Sausage Stuffed Mushroom

I wanted to use the sausages I had at home and so I thought of making stuffed mushrooms as I was really bored of eating hot dogs Hollywood and Highland style. However stuffed you are, you cannot miss the hot dog stand at Hollywood and Highland. The lady sells them on the streets for $4 with some grilled onions and peppers. I am a big fan of that and so I tried replicating it at home, it was good but it was missing the "grease" :-)
So when it's my husband's turn to cook (which comes once in 2 months), he takes the easy route and makes the HH Hot Dog (or Pasta). He really puts loads of efforts in making it (even if he can cook in half the time and effort :-P). Coming back to the topic of stuffed mushrooms, I really wanted to try them as I had seen a very similar recipe on foodnetwork.com (by Rachael Ray). I had seen the ingredients in it but when I really wanted to make it, I never found the recipe :(. So I just winged it and it turned out really yummy.

Ingredients: 
Mushrooms (normal sized) - 1 pack
Herb Flavor Sausage - 1
Onions, finely chopped - 1 (medium)
Bell Peppers, finely chopped - 1/2
Garlic, minced - 2 pods
Cream Cheese - 3tbspn
Basil - 7-8 leaves
Cheese for Garnish - 2tbspn
Egg yolk - 1

Procedure: 

1. Wash and clean the mushrooms and remove the stem and chop them fine.
2. Sautee the mushrooms (not the stems) with their heads up so that the water is drained out. Switch off the heat and let them be in the pan for 3-6 mins so that all water from mushrooms is drained.
3. Now sautee the finely chopped onions, mushroom stems, garlic and bell peppers till they are cooked (8-10mins)
4. In the mean time, pre-heat the oven at 325 degrees. Remove the casing off the sausage and separate the meat. Cook this meat with the onions for another 3-4 mins.
5. Let this mixture cool.
6. Now mix egg yolk and cream cheese and then add the cooked mixture and mix well. 
7. Fill the mushrooms with the mixture and bake for 12-15mins on 325 degrees.

Variations: 
For vegetarians, it can be converted into a vegetarian dish by adding paneer/cottage cheese with some Parmesan cheese instead of the sausage.


Conclusion:

I served this with Alfred-Pesto Pasta. Every single bite of it was delicious. It is very heavy and filling so this recipe would hold 3-4 servings as a side dish. This is a very good appetizer for potlucks and game nights.

Butter Paneer Naanizza / Indian Style Pizza

I usually try to make things out of what I have in the inventory and/or what is perishable. So I had half of store-bought Paneer Packet left and some Naans. I remembered the Butter Paneer Pizza I had in San Jose when I went for a very good friend's Birthday Party. We had surprised her by visiting her all the way from Los Angeles.
Her Fiancee had organized the Birthday Party for her and had ordered Butter Paneer Pizza. It was sooo good that it got over in a few minutes.
So I thought I would try to make something similar with the ingredients I had.

Ingredients (for 4 people):
Paneer, pea sized cubes - 2 cups
Green Bell Peppers, 2" sliced - 1
Onions, sliced - 1
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1tspn (Optional)
Tandoori masala - 2Tbspn
Chicken Curry Powder - 1Tbspn
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tspn
Kasuri Methi - 1tspn (Optional)
Butter - 2Tbspn
Ketchup - 6-7 tbspn
Naan - 6
Mozzarella Cheese, shredded - 3 cups

Procedure: 

1. Pre-heat oven on 350 degrees.
2. Add Butter to pan and saute onions, bell peppers and ginger garlic paste for 2mins (Do not cook it). Then add Paneer and other ingredients and sautee for another 2mins. 
3. Spread ketchup on the Naan and distribute the mixture on the Naan evenly and sprinkle cheese on top
4. Now place the Naans in the oven for 8-12mins or till cheese has melted.

Variations: 
You can add chicken instead of Paneer. In that case, use cooked chicken breasts for best results.

Conclusion:

I was astonished with the results. They were yummy and were made in 20mins only.

Vada Paav/Indian Burger

Vada Paav or Indian Burger - One of my favorite comfort foods found very commonly on the streets of Maharashtra. Everyone who has lived in Maharashtra knows Vada Paav but it is a novelty for the rest of India. I was surprised when my friends from Andhra Pradesh had not heard of Vada Paav.
One of our family friends live in Delhi and when they visited us in Solapur, we fed them Vada Paav and they loved it. Now whenever anyone flies to Delhi from Solapur or Mumbai, they order a few Vada Paavs.
I personally feel that nothing can go wrong with potato preparation. This was made for a friend of mine who is expecting with Twins - a boy and a girl. Nothing better than Vada Paav for an expecting women.

Ingredients: 
Paav/Bread - 8-10 pieces
Dry Coconut Garlic Chutney - 1/2 cup

For Vada's inner filling - 
Potatoes, Boiled and Mashed - 4
Onions, finely chopped - 1
Green Chillies - 3
Ginger Paste - 1 tspn
Hing/Asafoetida - 1/4 tspn
Rai/Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
Jeera/Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tspn
Curry leaves - 6-7
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tspn (levelled)
Cilantro - 4-5 strands


For Outer Coating - 
Besan/Chick Pea flour - 2 cups
Jeera - 1/2 tspn
Baking Soda - 1/8 tspn
Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tspn
Salt
Water
Oil


Procedure: 

1. Heat 2 tbspn oil in a wok. Add Hing, Rai and Jeera to it and once it starts sputtering, add curry leaves and green chillies. Mix this well then add onions and garlic paste. Cook till the onions are translucent.
2. Now add turmeric powder and then the roughly mashed potatoes and mix well. Add some salt to taste and cook for 2 mins and turn off the heat.
3. Now mix the besan, chilli powder, jeera, salt and soda with some water. Make sure the mixture becomes a thick paste (without lumps) and not a runny paste. If it becomes runny, add some besan and salt to it. Adjust the chilli powder accordingly too.
4. Now heat some oil to fry the vadas. When oil is well heated, add 1 tbspn of hot oil to the besan paste and mix well. 
5. Now make small balls out of the potato mixture and dip in the besan paste and deep fry in the oil on High heat till the Vadas are golden brown in color.
6. Now open some paav and spread some dry coconut garlic chutney and place a vada on it and enjoy it with some fried green chillies.

Variations: 
I had added some mint and meethi chutney to the Vada paav just for my taste buds.
 
Conclusion:

My friend seemed to crave for Vada Paav and I happened to visit her with the same. She was quiet happy and so was I.