Tzatziki Sauce,Mozzarella Skewers,

I have very often heard parents complain about their kids not having veges. A great way to lure them to do so is by serving the salad alongside a great tasting dip. This one here is a sure winner everytime. Mild in taste and low in fat, this greek dip is usually served cold with souvlaki and gyros. Garlic and the crushed mint gives it a unique flavour.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup thick plain yogurt

1/4 cucumber peeled, grated and drained

1 tsp olive oil

1tsp lime juice

1 small clove of garlic crushed

1/2 tsp dried or fresh mint

salt to taste

• Put the yogurt in a muslin cloth and put it in a strainer over a bowl.
• Let stand in the fridge for 4 hours to separate the liquid from the thick yogurt.
• Mix all the ingredients together with the strained yogurt.
• Cover and chill.
• Great accompaniment with shish kabab and grilled fish.
  
  
  Mozzarella Skewers
  
  
  
  
  

  Ingredients:(serves 4)

  100 gms Mozzarella cheese (cut into 16 cubes)

  16 small cherry tomatoes

  16 pitted kalamata olives

  1/3 cup Roasted red pepper dressing (Or Greek salad dressing)

  • Divide cheese, tomatoes and olives among 16 toothpicks.
  • In a shallow dish put the dressing and place the skewers in it. Turn the skewers to coat evenly.
  • Let them marinate for 15 minutes at room temperature before refrigerating.
  • Remove skewers from marinade before serving. (Discard the left over marinade)
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Chicken Filled Buns

Ingredients

For Dough

• 3 cup plain flour
• 1.1/2 tsp. yeast
• 1tb oil
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• Luke warm water as needed

For Filling

• 1/2 kg chicken
• Salt as required
• Black pepper as required
• 1 tbsp. soya sauce
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 green chilies, chopped
• Fresh coriander leaves, chopped
• Sesame seeds as required
• 1 egg

Method Of Chicken Filled Buns

• Mix all the ingredients of dough and knead it. Set it aside until it doubles its size.
• Boil chicken with little salt, pepper and soya sauce until its tender. Shred the chicken.
• Heat oil in pan sauté onion, add green chilies and chicken and salt and pepper and fresh coriander. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Cool down the filling.
• Now shape the dough in equal size balls. Spread each ball add little bit stuffing and close and let them rise in baking tray, while raising cover them with wet tea towel.
• When double in size brush the top with egg, sprinkle sesame seeds..and bake at 180 C until brown from top ,after baking apply some butter on top of each bun.

Falafel

Falafel is a popular street food in the Middle East, and I believe it is the national dish of Israel. (Edit: Falafel actually originated in Egypt, and Israel likes to claim it as their national snack.) The great thing is chickpeas are high in fiber, and are a good source of iron and protein –much need nutrients in a meat-free diet. If you use canned chickpeas this meal comes together pretty fast, with down time during refrigeration. Traditionally falafel are served in a pita, with pickled vegetables or lettuce and tomato. I served mine on a piece of naan smeared in a homemade hummus, topped with shredded red cabbage, and tomato.

FALAFEL1 can chickpeas (drained and rinsed), reserve 1/4 c liquid
1/2 yellow onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T cumin
2 T flour
small handful of fresh parsley
salt & pepper
oil for frying

Place chickpeas in your food processor and pulse until it becomes grainy. Add rest of the ingredients, combine while slowly adding in reserved liquid until mixture is gritty and well combined. Place mixture in fridge for 30 minutes (it helps them hold together when frying). Preheat oil to 350 degrees F. Roll mixture into 6-8 balls. Fry in batches for a couple minutes until golden brown. These are delicious warm.

Hungarian Fried Bread Recipe - Langos

Langos, Hungarian fried bread sometimes called Hungarian pizza, became part of the country's cuisine centuries ago when it was introduced by the Turks during their occupation.

Today it's a favorite street and fair food and eaten as an appetizer or snack, usually simply, rubbed with garlic and sprinkled with salt. Some incorporate caraway seeds into the mashed potato-yeast dough.

Variations are to serve langos with sour cream and dill or shredded Emmenthaler or Gruyere cheese, or sprinkled with cinnamon sugar or confectioners' sugar for a sweet version.

Makes 4 Hungarian Langos

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 large potato, boiled, peeled, mashed and kept warm
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (not rapid rise)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cloves garlic, cut in half

Preparation:

1. Place the ingredients in the order given, except the garlic, in a mixing bowl. Using the paddle attachment, combine the ingredients until well moistened.
   
2. Switch to the dough hook and knead for 5 to 7 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Transfer to a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled.
   
3. Separate dough into 4 portions, shape into a round and place on a lightly floured board. Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
   
4. In a large skillet, heat 1 inch canola oil to 350 degrees. Flatten and stretch dough to about an 8-inch diameter. Fry one at a time about 2 minutes per side or until golden. Drain on paper towels.
   
5. Serve hot rubbed with garlic clove and sprinkled with salt. Variations include topping with sour cream and chopped dill or shredded Emmenthaler or Gruyere cheese. Or, for a sweet version, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or confectioners' sugar.

Roasted Andean Potatoes (Papa Criolla Asada)

Fried papas(potatoes) are a very popular street food that is sold in paper bags by street vendors in Colombia.

Ingredients

2 pounds frozen papa criolla/or small fresh potatoes
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.

2. In a large bowl mix the olive oil, salt and pepper.

3. Add the potatoes to the oil mixture and mix well until coated.

4. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer in a baking sheet for about 40 minutes or until browned.

5. Sprinkle with salt and serve

Hoddeok....Korean Pancake

Hoddeok is a Winter street food in Korea that is slowly transitioning into year-round fare. In essence, it’s a fried yeast dumpling, flattened to a pancake, with sticky cinnamon sugar centre. 

Ingredients – Makes 5

1 1/4 cups plain flour
6 tbsp milk
Pinch of salt
To start the yeast:
1/4 tsp dry yeast
1/4 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp water
Stuffing
1/4 tsp cinnamon
5 tbsp brown sugar

Mix the yeast, white sugar and water and leave in a warm place to ferment for 15 minutes. Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the salt, milk and yeasty water. Mix well, cover and leave to rise for two hours. Go see a movie or something.

Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar together for stuffing. Oil up your hands (if not sufficiently oiled from movie popcorn) and take about 1/5 of the dough, flatten into a thick disk and place a tablespoon of stuffing inside. Seal like a dumpling.

Add oil to frypan and heat. Place your sugar filled dumpling into the oil. When brown, turn over and flatten the dumpling into a disk with a spatula. Cook until browned.

A Spicy Starter.....

Ingredients:

100 g sliced smoked salmon, about 6 slices
1 roasted red pepper
3 green onions
4 slices white sandwich bread, at least a day old
1 egg
3 tbsp (45 mL) mayonnaise
1/4 tsp (1 mL) each Tabasco sauce, salt and black pepper
2 tbsp (30 mL) store-bought fine dry bread crumbs
2 tbsp (30 mL) each black and white sesame seeds
1/4 cup (50 mL) mayonnaise
1 tbsp (15 mL) finely chopped fresh chives
1/2 tsp (2 mL) wasabi paste
Fresh chives for garnish

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Spray a large rimmed baking sheet with oil, or lightly oil. Finely chop salmon. Pat pepper dry with a paper towel and finely chop. Thinly slice green onions. Remove crusts from bread. Place bread in a food processor, then pulse until tiny pieces form. Don’t overpulse or bread will turn pasty.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk egg with mayo, Tabasco, salt and pepper. Stir in both fresh and dry bread crumbs until evenly mixed. Then stir in salmon, pepper and onions.
3. Place sesame seeds in a small, shallow dish. Scoop a heaping tbsp (17 mL) of salmon mixture, then form into a cylinder 1 in. (2.5 cm) long. Holding each end, roll sides of cake in sesame seeds until lightly coated. Place on baking sheet. Gently press down in the middle. Repeat with remaining mixture.
4. Bake in centre of preheated oven until a knife tip inserted into the thickest part comes out warm, 13 to 15 min.
5. Meanwhile, for sauce, in a small bowl, stir mayo with chopped chives and wasabi. Taste and stir in a little more wasabi if you like. Place cakes on a large platter, then spoon about 1/2 tsp (2 mL) wasabi mayo into indented centre of each. Then tuck a small piece of chive into centre of mayo mixture.

Nutrients per cake with 1/2 tsp (2 mL) sauce:

93 calories, 7 g fat, 5 g carbohydrates, 1 g fibre, 153 mg sodium, 3 g protein

Chicken Manchurian

Chicken Manchurian


Ingredients:

Chicken breast - boneless, skinless cubed 2-3 cups
Salt
MSG 1 pinch
White pepper 1 spoon
Chili powder 1 spoon
Food color - red 1 pinch
Garam masala 1/4 spoon
Soy sauce light
Corn flour
Egg whites from an egg
Lemon juice few spoons
Oil for deep frying.

For Dressing:

Tomato sauce
Soy sauce heavy
Hot sauce(optional)
Green Onions finely chopped
Green chilies 3-4 chopped
Garlic 7 cloves chopped
Ginger 2" chopped
Corn starch (optional)
Chicken broth/stock 1 tablespoon
Bell peppers 1-2 diced
Sesame oil few spoons.

Method:

Marinate chicken with salt, MSG, pepper, chili powder, food color, soy sauce, flour, garam masala, egg white and lemon juice. Maybe overnight or at least 2-4 hours.

Now deep fry them in smoky hot oil, till golden to reddish brown.

In a separate pan, heat sesame oil. Add all the above mentioned ingredients and bring it to sauce consistency. Then add the fried chicken to it.

Let the sauce coat well to all the sides. Remove from heat and serve warm as an appetizer.

Broccoli Fritters/Pakora

Ingredients:

Broccoli 2-3 heads
Ginger 2" minced
Garlic 3 cloves minced
Salt
MSG 1/4 Spoon
Soy sauce few spoons
Lemon juice few spoons
Corn flour few spoons
Chili powder 2 spoons
White pepper powder 1 spoon
Garam masala powder 1/4 spoon
Olive oil for pan/deep frying

Method:

Combine all the ingredients together(except oil).

Heat oil in a deep frying pan. When it comes to smoky hot, fry few florets at a time. Leave them over kitchen tissues for a while. Repeat the same for each batch.












from
http://www.kitchentantra.com

Turkish..... Adana Kebab

• 8 long green peppers. (If you can't find the Turkish type of green peppers, you can try with 4 normal peppers. If you want adana kebab spicy, try to add a small chilli pepper as well.
• Tea Spoon of ground cumin
• Tea spoon of black pepper
• Tea spoon of crushed red pepper ( hot paprika ).
• 200 gr of parsley for decoration.
• 4 normal size tomatoes.
• 500 gram of beef mince meat.
• 4 portions of pita bread.
• Salt
• Barbeque Sticks, wood or metal skewers are fine.

To Prepare Adana Kebab

Put the mince meat in a large pan. Chop the onions and add cumin,salt,paprika and the black pepper in. Mix it well and rest it for half an hour in the fridge.

Make 8 or 10 portions out of the mince meat you have. Put oil on all the skewers. Hold one portion in your hand and put it on the skewer from top to bottom part. You want to put the meat around the skewer, making it the center.

Once all of them ready put them on your barbeque and cook it well.

You can barbeque your tomatoes and peppers on the side of your adana kebab and serve them on top of the pita bread with the parsley on the side with some salad.

Canapes

Canapé also means couch in French, and it has been suggested that the word derives from the fact that canapes were originally only eaten by the wealthy, whom we could imagine stretched out on couches, leisurely eating tasty morsels. Personally, I'd rather think of the canape as a little couch itself, on which the tasty morsel is served.

The traditional French canape is all about layers. Layer one is the bread, layer two is a spread (such as the compound butters below), after that comes one or two more substantial layers, followed perhaps by a sprinkling of contrasting color from herbs, nuts, or the classic chive stem.

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8 Tips for Successful Canapes:

1. Successful canape recipes please the eye as well as the palate. They are little works of art.
2. Vary your pleasures by using different sorts of bread for the base: white bread, rye bread, walnut bread, black bread. For classic French appetizers, the bread you choose should have a compact crumb, be soft, and have the crusts removed.
3. You may be able to find special small squares or rounds of bread made specifically for canapes.
4. Don't make your canapes too big. They should be easily eaten in two polite mouthfuls.
5. Change the form of the bread or the toppings, by using a cookie cutter. Try rounds, squares, rectangles, hearts, stars, etc.
6. Serve several varieties on one plate. I often see them served in France in tidy little lines, each variety gets its own row. It really does make a lovely presentation, but you could think up something even more creative - how about a checkerboard?
7. Don't assemble your canapes too far in advance, because, alas, the bread dries out, the topping gets absorbed, and generally things look a lot less attractive.
8. However, to make these easy appetizer recipes, do get everything ready to go for the assembly line. Cut the vegetables, prepare the spreads, snip the herbs, cut the bread (put this in a plastic bag and don't put it in the refrigerator).

Compound Butters

In French canape recipes, a flavored butter is often spread on the bread before adding an additional topping. Here are some possible compound butters you might like to try.For each of these recipes, use 1/2 cup softened, unsalted butter:

• Anchovy Butter: Mix in 2 ounces anchovy paste. Season with pepper.
• Gorgonzola Butter: Break up 2 ounces of gorgonzola cheese and mix with the butter.
• Garlic Butter: Mix in 3 cloves crushed garlic and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Season with salt and white pepper.
• Mustard Butter: Mix in 1 teaspoon French mustard.
• Smoked Salmon Butter: Mix in 1 ounce of pureed smoked salmon. Season with white pepper.

Other possible spreads include: crème fraiche (have a look at thiscreme fraiche recipe), cream cheese, herb cheese, paté, tapenade, mayonniase, and foie gras.

Canape Recipes - Toppings

If you've decided to have a go at the compound butters, here are some suggestions for possible canape recipes:

• Plain butter, small shrimp, mayonnaise, and capers.
• Plain butter, caviar, finely chopped onion and crushed hard-boiled egg.
• Salmon butter, salmon, a very thin slice of lemon, white pepper.
• Anchovy butter, anchovy filet, grilled red pepper.
• Mustard butter, thin slices of sausage, pickle.

Or pick what you think would be pleasing from the following list of classic French toppings and invent your own canape recipes: shrimp, smoked salmon, sardines, caviar, capers, cheese, hard boiled egg slices, young salad greens, aspragus tips, pickles, olives, bell peppers, cucumbers, dill weed, chives, and more!
Remember to have fun making your canapes and enjoy eating them, perhaps sitting languorously on the couch.

Phyllo Canapes

ingredients:

(filling)

- 250 g white mushrooms – thoroughly washed; finely diced

- 1 medium onion – finely diced

- 1 medium red pepper – finely diced

1 tsp olive oil

- t tsp salt and pepper

- 1 tsp olive oil

- t tsp salt and pepper

- cheese, and parsley garnish

(phyllo base)

- 1/2 cup butter – melted

- 1 pkg frozen phyllo sheets – thawed

Directions:

1. Sautée onions, red pepper, and mushroom in a pan with olive oil on medium-high heat.

2. Cook; stirring often, until all ingredients are cooked– about 8-10 minutes. Drain excess oil or juices, and set aside to cool. The filling can be made 24 hours in advanced, and stored in a fridge– bring to room temperature before serving.

3. On a clean working surface, layer 4 sheets; spreading the melted butter in between. Cut into 2″ squares using a pizza cutter, or a sharp knife.

4. Press phyllo squares into the cups of a mini-muffin baking pan (preferably non-stick; or gently greased). Bake for 12 minutes in a 325′ oven or until golden brown.

5. Remove from oven, and allow to cool. Once cool, scoop mushroom filling into the cups, and garnish.

Recipe makes 48.