July « 2014 « Swat's Cooking

If you are ever hosting a baby/bridal shower and need to make a quick party favor, try this one. Even if you are not, and want to engage your kids in a fun family culinary session this summer, this idea still works great. Takes 20 minutes to make a batch of 20 and uses simple ingredients that live in the pantries of most households with kids. Add your own wrapping touches and you ‘ll have one of those fancy hand-made-personalized gift type deals, for a fraction of cost! Tried this for a shower recently and these sweet treats a hit with kids and adults alike.

You will need:

Marshmallows ( Giant ones are better)

Chocolate chips ( meltable semi sweet or dark chocolate chips, I love the Ghirardelli dark ones!)

Sticks ( The ones from the craft isle or small straws will also work)

Rainbow sprinkles ( The best about this recipe per my 7 yr old!)

Gently pierce a giant marshmallow into the end of a stick/straw. While you are doing that, get a double boiler (with steam) started to melt the chocolate chips in. As the chocolate melts, dip the marshmallow half way through into the molten goodness, spinning it gently so all sides are evenly coated. Roll the chocolate covered mallow in the rainbow sprinkles. You could use a block of thermocol to make the sticks stand upright, if you don’t have one on hand, just lay them on wax paper and let it dry for 10-15 min. Have fun dipping and drying! Wrap them in your own fancy way, add favor tags etc, etc.. or enjoy as is!!

Grilled bellas with Sriracha…aah!!!

If you tired of seeing fried appetizers at every party ( like me☺)here’s a healthy one to kick start your next party.

Good part about this recipe is, you can use your imagination to create any kind of filling that goes into the mushrooms.

Even better part is this recipe takes the best hot sauce in the world, Sriracha! Just load it up with cheese and the savoury Sriracha sauce and all is golden!.

Ingredients: ( Serves 6-8)

Portobello mushrooms about 4

Topping#1: Tofu (extra firm) 1 block, Spinach 1 cup ,Seasoning ( Italian herb or any generic seasoning)

Topping #2: 1 cup Roasted red peppers, 1 cup chopped onions, toasted pine nuts and handful cilantro

Sriracha hot sauce ( any hot sauce will do, but no sauce tickles your taste buds like this one!!)

Mozzarella cheese 1 cup

Oilve oil spray

Method:

Wash the mushrooms, trim the stem and scoop out the undersurface clean with a spoon. In a pan, sautee the tofu, spinach with the seasoning and salt added. Then, gently fill in the tofu and spinach into the mushroom till the cleaned out brown bed is covered.

Instead you can also lightly sautee finely chopped red bell peppers and onions and load them into the mushroom. You can sprinkle some toasted pine nuts and cilantro too.

If you are feeling lazy (like I was the first time I made them) you can just spray olive oil and then add dollops of sauce directly from the bottle onto the loaded mushroom. If you are in a more energetic mood ( like I was when made them for the second time), using a basting brush to coat a mix of olive oil and hot sauce onto neatly halved mushrooms. Finally top the mushrooms with cheese, generously.

If you are in a hurry, you can directly bake them in the oven at 350 deg for about 30 min. If you happen to have sometime on hand, the better way is to wrap them real tight in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 4 hrs prior to baking. The latter method is better as the toppings have more time to soak in the oil and sauce, adding more flavor. Add a dash of extra Sriracha sauce on the side while serving.

Tip: If your mushrooms leave out a lot of water like mine did, gently soak up the excess water using the ever faithful super absorbent Bounty tissue!