Who wants hot hot green pepper fritters???

It’s very hard for me to say NO to fritters and I never seem to get tired of it. And it tastes more delicious on a rainy day or on a cold freezing day. In winter, I get the craving for having fritters and I feel so cozy after having them. Fritters are very common in my hometown. We make fritters with raw and ripe plantain, onion, mixed veggies, chicken, banana peppers, eggplants, lentils, chick peas etc. Serving fritters along with hot cardamom tea in the evening is an usual scene in Kerala. If you walk through the streets in the evening in my hometown, you could see street vendors and small cafeterias selling hot fritters along with piping hot tea.

I love fritters made with almost everything, after all frying makes everything tastes delicious. For making the batter, you can either use all purpose flour or gram flour. Usually, ripe plantain, dates and anything that’s sweet is coated with all purpose flour batter. If vegetables are used, mostly gram flour batter is used.

The other day, I  made fritters with green pepper and it tasted unbelievably delicious. Most folks in South India are die hard fans of banana pepper fritters or Mulaku bhaji. Well, the good news is this green pepper fritter tastes very similar to banana pepper fritters as the green peppers have a mildly spicy and crunchy flavor. Try this and sure you’ll be hooked on it.

I do have a collection of fritter recipes, have a peek.

Green Pepper Fritters

Ingredients

• Green pepper, cut into thick wedges- 2 to 3
• Oil- for frying

For making batter

• Gram flour- 1 1/2 cups
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Asafetida- 2 pinches (optional)
• Ground cumin- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Water- 3/4 cup or just enough to make a thick batter

Preparation

• In a large bowl, combine all the above mentioned ingredients to make the batter.
• Add water slowly and combine with the flour till you have a thick batter.
• It’s very important that the batter should be thick else it won’t coat well on the green pepper.
• You could add any kinds of spices or herbs to the batter, if you want it spicy add more of the chilly powder.
• Remove the seeds from the green pepper and cut into 1 inch thick wedges.
• Heat a frying pan and add oil to it.
• Dip the green pepper wedges in the batter and evenly coat it.
• Place it in the oil and fry till it turns golden in color.
• Transfer to a paper towel and serve hot.
• Hot hot green pepper fritters and a cup of hot cardamom tea…Mmmm, YUM!

Textured soy chunks or soy protein are perfect meat substitutes…

Soy chunks or textured soy proteins are not new to me. I’ve tried cooking with it a few years ago, but the taste of it didn’t excite me that much. I think I made a vegetarian curry or something with that. After that I didn’t care nor make an attempt to try something new with soy chunks. Last weekend, while flipping through the TV channels, as usual my flipping came to an end when I saw a cooking show in one of the Indian channels. I got glued to that show for sometime. In that, the chef made kebabs using soy chunks. I never thought that kebabs or cutlets can be made out of soy chunks, that definitely encouraged me to buy soy chunks. I have seen soy chunks at the Indian store, so I just have to go straight to that store. Without any delay, I tried the soy cutlets or kebabs in my own way.

Believe me, I didn’t feel like I was having vegetarian cutlets, the ground soy chunks had the texture of ground chicken. I shallow fried the cutlets and it tasted really delicious. If you are looking for a meat substitute for making cutlets or kebabs, without any doubt soy chunks is the perfect match. These can also be used for making burgers or sandwiches or just wrap these in a pita bread or tortilla, perfect for lunch, dinner or even for breakfast.

Soy chunks are rich in protein and is vegetarian. Even though soy is gluten free, I learned from some blogs that these soy chunks are not 100% gluten free.

Soy Cutlets or Kebabs

Ingredients

• Soy chunks or textured soy protein- 2 1/2 cups
• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Cloves, whole- 2
• Cardamom, whole- 3
• Cinnamon, whole- 2 inch slice
• Bay leaf- 1
• Whole black peppercorns- 6 to 7 or (use 1/2 tsp ground pepper)
• Onion, chopped small- 1 large
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 2 tsp
• Dalia flour or roasted chana dal flour- 2 1/2 cups or depending on how much you need to make round shapes
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/4 cup
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- for shallow frying or deep frying

Preparation

1. Cover soy chunks with water and soak it for 20 minutes. Don’t soak it overnight.
2. Soy chunks will absorb moisture and will have a sponge like texture after it’s been soaked in water.
3. Just before you add soy chunks to the pan, make sure to squeeze the water off.
4. Place a large pan over medium heat.
5. Add oil, let it turn hot.
6. Add cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, whole peppercorns to the oil, saute for a few seconds.
7. Add onion, little salt and saute till it turns translucent.
8. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for a couple of minutes.
9. Squeeze the water off the soy chunks and add to the pan.
10. Add coriander powder, fennel powder and salt, combine well.
11. Cook covered for a few minutes.
12. If it’s too dry you could add little water to the pan and cook.
13. Soy chunks will cook very fast.
14. Open the lid and cook till all the water has dried off.
15. Add cilantro and cook for a minute.
16. Remove from the flame and let cool down.
17. Add the mixture to the blender or food processor and grind it to a smooth constituency.
18. You could add just enough water while grinding to get a smooth constituency, but don’t add too much water.
19. Transfer the ground soy mixture into a large bowl.
20. If the cinnamon hasn’t ground well, just discard that.
21. Add dalia flour in small amounts to the soy mixture and combine.
22. You should be able to form balls out of the ground mixture.
23. If the mixture is wet, add more of the flour and combine.
24. Have a taste and add more salt or ground pepper if needed.
25. Make small balls out of the mixture and shape it into oval or round shape.
26. You can make these balls way ahead and refrigerate it.
    
27. Either deep fry the cutlets or shallow fry it, I shallow fried it.
28. Heat oil in a skillet or frying pan, place the cutlets and shallow fry or deep fry till both sides have turned golden brown in color.
29. Transfer to a paper towel and serve warm with ketchup or your favorite dippings.

Tips:

• Make sure you don’t add too much water while grinding the cooked soy chunks, if it gets too watery you need to add more flour to make the balls.
• Dalia flour is available at Indian stores, don’t confuse it with besan or gram flour.
• Or buy roasted dalia and ground it into fine powder in a blender.
• Use these for making veggie burgers/sandwich or wrap in a pita bread, tortilla etc or just serve with salad.

Vegetarian appetizer for Superbowl…

I am planning to be a vegetarian for this Superbowl. Ooops did I just say that?

Much awaited superbowl is just two days away. Not just the game, even the commercials are much awaited. The other day I heard on TV that around 1.25 billion chicken wings will be consumed on Superbowl weekend, according to The National Chicken Council. Well, I am not a wee bit surprised to learn that. For non-vegetarians, without chicken wings superbowl wouldn’t be complete, period! We always  used to hit the sports bar along with friends to watch the game as we love the crowd and ambiance there. But this time we are planning to watch the game through our own big screen. So, I am looking forward to a major shopping tomorrow which obviously includes stacking up of chicken wings on my cart which is definitely going to brighten up my hubby.

For tonight’s dinner I made these veggie tacos. When I served these tacos I was expecting “where’s the meat” scream from my husband. Surprisingly, there wasn’t any scream as my hubby was busy devouring these veggie delights. He liked it, loved it and finished everything in just one sitting. And I felt relieved.

If you are planning for a veggie dish for this Superbowl, this would make a perfect appetizer. You could get the store bought crispy tacos, make the stuffing, stuff the tacos, top with cheese and bake it. It’s that easy and even the hard core non-vegetarians would sneak into it.

Veggie Tacos

Makes: 10 Tacos

Ingredients

For making stuffing

• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Carrot, grated- 2 large
• Green pepper, chopped very small- 2
• Tomatoes, chopped small- 2
• Black beans or refried beans, canned (optional)- 1/2 can
• Pickled Jalapeno, cut small- 7 to 8 slices
• Ground Cumin- 2 tsp
• Paprika or chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/4 cup

Other ingredients:

• Salsa (optional)- to top
• Cheddar or mixed cheese- to top the tacos
• Crispy Tacos, store bought- 1o no’s
• Sour Cream- for dipping

Preparation:

Making stuffing:

1. Heat a pan over medium heat, add olive oil.
2. Add grated carrot and little water to it, cook covered for a few minutes.
3. Add green pepper, cook for a couple of minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, cook covered till mashed up.
5. Add pickled jalapenos, combine well.
6. You could even add black beans or refried beans to the veggies, let it heat up.
7. Add ground cumin, paprika and salt to taste, combine well.
8. Cook till all the water has dried up and veggies have cooked well.
9. Taste and add more paprika or salt if needed.
10. Sprinkle cilantro and cook for a minute.
11. Remove from heat and keep aside.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Stuff the store bought tacos with the prepared veggies.
4. If you want you could top the veggies with salsa.
5. Top the veggies with cheese.
6. Place the tacos on the baking sheet.
7. Since the tacos are folded, to make it stand straight you could lean the tacos to one another.
8. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese has melted and is golden in color.
9. Remove from the oven and serve warm along with sour cream.

Tips:

• You could even stuff the prepared veggies into a tortilla, fold it and bake.
• For non-veg version: add shredded chicken or ground beef.

Homemade sushi rolls couldn’t get any better…

I still remember how I used to frown at sushi, however it didn’t take too long for me to turn into a sushi addict. Now, I often get the sushi craving and I am so glad that there is a really good sushi restaurant near to my house. I had been under the impression that making homemade sushi is something beyond my expertise, so I didn’t even think of making it in my kitchen. Well, I was more concerned about the handling and the storage of the raw fish. Yes, it’s very very important that the fish you use for making sushi is fresh or it’s frozen really well so that it’s safe to consume. Honestly, I am still don’t know how to handle the raw fish for making sushi. That’s the sole reason why I made the vegetarian sushi roll.

Sushi making is such a breeze, you don’t have to deal with sautéing, grinding or any of those major cooking techniques. You just need cooked sushi rice, seaweed or nori, sushi mat or bamboo mat and the fillings. In just a matter of minutes you will get to enjoy homemade sushi that tastes just like restaurant style. When it comes to filling there are no rules, you could get creative and place anything you like in the sushi. While making vegetarian sushi rolls, some of the common veggies used are avocado, carrot and cucumber.

You should be very careful while choosing the fish, for more information about what all kinds of fish can be used and about handling them read this.

Sushi rice or sticky rice, roasted seaweed sheets or nori, sushi mat or bamboo mat are available in almost all Asian stores and in some of the North American stores.

Vegetarian Sushi Rolls

Makes: 14

Ingredients

For cooking rice

• Sushi rice or sticky rice- 1 cup (add more for making more sushi)
• Water- 1 cup
• Vinegar- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Salt- little

For filling

• Avocado, cut into thin stripes- 1
• Cucumber, cut thin long stripes- 1/2 cucumber
• Carrot, cut thin long stripes- 1/2 carrot

Other ingredients

• Sushi mat or Bamboo mat or rolling mat
• Roasted seaweed or Nori- 2 sheets or more
• Sesame seeds, black or white to sprinkle over rice- 2 to 3 tbsp
• Soy Sauce- for dipping sushi

Preparation

1. Cook the rice along with the water in a rice cooker.
2. After the rice has cooked, add salt and vinegar to the rice and combine well, let cool down for sometime.
3. Place the sushi mat or bamboo mat on a clean cutting board or on counter top.
4. Layer it with a clean plastic cover or wrap.
5. Place the seaweed on the plastic wrap.
6. Evenly spread half of the rice over the seaweed. Wet your hands with water to prevent rice form sticking to your hands.
7. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the rice.
8. Gently turn the seaweed with the rice upside down so that the rice layer will become the bottom layer.
9. On the middle of the seaweed, line the avocados and top it with carrots and cucumber.
10. Gently, fold both ends of the seaweed over the filling.
11. Starting from one end roll the sushi mat along with the plastic wrap tightly.
12. When the sushi is completely rolled, tighten the sushi mat.
13. Gently, unroll the mat and peel off the plastic wrap.
14. You’ll have a nice tight long sushi roll.
15. Using a sharp knife cut the sushi into 6 or 7 pieces depending upon how thick you want. Wet the knife before cutting the sushi so that the rice and filling won’t stick to the knife.
16. Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.
17. Dip the sushi in soy sauce and gracefully put it in your mouth and enjoy the delicacy.
18. You could use any kinds of fillings you want mayonnaise, cream cheese, cooked shrimp, crab etc.

Am I falling more for ground beef lately???

Well, my husband gets very happy when I make something out of ground beef. I think I’ve already mentioned that if he enters the kitchen then it’s guaranteed that he will come out with meat loaf or some ground beef dishes. A few days ago, I felt way too much love for him and so decided to make a ground beef dish. If I cook with ground beef, I put a few conditions. It should be extra lean ground beef and it should be baked.

I got the extra lean ground beef, and then I thought about the ways to bake it. No, I wasn’t thinking about meat loaf at all. How about patties? Sounded good to me. I had brown mushrooms and so added it to the ground beef. Seasoned it with some aromatic spices and made patties out of it. Also, I didn’t add any eggs to the ground beef mixture. Yes, I tried to make it as healthy as possible.

It was so flavorful and loved the bite of mushroom in it. Baking till it gets golden in color but still slightly moist made it even more tastier. Interesting thing is that you could make several dishes with these patties: burgers, top your favorite salad, wrap it in a pita bread or tortilla. If you are not interested in any of these these, then just have it like that it’s just yummy in all ways.

Baked Ground Beef Patties

Ingredients:

• Ground beef, extra lean- 1 lb
• Green onions, chopped small- 3 stalks
• Mushrooms, brown chopped small- 2 large
• Ground Cumin- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Soy sauce, low sodium- 1 tbsp
• Oregano leaves- 1 tsp
• Salt- little

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl combine all the above mentioned ingredients.
2. Make medium sized patties out of it, keep aside.
3. Pre heat oven to 400 F.
4. Spray the baking sheet lined with aluminum foil with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Place the patties on the baking sheet.
6. Bake for total 20-25 minutes.
7. After 10 minutes, flip the patties to the other side.
8. Bake till it has turned light golden in color.
9. Don’t bake for too long as it will turn hard and crispy.
10. Serve hot with salad, burger, wrap it in pita bread/tortilla or just have it like that.

Thai cuisine always reminds me of chicken satay…

Seeing chicken satay on the menu of almost all Thai restaurants, I had an impression that this must have originated in Thailand. Apparently, satay originated from Indonesia and is a popular dish over there. However, this is a very popular dish in many Southeast Asian countries, so that explains why it is seen in Thai cuisine as well.

Chicken satay is one of the must order appetizers for us whenever we dine at Thai restaurant. I love the mildly spicy flavor of the satay, it tastes delicious when dipped in spicy peanut sauce and I never get tired of it. I tried to recreate this dish in my kitchen using very few ingredients and in less time.The satay I prepared tasted really delicious and healthier as I used very less oil to pan fry it. For a much healthier version, go ahead and grill or bake it.

Chicken Satay

Ingredients

• Chicken breasts, cut into long strips- 2 no’s
• Oil- 1-2 tbsp/batch for pan frying

For making the marinate:

• Ginger-Garlic paste- 1 1/2 tsp
• Soy sauce- 2 tbsp
• Fish sauce- 1 tbsp
• Brown sugar- 2 tsp
• Honey- 2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

1. Combine all the above mentioned ingredients for making the marinate.
2. Pour the marinate over the chicken in a bowl or ziplock bag.
3. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
4. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, add 1-2 tbsp oil per batch and spread it all over the pan.
5. Place the marinated chicken on the pan(don’t crowd them), cook at low medium heat till it’s well done and turns golden brown in color.
6. You could even grill or bake the chicken.
7. Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes or until it turns golden brown in color.
8. Once the chicken has cooked, gently insert a skewer into the chicken.
9. Serve hot with spicy peanut sauce or soy sauce.

One of our favorite appetizers…

Not just as an appetizer, sometimes I serve this as a main dish loaded with ground beef and cheese. You can make a lot of variations while making this. I’ve tried quite a few, if I am super lazy: I will just layer the tortilla chips, salsa and sprinkle cheddar cheese over it and bake it for 10 minutes. For a vegetarian version, I’ve added red beans or mixed beans to it. Other times with cooked chicken. Of all the ways I’ve tried the most delicious one is with ground beef. Even though I am not a huge fan of ground beef, when it comes to nachos I love it with ground beef.

This is perfect for munching during game nights and movie nights.

Ground Beef Nachos:

Ingredients:

For cooking ground beef:

• Ground Beef, extra lean- 1 lb
• Red onion or white onion, small chopped- 2 no’s
• Oil- 2 tsp
• Ground cumin- 1 1/2 tsp
• Worcestershire sauce- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Tomato sauce, low sodium- 1 can (8oz)

Other ingredients:

• Tortilla chips- 1 bag
• Salsa, medium (optional)- 1 jar, 430 mL
• Jalapeno, pickled- according to your needs
• Cheddar cheese, grated- according to your needs

Preparation:

• Heat a wok or large pan, add oil.
• Add chopped onions, saute till tender.
• Add ground beef and using a spatula break it till there are no lumps in it.
• Cook till it is no longer pink.
• Add ground cumin and worcestershire sauce, combine well.
• Add tomato sauce and cook the ground beef till all the water dries off.
• Preheat oven to 375 F.
• Grease a large baking dish with cooking spray.
• Layer half of the tortilla chips as the first layer.
• Layer half of the cooked ground beef as the second layer.
• Layer half of the salsa as the third layer. If you don’t have salsa just ignore this step.
• Add 5-6 jalapeno slices.
• Sprinkle grated cheese over it.
• Repeat the layers and sprinkle cheese over the top.
• Place the dish in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes till the cheese has melted.
• Serve in a plate and just dig in.

My husband’s comment: this tasted better than meat loaf…

Him being a huge fan of meat loaf commented like this, so you could imagine how good this must have tasted. I being a not so huge fan of ground beef found this shami kabab absolutely tasty. The fact that this didn’t have the intense beefy taste encouraged me to have a lot more.

Last year, during my visit to India I had visited my cousin’s in-law’s place. They gave us a grand dinner with so many delicious dishes. One dish that caught my attention was the appetizer they had served, shami kabab. I raved about it after having a couple of them. After coming back from India, the taste of this lingered to my mouth and I had thought about it quite a few times. Finally, I asked my cousin to get the recipe from her mom-in-law. They gladly shared it.

Last night, I gathered all the ingredients for making this and gave it a shot. It came out really good and tasted like the ones I had at my cousin’s place. This was a winning recipe. Thanks to my cousin’s mom-in-law for sharing this recipe to me and I am here sharing with all my dear readers.

Shami Kabab:

Ingredients:

• Ground beef or lamb- 1 lb or 1/2 Kg
• Oil- 1 tbsp
• Cloves- 2 no’s
• Cinnamon- 2 inch slice
• Red onion, chopped small- 1
• Ginger garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Green chilly, chopped- 2 no’s
• Tomato, chopped- 1
• Turmeric powder- 1/8 tsp
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
• Roasted gram-split flour or Daliya flour (porikadala)- 1 cup
• Vegetable oil- for shallow frying the ground beef patties

Preparation:

1. If you can only get hold of roasted gram-split, grind it to a fine powder in a blender.
2. Place a wok or wide pan over medium heat.
3. Add oil, let it turn hot, add cloves and cinnamon.
4. Add chopped onion and little salt, saute till it turns tender.
5. Add ginger-garlic paste and green chillies, saute for couple of minutes.
6. Add tomato, cook till gets mashed up.
7. Now, add turmeric powder and chilly powder to it, combine well.
8. Add ground beef or lamb to it, combine well.
9. Cook the ground beef till the water dries out.
10. At the end it should be a very dry mixture.
11. Taste and add salt to your taste.
12. Sprinkle chopped cilantro, combine and cook for a minute.
13. Remove from the flame and let cool down.
14. In a blender, grind the cooked ground beef mixture to a smooth paste.
15. Even though we used ground beef, it will be still grainy so to make into a smooth texture we have to grind it to a smooth paste.
16. Make sure the ground beef mixture is very dry otherwise the ground paste will be watery.
17. Place the ground paste in a bowl, add 1 cup of roasted split-gram flour and combine well.
18. Make it into a dough constituency.
19. If the dough is too soft, you could add some more flour to get the right constituency.
20. You should be able to hold the dough into patties.
21. Make small round, oval or any desired shaped patties out of the dough.
22. Heat oil in a frying pan, place the patties and shallow fry till both the sides turn golden brown in color.
23. If you want you could deep fry it, it’s your choice.
24. Transfer to a paper towel.
25. Serve on a plate and garnish with cilantro.
26. Serve along with my favorite quick salad or ketchup.

This was the first time I am cooking with quinoa and I loved how fluffy and nutty it was. Good thing is it’s gluten free so even my hubby could have it. During my last visit to bulk barn I had bought quinoa and I had been thinking of making something out of it for so long. My wait ended when I saw eggplants in my refrigerator, I had a feeling that it would be good to stuff the eggplants with cooked quinoa and then bake it. I didn’t want to postpone for any longer this time and so made it right away. I first cooked quinoa along with some veggies which took about 20 minutes, then stuffed the baked eggplant with it, sprinkled with cheese and again baked it for 20 minutes. The eggplant was perfectly baked and the quinoa along with cheese tasted incredible. A very healthy meal which can be made very easily.

What is Quinoa:

• Quinoa is not a grain but the seeds of a leafy plant.

Health benefits of Quinoa:

• Quinoa is one of the best sources of protein. It is packed with almost all kinds of nutrients.
• Quinoa is gluten free so gluten intolerant people can include this in their diet.

Quinoa Stuffed Baked Eggplants

Ingredients:

• Eggplants, cut vertically into halves- 1 or 2
• Parmesan cheese, grated- to sprinkle while baking

For cooking Quinoa:

• Quinoa- 1 cup
• Oil- 2 tbsp
• Whole cardamom- 2
• Whole cloves- 1
• Whole cinnamon- 2 inch slice
• Bay leaves- 1
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Ginger, chopped- 2 tsp
• Garlic, chopped- 2 tsp
• Onion, chopped small- 1 large
• Zucchini, chopped small- 3 no’s
• Eggplant flesh scooped out and chopped small
• Chilly powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Water- 2 cups
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
• Lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 400F.
• Cut 2 eggplants vertically into 2 halves and create room in them by scooping out the eggplant from it.
• Make sure there is some flesh at the bottom and at the sides.
• Chop the scooped out eggplant into small and keep it aside  as we will be using this while cooking quinoa.
• Spray it with non-stick cooking spray, place it on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.
• Bake for 20 minutes.

How to cook quinoa:

• Soak the quinoa in water for 5 minutes, rinse it and drain it through a strainer.
• Place a large pan over medium heat, add oil.
• Add whole cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and cumin seeds to it, saute for a second.
• Add chopped ginger and garlic, saute till aromatic and not let it brown.
• Add chopped onions, chopped eggplant, chopped zucchini along with salt.
• Cover the pan with its lid and cook for 2 minutes, don’t have to cook till tender.
• Now, add chilly powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala to it.
• Combine well and saute for a minute.
• Add water and let it come to a boil.
• Add the quinoa, combine well and cook it covered.
• It would take about 20 minutes for the quinoa to turn tender.
• After 15-20 minutes, check whether it has cooked well.
• Uncover and cook till the water has dried out.
• Have a taste and add salt if needed.
• Sprinkle chopped cilantro and lemon juice over it, give it a stir and remove from the heat.
• Discard the bay leaves from the cooked quinoa.

• Stuff the baked eggplants with quinoa, sprinkle parmesan cheese generously.
• Bake it for 20 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and serve it in a plate while its warm.

Whenever I dine at Mexican or Latin American restaurants I make sure to have emapanadas, I like them a lot. Recently, I have had them at the International food festival. I knew, it wasn’t that easy to make them and making empanadas calls for some patience and time. The thought of making them had hit me a long time ago and I kept delaying it. For the last couple of weeks, I had been facing unbelievable lack of interest in cooking, though I cooked it was just for the sake of filling my stomach. Whenever I cook without passion, things go terribly wrong. I felt awful and couldn’t find out the reason behind it.

Yesterday, I decided to break the block I had been facing and to energetically get back to cooking. Yes, I wanted something interesting and different to cook. First thing that came to my mind was empanadas, Latin American delicacy and I went with the first fresh thought. I didn’t have any idea how it was made or what ingredients it called for. I googled for some recipes and came across many. After a few minutes of research, I picked two recipes and combined them: one for making the dough and another for making the filling.

Making the filling and the dough was quite easy. After that the fun part began: rolling the dough, stuffing it and frying it. Making empanadas resembles to making samosa, since I have made samosas many times this didn’t feel like a new thing to me. You need to dedicate some time and definitely need some patience to make this. When you taste the fried empanadas, you would thank yourself for all the effort you have put into making it. It’s worth all the time and the effort. These empanadas tasted delicious and the filling was great too.

Chicken Empanadas:

For making dough:

Adopted from Emeril Lagasse

Ingredients:

• Masa Harina or corn flour- 1 cup
• All purpose flour or gluten free flour- 1/2 cup
• Yellow corn meal- 1/2 cup
• Baking powder- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Vegetable shortening- 1 tbsp
• Warm water- 1 cup

Preparation:

• In a large bowl, combine masa harina, flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt and ground pepper thoroughly.
• Cream in the vegetable shortening.
• Add warm water little by little and combining with the flour.
• Knead the dough well and make them into a log shape.
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

For making chicken filling:

Adopted from About.com by Marian Blazes

Ingredients:

• Chicken, boneless breasts- 2 breasts
• Chicken stock or bouillon cube- 1 1/2 cups stock or 1/2 cube dissolved in 1 1/2 cups water
• Bay leaves- 2 no’s
• Olive oil- 2 tbsp
• Onion, chopped small- 2 no’s
• Paprika- 2 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1 tsp
• Chilly powder- 3/4 tsp
• Ground pepper- if needed, 1/4 tsp
• Salt- very little
• Hard boiled eggs- 2
• Green olives, pickled or fresh, chopped- 1/2 cup

Preparation:

• Pour the chicken stock or bouillon cube combined with water and bay leaves into a large pan.
• Place the chicken breasts into the stock.
• Place the pan over medium heat, let the stock come to a boil.
• Cover the pan with its lid and let cook at low flame for 20-25 minutes, till the chicken has cooked well.
• After the chicken has cooked, let it cool down.
• Save the chicken stock, you could use it to make soup.
• Remove the chicken from the stock, place it on a cutting board and shred it into small pieces using a knife.
• Place a saucepan over medium heat, add oil.
• Add onions and little salt, cook till onions turn tender.
• If you are using pickled olives, don’t add too much salt as the olives have enough salt in it.
• Add paprika, cumin powder and chilly powder to the onions.
• Cook for some more time till onions start to turn golden in color, remove from the flame.
• Boil 2 eggs in water, remove the shells and chop it into small pieces.
• You could use fresh or pickled olives. If using pickled olives, rinse the olives under water to remove excess salt from it.
• Chop olives into small pieces.
• Add shredded chicken, chopped eggs and chopped olives into the onion mixture.
• Taste the mixture, if you need more spice add ground pepper to it.
• Combine everything well, let cool down.

How to stuff the empanadas:

Ingredients:

• Oil- to grease the plastic cover
• Vegetable oil- enough to deep fry

Procedure:

• After 20 minutes, take the dough from the refrigerator.
• Make small balls out of it and keep it on a plate.
• I tried rolling the dough on a floured board, the dough cracked a lot, hence I tried the following method which worked well for me.
• Cut a ziploc bag into two halves or use any thick plastic bags.
• Grease the cut halves with little oil. Make sure to grease before you roll each dough.
• Place the dough ball on one of the halves.
• Cover the dough ball with the other ziploc half.
• Using a wooden pin, roll it gently to a round shape over the plastic cover.
• Don’t roll the dough too thin.
• Using a cookie cutter or any small round lid with sharp edges (I used the lid of 8 oz cream cheese box), make a round shape out of the rolled dough.
• Place 1 tbsp of filling on the dough. Don’t overstuff as the dough will break apart.
• Close the dough to the shape of a half moon.
• Seal the edges of the roll, the dough is very soft so just press the dough down at the edge, else use little water.
• Using a fork, make marks at the edge of the roll: gently press the fork over the edge.
• Place a frying pan over medium heat, add enough oil to deep fry. Let the oil get hot.
• Place the stuffed empanadas into the hot oil and fry till both sides turn golden in color.
• Transfer the fried empanadas over a paper towel.
• Serve hot with your favorite sauce or ketchup.
• You wouldn’t be using all the filling, you can serve the filling along with fried empanadas. The filling itself tastes good.