Guest Writer: Alpana from Smart Snacks

Hi,
I am Alpana & I am new to the world of Blog. I have been cooking for a long long time & have always received compliments from family & friends. My Love for food & baking has grown even more as I moved "Saat Smundar Paar" from home to this "Land of Devilish foods" where the day breaks with the aroma of Dunkin Doughnuts & freshly brewed Coffee, where cookies ,cream, Chocolate ,candy are the order of the day . Even this diverse assortment of baked goodies available at every pattisserre & coffee shop could not satisfy my craving for "Baked Kulchas" & "Besan Nankhatai" ,baked fresh everyday at "'Lacchman's bakery" in my hometown. Having a lot of time at hand these days I decided to try baking them myself & guess what......they were awesome.

Hence I have delved deeper into the world of baking & sometimes I post pictures on FB just to satisfy myself with the compliments. The search for a broader horizon to share those recipes & pictures introduced me to the world of Blog. I have been posting recipes that have been tried & tested by myself and pictures taken by my Husband.


My space will be a feature to share my long time tried & tested recipes with the world as well as enjoy & savour the recipes from international cuisines shared by fellow bloggers.


What is your name:
Alpana Rana ( Photo attached)

Where do you live:
South Brunswick , New Jersey , USA

What's your favorite recipe:
Date Nut Spice Cake Loaf

What's your favorite kitchen tool:
My Big Oven ( I know it's a gadget but I love it & I can bake & bake & bake in it & something I did not have access to in India)

What do you live by in life? Do unto others as you wish others to do unto you

Thanks a lot Amanda for inviting me for a guest post. Here is the recipe that I would like to share & hope each one of our fellow bloggers will enjoy it.



Peanut Pesto Potato Salad:


I Love salad..........lol .......amazing haan , Yes my family laughs at me as well . But I must confess that after coming to the US I have gradually developed a taste for different cuisines, salad being a part
of it.

In my initial years I would not even try anything called Ghaas- phoos ( green Leaves) but sometimes while traveling I would have no option but to have a salad. As I started working being a vegetarian gave me very limited options for lunch & if I wasn't carrying my lunch I had to do with a salad. Sooo one fine day I really started relishing the variety of salads available at the cafeteria & now I churn out my versions of this beautiful ghaas phoos( Green Leaves) I am also doing this post as a guest blogger for Amanda from "The Sweet Details" ( Thanks Amanda - I feel honoured) & when she invited
me I started thinking of something that would have a universal appeal.

So finally I decided to do this salad with a twist. The salad has been inspired from 'Ellie Krieger' of Food Network & I have been making it for the last 3-4 years ( ofcourse I wasn't blogging at the
time) Generally Pesto has pine nuts & parmesan cheese as one of the main ingredients but I used peanuts instead , no cheese & some candied ginger for a little crunch .

Ingredients:
I pound red potatoes / boiled & cut with skin
1 cup of chopped red , yellow & green peppers.
4-5 slices of candied ginger/ chopped into small pieces.


For the Pesto:
I cup packed fresh basil leaves
1 clove garlic
3 tablespoons of roasted peanuts ( unsalted, if using salted then
reduce the amount of salt in the pesto)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons of olive oil
salt & black pepper acc. to taste.


Preparing Pesto:
Add roasted peanuts & garlic to the shredder attachment & give it a good pulse . Add basil leaves , lemon juice , olive oil , salt & pepper & pulse it again for a minute or two . The pesto should be a
little chunky & not paste like.

Mix everything together in a bowl , potatoes, peppers, ginger & pesto & just give it a good stir with a
spatula.

Enjoy..............


Note: Mixing it with a spoon will break the potatoes & the salad looks messy . Refrigerate the salad for 2-3 hrs before serving as this helps the potatoes to absorb all the flavors & the salad even becomes
more crunchy.

Happy Cooking - from my kitchen to Yours........Keep blogging.

Alpana