"Cranberry Almond Baklava-Cheese cake" Cups

As though, 'Baklava' wasn't delicious by itself.....I bundled it up with cheese cake topping:))
It got a whole new look and flavor in these pretty cups of Crunchy filo dough cranberry-almond-pistachio baklava topped with a cheese cake like topping!!! I bet..you can't stop eating these beauties!!

How to make Cranberry-Almond Baklava:
Ingredients:
15 Filo cups
1/3 Cup Almonds
1/3 cup dried cranberries chopped finely
1/4 Cup Pistachios
1tbsp Honey
1tbsp butter melted
1tsp lemon juice
1/4tsp cinnamon powder
1/4tsp lemon zest

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 350F
2) Toast the almonds and pistachios for 5-7 mins.Don't let them brown. Chop finely after cooling.
3) Mix together chopped nuts, cranberries, honey, cinnamon, lemon juice, zest and melted butter.
4) Spoon into the filo cups and bake for 5-7 mins at 350F till the filling is heated. Let them cool completely.

Cheese cake topping:
Mix 1/2 Cup cream cheese brought to room temperature with 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk.Mix till smooth and fluffy.
Fill into a pastry bag and pipe onto the baklava cups.
Garnish with dried cranberries.

Keep the Baklava Cheese cake cups in the refrigerator till ready to serve

Asparagus-Potato-Oats Kababs

Asparagus season is here!! And I love the beautiful slender tender stems to brighten up pastas, soups and also grilled with little olive oil, salt and pepper.

Couple years ago..I had made these 'Asparagus-Chicken Kababs' and they were super flavorful and made a classy appetizer!! They reminded me of 'Shish kababs'....ground chicken with spices...grilled on skewers.
Here the Asparagus makes an edible skewer!!

Here is the link to the Asparagus-Chicken Kababs:
http://my-kitchens-aroma.blogspot.com/2012/05/appetizers-asparagus-chicken-kababs.html

On similar lines here is the vegetarian version with Oats and Potatoes-
Ingredients:

6-7 Fresh Asparagus stems

Kabab Coating:
1 Potato boiled..mashed up
1/2 cup oatmeal
1tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Kitchen king masala
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic paste
Salt
Olive oil
Pepper

Method:
1) Wash and dry the asparagus.Trim the hard end.
2) Mix ingredients for the coating.Add little water to bring it all together.
3) Press the mixture on to the asparagus

4) Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.
5) Grill in a grill pan/ outdoor grill or a nonstick pan with little oil.

6) Let the kababs brown on all sides and let the asparagus become tender. Serve hot along with Chutney or Ketchup.

Raita Cups

I love to transform recipes to give them a modern touch.You will find many such modifications in my blog...
When it comes to food...I believe "Look does matter"....because You eat with your eyes first as they say!!

One such attempt was to make Modak with a modern twist...and the result was "Baklava Modak" which were published in Mid-day newspaper:
 http://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/2012/sep/160912-Modak-goes-modern.htm

Today I made these lovely looking Cucumber cups and filled them with Raita to make a Modern looking and healthy appetizer---- "Raita Cups".
So easy to make...yet so beautiful looking!!

All you need is:
1 Cucumber
1/4  red onion finely chopped
2tbsp thick yogurt/ Greek yogurt/ strain water out of regular yogurt
2 pinches red chili powder
salt, sugar
Cilantro for garnish

Method:
1) Peel cucumber like this...leaving alternate bands of skin ..to get a pattern on the cups.

2) Cut into 5-6 large pieces and core out the center

3) Mix onion, yogurt, chopped cored out pieces of cucumber,salt, sugar, red chili powder to make raita
4) Spoon the raita into the cucumber cups

5) Garnish with cilantro...keep cold till ready to serve

High Fiber Idlies

Here I am in a time crunch to Cook....Click and Blog. However, I do post pics and short recipes on my facebook page ...
https://www.facebook.com/Thesizzlingpan

Here is the recipe from last week that I posted there-(Just Copy and Pasting :))

High Fiber Idlies

1 cup urad daal
1.25 cups brown rice
1.25 cups wheat dalia
1/4 cup cooked rice

Soak, grind and ferment like usual idli batter. Steam and serve hot with sambar and chutney. I had them 'duboke" in sambar.. With some sev on top... Just the way my dad used to like :))

"Mahim /Bombay Ice Halwa" like Halwa

I call it "Mahim/Bombay Ice Halwa" Like  Halwa.....because The texture wasn't quite the same...as I couldn't get it to roll thin enough.....but Taste wise...it was Ffffabulous!!

Every now and then....I want to try my hands at the traditional Indian sweets.Not only are they delicious...but involves quite some craftsmanship and talent. I have tried and semi-failed numerous times...mostly in terms of texture....haven't yet gotten the sugar consistency judgement under my belt.
Anyways...
I had read this recipe on the forum I subscribe to....with some modifications...here is my version...

Ingredients: This makes a LOttt of Halwa. 4-5 Chapati Size rolls
1 heaped cup All purpose flour
1 cup water ( or 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk)
2.5 cups sugar
3/4 th cup Ghee
2 tsp Rose essence
1tsp Cardamon powder
1tbsp Chopped Pistachios and Almonds.

Method:
1) In microwave safe glass bowl, mix all ingredients except the chopped nuts with a hand mixer..till smooth
2) Microwave for 18 mins.After every 5 mins, take out and mix.Mixture will get thicker.

3) Let it cool for 2 mins.
4) Place a large spoonful on buttered surface.Roll out with buttered Rolling pin.Press the chopped nuts and roll again.

5) Cut into desired shape.

6)Store in airtight container.

Red Quinoa Tikkis

It was the first time I had bought this 'Red' variety of Quinoa and wanted to try something with it...that the kids would enjoy too. Lately, they have been fans of  'Sabudana Tikkis' and I have to keep a frozen pack handy, as the demand strikes almost anytime:)
So...I thought...May be if I make Red quinoa tikkis with crushed peanuts, cumin etc ..similar to Sabudana tikkis...they would probably eat it...And THEY DID!!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Red Quinoa
2 Cups water
1/2 Cup Crushed roasted peanuts
1-2 green chilies finely chopped
1tbsp Chopped cilantro
1/2tsp Cumin
Salt
some sugar
Oil to shallow fry

Method:
1) Wash the Quinoa and pressure cook it with water and little salt.Let it cool down.

2) Add the Crushed peanuts, green chilies, chopped cilantro, salt,cumin, sugar and knead.
3) Form into tikkis.
4) Shallow fry on a nonstick pan with little oil.
5) Serve with Ketchup/ Chutney/Yogurt.

Larabar like "Healthy Chocolate bars"

I love the 'simplicity' of the larabars.No long list of artificial ingredients....just a few ingredients making a nutritious and delicious snack.They are still high in calories.....but nutrition packed calories..not the 'empty' kinds.
The base is almost 'Mejdool dates' every time....and then you can flavor them by adding different ingredients.The result is a 'chewy' delicious bar! There are a zillion varieties like...Cashew cookie, banana bread etc etc

I had read this recipe to make homemade larabars on:
http://mywholefoodlife.com/2013/02/09/homemade-chocolate-larabars/
So simple and easy to make...it was done in minutes!

Ingredients: Just 3!!

6 Mejdool dates de seeded
3/4 cup Almonds
1/3 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
Just Pulse everything together in a mixer till it starts to come together....press into bars...cut...DONE!
I store mine in the refrigerator.

Spicy Batate Wada

There are some foods....that make you drool the minute you see them....and 'Batata wada' is one of them for me. Spicy potato filling encased in a besan deep fried coating...yummmm.To top the spiciness..eat it with more spicier chutneys and fried green chilies....heaven!!

There are different versions of the potato filling...some add onions, mint, ginger garlic paste, dry fruits etc etc. No matter how you make it...It comes out super delicious!!

And the accompaniments are the icing on the cake....you got to have a chutney- green spicy or a sweet-tangy type, fried green chillies, chopped raw onions may be......I am drooling already!!!



Ingredients:
3 Boiled and mashed potatoes
1/2 onion chopped
4-5 green chilies finely chopped
2tsp mint cleaves chopped
1tsp Ginger-garlic paste
1/2tsp each cumin, mustard seeds
1/2tsp turmeric
few curry leaves
Salt
oil(for saute and for frying)
Coating:
3/4 cup Besan(gram flour) + water to make semi thin paste
1/2tsp Ajwain seeds
1/2tsp turmeric
1/4tsp red chili powder
salt

 Method:
1) Coating: Mix together besan and water and make into thin paste.Add the ajwain seeds, chili powder, turmeric, salt etc.Keep aside
2) Heat 3tsp oil, add the mustard, cumin, curry leaves, green chilies, onion, ginger-garlic paste etc.Fry for few seconds. Add the boiled mashed potato, salt, mint leaves etc.Mix. Let it cool.
3) Make the potato filling into flat round balls.
4) Heat oil in a deep pan for frying. Dip the potato filling ball into the besan paste and deep fry till golden brown in the hot oil.
5) Serve HOT with Coconut-Peanut-Garlic chutney and fried green chilies.
Or Eat with bread just like the famous Indian street food...'Vada Pav' aka 'Indian burger":)

"Shades of Hearts" Eggless chocolate cake cake with Butter-Cream cheese icing colored with Beet juice!

 It was Valentines day 2014...and surely I wanted to make something special :))  What can be more special than a 'homemade' treat? 'E' and 'A' were all set to celebrate Valentines day at school and I wanted to make them feel special at home too. On top..I was sure..'M' would love this cake too:)

Looked into the fridge...to find....OOopps no eggs...So set out to make this simple 'Eggless' chocolate cake with Butter-cream cheese frosting. Instead of putting any artificial colors...squeezed the good red beet juice into icing...to get lovely shades of pink!

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour (sifted)
3/4th cup Granulated Sugar
1/3rd Cup Canola oil
1/4 th cup Cocoa powder (I used Hershey's dark chocolate powder)
1tsp Baking soda
1/2tsp Instant coffee powder
1/2tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tbsp Vinegar (use just few drops less then 1tbsp..to avoid the vinegary smell)
1 cup cold water

For Icing:
1/2  stick Unsalted butter
4tbsp Cream cheese
3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar (adjust according to sweetness desired)
1/2tsp vanilla essence
Beet grated and juice squeezed out
Mini chocolate chips/ grated chocolate bar

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 350F (preheating is very imp). Grease the 8 inch pan with vegetable shortening. Apply liberally in all corners.Dust with all purpose flour to coat the pan.
2)First sift flour, sugar separately.Then by a spoon add to the measuring cup to measure exact amounts.Level with a knife.DO NOT pack the flour into the cup.The ratios will change and the cake will not come out as good.
3) Mix wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls.
4) Mix them together in a single direction.Bubbles will appear as vinegar reacts with baking soda.Do not over mix.But all the lumps should be gone
5) Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 mins.Do not open the door for first 20 mins atleast.
6) Check with a tooth pick, if the cake is done.The inserted toothpick should come out clean.
7) Flip on a serving platter carefully
8) Let it cool for 1hr or so before icing. 

Icing:
1)With a electric blender mix together butter,cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla till smooth and fluffy.
2)Add beet juice to achieve the desired shades of pink (I made 3 different shades)
Spread the white icing in thin layer on the cooled cake.
3)Fit the icing bag ( you can use a ziplock bag with tip cut) with a small round icing tip.Fill a icing bag with 1 colored icing.Pipe out hearts on the cake.Use the other shades and pipe out the entire surface of the cake with hearts.
4) On the sides of the cake, stick the mini chocolate chips/ grated chocolate bar with a flat knife.
5) Keep the cake refrigerated and covered.

Enjoy with your Loved ones:))