Daily Archives: June 23, 2014

Herbed chicken quesadilla

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Serving : 4 to 6 members

Description

Quesadilla. Not sure of the origin of this dish. I am confused if it’s spanish or mexican. Usually quesdilla’s are made with tortillas filled with cheese and beans. Quesadilla in Spanish means a cheesy little thing. So here is a mouth watering cheesy snack recipe with my quintessential take on it. I made this as an evening snack and it vanished in seconds. It’s a fool proof recipe for all occasion’s which can be made with left over chapathis and any sabji, non-veg gravy, baked beans or spinach for the filling. It’s magical when few left over humble dishes transform into one delicious dish. The crunchy crisp cover with creamy inside plays a good contrast of textures. You feel the cheese explode as soon as you bite into the crusty exterior. This dish just takes me to what my grandmother (dads mom – balkes perima)used to tell me. She often mentioned saying when a persons kitchen is organised, so is their life. Well i guess , i am pretty organised as even my left over dishes are transformed into a new dish.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Tortillas	4 ( I used left over chapatis)
Onion , tomato sauce	4 tablespoons heaped ( I used maggi bhuna masala )
Cooked Chicken keema	200 grams ( vegetarians can substitute with paneer )
Sweet corn	1 cup cooked
Dried herbs	2 pinches each ( oregano , thyme , rose Mary ,dill and basil )
Cheddar Cheese	grated 1/2 cup
Chilli flakes	to taste
Oil	2 tablespoons
Coriander leaves	1/2 bunch chopped
Eggs	4 seasoned with salt and pepper and beaten ( vegetarians can omit the eggs )

Method

Mix cooked chicken , herbs , coriander leaves , sweet corn and chilli flakes together . Set aside .
Apply tomato onion sauce over the tortillas ( or chapatis ) evenly all around On one side . Heat a non stick pan .
Place one tortilla onion tomato sauce side facing towards you . Top with chicken filling and spread the filling all around evenly . Pour the beaten egg over the filling making sure it does not over flow out of the filling .
Grate cheese all over . Top with another tortilla ( chapati ) tomato onion sauce side facing the filling .
Press the sides firmly making sure the egg helps to stick both the tortillas ( chapatis ) together .lower the flame to the maximum and cook covered for 5 minutes pouring 1 tablespoon oil around . Turn over press well and cook again on low flame for another 5 minutes .
Repeat with the remaining ingredients and tortillas the same way . Remove cut into triangles and serve hot with any sauce .

Kaalaan

Preparation Time : 45 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serving : 4 to 6 members

Description

Kaalaan. Mushrooms are known as kaalaaan in Tamil. This dish is a very famous street food very own to Coimbatore. Nearly every road has its own small stall in wheels with its glass shields with mountains of kaalaan fried and kept. The minute you place an order it’s done in a wok with high flame in minutes in front of you. The saucy crisp kaalaan is served piping hot garnished with onions, green chillies and corainder leaves. Its beautiful with a well rounded flavour and a heady aroma. My daughter ANISHA raves about this dish so much.In fact this recipe also was passed down to me by her which she got from her cook at her in-laws place who runs a street food on wheels in the evening’s . These street food stalls on wheels brings memories of scrumtious food that my brother darvesh used to treat me with on my every visit to my moms place for a holiday. Every evening after school he would take me and my kids along to these stalls. At times (mostly summer holidays time my other cousins brothers Shanu my maternal uncle,Shabu, Riyaz,Ejaz , zuhail and ashfaq . I was the only grand daughter at moms place for quite sometime until Ashibha was born)each one of them would have atleast 6 to 8 plates of chat.Food was and is always an integral part of holidaying and celebration to all of us in someway or the other.

Ingredients to marinate

Ingredients	Quantity
Maida	1 1/2 cup
Cornflour	1 1/2 cup
Ginger garlic paste	1/4 teaspoon each
Red food colour	little
Salt	to taste
Cabbage	2 cups finely chopped , ( it's used to substitute mushroom in an economic way by the street food stalls , you can add mushrooms instead )
Mushroom	1 cup chopped
Chilli powder	1 teaspoon
Oil	to deep fry

Marinate all the above mentioned ingredients except for oil together and set aside for 1/2 an hour . Heat oil to deep fry .
Deep fry the marinated masala dropping 1/4 teaspoon full into hot oil . Deep fry to crisp , drain and set aside in an air tight container .

Ingredients for the stock

Ingredients	Quantity
Bay leaf	2
Coriander seeds	2 tablespoons crushed
Cinnamon	1 inch piece
Black pepper	1 tablespoon
Cardamom	3
Clove	4
Cumin seeds	2 tablespoons
Fennel seeds	2 tablespoons
Nutmeg powder	a pinch
Water	4 cups
Onion	1 big chopped
Ginger garlic paste	1/4 teaspoon
Salt	to taste
Garam masala powder	1 teaspoon

Mix all the above ingredients together in a heavy bottomed vessel and bring to boil for 4 minutes , then simmer for 10 minutes .
Strain and set side covered . ( can store this stock in the refrigerator up to a week and use )

How to proceed
Oil -1 tablespoon ,
Chilli powder -1 teaspoon ,
Garam masala -1/4 teaspoon .

Follow these steps just before you want to serve . You do this in advance the Kaalaan gets soggy and does not taste good .

Method

Crush the fried Kalaan . Heat oil in a kadai . Add chilli powder and garam masala powder . Tip in the crushed Kalaan and toss well .
Pour the strained stock and keep stirring on high flame until it gets to a thick saucy consistency just coating around the Kalaan .
Remove immediately and serve piping hot garnished with finely chopped onions , green chillies and coriander leaves .

Nutella pull apart rolls

Preparation Time : 1 hour 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 40 – 45 minutes

Serving : 6 members

Description

Nutella pull apart rolls. The first time i got to see these pull apart rolls was in a food blog but they were savoury pulls apart rolls . been wanting to try it but as the process of making these requires a lot of time, i kept postponing. Woke up early and had nothing to keep me occupied with. Tadaa, pull apart rolls just came to my mind. Made it , was so delicious. These pull apart rolls remind me of my best friends Sindhu krishna and gazeena sulu kunahamed. We got to know each other in gsps (Good shepherd public school in ooty). sindhu was one year senior to sulu and me but sindhu and sulu were in the same house (autumn), me in summer. Something drew all the three of us together. In between sulu left school and joint in alvernia in Coimbatore. And my last year in school i was left all alone without sindhu as she was one year senior to us. I got married of immediately, sulu was doing college in calicut and sindhu was of to muscat. even then, though we were not in touch with each other. I never felt the warmth and comfort i shared with them with other friends. (They both feel the same way too till date)Sindhu came down to India and did her college in Trivandrum. I got back in touch with her then. Sulu was married by then and was placed in Dubai. Something or the other kept us apart from each other and never got a chance to be together except for one trip to chennai, my daughters wedding and last year for our back to roots in ooty. Three days in ooty for the back to roots are one among the most cherished days of my life as i got to be myself after decades. The best part was even sindhu and sulu felt the same way. The comfort level, our talks and everything was the same as when we were kids. Touch wood, i am so happy and thank full to god to have blessed me with two lovely, sticky phenomenon, hard to pull apart friends.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Flour	200 grams
Salt	1 teaspoon
Sugar	1 tablespoon
Butter	2 teaspoon for brushing
Yeast	2 teaspoon
Warm milk	1/2 cup
Nutella	3 tablespoons ( but I used more as I have a terrible sweet tooth )

Method

Mix yeast and sugar with warm milk . Set aside in a warm place for 10 -12 minutes for the yeast to frost .
Make a soft dough with flour and frosted yeast . Add more milk if needed . Knead the dough on a clean flat surfaced counter top .
Mix salt with butter . Add the salted butter into the dough and knead well . Cover the dough with a cling – film and set aside to rest for 40 to 45 minutes to double in size .
Punch the dough and knead well again . Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick . Spread the Nutella evenly all around . Roll the spread out dough into a spiral log tightly and gently .
Cut the log into 2 inch thick pieces and place cut side up in a round 9 inch greased baking pan . Making sure the cut rolls are placed with some equal space in between for the rolls to rise . Leave to double in size again for another 40 to 45 minutes .
Preheat an oven to 200 degree Celsius . Bake for about 20 minutes . ( my rolls were baked in 18 minutes ) the crust should be golden in colour . Remove and brush the top with melted butter when hot .
Cool completely and serve . ( I served it warm as it was getting late for breakfast with every one at the table , it tasted absolutely yummy )