Friday, July 15

Yummy Egg rolls

After so much sweet, chocolates and baking, and getting into these sinful indulgences, i thought of posting these yummy egg rolls, which are indeed more tantalizing to my taste buds. And whose recipe was in my drafts for so so long, just taking its snap was an issue. Whenever I make egg rolls, I just go on making, and they just go on vanishing. And as they are more delicious when eaten piping hot, I couldn't endure my share too to get cold. :-)

Being vegetarians we never had egg at home as kids. The first time i tried it was after college with my friend at a road side stall in a perfect rainy day. And it was love at first bite.. I did  had it many times after that. Now that I am not in india, I miss those road side stalls so so much.

Going by the book, egg roll is referred to a wrap, which is dipped in egg and then deep fried, a variant of spring roll. But the one I make is typical of Kolkata and originates from there itself. The egg roll in Kolkata is similar to Frankie of Mumbai. A "Mexican egg roll", also referred to as burrito, is an egg roll wrap filled with beans, cheese, and, optionally, meat, as well as various peppers and spices. And so are its versions in other parts of the world.




Ingredients:

All purpose flour(Maida) 1 cup

Eggs 3
Green chili 2 or more chopped
Coriander 1 tbsp chopped

Onion 1 medium, chopped finely
Tomato 1 small finely chopped
Capsicum abt 1/2 chopped
Lettuce or cabbage shredded

Oil for shallow frying
Salt to taste
Tomato sauce and green or red chilli sauce

Method:

Add salt to taste to the flour and knead the flour well with required water.
Take a small ping pong sized ball and roll it as thin as possible to about 6 inch diameter chapati's. It makes about 6-7.
Cook on a hot driddle , lightly from both sides( no need to puff them up over direct the flame). Set aside.

Beat the eggs; add salt to taste, chopped chillies and coriander.
Heat one tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and add about half of 1 beaten egg to it, spread it slightly so as to have almost the same diameter as that of chapati.
Place one thin chapati over the half fried omelet and slightly rotate it,pressing from centre to out, so as both the diameters are same, and egg is evenly spread and sticks over whole chapati.
Allow it to cook for about two more minutes.
Slowly with the help of spatula turn it around and cook the other side for a minute and take it out.

Place the chapati on a flat surface with the egg side up.
Apply sauces as per your taste on the egg side.
Add chopped onions, capsicum, lettuce and tomatoes at the centre of the chapati to make the filling.

Roll the chapati tight and cover it with an aluminum foil or kitchen paper.
Serve piping hot.

Tips & Notes:

I do use a non stick pan, so only the first roll need oil, rest can be cooked oil free.
The filling can be varied , as per availablity, I do add Corn, olives, cucumbers too.
Instead of sauces I do prefer home made green coriander chutney.
To make healthier version, I mixed flour with whole grain wheat aata in 1:1 ratio..


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Wednesday, July 13

Choco Chip Cookies

After baking the Indian eggless cookies, i.e, Nankhatai's,  here comes my next attempt at baking cookies, and that too on demand by kids, 'Choco Chip Cookies'. The cookies came out perfect, both taste and look wise, though with a bit of hiccups. As I am new at baking and also am using convection microwave oven for baking , the setting and all while baking needed to be varied accordingly.

The recipe makes about 40; 3 inch cookies. I did made half batch only, as this was my first attempt at baking cookies, so made 20 only. Also I did baked it in 3 small batches, out of which one batch got overcooked, and thus got burned at the bottom :(

The recipe is very easy and it takes very little time to bake these cookies. Its one of the easiest, most delicious and a basic choco chip cookie recipe.  It uses a combination of white and brown sugars, producing a rich and chewy cookies with caramalised edges.

Ingredients:

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter @ room temperature
3/4 cup (160 grams) firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
2 eggs large
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (295 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (270 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 degree C (375 degree F). In a bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add both the white and brown sugars and beat. Then beat in eggs, slowly one at a time. Add Vanilla extract and mix. In a separate bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda and then add this to the egg mixture and beat well. You can use a hand mixer or a kitchen aid as the dough tends to be a bit stiff at this stage. Lastly fold in choco chips and make sure they  are evenly dispersed so we have enough chocolate in each cookie. The dough is now ready.

Now before baking the dough needs to be a bit stiff, if you find the dough a bit soft, refrigerate until firm (upto 2 hours) Drop dough on a lined baking sheet by 2 rounded tablespoon about 2 inches apart . The chocolate chip cookies need to be this far apart because the dough spreads during cooking. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or untill golden brown on edges.At this stage the cookie may look a bit uncooked but they will finish cooking through out of the oven.

As for my oven i did baked it in cookie mode for 10 minutes. It has a auto preheat and after preheating cookie balls in a parchement paper along with the tray needs to be placed inside the oven. Finally cool on a wire rack completely before storing as the cookies are very soft when hot.

Tips:

If you are using kitchen aid, better use the butter still in quite firm state, though not cold, and thereby aviding the need to refrigerate it. Just take it out from fridge and microwave it for 10- 15 sec.
You can use a icecream scoop for dropping in the small balls of dough. Its very convinient and mess free.
You can also add about 1 cup (100 grams) walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped after adding chocolate chips.
Also, you can make balls and freeze them for future. Just bake the frozen balls directly, adjusting the time a little more.


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