Pages

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Vegetarian Pasta in rose sauce

I am not a big pasta fan but I loved this one. So here goes the recipe:



Ingredients:
Method:
Add onion/garlic in oil. Saute it till onion is almost done.


2 cups Pasta your choice( i used Ronzoni's garden delight Rottini pasta) boiled.
2 cups Pasta sauce( I used Ragu's romano pasta sauce)
2tbspn Italian dressing
1 cup parmesan cheese (shredded)
1 tspn Oregano
Red chilli flakes to taste
4-5 tbspn Heavy whipping cream(alternatively use milk if looking for healthy version)
Olive oil
2 tspn Chat masala
1/2 cup- Zucchini- cut in small cubes
1 cup- Red, green and yellow bell peppers- cut in small cubes
1/2 cup- Plum tomatoes - sliced half
1 cup Onion- finely chopped
1/4 cup Garlic- finely chopped


Then pasta sauce to it. Let it to boil. Add italian dressing, oregano, red chilli flakes, salt,
sugar and pepper.
once it is at a boil add cream.

Take another pan and add oil to it. Saute all the peppers and zucchini on the medium flame such that it doesn't leave any water. Take out these veggies. Then saute the plum tomatoes in it for about 3-4 minutes on medium flame.

Add veggies to pasta in a serving dish and then add sauce to it. Atlast add some freshly grated parmesan cheese. Bake it for 15 mins or till the cheese melts at 350F. Serve it hot. 

Orange Masoor dal with rice

This is my most favourite dal with rice.

Servings: 1 meal for 2 people
Ingredients:
1 cup Masoor dal
Few curry Leaves
2 big tomatoes
Green chillies to taste
2 tspn fresh grated ginger
1 tspn fresh grated garlic (optional)
Ghee

spices:
1 tspn Red chilli powder
1/2 tspn Turmeric powder
2 tspn dhania powder
Salt to taste
Hing (asaefotida)


Method:

Pressure cook the dal with 21\2 times water( 1 whistle and 10  mins on slow).

On the side, take a pan, heat the ghee. Add hing, then mustard seeds, cumin seeds. Then add curry leaves and after 30 seconds or so add green chillies, ginger and garlic. Saute them for a minute or so on medium flame and then add tomatoes. Cover the pan and let tomatoes cook. When tomatoes are almost done, add the spices( red cilli powder, turmeric powder, dhania powder and salt. When this masala is done, you'll see the ghee on the sides, then add the dal which was pressure cooked and properly mashed. Add water as per desired consistency. Add cilantro leaves to garnish. Serve it with rice or Roti.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

egg fried rice

I've tried many egg fried rice recipes but this so far has yielded the best result.
It was simply delicious.

Recipe:
http://www.veggiebelly.com/2010/03/egg-fried-rice-yummier-than-take-out.html

Variations:
1. I didn't have jasmine rice.. so, used basmati rice.
2. Love eggs, so used 5 large eggs instead of 2 large eggs and enjoyed the result.
3. Used the frozen mixed veg. packet - corn, beans and carrot mix.
4. Put the dried red chilli for fun - don't think it add/reduced to the taste.
5. Didn't have maggi seasoning - so, instead used maggi masala chilli sauce
6. Used black pepper instead of white pepper

and the result was pretty darn good even with all the variations!

Here's the picture proof :)



Sunday, January 6, 2013

Paneer Kathi Rolls

Inspired by Kalyani's Chicken Kathi Rolls :)

Being a vegetarian I could not try the Chicken Kathi Rolls, Kalyani posted on this blog couple of days back, I thought I'll try the vegetarian version of it the very popular Paneer Kathi Rolls :). To my surprise they came out pretty well and we both loved it.

Here's the recipe I followed religiously step by step:
http://cuminandcardamom.blogspot.com/2011/09/paneer-kathi-rolls.html

Here is the picture I took, picture doesn't do justice to how it looked( courtesy my photography skills):


Friday, January 4, 2013

frankie (kati roll)

Anybody from India would know frankie (or) atleast would have heard about it.
I don't know about all the other states, but the hyderabadi malls rock the frankies... can never get enough of them... and my trip to india is incomplete without getting a taste for these.

After thinking about it for a while, we (husband and I) finally attempted making them at home.
After browsing multiple sources, I felt like this recipe would yield the best result and I think I was right.
Although my roti didn't come out quite round (:p)... but it tasted good neverthless.

We followed this recipe verbatim:
http://showmethecurry.com/non-vegetarian/chicken-kathi-rolls-chicken-frankies.html




Note (for people who use food processor to make the dough):
I made atta dough in the food processor once before and it came out perfect. As soon as I added 1/2 the amount of water as the atta flour, the food processor would make the atta into a nice dough ball.

So, I tried doing the same this time (except this time the dough was a mix of atta dough and all purpose flour). Based on the recipe video, the amount of water to add is the half the amount of atta flour you use in the dough. However, I didn't see the dough ball shaping so I went on adding water and it became too much - and created enough extra work.
I suggest after you add half the water, and if it still doesn't seem like its coming together like a dough ball, stop and take it out and do the rest with the hand.




yogurt parfait (for breakfast)

In a world where health and taste don't meet very often, this one is an exception.
It's healthy (rich in protien), attractive, very tasty and very easy to put together! Can it get better than that?

Its this simple to put together:

1. Take a wine glass.
2. put a good layer of greek yogurt
3. Top it with granola.
4. Add some honey, sliced almonds, walnuts and pecans.
5. Top it with sliced strawberries.

Ofcourse, you can get as creative with this as you want.
You can use plain or flavored yogurt, plain or flavored granola, any kinds of nuts, any kinds of fruits...
tastes great!



Recipe source: http://www.recipe.com/berry-parfait/

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Britannia little hearts :)



INGREDIENTS:

Puff pastry sheet – 1
Sugar – 1/2cup
Powdered nuts – 1/2cup(optional)

METHOD:


Thaw the puff pastry. In a bowl combine the almond and cashews powder, and sugar. Unfold 1 sheet of the pastry and sprinkle the powdered nut sugar over the top. Then gently spread it with hands and roll the rolling pin over the surface to press the sugar in completely. Repeat the same for the other side too.(doing on both sides is optional)


I used this pictorial view for folding the sheet:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/photo/Sweet-Palmiers-106763

You can also try strawberry jam filling or any other flavour :) Enjoy!!!!


Potato pinwheels

This one is just a slight variant of potato puffs we get in India.




Ingredients:
1 package puff pastry sheets (contains 2 sheets), thaw according to instructions
1tbspn water

Potato filling:
3-4 boiled potatoes (peeled and mashed)
4 tbs oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 green chili , finely chopped
salt  to taste
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 tbs lemon juice

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheets with aluminium foil and grease. 

Heat pan with oil. Add onions until brown around edges. Add  chili. Add potatoes  and all spices. Mix together. Add lemon juice and stir. Taste and adjust spices accordingly. Once mixture has cooled, roll out puff pastry. Spread mixture on puff pastry. Roll puff pastry from shortest end to top making sure to roll tight. You should have enough potato mixture for both rolls of puff pastry. Repeat with second sheet of puff pastry. Cut rolls into slices and place on cookie sheets.  Bake in oven for 20 -25 minutes until golden brown. 

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Chocolate pretzels with M&Ms

This was a very easy munchies and everybody loved it. Trust me it takes 5 mins to make this.



Ingredients:

Square Pretzels
Hershey's kisses
M&Ms


Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Place pretzels on baking sheets. Unwrap kisses and place one in the center of each pretzel.
  3. Place in preheated oven 1 to 2 minutes (mine took full 2 minutes), until kisses melt such that you can push m&m in it. Remove from oven and place onem&m in the center of each pretzel. Chill in refrigerator until set(30 mins approximately).