Garlic Toast

Again, a recipe that has its recent origins at my work place. All of us in my lunch group felt that we had boring stuff in our lunch boxes and decided to order a little something to pep up the meal. So, we decided to get some garlic bread and potato wedges from Slice of Italy. The potato wedges were deep fried and I like mine grilled. But the garlic bread was superb.

That same evening, I wanted to try it out. But I didn't have french bread, so I used whatever slices I had at home. I also didn't want to be too generous with the cheese as that much cheese, twice in the same day, may be a little too heavy to handle.

I grilled the slices of bread for 3 minutes on each side. I prepared the garlic butter spread using

1 tbsp Butter

1/2 tsp mixed herbs (basil, parsley, thyme)

1/2 tsp Chilli flakes

1 tsp Garlic, finely chopped

I spread this on the prepared slices and grilled them for a minute more. I grated a small block of cooking cheese and sprinkled this ober the slices and grilled for another 90 seconds. The cheese came out all bubbly on top and the garlic toast was divine. I wanted to make some soup and have it along with the toast. Then again, lazy me took over the enthusiastic me and I ended up eating just the toast for dinner. Yum!

Mutter Paneer

This is one of those dishes that I had eaten many times, but had never attempted to recreate. I set out 2 days ago to recreate the Cilantro Peas on Arundathi's foodblog. I didn't have the time to go back and check the recipe, but I cleaned a whole lot of coriander leaves and told myself I will just make it from memory.

I usually make a peas curry with ground coriander and coconut milk. I will put the recipe up sometime. I wanted this to be a variation. Then I remembered that I had fresh paneer at home. So the experimental side of me took over. The end result was a lipsmacking dish that I simply had to share with all of you.

Ingredients:

200g fresh Paneer, cubed

1/2 cup Peas, cooked

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

100 ml Tomato Puree

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/2 tsp Coriander Powder

1/2 tsp Cumin Powder

1 tsp Kasuri Methi

To be ground to a Paste:

1 Onion

2 pods Garlic

1/2 cup Coriander Leaves

Salt to Taste

Heat oil in a kadhai and add the cumin and asafoetida. When the cumin seeds crackle, add the onion coriander paste and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the chilli, turmeric, cumin and coriander powders and fry for a minute. Add the tomato puree and the kasuri methi and bring the mixture to a boil. Add salt, paneer and peas. Garnish with coriander leaves if you like. And eat this with rotis.

The addition of coriander leaves to the masala gave the dish a unique flavour and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tomato Semia Upma

Quick breakfast. I wish I could find a way to get breakfast ready in a jiffy. I grew up eating an egg a day. But I avoid eggs now as the smell gets to me. I eat it once in a while, but not everyday. Muesli and cereals... yes, but not everyday again. I need variety. Even for breakfast. Yeah, that's me.

This morning I decided to make tomato semia upma. But I was lazy as always and didn't bother to keep my dal, chillies, curry leaves and ginger ready. But my upma came out very nice. The picture, however, will be put up later. I don't want to be late for this week's A-Z.

U is for Upma and this is my U entry to Nupur's A-Z of Indian Vegetables.

Ingredients:


1 cup Roasted Semia
1 Onion, sliced
1 Tomato, finely chopped
1 tsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tbsp Oil
1tsp Cumin Seeds
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
Salt to taste


Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the mustard, asafoetida and cumin seeds. When the mustard splutters, add the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped tomato and fry for a minute or two more. Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Add the roasted semia and along with a cup of hot water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.


You may garnish it with scraped coconut and coriander leaves. (I, of course, did nothing.)

Mushroom and Capsicum on Toast

If there ever was a breakfast number that I could call my very own, this would have to be it. I have always loved cookbooks and I treat Tarla Dalal as my foster mother. I've learnt as much from her as I have from Amma. Though I have never met her, I think I may love her almost as much as I love Amma for teaching me so much that I know.

One of the books of Tarla Dalal's that we've owned for a long time (I can't remember which) has a recipe for Chilli Cheese Toast. I tried this and we all loved it. I decided to experiment a little bit with the dish and slowly added ingredients of my own. I make it as a special breakfast dish on weekends and when I have someone visiting. My cousin, Priyakka, who doesn't eat capsicum has no option but to eat them when I make this. I chop the veggies so fine that if she started to pick the pieces, she'd be eating the dish for dinner.

This morning, I decided to make this for several reasons.

1. It is a Saturday.

2. I had a lot of left over vegetables.

3. My husband, S, is back after a week long trip and I wanted to make something nice.

4. I wanted to send in my signature breakfast dish to Trupti at The Spice Who Loved Me for WBB # 12 : Spice it Up!

Ingredients:

1/2 each of Red, Yellow and Green Capsicum, finely chopped

1/4 cup Mushrooms, finely chopped

1 medium Onion, finely chopped

3 pods of Garlic, finely chopped

1/4 tsp each of Basil and Parsley

1/4 tsp Chilli Flakes

1 tbsp Butter

1 tbsp Flour

3/4 cup Milk

1-2 cubes or slices of Cheese, chopped or grated

Salt to taste

6-8 slices of Toast

Melt the butter in a pan and add the chopped garlic and the onions and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the chopped capsicum and fry for a few more minutes. (This looked so colourful that I had to take a picture!)

Add the mushrooms and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the parsley, basil and chilli flakes. Add the flour to the vegetable mixture and pur the milk into this after the flour has fried for 2-3 minutes. Add the cheese and salt and mix well till the mixture thickens.

Spread this on Toast and enjoy it on a weekend morning. You can also spread this on bread and grill it for a few minutes till it browns. This spread can also be used as a stuffing for grilled sandwiches. Or you can just put some on top of Monaco biscuits and make it yummy finger food.

Coriander Rice

I always thought that coriander leaves were only meant for garnish. And of course the occasional pulao or gravy. And thought I could do without them. Now I know better.

I read on the internet that Coriander leaves are very good for heavy metals detoxification. Several studies show that eating fresh coriander leaves increase the excretion of heavy metals in urine. I also found 13 Health Benefits of eating coriander.

This is my entry to Weekend Herb Blogging, started by Kalyn and hosted by Astrid of Paulchen's food blog

I discovered the kothmir vada on MSN many years ago and tried it out very eagerly Amma discovered kothamali thuvaiyal at some function and I ate it when she made it for the first time. I even had it served at my wedding.

I find coriander leaves the most inviting when I go vegetable shopping. And before we knew it, we had 2 or more bunches in the fridge. So, after giving a bunch to my maid, I made this with what I had left.

Ingredients for the Thuvaiyal

1 1/2 cups Coriander Leaves, washed

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

2 tsp Black Gram Dal

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

2 Green Chillies

1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes

1 tsp Tamarind Paste

Salt to Taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the Black Gram Dal. After a couple of minutes, add the mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the green chillies and chilli flakes. Put this mixture in a mixer jar and grind along with the coriander leaves and tamarind paste. Add salt to taste.

Alternatively, you can leave out the mustard and grind everything else first. And then add the mustard and grind just a little. You all know what the lazy me did.

Mix this with hot rice and enjoy coriander rice. The caterer at my wedding served this with Tomato pachadi. I will post that soon. He said it was meant to enhance visual appeal. Green rice and orange pachadi! Way to go Pattappa Sir.

Carrot Chutney

This is my first time. I found a recipe on a blog that I visited after the owner visited my blog for the very first time. I saw the recipe on her page and came home. I decided I just have to try this.

I am talking about Seema's Carrot Chutney on Recipe Junction. I followed the recipe to a T except that I ground the carrots along with the other ingredients instead of grating them first.



I used


2 large carrots
3 green chillies
3 pods of garlic
2 tbsp coconut, scrapped

Salt to taste

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida

4-5 Curry Leaves


I ground all the ingredients together and then prepared the tempering and mixed the two.




It came out quite well and we ate with rice. Just now! A very satisfying meal. Thank you Seema.

Mammidikaya Pulihaara (Raw Mango Rice)

Puliyodarai at my place is made just one way. Amma makes puli kachal and a podi to sprinkle over the rice. Whenever we are in the mood for yummy puliyodarai, Amma dishes it out. I love eating it with avial. That's one of my favourite combinations of "festival food". I've eaten Puliyogare in Bangalore that is semi sweet and has khopra (dried coconut) as part of it. I've eaten Puli saadam (Tiger Rice) at hostel.

When I moved to Hyderabad 4 years ago, I heard about nimmakaya pulihaara. I thought it was some fancy dish until I realized it was the telugu name for our very own lemon rice. Then someone at office said, "I've brought puliyodarai for you today. Only I made it with mangoes." I was super shocked. I had never eaten rice and raw mangoes before. The maximum extent that I had gone to was to eat Manga Thokku with rice and Avakaya with rice. But hey, I was never averse to trying something new. And I did. It was quite nice.

A couple of weeks ago, we'd invited some friends over and I decided to make this instead of Sambar Rice as that is easily available in any south indian restaurant in Delhi. I try to serve food that is not so easily available, especially when my guests are not south indians. Actually, even if they are, I do the same.

I started to make this and then somewhere in between, S took over. And then he forgot he was cooking and the tadka got burnt a little. But then, so what? It came out quite nice and we all ate it with relish.

Ingredients:

2 medium raw mangoes, grated.

1 cup Rice, cooked

2 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

2-3 Red Chillies

1/4 cup Peanuts

1 tsp Black Gram Dal

1 tsp Chana Dal

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

7-8 Curry Leaves

Coriander Leaves for Garnish

Salt to taste

In a kadhai, heat the oil. Add all the ingredients from mustard through Chana Dal. When the mustard splutters and the dals have browned, add the curry leaves, grated raw mango, salt and turmeric powder. Cook this for a while and then mix the cooked rice in this mixture. Garnish with coriander leaves and eat with vadams or appalams.

I'm finally on Food Blog Desam. Thanks Mathy and Indira. I have not forgotten my plan to get into DH.

I'm also on Jenn's Foodie Blog Roll. Those of you who are interested in joining either of these should go right ahead.