Foodventures in the kitchen

We all love to taste and try out new foods and cuisines. Don’t we? Then why in our kitchens do we have to stick to cookbooks and standard recipes passed on to us by our mother and grandmother?  Quite often, we accidently create a sumptuous meal in our kitchens. Such an incident, done with a purpose, is what I call an Innovation.

Adding ‘Lauki ki sabzi’ to Pao Bhaji was my grandmother’s idea. ‘Idli Ka Poha’ was my mother’s brainchild. My experiment with food is the Makhani Lasagne. Stuffing the regular lasagna sheets, with mixed vegetables and pineapples, topping it up with cottage cheese and baking it till golden brown.

6-8 Lasagne Sheets, 4-5 tbsp grated cottage cheese

FILLING

3 tbsp Olive oil

½ cup diced carrots spinach

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

½ green capsicum, ½ yellow capsicum- shredded

1 ½ cup paneer- roughly crumbled, 150 gms

2-3 slices pineapple

¾ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper

MAKHNI SAUCE

250 grams or 4 to 5 medium ripe and red tomatoes

 2 to 3 tbsp dairy cream

2 tbsp butter

1 bay leaf/tej patta

1 tsp ginger garlic paste (1/2 inch ginger + 3-4 small garlic crushed to paste in a mortar-pestle)

½ tsp red chilli powder or kashmiri red chilli powder or deghi mirch

1-2 green chillies, slit

¼ garam masala powder or tandoori masala powder

½ to 1 tsp honey or sugar - add as required* check notes

½ inch ginger, julienned

½ tsp kasuri methi leaves/dry fenugreek leaves, crushed

1.5 cups water

salt as required

METHOD

1. Rinse the tomatoes very well. chop them and make a smooth puree in a blender or grinder. keep the tomato puree aside.

2. Melt butter in a pan. first add the tejpatta/bay leaf and saute for a few seconds till aromatic.

3. Add the crushed ginger-garlic paste and saute till the raw aroma of the ginger-garlic goes away.

4. Add the tomato puree and stir well.

5. Add the red chili powder and saute this mixture till the fat begins to leave the side of the tomato paste. takes about 14 to 15 on a low flame. keep on stirring often.

6. When you see the tomato mixture clumping together and the fat leaving the sides, then add water.

7. Stir and simmer till the gravy or sauce thickens a bit. takes about 7 to 8 mins on a low flame.

8. Add the slit green chilies and ginger julienne. stir and simmer for a minute.

add the honey or sugar, salt and crushed kasuri methi/dry fenugreek leaves.

9. To complete the Makhni sauce, add cream

10. For vegetable filling, sauté all of them together with little salt and pepper except pineapple. Add pineapple slices in the end

11. To assemble lasagne, Spread 2 tbsp of Makhni sauce at the bottom of the baking vessel.

12. Dip 2 lasagne sheets in water and place it side by side leaving some gap around it.

13. Spread some makhni sauce and filling with a little paneer on top and repeat the process with 2 more lasagne sheets.

14. Cover with foil and bake it at 180 degrees for 45 mins. Now bake it uncovered for another 4-5 mins so that it turns slightly golden.

Innovative dishes can be created with the leftovers in the fridge or a fusion of cuisines or simply trying to google recipes with the fancy ingredients lying in your house and cooking them up your way. Often, I have seen people getting anxious over exact measurements. My advice is RELAX!!! Give your food your own touch, if your cake doesn’t rise too high like the one at your favorite bakery, just drizzle whatever sauce/crush you have, whether chocolate or any fruit and serve it as a gooey cake to your family after dinner and keep adding those compliments to your kitty.

I also came across something that Vikas Khanna and Vir Sanghvi are doing-  #foodventures , which sounds exciting and highlights the adventures done with food. Tastiest food is not created with perfect recipes but with the good thought of serving. ‘Share’your food adventures too.