It is a time when everyone has to be judicious about cooking and eating and yet constant hunger is the curse of an imprisoned life. While your mind is trying to assess all the stress and boredom, your heart is pining for a quick and delicious bite. But with less variety and limited supply of ingredients, what more can you make? Do you think so? Cheer up, anything is possible with a little imagination, says Toshali Mandal, who has quick solutions to the lockdown hunger pangs. She has come up with three easy-to-make recipes using basic ingredients in the kitchen that will make this Sunday a special lockdown day. Experiment and enjoy!
Maggie Bombs
Ingredients
1 cup of water
1 packet of Masala Maggie
2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons of finely chopped cilantro/
coriander leaves
2 of chopped green chillies
½ teaspoon of ginger garlic paste
½ teaspoon each of Kashmiri red chilli powder and black pepper powder
1 tablespoon of rice flour
1 tablespoon of besan
1 tablespoon of maida
1 tablespoon of corn flour
1 egg
Oil for frying
Salt as per taste
Direction
In a vessel add water and boil. Once the water is boiling add Maggie and cook till they are 75-80 per cent done. Be careful as not to cook it all the way through. Once Maggie is ready, drain the water and wait for the noodles to come down to room temperature. Once it is at room temperature, put it in a big mixing bowl and add finely chopped onions, cilantro, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, Kashmiri red chilli powder, black pepper powder and a sachet of Maggie masala, rice flour, gram flour, maida, corn flour, salt and egg to it. Mix well. Use pressure with your palms while mixing it to form a dough. No need to add water.
Take a small amount in your hands and make a small ball. Repeat the same for the rest of the dough and keep aside. Now add them to hot oil and fry till they are golden in colour from all sides. Then remove them on a plate covered with a paper towel so as to absorb any excess oil. Serve them while hot with some tomato ketchup or schezwan sauce/mayonnaise.
Spanish Omelette Tortilla or Egg-Potato Pan Pizza
Ingredients
1 tablespoon of olive/white oil
1 medium-sized potato, diced into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
4 eggs
Salt to taste
Cracked black pepper to taste
Direction
Heat the oil in a nonstick medium-sized (30cm/12-inch) pan. Fry potatoes until crispy, golden and tender. Add onion and fry until transparent. Drain oil (use a metal colander if you have one) completely. Put the potatoes and the onions back to the pan, arranging them in a single layer. Reduce heat down to low.
Beat eggs with salt and pepper to taste. Pour egg mixture in the pan, moving the potatoes and onions around the eggs using a plastic spatula. Every so often, move the eggs around the potatoes while it is cooking to ensure the eggs cook at the bottom. Place a big, round plate on top of the pan, and with your hand holding the plate, flip the tortilla onto the plate. Then slide it back into the pan carefully, moving the onion and potatoes carefully back into the pan along with the tortilla. Keep cooking, gently shaking the pan occasionally until it is cooked through. To remove the tortilla from the pan, place a clean plate on top of the tortilla and flip again onto the plate. Serve with tomato sauce/mayonnaise and salad.
Basic Sponge Cake
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar, powdered
2 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
½ cup milk at room temperature
Direction
Preheat the oven/OTG to 180° C. Grease a suitable cake tray. Sift the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in colour. Add eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in vanilla.
Pour in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing until just incorporated. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven/OTG for about 20-25 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a plate to cool completely. This cake can be served as it is, just dusted with powdered sugar. Or cut it in half horizontally and sandwich the layers together with jam or custard.