Sausage Stuffed Egg Rolls

Christmas and New Year Party Time! Easy appetizers!

Buy some sausages, dice them up, sauté them in oil, add some pepper, add some shredded vegetables. Wrap them in pre-made egg roll sheets. I tried to bake some of them, it didn’t come out good, so switched to deep frying them.

Let them pictures speak.

Vegetable Samosa

Who wants some potato vegetable hot samosa? I get Chinese egg roll wrappers at my nearby wal-mart store and I love to make samosas with them, quick and easy for a party. I didnt know they existed and was looking for pastry sheets and found these.

Boil potatoes, dice them in small squares. Heat two teaspoon oil, toss some diced onions, some fresh green peas, green chilies diced, ½ tsp diced ginger, and then when sautéed well add the potatoes. Add some salt and ½ tsp garam masala powder. Mix and remove from heat.

Cut the egg roll wrappers diagonally and place 1 tsp of each potato filling and wet the sides of the wrapper and close the ends in samosa shape i.e a triangle.

Then deep fry them in vegetable oil.

That’s it. Party time! Serve with tomato suace or mint chutney.

Mushroom Baji

Another easy snack item as a starter. Yes, Yes, I have been having too many parties at home :)

Bajis are a must have all Indians like easy snack item. In India, we usually deep fry stuff with besan flour. This is flour made out of channa dal.

Buy cleaned button mushrooms. There were around 40 hungry people at home and I didn’t get enough whole button mushrooms at store, so bought diced mushroom. It is good to make this with whole button mushrooms. Just wipe the mushroom with a wet cloth, don’t put it inside a tub of water etc to clean, since mushrooms are like sponge and they would hold the water.

You know mushrooms have niacin, which are extremely good for heart. But I am not sure what your heart is gonna do when you deep fry them. Hehehe.

Make a thick batter with besan flour, asafoetida, salt, chili powder, curry leaves diced thin, onions diced very thin, green chilies diced thin.

If you have never made baji before and is thinking about the proportions, I would say for 3 cups of mushrooms, mix two coups of besan flour with 1 cup of water, 3 tsp chili powder, 2 shallots diced very thin, 1 sprig of curry leaves diced thin, enough salt (taste the batter after salt is added), 5 green chilies diced very thin.

Dip the mushrooms and fry them deep in hot vegetable oil. Serve with tomato sauce.

Fish and Coconut balls

This is an easy and tasty appetizer or snack. An instant hit at parties.

Choose a fish that is kind of sticky and thick. Tuna, Mahi-Mahi, Shrimp etc are sticky kind of fish or seafood.

I usually make it with shrimp and this time I choose mahi-mahi.
Mahi Mahi Fillets without skin – 3 cups.
Small onion – 5
Green chilies – 5
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Shredded Coconut -2 cups
Vinegar – 1 tsp
Salt

Use a food processor and crush all the ingredients except the coconut. Do not overdo it and please don’t use a mixie. Now add the coconut and run it for one second.

Now make small balls, making sure they are very tight and firm. Squeeze out any moisture.

Fry them in oil. Brown both sides.


Serve with tomato sauce.

Chicken Wings Appetizer

This is easily a party favorite both for the cook and the guests. It is so easy to make and delicious to munch on during a conversation.

Cut the end part of the wings. Leave the skin on. Marinate in red chili powder, salt, turmeric powder, and curd for two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place on a cooling grid on a baking pan and bake on the top rack of the oven for 15 minutes on one side, turn over and then bake for another 15 minutes.

That’s it. Serve with white sauce as an appetizer.

Bacon wrapped scallops

It is summer time here in U.S and schools are closed for three months. Daily It is almost some kind of outing and partying. I am tired, tired, tired. Kids are having a great time demanding attention and making every parent fervently pray for school reopening.

Whenever it was big summer vacation, everyday my Mom would scold and curse the Government and the entire school system. She would be fed up of us making the house a mess, jumping up and down from the sunshades and trees like little monkeys, running like little mice inside and out, destroying everything on our way.

Whenever I host a party, I make sure I make 4 or 5 appetizers. Kids love appetizers and even the fuzziest kid would be happy and would eat something. Grown ups always love appetizers to nibble on while making a conversation.
This is the recipe for bacon wrapped scallops. It is very easy and simple to make.

Buy fresh bacon, toothpicks, and scallops. If you get fresh large scallops it would be good. But if you get frozen ones also, it is okay. Make sure they are large scallops not the baby ones.

Marinate scallops in ginger + garlic + chili powder paste. Don’t add salt, since bacon is very salty. This time I made a different marinade. I made a paste of cilantro and mint and green chilies to make a green marinade.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a baking tray, keep a wire rack and arrange the bacons like as shown in picture. Roll the bacon around the scallops and insert a wet tooth pick(place the toothpicks in water for sometime) to hold it together. You can also add a garlic pod if you want on top.
Now bake them for 10 minutes. Serve hot. Tasty!