Baked Baby Corn

Last month I was in Chennai for some personal work and realized a good thing that happened with the advent of internet is that no matter wherever you are in the world, you can be friends with everybody and share your knowledge. I got some vital information about the city through my blogger friends.

  Now distance do not matter and as far as food's perspective it is a great way to enjoy delicacies from all over the world. Mind you it has got nothing to do with the lavishness but the way even small preparations made with care can be tastier than the most expensive dishes.
At my home starters are much in demand, reason is almost every weekend we have some guests over for dinner. So more than the main course my hubby steps inside the kitchen to see what's for starters? :-) This is not only nutritious and healthy but the idea that you can make these ready in advance, helps in speeding up the process later. Just need to bake these for 15 minutes at 170 Degrees Celsius, after your guests arrival.


Ingredients:
12-14 tender Baby corns
2 tbsp Cornflour powder
2 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste
2 tsp Chilly powder
2 tsp Tomato sauce
1 tsp Green chilly paste
5-6 Lemon drops
1/2 tsp White pepper powder
Pinch of Oregano
Handful of Parsley
Olive oil to drizzle
Salt to taste


Method:
Pressure cook baby corns in little water till 1st whistle or become tender. Drain the baby corns into the sieve and keep aside. In a mixing bowl, rub ginger-garlic-green chilly paste on baby corns, cornflour, sprinkle pepper powder, chilly, oregano and salt. Pour sauces, lemon drops, chopped parsley and mix well to coat each baby corn individually.  Leave it for 15-20 minutes to marinate.

Ready to go inside .....

Place these baby corns on a baking sheet and drizzle some olive oil on top equally. Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown in color (170 Degree Celsius). Serve these nutritious and flavoury baked baby corns with tomato chilly sauce or mayonnaise.

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Jhal Muri -The Ultimate Snack Of Bengal : Spicy Puffed Rice

                                           
One of the beauty of India is that it accepts people from all walks of life and every body can make a living and still be happy. Unlike many other Developed Countries where you need a minimum basic wage to survive but in India , particularly in Kolkata you can have your tummy full in very cheap price.

 Even today here a humble jhaal muri( spiced  puffed rice ) wont cost you more that 10/- and can satisfy your hunger. I have seen rich and poor que in front of the humble vendor who serves them with equal enthusisam. Hope you try out this street food and savoir your taste buds.

Roasted chana dal and peanuts provide a rich and nutty taste. The mixing ends with spicy special oil which is pickle oil that makes the jhal muri spicy and the mustard oil gives a pungent taste. Many jhal muri walas add sprouted black chana, boiled diced potatoes and tomatoes. Feel free to add then according to your taste. I love to have this crunchy and crispy so don't add tomatoes. And to make it low calorie snacks, skip boiled potatoes.

Ingredients:
2 cups Puffed rice (muri)
1 red Onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup Cucumber, diced
2 tbsp Raw mango, finely chopped
1/2 cup jhal Chanachur / spicy namkeen/ sev
1 tbsp Coconut, finely chopped
1 tbsp Mustard  oil, best is if you have spicy pickle oil
Handful of roasted Peanuts
Handful of roasted Chana dal
2-3 Green chillies, diced
2 tsp Lemon juice
1/2 tsp Red chilly powder
1 tsp chat masala
Salt to taste

Method:
If you are using mustard oil here, heat mustard oil in a pan to a smoking point and then switch off the burner. Let it cool. Skip this process if you plan to make it with pickle oil.

Take a broad bowl, mix together all the diced veggies, paenuts, chana dal, jhal chanachur, muri. Mix well and add lemon drops, all the spices and lastly drizzle some pickle oil /mustard oil. Mix well with a wodden spatula and serve immedietely in paper cones.


User Comments & Tips:

• Muri /puffed rice should be fresh and crisp for best results.
• Mustard oil /pickle oil is the main essence of this simple snack, so don't use any other substitute.
• It can also be made with boiled potatoes, sprouted black chana, diced tomatoes, so depending upon your taste add or skip any of these.
• Serve immediately so that you can enjoy the crispiness, else it may become soggy.

Leaving you with a close look of  Kolkata's famous street food

Linking this to my dear friend's 'Only- Snacks & Starters' event at Vegetarian Tastebuds , an event started by another good friend Pari's place (Foodelicious).

read more.. "Jhal Muri -The Ultimate Snack Of Bengal : Spicy Puffed Rice"

Stuffed Mushroom With Cream Cheese

Indian Premier League ( IPL ) season is all in full swing and my favourite teams are Rajasthan Royals & Pune Warriors and Mumbai Indians ( Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly) both of whom I admire as sound cricketers and nice human beings. As 20-20 overs provide us with a quick dose of high entertainment, I too decided to prepare something quick and nice to eat. 

When guests have given you a notice of few hours to drop in , you get in the T20 mode and prepare this stuffed mushrooms which are not only a unique snack, but also a yummilicious dish to taste as well. Especially for all the veggies, it will be loved. So I hope it scores a century in the hearts and minds of all my readers and fellow bloggers. 

Ingredients:

12 large Button mushrooms
1 Onion, diced finely
4 Garlic pods, finely chopped
1/4 cup Cream cheese
Extra Virgin Olive oil
2 tbsp fresh Chives, chopped
Pinch of Pepper powder 
Pinch of Salt or more to taste


Method:
Pre-heat Oven to 350 Degrees F(180 Degree C). Grease a baking tray with olive oil.
Wash the mushrooms and by using a knife remove the stems. 

Save the mushroom caps and chop the stems finely. In a small saucepan fry diced onion and garlic on low flame till it becomes tender.Add chopped mushroom stems and fry till the water evaporates. Sprinkle salt and pepper powder. Let this mixture cool. Once cool add cream cheese and chives, mix well.
Spoon the ready mixture into the mushroom caps and place them in baking sheet facing stuffed side up. Repeat the same till you finish with all mushroom caps Lightly spray with oil. Bake on the middle rack of the Oven and bake until the bottoms are golden color and tops are light, about 10 minutes.

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Mini Apple-Apricot Bundt Cakes

This is one dessert preparation where I was tentative in it's initial stage. However as I followed the baking instructions by it's true letter and spirit, they turned out as per my expectation. The pictures are here for all of us to see. More so, as soon as I went for shower for 10 minutes, 4 of these cakes were gobbled up by my little one and hubby. 

Anticipating this I had kept aside few more of these cakes, which saved the day and I could treat my friends. they too loved this. So boosted by their compliments, I am posting this for your viewing and feedback.


Recipe adapted from here
Ingredients:
1 cup diced Apples without skin
3 tablespoons unsalted Butter
3/4 cup granulated Sugar
1/4 cup dried Apricots (cut into pieces)
1 large Egg
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup All purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 cups Walnuts


Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 12 cup bundt pan or if using Wilton's individual bundt pans then you would need 10 such pieces. Cream butter and sugar together until the texture becomes pale and fluffy, for about 2 minutes. Add the egg, beat well and then beat in vanilla. Sift together all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together in another bowl. Reduce the speed of hand blender to low and add half of the flour and little milk. Mix until just blended. Then again add remaining milk, flour and mix until smooth. Add the apples, apricots and chopped walnuts to the batter.

 Slowly pour the batter in one corner of the pan and allow the batter to spread in and around the bundt pan by tilting slightly. Now to avoid the air bubbles, gently tap the filled pans on the kitchen slab few times. 

Bake until cake is springy to the touch and test by a toothpick inserting in the center, 15-16 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes. Invert on a plate and check if it is cool completely. Drizzle the top with melted chocolate, chocolate shaves and serve them with love !!

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Mava Mutter Mushroom

For those of you who prefer vegeterian food and yet do not want to compromise upon the protien and other nutrient intake, I have prepared this dish called Mava Mutter Mushroom. This gravy is creamy, heavenly but mind you about the high calorie that mava offers. You can try this dish out and trust me it was well recieved when I served it to my family.  


Ingredients:
200 gm Mushroom (cut into 4 pieces)
150  gms Mava (Mava is 'reduced milk'. It is also called 'Khoya'.)
1 cup Green peas
2 medium Onion
4 Toamtoes
2 tbsp Curd
3-4 green chillies in paste form
1 " inch Ginger (make paste)
2 tbsp Garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp Red chilly powder
1 1/2 tsp Garam masala
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
2 tsp Kasoori methi /dry fenugreek leaves
Coriander leaves for garnishing
4 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste


Method:
Cut onion vertically into thin slices and grate mava in a bowl. Heat just 2 tsp oil in a pan and fry them for 2 minutes or till they turn light pink (don't over fry mava). Turn off the heat and keep aside the fried mava in a plate. 

Now add 2 tbsp oil in the remaining oil and fry onion till light pink. Add ginger-garlic and green chilly paste . Fry for 2 minutes and then add tomatoes. Fry till the masala leaves oil,  now take out the masala and spread it on a plate to cool. Make a paste by grinding it in a grinder. 

Heat the same pan by pour remaining oil and fry peas and mushroom for 5 minutes or till all the water evaporates. Add salt, red chilly, turmeric, coriander powder and garam masala, mix well and fry. When the mixture starts leaving oil, add fried mava. Add curd and stir continuously. Now add 2 cups of water, kasoori methi, cover and cook for 7-8 minutes. Serve this delicious mushroom gravy after garnishing with coriander leaves. Tastes best with tandoori rotis.

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Open-Faced Sandwich

First of all I would like to apologize to all my readers and Blogger friends for taking a break from blogging unannounced. Actually, the summer vacation of my child has begun and I have become pretty busy finding good summer camp. Also , now that the little one is in the house, I have to be after him to minimize his mischief. So for sometime, my blogging took a backseat. But thankfully he has settled down in many activities, laid down by the school and some by me . Also this being an extended weekend also helped as my husband was home taking care of other household chores. Today's preparation is a simple sandwich which is an ideal preparation to treat your guests when they drop in during evening time. The key character of this sandwich is that based upon your taste you can make it more or less spicy. So here goes....


Ingredients:
2 boiled Potatoes, grated
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 Tomato, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped capsicum
Mozzarela cheese
Little butter to spread on breads slices
Green olives
Green chilies as per your taste
Oregano and Chilly flakes (optional)
Salt and Pepper as per your taste


Method:
Pre-heat Oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit. Trim the bread crusts and spread butter on bread slices, place the slices on baking sheet and toast till they are golden light. Spread grated potaoto, chopped onion, tomato, capsicum, cheese and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle some chilly flakes and oregano if you want it more spicy. Add some olives and place them again back in oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the Oven and serve immediately to enjoy the crispiness of this quick snack.

I am also pleased to share that I have won a giveaway at my very dear friend's place San's Kitchen. Thank you so much dear.

 

read more.. "Open-Faced Sandwich"