Raising a Toast

Woke up today to a cold, foggy morning. Quite love it this way, nature's way of holding onto the last of winter. Saturday morning and no agenda for the next two days. Feels great.

Inspired by the success of the Medietteranean Chicken I cooked last night, I decided to head to the kitchen right away. Bread and eggs were on the menu. I needed to make breakfast 'blogworthy'. Had already written two egg based posts(scrambled eggs and egg sandwich). Decided to use the mushrooms that had been sliced for the scramble to a make a topping instead. Served it on toasts with poached eggs.

I even made one lot with a mushroom tomato topping by microwaving some chopped tomatoes along with the mushroom, sprinkling a little bit of sugar and adding. Mushrooms in cheese white sauce also go well as serving for toasts.

This is a dish that could be part of your regular rushed/harassed breakfast morning(yes, easy enough for that, you could make the topping, grate the cheese from the night before to make it quicker), it also qualifies for weekend breakfast menus which are leisured, luxury meals.

Mushroom on Toast(Serves 2)

Ingredients

Bread: 4 slices, toasted(I like my toasts hard and crunchy)

Butter: 1 tsp(optional)

Mushroom: 200 grams

Garlic: 2/3 cloves, chopped fine

Mushroom: 200 grams, sliced thin

Green chillies: 1, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Basil leaves: 7/8, finely chopped( I now grow some and so it is really handy to pluck and chop a few)

Grated cheese: Optional but if you are making this for a weekend extended breakfast I would strongly recommend you use some.

Olive oil: 1 tbsp

Method

Put the oil in a microwave safe glass dish and heat for 2 minutes.

Tip in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.

Add the mushroom, chillies, salt and pepper and cook for 3/4 minutes. Stir once to ensure the cooking is even.

Add the basil leaves and mix well.

Butter the toasts, spread some of the mushroom mixture onto the toast, sprinkle some grated cheese. The Cheese will melt in the heat.

Serve immediately.

This also works well as a wafer topping or the bread slices can be cut into sticks and served as a snack.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

TGIF........

My evening today reminds me of the song " Jaate the Japan, pahunch gaye Cheen"(Planned something and ended up with something quite different).

I had planned on making a Cous Cous Chicken. Cous Cous, the new wonder food is doing the rounds. I had come across an interesting recipe for Cous Cous Chicken in a women's magazine. It was new, different, easy to prepare, healthy, a one dish meal and thus perfect for a Friday night dinner. A night when you begin celebrating the two day holiday ahead, want to have something special and yet are not looking at anything fussy or elaborate( those are for Sunday mornings or Saturday evenings). By the time you get back home on Friday, you are physically exhausted, mentally tired and just want to put your feet up. Maybe if you are a foodie, you will make it to the kitchen and rustle up something in a jiffy.

I got late at work and could not pick up the Cous Cous. It is unfortunately not available with the neighborhood grocer. I got back home and decided to make a Fiesta chicken instead only to discover that I did not have raisins, a key ingredient in the dish. Finally after much deliberation and inventory search settled for a Mediterranean version. In this easy dish versatile chicken mingles with the flavors of white wine, herbs and garlic. Calls for ingredients that one usually has on hand.

Mediterranean Chicken( Serves four)

Chicken: 500 grams

Tomato puree: 6 tbsps

Wine: 1/4th cup( I used white wine)

Bay leaves: 2/3

Mixed Herbs: 1 tsp( I had run out of Basil so used some Rosemary and Thyme)

Garlic: 3/4 pods, crushed

Chilli powder: 1 tsp

Sugar: 1 tsp

Salt: To taste

Cornflour/Maida: 1 tsp

Olive oil: 1 tsp( Optional if using a non-stick pan)

Spaghetti: 200 grams( boiled in salt water to which olive oil has been added and drained)

Method

Heat a non stick pan. Add the chicken and cook till it changes colour. This should take a couple of minutes.

Add tomatoes and all the seasoning.

Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the chicken is tender( add a little water if necessary).

Dissolve 1 tbsp of maida in a cup of water and add to the chicken.

Boil well and serve over spaghetti.

The sauce tastes delicious and has a glossy texture. Can also be an accompaniment for Pulaos and Fried rice.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

Que Sera Sera....

When I was just a little girl, yes, I know that was a long time ago, have graduated to " my children ask their mother" line for a while now, Parle introduced the concept of serving Monaco biscuits with toppings. There were ads(usually the back cover of a magazine) where Monaco with varied toppings were displayed. They looked really appetizing and given our limited exposure then, exotic too.

They soon found their way into our home. We made ours with cheese( this was the pre- cheese slice era, so cheese cubes had to be painstakingly cut into thin slices), boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, tomatoes and sometimes with all of the above. Sis was usually entrusted with the task. Being the clumsier one, my job was to wait till she finished and then gobble up a few. The crunchy salted base and bland topping went quite well. Sis would add a sprig of coriander to add more color. I would be impatient for her to finish. The garnish could wait. I quickly figured out that it was best to pick a few from the first lot as the toppings got progressively smaller.

Any kind of base with some topping continues to be one of my favorite starter ideas. Though over the years both the base and the topping has changed.

Cream crackers, rice wafers etc. have replaced the good old Monaco. Boiled egg whites also serve as the base. Scoop out the yolk, add some milk, cheese, salt, pepper and pipe it back into the boiled and halved whites.

Toppings have ranged from cream cheese, hung curd, to tuna in mayo. In fact leftover sandwich filling works really well for the topping. I have often mashed up potatoes, spiced it up with green chillies, coriander, added a wee bit of cheese spread and used it to top canapes. Green, yellow and red bell pepper add color and flavor.

Have extended the idea of toppings to open toasts which incidentally is a great breakfast option. Grill the slice with the topping and serve hot. If feeling very self indulgent add some grated cheese and grill till the cheese melts.

Tomatoes on toast is really easy to make. It is very healthy too. Adding the mustard paste gives it an unusual flavour. You could also add some garlic. Use the leftover topping as a chutney or add to gravies.

Tomatoes on Toast

Ingredients

Tomatoes: 2/3, about half a tomato per toast

Mustard paste: 1 tsp(You could also used mustard powder, I used some mustard and khus khus paste)

Green chillies: 2(optional), chopped fine

Pepper powder: 1 tsp( try and use some freshly ground ones for that added flavor)

Red Chilli powder: 1/2 tsp

Sugar: 1/4th tsp

Salt: to taste

Olive oil: 1 tbsp

Green corriander: 1 tsp, chopped fine

Boiled sweet corn: Can add some to make a variation of the original.

Method

Chop the tomatoes really fine. Microwave the tomatoes with the oil, sugar, salt and green chillies for about 3 minutes.

Mash up the tomatoes with some red chilli powder, pepper powder, mustard paste, green corriander and mix well.

Top over toast and serve hot.

This works well as a starter. If serving as a starter cut the bread toast into cubes. Alternately you could also pick up some ready to use bite sized garlic butter toast( these are very handy and stay well for close to a week). They form healthier bases( as compared to biscuits) for the topping.

If serving as a main course serve it with a chicken stew or soup. The spicy flavor compliments the bland taste of the soup.

Also goes as an anytime snack. Could add sauted mushrooms/boiled corn to make it more wholesome. Could even add some grated cheese and bake for a few minutes.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs......

Something really strange(almost spooky) happened. I cooked Spaghetti with meat balls and the weather turned from a clear sunny day to a cloudy one. It is starting to rain as I write this post. Looks like the weather God either read my mind or peeped into my kitchen. The boys are thrilled with the title of the post and it does seem apt given the turn of events, I mean the change of weather. Rains at this time of the year also means that Winter would stretch for at least another week or two. So more soups, stews in the weeks to follow.

I have been meaning to cook the 'Spaghetti meatballs' combo for a while now. The name has an exotic ring to it. In hindsight the dish is surprisingly simple. Most things in hindsight look simple, don't they?

I am not good with making cutlets, chops, tikkis and the likes. Have a mental block, I fear that they will come apart as I am frying them. Must be to do with some initial disastrous attempts though I cannot recall any such incident at the moment. Not being able to make them is such a shame given that my Mom made Fish and prawn cutlets quite regularly during my growing up years. When we had guests over she even dressed up each prawn cutlets with its little tail which helped enhance the visual appeal and made the cutlets look really appetizing. It is of course obvious that they tasted really good. Oohs! Aahs! and they would be over in a jiffy. Someday soon I hope I can achieve a similar feat. Till then I shall rely on my household help or just buy them off the shelf.

I bought some meatballs while picking up my weekly non-veg from a store close to home. And the first dish that I could think of was spaghetti with meat balls. My first attempt at making this dish and a recipe that I have intuitively put together. I have deliberately skipped the cheese.

Spaghetti with Meat Balls(Serves 4)

Ingredients

Tomato Puree: 1 cup(Add one or two fresh blanched and pureed tomatoes to packaged puree. Makes it convenient and gives the sauce the right color, body and taste)

Meat balls: 10/15( I used store bought ones but you could go through the process of spicing up chicken mince, making them into little balls and then deep frying them)

Oregano seasoning: 2 tsp

Green Coriander: 2/3 tbsp

Onion: 1 medium sized one, finely chopped

Vegetable stock: 2/3 tbsp(I used some leftover vegetable stew)

Garlic: 4/5 large pods, finely chopped

Olive oil: 1/2 tsp

Sugar: 1/2 tsp( to balance out the sour tomato taste)

Spaghetti: 100 grams

Method

For the Spaghetti

Boil about 100 grams of spaghetti in plenty of water. Add some olive oil and salt to the water. Olive oil would prevent the spaghetti from sticking.

Strain and keep aside. Add 1 tsp of olive oil to the spaghetti and toss it well, that way it would not dry up.

Ideally boil the spaghetti when you start to simmer the meatballs in the sauce.

For the meatballs

Put a flat bottomed pan on the stove. Heat some olive oil in it.

Then saute the garlic followed by the onion.

Add the tomato puree, sugar, oregano seasoning, chopped coriander and cook for a few minutes. The puree will begin to thicken.

Add the vegetable stock. This would give the sauce a lovely texture and also add to the taste. As I was using some leftover vegetable stew I also mashed up a few boiled carrots into the sauce.

Next add the meat balls to the gravy. Cover and cook so that the meatball soak some of the gravy.

Putting it all together, Plating it as my older son would say

Place some spaghetti on the plate, shape it like a bird's nest. Pour the meat balls with the gravy into the hollow in the middle. Garnish with some fresh coriander and serve hot. Approximately three meat balls per serve.

Cut the meatballs into little pieces. Twirl the spaghetti around your fork, lift a little piece of the meat ball, pop into your mouth and feel the fusion of flavors/taste as you bite into them together.

Surprisingly easy if you are not starting from scratch. Ready puree and meatballs make it a quick fix. Perfect on a cold, wet, winter night.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!