Roma's Space

This is one of the oldest and all time favorite recipes of mine. Somehow I never got a chance to make it. May be because I was always skeptical about my baking skills.

Today I managed to bake this for our Special Sunday lunch. It turned out well. I intentionally made it a bit lighter than the original recipe because my husband cant digest heavy milk products in his food.

Being a total Indian at heart I couldn’t keep oil out of this dish. So I tweaked the original recipe a bit to suit my requirement.

Ingredients :

• 1 tablespoon salted butter
• 1 tablespoon maida
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon grated cheese
• Pepper Powder (freshly roasted and ground)
• 1 cup mixed vegetables :
  • Red , Yellow, Green pepper
  • Mushroom
  • Baby Corn
  • Carrot
  • Beans
  • Peas
  • Spinach
  • Finely chopped Garlic
• Macaroni
• 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
• 2 teaspoons of bread crumbs

Procedure :

For the White Sauce

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add maida and fry till it turns opaque.
2. Add milk and boil the sauce. If it appears too thick add more milk till the sauce is moderately pasty.
3. Add grated cheese, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Preparing the Vegetables

1. Stir fry vegetables in oil with some salt till they are half cooked.
2. Boil pasta with a Pinch of salt, till its soft. Mix into the stir fried vegetables.
3. Add the white sauce to the mixture of vegetables and pasta.
4. Add some pepper powder. Mix well.

Baking the Dish

1. Preheat oven at 200 °C.
2. Pour the vegetable pasta mixture into a baking dish.
3. Pour Olive Oil over the dish and mix well.
4. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.
5. Bake at 200 °C for about 15 mins.

Please NOTE :

1. In this dish salt is added a number of times at different stages of preparation. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the overall quantity of salt does not become too much.
2. If you don’t have bread crumbs you can quickly make them. Microwave a piece of bread for 30 secs and leave it outside till it dries up. Crumble it and sprinkle over the dish.
3. While preparing the white sauce pour warm milk into the fried maida. This will prevent lump formation due to temperature difference.

Tawa Masala

Tawa masala (or Bharwa Masala) is an age old dry powder recipe used to stuff Brinjals, ladys fingers, bitter gourds, etc;

The best part is that once this masala is made, you wont need to spend too much time in making your sabzi. Moreover, this powder can be stored for weeks together. Its usually available in all stores but its hard to find something that matches the home-made one.

Ingredients :

• 1 tablespoon saunf
• 1/3 teaspoon methi seeds
• 1 teaspoon jeera seeds
• 1 teaspoon dhania seeds
• 1 dried red chilly
• 1/4 teaspoon Haldi powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Garam masala (optional)
• Pinch of Hing

Procedure :

1. Roast saunf, methi , jeera, dhania, red chilly till you get a crackling sound.
2. Powder the roasted masala. To this add haldi powder, hing, Garam masala and salt.
3. Mix this powder well and store in an air tight container.

Please NOTE :

1. When you want to use this masala in your stuffed vegetables please add some amchur powder to it. We dont add amchur powder to the tawa masala while preparing it because that reduces its shelf life.
2. Also, if the stuffed vegetable recipe contains tamarind in it then please skip adding amchur powder.

Its impossible to make a type of tea that everyone will like. Some like it with more sugar, some with more milk, some want the tea leaves to be boiled more and others don’t want it boiled at all! It really amazes me that a simple thing like tea can be made in so many ways to suit so many people.

However, masala chai is something thats a safe bet for all of us. It directs your attention towards flavors that unfold with every sip.

Its interesting to note that tea has many medicinal properties as well. Masala chai is particularly helpful if someone has a cold.

Ingredients :

• A small piece of Cinnamon stick
• 3-4 Cloves
• 10 Tulsi leaves
• Small piece of Dried ginger (Soont/ Sonti)
• 5-6 Elaichis

Procedure :

1. Dry roast the above ingredients and powder them. Store this powder in an air tight container.
2. While preparing a cup of tea add a pinch of chai masala to the boiling tea water.

Tamarind Poha

Although this dish is similar to the tamarind rice we usually eat I think its easier to prepare because you dont need to have rice prepared ahead of it. Whats more? Even my one year old baby cant get enough of it!

We tried eating it with Haldiram’s Golden Mixture and found that the crunchy namkeen further geared up the taste.

Tamarind Rice / Puliyogre paste is commonly available is stores these days. However, if you have the tamarind rice powder, you can try it out with that as well.

Ingredients :

• 3 cups Poha (beaten rice – thick one)
• 2 teaspoons Tamarind rice paste
• 1 teaspoon Ground nuts
• 1/2 teaspoon split white urad dal
• 1/2 teaspoon channa dal
• 1/2 teaspoon rai
• 1 green chilly
• Few curry leaves
• Coriander leaves

Procedure :

1. Moisten the poha.
2. Heat Oil. Add groundnuts to it and stir for a minute.
3. Add urad dal, channa dal and rai. Let them splutter.
4. Add green chillies, curry leaves and tamarind rice paste.
5. Now add the soaked poha, salt and mix well.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves and namkeen mixture.

Please NOTE:

1. You need to be careful while moistening the poha. Just wash it once with water and let it stand in a strainer.Wash again after a while. Repeat this till poha becomes soft.
2. After you add tamarind paste don’t cook it. Immediately add the poha, else the paste will burn.

Vegetable Nutri Pie

When I saw the event for making a Balanced Breakfast I immediately remembered my mother’s innovative vegetable pie that she used to make so we would not crave for junk food. Attractive as it looked, we never really imagined that it was meant to be healthy.

In this recipe we use wheat flour, vegetables and bake the dish making it a lot better than other spicy, deep-fried snacks we eat. If you add some sprouts to the vegetable stuffing it becomes even more nutritious. You can try this out on a lazy Sunday morning when you are in no mood to head off anywhere.

Thanks Mansi for giving me a reason to try out my mom’s treasured recipe.

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon Maida
• Pinch of Carom seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon Pepper
• 1 tablespoon Butter
• 1 teaspoon Oil
• 1 cup mixed vegetables :
  • Shredded Red cabbage
  • Green peas
  • Finely chopped Capsicum
  • Finely chopped Carrot
• 1 tablespoon Grated cheese

Procedure :

For the Dough

1. Take wheat flour in a mixing bowl. Add salt, pepper and carom seeds.
2. Fold the butter in. Now add luke warm water little by little, mixing well continuously.
3. Knead into a soft dough and set aside for sometime.

For the Filling

1. Heat oil. Add the vegetables and cook till they turn tender. Add salt, pepper and mix well.
2. Turn off heat and grate cheese into the vegetables.

For the pie

1. Grease a flat clean surface and roll out the dough with the help of a rolling pin.
2. Place the rolled out dough over a greased pie mold. Trim away extra dough with the help of your fingers.
3. Now fill the vegetable stuffing into the pie. Garnish with a tomato slice.
4. Make thin, long rolls of the dough and criss-cross over the pie.

Baking :

Preheat oven at 200 ° C . Now place pies in and bake for 12-15 mins.

Variation

You can use beans, mashed potatoes or any other vegetable of your choice for the filling. Sprouts will be the best way to go as they are not only nutritious but also filling.