My DYI, Cooking and Gardening Blog at GardenStew.com

Vegetarian "meatballs"

prasunsen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:06:54 -0400

Author: prasunsen
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:06 pm (GMT 0)

This recipe can be used for preparing "meatball" for all kind of dishes - stews, soups, BBQ or anything. Unlike the soy based "meat" this one is really tasty ;) Here we go:

For preparing 500g mince:

- 200 g cheese (veg. cheese is fine as well)
- 3-4 eggs (vegans can replace them with smashed banana and soy milk)
- 50g breadcrumbs
- 100g wheat bran or oat bran

Shred the chees and mix it with the eggs, breadcrumbs and wheat.

Add spicies - more than you would put in real mince. I use the following:
- salt
- cumin
- thyme
- black pepper
- red pepper
- savory
- chopped onion

Form the meatballs using some more breadcrumbs to keep them stick and you are ready - you can fry them, cook or bake them. Most people will not recognize the meatballs have no meat.

A thee lovely DIY projects for your backyards

prasunsen — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:52:40 -0400

Author: prasunsen
Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:52 pm (GMT 0)

I wanted to share ideas for three great do-it-yourself projects for your backyard.

First, each garden can look much better if you build a pergola. Here is a good video guide on building a pergola. As you can see the project doesn't require very advanced woodworking skills. Mostly you need quality wood material.

Another great do it yourself project for the garden is building a garden shed. If you want to start such a project you may want to check this guide and tutorials for long explanation and visual instructions. In short, building a wooden shed yourself has several steps:

- build the foundations
- build and arrange the walls
- attach door and windows if any
- build the roof

If you split the project on parts you should have no issues.

The third DIY idea is even more exciting - it's about building a swing set. There are many kinds of swing sets, but I recommend you build either a very simple one, like in the article above, or if you feel confident build a complex swing set with frame and everything.

An outdoor swing can make not only your kids, but also give yourself and your partner a lot of outdoor fun.

Indian Rice With Mushrooms and Vegetables

prasunsen — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:44:06 -0400

Author: prasunsen
Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:44 pm (GMT 0)

I love the Asian kitchen. Here's one recipe (I have amended the original one to make it simpler) for South Indian rice.

Ingredients
1 cup of rice
1 chopped onion
2-3 chopped carrots
2-3 cloves garlic
2 eggs
2-3 small peppers
a half vegetable marrow, finely chopped (depending on the season you can replace it with a cucumber or any other vegetable)
soy sauce, salt, black peppers, ginger, garam masala

Instructions
1. Cook the rice.
2. In a wok or deep pan fry the mushrooms
3. Add the vegetables and fry for a minute
4. Add the two eggs in the mix, stir and fry until the eggs are fried. Note that the eggs should get teared on small pieces, NOT to be fried as a whole
5. Add some soy sauce and stir
6. Add the rice, other spices and fry for 2-3 mins

The rice is ready!