Savory cheese pasta cups

Sometimes you need something new to add to your evening snack apart from cheese and crackers. These pasta cups were a perfect filler. Easy to make and tasty (its got cheese..right!). I would say a thumbs -up to it anytime.

Cheese Pasta Cups
Please serve freshly made ones, reheating makes them lose flavor.  
Adapted from eCurry

Ingredients:

1. 1 Cup Cooked Pasta: Boil the pasta as per instructions.( I used macroni..u can use shell or any other small sized pasta)
2. 1 Cup Grated/Shredded Cheese (Any Cheese or any combination of 2 or 3 cheeses – cheddar, parmesean, amul or britannia cheese cubes will also do) I used grated paneer alongwith cheese cubes.
3. 2 Tablespoons of whole wheat flour
4. Salt to taste
5. Black Pepper to taste
6. Herbs (optional- any herbs you want to use…. I used dried Parsely and a mix of Italian seasoning)
7. Garlic -3-4 cloves minced or grated

Preparation:

• Lightly grease muffin pans/cup cake liners or silicon cups.
• Combine all the ingredients above & spoon it into muffins pan or cup cake liners.
• Bake at 375 Degree F for about 15-20 minutes or till the cheese melts & start to brown on the top.
• Cool on a rack for about 10 minutes.
• Carefully take out the Pasta cups. Serve Warm.

Happy holi! (and how to make mathari at home)

Holi!!

pic

The festival of colors reminds me of soooo... many good things. The colors, the Dhol(Drum) music, the dancing, the pranks we played, and the food....ahhh..the sweet Gujiya made by mom, the cool thandai at my nani's house and a variety of mathries (flaky, salted or spiced biscuits).

Today for holi, I have made these special mathris which my mom used to make. Can't say that it's easy; but it surely is worth all the effort...:)

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour- 2 katori (measure 400ml volume upto the brim)
2. Ghee (clarified butter)-1/5 of the flour
3. Ajwain seeds- 1& 1/2 tsp (you can add cumin seeds also)
4. Salt- 1 tsp (you can increase it to get a more salty flavour)
5. Oil for frying
6. Water for making dough

(Mathari's can be made by adding varied type of spices, this is a simple Ajwain mathari/mathri)

Method

1. Add ghee,ajwain and salt to the flour and mix thouroughly. Add water and knead a little hard dough. Set aside for 15-20 min.

2. Now break the dough into small ball-like pieces.

3. Heat the oil in a wok/kadhai at a low flame.

4. With the help of a rolling pin, flatten the pieces of dough individually into 4 or 5 inch diameter circles. Pierce these circles with a knife or fork in a random manner.

5. When at least 5-6 are done, fry them at low flame. Remove when they become golden brown. Since frying will take time, you can continue rolling the remaining ones. (You can also roll and pierce all of them and then start with frying, but that just increases the time.).

6. Keep them on absorbent paper/paper napkin. Store in an air tight jar. They keep well for a few weeks.

These are usually served with spicy and yummy pickles, but taste pretty good all by themselves. I love them with my evening cup of tea.