I had participated in the January Joust and the 3 ingredients with which I had to create an original recipe, chosen by the previous winners were Mushroom, Orange and Wine or Sparkling Grape Juice. As soon as I read about the ingredients, I had the urge to participate in this joust, though I wasn’t quite sure about the recipe I would come up with these ingredients. I only cared about being a part of this contest and to have some fun with these ingredients in my kitchen. I entered my kitchen with a blank mind and before I knew I combined these three ingredients with the Mussel, found in my freezer and in no time the dish was ready on the dining table. I had a lot of fun making this dish and didn’t expect this would turn out to be a winner.

Here is the Winner, Mussel Mushroom in Sparkling Red Grape juice: http://thasneen.com/cooking/musselmushroom

My heart felt Thanks to all the fellow bloggers who voted for my recipe, Foodie BlogRoll, Leftover Queen and all the other participants who inspired me to participate in this contest.

Here is the Official announcement of my win on the Foodie BlogRoll:
http://www.foodieblogroll.com/ /royal-foodie-joust-winners-for

I can’t wait to receive the award which is an awesome Royal Foodie Joust Apron. The 3 ingredients that I had chosen for the next month’s Joust are Fish, Nutmeg and Coconut Milk. Honestly, I had a hard time choosing the ingredients than coming up with an original recipe:) Hoping to participate in many more Jousts  in the future.

Thanks to all my friends and family who constantly support me and encourage me, I am fortunate to have such friends and a great family.

Mussels, Mushrooms, Orange peels and Sparkling red grape juice thrown into the same pan…

Today, 12 noon is the deadline for the Royal Foodie Joust and and here I am rushing for it. The ingredients for this month are Mushroom, Orange and Wine (or non-alcoholic sparkling wine). When I read about the ingredients, I had no idea and honestly quite confused about how to combine these to make an interesting dish. If I had to make dishes with these ingredients separately, there wouldn’t be any scarcity for the recipes. I would have come up with many recipes. As usual, I stood still with my refrigerator open and looked inside with my eyes wide open and of course thinking about how to throw these into the same pot. When I saw the Mussels getting ready to come out of the freezer, I first grabbed that and the other ingredients. After that I don’t know what happened in my kitchen and here is what was ready on the platter for dinner.

The combination of Mussels, Mushrooms, orange and sparkling wine did work and this was the dish, which got finished first for dinner.

Mussel Mushroom in Sparkling Red Grape Juice:

Ingredients:

• Mussels, with the shells, cleaned thoroughly-12 no’s

• Button Mushrooms halved- 1/2 cup
• Onion, minced-1/2 onion
• Garlic minced-1tsp
• Tomato paste-2 tbsp
• Sparkling red grape juice- 1/2 cup
• Orange peel, cut wide without the white part- 3 wide slices.
• Olive oil- 1-2 tbsp
• Salt- to taste
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Parsley chopped or cilantro chopped, for garnish- 1 handful

Preparation:

• Clean the shell of the mussels with a brush or paper towel and pick only the good ones.
• Heat a wide non-stick pan, when it gets hot, add olive oil.
• Add the onions, garlic and saute until translucent.
• Add the mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are tender.

• Add salt and ground pepper and give it a stir.
• Now, add the tomato paste and combine everything well.
• Add the sparkling grape juice  and the orange peels to the veggies.
• When it starts to boil, add the cleaned mussels and close the pan with its lid.
• Let the mussels simmer for about 3 minutes.

• Transfer the mussels to a serving bowl, ladle the sauce over the mussels and garnish with Parsley or Cilantro.
• Enjoy the mussel, mushroom, sparkling red grape juice together with a hint of orange.

Tips:

• You could even use dry white wine instead of sparkling grape juice.

Chicken and Pear found in tranquility in this sweet and savory dish…

Had it not been for the Royal Foodie Joust contest at the leftover queen forum, I wouldn’t have dared to put chicken and pears together. And that’s the one thing I love about this contest, it challenges me and wakes up the daring Me to cook with ingredient combination that I’ve never thought of. This is the first time I am participating in this contest and so I am really excited about the whole thing. The winners of each month gets to pick the ingredients for the next month contest, so the ingredients for this month  picked by the winners are Ginger, Fennel and Pears. Pretty interesting ingredients I must say.

Fennel and Ginger are two ingredients which I use in my everyday cooking. Most of the Indian dishes I cook, Kerala dishes to be precise call for these ingredients most of the time. Hence, I can effortlessly list many recipes with these two ingredients. But when I saw pear as the third ingredient to be used, I knew it’s going to be little tough, but certainly not impossible. I’ve never made a savory dish with pear, it has always remained as a fruit or a dessert ingredient for me. And so I immediately felt this is the only chance for me to make something different with pear.

I made Pear Chicken, along with other ingredients ginger and fennel powder. I pan seared the chicken seasoned with fennel powder and made a sauce with pears and then allowed to cook the chicken in the sauce. As soon as I took a bite of this chicken with the pears, my eyes opened wide with astonishment, it tasted really delicious. My husband and I loved the sweet and the savory taste the chicken had.

Ingredients:

• Boneless Chicken breast fillets- 6
• Fennel powder- 2 tbsp
• Ground black pepper- 2tsp
• Salt- to taste
• All purpose flour- 1/2 cup
• Butter- 1 tbsp
• Olive oil- 2 tbsp

For Sauce:

• Onion, finely chopped-1
• Ginger chopped- 1tbsp
• Low sodium Chicken stock- 1cup
• Pears canned in light syrup, rinsed or fresh pears-2

Preparation:

• Season the chicken generously with fennel powder, ground black pepper and salt.

• Spread the all purpose flour on a plate. Dip the chicken in the flour and coat all over the chicken with the flour. Shake off the excess flour.

• In a wide deep skillet, add butter and oil, place the chicken and brown on both sides until it is no longer pink inside, in medium heat.

• Keep aside the browned chicken.

• In the same skillet, add more oil if needed and add onion, saute until translucent.
• Add chopped ginger and cook till ginger is tender.
• Add the chicken stock, when it starts to boil, add the pears and cook until the sauce thickens, don’t over cook the pears.
• Place the browned chicken in the sauce, cover with the pan lid and again cook for 2 more minutes and turn off the heat.
• Plate the chicken topped with pears and pour the sauce over it.
• Serve the chicken with couscous and baby carrots or steamed veggies of your choice.

Tips:

• Leftover Chicken tasted even more better with the sauce completely infused in it, so this can be made 1 day ahead.

I had participated in the Halloween giveaway contest sponsored by ‘The Ginger People” hosted in Foodie Blogroll and had won their tasty gift basket of warming ginger treats. I had submitted my Homemade Herbal coffee recipe for this contest: http://thasneen.com/cooking/homemade-herbal-coffee/

The amazing thing was, this was my first ever participation in a food contest and I was lucky enough to win the contest as well. This was such a thrilling moment for me. Their gifts were all awesome ginger products. Everything tasted real yummy. In the gift basket they had included:  Ginger Shortbread, Ginger Delight, Ginger candies, Chocolate Ginger and Crystallized ginger. If you ask me which was my favorite among these, it is definitely tough to pick one, but  with little more pressure,  I have to pick not one but two, Ginger Delight and Chocolate Ginger as my top favorites among these. Ginger Delight was very  soft, velvety jelly textured ginger bar, topped with glucose and it was moderately sweet. While,  Chocolate ginger had the sweetness from the chocolate and the mild spiciness from the ginger. Again, all their products tasted really incredible.

Visit their website http://www.gingerpeople.com./ to browse their products.

I am looking forward to participating many more contests in the near future. “Wish me luck guys”.