Category Archives: Snacks and Lighter Fare

Egg Fried Oats with veggies

Posted on March 15, 2015 by | 10 comments

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Are you tired of eating oats the same way with milk or water or with fruits or yogurt ??? Try this recipe , you are going to love it . At present , I’m in a weight loss mission !! Being a foodie , I get demotivated so easily . So in order to make this journey an adventurous and smooth one , I do experiment with the foods that can satisfy you without compromising the calories .
Egg fried Oats with veggies is just one of them . My recipe is inspired by one of my very favorite virtual Aunts Suronjona Maya’s Oats Pilaf .
I added , omit few things . The quantity mentioned in the recipe is for 2 servings , each serving contains no more than 170 calorie . But If you like you can take the full containing not more than 340 Calories . Cool , isn’t it??

1/2 cup oats ( old fashioned)
2/3 rd cup Water/ chicken stock ( if you don’t have chicken stock replace it with 1 tea spoon chicken powder/ chicken bouillon )
2/3 rd cup cabbage , broccoli , carrot ( steamed or microwaved)
1/4 th cup green Peas
1 egg beaten
1 tbl spoon olive oil
Onion, chopped
green chilies chopped
1/2 tea spoon turmeric ( optional)

Procedure:

1. Dry roast the oats , until fragrant . Keep it aside .
2. Heat oil and add the onion and green chilies and fry . Now add the beaten egg . Scramble the egg . Add turmeric . Add the steamed veggies .
3. Add the oats . Add the chicken powder . Now add the water slowly . Those who are using instant oats , may not need this amount of water .
4. When the oats are moist and done , your fried rice style oats is ready ..

Note:

Since I used chicken bouillon/ chicken powder , I din’t add any extra salt . Same goes with chicken stock . Try to consume less sodium , if you are in a weight loss mission . 😀

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Posted in Breakfast, Rice and Grains, Snacks and Lighter Fare

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Garlic Cheese Ball Bubble Pizza

Posted on February 10, 2015 by | 1 comment

2015-02-02

It was a snowy afternoon !! Looking at those white snows in a gloomy, gray weekend , something just popped into my mind !! How about making pizza ?? But not any ordinary one !! How about a bubble pizza with cheese stuffed garlic balls !! YUUUUUUUUUUUMMMM!!!

Ingredients:

For the Pizza crust and balls:

2 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tea spoon instant yeast
1/2 tbl spoon sugar
1 tea spoon salt
1 beaten egg
4 tbl spoon oil
1/2 – 3/4 th cup warm milk

For the topping:

Halal salami
Garlic paste
Pizza sauce or tomato sauce
1/2 tbl spoon garlic paste
Grated Mozzarella

Other ingredients :

2 tea spoon finely grated garlic ( for the balls)
Italian Seasoning
Garlic infused Olive oil*

* Peel and smash the garlic cloves . Heat olive oil with smashed garlic at medium low flame until bubbles form around garlic . Now reduce the heat to low and cook for another 5 minutes . Careful the garlic must not get brown . Let the oil cool and use it anytime you want it .

Procedure:

1.Mix all the ingredients except oil . Be careful while adding luke warm milk and water . If you use too hot water the yeast might get killed , and if you use room temperature or cold water, the yeast won’t wake up !!!!!! In both case the dough will not rise and everything will go in vain . So always use luke warm water in any recipe where you have yeast as an ingredient. Make a soft dough . If you make the dough hard , the bread will be hard , so make it a soft dough .

2.. Knead well . The dough will be very sticky . Now add the oil and form the dough into a round ball . Now it’s easier to work with the dough. Knead very well . The more you knead, the softer bun you get . Knead at least 8-10 minutes .Put the dough into a closed lid box and place it in a warm place . It may take an hour or more to get the dough double in volume . If it becomes fluffy and double in volume , the dough is ready to make the bun. Sometimes it may get longer time to rise . Sometimes it takes almost 2 and half hour to rise up and to be fluffy . So don’t do anything until it rise up in volume and becomes fluffy .

4. Punch down all the air form the dough . Now divide the dough into two equal portion .

5.Now working with one ball at a time , apply some flour on your hand and flatten the ball into a disk using your hand . Now on a lightly flour dusted surface roll out the disk into a bread , 1/2( half inch) thick. Don’t use any extra flour . You can ethe dough to shape the pizza base . Now transfer it to the baking sheet . Rub the surface of the bread with grated garlic. Rub with tomato sauce . Add the topping of your choice . Sprinkle the Italian seasoning . Add the cheese .

6. Now with the other half of the dough,mix the grated garlic and Italian seasoning with the dough very well and make small balls to put around the pizza base . Flatten each ball and put some cheese into it. Reshape the ball . Make all thes balls like this . All of them should be of same size . Place the balls closely to each other but not touching each other. Do keep some space . Dont place them so close as they touch each other because after second rising they will rise and spread , that time they will touch each other , and that is desired . But if you place them touching each other , the shape will not be good . Cover with a wet cloth for 20/ 30 minutes and let it rise again a bit . At that time you will see the balls are touching each other by rising and spreading . Perfect !!! In the mean time pre-heat your oven to 400 FH or 200 Centigrade.Now brush the garlic infused olive oil over the balls .

7. Bake for 15- 20 minutes . Don’t over bake . That would dry out the pizza .

Enjoy !!!

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Posted in bread, Snacks, Snacks and Lighter Fare

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Fuchka shell

Posted on November 28, 2014 by | 3 comments

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Fuchka shell is quite similar to North Indian golgappa or panipuri shell. In Bangladesh a special ingredient "taalmakhna" is used in the dough to make the shell puffed up and crispy . But in USA , since it's hard to find that special ingredient , I always made fuchka shell without it and alhamdulillah always came out great . So those who think , fuchka shell cannot be made without it , just get prepared to make some fuchkas without it !!

Before I give you the recipe , let me share some tips for the puffed up fuchka shell ;

1. The oil needs to be hot but not smokey hot . If the oil is not enough hot , it won't puff up .

2. After rolling out the dough ball, cut into small disks with small round shaped object to give the shape of fuchka . And fry immediately . Don't let it rest . Just cut one and put it immediately in the oil . If it is left open in the air before frying , it will not puff up .
If for any reason you cannot fry immediately just cover them with a damp cloth .

3. Don't fry too many at a time . If they don't get enough space in the oil to puff up , they will remain flat . So fry few at a time .

4. Don't use any baking powder or baking soda . You can make better , puffed up fuchka without them .

Ingredient:

1/2 cup fine semolina or sooji
1/4 th cup maida ( all purpose flour)
Water , room temperature ( around 3 tbl spoon – 1/4 th cup)
Pinch of salt
Oil for frying

Procedure:

1. Make a stiff dough with semolina , maida , salt and water . Cover it with damp cloth for at least 30 minutes . After 30 minutes the dough would seem very tight and stiff . This is the way the dough should be . Make 2 equal sized balls with the dough .

2. Heat oil at medium low flame . Start heating oil long before you start rolling the dough as you need to fry the shells immediately after rolled out . By the time your shell is ready to fry , the oil need to be hot but not smokey hot .

3. Now working with one ball at a time , roll it on a flour dusted surface . Make sure you covered the other ball with damp cloth . While rolling , you need to apply little pressure as the dough is very tight . Roll it to a large disk . It shoudn't be thick or too thin . If it's too thin , it won't puff up and if it is too thick , it won't be crispy inside .

4. Cut the disk into small fuchka shells with something round shaped object . Cut one and immediately put it in the oil . Cut another put in oil . So finish all of them this way . Splash some oil with the slotted spoon over fuchkas to puff up .

5. Don't fry too many one at a time , as they need space to puff up . Fry few at a time and fry at medium -low flame for a longer time for crisper inside out version . If the oil is too hot or you fry them at high heat , the shell will have color from outside , but would remain soft inside .

6.When done place them on a kitchen towel to remove any extra oil . It would help to store them for a longer time without any smell and without being soggy .

Store them when cooled down , in an air tight container.

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Chicken Kathi roll/ Chicken Tikka roll / Kati roll

Posted on November 27, 2014 by | 1 comment

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Kati roll or Kathi roll is the famous Street food of Calcutta , where skewered kababs are wrapped in paratha with chutneys and other condiment . As the kabab is skewed in a bamboo skewer ( kathi/ stick) , the kabab roll is known as Kathi roll or Kati roll !!
It’s a special kind of roll , where the parathas are semi cooked then again an egg is cracked on top of the paratha , the egg is fried on the paratha to stick on to it , then layered with kababs , various chutnneys and other condiments like cucumber , onion etc .
This is my version of Kati roll with two chutney recipes .
For the kabab please go through the following link;
https://khadizaskitchen.com/2014/11/25/chicken-tikka-boti-or-chicken-kathi-kabab/

For the Paratha please go through the following link;

https://khadizaskitchen.com/2014/10/11/kabab-roll-viqarunninsa-noon-school-canteen-style/

Other ingredients :

1 beaten egg
Little pinch of salt
Chutneys
Onion , thinly sliced

Pineapple chutney :

I took store bough pineapple preserve , pineapple marmalade will do too . Add little chili garlic sauce into it and beat with a fork . Hot and sweet cheater version of pineapple chutney is ready .

Green Dahi Chutney:

1/4 th cup Yogurt
1 tbl spoon green chili , coriander , mint paste together with a clove of garlic and salt
2 tbl spoon mayonnaise
Pinch of sugar

Mix everything together and green dahi chutney is ready.

Assembling of the roll :

1. Fry the parathas first .

2. Put 1 tea spoon oil on the fry pan and add beaten egg ( beaten with little salt) . Spread the egg on the pan like omelette .

3. Place one fried paratha over the “still wet but little firm” egg to set .

4. Flip the paratha and transfer to a plate .

5. Add little green dahi chutney . Add pineapple chutney , then add the kabab and some thinly sliced oniln . Roll it over .

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Serve hot !!!

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Nimki

Posted on November 23, 2014 by | 1 comment

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Ingredients :

1 cup all purpose flour/ maida
3 tbl spoon melted ghee
1/2 tea spoon sugar
Pinch of salt
Nigella/ kalowanji / kalojeera according to taste
Water around 1/4 th cup-1/3 rd cup ( depending on the quality of flour)
Oil for frying

Procedure:

1. Take a bowl and put flour and ghee . Mix with your finger tips . The mixture will look like bread crumbs and somehow binds together if press hard . This is called moyan . Now add the water slowly and knead lightly until a soft but firm dough is formed . Cover the dough with a warm cloth and keep it aside for at least half n hour.

2. Make small balls from the dough .Roll the balls on an oiled surface and make small , thin disks. Now prick the surface of the disks with a fork . That would help not to puff up . Now fold the disk and prick all over once again . Fold Again and nor lightly prick on few places , like edges and middle .

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Try to roll the balls as thin as possible . In the pic I did it in hurry , so it may seem like little thicker . But in fact I really rolled it very thin .

3. Deep fry the nimkis in hot oil at low flame until brown and crispy . Now frying is very important . If you put them in very hot oil , they will get browned earlier before they are done . And if the oil is not hot enough the nimkis will absorb to much oil leaving it soggy . If you don’t fry them for longer time at low flame they will not become crispy at all .

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Bosnian Roti ( leavened fried bread) without yeast

Posted on September 29, 2014 by | 3 comments

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I don’t know , why it is named as Bosnian roti as there is no connection with the original Bosnian bread lepenja. This one is completely our Bangladeshi version ,where the bread dough is leavened with yeast and then rolled out and deep fried . Though deep fried , they don’t look oily and doesn’t get soggy even after cooling down unlike luchi or poori .
Today , wated to experiment with baking soda and baking powder as I ran out of yeast . And they came out perfect , except the fact , that with yeast dough ,you get a white colored bread , but because of the use of baking soda , it turned little brown . I found it pretty too . “Necessity is the mother of invention” indeed . 😛

Ingredients :

2 cups of all purpose flour
2 tea spoon oil
1 tea spoon sugar
Salt to taste ( around half tea spoon)
3/4 th tea spoon baking soda
1/4 th tea spoon baking powder
Oil for frying

Procedure :

1. Make a dough using the ingredients . Now place it ina oiled box . Close the lid and let it rest for 2 hours in a warm place .

2. Now Make small ball s from the dough and roll the balls medium thick . Deep fry the rotis . Don’t fry too much .

Enjoy !!!

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Chicken Shawarma Roll and pita pocket sandwich

Posted on September 20, 2014 by | 2 comments

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For shwarma roll and pita pocket sandwich , you need pita bread and for the recipe plese go through the following link;

https://khadizaskitchen.com/2014/09/18/home-made-pita-bread/

You also need Hummus , tahini and Tzatziki sauce .. For these please go through the following links;

https://khadizaskitchen.com/2014/09/19/hummus-and-tahini/

https://khadizaskitchen.com/2014/09/20/tzatziki-sauce/

The Filling :

1. Take one chicken breast . Now marinate it with olive oil , salt, 1/2 tbl spoon black pepper , 1/2 tea spoon cardamom powder , 1/4 th tea spoon clove powder, 1/4 th tea spoon nutmeg and 1 tea spoon all spice powder . Now grill it or bake it in a preheated oven for 25 minutes at 400 FH . Broil for another 10 minutes at the same temperature .

2. Now cut the meats from the breast . Mix in with Tzatziki sauce .

You can cook the chicken in many other ways too . Sometimes I marinate the chicken stripes in soy sauce , oyster sauce , ginger paste and vinegar . Then fry them in oil .

Shwarma Roll and Pita Pocket sandwich :

1. Spread hummus on the pita and place the chicken mixed in Tzatziki sauce . Now add some tahini on top and roll .

2. For pita pocket sandwich , cut the pita into halves . Put the chicken , tahini and hummus in the pocket and serve .

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Posted in Chicken, Snacks and Lighter Fare

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Home mAde Pita Bread

Posted on September 18, 2014 by | 4 comments

2014-09-17

Store bough Pita bread never comes closer to the home made ones !! I always love making pita at home as they are softer and yummier .

This pita can be the base of youe Shawarma roll or pita pocket sandwiches . It’s great for home made pita chips and fattoush salad !! 😀

Many complains their pita never puffs up and that’s why they can’t have pita pocket . Hmmmm … But by the grace of Allah , my pitas always , almost always puffed up nice . I tried both on stove top and oven . Found in oven it puffs up nicer than the stove top . Yester day I made 4 pitas . 2 of them in the oven and 2 of them on stove top . Oven versions are puffier than the stove top , but stove top ones puffed up as well . You just need to follow some tips in order to get the puffier pitas with pocket . Just go through the tips after reading the recipe .

Even after following the tips , if it doesn’t puff , don’t worry , it tastes good without pocket too . 😀

Ingredients :

For Sponge :

1/2 cup warm ( not too much warm) milk
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tea spoon honey or sugar ( Honey keeps it softer)
1/2 tbl spoon active instant yeast

For dough:

3/4 th cup to 1 cup more flour
1/2 tea spoon salt
1 tbl spoon olive or vegetable oil

Procedure :

1. In a bowl add 1/2 cup warm milk . Add the honey and yeast . Now add 1/2 cup of flour and stir . Mix well . It will look like a batter . Now cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes . After 30 minutes , you will see bubbles are all over and the batter rose and looks like sponge .

2. Add salt on the sponge .Start adding flour little by little . You may not need the whole remaining flour . So add little by little and knead . When you will end up with soft , pilable dough stop . Now knead very well . Add the 1 tbl spoon oil and keep kneading . The softer your dough is , the softer is your pita . make a ball from the dough .

3. Now rub some oil over the ball and keep it in a oiled closed lid box to let it rise again . Keep it in a warm place to rise faster . Within an hour you will find the ball has risen .

4. Punch down all the air from the ball and make 4 balls from it . Cover the balls with a wet cloth and keep it like this for 15 minutes .

5. Roll the balls to disk evenly on a flour dusted surface and fry on the cast iron skillent or fry pan on medium flame . Cover the lid and let it fry for 2 minutes . Turn it over and again cover the lid . You will see the pita is piffing up . Don’t forget to heat the frying pan well, otherwise pita won’t puff up . For puffing up too hot griddle/ pan is needed.

6. If you bake it , pre heat the oven to 450 FH . Place the baking tray in the oven too . Now roll the pita bread evenly and place it on the hot baking tray and bake for 3 minnutes or until puffs up . Try to roll the pitas thin . The thinner is puffier . After 3 minutes just turn over the pita and bake another 1 minute . Take it out from the oven . And cover all the pitas with a kitchen towel to keep them softer .

Notes/ Tips :

1. Please don’t skip the sponge making step . Pitas are softer and nicer if made by sponge method . It helps to puff up too .

2. Try to roll the pita evenly . If not rolled evenly , a little thicker is here , a little thinner is there, pita will not puff up .

3. Try to roll the pita thinner . The thinner is puffier .

4. There must be no crack on the pita while frying or baking .

5. Very , very important , make sure the oven is really very hot before you bake the pita . If the oven is not hot enough , the pita won’t puff up . Same way , try to ensure the frying pan , or cast iron griddle is too hot before you fry the pitas on stove top .

6. Always cover the pitas with a kitchen towel right after you take them out from the oven or stove . 🙂

Enjoy !!!!

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Roti Telur

Posted on September 9, 2014 by | 1 comment

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Roti Telur is Indonesian / Malaysian version of stuffed paratha , quite similar like our Bangladeshi style mughlai paratha , but only difference is roti telur is much more thinner than our version . Usually roti telur has only egg as stuffing , but I used chicken too .

For the dough , please go through my roti canai post . Here is the link
https://khadizaskitchen.com/2014/06/21/malaysian-paratha-roti-canai/

Ingredients for the Filling :

1/2 cup Chicken breast , cut in small and thin stripes
2 tbl spoon soy sauce
2 tea spoon ginger paste
1/2 tea spoon green chili paste
1/4 th cup cabbage
1 egg, beaten
Thinly sliced onion
Green chili chopped
Salt to taste

Mix the chicken with soy sauce , ginger paste , chili paste. Heat oil and add the chicken pieces . Fry until tender . Add the cabbage . fry for a while . When the cabbage is soft turn off the stove . If needed sprinke some salt . Now add the sliced onion and chopped gree chilies and mix with the hot chicken .

Beat an egg with little salt . We will use it later .

Procedure :

1. Mix 2 cups flour with 2 tea spoon sugar , salt, baking powder and 1 tbl spoon ghee/ oil/ butter . Add enough water or milk to make a medium soft dough . It took me around half a cup of milk . Cover with a wet cloth. Now let the dough rest for at least 1 hour . The dough will be very stretchy .

2. Make 5- 6 balls with the dough . Flatten by your palms and submerge the balls into enough oil . Let it rest for another 10 minutes .

3. Rub oil on the working surface and all over the rolling pin . Now start rolling the balls . Roll until paper thin . You will find it easier to roll out , because oil and the stretchy dough will help you to complete the job .

4. Rub some butter/ shortening or dalda on the paper thin sheet . Dry out with loose flour . It would make the paratha flaky. Now spread the filling evenly . Add the beaten egg on the top of the filling . Now fold it like an envelope. Try to do all these near by the stove , since the roti is vey thin , it may get ripped off . And don’t use hot filling that would also tear off the roti . Immediately place it on hot oil .

5. It doesn’t need to be deep fried , but you need enough oil to fry the roti . Fry on medium low flame .

Ready !!!

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Posted in Breakfast, Snacks, Snacks and Lighter Fare

Veg Pizza from scratch !!

Posted on September 2, 2014 by | 3 comments

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We had one of our American friends at our place for lunch . He is vegetarian but not vegan . So decided to make veg pizza though not completely a vegan one as I used generous amount of garlic in the sauce . Everyone enjoyed the pizza including my meatlover daughter .

Ingredients : ( For two 10″ round pizzas)

For the Pizza dough:

2 cups of all purpose flour

2 tea spoon instant active dry yeast

1/2 ( half) tbl spoon sugar

3/4 th tea spoon-1 tea spoon salt ( depending on the quality of salt)

2 tbl spoon + 1 tea spoon, olive or any vegetable oil

Warm water/ milk , around 1/2 cup- 2/3 rd cup or enough to make a medium soft dough

1/2 tbl spoon Italian seasoning

For the Pizza Sauce:

6 tbl spoon bar b q sauce

10 tbl spoon tomato ketcup

2 tea spoon- 1 tbl spoon ( according to your taste) freasly grated garlic

1/2 tea spoon oregano

1 tbl spoon olive oil

For the topping :

Bell peppers/ capsicum

cherry tomato

Mushroom

Onions

1 and 1/4 th cup grated cheese ( I used 4 cheese of mozzarella , chedder , monterery jack and parmesaen)

Procedure :

1. Mix flour with sugar and salt . Now add the yeast and 1 tbl spoon oil . Now add the little warm water slowly to form a medium soft dough . Don’t add too hot or room temperature water . Too hot water may kill the bacteria of yeast and room temperature water will not activate yeast , both resulting in not risen up dough . Add other 1 tbl spoon of oil . Knead very oil . The more you knead , the better is the result . The dough must be smooth . If you find your hand little sticky ,wet your hand with little oil and knead . Make a ball out of the dough .Now rub 1 tea spoon oil all over the dough and keep it in a greased closed lid box in a warm plac for an hour or more or until it doubles up .

2. In the mean time make the sauce combining al the ingredients .

3. When the dough doubled up, punch down all the air from the dough and roll it in two thin round disks on a lightly flour dusted surface . You can prick the surface of the pizza with fork , if you want it thin, so that it won’t rise much in the oven . Don’t forget to preheat the oven to 450 FH .

4. Spread the pizza sauce . Now add the toppings , except cheese . Add the cheese at the end . Immediately bake it in the pre heated oven to 400 FH . Remember , when you pre-heated the oven , you preheated @ 450 but while baking the temperature should be 400 FH . I baked it in a rectangular tray , as I don’t have any pizza stone . I did line it with parchment paper . Well some people doesn’t do it as they love the crust underneath too . Bake for 20 minutes and if you wish you can broil another 5 minutes to brown the cheese onthe top . Using too much veggie might make the pizza soggy . So it’s always recommended not to use too much veggies that exerts water and broiling helps to dry out those extra moisture from the pizza

5. I always love lightly brown crusted pizza . Never liked too much crusty or soft pizza bread . If you want a little more crust , just after 5 minutes before you take out the pizza from the oven , bush olive oil mixed with garlic on the edges of the pizza and bake for last 5 minutes . 🙂

Yummy !!!!

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Posted in Snacks, Snacks and Lighter Fare