Lasagna

It was raining badly yesterday thanks to Jall cyclone and we had to stay indoors all day. With so much of time, we thought of having something special for dinner and zeroed on Lasagna. Lasagna is our favorite Italian food. When I searched for recipes, I got this from Tarla dalal's Facebook discussion board. I altered it to suit to our taste and the ingredients available with me. It is an elaborate process but it was worth it!

Red tomato sauce:

Tomatoes - 4

Onion - 1

Salt - as required

Garlic pods - 10

Chilly powder - as required

Sugar - 1 spoon

Italian seasoning - 1 spoon(contains thyme, oregano, basil)

Prepare a puree with blanched tomatoes and onion. Add salt, chilli powder and sugar and cook in medium flame till the sauce is almost thick. Add the chopped garlic pods. Cook for another 5 mins. Finally add the italian seasoning and switch off the stove.

White/Bechamel Sauce:

APF - 2 spoons

Milk - 2 cups

Salt - as required

Pepper powder - as required

Mozzarella cheese - about 1/4 cup( recipe asked for Fresh cream)

Butter - 2 spoons

Over low flame melt the butter and add the flour. Simply cook it for 2 mins. Add 2 cups of milk to it and continue stirring for about another 2 mins. Add the salt and pepper. The milk will start to thicken. Add the mozzarella cheese to it and cook for another minute.

Filling:

Carrot, Beans, Sweet corn, cabbage(vegetables as preferred) - Boiled about 3 cups

Crumbled paneer - 1 cup

Onion - 2 chopped finely

Salt - as required

pepper powder as required

Kitchen king masala - 1/2 spoon

Add 1 spoon of oil in a frying pan, add the onions and fry till cooked. Add the vegetables and continue frying. Add the Salt, Pepper powder, Kitchen king masala. Now add Panneer to it and cook for 2 mins.

Lasagna sheets:

APF - 1 cup

Cold butter - 1 Spoon

Salt - as required

Water

Oil - 1 spoon

Knead the above ingredients into the consistency of poori dough. Take about a lemon size dough and roll it like a thin chappathi. Cut into broad square pieces. Boil about 1.5 litres of water with a spoon of oil in a wide vessel. Put the thin broad pieces in the boiling water and cook for 1 minute. Take care to put only 4 pieces at a time so that they dont overlap each other in the water. Take the strips out and strain them.

Final Assembly:

I used a circle cake pan. Spread the lasagna sheet first without leaving any space. Apply the tomato sauce on the sheets. Now layer with the vegetable filling. Apply the white sauce over the vegetable layer. Now again layer with the lasagna sheet, tomato sauce, Vegetable filling and finally white sauce. Shred some mozzarella cheese and bake in a preheated oven at 200 deg for 20 mins.

There is a layer of spinach but we couldnt get out and buy it so just left it. This layer is after the tomato sauce.

Vegetable Manchurian

Fried rice with low fat Vegetable Manchurian is a treat for me. I dont deep fry the manchurian balls but they will be still yummy. I usually make more balls than I require for the dish so that I can have them like a cutlet with sauce.

To make the Manchurian Balls:

Cabbage, Carrot, Beans, Cauliflower – Shredded – All together 2 cups

Corn flour – 2 spoons

Ginger garlic paste - ½ spoon

Oil, salt as required

Manchurian Gravy

Spring onion – 1 bunch

Garlic – 5 pods finely chopped

Ginger – 1 inch finely chopped

Capsicum, carrot, cabbage – All together 1 cup

Fine Oats powder – 1 ½ spoons

Soya sauce – 2 spoons

Tomato sauce - 2 spoons

Chilly – 1 no

Cook the vegetables mentioned for Manchurian balls with ginger garlic paste. Add required amount of salt. Once cooked cool them, add corn flour and mix. After Refrigerating for about an hour take the mixture out, make balls out of it. Flatten them and toast them in the tawa with oil till they become crispy and golden brown.

Keep them aside

In a pan add the vegetables for Gravy, ginger, garlic, chilly and salt in 1 ½ cups of water. The vegetables should be half done, crispy and should not be cooked completely. Add the sauces, oats powder and half of the chopped spring onion. I used oats powder to make the gravy thick. Corn flour can also be used. Bring it to a boil. Just when you are about to serve add the Manchurian balls in the gravy and add the Spring onions over it.

Stuffed Naan

I love stuffed naan. But what we get in restaurants are made out of Maida. When I saw the post for Wheat stuffed naan from Jayasree-Kailas Kitchen. I bookmarked immediately. It came out very well and couldnt even smell anything different. The naan were soft and tasted yummy. Thanks Jayasree for the recipe.

Paper Mountains for Golu

I always wanted a mountain in my Golu for Navarathri. As we are in flats, we dont get so much mud to create a big mountain. Last time I used a basket and covered it with mud so that I dont require huge amount of mud. So this time I created this paper mountain. I wanted them to look natural with the rugged look.

I made two types of mountains a simple one with painted steps and a gopuram on top of it. Another on with road and a holiday home on top of it.

All you need to make these are:

Newspaper - lots and lots of them

Fevicol

cello tape

tissue paper

Colours and Brush to paint the mountain

Roll the news paper lengthwise(along the longer side of it) and rotate it forming a circle(like a mosquito coil, but tightly). The coil with larger diameter forms the base. Stick the open end of the paper using the cello tape. Make another coil of paper but less in diameter than the base. Keep it over the base and stick it with the base. Repeat until you reach the top of the mountain. Stick the tissue paper all over to cover the newspaper. Dry it over night and paint in brown. Stick some grasses made out of paper. Draw the steps. Mountain is ready.

Tomato 'Anu' biata!

We had Tomato Arrabiata in a nearby restaurant and thought of trying it out. Here is my attempt to reproduce it in my kitchen. I have seen Arrabiata sauce in Nilgris, but I made it with the pizza sauce I had. Well it was not exactly Arrabiata but Anubiata!

Durrum Spaghetti - as required

Fun foods Pizza sauce - 2 tbsp

Pasta seasoning - 1 tbsp

Onion - 1 chopped

Garlic 7 or 8 pods chopped

Vegetables - 1 cup

(Carrot, cabbage - julienned), beans, cauliflower(parboiled in salt water), capsicum

Paneer - just 2 small cubes

Milk - 1/2 cup

Corn flour - 1 tbsp

Oil 1 tbspn

Salt as required

Boil 1 litre of water and add the spaghetti and salt as required. Cook till it is done, strain the water. In a kadai heat the oil, fry the onions, add carrot, beans and fry for couple of minutes then add the cabbage and cauliflower. Add 2 spoons of pizza sauce and keep frying. In the mixie blend together paneer, milk and add corn flour to it(This was not there in the spagetti we had, I wanted paneer in that). Add this and chopped garlic to the veggies. Add salt. Once the vegetables are just done, add the cooked spaghetti and the pasta seasoning. I dint add oil to the cooked spaghetti as we do for noodles as they were not sticking together. Toss for around 2 mins. Finally add the capsicum and remove from fire.

Glass Painting- 2

Glass Painting is not a difficult one, provided you have a good design and and you are able to get rid of the bubbles while painting.

It is not new to me. I did my first painting almost 2 years back. But never framed it. I had wrapped it with a paper and kept it in the loft. Now I have all the worlds time, I thought of framing it. OMG, the paper was sticking to the paint and I couldnt remove it at all. Now I learnt one important lesson about Glass Painting : You should never wrap it with paper and should use only cloth! Lessons learnt the hard way.

I had some left over paints and now that I painted the bottles, I started thinking of a complete painting. Finalized the design and here is my first framed Glass Painting.

Kuzhi Paniyaaram

I am using Kuzhi Paniyaara kal or chatti extensively for making Potato or colacasia(seppan kizhangu) fry. I also use it for shallow frying the appams(not the chettinad aappam). It has been long since I made the paniyaaram. So here it goes...

I made Kuzhi paniyaaram with Onion sambar and tomato chutney.

Par boiled rice(puzhungal arisi) 1 cup

normal rice- I dont know how to call it! (pacharisi) 1 cup

Urad dhall - 1/2 cup

Cooking soda - a Pinch

Curd - 1/4 cup

Salt as required

Chillies as required

Onion 1 big finely chopped

Carrot - 1 grated

Ginger- 1 inch piece finely chopped

Coconut pieces - 1 cup finely chopped

Oil for shallow frying the paniyaarams

Soak the rice for 2 hours and dhall for an hour. Grind them along with chilles, consistency same as idly batter. Let it ferment for a night. I ground the batter in the morning and used them for the dinner. Just while making the paniyaarams add the curd, chopped onions, ginger, carrot, coconut pieces and the pinch of cooking soda. Mix well. Heat the paniyaara chatti, pour just 2 drops of oil, yes, you heard it right. This is more than enough if you are using the non stick version of the kadai.

Pour the batter only till half of the kuzhi or pit. Wait till small pores appear on the surface of the batter. Use the spatula or spoon to turn the paniyaaram and let it get cooked on the other side also. Spongy Paniyaaram is ready!

There is a variation to this traditional paniyaaram. Grind some coriander and mint leaves along with chillies and add to one part of the above said batter. This will give you beautiful green paniyaarams. Make a pulp of a tomato, cook it for some 2 minutes along with some garam masala, chilly powder, turmeric and ginger garlic paste. Add it to the batter. This will give you orange paniyaarams. I have tried these, trust me they will look lovely and taste great!

Stuffed Bread

When going through Chitvish recipes in Indus ladies. I happened to see this one. Made slight variation to suit my taste. I became too greedy and added all the vegetables I could lay my hands on from the fridge and tried it today for dinner! It tasted very very nice.

Bread:

Multi grain atta - 1 cup

Maida - 1 cups
Salt - as required
Sugar - 2 tsp
Olive oil (recipe called for refined oil or ghee) - 2 tbsp
Milk & water - ¼ cup each
Dry yeast - 1 tbsp

Dissolve yeast in warm mixture of milk & water stir well leave for 10 mins. Take atta + Maida + Sugar + Salt + Olive oil and make a very soft elastic dough and wait for 1.5 hours to double

Filling:

Grated Paneer - 1/4 cup
Finely chopped tomatoes - 2

Finely chopped Onion - 1

Green chillies - as required

Sliced Garlic pods - 10 nos
Jeera - for Tempering
Finely chopped Coriander leaves - as required
Carrot and cabbage shredded - 1 cup

Boiled mashed Potato - 1

Boiled Green peas - 1/4 cup

Sweet corn kernels - 1/4 cup

Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Heat pan and add oil. Add the jeera to it then add onion and green chillies.
Add the tomatoes and fry for 3 minutes. Now add Carrot, cabbage, mashed potatoes, peas, sweet corn, Salt. Fry till the mixture becomes dry. Add grated panner, garam masala and coriander leaves.

Let it cool for some time.

Followed the procedure to make the braided bread as in the original recipe. Recipe asked to keep in a closed cupboard. Didnt know where to keep. So kept it inside the OTG, of course when switched off. It rained today and the temperature was a bit low so thought it would be safe there as the dough also needs warm place to raise. After an hour brushed it with warm milk. I had kept the dough for 4 hours. Prepared the dough by 4pm. Made the braided bread by 5.30pm and baked the bread by 8pm.
Preheat oven to 220 deg celcius and bake for 20 minutes or till brown.

Oats Almond cookies

This is a low fat cookie I baked almost a month back. I followed the recipe from a little bit more religiously. I didnt have oats flour, so just ground the quick cooking oats and neither bothered to sift as the recipe asks and additionally I added the raisins.

It was a guilt free cookie. Never tasted different from any other cookie with loads of butter and sugar!

I totally forgot to take a snap of the cookie to post here till I packed the last cookie in DH's snack box. Didnt have time in the morning to move it to a plate and didnt bothered abt the angles or anything. Just clicked it!

Vanilla cup cake

I am brave enuf to blog about my screwups now!

I cannot really say it a screw up but it was not upto the mark! Of course edible and already gobbled. Only last few pieces left..

This is the first time I am baking muffins. This can be an excuse as I am a first timer for muffins.

Most of the remakes are not working out in tamil cinema! Exactly same thing happened to me. The original recipe was from Jayasree of Kailas Kitchen. The end product was looking heavenly with chocolate chips and wonderful shape. She has even done a coffee version of that. Mine looked famished. But the taste was good, I am emphasizing again.

Not much changes made. I dint have chocolate chips, so substituted with tutti fruity. I just made half of the measurement just to be on the safer side.

Now time for you to have a look at it:

Can you guess why I have cut the muffin into four?? It got blasted on the top!

There were 4 splits on the top of it.. so i had cut it to make it visually pleasing.

Glass Painting

It is appropriate to call it bottle painting!

Painted these Heritage flavoured milk bottles with Glass colors. Initially intended for money plants now it has the colored bubbles!

Ganesha Wall hanging

Yet another art work using chalk powder..

This time a wall hanging.

The base is a card board from calendar. The wavy effect, outline, Jewellery and designs in the dress for Ganesha has been given by Chalk powder + Fevicol dough. Used Acrylic Pearl metallic colors and some kundan stones.

Chalk powder Jewellery

This is the first work I completed using the chalk powder. I made this for DD for one of her silk pavadai.

In this piece, the pendant, earrings and the golden beads in the necklace are made of chalk powder. I mixed the chalk powder and Fevicol in a consistency of Chapathi dough to be shaped. Made balls from the dough and inserted a thin stick for making holes on it for beading with the gear wire. Shaped the pendant and the earrings. Once dried, coloured with Fevicryl pearl metallic golden colour and let it for dry. Applied blue paper glitters for the pendant and the earrings. Had some age old blue beads with me. Alternated that with the golden beads and attached the pendant!

Decoration with Chalk Powder

I requested DH to to buy ceramic powder for making ceramic jewellery from the hardware shop but he ended up buying chalk powder. I didnt know anything to make from that. But once I bought it I googled day and night, (yes its true) to make use of it. You know its such a costly thing! Costs Rs.14 per kg :-)

Sad that not many used chalk powder extensively. So I replaced the ceramic powder art works with chalk powder and started my expedition and here is my first work(First conceived but finished last)!

It is a candle holder bought some 3 years back without much use.. Stuck DD's photo and decorated with the flowers made from a mixture of chalk powder and Fevicol MR.

Shaped the mixture(should be like chapathi dough) into flowers and leaves. Used Fevicryl pearl acrylic colors to color them and stuck it on the candle stand with Fevi qwik.

Pizza Roll

When I saw Twirly Whirly Pizza from Madhuram Eggless Cooking, I was very much inspired. I used to make pizzas with my home made base but didnt try this kind of Rolled ones...

I made the cheeseless version for me and the cheesy one for DH.

APF - 2 1/2 cups

Dry yeast - 3/4 tspn

Salt , Sugar, Water -as required

Honey - 1 tspn

Olive oil - 2 tspn

Toppings of your choice

Pizza spread - as required

Mozzarella cheese - as required

In warm water mix the yeast and keep it for 10 mins. To the Maida add salt, sugar, honey, dissolved yeast and a spoon for Olive oil. Knead the dough into medium consistency, not too soft or not too hard. pour another spoon of olive oil over the dough and cover with a moist cloth.

After an hour again knead the dough and cover it back with the cloth. I kept the dough for 3 hours and in between every hour did the kneading.

Spread the dough using the rolling pin into a square shape( I made it thin bcoz if it is thick rolling with the toppings will be a problem). Spread the pizza spread(I used fun foods pizza spread) over the dough.

I used my usual pizza toppings -baby corns, green peas, onion, tomato, garlic, capsicum on the base, rolled them and cut them into 3 inch pieces, arranged with cheese over the final setting.

Baked the pizza in the OTG for 20 mins at 200 deg celcius and they were yummy!

Beading!!

I bought a Beading kit for my DD during her Summer vacation to improve concentration. It had around 10 different shapes/colours of beads along with the wire and locks to make the bead strings. She liked it and experimented with different combinations.

Now that the school has reopened I took over it and used the beads to make these.

The below are the pictures of crystal set made for a designer saree. With the left over crystals I made the earrings.

Its raining Cookies..

After Cake I wanted to try Cookies. I searched for simple, tried and tested ones. Finally decided to try Jayashree's Chocolate chip cookies.

All you need is:

Butter 1/2 cup

Sugar- white 1 cup

Vanilla essence 1 tspn

Flax seed powder 2 tspn in 1/4 cup water

Whole wheat flour 1 1/2 cup

Baking powder 1/2 tspn

Chocolate chips 1/4 cup

Cream butter and sugar. Mix Flaxseed powder with water. Add vanilla essence to it.

Add the creamed butter & sugar mixture to the flaxseed mixture.

Sift Whole wheat flour, baking powder. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry one. Finally the best part - add chocolate chips to it. Shape them and bake in the preheated oven @ 190 deg cel for 20 mins.

I didnt had enuf patience for the cookie to cool and so when I broke it was soft. I got really disappointed. I was thinking what was the mistake as I followed the recipe religiously. So I left it and went to tend to my DD.

When DH came he smelt the aroma and asked whats cooking! I told him in a sad tone abt the soft cookies. I gave him one and it was crispier! Do wait for sometime for the cookies to cool and become crispy. Patience always pays.. else you will have soft cookies only!

Zardosi Work

I accompanied my SIL AA to Pandian Thread Store in Ranganathan street as she wanted to buy Jewellery Making materials. I also bought some along with her to just give a try. I saw a very beautiful wall hanging and enquired abt that. The girl told it is Zardosi Painting and they have ready to use kit available. I decided to try it and it costs Rs.120.

The kit had Felt cloth with the design, Zardosi thread(looks like springs, should not be stretched), Glue, Glitters, a brush, Kundan stones.

All you need to do is stick the Zardosi thread on the outline given, decorate with glitters and kundan stones.

Though the procedure is easy, it required good amount of patience. It was not easy to stick the threads in curves. They came out. So I had to cut and stick it. I did a messy job. I thought I will never finish it. Moreover the zardosi thread given in the kit was not sufficient. I again bought some more threads for Rs.10.

First day I had severe neck pain and DH told me not to strain. I worked on it for a week and the end result was quite impressive at least for me :-)

Now I am ready to buy the next kit- Embossed painting which I saw in the same shop. This costs Rs.55 for the kit with the design and paints.

Garlic Bread

I was searching the web about baking. When I came across a video in YouTube about Garlic bread. But I was not convinced. I started searching for the recipe for Garlic bread. Each of them had different seasonings added and the way the garlic was used.

I thought they will use the Garlic while preparing the bread dough itself for the aroma. But none of them showed about making the bread.

I changed it based on the ingredients I had and made it with Dinner rolls from Nilgris. It came out well and was crispy and yummy.


Dinner rolls - a pack has 5 long buns
Salted butter - 100 gms(I bought Amul salted butter)
Garlic pods from one full garlic
Pasta seasoning(has a mix of oregano, thyme, rosemary from Keya available in Nilgris)
Cheese gratings

Chop/Crush the peeled Garlic pods into fine pieces. Beat the garlic pieces with the butter and sprinkle the Pasta seasoning over it as required.
Spread the butter on the dinner rolls and grate cheese on top of it(can skip if you are watching your waist line). Again sprinkle the seasoning over cheese if you want.
Preheat the oven and keep the rolls for 15 mins at 180 deg celcius.
Crispy Garlic bread is ready.

First Bake - Chocolate Brownie

I went to Nilgris to check out on ready to make Cake mixes. The Chocolate Brownie from Fun foods had an attractive image on the cover and it was only 65. So I got it immediately.

I had nothing to do in that. Just mix the powder with the required amount of melted butter, beat it and bake @180 degree celcius for 20 minutes.


Wow, it had a nice aroma while baking. But still I had a problem in this. In every blog it is said that grease the cake tin and pour the mix. I too greased it with butter and dusted with Maida.
But I had tough time taking the brownie out of the tin. My husband showed all his might to take it off the tin and was successful!

I was very happy and the brownie tasted soft and yummy. We had topped it with butter scotch icecream and it vanished in 2 days!

I've asked Jayasree of Kailas Kitchen about greasing and dusting. Once she replies shall update shortly.

My Prestige OTG pirandha kadhai!

I've been thinking of buying an OTG for long. I saw different models of OTG in Prestige smart kitchen when I went to buy my non-stick tava. But the sales person suggested to buy a Convection MW instead of OTG so that I can cook and bake. I already have Solo MW but offlate I couldnt use it as the converter developed some problems.

I was confused whether I really want to go for an OTG or should I buy a Convection MW. During that time I came across the blog: Kailas Kitchen. I mailed Jayasree on all my doubts regarding OTG and MW. She had enough patience to answer all my questions on the selection of OTG and got lots and lots of inputs from her. She suggested Bajaj OTG which she bought in Big Bazzar. But when I went there they only had some Koryo brand.. which is their own make. I dint want to buy one xyz make. Though Prestige is an established company but OTG is a new product from them. So I was not convinced to go back to Prestige OTG.

I have dropped plan of buying OTG. Two weeks later, DH got some celebrating points(Points are awarded to employees for their Performance from time to time which can be redeemed for some products). We were browsing on those products and I saw Prestige OTG 29 ltrs was listed in that. Donno why I have the feeling like if I am not spending from my pocket, I feel like it comes for free. I immediately asked him to order that. In 15 days I received the OTG.

There were so many accesories in that which was not explained in the User Manual. The manual was of absolutely no use. I took the all of them to the Prestige smart kitchen and asked the person incharge there about their functionalities like how to fix the rotisseri rods inside the OTG, what are the skewers for etc.
My MIL asked me what can I make in that.. I had no answer. Though a lot can be cooked/baked, I dont know anything to make in that. Again my only saviour - Jayasree..Emails were sent back and forth and finally I got some guts to do something in that.

First I toasted bread in that. Yes it an Oven Toaster Griller. So you need not laugh. I have completely used one of its functionality. It dint turn golden brown with fine dark brown lines. But it was crisp and tore my gums :-( But the best is I need not be near it and it was not burnt.

The first successful bake will be posted in the next blog!

Kashmiri Pulav

Basmathi Rice – 1 cup
Ginger garlic Paste – 1 spoon
Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
Cloves – 3
Cardomomi – 3
Cumin seeds – ¾ spoon
Aniseed – ¾ spoon
Pepper – ¼ spoon
Ghee – 2 spoons
Yellow food color – as preferred
Fruits cut into equal sizes( Apples, Pomegranate, Grapes, Pineapples) – 1 cup
Dry fruits (Pista, Cashew, Raisins, Badam) – ¼ cup
Salt – As required
1. Rinse and soak the Basmathi rice for 5-20 mins
2. In a kadai pour a spoon of Ghee and add cumin and aniseed first
3. Subsequently add cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, grounded pepper(can add green chilli if preferred)
4. Also add ginger garlic paste.
5. Just fry for 30 seconds and add the drained rice
6. Fry for 2 more minutes
7. Stop the flame, pour the rice and masala mix in the Rice cooker and add 1 and ½ cups of water along with required amount of salt, yellow food color, 1 spoon of ghee and cook.
8. Fry the Dry fruits with just little ghee and keep
9. Once rice is cooked garnish with the fruits and dry fruits.
10. I had made Onion Raitha and cauliflower pakodas.

Aapam & Thenga paal

Aapam
Pacharisi – 1 cup
Boiled rice – 1 cup
Urad dhall – ¼ cup
Methi seeds – ½ spoon
Salt - As required
1. Soak both the rices and methi together for 2 hours and ural dhall for just one hour.
2. I used mixie to grind the ingredients as the quantity was less. But grinding in the grinder can give better results.
3. First I prefer grinding the urad dhall till fluffy and then ground the rice as a thick batter.
4. Add the salt to the rice and ural dhall, mix, let it ferment for min 10 hours
5. When making the aapams dilute the batter with the 3rd coconut milk.
6. Heat the aapa kadai.
7. Pour the batter in the centre and rotate the kadai so that the batter spreads in the kadai.

8. Close the kid till aapam cooks.
9. Once it is cooked serve with coconut milk!
Coconut Milk:
Cococunt -1 scraped
Elachi -2

Sugar - 6 Spoons

1. Scrap the coconut and grind in the mixer with 1 cup of water
2. Strain the juice and again grind with another cup of water
3. Grind again with another cupt of water and strain the juice. This shall be used for diluting the aapam batter.
4. Take the 1st and 2nd cups of coconut milk, add the sugar(add or reduce based on your preference), also add the elachi.
5. Bring to just one boil
6. Serve with aapam.