Mexican vegetarian lasagna

2015 .... a first post in the new year.... haven't been blogging ...though I cooked and tried a lot of old and new recipes in the final months of 2014. I find photographing difficult in my kitchen here.... I do not have any natural light.... but, hoping to change and blog more, about the recipes I learnt.

Asian cuisine ingredients are difficult to find here, but you can easily get mexican cuisine stuff. I have started liking mexican food here....and this is one of the mexican inspired recipes.... I have used some store bought ingredients for it, but you can make the sauces at home too. It feeds many and a good recipe to take to a potluck.

Ingredients:

• Corn tortillas 1 pack -- I used about 18 for 3 layers
  
• Picante sauce -- I used Pace brand available in my grocery store, about 1.5 cups
• Salsa sauce -- I used Red Gold medium spicy, about 1.5 cups
• 1 can -- black beans
• 1 can -- pitted and sliced black olives
• 1 red onion
• 200 grams button mushrooms
• 1 green capsicum
• 3 small carrots
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 cups mixed mexican/southwestern blend cheese
•  5 cloves garlic
• 2-3 green chilies
• 2 avocadoes
• salt and pepper and about 1-2 tsp olive oil

Recipe:

• Prep and chop the fresh ingredients. Peel and grate the garlic. Wash vegetables and chop the onions, garlic, chilies, mushrooms, capsicum. Defrost the corn.

• Heat the oil in the pan.
• Saute the chopped onions, till they are translucent.

• Add the garlic, chilies, capsicum, carrots, mushrooms and finally the corn.

• Keep sauteing on medium heat till the vegetables are cooked. Add salt and pepper and keep them aside to cool.

• Cut the corn tortillas in half and heat them on a skillet for about 30 seconds each side.

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
• Assemble the lasagna.
• Take a glass or metal baking pan. (I used 13*9 glass pan). Layer the bottom of the pan with 2-3 tbsp of salsa sauce.
• Place the corn tortilla halves in single layer on the salsa.
• Spread 2-3 tbsp of picante sauce on top of the tortillas.
• Spread the prepared vegetable layer.
• Sprinkle beans and olives.
• Finally, add cheese.
• Repeat all the layers. 
• I made about 3 layers.

• Top the lasagna with picante sauce and more cheese and olives.
• Bake for about 30-35 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the lasagna in hot oven for about 5 minutes.
• Take it out and let it rest for 10 minutes more.

• Garnish with chopped avocados and /or sour cream. 

• Serve hot.

Quantity:

• Makes about 8-10 servings.

Notes:

• You can make it with chicken mince. Add about 2 cups of chicken mince to the vegetarian ingredients.
• You can use either salsa or picante, or both.
• Increase or omit cheese and avocados.
• Also, a big tip is to top the lasagna with avocado slices just before serving. Cut the avocados only when you are going to serve. If u leave them they will turn black soon.  (as you see in the following picture )

Dark Fudgy Brownies

Re-starting my blog from the USA after a long break. I moved here about 4 plus months ago. New place, cold weather, moving to an apartment and unpacking and long summer holidays with grandparents left me with no time for cooking for the blog....rather clicking for the blog. Today, I made the all time popular American dessert. I still have to buy a cake whisk for baking, but this recipe is quite simple with all the ingredients to be mixed in one after the other to create the famous kid approved dessert.

Ingredients:

• 150 grams dark chocolate ( with 70 percent or more cacao)
  
• 1/2 cup (or 1 stick/113 gms butter) -- I used "salted". "Unsalted" is preferable.
• 1/4 cup (20 grams) cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup (100 grams) all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (70 grams) sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used "white". Dark chocolate chips can be used)
• 1/4 tsp salt (I didn't add -- as I used salted butter)
• 1/4 cup water

Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease the baking dish with oil or butter. I used a brownie pan. I greased the individual slots with oil.
• Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl on a double boiler. (Take a pan. Boil water. Put the glass bowl on top of the water. The glass bowl should be bigger than the vessel in which the water is boiling. Add the chocolate and butter in the bowl and melt it with the heat of the steam from the boiling water. The bottom of the glass bowl shouldn't touch the water)

• Once the butter and the chocolate is melted, mix it well with a spatula and keep it aside to cool.

• Add cocoa powder to the flour and sift the mix of dry ingredients and keep it aside.

• Add sugar to the cooled butter /chocolate and mix it well with a spoon or a spatula.

• Add eggs one at a time and mix.

• Add the vanilla extract.

• Lastly add the flour/cocoa and mix. At this point, I found the mixture to be very thick, I added about 1/4 cup of water. Mix till everything is smooth and to the dropping consistency.

• Pour the mix in the greased baking tray. If using the brownie pan, add about 1/4 cup of the mix in each slot. Top with dark or white chocolate chips.

• Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade (350 degrees F)
• Turn off the oven and leave the tray/pan in the oven for about 5 minutes.
• Let the brownies cool in the tray for another 10 minutes.

• Then cut them to squares or take them out in a plate to serve.

Quantity:

• Makes about 9 pieces (2 inch squares about an inch thick)

• Serve them warm or room temperature or with icecream.

Notes:

• The sugar is very less in this recipe. You can increase the sugar to 1/2 or even 1 cup.
• I preferred slightly bitter taste with bits of sweetness from the white choco-chips.
• Use good quality dark chocolate, with no or very less sugar.
• You can also use nuts(walnut, pistachio, almonds) instead or with chocolate chips.