Hot and sour cabbage

A side dish and for a change one that doesnt contain potatoes!!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium cabbage(about 500 gms) cut into 1 “ squares
• 4 tomatoes
• ½ C grated carrot
• 3 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 1 Cwater
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt

Method:

• Blanch tomatoes. Remove skin and chop.
• Heat oil, add grated carrot and chopped tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Blend in a mixer.
• Remove blended tomatoes and carrot in a bowl, add vinegar, salt, sugar,soya sauce and mix well.
• Mix cornflour in 1C water and add this to the tomato mixture.  Pour into a pan and cook on stove till the sauce is thick and translucent.
• In a greased baking dish, place the cabbage pieces.
• Pour sauce over cabbage and mix gently.
• Bake in an oven at 280 deg.C for 20-25 minutes till cabbage is done.

 

Notes:  If you are partial to flavours of  Chinese cooking you should like this. The only problem with this dish is that it seems a bit too high on the tomato content- the tomato taste is a bit over whelming. It would be a good idea to play that down a bit…but I dont quite know how… The cabbage comes out pretty crisp inspite of being baked. The crunchy texture was appealing to me. so make this dish if you can figure out a way to tone down the tomato.

Potato nests

Yup, we are over doing potatoes on this blog. And we have no real reason for it. Promise to keep the potatoes away for at least 3  months right after you tell us how absolutely wonderful this potato side dish looks!

Ingredients :

• ½ C bonesl ess chicken/ crumbled paneer
• 4 large potatoes- boiled and grated
• ½ C sliced mushrooms
• 4 tbsp softened butter
• 2 tbsp milk
• A few sprigs of coriander
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Mash  the boiled potatoes till smooth.
• Add in 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp milk and the seasoning.
• With your hands or with the help of a katori/vati shape into small nests.
• Cover the baking tray with greased aluminium foil. Place the nests on it. Bake at 200 deg.C for 15- 20 mins, till the nests are set.
• Melt 1 tbsp butter and sauté the chicken/paneer till golden.  Add some water and cook till done (in the case of paneer the cover and cook step can be skipped).
• Sauté mushrooms and add to the chicken/paneer.
• Fill the mushroom-chicken/paneer filling in the nests, garnish with coriander and serve.

Source:Nita Mehta’s Bakes and Cakes

Notes: The humble potato is probably the most versitile sabzi I have  ever met. Falling short of cauliflower in  for dinner? Throw in some potatoes to increase teh quantity of the sabzi.  Dint get time to go vegetable shopping this week? Look around, there are sure to be some potatoes and onions around- throw them together to make a simple vegetable and tide over the vegetable drought. There are  millions of ways to cook and serve potatoes- this recipe is just one of the many that you will find on the blogosphere. What do I like about it?  Its not too complicated to do and its looks very good. The original recipe asks for chicken. I subsituted it with paneer with sauted grated carrots and spring onions. You could use any kind of filling- mushrooms, sauted bell peppers and onions, baby corn,shredded spinach and olives. Basically anything you fancy.

Dill potatoes turned baked potatoes

This is crazy. I am at the verge of leaving for a vacation and when I think of things I need to do before I go, I think of publishing a post! There must be something clinically(or medically, what ever’s the right term) wrong with my head. But I just had to post. So for the sake of my sanity and a happy,blog -disassociated, mentally relaxed holiday, I will post. A dish on good ol’ aaloo-universally liked and almost always easily available at home.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 medium potatoes
• 11/2 tbsp butter
• 4 garlic flakes chopped
• 11/2 C milk
• 4tbsp cream
• 1 tbsp maida
• 4-5 tbsp finely chopped dill
• 2 green finely  chopped chillies
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• A few drops of lemon juice

Method:

• Peal the potatoes and cut into ¼” thick rounds.
• Boil 4 cups of water with ½ tsp salt. Add slices of potato and boil till tender but firm. Drain and keep aside.
• Heat butter in a pan. Sauté garlic, stir for a minute and add maida. Cook lightly reduce heat and add milk. Stir constantly till it thickens.
• Add chopped dill, chillies, salt, pepper, cream and potatoes.
• Stir coat the potatoes evenly. Reduce heat and add a few drops of lemon. Serve hot

Source:Nita Mehta’s continental cooking.

Mandira’s note: This recipe sounded nice except for two things-a- it does use the oven  in anyway and this blog is about baking so it doesn’t qualify and b-I don’t know what in the world dill is! These two “problems” were solved easily – a- I twisted around a recipe a bit to allow me to bake it and b-I read up about dill and then realising it wont be that easy to find in the local market,  I found an  substitute- dried parsley.

Boiling potatoes in a pan seems like a waste of time and fuel. So I boiled them making sure I removed them just in time to ensure they didn’t get too soft or soggy. I sautéed the garlic and made the white sauce as mentioned in the original recipe.  In place of dill I used dried parsely that I had picked up from the stall of Arohi, during an NGO mela organised in Mumbai. I am an ardent fan of all Arohi products. They are all so  good! They offer many herbs-basil,oregano,sage,mint and what not. Grown and processed in the hills of Himachal, the herbs have a divine smell. The potatoes were well coated I grated some cheese over it and poped it in the oven for a few minutes to allow it to melt.

There, all done! Now I shall leave for my vacation in peace.:D