Matar Rice or Rice with Peas

Matar Rice can be prepared into so many ways. I have seen a Matar Pulao before and it has more color on the rice and the preparation was different. But this one that I have prepared, I just used a regular rice and not Basmati Rice. I also included not so much masala or spices into it. I just wanted to prepare it simple as possible without anything that I could get off the rice like cloves or cinnamon bark when eating.

Matar Rice or Rice Peas


Ingredients for Matar Rice:
cooked rice
green peas (fresh or canned)
chopped onion
chopped garlic
pinch of turmeric powder
pinch of salt
vegetable oil

Preparation/ Method for Cooking Matar Rice or Rice Peas:

Saute garlic and onion on a heated oil in pan. Put salt to your onion to cook the onions well and after this, you need to put the turmeric powder. This will give the color to your rice. It will depend on how much turmeric you would put, but as for me, I opted to put less of it. If your onion is well done, you may now put your green peas and be sure that your stove flame is in medium heat. After stirring the peas, put some amount of water. Not too much water, your objective here is just to make the peas tender. You can check the peas after 10-15 minutes or if you think that the water you put dissolved already.
After the water is gone and you have checked that your peas is now okay to eat, you can now include the cooked rice. Just stir the rice very well so that all the peas and the oil with turmeric will blend well in it. Best when serve hot and steaming.
Cooked Rice mixed with the sauteed green peas


Again as I have said, this dish would be more lovely if you have been so creative and brave to include chilly spices. Mater Pulao is different and I don't claim that this is the same procedure. This is just my own rendition of a simple Matar Rice but is really delicious and my husband loved it.


Green Peas

Creamy Strawberry Salad

This Holiday Season, I prepared a delicious creamy strawberry salad. Actually I have fruit salad too but this one is another. I didn't thought that hubby would buy a Mahabaleshwar strawberries which is really tempting to eat.
Mahabaleshwar Strawberries

Mahabaleshwar is a famous place in India that you can harvest the best and biggest strawberries in town. The cost is not that expensive compared to the strawberries you buy in the groceries since buying this type of strawberries in the local market would mean that you can haggle the vendors for their prices.
Mahabaleshwar Strawberries in my hands

See how fresh are my strawberries? It was the biggest strawberries I have ever had and it was my first time to munch such a very yummy treat. Anyway, just to remind you that I have washed it first with a veggie wash before preparing it into creamy salad.

Here is what I wanted to share on Creamy Strawberry Salad:
Ingredients:
All Purpose Cream
Strawberries
Condense Milk

Method/ Preparations for Creamy Strawberry Salad:
Just mix all the ingredients given above and chill it inside the fridge. Slice the strawberries into quarters or to what you like before you mix it with the All Purpose Cream and Condense Milk. It was just so easy to prepare even your kids can help you prepare it. Best served when chilled.
Creamy Strawberry Salad

You can also eat this strawberries while they are with crumbled ice. Although the strawberries weren't that sweet, it just complimented on the all purpose cream and the condense milk that I have put. You can also include other fruits like pear and pearl balls if you like.
Taste test on Creamy Strawberry Salad

The All purpose cream was not that heavy. It was not what I really expected since I thought my creamy salad would be creamier and not juicier. But anyway, the condensed cream pulled it all together and glad hubby wasn't that choosy to eat what I gave him.
My Finish product

Just this morning I still have my remaining creamy strawberries in the fridge and I scoop out some and put it in our oatmeal for breakfast. It was really a good combination, very healthy and very lovely.

Sweets For Gift Giving

Christmas is in the air and sweets for gift giving is also possible. It was one of the best and nicest thing that a kid can enjoy and no one can resist. That is why me and hubby have decided to buy something sweet like chocolates for gift giving this Christmas.
Sweet Chocolate for a Christmas Gift

I like this type of chocolate which is with almond. But the thing that a buyer can be attracted when buying it was the box since you can recycle it. There are lots of goodies with promo or discounted price during this festive season. You can get the advantage when you buy a whole pack or promo pack.
Freebie Chocolates that I got when we buy Vintage Chocolates

Round bits of Choco with Almonds

You don't need to spend too much on sweets like chocolates. I was just happy that they offered the most cheapest price without sacrificing the quality of the chocolates. One of the local chocolates that I started to like was Amul Chocolates. We also bought an assorted chocolate and I cannot believe that the taste of it was similar to the most branded chocolate I like. Although the difference obviously was the price.
Amul Assorted Chocolate

Amul is just a local brand of Chocolate in India but it was really delicious and yummy. I like it since it is also affordable compare to other chocolates. It competes with other branded chocolates available in the market. I personally like the packaging which is presentable.

RiteBite Nutrition Bar

Ritebite Nutrition Bar is somewhat an energizer to people who are always on the go. It is a healthy snack which you can always carry along with you. I personally like to give this to hubby before he goes to work since it wasn't their style here to pack lunch and eat it. He prefers to eat hot steaming rice so I don't have anything to worry on preparing him food before going to work.

But instead, I usually gave him some snack items just like this handy chocolate bar. It comes with other flavors too if you buy it in a box which will have you a discount. I consider it healthy loaded with vitamins and minerals. But of course, there is no substitute with regards to fresh fruits. I don't mind to give him such but it was just his choice not to since he can easily pocket a bar of Rite bite rather than a banana or apple or any fruits that I can think of.



It was not a slimming bar, but mostly an energy bar which will perk you up on your busy day. Just perfect for a very busy person who has no time for going to the cafeteria to buy some snack. Ritebite has at least offered a discount when you purchase it in box.
Goody goodness from Ritebite, A Healthy Snack

Beef Meat Balls

Beef Meat Balls -Today is another exciting recipe which is just so easy to prepare. Sorry for those vegetarian friends of mine since they won't be interested to try this one, but for those who aren't vegetarians at all, then this recipe is pretty simple to do. Here is the recipe I wanted to share with you.

Ingredients for Beef Meat Balls

1-medium onion (chopped into small bits)
soy sauce (knorr or maggi liquid seasoning)
1/4 kilo ground beef
salt
ground black pepper
1-egg
less than 1/4 cup of flour
vegetable oil


Preparations / Methods for Cooking Beef Meat Balls:

In a bowl, put all the ingredients except oil. Mix it all and make small balls out of the meat. You can make the balls round and defined by placing flour on your hands so that it won't get so sticky. You can actually make more than 10 meat balls out of that 1/4 kilo of minced beef.

Cooking the Meat Balls:
Heat the pan and put a lot of oil. It is important that your meat balls should swim on this one so that it can get cook faster. Remember that only put the meat balls if the oil is really hot. Just make sure that once your frying the meatballs, your flame should not be so high. I still suggest to put it on slow flame to cook the beef well. But I don't have any issues if it was on a medium flame as long as you can manage to check your meat balls if its tender enough.
Make sure to turn the sides of the meatball to cook it evenly


See how the meatballs swim in oil to cook them well


At that moment, I don't have any flour to use so I used my wheat flour. But the disadvantage of using a wheat flour on cooking meatballs was that it was so crunchy and my meatballs ended up so rough and hard. Well, I don't know if you may call it an advantage. Maybe you can throw it against your enemy, haha! Just kidding. Don't play with your food.

I used wheat flour for this one

Have fun cooking. You can add more on your meatballs if you wanted some spice. You can chili powder into it. But if you are not into spicy foods, then you can try putting some herbs like cilantro or oregano bits. You can experiment and you won't get it wrong as long as you like what your tongue is telling you.

Chicken Mushroom with Sooji Rawa

Chicken-Mushroom with Sooji Rawa - This recipe is just my own concoction as I combine chicken, mushroom and Sooji Rawa or Semolina. I was thinking about creamy mushroom delight with Chicken but since I don't have an all-purpose cream at that time, I decided to use Semolina to make something like a gravy type of sauce. It looks light and not a heavy type of creamy mushroom sauce. The trick was because I put only one cube of easy quick melt cheese to do the creamy stuff and sooji rawa to do some wonderful magic on the recipe. If you don't know anything about Sooji Rawa or where to get them, I suggest you visit a local organic store or store that sells organic foods and spices. Here is the recipe that I wanted to share with you:

Ingredients for Chicken-Mushroom with Sooji Rawa:

1/2 kilo of chicken
1- medium size onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp. of Sooji rawa or semolina
1 pack of button mushroom
1 chicken bouillon cube (knorr or maggi)
knorr liquid seasoning (for seasoning the chicken)
salt to taste
ground blk. pepper for taste
2-3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cube quick melt cheese

Methods / Preparations for Chicken-Mushroom with Sooji Rawa:

Clean the chicken first and make sure you have scrub it with salt to remove the poignant smell. After this you need to put it in a pan with a small amount of water to make it tender before putting some oil to slightly fry it. Once your chicken is golden brown and ready, you can now saute garlic and then onion. Put some salt to your onion to cook it well. After this you need to put the button mushrooms and saute it together with the chicken as you sprinkle some liquid seasoning from knorr. I like this way so that it won't be so dark in color and that is why I don't use soy sauce for this recipe.

After this you can now put your chicken bouillon cube and put some ample amount of water for your chicken and mushroom to get tender. Simmer for around 3-5 minutes and check the taste. If it needs salt, just put some salt and then sprinkle some ground black pepper. Once the water is less you need to put the sooji rawa and stir it a bit so that it will spread together with the chicken and mushroom. To make the sauce a bit gravy, put the cube of quick melt cheese. Simmer for some more time and presto, your Chicken-mushroom with sooji rawa is now ready.

I just put a pinch of poppy seed here


If you don't have poppy seeds, its just fine. The recipe will still be as delicious as this. Although I really wanted the chicken to be fried so the color looks a bit more brown but yummy for me.
You would not be able to see the Sooji Rawa or Semolina here

Chicken Mechado Recipe

Chicken Mechado Recipe- I was happy to cook this food for hubby since this recipe is authentic Filipino dish. It is easy to cook as long as you have the right ingredients and know the proper way of cooking it. I have learned this dish by just watching my mom how she prepares it. it may not be the exact way she cook it, but at least somehow it resembles. Here is the following ingredients for Chicken Mechado recipe:

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo of chicken ( this is just good for 2-3 persons)
2 medium sized potato
1 big green capsicum
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 medium sized onion
1-chicken bouillon cube (knorr or maggi)
soy sauce -for taste
salt- for taste
5-6 tbsp. of tomato puree/sauce
ground black pepper- for taste
2-3 tbsp. of cooking oil

Methods/ Preparations to Cook Chicken Mechado:

Wash and clean the chicken as you scrub it with rock salt. Rinse it with tap water and cut it into small to medium pieces. I suggest that you put the chicken in the pan with a little amount of water and sprinkle some salt and set the stove into medium flame. In this you are tenderizing the chicken till it squeeze out its own oil for you to start frying it. But just don't over fry your chicken. Once you see that the chicken is light brown,set the stove off and put the chicken aside.

Sauteeing the Ingredients:

Preheat the pan and put the oil. Once your oil is hot you can now put your garlic and then your onion. Since I have mentioned you needed 2 medium onions, one onion you need to slice in thicker and bigger, and the other one is for sauteeing. Put the sliced onions first and then put some salt into your onion so that it can be cook easier. When your onion is already golden brown, you can now put the potato. Make sure that your potatoes are sliced into four (crossed cut) when its a medium sized potato). You don't need to cut slice it thinly since Mechado needs more simmering to get the flavor of chicken and potato well combined.

Delicious Chicken Mechado


Once your potato is ready, you can now put your chicken, some water and put your chicken bouillon cubes and sprinkle some soy sauce ( I prefer knorr liquid seasoning) for this one, or else you can choose the Chinese soy sauce as long as you don't use the dark soya sauce from India because it was totally tinted which can destroy your Mechado looking like a Dinuguan dish.

Simmer for 2 minutes and check your water if it was just enough (not too much). Once the savor of soya and chicken bouillon is there, you can now put the green capsicum and please do not over cook them. It is better to cook it a bit crunchy. After this you can now put your tomato puree or tomato sauce and sprinkly some more salt and pepper if you think the taste needs more.

Yummy Chicken Mechado Ready to be Serve

How to Cook Palak Paneer

Palak Paneer ( Spinach with Cottage Cheese or Tofu) is a recipe very well known and is a traditional food in India. It is a very delicious and healthy recipe good for vegetarians and health conscious people. I personally like how palak or spinach is so green before I put it in a blender and make a fine paste. Cottage cheese or tofu plays an important part to balance this recipe since palak itself is too fine and to chew something from this recipe, you need the softness of the paneer or tofu (tokwa in Tagalog). Below is the list of ingredients needed for this recipe.

Ingredients for Palak Paneer:

1 bunch of Spinach (Palak)
half tsp. of garam masala
half tsp. of cumin powder
half tsp. coriander powder
pinch of turmeric powder
half tsp. of chili powder ( if you want it more spicy, you can add more)
2-3 cloves of garlic
pinch of fenugreek leaves powder
1 tomato - chopped in small bits
one medium size onion
1 tbsp. ginger-garlic paste
2 green chillies (sliced into pieces)
salt to taste
2-3 tbsp. of oil
2 tbsp. whip cream or all purpose cream (optional)
paneer or cottage cheese(tofu)- 1 vacuum packed size

Methods/ Preparations for Cooking Palak Paneer:

Boil water and once it reaches the boiling point, put the spinach or palak in and don't cover your pot because this will get your palak darker in color and not green. Once your palak is done, set it aside or cool it down before you put it in a blender to make a fine paste. Just put ample amount of water for your own preference.


Sauteeing the ingredients:

You need to heat the oil and then put the garam masala first, then followed by cumin powder. After this you need to put the garlic cloves and then onions. Put a small amount of salt in your onion to cook it faster. After this you need to put a pinch of turmeric powder on your onion and stir it well so that it won't stick at the bottom of your pan. Put the ginger-garlic paste and next will be your tomatoes. Once your tomato is kinda mushy, put the coriander powder and then later put the chili powder and next will be the fenugreek leaves powder. After putting the fenugreek powder, add the chopped green chillies. Set this all aside and keep it cool for some time before you put it in a mixer to make a fine paste.

Cooking the Palak and the Paneer:

Once you have mixed into fine paste the sauteed ingredients, put some ample amount of water into it and make it boil, after this you can now add the palak paste that you set aside awhile ago and it will look like the picture below. See how the steaming goodness of palak is:

Notice How Green my Palak Is


Once you see some oil on the site of your pan or wok, then you can now put your paneer or cottage cheese (tofu). Simmer for a few more minutes till your cottage cheese or paneer is tender and ready and then the last is your whip cream.

Palak Paneer is now ready to eat


Just make sure you cut the cottage cheese or paneer a bit bigger. You don't want your paneer crushed so avoid stirring and stirring the pan. Just put some more salt if you feel like the taste still needs more.

Rice Crispies or Kurmura Ladoo

Rice Crispies or Kurmura Ladoo is one of the most classic snack that I can think of. When I was a young kid, my grand mother used to buy me rice crispies or kurmura ladoo. This one is just created with an extra ingredient since the rice crispies that I used to eat was in a bar shaped figure and this one is round.
Kurmura Ladoo


Kurmura ladoo is made out of shenghdana or peanut, kurmura with sugar and jaggery and they also have added some eliachi or green cardamom seed in it. It was just sweet in taste but not too sweet that you can easily get used of the taste. I really like crunchy rice crispies although it should have been easier for me to munch if it was a bar and not just round to slip my fingers when I bite it just like a child who gets her or his hand all wet with saliva when chewing or licking their candy.

Rice Crispies with peanuts and green cardamom


It comes in a pack, six round pieces for an affordable price which you would really like to give for your kids. I somewhat like some snacks which is with nuts or rice or wheat. It is more healthier than a regular junk food that you buy in the grocery. Perhaps I will try how to make one, but not just now since I really do have a lot of things to catch up on my blog. Kurmura Ladoo is one of the snacks which is available all year round and you can buy it in easily in the market and groceries. Have you tried one?

Adobong Okra

Adobong Okra (Lady Finger)

Adobo is one delicious Filipino dish which is well known. You can cook adobong manok(Chicken) or adobong baboy( pork meat) or whatever you like for an adobo be it a veggie or meat, as long as the main ingredients for adobo is there, you will surely like it. But this time, I wanted to share my own version of crunchy adobo which is dry and kinda spicy.

All you need to do is not to put too much water and put some spice like chilly powder to twist the taste. But if you don't like spicy and hot food, then just skip putting chilly powder.

Ingredients for cooking adobong okra (lady finger):

okra - sliced slantly into one inch
garlic- a lot of garlic cloves( this gives the aromatic smell of your adobo)-your preference
ground black pepper - your preference, just a few amount only
salt- for taste
soy sauce- (for those in India please don't use the dark soy sauce)
vinegar- (sugar cane vinegar and not synthetic vinegar)
2-4 tbsp. of water
vegetable oil


Preparations for Cooking Adobong Okra

Mix all the ingredients above and taste it if it was the correct spice and flavor that you like. Please take note that I didn't put an exact amount of measurement since your adobo will depend on the amount of lady finger that you have. Just to make sure, if you put let's say 5 tbsp. of soy sauce, then you need to put only 3 tbsp. of vinegar and not too much. Adobo is not a sour food. It is more of salty and blended sour but not too sour and not too much water like a soup.

Another thing that I wanted to tip here if you are cooking adobo, be sure you put a lot of oil like 5 to 7 tbsp. of oil if your measurement for soy sauce was 5 tbsp. The oil will keep your adobo cook even more and without sticking it at the bottom of the pan. Since water will not be much, expect that the oil will also fry a bit of your okra, but don't fry it too much.

Some people like their adobo sweet so they put sugar or pineapple bits into it. But that is good if your cooking meat adobo and not a veggie adobo. But again, it will still be your choice if you want it sweet.

My crunchy and spicy adobong okra (lady finger)

Pointed Gourd or Potol

Pointed Gourd or Potol

This wonderful veggie I discovered when I started to live in India. We don't have this kind of vegetable in the Philippines so I am not aware of it. My mother in law used to like this kind of vegetable and when she prepared it and let me tasted it, I somewhat like it because it tasted like fried eggplant but it was more than that since it is not soft and mushy and it was not itchy to the tongue just like any other eggplant that we used to cook.

Fried Pointed Gourd



Potol or Patol is Pointed Gourd in English. It is a vegetable which is available in India whole year round and I really like the taste of it when it was fried. It has seeds in it that determines its age. The thicker the seed the older the pointed gourd is but you can still munch that seeds if you want to eat it. Preparing this vegetable is so easy because you can fry it or you can put it along with other vegetables for curry.

Fried Potol is much easier to prepare and match other dishes


If you want to prepare this veggie, just cut the tips at both ends and slice it in half vertically. Once you slice it marinate it for 15 to 20 minutes using salt, red chilly powder and turmeric powder. After that you just need to fry it for about 2-3 minutes as long as your oil is preheat.

How to Make Flat Bread (Chappati)

Chapatti or Flat Bread

Believe me up until now, I am still perfecting to make my own chapatti's shape to be round or circle. Most of the time, I ended up on elongated or something like an alien ship or flying saucer that came from outer space. Seriously I don't watch my in-laws to make it since I am thousands of miles away from them, so I just learned it on my own by watching it on youtube.

Again you don't have to be an expert to cook something. Cooking should be a passion. You should love what you are doing so that it mirrors what you prepare before you serve it to your family and beloved.

My Alien Spaceship shaped Chappati/ Roti or Flat bread


Chapatti is made out of wheat flour. I haven't seen anyone mix it with white flour. Just to make a sample chapatti, use two cups of wheat flour and then only 3/4 cups of water and put it in a mixer to make a dough. Keep the dough in an open container for 20 minutes before you roll it into balls which is only a coin size.

Just use a thick rolling pin to make the size more round. Use a tava or a non stick pan and don't use any oil. Once you preheat your tava or non stick pan place your rolled dough and once you see small bubbles coming in, just roll your wheat dough and press it using any clean cloth to make the chapatti balloon in size.

Spread some ghee or butter in a ready hot chapatti and keep it on a tiffin to maintain it's temperature. Chappati is always part of Indian dishes which is always good to compare with any curry recipes.

Elongated Capsicum with minced Beef

Elongated Capsicum with Minced Beef

I was able to buy minced beef and marinated it with soy sauce, salt and black ground pepper and masala. Fried it till it was crispy enough and then the next thing I did was to fry the green peppers. It was really oily and I still opted to grill the capsicum instead of frying it, but we don't have any grill so I landed on frying it.



It was really spattering so just be careful of placing it on hot oil for frying. What is best is that when you fry such veggie, you should have a napkin to drain the remaining oil before serving. I don't have it at the moment I prepared the dish so it looks oily as it can be when clicked on a cam.

It is good to pair it with chapatti or flat bread. Since you can wrap it like a mexican dish. Anyway, if you wanted to know how to prepare chapatti or roti, I will post a recipe here so you can start cooking and preparing your own flat bread which by the way is made out of wheat flour.

Green Capsicum with Minced Beef, Chapatti and Chicken Biryani


I didn't prepare that Chicken Biryani that you can see on the picture. We bought it outside to eat along with what I prepared. It was a night of relaxation and off days are meant to be special for us( hubby and I) so I paired it with this dish. It is better if you eat your green capsicum wrapped in chappatti. It was surely great since it absorbs the extra oil that was on the veggie, made perfectly for each other.

Wrap your chappati around the green capsicum to hold the minced beef inside