Monday Munchies: Seekh Kebabs, easy recipe by Miss Masala!

Monday is here, but this Monday for me is a very exciting one! It's my last of work before my one month trip to India to visit the bf!


So, what better way to mix both things than doing a Monday Munchies entry with an absolutely yummy Indian recipe?


This recipe can be found in "Miss Masala: Real Indian Cooking for Busy Living" by Malika Bassu. And let me tell you, if you want to start cooking Indian dishes, and either aren't an expert cook, or don't like cooking all that much to spend hours on end in the kitchen (like myself), this IS the book you need! Also, you can check her website/blog for even more yummy recipes!


First of all, you get explanations on all sort of things important on Indian cooking, like the different spices, tricks & shortcuts you're never told in regular cookbooks, and everything that Malika has learnt in her path to enjoy her homeland food without changing her modern lifestyle!


The Seekh Kebabs recipe is the first one I've tried, mainly cause they're G's favourite dish, and I really wanted to see if I could make them easily or if we'd be resigned to only eat them at restaurants... Well, it really is a surprisingly easy recipe to put together, and a REALLY yummy one! If you don't want them too spicy, you can always play around with the quantities till you find the right balance for you! Also, the recipe uses minced mutton (lamb), but you can use other meats, I plan on making them next time with chicken. Now, onto the recipe:


Seekh Kebabs
Makes about 15 kebabs

Ingredients:

- 8 cm (3 inch) root ginger.
- 12 garlic cloves.
- 25 gr (1oz) fresh mint.
- 25 gr (1oz) fresh coriander
- 1 kg (2lb 3oz) minced lamb (or chicken, beef...)
- 1 large egg.
- 3 teaspoons Garam Masala.
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder.
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg.
- 2 teaspoons salt.
- 15 bamboo skewers


Method:

1. Peel the ginger & garlic, pink the mint leaves from their stems and cut off the hard ends of the coriander stalks. Beat the egg in a small bowl.
2. In a food processor, whiz together half the ginger, garlic and fresh herbs, along with one quarter of the mince and half the egg. Grind the meat to a smooth creamy paste. Remove this into a large mixing bowl and blitz another quarter of the mean with the rest of the ginger, garlic, fresh herb & remaining egg.
3. Now, add the remaining meat to the bowl, along with the spices and salt, and go in with your fingers, mixing the whole lot. You want the ground meat and the mince to integrate well together so no one notices that you cheated by not grinding half the mince.
4. Cover the bowl with a plate or cling film and chill in the fridge for at least an hour, or longer if possible. Overnight would be great too.
5. When you're ready to go, dampen your hands and divide the mixture into 15 even-sized lumps. Moistening your hands under the tap will prevent the mixture from sticking to them. Likewise, soaking the bamboo skewers in water for 20 mins will prevent them burning in the heat of the barbecue or grill (cause I doubt any of you have a tandoori oven at home). Then take each lump and shape it into a narrow sausage around one of the skewers. Keep wetting your palm to make this process as easy as possible.
6. Finally barbecue or grill each kebab at high temperature for 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes to ensure even cooking. Serve piping hot!

Now, a word of warning, don't allow the friends or family to start trying them out before getting them to the table, they might not make it... They're that good! ;)

A birthday recap, with handmade and recipes galore!

Hello everyone! Friday is once again here, and once again I work the weekend...


That's why I wanna share a lil recap of my birthday celebrations, with some photos and recipes, to face Friday and working weekend, with yummy food and fun times!


Last Tuesday was my birthday, so I chose the lunch menu, and went with cold curry rice with apple chunks & raisins, and sweet & sour chicken brochettes! As you can see, they were both super yummy and really easy to make! The key for the brochettes was the marinade, half honey & half soy sauce.






Then, we had my bro, sis-in-law and nephews over for dinner, and we had some nice grilled cutlets and other meats. I decided to make something different for dessert, so I made Kheer, an Indian rice pudding. I really like it, but my bro wasn't too keen on it. Joel, my older nephew loved it, till he chewed one of the cardamom seeds!




On Saturday, I was doing a joint b-day celebration with my friend Emilio, so we decided that I'd make the desserts and also try my hand at making some Indian dish, to add something different to the usual dinner food!


For dessert, I decided to go for Chocolate Mud Cake, you can find the recipe here, in the lovely Rose's blog. Lovely chocolate-y goodness, that I dunno why decided to not be fully baked in the centre and collapsed, which made me improvise and turn it into a donut cake, with an extra spiced chocolate frosting layer all over it... too bad I have no pics of the finished cake, cause I made it on Friday, but had to save the disaster on Saturday before leaving for the dinner, and I was too much in a hurry to take pics! It looked quite nice, and tasted delicious!





I also made some really yummy Mojito cupcakes with this recipe, from Heaven is a Cupcake! I had to improvise a bit, since I couldn't get any peppermint flavouring, but I decided to skip the issue by using a ready-mix Mojito cocktail, instead of just white rum! ;)






These I didn't frost cause I didn't have the right way to take them with me to my friend's house where the dinner was gonna take place without the frosting arriving all wonky! They were a real hit, very chocolate-y, with a hint of mojito and really moist and fluffy! I can't wait to make them again for my friend Pilu's b-day, with frosting this time!






For the Indian dish, I turned to one of my recently purchased Indian cooking books, where I found the recipe for Seekh Kebabs, G's favourite dish, Miss Masala: Real Indian Cooking for Busy Living! It's a great book, with loads of pointers on how to deal with all the unknown spices and ways of cooking, and with really yummy recipes! She also has a blog, with more yummy recipes!






Making seekh kebabs is not too laborious a process, cause I'm not the biggest fan of cooking, but I can't wait to make more! I made the seekhs a bit more mild than the recipe asked for, for two reasons: first, I was missing the chilli powder, couldn't find it anywhere here, and online it wouldn't have arrived in time (I got it now, ready for next time); and second, none of my friends are really used to trying spicy Indian food.







They were a real success, everyone loved their different taste, so I plan to make them more often!




I got many presents for my b-day, though only the ones I got for myself were handmade, so I'm gonna show off, what I gave Emilio for his b-day:


Two canvas print of a two shots, one taken by G, and one taken by yours truly!




I really love this shot, it's still one of my favourites. I took it last year in Wisconsin, and it's the shore of its namesake river.




I packaged them, and since I didn't have a manly & big enough wrapping paper, I decided to use a pair of my Skull And CrossBuns stamps to make it look more like a present! I also decorated the custom birthday card that Deb from On Cupcake Moon made for me!




Since Emilio loves cooking, I also got him a set of grilling spices from Purpose Design. As always, they come with super cute woody tags, and with recipes and suggestions on how to use them best!



And in case you're wondering, we (I) finished the open mojito bottle, after all, you don't turn 30 every day!