Kitchen-Kollections

 My favourite show on food network is emeril live. He does everything with so much enthusiasm that it would generate interest in the most unlikely people (like me). My another favourite chef is Gordon Ramsay. His series – Hell’s kitchen and kitchen nightmares are also very good. Recently, my husband and I tried our luck in baking a nice pizza. Making the pizza dough is just not easy…In one of the programs, I saw one chef swirling the pizza dough above his head as if its a giant disc. Imagine, one has to keep pounding the dough for at least one hour before it reaches a level of softness!!! We got to know about this after we made our first pizza. The dough has to be pounded for 1 hr and then it should be kept aside for at least 2 hrs before you flatten it to make a pizza base!!  of course all that pounding is a Man’s work…thats exactly what my dear hubby did I only did the chopping part!!

Well…at least i know somethings..hopefully my next pizza would turn out great. Btw – this pizza is my entry to Culinary Bazaar – A.W.E.D. italiano.

For starters – here is the link for making the perfect pizza dough. Once its done, you can keep it aside and start chopping veggies. I used onions, olives, tomatoes, green pepper, red bell pepper (cut in rings – it looks pretty). In my next pizza, i will add roasted brinjal, mushrooms, jalepenos…and the list goes on …it would be great hopefully.  Olive oil is best to use when making italian dishes. Its healthy too.  Once you flatten the dough, apply a sauce on the base ( i used pasta sauce in half side and on the other side – tomato paste…tomato paste was my hubby idea and it actually it tasted better). Then add all the veggies on top and add the grated parmesan cheese. I saw in one of the food network show, they add two to three types of cheese…well..i cant tolerate eating such huge amountsof cheese so I stick with only parmesan cheese. Sprinkly pepper and bake it in a preheated oven (400F) for 10 minutes. And the Most important thing – place the pizza base on a cookie sheet!!! it helps a lot! another learning!

enjoy the pizza with golisoda or banta! it tastes great!

i had always imagined what it would be like to eat grilled kababs. I had heard about non vegetarian seekh kababs a lot but since i am a veg..i thought of making veggies kababs. We recently brought a BBQ  grill and its quite a fun to BBQ and eat when the sun is shining..ofcourse we continued grilling even in the night!! Well..After searching a lot, I finally decided to make my own style of kababs. I had already sokaed moong dal and beautiful sprouts had come out. So my main ingriedent was moong sal..high protein rich legumes!

If you have any kabab paste left, you can make patties too. Stuff them in bread, and eat it like a sandwich!! Personally, i dont like to soak and fry kababs in oil..they unnecesarily absorb lot of oil which is bad for health. Instead of that, i just roast them on a flat pan..by just adding few drops of oil.

Ingredients:

200 gm boiled spinach leaves (1/2 cup puree)
2 cup boiled moong sprouts
1 cup boiled potatoes-mashed
2 tsp green chillies-chopped fine
2 tsp ginger- garlic paste
1 tsp salt or to taste?
1 tsp chilli powder or to taste
olive oil to brush

Method:

Blend the palak, moong daal, potatoes, green chillies, ginger and garlic in a blender. Mix in the salt and chilli powder. It should be a dough like consistency. Shape into tube like shapes around a skewer and BBQ, brushing with oil now and then. Add cut bell peppers,onions and paneer cubes. I added some mushrooms too.

Hii all..i am again blogging after a long time..i had gone to my sister’s place. My second niece was born last month! I had a great time there..but actually i got some great oppurtuniteis to try out new recipes. I was quite surprised to know that there is something called mooli pachadi too!All credit goes to my dear mother…she is having a gala time playing with hee two small grandkids…she is experimenting with chutnyes (now i know where i got the bug haha ) Its a mouth watering chutney which one can use as a spread on tortillas, bread..and you will be shocked…i am planning to use it as a spread on a pizza!!!

Whenever i get radishes..i only add them in pulusu/sambhar or i make parathas. But this time…chutney!!!

Here it goes

Ingredients

Bite size pieces of radish – 2 cups
Peanuts – 1/4 cup
Tamarind – 2 tbs
Jaggery – 2 tbs

Tadka/popu ingredients

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Jeera – 1/2 tsp
Menthulu – 4
Red chillies – 3
Hing/inguva – a pinch
Urad dal -  1 tsp
Turmeric – A pinch

Method

• Add 1 tsp oil in a pan and fry mooli till tender.
• Take oil in another pan and fry the popu ingredients
• Add the cooked mooli, tamarind, jaggery and salt to taste. Keep mixing for 5 minutes.
• Grind the chutney once its cool. Garnish it with chopped coriandar leaves.