* Stuffed Bell Pepper

These  stuffed bell peppers were one of my long awaited  dish.And one fine  day in my experimental spree, I opened my refrigerator  and gathered my  favorite  ingredients and  wanted to  make  the  stuffed bell peppers before these petite  bell peppers are  either  spoiled or  consumed  in any  other form(I always  have  10  different  ways  to  eat  bell pepper,love them).   Of course  I searched in Internet and   as  expected  I didn't find all the  ingredients at home the recipes  called for , then  decided just  listen to my  instinct  and  voila the resulting dish  won Shaan's heart. We  enjoyed these beauties , they were   wholesome dish. The stuffing are  upto the individual  taste .

here is  what  I used :

Ingredients :

1. Red or Orange or Yellow Bell peppers - 4(Smaller  ones  are good  for this dish)
2. Cumin Seeds                                        - 1/2  tsp
3. Onion(finely chopped)                          -  2 tb sp
4. Zucchini(Shredded)                              -  1/2 cup
5. Mozzarella Cheese(Shredded)              - 1/2 cup
6. Sweet corn                                           - 1 cup
7. Cooked Rice                                        - 1/2 cup
8. Garlic(Finely chopped)                         - 2 tb  sp
9. Portobello mushrooms(Chopped)          - 1  cup
10. Tomatoes(Chopped)                          - 3 tb sp
11. Green Onion(Chopped)                         - 3 tb sp
12. Garam masala                                       - 1/2 tsp
13. Salt                                                       - to taste

Procedure :

 1. Wash  and pat dry the  bell peppers.Chop a  thin  section of  the bell peppers so that they  sit comfortably

      while  baking.

 2. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove all the seeds from inside and  toss them on the pan  with a  tea

     spoon of  vegetable oil for  3-4  minutes and  keep them in aside  in the baking dish.

3.  Next  step is to prepare the  stuffing. The Stuffing  has  as may options  as you can think  of, you can do 

     with  meat or  vegetables.Here  I tried  with all the veggies.

4. Start with a  a table  spoon  of  vegetable  oil in a  pan, splutter cumin seeds then  add chopped onions. 

    Once Onions are  soft add Shredded Zucchini.Cook it  for  a minute then  add the chopped tomatoes and 

    Mushrooms.

5. Cook them for  5 minutes add garlic, then  add the shredded mozzarella,sweet corn and  cooked rice.

    Mix  in  and cook for  another 2 minutes. then  add  the garam masala  and  chopped  green onions to the

   mixture and  the stuffing is ready.

6. Now  stuff the  bell peppers, after the peppers are full, put the tops back on.

7. Cover the entire baking dish with aluminum foil and throw the dish into the over for 30 minutes in to 

   350F Preheated oven  .

8. Remove the foil and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

                             Make sure the peppers are tender, but not falling apart.

Thanks  for  visiting and  I would  love to hear  from you  if you liked your  stay here.

Happy cooking and  cheers. 

* Tipsy Pudding......Truly Mouth watering desert

     'Tipsy Pudding' the  name  sounds really  catchy....when I heard in the  laptop where Shaan (My  husband) is hooked up to all possible news websites. One weekend  he was going through his stuff of world news  and  he stopped by in  one channel where  a show  named 'secret  kitchen- hosted by Bikramjit Ray' comes.This one  is my favorite,,its like my dream job...he  goes  places and  gets to  eat all  specialties and gets the secret recipes too.So this  was  on the  occasion of  Indian Independence day when he  goes to the most prestigious place of  Indian defense system,where they  train  the cadets(the future officers),,he goes to National Defense academy(NDA) and  gets  three very special  recipes from the  chief  who is there for  last 35 years  and  has served some very important people in  the world. I have been there couple of times during  R's  study time (he  is one of the tuff guys trained out  there,he is  my mom's  best friend's son )and I was his  local guardian (LOL,, I'm just  two years  older to him),I don't mind it as  long  as it let me visit this  very well maintained beautiful place.Seeing his Graduation ceremony was a very special occasion, You feel for the nation all the more if you  see the spirit  of these  young charged blood. My dad also works for  Defense, so it was even emotional   to  watch the  show. Now coming to the food  part :-) The  chef of  NDA  spills his secret recipe of tipsy pudding which is served  at NDA on special occasions for special  guests. The moment I saw it,my mouth started watering and I had to try out as soon as  I saw.I  had everything but the Whipping cream, So I  got it  and made when My daring friends(I  said "Daring"  coz, they are brave enough to try  my  experiments time to time) came  over  for a  weekend chit chat. The  9X9 desert vanished  within minutes.it was  indeed a scrumptious desert.It is  simple  and a great make ahead desert.
I have  made  it couple of times  after that and incorporated small little modification  from  the original  recipe that I saw,The lemon zest added to the top whipping cream layer really makes it an exotic dessert.
Give it a try if you  are a dessert person, I know  people  who are  not  very fond of dessert part still  go crazy  for this one.

Serves :8 - 10 people

The show  didn't  tell the proportions , so I had to come up with my  proportions which worked  well for  a 9X9 baking  dish or you  can  have  individual  portions  in  small desert blows for nice  individual deserts.

Ingredients:

1. Plain Pound cake(Chopped to small cubes) : 2 cups(You  can  bake a  ready cake mix in a  cookie sheet 

                                                                        and once they are cool  cube them or  buy  any pound cake 

                                                                        and can cube them)

2. Fresh Seasonal fruits                                   :  2 cups- Chop to very small cubes (Any fruit will do,I have  

                                                                          used 1 Pears,1  golden  kiwi and hand full of  blueberries)

3. Dry fruits                                                    :  1 cup- chopped-I used  Almonds,Cashews,raisins and 

                                                                          apricots.

4. Whipping Cream                                        :  300 ml

5. Sugar                                                         :  5 tb sp

6. Custard powder                                          : 3 tb sp ( I used Brown & Polson Custard Powder   
                                                                        Vanilla  Alternatively  you can use  vanilla  pudding mix )

7. Milk                                                            : 1 cup

8. Pure Vanilla  essence                                   : 1/2 tsp
9. Lemon and orange  Zest                              :  1  tb sp

Procedure:

1.

   First prepare the  custard before you  start to assemble rest of the ingredients for the pudding.This
   custard is not the traditional custard  that is made from  egg and milk mixture
   For  preparing the custard, mix  the  custard powder in 4  tb sp of  milk and add this mixture slowly to the
   boiling milk and  stir for  5 minutes(if you  want you  can add 2 tb sp  of  sugar).it will get thick
   consistency.Take it out of  heat and  let it cool  down and  bring it to  room temperature.
2.

  Beat the whipping cream and 3 tb sp Sugar  until stiff  pick forms ,keep it aside.While beating the
  Whipping  cream be careful  about not to over beat it,because if you  over beat the  butter starts to separate
  which  spoils   the purpose of  whipping cream in the dish.Divide the  whipping cream in two  parts,one 
  part  for  mixing  the  fruit mixture and  second  part  for  the  top layer.

3.

  In a  bowl, Mix cubed pound  cake,Fresh Fruits,dry fruits.pour in the cooled  down  custard. then  mix in
  one part of  whipping cream.Add the vanilla extract to the mixture and mix well.Now the  base  of the desert  is ready.Now  pour  this mix to your serving dish and spread evenly.Here you can use large dishes to make a big pudding or make small individual portions.

4. For top layer  ,add  lemon and  orange zest  to  the whipping cream  and just fold  in,then spread the 
   whipping cream evenly  and  keep in refrigerator  for at least 1 hour. Once  chilled to  your preference
   you  can  directly serve  or  decorate with some  chopped  dry fruits or  fresh seasonal fruits.

Enjoy and  happy  cooking...  :)