Khandvi | Kids Appetizers

Hi Peeps

Wish you a very happy Diwali!

This month I am participating in blogging marathon after a long time.

Sharing a very yummy appetizer today. It comes from Gujrati cusine, but it is loved by all in India and out of.

Kids especially love this since it is not too spicy but very tasty it is :). The texture of khandvi is very soft and silky. Preparing it perfectly is a bit tricky, I am not there yet, but trying :)

Ingredients

1 cup besan (bengal gram flour)

1 cup curds (dahi)

a pinch of asafoetida (hing)

1/2 teaspoon drops of lemon juice

1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

2 tsp fresh grated ginger

green chilli paste (optional - I did not use since I was making for kids)

salt to taste

oil for greasing 

For tempering:

2 tsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)

1 tsp sesame seeds (til)

1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing)

2 green chillies split vertically

curry leaves

For The Garnish

2 tbsp freshly grated coconut (optional)

2 tbsp finely chopped coriander (dhania)

Method 

Grease 3 thalis (10” diameter each) with oil on both the sides and keep aside.

Combine the curds and 1½ cups of water in a deep bowl, mix well and keep aside.

Combine the besan, curds-water mixture, asafoetida, lemon juice, turmeric powder, ginger-green chilli paste and salt in a deep non-stick pan and mix well using a whisk till no lumps remain to make a smooth mixture.

Switch on the flame and cook on a slow flame for 9 minutes, while stirring continuously or till it thickens.

Spread a spoonful of the batter on a greased thali, wait for a few seconds and try to roll it up. If it doesn’t roll then cook for 1 more minute and then check once more if it gets rolled perfectly.

While it is still hot, pour little portions of the mixture on the insides of 3 greased thalis and spread the mixture in a circular motion into a thin layer using a vati.

Turn all the 3 thalis and spread the remaining mixture on their back side in the similar matter as step 6.

Allow them to cool for 5 to 10 minutes and roll them up tightly.

Cut each roll into 6 equal pieces and keep aside.

For the tempering, heat the oil in a small non-stick pan and add the mustard seeds.

When the seeds crackle, add the sesame seeds, asafoetida and sauté on a medium flame for a few seconds.

Pour the tempering over the khandvis.

Garnish with coconut and coriander and serve.

Sending this to Srivalli's Kid’s Delight event, guest hosted by Sapana, themed on Bite Size Appetizers

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Tomato chutney for idli and dosas

Chutney and dips have a special place in Indian cuisine, different types of chutneys are made to serve along with snacks and meals.
 When ever we make south Indian snacks we usually make coconut chutney, but tomato chutney is also a  popular tangy and easy accompaniment to serve with soft idlis and dosas. It is easy to make and stays well for a fortnight if kept refrigerated. The roasted lentils give a nice nutty flavour and texture to this tomato chutney.

INGREDIENTS-
Tomato,chopped -400 gms (4 medium)
Bengal gram/chana daal - 3 tbsp
White lentil/urad daal -1 tbsp
Red kashmiri chilies -2
Curry leaves -10
Turmeric /haldi - 1/3 tsp
Tamarind/imli ,dried - 1tsp (optional, i did not add it)
Salt - to taste
Asafoetida /hing- 1/4 tsp
Cooking oil -2 tsp
Grated Coconut -  tbsp
For Tempering:
Cooking oil -1 tsp
Mustard seeds/rai - 1/2 tsp
Whole red chilies -2
Curry leaves-6
PROCEDURE-
Wash and chop tomatoes into small pieces. Heat oil in a pan and bengal gram and white lentil.Saute on low heat till they become golden in colour.Add dried red chilies and curry leaves and saute till chili gets a nice colour,but do not overcook otherwise the lentil may get burnt.Add turmeric, asafoetida, salt  and chopped tomatoes.Cook on medium flame till tomatoes become soft.Remove the mixture in a bowl and let it cool down completely.Add the tomato mixture, tamarind (if using), grated coconut in the mixer jar.Grind the mixture to make a smooth paste.Take out the chutney in a bowl.Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds.When seeds start crackling add whole red chilies and few curry leaves and  add in the chutney. Mix and serve with dosa and idlis. Keep refrigerated the left over chutney.

 

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 58.

Muhamarra dip

I made this dip and asked my friends at office and home to taste. I told them this does not have onion, tomato, ginger or garlic. So guess what it is made up of. Yep they could not guess it but loved the taste. I enjoyed watching them tickle their brains. And since they loved it so much and asked me so many times, I did share my secret..hehe

I know it is not much of a secret in the food blogging world, it is fun to share none the less..

I was simple amazed by the lovely red colour of this dip! With few healthy ingredients you have a yummy dip ready in no time.  It tasted heavenly with a toasted bread. Do give this recipe a try if you have not already made it.

Muhammara is a red pepper and walnut dip which originated in Syria. It is one of the most popular dips in Middle Eastern Cuisine. This is a very simple dip and one just has to blend the ingredients to a paste.
1 big red bell pepper
1/2 onion
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Handful walnuts
1-4 tsp red chilly powder
1/4 tsp cuminseeds
Lemon juice
Salt to taste

Roast the bell pepper on slow fire till completely charred.
Let cool.
Scrape off the charred skin.
Wash the pepper and chop it roughly.
Blend the bread crumbs in a food processor, adding a little water and making a purée.
Sauté the onion till golden.
Now add these onions to the bread crumb puree .
Also add the walnuts, pepper,chilly powder, cuminseeds, lemon juice , salt and olive oil.
Blend it to a smooth paste adding olive oil as needed to get the right consistency.
Serve as a dip with pita, wedges, chips or as a spread over a toast. It can also be served as a sauce with kebabs.

 

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 58.

Namak Paare | Easy diwali snacks

Hope you had a good diwali! Sharing one of the very popular diwali snack. .namak paare..these munchies are so addictive and so easy to prepare! 

You got to try these if not already! 

These are excellent with tea or pickle or on their own too :)

Ingredients -

• 3 Cup – APF(maida)
• 1 cup - Wheat flour
• 2 tsp – Carom Seeds
• 3 Tbsps – Oil for kneading the dough
• 2 tsp - crushed kasoori methi
• to taste – Salt
• Oil for frying

Method -

1. In a large bowl mix flour, salt, kasoori methi & carom seeds.
2. Add oil for knading mix gently. Now hold the flour in your fist, if it forms a loose clump, then the amount of oil is fine, if it doesn’t then add a bit more oil.
3. Using water knead the dough. The dough should be slightly hard to touch. Wrap in a wet muslin cloth & keep it aside for 1/2 hour.
4. Form big balls with the dough. Roll these balls using a rolling pin. Use a knife to cut square or rhombus shaped pieces.
5. Heat oil in a big wok, fry these pastry till golden brown.
6. Enjoy warm with tea or coffee or pickle.  It will store well in air-tight container at room temp for several days.

Sending this to blogging marathon 58 hosted by Srivalli.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#58

Pink Pound Cake

Like most girls, little miss loves everything pink! And then she wanted a pink cake! I thought of few options to make the cake pink—beetroot, strawberry..then thought why not add rooh afza to the batter and get lovely rose flavoured and aromatic cake..and yes it was pink too J

Any suggestions to get a lovely pink color for the cakes ?

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter (at room temperature) - 1/2 cup 

Sifted Cake flour - 150 grams 

Milk at room temperature - 3 Tbsp

Granulated sugar - 150 grams ( 3/4 cup)

Pure Vanilla extract - 1 and 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Large eggs (at room temperature) - 2

Rooh afza - 2 tbsp

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 F or 177 C and place the rack in the middle or center of the oven.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, rooh afza and the vanilla extract.

In another bowl add the flour, baking powder,sugar and salt and mix. you can use a hand mixer. Now add the butter and half of the egg mixture and mix at low speed just until the flour is moistened.

 If you are using hand mixer, you might want to do it a bit longer. This will help to aerate the cake batter and to develop the cake structure. Scrape down the batter and add the remaining egg mixture in 2 additions beating for about 30 seconds after each addition.

Scrape the batter in to the loaf pan which we kept ready earlier. 

Bake this cake for about 55 - 60 until the tooth pick when inserted comes out clean and the outer crust is golden brown. Keep an eye on the cake. At about 30 minutes, if you see that the outer crust of the cake is browning to too fast, here is what you do. Take an aluminium foil large enough to cover the open part of the loaf pan. Apply butter to it and cover the loaf pan with foil (butter side inside ).

When the cake is done, remove from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Transfer the cake to a lightly butter wire rack.

This cake can be frozen for up to 2 months or remains fresh in the fridge for about a week or so.

ENJOY!!

Sending this to blogging marathon 58 hosted by Srivalli.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#58

Garlic and cilantro/fenugreek rolls | Bread baking

Baking is therapeutic, its like creating something magical! I baked these garlic cilantro fenugreek pull apart rolls for the first time for a birthday party. They came out excellent with the yummy filling.
It was loved by my friends and vanished in no time!

Ingredients

For the  dough

4  cups – All purpose flour  (Maida)
1 Tbsp Instant yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups warm water
2 Tbsp olive oil/butter

For the filling

Mix all the ingredients given below to prepare the filling.

2 Tbsp butter at room temperature
1 tsp mixed herbs – oregano,basil,rosemary and garlic powder
¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp fine chopped cilantro/coriander leaves
Few sprigs of fresh fenugreek leaves.. You can use kasoori methi if fresh not available
Prove the yeast – add the sugar to 1/2 cup of warm water. Mix well. The water has to be just the right temperature- not too hot because that will kill the yeast not too cool because the yeast won’t prove. Drop some on the back of your wrist and it should feel warm there. Add the yeast and rest covered for 10-15 minutes. The yeast should froth like soapy bubbles. If it doesn’t, throw the mix and start afresh. Proper proving of the yeast is vital to good bread!
In a big bowl, take the flour and salt. Mix.
Once the yeast has bloomed, add it to the flour and knead the dough with the remaining 1 cup of water. It will be sticky and it is meant to be like that.
Add the Olive oil/butter and knead for another 10-12 minutes.
Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with cling film, or a kitchen towel and rest for 11/2 to 2 hours. The dough should double up. The time actually depends on the weather conditions-if very hot, it doubles sooner than the 1 ½ hours. This is the first prove.
Remove from the bowl once the dough is doubled and gently knock out the air. Here I split the dough into two. I used one half to make the pull apart rolls and the other half for a square focaccia and 6 mini burger buns.
Roll it out into a  big square or circle as desired of about one inch thickness . Spread the filling generously.
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Roll the circle/square to make a cylinder.
Cut into equal pieces using a pizza-cutter or a knife.
Place the cut cylinders into a well greased baking pan.
Cover and let it rise for about 45 minutes (till doubled)
When there are 20 minutes to go, pre-heat the oven at 200C.
Brush gently with milk and bake  at 180C for 20-25 minutes till golden brown
Serve fresh out of the oven.

The pull aparts are great on their own or can be served for any of the meals :).
Happy Diwali! !

Sending this to blogging marathon 58 hosted by Srivalli.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#58

Zucchini Kofte

Sharing a yummy kofte recipe with Zucchini today as my 2nd dosh using Zucchini for blogging marathon 50.

Ingredients:

For Kofte:

3 grated zucchini – almost a kg

2 tbsp gram flour

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp red chili powder, garam masala each

A generous pinch of Heeng ( asafoetida)

1 tbsp grated ginger

Oil for frying

For Gravy:

2 medium tomatoes – chopped roughly

1 medium Onions – chopped small

4-5 garlic pods, minced or made into paste

1 piece of ginger- grated or chopped as per your liking

2-3 red chilies

1 tsp Cumin seeds

2-3 cardamom pods, crushed

A pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon each

1-2 bay leaves

1 tbsp Kasuri Methi

2 tbsp Oil

Salt to taste

Method:

Squeeze the juice out of Zucchini and keep it aside, we will use this same water in the gravy preparation.

Now mix all the ingredients given above in the “Kofte” list except Sesame seeds and Salt and mix well. Add  salt at the end, else the mixture will release water very soon.

Make small equal sized balls out of the mixture. Heat oil in a wok if you are deep frying the balls and test the temperature by frying a small ball. Deep fry all the balls on low-medium temperature till the outer shell turns brown. Keep them on a kitchen towel to soak extra oil.

Gravy:

Heat oil in a pan, throw cardamom pods, bay leaves, dried red chilies and cumin seeds together and fry for half a minute.

Add in minced garlic, ginger, chopped tomatoes and onion and add salt, cinnamon and nutmeg ( if using ) to it. Cook covered for 5-7 minutes on medium flame stirring in between

Tomatoes should be really mushy and mixed up by now, if the gravy is getting dry add some water to it till tomatoes get all mashed up into a thick gravy. You may use the same water which we squeezed out from zucchini. When the masala is all done, add water and let it come to a boiling point on a medium flame. Turn off the flame, add koftas balls into the gravy and cover it up. Garnish with garam masala or coriander leaves just before serving.

Zucchini Pancake/chilla | Healthy Breakfast recipe

Sharing a yummy breakfast recipe with you today. This is full of protein with the goodness of egg and zucchini. You can skip the eggs and add some curd for a vegetarian version. These pancakes are quite filling too and sure to be a hit with children! 

Tried these some time back and i am glad it was liked by all. Health bhi taste bhi..happy me  :)

This is my entry for Blogging marathon 50 - one ingredient -three dishes - chse Zucchini as my ingredient

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Wheat flour
1/2 cup APF/rice flour
1 Zucchini (peeled and grated about 1 cup)
1 small Onion(finely chopped about 1/4 cup)
1/4 tsp Dry mint leaves
Coriander leaves handful
2 Eggs
a small pinch of Baking powder
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
Oil as needed

Method:
Mix all the ingredients adding water as needed to make a thick batter. Heat a non stick pan / griddle and pour a ladle full of batter to make a small thick pancake.Spoon a little oil and fry both sides until done. Serve hot with ketchup or chil sauce.

Khaman Dhokla

Khaman dhokla, yummy snack from the streets of gujarat. These can be enjoyed as breakfast, snack or as a farsaan (savoury accompaniment) in the lunch or dinner menu. Traditioanlly it is made by soaking and grinding chana dal. These versatile dhoklas can be steamed in a traditional dhokla steamer or in a microwave oven.

Ingredients

1 cup besan (Bengal gram flour)

1 1/2 tbsp semolina (rava)

3 1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp ginger- green chilli paste

1/2 tsp citric acid (nimbu ka phool) or 1 tsp lemon juice

salt to taste

1 1/2 tsp fruit salt

1/4 tsp oil for greasing

Other Ingredients

1 tsp oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)

1/2 tsp sesame seeds (til)

2 green chillies , chopped

a pinch of asafoetida (hing)

2 to 3 curry leaves (kadi patta)

For The Garnish

2 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania)

Method

Combine all the ingredients together, except the fruit salt in a bowl and mix well adding water as required (approximately ¾ cup) to make a thick batter.Just before steaming, add the fruit salt and add 2 tsp of water over it.

When the bubbles form, mix gently.Pour the batter immediately into a greased thali/flat vessel and shake the it to spread the batter in an even layer.

Steam for 12 to 15 minutes or till the dhoklas are cooked. Keep aside.

Tempering:

Heat the oil in small pan and add the mustard seeds.

When the seeds crackle, add the sesame seeds, green chillies and asafoetida, mix well and sauté on a medium flame for a second, while stirring continuously.

Remove from the flame, add 2 tbsp of water and mix well. Pour the tempering over the dhoklas.

Cool slightly and cut into equal pieces. Serve immediately garnished with coriander.

This is my entry for Blogging Marathon #50, Week 1, Day 1, with the theme Colorful dishes for kidswhich also happens to be the theme Varada of Varada's Kitchen is hosting as a part of Srivalli's Kids Delight series.

Nayana's event: Event announcement ~ Lets cook for Mothersday

Cheesy Egg Penne Pasta | Kids favorite!

I am basically a vegetarian turned eggetarian after marriage. I was not comfortable eating egg, but would try it because of the health benefits. Now also I cannot have egg in the raw forms like half fries or some bland egg scrambles!
But yes now i do try to include egg in my cooking so that it becomes nutritious for the little one as well as all of us.

Here i have created the sauce with egg, cheese and lots of veggies. I added the egg after adding the boiled pasta to the veggies and stirred it continuously, so that it remains like a sauce.

Do try this out and let me know how you liked it :)

Ingredients

2 cups Penne pasta
2 Eggs
1 Onion
1 tomato
1 tsp Garlic powder
1 tbsp chopped Green capsicum
1 tbsp Red bell pepper cut lengthwise
1 carrot cut lengthwise
1 broccoli floret
1 cheese slice
2 tbsp of mixed grated cheese
half tsp Black pepper powder
oregano
Salt As needed
1 tbsp Oil


Method

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Drain the water from the pasta and keep it aside. I have used penne

pasta, you can choose any pasta of your choice.

Heat oil in a pan, add finely chopped ginger, garlic and saute until raw smell vanishes.add the onions, salt and saute until they turn golden brown color. Add tomato. Cook until it turns mushy.
Now add the capsicums/bell peppers, broccoli, carrot and fry for 3 to 4 minutes  covered on medium flame or until the vegetable turns soft.
Add mixed herbs,cheese, salt and mix thoroughly until well combined.
Now add the cooked pasta and toss it gently on low flame, Add the egg to the mixture. mix until the vegetables and eggs are well mixed with the pasta.
Adjust the amount of salt, black pepper powder according to your taste.
Switch off the stove and transfer it to a serving bowl.
Finally sprinkle mixed herbs or oregano, garlic powder .drizzle few drops of olive oil and serve them hot.

This is my entry for Blogging Marathon #50, Week 1, Day 1, with the theme Colorful dishes for kidswhich also happens to be the theme Varada of Varada's Kitchen is hosting as a part of Srivalli's Kids Delight series.

Nayana's event: Event announcement ~ Lets cook for Mothersday

Baked veggie and bread savory muffins

Hi Peeps

Sharing a recipe on  my bog after almost 2 months..no i didnt stop cooking! Its just that my vagarious mind was in a mood to post all the itty bitty crafts that i did with my little one..hope you enjoyed the :)

Today sharing with you a yummy recipe which instantly became our family favorite! I desperately wanted to try this when I saw the recipe here and got a chance to make this during christmas holidays. So happy that DH and little miss loved it! yeppi..taste bhi health bhi 

These savory muffins can be had as breakfast or evening snack, Makes an excellent snack or kids lunch box. The only catch for me was to get it out of the tin or the muffin liners, I am sure it will come out easily when cooled, but both the times that I made this, we did not have the patience to let it cool! :) This is definitely a must try recipe.

Ingredients:

brown bread, chopped – 1 cup (i took 3 slices)

egg – 2

black pepper powder – 1 tsp

butter – 1 tbsp

shredded cheese – ½ cup

salt as per taste

finely chopped vegetables – ½ cup (tomato, bell pepper, carrot, onion)

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.

Combine chopped bread, egg, pepper powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk well, and add butter to it. Mix well till butter melts.Add all the vegetables and cheese to it, and mix well. Insert muffin liners into the muffin baking tray.Evenly distribute the batter into muffin pan. Spread some cheese on top. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow them to cool before eating. We could not wait for it to cool and finished it off within minutes!

This is my entry for Blogging Marathon #50, Week 1, Day 1, with the theme Colorful dishes for kidswhich also happens to be the theme Varada of Varada's Kitchen is hosting as a part of Srivalli's Kids Delight series.

Nayana's event: Event announcement ~ Lets cook for Mothersday

Corn Chat | Healthy Snacks

Hi Friends, 

Sharing a simple and yummy appetizer. It is vary healthy with goodness of boiled corn and zero oil. Made this as a accompaniment for tea when few friends visited us. Well loved by all :)

Ingredients:
1 can tinned corn
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 medium tomato, finely chopped
1 green chili, finely chopped (optional)
finely chopped coriander leaves
1 or 2 tsp lemon juice
¼ tsp red chili powder or as required
1 tsp chaat masala powder or as required
black salt or rock salt as required
for garnish:
a few coriander leaves
sev
tamarind chutney
green chutney

INSTRUCTIONS
boil or pressure cook the corn till the kernels are cooked well.when the corn cools down, mix the corn kernels along rest of the ingredients in a bowl.check the taste and add more salt or chaat masala or lemon juice if required.serve the corn chaat immediately, in individual serving bowls or plates topped with sev and a garnish of coriander and chutneys.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 47.

Cheesy potato balls | Kids delight

Ingredients

4 boiled potatoes

1 cup grated processed cheese/or 2 cheese slices cut into small pieces

1 green chilies, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

2 teaspoon fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

2 tablespoon bread crumbs

Oil for deep frying

Salt to taste

Instructions

Method:

Mash the boiled potatoes in a bowl.

Add finely chopped green chilies, red chili powder,turmeric powder, finely chopped fresh coriander leaves, bread crumbs and salt to taste.

Mix all the ingredients very well and keep aside. Now heat good amount of oil in a frying pan. Divide the potato mixture in small balls or portions. You can make about 12 balls from this quantity of mixture.

Take some oil in your palms, get one ball and smoothly round it, make a small hole in center and stuff good amount of grated cheese or small cheese piece in it. 

Now close the ball carefully from all the sides and in such way keep making all the balls and keep aside. Roll the ball in bread crumb.

When the oil is heated properly. Now drop 2-3 balls in hot oil and keep the flame from high to medium. It is very important to cook these balls on medium flame, so that you can enjoy the melted cheese and properly cooked potato mixture while eating. Keep frying and flipping for 2-4 minutes, till the balls turns out golden brown in color.

Drain on oil absorbent paper napkins.

Serve immediately with Dip, Sauce or Chutney of your choice.

Notes

If you do not want to deep fry these potato cheese balls, then you can bake them in oven at 450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. Will try this next time around :)

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 47.

Bread besan toasties

Ingredients:

finely chopped onions, tomatoes, ginger, green chilies and coriander leaves

4 bread slices

oil for shallow frying

1 cup besan/chickpea flour

turmeric powder, red chili powder, asafoetida and salt

Method:

In a bowl or small pan, take finely chopped onions, tomatoes, ginger, green chilies and coriander leaves. everything has to be finely chopped. otherwise its difficult to manage medium pieces of onions and tomatoes while frying the toast. Add besan/gram flour, turmeric powder, red chili powder, asafoetida and salt.add water.whisk to a medium consistency batter.

there should be no lumps in the batter. avoid make thin batter. in case the batter makes thin, add a few tablespoons of besan and whisk again.Heat 1 tbsp oil for frying in a tava or frying pan.

Dip the bread slice in the batter. with your hands, coat the bread slice evenly with the batter. also place the chopped onions & tomatoes on the bread slices with your hands. don’t keep the bread too long in the batter as then the slice breaks. Place the batter coated bread slices on the tava.
When the base is cooked and browned, flip and fry the other side. Flip and fry a couple of times to get even browning and cooking. fry the remaining bread slices in the same way. you can add more oil if required while frying the remaining batch. Remove and serve the besan toasts immediately, plain or with tomato ketchup or coriander chutney.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 47.

Puff pastry vegetable pinwheel

Ingredients
◾2 sheets vegan puff pastry
◾1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
◾1/2 cup onion (finely chopped)
◾1/2 cup tomato(finely chopped)
◾1/2 cup mixed vegetables
◾1/2 teaspoon salt
◾1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

Begin by taking your puff pastry sheets out of the freezer and thaw them.Heat your olive oil in a pan on the stove on medium to medium/high heat, and saute onions until are they  soft. Add tomato and mixed vegetables and cook untill they begun to soften. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Spread about 1/2 of filling mixture evenly on to your puff pastry. Roll up your puff pastry as tightly as possible without losing any of your toppings out the sides. This part can get messy. That's okay. :)
Once you have created a nice log with your puff pastry, use a sharp serrated knife to slice 3/4 inch thick rolls off of your log. Place rolls cut side up on to a prepared baking sheet. These pinwheels do expand some while being baked, so you won't want to try to fit more than 12 on a standard-sized baking sheet.
Bake these puppies at 350 degrees F for about 22 minutes, or until the puff pastry is just barely starting to turn golden brown on the edges.
To store, you can place the pinwheels in an airtight container and leave at room temperature for up to 48 hours, or place in the refrigerator for up to a week. (They will probably be eaten long before then, though.)
Enjoy! :)

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 47.

Coconut mawa laddu | Coconut balls with ricotta cheese | Coconut fudge

Ingredients:

Ricotta cheese - 2 cups (500 gm)

Sugar - 1 cup

Unsweetened dry desiccated coconut
Ghee or butter - 2 TBSP

Cardamom powder or vanilla - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Method:

Grease a plate with ghee. I lined a 8" cake pan with parchment paper. Set aside. Take a thick bottomed vessel. Add butter or ghee and turn on the heat. Once the butter or ghee has melted, add ricotta cheese. Keep stirring on medium flame till it starts bubbling and spitting the water out(approx after 5-10 mins). Add the sugar and immediately add the coconut powder. Stir. They all come together in 3 - 5 minutes. When there is almost no liquid left and it makes a huge mass, add the flavoring if using and stir for the final time.Make them into balls when cool enough to handle. Garnish with some chopped nuts if desired or roll it over dry dessicated cocunut.

Alternately, you can pour it on to the grease plate or the parchment paper lined pan. The mixture won't fall like that of fudge. Take a wax paper and cover the entire surface with it. Flatten by pressing on the top of the wax paper. Let it set and cool. When completely cool, cut into desired shape and size.

Store in the refrigerator up to 1 week if it lasts that long!

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 47.

Microwave Masala Peanut | Snacks on the go

Hi friends, 

Sharing a very simple and yummy snack which can be enjoyed with a cup of tea or can be munched on while on the go or just like that! I made this for the first time. Satisfied with the taste. Coating the peanuts completely with the flour was bit challenging. Any suggestions for accomplishing that are most welcome :)

Ingredients:

Cooking time - 15 mins; MW power - 900W

Raw Peanuts (shelled) - 1 1/2 cups

Besan/Kadalai Maavu/Chick Pea Flour - 2 tbsp heaped

Rice Flour - 1 tbsp - heaped

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - a big pinch

Salt - 1/2 tsp or to taste

Water - as required

Oil - 4 tbsp

Method:

In a wide bottomed glass (or any microwave-proof) bowl heat the oil in Microwave oven for 4 mins. Meanwhile, mix the peanuts, besan, rice flour, chilli powder, cumin powder and salt. Sprinkle water a teaspoon at a time and mix. Repeat until the mixture is coated all over the peanuts and resembles a crumble. Add the mixture to the hot oil and mix until the oil is coated all over. Microwave for 6 minutes stirring once in between. Allow 3 minutes of standing time (Leave in the microwave for 3 minutes undisturbed after it is done). Perfect snack with a cup of tea.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#46.