quick Archives - Joie De Vivre

Chocolate, Cookies, Brownies & Bars, Fruit Inspired, Sweet

Fruit & Nut Chocolate Slab (without the extra calories!)

Yes, its true. Chocolate can save the world, one tongue at a time. And my quick and easy recipe combines fruit and nut mix with semi sweet chocolate, perfectly forming a Fruit & Nut Chocolate Slab (without the extra calories!). Remember, because I use semi sweet chocolate, I am effectively lowering the calorie count, and by adding nuts and dried fruit – we counter the bitterness of the chocolate with a hullabaloo of a mixture of chewy, crunchy and crispy! Now I do not obviously advise eating slabs by the handful, rather having a 1 or 2″ square would be enough to give you your kick of sugar, without the unnecessary guilt!

Sweet Corn with Miso Butter

Inspiration for the combination of miso + sweetcorn came while watching Masterchef AU, the episode where Sara makes a roasted quail dish, on a bed of miso sweetcorn puree with a blackberry vinaigrette. As usual, I look at the side elements on a protein dish that I can re-create at home, maybe not in the same exact form, rather as a flavour pairing that I can then create my own recipe with. Now let’s be honest, we’ve all eaten butter slathered corn on the cob, and even steamed corn with a dollop of butter and spices, and it is safe to deem the bowlful of goodness as a warming and comforting snack. Adding miso and some other relishes, well that just makes it burst with flavour in an understated and perfectly rounded way!

For some reason, a lot of people like to boil their corn before using it, or steaming it. I personally find this not only wasteful and cumbersome, but I find that repetitive cooking Read more…

December 15, 2015 | 0 comment

Cookies, Brownies & Bars, Fruit Inspired, Pies & Puddings, Sweet

Lemon Brown Butter Tart + My Latest Crush

As is typically the case when a brilliant new book hits the market (especially by some of my favoured sources of inspiration) I waste little time getting my hands on it. By some gross error, I landed up ordering this gem a tad behind schedule, but oh, it is so worth having in my arsenal! I’ll admit, a lot of the main meals are primarily not vegetarian, but the other chapters {Meatless Mains, Vegetables} quickly make up for that. What I love about this book is that it is an amalgamation of people’s favourites, by phenomenal chefs/bloggers/geniuses, and genuinely meant to be catered towards honest home cooking – none of that layered and complicated deconstructed stuff! Hence, I used two recipes from the book as inspiration for my Lemon Brown Butter Tart. The first is Paule Caillat’s Brown Butter Tart (which BTW is ridonkulously easy) and the second is Elizabeth Falkner’s Eggless Lemon Curd.

Right so in case you thought that this is my latest crush, it isn’t. I mean, I love recipe books and all, but this crush is totally legit. And Yellow too! It’s none other than the Read more…

July 7, 2015 | 0 comment

Salads, Savoury, Vegetables & Sides

Iceberg Lettuce Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Sometimes, stinky cheese is just what the doctor ordered. Well in my case, any doctor that ordered me (any kind of) cheese would become my new favourite person. While I love adding cheese to salads, very rarely will I made a dressing, whose entire flavour profile is derived from the cheese. I also find that of all cheeses, it is blue cheese that most people shy away from, not due to lack of an acquired taste, but more due to preconceived notions. And the fact that it smells. Last evening, I just wanted a salad, without fuss and too much effort. So begins the birth of the Iceburg Lettuce Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing.

AirFried Vegetable Spring Rolls

My love for Thai food is something that can never be satiated, or so I’d like to believe. About a decade ago, my parents and I had a week long vacation there, with a few days at the beach and the rest in the bustling capital. What was clear from this vacation was that my mum and me gluttonously attacked Thai food at every meal (ok fine, barring breakfast, although even at breakfast our plates were filled with mangosteen) so much so that after 4 days, my dad actually ordered a sandwich from room service before we went for another Thai meal, because clearly, he had reached the brink.

Not for me. Every city I visit, always has me looking for at least one Thai pit stop. In Delhi, it’s always Ego Thai, a classic non fussy joint, packed with loads of comfort food. Even when we were in Croatia, we managed to find Pearl of Siam, which coupled with my desire to eat spice and flavour (the vegetarian food in the more touristy parts of Croatia were unimaginative) went so out of control, made us return there two nights in a row! In London, Read more…

June 18, 2015 | 6 Comments

Cuisines, Savoury, Sweet

Cuisine Quickies

It’s always wonderful to have meals made from scratch, with freshly bought ingredients, a meticulously curated menu, execution with much care and deliberation. But most of the times, we just need quick, safe and recipes that take no more than 30 minutes. So to help you all out there (especially the ones that keep slyly suggesting that I train their cooks or counterparts), here are 10 seriously simple recipes that even the most clumsy, non-fussy and lazy cook can make, to kick off your week on an inspiring note. And still, taste seriously amazing. I call them, Cuisine Quickies.

I’ve curated 7 fantastic savoury quickies, that rely on simple pantry basics and bread, nothing that takes you out of the ordinary. And 3 amazingly simple yet scrumptious desert quickies, one centred on chocolate, and the others on fruit, bearing the summer in mind! Here we go: Read more…

May 17, 2015 | 0 comment