Bhool na Jaana, Lasagna toh banana.

Too much love with lasagna I have. I cook it too often, too and with variations every time.This time, it was very fusion-ist. Only, waiting for the day when I successfully cook that smooth non-lumpy white sauce. =\ 

Practice, more of it is needed. 

Anyway, Blender  comes to the rescue. :D Shush! never let any secret out. :D

So here is the recipe of my favorite style lasagna. 

Ingredients:

10 Lasagna Sheets- Boiled;

Cheese- whichever you like. 

For Tomato Relish:

4 nos Tomatoes (Big);

2 nos Onions (Medium) Shredded;

1 nos Capsicum (Medium) Shredded;

Small portion of carrot Shredded;

4-5 French Beans- Chopped;

4-5 nos Mushrooms- Shredded (Optional);

2 Tbsp Olive Oil;

1 tsp Ginger garlic paste;

Salt, pepper and Oregano to taste.

For White Sauce:

1 tsp Butter;

1 tsp Flour;

1 cup Milk;

Few baby corns or corn kernels;

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

For Tomato Relish:

• Blanch the tomatoes and peel off their skin, puree them with a Hand blender.
• Heat Olive oil in a pan, add ginger garlic paste.
• Now add all the shredded and chopped veggies and saute them.
• Add the tomato puree. Stir nicely to mix all the vegetables. Let it cook while stirring in between. See the oil gets absorbed in the gravy.
• Add the salt, pepper and oregano.
• Get the desired consistency, add a little water if it is getting dry. We'll need nice gravy.

For white Sauce:

• Heat the butter in a separate pan, add and roast the flour. 
• Take the pan off the heat and start adding the milk in smaller quantities while stirring continuously.
• When you are done adding the milk, put the pan back on the flame and keep stirring so that no lumps are formed. (I suck at this)
• When the sauce get enough thick, put the flame off and add the salt and pepper and also the baby corn/ kernels.

Putting the dish together:

• Grease the baking dish and line it with two lasagna sheets.
• Now layer the Tomato relish on the lasagna nicely.
• Cover with another two lasagna sheets.
• Next layer the white sauce over it and cover it with lasagna sheets.
• Make 4-5 layers of lasagna sheets repeating the above mentioned process.
• Grate the cheese and some oregano on the top.
• Bake in the Microwave for 6-7 minutes or till the cheese is brown.
• Serve with Garlic bread.

The Outcome:

I used the heart shaped mold to cut it out and plate it.

The Fiasco:

Like I said, I need to learn to make nice White sauce. =\

Additional Benefits:

Your kitchen will smell awesome with all the oregano also the microwave will smell awesome for days. :D

Cookie Cookie! Healthy Cookie! Tasty Cookie!

I happened to have been looking for an egg less oats cookie recipe for sometime. Because, I simply can't gulp down a single spoon of oats porridge. I can vomit, but not eat it. Happened to buy the 200g rolled oats pack last month, for the healthy way of diet, which did not work out for obvious reasons. Anyway. So, I was looking for this recipe, and dint find any very convincing over the internet. And, Somehow, I was bombarded with a Cakes and Bakes recipe book by Sanjeev Kapoor. Treasure.

There it was.

Also,I am sending this recipe for a cooking event encouraged by wonderful @MonicaManchanda, I happen to know from twitter, whose recipes I keep trying :D 

Here is the link to her wonderful blog Sin-a-Mon and the entry where this event is discussed, and Sanjeeta's Last Bite where she originally announced this Whole Grain Cooking Event.

Egg less Oats Cookie quick recipe.

Ingredients:

150g Rolled Oats;

100g Refined flour;

60g Soft Butter;

1/4 tsp Baking Soda;

1/4 tsp Tartic Acid;

1/4 tsp Salt;

1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder;

3 tsp Sucralose Powder;

4 tbsp Milk

Method:

• Sift flour, salt, baking soda and tartric acid together.
• Cream the sucralose powder in the softened butter.
• Add oats, cinnamon powder in the flour. Now add the blend of butter and sucralose powder and rub in firmly.
• Add the milk and make the dough.
• Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour wrapped in cling film.
• Preheat the oven at 190 degrees Celcius/ 375 degrees F in the meantime.
• Take the dough out when it is cool. Now divide the dough into small balls and flat them to shape in your palms.
• Grease and flour a baking tray and place the cookies, bake them in the oven for 15 minutes or until light brown.
• Serve warm, or cold. 

The Outcome:

The Fiasco: NONE :D

Crax Crax Chat Chat

Carvings are weird. They do not believe in absoluteness of time or place or even hunger.

So, the craving for Nachos has been knocking in my mind for sometime now and for one reason or other, I wasn't able to get hold of a plate of Nachos at an eating joint nor a pack of nachos from a confectionery store. Somehow, this, Ms Craving visited and refused to go back at a time when I couldn't go out and satisfy her. Therefore, I had to find a way out to kill for the moment and I attacked the confectionery cabinet in the kitchen. A pack of Crax (remember the corn rings?) was spotted. Jaan mei jaan aa gayi bhai sahab! Not that it can replace nachos, but temporary solution mil gaya.

Robbed the condiment section and came up with this Crax Chat :D

Ingredients:

Crax- 1 pack;

Onion- 1 nos (small);

Tomato- 1 nos (small);

Limejuice- 1 teaspoon;

Tomato Chilli Sauce- 1 teaspoon;

Green Chilli- 1 nos (optional);

Salt- a pinch. ( use kala namak if you have it).

Method:

• In a saucer, place the corn rings strategically.
• Chop the onion, tomato and chilli, add the salt and lime juice to it. Mix well to make a nice smelling seasoning.
• Sprinkle the seasoning over the corn rings.
• Pour the tomato ketchup or tomato chilli sauce over it.
• Eat quickly :D

The Outcome:

The Fiasco:

I might very well want to omit this section :D

Back from the Hiatus with Pasta :D

Gone missing from this place has been hard for me, no cooking and still no weight loss. Yes. I guess there is something wrong with my body which is not showing in the diagnose until it gets worse. *phew*

So, that leaves me with very less time to eat, experiment cooking and taste. Also, I was watching 'Zayke ka Safar' with Vinod Dua while he was finding out zaykas in Hongkong. So, he said something what I always say. "Ek zindagi kaafi chhoti hai aap tak duniya bhar ke zayke pahunchane ke liye." (One lifetime is not enough for letting the tastes of world reach you). So true. So bloody true!!

It sort of inspired me and I put on that apron again. Starting with a low calorie my all time favorite food item.  

Pasta cooked the very basic Indian way. :D

Ingredients:

Pasta- any shape, 250 gms (approx.);

Onions- 2 nos (medium size)- chopped;

Tomatoes- 4 nos (medium size)- Pureed- in blender;

Capsicum- 1 nos (medium size);

Ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp;

Salt to taste;

Black Pepper to taste;

Dried Oregano- 1 tsp or to taste;

Olive Oil- 3 tbsp

Method:

• Boil the pasta in a pan with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt. Make sure the pasta isn't overboiled or underboiled. Sieve the boiled pasta under running water. Keep aside.
• In a pan, heat the olive oil and add the ginger garlic paste.
• Add the onions and stir fry until golden brown.
• Add the pureed tomatoes and the capsicum. Add salt, pepper and oregano. Let it simmer for few minutes. Keep stirring in between. Let the puree come in desired consistency. You may want your with gravy, if it gets dry, add some water and simmer.
• When the gravy reaches the desired consistency, add the pasta. Stir and let it mix in the gravy well. 
• Leave it for a 2-3 minutes on the fire while stirring in between before putting the gas off.
• Serve with garnishing of Basil Leaves.

The Outcome:

The Fiasco:

NONE :P

It was Yummeh!! :D

No Cooking Month.

Yes, I am on a strict diet control. That makes me very sad. because I am not even cooking for these days. I have been surfing internet, swapping TV channels and stumbling upon super sexy desert recipes which I am dying to try myself.
But I need to control. Making my mind for it very tough though. I guess I ll post some low calories recipes during this time. Let me do some experimentation and get back here. This space has been calling me. *sigh*
For the timebeing, please to drool over some super sexy looking food.

Check out these websites and keep drooling by the time I am back :D

Feast your eyes: www.foodgawker.com

Inspirations and ideas of desret recipes: http://www.ohdesserts.net

Pizza? Wo bhi Chinese?

Yes. Chinese Pizza. ever thought of it? I am totally into experiments. Plus when you have guests come over, and they know about your food blog, you have somethings to prove to them. *sigh*

Anyway, people tell me that pizza made at home is not as good as they have int he restaurants. My say is, Get and oven or electric tandoor. Microwave is not meant for Pizza.

So here i bring you the Chinese pizza.

Chinese Pizza:

Ingredients:

1 Pizza base;

Schezwan Sauce;

Finely chopped vegetables- Cabbage, Capsicum, Mushrooms.

1 tsp olives;

Pizza/ Mozarella Cheese.

Method:

• Take the pizza base, apply little olive oil.
• While you cook the schezwan sauce, (Click here for the recipe) keep the consistency thick. When you are about to put the flame off, add the chopped vegetables into the sauce.
• Apply the sauce on the base, spread some olives, shred cheese and keep it in the oven/ tandoor.
• Use as less cheese as you can. 
• Wait until the cheese is Golden brown. and serve hot.

The Outcome:

Chinese Pizza fresh out of the oven

The Fiasco:

None. :D

Orange is the color Pancakes are Dipped into

Lets play 'Taste (Word) Association'.

Pancakes- Yummy

Orange- *does the chattt*

Glaze- *thinks of the thickness*

Pancakes are loved by everyone.And I make them without egg. Yes, you read it right. the same fluff, the same softness, without egg.

And since this is the season when I finally gave into the wondrousness of Orange,  I've taken it to the kitchen :D

This time, It is Orange Pancakes with orange glaze.

Orange Pancakes and Glaze

Ingrdients:

For pancakes:

1 Cup Flour,

2 Cups Milk;

2 tsp Butter;

1 tsp Orange Rind (the skin of orange, peeled and finely grated);

1/3rd tsp Soda Bicarbonate

For Orange Glaze:

1 Cup Fresh Orange juice;

1 tsp Cornflour;

1 tsp Orange Rind;

1 tsp Honey;

1 tsp Sugar;

Few slices of Orange Fruit

Method:

• Foremost, Make the glaze. Add all the ingredients into a thick pan and boil. Keep stirring until you get a thick desired consistency. Let is cool and take out in a bowl.
• Add the ingredients of the pancakes, make a smooth batter. Keep the batter thin- pour-able.
• On the non stick pan, pour the batter and make nice pan cakes. 
• Take the Pancakes, spread the glaze and serve.

The Outcome:

Orange Pancakes with glaze

The Fiasco:

NONE! :D