Mexican wrap with Ham & Egg

When I feel really lazy, hungry and don’t feel like cooking at all I make these wraps. This recipe is delicious and ready in 5 minutes, perfect for lunch (or even brunch if you are like me!!). I have used ham in this recipe but you can use any cooked meat, whatever you have in your fridge like left over cooked meat. In this recipe I have used 1 tortilla as it was quite filling for me but you can change the quantity as you prefer. So here goes the recipe...

Ingredients:

1 Tortilla wrap
2 Eggs
2-3 Slices of ham (chopped)
1 Onion (chopped)
1 Green chilly (chopped)
Few fresh coriander leaves (chopped) (optional)
Grated cheese
Butter
Oil  

********I didnt add any salt as the meat had enough salt in it.******* 

Method:

Spread little butter on both sides of the tortilla and place it on a heated frying pan. Heat it for a minute and then turn. This will give the tortilla a crispy outside. Don’t keep for long time as it might get hard. Remove it from the pan and keep it aside. 

Add oil/butter to the pan and beat the eggs with chopped onion green chilly and fresh coriander. Now add the ham in the mixture. When the oil is heated add this mixture to the pan and cook the omelette as you would like. Spread the grated cheese on top of the tortilla and place the omelette on top of it. Now wrap the whole thing and cut into halves and enjoy.

Lamb Biriyani

This weekend was very special for me and my husband. It was our anniversary weekend, so thought of cooking something very special for this occasion, something that’s not an everyday dish. Some thing that is a real treat! So, I thought of making LAMB BIRIYANI. This is considered as a royal dish in India. Its basically rice, meat and potatoes cooked together. The original recipe requires lot of ghee/ butter, which is not so good for your heart. So I thought of cutting on the calories and make a low calorie version of the biriyani without compromising on the taste and have a guilt free treat. So here you go... 

For marination you will need:

Mutton/ Lamb-500 gms (or you can use beef as well)
Yogurt-200 gms
Ginger garlic paste-2 tablespoons
Meat tenderizer- 2 tablespoons
Shah Jeera powder-1 tsp

Cumin powder - 2tsp

Coriander powder - 2tsp

Red chilly powder -1 tsp

Cloves - 2 to 3 (crushed)

Green cardamom -2 to 3 (crushed)
Black cardamom powder- 2 tsp
Black pepper powder-2 tsp
Cinnamon powder-1tsp
Fried Onion-40 gm
Green Chillies-2 to 3 (crushed)

Rest of the Ingredients :

Basmati rice- 500gm
Potato- 2 (big size, peeled and cut into halves)
Coriander Leaves- 1 bunch
Mint Leaves- 1 bunch
Rose water- 2 tsp
Milk- 100ml
Saffron - a pinch
Butter- 20 gms
Oil for frying.

Method:

Wash the meat and add all the ingredients for marinating and marinate it overnight. 

Heat oil in a deep bottom non-stick pan, add the potato, fry till golden brown then add the marinated meat in to the same pan and cook in the low flame for next 50 minutes or till the meat is done. Keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn. Mean while half cook the rice, spread it on a plate and add the butter to it. Mix it with a fork and then add the saffron, rose water in the warm milk and keep aside.  

When the meat is cooked add the half cooked rice to the pan and mix it well. Now add the boiling water to it. Now this is critical, usually two portions of water is required to cook one portion of raw rice, but since the rice is already half cooked you will only need same quantity of water as the rice is. Mix the rice well in to the pan, add the coriander and the mint leaves, close the lid and cook until all the liquid is evaporated and the rice is cooked. Check for seasoning and take it off the heat. Serve hot with raita.

Alu Paratha

Alu Parathas, probably the most popular of the stuffed paratha world. This is a dish from Punjab and hugely popular in India. Its usually served with yogurt and pickle. Some people prefer a knob of butter with it. Well it definitely make the parathas taste better but if you are calorie conscious you can avoid the butter. It tastes great on its own.

Ingredients:

For stuffing,

2-3 Potatos (boiled and pealed)

2-3 Green chillies (chopped)

Hand ful of coriander leaves (chopped)

1/2 tsp dry roasted jeera/cumin and red chilli powder

Salt 

For the parathas

3 cups of flour

2tsp oil

Salt

Water
1 tsp chilli powder (optional)

Oil for frying

Method:

Mash the boiled potato add all the ingredients and mix it well. Now make small balls out of the stuffing and keep them seperate. 

Now for the parathas mix the salt, 2 tsp oil and the dry flour well. Now add water and kneed it well like how you would do for bread dough. Again make small balls (size of a table tennis ball) out of the dough. Using a rolling pin roll the flour balls so they are big enough to contain the mashed potato balls you had made earlier for stuffing. Now wrap the stuffing with the rolled dough and give it a shape of a ball (it will be bigger this time!!!) . Repeat the same for all the parathas. 

Dust the rolling board with  dry flour, take the parathas and roll them. Be careful about the stuffing while rolling as it might come out. Heat a pan, placed the paratha on it, first roast it on both side then add oil and fry on both sides.

Serve hot with Greek yogurt and pickle. Enjoy.

Veggie Vermicelli

Ingredients:

1 cup vermicelli
1 onion (chopped)
1 green chilli (chopped)
1 medium boiled potato (chopped)
hand full of frozen veg (carrot, green beans, sweet corn etc.)
1 tsp mustard seeds
pinch of red chilli powder (optional)
Oil
Salt

Method:

Boil the vermicelli with little salt and oil mixed in the boiling water for few minutes (5-6) only. Meanwhile heat the pan and add mustard seeds to it, as they start to splatter add the onion, green chillies and the red chilli powder, fry for a minute and then add the boiled potatoes and mix it well. Now add the frozen mixed veg and cook until they are done. Check on the vermicelli, if its done then drain the water and keep it separate.  Add the vermicelli to the veg, mix well the whole thing, check the seasoning and serve it warm. You can also add little (may be 1 tsp) lemon juice before taking off the heat but that's optional. 

Roast Peppers and Baby Potatoes

This is another variation of stuffed capsicum the only difference is the peppers are sliced open which is:

• Easy to cook,
• Easy to eat,
• Easy to serve and
• Looks great as well!!

I got this idea of slicing the pappers from one of my fellow blogger A Taste of Savoie's page.

Ingredients:

3 peppers (whole)

6-7 baby potatoes (boiled)

1 red onion (chopped)

1-2 cloves garlic (chopped)

1 green chilli (chopped)

1 tsp cumin seeds (whole)

hand full of fresh coriander (chopped)

1/2 tsp of red chilli powder (optional)

Salt

Olive oil

Method:

Wash and dry the peppers with a cloth or kitchen towel. Slice them into halves or quarters depending on size. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degree celsius, cover an oven tray with aluminium foil. Add some olive oil to the tray and spread it well across the tray. Now, brush the sliced peppers with some olive oil and place them on to the tray and season them well. Place the tray in the oven for next 20 minutes or until they are done.

Now for the filling, heat some olive oil in a pan, add garlic, cumin seeds and green chillies. Fry till you get the nice aroma of the garlic, then add the chopped red onions to the pan and cook till they are half done. Cut the baby potatoes into small pieces (you can either peel the skin off or leave them as it is, up to you, I prefer peeling) and add them to the pan with the onions. Add salt and red chilli powder (optional, only if you want to make the dish more spicy) to it and cook for five more minutes. Add the fresh coriander before taking off the heat.

Fill the roasted peppers with the potatoes and serve hot.