Shepherd's pie

   Shepherd's pie has a meat filling and is  lined with the crust made of mashed potatoes.  This savoury pie was traditionally devoured whenever there was  left-over of grilled meat.  I can also say that it's a comfort food.   With so much humidity around, all you need is a piping hot shepherd's pie and a good book to mark a great day.

I got this recipe from my mom's Morphy Richards oven guidebook.  They have beautifully twisted it according to our Indian palette.  This dish is a layered dish.  The layers start with  thinly sliced potatoes, followed by vegetable mince, lamb mince and topped with mashed potatoes.  This, in turn, is brushed with melted butter and some crumbled cheese.  When these layers are baked, all you get is aromatic and a crispy potato crust top, followed by soft layers of vegetables and meat mince and ends with potato slices. I flavoured meat mince with dill and totally  this pie had such complementing flavours that I ended up devouring them as such.  Alternatively,  you can dig them with roti as well.  

  The round  casserole, I used here is 15 cm in diameter and 5 cm depth.  The filling measurements are made accordingly.  You may have to twist the measurements according to your casserole's size. 

So, let's get started. 

Chicken quiche

Quiche is an open faced savoury pie.  The filling of quiche is savoury custard and cheese along with meat, seafood and vegetables filling.  The flavour is derived from the filling and the type of cheese used.   They can be had both cold or warm, though I found them best when warmed. 

  Pie pan is first lined with pastry crust, that is blind-baked,  and then  followed by cheese, filling, custard and finally topped by cheese.  The custard filling is heavy cream whisked with eggs.  Ratio of cream and eggs is 2:1 (ie for every ½ cup of cream, you should add ¼ cup of whisked egg).  After baking, quiche gives out an aromatic smell throughout the place and  was very light and fluffy when tasted.

The first filling I tried, was chicken with parmesan cheese.  The chicken quiche, thus baked out was soft, fluffy with an delicate cheesy aroma.  All thanks to Swathi Iyer, who initiated this month's challenge.

To make an 8-inch Pastry Crust:

Let’s start by making crust.  This buttery dough needs to be refrigerated for atleast two hours or overnight, so better to prepare them the day before baking.  

You will be needing

•         150 grams of all purpose flour
•          ½ tsp of salt
•          85 grams of unsalted butter, cut into tiny cubes
•          1 to 11/2 tbspn of cold water

First, cut the butter into tiny cubes and refrigerate them.   In an dry bowl, combine flour and salt.  

Mix them.  Add in butter cubes and rub through the butter so that it is dispersed in flour.  Alternatively, you can do this in food processer also 

Now add in cold water, little by little.  Slowly, start combining the dough along with water

An soft dough should be formed.  There might be few clumps around here and there

But each clump, should hold its shape when pressed, and not fall together.  This is an passing test for an crust dough

Cling wrap and refrigerate for minimum of two hours or overnight.  This will help in moisture getting evenly distributed throughout the dough.  If kept frozen, they can be used till an month.  

Blind baking with pie crust:

Next day, remove the dough from refrigerator and let them sit under room temperature for 15-20 minutes

Either you can roll them by dusting the surface with flour, or by sandwiching them in between two baking sheets.  I sandwiched them with my silicon mat and baking sheet and rolled into an 9 inch circle.  

After rolling, remove the baking sheet and turn the silicon mat upside down over the greased pie pan.

Adjust the dough and press them down the pie pan, so that they cover the base and sides.  

Prick them throughout the base and sides with an fork.  Pricking will help in non-raising of the dough during baking.   Refrigerate this set up for fifteen to twenty minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven for 200 degree Celsius.  

After refrigeration , cover them with baking sheet and add some dried pulses, I used an combination of what I had at home, double beans and rajma.  These weights push down the crust and prevents uneven rising.    You can use raw rice as weight also, but these baking weights are inedible after blind bake, since they are exposed to such an higher temperature.   But, of course you can stock them up and reuse for blind baking. 

Bake these for twenty minutes, lateron remove the beans and sheet and bake for another fifteen minutes till the base turns brown.  You should be able to see the crust has left the edges of the ring.  

Now our crust is ready for filling to go J

The Filling, Chicken with Parmesan:

You can add greens also, but make sure you cook them well before adding to quiche.  The reason for cooking beforehand is to get an dry filling, if we use uncooked filling, they may leak out their stock during baking, leaving an soggy quiche. 

You will be needing

For the filling

•       1 tbspn of oil
•          ½ cup sliced shallots
•          200 grams chicken mince
•          1 tbspn of finely chopped garlic
•          1 tsp of finely chopped ginger
•          ½ tsp of chilly powder
•          1 tsp of dhanya powder
•          Pinch of haldi/turmeric powder
•          Salt, to taste

For the custard

•          ½ cup amul fresh cream
•          1 large egg
•          ½ tsp of chilly powder
•          ½ tsp of pepper
•          Salt,  to taste

Others

•          55 grams of parmesan cheese

In an preheated tawa, add oil.  Saute onions till they turn brown.  Add ginger and garlic.  Saute for another two minutes.  Finally add chicken mince. 

The mince will sweat out its stock.  Saute and cook till the water content is evaporated.  Add all the spices.  Be careful not to add too much of salt, since we are also going to add cheese here.  So, add salt, according to the content of the fillings.  

Keep the filling aside to cool.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. 

For the custard, open the amul fresh cream pack.  Do not shake.  Separate the liquid contents from the pack and use the cream part.  This is done because we need an heavy cream for quiche and amul has an low fat content, so separating its cream would enhance the fat content and hence is done.  The liquid part can be used in cooking purpose, like you can add them in curry, kheer etc. 

In an large bowl,  add ½ cup of cream part (from amul cream), one large egg, chilly powder and salt.  Whisk them, till they are completely dissolved.  

Grate the parmesan cheese, keep aside. 

Quiche Assembly:

For assembling quiche, take the baked pie crust, spread the base with few grated cheese.  

Spread the chicken kheema filling throughout the surface.  

Now pour our custard into the quiche.

Finally, sprinkle rest of the quiche into the cheese.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or till the filling is firm.

And, VOILA, there you have your own chicken quiche.  

I, served them warm.  Quiche was like an dairy- explosion.  My entire home was filled with cream and cheese smell with an hint of chicken.

Linking this to  Swathi Iyer's Baking partners challenge

Detox salad

Hi guys........  How are you all :)  And how was your new year celebrations?  We, celebrated ours @ Paradise :P  Yeah, that is an advantage of being an Hyderabadi, you know??  So, after an hectic schedule and exotic party foods, you must now feel to cut down some fat, opt for an brisk walk or prefer your green tea??  If so, then,  this salad is perfect for you :)  :)  Detox is nothing but, De + Tox, that is removing (De) the toxins/poisons from your body.  This is done by intaking fruits/vegetable known to nourish such properties.  

Detox salad, is an colourful platter of  such healthy vegetables and fruit in an glossy and sparkling dressing :)  I dressed them with olive oil, brown sugar, lime juice and crushed garlic.  Garlic, again is an pure anti-oxidant and I am used to eating them raw earlier days in order to get releived from monthly menstrual pain.  (Beleive me guys, garlic always does an ABRACADABRA magic to  periods pain)  If you guys are not used to raw garlic, you can avoid them and go with other dressings :)  I have also included spinach here, again it is not at all problem to include canned or raw baby spinach leaves.  I have used paalak, one can use mustard/Amaranthus too :)

Cooking time: 30 seconds

Cooling time/drying time: 15 minutes

Assembly: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients required

For salad

• 1/2 cup of  beetroot, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 cup of carrot, cut into thin strips 
• 1/2 cup of pineapple, cut into thin strips
• 10 spinach leaves

For dressing

• 2 tbspn of olive oil
• 1 tsp of brown sugar
• 2 garlic pods, crushed
• 1 tsp lime juice

Method

Blanch spinach leaves in hot water, for about thirty seconds.  Remove and dry them for fifteen minutes.  Tear them into long strips.  In an bowl, mix all dressing and toss beet, carrot, spinach, and pineapple sticks into them.  Enjoy....

       Happy cooking and happy detoxing :P  :P  :P  :)  :)  :)

Egg pulao

    Not long before, we visited 'Royalseema ruchulu' restaurant at Hyderabad, I must admit that 'Nattukodi pulao' was an real FAB.  We continued to order pulao twice, thrice.... :)  After relishing their hot, fiery pulao, blogger part of mine desired to make an 'silent try' :)   As thought, I continued making the pulao with hard-boiled eggs, pulao was fantastic.  Here, I also share one useful trick for cooking the rice with correct texture. Also try to cook basmati rice in an wide-mouthed vessel, so that they dont become mushy and stay like separate grains.

Egg pulao can also be an 'hit' in your family.  Try them ideally on an week-day lunch once before an exotic week-end lunch :D  I garnished this egg pulao with mint leaves, one slice/wedge of egg along with deep fried onions.  I had them, as such.  Every bite was flavourful and tempting.  My daughter, Varsha who doesn't eat spicy food also carved an special interest to this pulao.  This is an easy and tempting alternative to our usual home-made  biriyani.  Do try them :D

Kathrikkai kara kuzhambu

   If anybody asks me what cuisine/which country's food you love, my only answer is Indian food, especially south-Indian food.  A one shot of  hot kara kulambu with appalam would drool my tongue and I can firmly say that it won't be equal to McD's Burgers or KFC chicken. :P  :P

 

When I came across karakulambu from Swathi Iyer's blog, I could hardly resist than giving this godly curry, an try.  You can view her post here.  She has prepared an mixed vegetable curry, since I am an brinjal-freak I prepared kulambu with brinjals.  I must say that I fell in love with them.  Thanks to Swathi Iyer, for introducing this godly curry to me :) 

Spaghetti with meat sauce

  Spaghetti is thin, long pasta from Italy.  Here, I used dried form of spaghetti packet, made of wheat durum semolina.  Spaghetti is topped usually with tomato sauce, with herbs like basil and oregano.  Here, I used meat sauce and the result was awesome.  The basic sauce, I used was Maggi's instant pasta sauce.  If you want an home-made one, click here

 

Since, this was my first Italian association, I followed each steps carefully.  These spaghetti were a bit denser than our instant noodles.  I cooked them till they were completely done and it went good with sauce.  They were heavy on stomach. One bite topped with sauce was completely heavenly.  I added both meat and vegetables here, vegetarians can replace the same amount of meat with additional mushrooms.

 

WORLD DIABETES DAY - November 14th 2013

   Hi all, this day,  November14th is observed as World Diabetes day.  When  Swathi , highlighted this importance and announced the event, I can barely resist myself from joining.  Thanks to her, this event made me go through a lot of learning process and know more about Diabetic diet.  So, with no more delay, I present you two diabetic-friendly dish topped with brief description.

 

 

 

What is Insulin?

Our body cells needs energy in order to perform all our physical tasks.  And this energy is available in form of glucose/sugar that floats freely in our blood.  But our body cells won't easily grab them or digest them.  They need some hormone to help/intake the glucose available, just like my kid, Varsha who wants food, but needs Mommy to feed her :D .  So, this mommywali help is done by Insulin, an hormone secreated by Pancreas.  Insulin helps cells to digest the glucose so that your body cells becomes active and carries on all activities.

What is Diabetes?

    Just imagine your body cells when  not enough Insulin is created, or when Insulin is not recognized by them.  The amount of glucose/sugar stays as such, and increases everytime you have your food.  This results in high level of glucose in blood or  high blood sugar.  This condition is called as Diabetes mellitus. 

Complications

So, when blood sugar increases, there is an urge for blood cells to feed/ to consume, where will they go??  Some try to utilize fat content available as energy source while some degenerate.  Such degeneration of cells throughout they body may lead to severe complications like Heart-attack, Paralysis, Dementia (loss of memory), Blurred vision, Loss of weight, Increased thirst, Frequent urination and other gastric-oriented problems like Nausea, Vomitting etc

No Direct cure

Since there is no direct cure, an diabetic patient must restore to all three preventive measures, given below.

• As key effect, degeneration of blood cells should be prevented.   Medication plays its part here and homeopathic medicines have also shown to have good remedy.

•  Alternatively, body sugar levels must also be controlled.  This is helped by physical exercise.

•  Following an diet with high-fibre, low-fat/cholestrol is also important since this disease may lead to cardio-vascular problems.

Diabetic Diet

Diabetic diet is filled with whole grains(wheat, oats, barley, maize, brown rice, millet etc), fresh fruits, vegetables.  Here, I am going to make two dishes, which are diabetic-friendly in order to highlight this event.  They are Barley vegetable soup & Barley topped fruit salad. 

Barley vegetable soup

Ingredients required are 1/2 tsp amul 'light' butter, 3-4 garlic pods sliced, 1 cup of finely chopped vegetables like  Onions, Mushrom, Carrot, Palak (spinach), 1/2 cup of Barley pearls soaked for 3-4 hours, Salt & Pepper, to taste.

Heat butter in pan, add garlic slices and sauté till they brown.  Add onions and other vegetables and sauté well.  Wash the soaked barley and add in pan. 

 

Add 1 cup of water and pressure cook for single whistle. 

 

Season them with salt and pepper, serve hot!

 

 

Barley topped fruit salad

 

Ingredients required are 1/2 cup of barley, soaked for two hours, 2 cups of chopped fruits like Apple, Papaya, Kiwi, Banana, 2 orange deskinned de-seeded and separated to segments, 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds, 1 tbspn of lime juice, 1 tsp of chaat masala.

 

Wash the soaked barley seeds, cook them on stove-top with one cup of water.  As you will notice, barley will absorb water and turn soft after it gets cooked.   

 

 

In a large bowl, add chopped fruits, pomegranate seeds, barley pearls, lime juice, chaat masala.  Mix well, finally fold in orange segments. 

 

 

Serve them chilled. 

 

 

Happy cooking!!!  :)

 

 

  

 

Schezwan fried rice

     Who doesn't like to have a fried rice?  Especially when it turns out to be an week-end and you dine out?  This would always be my first preference along with manchurian gravy.  Back at home, my mother used to prepare an excellant chicken fried rice in weekends and we used to relish it with utmost temptation!  Now, here once I tried, the outcome was not worthy :(  But I didn't give up, tried a couple of times till I got it perfectly  done.  Today I tried it with schezwan sauce and guess what?  hubby calls from his office (which he NEVER does) to inform that lunch was good!  :)  

Schezwan sauce is an hot fiery sauce originating from schezwan pepper, they are also termed as indo-chinese sauce because of the equal amount of Indian spices addition.  The sauce is very aromatic too and here I used Chings schezwan sauce easily available in grocery stores.  One might also prepare these at home.  So let us move to recipe.

Vegetables in garlic sauce

   I dont know why, but recent times i have grown addicted to chinese  cooking  a lot.  Hence comes this preparation.  Personally speaking I am an garlic-luver, for I can be the only person who visits to ' THE CHUTNEYS' (Authentic vegetarian restaurent at Hyderabad which has an wide range of idly and dosa platter) and order an 'garlic dosa'   :)  :)  So this luv for garlic had even more triggered the 'chinese' part in me!

 When I read about this preparation in one of cookery books, I cannot wait to try hands on them.  But, at the sametime I was soo worried about addition of 'n' number of sauces into it.  So, I restricted them to chilli sauce alone.  Tried replacing tomato sauce with home-made tomato puree, and yes the magic worked.  The final preparation tasted entirely chinese!