Recipe : Thevo Chu - Pork with Bamboo Shoot (Nagaland)

I had picked up a copy of Hoihnu Hazel's The Essential North-East Cookbook some time ago, but as is the case with many of my cookbooks, I hadn't really cooked from it. (guilty smile)

My recent experiments with eating North Eastern food at the Assamese Stall in Dilli Haat and the Nagaland Stall on BKS Marg reinspired me to try out this cuisine for myself.

Most of our Manglorean pork dishes are quite heavy on the ground masalas and fresh cuttings. So it ends up sitting quite heavily in our stomachs, especially in summer. North Eastern cooking is much lighter on masalas and hence pork can be eaten without reserving it for a Sunday afternoon.

I have finally found a good pork supplier in Delhi and he gives me the option of regular pork (which is very high in fat), boneless + skinless pork or boneless + skinless + fatless pork. I buy a majority of the 3rd option and half a kilo of regular pork and mix the fat up with the fat free version. This way I can control how much fat I use in my pork dishes. As anyone who loves pork will tell you, fatless pork is absolutely useless. You might as well be eating mutton or beef.

I did tweak the recipe a bit, by adding the spices much earlier than recommended as I wanted them to cook well. I soaked my bamboo shoots for 2 days changing the water every 12 hours, as that is how we use bamboo shoot back home. I used a tbsp of palm vinegar as a tenderiser and to give a hint of a tang. I also garnished with some corriander as I wanted a fresh herby finish to the dish.

Ingredients:
1kg pork
1cup washed and chopped bamboo shoot
1tsp ginger paste
1tsp garlic paste
2tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste

Method:
Wash pork, drain and cut into 2" pieces (I choopped the fat to half the size so it would break down faster)
Place pork in a pan without water or oil on low heat for 5 minutes stirring constantly.
As the pork starts giving out water, add bamboo shoots.

I added the masalas within 5 minutes of adding bamboo shoots although Hoihnu Hazel recommends adding it in the last 5-10 minutes.I also added a tbsp of palm vinegar at this stage.
Cover and cook for one hour on low heat sprinkling water if it dries too much.
While this is usually served dry, I wanted a little gravy, so I added just a little water. Since my lid did not allow the liquid to evaporate, I had a fair amount of curry in the end.

 I sprinkled some fresh chopped cilantro before serving it with hot steamed rice.

 Yum! Soul Food to warm the cockles of my heart :)

The Arunachal Pradesh version of this dish is called Arek. The method for cooking is almost the same, but there the masala is 1 tsp chopped ginger, 1 tsp chopped garlic, 1 medium tomato quartered and 3-4 green chillies.
 

Recipe : Vermicelli Kheer (Indian Sweet dish)

Vermicelli Kheer is a very popular Indian sweet that is prepared across the country. Each household may have a different version of the dish. I have eaten versions with dates in the Middle East and with mashed bananas and jaggery in South India.

My recipe does not use raisins, as most of us in our family don't like raisins in our sweets.

Remember with most Indian sweets, while you can substitute splenda for sugar, there is no substitute for full cream milk. Its pointless to try and make an Indian dessert with skimmed milk. You will never get the right consistency and texture.

Ingredients:
100gms vermicelli
1 litre full cream milk
10 almonds finely sliced
10 pistas finely sliced
1tsp chironji

1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (I mix 2 tsp of brown sugar to get a caramel colour in the kheer)1tsp ghee
2 green cardamoms crushed and seeds powdered
kewra water for fragrance

Method:
Heat the ghee in a pan and roast the vermicelli in it.
When the vermicelli starts to turn brown, add the nuts and roast a little longer.

 Add 1 liter milk and keep stirring constantly to ensure that the vermicelli does not clump up.

Keep stirring, when it starts to thicken up, add the sugar, cardamom powder and a tsp of raisins if you like.
Keep cooking till done to required consistency.
Add a little kewra water for fragrance.

The kheer can be served hot or chilled depending on preference. We normally have chilled kheer in summer and hot kheer in winter.

(Kim's Tip: With vermicelli kheer, the kheer may start to thicken as it rests. Add a little more milk and stir to get it back to required consistency)

Recipe: Vermicelli/ Sevaiyan Upma (Vegan)

Vermicelli or Sevaiyan is a kind of pasta that has been used in India since quite awhile to make sweet dishes and sometimes savoury dishes too. If I remember right, the savoury dishes came into the mindspace when Bambino started branding and selling vermicelli as compared to sevaiyan being sold out of great rounds in the market. Sevaiyan were mostly used to prepare kheer. Bambino also included recipes to use their vermicelli in different dishes on the packaging, hence increasing the market for their product.

Vermicelli upma is a fast option for breakfast or a tea time snack that can also be made quite nutritious with the addition of vegetables like peas or grated carrots.

Ingredients:
100 gms vermicelli
1tsp urad dhal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of jeera seeds
1 small onion chopped
1 green chilli chopped
salt to taste
warm water to cook
1/2 tsp ghee or oil 
fresh grated coconut to garnish (otional)

Method:
Warm the pan and add a little ghee or oil of your choice.
Temper with the urad dhal, mustard seeds and jeera.
Then add the onion and green chillies and stir fry quickly.
As the onion starts to turn transluscent, add the vermicelli and roast for awhile till it turns light and dark brown (but don't burn).

Add salt to tase.
Slowly add warm water and cook. Keep adding water till the vermicelli stops absorbing liquid and is cooked.
Garnish with fresh grated coconut and serve hot.

Recipe: Methi Nu Thepla (Indian Vegan Bread with fenugreek greens)

Methi Theplas are of Gujarathi origin and keep well for a couple of days and hence are highly favoured on rail and road journeys. Regular phulkas don't taste as good when cold and bhasi puris aren't the healthiest of options.

When I lived in Hyderabad and Bombay, a lot of bakeries and groceries carried these theplas in packets of 5 with some green chilli pickle and it was an excellent option to keep in my fridge for breakfast or as roti substitutes for lunch and dinner, especially since I hated the washing up that came with making rotis for one or 2 people and hated the effort involved in making rotis for a whole load of friends. As is clearly evident, I come from a rice eating family :)

My mum gifted my husband a roti maker for his last birthday with admonishments to ME to use it and make the poor deprived North Indian guy rotis, with every meal. Well this gadget really has helped, as I just make the dough and the little dough balls for 2-3 days, then I put the dough ball into the roti maker. A litle pressing and flipping and the roti is ready. Nice and evenly circular. Rotis I can put pictures of here on my blog without praying for at least one tocome out perfectly shaped. No chakla, belan, tongs, tawa and a mess of flour to clean up after each meal. Its a real blessing and now that I've got the hang of it, I'm experimenting with varieties of rotis.

Remembering the theplas I enjoyed,  I decided to try to make them myself using a friends recipe I had written down ages back, but never got round to trying..

Ingredients:
2 cups wheat flour
1 cup methi leaves ( I used half a cup of kasuri methi and rehydrated it) - coarsely chopped

1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp corriander powder
1 tsp chilli powder (you can adjust this for taste if you like)
salt to taste
2 tsps oil for the dough (you can use olive if you prefer)
oil for frying - optional

Method:
Mix all the ingredients including the oil for the dough.
Add enough water to make the dough - same consistency as rotis (I also used the water in which I rehydrated the methi)

Make dough balls, roll into rotis and fry on both sides till golden brown spots appear.
You can use oil when frying to make it more authentic :)
I prefer to fry without oil in a non stick pan and our roti maker is also non stick, so I don't use any additional oil.
Theplas can be served hot or at room temperature with pickles.
They can be packed in foil for picnics or journeys and enjoyed later.

 

I served the theplas with pickle and aloo bhartha (Indian mashed potatoes) 

I'm submitting this recipe for the Roti-Bhakhri-Poli-Thepla-Puri-Rotla leg of Joy of Cooking's Complete My Thali - Event

Recipe : Aloo Bhartha (Indian Mashed Potatoes)

Aloo Bhartha is a dish that is often prepared in my inlaws house as a side dish with rotis when the women have come home and need to serve up a fresh meal quickly.

It is also a side dish eaten on train journeys and picnics, as you just carry boiled potatoes with you, some salt and chilli powder and some mustard oil and mash them all together, just before its time to chow down.

When I make it at home, I like to incorporate a few fresh ingredients too.

Ingredients:
2 large potatoes
2 green chillies chopped
4-5 sprigs of fresh corriander chopped
1 tsp mustard oil or to taste (it has to be mustard oil, no other oil can give this dish its flavour)
salt to taste
Chilli powder to taste
Amchur or sumac to taste (optional)

Method:
Boil the potatoes and skin them.
When they are cool enough to handle, mash them by hand (not with a potato masher) so you still have a few lumps left.
Mix in all the other ingredients. Taste as you add your mustard oil. It comes in different strengths and if it gets too powerful, the taste will irritate at the back of your throat.
Serve with rotis. The picture above shows aloo bhartha served with methi theplas.

Options:
If you are finishing it immediately, then you can also add fresh chopped onion.
But if you add onion, it will not keep for too long, even if refrigerated,

Leftovers:
The leftover bhartha can be used as stuffing for aloo parathas (Indian stuffed breads) or to make potato toast.

Recipe: Meetmirsang Bazalli Eeson - Seer Fish Steaks with onion salsa

This dish is soul food for me and normally the dish I always ask for on my first meal, when I go home to my mum's. This and bimbli saar with red rice (Bimblis are a sour fruit, hardly available outside of Mangalore) and maybe galmbi (tiny dried shrimp) chutney made by grandma or mum, is food heaven for me.

When I make the fish in my home, I serve it with white rice and dhal.

Ingredients:
2 slices Seer Fish
1 tsp Meet Mirsang (You can adjust for taste)
Oil to Fry (coconut is most authentic, mustard adds a level of spice, but any cooking oil will do)

Onion Salsa Ingredients:
1 medium onion chopped
1-2 green chillies chopped (adjust to taste)
few sprigs of corriander (cilantro) leaves chopped
salt to taste
vinegar or lemon juice to taste
Mix all ingredients and keep aside before you start to fry the fish, so the vinegar can infuse the onions.

Method:
Apply the Meet Mirsang on the fish and marinate for at least 15 minutes or even overnight.
Warm a tsp or so of oil in a pan.
Shallow fry the fish in this oil, turning over once.
Drain the oil and place it on a serving plate.
Sprinkle the onion salsa on the fish when the fish is still hot and serve.

Recipe: Bhutta - Roast Corn

This is an extremely common snack sold on the roadside during the monsoons and the winter seasons in India. Roasted on hot coals and served with salt and chilli powder. While we used to eat it on the road quite regularly, the husbands doctor has been quite vocal about him not eating roadside food anymore. So I make them at home.

I initially used to steam the corn in the pressure cooker and then serve it with lime, salt and chilli powder, but once I got these handy thingamajigs  in Dubai, its now very easy for me to roast them over an open gas flame too, without burning my fingers.

Method:
Husk the corn. Roast on an open flame, rotating frequently.
Serve with lime, salt and chilli powder or with salted butter.

Variation:
Pressure cook for 2 whistles and serve similarly.
BBQ on hot coals directly or wrap them in foil and roast them for awhile.

Since its so light and healthy, I often serve this as a snack in the evning, before serving Biryani for dinner (so that a bit of veggies get consumed too) I've yet to find a vegetable dish that goes well with biryani. I do use cucumbers in theRaita but we aren't very fond of Baghara Baingan. Hence the tea time veggie :)

Recipe: North African Meal - Peasant Stew, Grilled Lamb Merguez and Lemon Cous Cous

This is a post that has been in my drafts for quite awhile. Finally got around to getting it together.

I'd just come home after a 10 day trip. And normally when I take long trips I use up all the fresh ingredients in my pantry that won't last the duration, like tomatoes, fresh veggies and herbs. Onions, garlic, carrots and potatoes last reasonably well, so I leave a few of them for a meal when I return. And I head to the markets the day I get back to re-stock.

However when I returned from this trip, the cat was so excited to see me back, that I didn't have the heart to leave her to visit the market that day and had to make do with whatever I had at home.

There were some Lamb Merguez sausages in the freezer and this prompted me to cook a North African influenced meal. Fortunately, I had some instant Zesty Lemon couscous that had been gifted to me and I knew that would be a great combination. Now Couscous is a dish which can absorb huge quantities of liquid, so I knew I wanted a stew rather than a curry.

For inspiration, I remembered the lovely, simple yet homely stews we ate at Berber run outlets in Siwa on the edge of the Great Sand Sea in Egypt and while we were in Morocco. I knew I wanted a simpler style rather than a restaurant dish. So the best option was a peasant stew. With a base of onions and tomatoes and then, whatever other vegetables were in season. I've had stews with cauliflowers and beans and radishes and turnips, so you can add just about any vegetable you like. It can be completely vegetarian if you like. But since I was grilling the Merguez sausages, I used the fat from the pan roasted sausages as a starter and chopped up 2 of them and put them back into the stew

I had potatoes and carrots and onions, no tomatoes and no tomato paste either. So I used ketchup. I would really prefer to use fresh tomatoes though.

Ingredients:

3 medium onions quarterd and then into half, so it forms little triangles
3 medium tomatoes chopped  like the onions(or a few tbsps of tomato ketchup or 2 tbsp tomato paste)
6-12 cloves garlic sliced (depending on your taste)
3 medium potatoes cubed
2 carrots chopped to the same size as the potatoes
(Kim's Note: You can use any combination of vegetables to form the volume equal to 3 potatoes and 2 carrots)
2 tsps Harissa (increase or decrease according to taste)
Salt to taste
A few pieces of meat or chopped up sausages (optional) - 100-200gms
1 tsp olive oil

Method:
Since I had the sausages, I first pan fried the sausages in the same pan that I planned to make the stew in.

After taking out the sausages, I used that fat to fry the garlic.
You can just start with the olive oil and fry the garlic in that.
Add the onions and the tomatoes and fry for a few minutes till the onions turn transluscent.
Add salt and harissa.
If using meat, add it at this stage and fry till the meat is semi cooked. Deglazing with water when necesarry.
Add potatoes and enough water to boil in and simmer till almost cooked.
Add carrots and stew some more, adding more water if required.
(Kim's Note: Remember every vegetable has its own cooking time, so add them in decreasing order of time needed to cook)
Bring to a boil.

The stew is now ready to be served into bowls and can be mopped up with Eish, pita bread, injeera or any of the other types of breads eaten in Africa. You can even eat it with a baguette or Italian bread, but they don't soak up as much liquid.Indian rotis are not a good combination for the same reason. It can be eaten with steamed rice, idiappams, dosas or appams though.

Since the couscous I had was of the instant variety, I just had to pour hot water and wait for a few minutes before I could plate it.

It already had a few herbs in it, so I hadn't added any herbs into the stew, allowing the spicing to come from the harissa. All that was left, was to plate up and serve.

The combination of the slightly tart couscous, the smoky flavour of the sausages and the sweet and spicy stew was awesome. I would also serve some harissa on the side for those who would like to make their stew spicier.

Variations:
If you don't have access to Merguez sausages, don't use regular cocktail or frankfurter sausages, they just won't work. You need a sausage that has a smoked herby flavouring. Chorizo could work, but its spices could clash with the harissa. So taste them individually before pairing them.
Don't use the cheesy varieties, you want a more down to earth, smoky sausage.
You actually don't need sausages, but they do go well with this combination.
You can use any regular plain couscous and cook it with herbs of your choice. If you don't add lemon to your couscous, add a little to the stew for a bit of tartness in the combination.

Recipe : Onion Utthappam

Sometimes if all your idli or dosa batter doesn't get used up at the meal you planned it for, it tends to turn a bit sour by the time you next want to use it, or the fermentation falls flat when you refrigerate it. This doesn't make the batter completely useless. You can use it to make utthappams.

Ingredients:
Leftover idli/dosa batter
chopped onion
chopped green chilli
chopped corriander leaves
salt to taste

little oil to fry
eno fruit salt if required.

Method:
Bring the batter to room temperature.
Add some eno fruit salt to the batter to aerate it if required.
Mix the onion, chilli and corriander leaves.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan.
Pour some batter into the pan and spread into a circle.
Sprinkle the onion mixture ontop of the dosa.

Once the bottom starts to crisp up, you can either flip it over (the onions will get a bit fried) or cover the pan and steam it slightly (the raw sweet taste of the onions remain) so the top is also cooked.
Serve with chutney.
Its great for breakfast or an evening snack.

Since I served it as dinner, I also served some aloo methi with peas alongside.

Variations:
You can make tomato utthappams, coconut utthappams and basically any other topping you can think of.
If you don't want to sprinkle the mixture each time you make a dosa, then mix the cuttings into the batter itself and then fry. But you will have to finish up the batter quickly. It won't keep too long (until a next meal)

Recipe: Burmese Khowswey

My friend Sheryl blogged the other day about making Khowswey for a dinner party that she hosted. I hadn't made Khowswey in awhile and the idea was planted in my head with the cravings increasing daily.

My usual recipe is closer to Sheryl's Khowswey Recipe with a fair amount of cutting and grinding involved. But I'd recently picked up a copy of Tushita Patel's Flash in the Pan which had a much much simpler recipe and that's the one I decided to try today.

As my regular readers know, I can never adhere to instructions in a recipe, so I did tweak it a bit. Here's the recipe I used, with my alterations. I do like my gravy thicker, so it feels more like a curry and less like a soup, but you can change the amount of liquid to suit you. I made the dish for 2 of us, but it can be easily ramped up for large parties.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg chicken (I used thighs today, but I think boneless tikka kebab sized pieces work best)
1 tsp gram flour (besan)
2 cups thin coconut milk (I diluted a 200ml pack of Coconut milk to 500 ml thin milk)
1 packet egg noodles - cook as per instructions on packet.
1 tbsp oil

Marinade:
3 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp chilli powder (adjust to taste)
1 tsp Turmeric powder
2 tbsp fish sauce (I'm not sure how I feel about this ingredient, in this dish. It gave a fishy smell to the gravy which overpowered the kitchen when cooking, but was very lightly flavored once cooked)
salt to taste

Toppings:

1 Finely sliced Onion
4-5 cloves of garlic Finely sliced
1 spring onion chopped
crushed peanuts
red chilli flakes
chopped corriander
lime wedges
Sliced hard boiled egg

Method:
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and marinate the chicken in this for at least one hour.

In a pan, warm the oil.
Fry the garlic slices till crisp and light brown, remove. Reserve for topping
In the same oil, fry the sliced onion till crisp and caramelised, remove.
To the same oil, add the marinated chicken and the marinade. Cook for 15 minutes.
Stir in the gram flour and the coconut milk and cook on low heat till the chicken is completely cooked.

If serving khowswey at a dinner, its really pretty and attractive to serve each topping in its own bowl and let the guests assemble and flavour their own portions. See Sheryl's Khowswey Post for serving ideas.

Since I was cooking it for just the 2 of us, I assembled each dish myself. Noodles on the bottom, Add some curry and chicken and then sprinkle whichever toppings you like on it.

You can add any number of toppings. You can add vegetables like baby corn, snap peas and broccolli to the curry in the final cooking stage, if you want to sneak veggies into the dish.

Maybe I will post my other recipe too sometime. Tastewise I prefer the other one, but this is so quick to assemble that its worth adding to your files.

Edited on 17th October to add:
A big question with Khowswey is what to do with leftovers. Especially the toppings.
Fresh ingredients like chopped spring onions, onions, green chillies, corriander, don't keep very well for more than 12 hours, even refrigerated. So I normally add these to the curry before refrigerating leftovers.
The fried garlic, fried onions, boiled eggs will keep relatively well. So pack them individually in air tight boxes. Onions and garlic will keep outside for a couple of days depending on temperature and humidity. Eggs go in the fridge.
Peanuts, chilli flakes can be put into their original boxes if they have remained clean and dry.

If I don't have much left, I just put them all into the curry before refrigerating it.

If you have a lot of curry left and not too much noodles, you can serve the curry with rice the next day. Warm it up and add some fresh herbs on top.

If like me, you run out of curry, you can turn it into a stir fry. I shredded the chicken and stir fried what was left of it with the noodles, some baby corn and topped it with some fresh herbs. (Mushrooms too are ideal at this stage, but I didnt have any fresh ones in stock)

Recipe: Memoni Mutton Biryani

While we lived in Dubai, we were served homemade biryani at a lot of the homes that we were invited to. Suprisingly over 80% of the women who made biryani, confessed to using "Shan's Memoni Mutton Biryani Mix. So I picked up a 65gm pack just before leaving Dubai.

I rarely cook with pre-mixes, except for mums Bafat and Stew powder mixtures, garam masala and the occassional chhole masala. so this packet was languishing at the back of my kitchen cupboard until yesterday. In the midst of a kitchen cabinet cleaning spree, I found it and since I had already taken out the mutton to defrost and planned to make a biryani, I decided to use up this packet, before it passed expiry.

The result was amazing. The husband even pronounced it, the best biryani I had ever made! So now I will have to hunt for "Shan's Memoni Mutton Biryani Mix in the gullies of INA market.
You can use this same recipe with any biryani masala that you have, but its worth ferretting out "Shan's Memoni Mutton Biryani Mix.

The packet has a recommended recipe at the back, which I adapted for my own convenience.

Ingredients:
750gms Mutton cubed (I used with bones and trimmed almost all the fat)
750gms Rice - wash and soak for 30 minutes
3-4 medium Onions - sliced
2 large Potatoes - large cubes (same size as mutton)
3-4 medium tomatoes chopped fine
250gms yoghurt/ dahi
1 tbsp garlic paste
3 tbsp ginger paste
10 green chillies slit (you can skip this if you do not like your food spicy)
3-4tbsp lime juice
salt to taste
1 tsp ghee
1 tbsp oil
1 packet/65gm "Shan's Memoni Mutton Biryani Mix


Method:
Melt the ghee in a hot pan (I use a pressure cooker).
When the ghee melts add the oil, before the ghee starts to smoke.
Fry onions till soft, the add tomatoes and fry till tomatoes break down.
Add the mutton cubes and fry for a few minutes.
Optional:  Add 1/2 cup of boiled channa dal

In a bowl mix the yoghurt till smooth, add ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and "Shan's Memoni Mutton Biryani Mix. (Kim's Tip: Remember to bring your yoghurt to room temperature and mix it smooth, else it will split when you add it to the hot pan)

 Add this mixture to the mutton and fry till it starts to boil.

Add the potatoes and a little water if the mixture is too dry.

Close the pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles (or if you are using an open pan, cook till meat is tender) and turn the flame off.
Once you open the cooker, add the lemon juice and green chillies and stir well.

In a pan, cook the rice with salt until 3/4th done.
Drain the water.

Spread 75% of the rice in a pan.
Pour the mutton, potatoes and gravy over this rice (if your curry has a lot of liquid, don't use all of it, reserve some to serve on the side)

 Cover the mutton gravy with the remaining 25% of rice.
Optional: Sprinkle a few drops of kewra (screw pine)water or rose water
Cover and cook on low heat till the rice is fully cooked (I microwaved it for about 20 minutes)

 Alternative:
I sometimes use this method to minimise my washing :)
Semi cook the mutton, add the chillies and lemon, then add the soaked rice.
Adjust water and pressure cook till done.

Serve hot with chilled raita.
Since this is a spicy biryani, I made a very simple raita with just salt, sugar, jeera (cumin) powder and finely chopped corriander (cilantro)

Recipe: Nutella and Nut Rippled Ice Cream

The ice cream flavours I have swimming in my head, can't be matched by any ice cream chain. Yet its not very easy to churn out ice creams at home, without an ice cream maker (hint hint to the husband)

While its easy to churn out sundaes with store bought ice cream, why not take it to the next step? All you need is imagination and a large bowl.

I always have a brick of vanilla ice cream in the freezer and that's all you need. In Delhi, I prefer to use Mother Dairy's ice cream.

Kim's Tip: I transfer the brick out of its cardboard box into a freezable plastic box, so I can easily cut out a bit whenever I'm in the mood for ice cream without a mess. Also, inside the box, the ice cream doesn't absorb other smells from the freezer, so it lasts much longer.

 I absolutely love Nutella. For me, its truly happiness in a bottle. 1 tsp is a sure mood lifter for me. So I always have a bottle or 2 in my pantry.

This is so easy to assemble, you can either mix an individual bowl for yourself, or refreeze after mixing and serve your own signature ice cream at your next dinner or party.

The pictures are of a bowl I mixed for myself, so its not very "neat", but I thought it was a recipe worth sharing.

Take 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream in a bowl.
Using a pastry cutter or sharp spoon, roughly cut up the ice cream into uneven bits.
Drizzle 1 tsp of nutella over the ice cream.
Sprinkle 1 tsp of roasted cashewnuts.
Now mix thoroughly and reform into a ball or pack tight into a box (if serving later)
You can refreeze this mixture until ready to serve or dig in immediately.
I also like to sprinkle a crushed amaretto bisuit on top after reforming.

Other options:
You can mix finely chopped fruit (don't refreeze for too long if using fruit), nuts, baby marshmallows, m&m's, bits of chocolates, syrups. Your imagination is the only thing that can limit you, so unleash it and go crazy.
Remember, don't freeze fruit or ingredients that can turn soggy for too long.

Kim's Tip: To roast nuts, just warm a pan and rol the nuts around for awhile till they brown slightly.

Let me know what combinations you try and how it goes :)