Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Try it and you will be hooked

So here's the thing, since I was a kid, tomatoes and bananas would make me go eww. Slowly, that changed, I still don't like bananas, won't have them, but tomatoes, I kinda like their taste when they are cooked. I absolutely can't eat raw tomatoes even now. So why is a anti-tomato person like me writing a recipe about - tomatoes and nothing else? :p
That's because I absolutely love sun-dried tomatoes. The minute I see sun-dried tomatoes on the menu, I veer towards ordering that dish :) But they come at a steep price so I don't indulge in them as often as I would like to, so when I found a recipe for oven-dried tomatoes, I couldn't resist. The proof's in the pudding when I say that they were polished off in the next 20 minutes of them coming out of the oven, all by me :p  Some bits were almost wafer-like, as I had cut them up thinly, yumm. Hubby will have to wait for batch no 2 to sample the sour, salty, tangy red slices of irresistible tomatoes :) 


Alternative to Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Source: Purple Foodie
Ingredients: (serves 1 to 2)

• 3 firm tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon each of oregano, pepper and herb seasoning (optional)
• Salt to taste
• 5 pods of garlic finely chopped

Method:

• Pre-heat your oven to 100 C
• Slice the tomatoes finely, lay them on a kitchen towel to soak off the liquid
• Sprinkle salt on them and let them sit for about 20 minutes
• Add the pepper, oregano, herb seasoning, garlic, olive oil and toss in a bowl
• Spread the slices over your baking tray that has been lined with butter/parchment paper, top off with the garlic from the bowl
• Let it bake for about 1 1/2 hours or so till the slices wrinkle and dry up
• Peel them off and enjoy.

Tomato wafers anyone?

Strawberry Fizz

Strawberry pop

I'm slowly moving on to featuring non-bakes in my blog and what better way to start than something bubbly? Since strawberries are in season, I decided to make my popular Strawberry Fizz drink a few days ago. It's super simple to make and trust me when I say you will rush for seconds after you taste it. 

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of strawberries, cleaned, with the leaf removed
• Juice of half a lime
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar (optional if strawberries are very sweet. I personally like the tang without the sugar)
• Soda
• Sprite/7-up or any other lemony fizzy drink
• Ice cubes
• A few sprigs of mint leaves

Method:

• Chop up the strawberries, drop it into your blender along with the lime juice, a few mint leaves, sugar and salt. Add in a few ice cubes and a bit of the sprite and blitz.
• Add a 1/4 measure (Fill 1/4 of your serving glass) of the strawberry mixture to a glass.
• Add the ice cubes and top up with equal quantities of soda and sprite (you can use a 3:2 ratio between soda and sprite depending on how sweet you want your drink to be)
• Garnish with a few mint leaves and serve.
• P.S: You can add a shot of your fav spirit to it and make it a cocktail too :) 

Cinnamon and Raisin Rolls

Light and fluffy Cinnamon rolls

Been AOL for a while on my blog, thanks to Diwali, B'day, a trip back home and what not. Finally back and I decided to go all out and try and make dough from scratch. But that's not all, I wasn't making a plain ol' loaf. No siree, I went for one of my favs - Cinnamon rolls. And boy am I glad I went through the effort, cuz these babies are packed with flavour. With the mildest hint of cinnamon, these beauties will be walloped down by kids too. So without any further ado, here's my recipe for Cinnamon Raisin rolls. 


Can't stop at one Cinnamon Raisin Rolls
Recipe courtesy: Rias Collection

For the rolls you will need: (Makes about 10 rolls)

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons butter (you can even use frozen butter as it will melt with the heated milk)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup sugar 
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 cup all flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
• 1/4 c sugar (to be mixed with the ground cinnamon)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup raisins

For the frosting you will need:

• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
• A few drops of your favourite essence

Method:

• In a pan, heat the milk, water and butter till quite warm. If you are using dry yeast, add it in to the liquid to dissolve.
• Mix together the dry ingredients and add the egg and milk mixture in and stir them all together to make a sticky dough. 
• Cover with a cloth and leave to rest in a warm place. In about an hour, it will double up in volume. 
• Cover your counter top with clingfilm dust the surface with flour. Punch down the dough and roll it out on your counter top, like one would roll out a chapati, making it rectangular in shape instead of the usual round.
• Pour the melted butter over the rolled out dough and spread it out evenly.
• Mix together the cinnamon, sugar and raisins and sprinkle the mixture over the dough and butter.
• Roll the dough like a jam roll, lengthwise so that you have a long cylindrical dough roll. Pinch the ends together. Cut them into slices/circles and lay them on your baking tray. Let the dough rise again for about 1/2 an hour. The dough will spread out and rise so leave a gap between the slices.
• Pre-heat your oven to 190 C, dab a bit of butter on the tops of the rolls and bake the rolls for about 20 minutes. 
• Mix all the ingredients for the frosting together and lightly drizzle your cooled cinnamon rolls with it and dig in.