Tilapia Fish Salad with Spinach

Here goes another awesome appetizing salad recipe for you guys. I had few tilapia fish fillets resting in the refrigerator for over a fortnight and few tablespoons of chicken fry masala waiting for ages to be used. I grabbed the two together and combined into preparing a divine fish salad adding wee bit of vegetables whatever were there at home right then. 

 

 

It tastes super yummy and if you like you may squeeze lemon juice to zing it up further.

Chana Paneer Chaat

 

Chaat is a savory snack rooted in Uttar Pradesh originally but over the years it has become increasingly popular all across India. I knew a shop in Pune famous for the chaats it served, the variety was unbeatable and never had I tasted chaat elsewhere so finger-licking good. That shop was also one of the reasons I felt sad for while shifting from Pune to the city of joy.

Chaat is a good item to snack upon for people working upon their weight. You may skimp on potato if you feel it to be unnecessary. Few people add dollops of yogurt to this chaat, but I assume it tastes equally nice without yogurt.

Shrimp, Avocado and Bacon Salad

A great movie buff that I am, I don't know how come I missed to watch 'The Notebook' all these years. It is one of the best romantic movies I have seen in recent times, Ryan Gosling with his cherubic youthful smile just mesmerizes. After Tom Cruise, he has become my recent heartthrob, my heart being literally in flutter every time he was appearing on screen especially in the first half of the movie when he playing the role of a small town boy of a humbled origin garbed in a newsboy style cap of 1940s looked so stunningly angelic. I am not supremely romantic of sort to buy into soppy mushy kind of love, but I believe there once existed people like Noah who could love another with 'heart and soul' , a rarity in today's high speed world where people change partners with the frequency of clothes. Another of my favourite romantic movie is 'Cold Mountain'. There are plenty of others like 'Sleepless in Seattle', 'You have got mail', 'War & Love', 'It happened one night' and 'Roman Holiday'. Anyone fond of romantic flicks might consider watching them if not already viewed.

 

 

Concerning the recipe at hand, I got this one from Gimme Some Oven, an exciting blog featuring lots of healthy salad recipes. I just modified some salad ingredients, but I hewed to the buttermilk dressing described there. It is one of the best salads I have consumed so far, each dainty morsel exploding with delight in your mouth.

Prawn Salad

 

 

The weather in Ohio is beyond any prediction. One moment you see the sun shining in full glory with the mercury soaring up taking you to believe spring is near; the next moment you see gusts of wind blowing in full force plummeting the temperature down by few degrees smashing all your thin hopes for a cool weather to smithereens. Quite tired of this cat and mouse game nature is playing on us. I was so happy yesterday to see the sun burning in full intensity in the late evening thanking god that at last winter is retracing its steps leaving space for spring to take over, but today morning with no sun in clear visibility and a dull gloomy sky nipped all my hopes in the bud. Winter could be tiring if stretched for long. Winter of US could be compared with the summer of India in terms of both testing on people's nerve making them yell for some respite.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, my harping on winter is going to be nonstop until I see it coming to an end. So readers, please bear with my gripe, after all that's the only way I can give some outlet to my rising frustration. Meanwhile, as an interlude to these nonstop gripes and complaints, enjoy the recipe of Prawn Salad below and let me know how you guys relish it.

Hakka Roti

Hakka cuisine usually refers to the cooking style derived from the south eastern aboriginals of China. Hakka food is popularly served in Indian restaurants; however, that is only an adapted version of original hakka cuisine modified to give an Indianized flavour. So the hakka cuisine so profusely relished in various parts of India is actually more of Indo Chinese bearing little or almost no resemblance to the original. The recipe below is not borrowed from Hakka cuisine though. In order to catch notice I thought the appendage of 'hakka' to the title would invoke some interest and hence.....hope you guys will enjoy the concoction.

 

 

In case if you are wondering whether the unique idea of making something so innovative as 'hakka roti' surfaced in my head or not, let me inform you that this recipe is accredited to a Bengali magazine which I read religiously to scavenge for recipes I can experiment and bring out to you all. Quite a philanthropy na !!

 

Potato Salad

Finally spring is near. From tonight on the daylight saving starts with the clock marching forward by one hour. Hopefully, by the end of this month we will have the outset of a salubrious spring. After months of confinement in winter, I just cannot wait to feel the sun stroking my face. With spring approaching nearer, summer is not far behind. Summer is the season everyone here looks forward to, quite opposite to our trend in India where the onset of summer invites a dreadful prospect that is further aggravated by the clammy sweaty climate prevailing in most of the cities with Kolkata and Chennai topping the list in terms of the humidity going beyond the level of tolerance. It was almost customary for me to have my face dotted with heat rashes in summer. I am gifted with humongous hyperactive sweat glands that soak me up in perspiration throughout the summer months making these rashes germinate all over my face. Ugh, I hated them so much. My flight to Bangalore finally helped me spend some rash free years.

 

 

Anyway, talking about summer one of the things I used to enjoy heartily amidst the tortuosity and roughness of scorching weather in Kolkata was salad. Fresh from the fridge, the vegetables still remained cold by the time they were cut and mixed together into a refreshing salad; I just loved the cold sensation passing down my throat. My love for salad still remains strong irrespective of seasons. The potato salad below is one of my favorites. I love to luxuriate myself in its creamy richness at least once a week throwing aside all the concerns of weight check and all.

 

 

Rotini Pasta Salad with Cream Cheese Pesto

Finally the long awaited weekend has arrived allowing me the opportunity to spend time galore with my husband. These days he works late hours in office, due to his imperious domineering boss, whom I have begun to hate from the bottom of my heart and because of whom my hubby goes to office early in the morning and returns home late. His boss is a bachelor still, who works like a lunatic and makes people working under him slog day and night as if they don't have families. These unmarried bosses are really dangerous; exceedingly workaholic, they relish smothering their juniors loaded down with work and responsibilities.

Since it was Friday night yesterday, instead of sulking for hubby returning home late, I planned to engage myself preparing this delicious rotini pasta salad topped with cream cheese pesto. Each mouthful of this salad is truly bluely delightful. Hope you guys will love it.

 

 

Chicken Avocado Salad with Tahini Sauce

 

Ripe avocados are so creamy and mellow, achingly sweet melting in your mouth and sensuously aphrodisiac. I fell in love with guacamole the very first time I had it. Now avocado has become pretty indispensable for me in salads and sandwiches. On the other hand, tahini is something I am newly acquiring a taste for. Recently I bought home a bottle of tahini sauce and was looking for ways to use it. So the chance came when I read somewhere that tahini can be a good substitute for so frequently used balsamic vinegar in salad dressing. I combined it with yogurt and a pinch of spices, but I perceive you may combine tahini with mayonnaise or simply drizzle it on top of your salad to add taste and desirably, it will turn out pleasant.

Chicken Avocado Salad with Tahini Sauce tastes superlatively good. You may add few croutons to jazz up your salad further, and enjoy the bliss.

 

 

Chicken Penne Pasta Salad with Tomato Pesto Sauce

I have heard of debit or credit card fraud, how some unlucky lot have fallen prey to this vicious crime and lost their hard-earned money to fraudsters, but this is the first time me and my husband have experienced this sort of a thing. Yesterday my husband received an alert for a purchase worth $300 that he has not made and guess what, the transaction was not attempted online. The perpetrator made a counterfeit card using the debit card details of my hubby and tried to put it to use. Thanks to the almighty, the bank waits for 48 hours before allowing a transaction pass through the gateway and in case of card being used in another state than where the cardholder stays, it asks for some mandatory security questions to verify the authenticity because of which we could stall the fraudulent transaction on time.

 

 

Now I am amazed at the brazenness of the perpetrator in making a counterfeit copy of the original card and trying to use it, I mean, can't we expect a minimum security to be ensured to us in terms of our card being secured with a unique number so that any duplicate or simulation of the same will immediately be identified when swiped in for action? So long as no concrete device comes into picture providing full-proof protection to us, the liability is on our shoulder, to a great extent, to secure us from the swindling of our money earned through backbreaking efforts. The below article putting light on how to use your cards with caution furnishes quite useful information, especially I, having come from a foreign country, have found the note very helpful.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pf_article_109814.html

 

 

 

Back to the recipe, just as I promised, in order to promote healthy eating I will post recipes of soup and salad throughout this week to encourage my readers for incorporating a healthy eating habit into their life style, the recipe of Penne Pasta Salad makes another valuable entry to the purpose. Penne Pasta and Tomato Pesto make an attractive combination, and with few chunks of chicken thrown into it, the salad gets to an ultimate level of pleasure. If you wish, you may spike up the flavor tossing few spoonfuls of grated parmesan cheese.

Spicy Chicken Salad

 

As promised, in order to promote healthy eating I will post recipes of soup and salad throughout this week to encourage my readers for incorporating a healthy eating habit into their life style. Though I must say our generation is quite health and figure conscious compared to our earlier generation when having a potbelly was regarded as a sign of wealth and prosperity, but there are people still who scowl at the name of salad. For them salad is nothing but a subsistence for the sickly and anorexics. They in their desire for taste and spiciness become forgetful or intentionally ignorant of the fact that at times it's important to give your tummy a break from daily gastronomic venture and eat something healthy to provide apt nutrition to your body.

If one spends half of his life on oily deep fried unhealthy stuff, the later half he might spend eating only boiled food, provided he lives that long. So as my physician told me once that 'moderation is very important'. You may eat whatever you feel like but staying within limit and keeping salad and soup included in your regular food plan.

 

Anyway, enough harangue on eating healthy, let’s get onto the recipe now.

Peanut Pineapple Salad

At the threshold of a new year, some very nostalgic thoughts are crowding my mind. This year has been quite a bit eventful. I have been to an array of exciting places including Niagara Falls, Chicago, Yercaud and Hyderabad. I have got myself engaged in things I enjoy pursuing like embroidery, cooking, reading and beading. All these have been possible because I have taken a professional break from the 9-5 job that killed me with boredom and monotony. I am now spending time the way I want without staying bound by routine.

Peanut Pineapple Salad is a simple fruit salad with few this and that ingredients added to heighten the flavour.

Sambharo - Cabbage Salad

Sambharo is a Gujrati Cabbage Salad that is served as accompaniment to main meals. I often use this as filling for my sandwiches and it increases the taste largely. In my preparation I have substituted raw green mangoes with touches of vinegar, but original Sambharo requires green sour mangoes in good measure. Ingredients:                                         Cooking time:10 minutes ü  1 cup of cabbage, julienne cut ü  1 medium sized carrot, julienne cut ü  1 capsicum or bell pepper, julienne cut ( I have used red bell pepper) ü  2-3 green chillies, julienne cut ü  1/2 tsp of turmeric powder ü  1/2 tsp of mustard seeds ü  1 tsp of sugar ü  1 tbsp of vinegar ü  5-7 curry leaves ü  Couple of pinches of salt to taste ü  1 tbsp of white oil Method: 1) Cut all the vegetables and mix vinegar with them. 2) Heat oil in a skillet. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves when oil becomes smoking hot. Add all the vegetables and turmeric powder. Sauté on medium heat till vegetables turn a bit tender. Add salt & sugar. Stir around for a while. Remove from the flame. 3) Serve hot or use as filling in a sandwich.

Mexican Cole Saw

My hubby yesterday in a very sombre tone asked me as if testing my knowledge "do you know why the hand of a compass is always directing towards north by default?" Quite taken aback by such an amusing out of the blue question, I racked my brain for a while before coming up with the answer, "No"....his reply left my brain dizzy for a moment...."because nobody dares point fingers at Rajinikanth in South." I know it is one instance among scores of silliest wackiest jokes on Rajinikanth and how tired I am of those PJs splashed all over Facebook.

Day before yesterday was Rajinikanth's birthday. Those of you who don't know yet who Rajinikanth is, please google to witness the craze about him. If you are living in southern part of India, you might have definitely felt the madness about Rajinikanth. He is worshipped like a demi-god here. Seriously!!

Back to the recipe, Mexican Cole Saw is a tasty tangy Mexican salad. I can guarantee that you would like its taste even if you are not a typical salad lover because my husband who otherwise never touches salads regarding them as "bland" gobbled a bowl of it, with pleasure.