Monday, June 22, 2009

Curry puffs


Easiest recipe for curry puffs. I made this yesterday for my husband as Father's day special. Ofcourse I dont make it from scratch but I use puff pastry sheets, which makes my life very easy to make these tasty puffs.

Ingredients
Pepperridge farm puff pastry sheets
very little maida or roti flour
for stuffing:
potato chopped
carrot chopped
beans chopped
batani (peas)
Garam masala - 1/2 table spoon
chat masala - 1/2 table spoon
Red chilli powder - depends on taste
Salt to taste
Jeera
Oil
Lime/lemon juice - 1 table spoon (optional)

Method of Preparation
Remove the puff pastry sheets from freezer and keep it outside for defrosting it. You can even use microwave for doing it, but I like to do it naturally rather than using microwave as it sometimes overheats it.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

1. Start by making the stuffing ready first. Take a kadai, add oil to it and let it heat.

2. Add jeera to it. Now add all the vegetables with pinch of turmeric to it.

3. Add red chilli powder, mix it and let it cook for few minutes covered on medium flame.

4. Now add garam masala, chat masala and salt to taste and mix it. once the vegetables are cooked switch off the stove. Do not overcook the curry.




5. Now the stuffing is ready lets make the puffs ready. there will be two big sheets in each puff pastry and we can make 9 puffs for each sheet. Cut the sheet into 9 by using a pizza cutter or knife.

6. Now sprinkle little maida or roti flour and make them a little bigger to stuff the curry properly using belan. Do not press harder or make the sheet thin, as it would reduce the puffiness by overpressing it.

7. Add curry to middle of the sheet and press all the sides with little water.

8. Arrange all the curry puffs in oven safe tray. Arrange them with little gap in between puffs so they have enough roof to get puffed up.

9. Bake the puffs for 20 minutes or till you see they are done by observing the color of the puffs turning slightly golden brown.





Remove the puffs from baking and serve hot with any ketchup or chutney.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

My Container Garden & Eggplant Sandwich

My container garden is doing pretty good except for the two tomato plants and squash have practically overgrown the pot, but I'm going to risk it for this summer and leave them in there. Lesson for next season is to buy some bigger pots. Here are a few pictures.



Mint

Cherry Tomatoes

Cayenne Pepper

Grilled Eggplant Sandwich:
I had a roasted eggplant sandwich with sautéed spinach, roasted red peppers and provolone cheese called “Aunt Nina’s Sandwich” in a small Italian Café type place recently. Though the sandwich itself was very bland, I liked the combination of ingredients. So I tried to recreate it at home; I used Ciabatta bread and spread store-bought pesto on it and I have to say I liked my sandwich much better than the original.


Ingredients:
Eggplant – 1 medium, cut into ½” thick pieces
Spinach – 2 cups, chopped
Roasted red peppers, canned – 3 slices, cut into strips
Pesto – ¼ cup
Monterey Jack cheese – 4 slices thinly cut

Method:
  • Heat a stove-top grill pan (or use outdoor grille) on medium high; Spray lightly with cooking spray and grill eggplants until grill marks are formed and the pieces are cooked through, about 4-5 minutes each side.
  • Remove and keep aside.
  • In the meantime sauté spinach with 1 clove garlic and season with salt & pepper. Keep aside.
  • Drain and pat dry roasted red peppers; cut into thin strips.
  • To assemble; spread about 1tbsp pesto on the bread halves. Arrange 3-4 eggplant pieces on the bottom half of the bread. Scatter spinach and red peppers; arrange 2 cheese slices. Cover with the top half of the bread. Press lightly and enjoy.
This sandwich is off to Priya (@ Easy n Tasty Recipes) for her AFAM-Bell Peppers Event. AFAM is the brainchild of Maheshwari. Thank you Priya for reminding me of AFAM.
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Friday, June 19, 2009

Kohlrabi Greens curry

As a child I was never a picky eater and my mom never had any issues with my food. But I did have some absolute favorites (like eggplant, okra fry, potato fry, majjiga pulusu to name a few) and I also had some that I didn’t like as much. I would say to myself: “Amma, why can’t you make dosakaya pappu (cucumber dal)?? Why do you have to make this curry?” I never liked dosakaya kura, don’t know the reason.
But I loved all leafy greens no matter how they were cooked. But after coming to the US, I never found some of the greens we find in India like chukkakura, I don’t even know the English name for it. At least Indian stores in NJ are always stocked with fresh methi, bachali kura (red pohi??), thota kura (amaranth) and gongura. But since we don’t visit Indian store as frequently as a Korean/ Chinese or our local farmers markets, I started to buy any green that looked remotely close to the ones I remember from India (to be honest while in India I didn’t know the difference between spinach and methi!!!). I have been successful with some and totally disappointed with others (had to dump the whole dish in the garbage.. gross.. yucky and to top it all off-- my husband H still taunts me about that whenever I make anything green, so it was pretty bad).
My latest success is cooking with kohlrabi greens, they are mellow and don’t have any distinguishable taste, almost like chard. So I made this dish that I learnt from my SIL in Sweden (which she made with spinach). Very simple to make and tasted good too.

Ingredients:
Kohlrabi greens – 6 cups, chopped
Onion – 1 small, chopped
Green chilies – 3, slit
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Chana dal – ½ cup, soaked for ½ hour

For Popu (tadka):
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Red Chilies – 2
Salt – to taste

Method:
  • Wash the greens thoroughly and finely chop them.
  • In a pressure cooker, heat 2tsp oil; add tadka ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add garlic and sauté until fragrant and lightly browned, make sure that garlic is not burnt.
  • Add green chilies and onions and sauté until onions turn translucent, about 6-8 minutes.
  • Add the chopped greens, soaked chana dal, salt and 2-3 tbsp water; lock the lid and cook for 2-3 whistles. Once the pressure is down, open the lid and cook further if there is too much water or serve right away with steamed white rice.


This is my entry to Cooking for Kids: Leafy Greens event. Send in your entries before June 30th.
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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Maize poha chudva/chevda

This item reminds me of my childhood. My mom n dad when they go to hyderabad exhibition they used to bring the maize poha from there and then my mom used to prepare chudva out of it. It tastes crispy and nice. Try this recipe and I can guarantee you wont be disappointed by the taste. This recipe can take a little time and patience to make but tastes very good.

Ingredients
Maize poha
Oil
Peanuts
Chick pea (putnalu)
Red chilli powder
salt
citric acid (a pinch or two)
Oil



Method of preparation
1. Take a vessel and add oil to it and heat it.

2. After the oil is heated up, take a small amount of maize poha and spread it in a bowl type spatula with holes. (I shall post the picture of what I am talking soon). Lower the spatula until the poha touches the oil. Poha will get fried like papad. Remove it after it becomes papad immediately. If you feel it is hard for you to get a spatula of that kind or if you feel it is hard to do that way, you can add poha directly in the oil but make sure you remove immediately as soon as it increases. Making it stay longer in oil will make poha turn brown and black immediately.

3. After poha is prepared add peanuts and chick pea also the same way (by adding it to oil).



4. Now take maize poha, fried peanuts and chick pea in a bowl. Add salt, red chilli powder with a pinch of citric acid and toss them till they mix up.

Now you have your timepass snack ready.

Note: If you are health conscious, you can even spread maize poha in a microwave safe bowl and heat it in microwave for 15-30 seconds (heat settings of microwave may be different).

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Cornmeal Crusted Tofu

Some weeknights I’m all geared up to cook lot of dishes and some days I’m so down that warming up leftovers also seem to be stressful. So I made this meal on one of those days when I was in the mood to cook. Menu included Cornmeal crusted tofu with broccoli polenta, sautéed garlicky bok choy and my quick pan gravy.

Recipe adapted from Veganomicon.
Ingredients:
Extra firm Tofu – 1 lb., drained and pressed
Soymilk – ½ cup
Corn Starch – 2tsp

For the cornmeal crust:
Cornmeal – ¾ cup
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Ground cumin – 1tsp
Chili powder – 1tbsp
Cayenne pepper – ½ tsp
Salt – 1½ tsp (or to taste)
Lemon zest – 1tbsp

Method:
  • Cut tofu into 8 pieces widthwise; then cut each piece diagonally to make 2 long triangles.
  • Pour milk in a shallow bowl; add corn starch and whisk with a fork to combine. In another shallow bowl, add all the ingredients for the cornmeal crust and mix well.
  • Pour oil to about ¼“ in a skillet and heat until very hot, but not smoking.
  • With your left hand dunk tofu in milk, roll it around and drop it into the cornmeal mixture. Now with your right hand, roll it around and make sure all sides are uniformly coated. Slowly place in the hot oil. Repeat with rest of the tofu pieces.
  • Cook them in two batches to make sure that the skillet is not over crowded. Cook for 3 minutes on one side, flip with tongs and cook for another 2 minutes. Your nose would know when the time’s up. Drain on paper towels and serve warm over broccoli polenta.

For the pan gravy, I added a cup of tomato-basil pasta sauce (I used my fav. Bertolli brand) along with ½ cup of low-fat milk. Brought it to a low simmer, seasoned with salt & pepper and finally sprinkled in some nutritional yeast.
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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Pear and raspberry almond cake recipe (gluten free/ vegan)



Chef has baked a lovely pear and raspberry cake recipe in the kitchen.

A soft yellow almond sponge bottom with a moist and fruity raspberry almond top with sliced pears to finish the cake off perfectly.

The fruit and almond combination flavours of this cake taste beautiful, you have an almond sponge cake texture at the bottom and a gorgeous moist raspberry cake on the top layer, the bottom and sides of the cake have a tasty scone type taste and texture as the cake is twice baked.

Chef uses canned fruits to bake this cake so there is no need to be blending fresh fruits for the juices as the fruit juices from the tins help to moisten the cake.

Once the cake is initially baked the cake is then turned upside down and placed back into the oven for a short time to just take the excess moisture from the raspberry layer of the cake.

Chefs pear and raspberry almond cake recipe is not only gluten free, egg free and vegan but it is a beautiful cake to impress with visually as the pink and purple top layer contrasts against the yellow almond sponge bottom.

This was such a delicious cake to eat and an absolute delight to bake.






Ingredients for gluten free vegan pear raspberry cake

Raspberry almond cake ingredients

1 411g Tin pears in fruit juice
1 290g Tin raspberries in fruit juice
2 Tbsp rice flour
2 oz Margarine
4Tbsp Caster sugar
1 Tbsp Cornmeal flour (fine polenta)
2oz Ground almonds

Pear almond cake ingredients

3oz Margarine
4oz Caster sugar
2oz Cornmeal flour
1oz Ground almonds
3oz Rice flour
1 tsp Xanthan gum
1 -2 tsp Almond essence
1 + 1/2 tsp Baking powder
2 Tbsp Ground flax seed
130ml Pear juice (from the tin)
1 Tbsp Caster sugar
Pinch salt (optional)

Chefs note...It is a good idea to have a large spatula to help remove the cake from the tin and on to the oven tray.



Would you like to taste some of this delicious cake?





How to make a pear raspberry and almond cake with Jeenas Kitchen


Open both tins of fruit, take the pears from the juice and slice.

Place the pear slices at the bottom of a cake tin, you do not need to grease the cake tin.



In a mixing bowl cream together 2 ounces of margarine and 4 Tbsp caster sugar.



Using a fork scoop out the raspberries and add them to the creamed butter along with the ground almonds.

Leave the juice from the raspberries for later.



Mix well then add the cornmeal flour and mix again.



Place spoonfuls of the raspberry cake mixture all over the top of the pears then spread evenly.



In a new mixing bowl cream together 4 ounces of caster sugar and 3 ounces of margarine.

Add 2 ounces cornmeal flour, 1 ounce ground almonds, 3 ounces rice flour, 1 teaspoon of xanthan gun, 1 and half teaspoons of baking powder, 2 tablespoons ground flax seed, pinch salt and 2 tablespoons of corn starch.

Stir together and pour in the pear juice.



Add the tablespoon of sugar and almond essence - mix well.



Place spoonfuls of the pear and almond cake on top of the raspberry cake and spread evenly.

Place into a hot oven at gas mark 6 for 45 minutes.

Do not open the oven door for at least 35 minutes.



Once cooked leave for a few minutes then remove the cake by turning it upside down.

Be very careful as the fruit at the bottom of the cake is very hot also you do not want to cake to break.



Place the cake onto an oven tray with the pears facing upwards.



Mix 1 tablespoon of caster sugar with 2 tablespoons of raspberry juice.

Brush all over the top of the pears with the sweet raspberry juice.



Use a flat knife to gently press any parts of the top of the cake that may drop downwards during the next part of the baking process.



Sprinkle with a little sugar.

Place back into the oven for 15-20 minutes.



Once the pear and raspberry almond cake is cooked leave to cool completely on a wire rack.



Slice and enjoy.