Basil Pesto & Mushroom Quesadillas

ashu’s Basil Pesto & Mushroom Quesadilla

This morning I made these quesadillas for breakfast and as it is a much liked recipe in my house, I thought of sharing it here with you all. A few basic ingredients are a must to make this at home. We need ready Basil pesto and mushroom filling to make this. I have already shared my recipes of the Basil pesto (click here) and Mushroom filling (click here), check them as previous posts .

I first tasted quesadilla in Chili’s Restaurant in Dubai, something which I would love to eat regularly was the thought that came instantly to mind after the first bite. New food or menus that I loved eating outside first time always end up being tried in my kitchen and getting included in my regular cooking/menus. Like in most Indian houses, I too make fulkas or chapatis or parathas on a daily basis, and hence I prefer to make use of these instead of the Tortillas that I would need to buy from the supermarket for making this recipe. I prefer our regular whole wheat flour to make them. Chapati (without oil) that I make is just a bigger size of the regular  Fulkas that I make for our daily meals. (You can check my Fulka recipe here).

Before we start the recipe I would like to share that I prefer the Cheddar and Parmesan cheeses more in my cooking over other cheese used by the specific recipes. I stock on the Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano, whichever I find available in the supermarkets. I have used the cheese that were stocked in my fridge.

Basil Pesto & Mushroom Quesadillas

INGREDIENTS: (To make for 4)

Chapatis : 8

Basil Pesto: 4 Tbsp

Mushroom Filling : 1 Bowl (For recipe click here)

Cheddar Cheese slices : 6-8 slices (or you can use freshly shredded as per availability or requirement)

Parmesan Cheese: as per preference

Cooking Oil: 4 Tsp (use more if preferred)

METHOD:

Take 2 chapatis at a time and apply the basil pesto on both of them on one side each.

Basil Pesto and Mushroom filling and Chapatis to make the Quesadillas

Take 2 tbsp mushroom filling and spread it on one of the chapatis, cut the cheese slices in smaller pieces and spread over the filling, grate the Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese as per preference and cover it with the other chapati with pesto facing side and press firmly.

Basil pesto & Mushroom Quesadillas

Heat a tava or pan and put these chapatis on it and press firmly with a wooden spatula so that both sides get roasted crispy, melting the cheese inside. We can make use of 1 tsp oil to make them crisper.

Press firmly and roast on both side

Use oil to make more crisp

Remove them from the pan once both sides are reddish and crispy. Cut them into fours and serve hot with more of the Basil pesto or they can be eaten as it is.

Cut the quesadilla into fours

Grate more of the cheese on top if preferred

We can even dry roast them and avoid using oil if we want, I did make some without using oil.

Roasted without oil

ashu’s Basil Pesto & Mushroom Quesadillas

You can make the rest of the quesadillas in this way, with or without using oil. Apply the pesto, mushroom filling, and cheese as per own taste and enjoy these healthy and delicious Quesadillas for any meal of the day.

Tip: You can even make use of any leftover chapati or plain parathas to make the quesadilla with any filling of choice.

I enjoyed writing this post and sharing my simple homemade recipes with you all, hope you enjoy trying it out.

Enjoy!

ashu

 

 

 

Italian Herb Baked Chicken Breasts

ashus-Baked Chicken Breasts

In continuation with posting of the recipes from the Tandoori platter that I had cooked for lunch last week, sharing here the recipe of the baked chicken. (You can check picture and the recipe links at the end of this post)

I am very fond of Tandoori food and it is a favorite food at home, the meat or vegetable may change but the Indian spices used for marination always remain same. But my Jr was after me for a long time to make something that is grilled but not using the Indian spices. Having tasted the recipes using chicken breast in some fast-food joints here, I decided to use the home available ingredients and dish out something new for him. As I stock up on my dried herbs, I have an Italian herb mix that I had asked my hubby to bring for me during one of his tours to Rome. It is my most favorite herb mix, it gives the Marinara sauce that I make at home for my Pasta dishes the perfect taste. Sharing with you all what I made the other day and it was the most delicious baked chicken meat that I ate.

BAKED CHICKEN BREASTS

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken- 2 chicken Breasts

Garlic- 2 cloves

Olive oil- 2 Tbsp

Bread crumbs- 75 gm

(Readymade) Italian seasoning mix- 2 Tbsp

Grated Parmesan cheese- 2 Tbsp

Salt- To taste

Note: Ingredients of the Italian seasoning used were-dried Garlic, Tomato, Oregano, salt, Onion, Carrot and Celery.

ashus-Italian seasoning mix

In case you do not have readymade seasoning available, then you can make a homemade mix of dried Oregano, basil, red chili flakes, salt, pepper, and dried onions, and garlic. If dried garlic is not available then simply increase  the garlic cloves used in the recipe to 3 or 4 in number, depending on the size of the cloves. We want to impart garlic flavor to the oil, but it should not be too strong.

ashus-Italian Herb Baked Chicken

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.

Clean and wash the chicken and pat dry using a kitchen towel or tissue.

Poke the chicken flesh with a fork, this will enable the oil and herb marinade to penetrate inside.

Take a small sauce pan, heat olive oil and then add crushed garlic cloves and the herb mix and switch off the gas flame. One could also use butter instead of oil, but my choice is always olive oil.

Mix the bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese and a pinch or two of the herb mix. Season lightly with salt.

Apply the herb olive oil to the chicken meat, it should be rubbed well so that the flesh is drenched with the herb mix and oil. Leave it to marinate for 15-30 mins.

Note: (If in hurry to eat, bake it without marination time 🙂 )

Coat this herb oil drenched chicken flesh with the bread crumb mix.

Grease a baking dish with the herb oil and put the coated chicken breasts and let the dish then go into the oven for baking. Bake for 30-40 min.

ashusrecipe-The breadcrumb coated chicken meat is ready to go into the oven.

The chicken should be turned once so that both sides are evenly baked. It takes around 30-40 min for the chicken to get cooked. Once it is cooked, I turned on the top grill function of the oven for giving the chicken surface a grilled appearance. Grill it for 10 mins so that the top coat of the bread crumbs get crispy and gave the bite the perfect crunch.

The chicken was well cooked, perfectly marinated, with crispy outer coat. I also baked few baby corns and carrot cuts along with it.

Go ahead and try out this Italian herb seasoned baked chicken dish from ashusktichen 🙂 .

Alternative to oven: In case one does not have an oven, then use a frying pan to cook the chicken. Heat the pan and add 1 Tbsp oil to it and let the chicken cook in the pan for sometime and then only turn. Later tossing and turning it from time to time gives it a crispy outer coat.

If you would like to check out other recipes from the Tandoori platter picture below, do click the links (in red) given to open the recipe posts.

ashus-Tandoori Platter

ashus Tandoori platter- Tandoori Paneer , Tandoori Prawns, Tandoori Gongura prawns.

Using the ingredients that are available at home one can always dish out something new and interesting with just a bit of motivation. Hope you all liked this simple chicken bake and would go ahead and give it a try. Happy Baking 🙂

Enjoy!!

ashu.

 

 

 

Idli Fry-my Italian combination

 

Idli , a personal favourite breakfast food that made my Sunday mornings special, as a child. It is something that I prefer even now for our weekend breakfasts, with the full family in attendance. But it also happens to be something that is on a ‘Not to Eat’ list of my daughter, so even though me and hubby would look forward to this breakfast she would always be absent from the breakfast table on these days under some pretense.

Idli’s are made up of a fermented batter of ground rice and Urad dal (Black gram), are a complete balanced food, rich in protein, one of the best breakfast foods. They are usually served  with Chutney and Sambar that makes it a wholesome balanced meal, the Sambar is made with lentils that has vegetables added.

This particular recipe was made as an attempt to make my daughter give the idli’s a try. As she never relished the plain steamed version, hence I used some pizza topping ingredients and made this dish and served to my hungry kiddo as her evening snack. She simple loved the taste, and thus this simple recipe was created. It is simple and hence young kids who are interested in cooking can also try this out. The left over Idlis can be best used in this way.

INGREDIENTS:

Idlis: 4 number

Olive oil: 1 Tbsp

Red Chilli Flakes: 1 Tsp

Parmesan Cheese: 2 Tbsp(grated)

Salt & Dried Oregano Herb: As seasoning.

Mozzarella Cheese: Optional

Note: Any cooking oil of choice can be used. The cheese used also can be of choice, but using Parmesan was my choice.

METHOD:

Steamed Idlis cut into small

1.  Cut the idlis into small cubes.
2. Heat a pan on the gas flame and add the cooking oil to it. Add the idli cubes to the oil and toss till the cubes become crisper.
3. Sprinkle the chilli flakes, salt, oregano herb and toss well so that the idli cubes get coated.
4. Grate the Parmesan cheese on the idlis and give it final toss. Then switch off the flame of the pan. The yummy idlis are ready to be served with a tangy chilli sauce.

With grated Mozzarella cheese on top.

This simple yet nutritious food can be served in many ways. Here I have made my kiddos favourite recipe as the first one on Idlis, many more posts will be posted as my upcoming posts, as and when I make them in my Kitchen. Until then if you find this interesting then do give it a try.

Wishing you all happy and healthy eating days!

Enjoy! 🙂

ashu