My Awesome Summer Vacation

Woah! Now that was an awesome two months. I simply loved the tempo of those 8 weeks – hectic yet relaxed – preparing for the Purple Theory cookery classes, weekly trips to Lulu Mall, working out religiously and regularly at the gym, giving in to persistent cookie baking requests from the tiny two, going for late-night movies with the whole family every weekend, trying out new dishes, meeting friends after ages, attending cake decorating classes and so much more. 

   

It was quite a bonus getting a Thai Basil stem from an acquaintance and to see the plantlings pot well. What more. I managed to bring one pot back to Bangalore.    

A few of the things that I made this summer

Yet another highlight of this vacation was the exciting experience of making fresh pasta. Fresh pasta is really so easy to make, and it tastes so different. Don’t get me wrong; the readymade ones are good, it’s just that fresh pasta is way better. I did not take pictures of my handmade pasta (lasagne & fettucine) as we were all too busy licking our forks. 

   

As for the 75-bucks-a-piece lemons that I bought, I made lemon curd besides other lesser things. Totally worth my money. It was something that I’d wanted to taste for a long time anyway. So, I made it one early morning when the rest of the household was still in bed. Haya and I had a jolly good time making it. Haya entertained herself by whisking the custard and I was thrilled watching the slow transformation of the custard. Haya also enjoyed licking teeny tiny slices of the precious citrus fruit.

     

For the lemon curd, I followed the recipe here. Joy of Baking.com is a website that I now follow for its great instructions, clear videos, detailed explanations, and life-saving tips. The lemon curd turned out good. It tastes so tart and tangy. Yum! It goes really well with cupcakes and even plain ol’ bread. 

    

I used a bit of the lemon curd to sandwich cookies. They look like fried eggs, don’t they? Well, I had initially planned to sandwich heart-shaped cookies, but I ran out of cookie dough and time, which is clearly evident from the not-so-perfect circles. 

Cut-out cookies with Lemon Curd

The cookies are very easy to make. By the time your oven is preheated, the cookies are ready for baking. I especially liked the short baking time, which meant that I could pretty much churn out cookies to match the ceaseless demand. I believe I baked the whole thing in 3 batches. Did I forget to mention that the kids downed the first batch in minutes? I got the recipe here.

I wasn’t planning on making any changes, but I was pretty much forced to. I had been delaying the kid’s request for cookies. First, there were no star-shaped and heart-shaped cookie cutters. Once we bought those, then there were no eggs. I’m sure by now you’ve sensed my half-hearted effort to bake the cookies. I mean, what good comes out of eating loads and loads of butter and sugar. Anyway, next we ran out of vanilla essence, as if that was the most essential ingredient. Heehee. At long last, I felt bad for the kid and finally decided to bake the cookies. That’s when I realized that we did not have any unsalted butter. The original recipe calls for margarine. It would be a joke to look for margarine in a place where even unsalted butter is a rare find. So I substituted the butter with table butter and skipped the salt that the recipe called for.

Heart-shaped cookies for the two lovely girls

Easy Cut-Out Cookies

Ingredients:

Butter - 1 cup, softened (not unsalted)

Sugar - 1 cup

Eggs - 2

Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

Maida - 3 cups

Baking soda - ½ tsp

Method:

1.       Cream together the butter, sugar, and eggs. Stir in the vanilla essence.

2.       In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.

3.       Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and mix well to form a dough.

4.       Roll out the dough, not too thin. Cut into different shapes using a cookie cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet.

5.       Bake at 375°F/190°C/Gas 5 for 8 minutes.

These are soft cookies that need to be stored in airtight containers. They last about a week, but I bet they'll be long gone before the expiry date.

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces. ~Judith Viorst

Welcome to the Lab

 Proudly presenting the Purple Theory Lab aka Kitchen where all sorts of experiments are boldly performed.
     

So, tiny sparks of ideas and that desire to share good food got me to this project. Mom, S-i-l and I will be conducting cooking demos for our respective dishes. I look forward to the cooking sessions. At the same time there are butterflies in my stomach. Wait a minute, that's coz I haven't had my breakfast yet.

I better get started. I have about 65 recipes to write. Yikes. Moreover, the first set of notices would have reached their destination by now. Now, lets see.

Pen. Check. 

Paper. Check.

Calls. Waiting.

(Trrinng Trrinng )

Oops, gotta go.

Chicken Bread Cups

Here’s one that you can quickly assemble when you have unexpected guests at your doorstep. Better yet, make some for your evening cravings.
  

    
I made these bread cups a little before lunch, so I could serve them as a starter. The kids slowly nibbled through quite a few, while the grownups popped them right in.
   

Chicken Bread Cups

Ingredients:

Bread – 12 slices

Butter - as required

Chicken - 1 cup, boiled and minced

White sauce – ½ cup

Tomato ketchup – to garnish

Method:

1. Slice off the crust of all the slices, and butter both sides.
2. Arrange the buttered slices of bread in the muffin tray to form cup-like shapes.
3. In an oven preheated to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6, bake the bread for 10 minutes or till golden brown.
4. Cool on a wire rack in the muffin tray for about 5 minutes. The bread cups are ready.
5. To make the filling, combine the minced chicken and white sauce. Season as required.
6. Place a spoonful of the filling on each bread cup.
7. Garnish with a swirl of ketchup. Serve warm.

Words of Wisdom

Tip #1: I used stale bread for the bread cups. Silly mistake. Turns out they aren't as pliable as I'd imagined.  I call it the stale bread debacle.So, it would be quicker, easier, and less messier to use fresh bread.

Tip #2: I shredded my chicken into long strands and ended up with the filling coming off the cup with each bite. You need to mince or shred the chicken real small.

Tip #3: For the more calorie conscious, I say skip the butter and lightly dip the slices in beaten egg whites before arranging them in the muffin tray.

   

Now, this is not one of those dishes I found on the Internet. I took it straight out of a Vanitha Paachakam from my mom’s collection, something I resort to during my no-Internet days in Kerala.
    

I made a few with a crumbled liver filling 

PS: Normally, I wouldn't label these bread cups as fusion food, but I had to fuse the broken pieces of bread with beaten egg. Hence the label.

The beauty of these bread cups is that you can add all sorts of toppings. Next time, I'm going to try a fruit-based filling.

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie. ~ Jim Davis

A Meen Pie

What caught my attention in this article that I found while scouring for Kerala-style fish dishes was the tempting, refreshing picture. I bookmarked the page right away. I knew I’d recreate that pie at least once.
   

My Sunday Fish Pie

Sundays in my house normally mean indulgence – sleep, food, mall-hopping. Today's theme was food. After a sumptuous lunch and a few hours of non-stop chattering, I knew that I needed to stimulate my slumbering self. So, I got some Bluefin Trevally (Vatta in Malayalam; Hammaam in Arabic) from my fish monger and got started with my version of the fish pie.
  

I did not depart much from the original recipe. I omitted the peas and parsley (nobody wants to eat greens on Sundays). I added a little garam masala as suggested in the article. I did not add the eggs because I did not have any. The best part of this dish is that I got an excuse to make my mashed potatoes...Yum!

Fish Pie

Ingredients:

Any big fish – ¼ kg (cooked in a little water, turmeric, and salt)

Onion – 1, finely chopped

Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tsp

Paprika – ½ tsp

Chili powder – ½ tsp

Ground pepper – ½ tsp

Oil – 2 tsp

Spring onions – ½ cup, chopped +1 tbsp for garnishing, finely chopped

White sauce – 1 cup, thickened

Mashed potatoes – about 12-15 ice cream scoops (here's the recipe)

Method:

1. Flake the cooked fish.
2. Saute the onions in a little oil.
3. Add the ginger-garlic paste when the onions turn translucent.
4. Once the raw smell of the ginger and garlic disappears, add the powders. Saute for about 30 seconds.
5. Add the fish and spring onions, and saute for about a minute.
6. Add the white sauce, and combine well.

Assembling the pie:

1. Grease a baking dish, and spread the fish mixture evenly over the base of the baking dish.
2. Layer the mash over the fish. You can scoop the mashed potato over the fish for even layering and added effect. 
3. Bake the fish pie at 375°F/190°C/Gas 5 till the potato starts turning brown.
4. Garnish with spring onions. Serve hot.

The fish pie was out of the oven around dinner time. The only delay in digging in was the time I spent clicking these pictures, sub-standard as they are.
I also managed to click a picture during the dinner dash. Since there are many fish lovers in the family and even more mash fans, the pie disappeared within minutes. It kind of reminded me of a cartoon where Jerry wipes out an entire table full of food.

Life is too short for self-hatred and celery sticks. ~ Marilyn Wann

Mini Shepherd’s Pie

Here's a post that I'd started a couple of weeks ago, read on.
I came across this dish a few days back, and ever since I’d been thinking of trying something like that myself. Today, I was already doing a lot of the usual cooking and I thought, “Why not dabble in some pie?” I’ve also had making Shepherd’s Pie in my mental to-do list for a while now. I had some spare shredded chicken to make the filling, so a few online recipes and lots of tips later, I got 8 medium potatoes boiling for mashed potatoes.  

Mini Shepherd's Pie with Chicken Filling

The basic ingredients for mashed potatoes: boiled potatoes, salt, pepper, a generous amount of butter and a few splashes of cream. Yes, I am trying real hard to inch past that border-line cholesterol of mine. The secret to good mashed potatoes, one that is not pasty, is to eliminate water. That includes steam from the boiled potatoes. After mashing the potatoes with a potato ricer or a fork, season the potatoes and add a few tablespoons of butter. Finally, add the cream. You need to make sure not to overmix the mash, otherwise you end up with a gooey mess instead of fluffy mash. My mashed potatoes turned out pretty good, so good that my kid who’s a fussy eater kept on tasting forkfuls from the bowl.

  

With the mash out of the way, I was about to make an Indianized chicken filling. That’s when it hit me that if I were to make mini Shepherd’s pie, I’d need something edible to line my trusted, versatile muffin tray. I couldn't that the easy way out as there was no bread in stock. So my dabbling changed to downright experimenting as I started making a shortcrust pastry for the pie. Yikes! This takes me back a few years when I tried a hand at making quiche from scratch! Not only was I uninformed about the art of pastry-making, but I also did the blunder of not following a recipe – I was doing it Jamie Oliver-style, without the skill. Talk about experiments blowing up in your face.

   

Anyway, a few years and a couple of grey hair past, I learned my lesson. Today, I really wanted to succeed and that meant more online research. I followed this recipe to the T. I think I did pretty good, well almost (read on and you’ll know why). 

Mini Shepherd’s Pie

For the mashed potatoes:

• Potatoes  – 8 medium
• Butter  – ½ cup (feel free to indulge yourself with more)
• Cream – ¼ cup
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 

1. Boil the potatoes till cooked. Make sure not to overcook them. 
2. Peel the potatoes and mash them with the back of a fork. Use a wide bowl to help the steam escape. 
3. Add salt and pepper, and mix with the fork. Next, incorporate the butter and cream while taking care not to overmix.

There's more mashed potatoes than necessary for the pie. It helps to make the mash first - that way you and your family can have forkfuls every now and then till the mini pies are ready.

For the filling:

• Shredded Chicken – 2 cups (cooked with salt, pepper and green chilies for spicing up the filling)
• Onion – ½ medium, finely minced  
• Garlic – 4 cloves, finely minced
• Garam masala – ½ tsp
• Coriander powder – ¼ tsp
• Coriander leaf – 4 tbsp, finely chopped
• Oil – 1 tbsp

1. Sauté onion and garlic in oil till the onions become soft and translucent.
2. Add coriander powder and coriander leaf and sauté for about 20 seconds.
3. Add the shredded chicken and garam masala, and sauté for 2-3 minutes till the coriander leaf is soft.

For the pastry case:

1. Make a batch of pastry dough according to this recipe. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
3. Roll out the chilled shortcrust pastry to about the thickness of a five rupee coin. Cut out circles big enough to cover the base and sides of your muffin mold. Keep in mind that the pastry shrinks when baked. So, you may have to cut out slightly bigger circles.
4. Grease the muffin tray with butter. Gently place the pastry in the muffin molds and press down lightly so that the pastry takes the shape of the mold. Prick the pastry lightly with a fork. Cover the muffin tray with cling film and rest it in the fridge for 15 minutes.
5. Next, cover the molds with foil or butter paper, and fill them with dried beans. Bake the pastry for 10 minutes. When the top edges of the pastry start turning brown, remove the beans and the foil. Bake the pastry for another 3-5 minutes so that the base dries out. While the beans and the pricking stop the pastry from rising while cooking, blind baking gives you a crisp pastry case.
6. Allow the pie crust to cool down completely before adding the filling. Otherwise, the crust becomes soggy.

Important: Never take the shortcut of not blind baking the pastry – a mistake that I made. The pastry takes ages to cook, drying out the filling in the process. Moreover, you end up with a soggy crust. My other mistake was that I rolled out the pastry quite thick.
   

   Assembling the pies:

1. Fill each pastry mold with the chicken filling.
2. Cover the pie with a generous layer of mashed potatoes. You can also pipe the mash over the filling for enhanced visual appeal.
3. Sprinkle some chopped coriander on top.
4. Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 190°C/375°F/Gas 5 until the potato turns golden brown.

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~ Luciano Pavarotti

'Aloo 'Aloo!

What was supposed to be a wallet-restocking halt turned into a rather wallet-emptying spree. You see, much to my husband’s delight, after getting out of the ATM, I took a detour to the shop next door and splurged on these:

• Freshly-baked sweet bread and milk bread
• Puliyogare mix and Chutney powder
• Khaara bun aka Aloo bun

Normally, any detour from the plan deeply agonizes my husband…all but the detour to the local Iyengar bakery. Sareen, being the typical Bangalore-bred person that he is, pines for Khaara buns, pigs out on bakery bread and is delighted to be served Chutney podi with his breakfast Dosas. The above is a list of things that most Bangaloreans croon over.
   

  
So the other day, I headed to the bakery to buy a few loaves of bread, yes you heard me right – these are so good you consume them by the loaves. Anyway, in the bakery, I also bought the staple powders and mixes and the Aloo bun. The Aloo bun is not disgustingly delicious that I’d write raving reviews about it, yet it is one of those things that foodies must try at least once, like visiting the Taj Mahal for travel-junkies.

Every time I buy these buns, I think of trying it out myself. So, as jobless as I am now, I started trolling for Aloo bun recipes. One common recipe that I came across is by using the standard bread/bun dough and stuffing them with spicy potato filling. The one that I decided to experiment was, however, a potato-based dough. I liked it better than the regular dough.

I looked up this recipe and made my own changes. By changes I mean that I did not stick to precise measurements and used shortcuts.

Aloo Bun / Khaara Bun

Ingredients:

Potato - 1 medium

Milk - 1 cup  

Yeast - 1 tsp

All-purpose flour (Maida) – 2 cups

Wheat flour – ½ cup

Salt - 1 tsp

Oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Boil and peel the potato.
2. Mash the potato and mix it with milk. Make sure that the potato milk mixture is warm and then add the yeast to it and let it rest for 5 minutes.
3. Combine the flours. Add salt and oil to it and mix well.
4. Add half the flour to the potato mixture and mix thoroughly. Once the flour is fully incorporated, gradually add the remaining flour and knead the dough for roughly 10 minutes until it is smooth and bounces back when you press it lightly. If the dough is sticky, add a little flour and knead. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and proof it for about an hour or until the dough doubles in size.
5. Once rested, gently punch out the air by kneading the dough for 1-2 minutes.
6. Make a medium-sized ball and flatten the ball to about the size of a CD. The flattened ball should not be more than ½” thick.
7. Spoon some of the filling on the centre of the flattened ball.
8. Bring together the edges of the circle and close it up like a bun. Repeat the same for the remaining dough. You can make about 10 buns with this dough.
9. Place the buns seam-side down on a greased cookie sheet. Cover the buns with a damp cloth and proof it for another 30-45 minutes. When the buns become double the size, bake it in a moderately hot oven (about 200°C) for about 12-15 minutes until the top starts browning. I baked in the microwave oven on medium heat for 8 minutes and then to brown the top I grilled the bun for 5 minutes.
10. In the final minute of baking, baste the top of the buns with oil and milk. You can baste the buns with egg wash for a shiny golden top.

Important: Make sure you seal the seams of the buns properly, otherwise they will open up while baking.
   

     

For a spicy potato filling, you can sauté boiled, mashed potatoes with finely chopped onions and spices like chilli powder and garam masala. I made a veg filling with finely grated carrots, finely chopped beans and mashed potatoes. You can use just about any stuffing; just ensure that it is a dry one. Next time, I plan to use a chicken filling.

After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relatives. ~Oscar Wilde

Shawarma, Maafi Mushkil!

After enduring disappointing experiences eating abysmal Shawarmas over and over again, I finally decided to take things in my own hands. A few months back, I made the Shawarma at home. I was delighted to finally relish something that you could call a Shawarma. This was to be the beginning of a life-long Shawarma-fest.

Last month, we had Sareen’s uncle and family visiting us from Kerala. It was a pleasure making the Shawarma, particularly for Sareen’s uncle who’d been in Saudi Arabia for a while. I made everything from scratch - the pita bread, the chicken filling, the dressing and even the Fries. Need I mention that I got positive reviews?
   
I’m not going to post the recipe here; I just referred to recipes that I found online. The marinade for the meat keeps changing based on my audience; the seasonings range from Arabic spices to green or red chili and the tenderizers range from lemon to vinegar to yoghurt. Since I am, as always, too lazy to preheat the oven, I just roast the meat in a wok. More importantly, it is too agonizing to patiently wait for 45 minutes when the alternative takes just about a third of the time.
    
I like making the Tarator, the tangy bitter sauce in the Shawarma. Besides the catchy name, I like mixing spoonfuls of bitter Tahini with garlic, lemon and yoghurt, the ingredients that I like the most.
Making Khubz is easier than making chapatti; you just need to give the dough some TLC aka kneading. While making the Khubz is not a big chore, I really wish for the abundance and access to the myriad Khubz varieties that we have in the ME.

Assembling the Shawarma is probably the only tedious part of the whole process. The one key element that’s missing from my Shawarma is pickled cucumber. The stores here seem to have only sweet pickles, and I haven’t yet cracked the code to the perfect pickled veggie.
  
Now that I’ve recreated the shawarma, I think I’ll move on to another favorite in our household – Foul Mudammes and Biskoot Khubz.

Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul. ~ Dorothy Day

You mean Meen?

Recently, while holidaying in Pondicherry, I was determined to try out as much seafood as possible because, at times, we get such rotten fish here in Bangalore. So, for lunch and dinner, I skipped the lamb and fowl and dived straight into the seafood platter, shrimp salad, fried fish and seafood creole (high on my to-cook list). I also tasted this very yummy Meen Kollumbu, a Tamil fish curry. Right then, right there I decided I had to recreate that seafood classic. Yesterday, after much searching, I found this recipe, and I followed it almost to the T.

Meen Kollumbu

Meen Kollumbu

Ingredients: 
Kingfish – 750 gm
Shallots – 1 cup (or 1 large red onion)
Coconut – ½ a coconut
Tamarind – extract of about a lemon-sized ball
Tomato – 1
Coriander powder – 4 tbsp
Chili powder – 2 tsp (I substituted it with Kashmiri chili powder)
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt
Fenugreek seeds – a few
Curry leaves – a few
Coconut oil – as required

Method:

1. Clean and pat dry the fish and rub some turmeric powder and salt on it.
2. Keep aside 6 shallots and chop the remaining. If using an onion, reserve a quarter.
3. Grind the coconut, tomato and the reserved shallots/onion to a fine paste. Add the powders and grind again. Add the tamarind extract to the ground paste.
4. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a manchatti (clay pot).  In Tamil Nadu, they use sesame oil for its distinct flavour.
5. Put a few fenugreek seeds in the hot oil. Once the seeds splutter, add the curry leaves and chopped shallots. Sauté till the shallots change colour.
6. Add the ground paste along with some water and mix well. Allow this mixture to bubble for at least 20 minutes. Add water if the curry is thick and add salt to taste.
7. Slowly slide in the fish and boil the curry till the fish is cooked, about 10 minutes for big fishes and 5 for small ones.
8. Once done, take the pot off the heat, drizzle some oil over the curry and close it with a lid. Serve warm with rice.

As with most puli-based fish curries, this curry tastes better when you rest it for a few hours; it tastes best the next day.

Tip: If you plan on making this curry often, you can grind a bigger batch of the coconut-masala paste and freeze it for later use.

Even my daughter
relished the curry with some fish fry.

No clock is more regular than the belly. ~ Francois Rabelais

Grab that Crab

I like cooking and experimenting new dishes, but I generally stay away from seafood. Every once in a while I feel like having mom’s Fish Molee or fried fish, and that’s about the only time I buy fish. Yesterday, I decided to buy some fish for my dear daughter who’s a content little kitty cat if she has fried fish for lunch. 
    

From my fish monger, I bought my usual - kingfish, mackerel and sardine - and to my utter surprise, I bought some crab too! I’ve always wanted to cook crab, but the mess of cleaning it inevitably puts me off. Luckily for me, I got the crab cleaned and ready to cook.

Nattu’s Crab Masala

I knew for sure that I had to make something really spicy if my hubby had to eat it. So I looked up the Internet and came up with this recipe. Of course, I had to do it my way - some tweaking here and there and the rest is history! 
   
Ingredients:

Crabs -  4-5 medium, cleaned and halved
Onion- 1 small, finely chopped
Ginger - 1” piece, finely chopped
Garlic - 5-6, finely chopped
Chili powder - 1 tsp ( I also added 2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder for the intense colour)
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Fenugreek (uluva) powder - ½ tsp (I also added a pinch of powdered fennel seeds)
Tomato – 1 medium, finely chopped

Salt, Water, Curry leaves, Coconut oil
     
Method:

1. Heat some oil in a deep wok and add curry leaves.
2. Add the finely chopped ginger and garlic and sauté till light brown.
3. Add the chopped onion and sauté till golden.
4. Reduce heat to medium and add all the powders and sauté well.
5. Add the chopped tomato and sauté till the tomato turns mushy.
6. Add around 2 cups of water and salt to taste; bring to a boil.
7. Finally, add the crab, cook covered, mixing occasionally.
8. Cook for about 15 minutes, and then remove the lid and cook until the gravy is thick enough to coat the crab.
9. Pour some coconut oil and garnish with curry leaves. Serve hot with appam or rice.

Tip: Once the crab is cooked, let it rest for a few hours. This way the crab absorbs the spices in the gravy. You can later thicken the gravy before serving.

I made this before lunch and served it for dinner. Hubby liked it..not too bad for a first time!

  

I'm on a seafood diet - I see food, I eat it. ~ Dolly Parton

Innovation or Laziness?

For all the pastas and pizzas that I've made, I've never made the Lasagna.
Some nagging fear factor has kept me from trying it this long. Yesterday, I finally took the plunge. I thought I'd start small, something mini, courtesy the Internet.

Lasagna Cupcakes

Lasagna Cupcakes

Things you need:

Olive oil
Onions, garlic, tomatoes and herbs
Chicken - boiled and shredded
Loads and loads of cheese - I used cheddar, mozzarella and sliced cheese
Samosa leaves
Muffin tray

Marinara Sauce, the lazy way:

1. Sweat some chopped onions and a handful of garlic in lots of olive oil. Weight-watchers needn't be as generous with the oil. Time-watchers can speed up the sauteing process by added a pinch of salt to the onions.
2. Next up, your herbs. My regular additive is oregano. Since rosemary is my new-found love, I added it too.
3. Squish some tomatoes and toss 'em in the pan. Well, I couldn't bother with the mess, so I just substituted it with tomato paste and Maggi pizza sauce (Maggi pizza sauce tends to overpower the rosemary and all the other subtle flavors).
4. Finally, chuck in the shredded chicken. Viola! Lazy Marinara sauce is ready.

Bechamel, rich and creamy:
I made no compromise making a panful of cheesy Bechamel sauce. Sorry weight-watchers. I already cut a lot of corners, couldn't cut back on the cheese.

Assembling the Lasagna:

1. Line your muffin tins with samosa squares. The original recipe for lasagna cupcakes replaced lasagna sheets with wanton wraps. I innovated the innovation one notch further and  used samosa leaves. Big mistake - they are too thin, I should've placed a couple of sheets for each layer. The flavor's ok though.
2. Pour some of the lazy marinara sauce over the samosa squares.
3. Next spoon some bechamel, and tear up some sliced cheese over it. 
4. Repeat the layers and bake it over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until you are through with an episode of Two and a Half Men.

PS: If you don't oil your muffin tins, you will end up eating it straight off the tray. Luckily for me, I also baked a batch in my silicone muffin tray.

You don't need a silver fork to eat good food.  ~ Paul Prudhomme