Bread Cup Pizza and Bread Channa Cups | Bread Cups

I have seen and tasted cup pizza at Nilgiris and I badly wanted to try it with the normal pizza dough recipe. Fortunately when I saw the bread cup channa chat recipe at Nithis space, I took the idea of bread cups from there and took the short route of making the bread cup pizza :) I also tried the channa in bread cups as in the orginal recipe and I luved both of them. As the cup pizza ingredients are instant and readily available in most of our kitchens, I almost make these cup pizzas everytime I buy bread.

As I have mentioned in this space so many times, I luv bread in any form so this adds another feather to the cap :)

Bread Cup Pizza Ingredients:

• Bread(white or wheat) - 3 slices
• Butter - 1 tsp
• Capsicum - a handful finely chopped
• Onion - a handful finely chopped
• Pizza sauce - 2 tbsp
• Tomato Ketchup - 1 tbsp
• Cheese - 2 tbsp ( as required to cover the topping)

Method:

1. First cut the edges of the bread. Now cut circles using a round cookie cutter or a container lid. Flatten the bread circles using a chappathi roller. Dont try to stretch too much, just flatten a bit.
2. Apply butter slightly on both sides of the circles. Now spread the pizza sauce in the 3 slices and then gently fit in the muffin pan. I didnt grease the muffin pan.
3. As shown in the below pic I left three bread cups empty to bake and then after baking filled it up with channa masala.
4. For the remaining 3 breadcups for making bread cup pizza, add capsicum, onion on top of the pizza sauce. Grate the cheese over it then finally add tomato sauce in each of the cups.
5. Preheat the oven to 190 deg C and bake it for 10-12mins until the bread turns slightly golden brown at the corners.My bread cups were done exactly in 12mins. They were firm and cripsy to hold the filling.

Bread Channa Cups Ingredients:

• Bread(milk or wheat) - 3 slices
• Butter - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1/2 finely chopped
• Chat Chutneys - 1 tbsp in each (optional) - I had no stock so didnt add :)
• Channa Masala - 3 tbsp
• Coriander leaves - 3 tsp

For assembling the Channa Cups:

1. Once the bread cups are done, add channa masala with less gravy as it will make the bread cups soggy.
2. Then add the onions, drizzle the dates and green chutney if you are adding and garnish with coriander leaves.
3. Your bread channa cup chat is ready :)

My Notes:

• The filling is endless you can even add paneer, babycorn , tomato etc as we do for normal pizzas
• If you are using wheat bread, check carefully after 10mins as the browning doesnt show up clearly as in white bread
• If you use milk bread variety then flattening it will crumble the bread so flatten it slightly or even fit it in the muffin pan without flattening it
• It is easy to hold and eat and truely fancy to attract the kids
• You can also use the bread as such with the edges, no need to trim it. It tastes good even with the bread edges, I have tried that way too.

Paneer Kheer | Paneer Desserts

To me paneer is always related to savoury sidedishes or starters. So when I saw this paneer kheer in tarladalal protein rich recipes cookbook that I have, I was totally bowled out by the idea of a simple yet delicious looking dessert so instantly tried it.

Ingredients:

Recipe Reference : Tarladalal

• Paneer crumbled - 1/2 cup
• Milk - 2 cups
• Cornflour - 2 tsp
• Sugar - 2 to 3 tbsp
• Saffron - 1 strand
• Elachi powder - a pinch
• Nuts - 2 tbsp (pistachios, badams and cashews chopped)

Method:

1. Crush the saffron in a tsp of milk and keep aside. Add cornflour in a tsp of milk, mix well without lumps and keep aside.
2. Boil milk, add the cornflour milk mixture mix well continuosly and then simmer for 10mins until it starts thickening. Add sugar and mix well until completely dissolved. Add the saffron milk mixture and give a quick mix.
3. Now add the crumbled paneer to the boiling milk, mix well and allow it to boil for 5-7 more mins.
4. Add elachi powder, mix well and garnish with nuts and switch off.You can also toast the nuts in ghee and then add it to the kheer.
5. Allow it to cool for 5mins then refrigerate for 15mins and serve chilled.

My Notes:

• Saffron is optional, I like the flavour so added it. You can skip it too.
• Cornflour is added to fasten up the thickening process of the milk.
• For the above mentioned ingredients, it yields 2 small cups of paneer kheer.
• Adjust sugar according to your sweetness.

Paneer kheer was close to the taste of basundhi, whatever be the name it was heavenly. The paneer blended with the saffron flavoured milk with nuts....what more you want for a dessert..YUMM!! I luv it chilled but you can serve it warm as well.

My little one she loves most of the dishes with milk so this sweet was no exception , she enjoyed it thoroughlly. The picture in the cookbook was too tempting and this was one of few dishes I tried soon after I got the book and with no doubt this was a super hit.

Instant Tomato Dosai (Thakkali Dosai)

I like to experiment on new dosa varieties and one such try was this tomato dosai. When I saw this dosa in a tamil magazine, I noted down the recipe, tried it recently and got hooked on to the recipe since then. So wanted to share the recipe here.....

Instant Tomato Dosai Recipe:

Makes 4 dosas

Ingredients:

• Dosa Batter - 2 cups
• Tomato - 2 roughly chopped
• Garlic - 4 chopped finely(optional)
• Coconut - 1 tbsp
• Red Chillies - 2
• Jeera - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - few torn into pieces
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - as required for making dosa

Method:

1. Saute the tomatoes in a tsp of oil until mushy and raw smell leaves.Allow it to cool and grind the tomatoes with coconut, garlic and red chillies to a fine paste with little water.
2. Now add jeera, curry leaves , red chilli powder and tomato coconut paste to the dosa batter and mix well.
3. Heat a dosa tawa, keeping in low medium flame take a laddle full of the batter and spread it evenly starting form the center slowly outwards in circular motion.
4. Drizzle some oil along the edges and cook for 2mins. Flip on the other side and cook until done.
5. Serve hot with any chutney of your choice.

My Notes:

• Spread the batter thin to get a crispy dosa.
• You can also add more coconut if you want.
• You can also add chopped onions to the batter which adds nice flavour to the dosa.
• The batter consistency should be like the normal dos batter consistency so add/minus water accordingly.

You can also spread the batter thick to get oothapams.. This dosa is very flavourful and best when combined with sambar and coconut chutney. Also use the grinding part while grinding the batter itself but since I wanted a instant version I like making it this way.

Eggless Mango Cake / Mango Loaf Bread

I wanted to utilise the mango season completely and no mango recipe collection is complete with a mango cake...Agree?! I have seen mango cakes, muffins and bread in so many blogs and when I wanted to try I went ahead searching for them. The one that suited my constraints(Yes I wanted a low fat version) was the mango banana bread from litebite. I am always amazed by her low fat baking goodies that I went ahead to try this with few modifications to suit my taste and it turned out super good.

Eggless Mango Cake (Mango Loaf Bread)

Recipe Source : Litebite.in



Ingredients:

• Maida - 1 cup (150 gms)
• White Rava(fine variety) - 1/2 cup (100 gms)
• Mango - 1 big sized
• Walnuts chopped - 2 tbsp
• Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup (200 gms)
• Curd - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
• Olive oil - 2 tbsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Chop the mangoes and puree it without water to get a thick pulp. Keep aside.
2. Sift maida, baking soda, baking powder and salt atleast twice for even spread of baking powder and soda.Now add rava to the maida mixture, keep aside.
3. In a seperate bowl, add oil,yogurt, mango pulp, cardamom powder,sugar and mix well till sugar is completely dissolved.
4. Now add the curd mango mixture to rava maida mixture slowly and mix until a thick batter is formed. Add chopped walnuts and mix once. Reserve 1 tbsp of walnuts for topping.
5. Preheat the oven at 190 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile grease the pan with little oil and sprinkle maida. Arrange butter paper if you use it(I use for most of the cake for easy unmoulding).
6. Transfer the batter to the cake pan. Top the cake batter with remaining chopped walnuts and bake it for 35-40mins at 190 degree C.In my OTG it took exactly 40mins for the mango bread to get baked.
7. The top would have turned to a golden brown color by this time. Check with a toothpick in the center of the cake and if it comes out clean then ur cake is done.Cool it for atleast 15mins before you unmould and slice them

I dont miss to use a butter paper these days as its mess free to unmould and cleaning the pan is also easy. For the tart mould I didnt even grease but still unmoulding was super easy.



My Notes:

• I used a bread loaf pan and 3 small tart moulds.You can use a normal cake pan but see to it that the pan is as big as to hold the batter only to 1/2 or slightly more than the pan .
• The baking time totally depends on the cake mould and the oven, usually my bread loaf pan takes a little longer so it took me 40mins. So keep an eye after 30mins and then extend baking time accordingly.
• The cake in the tart moulds were done in 20mins. Only the bread loaf pan took 40mins to complete.So if you are planning for muffins it will take just 20-30mins.
• Adding sooji gives a wonderful texture to the cake. Mango and cardamom combination is heavenly so dont skip it.
• The orginal recipe calls for only 1/2 cup sugar but I felt my mangoes were not that sweet so I used 3/4 cup and it was perfect.
• As the cake uses mango pulp, it keep well only for 2 days. Dont refrigerate the cake, as it would become hard.

Mango, curd and rava gives a wonderful texture to the cake/bread that the cake came out beyond my expectation that everyone loved it at home. The nutty crunch in every bite tasted out of the world...yummmy.

The mango bread looked so lovely that my camera didnt stop clicking at all :) The smell of the mango cake while it was baking was too gud that I cudnt move out of the kitchen. Usually I like cutting cakes into pieces and when it comes to slicing breads I just luv them and this cakes texture was just perfect to make slices. Trust me and go ahead to try this cake.

Making a blog post has become like one of my daily chores these days and I feel so much contented after making each new post and each comment I moderate justifies the hard work I put in for that post. Thank you readers :)

Methi Matar Malai | Sidedish for rotis

Its fathers day, my appas and daughters birthday today - so its a triple treat for me. I wanted to have a post in my space marked on this date........:)

Methi Matar Malai Recipe:

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• Peas - 1 cup
• Kasoori methi - 3 tbsp (or) Fresh methi leaves-1/2 cup
• Onion chopped-1
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Jeera-1/2 tsp
• Green chilli - 1 chopped finely
• Milk -1 cup
• Cashew - 5 soaked in milk
• Malai / Cream - 2 tbsp
• Garam masala-1/2 tsp
• Chilli powder-1 tsp
• Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
• Oil-1 tbsp
• Salt - as required

Method:

1. Boil peas until soft and keep aside. I used fresh peas. Grind the cashews to a smooth paste, keep aside.
2. Heat oil, add jeera allow it to temper. Add onions, ginger garlic paste, green chillies and fry for a minute. Fry till the onions turn golden brown. Add required salt.
3. Now add the cashew paste and fry it for 2mins. Add the spice powders and mix well. Add the milk and cream at this stage.
4. Allow it to boil for 3mins until the gravy starts thickening.
5. Add cooked peas and bring the mixture to a boil. Now add kasuri methi.Add little water to desired consistency and simmer for 5mins. Switch off and Serve hot with rotis.

My Notes:

• If you are adding fresh methi leaves, saute it for a couple of minutes till it shrinks and then add it after the 3rd step.
• You can also add half and half of cream and milk for extra richness.
• You can also grind green chillies with cashews and make a paste.

I have seen dried peas being used in some restaurants. But I like fresh peas than the dried one for this gravy. It is rich and creamy perfect for rotis.

Sweet Corn Soup and Cup Corn Chat

As I always say, I am not a soup person but when it comes to tomato soup and sweet corn soup, I just can break the rule. The sudden change of chill climate makes me crave for something hot and this soup perfectly fits the bill. Its easy and tasty, do try and see.

Sweet Corn Soup Recipe:

Serves 2

Ingredients :

Serves 2

• American Sweet Corn Cob - 1
• Butter - 1/2 tsp
• Water - 1.5 cups
• Pepper - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Corn Flour - 1 tbsp (mix it with 5 tbsp's of water)
• Vegetable Stock - 1/4 cup (optional)
• Soy Sauce - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Pressure cook the corn for 4-5 whistles or until soft with a cup of water. After the pressure releases, take the corn cobs and shred the kernels completely.
2. Grind the corns kernels with little water say 1/2 cup to a thick paste. Reserve few for garnishing.
3. Add the corn flour with water , mix well without any lumps and keep aside
4. Heat a pan with butter, add the corn paste, allow it to boil for 3mins. Add 1 cup water, vegetable stock(boiled vegetable water), cornflour water paste and mix well. Add required salt.
5. Add soya sauce,pepper and mix well. Allow it to boil for 5-7 mins until the soup is thick. Switch off. Garnish with remaining corn kernels and serve hot with soup sticks or bread.

My Notes:

• Adding soyasauce gives a nice flavour to the soup. If you dont have vegetable stalk just ignore and proceed with the remaining ingredients.
• Adjust water according to the thick consistency of the soup.
• Spring onions can also be added for garnishing
• After adding corn flour the soup thickens faster so adjust water accordingly at this stage.

Cup Corn Chat Recipe:

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• Corn cob - 1
• Butter - 1 tsp
• Garam masala / chat masala powder - 1/2 tsp
• Pepper - a pinch
• Lime juice - 1 tsp
• Salt - for taste

Method:

1. Pressure cook corn cob in water with salt for 5mins or until soft.
2. Once the pressure releases, remove the cobs from water. Shred the corn kernels with a knife in a serving bowl.
3. Add butter, garam masala powder, pepper powder and lime juice to it. Mix well and enjoy.

Vegetable Cutlet

This is my favourite from my childhood days. I'm sure this is the best way to make kids eat veggies. I got the recipe from amma and here it is for you....Whan I was in the middle of clicking my daughter came running to me with the pizzahut stand(in the 2nd pic) and asked to keep it so she was the sole reason for that idea :)

Vegetable Cutlet:

Makes around 10-12 cutlets

Ingredients:

• Potato - 2 big sized
• Other mixed veggies - 1/4 cup (I used carrots, peas and beans)
• Onions - 1/2 chopped finely
• Bread - 1 slice
• Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup
• Ginger garlic paste -1/2 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
• Coriander leaves,chopped - 2 tblsp
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp
• Maida - 1 tbsp
• Salt - as required
• Oil - As required for deep frying / toasting

Method:

1. Pressure cook the veggies with required amount of water until soft. Peel off the skin of potatos and mash it well and add it to other veggies, add finely chopped onions too. Crumble the bread with your hands and add the bread to the veggies. Mix well.
2. Add ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, required salt and coriander leaves to the veggies with bread. Add lemon juice and mix well to form a dough.
3. Make equal sized round balls and slighly press it between your palms to make it flat.Keep aside.
4. Now in a seperate plate, mix maida and water to form a thick paste. Now dip each cutlet in the paste such that both sides are coated well then coat it with breadcrumbs as show in the below pic.
5. Repeat the same for all other cutlets too. You can deep fry them or toast the cutlets(like what I did) till crispy.Serve the cutlets hot with tomato sauce.

You can prepare the cutlets before hand and refrigerate them, and toast/deep fry when you want it to serve hot. I have tried a day prior to the guests arrived and it was good. So make sure you make the cutlets only a day prior and not more than that as the veggies will get spoiled easily.

My Notes:

• You can also add beetroot for an extra color.
• You can deep fry them if you are making in bulk as it saves time
• Those who like eggs can use egg for coating and then dip them in breadcrumbs
• I usually keep the bread slices in oven at 180 deg C for 4-5mins by the time it will turn crispy then is easy to powder it in a mixer.Your breadcrumbs are ready in minutes.I used wheat bread so the color is brown.
• Amma usually sautes onion and tomato well and then add it to the other other ingredients. You can try this too as tomatoes give a nice flavour.

I am sure this is a kid pleaser, you can make innovative shapes and impress the kids. Any fussy eater will sure like this cutlet and ask for one more. You can make this as a tea time snack for kids and serve them hot with tomato sauce - yum combination. As all the veggies are added and if you toasting it then what more do you need - Its a tasty and healthy evening tea time snack.Enjoy ur cutlets guiltfree.

Mango and Vanilla Custard Verrines | Mango Custard Desserts

I am always bowled out by the idea of layered desserts so when I saw this in Vegbowl I know I'm surely going to try. Verrines are layered desserts in a small glass - the variation of layering is endless either sweet or savoury. I felt I didnt get the layers evenly but I say this is truely luxury in a shot glass :)

Mango & Vanilla Custard Verrines Recipe

Recipe Reference : Veg Bowl

Ingredients:

• Milk - 1 cup
• Custard powder - 1 tbsp (or substitute with 1 tbsp corflour and 1 tsp vanilla essence)
• Sugar - 3 tsp (Adjust sweetness according to your taste)
• Thick undiluted mango pulp - 1/2 cup
• Cherries - 1 tbsp chopped just for garnishing (optional)

Method:

1. Mix custard powder in 1/4 cup milk, mix well and keep aside. Heat the remaining milk with sugar, bring it to a boil and then add the custard powder milk mixture to it.
2. Stir continuosly so that no lumps are formed. This will thicken up soon so keep stirring.
3. When the mixture starts bubbling and looks thickened(if you pour, it should not be runny) switch off. Allow it to cool down completely.
4. Now to assemble the verrines add a tbsp of prepared vanilla custard alternating it with a tbsp of mango pulp till it reaches the brim of the glasses. Add the chopped cherries in top.
5. Refrigerate the verrines atleast for an hr and serve chilled.

My Notes:

• The custard seems to thicken very faster, so keep an eye and stir continuosly to avoid lumps.
• The topping is of your choice, you can also add in nuts of your choice.
• You can use 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup cream but I used milk as it was readily available in my kitchen as yes I was calorie conscious and also had the extra serving in mind when milk was used :)
• Adjust sugar according to the sweetness of the mangoes and to ur taste.
• The alternating flavours in every spoon was very yummy.

Layered desserts are my fav both preparing and eating :) I usually make my desserts in a small glass as desserts are mostly had after our heavy lunch on sundays. Vanilla and mango flavours are always a winning combination and this one is no exception to it.

I always look forward for new interesting dessert ideas while hosting a dinner or lunch. And my choice is always a low fat one to help another serving.

Other Verrines Ideas:

• Strawberry yogurt verrines
• Coffee and vanilla
• Chocolate and vanilla

You can use the same base of vanilla flavoured custard powder and add coco powder or any other flavour accordingly.

Kovil Puliyodharai / Puliyodharai Recipe

I tried this from Akshayapatram long back and since then whenever its puliyogare I go blindly with this recipe as my family loved this version as its very close to kovil puliyodharai. Thank you Priya for such a nice keeper recipe, am glad that I tried this. Once when I brought this to office, my collegues were in praises for me :)

I've already tried a slightly different version of Puliyogare and when I saw this first, I doubted whether adding the roasted powder seperately - will that give such a huge difference because my older version was close to this. But believe me, adding the roasted powder seperately gives a totally nice flavour and sure it tasted differently. Now I have 2 versions I never get bored of Puliyodharai :)

Kovil Puliyodharai Recipe:

Recipe Reference : Akshayapaatram

Ingredients:

• Cooked Rice - 2 cups
• For the pulikaichal:
• Gingelly Oil (Nallenai) - 3 tbsp
• Peanuts - a fistful (Skin removed)
• Mustard Seeds - ½ tsp
• Channa Dal - 1 tbsp
• Urad Dal - 1 tsp
• Dried Red chillies - 2
• Curry Leaves - few
• Powdered jaggery - 1 tsp
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Hing (Perungayam) - a generous pinch
• Tamarind - lemon sized ball
• Salt - to taste

For the powder:

• Oil - 1 tsp
• Channa Dal - 1 ½ tbsp
• Urad dal - 1 tbsp
• Coriander Seeds - ½ tbsp
• Dried Red Chillies - 2
• Fenugreek Seeds(Venthyam) - ½ tsp
• Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. First add 1/2 cup water to tamarind, let it soak for 15mins.Now squeeze out thick tamarind pulp and keep aside.
2. Meanwhile heat oil and roast the ingredients 'for the powder' one by one in the same order as above until golden brown.Allow it to cool and powder it to a fine powder. Keep aside.
3. Heat gingelly oil in a kadai on medium low heat and add the peanuts. Roast until slightly browned. Now add mustard seeds,channa dal, urad dal,curry leaves, red chillies, turmeric powder and hing. Toast until they are browned evenly.Check and add salt.
4. Now add the tamarind extract and allow it to boil for 10-15mins. Add jaggery and mix well.When oil begins to seperate and the mixture will become at one stage oozing out oil at the edges, at this stage switch off.
5. Take the cooked rice spread it in a wide bowl, drizzle a tsp of oil on top, add the pulikaichal mix well without mushing up the rice.
6. Add salt if required. Now add the roasted powder and give a quick stir. Keep covered and allow it to rest atleast for 30mins before you serve.

My notes:

• Check the pulikaichal once mixed with rice and then add salt accordingly. This is a sticky puliyodharai version as it is in temples.
• I just reduced the chillies quantity from the orginal as I felt a bit spicy for our taste buds, otherwise no major change at all. It was perfect.
• Adding jaggery is optional, I always like that tangy sweet taste in my puliyodharai
• You can store both the pulikaichal and the roasted powder in fridge and it stays well for about a week. Do not reduce oil if you are planning to store.
• You can use basmati or normal rice. This time I used normal rice but basmati rice is recommended.

Usually when I am planning to make puliyogare, I made the roasted powder the before day and refrigerate it. So on the day of making puliyogare, its only the pulikaichal and rice and you r done with your puliyogare in minutes.