Stuffed Mini Boule

Stuffed Mini Boule or in simple terms Stuffed Bread is one of the hot pot items in my Food Menu. Just a couple of days back I prepared the dish after a long gap. My husband relishes and enjoys the dish to its full pit always. This is the first time, I served it to my daughter and to my wonder she finishes her plate just in no time. Now a day I mainly cook the dishes placing myself to my daughter’s place, what she will like and what will be healthy for her and of course it should take the shortest time to prepare.This dish takes very little time to prepare. The time what it takes is the baking time. It is a very full meal which can be served as a breakfast, a lunch or as a dinner too. The crispy and crunchy taste of the bread blend marvellously with the soft and spongy bite of the stuffing. I usually prepare the dish with French bread. But this time I got the Mini Boule instead. The French word boule means ball or round, so “boule” may be used to describe a variety of breads that all have the boule shape in common. A typical French boule is a hearty, country bread with a chewy crust, an open crumb, and a moderately soft interior and is baked in many different sizes. It is most often prepared with white bread flour made into a similar type of dough used for a French Baguette (narrow French stick loaf); however a variety of flours and other ingredients can be used.

Ingredients:

Pls note: All ingredients used are according to my own taste change the measure as per your taste.

• Whole Bread- 1 (not the slice one. Pls get the bread which looks dense in width.)

• Egg- 2

• Boiled potato- 1 medium size

• Boiled carrot- 1 small or ½ of the medium size

• Chopped colour bell pepper- ½ Cup

• Chopped tomato- ½ cup

• Grated Ginger- 1 tea spoon

• Grated cheese- ½ cup

• Melted butter- ¼ cup

• Italian seasoning- according to taste (Tip: I usually store the seasoning mixes delivered from the Pizza hubs. In need they help to season my preparation perfectly)

• Salt, Sugar, Black pepper- As per taste

Method:-

• First slice the head of the bread in round shape. Scoop out the bread from inside, so that should look like a bowl. Keep the extra bread in a separate container.

• Preheat your oven to 375 F.

• Now take the extra scooped bread. Crumble the bread with your hand. The feel of the texture will be like bread crumbs. Mix all the other ingredients gently except the cheese and eggs.

• Beat the eggs and fold it to the mixture. Pour the whole ingredient into the Bread bowl and cover the lid with the head of the bread slice.

• Grease the whole bread with butter.

• Grease a baking tray, place the bread and set it for baking for 40-45mnts.

• After 10mnts open the oven, remove the top of the bread and bake both separately just placing the bread slice side of the bread bowl. After 15mnts turn the bread slice to the other side.

• When the time is up check the bread stuff with a toothpick or a knife pricked in the centre comes out clean. If it’s done switch off the oven, bring out the tray and sprinkle the cheese on the top of the bread bowl and close the top once again with the bread lid. Put again to the oven and keep inside till the cheese melts down.

• Bring it out of the oven. Cut into thick chunks and serve with salad, boiled vegetables.

Note:

• The baking time I have given is as per my estimate. Your time may take more or less. Just keep on checking the colour of the bread and the Stuffing. If you see that the bread is getting over toasted then just decrease the temperature of the oven and bake it till the stuffing is done.

• The stuffing will flap up a little. Therefore don’t worry.

Variations:-

• You can add boiled chicken in the stuffing.

• Other breads are always welcome. Only they should be not sliced and thin.

• If you want to make it a vegetarian dish. Use corn flour instead of Egg. But be careful about the amount of the corn flour. Use only as much needed for a binding.

Culinary is just an Art of creation. Many a time, we just get a hunch of a recipe and make it in our own kitchen in our own way and as per our taste. But most of the time we create rather than recreate something.

I am sending this recipe to the Events -Sunday Snacks:Healthy Snacks .

And to Kid's delight ~ Wholesome Snacks.

 

The New Leaf

It is not dripping, that means it has become frozen. The tree is standing with its arms widely open towards the sky, without a single leaf. Right now the treasure it has, except the dried bushes, is the frozen rain drops, which are hanging from its hands like glass marbles.

Launched the website of Déjà Vu

20th Feb'10 is one of the most remarkable days of my life. I got a domain site for our Magazine Déjà Vu. Since a long time I was just planning to create a website for the Magazine. But plans were not materialising somehow. Previously we used to create our magazine in Google Page creator. And therefore every time we used to have a separate URL for each publication. Now we have got and one and only URL for Déjà Vu– http://www.magazinedejavu.com/ . Now wish me luck to resume the next publication asap.

Love Delight-1

This sweet dish is nothing but the famous bengali sweet Bhapa Sandesh. I just gave a shape and new name to celebrate the dish especially in the Valentine’s Day.

Ingredients:-

Ricotta Cheese - 1 & ¼ cup.
Condense Milk – 1 cup.

For decoration you can use anything like, cashew, almonds, raisins, Chocó chips etc.

Method:-

1. Pre - heat the oven to 350F.

2. Mix the Ricotta Cheese and condense milk in a bowl to a smooth consistency.

3. Pour the mixer in a baking tray and bake it till 40-45 mnts till a toothpick or a knife pricked in the centre comes out clean. If not just switch of the oven and keep it inside for another 10-15 mnts.

4. Bring out the tray, cool it and give it the shapes after your mind. (I used a Heart shaped cookie cutter to give this shape.)

Another part of it, is worth mentioning. My daughter is learning the shapes right now. So the Valentine Day’s festive dishes helped me a lot to teach her what is a Heart Shape and how it looks. And now she can easily recognise and distinguish what is a Heart shape among others.

I am sending this recipe to Priya's Heart for Valentine's Day Event.

Stuffed Pasta Shell Salad

Ingredients:-

Jumbo Pasta Shells- 12 shells

Chicken Breast-3 chunks

Boiled egg- 2

Salad Leaves- 2 cups

Baby Carrots- 1cup

Green Beans- 8-9 sticks

Grape Tomatoes- for decoration (4-5)

Tomato – 1 medium size

Cucumber- 1 medium size

Broccoli—4-5 medium sized florets

Shredded cabbage- for decoration

Italian Salad Dressing- 2 tea spoons

Mayonnaise- 1 table spoon

Italian seasonings- according to taste

Salt- according to taste

Black pepper- according to taste

Method-

Step I: - Boiling-

1. Boil the pasta shells till they get tender and soft. Keep on checking not to overcook.

2. Boil the chicken breasts, till they become fully soft, adding salt to taste.

3. Take the chicken out of the stock and keep aside. Boil the baby carrots, green beans and broccoli in the leftover chicken stock.

4. Cut the boiled egg in to two halves and scoop out the yolk.

Step II: - Mixing-

A. The stuff for the Pasta-

1. Take a mixing bowl and add the chicken breast and the egg yolk and mash and mix nicely.

2. Cut the skinned cucumber and the tomato in to small cubes and pour in to the mixing bowl.

3. Add Mayonnaise, Black pepper and the Italian seasoning to the mixing bowl and mix all the ingredients very nicely.

B. Salad Bed-

1. Cut the salad leaves in to cubes. Toss into the Italian dressing and keep aside.

Step III- Presenting and Garnishing:-

1. Stuff each jumbo pasta shell with the chicken mixer very carefully.

2. Take a serving dish. (I prepared this dish to honour Valentine’s Day. I wanted to present the dish in a heart shaped serving plate. But a matter of regret I didn’t have any. So I used the silver foil. Made a heart shape out of that and placed it in a serving tray.) Make a bed, spreading the salad leaves on the foil.

3. Now it is up to you how creatively you can decorate the salad. I lined up the heart shape with the stuffed pasta shell and tried to fill up the empty space with the concept of bird’s nest, using the grape tomatoes, halves of the egg whites and the boiled vegetables.

Thus your salad is ready. You can also have it with the coleslow salad. It’s very filling and healthy. Nowadays whenever I cook anything, I always keep in mind, whether my 2 and 9mnths old daughter will have it or not. And this time she didn’t dishearten me. Along with my hubby she liked it too. It’s very easy and takes very little time to prepare. It is also a good choice for the Lunch boxes.

Note: If you don’t get the jumbo pasta shell, you can use the normal easily available pasta shells. Only try to buy the shells to the bigger size.

I am sending this Salad recipe to Show me your Salad at Divya's Dilse

and

Priya's Heart for Valentine's Day Event.

/

Happy Valentine's Day

Dear all, hope you enjoyed the Valentine’s Day to its full pit solely in your way. When I was surfing through the nice and talented blogs, I found so many posts on Valentine’s Day, how marvellously they celebrated. Even after reading them I too celebrated the day a thousand times better with them. Now I was not able to control myself to share with you all, my Valentine’s Day Celebration.

My marriage was an arranged marriage. And I was not lucky to taste love before that. So love came to me like a shower of blooms just after I got married. Though Valentine’s Day is mainly celebrated between the couples, love birds, I used to celebrate it with my near dear ones. My mom, dad, sister, my dear friends all were the part of this celebration before my marriage. At that time I used to make some kind of crafts by my own hand and gift it to them. I always believe that a best gift is a gift which comes direct from the heart and is made by the own hands of the presenter. Whether it is a single line written in a piece of paper or a simple thing presented in a simple way. The gift should speak the language of celebrations itself and also the love and care for the person you are bestowing.

After marriage my celebration world has become narrowed down to my husband and then to my daughter. The gift exchange world has become walled in between three of us. This Year my husband has gifted a special Valentine’s Day to spend a whole day in the San Diego Zoo. My daughter gave us a tight hug with a bright kiss and wished us Happy Valentine’s Day in her sweet melodious tune. And I gave them few special dishes blended with the aroma of love.

I will be posting soon how we spend our day in San Diego Zoo and the recipes I specially made in honour of the Valentine’s Day. What I cooked for the very day, are listed below-

1. Stuffed Pasta Shell Salad.

2. Love Delight-1 (Sweet Dish).

3. Love Delight-2(Sweet Dish)

Hope you will enjoy what we enjoyed on the Valentine's Day.

It has become a long gap to blog, more than a year. I have few lame excuses of not blogging. But let them keep aside and let me share with you only the main excuse of my detachment from the blogger.com. In between the gap I have given birth to an E-Magazine, named Déjà Vu, with the help of some of my good friends.

By nature, I am a dreamer, a bit lazy and always need an inspiration to boost me up. The publication of the 4 Editions of Déjà Vu put an indescribable success in my life, in my innersole. Though not in the professional world so much, in my own life progress book the birth of the Magazine inscribed a new meaning and a new way to live life. During that time I was kind of running through a frustrating stage. A busy motherhood, not a single second to spend for myself, all the time busy in the household chores, all these made me mad to do something or anything only to enlighten my inner being. And one morning suddenly the journey of Déjà Vu started.

After the 4th publication of Déjà Vu, we have to stop the continuation of our magazine due to the lack of integration of our community members and my bohemian shifts from this place to that place. So again am back to blog, and once again trying to resume the continuation of the Magazine.

Egg Delight

If anybody asks me what the recent nightmare you are suffering from?? I think I would definitely answer- What and how to feed my child.

When a baby starts eating the solid foods, it becomes a real pleasure and the introduction of variety of foods becomes a real challenge and excitement for the mom. But the preparation of a baby is though easy, and difficult at a time, as the mom always has to keep few important things mind, like-

1. The food should be healthy,
2. Your baby should not be allergic with the food.
3. The food should fulfil the calorie requirement of your child.
4. Your child should enjoy the food while having it.


But this excitement changes to a nightmare soon when your child becomes choosy in selection her/his own food and rejects them randomly.


It is same for my 2 and 9months old too. I studied her a lot and then came to this conclusion-
when I serve a food for her, she first sees the colour, then how it is presented and then whether we are also having it or not. The next step is whether it is tasty in her mouth or not. One funny part is here- a dish may be not so tasty to her, but if we eat that in front of her and cheers like- “oh, what a food...it’s really very good.” She uses to have it.

Egg is very nutritious for a child. Mainly the boiled egg. But my daughter always refuses egg. So few days ago after waking up from her noon time siesta, my daughter felt very hungry. That day is my monthly food shopping day and my pantry is just running out of groceries. I planned that in the evening she woul have milk and cornflakes. But suddenly my eyes stuck upon a single remaining egg and a cheese cube. I crossed my fingers and tried this recipe as her evening dish. And to my wonder she loved and enjoyed it very much. The recipe as follows:-


Ingredients:-

Egg- 1
Shredded cheese- 1 table spoon.
Slat- A pinch
Black pepper- A pinch
You can also add some boiled veggies with it. (Optional).
You can add butter too to add few more calories.


Method:-

Whisk the egg adding all the ingredients with it. Pour th mix in to a microwave proof bowl. Microwave it in normal temperature for 3 to 4 minutes. Then serve hot in a serving plate , peeling out the baked egg carefully with a knife, decorating it after your mind.

Few Ideas:-

1. You can microwave the dish in to some designer container. So that after peeling, it will look more attractive.

2. You can use cookie cutters too to give the dish new shapes and design. And don’t forget to tell your child to help it. S/He will love to help you and the interest of having food will also definitely increase at a time.

The best parts of this recipe are-

1. It takes the shortest time and energy.

2. The dish is very healthy and full of Calories.

3. And if your child loves it then it becomes the hot pot recipe in your cook book.

This recipe is off to the event  KID'S DELIGHT at Spice your Life.