Bragoli - Maltese#Improv

I saw this recipe Bragoli recipe on tv,  it's a Maltese recipe,  very flavorful and taste delicious.  It's  the red wine in the gravy that gives an awesome taste to it.

When I, surfed the net seen so  many different variations, so you can alter your bragoli according to your taste.   I made this as seen on tv and altered it as per my taste.

  

Ingredients

2  Eggs - hard boiled and diced
6 Bacon Rashers
4 - 5 Beef Tenderloin Steak - flattened with a meat tenderizer
2  Big Cloves Garlic  - minced
1 Tablespoon Chopped Flat Parsley
2 Tablespoons breadcrumbs
Salt to taste

Red  Pepper flakes to taste
Olive oil for frying
Toothpicks

For the Gravy 
2 Bay leaves
2 Medium Onions  - finely chopped 

1 Green Chilly - finely chopped

5 Medium Tomatoes - blanched, skinned & finely chopped

2  Carrots -   diced
1 Stick Celery  - chopped
1½ Cup  Red wine

1  Cup  Green Peas - used frozen

Method
Hard boil the eggs and set aside. Once cooled chop them and the bacon.

In a bowl mix  the eggs, bacon, garlic, parsley, red chilly flakes, salt to taste and breadcrumbs.

Flatten the steak with a meat tenderizer.

Place a tablespoon of the filling  on one end of the steak.

Wrap your meat around the mixture by rolling the meat to make a wrap.

Fasten with toothpicks.

In a deep pan / kadai  heat  oil and add the bay leaves.

Over a medium heat lightly brown your bragoli and set aside.
In the same pan, add  the onions, garlic and green chillies  fry  for 2 - 3 minutes. Add the carrots,  celery and tomatoes and a cup of water cook for 5 minutes on low flame . Add the wine and  place the browned bragoli on top and  bring it to a boil. Simmer on medium low flame for an hour,  keep stirring in between.  

After an hour or so,  if you find that the bragoli are nearly cooked,  add the peas and cook till the peas and bragoli are full done. 

After an hour and a half the bragoli is cooked.

Remove the toothpicks and bay leaves before serving.

Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed french beans, or  asparagus.   I had this with steamed rice. 

Sending this Improv Cooking Challenge, hosted by Nichole Little, theme for month is " Bacon & Onions".

Labels :  Beef, Steaks, Tenderlion,Bacon, Eggs, Red Wine, Carrots, Green Peas, Improv Cooking Challenge, Malta, International Cuisine

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Chicken Ramen Soup#Foodieextravaganza

Since November 12th is National Chicken Soup for the Soul Day. We are asked by our host Stacy to create our chicken soup recipe. 

My niece who often visit's Dubai is famous for posting her favorite Ramen Soup pic.  Inspired by her love for this soup, here is my take on the Ramen Soup. Though I, have never tasted this soup, made it as per the pic she post. It was simple to make yet very delicious and soul comforting. Loved having it.

Serve 2
Ingredients
1 Chicken Breast
5 Button Mushrooms- sliced
1  Bok Choy - chopped
1 Celery stem - chopped
2 Cups Chicken Stock
2 Tablespoons Light Soy sauce or according to your taste
A Dash of Chilly Flakes
Salt And Pepper to taste
1 Teaspoon Parsley
1/4 Teaspoon each Butter & Sesame Oil
2 Soft Boiled Egg
2 Small Packs Ramen Noodles

Method

Heat a grill pan with butter and on high flame sear the chicken breast till it changes color  and get grill marks on both sides. 

In the same pan add the mushrooms and saute for a minute.

In another sauce pan add the stock, celery stem, bok choy, parsley, the chicken and mushrooms bring this to a rolling boil. Cover and let it simmer for 5 to 7 minutes on medium low flame. Now add the soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper and chilly flakes mix this well and let it simmer on low flame again for 3 -4 minutes.

In the meantime boil the egg and noodles. Keep aside.
When the soup is done serve it hot.

First arrange the noodles in the center arrange the chicken slices and egg slice as shown in the pic and pour in the broth and enjoy.  This is a healthy and filling soup, does not require any accompaniment.

Labels : Soup, Foodie Extravaganza Party, Chicken, Ramen Soup, Noodles, Egg, Bok Choy, Mushroom, Healthy Dinners

Asian-Style Chicken Dumpling Soup from Karen's Kitchen Stories
Chicken Ramen Soup from Sneha's Recipe
Cranberry Chicken Noodle Soup from Palatable Pastime
Creamy Chicken Asparagus Soup from Hardly A Goddess
Creamy Cranberry Chicken Wild Rice Soup from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Hot and Sour Chicken Soup from Food Lust People Love

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays by posting delicious recipes your family will love. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a home cook looking for tasty recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

Mix Flour Shankarpali / Shankarpara

Shankarpali is crispy, crunch and yet very soft like fried biscuit. This snack typically made in India during Diwali or Christmas, actually a festival is incomplete without this snack. It is made in two forms savory and sweet. Today, I am sharing the sweet version.

Makes 400 Grams
Ingredients  
1 Cup Level All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Level Wheat flour
1/2 Cup Level Fine Semolina
2 Tablespoons Heaped Ghee - melted and cooled
Salt a pinch
Oil as required to deep fry

For the Sugar Syrup to knead for the dough
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Water - for sugar syrup

Method 
In a small sauce pan mix sugar and water, bring this a boil only till sugar melts. Immediately take off flame add salt and ghee.  This syrup does not require any thread consistency . Allow to cool. When cooled then add the semolina mix it and let it sit covered for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes take the whole wheat and all purpose flours into a big kneading bowl.   Add the sugar semolina mix little by little , mix well with the help of your palms. knead the dough. The dough should be of medium consistency. Not very hard nor very soft. 

Make equal sized balls and roll into 1/4 cm thick circle. Cut them into square or diamond shape. 

Heat oil, when the oil if medium hot then put the cut squares in to it. Do not fry on high flame, because they will remain uncooked from the inside. 

Fry the pieces till light brown and crisp. Once all are fried, place them aside to cool. They become nice crispy on cooling. Once cooled store them in an airtight container.

Enjoy these sweet, crispy yet melt in mouth Shankarpali.

Labels :  Festival Sweets, Shankarpali, Christmas Sweet, Mix Flour, Snacks

Palappam - With Idly Rice - Vegan & Gluten Free

This Palappam / Lacey Appams -  Kerala style, is made with idly rice . I have already posted a recipe of Instant Appam .  

My friend a Keralite makes awesome food of her country, which, she often sends for me. I,  love her Kerala style of cooking and tasted many dishes from her kitchen. One of them are these soft and spongy appams really good and yum, which she makes with raw rice (will the share her the recipe soon). She serve this is Egg Stew, which is really yum. 

Since I, made this for my guest who were vegan's and vegetarians, served this with Vegetable Stew which was also a perfect combo. These palappam though made with idly rice which one would think will turn hard, but, that's myth, there is method that makes these really soft and delicious. 

Actually as I, was making, the first four my hubby and me enjoyed them just plain without any chutney, gravy or sauce, they were super soft and divine. You will love them do give this a try. Read my notes before trying this recipe.

Makes around 32 to 34 
Ingredients
3 Cups Idly Rice
2 Cups Packed Freshly Grated Coconut grated
4 to 6 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Level Salt
¼ Teaspoon Level Instant Yeast
Water- as needed

Method 

Wash rice thoroughly 3 to 4 times. Soak rice for minimum 3 to 4 hours .

After 4 hours, drain the rice and grind a cup at a time in small mixer jar with 2 tablespoons of grated coconut in 3 to 4 batches . Grind to a fine paste / smooth batter . Do not wash the mixer jar after you finish grinding. Keep it aside. 

This is the most important tip to make these appams soft.
Take one cup of batter in a sauce pan, add 1 ½ cup of water and mix well till well blended. Then on very low flame place the pan  and use a whisk to stir it. 

Let it cook until it thickens,by stirring continuously in low flame. After this thickness it will becomes shiny see pic.  Let this cool for 2 to 3 minutes then add a cup of batter and whisk it till it forms a smooth batter and it is just warm. Take half of this batter, in the same mixer jar along with half of the sugar quantity and instant yeast,  grind till well blended or forms a smooth paste. Add this to the ground batter. Again blend the remaining batter with the sugar till smooth.

Mix all this batter well with a whisk,  place this container in a bigger one that can hold it (so that if it spills, it does not dirty your counter and use the spilled batter- no wastage) cover with a lid,   keep it overnight or for  5 -6 hours or more depending on temperature of the room or the country you stay. 

I, finished grinding and completed the full process at 1 am / early hours - beginning of a new day. Still the batter nearly spilled out of the big pot by 6am. 

When the batter is fermented , now,  add the salt and mix really well. The consistency of the batter should be thinner than that of a dosa batter. So add water accordingly. Keep it a side for at least 15 minutes before beginning to make the appams.

Now heat a non stick appam chatty specially made for making appam . Drizzle some water in the appam pan and when u see the water is disappearing as soon as the water is dropped ,that is the right time to pour appam batter . Oil it and wipe it with kitchen towel ( do this for the first one only, do  not oil after this to make the remaining appams).

Take 1/3 cup ( for measurement - since this quantity is perfect for the pan) pour the batter in the middle of the pan and rotate the by holding both side handles.

 Place the pan on medium low flame and close it with the lid,  cook for 2 minutes, you'll notice that the center of apaam is cooked and edges start leaving the sides of pan ( these should be lacey , that is transparent on the sides ). At  this stage you can decide whether you want it crisp and brown on the sides (so if u want crispy appam cook bit more ,but don't burn them). I, removed them just when they started to leave the sides of the pan. Mine were white at the sides and the bottom golden. 

Taste the first one, adjust sugar and salt in the batter consistency if needed and then make the remaining appam's. The batter for me was perfect so I did not add any additional salt or sugar.

Serve appam with your favorite curry and enjoy, these soft , delicious and divine appams.  

We had these with  Mixed Vegetable Stew - Vegan & Gluten Free - Kerala Style

My Notes
Use only idly rice and not idly rawa, or else the result will not be the same.

Soak the rice for 4 hours only not more, this time is sufficient or else the rice will start to ferment and the taste will change.

Drain all the water in which the rice was soaking. Use fresh water a tablespoon at a time to grind. Preferably try and use a small blender its grinds faster and grinds to a fine paste with less usage of water. Do not add more water to the batter to make it thin at this stage, because after fermenting will is become a little more watery. So add water if necessary after the fermentation process.

I have used 6 tablespoons of sugar, you can  use more or less. According to me this quantity was just perfect.

Use only the quantity of yeast mentioned or else it will have a yeasty flavor and smell.

Add salt only after the batter is fermented.

If you feel the batter is fermented much earlier than you will like to use it. Then place the container / pot in the refrigerator, that's what I did.  

If you do have freshly grated coconut then use one can of coconut milk  for this quantity.

Labels : Appams, South Indian, Kerala, Vegan, Gluten free, Coconut, Coconut Milk, Healthy, Main course, Breakfast

Mixed Vegetable Stew Vegan & Gluten Free#Soupswappers

This is a Kerala Style vegetable stew.  It's so easy and delicious you must try this.  We had this with Palappam a vegan and gluten free appam.  Recipe follows.

Sending this to Soupswappers event theme is "Comforting Fall Stews" our host for the month is Colleen Delawder
Ingredients 

300 Grams Mixed Frozen Veggies
2 Medium Potatoes -cubed 

1 Medium Onion - finely chopped 
1 Medium Tomato - skinned & chopped 

2 Green chilly- finely chopped 

2 Teaspoons Level Red Chilly powder 

¼ Teaspoon Turmeric powder
2 Teaspoons Level Coriander powder
¼ Teaspoon Garam masala

1 Teaspoon  Salt or to taste 

1 Vegetable Seasoning cube

1 Cup Thick Coconut Milk 

A Sprig Curry leaves-few 

2 Tablespoons Coriander leaves-chopped
1 Teaspoon Mustard seeds
To Grind Coarsely Without Water  
1 Inch Piece Ginger - chopped 

4 Big Cloves Garlic or 6 Small Ones - chopped 

1/2 Teaspoon Level Fennel seeds

Method 

Pressure cook all the vegetables except peas by adding 1 1/2 of water and salt . Cook the peas separately, keep them a side. 

Heat oil in a kadai / pan and splutter mustard seeds.  Add green chilly, chopped onion and curry leaves , saute  till the onions start tor turn light golden then add  coarsely ground paste  of ginger-garlic - fennel seeds , seasoning cube , tomatoes and  saute well for t 2 minutes. Close it with a lid on low flame let it cook till the tomatoes soften and turn mushy, stir at intervals.  

When the tomatoes are mushy and release oil from the side add the cubed potatoes and saute on high flame for a minute or two, then add all the veggies and spices like turmeric powder,chilly powder, coriander powder and  taste for salt  then add, saute on high flame for 2 minutes .  Add 1 or 2 cups water according to the gravy required , close the kadai with a lid and on low  flame,  cook till the veggies are done.  When the veggies are cooked  and oil surfaces on top, then add coconut milk  and garam masala.  

Give it a good stir, and lightly stir it,  till it comes to a just a boil..Take  the kadai off flame .  Add the chopped coriander leaves .. Close the pan till ready to  serve.   .. So the very tasty vegetable stew  is ready to serve .  

This is a classic combination with Palappam.  Enjoy 
Labels : Mixed Vegetable , Stew, Gluten free, Vegan, Soupswappers, Kerala, Healthy, Coconut Milk

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