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. 

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

Meal maker tikki with makhni sauce

 Going out of vegetable stock?.... Refrigerator under repair?....  nor do you have an surprise guest visit?.... Do not fear, if tiny, chocolate brown soya chunks or meal maker is there, this would be, perhaps, an blessing in disguise :)  Just make sure you stock them up from your nearest supermarket and they may never fail your expectations.... Yes ranging from pulao, curry, noodles this meal makers can be mixmatched in our regular cooking, here is one such sample.... meal maker tikki.  To top them more delecious for Potluck party, I have accompanied them with my version of makhni sauce.  Both were godly and  pleased all...

I have combined meal maker with few of vegetables, but other half of combo is completely left to you.... you can add anything that is stocked up at your home ranging from left-over rice, poha, murmura, crumbled paneer etc

Hiruva masala shaak / Green masala curry - POTLUCK PARTY, CYBER STYLE Dec 10

   It's party-time!!! :D  yes, back to potluck party, cyber style hosted by Jagruti mam where several bloggers meet with their party dishes online and share treat virtually  :D.  They, also pair up and prepare the other partner's dish and cherish them as well.  Isn't it interesting??   But, travelling frequently for past two months, I was not able to make up.  This time, I do proudly present the authentic curry preparation, made by my Mother-in-law - Hiruva masala shaak or Green masala curry.

 

As the name suggests, green masala curry is  very hot (Caution to spice-tolerant guys!), they differ from Nilgiri/green coloured curry because it is not the  (green) colour that matters here.  Hiruva masala shaak has many green chillies (8-10), sauted and pureed, this masala is added to regular curry-base, unlike other curries where  pureeing mint/coriander leaves is done to attain characteristic green colour.   

Hot dog- wraps

     Making wraps/rolls are always in my pending list.  Finally made them this weekday,  must say that this hot dog styled wraps were awesome.  Selected vegetables were mashed, shaped like hot dogs and  were grilled.  This was wrapped in roti with prepared green mayonnaise sauce along with thinly sliced vegetables.  Altogether this wrap was an heavenly combination.

 

Kids would love to grab them, so did Varsha :D  If you are willing, you can also dash in barbeque sauce, mustard sauce and can serve like 'subway' type.  Most importantly, these wraps are healthy and goes heavy on your stomach.  You can prepare the hot dogs the day before and can refrigerate overnight, if you felt them time-consuming.  I prepared them mildly, so that my kid could consume, you could also prepare them spicy as you wish.  So, why wait to experiment :D :P  Just do it :)

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.

 

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.

Capsicum and babycorn pizza

   Saturday evenings are too lazier and I demand for any sort of snack.  This idea of making pizza struck me when I saw an ready-made pizza base in a shop.  I also bought pizza cheese and happily walked home.   If you want to know recipe for home-made base, kindly click here

The pizza came out soo good and it got finished within minutes, so let us move off to ingredients. 

Ingredients required

• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1 tsp of crushed dry herbs
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tbspn of dry yeast
• Pizza base - 5 tbspn
• Grated cheese - 1/2 cup
• Baby corn and capsicum slices - 1 cup

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!

Newyork-styled pizza (from scratch)

    I had made pizza before using readymade pizza base, but when Baking partners had announced challenge to make pizza from scratch, I was too excited !  I always wanted to make my own pizza's but regular time with house-keeping, baby-sitting didn't permit me to explore on baking side.  Cooking on stove, was an easy-task as curries go with easy-stir.  Even stuffed paranthas can be balanced by an uniform rotation.  But, unlike baking everything has to be precise, perfect!  So, I just followed first recipe suggested by Pam (http://livinranchodelux.blogspot.in/)   Thank god, pizza turned out great and everyone appreciated my effort.

 

(For the seasoning for pizza base, I used left-over of domino's oregano sachets.  These sachets can be replaced by 2 tsp minced garlic, 1 tsp dried oregano, Pinch of red chilly flakes, Basil fresh or dried, 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp coarsely crushed peppercorns)

 

Kadaai vegetables - Hyderabadi styled

Ingredients required

• 4 tsp oil
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 2 green chillies broken
• 4 tsp finely chopped mint leaves
• 1/2 cup pureed onions (which are boiled in hot water)
• 1 cup  tomato puree
• 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp dhanya powder
• Salt, as per taste
• 1/2 cup cauliflower florets
• 1/4 cup each of chopped beans, potato, capsicum, carrot
• 100ml of fresh cream

Mini garlic pizza

Garlic is my all-time-favourite.  So, I just tried out the same with pizza and I luved it!!  The combo with pizza, cheese worked out quite well!!!

Ingredients required

• Readymade pizza base-1
• Cubed paneer and capsicum - 1 cup
• Amul cheese slice - 2 (or as required)
• Garlic finely sliced - 25 pods
• Soy sauce - 1/4 tsp
• Chilly sauce - 1 tsp
• Tomato sauce - 2 tsp
• Pinch of salt
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp
• Oil, as required

Mili-juli subzi

Mili-juli subzi is an combination of seasonal vegetables & Paneer cooked on milk, creamy onion-tomato gravy

Ingredients required

• One cup of quartered onions
• 2-inch ginger piece
• 6 pods of garlic
• 11/2 cup tomato puree (made from three tomatos)
• 2 tsp dry kasoori methi 
• 2 cups of mixed chopped vegetables like carrot, green peas, capsicum, Beans, baby corn, cauliflower
• 1/2 cup of boiled, de-skinned potatos, quartered
• 1/2 cup of paneer, cut into thick slices
• 1/4 cup milk/ cream
• 4 tsp butter

Shimla mirch ki kombdi (Chicken cooked in capsicum sauce)

 Capsicum has following health benefits..

• Capsicums are known to lower the fat stored in blood corpuscles, called triglycerides, and thus help in burning calories.. so, this vegetable is considered beneficial in weight loss as it is low in fat and carbohydrates.
  
• It contains antioxidants like beta carotene (carotenoid), lutein and zeaxanthin (phytochemicals) and vitamin C.
  
• It also helps in prevention and treatment of heart diseases, osteoarthritis, bronchitis, asthma, cataract etc.
  
• Capsaicin, contained in capsicums, is a lipophilic chemical which produces a burning sensation in the mouth and it is believed to prevent and treat cancer since this compound prevent carcinogens from binding with the DNA.
  
• Rich in vitamins, capsicum helps in strengthening the immune system by making available vitamin A and C in the body.
  
• Apart from these benefits, capsicums promote cardiac health by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels..

This gravy is  an real treat for capsicum lovers.......

Ingredients required

• 250 gm chicken
• 3 tsp oil

For making masala paste

• 1 roasted capsicum ( deskinned, deseeded and finely chopped)
• 1 tsp finely chopped methi leaves
• 1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
• 1 tsp of cashewnut paste(made from 4 cashews)
• Pinch of haldi
• One tsp of roasted jeera
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dahi
• 2 tsp khuskhus
• 1 tsp grated coconut
• 4-5 garlic flakes
• 1-inch piece of ginger
• 1 tsp of crushed cinnamon
• 2 cloves
• 2 green cardamons
• 1 tsp peppercorn

You can also replace the last six ingredients with 1 tsp garam masala, and 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste.

Method

Roast capsicum on open flame, till black spots appear all over the capsicum

Cool it, deskin  and deseed capsicum and chop into fine pieces.  Blend this along with all other ingredients given under masala paste, keep this green paste aside.

In a kadaai, combine oil, chicken and green paste, cook till done.  Serve garnished with cream.
Best suites with roti.

Mushroom and capsicum stir-fry

   This is an easy-to-make dry gravy with strong garlic and onion essence.  I tried it myself and it came out quite good, i served with rice and sambhar.

Ingredients required:

One packet of mushroom(cleaned, washed and cut into two) along with 3-4 tsp of chopped capsicum

One onion (which is blended into paste), one green chilli (deseeded and chopped into fine piece lateron), half a spoon jeera, 10-12 garlic pods(finely chopped), spice mix(1/2 tsp salt, a pinch of haldi, 1 tsp chilli and dhanya powder, and half spoon garam masala)

 Method:

Heat oil in a kadai, add finely chopped garlic and saute till it becomes brown and later add green chilli and jeera

Now add pureed onion and saute till it becomes brown

Now add the spice mix and chopped veggies,  cook on  a medium flame for about half an hour till the mushroom gets cooked

When they are done, garnish with coriander leaves and half spoon lime juice and serve