Tofu Salad

This salad is very health at the same time filling.We being vegetarians I have used Tofu instead of a meat product. The strong flavor of ginger gives an Asian touch to it. The spring mix salad packet works well for this salad. Some of the leaves it contain are  lettuce, romaine, arugula, baby spinach, red kale, green chard radicchio and tatsoi.

For the Salad 

Spring mix salad - 1 packet(Cut them)
white onion - cut length wise
cherry tomatoes - 6-7 nos(Cut into halves)
Cabbage - 1/4 cup (thinly cut length wise)
Strawberries - 1/2 cup (cut length wise)
Croutons - 1/2 cup
Almond - 1/4 cup
sesame seeds - 2 tsp


Dressing

Grind 1 inch piece cleaned ginger and 4-5  cloves in the blender adding little water. Drain the water into a cup and discard the waste. Add 2 tsp soya sauce, 1 tsp honey, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp lemon juice, mix it well and keep it aside


Marinate Tofu
Tofu(extra firm) - 1 box

Manchurian sauce - 3 tsp
honey - 1 tsp
olive oil - 2 tsp

Remove the water from the tofu and cut them into desired size cubes.
In a bowl add 3 tsp Manchurian sauce, 1 tsp honey and 2 tsp olive oil and tofu cubes. Marinate it for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, heat a pan, add 1 tsp olive oil, almonds and sesame seeds. Toast them till they are lightly crispy. Then add the marinated tofu. Keep the flame medium. Toast the tofu, almond and sesame seeds together till the tofu turns light brown on all sides. You can add the remaining marinate liquid into the prepared dressing.

Mixing the salad
In a bowl add the spring mix, onions, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, strawberries, croutons and the dressing. Mix it well.

Plating the Salad
Take a round or square dinner plate. Spread  the salad mix. Over it add the hot toasted tofu with almonds and sesame. Serve immediately.

Pancake Balls

This is a good afternoon snack for kids during holidays. Children love chocolate and it is like a surprise when they take the first bite and they see the chocolate oozing out. You can also use cheese or fruit jam instead of chocolate. For pan cake batter you can use store bought instant pancake powder too.


Basic Pancake Batter
All purpose flour - 2 cups
baking powder - 3 tsp
egg - 1
salt - 1 tsp
sugar - 2 tbsp
milk - 1 1/2 cup
oil - 3 tbsp
Butter for frying

Sift the flour with baking powder. Beat the egg. Add milk, salt and sugar and mix well till the sugar dissolves. Add oil and stir the sifted flour slowly into the liquid. keep it aside for 10 minutes.

For stuffing
Chocolate  - 1/2 cup(hershey's mini chips)
Three cheese - 1/2 cup

Heat an Aebleskiver pan/Neyyappam pan. Brush butter on the pan. Keep the flame low to medium. Fill half of each pit with pancake batter. Put some chocolate chip into each then add some more batter to cover them. When the bottom is cooked turn the top portion to touch the bottom. See that all sides are evenly cooked. In the next batch instead of chocolate add three cheese or fruit jam.

Pita Sandwich

This is a recipe when we have leftovers from a weekend party. 

I had some cooked spiced mexican rice from my weekend party. 

I had pita bread in my pantry and sour cream, three cheese and jalapeno pickles inside my refrigerator.

The result was a stuffed pita sandwich.

Method

Mix  mexican three cheese or shredded cheddar cheese to the rice. Cheese quantity can be your choice. I like it handful cheese to 1 cup cooked rice.

Take Pita bread. Cut it into half and make a pocket. Brush sour cream in the inside of the pocket. Fill the rice and cheese mixture and spice it up with jalapeno pickles. 

Potato Gnocchi

Gnocchi in Italian means Dumplings. It usually falls under the pasta dishes. I love to watch the cooking show in PBS every saturday. One of the episode in Lidias Bastianich's show was Potato gnocchi. I wanted to try out but never got a chance to make it from scratch. So last weekend I included gnocchis in my list when I went shopping. I bought the Gnocchis sold in vaccum sealed packets(Colovita brand). You also get the dried ones. The tomato sauce ,I usually make and keep them so that when ever I want to make pasta I can use them. I have followed mostly Lidia's recipe for the sauce with little changes.



Potato Gnocchi – 1 cup
Tomato sauce – 1 cup
Parmesan Cheese – 1 cup(grated)
Bread crumbs – 2 tbsp
Italian herbs – 1 tsp

Tomato sauce
tomatos - 8 plum tomatoes
onions - 1
carrots - 1/2 cup(diced)
celery - 1/2 cup(chopped)
extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbsp
pepper pdr - 1 tsp
bay leaf - 2-3nos
paprika to your taste of heat
salt to taste

Cut the tomatoes and pulse it in the mixie till it is coarsely ground.

In a deep pan add olive oil. Add the cut onions , carrots and celery. Fry it lightly. Add the ground tomato sauce, paprika,salt and pepper pdr. Add 2 cups water and bring it to a boil. Add the bay leaf , cover it and then let it simmer for 45mnts. Stir in between.
Open it and let it cook for anothe 15-20 mnts. The sauce will thicken. Use necessarry sauce for the gnocchi and store the rest in air tight container in the fridge for 8-10 days.

To complete the Gnocchi

Boil water in a pasta pot. Add the potato gnocchi when the water boils. Let it cook for 8-10 mnts till it is soft. Drain it. Keep some of the cooked water for later use.

Prepare the tomato sauce ahead. If it is thick add some cooked water to the sauce and heat it. Stir in ½ tsp Italian herbs to it.

Platter the gnocchi. Pour the tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle cheese,bread crumbs and Italian herbs.

You can eat this with italian bread or even just as it is.

Pasta in Creamy White Sauce

I have used Cavatappi pasta for this particular recipe. Cavatappi means corkscrew in italian. This is a s- shaped spiral pasta which goes well with any pasta sauce.

Ingredients

Cavatappi pasta - 1/2 packet

For creamy sauce

Heavy cream – 1 cup
Maida – 1 tsp
Butter – 1 tbsp
Milk – ½ cup
Parmesan cheese – 1cup(grated)
Onion – 1
Broccoli (small florets) – 1 cup
Garlic – 3-4 cloves
Green chillies – 2
Pepper pdr – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Italian herbs -1/4 tsp

Method

1. Cut the onion length wise. Pulse the garlic and green chillies in the mixie.
2. Wash the broccoli and keep it aside.
3. In a pan add the butter. When it melts, fry the finely cut onions, then garlic and greenchillies.
   
4. When it turns light brown add the brocolli florets and fry it.
   
5. Then add the maida and fry it. Add milk . As it boils it will start to thicken.
6. Pour heavy cream and parmasan cheese at this point and boil it for 3-4mnts more. Off the heat add salt, pepper and italian herbs and mix it.

Make the pasta as per directions on its packing.

Just before serving put the pasta in a bowl. Then pour the hot creamy sauce over it. If you need more spice shake pepper pdr on top.

Crispy Tortilla Sandwich

Ingredients

Tortillas – 2(medium)
Mozerella cheese – ¼ cup
Vegetables –olives,capsicum,broccoli
Pasta sauce – 2 tbsp
Paprika – to your spicy taste
olive oil to coat

Method

1. Coat a baking tray lightly with olive oil.
2. Take 1 tortilla and place over a baking tray.
3. Spread tomato sauce on the tortilla.
4. Cut the vegetables finely and spread them on the tomato sauce.
5. Sprinkle paprika.
6. Sprinkle the cheese on top.
7. Cover with the 2^nd tortilla.
8. Bake it in the oven for 7-8 mnts at 400 degree.
9. When you take it out the tortilla would have turned crispy and the cheese would have melted.

Cut into triangles. This is a nice evening snack or an appetizer.

PanCakes

Pancakes with maple syrup is a classic American breakfast. We get all sorts of ready made mix in the supermarkets. But I tried to make it from the scratch. One of the mom's at my son's school shared her recipe. I tried and it came out really good.

Ingredients

Flour-2 cups
Sugar- 2 tablespoons
Baking powder- 2 teaspoons
Salt to taste
Butter- 4 tablespoons (2 ounces), melted
Eggs- 2
Milk - 2 cups
Water

Method

1. Melt the butter and set aside.
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Mix well with a whisk.
3. Beat the egg in another bowl with a whisk lightly. Gradually add melted butter, whisking all the while. Stir in milk slowly. Pour this mixture onto the other mixed ingredients. Mix them together with a spatula gently . Add little water. Batter should not be too thick, but like a creamy soup.
4. Let it stand for 15-20 mnts. The batter might get thick.
5. Heat a dosa pan. On medium flame pour 2 tbsp batter . Spread it with the spoon to your desired thickness(1/8 inch). When the lower side is brown (10-15secs)turn and cook the other side.

Eat it with butter,honey or maple syrup.

Vegetable Pizza

For the Dough

All purpouse flour – 3 cups
Yeast – 1 packet
Salt- ½ tsp
Sugar -1/4 tsp
Butter – 2 tbsp
Yogurt – ¾ cup(might vary when you knead the dough)
extra flour while kneading

For Topping

Vegetables - capsicum,onion,brocolli,olives,jalapeno,tomatoes
Pasta sauce - 2 cups
mozzerella cheese - 1 cup
italian herbes -1 tsp
paparika -1/2 tsp
olive oil - 2 tsp

Method

1. Mix the yeast in ¼ cup luke warm water. keep it aside for 10mnts.
2. Mix all the ingredients except yogurt. Add enough yogurt to make it into a thick dough. Put it in a wide vessel and cover it with a plastic wrap. Let it sit for 4 hrs. It will rise almost double the size.
3. Cut any of your favourite vegetables and keep it aside.
4. Brush some olive oil on a pizza pan.
5. After 4 hrs when the dough is risen take it out and knead it again. Flour the working area and start making a 8-10” thin circle.
6. Then put it on the pizza pan and spread it out with hands.Brush some olive oil on top of the dough.
   
7. Spread tomato sauce(I used pasta sauce). Sprinkle mozzarella cheese. Arrange all the vegetables on top. Sprinkle more mozzarella cheese, Italian herbs and little paprika if you have.
8. Preheat the oven to 450degrees. Bake it for 15-20 mnts.

Noodle style Pasta

Ingredients

Noodle style Pasta – 1 packet
Soy sauce – 1/4 cup
Duck sauce – 4 tsp
Red chilli pdr – 1 tsp
Peanuts - 1/2 cup
Olive oil – 3 tsp
Salt to taste
Tofu – ½ cube(firm/extrafirm)
Egg – 2(optional)
Vegetables – onion,capsicum,broccoli,tomato,string beans,carrots,celery(as much as you like to put in the dish)

Method

1. Boil lot of water in pasta pot. Add salt. Add the noodle style pasta and cook it for 8-10 mnts.
2. Pulse the peanuts in the mixie twice. it will become a coarse pdr.
   
3. In a wide pan add 2 tsp oil. Cut the tofu into small cube and fry it and keep it aside.
4. Cut all the vegetables length wise. In the same pan add 1 tsp oil put the vegetable and fry it. Keep it aside .
5. Also scramble the eggs.
6. Add 1 tsp oil.Put the peanuts and fry it for 2 mnts. Then add 2 tsp duck sauce, red chillipdr and little soysauce in the pan and stir it. To this add the vegetables. Then add the cooked and drained noodle style pasta to it. Add eggs, tofu and drizzle rest of the soy sauce and duck sauce. If necessary add some salt. Mix it gently so that the tofu doesnot break.