Stuffed Peppers - Pure delight..

My american friends keep asking me this question: "Are there any simple Indian recipes that are quick and easy to make?" and I keep telling them there are plenty of them, and that I need to host a dinner party at my home to show them a few.. Lets face the truth: we can't get splendid food instantly, other than in restaurants. Even a typical comfort food of a simple curry and a quickly stir-fried vegetable will take atleast 30 mins, assuming that our pantry is well-stocked with all the ingredients and we have the right utensils. But there are hundreds of simple recipes in Indian food that use just a few ingredients and are not time consuming. I'm not a big fan of time consuming dishes that have a long list of ingredients and I lack that patience to stir and watch them cook for a long time. I usually like to cook fast and would get out of the kitchen as soon as I am done.

This recipe is one such quick dish with an utterly delicious flavor. Up until a few months ago, I used to stay away from peppers of any kind. Be it the regular green bell pepper or the beautifully colored Yellow and Red Peppers, I somehow didn't like the texture of them. But over the last few months, I happened to taste a few marvelous pepper dishes made by my friends, and now I am completely hooked up to peppers.. One reason is that my friends know how to cook pepper dishes better than me (apparently!) and/or may be its my taste-buds! I've made peace with these vegatables now and can eat them without fussing. Lately, peppers are a standard item in my grocery list and I have started cooking some delicious recipes too.

This is a wonderful recipe that I learnt from my good friend. When I tasted this dish for the first time from her lunch box, I fell in love with it right away. There is something unique in the flavour it offers - mix-up flavors of coconut and peanuts. After knowing the ingredients, I pretty much knew I am going to try them soon and I did right the next day! It came out awesome and I hope you all like it too..

Ingredients:

• Banana Sweet Peppers (Long, straight) - 2 (you will get them in all grocery stores. Its called sweet peppers, but they are not sweet)
• Shredded coconut - 5 tbsp
• Peanut Powder - 5 tbsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
• Corriander powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Procedure:

• Slit the peppers (don't cut them into half), deseed them and apply some salt inside and set aside for a few mins.
• In a bowl, mix all other ingredients to a thick mixture.
• Stuff the pepper with this mixture.
• Heat oil in a pan with lid. Add the peppers and cook them in medium heat covered for 15 mins. Keep turning them every few mins.

Great side dish and goes with rice/curry or rotis.

Comfort food after a great camping!

To me, nothing can be more relaxing than driving by the woods with the windows rolled down, enjoying my favorite song and inhaling the fresh air! I often do this even while commuting to work, if the weather is good. It somehow lightens my mind no matter how depressed or stressed out I am. This weekend, with our tents and camping cots, we set off for an awesome camping trip to Wisconsin with our friends. Camping - Another fun activity for summer! We had another lovely weekend, camping in the woods! We both are camp lovers and have been doing this for several summers now. For us its a way to spend time with family/friends in a natural sorrounding away from the hurly-burly of day-to-day routine. We both have wonderful camping memories from each of our camping trips, and this trip was one among our best trips.

We had a great 3 hr drive to this amazing campground taking a few scenic drives and passing by a few beautiful lakes. We love tent-camping and thats the only thing we've been doing so far in all our trips. There's something special in getting into that comfy and cozy tent and snuggling down for a good-night's sleep.. With the wonderful camping accessories made nowadays, its easy to have a perfect camping experience. The first time I camped, I was quite scared inspite of my husband comforting me. I was awake the whole night worrying that a gang of racoons or a fox would come and rip-up our tents and lunge on our food inside. By the second time, I was calm and I started to appreciate it. Nowadays, I am so much into it that I plan the whole trip starting from reserving the site, to preparing the list of things to do while camping!

Two things make camping more fun.. Campfire & Food! So much to talk by the campfire under the stars, while munching some food! Unrehearsed talents reveal when you are next to the campfire :) Songs and interesting experience shared by others are so good to listen while curled up comfortably on a cozy chair. Camping brings out the kid in everyone. Some of my favorite moments in camping are about food. It doesn’t matter if it’s cooked in a campfire, or cooked in the grill, or even brought from home, food just tastes better during camping! We had a great menu for 2 days and had fun making omlettes for breakfast and grilling chicken, veggie patties, potatoes, corn for dinner. Yes, one drawback on camping is overeating :) I am always stuffed and end-up eating or munching something continously. Guess I need to compensate for the next week or so to get rid of the excess from my body.

After a tiring yet unforgettable camping trip, we reached home late afternoon on Sunday. After a few hours of rest, I was craving for some home-made food, naturally after eating grilled stuffs 6 times in a row... I was all set to make a simple but favorite comfort food for dinner. This dish is an authentic tamilian dish thats probably made in every house-hold in tamilnadu and loved by all. Probably, many versions of this dish exist, but I'm sure it just tastes great however you make it. My favorite combo is Curd-rice and potatoes - heavenly combination! Here is my version of Potato fry with Onions.

Ingredients

• Potaotes - 2 big
• Onions - 2 medium
• Fennel seeds (saunf, sombu) - 2 tsp
• Garlic - 3
• Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - a few
• Corriander leaves - a handful (chopped)

Procedure:

• Boil the potatoes, peel, dice and set aside.
• Slice the onions and set aside.
• Make the Fennel seeds and Garlic to a fine paste.. (first powder the fennel seeds, then add garlic and grind again to make it to a fine paste).
• Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and season with mustard seeds and curry leaves.
• Add sliced onions and fry until golden brown.
• Add the diced potatoes, fennel/garlic paste, turmeric, chilli powder and salt and mix well. Fry for 2 mins.
• Add 1/2 cup water, cover and cook in low heat for 3 mins.
• Raise the heat to medium and roast the potatoes until the water is fully evaporated and the color starts to turn brown.
• Add chopped corriander leaves and fry for a min.

Tastes best when its fresh and hot from the stove.