Vegetable Lasagne.

What do you cook on a day you are thoroughly disappointed with the way life is going and are in absolute no mood to cook in the kitchen and yet you have a hungry family waiting for dinner!!! Cook LASAGNE!!!!!!!!!! Yup, just because I was disappointed, didn't mean that the family would compromise on dinner. I have never eaten lasagne before, so i do not know how is it supposed to taste!! Nevertheless, the family did relish what I made and for once the kids devoured their dinner in a jiffy!!! The recipe is from the GOOD HOUSEKEEPING magazine. The only change I made was to replace minced meat with broccoli ...

Ingredients :
For the bolognese sauce :

• 1 tbsp olice oil
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 3 medium carrots finely chopped
• 1 celery stick finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 200 gms broccoli chopped
• 500 gms button mushrooms, chopped
• 1 and quarter vegetable stock(use stock cubes)
• 5-6 tomatoes chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped

For the bechamel sauce :

• 2 and a half cups milk
• 1/2 small onion
• 6 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 and a half tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp maida
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• Lasagne sheets
• Grated Parmesan cheese( as much as you want)

Method :

1. Make the bolognese sauce : Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add chopped onion, carrot, broccoli, celery and garlic and cook for 8 minutes. Add the mushrooms and fry for 1 minute.
2. Stir in stock, tomatoes, puree and oregano. Season with salt and fresh black pepper. Bring to boil, cover and turn the heat down low and simmer gently till veggies are tender and sauce is well reduced. Check seasoning and stir in parsley.
3. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Make the bechamel sauce : Pour the milk into a small pan and add the onion, pepper and bay leaf. Bring almost to boil, then remove from heat and infuse for 10 minutes. Strain, reserving the infused milk and discarding the onion, pepper and leaf.

      4. Melt butter in a pan; add maida carefully over low heat, bit by bit, stirring to avoid lumps. Cook stirringfor 2 minutes until the mix is bubbling but not coloured. Remove from heat. Gradually pour in the   reserved  milk, stirring constantly. Return to heat and cook, stirring until sauce is thickened and smooth.  Stir in the nutmeg.

     5. Spoon a third of the bolognese sauce into the base of a greased baking dish. Cover with lasagne sheets, then a layer of bechamel sauce. repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of bechamel sauce to cover the top completely. Grate the Parmesan cheese over.

       6.Bake for about 30 minutes until golden and bubbling. Keep aside for a few minutes to allow it to cool before you portion it. Serve with a salad of mixed leaves and finely sliced spring onion, if you like.

Black and White Pound Cake.

A recipe from my Birthday Book. This cake is also called Marble cake because of its distinctive appearance.

You need :-

• 500 gms semi-sweet chocolate, broken into squares
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 10 eggs

Method :-

1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.
2. Line the bottom of a 10" round baking tray with non stick baking paper and grease.
3. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of hot water. Stir occasionally. Set aside.
4. In a bowl sift together the flour and baking powder. In another bowl, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs, two at a time, then gradually incorporate the flour mixture on a low speed.
6. Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan.
7. Stir the chocolate into the remaining batter, then spoon into the pan. With a spatula, swirl the two batters to create a marbled effect.
8. Bake until a cake tester or a knife comes out clean, about 1 and 3/4 hours. Let stand for 15 minutes, then unmould and transfer to a cooling rack. To serve, dust with confectioner's sugar.

Egg Pulao

The day I read this recipe on Kim's blog I knew it would be an instant hit with my kids!!! They both love eggs and pulaos or biryanis of any kind. So a combination of egg and pulao would make it easy for me in the kitchen and for them to eat. Also as Kim noted it is easy and fast to prepare. Kim's recipe is meant for two and since I needed servings for four I altered the measurements accordingly. For servings of two head over to Kim's blog, for four proceed as follows....

You need :-

• 8 eggs(boiled)
• 2 cups rice(my cups are huge, more so mugs)
• 4 cups hot water
• 1 and a half lime
• salt to taste
• 3 tbsps oil

Grind to a paste :-

• 2 onions
• 5 green chillies(large)
• 2 " ginger
• 1 pod garlic
• 2 " cinnamon
• 5 cloves
• 2 black cardomom

Method :-

1. Boil the eggs, shell and keep.
2. Wash rice and soak in water.
3. Grind the above ingredients to a paste.

4. In a pressure cooker warm the oil and add the ground paste. Fry well till you get an aroma! (I fried 

            for 10 - 12 mts).

        5. To the fried masala, add the rice, mix well and fry some more.

         6. Add 4 cups water, juice of lemon, salt to taste and boiled eggs. Close the cooker and cook till done.

         7. Serve with a chilled cucumber or tomato raitha.

Final verdict : As predicted it was an instant hit!!! Thanks to Kim!!! This pulao will be prepared quite often at our home, what about yours???

Prawn pulao

Weekends are always hectic..with the grocery shopping for the weekend and week(you see everything is closed from sat 4:00 and whole of sunday), then the ensemble, followed by an outing with the family gives me very little time to be in the kitchen. As far as possible I try to cook on friday night for the following day so that I can do all of the above....  Since fish of our liking is not available, we bring in prawns on a regular basis which are very good in taste. That also means I have to keep on searching for new recipes to prepare them. I sat with my favourite chef Sanjeev Kapoor's Konkan cookbook and found this recipe...Prawn Pulao. The recipe serves four, but I altered the measures accordingly since I wanted servings for 8. The original recipe is noted ..

You need :-

• 1 cup prawns(cleaned)
• 1 and a half cups basmati rice
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt to taste
• half bunch coriander leaves
• half cup scraped coconut
• 3 green chillies roughly chopped
• 1 inch piece ginger roughly chopped
• 7 cloves garlic roughly chopped
• 15 fresh mint leaves
• 3 tbsps oil
• 1 inch stick cinnamon
• 4 black cardamoms
• 2 star anise
• 4 cloves
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 medium sized onions finely chopped
• 1/2 cup coconut milk

Method :-

1. Soak rice in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
2. Wash prawns, marinate with lemon juice and salt.
3. Grind green chillies, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, mint leaves and coconut to a fine paste.
4. Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel and add cinnamon, black cardamom, star anise, cloves and cumin seeds. Saute for one minute.
5. Add onions, saute till it turns light golden brown. Add ground masala paste, stir fry for half a minute and add prawns. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Add soaked rice, stir gently and then add coconut milk.
7. Add three cups of hot water. Bring it to a boil, stirring once or twice. Cook on medium heat till water has almost dried. Reduce heat, cover and cook till rice is done. 
8. Serve hot with any raitha of your choice.

Strawberries in Wine!!!

I am not doing justice to this blog. I have a backlog of a month's recipes waiting to be written. Thought I would start with this drink which I made for our dinner on Sunday! I know this is strawberry overload...:), but can't help it. Won't say much, will let my pictures do the talking for once!!!!

You need :-

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2 cups red wine
• 750 gms strawberries, washed and heads removed

For the sunshine we did not have in winter, I now have an overdose in my Kitchen!!!!!

Red and sweet wine!!

Heat sugar, cinnamon, and 1/2 cup wine to boiling. Boil for 2 minutes.

Place strawberries in medium bowl. Pour remaining one and a half cups wine and the wine mixture over strawberries. 

Love the deep red colour!!! Cover and refrigerate 1-3 hours.

Ladle berries with wine into goblets.

ENJOY!!!!!!!