Versatile Sauces for every mood

I don’t think it’s possible for you to name a single dish that isn’t sustained by sauces, at least not a tasty dish. The cuisine could be Indian, Chinese, Italian or Mexican; the sauces make or break the dish. Some sauces are heroes, they play several roles, and single handedly carry the dish to an epicurean domain.

Let’s look at some sauces that can be used in multiple ways:

Pesto:
An Italian sauce made of fragrant basil, olive oil, pine nuts and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (parmesan cheese), Pesto is more popularly used as a pasta sauce in India. What most people are unaware of, is the fact that pesto is so much more than a pasta sauce. Pesto is best friends with the pizza, and brings out a lovely twist to your mundane ‘red’ tomato based pizza sauce. Top it with some cherry tomato and pesto makes the best pizzas. Pesto has a strong character and it makes its presence felt easily, that is why it can be used as a dip as well, best served with a baguette or bread sticks.

Southwest:
The Southwest sauce has become immensely popular in India, since the slightly dense and spicy structure adheres to the Indian Palate. Made hugely commercial by subway, southwest sauce in India is now being used in sandwiches, as a hot dog dressing, or even as a dip with fries.

Sweet Chili Sauce:
A sauce that is embedded in East Asian cuisines, sweet chili sauce is an extremely versatile sauce. Used alongside dumplings and gyozas, sweet chili sauce blends well with lamb and chicken. However, sweet chili also works really nicely when used as a salad dressing, as it immediately lifts up an otherwise mundane dish, bringing a sweet and spicy element to it.

One must experiment with food as much as their taste buds allow, for you never know; you may be onto the next food trend!

Lunch ideas your kids will love!

Every mother’s deepest woe is the unfinished lunchbox she finds in her child bag pack after school. An empty lunchbox is like a myth, so rare that it almost seems impossible. The problem evidently is that your child finds the lunch you pack them very un-interesting. It’s time to beat this disheartening phenomenon with some phenomenal lunch ideas! Let’s look at some healthy but super scrumptious meals you can pack for your kid’s tiffin box:

•Cocktail burgers: Kids despise anything that’s too big to handle, it just doesn’t seem appetizing to them when they have to struggle with their food.  Preparing mini versions will help your kids eat quickly. They can even enjoy their meal on the go, their teeny tiny hand wrapped around the mini burgers while they play. To make the burgers delicious, I suggest you smear it with a generous dollop of mayonnaise India offers various brands with delectable sauces, and a dash of yummy mayo will lift the taste of the patty. Brands like Veeba have come up with really healthy sauces, which prevent burgers from tasting dry, something that children dislike. You can add some relish or a light coleslaw to add that health factor, and swap the fried patty with a grilled one!

•Mac and cheese cupcakes: Kid’s love their mac and cheese, the only thing that keeps them away from it is handling it with a fork, because that means sitting quietly on the table, something that children are very unlikely to do! Be mom of the year with mac and cheese cups, so easy to make, all you have to do is beat an egg into a prepared batch of mac and cheese and make them in cupcake tins. The snack becomes so easy to handle and packs an extra boost of protein in it!

•Sausage mini rolls: This one is my personal favourite, only because it’s super simple to prepare. You can have this ready in minutes, when your child is getting late to school. Just lather up a chapatti or a parantha with some dips, you can add some ketchup and mayo to a spoonful of mustard and have the most delightful American mustard sauce recipe, one that you can keep a secret when other mommies ask! Wrap a juicy sausage/frankfurter and roll it up, cut it into bite sized pieces fir easy handling and voila! You can also add some processed cheese to the roll.

Now that you know some seriously awesome luncheon recipes, you can expect that tiffin box to be licked clean every day!

Easy tomato ketchup recipe for your cravings

Tomato ketchup is something Indians just can’t do without. We have the ability to mix tomato sauce with almost all kinds of food- Indian or International. Be it our morning breakfast containing omelets, our lunch containing a south Indian delicacy, our dinner of north Indian Chicken or any other snack in general- everything tastes heavenly with the flavor of tomato ketchup it.

And catering to the tastes of Indians, the ketchup manufacturers in India keep bringing newer variants of the ketchups and sauces in the market. Tomato ketchups, produced under the name of a plethora of brands offer a wide range of fruit based as well as vegetable based ketchups which have become the parts and parcels of our daily lives.

But then, as they say- a home cooked recipe somehow outdoes its market-based counterpart. We know how much we love tomato sauces made at the hands of our mother and grandmothers, and we’d continue to love them too.

If you’ve not been able to enjoy homemade tomato ketchup for a while, here’s how you can make it with your own hands.

First cut the rinsed tomatoes and rinse garlic, ginger and raisins. These ingredients would add a lot of flavor to your tomato ketchup, so keep them ready when you’re planning to make ketchup. Make sure that you get rid of all the spotted parts and peels of the tomatoes.

Then, take all the chopped tomatoes in a pressure cooker and mix it well with ginger, garlic, red chilies, raisins, salt, sugar and vinegar. Mix it well and keep stirring in the intervals. Blend the mixture after it cools down and make a smooth puree out of it with the help of strainer.

Then keep the strained puree over the boiled water and add sodium benzoate to it (This works as preservative). Let the mixture cool for 1-2 hours. Then keep it in the fridge for 2 days, and serve with a snack.
So now that you’re aware of easy tomato ketchup recipe, get going!

Why Use Salad Dressing with Your Salad?

There is no disputing the fact that salads are tasteless, as in, most of the ingredients in it are healthy, which basically translates to that they won’t be flavourful. But, at the same time, one can also not dismiss the importance that salads have and that they not just give a good dose of healthy items, but also work towards better digestion. So, if one is in a conundrum that salads are tasteless yet essential, then salad dressings should definitely be kept in mind. Salad dressings are usually a sauce that is made up from different spices and things that give the salad an extra boost of flavour.

It is anyways a common step to use salad dressings with salad as it gives them a little juice as otherwise salads could get a bit dry. But, most of times, these dressings are quite plain designed for health conscious people who want to control how much calories and fat they take in. That is why a vinaigrette salad dressing or other such type is perfect, as it does not include any unnecessary fats and still adds a bit of taste.

But, if one wants a bit more, and is not satisfied with such basic dressings, then there are options in the market for them too. Food services companies are realizing that the public is more than ever, aware of their health and wants nutritious things to consume.

Companies thus, are producing such products only that are tasty while at the same time, keeping in touch with being considered healthy. They are fat free, and cholesterol free and one can add to them more than just a salad. One can buy the best olive oil mayonnaise India, and add it to salads, sandwiches, burgers and more without being fearful of it being too fatty.