Spinach-Feta Puffs for 'Adaptation: Blog Bites #3'

Spinach Feta Puffs as Appetizers

Puffpastry squares ready to be filled-spinach feta mix alongside.

Squares ready with filling to be popped into the oven

Had made up my mind about taking part in the event hosted by Nupur of One Hot Stove, Blog Bites # 3 - ADAPTATION.

Most of us due to many reasons surely adapt a recipe from blog and for me, Blogs, ever since I have discovered them, have been my cooking bible - nothing hardly goes wrong from a tried and tested recipe.

This recipe below is from Asha of Foodies Hope/Aroma from one of her thousands of recipes! We had dined out and I was amazed at the use of Feta-Spinach in rolls which appealed to my kids, making me try this lovely Spinach and Feta Pockets by Asha (incase you feel lost, its at the end of the post, in the link alongside).

I have chosen this many times tried recipe because it fits Nupur's theme perfectly. Asha has used crescent whereas I have used puffpastry squares. My family loves the filling and daughter even has the filling with chapatis. Just a perfect recipe for me.

SPINACH N FETA PUFFS (click here for Asha's Recipe)

Yields : 12 pcs

Ingredients :

10-12 cubes of frozen spinach(approx one cup)

100gm Feta cheese (I used Almarai Full cream Feta Cheese)

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp Italian herbs

Tiny pinch of red chili flakes

1/4 tsp pepper powder

salt to taste

12 frozen squares of puff pastry (I used Sunbullah brand)

Method :

In a microwave (mw) safe dish, on high power, mw the frozen cubes for 5 minutes. (Mw till all the water has evaporated and spinach looks dried, take care not to burn it. Mw it for 10 seconds everytime and check if it has not got done in 5 minutes.)

Cool it. Add the garlic powder, herbs, flakes, pepper and salt, mix well.

Combine the cheese with a spoon in the spinach mixture.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C (that was as per instructions to bake on the puff pastry wrapper)

Line a roasting tray or baking tray with parchment. In each square, place a tablespoon of the mix and pinch the sides. (Remember: If the spinach filling is watery, it will make the puffs soggy, hence ensure a dry mixture.) I pinched the opposite edges of the square with light touch of water as in above image. Place with an inch of spacing on the prepared tray and bake for 10-12minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot.

Tips :

1. While making these, I experimented with mw to bring the frozen puff squares at a room temperature. I placed two squares from freezer on a plate and mw'd on a high for 10 seconds, one square for 5 seconds. It works fine if you have forgotten to thaw the squares.

2. Divide the filling to 12 portions or just place a tbspn each. If you have some spinach feta filling as left over, have it with chapatis, Chapati roll with spinach-feta : good lunch box idea for kids.

Enjoy these Puffs as Appetizers or even as Snacks.

Off the post goes to Nupur for Blogbites # 3, hope my entry is valid for your lovely event.

Apricot Tea Bread

This recipe comes from ' 200 Cakes n Bakes' by Sara Lewis incidently my first ever 'purchased' book on baking.

The use of tea decoction and using up my apricots made me go for this recipe.

APRICOT TEA BREAD

Preparation time : 25 mins, plus soaking

Baking Time : 1 hour

Ingredients :

100 gms ready-to-eat dried apricots

100 gms sultanas*

100 gms raisins*

150 gms caster sugar

300 ml of strong tea

275 gms self raising flour*

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 egg, beaten

Method :

Put the dried fruits and sugar in a mixing bowl, add hot tea and mix together. Soak for 4 hours or overnight.

Mix the flour, soda, cinnamon together, add to the soaked fruit with beaten egg, combine well.

Spoon into a greased 1 kg loaf tin, its base and 2 long sides lined with wax paper. Spread the surface level, bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven @ 160 C for about 1 hour or until well risen, the top should crack and skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then loosen along the edges and lift out of tin using the lining paper, transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely. Cut into slices and spread with little butter to serve. Store, unbuttered, in an airtight tin for upto 1 week.

* I used tutti-frutti in lace of raisins and sultanas. The bread tasted good when warmed.

Sliced Apricot-Tea Bread

Happy Baking to all my dear friends!

Rice Paper Wraps- Veggie Rolls

Vegetable Roll - Rice Paper Wrap

I was keen to try the Rolls Recipe, here long ago. I was thrilled to have found Blue Dragon brand of Rice Paper Wraps! I bought them, searched for video help on usage of the paper wraps, here and proceeded with my recipe which my family liked. Many Indian variations can be tried out on these rolls!

This is a good recipe for kids, mess free, their fave sabji and rice or any variation can be wrapped in and they can relish on it! :) It took me only half an hour, to put this together! Time saver and filling!

Serving Size : 8 wraps

Ingredients :

Rice Paper Wraps : 8 pcs

One dish of warm water

Boiled Rice Noodles - 200 gms package

Steamed Veggies - Carrot, Peas, Capsicum,Beans - 1 1/2 cup

Red Onion - 1 small minced

Garlic minced - 3-4 cloves

Olive Oil - 2 tsp

Pepper to taste

Salt to taste

Sauce of your choice (We had with sweet chili sauce)

Method :

Boil 500 ml of water, with bit of salt, add the noodles and lower the flame. Once its done, drain and keep aside.

Pass the veggies through food processor, grate mode, transfer to a mw safe bowl, sprinkle some water (maybe around 2-3 Tbspn) and on high, for 5-6 mins till wilted.

In a kadhai, take olive oil, warm it and sweat the onion garlic, followed with the veggies and on a medium high flame, sauté it . Put off the flame, add salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble the rolls :

Do this step when you are ready to eat.

Take a shallow pan with around a cup of water and let it get warm. Put the flame off. Dip the paper wrap each at a time till wet and take it on a clean surface or dish. Pat it with fingers so it gets wet evenly. Take some noodles on the damp wrap, place around a tablespoon or more of the sautééd veggies atop the noodles,wrap as per the video help. Framing the wrapping part in words, naaah .

Serve with sauce of choice, eat immediately! Enjoy!

MOLTEN LAVA or CHOCO LAVA CAKE ~ “The Best Chocolate Cake” ~ For Divyostav :D

Choco Lava Cake

Going in the Oven- Ramekins in Waterbath.

Jus Out-of-Oven - Molten Lava Cake

I feel out of touch here, coming up for a event after...can't recall my last entry....yet would like to give it a try. :D

This is a special post for a dear blogger friend, Divya Kudua, who is hosting first ever event at her lovely space @ Easycooking, the event is The Best Chocolate Cake.

Without any further digression, shall come to this lovely recipe which I have adapted from Show Me the Curry and Food Wishes, crisp on the out, gooey chocolatey goodness inside.

Choco Lava /Molten Lava Cake

Servings : 4 Indivdual Ramekins

Ingredients :

100 gms milk choco chips

100 gms butter unsalted

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 heaped tsp Hershey's cocoa (optional)

2 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar (caster)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Butter for greasing( I used clarified butter/ghee)

Method :

Pre-heat oven to 180 °C. (Pls note that oven times and temperature differ for all.)

Take the choco chips in a microwave safe bowl, melt for 30 seconds each time on high, till it melts.

Chop the butter and mix well till combined to the melted chocochips. (Here can MW for 10 secs on high power).

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar till lemony yellow. Add the smooth butter-chocochip mix to the egg mix and whisk till well combined.

Add the vanilla essence. Add the flour and cocoa powder to the mix and whisk well till smooth.

Pour in indivual ramekins - liberally greased with- butter; till half full. Tap it on counter to make it bubble-free.

Bake for 15-16 mins in a water bath (as in pic). Once done, take it out, cool for 3-4 mins.

(** Bake it for extra 4-5 mins if you don't want it gooey-oozy, for a bit mousse like insides.)

Pass a knife along sides to loosen it, invert it slowly on a serving dish. Garnish if needed with icing sugar on top.

(I skipped icing sugar, kids were already rushing to eat it! :) Greasing with ghee did not alter the taste. This cake was loved by all and polished off within an hour of baking! You may directly relish it from ramekins too.)

Chk out the gooey choco oozing and crisp top!

Here it comes to you Divu, for your 'THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE' EVENT.

Omelette (As In a Fatayer ), Dabeli N Milkmaid Sweet

Egg Omelette (Moz Cheese) Served With Rainbow Toast Bread for Kids.

Moz Cheese gets cooked inside and crisp on the outside.

Eating out is pleasure when kids start loving the 'healthy' food served there. One such Mid-eastern dish / form of pie is an Egg Fatayer. (Varieties of Fatayer such as Spinach, Cheese etc are available to choose from! ) Egg is beaten along with salt and pepper as we usually do for our simple omelettes and one lovely addition is made in the beaten egg, which is then poured over a pizza like base and baked in traditional oven for around ten minutes.

I thought of trying out the same at home, various times, having used sliced cheese, then the triangles and even the cream cheese :( ALL resulted in burnt omelette on a pan!

Then it struck..it should have been mozzarella! Tried it out, VOILA! ..and here goes the easy-peasy kiddo type of omelette , made on gas top, minus the base. Its filling and healthy for kids! Has to be served hot!

Egg Omelette-Fatayer Style.

Ingredients :

1 large egg

Salt as per taste

Pepper powder

1 Tbspn Mozzarella Shreds

1 Tbspn Vegetable Oil

Method :

Beat the egg along with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a pan-medium flame. When the egg is well beaten, add the shreds directly from the freezer around 1 Tbspn, and fold in well with the egg mix, do not beat, pour in the hot pan. One side done, flip and cook the other side, serve hot along with bread as a sandwich or with rotis. (Once it cools , the cheese becomes chewy, hence serve hot.)

One more variation is not to mix the cheese shreds in the egg mix, pour the egg mix in pan. When one side is done, sprinkle the frozen shreds on surface, and flip it carefully. When the omelette is done, the bottom side up, will have beautifully crisp cheese on top and soft omelette below. I do not have a photo of it. Children will scrape and eat the crisp cheese first :D

(Shall try to post picture of EGG FATAYER in few days time. )

Any other variation, do try it out, it is very filling any style you make !

More omelette details are here.

Treasure the sight of child eating with love! :D

Dabeli

Very popular street food of Mumbai, loved by one and all. Its available in two ways, the filling is sandwiched and given in a round bread or the bread is lightly toasted in butter and the filling is sandwiched. The tantalizing part is the crunch from nuts or dryfruits and sev. I love the toast version.

Couldn't resist making it from MEERA @ ENJOY INDIAN FOOD, link from Tarala Dalal, just perfect measure and too good in taste. Follow the exact recipe and enjoy the praises! :D

Thanks Meera!

MOM'S DELIGHT- Condensed Milk, Biscuit,Cocoa Treat!

Mom's Delight is a dessert that comes from Edible Garden by Nags.

Thanks to you and your mom for sharing such a wonderful dessert, flavored best on the next day! (Made it in a 9" sqaure pan. Used 10 Digestives rest all being same! )

Would post on a weekly basis atleast from now on! :D Thanks for your support dear friends!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO YOU ALL IN ADVANCE!

Welcome-2010, Err in FEB! Dhoddak-(Pan-IdliFry) , Candied Awala

Belated wishes of all that has passed n all that is to come!!!!!

HAPPY 2010 and a HALA FEBRUARY! Already into Feb, yeah..thats common knowledge..am here after a long blogocomma, 10 months to be precise.

Idli is the most common thing on breakfast table, all of us at times have looked for variation with our already bored kids as in making mini idlis, or stuffed ones etc.

Here is one variation which I loved the most as a kid. My children too are fond of it. It has been called DHO-DD-ak, in Konkani, the only difference between idli fry and dhoddak is , batter is directly poured in a small kadhai, no steaming involved and its bigger than an idli, maybe around two and half idlis in one, is quite filling as well!

The process is as follows :

Recipe for IDLI batter is from here.

Dhoddak / PAN-Idli Fry

Ingredients :

Idli batter as needed ( 2 cups will serve 4)

The below is for each Dhoddak:

1 Tbspn Coconut Oil (opt, u may choose vegetable oil)

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp jeera seeds

Method for Dhoddak :

Heat the kadhi. Add 3/4 Tbspn the oil, splutter rai and crackle jeera, on low flame, pour a ladle (approx 1/4 C to less than 1/2 C) batter, cover with lid and allow to cook. Around two minutes later, check for surface, should be cooked partially, without traces of raw batter. Drizzle the remaining oil, flip and cook uncovered for around 1-2 mins.

Serve HOT with the seasoning facing top. Accompany the dish with normal coconut chutney.

** The above pic is for my kids lunch, they don't like to bite into rai-jeera, so its skipped and served alongside honey. Size approx 3.5" in diameter. I have given those cuts so that it cools and tiny hands can have bite size pieces! :D ENJOY!!

The other good yummy is made from Gooseberries, known as 'Awala' is a sweet after food treat.

Sundried Meetha Awala / Candied Awala

Ingredients :

500 gms gooseberries

250 gms sugar

1/8th tsp pepper powder

1/8th tsp kala namak/black salt (normal wd do)

Method :

Wash the gooseberries, add double water in a vessel and pressure cook them upto only one whistle. Allow to cool, discard water in which it was boiled , they segment easily. De-seed them

and in a 1 kg capacity glass bottle, which has been sterilized and dried, layer them with sugar.

One layer of awala segments, one layer sugar. Once all the awala and sugar is used up close the lid tight and sundry in strong sun for upto 7 days. Pick the pieces from the bottle and lay them on a non-reactive plate, or a plate/tray lined with an aluminum foil. Let it dry on this for few hours on the counter sprinkle the pepper powder, kala namak and store this in an airtight container refrigerated. Eat after meals or simply :) Bet you can't resist!

More posts to come up...hope I get a good kick out of this first post of 2010!! Have a great week!!