Hot Pot Macroni

I love this dish, specially the way it beans and macroni blends with each other. We used to have this dish in one of our favorite restaurant back home, and like many other dishes I missed this dish so badly!
That made me do some searching, and some adjustments to achieve the taste I was missing, and this is the result. I absolutely love it! A complete dish in itself.


Let's collect the ingredients:

1 cup, cooked Macroni
1 1/2 Onions
1 Capsicum
3 Tomatoes2 cloves Garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp Chili Powder
1 small can, Baked Beans (I mixed white beans in tomato and kidney beans)
3 tbsp Tomato ketch-up
5-6 tbsp white cheese sauce,
50 gms, grated cheese
1 tbsp Butter
Salt to taste

Let's start cooking:

Cut the onions and capsicums into rings.

Put the tomatoes in a bowl and microwave on HIGH for about 3 to 4 minutes. Cool and remove the skins. Grate.

Put the butter in a non-stick pan; add onion rings and sauté for 30 half a minute. Add the capsicum rings and sauté. (You can also microwave them) Take out some rings of Onion and Capsicum for decoration.Add garlic, tomato pulp, chili powder and let it cook well.

Add beans, salt and tomato ketch up and mix well. Layer them on a baking plate.

Mix cooked macroni with cheese sauce. I did that in the same pan as I did other veggies so that it also gets a pinch of taste from using same pan.


Lay this as a layer on top of mixture in baking plate.Cover it with those veggie rings we kept aside for decoration and cheese.

Bake for approx. 30 mins or till the cheese is melted and forms a layer the way you prefer it.
I like it baked till brown spots appear on the melted cheese, giving it a bit firm look.
Your Hot Pot Macroni is ready! Serve hot.

Khandvi

This is one simplest recipe and still one which requires some care and practice for it to come out right. Simple and delicious, it melts in mouth !

Let's collect the ingredients:

3/4 cup Gram flour ( Besan)

3/4 cup Fresh curds

1 tsp Green chili paste

1 tsp Ginger paste

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder (haldi)

A pinch asafetida

Salt to taste

For Garnish:

Grated Coconut

Chopped Coriander

For Tempering:

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1 tsp Sesame seeds

1/2 tsp asafetida

5-6 Curry leaves

4 dry red chilies

2 tbsp Oil

Let's start rolling Khandvis:

Mix all the ingredients (except those for garnish and tempering) with 1 cup and make a smooth paste.

Heat it on a low flame, stirring constantly so that lumps do not form.

Keep stirring till batter becomes thick. It will take approx 10 mins. Taste the batter to see if the gram flour is cooked.

Grease the flat surface (flat plate or kitchen top) and spread the mixture as thinly as possible with rubber spatula while it is still hot.

Let it cool a bit. (Approx 2-3 mins)

Slit the khandvi lengthwise every 40 mm along the width. Carefully roll out each strip. (Or you can roll up the spread first and then can cut it in pieces)

For tempering, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds, sesame seeds, asafetida, curry leaves and red chilies. Stir for 30 seconds.

Pour over the khandvis and serve garnished with coriander and coconut.

Pineapple Cake with Fruits topping

Nithya mailed me this recipe for Pineapple cake and since then I wanted to try it. This weekend was a perfect occasion as we were going to one of our friend's place for dinner and I thought let me bake and bring this along.

A day prior to that we spent almost whole day discussing options to decorate it with, from only pineapple decorations we concluded to make it more colorful and then decided to make it rich with topping of all kind of fruits :o)

This cake was an instant hit! (Or at least I was told and convinced to believe so!! hehe)



Let's Collect Ingredients:

4 eggs
100 gms flour sieved with 2 small level tsps of baking soda
100 gms ground sugar
1 tsp pineapple essence
1 pineapple can
Sugar cream for icing

Let's Start Baking:

1. Beat the eggs till they become stiff n reach to the 3/4th level of the vessel. The true test is, even if u tilt the vessel the egg stuff should not move. This will take u approx 15-20 mins; it can be done taking breaks in between. (Actually I am very impatient, so I had my doubts to beat this longer, but I am happy I did)

2. Once done add sugar slowly n beat again.

3. Add flour spoon by spoon and fold in one direction. Do not mix a lot just very delicate folds. Add pineapple essence. (I did a mistake of mixing a bit more than required which made it lose a bit of fluffiness; I will remember it next time not to do so)

4. In an aluminum cake pan put butter n dust some flour. Pour this mixture. Bake in preheated oven at approx 180 C for approx 30 mins or till when tasted with the stick, it comes out clean.

5. Remove, cool and get it out on a plate.

6. Cut the cake from centre to make 2 layers. Use a thread to avoid breaking the cake.

7. Put the syrup from the pineapple can on both insides of the cake. Sugar water on the both the insides of the cake, the cake should be wet. Instead of syrup, you can use sugar water.

8. In a different bowl, beat cream and sugar till fluffy n thick, this should take just 5-10 seconds. Beating it more will change the taste of the cream- butter formation.

9. Mix sugar to the cream, add pineapple pieces and apply on the inside and top of the cake.

10. Decorate with fruits of your choice!

Refrigerate and eat cool. Yummm. :o)

Paneer Tikka Sizzler

As much we both love sizzlers, more than that Paneer Tikkas. What else can be best when there is a combination of both, a real treat, right?

This Sizzler is normally accompanied by Makhni Sauce, which I skipped as I thought to surprise Ashu with dinner when he is back from his MBA classes but he came back early that day, not giving me enough time to prepare it. But even then we loved it!

Let's collect the ingredients for Paneer Tikkas:

1½ cups paneer (Indian cottage cheese), cut into square pieces

½ cup Onions, cut into thick wedges

½ cup Capsicum, cut into pieces

½ cup Pineapple, cut into pieces

½ cup thick curd

½ teaspoon Gram flour (besan)

1 tsp Ginger paste

1 tsp Garlic paste

2 tsp Chili Powder

1 tsp Tandoori masala

½ tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)

½ tsp Garam Masala

2 tsp Oil

Salt to taste

Let's collect ingredients for Yellow Rice:

1 cup long grained rice (I used Basmati)

½ tsp Cumin seeds

1" stick Cinnamon

2 Cloves

1 bay leaf
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tablespoon Oil

Salt to taste

Let's collect the ingredients for Stuffed Capsicum:

1 potato, boiled and mashed

1 tsp Chili powder

½ tsp Turmeric powder

½ tsp sugar

½ tsp Garam Masala

2 tsp Coriander, chopped

¼ cup corn kernels, boiled

¼ cup Green Peas, boiled

Salt to taste

Let's grill the Paneer Tikkas first:
1. Combine curd, gram flour, ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, fenugreek leaves, garam masala, Tandoori masala, salt and 1 tablespoon of oil and mix well to prepare a marinade.

2. Add the Paneer, onions, Pineapple and capsicum pieces to it coat well and keep aside for 15 minutes.

3. Arrange them on skewer sticks.

4. Place them in already heated oven on 200 C for about 30 mins or till the brown spots starts appearing.

Let's cook yellow rice:

1. Clean, wash and soak the rice for 10 minutes. Drain and keep aside.

2. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add the cumin seeds, cloves and bay leaf and stir.

3. When the seeds crackle, add the rice, turmeric powder and salt and sauté for 2 minutes.

4. Add 2 cups of hot water. Cover and cook over a slow flame for 10 to 15 minutes till the rice is cooked. Keep aside.

Let's stuff the capsicum next:

1. Cut the capsicum into halve horizontally, ( i made a zigzag pattern on the edge) scoop out the seeds to create an empty shell.

2. Parboil the capsicum in salted water, drain and keep aside.

3. Combine all rest of the ingredients well, leaving some corn and peas apart to decorate it with.

4. Fill this mixture in the capsicum halves, top it with corn and peas we kept aside and keep aside till required.

Let's assemble the Paneer Tikka Sizzler :

1. Heat sizzler plate over an open flame till they are red hot and place them on their respective wooden trays.

2. Arrange half the warm yellow rice in the centre of cast iron plate.

3. Place one stuffed capsicum on one side of each sizzler plate and some french fries on other side.

4. Top with 2 skewers of the Paneer Tikkas.

5. Pour the oil-water mixture over the cast iron plates for a sizzling effect.

6. Serve immediately with the makhani sauce or whatever you want to serve with like i did with just plain curd raita !