food for thought: November 2014

Beans and Cheese Quesadilla

Think of Mexican food and you picture tortillas, corns, kidney beans, salad, cream, cheese. Tortillas are very similar to the Indian chappatis and are made from either refined flour, whole wheat flour, or maize flour, and are widely used in most Mexican meals.

Tortillas are used in burrito, taco, quesedilla, enchilada, chimichanga, tostada, flautas - only the filling, folding, and cooking techniques differ.

This is an Indianized flavor with almost all ingredients available in the kitchen. To prepare this (beans and cheese quesadilla) we need - tortilla, re-fried beans, tomato salsa, vegetable and cream salad, cheese.

Note:
Re-fried beans = cooked and mashed beans with spices used as filling or dip. I have used rajma here.

Ingredients:

for tortilla
1 cup wheat flour
1 tsp oil
salt to taste
warm water

for re-fried beans (bean paste)
150 gm rajma
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp crushed garlic
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp spring onion greens
salt to taste

for tomato salsa
5 tomotoes
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 stalk spring onion with greens
1 tsp vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp chilli powder
salt

for vegetable and cream salad
1 tbsp cucumber, chopped
1 tbsp tomato, chopped
1 tbsp capsicum, chopped
10 green or black olives, chopped
1 tbsp boiled corn
1 tbsp hung curd
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp powdered black pepper
salt

1/2 cup grated cheese
Butter to toast the quesadillas

Method:

1. Pressure cook the rajma. Mash and keep aside.

2. Mix all the ingredients for tortillas and knead into a soft dough. Cover and keep aside for 10 minutes.
3. Prepare the tortillas like chappatis on a tawa by just cooking slightly on both sides. Keep them wrapped in a cloth until later.

4. Combine all the ingredients for the salad in a bowl and keep aside.

5. Prick tomatoes with a fork and directly heat them over the flame, holding and turning with the fork itself. Allow the tomatoes to char.

6. Peel the tomato skins and mash into pulp.
7. Heat oil, add onion and garlic, cook until onion is soft.
8. Add the tomatoes, sugar, salt, chilli powder, spring onions, cook for few minutes.
9. Add vinegar and remove into a bowl.

10. To prepare rajma past, heat oil in a kadai, add garlic, green chillies, onions and saute
11. Add the tomatoes, salt, chilli powder and saute.
12. Next add the mashed rajma and some water and cook for 10 minutes, garnish with spring onion greens. Remove from stove and keep aside.

Assemble just before serving:
In a tawa, smear some butter. Place one tortilla on it. Keep the flame in medium. Spread beans paste on one half of the tortilla. Put grated cheese over this. Fold the tortilla to form a half-moon. Flip and slightly toast on the other side too. Remove on to a plate and cut into 3 pieces (triangular) and serve hot with vegetable and cream salad and tomato salsa as dip.

Beans and Veggie Burrito

This is an Indianized flavor with almost all ingredients available in the kitchen. To prepare beans and veggie burrito, we need - tortilla, re-fried beans, tomato salsa, vegetable and cream salad, cheese.

Method:

1. Pressure cook the rajma. Mash and keep aside.

4. Combine all the ingredients for the salad in a bowl and keep aside.

5. Prick tomatoes with a fork and directly heat them over the flame, holding and turning with the fork itself. Allow the tomatoes to char.

Assemble just before serving:
Take one tortilla. Spread tomato salsa over it. Spoon in rajma or beans at one end of the tortilla. Put some salad over this. Sprinkle grated cheese. Roll the tortilla. Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes or alternately heat it on a tawa with very little butter. Serve with salad and salsa.

Burritos

Schezwan Veg Noodles

Nothing beats a bowl of spicy, hot noodles on a lazy afternoon (not instant noodles). This is super-easy-to-make food that never fails to please anyone's palate.

Ingredients:

200 gm noodles
2 cups mixed vegetables, cut into long strips
1 onion, sliced
1 tbsp ginger, finely julienned
1 tbsp coarsely crushed garlic
2 tbsp chopped spring onions (including the green)
2 tbsp schezwan sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp red chilli sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Method:

1. Boil water in a large vessel to cook the noodles. Put little oil, salt, and noodles into this.

2. Strain the noodles into a colander and quickly pour cold water to arrest further cooking.

3. Heat olive oil in a kadai, add the onions, ginger, garlic, and saute this.
4. Next add the vegetables and saute for few minutes. Ensure the flame is on high.
5. At this stage add the salt, pepper, all the sauces and continue sauteing rapidly to prevent burning the vegetables.

6. Add the boiled noodles and combine well.
7. Serve it piping hot. It tastes yum even cold, anyways.

Chinese Fried Rice

A typical Chinese meal consists of two main components; rice and noodles. Chinese food is popular throughout the world. Variety of sauces are used in their dishes, but spices and condiments are minimally used unlike Italian cuisine. This is my first post on a Chinese recipe. Let us start with the very simple Chinese Fried Rice (veg) – very subtle but tasteful dish. Can be served with any side dishes with typical Chinese gravy like mushroom chilli, vegetable jalfrazi. Today I prepared Chilli Capsicum.

Ingredients:

1 cup long-grained rice

1 cup finely chopped mixed vegetables (carrot, cabbage, beans, capsicum)

1 onion, finely chopped

5 to 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp spring onion greens, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ajinomoto

salt to taste

white pepper to taste

for chilli-vinegar

2 tbsp vinegar

1 green chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

salt

Method:

Wash and soak rice for 10 to 15 minutes.
Boil rice al dente, drain, keep aside.

Combine all the ingredients for the chilli-vinegar and keep aside.
Warm olive oil in a wok, add the chopped onions and garlic, saute for a minute, do not allow onions to turn brown.

Add the vegetables, increase the flame and saute continuously for few minutes.Add the ajinomoto, salt, pepper, onion greens and combine well.

Put the boiled rice into this and saute and mix again.
Serve hot with Chilli Capsicum and chilli-vinegar.

Maaladu

A South Indian melt-in-the-mouth sweet delicacy (also called pottukadalai laddu) made of roasted gram, mainly prepared during festivals. So very easy that even a child of ten can do it. This post is for my friend, Sudhendra, who requested for this recipe. I last prepared this on Diwali.

Ingredients:

2 cups roasted gram (pottukadai in Tamil)
2 cups sugar
6 to 7 cardamoms
2 tbsp chopped cashewnuts
1 to 1-1/4 cups ghee

Method:

1. Roast the gram on low flame until a nice aroma comes taking care that it does not change color,
2. Grind the roasted gram, sugar, and cardamom together to a fine powder. Keep aside.

3. Heat little ghee and fry the chopped cashewnuts and keep aside.
4. Assemble the gram-sugar powder and cashewnuts in a steel bowl (do not use plastic bowl).
5. Heat ghee and when it becomes hot remove and pour into the bowl gradually, mixing with a flat spatula simultaneously.

6. Add more ghee if the mix is very dry and crumbles when made into a ball.
7. Make small laddus with your palm by making a fist. Do not roll between palms of both hands as this may break or crumble.

Moong Dal and Vegetable Stew

Assortment of veggies and lentil used and the simple, combined flavors of ginger, lemon, and coconut milk in this stew makes it befitting to serve this on special occasions and for guests. But as this tickles everyone's taste buds it is prepared very often at our home - guests or no guests. Goes well with hot steaming rice, idiyappam, chappatis, toasted bread etc. etc.