INTERNATIONAL CUISINE | Saute Fry N Bake

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 .

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 )

Basboosa

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 35 to 40 minutes

Serving : 4 to 6 members

Description

Basboosa . This is an Egyptian dessert . Its made with semolina as the main ingredient and is a sweet dish. Its light, succulent and has a slight tart of lemon along with the flavour of honey which is a clever flavour combo. I first got to know about this dessert from a satellite channel. Did take note of the recipe but didn’t know the name or find time to make it. I am a member of the home bakers guilt. There was a post by Archana kumar recently in the guilt where she posted a picture of coconut basboosa. She did mention saying it tasted similar to our coconut burfi but with a grainy consistency. I was so inspired by her post and immediately tried out this lemon and honey flavoured basboosa. All credits to my gal ANISHA as she followed the recipe and baked these basboosa’s.

Ingredients for syrup

Ingredients	Quantity
sugar	2 cups
water	2 cups
lemon	1 whole
honey	3 teaspoons

Ingredients for Basboosa

Ingredients	Quantity
semolina	3 cups
flour	1 cup
baking powder	1 1/2 teaspoons
sugar	1 cup
oil	1 cup
milk	1 cup

Method to make syrup

Peel the lemon with a potato peeler to get flat strips of peel.Juice the lemon.Bring the sugar, water, and lemon juice to a boil.
Throw in the rind of the lemon. Boil until the lemon rind is hard or the mixture is a runny syrup consistency.
Add the honey.Set aside while you make the basboosa.
Mix the semolina, flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add the oil and mix until all the batter is well blended.
Grease a large cookie sheet tray (10 x 16 inches). Add the milk just before you are about to bake.
Dot the mixture into the greased pan by spoonfuls. Level the mixture with your hand (dipped in milk).
Shake the tray to level. Bake for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees.
Cut into squares and return to the oven for 5-10 minutes. Pour the syrup over the basboosa immediately after you remove it from the oven the last time.
Serve hot , warm , at room temperature or chill at any time of the day .

Hot dog

Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Hot Dog.A comforting textural colorful delight. Crazy me ,the first time i heard about this was like yuk how can people eat dogs. Got to know about sausages and hot dogs through my NRI friends from gulf in school.But first got to taste it when my class mate Christine got it all the way from Dubai just for me to know what it was. I didn’t fancy it much tough. While on a holiday trip abroad my boy afzar used to fill himself with sausages for breakfast as lunch was had only by 4.30 to 5 in the evening. My veggie girl anisha used to run away from his plate saying that thing looks wired.My boy afzer and son-in-law Riyaz love sausages.Well now my veggie girl cooks sausages for her hubby eventhough she hates the sight of it. Only recently sausages are available at my place, so have started experimenting with them in my kitchen.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Chicken sausages	2
Hot dog rolls or French bread	1
Onions sliced	5 big
Oil	2teaspoon + 1 1/2 tablespoon
Tomato slices	1 big tomato
Lettuce leaves	2
Tomato ketchup	to garnish
Mayonnaise	3 tablespoon
Red , green and yellow capsicum strips	1 cup
Vinegar	1 teaspoon
Sugar	1 teaspoon
Eggs	2 seasoned with salt and pepper to taste and beaten along with a tablespoon of grated cheese

Method for sausages

Prick the skin of sausages all over with a fork or tooth pick . Heat 1 teaspoon oil and fry the sausages for 2 minutes making sure all the sides are cooked well . Set aside .

Method for caramelised onions

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a non – stick pan . Fry the sliced onions to brown on medium heat for about 10 to 12 minutes .
Add salt to taste , sugar and vinegar and let it caramelise further for another 5 minutes more to a dark brown colour and soft . Remove from heat and set aside to cool .

Method for omelet

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a pan . Pour the beaten egg mixture into the pan , wait for the base to cook a little and get firm .
Fold both sides of omelet towards the Center to get a long shaped omelet that will fit into the hot dog roll . Cook the omelet well . The cheese used helps to keep the omelet moist . Set aside .

How to proceed

Spilt the hot dog roll horizontally into two . Scoop out the inside part of both the split hot dogs carefully making sure the outer crust remains un disturbed .
Apply mayonnaise on the inside part of split hot dog roll . Place lettuce leaves , few strips of coloured capsicums , tomato slices and 1/2 of caramelised onions and top with the omelet .
Push all these plied things into the lower hollow dent . Place the sausages over and top with other 1/2 of caramelised onions , tomato slices , coloured capsicum strips and lettuce leaves .
Close with the upper part of the hot dog roll . Garnish with a squeeze of tomato ketchup on top and serve along with crisp hot French fries and tomato ketchup .

Noodle wrapped prawn fry

Preparation Time : 25 minutes + 1 hour for marination

Cooking Time : 3 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Noodle wrapped prawn fry. There is a restaurant here at my place called capsi,where they serve awesome tasting food. I had a dish called crispy fried chicken which they had wrapped chicken stripes with noodles and deep fried it, then sauteed in a combination of some sauces and garnished with spring onions. It was so very yummy.Wanted to try it at home. Then thought why not try it with prawns. To my surprise came across a recipe with noodles wrapped in prawn. Wolla , took note but made few changes and worked spot on. It’s become a regular dish at home now.

Ingredients for marination

Ingredients	Quantity
Cleaned prawns with tail	15 pieces
Chilli flakes	1 teaspoon
Pepper	1/4 teaspoon
Soya sauce	1/4 teaspoon
Salt	to taste
Ajinomoto	a pinch ( optional )
Lime	a squeeze

Other Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Egg noodles	300 grams , boiled in salted water and drained
Cornflour	1 tablespoon
Maida	1 tablespoon
Salt	to taste
Oil	300 ml
Sauces	of your choice to serve as dips

Method

Marinate prawns with all the marinate ingredients together for one hour .
Mix cornflour , maida and salt to taste and spread the mixture on a flat tray . Dredge the marinated prawn pieces over the cornflour mixture making sure they are coated well all around .
Then wrap the egg noodles all over the prawns . Hold the wrapped prawns in between your palms and fingers and press gently making sure the noodles stick on to the prawns .
You can follow the recipe till this stage and keep the prawns in the fridge and fry them when required .
Heat oil in a wok and deep fry the prawns in hot oil for 1 minute and on medium heat for 2 minutes , again on high heat for 30 seconds until golden brown .
Drain and serve hot immediately with sauces of your choice .

Spaghetti pricked sausages in Alfredo sauce

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

A genius idea to serve spaghetti that I got to see in a picture in the world wide net . Gave it a try but with my twist of serving it with Alfredo sauce . It taste Devine and now a staple at home. .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Spaghetti	1/2 packet
Sausages	6 cut into 2
Olive oil	2 tablespoons
Garlic	1 crushed
Onion	1 chopped
Flour	1 tablespoon
Milk	2 cups
Salt and pepper	to taste
Cheese slice	2
Dried basil , oregano , chilli flakes	to taste
Grated cheese	to garnish

Method

Prick spegati into sausage bits . Boil in salted water and drain and set aside .
Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil, add 1 crushed garlic and 1 chopped onion . Saute to golden brown , add 1 tablespoon maida fry for a minute with out burning .
Add 2 cups milk , season with salt and pepper . Keep stirring .add 2 cheese slices and melt them .
Garnish with dried basil , oregano and chilli flakes . Add the boiled spaghetti .
Serve hot with grated cheese.

Home made pizza

Preparation Time : 50 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Pizza . One among the international dishes i got to know as a kid . During our holidays my brother and myself were given pocket money of 15 rupees each every day . Which was used for 2 movie video tapes and a pizza or a burger from J.M English bakery in Coimbatore. So most of pizza eating was done with J.M Bakery’s pizza’s.The word pizza brings another hilarious thing that happened when i had an outing with my childhood friend alamu and her sisters. We went out to an eat out place to have a brunch.All were busy ordering whatever wanted. One of us ordered a pizza.While we were waiting for our order to come, we just went through once again as what each of us had ordered. Some one told pizza’s as 2 of us ordered pizza. My friend alamus little sister meena started crying out loud. We not knowing why she is crying started consoling her.Then meena told i am scared of pisasu (meaning ghost in tamil)she thought pizza’s were pisasu.We all burst out laughing and till date we call Meena pisasu. While in roam on a holiday my first thing to do in my list was to eat a pizza.Went to a small place where they had huge trays on one side of the store filled with trays of different flavoured pizza’s. Being on the safer side asked for a vegetarian pizza.The lady asked me how many centimetres ? I was like centimetres ?????? sounded wired but that’s how pizza’s are sold in italy as they bake huge trays of pizza and each person gets their share in centimetres.

Ingredients for Pizza

Ingredients	Quantity
Yeast	1 tablespoon ( good quality must for good results )
Oil	1/4 cup
Maida	1 1/2 cup
Warm water	1 tablespoon
Salt	1/2 teaspoon
Egg	1
Sugar	30 grams
Milk	1/4 cup

Method for Pizza

Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1/4 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon maida .
Keep covered with a wet cloth for 10 minutes to ferment . Beat egg , oil , sugar and salt together in a bowl .
Pour milk at boiling point to the bowl (of egg , oil , sugar and salt ) and mix well with a wooden spoon till sugar dissolves .Seive maida .
Add maida in small quantities to the milk egg mixture along with fermented yeast mix and knead to a smooth dough .
Don’t have to add all the maida , when the dough is soft , stop adding maida . Knead well . Place the dough in an oiled bowl .
Cover with a wet cloth and set aside for proving for 30 -40 minutes . Roll out into big circles on a greased tray .
Keep aside for another 5 minutes and then bake till light brown at 200 degree Celsius . Take out . Cool to room temperature .
Spread the filling and put bake for baking for another 5 – 10 minutes till cheese melts .

Ingredients for Filling

Ingredients	Quantity
Tomato	1/2 kg ( blanched , peeled and blended )
Capsicum	2 chopped , ( green 1 , red 1 )
Onion	2 chopped
Egg	1
Celery	2 stalks chopped
Spring onion	2 chopped
Baby corn	1/4 cup cut into thin circles
Olives	1 tablespoon sliced
Garlic	8 flakes ground
Ginger	1 inch piece ground
Chilli powder	1 teaspoon
Sugar	1 teaspoon
Oregano	2 teaspoons
Cheese grated	100 grams
Butter	1 teaspoon
Tomato sauce	1 tablespoon
Sausage , chicken , mutton or paneer	1 cup shredded ( optional )
Tomato puree	1/4 cup
Chilli flakes	to taste
Egg white	1 seasoned with salt and pepper to taste and beaten ,
Olive oil	2 tablespoon

Method for Filling

Heat olive oil add onion and fry for a minute , top with ginger and garlic paste .
Once crisp add capsicum , celery , spring onion , salt , oregano and baby corn and sauté for a minute . Remove from flame and set aside .
Heat the blended tomato , chilli powder , sugar ,salt and tomato purée together to get a thick sauce . Add tomato sauce and cool down completely to to room temperature .
Add a beaten egg and mix well . Taste and adjust . Spread this sauce over the pizza base .
Sprinkle with 3/4 of the cheese , spread the onion , capsicum mixture over . Top with sliced olives and sausages , mutton , chicken or paneer of your choice .
Sprinkle remaining cheese over . Dot with butter and brush with egg white and bake in a preheated oven for 5 – 6 minutes .
When cheese melts , remove , cut into wedges and serve hot garnished with oregano and chilli flakes .

Garlic Bread

Preparation Time : 5 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes to preheat the oven + 10 to 11 minutes to bake .

Serving : 4 members

Description

Garlic Bread . Delicious and a simple dish made with few ingredients in 10 minutes . I first was introduced to garlic bread when my kids were 2 to 3 years old. Remember it was on a holiday to Bangalore and pizza corner had just been launched in India then. My cousins fazeem and Qyas were so excited about our lunch as we planned to got to pizza corner. Me not knowing head or tail of pizza corner felt lost. I had just tasted the pizza they sell in small eat out’s and bakery’s (specially JM Bakery in Coimbatore)my cousin fazeem , Noorie,Aashik,Gani and Qyas travelled a lot as children so they knew garlic bread, cheese cake and so many other international food dishes . So i gained my knowledge in international cuisine through them and my NRI friends in the school.The order was then placed by my cousins in pizza corner. We were served the garlic bread first 1 portion with cheese and the other without. I tried both and could not stop eating as it was so very yummy. Didn’t think garlic and bread would taste this good. From then i have been trying out many recipes for garlic bread as my kids love it but only recently did i get the secret to real garlic bread. I serve garlic bread with soup ,prawn pie or just as it is.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
bread	8 slices cut into 1 1/2 inch thick slices ( I used French bread )
Butter	1/4 cup ( room temperature )
Salt	to taste ( if using salted butter be careful with salt )
Garlic paste	1 table spoon
Dried oregano	1/4 teaspoon
Dried basil	1/4 teaspoon
Dried thyme	1/4 teaspoon
Dried rosemary	1/4 teaspoon

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes .
Line a baking tray with foil paper . Mix all ingredients together except for bread . Taste and adjust .
Apply butter mixture on one side of each bread slice and place equally apart from each other on the lined baking tray , butter applied side facing up .
Bake for 5 to 8 minutes until sides and crusts are crisp . Remove and let it cool for about 3 minutes . Turn the slices over and apply more butter mixture .( I personally like my garlic bread rich in butter and garlic flavour so I do this but you can serve the garlic bread with just one side of butter mixture )
Be carefully as the bread will be warm and the butter tends to melt soon . Place them bake on the lined baking tray equally apart from each other on the newly applied butter mixture side facing up and bake for another 3 minutes till golden in colour .
Remove and serve hot immediately or wrap in foil paper and serve later . Best served immediately .

Potato wedges

Preparation Time : 1 hour

For marination : 5 minutes

Cooking Time : 10 to 12 Minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Potato wedges. Two days back my friend Meera Aboo Thamby s Hubby was invited home for lunch as he was here on a 2 weeks holiday to India from U.K. He stopped eating rice or deep fried items as his health issues demanded so. Me and Healthy cooking are far apart from each other. But had to gear up and do something to entertain him with a good healthy spread. Came up with this potato wedges as a substitute to balance the carbohydrate in his diet. My first try but turned out well. I made a clear soup with four salads and barbecued mutton ribs,grilled fish and a whole tandoori chicken with wheat bread. Meeras hubby was so happy as no one served him what he wanted from the time he started his holiday here.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Potatoes	4 cut into thick wedges
Olive oil	2 teaspoons
Rock salt crushed	to taste
Pepper crushed	to taste
Dried oregano	1/2 teaspoon
Dried basil	1/2 teaspoon
chilli flakes	to taste
Dried thyme	1/2 teaspoon

Method

Mix all ingredients together and set aside for one hour . Preheat oven at 180 degree Celsius .
Cover the base of a baking try with foil paper . Arrange the marinated potato wedges evenly apart from each other over the foil paper and bake for 7 to 8 minutes on one side .
When the sides start to crisp turn over and bake for another 3 to 4 minutes .
Once the potatoes are cooked through and soft inside and crisp out side remove and serve immediately with tomato sauce , mayonnaise , sour cream or cheese spread .
Incase you don’t have all the dried herbs mentioned can substitute with finely chopped coriander leaves and fresh basil ( thulasi leaves ) .

Creamy quick pasta

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Serving : 5 members

Description

Creamy quick pasta . Quite a bland pasta mostly apt and loved by children. The creaminess helps them to just run it down to their tummy soon , as you all know most of the children chew a lot more than swallowing . My sister-in-law vaseelas daughter binusha fathima is like another daughter to me. She was born exactly on the 100th day after my daughter ANISHA was born.(did you all take note of their names ending rhymeing with a sha)every holiday she would be at my place with both my kids. She was (and is also) terribly a skinny gal. My job was to mainly make her gain weight before she leaves. So i used to feed her and make sure that she eats well. You feed her one mouth full (she’s got an unbelieveably small mouth )and she will take atleast 8 to 10 minutes to swallow.First 3 minutes she will have the food in her mouth on the right side, next 3 minutes after i push with my finger into the middle of her mouth it goes to the opposite side.Another 3 minutes in the Center of her mouth and finally into her tummy.I would finish telling her atleast 6 stories by the time she eats her meal. I seriously wished if only she had a zip in her tummy, would have been so easy just to put the food inside and zip her up. We all would tease her saying even on her wedding , i will have to feed her. Well now she is blessed with a beautiful baby gal Liyana Aashik and she will learn the art of feeding her soon.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
pasta	3 cups ( I have used cannelloni pasta here , you could use any pasta of your choice )
mushrooms	1 cup sliced
onion	1 chopped
salt	to taste
pepper	to taste
milk	1 cup
flour	2 tablespoons
oil	1 tablespoon

Method

Boil the pasta in hot boiling salted water it cooked through . Drain , rinse in cold water and set aside .
Heat a non – stick heavy bottomed pan with oil . Add 1 crushed garlic ( optional ) , onion and mushroom and saute till the mushrooms release water first and then reduce the water released to get a dry consistency mixture and the mushrooms are cooked .
Add flour , simmer the flame and mix well . Stirring continuously pour milk little by little and bring to boil till you get a semi thick creamy sauce . Season with salt and pepper .
Taste and adjust adding the boiled pasta . Mix well making sure the sauce has coated well all around the pasta .
Add a teaspoon of butter ( optional ) . Toss well . Serve hot with grated cheese on top .