Jalapeños Cream Cheese Crescent Rolls
I am a sucker for snacks. I always look forward to evening snakcs. Since my childhood, the only time I used to wait for is evening snacks and like all mothers, my mother has spoilt me to the core. She used to make absolutely lip-smacking dishes for me in the evening and she still does that whenever I am at home with her. After marriage, it was really difficult for me to get used to the fact that I will have to cook my own evening snacks now onwards. Anyway, with time, I have gotten used to it and I have also learned to experiment and prepare new dishes. Of course, nothing beats mom’s food but it is just for me to keep my hunger in cotrol 😀
So, you will see many snack posts in the future. This post is about one of my favorite chili pepper, Jalapeño. This is an absolutely delicious, pop-in-your-mouth kind of appetizer/snack which goes brilliantly with an ice cold beer or margaritas 🙂 And one more thing, it is super easy and quick to make.
Serves approx 10-12
Ingredients:
- Puff Pastry, ready made – 1 roll (you can also make it at home)
- Cream Cheese – 225 grams
- Green jalapenos, chopped (preferably bottled) – 1 tablespoon
- Red jalapenos, chopped – 1 tablespoon (you can either have 1tbsp each of green and red jalapenos or 2 tblsp of the same color)
- Sugar – 1/4 teaspoon
- Italian herbs (optional) – 1/2 teaspoon
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 374 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Mix chopped jalapenos (green and red), sugar and italian herbs (optinal) with the cream cheese in a bowl. Take fork and mash it well until everything is well blended and becomes a mixture.
- Roll out the puff pastry thinly.
- Place the jalapenos and cream mixtre in the middle of rolled out pastry and spread it evenly. Please note that the mixture should not touch the edges of the pastry.
- Once all the mixture is spread evenly, start rolling the pastry in the shape of a flute.
- Once rolled into a flute, cut small pieces of the flute so you get pinwheel shapes and place them in a dish.
- Bake these pinwheels for 12-13 mintues until they are golden brown and puffed up.
- And you have a perfect appetizer/snack for you 🙂
Just to make you aware that it will have a tangy taste because of the jalapenos so don’t worry if it tastes a bit tangy 🙂
Hope you enjoy it with the ice cold margarita as I did 🙂
Your suggestions are welcome 🙂
Zucchini wrapped Mint & Coriander Chicken Kebabs
I don’t consider myself to be a non-vegetarian but rather a chicken-atarian. In fact its only been less than a decade since I have starting eating chicken. So I often find myself searching for all sorts of chicken recipes. And to be honest, I have not tried many recipes but I love the way my husband cooks chicken. So here is one of the recipes which I really loved making (needless to say loved eating to) and I found it very easy to cook. Whenever I am searching for any recipes, I tend to look at the ingredients which are easily available in any household and can be cooked anytime. These chicken kebabs will be a good starter if you are cooking for loads of friends. These can be grilled, char-grilled, cooked on barbecue or cooked in oven (I had cooked it in oven) This recipe has been inspired from Jamie Oliver’s recipe with quite a few tweaks of my own.
Zucchini wrapped Mint & Coriander Chicken Kebabs
Ingredients:
- 500 gms boneless chicken breasts
- 4 zucchini/courgettes, sliced very thinly lengthways
- 6-8 bamboo skewers (soak them in water)
- few sticks of fresh rosemary, lower leaves removed, tips kept on
For the marinade:
- 1 handful fresh coriander
- 1 1/2 handful fresh mint
- 5 cloves garlic
- 4 spring onions
- 6 green/red chillies (adjust the heat according to your taste)
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- olive oil
Steps:
- Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius or around 480 degrees Fahrenheit on the grill setting.
- Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes and place them in a bowl.
- Blanch the zucchini/courgette strips in salted boiling water for 30 seconds then drain them with the cold water and allow them to cool.
- Blitz all the marinade ingredients in a food processor, then loosen to a paste with a little olive oil.
- Add the marinade to the chicken pieces and mix well.
- Allow to sit for up to an hour. Then wrap the marinated chicken pieces with the zucchini/courgette strips and then pierce them onto the skewers.
- Arrange the skewers on a baking try so that the front and the back of the skewers rest on the opposite sides of the baking tray rim. Avoid letting the chicken pieces rest on the bottom of the tray. Another suggestion is to line the baking tray with aluminum foil so it helps in cleaning up later.
- Original Jamie Oliver’s recipe suggests using Rosemary sticks as skewers but I found it a bit cumbersome so I used bamboo skewers instead. I scattered the rosemary sticks/leaves on top of the skewers just before they went into the oven.
- Put the baking tray with the skewers arranged in the aforementioned manner in the oven for 8-10 mins. After 8-10 mins, turn the skewers and brush the chicken pieces with some olive oil and leave the skewers for a further 8-10 mins.
- Feel free to cut a piece open to check if they’re done.
- Once done, serve them hot, preferably with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on them. You can serve the kebabs with coriander chutney or with cucumber and mint raita.
I hope you enjoy making the kebabs and do leave your feedback/suggestions below.
Flavors & Aromas 