Hamburger & Macaroni

I found this recipe from simplyrecipes.com by Elise Bauer, California while I was looking for a macaroni recipe. The pictures caught my eye and that was why I went on to try it. Hence I have copy pasted the recipe on this page for your reference. Even the pictures belong to the same site. Hope you enjoy this .....

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground beef
1 yellow onion, chopped (or mixed chopped green onion greens and yellow onion)
Olive oil/cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon Vegesal or other seasoned salt
1tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
Dash crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 large can (28 oz) of diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce/soya sauce
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
2 cups uncooked macaroni (use rice pasta for wheat-free version)


HOW TO MAKE:

1)   Get a large pot of hot water heating and begin cooking the macaroni as per the directions on the macaroni package.

2)   In a skillet, brown the ground beef in a tablespoon of olive oil on high heat. Stir only infrequently so that the ground beef has an opportunity to brown.

 3)   In a large skillet, sauté chopped onion with a tablespoon of olive oil on medium high heat.

4)   Add the ground beef and lower the heat to medium. Add a dash of crushed red pepper. Add Vegesal or other seasoned salt. Add celery seed.

5)  Add canned tomatoes. Add Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for 5 minutes.

6)  Mix in the drained and cooked macaroni and parsley. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

RATING NOTES:

              DIFFICULTY LEVEL    :   EASY

              RATING  POINTS         :    8/10**

**  Do not overcook the macaroni. They need to be just rightly boiled and not too soft and sticky. To prevent them from sticking to each other, you can add a teaspoon oil while the macaroni is boiling in the water.

A time for reflection

This morning when I woke up I realised that I seem to be waking up long before the sun wakes up and by the time I reach home after work, the sun is back to bed. The sun's life sounds like a fairy tale. It has such a beautiful life these days. The shortened hours of work for the sun clearly marks the emergence of Winter.

But winter season in the gulf? Yes, I look forward to this short and precious season even though it is not marked with marvelous rainbows or splendid colours of the fall. Winter in the gulf is saying goodbye to the torrid summer heat and the dog days that we had. The summer had been awfully harsh and muggy for us with warm winds, high humidity, long days and a burning sun.

On the other hand, winter is very pleasant with short days, moderate and tolerable temperature, crisp breeze, inviting outdoor life and little rainfall. Rains !!! Its ages since it rained here. I last saw a good rainfall more than 10 months back. And some other times I saw cloudy and dark skies which never brought any rains to us. This sultry desert is very calculative with rains and we hardly witness 8-10 rains a year.

" Winter time is short of light, Winter time is small but bright,
Winter time has tons of fun, As winter time has a cooler sun,
Grand welcome for you winter, For me you are an uplifter"

Today has been a bright and beautiful day with a balmy weather and a soothing breeze. So I decided to have my lunch outdoors - in the balcony of my workplace so that I do not miss the beautiful signs of nature. I spent a good one hour enjoying the breeze with a beautiful view of date trees neatly lined with a small hill in their background. The glorious weather combined with magnificent sorroundings boosted my spirits for my boring afternoon session at work thanks to my long working hours.

Life otherwise has been full with loads of demands from work and the virtual world. But time passes off so quickly that its hard to wonder where so much of time has gone.

I felt a bit blue this morning when I woke up, thinking again another work filled day has arrived and again the same old routine. But the day passed out quite well. So while I sit at my desk in front of the screen in an attempt to paste my thoughts on this page, I glance out of the glass patio to see a clear blue sky with the sun almost down. I wish I could be outdoors during this time. I crave for hols and hols seem to be still far away. I crave for enough time to read my books. To be honest i am reading very little these days.

Would you belive that we have almost 10 days of holidays coming up next month for Eid? It sounds so exciting..... Waiting for them......

This morning I had a heavy breakfast. Guess what - its the Hamburger and macaroni recipe I tried. It was so simple and easy to make and hardly consumed any time. Recipe for this will be posted in a couple of days time.

Creamy Vegetables Gravy

INGREDIENTS:

Beans - 50 grams
Cauliflower - 50 grams
Carrot - 50 grams
Green Peas - 50 grams


For the Gravy :

Oil - 4 tbsp
Bay Leaves - 2
Cinnamon - 2
Small Cardamoms - 4
Cloves - 4
Onions - 100 grams Chopped
Ginger Paste - 1/2 tbsp
Garlic Paste - 1 Tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Salt  - to taste
Dry fenugreek leaves or Kasuri methi - 1/2 tbsp
Green Cardomom powder - 1/2 tsp
Tomato - 100 gms chopped
Tomato puree- 50 ml
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Khoya - 20 gm


Garnishing:

 Butter - 2 tbsp
 Cream - 30 ml
 Coriander Leaves -1/2 cup chopped


HOW TO MAKE:

1) Boil vegetables and keep aside in hot water

2) Heat oil, add the whole spices, chopped onion and fry till golden.


3) Add ginger and garlic paste,coriander powder, chilli powder and salt. Saute for a while.

4) Add the chopped tomato and fry and then add Tomato puree and cook till oil comes up.

5) Add the Khoya, Kasoori Methi, green cardomom powder and cook for 5 min and then add the vegetables and mix. Remove from fire after two minutes.

6) Add the butter, cream and coriander leaves and garnish.

7) Serve hot with Rice or Naan/Bread.

RATING NOTES:

              DIFFICULTY LEVEL    :   EASY
              RATING  POINTS         :    8/10**

**  Do not overcook the vegetables. They need to be just rightly boiled and not too soft.

A peek into my muddled schedule

So again I delay in updating my diary. I hate this when I neglect myself. Will I ever be regular with my blog diary and postings? My answer is always positve whenever I question myself. I am very hopeful when it comes to the jobs I love. But sometimes life keeps me busy and busy that I get stressed and I just neglect my leisures.


Yes, I do plan my days in advance. And I do what I like. Work is not imposed on me any time. So what's causing this chaos in my schedule?


Real life is taking up a lot of my time, and so the on-line side of me will have some set backs. I also realised that I hadn't browsed much since a week, did not bother to peep into my favourite blogs and recipe websites and the worst part is that I have not been on Facebook for a very long time.


But it seems life moves on. I might even say that I don't particularly miss the on-line world when I am stressed and I just dump this whole damn schedule of mine into the trash when I reach the saturation limit of boredom. Not that I cant cut the mustard. But this phase of boredom passes off after I sleep over it and again I wake up all-fresh and look forward to what the new day offers to me.


Setbacks are showing up even in my kitchenette. I feel sorry to realise that its been more than 3 weeks since I last tried out a new recipe. I have so many recipes planned up, with ingredients readily available. But I just cannot find enough time to squeeze in my experimental plans. Thanks to my new office timings. I reach home these days while the sun sets with my routine jobs still waiting to be done. I try finishing them in a very limited time but I cant maintain the same pace everyday. And very often I find myself flitting from one thing to another and ending my days in a grumpy funk.


With these new timings, I have found little time to think and spare for myself. I hardly get free time. And when I have free time I find myself turning to my latest book and reading very few pages, or watching a show on TV half heartedly.Somehow my own blog gets short shrift. But here I am today.


Anyways here comes a quick update of the week I spent. The last time I wrote in my diary was more than 10 days back. So I have a bit to catch up on. The days have been dominated with my office work.  After work I complete some cleaning and cooking for a while and spend some of my free time with some quick reading of the different books I have collected for myself to read. I have just been reading them briefly flipping the pages quickly. Then I attend to dinner and TV before I hit the bed and call an early night. Sometimes, my free time is replaced with an outing to the supermarket if we have some shopping lined up.

So there is more about the books I am reading and whatever I've been doing. I would return with all that in my future posts.

Last weekend I visited the Corniche and I post a few pictures on it:

Chowmein

INGREDIENTS:

Chow Noodles - 100 gm
Onion   - 1 shredded
Cabbage - 1 cup shredded
Capsicum   - 1 shredded
Carrot     - 1 shredded
Soya Sauce - 2 tsp
Chilli Sauce - 1 1/2 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Garlic  -  7 flakes chopped
Oil - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 3/4 tsp
Cornflour - 1/2 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tbsp

HOW TO MAKE:

1) Bring to boil 3 glasses of water. Drop the noodles into boiling water and boil for approximately 10 minutes.Toward the end of the cooking time, test the noodles to make sure that they are firm and chewy. Drain the noodles using a sieve. Keep aside.

2) In a small bowl, mix the cornflour with little soya sauce. Keep aside.

3) Heat oil in a wok, and the vegetables and the onion and stir fry over high flame.

4) Add garlic flakes, salt, pepper, sugar and the sauces, corn flour and the vinegar.

5) Add the boiled noodles in this and stir fry for a minute.


6) Serve hot with Tomato Ketchup.

RATING NOTES:

              DIFFICULTY LEVEL    :   EASY
              RATING  POINTS         :    8/10**

**  Do not over fry the vegetables. Once they are slighlty soft, add the rest of the ingredients.

** Be careful while you cook the noodles as overcooked noodles, spoils this dish.

Fruit Custard Pudding

INGREDIENTS:

1 small cake
1 tin cocktail fruits
2 cup fresh cream
4 cups milk

4 tbsp custard powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 packet strawberry/raspberry jelly
1 apple

1 orange

1 cup grapes

4-5 cherries

HOW TO MAKE:

1) Cut cake in the centre into two halves.

2) Prepare jelly according to the instructions.

3) Beat cream until it thickens.

4) Peel all the fruits and cut into small pieces.

5) Mix custard in a little milk.

6) Boil the remaining milk and then add sugar and dissolved custard. Stir continuously until it thickens. Remove it from the flame.

7) Put one cake slice in a dish and then spread some of the custard and cocktail fruits and some fresh fruits over it.

8) Then put jelly and place another cake slice over it. Garnish with remaining custard and fruits. Spread cream on the top. Put jelly on the sides and garnish with cherries.

12) Refrigerate it for setting and then serve chilled.

RATING NOTES:

              DIFFICULTY LEVEL    :   EASY
              RATING  POINTS         :    8/10**

**  To get thick fluffy cream, beat cream using a beater or hand mixer or blender until fluffy.

** You can also try out different methods of arranging the various layers to form the custard pudding.