Left Over Wow - Layered Methi Biryani!!

A young mom’s biggest tension in life is to get rid of the huge amounts of leftover she gets left with. My child however so I wish, refuses to eat many things that are staple to his growth. But I ain’t one of those moms who is going to quietly make those left overs my own dinner. I spice and spruce it up and make it a bigger than life thing for the full family to enjoy. This post is an idea which pretty much stemmed out of this very emotion.

So I harvest these young fenugreek leaves, about which I wrote in my earlier post- 

Growing Your Greens- Fenugreek!!

My son is extremely happy to have parathas made with fenugreek the first day. The next day too he devoured these bitter microgreens with ease and I was beyond happy. So I sowed the seeds again and this time when I harvested, I decided to try a rice dish instead. I was in a mood to prepare a wow dish, but had a big bowl of left over rice in the fridge with some hard boiled eggs which was very rudely denied by my little guy the previous night. So to serve him something healthy yet fenugreek-y, I took some carrots and ripe pumpkin to make a curry where the spice used was just these fresh microgreens from my balcony. Then I transformed the curry into a layered biryani adding in some hidden flavours. If you are positively curious about the dish now, then you should definitely read on to the next page to get possibly the most amazing yet so very simple- Layered Methi and Subz Biryani. 

Ingredients for making the Fenugreek and Veggie Curry

2 medium carrots cut in ½ inch pieces

150 gms pumpkin cut in big ½ inch pieces

Harvested fenugreek microgreens. I didn’t really weigh or measure it, but it would be approximately 3 big handfuls.

2 tbsp of mustard oil      

½ tsp cumin seeds

1 bay leaf

1 dry red chilly

Salt to taste

A pinch of Turmeric

Sugar to taste

To be ground-

2 to 3 fat cloves of garlic

2 small onions or a big one

3 green chiliies

Handful of cilantro leaves

For layering-

Cooked Rice (stale or not, nothing for guessing what i must have used!)

A boiled egg sliced

A couple of spoonful of mango and chilly pickle with mustard oil (I used a homemade mango and chilly pickle. I had followed Alpana Habib’s method of pickling. She is a famous celebrity chef from Bangladesh, whose food is quintessentially Bengali. But for this recipe, any other hot and sour and sweet pickle would work as well. I love to use the oil mixed with juice of the pickle so it is a good idea if you are buying a pickle, buy the one which is preserved in mustard oil)

A dash of milk

Sliced onion fried- barista (optional)

Chopped cilantro

Now head on to SmartIndianWoman.in for the detailed recipe.

Cheers!!

Note-

I didn’t use fried onions because it’s extremely tedious to cut fry and drain it, just for a weekday lunch to be carried to the office. But if I was to serve it in a party, I would do these extra steps willingly.

To make it completely vegetarian, just omit the egg part and you are good to go.

Left Over Series Finale!!

Since you guys have loved my leftover series so much, I reckoned a few more tricks and tips is something I owe you lovely people. If you have any more left over cakes, and parfait don’t interest you; then read up to get to know of other wonderful stuff that you can do with it.

Now these tricks and tips I picked up, but didn’t try all of them, as of yet. If you ever try it out, let me know! But I am sure, all of it will work well and would give you guys a very satisfying dessert to enjoy after a hearty meal, or a snack to be had between meals.

First in my list is an Ice Cream Sundae. Now you can get really creative here. And make different flavours with it. The steps are simple, and the best part being all of it has to be done the day before. So it’s the perfect party dessert.

Take a litre of vanilla ice cream and let it melt a bit to the semi solid level.

Now whisk it well, while adding stuff like chocolate chips, almond flakes, raisins, dried cranberries etc.

Take a handful of crumbled cake and incorporate well with a spatula, making certain that the cake don’t powder off in the ice cream. Some gentle firm stokes is all that’s required.

Freeze it overnight and enjoy a perfect frozen dessert. No one can ever tell that it’s a store bought ice cream. And instead the guests would swoon in absolute joy.

The next in line is a Toasted Jam Cake-wich.

Google Images

Take 2 thin slices of stale cake loaf, like plum cakes or rum cakes from the festive season.

Toast it lightly in a buttered pan, and generously spread over a tart fruit preserve like diabetic jam or a really good bitter orange marmalade. The sweet bread with not so sweet jam is so enticing and confusing to the palette that it would be one of the greatest hits in a high tea party. Do chop the Cake-wich to smaller pieces so that it’s easy to hold and eat.

And as for the last, yet one of the best things to do with stale cakes; is to make a Bread-no-Cake Pudding with it.

Cut little cubes of the cake and set it aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk 1 egg to half a cup of milk, mix vanilla and a tbsp. of oil to get a sugar free custard made. I soak the cake in the custard for at least an hour or more, and then top it with additional flavours like that of half a tsp of cocoa followed with a handful of chocolate chips. A brief whisk later, I let it all go into a preheated oven to cook off.

Now this is a basic custard recipe that I have given measurements on. Adjust it to suit the amount of cake you intend to bake in the custard. After pouring, the custard should be visible to you, which will be soaked up in the hour you let it soak for. A rum cake might not soak so much, but a simple sponge will soak up all liquid.   

Keep an eye on it while it’s in the oven. If the top is browning too much, cover it with a foil. The test of doneness remains the same as a cake. A toothpick if comes out clean, then the pudding is done.

This dessert is very versatile. You can serve it hot or warm with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream. And it can also be served cold to enjoy just like so.

Armed with so many left over inspired dishes, I am sure you will never ever have a problem stale cakes again!! Cheers!! 

Left-Over Series- Berry Cake Parfait

We are almost 10 days in the new year! And do u have a refrigerator yet filled with cakes of all sorts? If you do, then this article is tailor made for you.  

Christmas this year was much bigger than what I had thought of it to be. Lots of edible gifts landed my way, including some exotic stuff like this mouth-watering jar of Bhut-Jholokia pickle to the usual fare of rum cakes and cookies.

About a fortnight gone, and all these bits and pieces of stale cakes are haunting my refrigerator. Add to it all the Christmas baking that I specifically did for my friends and family, and you know I have a big sweetish problem to tackle for some days to come. So I reckoned, it just can’t be me, but many more like me with the same problem. So this post is a shout out to all you disturbed souls, who hate throwing, but can’t keep junking on so much sweets as well. I am going to try and transform all these sweets into drool worthy desserts to be served to your guests while you entertain your first parties of this receding winter. First in the series is my Berry-Cake Parfait, which look so so pretty in these see through borosil glasses. Second would be an Indian twist to this layered dessert, with homemade fresh custard served with Gulab Jamun Parfait.

Berry - Cake Parfait

Ingredients

Now, this recipe cannot come with any set measurements. The amounts will vary upon the number of layers that will go in it, and the thickness of each layer that you want to put on.

A handful of quick cooking oats

A handful of old biscuits or cookies smashed

A pinch of cinnamon

A blob of salted butter

A big handful of any flavour of stale cake smashed

100 to 200 gms of fresh strawberries/plums or any other fruits that will soften on cooking

Lemon juice

Sugar to taste

A pinch of salt

Method

First prep the strawberries. Wash and clean it thoroughly, and chop it to small bite sized pieces.

Season the pieces well with lemon juice and sugar. Microwave this mix for half a minute at a time, till the berries are soft and cooked through. Mix in a small bit of butter while the berries are still hot, and set it aside to cool completely.

In a pan over medium heat, dry roast the oats till fragrant.  You may add some chopped nuts too in the pan, for added crunch. Remove from heat and add the smashed biscuits to the hot pan. Mix both these well and set it aside to cool down the mix and the hot pan. This will ensure that the parfait toppings won’t attract condensation, and instead remain crunchy as it slowly cools with the pan.

Now to assemble, take a clean see through glass like so, and brush the bottom with a bit of melted butter. Add the berry mix in the bottom. Follow it up with a good sprinkling of the oats and cookie mixture. Another layer of berry mix followed with crumbled cake. Continue like so to create a beautiful mix of colours and flavours in the little glass. This should be served in room temperature, not too chilled. A blob of vanilla ice cream will compliment all these flavours even better.

Now tell me, if your guests won’t end up gaga-ing on this beautiful master piece? Cheers!!

Next up would be the pretty glass of Gulab Jamun Parfait, so stay tuned to return back tomorrow!!