Bruschetta made with brown bread and exotic vegetables

Some dishes that I have learnt from my daughter Ashwini Kulkarni are worth a share, this is one of them.

Ingredients
Slices of brown bread

50 gms paneer

1 small broccoi
15 olives
10 french beans
50 gms fresh mushrooms
1 small carrot( all the above should be cut into
1/2 cup olive oil for making the spread and 2 tbspns to saute the vegetables
6 cloves of garlic crushed
1 tbspn mixed herbs chilli flakes as per taste, u want it little spicy then chop and use 4 thai chillies salt as per taste
oregano as per taste

cheddar cheese as per taste

Method

In the half cup of olive oil put the crushed garlic, little salt and the mixed herbs and let it rest for an hour or so,

Saute the vegetables in olive oil, add salt, sprinkle little water so they do not burn, add the mixed herbs stir for a while and keep it ready.
Spread the olive oil mixture on to the slices of bread and both the sides, lay them in the pan, spread the sauetyed veg mix , put the cheese, oregano and cook with lid till the cheese becomes little soft and melts. Serve them as u remove them from the pan to get the best taste.

                                   
                                       Tortilla with Avacado, mushrooms and smoked cheese.

Another of my experi-mental dishes with my own version of avacado sauce and the stuffing of mushrooms.

Ingredients
6 plain phulkas made with whole wheat flour

For the sauce
1 avacado
2 green chillies
2 tbspns of olive oil
8 peppercorns
Salt to taste
Few cilantro leaves
2 tspns of lime juice

Method
Scoop out the avacado pulp, mix all the above ingredients and grind to a chutney or a sauce. Keep ready.

For the stuffing
2 packets of mushrooms cleaned and chopped into small pieces
6 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tspn of ginger paste
4 finely chopped green chillies
Small bunch of cilantro finely chopped
1/2 tspn of pepper powder
Salt to taste
2 tspns of dark soy sauce
3 tspns of grated smoked cheese

Method
In a pan take some olive oil and saute the garlic till golden, add the chiilies and the ginger, give this a stir, add cilantro, now add the mushrooms, salt, pepper powder, soy sauce and saute till semi dry, add the cheese one minute before taking the pan off the fire. mix well and keep rady.

Method of assembling the final dish 

Place a tava to heat, smear some butter, I used Amul lite. Now keep the phulka and spread the avcado sauce on it, spread  the mushroom mix, fold as shown in the  picture, flip over and roast evenly on both the sides for just two minutes and serve hot.

                                                   
                                                      Mushroom in tomato cashew gravy

A delicious gravy which I learnt from a regional cookery channel. I felt that was a must share. Hope you enjoy making the dish.

Ingredients

200 gms of mushrooms, washed and chopped into medium sized pieces
3 tomatoes
50 gms of cashew nuts
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
2 tspns of ginger garlic crushed
2 onions 
2 green chillies slit in between
1 tspoon  kashmiri chilli powder
1 bay leaf
1/2 an inch of cinamon
4 cloves
1 small piece of star anese
1 small piece of the nutmeg flower
Salt to taste
1 tspn of garam masala
1 tspn of katsuri methi
2 tbspns of any salted butter

Method
In a pan put tomatoes roughly chopped, cashew nuts, quarter  each of roughly chopped red and yellow bell pepper, put enough water to immerse all the ingredients and give it a nice boil. Once you see the tomatoes done, remove from flame, cool and grind to a fine paste. 

Next in the pan heat some oil and add one onion chopped into square and the remaining red and yellow bell peppers chopped  the same as onion, give these a quick stir, see that the crunch is maintained and remove in a bowl, keep aside.

In a pan again take some butter and saute the mushrooms and keep ready.

Again in a pan take some oil, add one finely chopped onion, bay leaf, nutmeg flower, cinamon, cloves, crushed ginger garlic, slit chillies, let the mixture turn golden brown, add the ground paste, let this too cook well till it leaves the pan, add the mushrooms, chilli powder, garam masala, kasuri methi, salt to taste, salted butter and cook covered till done, add a little water if necessary, transfer into a serving bowl, garnish with fresh coriander and serve with roti or phulka.  

                                                     
                                       Indian Flat Bread made two ways, sweet and savoury

The savoury parathas are made with spinach, potatoes and fenugreek, The sweet ones are made with stuffed coconut and jaggery. 

Ingredients
For the savoury ones
2 potatoes boiled and mashed
Small bunch of spinach cleaned and chopped fine
A small bunch of fenugreek cleaned and chopped fine
A small bunch of coriander cleaned and chopped fine
 6 green chillies roughly crushed
Salt to taste
2 tbspns of oil
1 tspn of cumin powder
1 tspn of aamchur powder
2 cups of whole wheat flour mixed in the above ingredients, no water added, dough gets made with the moisture of the vegetables. 
Cover and let it sit for about fifteen minutes, roll out parathas made of equal sized balls, roast on a pan with clarified butter to get the maximum taste. Eat with pickle, masala chillies and yogurt.

For the sweet ones
1 cup coconut freshly scraped
1 cup milk
1 cup jaggery
1/2 tspn of cardamom powder
4 strands of saffron
1/4 tspn nutmeg powder
Take a pan and mix all the ingredients and keep to cook stirring in between to see that it does not get burnt, cook till the mixture laves the sides of the pan, should neither be too dry nor too moist. Keep to cool so we can stuff it into the dough. 

Dough made with whole wheat flour like we make for normal phulkas or rotis made and kept to rest for about fifteen minutes.

Now make equal sized balls, take each in your palm and keep a ball of the cococnut mixture and cover it totally with dough. Roll out very carefully applying light pressure on them, pan roast to golden brown on both sides with clarified butter. Tastes heavenly when each morsel is dipped in clarified butter and eaten!

                                                                     

                                                                     
                                                                   Egg Curry

                           A dish which everybody in my family relishes with both roti and rice.

Ingredients
6 eggs boiled and peeled
6 onions out of which four will be chopped into long pieces, used for the paste and two will be chopped fine
3/4 cup freshly scraped coconut
4 green chillies
4 cloves of garlic
1 inch ginger roughly chopped
2 tomatoes roughly chopped
1/2 cup tomato puree
4 clove, 1 inch of cinamon, 1 tspn of black peppercorns pounded in a mortar pestle
1 heaped tspn of malwani masala powder
1/2 tspn of aamchur 
Salt to taste
1 tspn of chilli powder ( Kasmiri for the colour)
Coriander for garnishing, I have opted to use it while cooking the paste

Method
First in a kadhai put some oil and add the garlic, let it turn light brown then add the 4 roughly chopped onions, let them turn golden brown, add the coconut, the chillies, tomatoes and cook till tomatoes  turn soft. Cool and grind all this to a paste.

Now in the same kadhai take some oil and add the pounded spices, the ground paste, the chopped coriander, the malwani masala, salt to taste, chilli powder, aamchur, tomato puree, cook till the paste leaves the sides of the kadhai, add the two finely chopped onions, add enough water to make a curry
consistency and now chop the eggs into halves and add them, cook covered till done, serve with roti or hot steaming rice.

                                                       
                                                                Sabudana Thalipeeth

A savoury dish which could make a good breakfast or supper a satisfying experience. Usually eaten on fast days. Can be called a Sago Pearl potato crostini.

Ingredients

2 cups sabudana soaked overnight
2 potatoes boiled and mashed, another option is to grate the potatoes
4 green chillies finely chopped
Small bunch of coriander finely chopped
1 cup powder of roasted and peeled peanuts
Salt to taste
Clarified butter to grease the pan and for sprinkling on top
If you choose to grate the potatoes then you must make the dish immediately or else the dough will become watery since the potatoes will release water and make the process difficult.

Method

Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl, make equal sized balls, spread the mixture on a greased pan, make 4-5 holes in the spread and fill little clarified butter in each hole. Now cook covered and flip and cook the other side uncovered till it becomes golden brown on both sides. While flipping take care to see that you do not break it, since it is very delicate. Eat with white butter, yogurt or fried chilli.  

                                         
                                            A salad made with stalks of the colocasia leaves

This is a picture of the stalks  after they have been peeled off the thin skin which does not cook.

Ingredients
Stalks of two bunches of colocasia leaves, cleaned and the skin pulled off by hand.
2 green chillies chopped
Salt to taste
1 and a 1/2  cups of yogurt, thick
1/2 cup peanut powder ( powder made after roasting and peeling the peanuts)\
Oil, mustard seeds and asefoetida 
Coriander for garnishing

Method

First roughly break the stalks into small pieces by hand and keep ready. In a pan take one table spoon of oil, add mustard seeds once they splutter add the asafoetida and the chilli, Now add the stalks and saute only for a wee bit since they cook super fast. Remove from fire, transfer into a serving bowl and let it cool. Once cool add the peanut powder. Mix salt and the yogurt just before serving, garnished with fresh coriander. It tastes good with phulkas, rotis, chapatis and pooris too.