Tag Archives: mushroom

Healthier Breakfast – Chicken and Mushroom Toast

17 May

Sometimes it is very confusing what to have for breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day. So I usually try to make it healthy and nutritious. Different ideas as always welcomed. I liked about this toast was firstly it was quick, also tasteful and secondly, I could make another dish out of it (mushroom croquettes).

It is always easier to make your breakfast healthy. There are a few easy tips:

  1. If you eating fruits, avoid peeling them. They add to your roughage.
  2. Instead of having plain milk, add breakfast cereals to it or just make a fruit smoothie.
  3. Add an egg to your diet.
  4. Eat almonds in the morning. They give energy and good source to improve memory.
  5. Substitute white bread with a multigrain bread or a wholewheat bread
  6. Add salad leaves to your sandwich.

 

 

Mushroom Chicken Toast

 

 

Ingredients:

2-3 piece of boneless chicken (cut into small pieces)

100 g mushrooms (finely chopped)

1 onion (finely chopped)

1 tbsp butter

3/4 cup milk

2 tbsp cornflour

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp oregano

toasted bread

Method:

  1. Add butter to the pan. Cook the chicken.
  2. Add onions. When transparent add the mushrooms. Simmer for 2 minutes.
  3. Take half the milk add cornflour. Mix well. Add to the pan.Keep stirring. Put the rest of the milk.
  4. Season the mixture with salt, oregano and black pepper.
  5. Spread the mixture on a toasted bread. Grill for 2 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chicken Stronganoff

19 Jul

When my husband and I first met, the first  things which we discussed about our liking about FOOD. Yes, this was of a major concern (hehe!). Somehow our tastes are actually very similar. We love to try out new stuff and still we have our favorites which we have regular schedules to eat. To be honest, our similar tastes during our courtship, then our honeymoon really got us going (haha!). It is soo funny that food has such a major role to play.

JS’s (my husband) reactions are always worth noticing when he just loves something while he is eating. While we go on holiday, the most important for both of us is to try out the cuisine of that place. Food really holds on to the big part of our holiday. Not necessarily we enjoy restaurant food but also love munching and hogging to the street food. If we really like something out, it is a must try at home with our kitchen experiments.

This chicken is mostly cooked by mum and everyone just loves it! Somehow, I really relish the combination of mushrooms and chicken in any dish. Being a non-vegetarian, I am always attracted to meat more than the vegetables. So whenever I find a combination of chicken and vegetables, I am always driven to cook and eat.

It tastes delicious as chicken cubes simmered in tomato-cream sauce with mushrooms. Usually we love it with cheesy garlic bread but it goes well with steamed rice too.

Serves: 4

3 boneless chicken breast (400 gm)-cut into 1/2″ cubes

1 capsicum-chopped

3/4 cup cream

2-3 tbsp cheese spread

3 tbsp butter

1 small onion-finely chopped

100- 150 gm mushrooms- each cut into 2 pieces

3-4 flakes crushed garlic

1/2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp tomato sauce

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp  salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp red chilli powder

1 tbsp flour

Method:

  1. Whip cream and cheese spread well so that there are no lumps and is smooth. Keep aside.
  2. Sprinkle some salt, chili powder, and pepper over the chicken. Keep aside.
  3. Heat 2 tbsp butter in a pan and add onions. Cook till light golden. Add Mushrooms, cook for a minute. Remove the onions and mushrooms from the pan.
  4. To the same pan, add 1 tbsp butter, add chicken pieces and stir fry till golden brown. Cook covered for another 2-3 minutes.
  5. Add garlic, tomato puree, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce. Mix well for 2 minutes.
  6. Add flour. Mix.
  7. Reduce heat, take the pan off the heat. Add cream and cheese spread mixture, stirring continuously. Mix well.
  8. Return the pan to the heat, add chopped capsicum. Heat on very low flame gently for about 1 minute and remove just before it starts to boil. Serve with garlic bread or steamed rice.

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Taj Style: Wild Mushroom Cappuccino & Knowledge for Mushrooms

23 Jan

Mushroom soup at Taj Hotel is just too good. I have always tried to imitate the same but couldn’t do so. This time I caught hold of a book having this soup recipe. While I was reading it, I observed the unusual variety of wild mushrooms used in this soup. You might get alot of information about Mushrooms on Wikipedia. But here is what I discovered by going to the grocery store.

Edible Mushrooms are of two types, fresh and dried. There is a variety of edible mushrooms available in the market. Mostly found are the button mushrooms which we use in everyday cooking. But there are mushrooms like Shitake, Enoki, Enokitake, Buna-Shimeji, Oyster, Bunapi-Shimeji, Morels, Porcini and Chanterelles. These variety are mostly used for Chinese and Japanese cuisine. To no surprise the biggest cultivator of these mushrooms is China.

I required Porcini, Chanterelles and Morels for this soup. Others were easy to find but these were exclusive. I went to search all over but out of all I just found one vendor which could provide me with these mushrooms. The shopkeeper told me that the demand is very less for these mushrooms. It is only the five-star hotels which pick them up. Also, to your knowledge these mushrooms specifically porcini, chanterelles and morels are super-expensive. To my amusement the price was about Rs. 18000 per Kilo (USD 360/kilo). I still bought little what was required for making this soup. It was expensive but actually worth it!!:)

Creamy Yummy Soup!

So the special ingredients used for this soup cappuccino are:

30 gm dried porcini mushrooms

30 gm dried chanterelle mushrooms

15 gm dried morel mushrooms

1 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, sliced

6 garlic cloves, crushed

20 gm celery, sliced

20 gm leeks, sliced

250 gm button mushrooms

1 tsp peppercorns

2 sprigs thyme

100 ml white wine

2 tsp butter

salt to taste

Method:

  1. Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 L (3.5 pt) warm water for an hour.
  2. Heat olive oil in a thick-bottomed stock pot, saute onion and garlic for a minute.
  3. Add celery, leeks, button mushrooms, peppercorns and thyme and saute for 2 minutes.
  4. Add white wine.
  5. Add mushrooms and soaking water and bring it to boil.
  6. Simmer for 45 minutes, skimming the froth from the surface. Cool.
  7. Blend using a stick blender and strain through a fine chinois.
  8. Return the soup to the fire and add butter and seasoning.
  9. Serve hot in cappucino cups. Drink Hot!

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Broccoli and Mushroom Soup

12 Nov

I really feel the need to share with you our Punjabi lifestyle in India. It is all about outings, and grand ceremonies. It is another glamorous world where Punjabi’s love to splurge on good clothes, dazzling jewellery and delectable food. Talking about Food, it is the most important factor in every Punjabi household. It is said that every Punjabi lives his life ‘king size’. Food being the core of every Punjabi household. Most of them have chicken almost everyday and very often outings. So there is a lot of calorie in-take all the time in terms of desserts. fried etc.

Well this is exactly the story of my house. My husband and I fall into the same trap. It becomes hard to ignore social outings and avoid all the greasy and junk food. To be honest I really want to give up all this food for a while and stick to something that is healthy and full of nutrition. With this thought I started preparing Broccoli and Mushroom Soup.

Serves 4:

Ingredients used:

1 1/2 cup small florets of broccoli

1 1/2 cup mushrooms

1 small onion

3 cup vegetable broth

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

salt to taste

Boil 3 cups of water.

Throw some mushrooms and broccoli into it.

Cook for 1-2 mins. Strain it and keep the water.

Saute some onions till its transparent.

Make a puree in the blender of mushroom, onion and broccoli. Adding a little water as required.

Mix the puree with the vegetable broth.

Bring it to boil. Season it with salt and pepper.

As it boils again.

Add milk and leave it boil again.

If you want you could add cream instead of milk but for healthier reasons I choose milk.

Garnish with cilantro!

We enjoyed this delicious soup with some breads!!

Yummy exquisite combination of broccoli and mushrooms!

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