Caprese Salad

The other day , I was randomly browsing through the internet looking for Italian starters for a party I was organizing and came across this salad. Honestly, I am not sure if I have eaten it before but it look too appetizing and easy to ignore. So off I went to the grocery store picked up a few ingredients to make this delicious and oh so easy dish.

Fresh Mozzarella with balsamic vinegar reduction and basil.

Well I also looked online and learnt how to pronounce the way Italian's do ;) .. Its Ka-Pray-Say (kaprese)  see wasn that easy, Now we can all pretend we are connoisseurs of fine Italian Food.

Lets get on to the recipe.

Ingredients
3- Vine Ripened Tomatoes ( or just the fat huge tomatoes at the grocery store :D)
1 - large fresh Mozzarella cheese (you want to buy the whole big role)
1 bunch Basil leaves
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt & Pepper

* In a heavy bottomed pan take about 1-1 1/2 cups of balsamic vinegar and bring to a boil. Keep stirring while it boils , its easy to get it burned. It takes about 10 minutes for it to start getting thick & reduce.We are making a balsamic reduction here which will go over the salad. So once u have the reduction ready, take it off the pan and keep it ready.

*Wash & pat dry the tomatoes, You want to take off the stem, and cut them into thick slices.

*Take the mozzarella cheese and cut them into thick slices too, Hopefully you are not tempted to take a bite of the soft cheese like did and land up having less cheese and more tomatoes :).

* Now is the part I love, Take a long salad plate, place a slice of tomato, a slice of mozzarella, add basil leaves between the two slices and on top of the  mozzarella. Once you have done this with all the remaining slices, Drizzle balsamic vinegar , sprinkle with salt & pepper.

And don't forget to click pictures of your recipe and post them on Facebook on our webpage : CookwithAvial

Caprese Salad 

I hope to write very soon again.

- Yanka

Red Velvet Icecream with cream cheese swirl.

I must admit , I am not very good when it comes to blogging regularly, I love to write but I am just too lazy to edit pictures and upload them. Well, I will try to write at least every other week now, I have tons of recipes that I have tried and each one of them is unique. I have also been reading articles online on how to be a better blogger , every time I read an article I go from being yes yes yes that's how bad a blogger I am he he... So lets get on with our recipe for today.

Red Velvet ice cream with cream cheese swirl.

I love red velvet cupcakes, soft gooey and with cream cheese icing they are delicious :). I wish I had one with me right now. So, when it came to deciding what I wanted to make for Valentine's Day, I decided to try Red-Velvet Icecream. Oh, I havent told you yet about my ice-cream maker story. I got a great deal on a Cuisinart icecream maker and got one for my grand dad in India. But we used it in India with just a converter pin and not a step-up transformer and that burnt the entire coil. So I got it replaced ( lucky it came with a one year warranty), and now using it to make and try various ice-creams.
Coming back to red-velvet, I looked up online and found this amazing recipe for it, It came out so well, the texture, flavour and how it looked. You will need an ice cream maker for this recipe.

Here's what you'll need to make red velvet ice cream, adapted from Annie Eats:

Doesn't it look delicious :) !!!

* Red food coloring(liquid) - 1tbsp
* Cream - 1 1/2 cups
* Sugar - 3/4 cup, 3 tbsp
* cocoa powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
* Egg yolks - 6
* Buttermilk - 1 1/4 cups

In a saucepan combine the cocoa powder, sugar and heavy cream. Over medium heat whisk lightly until all three our combined and you have a chocolate cauce with no lumps and sugar has completely dissolved.

In a mixing bowl combine egg yolks and 3 tablespoon sugar. Whisk until smooth. Once the cream+chocolate+sugar mixture is ready, and cooled down add it to the eggs, whisk to combine everything together. Return this mixture to a saucepan and heat on medium high.

Keep stirring the mixture till you have a custard sauce consistency and the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour this mixture through a strainer to remove and lumps and then add the red food coloring and buttermilk. And refrigerate the mixture . This is the base for the red velvet ice cream.

Churning , to get the ice cream 

Once the mixture has been refrigerated for a few hours, use your ice cream maker to churn it, follow manufacturer's instructions.

For the cream cheese icing:

* Cream cheese - 4 oz (cold)
*Un-salted butter - 1 1/2 tbsp
*Cream - 1-2 tbsp
* Vanilla extract - 1tsp
* Sugar - 1 cup

You want to make this icing just when your ice cream is getting ready. It takes a few minutes only.

Whip the butter and cream cheese together until it has softened, add the vanilla extract and sugar and blend again. I used an electric hand mixer for this. The cream is added to loosen the icing a little. So add 1 - 2 tbsp of cream accordingly. You dont want a thin icing so be careful.

Now comes the most important part of the recipe, layering the ice cream and cream cheese swirl. I used an airtight container to do this. Using a rubber spatula I placed a layer of the ice cream and then layered it with cream cheese. By the time I go to layering the cream cheese the ice cream was already melting so I had to be quick or the two would blend together and I would not have a swirl. The original recipe suggests using a piping bag to pipe the icing on top of the ice cream. I did not have patience for this last final step, but you should try it. Follow this by adding more ice cream on top. Refrigerate for a few more hours till it has completely hardened. It took at least 4 hours for me.

Enjoy :)

Cucumber Cups

Cucumber Cups :) 

For halloween this year, I made these cucumber cups as an appetizer for our party. They looked good, are easy to make and are a crowd pleaser. Great for your vegan and gluten free friends . There are just three ingredients in this dish Cucumbers, Sabra brand hummus and paprika.
Oh, and I forgot to mention I had won a party pack by Sabra and so decided to make something using the hummus. I hope you do enjoy making and serving these cucumber cups to your family.

Recipe:
Seedless Cucumber ( peeled and cut into chunks)
Melon baller
Hummus ( I used Sabra garlic hummus)
Paprika

Once you have peeled the cucumbers, and cut them into chunks, use a mellon baller to remove a small portion from the middle of the chunk and fill it with hummus. Do the same with other remaining chunks. Sprinkle paprika on the hummus to get it a twist. Your appetizer is now ready to be enjoyed.

 Do you have a special easy appetizer, that you love making and your friends enjoy? Do post your comments and feedback, I would love to know what you all think.