Tomato and Herb Pasta

This afternoon while at university, I decided that I really needed a cooking session to unwind. I wasn't in the mood for anything complicated though so I chose to make pasta. Easy, simple, tastes good, and guaranteed results. I made a spaghetti with tomato, walnuts, breadcrumbs, and coriander. I'm thinking that perhaps rigatoni, fusilli, or penne would have worked better with this, though... just cause there wasn't so much of a sauce in this pasta.

Thai Cooking Class at ICCA!

When I was participating at BakeFestDXB (http://spontaneous-euphoria.blogspot.com/2010/09/bake-fest-dxb.html), I met the girl behindhttp://www.foodonymph.com/ who told me that she and a few other food bloggers meet every month to try something new in the world of food! I was so excited to join the group and yesterday we took a Thai cooking class at the International Center for Culinary Arts in Hana Center. It was a lot of fun, I got to meet other food bloggers out there, and it was a very exciting- and delicious-process throughout. We were in pairs of two and my partner was Anja. She has a lovely blog that you can check out here: http://anjasfood4thought.blogspot.com/

I can't seem to find the links for all the other blogs!

Here are some pictures from last night as well as the menu.

Menu:

Starter:

shrimpcakes on lemongrass skewers

raw papaya salad with cashews and dressing

vegetable noodles

thai red curry fish with jasmine rice

beef stirfry

pandan leaves and coconut caramel pudding (soo moist, amazing texture, lovely!!!)

Ingredients for the papaya salad dressing.

Cherry tomatoes for the papaya salad. I had no idea cherry tomatoes were used in Thai cooking. I thought it was just a Mediterranean thing.

The delicious papaya salad.

Our noodles- done!

Crispy beef stirfry done! Have I mentioned before how much I love stirfrying?

Thai red curry fish done!

The dessert!

My amazing job at cutting and chopping! I am horrible at this! It was a big challenge for me to get this right!

Themed

These are some cupcakes that I made for a lovely friend of mine who just had a baby boy! I tend to prefer simpler cupcakes with just frosting on it in a home-made style.

Chicken Pulao - Recipe Included!

So one of my favourite dishes that are made at home is chicken pulao. I've been meaning to learn how to make it for ages now and today finally did! Here are some pictures of my experience as well as the recipe.

Chicken Pulao Recipe

Serves 12-15

Ingredients

• 1 or 2 green chillies, sliced
• 1.25kg medium tomatoes cut into fours
• 1 ½ whole garlic
• 3 1 ½ inch ginger
• 5 cinnamon sticks
• 4 bay leaves
• 3 pieces big, black cardamom
• 6 pieces small, green cardamom
• 1 handful black pepper corns
• 2 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp cloves
• 9 medium onions, sliced
• 200g ghee
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 3 800g whole chicken: breast, legs, thighs separated
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 medium potatoes, chopped
• 3 tsp chili powder
• 1.55kg basmati rice
• 2 handfuls coriander, chopped
• 2L water

Procedure

1. Blend tomatoes with green chili until thick and chunky.
2. Separately, blend ginger and garlic to a puree.
3. Heat oil and ghee in a large pot until steaming hot. Then, on high heat, add cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, cardamoms, black pepper corns, cumin seeds, and cloves. Stir until fragrant, then add onion and cook until almost brown. Hint: proceed to the next step when ghee and oil bubbles subside.
4. Add garlic and ginger mixture and cook. Color of mixture should be a rich golden and light brown.
5. Next, add chicken to pot and coat thoroughly with mixture. Add 1 tbsp salt and mix very well.
6. Put lid on and cook for ten minutes until chicken juices emerge.
7. Remove lid and stir the chicken so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pot and so that the juices evaporate
8. When juices evaporate, add tomato mixture and cook until tomato liquid reduces by half.
9. Add potatoes and chili powder. Stir well.
10. Put lid on and cook for 10-15 minutes until chicken is fully cooked. Hint: oil should be present in pot.
11. Meanwhile, boil water in separate pot.
12. Add coriander to chicken and potato mixture and stir until (even more!) fragrant.
13. Add uncooked rice and stir very well. Then, add boiled water to pot and stir.
14. Add salt to taste and stir. Put lid back on and bring to boil.
15. When liquid has reduced, lower heat and simmer until liquid has absorbed.

Macaroon Sculpture for Fashion Photography Event

Here are some pictures of a macaroon sculpture I made for the launch of "Fashion: The Story of a Lifetime" exhibition at The Empty Quarter Gallery in DIFC Gate Village. The sculpture was inspired by Frank Horvat's famous photograph in L'Officiel pictured below. This photograph is one among many at the exhibition. Make sure you check the exhibition out- it's on till mid October!

The picture quality of the sculpture is poor because I took the pictures from my phone- apologies.

It was the first time I made anything remotely like a design "installation" and it was the first time that I made a shaped structure out of food.. It was a wonderful experience, very challenging and exciting! Loved it! The best part was draping the lace and pearls around the sculpture.

Bake Fest DXB

Pictures of my stand at Wild Peeta's BakeFestDXB! Lovely experience, wonderful community feel, and a lot of fun! I wish I had a chance to photograph other stands as well!

Eid baking