Fast to cook : Chilli Beans Sandwich

Sometimes you need something that can cook fast and is tasty. Quite often I'm bored to cook full fledged meals..H also finds them too heavy in the evenings..

I love watching Tv cooking shows and one of them is the show on Etv gujarati. I saw this sandwich yesterday and I was ready to cook it today...

I did end up modifying the recipe to my liking..and before I could get any good pics of it..the sandwiches were eaten.. talk about yummy!

photo courtesy Corbis

I loved this pic. Since I did not have any pic of the sandwich..lets say this is how H looked while eating...


List of ingredients.

8-10 slices of bread (I used garlic bread, use white, brown, multi-grain whatever works for you)
1 onion - chopped
1 capsicum - chopped finely (use a mix of green, red, yellow)
1 tsp garlic - chopped finely (5-6 cloves)
1 cup baked beans with sauce
1/2 cup paneer - diced (this wasn't in the original recipe)
1 cup boiled sweet corn (I didn't have corn, so added paneer)
some olives.

salt to taste
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp tomato ketchup
processed cheese

Butter the bread slices and keep aside.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp oil, add onions, garlic. Saute till onions turn translucent. Add capsicum, corn, paneer and saute for 2-4 min.

Add the baked beans, tomato ketchup, oregano, paprika and mix well.

Add salt at the end after tasting (beans have some salt, plus cheese will have some salt too)

Put 2-3 tsp of this bean mix in between the breads, add cheese. Add olives if you wish over the cheese.

Place the second slice of bread over this, apply a bit of butter and cheese on top and grill in oven for around 5-7 min till the cheese melts.

Or you could toast it on a tava on the stove. Tastes as good.

There was some mix left over in the morning, so I tried using burger mayonnaise instead of butter, added the mix and toasted to a crisp brown on the tava...tasted awesome!

Mix and match and see what you come up with!!

Paneer in Yogurt gravy

As soon as I read that JFI for Nov was Paneer, I was elated. I'm not an accomplished cook, but I love to experiment with whatever ingredients that I have. An paneer is something I love. DH loves it.
Besides, paneer is the vegetarian's meat. If you go to any restaurant that serves non-veg food, the veg menu will have paneer in the largest number. Sure, they can make 20 dishes with meat, but in veg there is only paneer. Did all the vegetables rot in their kitchen?

I love reading cookbooks, and trying stuff from them. Sometimes, they're even under my pillow coz I fall asleep while reading them. My DH can't figure out why I read mini cookbooks as bed time reading!

Here's a recipe I made last week. It was one of my nightime readings that made me notice this. It turned out to be a nice one...in spite of the milk and yogurt, there is the zing of green chillies and ginger, and kasoori methi. I think its from nita mehta's book. I need to find some more cook-books...suggest some good traditional ones if you can. I'm a gujju by birth but andhraite by palate.




Here's the recipe for Paneer in yogurt gravy.

Ingredients
200 gm paneer - 1x1" pieces
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp shahi jeera (black cumin)
1/4 tsp red chilli pwd, salt to taste
1 1/4 cups milk
ginger and coriander to garnish

For the yogurt paste
1 large onion
1 tomato
2 green chillies
2" ginger
3/4 cup yogurt
2 Tbsp kasoori methi

The how-to
put all the ingredients of the yogurt paste into a mixer and grind to a smooth paste. as smooth as you can get it.

Heat oil in a vessel, add shahi jeera. Let it release the flavor. then add yogurt paste and cook till the water from the yogurt evaporates. the masala should thicken slightly and oil starts leaving the paste.

add salt and chilli pwd, stir well. At this point, take the vessel off the fire. add just about 1/4 cup milk and mix well. also all the paneer pieces and stir so that the masala coats the paneer.

Return the vessel to the fire and on low heat add the remaining milk. Keep stirring continuously till it comes to a boil. Continue cooking on low heat till the gravy is to the consitency of your liking.

serve with ginger juliennes and fresh cut coriander.



This is my first ever entry into any event. This goes to JFI with the theme Paneer, hosted by The spice who loved me.

This event was started by Indira of Mahanandi, and it has been 3 yrs since she started this event.

Fast to cook : Chinese style potatoes

An absolute favorite of H. Mine too. I generally boil some extra potatoes and keep. H comes home in the evening ravenously hungry. And if there isn’t something to munch, he goes food hunting in every shelf he can find. I make it a point to make some appetizer or some salad or starter ready for him.

Barely takes 10 min if you have the potatoes ready. It’s a Tarla Dalal recipe.


Ingredients


Boiled potatoes -4
Finely chopped garlic-1 tsp(abt 3-4 cloves)
Chopped ginger-1/2 tsp
Green chillies-1 chopped finely
1 tsp tomato ketchup
2 Tbsp soya sauce
½ tsp chilli sauce
2 tsp cornflour
4 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Peel and cut the cooked potatoes into medium fingers

Heat oil in a pan, on a high flame, add the potatoes and cook on the high flame for few minutes, till they turn slightly brown. Remove from the pan and keep aside.

In the same oil, add ginger, garlic, green chillies and stir fry for couple of seconds

Add the potato fingers, tomato ketchup, soya sauce, chili sauce and salt.

Meanwhile mix cornflour in ½ cup of water, and add to the mix. Cook for 2-4 minutes.

Garnish with spring onions or coriander. (whatever you have. I never seem to have spring onions when needed)

This dish also fulfills my cravings for Chinese food. Simple easy and no MSG. The rest of the Chinese is a pain. All that tiny chopping kills my fingers. I’m hoping to get my hands on a great kitchen tool that will slice, grate and chop things finely without hassle. Anyone invented one of these?

My Vegetarian 100

I've seen this on Nupur's blog a long time ago, wanted to try this. And at the end of it, my score is a measly 85%. Bad for someone who calls herself a foodie. I need to make more friends who are from south so that I can try all the Andhra, Chettinad, Malyali cuisines.

Your challenge, should you take up this meme is to:

• Copy the entire list, along with these instructions, into your blog post


• Bold the foods that you have tried


• Strike out the foods you would never try


• Tell us your score in the comments :)


• If you wish to, make your own list or add to this one

1. Ripe mangoes
2. Curd rice
3. Chaat
4. Phulka
5. Puran poli
6. Boiled peanuts
7. Samosa
8. Stuffed baby eggplants
9. Aviyal
10. Stuffed paratha
11. Masala chai
12. Tirphal
13. Murukku
14. Curry leaves
15. Banana chips fried in coconut oil
16. Jaggery
17. Vada pav
18. Tender coconut water
19. Paneer
20. Madras filter coffee
21. Boondi laddoo
22. Boondi raita
23. Navratan korma
24. Kokum
25. Masala peanuts
26. A home-cooked Indian vegetarian meal
27. Sugarcane juice
28. Sabudana/sago in any form
29. Horsegram
30. Maggi noodles
31. Podi with rice and ghee
32. Roomali roti
33. Bitter gourd
34. Nylon sev
35. Vegetable biryani
36. Thali at a restaurant
37. Plantain flower
38. Undhiyu
39. Nimbu pani
40. Papad
41. Kotthu parotta
42. Panch phoran
43. Drumsticks
44. Indian "French toast"
45. Sarson ka saag
46. Bhakri
47. Pav bhaji
48. Sitaphal
49. Glucose biscuits
50. Sprouts
51. Chole-bhature
52. Amla
53. Tomato "omelet"
54. A wedding feast
55. Grilled corn on the cob with lemon juice, salt and chilli powder
56. Cadbury's fruit and nut chocolate
57. Sai bhaji
58. Solkadi
59. Indian-Chinese meal
60. Jalebi
61. Black forest cake
62. Bharwa bhindi
63. Kashmiri saffron
64. Misal
65. Ripe jackfruit
66. Idli-chutney
67. 'Tadgola'
68. Bhut jolokia
69. Baby mango pickle
70. Meal off a banana leaf
71. Falooda
72. Moong khichdi
73. Bebinca
74. Daal baati
75. Methi greens
76. Basundi
77. Gunpowder
78. Appam-stew
79. Sweet lemon pickle
80. Ridge gourd
81. Bisi bele bhath
82. Coconut burfi
83. Caramel custard
84. Thecha
85. Rasam
86. Baingan bharta
87. Mysore pak
88. Punjabi wadi
89. Chhunda
90. Dal makhani
91. Paper dosa
92. Gongura
93. Hand-churned butter
94. Pakoda
95. Curd chillies
96. Mustard oil
97. Fresh cashews
98. Tomato pickle
99. Rajma-chawal
100. Chaas
101. Paani-puri

Stir Fried Veggies With Rice.

I am an ardent fan of Tarla dalal and Nita Mehta's recipes. I have a lot of their mini books to help me decide what to try today. And whenever H takes me to a bookstore, he has no fear of me getting lost. He always ends up finding me at the cookery section. I do admit, I've never ventured beyond Indian authors when it comes to cooking. I mean, Indian authors will know the best Indian food, right?
But I've read a lot of other food-blog writers refer to a lot of foreign authors and I'm willing to give it a try. So if you've got any awesome cook books that you think I should delve into, please leave a comment for me. I'd love to try.

This is my H's fav. He loves Chinese, not the authentic Chinese but the Indian-Chinese, where most of the recipe is indianised to suit our palate.

This recipe calls for a lot of veggies, but i only had babycorn, onions, and capsicums, and spring onion. So that's what i used. Feel free to try out other veggies.
This is a recipe from Nita Mehta's book.




Stir Fried Veggies on Rice.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 1/4 cups rice
1 small carrot- cubed
1/4 cup cauliflower or broccoli - small florets
1 small onion - cut into 4 pieces and separated
4-5 mushrooms
4-8 baby corn -cut into half lengthwise.
1 capsicum- cubed
2 dried red chillies- broken into small pieces
8-10 flakes garlic - crushed

1 Tbsp soya sauce(dark is better)
2 1/2 Tbsp tomato sauce
1/2 tsp Tbsp vinegar
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp salt or to taste
a pinch ajinomoto (optional, I generally don't use it)
3 Tbsp cornflour mixed with 1/2 cup water
2-3 Tbsp oil


Method

Boil the washed rice in 4-5 cups of salted water. Drain after it gets cooked. Cover and keep aside.

Heat oil in a wok, when the oil gets hot, take it off the flame and add broken red chillies and garlic (add it off the fire, since these two tend to burn quickly)

Stir for a few seconds, till the garlic gives out its aroma, and add babycorns, carrots, broccoli, onions and mushrooms. Stir for 2-3 minutes and then add capsicum.

Add salt and pepper. ( at this stage, add less salt, since the sauces will have salt of their own. Later on taste and add more salt if necessary. Experience speaks, I've over-salted it twice before learning this)

Add tomato sauce, soya sauce, and vinegar. Pour 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and add cornflour slurry and cook till veggies get done, and the sauce becomes thick.

To serve

Spread the rice on a serving plate and pour hot veggies over the rice and serve hot.

I'm cooking and I'm posting

Here's my attempt to publish a few of my own tried and tasted recipes. Most of them are from well known chefs, or rather cook-book authors. I've modified them to my own convenience.

See ya soon.