Apple Crisp | Apple crisp with cake crumbs| Leftover recipes

If you are into cake decorating or if you are a frequent cake maker for friends and families and if you are like me who hates dumping that excess cake crumbs then you would also be hunting for recipes and ways to use them. I generally make cake pops and gift it to kids in my apartment but the last time I made some butter cake I had very little crumbs leftover which led me to browse for recipes. Since nothing got me interested, I started putting things together randomly and this happened. Its perfect served warm with a dollop of icecream and a shot of amaretto. Tip: You can replace the apples with berries, peaches or seasonal fruits of choice.

~*What U Need*~ Apples - 2, cored, sliced Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp Brown sugar - 2 tbsp Lemon juice - 1 tsp Cornstarch - 1/2 tbsp Salt - a pinch For the crumble Leftover cake - 1 cup Rolled Oats - 3 tbsp Butter - 1 tbsp, cut into chunks Sliced almonds - 2 tbsp How I Made it: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Peel, core, and slice apples into 1/4-inch slices. Place apples in a large mixing bowl and toss with sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Pour into individual ramekins or a small baking dish. In another large bowl, mix together the oats and almonds. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, gently work in the cold butter until pea-sized lumps are formed. Toss in the cake crumbs. Top apples evenly with mixture and bake until apples are bubbly and topping is golden brown, about 45 minutes, rotating once halfway through cooking.

Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.

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Better than take-out Chicken Fried Rice | Leftover recipes

We buy the fully cooked rotisserie chicken from walmart(read once a month) whenever we visit the place. I love it on my salads seasoned with some salt, pepper and garlic powder and then I love to make chicken salad with greek yogurt, pecans and cranberries which I have as it is or use it in sandwiches. This fried rice is my new favorite to use up the leftover chicken. Stir fried veggies, eggs, chicken and rice mildy flavored with soy sauce and loads of pepper ~ what more for a wholesome meal. I would recommend you to use sesame oil for the best results cos the nuttiness of the oil enhances the overall flavor of this dish.

Prep time: 20 mins; Cook time: 20 mins; Serves - 2-3 ~*What U Need*~ Rotisserie chicken - 1 cup, chopped Cooked basmati rice - 2 cups Sesame oil - 2 tbsp Yellow onion - 1, small, chopped Carrots, beans - 1 cup, chopped Frozen peas - 1/4 cup Soy sauce - 2-3 tbsp Eggs - 2, lightly beaten Green onions - 1/8 cup, chopped Salt, pepper How I Made it: Heat sesame oil in a large pan or wok. Add onion and fry till translucent. Add the peas, beans and carrots and fry until tender. Move this to the side, and pour the beaten eggs onto the other side. Scramble the eggs. Once cooked, mix the eggs with the vegetables. Add the rice and chicken. Pour and gently combine. Add chopped green onions if desired.

Serve warm!!!

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Fruit Trifle | Leftover recipes

I like putting together dishes from leftovers. You never know what would be the end product. You add whatever your heart tells with the mouth leading you in every step. This trifle happened just like that. I had some cake slices and about a cup of cool whip and that made me come up with this trifle. Pappu went totally gaga over the trifle when I took it for our after-dessert. He loves "staaawberry" and every bit of staaawberry on the trifle had to be his. The trifle tastes best when chilled overnight.

~*What U Need*~ Leftover cake - 1 cup Strawberries - 1/2 cup Nectarine - 1 Sugar - 2 + 2 tbsp Cook whip - 1 cup How I made it: Slice the strawberries and nectarines. Add the sugar to each and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 mins. To layer the dessert, arrange the cake slices, spoon the strawberries followed by the whipped cream. Layer the next set of cake slices. This time spoon over the nectarines. Repeat and finally spoon over the fruits.

Serve chilled!!!

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Naanizza ~ Indianised | Dal Makhani Naanizza

What do you do when you have leftover naans and the urge to have something different, you make naanizza. To put it simple it is jut naan + pizza. And if you still don't get it, let me simplify it for you. You are so lazy that you buy frozen naans or use leftover naan breads for the pizza base and top it just as you would do for a regular pizza. It tastes just right like any pan pizza and you can get creative adding loads of cheese or shredded chicken or pepperoni or just capsicum and mushroom. The sky is your limit when it comes to toppings.

This naanizza is fully Indianised!!! And I mean totally. The pizza sauce is replaced with dhal makani and I topped that with chopped onions and tomatoes and just a few sprinkles of mozzarella. But just go overboard with the cheese if you are in for it. If you do not have leftover dal then just use 1/4 cup of pizza sauce. I will share the basic naanizza recipe soon.

~*What U Need*~ Leftover Naan - 2 to 3 Onion - 1/4 cup, sliced Tomatoes - 1/4 cup, diced Dal makhani - 1/2 cup Grated mozzarella - 1/2 cup Italian seasoning - 1 tsp How I Made it: Preheat oven to 425F. Brush olive oil on the naan, spread dak makhani and top it with onion, tomatoes, cheese and italian seasoning. Bake for 7-10 mins depending on how crisp u need the pizza to be.

Serve warm.

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Chocolate Strawberry Trifle | Leftover recipes

There are days at home when the cake that I bake becomes an overdose and it is left on its own to go stale. On those days I have to resort to other ways to feed the family that final piece and nothing can jazz up a humble piece of cake like a good trifle. I love a good trifle and I love surprising my huss with a good one too. That awed look he gives when he digs into the dessert exploring each layer as he goes deep into the trifle is precious to me. The huss loved the look of it and grabbed his share before I could take decent photographs and the one you see is my share standing alone with no company. :(

I generally make him some yogurt parfaits with granola for snack and add in chopped fruit to make it healthy. But at times I like giving him a treat too and that is when I make some easy leftover desserts like this. I had some frozen strawberries and it was time to take them out to give the dessert a tang. Strawberries add color and the needed tanginess to cut off the sweetness from the chocolate cake and pudding. The below mentioned quantity serves just two but it can be easily doubled or tripled for a larger quantity.

~*What U Need*~ Chocolate cake crumbs - 1 cup Strawberries - 1 cup Sugar - 2-3 tbsp Water - 2 tbsp Milk - 1 cup Cocoa powder - 1 tbsp Egg yolk - 1 Sugar - 3 tbsp Vanilla extract - 1/4 tsp How I Made it: Wash and hull the strawberries. Chop them up and take them in a pan. Add sugar and water and boil them till you get a chunky sauce of chutney consistency. Set this aside. Heat milk in a pan, add the sugar and whisk till hot and combined well. Pour this slowly into the egg yolk and whisk well tempering the egg. Return this to the pan and heat till thick and coating a spatula, whisking the whole time. Cool completely. Layer your serving bowl with cake crumbs, then the strawberry sauce and finally the chocolate pudding. Repeat till the dish is full ending with the pudding.

Serve chilled with a dollop of whipped cream!!!

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Ghee Milk Solids Laddoo | Nei Urundai | Leftover Recipes

When amma makes ghee, she usually ditches the milk solids that settle down after the heating part. We usually make ghee from small amounts of butter and so it didn't matter. But this time when I made ghee, I used a one pound butter block and there was quite some milk solids left over. I didn't want to waste them, after all it is just solidified milk. When I was talking about this with amma, she gave me this idea to make laddoos. Sounded simple and knew that the huss would love these.

I used wheat flour but you can use urad dhal or moong dhal flour too. And tastewise, it was great ~ crunchy from the milk solids, melt in the mouth from the ghee and nutty from the wheat flour. One point that needs attention is roasting the wheat flour. You have to get a nice nutty aroma and the colour should be a golden brown.

Prep Time: Nil; Cooking time: 15 mins; Makes: 7-8 ~*What U Need*~ Left over milk solids from the ghee Wheat flour - 1/2 cup Sugar - 3 tbsp Ghee - 3 tbsp or more Cashew nuts - 2 tbsp How I Made it: Put the wheat flour in the pan which has the milk solids and mix well to combine. The flour should become wet. Transfer this to a kadai and in medium heat roast till you a rich aroma and the wheat flour turns golden brown. Remove from heat, add the sugar, give it a stir and allow to cool. Heat 3 tbsp ghee in a pan and fry the cashews. Once the wheat mixture becomes hand-bearable, add the cashews and the ghee, mix well and start forming laddoos. Add more ghee if you cannot form balls.

Store in an air-tight container!!!

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Noodles Cutlet / Tikki - Bake or Toast 'em

I don't have that many cutlet/tikki recipes in my space. Reason being 'A' prefers oven roasted fries to cutlets for his tea time snack and more than that I am too lazy to boil, fry, season, do an egg wash and then again pan fry them.

The huss is in favor of getting an occasional pack of 2-minute noodles. Says it makes for a fuss-free lazy-Saturday-Sunday breakfast. Between you and me, it makes his job of weekend cooking easy. And again between you and me, weekends are sleep-till-10am-days for me. It so happens that he wakes up early, makes the noodles for self and by the time I wake up it dries off and I will have to punch it down through my throat and at times it visits the bin too.

It was then that I started browsing for recipes that used noodles in some way or the other and luckily I came across a Tarla Dalal one. It is a great way to use leftover noodles (if you are left with some) and is a sure kid-pleaser or any crowd of any age pleaser. You could either pan fry or deep fry them or even bake them in the oven as I did in case you are too calorie conscious. And for the record, I am not sooo calorie-conscious. I baked them just to see how they would turn up and they are definitely not my type. But it makes a great option when you are serving these cutlets to your elders.

You could also slide them in between burger buns, top it with onions and tomato rings, a dollop of mayo and a slice of cheese.

~*What U Need*~ Maggi(5 Rs pack) - 1 Potato - 1,large Carrot - 1,medium,grated Onion - 1 Green chilli - 1 Garlic - 2 cloves Ginger - 1" Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 1 tsp Garam masala - 1/4 tsp Salt, oil - as needed Bread crumbs - to toast Egg - 1

How I Made it:
Boil potatoes and peel the skin. Mash them and set aside. Grate the carrot. Chop onions. Break the maggi and prepare as per instructions.
Heat oil, saute finely chopped ginger, garlic and green chilli. Add onions and saute till brown. Add the carrot and saute for 5 mins. Next throw in the red chilli-, coriander-, garam masala powders and fry. Mix the mashed potato and combine well. Remove from flame, once cooled add the prepared maggi and combine well. Take care not to break the noodles. Form cutlets of desired shape.
Break the egg, beat well. Alternatively you cam combine 1 tbsp flour with 2 tbsp water and use the slurry. Dip the cutlet in this, roll in breadcrumbs to evenly coat. Deep fry or toast in oil. You can also bake in a preheated oven @ 210 C for 20 mins. Flip and bake for another 10 mins to get a healthier version.

Serve with pulao or as evening snack or slide in between burgers.

** My Notes:
** You could use whole wheat noodles also.
** The next time I try this it is gonna be with Curry noodles but if you try that do let me know how it turned up.
** Instead of egg, you could use cornflour slurry to coat the tikkis.

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Strawberry Cupcakes | Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cupcakes | Leftover frosting cupcakes

When I made the strawberry buttercream cake for baby A's 10th month birthday, I was left with some buttercream (say 1/2 cup). I knew that the best option would be 'licking the bowl clean' but the waist line posed a threat and that was ruled out. Another cake or might be some cupcakes was the second best option. Now donot give me that look. I can hear your mind voice. And here is my justification ~ the plan was to make cupcakes and hand it over to the newly moved-in neighbors keeping 1+1 for self and amma. And so the cupcakes were baked, packed and gifted to them. They were impressed and the love and effort that was put in was lauded.

We had one as soon as the batch was out of the oven, cooled ofcourse. Amma said the tartness of the berries stood out but it was perfectly complemented by the sweetness. I loved it that way, I loved the mild tartness. The reserved one was devoured the next day. There was no predominant tartness instead a mild sweet tanginess sang through the cupcake. I loved it more this way. And so I recommend you to have it the next day when the flavors have matured.

Now I have given the changes that I made to use the buttercream in "My Notes" section. This recipe can be adapted for any buttercream frosting. Substitute frosting of choice for the strawberry buttercream one.

Makes 6 medium sized cupcakes Recipe adapted from Myrecipes ~*What U Need*~ All purpose flour - 1/2 + 1/3 cups Baking powder - 1/2 tsp + a pinch Butter - 4 tbsps / 50 gm Sugar - 1/3 cup Egg - 1, medium Milk - 2 tbsp Strawberries - 1/2 cup, chopped Chocolate chips - a handful

How I Made it:
Preheat oven to 190°C. Line a 6-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a bowl, seive the flour, baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat till well combined.

Add the half of the flour and fold in gently. Combine the milk and then the remaining flour. Fold in chopped strawberries reserving a few followed by the chocolate chips.

Scoop batter into the muffin liners to fill 2/3rd, top with remaining berries and bake for 20-25 mins. Check for doneness and cool in pan for 5 mins. Remove and cool completely.

Enjoy topped with a sliced strawberry or strawberry coulis!!!

** My Notes:
** Milk can be replaced with orange juice.
** I replaced the butter and sugar with 1/2 cup strawberry buttercream frosting + 2 tbsp butter.
** The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of chopped strawberries but I used 1/2 cup.
** You can add more chocolate chips if needed.
** Mine got baked in 22 mins precise so keep an eye after the 20th minute.

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Kothu Parotta | Chicken or veg ~ its ur choice | Leftover Recipes

Its party time everywhere. Its snowing everywhere. Not here though but we are experiencing a very bad chillness this time. Nothing like last year. Me and the kid are under the covers till 8a.m in the morning. And that is when you can feel the sun. Till then its this weird chillness. Lately, we have been having lots of friends over. At times, I make them dinner but there are days when I just donot budge to make dinner for a big crowd. Those days, 'A' "happily" orders from the restaurants. Yes, happily, not that he doesn't enjoy my food but he needs a change too. I hear that... thats what I tell to myself. Now back to the menu, its usually chicken biryani, parottas and lots of non-veg sides.

As it goes, we end up with loads of leftovers which is usually dumped into the fridge and the biryani visits the bins. The parottas, however I freeze them and also the sides. This time when we had friends over, we ordered lots of parottas and chilli chicken and tandoori chicken to go with them. When the party was over, as usual there were leftovers. In they went into the fridge, and the next day I shredded them, fried them together and made these masala-y Kothu paratha for our dinner. It was so yummy and its a great way to use left-overs. I am sharing this for this Christmas as you will have leftovers after all that partying is over and if parotta and chicken sides are part of them, then give this recipe a shot.

Pointers:
** Egg-etarians can skip the chicken and use only egg. Subsitute veg or mutta curry for the salna part.
** On the other hand, vegetarians can skip the egg and use a cup of assorted julienne-d veggies of choice and substitute veg kurma for chicken curry.

Serves - 1 ~*What U Need*~ Parottas - 2, shredded Onion - 1, large Tomato - 1 medium Eggs - 1 Shredded Chilli Chicken - 1/2 cup Kada Salna / Leftover chicken curry - 3/4 cup Fennel or saunf seeds - 1/2 tsp Curry leaves - 2 sprigs Green chilli - 1, chopped Oil, salt

How I Made it:
Shred the parotta finely. Heat oil in a kadai, add the fennel seeds and allow to brown. Add onions and saute. Add the green chilli and curry leaves and fry till onions turn soft. Add the tomatoes and saute till oil comes out.

Move this to the side of the pan and scramble the eggs at high heat. Once scrambled, mix the egg with the onion mixture. Next add the shredded chilli chicken pieces and mix well. Again set this to the side of the pan, add the chicken curry and allow it to reduce.

Once reduced, mix this with the onion-egg-chicken mixture. Set the flame to high, add the parotta pieces and keep folding till the parotta is coated with the masala and the mixture dries a bit. Remove from flame.

Serve hot with chicken curry and onion raitha!!!

** My Notes:
** Once you add the parotta pieces, the process should be done in high heat.
** If you do not have chilli chicken, then add shredded fried chicken with spices (chilli, coriander, turmeric and garam masala).
** Adding chicken curry or veg kurma gives more masala flavor and the needed moisture to bind the dish together but you can skip this too.

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