Stromboli

Stromboli has become one of my go to meals when it comes to entertaining. It is traditionally made with Italian bread dough. However, making it with pizza dough works just fine.Stromboli is stuffed with various meats/cheeses or almost anything else, rolled and baked. Make a big batch of pizza dough and this will become your favorite too.
           I am sharing the recipe for stuffing of Paneer tikka masala. Some of my other favorites for stuffing are tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese or mutter paneer or even pear and blue cheese. Stuff these with whatever you like and you will have a sure hit!

From left to right- Mutter paneer stuffing, baked stromboli ready to serve, tomato basil mozarella stuffed stromboli, paneer tikka masala stuffed stromboli

Ingredients:

Pizza dough (refer here for dough recipe)

For Paneer tikka masala

Paneer 1 cup, cubed
onion 1/3 cup, cubed
green bell pepper 1/3 cup, cubed
chaat masala 2 tea spoon
garam masala 1 tea spoon
kashmiri mirch 2 tea spoon
kasoori methi 1 tea spoon
thick yogurt 1 and 1/2 cups
besan (gram flour) 1/4 cups
ginger garlic paste 2 tea spoon
salt to taste


Method:

Make pizza dough per instructions and keep aside.
    To make paneer tikka masala, start with marinade. To make marinade, mix together yogurt, gram flour,spices, ginger garlic paste and salt. Add cubed paneer , bell pepper and onion and mix well. Set aside for half an hour.Heat oil in a pan. Add marinated paneer mixture along with the marinade and fry for couple minutes on medium heat. Season with salt and keep aside to cool completely.
        To make Stromboli, roll pizza dough 1/4 inch thick. Spread cooled paneer mixture onto the dough and roll the dough tightly to make a log. Make incisions on the log to help the steam escape.Bake in 375 F oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cut and serve warm.
       For this particular Stromboli , serve with mint chutney or tamarind chutney.


 

Pooran poli my way

Pooran poli is a traditional marathi sweet poli or roti made from chana daal stuffing. Making these polis is quite time consuming. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love the hot rotis served with ghee and warm milk. But if you have another way of getting the same taste without all the work, why not do that!

Traditional pooran poli.

         Making a pie out of pooran was an impromptu idea that paid off completely. Cardamom and nutmeg scented pie crust is filled with soft pooran  and topped with ghee just before serving. Serve it warm or cold, both are equally delicious. The best part is pie crust can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you are ready to bake it and/or fill it .
         The ingredients makes 1 8" pie.

Pooran Pie!

For pie crust-
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tb spoon sugar
3/4 tea sp baking powder
1/2 tea sp cardamom powder
1/4 tea sp freshly ground nutmeg
4 tb spoon cold butter, diced into pieces
3-4 tb spoon cold water

For pooran filling-
1 and 1/4 cups chana daal
2 and half cups of water
1 and 1/4 cups grated jaggery
1 tea spoon cardamom powder
1/2 tea spoon freshly ground nutmeg

Recipe-
Start by making the Pooran. Pressure cook chana daal with water until soft (4-5 whistles). Once cooked , remove from pressure cooker and keep aside to cool.Once cooled, transfer cooked daal to food processor and pulse a few times just to make it smoother. Don't puree it, you still want some texture. Transfer the smooth daal into a medium size heavy bottom pan. Add jaggery and cook on medium heat until the jaggery is melted and mixture starts to move with the spoon. Add cardamom and -nutmeg powders and mix well. Set aside to cool. Test the done-ness of the pooran by taking a spoonful of pooran between your palms and roll it to make a soft ball. If it becomes a ball, its done. If too dry or crumbly add couple of tablespoons of milk and mix well.

To make pie crust, mix together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder,cardamom powder and nutmeg powder. Add diced butter and mix the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers to make crumble like consistency. Add little cold water at a time until you have a dough ball. Transfer the ball into a plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

To make the pie, grease the pie plate with butter. Roll the crust about 1/2 inch thick to a circle little larger than the pie plate.Transfer carefully onto the pie plate and gently press into the form on the pan. Trim excess dough with knife . Poke holes at the bottom of the pie (this ensures that pie crust does not rise) and bake in 350 F oven for 25-30 minutes, until the pie crust is golden brown.Cool the crust completely and fill with pooran and refrigerate for up to 4 hours. Cut into pieces and serve.

PS- Ignore the flowers on top of the pie. They are made out of the excess pie crust dough.

Idli or is it?

Making idlis  is a long process. Soaking dal+rice, then grinding then fermenting. This is an instant version of idli similar to rava idli. Use cornmeal (used for polenta) instead of rava and result is equally good!

Ingredients:
1 cup finely ground cornmeal
1/4 cup fine rava
salt to taste
1/4 cup thick yogurt
3/4 cups water (depends upon the consistency of the yogurt)
1/2 tea spoon baking soda
1 tea spoon minced chillies(optional)

Method:
Mix together cornmeal,rava and salt in a mixing bowl. Add yogurt and minced chillies and 1/2 cup water and mix everything with a whisk. Set aside this mixture for 15 minutes. Grease the idli
 moulds with little oil. Just before pouring the mixture into the moulds, add additional 1/4 cup water and baking soda to the mixture and whisk everything together. Mixture will bubble up a little. Pour into the moulds and steam for 18-20 minutes on medium heat. Remove idlis from the moulds once they are cooked. Serve hot with coconut chutney.
 

The tale of the green papaya

I bought a green papaya to make this. Vegetarian version of course, but more about that sometime later.
    Papaya was so huge that ended up using only half of it. Leftover papaya was staring at me for a while and was stacked up in the refrigerator.I just had to use that up and salad again?! was the question asked by significant other or  the taste tester! So this recipe is out of sheer desperation to try something new with the papaya. It is similar to 'Gulamba'. Substitute green mango with green papaya and you have a tasty relish! It actually tastes better a day after making it.

Ingredients:
2 cups shredded papaya
1/2 cup shredded jaggery (as per taste)
1/2 tea spoon cardamom powder
1/8 tea spoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup water

Method:
In a pan, add water and jaggery and melt the jaggery. Once jaggery is melted, add shredded papaya and stir to combine. Cook papaya in jaggery syrup until the papaya is tender and syrup is 1 string consistency on low heat. It will take about 15 minutes. Add cardamom powder and nutmeg and mix everything. Cool to room temperature. Store in clean glass jar in the refrigerator. This will keep for  a week.

Note:
Green papaya is not as tangy as green mango. So you don't need lot of jaggery. Also, papaya contains less juice compared to mango. So you will have to add little water to make syrup.

Risotto n Rasam

You read it right!! Risotto is an Italian dish cooked by slowly adding hot water/stock to uncooked rice until you get the creamy texture. Adding rasam instead of the usual 'veg stock' gives risotto very nice taste.

       Rasam recipe came form a dear friend of mine. I did change it a bit because once the risotto is cooked , the flavour gets concentrated and if you use the usual ratio of rasam masala to water, you will end up with very spicy risotto.This may not be my everyday rice dish but its a pure comfort food!

       

Ingredients :
1 cup arborio rice
1 tb spoon chopped onion
1 tea spoon minced garlic (optional)
1 tb spoon oil

For the Rasam:
4 cups water
1 chopped tomato
1/4 tea spoon turmeric powder
1 tb spoon rasam masala (use as per taste)
1/2 tb spoon tamarind paste
1/4 cup cooked toor dal
salt to taste
1/2 tea spoon oil
1 tea spoon mustard seeds
1 spoon cumin seeds (optional)

chopped cilantro (as per taste)

Method:

To make rasam, bring 4 cups water to boil with chopped tomato,turmeric and tamarind. Let the mixture boil for 5 minutes, then add rasam masala,cooked dal and salt and let it boil for another 5 minutes. Make the tadka (tempering) by heating oil, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them pop. Add tadka to the rasam and let the rasam stay warm on a very low heat. Add oil to a different pan (for cooking risotto) and add chopped onion and garlic and sauté until tender. Add the arborio rice and stir everything together and toast the rice on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of rasam at a time and stir occasionally until the rasam gets absorbed into the rice. Keep adding the rasam in 1/2 cup intervals stirring almost every other minute to cook the rice. It will take about 20-25 minutes for risotto to cook. Add chopped cilantro at the end. Serve hot with a spoonful of desi ghee!

Note: The ingredients for the rasam are just a guideline. Adjust rasam to suit your taste.
Strain rasam and then add to the rice if you don't want tomato in your risotto.

Orzo in Thailand.

It was friday night and better half was out for dinner! My fridge had very limited stock of veggies and nothing was sufficient alone as a full meal. I decided to whip up something out of the available stuff and came up with this. It was really tasty and my husband surely missed out on this one.
                It is a quicker version of stew with some added pasta and tofu for a full meal.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup orzo
2 oz firm tofu (cut into 1/2 inch thick slices)
1 small red bell pepper (sliced lengthwise)
1/2 onion,sliced
1/2 tablespoon oil
1 cup basil leaves (reserve 5-6 leaves for adding at the end)
2-3 garlic cloves
1/2 inch piece of ginger
1 chilli (adjust according to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tea spoon lemon/lime juice
1/2 tea spoon sugar
1/2 cup coconut flakes ( I had dried coconut on hand , use 1/4 cup if using fresh)
1 cup boiling water

Method:
In a blender, blend together basil leaves,ginger,garlic,chilli,coconut,lemon/lime juice and boiling water. Sieve the mixture through a strainer to get 1 cup of broth.
           Heat a pan on medium high. Add oil,sliced onion and bell pepper. Season with salt and pepper and cook for about 2 minutes or until onion starts to soften. Add orzo and toast everything  for 2 more minutes. Add 1 cup broth, let the mixture come to full boil and cook it covered for 5-7 minutes or until orzo is done. Add tofu,chopped basil leaves and season with salt and pepper as per taste. Cook for just a minute. Serve hot.

Note: Use Thai green/red curry paste if available. Blend together coconut, Thai curry paste and boiling water to make broth.