Spinach Cheese Empanadas

Spinach Cheese Empanadas

Popeye and Olive Oyl!!

I am grateful to E.C.Segar, creator of these characters.

Thanks to his Popeye and Olive Oyl, my kids, (when they were younger and did not understand that hubby and I were hoodwinking them) ate greens as they wanted to be like Popeye not Olive Oyl!

Now they will feed me the greens if I try the stunt on them.

It’s difficult to believe my little one is in seventh and is as tall as I am. Must tell her because I fed her Spinach.

Coming to today’s recipe …

I made this long time ago when there is fresh spinach available in the fields. Actually I had made it for International Marathon we had. Never got round to posting it.

 I will love to “ #FireUpYourOven” again for these.

Spinach Cheese Empanadas

Recipe source : here 

Ingredients:

Empanada Dough:

• 2 ¾cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup salted butter
• 1tsp salt
• Pinch chilli powder
• Spinach Cheese Filling:
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tblspn olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 200 grms fresh spinach stems removed, washed, chiffonade
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 225 grms mozzarella cheese, shredded or crumbled
• 2 tblspn Parmesan cheese, grated
• Salt and pepper to taste

Spinach Cheese Empanadas

Method:

Make the dough:

• Heat water and butter in a small bowl over medium heat until butter has melted.
• Mix flour and salt and chilli powder in a large mixing bowl.
• Make a well in the Pour a little of the warm liquid in and stir with fingertips to make a wet paste.
• Pour in remaining liquid and work the flour into the dough with your hand until you get wet, oily dough. 
• Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Make the filling:

• Heat the butter and olive oil in a medium kadhai/wok and sauté over medium-high heat until melted.
• Add the minced garlic and red chilli powder and sauté until the garlic becomes fragrant.
• Add the spinach and sauté until all the greens are wilted.
• Remove from heat. Stir the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and cooked spinach together.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble the empanadas:

• Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
• Tear off pieces of dough to roll about 12 large or 24 small balls of dough.
• Using a rolling pin, roll out dough balls on lightly floured surface into circles thick circles as too thin dough because this filling can expand and burst the pastry if the dough is too thin or the empanada is over-stuffed with filling.
• Place 2-3 tbsp of filling in the centre of each dough circle.
• Fold over and press edges firmly to seal.
• Rope, pinch the edges tightly.
•  In this case, a good tight seal will also prevent oozing of cheese during the baking process. Place empanadas on cookie sheet and bake until golden brown, 20-25 minutes.
• Makes 12 large or 24 small empanadas.

Day 15

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Cheese Toast

Cheese Toast

Most morning Monday mornings I find myself in a fix.

What to pack for the kid for snack?

Actually I should be better prepared but most of the times I am not. Maybe because half my Sunday is spent in trying to play catch… catch up with pending jobs, from washing to marketing, on the move.

Where is the time to get down to planning, even if I have I have planned the girls have some requests.

Okay let’s quit no more excuses I am clueless… call it Monday morning blues, whatever…

Monday mornings I generally pack Cheese Toast for the girls and their father and grandfather are very happy to have them too. So come Mondays you will see Cheese Toast on the breakfast table.

So let’s get down to making Cheese Toasts which I make with eyes that are barely open. Between my many visits to wash my eyes open breakfast and Tiffin box is ready in time. Ahhh what an achievement!

Why this syndrome of “barely open eyes” catches up with me on Saturday and Monday mornings only I don’t know but I am thankful to Cheese Toast!

To make a Cheese Toast you will need ideally a toaster, a sandwich toaster either electric or gas friendly. In case you do not  have both, do not despair use the non-stick tava/skillet and a heavy object to weigh down the other slice of bread. Works fine!!

Cheese Toast

For 1 sandwich

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of brown bread
• 1 slice of cheese
• 1 tsp of tomato ketchup( optional)
• Some ghee for the toaster

Method:

• Apply the ghee to the toaster.
• On  bread slice lay the cheese slice.
• Apply the tomato sauce and close the sandwich with the second slice.
• Cook till browned on both the sides till browned.
• Serve.
• Tastes best hot with a cup of tea or coffee.

Cheese Toast

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#49

Linking to PJ's event "Say Cheese" for Srivalli's Kid’s delight.

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Ricotta Cheese-DIY

 

Ricotta Cheese

Cheese in used in all walks of life from Charles de Gaulle saying, “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?”  Or “Age is something that doesn’t matter unless you are a cheese.” Luis Bunuel!

Books like,” Who moved my cheese?”” I moved your cheese” then there are cheesy lines cute and flattering pickup lines and of course the most famous “say cheese”!

So what exactly is cheese?

Wikipedia again… :D

“Cheese is a food derived from milk that is produced in a wide range of flavours, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, the milk is usually acidified, and adding the enzyme rennet causes coagulation. The solids are separated and pressed into final form. Some cheeses have molds on the rind or throughout. Most cheeses melt at cooking temperature.”

There are apparently hundreds of cheese world around. The difference is produced by styles, textures, flavours, the animal’s diet, fat content, herbs used among many other things.

“In a few cheeses, the milk is curdled by adding acids such as vinegar or lemon juice. Most cheeses are acidified to a lesser degree by bacteria, which turn milk sugars into lactic acid, and then the addition of rennet completes the curdling. Vegetarian alternatives to rennet are available also.

Cheese is valued for its portability, long life, and high content of fat, protein, calcium, and phosphorus. Cheese is more compact and has a longer shelf life than milk, although how long a cheese will keep may depend on the type of cheese. Generally speaking, hard cheeses last longer than soft cheeses, such as Brie or goat's milk cheese. .”

Tempted to be a specialist in cheese? Well you will be called a cheesemonger and you need to train for it.

Cheese the origin of which is predates recorded history.

Wondering what is happening here? Then for  watch this space for 3 do it yourself cheeses.

Let’s start with ricotta cheese, which is a flexible cheese and can be used in appetizers, regular meal or a dessert and the bonus is it’s easy to make.

Since I forgot I had this cheese in the fridge it came out like a harder than anticipated ball, but tasted as yum.

Ricotta Cheese

Recipe Source: Foodiliciousnan
Ingredients: 

• 1 litre milk 
• ½ fresh cream or malai (you can use heavy cream) 
• ½ cup curds/ yogurt 
• 1 tsp vinegar 
• ½ tsp salt

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients in a large vessel and bring to a boil, till 
• the whey and curds separate.
• Line a sieve with muslin or cheese cloth pour contents in the sieve.
• The whey water drip for 15 minute and then strain any remaining liquid with your hands
• Ricotta cheese is ready!
• Stays good refrigerated for 3 days.

Linking to PJ's event "Say Cheese" for Srivalli's Kid’s delight.

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Garlic Cheese Dip

Garlic Cheese Dip

One evening we were to go out for dinner in local hotel that has a buffet. Hubby told me he had invited one of his friends!

Since I know the man for 27 years I was wondering who he was inviting and then at the hotel he introduced me to Felix Da’silva…

I tell you the man is wow! What an amazing recipes he shared! I wish I had the presence of mind to switch on the recorder to hear him speak.

Later on he shared this delicious garlic dip and strawberry jam.

He was to demonstrate the making of the dip in my kitchen, but unfortunately we could not so he shared the recipe with me!

I promise you it’s a from the lips to the hips recipe so beware!

Garlic Cheese Dip

Garlic Cheese Dip

Ingredients:

15 flakes of garlic big flakes

1 tblspn oil

25 grams butter

½ tsp parsley

¼ tsp salt

2 cubes Amul cheese, grated

200 ml Amul cream

1 slice Britannia cheese

Method:

Chop the garlic fine.

Heat the oil in a thick kadhai/wok.

Add the garlic and fry till the garlic turns brown.

Add the butter, parsley and the salt mix.

Add the Amul cheese and melt. The cheese melts almost immediately.

Add the 200 ml Amul cream. Stir and blend.

Add the Britannia cheese slice shredded.

Stir and serve with the French baguette, crudités.

Notes:

The girls used some more milk and made a thinner sauce and eat it with pasta.

This goes for the November Week 4, Cooking from Cookbook Challenge  Group.

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Rice Holubtsi- Ukrainian Cabbage Roll Recipe

Rice Holubtsi- Ukrainian Cabbage Roll Recipe

Ukrainian food (and the cuisine of neighbouring countries) tends to be rich, heavy on the meat, butter and starches, and   vegetables are hardly used.  This makes some sense when you consider the cold climate and the very short growing season.  Most veggies had to be preserved via canning or pickling, and wheat and potatoes were winter staples.

The authors have shared at length the delicious foods they have enjoyed as a child. I liked the food as well as the way they have described it so I am sharing them,” Because of the natural variances in family and cultural traditions, each and every one of us probably has a different idea of what holiday food is.  Growing up, my family has always enjoyed homemade perogies and cabbage rolls (holubtsi), mashed potatoes, homemade buns, and the very non-vegan turkey and sausage. Some families eat something called "Kutia", which is delicious cooked wheat with lots of sugar, poppy seeds and pecans, great for breakfast.  Saurkraut and dilled pickles are also very common around here, as is borscht (check out my fave recipe for borsht) and all kinds of breads and pastries.”

This Ukrainian cabbage roll recipe is simple, though rolling them up takes time and patience so it’s something that can be done in a group. Sounds like a fun filled activity especially during the holidays.  At the end of the recipe, I'll give some suggestions for easy variations if you want to go beyond just rice. “

I made these rolls twice. First I made them and half baked them left them on the kitchen counter and went to work. The idea was I will continue with the baking in the evening.

Hardly I step in the evening younger one said,” Whatever you made and was lying on the platform was tasty but too tough to eat I finished them all.” So the second round. Must say the rolls were extremely tasty! This is a part of the series "Around the World in 30 Days"!

Rice Holubtsi- Ukrainian Cabbage Roll Recipe

Rice Holubtsi- Ukrainian Cabbage Roll Recipe

Recipe Source : Here 

Ingredients:

• 1 large head of green cabbage
• 4 cups half cooked rice ( I used 2 flat cups or uncooked rice) 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
• 2 tblspn butter
• ½ cup onion, finely chopped
• 2 tblspn cheese, grated
• 1 tomato soup packet + 1 ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup butter

Method:

• Remove the tough outer leaves and set them aside.  
• Place the cabbage in a microwaveable container cover with a microwaveable cling film and microwave on high for in 5 minutes spurts twice.  This will soften the leaves enough for making rolls without boiling the cabbage.  
• Cut out the core from the cabbage and separate the whole leaves from the head set aside in a bowl.
• In a large bowl, combine the rice, salt and pepper and cheese.  
• In a small kadhai/wok low heat, melt the 2 tblspn of butter.
• Add the onion and fry until the onion is soft and translucent.
• Add the onion mixture to the bowl of rice.
• In a same kadhai/wok medium make the tomato soup with the 1 ¼ cup of water. Bring to a boil.
• Add  the remaining butter.  This tomato sauce will be used to spread over each layer of cabbage rolls.
• Line the bottom of a   pan with a couple of the reserved outer cabbage leaves so that the cabbage rolls don't stick to the bottom.  

  To assemble:  

Now let’s start rolling:

• For that you arrange the bowl of cabbage leaves, the bowl of rice with a spoon, the tomato sauce with a ladle, the pan to arrange the rolls, a cutting board and a knife, and a dry towel to rid the cabbage of excess moisture, if necessary.  
• For the cabbage rolls:
• The choice is yours either cut each cabbage leaf in half lengthwise or leave it whole to make large cabbage rolls.
• However cut off any tough stem remaining on the leaf, and place a tablespoon or two of rice on the bottom of each half.  
• Roll it up while pinching in the sides if there's a side left exposed that’s okay.
• Place the cabbage rolls in the   pan so that they're quite snug, and after you complete a layer of cabbage rolls, ladle on some of the tomato soup mixture.
•  Continue until you run out of rice and/or cabbage.  Top with all of the remaining tomato soup mixture.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Cover the pan with tin foil and bake for about 2 hours, or until the cabbage leaves are tender when they're pricked with a fork.
• Serve warm!! 
• Kiddo had it with some cheese spread!!!

Rice Holubtsi- Ukrainian Cabbage Roll Recipe

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

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Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

QuroosAsal Khubz a Traditiona Bread from Oman

QuroosalAsal

For the alphabet O we have a choice do it with Oman or OMAN in our Mega Blogging Marathon !!

Come on can we not have some more countries with O?

Cuisine of Oman is a mixture of several staples of Asian foods.  Food basically revolves around chicken, fish, and lamb, with rice as the staple food.   Omani food is a rich mixture of spices, herbs and marinades.

Omani food is different for different regions of Oman   but the staple food is curry, cooked meat, rice, and vegetables.  

Soups are also common and are usually made from chicken, lamb, and vegetables (e.g., smoked eggplant). (This I need to check).

 So far Oman I could not find any street food but then somewhere I saw this bread being made. It was a video of some fair and I loved this bread. I just caught the name Khubz, which is bread in Omani.

I searched and was lucky to find the Times of Oman featuring the bread called QuroosAsal

I quote here what Ms.S. Kamal has said in her write up,” Quroos, which means circle in Arabic language, is a bread baked by many tribal people to celebrate the birth of a child in the family. She said that many people in Oman as well as the Gulf mark the festive event by making the honey bread.”

But the actual recipe I got here . 

Loved it so much that I had to make it. The original recipe said use maida but I used whole wheat flour. I scaled down the recipe to get only two of these beauties. As you can see I need some practice before I get the perfect smooth layer. But that is for later.

Needless to say these were done in a hurry and were finished by yours faithfully for breakfast( but will taste yum with any curry) as I did not expect a warm reception from the family,for they seemed like Neer Dosa only made from wheat flour!!

Later when Apeksha, my elder one asked me what I am making for O I mentioned that I had finished making O!

“How did I not get a taste? When was this? Where was I?” She will make a great Police Inspector, I know!!

My sheepish replies did not satisfy her. Needless to say I need to make them again.

QuroosAsal

QuroosalAsal

Recipe Source: Times of Oman and here

Ingredients for the QuroosAsal:

• ½ kg whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
•  water as needed

For the filling:

• Grated cheese Or Honey

Method:

• Mix salt, flour and water (add water slowly as needed)into soft, sticky dough. 
• Put flat dosa tava or griddle on low heat.
• Coat griddle with the dough with one hand.

• Spread the desired filling on the QuroosAsal. I used cheese.

QuroosalAsal

• Remove from the griddle after about 30 seconds. 

QuroosalAsal

• Makes about 30, enough for a meal for four.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Instant Gratification~~Maggi Noodles

 My girls are big fans of noodles especially the instant kind. The other day as I was bringing back the kid no 2 from her classes in the evening she kept on telling me that she was hungry and she wanted something warm, hinting hugely at the packet of magi noodles I had brought.

 Normally the packet is for the days I am not around and they come back from hungry and my cupboards are bare (which is the happening too often these days). Finally instead of facing the uphill task of convincing her to have something else I made the stuff.

As I went on making it and adding stuff to it I could not help but remember my days in hostel.

The day we had lunch with sweets the mess was closed and my roommate and I made Maggi. Of course we did not add any veggies to it as we never had any in the room and neither of us went doing regular shopping for fruits or vegetables “Kon buy karega?” in fact as we did not want to maintain separate bottles (they were glass bottles then) of oil for cooking and hair oil we used the same coconut oil for cooking.  Eeek! How could we?  But back then we were happy with our solution.

 As I started making Maggi noodles I could help but think how much I have changed now. I want my kids to eat healthy even instant noodles. Here is what I did.

Initially I stared out with 2 blocks of Maggi and 3 cups of water but even after the requisite 2 minutes ticked away to 5 the water level was not coming down. My elder daughter came in and told me more the water should have been just 2 cups and not 3!!

Ingredients:

3 blocks of maggi noodles with the taste maker

Water as needed

½ cup corn kernels, boiled

1 cube cheese

1 tbsp sambhar masala (adjust as per taste)

¼ tsp kolhapuri masala (optional but recommended)

Coriander to garnish

Method:

1.     Bring the water to boil with the tastemakers and the cheese.

2.    Add corn kernels, masala.

3.    Add the noodle blocks cook stirring occasionally.

4.    Once the water evaporates transfer to a bowl , garnish. Kid wanted a butter on hers.

5.    And ENJOY!

Sending this to Shama’s Fast food Noodles Series.

Gayatri's WTML event guest hosted by me.

All rights reserved on photographs and written content are copy-written @The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen!! unless mentioned. Please Ask First
 

Eggless Quiche

 In continuation with Gayatri’s challenge for the Eggless baking group I am posting my Quiche recipe.

I have already written about the making of the base here now here is the filling and the finished quiche.

Let me warn you that even though I have never eaten Quiche before and I loved it.

  But then I am not a difficult person to please especially when it comes to food. :)

My younger daughter had promised me she will not, sorry “N-O-T” bold and underlined at that” eating quiche with all that palak/spinach and tofu yuck, “is now pestering me for the last slice that has escaped her mouth.

My husband and most importantly my FIL, yes My Father-in-Law loved it and ate it happily every time it was offered.