Recipe 6: Poached Pears with Red wine

I am not a person who’d like to mix my loaf with liquor.

I am a die-hard foodie. The times when I diet are the hardest times ever in my life… harder than the breakups. And, in all honesty, I equally enjoy my happiness potions too. But, I never had a palate for food prepared with alcohol in it.

I always try hard to identify the taste of liquor in liquor-chocolates, rum in rum-cakes, and beer in beer battered prawns. But always fail miserably.

I mean, come on! Relishing a plateful of luscious prawns while drinking your beer makes things so convenient, right?

However, when the book instructed me to make poached pears with red wine, I took it as a challenge to my taste buds (yet again).

The highlight of this recipe was the poaching bit. In just two minutes after the wine started simmering, my entire house was filled with its awesome smell. The smell definitely excited my palate. And did not disappoint too.

The pears didn’t look as red as shown in the picture. However, tasted delicious. 

Sugar overpowered the taste of wine. But the perfectly soft pears took my heart away.

I don’t mind repeating this recipe in future. But, honestly speaking, would still prefer gulping down the wine straight from the bottle!

Cheers!

Recipe 5: Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

“Bell peppers? I hate bell peppers!”

That was the very first thought that came to my mind when I read the next recipe in line. I am not a picky eater, but you’ll always finding me doing a raw-capsicum-raw-onion scan at the dinner table.

Forget about others, I myself was suspicious about liking this recipe. Hence, I decided to make it in very small quantity. So, all the ingredients were half their recommended portions.

The stuffing was made of quinoa. Not many of you must have heard about this ingredient before. It’s a funny grain with a slightly bitter after-taste. Not many would love it at first shot. It’s like wine. You have to acquire the taste for quinoa.

But the showstopper in this recipe was Dill. Just a sprinkle of 1 tablespoon of dill just before turning off the heat helped subdue the foreign trace of quinoa to a large extent. I also managed to finish one whole bell pepper on my own. Pat my back for that! :)

And yes, a healthy recipe like this won’t find any takers. So don’t waste your time convincing your friends to eat it. They. Are. Not. Gonna. Eat. It.