Veggie Pizza muffins!

he story behind these muffins is basically about how you sometimes get a crazy idea and the idea just makes you get up from the chair and go try it out. Well sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. You get to hear about the times that it does :)
In retrospect, here's what I think went through my head - I feel like baking muffins, I am not a big fan of sweet ones so they have to be savory, any old flavoring? Been there, done that - how about infuse pizza flavors in a savory muffin - get up from the chair.
Yes they turned out great. Ideal for a late afternoon snack. Just dip in some marinara on the side and off you go.

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Chilli Paneer dry/Paneer cheese in a spicy chilli soy sauce

o tantrums and food have any relation for you? Well, in my case, growing up they had quite a lot to do with each other. This is what my dear mom used to cook especially for me when me - the brat - used to tell her "mom, you don't love me anymore", count to her all the occasions when I was refused an ice-cream, a barbie doll, Shahrukh's poster and the bestest most expensive dress in the mall! She knew how to get me back to behaving normally... lol.

I love Chinese food but I have a certain (very strong) bias towards Indian-Chinese (aka indo-chinese) cuisine. We Indians have had a long-lived love affair with Chinese food. Long before pizzas, burgers and junk food became popular, it was Chinese food that most of us wanted when we craved something exotic and different. One may argue that Indo-chinese is not really chinese food as it is not very close to authentic chinese food. It has been totally adapted and re-flavored to suit an Indian palette. But hey, that is what fusion food is all about, right? Who knew the marriage of a little soy sauce with Indian spices could be so delicious! A big bright star of the Indian Chinese cuisine, featured on almost every menu of an Indian restaurant, be it upscale or roadside.

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Gobhi 65/Spicy Cauliflower Tempura Indian Style

ummer is at its peak and the sun scorches the earth every day. Its almost midnight here and its 86 degrees outside *phew*. In the relentless heat however the rain gods do peek in every other day to provide some very welcome relief.
It was such an afternoon on Saturday this past weekend when the rains were especially merciful. As it rained cats and dogs, we sat on our patio on a Saturday afternoon - which usually means shopping afternoon - and marveled on how beautiful nature was (yes hubby and I still get corny sometimes about that stuff). Somehow the conversation changed very quickly to food (are you kiddin' me) and we were talking about how nice it would be to get something hot and crispy to munch on. I was immediately like 'lemme go and make some pakoras'. Hubby not being that much a fan of pakoras, I instantly sensed that on his face. That is when I was reminded of this fabulous appetizer that we had had at an Indian restaurant during our last vacation a couple of months ago. I had totally loved it then and my analyzing taste buds had read the recipe right then and there and kept it somewhere in my head. Yes I recalled it then and here's the result for you to see and enjoy.
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Paneer Jalfrezi/Cottage cheese in spicy tangy sauce with bell peppers and onion

uite unlike the super-star butter paneer masala which is practically synonymous with Indian cuisine, the jalfrezi is mellow but very much like any Indian curry. It has a burst of flavors, is full of aromatic spices with an exotic taste that is bound to take you by surprise. Cubes of succulent home made cheese are simmered in a fragrant garlic tomato sauce with loads of colorful peppers and freshly ground spices that will make you mop your plate clean and ask for more. Unlike a few other paneer dishes this one is not very rich or laden with butter and cream to make it tasty.

A common dhaba dish all over India ~ dhaba is a Indian equivalent to the American road-side diner. Known for its rustic, simple, basic, inexpensive yet flavorful original dishes and very popular among long distance roadies and truck drivers. Whenever I go to India I make it a point  to take a drive with hubs and kiddo to the nearest dhaba on the national highway just to have some of their dal makhani, kadahi paneer and fresh out of the tandoor (clay oven) those buttery flaky tandoori rotis ~ ahh.

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Blackeye Pea & Potato Curry/Lobia Aloo

hildhood memories are always fun and sometimes they have a thing or two to teach us too. You probably wonder why I say this for a humble curry. Growing up, my mom always made this curry. It was not my favorite but I did like it. However every time mom made it, I would give her a hard time. I would pick another dish that I liked better and asked her to make that instead saying I did not like lobia very much. More often than not, she did. Now I actually crave for it sometimes. I sit back and think about all those times with mom and get up and make it for myself. Watching hubby and my little princess eat this and enjoy always brings a smile to my face.

The exotic combination of spices and other ingredients gives the humble lobia a grand makeover. You can enjoy it with roti, paratha or simple steamed white rice. It is a great way for vegetarians to get their fix of protein too.

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Baked Bell Pepper Cheese Pulao/Rice

ot much of a story this time to relate about this dish except the fact that I love one pot meals. They are easy, convenient, nutritious and well liked, what else could you ask for. One fine evening when thinking about dinner I really wanted to make a one pot meal but with a twist. So I figured how about rice with cheese. And it turned out to be great. So if you love your rice and your cheese, here is a simple yet extremely flavorful one pot meal for you.

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Paneer Manchurian

love Chinese food but when it comes to Chinese-fusion food, I have a certain bias towards Indian-Chinese (indo-chinese) cuisine. We Indians have had a long-lived love affair with Chinese food. Long before the pizzas and burgers and junk food became popular, it was Chinese food that most of us wanted when we craved something exotic and different. Indo-chinese is not very close to authentic chinese food. It has been totally adapted and  flavored to suit an Indian palette. Who knew the marriage of a little soy sauce with Indian spices could be so delicious! A big bright star of the Indian Chinese cuisine and it has always been one of my favorites are the chilli and manchurian varieties. “Manchurian” dishes may be made with cauliflower, paneer or chicken and are extremely popular in India. The sauce has no basis in the historical Chinese region. In India this ever popular dish is served at glamorous restaurants as well as by the street side vendors and is consumed with vigor and excitement among all class of people.

The paneer has a crispy coating and is tossed with a mouth-watering spicy sauce. These are perfect for appetizers or may even be served as a side dish.

Use a toothpick or a fork as you please and enjoy with cocktails during or before a meal.
These are really easy to make at home, taste awesome and are always a big hit with guests. They are often paired with Chinese style fried rice. These are great for potluck parties and will be gone in seconds! It can be made dry or with gravy, the recipe below talks about both versions. Food coloring is normally used to give this dish a brighter appearance, I have used a little beet juice instead. I was pleased with the color but it is obviously optional.

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Tawa Pulao

umbai is world famous for its array of mouth watering street foods especially the chaats available at every street corner. Juhu beach, especially is the most famous hub... a very crowded place where you often find yourself wading through a sea of people with the sound of the waves crashing in the background often looking for the next yummy food stall that gets your attention among the numerous street food vendors lined up. No trip to this beach is complete without having those delectable chaats that they serve there and possibly a healthy dose of pani poories, vada pav, batata, bhel.

Tawa pulao is another such road-side delicacy. It is a very easy and different kind of a pulao recipe. You wouldn't think of rice with veggies as ingredients for your typical street food but this pulao might just give your idea of street food a complete makeover. Kudos to those vendors that come up with ideas like these.
I like the crunchiness of the vegetables and the pav bhaji masala adds a distinct flavor to the rice. It is made on a tawa or griddle hence the name. These chaat wallas are so good with fusion cooking and so innovative. This rice is now also served at fancy restuarants and even top chefs boast of having this in their repertoire.

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Paneer Calzone (whole wheat)

Friday is my most favorite day of the week. You have the whole weekend ahead of you. Also friday nights are mostly pizza nights( which my little daughter loves)... which means Pizza Hut delivery or if we have the enthu hubby and I make it together at home. Last friday I thought I should do something different and decided to make a Calzone. Of course I had to put in a desi touch to it. I remember a while back they introduced a Calzone on the Pizza Hut menu. I saw the commercials and flyers and always wanted to try it but unfortunately they never came up with a vegetarian version.
A calzone ("stocking" or "trouser" in Italian) is a sort of folded over pizza or turnover with filling. It is originally from Naples, Italy. It is made of ingredients similar to pizza, folded over and shaped like a crescent sealed on one edge, and baked. The typical calzone is stuffed with tomato and mozzarella, and may include other ingredients usually associated with pizza toppings (sourced from Wikipedia).

I love the half moon envelope shape... they make for a cute and fun  presentation.
Calzone may be filled with a variety of vegetable combinations, cheeses and meats of choice. It is typically served with marinara sauce on the side for dipping. Here, I made them with my whole wheat pizza dough recipe (so they are healthier) and for the filling I used  the world famous indian cheese paneer sauted with some tandoori spices. The spicy tangy filling was definitely the highlight of this yummy calzone. It was a great dinner and made a yummy filling lunch the next day. They will be fun to take on picnics too and great as an after school snack for kids. We had this as an evening snack, but it was quite filling and so yummy that we ate more than what you you typically call snack portion :D. So much so that we didn't eat any dinner. It is an easy and interesting one pot meal and is simply delicious.

I know I am going to make this often.

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Kadahi Vegetables/Mixed vegetable curry

Yesterday I was at our local farmer's market. They have the most beautiful and colorful stuff all around. I go crazy around all the fresh produce they have. The sight, the smell, just too good to resist. I began picking all different kinds of vegetables. The pretty one... the colorful... the new kind (which I had no idea what to do with) whatever I could get my hands on. Hubby was watching from a distance... waiting with our daughter... pretending he don't know the crazy lady raiding all the vegetables... ha ha. As we were driving back home... thinking in the car about the dishes I could make (yup... I always think about food :D). The more I thought, Kadahi vegetables seemed the most logical choice.
It is a colorful dish consisting of lots of seasonal vegetables and exotic Indian spices. A very famous 'dhaba' dish. It is a classic north Indian dish but can be found all over the country.
The vegetables are cooked in a kadhai or wok (hence the name kadhai vegetables) in a spicy onion-tomato based sauce with lots of ginger, garlic, cilantro leaves and flavored with kasoori methi. It has a distinct fresh spicy aroma and flavor that compares to nothing else. So I made it the same night for dinner. I realise prepping is the lengthiest part of this dish so I did what I often do, you guessed it got my hubby to work (I had to sweet-talk him into it ;)

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Vegetarian Sushi

I had always heard a lot about Sushi. I had the impression that Sushi had raw fish (which by the way as far as I have seen is true for the most part) so never even thought of ever eating it. This one time, soon after we got married and I came to the US, hubby and I went to a wedding ceremony of one of his colleagues. Sadly they did not have much food. Only some light snacks and drinks. So after the ceremony on our way back we decided to get lunch. He said he knew a Thai-Japanese place that was pretty good. At the restaurant we saw they had vegetarian sushi on the menu. I got all excited about it and we ordered it. When it arrived, it looked really pretty. Got me even more excited to try it out. Hated it. I almost spit it out in my napkin. I kid you not. To my surprise thought, hubby seemed to like it. Well anyway that was end of Sushi for me for a very long time. Recently we went to another Thai restaurant where I got brave (you guys probably noticed by now I do get brave occasionally) and tried it again. This time I liked it a little better and figured may be if I made it using my own components, it would work for me. So went out and got all the ingredients with my choice of veggies and tried it at home. It was not the easiest thing I had done but following closely a few online videos and the package instructions of the sushi rice, it worked. To give credit where its due, let me tell you for the life of me, I could not roll and cut the sushi. So hubby was tasked to do it :) and he was a Man about it, no pun intended. Look at the pictures can't you tell :D

For a little general knowledge, if you are not aware of what Sushi is, here's a little excerpt from Wikipedia.
Sushi s a Japanese dish consisting of cooked vinegary rice which is commonly topped with other ingredients, such as fish or other seafood or put into rolls. There are different kinds as nigirzushi, sasimi, inarizushi etc. Sushi that is served rolled inside or around dried and pressed sheets of seaweed or nori is makizushi. Sushi is made with white, short-grained, Japanese rice mixed with a dressing made of vinegar and salt. The black seaweed wrappers are called nori. Nori is a type of algae, traditionally cultivated in the harbors of Japan.
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Easy cheesy stuffed peppers

Hubby makes a killer eggplant bharta. Why the mention of eggplant bharta in the stuffed pepper recipe, you ask? It is because this one time he decided to use these anaheim peppers in his bharta and that is when I got the idea that these peppers will be absolutely fabulous when stuffed. I will definitely post his eggplant bharta sometime soon but for now here is the recipe for the stuffed peppers. They are anaheim peppers (you could use practically any 'stuffable' ones) stuffed with a spicy potato cheese filling and baked to a perfect crust. They are perfect as appetizers or as a side to a nice homey rice daal meal (or anything else you like).
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Paneer tikka Pan Pizza

I love pizza.. regardless of crust or toppings (of course without meat) - pan, handtossed, deep dish, brooklyn style, thin-crust even the bread and bagel pizza :-) a soft chewy bread loaded with veggies and other toppings loaded generously with cheese! Just can't stop raving about pizzzzzza.. I had my first ever pizza at Pizza Hut a few years ago after I got married and came here.. and boy.. I was completely hooked :-) Ahh good old days.. we used to order delivery, be total couch potatoes and sit in front of the TV for hours watching the 24 hrs special law and order marathon episodes :D
Never tried making them at home (r u kidding, never ever made even a simple daal before getting married) pizza was sooooo out of my comfort zone, but then I started getting comfy in the kitchen trying, tweaking, started baking and all.. and one good day made pizza.. I was jumping all around the house.. it was so good so perfect (now I make different kinds). Today I will talk about pan pizza.. I don't use a cast iron pan but instead use my round non stick baking pan (read about it in some food magazine).. yeah you heard me right, a regular baking pan. It comes out so perfect every time. You have to try it to believe me. Can be made using any kind of topping but my love for paneer and pizza is behind this recipe. In fact Pizza Hut has  a paneer pizza on the menu in India. Also I use whole wheat flour instead of the traditional all purpose flour to reduce the guilt ;)

Here goes.

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Veg fajita wraps with avocado corn salsa

Mexican is my favorite only after Italian (and obviously Indian) cuisine. I personally think Mexican cuisine is always a favorite for us Indians as it has so many similar spices and flavors – cumin, coriander, garlic, chili etc. Fajitas are a very famous part of this cuisine. Traditionally it is made with marinated and grilled skirt steak. The word 'Fajita' is derived from the spanish word faja which literally means belt. It is made with tough thin cut skirt steak. The meat is usually wrapped in soft tortillas with a variety of garnishes. Us being vegetarians, I always try to recreate the meatless versions of these popular dishes at home.
So I combined a lot of different colored peppers, some green beans and onions, marinated them in lemon and some spices from my very own desi spice rack, stir fried them, wrapped in flour tortillas, top it with my avocado corn salsa, some sour cream and mexican style shredded cheese... total yum... I don't think you'd miss the meat at all!

It was easy, fun and delightful... I know I will be making this often :)

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Chilli paneer

I love paneer and I love indo-chinese so as you can imagine, since this dish combines both, it tops my charts... spicy, yummy and quick to fix at the same time. I remember this was one of the few dishes we would expect to eat only in restaurants. Then one day mom made it at home and it was a instant hit among family and friends. My brother and I could not wait for the next time she would make it (at times we would force her :) ... so good! It is one of the very few dishes I knew how to make before getting married. It is also one of the first few dishes that got my hubby believing soon after we got married that 'the wife can cook'!

It is essentially paneer cubes cooked with bell peppers, onions and green chillies and simmered in chilli and soy sauce.
It can be made either dry or with gravy. In its dry form, it is typically served as an appetizer. In its gravied form it gets easily converted into main course paired with some chinese style fried rice. The recipe below talks about both versions.

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Kadai paneer with mushrooms

 have already raved about my liking for paneer, so here is yet another very popular paneer recipe. Kadhai paneer is a classic north indian dish. In the recipe, paneer is cooked in a kadhai or wok (hence the name kadhai paneer) with bell peppers in a spicy onion-tomato based sauce with lots of ginger, garlic, cilantro leaves and flavored with kasoori methi. It has a distinct fresh spicy aroma and flavor that compares to nothing else.

This is one of the few non-creamy preparation of paneer easy and quick to make with simple ingredients and is always a crowd pleaser. My hubby likes the combination of paneer and mushrooms very much so I came up with this recipe and it was a big hit :) But using mushrooms is entirely optional. These are great for dinner, lunch, parties or picnics. Can be served with roti or parathas and can also be filled inside sandwich or wraps for a quick fix wholesome meal.

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French bread pizza

rench bread pizzas are super fast and really easy to make and extremely versatile. You can make them with whatever ingredients/leftovers you have at hand..(have made them using aloo gobhi and baingan bharta :-) It is also a good use for any leftover bread that you may have.

My hubs in his bachelor days used to often eat the frozen ones from the supermarket. He showed me once while we were in the local grocery and I went "huh! that should be easy to make".. tried it and liked it. I make it on weeknights sometimes when we crave for pizza and am not in a mood to make everything from scratch or order a take out. It can also be served as a snack for small get togethers, just cut them into smaller pieces, stick a toothpick in and enjoy the compliments.

Here's how i make it..

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