Another one of my Mum's recipes that she would make, on the days she and Appa would head out for their weekly game of badminton back in the day when her children were still going to school.....
Macerate the shredded cabbage with salt. Place the cabbage into a steamer and let it steam through for about 3minutes. Boil the potatoes, peel and cut into roundels, apply salt and pepper to taste and keep aside. Into a frying pan, melt the butter and sweat the onions, then add the paprika powder, baked beans and ketchup and saute for a while. Grease a baking dish. Arrange the cabbage at the bottom. Cover the leaves with the seasoned baked beans. Sprinkle some cheese over the beans and then top the beans with the potato rounds. Pour the white sauce over the potatoes. Top the potatoes with more cheese and bake in a hot oven at 180C for 25mins. Serve hot.
Bechamal Sauce (White Sauce):
Butter - 2tbs
Plain flour - 3tbs
Milk - 11/2cups
Salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Blend in the flour. Add the milk all at once and cook quickly constantly stirring, till the sauce thickens.
Not that Brinjal is our favorite vegetable, but after this bake, we have quite acquired the taste for this purple veggie..
Ingredients:
Brinjal - 500gms
Potatoes - 500gms
Onions - 3 large finely chopped
Tomatoes - 4 large blanched and pureed
Spring Onions - 2tbs finely chopped
Green chillies - 2 finely chopped
Garlic paste -1tsp
Corn flour - 2tsp dissolved in a little water
White pepper - 1tsp
Soya Sauce - 1tsp
Tomato Chilly Sauce - 3tbs
Butter - 1tbs
Milk - 1/4cup
Sugar - 1tsp
Processed Cheese - 2cubes (Amul)
Salt to taste
Into a pot of boiling water, boil the potatoes till soft. Peel and then mash using milk and butter to get a spreadable consistency. Slice the brinjal into thin roundrels, shallow fry them and keep aside. Into a wok, saute the garlic paste, onions and chillies for 2-3minutes. Also add the sugar while sauteeing the onions. Then add tomato chilly sauce, soya sauce,white pepper powder and tomato puree and bring to a light simmer. Tip in the corn flour mixture and cook for a minute or two. Then add the spring onions, lightly toss them in the sauce. Taste and check for seasoning, add salt only if required.Remove from the flame and keep aside. Into a greased baking dish, firstly layer the potato, then arrange the fried brinjals and then top with tomato sauce. Repeat the layers and lastly grate the processed cheese and bake for 20minutes at 120C.
It was my Husband's birthday two days back and my brother and me immediately thought of a plan to make his day special. We invited about 12 of his friends over and decided on a late night gathering at our home. Since all of them confirmed on a late arrival, which is as late as 10.30pm...I could only think of some snacks to keep us all alert and awake for the night. My snack menu for the party comprised of Chiken Tikka Cocktail, Stuffed Eggs, Green chutney and Carrot Sandwiches, Cocktail Sausages, Potato chips with garlic and chilly dip, Mushroom and Potato pie, Warm Orange Tea and Raspberry Souffle.
Chicken Tikka Cocktail
Ingredients:
Chicken Tikka - 24 pieces (I ordered this from a local tandoori restaurant and had them home delivered)
Thousand Island Dressing - 1/2cup
Half a Green Bell pepper - diced into cubes
Chop the chiken tikka into small pieces and plop in the thousand island dressing and diced pepper and mix well. Serve immediately. This can be refrigerated and used for a sandwich filling for the next day as well.
Stuffed Eggs
Ingredients:
Hardboiled Eggs - 24 halved lengthwise
Cheese spread - 4-5tbs
Mayonnaise - 1/4cup
Tobasco Sauce - a couple of dabs
White pepper - a pinch
Onion - one small finely chopped
Small green pepper - finely chopped (reserve some for garnish)
Prawns - 200gms (I used frozen prawns)
Lemon juice - 1-2tsp
Salt to taste
Lettuce leaves
Thaw the prawns. Into a pot, pour water enough to cover the prawns and bring the water toa boil. Once the water the starts to boil, put in some pepper and salt to season. Take the prawns out in 2-3minutes, or else the prawns would become rubbery. After they have cooled a bit, chop them up.
Into a another bowl, using a teaspoon scoop out the egg yolks and add the mayonnaise and mix well. Add the tobasco sauce and white pepper and combine well. Then add in the chopped pepper, onion and prawns and combine again. Taste and adjust the seasoning and then add the lemon juice. Fill each egg white with the filling and garnish with a green pepper and arrange the eggs on to a bed of lettuce leaves.
Mushroom and Potato Pie
Ingredients:
Mushroom - 250gms
Potato - 5-6 diced into cubes
Carrot - 2-3 diced into cubes
Green chilly - 2 finely chopped
Onion - 2 medium sized finely chopped
Garlic - 3-4pods finely chopped
Hot and sweet tomato sauce - 4-5tbs
Salt to taste
For the Bechamel Sauce
Flour - 4tbs
Milk - 2cups
Butter - 2tbs
Cheddar Cheese grated - 1/2cup
Nutmeg grated - 1/4 tsp
Pepper - 1/4tsp
Salt to taste
Fry the potatoes and carrot and remove onto absorbent paper. Then saute the garlic, onion and chilly. When the onion becomes transparent, add the Hot and sweet tomato sauce and fry for a minute. Tip in the mushrooms and fry till it becomes nice and soft. Add the fried potatoes and carrot and mix well. Check on the seasoning. Empty into a greased pie dish and top with bechamal sauce and grated cheddar cheese and bake for 35minutes at 120C.
For the roux[White sauce/ Bechamel Sauce]
Into a heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter, add in the flour and stir continuously till it forms a soft paste and bubbles. Careful not to brown the roux. Mix in the milk and keep stirring till the roux thickens. Add salt to taste, pepper and grated nutmeg and mix well.
Saturday nights we would always have cousins or friends sleeping over at our place, so one of the Saturdays I thought I'd go in for a vegetable bake rather than the usual meat and roti combination. All who come here are big time meat/fish lovers....including us! Without meat or fish we cease to part take in our every day meals. This is a quick and easy bake, and better you'd get people to think that you whipped up something really fancy.
Ingredients:
Cauliflower - 750gms cut into florets and boiled in salt water
Potato - 1/2cup diced and fried
Onion - 1 big finely sliced
Cheddar Cheese - 1/2cup
Salt to taste
Green Chillies - 3
Garlic - 3-4 pods finely sliced
Ginger - 1/2 piece finely sliced
Onions - 4 small
Chilly Powder - 1/2tsp
Oil - 1dsp
For the Bechamel Sauce
Flour -2dsp
Milk - 1 1/2cup
Butter 1 1/2dsp
Cheddar Cheese - 1/2cup
Tomato Sauce - 3tbs
Nutmeg grated - 1/4 tsp
Pepper - 1/4tsp
Salt to taste
Grind the small the onions, red chilly powder, green chillies, ginger and garlic together to a smooth paste. Saute the onions till transparent pink Then tip in the the ground paste and saute for 2minutes. Add in the fried potatoes, boiled cauliflower and fry till the masala is well coated to the vegetables. Fry on low flame for about 5 minutes. Add in the grated cheddar cheese and mix thoroughly. You would also want to check in on the seasoning, add salt only if required. Transfer to a greased baking dish.
For the roux(White Sauce/ Bechamel Sauce)
Into a heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter, add in the flour and stir continuously till it forms a soft paste and bubbles. Careful not to brown the roux. Mix in the milk and keep stirring till the roux thickens. Add salt to taste, pepper and grated nutmeg and mix well. Pour the roux over the vegetables, Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for 20minutes on 140 C. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro and serve warm with some garlic bread.
