It so happened that early one evening, I was famished. I needed to eat something and I needed it at that very moment. I had just returned home from grocery shopping and didn’t bother to pick up anything to munch on. I’m glad I didn’t. Not eating junk food is always a good thing, isn’t it? So there I stood, before my open refrigerator, staring blankly at what was on the shelves, willing for something to shout out and relieve those hunger pangs. And friends, its during those moments of almost delirious desperation, that I decided to try this sandwich out. It took me just a few minutes to make since theres no need to wait for the butter to soften or even grate the cheese, and when I tasted it, it was so much better than I could’ve ever imagined. It was pure bliss. Later that evening, I treated my husband with one and he asked for a second one after just taking a bite. Thats how good it was. This has become a favorite in my house. I hope you will try it out too.
What I like about this particular grilled sandwich is that you don’t need any fancy equipment. Everyone has a skillet lying around in their kitchen, so this is a grilled sandwich that everyone can enjoy.
Skillet Grilled Cheese Sandwich
(Makes one sandwich, but you can easily make as many as you wish)
2 slices of sandwich bread
1 slice of cheese (you can use any variety you like)
A couple of tsp butter
Place the slice of cheese between two slices of bread.
Place a dollop of butter in a skillet over low to medium heat. You don’t want the butter to burn.
Place the sandwich in the pan and let it brown off, uncovered till a little crisp.
Carefully turn the sandwich over, place a couple of smaller dollops of butter on the sides of the pan and lift the edges of the sandwich to help it under. Brown off that side of the sandwich as well.
Take off the heat. I cut it into two rectangular pieces, but you don’t have to, cut them any way you like, if you want to cut it, or leave it whole.
Eat while its still hot.
Look at all that golden melted gooey goodness of the cheese.
This recipe is linked to –
Recipes I Can’t Wait to Try
Whats Cooking Wednesday
Real Food Wednesday
What’s On The Menu Wednesday
Hearth And Soul
Fish Cakes or Fish Cutlets
I love these cutlets. We don’t make them too often, and I’ve always wondered why. We love them, they’re crunchy little treats, and the flavors are to die for. It goes so well with a humble meal of rice and lentils, more commonly known as dal-rice and turns it to something quite extra-ordinary. If that doesn’t float your boat, how about using it to make yourself a yummy fish burger?
Whatever you decide to do with it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. I mean, whats not to? For this recipe I used Kingfish slices. You can use any other white fleshy fish, but try and avoid the smaller varieties. Also, I’ve never really paid too much attention to quantities with any cutlets, its more about the mix feeling right to the touch. However, I have tried to give you an idea of the quantities I used. Feel free to adjust them as you like.
Fish Cutlets
4-5 large slices of fish
3-4 cloves of garlic
A pinch of turmeric powder
1 onion, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1″ ginger
1 egg
1-2 slices of bread
Bread crumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying
In a vessel, boil the slices of fish with a pinch of turmeric powder, salt, whole cloves of garlic and a little water. The fish needs to be cooked through. Let it cool.
While this is happening, chop up the onions, ginger, chillies and the coriander leaves and keep aside.
De-bone the fish, making sure that no bones are left behind. Its rather unpleasant to find a fish bone in a cutlet.
Add the chopped onions, chillies, ginger and coriander leaves.
Crack into this 1 egg.
Soak 1-2 slices of bread in water for a minute and squeeze out all the liquid and add one slice, crumbled to the mix. Using your fingers, make sure that all the ingredients are mixed well. Try and form a cutlet, if it holds well, you’re good to go. If the mix is too moist, crumble the other slice of bread into it and mix well.
Check for seasoning and adjust if needed.
Shape little portions of the mix into tightly formed cakes or cutlets. Coat with bread crumbs.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large flat pan and fry the cutlets on a medium flame till they are golden brown. Turn over and brown the other side as well. The fish is already cooked, all you want to do is let the cutlets get a nice brown color and in the meanwhile heat right through.
Serve hot.
This recipe is linked to –
My Meatless Mondays
Just Another Meatless Monday
Meatless Monday
Mangia Mondays
Mouthwatering Monday
Tuesdays At The Table
Delectable Tuesday
Tuesday Night Supper Club
A Little Birdie Told Me
Potato Chops
They taste best if served hot with some tomato ketchup. They also keep well, refrigerated. All you do, is pop them in a pan, cover and let it heat through on a low flame before serving. These chops are a good option to consider as travel food for a road trip.The crumb coating gives this a nice crunchy exterior.
Potato Chops
1/2 a recipe of Beef Mince (You can substitute mutton mince, if you don’t eat beef)
4-5 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp cumin powder
A pinch of turmeric powder (optional)
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1 egg
Bread crumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying
Make half a portion of beef mince and keep aside. This should come down to room temperature before you proceed with this recipe.
Boil the potatoes only when you are ready to make the chops you need to work when the potatoes are still warm. Cold potatoes make handling difficult.
Peel and mash the potatoes well. Make sure there are no lumps. Add salt to taste, cumin powder, turmeric powder and coriander leaves and using your hands mix well to ensure all the spices and herbs are evenly distributed. Feel free to adjust the quantities of the spices and herbs used to suit your taste.
Take a portion of the mashed potato, the size of a tennis ball, roll into a ball and flatten to form a thick disc on the palm of your hand. Place a spoon of the mince in the center and bring the sides of the potato disc up and over the filling to cover it well. Make sure that no mince is sticking out. If you feel the need to add more potato to it, feel free to do so. The mashed potato merges well. Shape it to form a patty and keep aside. Continue till you’ve used up all the mashed potato.
Crack an egg in a shallow bowl, wide enough to fit the chops. Beat well to incorporate the white and the yolk.
Pour some bread crumbs onto a plate and keep it ready. I have a little assembly line going for this, starting with the chops at one end, followed by the bowl with the beaten egg, the bread crumbs and a plate lined with some absorbent kitchen paper at the other end.
Heat some oil in a pan.
Briefly dip a chop in the egg and turn over, making sure it coats the chop well.
Dredge it through the bread crumbs making sure the potato chop is well coated. This is what will give it a good crunch.
Carefully place in the pan with the heated oil and shallow fry till it takes on a nice golden brown color. Turn and let the other side fry as well till it gets golden brown.
Carefully take it off the pan and place on some kitchen paper to drain out any excess oil.
NOTE: You don’t need to fry these one at a time, place as many as your pan can accommodate, making sure theres a little space between them to help you turn these over.
Here’s what it looks like on the inside –
Enjoy!!!
This recipe is linked to –
What’s Cookin’ in the Kitchen
Feed Me Tweet Me Follow Me Home
Friday Potluck
Fat Camp Friday
Homemade Burgers with Fries – Made from Scratch
Now don’t get me wrong, we love the ready made stuff too. But the satisfaction of making your very own version, tops most of those ready ones. Also, not surprisingly, these turned out really tasty. Heck, they were tastier than a lot of the burgers that we’ve eaten from many different places. I think the only burgers that can top these are the ones that we had at BLT’s and Al’s Diner in Hong Kong. I used to think that the best burgers in Mumbai could be found at Hearsh’s or Candies in Bandra, but I now beg to differ. Though the burgers from both these places are good, I’d rather have the home made ones whenever possible. To sum things up, this was a wonderful treat. With a little planning you’ll enjoy the flavors and you’ll save a few bucks while you’re at it.
Over the past few months, whenever I pass by most eateries, fast food places or restaurants and am considering stopping there, I realize that a lot of my favorite stuff can be made at home, which turns out tastier and more economical. So really, I think I’ve ruined eating out for myself. (Well, except when we are at Candies. That place, I think, has some really wonderful food.) Do you find this happening to you? It’d be nice to know I wasn’t alone and possibly crazy, thinking like this. 🙂
Anyway, back to the burgers. Just yesterday I posted the recipe for these delicious Burger Buns.
In the past I’ve also posted an easy recipe for Homemade Mayonnaise. This can be made earlier, if you like, and refrigerated till you’re ready to assemble the burgers.
For the Burger Patties –
Yields 6
1/2 kg beef mince (ground beef)
1 large onion, chopped fine
2 green chillies, chopped fine
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1″ ginger, chopped fine
Salt, to taste
Freshly cracked black peppercorns, to taste
Oil for frying
Mix all the ingredients together till they’re well distributed.
Shape into patties.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan. Carefully place the patties on the pan and cook through as desired. We like out beef well done. So we let it sear on high heat for a few seconds to lock in the juices and then cook on a medium flame till done.
To assemble the burgers –
Slice the burger buns in half.
Spread some mayonnaise on the bottom half.
Place the beef patty on in.
Top with a slice of onion, a slice of tomato and season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Add a leaf of lettuce. Cover the the top half of the bun. Obviously, you can pick and choose the stuff that goes into your burger but this is what I used. Other interesting options are pickles, sauteed onions, maybe some crispy bacon etc.
Enjoy!!!
P.S. Don’t be fooled by the size, this fills you up fast. The burgers that we buy here are seldom filling so we made a third burger which my husband and I figured we’d split in half. It was a task for both of us. I guess thats what you get with wholesome food. You know exactly whats in it, it tastes great and satisfies those crazy hunger pangs. We had these bad boys with some homemade fries.
Homemade Fries
2 potatoes, peeled and cut and kept in salted water.
Pat dry and deep fry till done.
Drain on absorbent kitchen paper. Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
Serve with some ketchup if you’d like. We prefer ours without it.
This recipe is linked to –
What’s Cooking Thursdays
Full Plate Thursday
Thrilling Thursday
Its a Keeper Thursday
Made From Scratch
Bombay Street Food Special #1 – Batata Vada (Deep Fried Potato Dumplings)
Here’s a peek at what it looks like –
And here’s what the inside looks like –
Batata Vada
(Makes 7-8 pieces depending on the size of the potatoes used and the size of the vadas.)
2 potatoes, boiled and mashed roughly (You don’t want the potato mash to be creamy, leave it just a little lumpy)
A pinch of turmeric powder
Salt, to taste
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
A pinch of mustard seeds
2-3 curry leaves, roughly torn into 2-3 pieces each
1 green chilly, finely chopped (optional)
1 tsp. chopped fresh coriander leaves
1/2 cup besan (chick pea / garbanzo bean flour)
A pinch of red chilly powder (optional)
Water
Oil for deep frying
Add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt to taste to the mashed potato and mix well.
In a small pan, prepare the tempering or tadka. Heat the vegetable oil and add the mustard seeds. When it sputters, on a low to medium flame add the curry leaves, green chilly and saute a little till all the flavors are released, taking care to not burn the spices.
Add the potato mix to this and stir the oil and spices have mixed with the mashed potato, for a few seconds.
Take it off the pan and into a bowl. Add the chopped coriander leaves and using your hand mix it well. Check for salt and spice and adjust accordingly. Don’t under salt the potato mix.
Shape into balls and keep aside.
For the batter –
In a bowl, mix the chick pea flour, with a pinch of turmeric powder, chilly powder and salt to taste. Add a little water to form a batter. Make sure there are no lumps and the batter is nice and smooth.
The batter should have a pouring consistency but shouldn’t be too thin. It should be thick enough to form a nice layer around the vadas.
If it is too thick, add a little water to thin it out. If it is too thin and watery, simply add some more chick pea flour.
To make the vadas –
Heat the oil for deep frying. The oil should be hot but not smoking. One way to tell if your oil is hot enough is to carefully insert a drop of the batter into the oil. If it bubbles and rises to the top immediately, the oil is ready.
Dip the prepared balls in the batter and make sure that the batter coats the potato mix well. I think it easiest to use your hands for this.
Carefully insert the batter dipped vadas into the oil and let them fry on a medium flame till they are a nice golden brown. Turn them while they fry to ensure it cooks evenly on all sides. Don’t use high heat as the outside will burn without warming the insides through.
Drain off the excess oil and place on some kitchen paper to get rid of any oil on it.
Serve hot with some tomato sauce.
And oh, please don’t discard any of the pieces of excess batter that have broken away while frying the vadas. They are nice and crunchy. Simply drain them too while you’re extracting the vadas from the oil. My brother fights all of us for these scraps 🙂
Enjoy!!!
This recipe is linked to –
Recipes I Can’t Wait to Try @ At Home With Haley
My Meatless Monday @ My Sweet and Savory
Just Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What’s For Dinner Mom?
Meatless Monday @ Midnight Maniac
Mouthwatering Mondays @ A Southern Fairytale
Rook No.17