly! First off, put some of the sauce on the bottom of the pan

Now heat up some oil in a large pan and dip the tortilla in it - about 15 seconds per side. We do this to soften up the corn tortilla to make them pliable and remain nice and soft.

let the oil drip off a bit and lay onto a plate. Slather on some beans

Then pile on the lettuce & cheese. You could easily add more into these, but because I was making it for a group of people, I decided to go simple. Other fix-ins you could add include: olives, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers etc. Your options are pretty much endless.

Now roll it up: start off with rolling and tuck under (it’s easier with two hands, just had to do this one with one because I was taking a picture)

Then place in the pan and repeat! Sauce the top of each enchilada and pile with cheese!

Bake in a 375 oven for about 20-30 minutes until cheese has melted and bubbled. (If you make a smaller plate, you’d leave it in the oven for less amount of time.)

We ate them with some of my rice! I subbed corn for mushrooms from this recipe because well..I didn’t have any mushrooms on hand. haha

ENJOY :D

So I stumbled upon a recipe for black bean chili and it looked so good, I had to try it out! I tweaked it quite a bit, but here’s the original recipe. For mine,

here’s what you’ll need:

Olive Oil

2 tbs bell peppers

2 tbs carrots

2 cups water

1 can black bean

1 can Ro*tel (tomato + chili » the one without the og of course)

1/4 cup tomato puree

1 ancho chili (chopped finely)

2 tsp dhaana jeeru (a mix of ground Corriander & Cumin - if you don’t have the mix, you could use 1 tsp of each ground spice)

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp paprika

salt + pepper

This recipe is super simple! First put a pot on the stove with some olive oil and heat up. Add in the bell peppers - I used frozen green & red so I measured out the quarter cup (p.s. they’re great to have on hand so you can use how much every you want and stick it back in the freezer). Anyway, sweat those for a few minutes

and add in the carrots (chopped really finely)

Then drain a can of black beans and add that to the pot. 

Chop up the ancho chili

Add the water, tomato puree, Ro*tel, chopped up ancho chili, cumin & corriander, paprika, and cayenne into the pot

Let it simmer on Medium for about 10 minutes until the liquid reduces and gets thick.

Serve with a wedge of lime and shredded cheddar cheese and eat with tortilla chips or alone. You could even add in some sour cream if you’d like :)

ENJOY :D

Hello all! I love chocolate chip cookies with a passion - especially when they’re freshly baked & the chocolate chips are still warm and gooey! Yup, that’s the best kind! Anyways, it’s taken me a long time to perfect a recipe from scratch, however doing some research and help from some friends, this is what we’ve got!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 1/2 sticks butter (room temp)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 tbs sour cream

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups of chocolate chips

*I made two batches so that’s why the pictures seem like there is a lot more than this one recipe!

so first things first - preheat the oven to 350 degrees! Then beat the room temp butter until light and fluffy. Then add in the sugars & beat until combined.

add in the vanilla and sour cream & beat until combined.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture until combined.

As you can see this dough is a fairly stiff one, but it’s still relatively sticky! If it’s extremely sticky, add in extra flour a little at a time. (The thing with flour is, it tends to absorb humidity from the air as well, so on a rainy day you may need extra flour versus a dry winter day, so keep a look out for that.) Then pile in the chocolate chips!

Extra loaded - just the way I like my cookies :) Stir to combine.

Now line a half sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop out some dough and roll it into a ball - I used a tablespoon measure which made good sized cookies, but I also made a some 2 tbs cookies.

Pop them in the oven for about 12 minutes or until they start cracking. They may not look completely done, but they’ll continue to cook so don’t worry! Let them cool on the pan for an additional 5 minutes and then you can let them cool completely on a cooling rack.

(those are the 2 tbs dough cookies.)

Be sure to store in an airtight containers to ensure they remain soft :)

ENJOY!

To make any soup or stew from scratch, you need a stock! Veggie stocks/broths on the market will almost always have onion/garlic in it. Plus when you make it at home, you can use up what you have in the fridge and control the amount of salt you add! Stock is super friendly so you could easily sub any of the veggies I used or even add more! 

Here’s what I used:

olive oil

2 tsp italian seasoning

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

couple tbs of cabbage

1 cup carrots

1/2 bell pepper

4 stalks of celery (the outside part that you usually wouldn’t eat)

stems of mushrooms (of 2 packages of mushrooms)

water to cover

1 oz dried mushrooms

First heat the oil in a pot and add in the peppercorns, Italian seasoning, and pepper flakes. Let it warm through and add in the cabbage.

Then add in the rest of the veggies and cover with water.

Then add in the bay leaves and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

You could easily use the part of the celery that you do eat and the whole mushrooms, but I just used the part that would normally be discarded.

Then strain the stock. I did so in a two part process - first used a colander to separate the big chunks, then a strainer to separate the herbs out. Then I took two cups of that hot stock and on the mushrooms and let it steep for 15 or so minutes.

After the mushrooms have plumped up, squeeze all of the liquid out and strain the liquid in to the remaining stock.

(these are the re hydrated mushrooms so you could still use these in another dish)

And there you go, stock - simple as that to use in anything you’d like to add an extra punch of flavor instead of water - for instance in my broccoli cheddar soup (which is coming soon!)

ENJOY :)

The holiday season was a big time for parties at my house-hold. So here’s yet another recipe I developed for our holiday get togethers! This one is a basic cheesecake with a triple berry sauce.

Here’s what you’ll need:

cheesecake filling:

3 lbs (48 oz) cream cheese

1.5 cup sugar

3 tbs vanilla

3 cups sour cream

2 tbs lemon juice

3 tbs cornstarch

6 tbs flour

2 tbs baking powder

4/3 tsp baking soda

crust:

2 sticks butter

3 cups graham cracker crumbs

6 tbs sugar

sauce:

1 bag (3lbs) of frozen triple berries

1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar

Once again I made this recipe for a large number of people, so you could easily make a fairly regular sized cheesecake by dividing the recipe by 2.

I think this recipe is super simple, so here we go. First preheat the oven to 350. Then the crust; melt the butter and combine the crumbs and sugar in a bowl.

Then dump it in the pan and press out the crust.

For the cheese cake, I built a slight lip by working up the edges and used the bottom of a small bowl to smooth out the crust.

The put that in the oven for about 7 minutes. Then let it cool. Meanwhile, we can start building the filling. Simple as can be: dump everything in the mixer bowl

and mix until smooth

Then put the filling mixture into the crust and smooth it out.

Bake for about 5-10 minutes.

Then let it cool completely and place in the refrigerator. 

Now for the sauce. Best part of this recipe is that you can make the cheesecake and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve and same with the sauce! Just put all of the ingredients into a sauce pan and cook down until the berries start breaking down. If the berries aren’t sweet enough you can add more sugar as you please. After the sauce cools down, you can pour it over the cooled cheesecake and serve!

ENJOY :)

Need a quick/easy dessert? Well this is what you want to make then! A simple dessert that looks as beautiful as it tastes!

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 sheets of puff pastry

4 Granny Smith Apples

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup apple juice

2 tsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

a pinch of ground clove and ground ginger

First we’re going to preheat oven to 350. Then start working on the glaze. In a sauce pan add the sugar and apple juice (no sugar added kind would be best) and let it cook on low until it becomes a thick syrup.

Meanwhile let the puff pastry sit out until it becomes room temperature and pliable. I unfolded my sheets and pinched the seams together per sheet and rolled it out a little bit to fit my pan. Then lay it into the pan and do the same with the 2nd sheet and pinch the seams in the pan. (or you could pinch the seams between the 2 sheets and roll it out a bit and then put into a pan. That would be the best best to ensure a seamless pastry.)

Dock the entire pan of puff pastry with a fork all over (besides the edges). Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until looks less doughy and more like cooked pastry. Once it’s done, let it cool for about 7 minutes.

While baking, you can prep the apples.

Slice the apples thinly and place in a bowl with the lemon juice and toss every so often to prevent browning. Add in the cinnamon, clove and ginger. (If you don’t have clove and ginger, you can omit them and go with the classic cinnamon-sugar combo.) Toss the apples with all of the spices and arrange onto the cooled pastry.

Then brush the apples with the glaze for a shiny look and bake for about 15 minutes until the edges of the pastry are golden brown and the apples have shrunk slightly.

Let it cool, cut into squares and serve with a drizzle of the glaze for extra flavor. You can even serve it with a dollop of whipped cream!

ENJOY :)