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.

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.

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!