Mushroom Baby-corn Muffin

You must have read in my earlier post that preparing lunchbox for my 8 year old girl has become a nightmare for me. The reason, what ever or how much tasty dishes I share in her lunch box it will be surely coming back home only half eaten. I started spending sleepless nights - 6 hrs +2 hours stay away from home with such a little food consumption, must be badly affecting the lil one's health. So  in the evenings I started making myself occupied by giving trials with different snack idea. If the lil one approves then 'BINGO'.. Next day that will go in her tiffin box. The other day I made these little savoury muffins that did tickle my princess's taste bud and to my surprise the next day I found her tiffin box empty. Not only she but her friends loved it so much and now I have to send few extra so that my princess and her friends can have a snack party everyday. So here is recipe of Mushroom Baby-corn Muffin:

Ingredients

{Yeilds - 3-4 muffin (medium size)}

Egg - 2

Flour - 1 tbspn

Mushroom & Baby Corn - 1/2 cup chopped

Onion- 1/2 of one small chopped

Cream Cheese - 1 tbspn (Optional - See Notes)

Pizza Cheese - 1 tbspn (See Notes)

Nutmeg powder- a pinch (See Notes)

Tobasco/ Chili Sauce - 3 to 4 drops or as per taste.

Salt, Sugar & Black Pepper Powder - As per taste

Butter - 1 tspn

Method

1. Whisk two eggs and flour, add a pinch of salt and keep aside.

2. Heat a pan . Add butter, let it melt down then add garlic. Saute for a minute.

3. Add chopped onion. Fry them for a couple of minutes.

4. Add the Mushroom and Baby corn. Fry for 2 minutes more. 

5. Add salt, pepper, sugar and cream cheese.

6. Cook then in a low flame until the cream cheese gets melted and well mixed.

7. Sprinkle the nutmeg powder, mix well.

8. Cool the mixture for a while then add it with the egg mixture. Add the Pizza cheese and Tobasco/ chili sauce too.

9. Now take 3- 4 muffin cups. Pour the mixture evenly in each cup.

10. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 180 degree C.

11. Serve warm with some dips/ sauce.

Notes:

1. One can mix other vegetables too.

2.  One can add chicken/ bacon or sausages to make it more tasty.

3. To make Nutmeg Powder just take the nutmeg and grate it in a fine grater.

4. I had Britannia Cream cheese at home so used it here. But if it one doesn't have any just increase the cheese portion.

5. Instead of Pizza cheese,  Amul cheese cube can also be used.

Green Chilli Dry Chicken

Aw you Blog on Food!!!! Then you must know everything about Food… 

This has become a common attitude towards the Food Bloggers, came to my notice recently.  You all must be thinking why I have raised this topic. There is of course a reason behind it. Food bloggers I think you will agree with me, every day we receive many queries regarding food. Some queries tune pleasant some totally not -how to cook a dish, a recipe of a particular dish, to solve a food related problem etc. And if sometime we cannot satisfy a query then we are standing on the edge of criticism that a food blogger failed to answer.  Today let me clear something to my readers (read non bloggers). I will extend my discussion through a question answer session:

1. What is a Blog?

Precisely: A blog is "a Web site on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis.”It can be personal or professional.

2. Who can Blog?

Anyone can blog on any subject. Blogging is the paradigm of one's creative mind and creative outlook.

3. Why do we blog?

If one asks each blogger this question I think the most common answer will be -"I started suddenly to play with my thoughts and now it has become the passion." Most of the bloggers didn't start a blog in planned way. They wanted to get a "Me time" and blogging is the reflection of their 'Me time'. Their thoughts, their interaction with the world, their daily experiences, their originative ideas, everything reflects in the blogs what they feel is worth to share. And being a Food Blogger we are not the goddess of the culinary world. The main reason we blog because we love to cook and spend some time sharing this with the world in a little bit creative way. What we cook in our everyday life we share and present it in a decent way to the world. Don't think it's just a minute’s job to click a picture, write an introduction, the recipe and post it. It was never so easy and not yet now. Rather day by day it has become more challenging to rectify our flaws, enhance our knowledge and bring the utmost perfection to our creations.

When I started blogging, I never thought to be channelized to the world of food blogging. The blogging journey started narrating down my thoughts, sometimes what I cooked for my family etc. I was then all alone, crazily waiting for a follower, for a comment.  I was then a very poor photographer, not have a single idea of what food styling is actually called and food photography. Still now I am just a novice. But one thing to assure that I have improved a lot. And this journey was never so easy. We Food bloggers are very much dedicated to our works. And we strain out the time from our daily busy life in food styling and Food photography which is always not tad easy. The set up for food photography, collecting the props, arranging them, to find a proper light to click and again to clean up the place like something never happened before. Then we have to edit the snaps, write and post it. Initially we used to blog for our pleasure and fun. But now it has become a quintessential part of our life. We blog for our readers who keep on expecting what we come up with next. And at the same time we cherish our "Me time" here, inhale the pride of our own creative world.

4. What are the differences between a food blogger and non food blogger?

Now those who are not blogging aren't they a good cook. This notion is absolutely wrong. Our grandmother, mother they never blog on food. But most of our recipes passed to us through them only. What we learn from them reflect here. Even every day we are learning and sharing that through our blogs. We never declare that we are the perfect cook because we blog. Rather we blog to share what we learned. And we are learning this sometimes from our fellow bloggers and sometimes from the exotic cooks who shares their neighborhood with us. Even I have learnt so many recipes from my cook maid too. So let me clear as Chef Gusto (From the movie Ratatouille) has said:"Anyone can cook", yes any one can and at the same time anyone can blog too. The only thing is you have to spend few extra hours for you only and to become well versed to pen down on what you want to share with the world. I would like to encourage non food bloggers to blog and share your potentiality with the world.

5. Why are we so proud on our blogs?

Now do I need to explain this anymore? Yes, we are very much proud of our blog. Because apart from showing off our talents we mainly blog to relax our brain and mind. Criticism is always welcome; because if you readers never point us about our flaws we will never gain our knowledge and improve ourselves. But before criticising please review your points too. As I have told, don't expect us that we Food Bloggers are the Encyclopedia of the Foodie world. We share what we have learned and you can always generate our knowledge my your valuable comments. Writers and readers are the true friends and incomplete without each other. And we always value and respect our readers' comments and criticism. But at the same time criticism from the dullards are never acceptable.

Now let me move to the recipe Green Chilli Dry Chicken. This recipe is shared by my very good friends. I have twisted a bit and cooked it in my own way. Yesterday the man made this chicken again but he made his own way. He pasted all the Masala (Onion, garlic, ginger, onion, tomatoes, capsicum, seeded green chilli, turmeric powder, Cumin powder and coriander powder) together, mixed the paste with the chicken (with bone) and cooked it in a low flame till it dried up and cooked well. And it tasted awesome. Cooking is an art and based on one recipe you can customise it in so many ways. And this is a perfect example what we bloggers do generally. We customise a dish based on a recipe; cook it in our own way and blog on it. Many of you non-bloggers also do the same thing I think. We do just an extra job by blogging it.  So now moving to my recipe:

Ingredients:

Chicken- 300gm (I used boneless, cut in cubes)

Capsicum- 1 large

Seeded Green Chilies- as much as you can (Depends on the chilli intake)

Ginger- 1 table spoon (Grated)

Garlic- 5-6 cloves

Onion- 1 large (sliced)

Mushroom- 7-8 Florets.

Lemon juice- 1 table spoon

Vinegar- 1 tspn

Salt & Sugar as per taste. 

Method:

1. Grind the capsicum, green chillies, Garlic and ginger in a smooth paste. Then marinate the chicken with the chilli paste , vinegar , lemon juice and salt for an hour or so.
2. Heat oil and add the sliced onion. When it turns semi brown add the chicken and keep on frying in low flame. When the chicken is half done add the mushroom. And the fry until the chicken is done on a high flame.
3. Your Green Chilli Dry Chicken is ready. Serve hot with rice or roti. Even it will be great combo with noodles too.

Note:

1. I have given it a little bit Chinese look by adding less chillies adding  no masalas and by adding mushrooms. Actually this can be cooked in the indianised form too by adding masalas like Turmeric, coriander, cumin powder and using onion paste as I mentioned above.
2. To get the recipes on indianised Green Chilli Chicken click HERE and HERE.

Egg Spinach Mushroom Grilled Sandwich

I am living with the sandwich lovers. And that reason always proved me a bad wife and a bad mamma. Let me reason the fact. I always try to satisfy the two hearts with the simplest sandwiches which will take hardly two minutes to make. Like the cheese sandwiches, salad sandwiches et al. Now the other day to relieve them from their boring and Yakki (in my daughter's word) breakfasts and of course to rescue myself from their fury, I decided to treat them with some YAMMY sandwich that I have never prepared before. And no need to say I got my pedestal back. I crowned to be the perfect cook and the best Mamma. So you all just keep on imagining how much praises I bagged in on that auspicious day……

Ok you guys are bored enough. Let’s jump straight to the Egg Spinach Mushroom Grilled Sandwich. Do make it and give a nice feedback which I am surely going to show my family… (Grinning till the ear ends). So recipe here follows:

Egg Spinach Mushroom Grilled Sandwich

(8 sandwiches)

Ingredients:

Egg- 2 ( beaten)

Sandwich Bread- 8 pieces (Brown /white- up to your choice)

Spinach(washed and chopped)- 1 cup

Mushroom(chopped)- 1 cup

Grated Cheese- 1/2 cup

Chopped Garlic- 1/2 table spoon

Salt & Sugar -According to taste.

White pepper- A dash

Oregano Seasoning - 1/4 tea spoon

Tomato Sauce- 1 tea spoon

Olive oil- 1 table spoon

Butter to grease.

Method:

1. Take a pan or kadai heat the  oil and add the garlic. Then add the spinach and the mushroom. Saute for few minutes then add all the other ingredients except the Egg, Cheese and Bread. Stir nicely till the spinach is well cooked and dry. Then add the egg, fry nicely till it takes a perfect dry texture. Take off the stove.

2. Take the breads and cut the sides. Spread the Spinach spread on 4 breads and top them with grated cheese. Cover the four breads with the other four breads.

3. Now grease the Sandwich griller with butter and grill the sandwich till it is done. Cut it in a triangular shape and enjoy with sauce or some dip.

Grilled Chicken Stuffed Mushroom and Spinach

Winter steps in and the oven becomes more active than ever. Not only for baking the cakes and cookies to welcome the month of joy and jingles, but also for the aromatic healthy baked foods that the hearts crave for. The freshly salubrious colourful vegetables in the market, never let you return empty handed. And this is the magnificent part of winter where you can manipulate your creative culinary skills by using these vast miscellanea of vegetables available during this season.

 This time I got big spinach leaves. First I thought of using that spinach layering in between some mixture and bake it. But then I decided to use them as a wrap. And I had some mushrooms stored in my fridge and felt gallant using those as a stuffed dish. No doubt those taste so delicious that the family members raised a request to make it soon.  So here is the recipe:Ingredients:

Minced Chicken: 300gm

Pasta Sauce: 2 table spoon

Oregano Seasoning: 1/4 tea spoon

Salt: According to taste

Button Mushroon- 5-6

 Spinach  (the big leaves ) -6-7

Method:-

1. Mixed all ingredients except the mushroom and spinach nicely.
2. Take each spinach leaf and put a spoon full of stuffing in it and fold it nicely and tuck it up with a tooth pick.
3. Take out the stem from the mushroom and put the stuffing in it.
4. Place them on an oven proof tray and grill for 15 mnts.
5. Serve it with a bowl of hot soup and bread.

This recipe is off to Indrani's Healthy Baking Event.

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