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Hungry kya? Mouthwatering food pics from readers!

Food photography is becoming a very provocative, glamorous art -- share yours with us!

We invited you to send in delectable food pics -- dishes you love, whipped up yourself, or order at restaurants -- to share with other readers. Here is the first set of responses!

To start off with we have a few images from Saurav Mitra who says, "I have to travel globally on business trips. I'm sharing some original pics of food from across the world taken on such occasions."

What you see here is Prawns on Bamboo Sticks that he shot on a visit to Hong Kong.

Send us your food photographs. Make sure they are original, that you mention what the dishes are and where you shot them. If by any chance you happen to have a recipe that can be carried alongside, we'd love to have it!

E-mail your photographs to getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'Food pics') and we'll publish the most interesting ones right here on rediff.com and in India Abroad. Hurry and send in your entry today!

Disclaimer: The photographs featured in this series are, to the best of our knowledge, original entries submitted by readers; rediff.com does not assume any responsibility for their originality.

Focaccia bread topped with herbs and served with olive oil

Next from the city of Netanya in Israel, Mitra captured this Focaccia bread topped with herbs and served with olive oil.

Paella

Mitra got the chance to sample this delicious paella, a Valencian rice dish, on his trip to Barcelona in Spain.

Strawberries and cream

And finally, closer to home -- at the Maharashtrian hillstation of Mahabaleshwar, to be exact -- Mitra photographed the local specialty, strawberries and cream.

Szechuan Hot Chicken

Elson Sequeira, who runs food blog http://thetummytale.wordpress.com decided to share not only food pics from it, but recipes too.

For Chinese cuisine lovers, here's how to prepare the mouthwatering Szechuan Hot Chicken you see here:

Ingredients

• 200 grams boneless chicken
• 1 egg white
• 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup
• 2 tablespoons red chili paste (*refer note below)
• 3 dried red chilies
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed pepper
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons corn flour
• 3 tablespoons oil
• Oil for frying

Method

• Make a batter with the egg white, corn flour, crushed pepper and salt. Coat the chicken well with this batter and keep aside for about 15 minutes
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the chicken pieces till they are golden brown. This should not take more than 2 minutes if the oil is smoking hot; else 5 minutes. Take out and drain the excess oil on an absorbent paper.
• For the gravy, add in the 3 tablespoon oil, add in the ginger garlic, red chilies, and stir well quickly.
• Next add in the onions, red chili paste, and ketchup stirring it well.
• Now, add in the soya sauce and some water.
• When it comes to a boil, add in the chicken pieces and the spring onion greens and salt.
• Dissolve the remaining corn flour in water and stir well to make a solution. Add this to the gravy. Adding corn flour thickens the gravy giving it texture and also gives it a gloss.
• Add in the vinegar and give it one last mix.
• Garnish with remaining spring onion greens and serve hot with the fried rice or noodles.

*Note: To prepare the red chili paste, soak 3-4 red chilies in warm water for half an hour and then grind to a fine paste along with 2 cloves of garlic and ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds. This paste can be used for any other gravies as well.

Mango and Cottage Cheese Snowballs in Custard

And here is Sequeira's method of preparation for Mango and Cottage Cheese Snowballs in Custard:

Ingredients:

For the snowballs:

• 2 large and ripe alphonso mangoes, skinned and cubed into fine bits
• 125 grams cottage cheese, finely grated
• 50 grams powdered sugar
• 8-10 slices white bread, cut of the sides
• Sugar syrup, for drizzling on the bread and 2 teaspoons for the cottage cheese and mango mix

For the custard:

• 400 ml milk
• 4 teaspoons of custard powder (I used Vanilla Flavour)
• 6-8 teaspoons sugar

For the garnishing:

• 1 ripe mango, pureed (*Refer note below)
• Few glazed cherries

Method:

To make the snowballs:

• Grate the cottage cheese in a bowl and add the mango cubes & powdered sugar. Mix well.
• Cut the sides of the bread and drizzle with the sugar syrup till the slice is sufficiently moist. Do not wet the bread slice too much as it may be too soft and may not bind well.
• Now, place a spoonful of the mixture in the center of the bread slice and gently fold the slice into a sphere.
• Repeat the same for all the bread slices.
• Once you complete all the spheres, refrigerate for an hour

To make the custard:

• Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat
• Combine the custard power in some water in a small bowl. Mix thoroughly so that there are no lumps.
• Add this mixture to boiling milk, stir continuously.
• As the milk starts to thicken add the sugar. Continue stirring.
• Once the mixture has reached desired thickness, remove from the heat and allow it to cool thoroughly.
• Refrigerate for about half an hour.

To assemble:

• Keep one snowball in each of the serving portions.
• Pour a generous quantity of the custard in each of the serving portions.
• Add a spoonful of the mango puree and the cherries.
• Serve chilled.

*Note: To make the make mango puree, combine mango pulp, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon of milk. Blend using a hand mixer till all ingredients are combined well and the mixture is of a pouring consistency.

Shaahi Paneer

Prajwala Varamballi Rao e-mailed in this image and recipe for Shaahi Paneer, explaining, "I am a home cook. I love to experiment and try new dishes. I have a blog where most of the recipes are my own, based on my experiments."

Ingredients:

• 4 medium onion roughly chopped
• 6 medium tomatoes roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 green chilli chopped
• 2/3 cup cashews
• 1/3 cup almond
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 apricots (optional)
• 1/2 capsicum diced
• 2 cups cubed paneer

For garam masala:

• 1 inch cinnamon
• 4 cardamom
• 1 star anaise
• 1 tsp saunf
• 5 cloves
• 3 tbsp ghee
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Take 2 tsps ghee in a wok/kadai; add the garam masala, saute for a minute.
• Add green chillies, onion and ginger-garlic paste. Saute until onion is transparent.
• Add the cashews, almonds, raisins and apricot. Saute until cashews start to brown.
• Add the tomato, salt, turmeric powder and cook until oil separates.
• Get it off the flame and let it cool; grind to a paste.
• Take a tsp of ghee separately, add capsicum and saute till soft.
• Add the cubed paneer, saute for a minute.
• Add the masala paste and water for consistency.
• Let it come to a boil and simmer for five minutes.

3 Chocolate New York Cheesecake

And finally we have some spectacular pics from Mumbai-based baker Shresht Poddar, who says, "Along with my girlfriend Janhavi Iyer, I have made an array of delectable desserts. This 3 Chocolate New York Cheesecake is dark, white and milk chocolate, combined with the sinfulness of cheesecake for my niece's 15th birthday."

Chocolate Macaroons

"Since Macaroons are one of the trickiest desserts, we decided to challenge ourselves," he says of these Chocolate Macaroons.

Black Forest Cake

"A traditional Black Forest Cake made for our friend Mona Joshi on her birthday, since it is her favourite dessert," explains Poddar for this elegantly presented gateaux.