Veggie Pizza And Prawns Grilled Sandwitch

Veggie Pizza

I had been meaning to make this pizza for a while now. Veggie is something that I don't prefer outside in pizza hut or any other pizza place but I wanted to make this at home so that I can use Indian veggies and make it to my taste. I completely took liberty here with veggies that I used and the outcome was really interesting.

Ingredients

4 Cup Wheat Flour

2 Cup Maida

2 Cup Milk

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 cup Butter

1/2 Spoon Sugar

2.25 Spoon Active Dry Yeast

3 Tomatoes

2 Spoon Garlic Paste

2 Spoon Basil Leaves

1/2 Spoon Black pepper powder

2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

3 Spoon Ketchup

1 Cup Parmesan Cheese

2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese

1 cup of Small Paneer Pieces

1.5 cup Eggplant Pieces

8 Ladiesfinger

1 Cup Sweet Corn

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Mix sugar and active yeast with a cup of luke warm water. Keep covered by clinging film for 10 minutes to bubble up the water which means yeast is activated
• In a plate, mix wheat flour, maida, salt, olive oil and melted butter.
• Add in activated yeast mixture and milk and knead a soft dough. Keep aside in a big bowl covered by the clinging film for around 2 hours to double it up.
• Heat oil and add garlic paste in it. Roast it till it spreads nice aroma
• Add in basil leaves, pepper powder, red chilli powder and salt. Cook for couple of minutes
• Puree tomatoes and add them along with the ketchup to the above mixture. Cook till the water that separates out is evaporated and mixture is in single consistency paste. Keep aside.
• In oil fry ladies finger(whole), paneer pieces, eggplant pieces each for a minute. Remove the head of the ladies finger and cut it into half. Sprinkle salt and keep aside
• When the dough doubles up, divide it into two portions and spread it on two Pizza Pans
• Spread in tomato gravy made above equally on each one of the pizza.
• Spread in Parmesan Cheese, fried veggies(paneer, ladies finger, eggplant) and sweet corn.
• Cover it up with the mozzarella cheese.
• Heat the oven to 400F/200C
• Cook the pizza in the oven at 400F/200C for 25 minutes

Notes

While frying ladies finger(bhendi) i fried it whole and then cut it into half instead of other way round so as to avoid its seeds being flowing out of it.

All veggies I just browned them a bit so as to give it a richer taste. I didnt cook them completely by any means otherwise it might burn out or melt away while in the oven.

Prawns Grilled Sandwitch

Happy New Year to everyone :) Mine was quiet one as I was/am jetlaged a way lot to stay awake even till 9pm :) Guess this recipe would be special because I started working on this last year and the final dish was ready this year ;-) This was kind of impromptu one on demand of special breakfast by Ajoy

Ingredients

14-16 Bread Slices

400g Cleaned Prawns

1/2 Cup pickled cucumber

4 Spoon Curd

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powder

1/4 Spoon Chaat Masala

1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Garam Masala

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 Cup Butter

Salt to taste

Method

• Mix curd, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, corriander powder, black pepper powder, jeera powder, garam masala, chaat masala and salt
• Slice the prawns into smaller pieces and add them into above curd mixure, mix well and store them in fridge for 4-6 hours.
• Heat a flat pan and add 1/4 cup butter and marinated prawns
• Cook on high flame with constant stirring till the masala turns dark brown in color and dry out. Keep aside.
• Make sandwitches by spreading pickled cucumber and prawns cooked earlier between two slices of breads
• Grill them with remaining butter and serve hot

Notes

Chopping prawns into smaller pieces would help in avoiding it being pulled in a single bite :)

Lauki Kofta And Paneerbhara Kabab

Lauki Kofta

Ajoy just loves lauki kofta so much so that he asks ma to make it every time we go to pune. Till last year, that did work out especially since we visited pune atleast each month. But after coming to Redmond, one thing I am sure Ajoy and me too missed was Ma's special Kofta. So this time when we were in india we did ask her to make it quite frequently but the recipe is so good that eating it once in a year doesn't satisfy the taste buds. So after I got the recipe from her, today I made it on valentine's day. Guess my gift to Ajoy :)

Ingredients

3 Cup Bottle Gourd

1 Cup Carrot

1.5 Cup Besan

3 Spoon Corn Flour

2 Onion

2 Tomato

2 Cup Curd

4 Spoon Sugar

1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala

1/2 Spoon Jeera

1.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1 Spoon Jeera Powder

1 Green Chilli

1/4 Cup Cashews

1/4 Cup Raisins

Oil

Salt to taste

Method

• Grate bottle gourd and carrot and mix well
• Heat oil and add in jeera. Let it sputter
• Add in grated bottle gourd and carrot and mix well.
• Cook well stirring occasionally till the mixture dries up completely. Keep aside to cool down.
• Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion. Fry till translucent and keep aside.
• In a mixie add tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt. Grind well.
• Add in cooked onion and grind to smooth paste. Keep aside
• In the bottle gourd and carrot mixture, add besan, corn flour make soft dough
• Prepare small balls with cashews, raisins and green chilli pieces in the center of them.
• Fry the koftas in oil to brown color and keep aside.
• In a pan add the grinded paste, 3 cups of water and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes till gravy attains consistency.
• Add in koftas and simmer for another few minutes. Take of the heat
• In a bowl, mix in curd, sugar and chaat masala.
• While serving koftas, add in the kofta with the gravy, add curd and then garnish with grated carrot and some cashew pieces and raisins

Notes

Instead of carrot you can use raw banana as well.

Paneerbhara Kabab

Today when I opened fridge, found that I have around 2 liters of milk and it is getting expired tomorrow. Gave a lot of thought on what I should be using it before I loose it. Last few times I had been making sweets but this time I wanted to make something spicy and that is when I came up this.

Ingredients

2 Liter Milk

5 Spoon Vinegar

1 Cup Corriander Leaves

2 Spoon Pudina Leaves

5-6 Green Chillies

2 Bread Slices

1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala

Salt

Oil

Method

• Boil Milk in a thick pan
• Mix a cup of water with vinegar and add it to the milk to separate whey from it.
• Strain it and wash it with cold water.
• Hang it in a dry cloth for around half an hour to remove as much as water as possible
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Bake bread slices for 5 minutes at 350F/180C, Flip the sides and bake for another 5 minutes
• In a mixie, grind the bread to breadcrums. Save aside
• Grind corriander leaves, pudina leaves and green chillies to fine paste without using water.
• In a plate mix the paneer that was hanging, the above green paste and salt
• Make small lemon sized balls and roll them in bread crums
• Heat oil and fry the balls in it over medium-high heat.
• Sprinkle chaat masala and serve with ketchup

Notes

If you want you can make it with grated paneer instead, but it tasted awesome with this fresh made paneer and the softness inside the crispy covering was delicious.

For the corriander-pudina-green chillies paste I didnt use any water. The water that was on leaves after washing them was good enough.

Prawns Burrito Bowl And Fried Chicken

Prawns Burrito Bowl

Chipotle is Ajoy's favorite joint and he does keep insisting on going to it once in a while. We like the chicken burrito bowl there. So after seeing them prepare the bowl for few times, I decided to try this out at home. Since I had prawns at home and didn't have boneless chicken, I made it with prawns. Turns out it was quite nice.

Ingredients

400g Cleaned Prawns

1.5 Cup Rice

5 Tomatoes

1 Lemon

3 Cup Sweetcorn

3 Spoon Curd

3 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Oregano

1/2 Spoon Pepper Powder

1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder

1/4 Spoon Garam Masala

1/2 Cup Grated Cheese

1/4 Cup Ranch Dressing

1/2 Cup Corriander Leaves

4 Spoon Butter

Lettuce

Salt to taste

Olive Oil

Method

• Mix in curd, 1 spoon of red chilli powder, corriander powder, garam masala and salt.
• Add in prawns and mix well. Keep aside.
• In a pressure cooker cook the rice with 2.5 cups of water and keep aside.
• Heat 1/4 spoon of oil and add the corriander leaves to lightly cook them.
• Add the oil-corriander leaves mixture, lemon juice and salt to the rice and mix well. Keep aside
• In a pan, add a spoon of oil and heat it.
• Add in 3 mashed tomato, remaining 2 spoons of red chilli powder, pepper powder, oregano and salt. Mix well.
• Cook till mixture thickens. Keep aside to cool down
• In another pan heat butter and fry in the marinated prawns till they are done and dark brown in color.
• Now in three big bowls make the burritos by adding a layer of rice dividing equally in them.
• Add prawns, finely chopped remaining 2 tomatoes, grated cheese.
• Microwave sweet corn for 3 minutes and add it to the burrito bowl.
• Add the tomato-chilli sauce, ranch dressing and lettuce. Serve it immediately.

Notes
I microwaved the corn for quick cooking. You can alternately boil them in water and drain out the excess water.
The tomato-chilli sauce would turn quite spicy. I had used another spoon and it was little extra spicy hence while writing this recipe I have suggested 1 spoon less compared to what I used.
Used ranch dressing because I didn't want to buy or make sour cream just for this.
Since I had jumbo prawns I cut it into 2-3 pieces after frying them in butter.

Fried Chicken
When we were in Bangalore, KFC was our favorite joint. We also have couple of stories that took place in the KFC :) So quite a lot of memories. But since we came here, we haven't been to KFC once, though MacD is regular joint instead. But the fried chicken is something that went missing from our meal since then. So today I knew what I wanted to cook. I was earlier thinking of frying boiled chicken but then decided against it after a second thought. Bing just confirmed my thoughts :)


Ingredients
5 Chicken Leg Pieces
1 Egg
3/4 Cup Maida
5 Spoon Bread Crumbs
1 Spoon Red Chili Powder
1/4 Spoon Oregano
1/4 Spoon Pepper Powder
1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garlic Paste
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• With a sharp knife, give slits to the chicken pieces
• In a warm bowl of water, add 1/2 spoon red chili powder, oregano and pepper powder with salt.
• Add the chicken pieces and soak them in it for an hour.
• In a bowl, beat egg with garlic paste, remaining half spoon red chili powder, coriander powder and salt.
• In another plate mix maida with bread crumbs and salt.
• Take out the chicken pieces out of water and drain the water.
• Dip each leg piece in egg mixture to coat it completely and then in maida mixture to cover it with maida coating.
• Heat oil to medium high.
• Add each leg piece and fry till golden brown in color.

Notes
Soaking the chicken in water, tenderizes it a bit adding to the taste. I used mild spices to soak them in instead of dipping it in plain water.
I fried chicken on medium high heat instead of very high or very low. That helped me get the chicken that wasn't too dark in color and yet it was completely cooked.
I made extra bread crumbs while making Paneerbhara Kabab and stored them in air tight container. You can refer to it for how to make bread crumbs.

Bread Dahi Wada

As you know with New Years and my jetlag my unofficial resolution of the year is to eat anything but simple bread butter or cornflakes in breakfast :) So when Ajoy got bread with groceries I came up with this :)

Ingredients

8 Bread Slices

2.5 Cup Curd

2 Green Chillies

4 Garlic Cloves

3 Spoon Sugar

1/4 Spoon Black Pepper

A Pinch of Red Chilli Powder

A Pinch of Chaat Masala

Handful of Coriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Soak Bread slices in water and immediately press them in your palms to remove the water.
• In a plate add this bread, finely chopped green chillies, garlic, ground pepper an salt to taste. Knead really well and make the lemon sized balls.
• Fry these balls in hot oil till brown.
• In a bowl mix curd, sugar, red chilli powder, chaat masala and salt to taste
• In plates serve the fried bread mixture balls, covered with curd and garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves

Notes

If you are not going to eat all the wadas at a time, then keep the bread dough and fry it later, otherwise fried and stored wadas get little rubbery.

Tofu Burger

I was very inclined to prepare the burger at home but didnt want to try any meat burger. So thought of preparing paneer one. But then the indian grocerry store was little far from my place so thought to try it on tofu. The burger turned out quite well and the mildness of tofu vanished in the spcies and other things that I added.


Ingredients
4 Burger Buns
100g Tofu
2 Onions
1 Tomato
1 Fresh Red Chilli
4 Cheese Slices
1/2 Cup Lettuce
Ranch Dressing
Salt and Pepper
Oil

Method

• Cut the Tofu into cubes
• Heat oil and keep the flame on low.
• Add tofu pieces and cook till light brown in colour.
• Add onion slices, red chilli into it and cook till onions are slight brown in colour
• Add salt and pepper and stir well. Divide the mixture into 4 portions
• On each bun keep the cheese slice and add the portion of the cooked tofu mixture.
• Spread the lettuce, tomato Slice, couple of drops of tomato ketchup and one circle of the ranch dressing.
• Close with the upper portion of the bun and serve.

Notes
I cooked tofu on very light heat which helped me keep it soft. The Spicy Chilli, ranch dressing helped in supressing the mildness of Tofu.