Masala Bread

This one's from the most reliable cookbook of all...Mommy's! It's been a childhood favourite and is perhaps one of the first things I cooked independently in the kitchen. It's easy to make and good to eat. Read on and enjoy!

As the name explains, it a spicy tangy dish made with bread and some vegetables. Innovations maybe aplenty, but for now, I'll stick to the basics.

Ingredients (for 2)

8 slices of bread, cubed
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
1 medium sized tomato, finely chopped
2 green chilies (depends on how hot you like your food actually), cut into small pieces
Garlic, Salt, Haldi, Chili Powder, Dhaniya-zeera Powder to taste.


Heat oil in a pan and add the haldi, garlic, onions and green chilies. Once the onions soften, add the tomatoes and let the mixture cook thoroughly. Add chilli powder, dhaniya-zeera powder and salt to taste  and again let the mixture cook for around 2 minutes. Finally add the bread cubes and mix well. Swerve hot garnished with chopped coriander.

To make things more elaborate, you may add veggies like capsicum, carrot, french beans etc. Also, for the fans of tomato and its flavour, add a bit of tomoato ketchup along with the chopped tomatoes. For the eggitarians, add one beaten egg per serving when the dish is 95% done and mix thoroughly.

Go ahead, give it a taste and come to tell me how it was!!

Till next time.. happy cooking!

Cheese and Garlic Omelet

So this one is inspired by something a dear friend - Surendra Bhariya once suggested. I must say, at that time, I was pretty skeptical about the whole garlic-ky twist to the tale, but hey! it's something I loved!! So here it is...

It's very similar to a regular fluffy omelet. For a large one, beat two eggs to a fairly frothy consistency. Add a bit of water to make the omelet fluffier (sometimes milk may also do wonders - the debate goes on). Now, there are two ways to do this - Suri's and mine. The original first. Take a couple of cloves of garlic and smash them with the flat side of a broad knife. Chopping just won't do in this case. Add this smashed garlic and a pinch of salt to the beaten eggs just before pouring the mixture onto a hot buttered/oiled pan and let the egg cook. When it's nearly done, grate the desired amount of cheese onto the omelet and cover the pan while the gas is lowered to a simmer. Leave the omelet like this for a couple of minutes and later, if you're one of those who just need the eggs cooked both sides, flip it (though you risk the cheese burning off with this). Enjoy with toasted bread, golden melting butter and a perfect cup of coffee!

Now my take on the garlic addition is to first saute the garlic in ghee/oil/butter and adding the salted beaten egg mixture to the fried garlic and proceeding as before. The difference is in the flavour of the garlic which in this case is slightly burnt and the look of the omelet is a tad bit more...colourful!

This has been a salvation from hunger for an eggitarian like me for quite some time now. Go ahead. Give it a shot and let me know whose take on the Garlic and Cheese Omelet excited your taste buds more...Suri's or mine?!?!

Comments and suggestions (and praise) always welcome!..

Till next time!!!

Custard and Crispies

So, the first of my inventions is about to come your way. This little concoction if you may call it was a result of sweet tooth pangs in Baroda when I shared my premises with one of the best people I have come to know - Hricha Lahkar. So we're two girls craving for something sweet at night and we really don't want to eat the cold custard we made the night before. We thought to put in a crispy twist and voila! we had our own take on custard and cornflakes!

To make this texturally exciting dessert, all one needs is custard (which you don't need to make from scratch. Just catch hold of one of those custard powder mixes), cornflakes (any brand will do - its pocket friendly) and some sugar.

Make the custard according to the directions on the pack. A helpful tip: make it slightly thicker than usual by adding around half a tablespoon extra powder in the prescribed amount of milk. While the custard id setting in the fridge, take out the pan - the kind you would make an omelet or pancake in - and start caramelising sugar on low heat. the amount of sugar depends on you. Ideally, two tablespoons of sugar along with a sprinkling of water should do fine for two people. Keep a close eye on the sugar and when it reaches a brownish colour and  syrupy consistency, add the cornflakes. Again, the ratio of cornflakes to sugar depends on how caramelised you want your cornflakes. )Hricha and I usually put in three to four spoonfulls of cornflakes and it worked great for us!) Once the cornflakes are coated with the caramel (or whatever you prefer to call it :D ), let them cool a while. Take out that delicious custard from the fridge, put a ladleful into your bowl and top it with the crispy bittersweet cornflakes and enjoy! For variations, try chopped nuts and fruits (when available or affordable).

P.S. Best enjoyed on a cozy night with great company!!!

Do feel free to comment after (or before) trying it out and give your suggestions to improve it!

Pots, Ladles and Dollops of Memories!

So, those who know me, know that I love to cook. They also know that I believe one of the few things I rock at is writing. So, I thought, why not combine the two?!?!?

I have been living away from home for some seven years now and being a fussy foodie, I take cooking matter into my own hands. Many say am the kitchen Hitler as am so obsessed about how things should be in the kitchen, but then that's the way I am! Over the past years, I have experimented in the kitchen and come up with some delicacies and some disasters. I though I might as well put the success stories out there. This way, I combine the two things i love - writing and food, and who knows some kid fresh outta home may just find these recipes a salvation from hunger pangs?!?!?!

To make it a tad bit more personal I intend to accompany the recipe with a short story or incident or anecdote related to the 'invention' or improvisation. Please note that the measures may not be to scale and you may need to improvise according to your palate. I plan to put in pictures of the the results of my culinary adventures eventually, but for now, recipes at your service!