Empanada vegetariana - Galician stuffed bread

    Empanada gallega/ Galician empanada belongs to cuisine of Galicia, and is mainly had as an appetizer.  This, in general refers to an variety of stuffed bread - filling being fish or seafood or vegetables or an ultimate combo  of all three.  They are known to have sweet fillings as well.  They are prepared as an large savoury pie, and is sliced for serving purpose.

So, when Swathi and Marisa suggested us this bread, I was very delighted to bake them.  I choosed vegetarian version of Empanada with an touch of scrambled eggs, you can avoid eggs if you want. Empanadas vegetarian mixture are called as, 'zaragallada' and they have an strong hint of onions along with garlic, capsicum and tomatos. 

Empanada can be circle or rectangular, depending on baker's choice. Once out of the oven, they were mild, delecious and filling as well.   Since, they are mild, they would go great with tomato-chilly dip or chilly sauce.  We cherished them as an week-end tea-time snack and all thanks to  Swathi and Marisa  for suggesting such an delecious bread

Chunky vegetarian delight

      With cloudy day today, we need to take an preferable break from summer-delights, isn't it?   Well, these tikkis are made from chunky vegetables, spinach, cheese and are baked.  Out of the oven, these were completely gorgeous with an cheese burst surface and full of flavours.  All loved it and my little daughter showed her  not-so-bumpy biceps and said, 'mommy, I am getting lot of strength now'  :)  :)    These cute, cheesy and iron-rich tikki's are best served hot with tomato & fig flavoured sauce.

Though these tikkis are made of finely chopped vegetables, baking them  released not only their flavour, but also chunkyness is reduced to mushy, soft, grainy texture and paalak is like dissolving in your mouth.  This delightful tikki not only kids-friendly, sure to appeal adults too.  You must cool tikkis completely before peeling them from butter paper, as they might disintegrate when they are removed hot.  

Tomato & fig flavoured sauce

    My kid is tomato sauce-aholic, yes, I think she might be the only kid on earth to have one regular pack of french fries with almost two cups of tomato sauce :D :D   Sometimes, I do worry, what goes into the sauce, but when you have the option of making your own sauce with customized taste - I say, 'Why wait, darling?'

 Tomato sauce makes an great option along with appetizers, but, with dozen of dried figs lying around the corner, I decided to hit on an combo-treat. :)  Suprisingly, the sauce/spread didn't taste like there were any figs on them.  They can go absolutely fabulous with tikkis, cutlets, stuffed parathas, chips etc.  You could also eat them with figs :)

Also, one other special mention is that this sauce is full of flavours- starting from caramelised onions to red wine (optional), there is an subtle sweetness, and tangyness felt towards the end.   This sauce, being iron-rich, can  also boosts up your health.  After an intial taste-check with your folks, I better suggest you to make an huge batch for an healthier you & your family.

Boti kebab

   Boti kebab, traditionally refers to chunks of mutton, marinated overnight with yoghurt and other spices.  This, the next day was grilled to perfection.  The name, boti is from sanskrit language which means, 'small chunks of meat'.  The following recipe is adapted from Morphy richard's recipe guide, where both chicken and mutton were given sited, I proceeded with former one.

One interesting fact with the guide was that they used wine for basting the marinated pieces, in between their grilling period.  I was very curious with this, and yes, used wine (first time in my blog :D ) for the same.  I could foresee an sweet- sour taste from the wine.  Minced onions gave an added sweet touch and with other spices, the dish appeared spicier too.  Finally such an sweet-hot- sour combination brought out an mesmerizing yield and all thanks to my recipe guide.  

Cheesy sambhar cake

This is an savoury cake, sandwiched between an layer of cheese and an layer of potato, seasoned with sambhar spices.   The taste was heavenly, and for an savoury-lover like me, every bite was mesmerizing.  Hubby, being an sambhar-aholic, thumbs uped this one.

This is, like, one crazy experiment which turned an best shot.   Yes, though, I wanted to bake buns with aloo masala filling, I settled for this one.  One advantage is that you can add any filling you want.  I made two fillings with the yeast-raised dough.  First one was cheese and second was potato.  I could'nt forsake this vegetable as this had its closest proximity with sambhar.  So making an sambhar flavoured potato was an better idea and sandwiching them between cheesy layers got the taste right.  

APPETIZER

SOUPS

·        Kekadacha soup/ Crab soup

·        Mysore rasam

·        Kollu rasam

·        Kaalan rasam

     

STARTERS

·        Grilled pomfret

·        Piri piri chicken

·       Tangdi kebab

·       Tandoori stuffed potato

·       Gobi aur oats ki tikka

·       Paneer tikka

·       Cabbage rolls

·       Roasted phool makhana

·      Misal

·       Kothe momo

·       Soya vade

·       Peanut masala

·       Handvo

·       Idly ka tikka

·         Meal-maker tikki