Cook, Eat & Relax | Adventures in the Kitchen…

Vegetable Garden to Dinner Table…

This year we started our very own backyard vegetable garden. It’s been almost two months now and our garden has been giving and giving. From a ton of herbs to fresh greens. Tonight I decided to make dinner with herbs and salad greens from our garden and added some pears and walnuts to fancy it up. Here’s to a wonderful summer and many more such fresh salads made from scratch!

Ingredients:

Salad Greens
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 pear sliced into thin slices (about 12-15 slices)
1 tbsp butter

Salad Dressing Ingredients:

2/3 cup greek yogurt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro
1 sprig mint
3-4 green onions
1 tbsp honey
1 Poblano pepper
Juice from 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

First prepare the salad dressing. Add all the ingredients under the salad dressing ingredients list into a food processor and make sure that all the ingredients are combined together. Refrigerate the dressing for upto a week.
Mix the walnuts with the sugar, pepper, olive oil and salt. Roast it in a pan till the walnuts are slightly roasted and the sugar has melted.
Next heat the butter in a non-stick pan. Once the butter is browned add the sliced pears. Caramalize the pears by turning them over once they have slightly browned.

Now assemble the salad. Add the salad greens to a plate. Next add the salad dressing.
Place the caramalized pear on the salad greens and top it with the candied walnuts.

Thank you for reading my post and hopefully this is me restarting my blogging once again!

Shilpa

At last a Chicken Tandoori recipe I love!

I have tried my hand at making the perfect tandoori chicken innumerable times. It was just never quite right. So last night when I decided to try my hand at tandoori chicken once again, I did not have high hopes. But I wasn’t gonna give up after all… That’s just not me. So I researched a few recipes online and decided to try my hand at my version of tandoori chicken one more time. And it was awesome even though I say so myself! So here’s the recipe for my version of tandoori chicken, and I think the reason I loved it this time was because, I used a mortar and pestle and dry roasted and ground the spices myself. And the amount of yogurt and the quality of yogurt made a big difference as well. No low fat or non fat yogurt just whole milk yogurt and we need to use just 4 tbsp anyways.

Ingredients:

1/2 star anise
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
4 cloves
1 dried red chilli
2 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves
3 cloves garlic – peeled
1 inch piece root ginger – peeled
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1/4 teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (more or less depending on how spicy you would like it)
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon salt
juice from 1/2 lemon
4 tablespoons whole milk yogurt
5 skinless chicken thighs
2 tsp butter for roasting

Directions:

Dry roast the first five ingredients (star anise, mustard seeds, cloves, dried red chili and fenugreek leaves) one at a time and transfer to a mortar. Make sure that you do not burn any of the ingredients, transfer it to the mortar as soon as you get the fragrance of the spice.
Coarsely grind the spices using the mortar and pestle. Then add the ginger and garlic and crush it along with the dry spices to a paste.
Next transfer the ginger, garlic and spice mixture to a separate bowl and mix the rest of the ingredients excluding the chicken to a smooth paste.
Now marinate the chicken in this marinade for about one hour (that’s how long I marinated it, or longer if you would like to).
Once you are ready to roast the chicken, turn the broiler on and line a baking dish with aluminum foil. Place a roasting grill on the pan and spray it with a little oil.
Now transfer the chicken pieces to the roasting grill and sprikle the butter on top of it.
Transfer the chicken to the oven and turn to the other side when the chicken starts showing some black spots from the roasting on the top. You need the chicken to blacken in some spots. But make sure that you do keep a close eye on the chicken so it does not get overcooked.
It takes about 10 – 15 mins for a batch to get ready.
Serve with some sliced onions, marinated in some vinegar, lemon juice, salt and chili powder. I chilled the marinated sliced onions in the freezer for about 10 mins before serving.

This was one of my quick and easy weekday dinners. I served it with some of the sliced onions and roomali roti (kind of thin bread). That recipe to follow once I master it. I love tandoori chicken that is made just right and I loved this recipe. I did not make it too spicy and did not add any orange coloring like they traditionally do. It looked awesome and tasted equally brilliant. Hope you do try this recipe, if you do please leave me your thoughts. Thank you for reading my blog.

Shilpa

Pizza dough with rye flour and no pizza sauce

Now that I am back updating my blog once again… And I did give my facebook friends a preview to this pizza, I really could not wait too long to get to this post… So here’s my version of pizza dough from scratch and I have tried out a few before settling on this one. I love it also because of the rye flour in the dough. I love the flavor it imparts to the pizza dough. So here’s the recipe to my fav pizza dough recipe.

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

1 cup + 2/3 all purpose flour
1/3 cup rye flour
1 tbsp granulated garlic powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 packet yeast
3/4 cup warm water

Pizza topping

1.5 – 2 cups 1/2″ sized butternut squash
1/2 red onion sliced
2 tbsp oven roasted or sun dried tomato
sharp cheddar cheese (to cover the top of the entire pizza) about 1 – 1.5 cup

Directions:

I used a stand mixer to make the pizza dough, but you can knead the dough by hand as well.
First add the warm water to the bowl and add the sugar to it and stir. Next add the yeast to this mixture ald let it stand for a few minutes till it froths and about doubles in volume.
In the meanwhile sift the all purpose flour, rye flour, garlic powder and salt together in another bowl.
Once the yeast is activated add the flour mixture to the yeast and let the stand mixer do its job. If you are doing this by hand, do not overwork the dough or add too much extra flour to the dough. You want the dough to be on the stickier side.
I let the dough rest in the stand mixer bowl itself, Just make sure you oil the top and turn it around and spray the other side as well.
Let this dough stand till it doubles, it took about an hour for my dough to double in volume.
While the yeast is doing it’s magic, I get the topping ready and pre heat the oven to 350 F and put the baking stone in the oven as well (so it gets nice and hot when the pizza is ready to be baked.
Cut the butternut squash into 1/2″ cubes. Next spread the baking tray (well oiled) with the cubes of squash. Put the tray in the oven and let the squash cook and get roasted. This will take about 40 mins or so (I keep the bowl with the dough near the oven, this way I get the dough rising in a warm place as well).
While the Squash is roasting, slice the onions. Add some oil to the pan and let the onions cook on a low flame, this will get the onions to be caramalized.
Once the onions are almost caramalized, add the oven or sun dries tomatoes to the pan and let it cook for a couple of minutes.
By the time you are done roasting the squash and caramalizing the onions, the dough would have risen, now increase the oven temperature to 400F.
Take the dough and without working it too much, spread it to about 12″ circle. I use a pizza paddle to transfer the pizza dough to the pizza stone. I prepare it by sprinkling some corn meal on the paddle and then transfering the circle of pizza dough on it. And then with a smooth flick of the wrist transfer it to the baking stone.
Let the dough cook for about 7 mins.
Take teh baking stone with the dough out of the oven and add the toppings to it, squash, onions and tomato and finally the cheddar cheese. By a sharp cheddar cheese so that it balances out the sweetness in the squash and the onions.
Now transfer the stone with the pizza back to the oven and let it cook for another 7-10 mins. Once the cheese starts melting and the dough starts browning on the edges, you know that teh pizza is ready to be served.
I sprinkled some italian seasoning and some cruched red pepper on the pizza.

I have never made pizza without the pizza sauce and was a little skeptical about how this will turn out. But oh my god, was this good or what! I loved it, the verdict is that you do not need pizza sauce to make an awesome pizza… Hope you try this recipe and do let me know if you do. And once again thank you for reading my blog.

Shilpa

In celebration of a 50 mile bike ride and a puppy adoption…

It’s been a long time since I posted to my blog. No excuses, I was just being lazy and convincing myself that work, new home and the two dogs are keeping me busy.

Today is a special day, Amit completed his first 50 mile bike ride in Little Rock, Arkansas and my brother adopted a second dog… So today is better than any other day to restart blogging. And I wanted to make something special to celebrate Amit completing his 50 miler.

I had some figs at home, which we had to finish soon since they were getting a little too ripe. So while searching for recipes with figs and given that Amit has a sweet tooth, I chanced upon this recipe at http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/07/rosemary-honey-and-fig-cake-recipe.html. It looked really interesting and yummy so I decided to try it with just a couple of modifications since I did not have orange zest, I used lemon zest and orange extract instead of orange zest.

So without any further ado, let’s dive into the rosemary, honey and fig cake recipe. It’s easy to make and takes about 20 mins of prep time and 40 – 60 mins of baking time.

Ingredients:

For the Cake
Baking spray
2 1/2 cups (about 12 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (about 5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons grated zest from 1 lemon
1 tsp orange extract
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup honey
1 cup milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Figs
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter
12 figs, stems trimmed and quartered lengthwise
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup honey

Directions:
For the Cake:
Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 9-inch round pan with cooking spray. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Chop the rosemary and mix it well with the lemon zest and sugar using a fork ensuring that the three ingredients are completely mixed.

In large bowl, beat butter, oil, orange extract and rosemary-lemon sugar on medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add honey and beat just until incorporated.

Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with milk. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Increase speed to medium and beat mixture just until combined, 20 to 30 seconds. Add vanilla and beat once more, just to combine, about 10 seconds.

Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until cake tester inserted in cake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes, rotating cake halfway through baking. Transfer cake to cooling rack set inside baking sheet and cool in pan 10 minutes.

Release springform and invert cake onto cooling rack; remove bottom of springform. Invert cake once again and cool completely, about 1 hour.

For the Figs and Assembly: Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat and cook until beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Add figs and season with salt and pepper. Cook until figs soften, about 3 minutes. Stir in honey and remove from heat.

With a serrated knife, slice about 1/8 inch off top of cake. Spoon figs and any released juices on top of cake. I also added about 3 tbsp of orange juice to the cake to make it nice and moist and to add just a hint of tanginess to the cake.

Thanks for reading… Hope you enjoy baking and eating this cake as much as we did!

Shilpa

Lamb and Puff pastry: Picture Perfect!!!

Well it’s about a year since we moved into our first home and we are still getting done with our DIY projects and it has been a blast! We did take some rather long breaks along the way since we were experiencing DIY exhaustion :). But now most of the very big projects are done and only the smaller finishing touches and some painting is left (for now)… So I get some time to actually contribute to my blog once again. Well this doesn’t mean that I wasn’t cooking or baking at all the last one year. Just that the time to make something new and blog about it was greatly reduced thanks to all the DIY projects we had going around the house.

I am sure I am just one of the millions who have complained about the rather cold winter we have had but I have to complain specially since I moved here from AZ… So anyways it’s March already and winter does not seem to want to let up. We had another winter storm (Titan) roll by this weekend and we were again cooped up at home. So I decided that I am going to go ahead and paint my kitchen door (more about how it turned out at the end of the post) which meant that I had hardly anytime to cook. But thankfully my pantry and fridge were completely stocked due to my grocery shopping trip earlier this week. I had some lamb, some puff pastry and an awesome cookbook “The food and cooking of the Middle East”. And these three lead to the Syrian Sausage Rolls. These are really easy to make and I was able to get done with prepping and painting my kitchen door and cooking this meal and blogging about it! Now that’s what I call a rather fulfilling weekend! Now if only winter gives way to spring and I can actually get out of the house as well…

I did make a couple of changes to the recipe (just to add some more spicy kick to the rolls). You get about 20 pieces of the sausage rolls once all is said and done and it is very filling because it’s a pound of lamb! From start to finish it took about 1 hr and 10 mins but only 10-15 mins of hand on time. The rest of the time either the puff pastry was thawing or the rolls were baking in the oven.

Ingredients:

1 lb (450 grams) lean ground lamb.
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground all spice
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground fenugreek
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp olive oil
salt to taste
500 grams puff pastry (2 sheets of puff pastry)
egg white to brush the top of the rolls

Directions:

Thaw the puff pastry (it took about 40 mins to thaw the two sheets)
Pre-heat the oven to 400F.
Mix all the ingredients with the lamb and make sure that the lamb and spices a mixed together thoroughly.
On a lightly floured surface roll out the puff pastry to a long rectangle about 12 to 14 inches long and about 8 inches wide.
Take half the spiced lamb and form a sausage roll and place about 1/3 rd of the way from one of the long edges of the puff pastry.
Then fold the puff pastry over the lamb mixture and form a roll.
Repeat with the other puff pastry and other half of the lamb.
Lightly oil a baking sheet.
Cut the roll into about 2 inches pieces and place on the lightly greased baking sheet.
Place the rolls on the greased baking sheet about an inch apart.
Brush the top of the rolls with egg white (mix 1 tablespoon of egg white with 1 tablespoon of water) and place in the 400 F pre-heated oven.
The rolls should be ready in about 15 mins. I made sure that the top of the pastry was a golden brown before taking it out of the oven.

We loved these rolls and I think these are going to be part of my must make party appetizer list. They are also very filling. And yes getting the picture right in front of my blue kitchen door was totally intentional!

Here are some pics of out kitchen before and after. We went from a beige and brown kitchen to a blue and sand colored kitchen with an awesome blue door (inside) and a dark gray (outside). Why the different colors you ask, well cos the garage is a gray and red color (yes it went from boring brown to red and gray (more on that some other time)!

In fact we loved the blue so much that I am currently prepping my pantry door to convert it from boring brown to this very blue. Now if only I could get done with installing the back-splash as well then our kitchen transformation would be complete!

Thanks for reading my post and listening to my ramblings. I really do appreciate it :)… And do let me know if you make these rolls and whether you liked it as much as we did!

Shilpa

How about some Spicy, Tangy & Sweet Shrimp!!!

Been a while since I blogged and I think I should restart my blogging efforts. I have a couple of awesome recipes that I seem to have kind of forgotten since I was lazy and did not blog about it. So hopefully this post will revive my blogging efforts. In fact I have decided that I am going to allocate some time every week for my blog. The entire recipe from start to finish took about an hour and I made about two batches for the dinner and refrigerated the rest of the shrimp to make some shrimp biryani for the next day. Recipe to follow.

Ingredients:

For the Masala:

2 tbsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp coriander seeds
3 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp cloves
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder

For the marinade

2 lbs deveined, tail-off shrimp
1/2 onion (finely chopped)
2 tbsp masalapowder
2 tbsp ginger paste
1.5 tsp tamarind concentrate
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp chopped mint leaves
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
4 tbsp coconut milk
salt to taste

Directions

Dry roast the whole spices listed under ‘For the masala till the spices aromas are released.
Once cool, grind the whole spices with the red chili powder and turmeric. I use this spice mix when I need a homemade garam masala for a dry chicken, paneer of shrimp dish.
Fry the onions in some oil till the onion is lightly browned.

Clean and dry the shrimp completely and make sure that it is completely dry before adding the marinade ingredients including the fried onions.
Marinate this for about half hour. Next heat a non stick pan with some oil and add the marinated shrimp in a single layer. Flip the shrimp over once it is browned on one side. It takes about 5-7 mins to brown on a single side.
I served the shrimp with some quinoa and brown rice blend.

Hope you enjoy the recipe as much as we did. I just had to blog about it lest I forget the recipe. Thanks for reading my blog.

Shilpa

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How about some fresh baked muffins for breakfast!

Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh baking at home! Well I doubt there are very many out there who don’t love it… And imagine the baking smell at home first thing in the morning! These are excellent as breakfast muffins and you can choose what berries to put in depending on what you have at hand. I had some fresh blueberries that I had bought at the Germantown Farmer’s Market on Thursday and some raspberries from the supermarket. So that’s what went into these muffins.

And yes I know I have been missing from my blog for ages now. But the new home and setting it up took up quite a bit of our time. Now we are done with almost all the remodeling and have at last kind of settled down in to a routine. So it’s back to blogging! So let’s restart the adventures in the kitchen with some berry muffins. This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients:

1 cup self raising flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp molasses
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup berries (I used fresh, you can use frozen as well)
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 oz softened butter
2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease the bottom of a muffin pan. You could also use cupcake wrappers instead of greasing the bottom of the muffin pan.
In a large bowl sift together the dry ingredients (listed from 1 to 4 in the ingredients list).
Next lightly beat the eggs and add the molasses, milk and oil to the eggs and mix together.
Now add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix till all the ingredients are combined.
At the very end add the berries and mix the berries into the flour mixture in a few turns of the spatula.Do not mix too much else the berries will start breaking and oozing out their juices.
Now transfer the mixture to the muffin pan.
Stir the 2 tbsp of sugar and all purpose flour together and crumble in the butter with your hands. You should get a mixture which looks like coarse sand.
Now add this crumble mixture to the top of the muffins and transfer the muffin pan into the preheated oven.
Bake for 20-25 mins and remember to cool the muffins on a wire rack if you do not use the cupcake wrappers.

You can make healthier version of the muffins by using a mixture of all purpose flour and whole grain flour. Hope you enjoy these muffins as much as we did. We loved it and it has been our breakfast and snack with tea for the last couple of days. Cheers to an awesome weekend when the weather had been absolutely beautiful!

Shilpa

Melt in the mouth Pound Cake

I am back!!! And have moved to Memphis, TN, my parents are here for a vacation and I am finishing up my dissertation and plan to defend soon. So I may not be in a position to post too often but I had to post about this pound cake recipe. The cake was absolutely delicious. It was moist and flaky and just the right texture and just the right amount of sweetness. I hope you like it as much as we did. And I think I do have atleast 5 other people who had the cake and would attest to the fact that it was really good. And yes, it took me about 20 mins of prep time and another 40-50 mins to baking time from start to finish. Without much more ado, here is the recipe for the cake. Oh and how can I forget to thank the blog where I found the recipe. Here is the original recipe, http://www.joyofbaking.com/PoundCake.html.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
3 tbsp milk
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking pwd
1.4 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
13 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
Oil the bottom and sides of a loaf pan (9 x 5) and set it aside
Sift the dry ingredients together and set it aside.
Next beat the wet ingredients together except the butter and set it aside.
Now soften the butter if not at room temperature and add the butter to the dry ingredients and beat at a low-speed for about 30 seconds.
Now add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients + butter mixture in three batches.
After the first addition beat the mixture for about 30 seconds on a slow speed and then increase the speed and beat for another minute.
Now add the second and third batch and beat the mixture for 30 seconds after each addition.
Next transfer the batter to the loaf pan and place in the oven for about 45-55 mins. My cake was ready in about 50 mins. If the top of the cake starts browning too fast, cover the cake with an aluminum foil and continue baking till a tester in the middle of the oven comes out clean.
Once the cake is ready, cool the cake for about 15-20 mins before slicing it.

A buttery, flaky slice of heaven is ready for you to devour in less than an hour. The cake stays outside for a few days and does not spoil and can stay fresh for about a week if kept in the refrigerator and can be frozen for about 2 months. But well I did not have to worry about all that, the cake was cleaned out in a day and a half. Hope you enjoy the cake as much as we did. It is a really simple recipe to follow and bake and the cake itself is delicious.

Shilpa

Lip Smacking, Chocolatey, Fudge Brownies

I doubt there are many chocolate non-lovers out there and even if there are, I doubt there are many who can resist a delicious and perfectly textured brownie. I love brownies and if there is another person who is blindly in love with them, it has to be Amit. So attempting to bake brownies is a tall order to reach, cos I know Amit is going to be judging it against the best he has had. So somehow I never actually tried to bake these before. But this week since he flew all the way from Memphis to be with me in Tempe for a week, I decided that I will attempt baking brownies at home. Thankfully the attempt was a complete success and it takes about 15 mins to prepare the dough and about 25-30 mins to bake the brownies.

I followed the recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. The recipe has got hundreds of excellent reviews. The original recipe can be found at the link http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/fudge-brownies-recipe.

Ingredients:

Servings: 9

2 large eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1/2 + 1/8 cup cocoa (I used Ghirardelli cocoa)
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup + 1/8 cup sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Beat the eggs, baking powder, salt, espresso powder, cocoa and vanilla essence till smooth.
Next melt the butter in a microwaveable bowl. Now add the sugar to the bowl and continue to heat the butter sugar mixture till most of the sugar has melted.
Now add this mixture to the cocoa mixture and beat till it forms a smooth mixture.
Now add the flour to the mixture and mix till it forms a smooth batter. Add the chocolate chips and mix it together till the chips are evenly distributed.
Now spoon the batter into a lightly greased 8″ x 8″ square pan.
Bake the brownies in the oven for 25-30 mins or till a cake tester comes out clean in the center of the pan.

After a very long time, Amit is home to actually try the dish and tell me if it is bloggable or not… And this brownie gets his approval!!! Hope you enjoy this as much as we did. It is a brilliant browny, just cakey enough, just chewy and just crumbly enough. It has the perfect shiny top which is due to the third step of heating the butter and sugar mixture. Do let me know if you try this recipe and thank you for reading my blog…

The July Daring Bakers Challenge

Another very late daring cooks challenge. I am just glad I managed to complete the challenge! And this is so good. It’s an awesome dessert and the method of cooking makes the whole process so very easy. You just put the marinade and the ingredients together and put it into the parchment paper and transfer it to a hot oven. And after about 20-30 mins you get the most delicious dish. Just complement the fruits with some ice cream or sour cream or whipped cream and you have a very easy dessert. And it’s delicious too!!!

Our July 2012 Daring Cooks’ host was Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie! Sarah challenges us to learn a new cooking technique called “Cooking En Papillote” which is French and translates to “cooking in parchment”.

This method of cooking can also be used to cook vegetables, seafood or chicken. It has to a ingredient which will not take too long to cook. As the parchment cannot be in the oven for too long at very high temperatures. So I decided to try making a dessert with some strawberries using the En Papillote method. So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

4 servings

1 lb strawberries
3 tbsp orange liqueur
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp molasses
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp orange extract
vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or sour cream
parchment paper
kitchen string

Directions:

Mix the ingredients together and place it in the parchment paper as shown in the picture above.
Tie the parchment into a pouch.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to about 400F and place the pouches in the oven for about 20-25 mins.

The picture above shows that the strawberry pouches soon after it is taken out of the oven.
Serve it with some ice cream, sour cream or whipped cream depending on your preference.

Thanks for reading my blog and hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. And you can try the recipe with vegetables, seafood or chicken, basically any ingredient which cooks quickly. And this update to my recipes is thanks to my friend and e-baking partner Sheela who recommended that I put in a calorie counter for my recipes. And thanks to my husband who has taken up exercising and eating healthy, I discovered a website that helps me do just that. These calorie counts are approximate and are not exact. This just gives me an approximate calorie count. Hope this helps all those who are worried about their calorie intake!