Food Fashion Recipe Blog

Chickpea-Cherry Tomatoes-Basil Pasta Salad in a Peanut-Curry Dressing

August 30, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

Hello there my friends!! Long time, no see.

Boy, is it hard to get to a routine after a fun 2 months of no cooking, no photography, and just lazing around.

Hope your summer went well. Any interesting things you did during summer, would love to hear.

It’s quite appropriate to say that we traveled the whole globe in the last 2 months. It was one heck of a fun summer, travels, family, lots of food and more food.

I have a post coming up soon on my travels, with pictures of monuments, food, and all the colors. Well, before I could jump into that post, life happened. School and routine began, and what to pack for school lunch is now always on my mind. This is one of my go to lunches for the boys and makes for a colorful and healthy meal. Pack the sauce separately and add any veggies you like. It’s a base and tastes absolutely good even when it’s only slightly warm.

Healthy and a perfectly balanced dish, with an amazing sauce. Hope you get to try it out!

Have a wonderful week! All the best for all the kids who start school this week.

Hugs,

Ash

5.0 from 2 reviews

Chickpea-Cherry Tomatoes-Basil Pasta Salad with Peanut Curry Dressing

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

Author: Ash

Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 cups dry pasta(any pasta with some
8 oz of canned chickpea or cooked chickpea 1 cup
1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
basil - 15-20 leaves

For the dressing

Toasted Peanuts - 2 tbsp
Almonds 2 tbsp
sesame seeds -1 tbsp
Lime juice from ½ lime
⅓ tsp red chili flakes
sriracha- 1tsp
1 tsp honey
4 garlic
1 tsp Apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp curry powder
Olive oil -1 tsp
cumin seeds- ½ tsp
roasted fennel seeds -1/3 tsp(optional)
1 stalk green onion/scallion
Water to thin the dressing

Instructions

Cook the pasta till al dante and run it through cold water to take away any starch. Set aside.
While the pasta is cooking, you can make the dressing.
Grind everything required for the dressing to a smooth paste. Add a tablespoon or so of the hot water to thin it down. It should be of pourable consistency.
Take a pan, add a tsp of oil and ⅓ tsp fennel and add the cooked chickpeas. If you are using the canned, drain it very well and then use.
Toss them well and add the cherry tomatoes and toss for 30 seconds to a minute. Take it off the heat.
Add the pasta and veggies in a bowl and top it with basil.
Add the dressing 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy

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ALL IMAGES AND POST COPYRIGHT PROTECTED. Do NOT copy it, do not use it anywhere without our consent. PLEASE give due credit if you do recreate it for your blog with your own special touches.

No-churn Pistachio-Coconut Cardamom Ice Cream with Chocolate

July 13, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

This deliciously easy ice cream is full of flavor and has coconut and pistachios that make it nutty and crunchy. Make this no churn pistachio icecream and you’ll love.

It’s summer here, and it’s monsoon season in India where I am right now. Monsoon in Bangalore is beautiful. The weather is quite perfect, not too cold or chilly. It rains, but not crazily. Being here, travelling around, and trying different foods is an amazing feeling.

There’s a huge selection of food here. From the authentic Karnataka Ragi Roti (finger millet tortilla) to a Belgian waffle flavored with rich Indian spices, everything is easily accessible.

The palette right now is wide. The ice cream flavors are numerous, with wine ice cream, cherry-mango ice cream, and butterscotch pistachio ice cream. Throughout my childhood years, I don’t remember having fruit based ice creams or desserts at all. It wasn’t that popular then. The ice cream that were fruit based were probably artificially flavored, so it was a natural instinct to go for the nutty cardamom or saffron ones, but a no churn pistachio icecream. It’s all so different now.

Although I do like the fruit ones, I still have a strong bond to the ones I grew up with. This is one of them., the no churn pistachio icecream.

Who wouldn’t like a luscious, smooth, sweet nutty ice cream? We Indians have a strong relationship with cardamom. The no churn was a popular method to make ice cream, since regular households didn’t have an ice cream machine then. I stuck to that method with slight changes after seeing Nigella Lawson’s Popular No-Churn Ice Cream.

This is one of our favorite flavors and it works so well together. I made cones using my recipe for Pizzelle.

If you make this no churn pistachio icecream, tag me on social media.

Have a lovely week my friends!!

Asha

5.0 from 3 reviews

Pistachio-Coconut Cardamom Icecream with Chocolate

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

The easiest no churn icecream is perfect for the summer days and these flavors are classic and delicious.

Author: Ash

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients

4 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream chilled
1 can condensed milk
⅓ cup coconut cream
½ cup pistachio coarse paste
½ tsp green cardamom powder or powder for 3-4 cardamom pods
Semi sweet melted chocolate
2 tbsp coconut oil
Cones to serve in

Instructions

Clean the whipping bowl and the whisk very well and dry it. You can leave the bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes before whipping the cream.
Add the condensed milk, coconut cream and the chilled whipping cream and whip it on low speed, around 3 for 3 minutes so it can slowly whip. Then whip it on medium high for another 5 minutes at high speed until it is almost to a stiff peak stage. Stop the machine and add the pistachio paste and whip it for another 30 seconds to a minute until stiff peak and stop immediately. Pour in a ice cream pan or box and chill overnight.
Melt the chocolate on double broiler, add coconut oil in it and drizzle on the icecream once it is completely chilled.
Enjoy

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Nectarine Pistachio Frangipane Cake / Tart

June 22, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

Happy Summer my friends!!

I am looking forward to those summer cool night walks.

The foraging we do on our hikes.

The warmish sea that we can dip our feet in.

The late mornings.

The late nights.

Movies, Books and Cooking with boys.

We really do have so much to celebrate. The beautiful shining sun, the cool shade, the long talks with friends. Vacations and family.

The fresh bounty in the markets. The trees all showering us with their fruits. All the summer picnics, the gallons of lemonade, and beautiful summer cakes.

Let’s celebrate summer with this beautiful cake/torte/tart.

This definitely is a denser tart kind of a cake because it is baked twice. It’s quite an easy cake, but packs a huge presence.

The frangipane makes it rich, while the fruits make it fresh and summery. The cake base is my basic Orange cake that I used, and it works great every time.

Hope you get to make this beautiful cake this summer.

I will be in Indian this summer and can’t wait to write about it in future posts. I might do a post dedicated to Bangalore..

What are your plans?

HAPPY SUMMER!! Sending you all hugs.

Ash

5.0 from 1 reviews

Orange-Nectarine Cake with Pistachio Frangipane

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

1 hour 30 mins

Total time

1 hour 45 mins

Author: Ash

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

1¼ cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup Powdered sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3 large eggs separated
5 tbsp vegetable oil
6 tbsp Orange Juice
Zest of one whole orange
pinch of salt

for the pistachio frangipane:

4 ounces shelled raw unsalted pistachios
¼ cup sugar
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (½ stick)
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
1 Tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour

to top the cake

1 tbsp sugar
Garnish with berries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the base and sides of a 20cm square or round baking tin.
Sift All Purpose Flour+baking powder+salt+ powdered sugar
Beat egg whites to soft peaks
Mix oil+yolks+orange juice+zest.
Add the dry ingredients, all purpose flour and everything with the oil, yolks, orange juice and zest. Mix well to incorporate everything.
Then fold in the egg white in 3 parts to incorporate well.
Pour in round pan and bake for about 30 minutes in a 325 degree oven or until it golden brown, will be not be cooked through. Let cool for 20 minutes until you can proceed.

For the Frangipane.

In your food processor, grind the pistachios, flour, salt, and sugar to a powder (or as fine as you can make it!). Add the butter and process until no longer visible. Add egg and vanilla, blending until it forms a smooth paste.
Spread the filling over the cooked base. To decorate like I have in the photos, cut the nectarines/apricots into diagonal strips, then slide each half onto a knife and fan over the pistachio frangipane. Alternatively, you could put the halves straight on or cut the stone fruits into slices and decorate as you wish.
Bake the cake in a 325 degree oven for 45- 50 minutes, or until they are golden and a skewer inserted into the pistachio comes out clean.Around mid point of the bake, turn the cake pan and sprinkle some sugar for the extra caramalised bits.
Leave in pan to cool.
Decorate with more berries and serve with some Ice cream.

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ALL IMAGES AND POST COPYRIGHT PROTECTED. Do NOT copy it, do not use it anywhere without our consent. PLEASE give due credit if you do recreate it for your blog with your own special touches.

Capsicum/Green Bell Pepper Rice – A Dabbawala /Lunch Box Story

June 8, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

Tiffin boxes are very intimately tied to mine, and many people’s childhoods. So when my friend sent me this write up, I had to make it special. Sharing a recipe that my mom made and came in my box every week. In the words of my friend, a writer friend. Enjoy this wonderful piece and share your thoughts, and say hello to my gorgeous and talented friend Lakshmi.
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5 minute Easy and the BEST TINTED LIP BALM EVER

May 29, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

This is an easy project and the best lip balm you’ll ever use. Tint them to the color you like and it give a little color and these make great gifts. This is the BEST TINTED LIP BALM EVER.

So random right?!!

I do love to make DIY products. I’ve wanted to share these for so long. My stash got over, and it was the perfect time to make, shoot and share. They are so simple, and so much better than the commercial ones. The best part is that it’s customizable. Makes great gifts.

A funny story I wanted to share though…..

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Spicy Baked Cauliflower Fritter(pakoda) TACO with Mango Sauce and Red cabbage Slaw(Vegan)

May 17, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

The love of food the four of us shares is quite intense.

We all love to try different things, quite tough critics, and we might enjoy one more than the other. We enjoy a good hearty Lamb chop meal as much as we enjoy a loaded salad with some dressing.

Trying to balance out the carnivore loving boys with a lighter fare which suits our taste is a challenge I take on happily and love. I try not to fall into the routine of recipes and when variety is there, it makes it so much more fun.

This was one such thing.

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3 Insanely Delicious-EASY Raita (Yogurt based)

May 5, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

I don’t know how to grow plants. I can’t grow plants.

We never know what we get into, until we are handed a tiny little bundle with just the face peaking, eyes stuck together with some liquid, flushed pink face, and a blue striped or pink striped cap. We feel an overwhelming sense of joy, a chilling and warm feeling. Tears swell up and the first smile you give your tiny baby is filled with so much joy and love (and oxytocin, as my teen adds). It’s a feeling that has never crept up until then, and will never go away.

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5 Deliciously EASY CAKES for Mother’s Day

May 3, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

Hi my friends,

Some parts of the world celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend.

“What do you want for Mother’s Day?” asked my little one. To that I thought for a few minutes, and responded, “Nothing, I just want to sit at home, on my couch, in my pajamas, all day, watching movies, eating junk, and most of all, no one asking me anything. Lastly, I don’t want a messy kitchen!” I added quite sternly.

He looked at me like, I just wanted to know what to make for you. Oh, well.

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Garlicky Spicy Egg Fry – Egg Masala Bruschetta

April 26, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

There are some dishes we make when there’s nothing in the refrigerator. There are some dishes we make when you have no time at all. There are some dishes we make that are purely comfort food and remind you of home. This dish is all of those things for me………

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Pineapple-Almond-Coconut Honey Syrup Cake

April 16, 2016 By Asha Shivakumar

Happy April!!

I can’t believe we’re in mid April already!

Four years! It’s been four years and two days since I published my first post.

It is a relationship. A bond between the writer/creator, blog space and readers/friends. A relationship I take quite seriously and cherish every bit of it….