Category Archives: Other Bakes

Cheese & Garlic Scones

By Posted in Other Bakes, Snacks, What's cooking Tagged , , , , , , , 8 Comments

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When I made a Hi-Tea combo couple of months ago, my favourite of the lot of dishes was the Cheese and garlic scones. These are super easy to make and taste so good. It is one of the few baked dishes that even my husband liked and asked for seconds. I have made it several times since and it has been appreciated by kids and adults alike. This makes for a quick and easy snack with all ingredients easily available at home. I do think of adding some vegetables to it but then I feel maybe some dishes should be left just for taste instead of trying to healthy-fy everything all the time.

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Recipe from here

Makes 8 scones

WHAT WE NEED

1 cup All purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup shredded cheese

1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated

1/2 cup Milk

WHAT TO DO

  • Preheat the oven to 220C
  • Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl
  • Add the shredded cheese and garlic to the bowl and mix well
  • Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the milk except for 2 tsp of milk
  • Bring together all the ingredients and form a dough
  • Do not overmix
  • Grease a baking tray and transfer the dough to the tray
  • Pat it into a 1″ thick circle and cut into 8 wedges
  • Brush the balance 2 tsp milk on the dough
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes or till the top gets brown spots
  • Cool for 10 minutes
  • Serve warm with butter

NOTES

  1. I have tried this dish with cheddar cheese, pizza cheese (mix of cheddar and mozzarella) and matured goat cheese and it works beautifully with each one
  2. I found the goat cheese (matured) slightly bland in comparison to the other two and so I sprinkled some dried rosemary to enliven it

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This is my post for the Blogging Marathon under the theme, ‘One protein three dishes’.

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Hi Tea

By Posted in Muffins, Other Bakes, Snacks, Sweets & Desserts, What's cooking Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 20 Comments

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This is the final post in this week’s Thali series. My sister-in-law gifted me a cupcake / hi tea stand and I have been planning to use it in the blog for ages now. I didn’t want to miss the chance this time and so I figured making a hi tea spread for the Thali theme would be just perfect. Hi tea is a British tradition of drinking tea sitting on high back chairs at the table with a spread including cold cut meat, fruits, breads, crackers, etc.

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This hi tea spread includes –

1. Iced tea (because it it summer now)

2. Regular black tea & milk

3. Cheese and Garlic Scones

4. Walnut Cake Slice

5. Masala Chai Mini Muffins

6. Dry fruit biscuits

7. Pistachio and chocolate biscuits

8. Peas & Carrot Finger Sandwiches

9. Cucumber & Mayonnaise Finger Sandwiches

8. Jam

9. Honey

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Here is a quick recipe for the masala chai muffins –

Makes 16-18 mini muffins

WHAT WE NEED

3/4 cup Whole wheat flour

1/2 cup Granulated sugar

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Baking soda

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup Masala chai / tea ( no sugar)

1 tsp Vinegar

2 tbsp Oil

WHAT TO DO

  • Preheat the oven at 190C
  • Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl
  • Mix the oil, masala chai and vinegar in another bowl
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine
  • Line a mini muffin tray and pour the batter up to 3/4 full for each muffin mould
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes or till the toothpick inserted comes out clean
  • Cool for half hour
  • Enjoy!

This is my post for the Blogging Marathon under the theme, ‘Thalis’.

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Rose scented Hazelnut Cookies

By Posted in Other Bakes, Sweets & Desserts, What's cooking Tagged , , , , 11 Comments

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This is my third and final post on New Year Challenges. I have been planning forever to experiment on ideas and recipes instead of adapting other recipes. Though I am sure most flavour combinations have already been discovered and perfected, there is a thrill and satisfaction of discovering something on your own instead of simply adapting another recipe. I used to do that a lot during my initial days in the kitchen but then it slowly died down as the years went by. Now I want to try dishes on my own and document it. Here is the first one – a rose scented cookie with hazelnuts and rose petals.

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Makes around 15 cookies

WHAT WE NEED

1 cup Whole wheat flour

1/2 cup Sugar

1/3 cup Unsalted butter, room temperature (around 80 gms)

1 tbsp Rose water

2 tbsp Hazelnuts, chopped

1 tbsp Dried rose petals

2 tbsp Milk / as required

 

WHAT TO DO

  • Preheat the oven at 175C
  • Beat butter and sugar till soft and fluffy, around 4-5 minutes
  • Add the rose water, flour and hazelnuts and mix
  • Add milk to form a smooth dough
  • Line a baking tray with parchment
  • Divide the dough into 15-20 parts
  • Roll each one into a ball, flatten and place on the baking tray
  • Bake for 12-15 minutes till the cookies get brown at the bottom
  • Let cool for 10 minutes
  • Enjoy!

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This is my post for the Blogging Marathon under the theme, ‘New Year Challenges’.

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Cinnamon Rolls

By Posted in Other Bakes, Sweets & Desserts, What's cooking Tagged , , 9 Comments

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Every now and then I wonder how I end up missing the classic dishes, the most popular ones that have stood the test of time. I keep thinking about baking them and blogging about it but then I discover something new and exciting and this gets sidelined to be revisited another day. I always imagine someone visiting my blog and then is stunned speechless because there is no recipe for cinnamon rolls or pound cake. So now there is one less thing to worry about.

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The husband and daughter threw a fit about having to eat too many breads. They wanted something sweet and made all sorts of threats to ensure I give them that. So I figured I could make cinnamon rolls because they satisfy my criteria of yeast dough and so kind of fall in the bread category and at the same time they are sweet and will please the family.

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Recipe adapted from here and here

Makes 15 medium rolls

WHAT WE NEED

For the rolls

120 ml Milk

56 gms Unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/8 tsp Instant yeast

pinch of salt

3/4 tsp Cinnamon powder

8 tsp Brown sugar

204 gms All purpose flour

For the glaze

1/4 cup Icing sugar

1 tsp Unsalted butter, melted

1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

2-3 tsp Milk

 

WHAT TO DO

For the rolls

  • Heat 21 gms butter and the entire milk together in a microwave oven/ saucepan till melted
  • Let it cool to become lukewarm
  • Transfer the butter and milk mixture to a large bowl and add yeast, 2 tsp brown sugar  and salt
  • Add the flour little by little and knead to a loose ball consistency
  • Cover and set aside till the dough doubles in volume, around 1-2 hours
  • Roll out the dough to a thin rectangle
  • Brush it 21 gms butter and top it with 6 tsp brown sugar and cinnamon powder
  • Roll the dough tightly into a long tube shape and place it seam side down
  • Cut it into 15 pieces with a knife
  • Place the rolls in a greased baking tray leaving little space between them
  • Brush the top of the rolls with the balance butter
  • Cover and let it rise for 30 minutes
  • Preheat the oven to 175C
  • Bake for 25-30 minutes or till it is slightly golden brown

For the glaze

  • Mix all the ingredients for the glaze to form a thick glaze
  • Pour over the rolls as soon as they are taken out from the oven
  • Serve warm
  • Enjoy!

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This is part of the Bake-a-thon 2017

Potato Skins

By Posted in Other Bakes, What's cooking Tagged , , , , , , 9 Comments

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My third recipe for this theme of USA cuisine was supposed to be this awesome s’mores mug cake. The only mistake I did was to wait to make it till the last minute because, mug cake. How difficult can it be? Mix ingredients and microwave for a minute, duh! But then I tried to be smart and made some changes to the ingredients and then it crashed badly, like really badly. Then I figured I would stick to the recipe but found I was out of some ingredients. Yeah, mug cake can actually cause so much grief. Anyway I fell back on potatoes which is the ultimate saviour as also very American. The added benefit is that the daughter loves it and I figured a cool way to sneak in veggies inside all that cheese. So not everything ended badly!

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The original dish is potatoes, bacon and cheese. But I needed a vegetarian version of it and so I replaced the bacon with some vegetables and also some cheese with butter and landed with a super easy evening snack.

Recipe adapted from here

WHAT WE NEED

Potatoes 4

Garlic butter 2 tbsp

Onion, small 1/2

Tomato, small 1/2

Mozzarella, grated 4-5 tbsp

Salt

WHAT TO DO

  • Preheat the oven to 220C
  • Cut the potatoes vertically in half and scoop out the flesh as much as you can leaving just the skin and little flesh
  • Melt the garlic butter and apply it on both sides of the halves and scooped potatoes
  • Place it on a baking tray skin side down and bake for 10 minutes
  • Turn the potatoes over and bake for another 10 minutes
  • Finely chop the onion. Deseed and finely chop the tomato
  • Mix the two with salt and pepper or any other seasoning
  • Take out the potatoes and turn them over
  • Fill each half potato with the onion tomato mixture
  • Top it with grated mozzarella cheese
  • Bake for 2-3 minutes or till the cheese melts
  • Serve warm
  • Enjoy!

NOTES

  1. You can use plain butter or any other flavoured butter instead of the garlic butter
  2. The filling can be any vegetable of your choice like carrots, peas, corn, mushroom, etc. In that case you have either sauté it before adding it to the potatoes or bake it for 10 minutes with the potatoes but add the cheese in the final 2 minutes.

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This is my post for the Blogging Marathon under the theme, Cuisine of USA.

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Fudge Brownies 

By Posted in Other Bakes, Sweets & Desserts, What's cooking Tagged , , , , 12 Comments

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If there is one thing I am scared of baking then it is an eggless recipe. I panic and then mess up even the best of recipes. I have tries multiple recipes from various sources but the eggless version always betray me. My parents have now reached the stage of ‘super annoyed’ because they see the dishes I bake but can’t eat them because of the egg. So it is my endeavor to master the art of eggless baking so that my parents can have a feast of my baked goodies soon.

I have tried multiple eggless brownies but I only manage to get the ‘cakey’ version of it and never the fudgy version. Also most of them do not hold the structure and partially collapse. So for now, I continue to bake brownies with eggs. This is a recipe for keeps. The brownies turned out so fudgy and chewy and simply delicious.

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I have added chopped walnuts to the brownie. It is not mandatory but I will judge you a little bit if you don’t. It has dark chocolate in it though you can replace that for milk chocolate. The key to a delicious brownie is to not over-bake it. The pointers to figure out the brownie is done are – it starts to pull away from the sides, the top is cracked and when you insert a toothpick in it, there are a few crumbs. I halved the recipe and made adjustments because I had only 1 egg and the recipe needed more.

Recipe adapted from here

Serves 3

WHAT WE NEED

Dark chocolate                   170 gms

Unsalted butter                    56 gms

Egg                                          1

Granulated white sugar      100 gms

Vanilla extract                       5-6 drops

All purpose flour                  55 gms

Baking powder                     1/2 tsp

Salt                                          a pinch

 

WHAT TO DO

  • Preheat the oven to 180C
  • Grease a 6″ baking pan and line it with parchment
  • Melt the chocolate and butter by the double boiler method or for 50 seconds in a microwave oven
  • Mix well and let it cool
  • In another bowl, mix the egg, vanilla and sugar until frothy (4-5 minutes with a whisk)
  • Add the chocolate mixture and mix well
  • Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well
  • Pour into the baking pan and bake for 27-30 minutes till the top of the brownie is cracked and it has started pulling away from the sides slightly.
  • Take it out of the oven and let it cool in the pan for 2 hours at room temperature
  • Serve warm with some ice cream
  • Enjoy!

 

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This is my post for the Blogging Marathon under the theme, ‘Cuisine of USA’.

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Poppy Seed Waffles

By Posted in Breakfast, Other Bakes, What's cooking Tagged , , , , 11 Comments

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This is the last day of the week and I am using poppy seeds for my final dish this week. The first three days were for the three popular nuts – cashews, almonds and pistachios and the next three days for the seeds – chia seeds, flaxseeds and now poppy seeds.

I bought some poppy seeds quite a while back to make some Karnataka special dishes in my bid to inculcate more local dishes into our daily meals. But like always, I got distracted by the next bread recipe and the poppy seeds made sad faces from the pantry every day. 

Does it ever happen to you that you are stuck with a craving for a particular taste or flavour for days on end for no reason at all? I have been craving some lemon flavours for the past few weeks. No idea why but the lemon in my fridge are done faster than you can say nimbu pani.

So I looked for a lemon flavoured recipe with poppy seeds and landed on to this one. The daughter, who loves my regular waffle recipe loved this one too as did the husband. So I can safely say this one was a success!
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Protein – Poppy seeds

Recipe from here

Makes 14 small waffles

WHAT WE NEED

All purpose flour                   3/4 cup

Baking powder                       1 tsp

Baking soda                             1/4 tsp

Salt                                             1/4 tsp

Sugar                                         2 tbsp

Lemon zest                              1 1/2 tsp

Oil / melted butter.                3 tbsp

Egg                                            1

Lemon juice                            4 tsp

Milk                                          8-10 tbsp

Poppy seeds                            4 tsp

 

WHAT TO DO

  •  Preheat the oven to 220C
  • Whisk together the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
  • Mix the sugar with lemon zest by rubbing the zest together with the sugar to ensure it releases its flavours
  • Add the lemon and sugar to the dry ingredients
  • Whisk the egg lightly
  • Add the lemon juice and milk to the egg and mix 
  • Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients 
  • Add the poppy seeds
  • Mix to ensure no dry flour is left in the bowl
  • Pour the batter into the waffle mould till almost full
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes or till the top is golden brown
  • Let it rest for 2-3 minutes before de-moulding 
  • Serve warm with honey or maple syrup 
  • Enjoy!

NOTES

  1. You can also cook the waffles in the waffle iron. I use the silicon waffle mould

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This is my post for the Mega Marathon under the theme ‘Protein Rich Dishes’
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Chia seed Cookies

By Posted in Other Bakes, What's cooking Tagged , , , , , , , 14 Comments

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Finally the cake is done, cut and eaten and I can pack up my cake fears and store it away until next year. I was worried the entire day about what the husband would think about the cake, if he would like it or not. The problem is that if he likes the cake, he would say, ‘you bake so well. You should do it more often’ and if he doesn’t he would say, ‘you had to bake just one cake in the entire year and you could still not get it right?’ It is like being between the devil and the ….well, devil. I was so frightened of frosting that I finished innumerable long pending activities in a bid to postpone the frosting. Finally I started frosting just an hour before the husband was due to arrive and finished it in time. 

He was so surprised seeing the cake that he couldn’t say a word. I like that!

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I am terrified of eggless cakes. It is either a jinx or I am doing some humongous error each time because they never ever turn out good. When I told my parents about my annual cake baking adventure, they suddenly professed a desire to taste some of it. Since I am off to visit them tomorrow, I figured I had to take some over for them. But they don’t eat eggs and the only thing I am more scared of than baking eggless cakes is offering them to my perfectionist mom. Then when I baked my usual egg version of the cake, it turned out to be a disaster. It tasted really good but surprisingly the structure was off. Then I luckily landed on a eggless cake recipe which to my absolute shock, turned out really good. So yay for me! I got to eat a lot of cake because of this entire chaos and I got a decent enough cake for the husband to cut and celebrate his birthday. 

Now on to the real dish of this post -these a,axing lemon flavoured chia seed cookies. I made them quite big and eating one was quite a task and the daughter finished half with significant effort. So if you want, you could make smaller ones for it to be more manageable. But otherwise this is an amazing cookie recipe. It was a vegan recipe which I adapted to my requirements. I used yogurt instead of applesauce and buckwheat flour instead of almond flour to keep it protein rich. I absolutely loved the coconut oil flavour and fragrance from the cookies. This is a one bowl recipe and so it is as easy as it is chewy and flavorful.

I have been telling you too many stories today. Off to the recipe now –
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Protein – Chia seeds, Buckwheat flour

Recipe adapted from here

Makes 10 large cookies

WHAT WE NEED

Lemon zest                      1 tbsp

Lemon juice                     2 tbsp

Yogurt                                3 tbsp

Chia seeds                         2 tbsp

Semi solid coconut oil    3 tbsp

Sugar                                  1/3 cup

Buckwheat flour               1/4 cup

All purpose flour               1 cup

Baking powder                   1 tsp

Salt                                         1/8 tsp

Sugar & salt for coating
WHAT TO DO

  • Mix the lemon zest, lemon juice, yogurt, coconut oil, chia seeds and sugar in a bowl till the sugar dissolves
  • Set it aside for 2 minutes
  • Add the buckwheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder and salt and mix well to form a dough
  • The dough needs to be soft. If it is too sticky, add 1 tbsp of flour. If it is too dry then add few drops of oil or water and mix
  • Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 15 minutes
  • Preheat the oven to 175C
  • Line a baking tray with parchment paper
  • Mix 1 tbsp of sugar and a generous pinch of salt in a plate
  • Take out the dough from the refrigerator
  • Take a small pinch of dough and roll it into a smooth ball
  • Roll the ball in the plate mixed with sugar and salt
  • Place it on the baking tray and press it down so that it is flat
  • These cookies don’t spread much and so you don’t need to leave too much space between 2 cookies on the baking tray
  • Bake for 10-11 minutes and cool for 10 minutes
  • Store at room temperature for 2 days
  • Enjoy them with some milk!

NOTES

  1. The buckwheat flour can be replaced with almond flour, wholewheat flour or all purpose flour
  2. Buckwheat flour tends to absorb more moisture making the dough a little dry. If you are not using buckwheat then reduce the yogurt to 2 tbsp
  3. You can add a pinch of turmeric to get the yellow colour
  4. Semi solid coconut oil is when the coconut oil starts solidifying during cooler weather and is not easy flowing liquid

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This is my post for the Mega Marathon under the theme, ‘Protein Rich Dishes’.
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Italian Lunch Spread

By Posted in Mains, Other Bakes, Soups, Sweets & Desserts, What's cooking Tagged , , , , , , , , 15 Comments

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Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes on my blog or talking to me will know I adore all things cheese and all food Italian. I have been planning on making a full fledged Italian meal forever now but never got around to doing it. The Thali theme for this month’s Blogging Marathon finally forced my hand and I ticked an item off my bucket list.

Disclaimers first – This may not be an authentic Italian meal considering it is purely vegetarian except for an egg in the Eggplant Parmigiana. This would be the meal you would have in popular Italian restaurants in India. My limited research tells me the meal usually consists of –

Soup

Antipasti / Starters

Primo / First course – Usually a risotto or pasta

Secondo / Second course – Usually some meat or fish

Dolce / Dessert

I have made –

Mushroom Soup

Bruschetta – A simple and lip smacking starter that goes well with the soup

Pasta in Arrabiata Sauce for the First Course

Eggplant Parmigiana – A tasty baked eggplant dish topped generously with cheese

Mushroom and Capsicum Pizza with lots of Mozzarella cheese – I used a healthy pizza crust recipe with oats and wheat flour which results in a guilt free indulgence.

Vanilla Panna Cotta – An easy and quick dessert to round up the meal

The usual Italian meal also includes a cheese platter and seasonal fruits. I have omitted them and replaced that with a Pizza in typical Indian style because all we know about the Italian cuisine is pizza, pizza and some more pizza.

I have detailed the recipe for Bruschetta here which is a perfect answer to an easy and tempting starter and can be made quickly if you have unexpected guests.

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This is my post for the Blogging Marathon under the theme – Thalis.

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Stuffed Tomatoes

By Posted in Other Bakes, Snacks, What's cooking Tagged , , , 7 Comments

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We have a new vegetable vendor in our complex who gets fresh veggies and fruits and sells them at a reasonable price. As part of his marketing, he has come up with the offer of free tomatoes. Yes, as many as you like. All you need is to have bought at least one other vegetable. Cool right? So, needless to say my house is overflowing with tomatoes at all times. It is so hard to shake off that silly feeling of grabbing what is free. But I come home and sanity prevails and I am left wondering how to use up all the tomatoes. The daughter is exhausted with tomato soups and tomato rice and tomato juice.

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So when I was at a loss to come up with a baked dish for today’s post, I figured it has to have tomatoes because, duh! So I picked out whatever ingredients were in the fridge and pantry and set out to make the dish as I went along. Modestly speaking, it was quite delicious. I liked them so much that I finished them all without leaving any for my husband. He saw the pictures on the laptop and went ballistic. So I have promised to make them again tomorrow because, free tomatoes. Yay!

Makes 5 stuffed tomatoes

WHAT WE NEED

Tomatoes, medium                 5

Paneer / cottage cheese         60-70 gms

Roasted garlic                           2 cloves

Pitted green olives                   1 tbsp

Mixed Italian herbs                  1 tsp

Chilly flakes                                1/2 tsp

Fresh coriander                          To garnish

Oil

Salt
WHAT TO DO

  • Preheat the oven at 200C
  • Cut a slice from the top of the tomatoes and scoop out the inner flesh and seeds
  • Cut a small slice from the bottom of the tomatoes t ensure they can stand well without falling
  • Rub oil on the skin of the tomatoes 
  • Mix all the other ingredients except fresh coriander to form a crumbly mixture
  • Fill the tomatoes with the paneer mixture
  • Place them on a baking tray and bake for 12 minutes
  • Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh coriander 
  • Serve warm
  • Enjoy!

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This is part of the Bake-a-thon 2016