Cooking made easy

But perhaps my favorite dish of all at Yamato is the orange dragon roll, which is filled with crab and topped with fresh salmon and eel sauce. The salmon just melts in your mouth. Mmmm....

Yeah, uh huh, check it:

Yes, its Meme time again and this time around Ive been tagged by Susan at Fatfree Vegan Kitchen to declare my 5 Foods to Live For. Asking someone who must live gluten-free due to celiac disease to list five foods to live for is an ironic and thorny question. If she had asked me, say, ten years ago, my list would have sported Italian semolina pasta as my number one. Following a close second? A tie between a crispy crusted French baguette and a chewy, salty rosemary foccacia- dipped in number three, extra virgin olive oil. Fourth would have to involve chocolate, perhaps a dense, rich slice of Devils food cake. Number five?

Suddenly Im feeling a little woozy.

This has-been (once upon a time) list ought to be named, 5 Foods to Die For. In some other incarnation Im sure it is. Celiac is that serious. Yup. It can tumble you downhill so fast youll be cringing- more than usual- at thinly veiled envy, er, I mean, compliments (Wow, you look amazing! Bitch. What are you- a size zero?) and discussing plans with your husband on how hell look after your sons once youre gone.

Gone? he will ask with a raised eyebrow and a glint in his eye that begs to spark the levity he knows from experience simmers just beneath your gloomy inscrutable surface. Youre not going anywhere, he declares with a bear hug, wrapping himself around your alarmingly bony shoulders.

Learning at mid-life that in order to survive you must be gluten-free every single day for the rest of your life is a mixed blessing. Yes, its a relief. You havent woken up in the third act of some Stephen King movie titled, Wasted. There is, finally, a reason you can point to. A culprit.

And the cure? The cure is simple, the doctor will tell you. Avoid gluten. And? you ask expectantly. There will be a shrug, followed by, Youll be fine. The depth of this nutritional advice is astounding, you think to yourself in utter and complete awe. Out loud, you murmur, Oh, okay, glancing at the faint remnants of powdered sugar on his charcoal wool trouser leg.

Finding five foods to live for is easy for me. After five years of living gluten-free I have forgotten what it is like to eat and live spontaneously, to stop, on an impulse and try a new bakery or a new cafe or the new restaurant in town. I must read every label of every single food, every ingredient that goes into my mouth. I make grocery lists in my sleep. I pack food for even the shortest trips away from home, knowing there will be nothing safe I can eat during an emergency. Well, if Im lucky- a bottled water in a vending machine.

Eating now is sober business.

Its not just something to do on a whim, or out of boredom, or even, politeness. Every single food choice has to be conscious (How Zen, you think to yourself, chewing your brown rice. Maybe Buddha was a celiac?). For those of us intolerant to gluten, each bite we take is either healing or destructive. Its as simple as that.

And this is the hard part. To regard food as a possible enemy, as something adversarial, even life threatening, like some nasty virus or invisible bacteria, can turn any food loving girls concept of nourishment and pleasure upside down. In fact, it is the antithesis of pleasure (unless you happen to be a masochist).

No, its not easy to be even a quasi-foodie or comfort-foodie like me, when you have to keep your guard up. Strict vigilance isnt exactly, um, sexy.

Luckily, I was born with a resiliency and fluidity that has served me well in my life; and I have adjusted to my limitations and the stringency of living gluten-free. I still have foods I adore. I get pleasure from cooking. Sharing meals with those I love is as important now (if not more so!) than it was before I learned about celiac disease.

And after some minor and major adjustments, food has become equal to pleasure once again.

So, without further ado, my 5 Foods to Live For - aka Five Foods to Eat Before You Die Meme - are:

1. Roasted green chiles- fresh from a New Mexican roadside stand

2. Garlic- rubbed, minced, chopped, roasted

3. Extra virgin olive oil- organic and fruity, from Italy

4. Wine- both red and white, from velvety dry to clean and crisp

5. Tomatoes- in every shape and color and size, raw, cooked, and sun-dried

Wait, wait! But then there is organic dark chocolate and sweet potatoes and blueberries and peaches and vanilla bean and fresh corn tortillas. Sigh.

How lucky can a girl be?

Last week we had a small potluck party. I was very excited, like everyone does to impress them. The time was short and I did a lot of browsing to search for any Indian potluck recipe. But, I could not find many and the one that I found were taking pretty long time to cook. So, I stopped browsing and looked around my kitchen to find what all I have. If you are preparing for a potluck you have to make in a large portions (of course, our potluck gathering was very small, but what if  it was bigger?) just look around your kitchen and find the one that is in larger quantity and you many not use it again (Such  as instant cake flour), and try to prepare from that. If you are a person like me who prefer to make desserts only on special occasions then I bet you should have lots and lots of instant mixes like gulab jamun and cake mix in your store room.  Just move their butts out and start making them. 

Now here are the tips that you can make the simple food look delicious. Always, garnish food with colorful decorations. These decorations make food even more appitizing. If you are going to bake the food, always prepare them before the party day, refrigerate them and try to bake them before the party begins. If you were to take them to different place then, bake on the day before you leave.

Here are the recipes that you can prepare for the potluck or Big party.

Western Recipes:

Empanada

Burger Patti

Mushroom Cheese Pizza

Shell curry puffs

Vegetable Hakka Noodles in Indian style

Banana chocolate chip Rasin Muffins

Spinach Cheese Pin wheels

Chocolate chip Cup cakes

Phyllo rolls recipe

Indian/Desi Recipes for Potluck or Party:

Bakharwadi

Moong Dal Halwa

Spring rolls with semiya

Soya chunks Vegetable Biryani

Naan Pizza

Mushroom Samosa

Sweet potato Puffs

Masala Vada

Double ka meeta

Fruit salad

Easy Spanish Rice Recipe
 
Panner- Potato Tots

Alu Bonda / Potato Bajji: Indian potato balls

Yummy puff pastry pin wheels


Non-Vegetarian Party or potluck Recipes

Chicken 65

Chili chicken

Chicken Biryani

Chicken Pakodi

Tandoori chicken

Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Apart from this you can arrange some fresh vegetables along with variety of dips available in the market.

Ingredients for moist gluten free fruit cake recipe
2oz Sultanas
2oz Raisins
2oz Dried unsulphured apricots
3oz Dates
12 Glazed Cherries (halved)
5oz Rice Flour
1/2 Tbsp Cornflour (cornstarch)
1 Tbsp Soya Flour
500ml Hot water
50ml Vegetable oil
4oz Dark brown muscovado sugar
1 Vanilla pod
1 Tbsp Canadied peel
1 tsp Sweet mixed spice
1 tsp Xanthan gum
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1-2 tsp Vanilla essence

Picture of glazed cherries and dried fruit.

See how moist the fruit cake is as I squeeze it between my fingers?

You want a thick textured cake batter.