Sunday 31 May 2015

Yum

Veggie Bread Cutlets

One fine evening, my hubby called me and informed about going to a tea-party, that too with some snacks for the hosts. Kitchen was a mess cause it's half term break and I was so chilled out about it. Wake-up call for me.....I thought. So the search starts in my brain and also in the cupboards... Funny I know but I'm a mum and I've a busy mind :)

Here comes the bread loaf for my rescue. Quickly gathered Bread, Veggies, some random seeds, spices and ingredients of "Veggie Bread Cutlets" were in-front of me. Time to assemble everything and cook them up. So I did all the Hard Work (Ha ha ha Funny) :) and Cutlets were ready in a jiffy. Easiest to make quickest to finish :D

These cutlets are great as a tea-time snack or as a starter for any small party. We all enjoyed eating them in our Tea-Party, even kids loved them. Now I've one more recipe for my leftover bread slices just like others in the blog.



Try these easy and tasty cutlets in your Kitchen and you will be amazed about their taste. Something so easy to make and tastes awesome. Would love to hear from your kitchen experience. Don't forget to comment below. Until next time.......Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya




Ingredients:

Bread Slices                - 4 (Shredded/Ripped roughly by hand)
Boiled Potato              - 2 boiled and mashed
Mix Veggie                 - 1 cup (I took carrots,beans,peas,spinach and corn)
Green chili                  - 2 finely chopped
Fresh Coriander          - 2 tblspoon
Whipped Yogurt         - 2 tblspoon
Sesame seeds              - 2 tspoon
Poppy Seeds               - 1 tspoon
Salt                             - to taste
Amchoor                    - 1 tspoon
Garam Masala            - 1/2 tspoon
Oil                              - to deep fry

















Method:

In a mixing bowl, tip the roughly ripped 4 slices of bread, add yogurt to it.
















Mix the yogurt with bread and keep aside.
















After 1 minute, add mashed potatoes and veggies in the bowl.
















Now add Salt, Seeds,Amchoor and Garam Masala into it. Mix well.
















Mix everything in the bowl to form a soft dough. Keep it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
















After 30 minutes, pinch a small portion from the dough and roll that into a small cutlet/sausage/log shape.
















Meanwhile keep the Karahi with oil on the flame to get warm enough to fry the cutlets. You can bake them as well. But this time I choose to fry, because it was for a friend's tea-party.
Do this with rest of the dough. I made 16 cutlets out of them, as I made a bit smaller size. Quantity will depend on the size you will make for the cutlet.
Once all the cutlets are formed, deep fry them on a medium flame until they turn golden brown from all sides. Flip them in between the frying.

















Try not to over-crowd the Karahi, fry 2-4 cutlets at a time. Take them out on a paper towel to soak excess oil.
















Serve the cutlets warm with choice of Chutney, Sauce and other Condiments.
These cutlets are great for Tea-Party, Evening snack and breakfast. You do not need occasion to have something delicious. Enjoy :)

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Yum

Vegetable Rice Stuffed Tomatoes

When I was a little girl, my Mum use to make stuffed vegetables, to be honest I never liked them. Everyone use to eat them and sing praises for my mum but I always thought why mum has to burn these.


Now are the days when I understand why everyone sang those praise songs for my mum. I kissed her hands when I first tasted those stuffed vegetables. Since the day I first had those variety of stuffed vegetables made by mum and till now, I'm in love with the concept of stuffed vegetables.

I've in last 10 years, tried so many variety of stuffed vegetables like stuffed bell peppers, stuffed bitter gourd, stuffed zucchini, stuffed ivy gourd, stuffed apple gourd and many more. This time while planning to make stuffed vegetable, I thought of trying tomatoes.

Luckily, I've had few big size salad tomatoes, ripe but hard. Perfect, I thought, lets give it a go. Checked the fridge, had some leftover rice, some par-boiled veggies and boiled potatoes. Hurray, I yelled inside me and started preparing "Stuffed Tomatoes". Have had few bell peppers as well, so grabbed two of them and tomatoes have two friends now.

My family loved eating these stuffed tomatoes just like all other vegetables. I'm sure your family will love them as well. And for that you need to get into the kitchen and try making them. Don't forget to comment below and tell me your experience. Until next time.......Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya




Ingredients:

Tomatoes                   - 4 big size (preferably fresh and tight ones)
Cooked Rice              - 1 cup
Boiled Potato             - 2 small finely diced
Mix Veg                     - 1/2 cup par-boiled (Peas, corn, beans and carrots)
Tomato pulp               - 1/2 cup (extracted from 4 tomatoes)
Peanuts                       - 1/4 cup (optional)
Onion                         - 1 chopped
Garlic                         - 4 finely chopped
Ginger                        - 1 tspoon grated
Green Chilli               - 1 finely chopped
Turmeric Powder       - 1/2 tspoon
Coriander Powder      - 1 tspoon
Amchoor Powder       - 1/2 tspoon
Garam Masala            - 1/2 tspoon
Salt                             - to taste
Red Chili                    - to taste
Oil                               - 2 tblspoon


Extra:

Green Bell Pepper      - 2


Method:

Wash the tomatoes and core them. Extract all the pulp out from Tomatoes. Try not to cut/rip them. Handle the tomatoes gently. Do the same with Bell pepper as well if using.
















Keep the extracted pulp in a bowl, we will use it later in the filling.
















Heat 1 tblspoon oil in a Karahi, add onions, garlic, ginger and green chilli. Fry until golden.
















Add peanuts and fry them until start popping.
















Now add diced potatoes, fry for 1 minute.
















Add par-boiled mix veggies and mix well.
















Now add tomato pulp, we extracted from 4 tomatoes. Mix well.
















Now add the dry spice powders, Turmeric powder, salt, Garam masala, Coriander powder, Amchoor and Red chili powder, mix very well.
















Add the cooked rice and mix everything well.
































Now fill-up the emptied tomatoes and bell peppers with the rice mixture.
















Arrange them into a roasting/baking tray. Spray some oil spray/coat the 1 tblspoon of oil on the filled tomato and bell pepper.
















I added some sliced onions, to get cooked in their juices and they go very well with these stuffed vegetables.
Bake these stuffed tomatoes and bell peppers in pre-heated oven on 200c for 30-35 minutes or until you see the skin getting brown and top getting crusty.
Once baked serve them with salad, dip and breads on side.
These stuffed tomatoes are the best dish as a whole, they have rice, veggies, and nuts in them.

























I'm sending this recipe at Tinned Tomatoes for Meat Free Mondays. Have a look at another awesome vegetarian recipes on Meat Free Mondays

Tuesday 26 May 2015

Yum

SunDried Tomato and Parmesan Gramflour Dinner Rolls/Buns/Bread

It's half term holidays for my kids and it's 1 week long. Weather is also not very great, it's good one day and disappointment another. We needed some activities to do, so why not bake something with kids. Specially when they are always around while you are cooking/baking.

Oh Yes!!!! My kids are like that. They will be busy but as soon as you step into the kitchen, they just appear in there somehow..... There starts the questioning and ideas from them for baking. So this time I asked them to help me while baking these rolls. They were running grabbing utensils, flour, containers and were super proud on themselves for being great helpers of Mum :) I love them to bits. The smile on their faces, while checking the bake from their chairs was the best thing.

The aroma in the house while the gramflour bread was baking, I can't describe but imagine friends, It's awesome. I wish I could let my readers to smell the aroma in this post. As soon as the Dinner Rolls/Buns/Bread got cool down, half of them were finished. They tasted awesome, and I'm gonna try them with different herbs and spices again.

I 'm sure of you gonna try this, won't you????? Don't forget to comment below. Until next time.......Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya
















Ingredients:

Wheat Flour                                      - 1/2 cup + 2 tblspoon for kneading
Chickpea Flour / Gram Flour           - 1/2 cup
Yeast                                                 - 1 tspoon
Sugar                                                 - 1 tblspoon
Salt                                                    - 1 tspoon / To taste
Chilli Powder                                    - 1 tspoon / To taste
Dry/Powder sun dried tomato           - 2 tblspoon
Dried Parmesan Cheese                    - 2 tblspoon (Check the meat free aisle for veg version of this
                                                                              or you can use any other cheese of your choice)
Dried Garlic Flakes                           - 1 tspoon
Dried Onion Flakes                           - 2 tblspoon (I used fried ones, Ive at home)
Water                                                 - 1/2 cup lukewarm
Oil                                                      - 2 tblspoon (Flora Healthy Light oil)
Seeds                                                  - to sprinkle on top , I used sesame seeds

For Mini loaf filling:
Dough pieces                                     - 3 parts
Paneer / Cottage Cheese                    - 2 tblspoon
Chilli Sauce                                       - 1 tblspoon


Method:

For this bread dough, I used my stand mixer with dough hook.
Mix all the dry ingredients in the mixer bowl except Oil, Water and Seeds.
















Start the mixer with low speed and Add the oil into it.
Start adding the water little by little to form the dough.
Once all ingredients are combined, change the mixer to high speed and run for 2 minutes to activate the gluten in the flour.
















Tip the dough on to the lightly floured surface and knead for about 2 more minutes.
Place the dough into the greased mixer bowl, spray some oil on the dough as well to avoid any layer forming over it.
















Keep the dough to rise for about an hour (in the hot weather) or two (in cold weather).
My dough took 1 hour cause it was pretty warm day.
















Punch down the dough and knead again on lightly floured surface.
Roll it down to a log shape. Cut the same size dough pieces out of the dough log.














I made different shapes ( 3 round buns, 3 pleated dinner rolls, 4 knots) and one mini loaf stuffed with Paneer for my daughter. Keep all the shaped buns into greased baking tray.













For Paneer stuffed mini Loaf:

Join 3 parts of the dough pieces, pat it with your hands making a square of  4*4.
Spread the chilli sauce on the dough square and sprinkle the Paneer crumbs.















Now roll the square into a log, sealing the sides and end of the dough square.
Place it in a mini loaf pan, keeping the sealed side down.














Let dinner rolls/buns/bread rise again, meanwhile preheat the oven to 190c.
Once the oven is preheated the dinner rolls/buns/bread will also has had their second rise.
Sprinkle some Sesame seeds/Poppy seeds on top.















Keep a water filled oven safe dish to keep the crust soft while baking the dinner rolls/buns/bread.
Bake the dinner rolls in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top turns golden.
Let the dinner rolls/buns/bread cool down before serving. They taste best when warm.
















These dinner rolls/buns/bread slices are good to serve anytime in breakfast, evening tea or after school snack.. I'm sure your family will also like them.



























Monday 25 May 2015

Yum

Apricot, Strawberry & Papaya Jam

Jam making is something, which I learnt way back when I was in school. My kids love Jam on toast. This strange sounding jam is excellent to go anything from hot buttered toast to a bagel.


Normally, what Jam means is totally different in countries. For example, in US it's Jam, because it has both juice and flesh. Some people say, Jam is made with only one fruit not the combination. I use many combinations for making Jam.





Today while thinking about the combination, I saw ripe papaya in the fridge with some strawberries and apricot. First I was going to make the fruit salad for myself, but then I pureed all of them, added some sugar and made the Jam.

I 'm sure you will also try this combination of jam at your home. Will you????? Don't forget to comment below. Until next time.......Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya


Ingredients:

Apricot                          - 2 washed and diced
Strawberries                  - 10 washed and diced
Papaya                          - 1 cup diced cubes
Sugar                             - 3 tblspoon

Method:

In a blender puree diced Apricots,Strawberries and Papaya together.
In a Pan, pour the puree and add the sugar.
















Let this cook and reduce in quantity.
The Sugar will melt and puree will start to change the colour.
















After about 10 minutes, the fruit puree will start to thicken up and gets dark in colour.
Once you see the sides of Pan starts to have the layer of dried fruit puree, switch the flame off.
















Leave the Puree and Sugar mix to cool down.
Once cooled, the Jam is ready.
Store in a sterilised Jar.
This Jam is best to go with Malted bread, Granary bread or even Wholemeal bread.