Easy Bread Pockets

You have unexpected visitors at home and you are hard pressed for time. You still want to impress them with some homemade snack..Hmm..does this describe you? At least I am like that to a certain extent..if not more..

Now this dish is very easy and quick to make and is for the circumstance mentioned above :) It is also a good accompaniment with tea or coffee. This recipe was passed onto me by a dear friend of mine who got it from her mom. Thanks R!

Ingredredients:

4 slices of bread

Boiled Potatoes - 2

Salt to taste

Garam Masala (1/2 tsp)

Kashmiri Chilli Powder (1/2 tsp)

Little Water

Oil for Frying

Method:

Heat oil in a wok.

Make a mixture of boiled potatoes, salt, Garam Masala and Chilli Powder.

Cut the sides off the bread and then sprinkle both the sides with water.

After the water is saoked squeeze the bread in between your palm till the water is drained.

Keep about a tbsp of the potato mixture on the bread and join the edges of the bread to make it look like a pocket. You can press it down a bit once fully closed.

Deep fry the bread pockets in hot oil till they turn golden brown.

Serve hot with Tomato Ketchup. Enjoy!!!

Sooji Aur Kaddu Ka Muffin

It is an amazing thing. Baking! A very good stress buster at least for me. The waft of the freshly baked cake, muffin, bread fills the entire house making you feel so good. I really love to bake for my son since he enjoys whatever I bake for him :) at least most of the times.

But the baked stuff is usually high in calories and people like me need to think twice before having it. So I got this wonderful recipe to make healthy muffins through one of the videos online and I tweaked this recipe a little bit to adjust according to my taste rather things that I could find in my kitchen. These muffins are so yum at the same time they are extremely healthy. I have used the yellow pumpkin (Kaddu) for this recipe as a base. This muffin is made with Whole wheat Flour and Bansi Sooji or the semolina or sometimes called farina. You can use Dalia too instead of the sooji. You will find it in any standard indian grocery store. Here goes the recipe. Enjoy!

Pre-heat the oven to 200 deg celsius and oil 6 muffin cups (medium sized) and you are all set to bake these yum muffins.


1 cup Whole Wheat Atta
3/4 cup Bansi Sooji
a pinch of salt
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup cashews and almonds cut into small pieces
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground laung or cloves

Mix all these ingredients into a dry vessel and now make a well right in the middle of this and add the wet ingredients which are as follows:

1 egg
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 - 3/4 Curd or Yoghurt Unsweetened
1 cup Yellow Pumpkin or Kaddu (Small) mashed

Now mix all these together till all the atta is well mixed and batter is that of a thick consistency. Basically if you try to pour it, it should take a few seconds before it falls down.

I have found that this muffin batter should be thicker than the batter you make to bake a cake. Once you start baking you will get an idea :)

Pour the batter into the oiled muffin cups and bake it for about 20 minutes or till a fork inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy your muffins!



How to get mashed Pumpkin:

Cut the Pumpkin into half and remove the seeds. Now cut further into cubes and bring it to a simmer with just enough water so that all the cubes are well immersed. After about five minutes insert a fork and see if you can pierce it easily into the pumpkin. This is the right time to take the pumpkin out. Drain all the water and then mash the pumpkin. We need about 1 cup of mashed pumpkin for this recipe.