Gold Bags

Thai cuisine is an interesting confluence of flavors and cooking styles. The ingredients used in this cuisine delicately balance the harmony of the dish. This recipe is one of the hit starter recipe in Thai cuisine. These are named "gold bags" as they look similar to a bag holding gold coins. Gold bags are dainty pouches filled with spicy vegetables. The ingredients and the flavors used for the filling is perfectly balanced and they match perfectly with the wrapper. These serve as a great starter when accompanied with sweet and sour dip. This dip goes great with this recipe. These gold bags can even be tied with a blade of lemon grass to give an authentic Thai look.

Makes 25 to 30 bags

Ingredients:
For the wrappers
1 1/2 cups All purpose flour (maida)
1/2 tsp Salt

For the filling
1  tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped coriander leaves
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes, 3 medium sized 
2 tbsps carrots, grated
2 tbsps roasted peanuts, ground
1 tbsp soya sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:
For the wrappers
Sieve the flour and salt together. Add the hot water gradually and make a soft dough. Knead for a while. Cover and keep aside for 30 minutes.

Apply oil on your palm and knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic. Roll out thinly on a floured surface, using a rolling pin. To make these gold bags to look and taste better, roll the wrapper dough as thin as you can. Cut the rolled dough into 25 to 30 squares of 75 mm. (3 ").


For the filling
Pound the garlic, coriander leaves and peppercorns in a mortar to form a paste. In a bowl, mix the paste with mashed potatoes, carrots, peanuts, soya sauce, sugar and salt. Mix thoroughly. 


How to proceed:
Place a spring roll sheet on a dry surface.  Spoon a little of the filling mixture in the centre of the wrapper square and gather all 4 corners in the centre to form a pouch. Fluff out gathers to make it look like a money bag.



Deep fry in hot oil till golden brown. Drain and tie with a blade of lemon grass. This gives a very distinctive look.

Serve hot with the sweet and sour dip.

Onion Mozzarella Tartlets

These Tartlets are one of my favourite, quick and easy. Cheese, Caramalised onions and peppers on soft ,warm and flaky puff pasty gives a wonderful taste. Can be taken as a starter or as a snack. I simply hope you enjoy it as much as i did..


You'll need..

Ingredients:

250 gm Puff pastry sheets
2 Red Onions
1 Red Capsicum
8 Cherry tomatoes, halved
100 gms Mozzarella Cheese
1 tsp Dried Thyme leaves
A tsp of Olive oil
Salt to taste

Here you go..

First preheat the oven to 200 deg C.

Take out the puff pastry sheets from the freezer and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the onions and peppers lengthwise. Take oil in a pan and fry the onions and peppers with salt to taste on a medium heat till they turn soft. Remove and keep aside.

Now cut the puff pasty sheets into 7 - 8 cm long squares. Cut down the edges of the puff pasty sheets, about 1/2 a centimeter on all the sides. Apply some water on the borders of the sheets and place the long sut pieces on the borders.

Place an aluminium foil (cut into square) in the center of the squares and bake for 10 minutes.

Now remove the foil and bake again. Dough might stick to the foil while taking it out but do not worry. take it out carefully and bake for another 5 minutes.

Now place the onion and pepper stuffing in the center of the puff pasty. Slightly push the stuffing inside. Place the cherry tomatoes and top up with the mozzarella cheese and thyme leaves.

Now bake again for 15 minutes or till the crust turns golden brown.

Enjoy!!

Chilli Paneer

Ingredients:

200 gms Paneer
1 Egg
1/2 cup Corn Flour
1 tsp maida
2 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
2 Onions, Chopped
4 Sliced Green Chillies
1 tsp Soya Sauce
2 tsp Vinegar
1/4 tsp Ajinomoto
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
Oil for frying
salt to taste

Method:

Cut paneer into cubes.

Mix together salt, egg, corn flour, garlic, ginger and maida. Dip paneer cubes and see that each piece has been coated well with the cornflour mixture.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the cornflour coated paneer pieces till golden brown in color.

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a pan and fry the onions with a pinch of salt over high heat till they turn soft. Add the green chillies and ginger garlic paste and fry for another minute.

Add salt, soya sauce, vinegar, ajinomoto, ketchup and the fried paneer cubes.Mix well.

Garnish the chilli paneer with finely cut spring onions and coriander.

Sesame Paneer with Hot and Sweet Dip

Traditionally, this dish is made with tofu i.e. soya bean curd. But i'm using paneer instead. Paneer is coated with sesame seed batter which imparts a nutty flavour and a very chinese element to this crispy starter.

For the sesame paneer you'll need..
200gms Paneer(cottage cheese), cut into cubes or rectangle strips.
1/4 cup Cornflour
2 Tbsp All purpose flour (maida)
1/2 tsp Soya sauce
1/2 cup Sesame (til) seeds
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method
In a bowl, combine the cornflour, plain flour, soya sauce and salt with 1/4 cup of water to make a smooth batter.

Dip paneer pieces in the batter and coat the sesame seeds and deep fry in hot oil, till they turn golden brown.

Drain on a kitchen tissue and serve hot.

Serve with Hot and Sweet dip.