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Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Ideas 01 - Red and Yellow Bell Peppers

Priyanka asked me for something simple that can be made with Red and Yellow Bell Peppers. So here goes... Two ideas from the net and one of mine ...


Idea a.
Chicken Corn Bell Pepper Chaat
Knowing Priyanka's origin, I'd suggest 'chicken' and 'chaat' :D. At a pinch the chicken can be done away with.


Ingredients
1 Red Bell Pepper (cut into long thin strips)
1 Yellow Bell Pepper (cut into long thin strips)
200gm corn kernels (pick up some frozen ones and nuke 'em if you can't get fresh ones)
Half a lemon (for the juice and rind)
Chaat Masala
Salt
100gm Chicken (Boiled and Shredded or just buy a stick of Reshmi Kabab and shred) 


How to make:
Put all the ingedients in a bowl. Mix with a fork. Add the salt and chaat masala. Mix some more. Squeeze the lemon juice over the mixture and before serving scrape the rind over the mixture from the half of the lemon you just squeezed for the juice.


Idea b. (from the internet)
Garlic and Herb Sautéed Bell Pepper Strips



This garlic and herb sautéed bell pepper recipe can be used as an appetizer, as part of an antipasto platter, or a colorful side dish. The bell pepper strips cook up quickly, and are at their sweet and savory best paired with the garlic and herbs. This sautéed pepper recipe is a great way to enjoy this nutritious summer vegetable. 


Make 8 Serving of Garlic and Herb Sautéed Bell Pepper Strips
Prep Time: 10 minutes


Cook Time: 6 minutes


Total Time: 16 minutes


Ingredients:


3 tbsp olive oil
2 large red bell peppers, seeded, cut into half-inch strips
2 large yellow bell peppers, cut into half-inch strips
2 cloves finely minced garlic
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped basil
1 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
toasted Italian bread to garnish, optional
Preparation:


In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the pepper strips, and sauté for 4-5 minutes, or until the peppers begin to soften. Turn down the heat to low, and add the garlic, salt and pepper. Saute for 2 minutes more. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar and herbs. Toss to combine. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Toss again, adjust seasoning and serve with toasted bread if desired.



Idea c. (Again from the internet...) 
Red and Yellow Bell Pepper Soup (from http://www.grouprecipes.com/56066/red-and-yellow-bell-pepper-soup.html


Quoting from the site...

This garlic and herb sautéed bell pepper recipe can be used as an appetizer, as part of an antipasto platter, or a colorful side dish. The bell pepper strips cook up quickly, and are at their sweet and savory best paired with the garlic and herbs. This sautéed pepper recipe is a great way to enjoy this nutritious summer vegetable.


Make 8 Serving of Garlic and Herb Sautéed Bell Pepper Strips

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 6 minutes

Total Time: 16 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 large red bell peppers, seeded, cut into half-inch strips
  • 2 large yellow bell peppers, cut into half-inch strips
  • 2 cloves finely minced garlic
  • salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp chopped basil
  • 1 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
  • toasted Italian bread to garnish, optional

Preparation:

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the pepper strips, and sauté for 4-5 minutes, or until the peppers begin to soften. Turn down the heat to low, and add the garlic, salt and pepper. Saute for 2 minutes more. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar and herbs. Toss to combine. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Toss again, adjust seasoning and serve with toasted bread if desired.








Quoted from the site:



Ingredients

  • red peppers
  • yellow peppers
  • 2 tsp vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
  • 1 1/4 cups chopped carrots
  • 1/2 cup chopped celery
  • 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 1/2 cups diced, peeled potatoes
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh corianderdill or basil
  • How to make it

    • Make Ahead:Roast peppers earlier in the day and set aside. Prepare both soups earlier in day, and keep them separate until serving.
    • -----------------------------------------------------
    • Roast the peppers under the broiler for 15 to 20 minutes, turning several times until charred on all sides. Place in a bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap; let stand until cool enough to handle. Remove skin, stem and seeds.
    • In a nonstick saucepan sprayed with vegetable spray, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, carrots and celery; cook for 8 minutes or until vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally. Add stock and potatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover, and let cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are tender.
    • Put the red peppers in food processor and process until smooth. Add half of the soup mixture to the red pepper purée and process until smooth. Season with pepper and pour into serving bowl. Rinse out food processor. Put yellow peppers in food processor and process until smooth; add remaining soup to yellow pepper purée and process until smooth. Season with pepper and pour into another serving bowl. To serve, ladle some of the red pepper soup into one side of individual bowl, at the same time ladling some of the yellow pepper soup into the other side of the bowl. Add coriander to soup and serve.
    • Nutrition:Calories 99
    • Protein 3 g

Monday, February 28, 2011

Food Porn...

Photo (c) Sam Foster


The topic of food porn sparked off in the middle of another farewell. (This farewell was memorable with Dipali giving us all some awesome chocolate cake)

Manasi quickly logged on to tumblr and showed us some very mouthwatering photos. She commented that all this 'food porn' is responsible for most of the obesity in this world. This got me curious. What
is 'food porn'?

Now, wikipedia sounds very pedantic (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_porn) and holds  feminist critic Rosalind Coward responsible and quotes her thus...

"
her 1984 book Female Desire[4] in which she writes: "Cooking food and presenting it beautifully is an act of servitude. It is a way of expressing affection through a gift... That we should aspire to produce perfectly finished and presented food is a symbol of a willing and enjoyable participation in servicing others. Food pornography exactly sustains these meanings relating to the preparation of food. The kinds of picture used always repress the process of production of a meal. They are always beautifully lit, often touched up." (p.103)"


And yes! Nigella Lawson is held responsible for making (food) lascivious and prurient as the Queen of Food Porn. 
:P I whole heartedly agree!

Skinny gourmet
 does a much better job with an interesting write-up about the origins of the term. 

"Frederick Kaufman's article entitled: "Debbie Does Salad: The Food Network at the frontiers of pornography," originally published in Harper's Magazine in October 2005."


Kaufman's original article was a delightful read (http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/10/0080776)


"Kaufman’s article talks mostly about how camera techniques and ways of looking, the "pornographic gaze," have been incorporated into the visual presentation of food. He talks through how specific techniques of filming from the pornography industry--such as "swooping" over food--and traditions of presentation--such as repetition--have been adopted wholesale by Food TV. Although sometimes it seems to be an over-extended phrase, not everything is food porn. For a classic example of food porn in video, think of Giarda cooking. The close ups as the flame bursts from the burner, a zoom in on her eagerly licking melted chocolate from her finger-tip. When the final food is presented the camera swoops in like Fabio to a fainting maiden. The camera trails lovingly across the food, tracing the curves and confines, lingering. This is a far cry from the quirky (but endearing) camera-work that characterizes Alton Brown’s show."

I mentally compared this and the Discovery TLC programs to the ones we get to see in India television... Yuck! 


You get dumpy aunty blinking and stirring with a chirpy and vacuous idiot bouncing beside her. The camera is glued with a fixed gaze to everyone with occasional zoom-ins to glass/ceramic bowls of chopped ingredients.


The boob tube in the land of kama sutra has collective (and severe) erectile dysfuntion. With food channels rearing their heads, I am really hoping for the 'masala' to kick  in...


In the meanwhile, I leched at the food shot in
Veggie Num Num's Flickr stream. Tons of enticing looking things at Flickrmindhive. I stumbled upon the fact that Flickr actually has a  Food Porn Group!

Some more interesting things to watch and read lie here:



I'd love to know what you've found as well... :)