Author Archives: Ayesha Haq

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About Ayesha Haq

A versatile chef ...

Penne Alfredo with Grilled Chicken

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Easy & Fancy dinner idea. The creamy parmesan sauce and well seasoned chicken breasts go hand in hand….. very yummy!

Ayesha's Kitchen

Ayesha’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

FOR CHICKEN

  • 4 small size chicken breasts
  • Some salt
  • Some cracked black pepper
  • Some onion powder
  • Some garlic powder
  • 1 lemon squeezed
  • Some olive oil

FOR PENNE ALFREDO

  • 500 gms penne pasta (al dente)
  • 800mL cooking cream
  • 250 gms shredded parmesan cheese
  • 100 gms butter
  • Some salt
  • Some cracked red chillies (Optional, I like them so I add them)
  • Black pepper
  • ¼ tspn onion powder
  • ½ tspn garlic powder
  • 10 mushrooms sliced
  • ½ tspn chives
  • 2 tbspns scallions (green part only)

Procedure:

-Take the chicken breast fillets and pound then until they are 1cm thick. Marinade with everything except olive oil and keep aside for at least an hour.

-Heat the grill pan, drizzle some olive oil and grill those chicken fillets (5 minutes per side) on medium – high heat.

-Meanwhile your chicken is grilling let’s make our sauce. Melt some butter in a skillet and stir fry mushrooms until they change colour. Now add cream and all the seasonings except chives and scallions. Stir.

-When the sauce begins to simmer add parmesan cheese and keep stirring until it melts and mix with the sauce and the sauce becomes thick. This should take probably 4 – 5 minutes on medium heat.

-Now add boiled pasta in your sauce and swirl the pan. Add chives and scallions and divide the pasta in 4 equal portions. Serve each portion in a separate deep plate. Put the grilled chicken breast on top, garnish with some scallions and shaved parmesan cheese and serve hot.

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

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I love Nutella, I love No Bake cheesecakes….. I combined the two love of my life and created this masterpiece ❤ 

Match Made In Food Heaven! 

Ayesha's Kitchen

Ayesha’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

FOR BASE:

  • 250 gms graham crackers
  • 125 gms melted butter
  • 2 tbspns hazelnut meal (ground hazelnuts)

FOR FILLING

  • 500 gms cream cheese (Philadelphia) (softened at room temperature)
  • Some chopped pan roasted hazelnuts
  • A splash of vanilla
  • ¾ cup confectioner sugar
  • 1 ½ cup Nutella spread
  • ½ cup cream

FOR GANACHE TOPPING

  • ½ cup of Heavy Cream
  • 115gms of Semisweet Chocolate Chips
  • 1 tsp of Butter, softened at room temperature

Procedure:

-Grease a 22cm spring form pan.

-Crush the graham crackers and put them in a mixing bowl. Add hazelnut meal and melted butter and mix until it gets wet sand like texture.

-Put the graham cracker mixture in the pan and press to make an even base. Stick it in the freezer until we make the filling.

-Now for filling make sure everything is at the room temperature except the cream. It has to be chilled otherwise it won’t whip properly and the cake will be dense.

-So let’s get started….. In a mixing bowl whip cream cheese with and electric mixture until it is smooth. Now add rest of the ingredients except hazelnuts. Give another whip and mix everything.

-Gently fold in the chopped hazelnuts and pour the mixture in the spring form pan over the graham cracker base and cover it with cling film. Refrigerate for at least 16 hours.

-Now microwave some cream for 1 minute and pour over the semisweet chocolate chips to make the ganache. Keep it aside for 2 minutes without touching it. The heat from the cream will help us in melting the chocolate.

-Now add butter (gives shine and gloss to the ganache) and start whisking it until it turns into a shiny chocolate mixture. Cool it for 2 minutes and then pour over the cheesecake which is still in the spring form pan.

-Refrigerate for a couple of hours, let ganache set for a while. Now decorate it with anything you want, hazelnuts, confectioner sugar, whipped cream, etc. and serve.

Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake (No-Bake) (LEGENDARY)

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Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake…… Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake……. Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake…… Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake ….. I cant think of anything else when I have this in front of me. Lets make it!

Ayesha's Kitchen

Ayesha’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

FOR CRUST

  • 250 gms gram crackers/ wheat able
  • ½ cup and 2 tbspns melted butter
  • ½ cup desiccated coconut
  • ¼ cup brown sugar

FOR CREAM CHEESE FILLING

  • 500 gms Philadelphia cream cheese (blocks) (room temperature)
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 tspn instant coffee
  • A splash of vanilla
  • 220 gms bittersweet chocolate (melted – over the stove or in the microwave for 2 mins)

FOR CARAMEL SAUCE

  • ¾ cup warm cream
  • 1 cup sugar
  • ½ cup water
  • Pinch of salt
  • A splash of vanilla
  • 2 tbspns butter

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS

  • 100 gms Any of your favourite chocolate bar (I used “Lindt” Caramel and hazelnut Bar) (chop it or smash it with the rolling pin and break it into small pieces)

Procedure:

-Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.

-In a food processor, crush the graham crackers. Put them in a bowl, mix some brown sugar and desiccated coconut. Pour melted butter and mix until it looks like wet sand.

-Line it in the bottom of your 22cm spring form pan and with the tips of your fingers or back of the spoon press the crumbs to make an even base.

-Bake for about 10 minutes and take it out. Turn off the oven because you don’t need it now (that’s the best part about this cake) Let it cool completely in the pan and please DO NOT open the spring form at this stage.

-Meanwhile let us make our caramel sauce!

-So for the caramel sauce, pour the water in the saucepan and add the sugar, DO NOT STIR! Put it on stove on medium heat until it starts to dissolve and change its colour to light Amber color.

-Now you have to be very careful because we are about to introduce warm cream to our sugar mixture, in fact “Boiling” sugar mixture.

-Take it off the stove, add cream little by little, stirring constantly with wooden spoon until the whole cream is in the saucepan. -Bring it back to the heat and add butter and salt.

-Butter will reduce the bubbling of cream and sugar.

-Let it cook on low heat for 2 minutes and WOLLA……… your caramel sauce is ready.

-Pour it in a bowl and put it in the freezer until we need it. (We want lukewarm but not frozen caramel).

-While the caramel is resting and cooling itself down, lets make our cream cheese filling.

-So for cream cheese filling, you need to take a big mixing bowl, put your cream cheese blocks which are obviously at room temperature, add salt, coffee and vanilla and mix it with your handy dandy electric mixture (which is also known as beater). Mix well until everything is combined. Now add lukewarm melted chocolate and mix again.

-And congratulations! Your cream cheese filling is now done J .

-Now chop chop your chocolate bar into small pieces but please do not crush them. We want chocolate chip size pieces. I could have used chocolate chips but I do not like the taste. I want my this treat to be EXTRAORDINARY!!!!!!!!!!! So I used caramel hazelnut lindt chocolate bar. It just adds the goodness…. I mean chocolate on top of chocolate and caramel…… !!!!! Yum!

-Ok now, divide your cream cheese filling, caramel and chopped chocolate into 2 parts.

-Take your base which is still in the springform, lay a layer of chocolate cream cheese, make it smooth with the spoon or the spatula, drizzle some caramel, make it smooth as well and then put some chopped chocolate on top.

-Then again, lay another layer of cream cheese filling, make it smooth, drizzle some caramel (this is your last layer as well as your final look to the cake so, be organised!) and put left over chocolate chunks on top in a decorative manner or just chuck that all on top.

-Refrigerate for 16 – 18 hours or 24 hours (if you can wait that long) to let it set completely otherwise it is going to be a big mess.

-Take it out and now finally you can open the spring form pan. Cut it into slices, it will be messy because we have caramel in there but that’s fine.

-Cut it into slices and serve chilled to your guests.

-Have fun!

 

Ayesha's Kitchen

Ayesha’s Kitchen

 

 

Egg Fried Rice (Recipe 1)

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As easy as A B C…..

This recipe is my best friend’s recipe, I found it easy to make so here I am sharing it with you….. Aiba! Cheers to your recipe honey, You are an amazing chef!!!! 😀

Ayesha's Kitchen

Ayesha’s Kitchen

 

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups rice (soaked in water for 30 – 45 minutes)
  • 10 cups water (to boil the rice)
  • 2 large orange carrots (peeled and grated)
  • 6 – 8 scallions/ spring onion chopped (green part and light green beginning part)
  • 2 tbspns soy sauce
  • Some salt
  • 3 eggs + few drops of yellow food colour = thin omelette in 1 tbspn oil. Cut into fine pieces.

Procedure:

-Boil water and add soaked rice. Bring it to a boil and when they are just cooked strain them. Discard the water and keep the rice in the pot.

-Add some more salt, omelette cut into fine pieces, grated carrots and spring onion to the rice in the pot. Splash some soy sauce and cook covered on low heat for 5 minutes. Stir and serve with any curry you want.

Chicken Manchurian

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Chicken Manchurian is a ketchup based sauce dish very popular in Pakistani Chinese Cuisine. You get it in every Chinese restaurant and its community’s favourite. The sweet and sour taste blends very well with chicken fried rice or egg fried rice or beef chilli rice and even with boiled rice…… Try it and fall in love with it 🙂

Ayesha's Kitchen

Ayesha’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

FOR CHICKEN

  • 2 boneless chicken breasts (cut into medium sized cubes)
  • Some salt
  • Some black pepper
  • 4 tbspns corn flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbspns chilli sauce
  • 1 tbspn vinegar
  • Oil for deep frying

FOR SAUCE

  • 2 cups hienz tomato ketchup
  • 2 ½ cups chicken stock (chicken cube in hot water or chicken powder dissolved in hot water)
  • Few spring onion (green part – for garnishing)
  • 2 tbspns olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped
  • 1 ½ tbspn corn flour dissolved in ½ cup water
  • 3 tbspns chilli sauce
  • 1 tspn chilli flakes
  • 2 tbspns soy sauce
  • 1 tspn sugar
  • Some salt
  • Some black pepper corns

Procedure:

-In a mixing bowl combine chicken with all the ingredients except eggs and corn flour. Mix well.

-Now add eggs and corn flour and mix well. Keep aside for 10 minutes.

-Heat oil in a pan and fry chicken pieces until they are brown.

-Take them out on a paper towel and make the sauce.

-In a mixing bowl combine all the seasonings, ketchup and chicken stock. Mix well ad avoid lumps.

-Heat olive oil in a wok and add chopped garlic. When it begins to change its colour add the sauce we made. Bring it to a boil.

-Now add corn flour mixture with constant stirring until it gets to the consistency you like your Manchurian to be.

-Now add fried chicken pieces and leave on stove on low heat for 5 minutes. Garnish with some spring onion and serve hot it egg fried rice.

Ayesha's Kitchen

Ayesha’s Kitchen

Triple Chocolate Caramel Brownies

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A teeni tiny piece of heaven…… decadent, chocolaty and ultimate….. Try now 😀

Ayesha's Kitchen

Ayesha’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup of All Purpose Flour
  • ¾ cup of Cocoa Powder
  • ½ cup of Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup of Granulated Sugar
  • 3 Eggs
  • ¼ tsp of Salt
  • 2 tsp of Vanilla Extract
  • 1 cup of Chopped Walnuts
  • 1 cup of White Chocolate Chips
  • 1 cup of Semisweet Chocolate Chips
  • 2/3 cup of Caramel Sauce (Ayesha’s Kitchen recipe/ Store bought)
  • ½ tsp of Instant Espresso Powder

Procedure:

-Grease a square non-stick brownie pan and line the sides and the bottom with baking paper.

-Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

-Combine all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, salt and coffee granules in a bowl and sift it. These are your dry ingredients.

-Now in a big mixing bowl cream butter and sugar with spatula or you can use electric hand mixer to do this job for you.

-Switch to hand whisk and whisk in one egg at a time until the mixture is creamy in texture. Add vanilla and your sifted dry ingredients.

-Whisk until the mixture is combined (DO NOT OVER MIX, WE DON’T WANT BREAD DOUGH).

-Divide the mixture into two parts.

-Pour one part into the greased pan, making it even.

-Now in a separate bowl combine your chocolate chips and walnuts and spread them over the brownie batter in the pan. Pour over some caramel sauce.

-Now lay the layer of the other part of the brownie mixture on the caramel and nuts. Patiently, spread it as even as possible. Please make sure all the caramel and chocolate is covered.

-Bake for 30 – 35 minutes (depending on the oven).

-Take it out and let it cool completely for 30 – 40 minutes because we have caramel inside and if we will cut the pieces now it’s going to be a runny mess.

-Peel off the baking paper and cut it into squares. (Probably 9 squares)

-Serve as it is with tea or coffee and if you are like me (don’t drink coffee or tea), serve it with a side of your favourite ice cream, some whipped cream and strawberries or any other berries.

-Enjoy!