Anna's Baked Beans and Toast Recipe

Baked beans and toast hold a lot of memories for me. They were my early morning sustenance for almost three years at Xavier's.

Baked Beans and Toast Recipe

Our undergraduate classes at Xavier's used to start at 8 am in the morning. Which meant I HAD to leave from home by 6.15 am sharp. There was no way I'd feel hungry that early in the morning... I'd have barely woken up! So the first thing I would do on reaching college is go to the canteen or mess and order myself a large breakfast!

Baked Beans and Toast Recipe

Anna's (our mess owner) baked beans and toast were the first time I'd ever had baked beans. We'd never gotten them home before because we did not know what they were. I had loved them and I started eating them regularly. I also thought that's how they came out of the can. Till one day I had them at a restaurant... the ones served straight out of the can were horrible! That's when I realised Anna did something magical with them. It seems I have finally made that recipe work!

Anna's Baked Beans and Toast Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 tbsps peanut/ sunflower/ olive oil
1 large onion finely chopped
2 cups baked beans
1 tsp red chilly powder
2 tsps mixed herbs (oregano, parsley, thyme, basil etc)  or pizza mix
1 tsp black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Bread slices and butter to serve.

Method

Heat oil in a pan. Saute the onions till they turn translucent.

Add in the baked beans, red chilly powder, and mixed herbs.

Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Cook for about 2 minutes on high flame.


Serve with buttered toast.

French Toast with Gula Melaka Syrup Recipe

In my last post, I showed you the simplest recipe ever of making gula melaka syrup.  You can find the recipe here. Now is the time to make use of it. With a bottle of gula melaka syrup and a thinking hat on, here is what I came up with! Presenting...French toast with Gula Melaka Syrup!

French Toast with Gula Melaka Syrup Recipe

French toast is an all-time breakfast favourite. You can make it sweet or savoury - either ways bread dipped in a fluffy egg batter and fried in butter is going to taste amazing! Many people have their favourite recipes of French toast and many like to try new recipes for it. I came up with this as a take on the classic French toast.

French Toast with Gula Melaka Syrup Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 2 minutes for each French Toast

Makes: a stack of 8 French toasts

Ingredients:

8 bread slices (brown or white)

6 eggs

2 tsps milk

2 tbsps butter

Gula melaka syrup for serving

Method:

Heat a flat griddle. 

In a bowl, mix the eggs and the milk. Beat briskly for two minutes till it is aerated.

Brush the griddle with some butter.

Dip a slice of bread in the egg batter and put on the griddle. Pour some batter over the toast as it cooks if needed. 

Cook to golden brown on both sides.

Serve with a little bit of gula melaka syrup on top.

Relish!

10 Quick Weekend Brunch Recipes

It's Friday! The day of the week everyone looks forward to. It's the last working day of the week which means weekend's going to be here soon!

10 Quick Weekend Brunch Recipes

Weekends mean waking up late, cooking easy and delicious meals and eating it with family and friends. Weekends mean brunches where kids look forward to treats, and older kids like us look forward to more treats!  

Here are ten delicious weekend brunch recipes that are quick to make and very yummy!

1. Veg Coleslaw Sandwich

The recipe can be found here.

Veg Coleslaw Sandwich

This is the most popular recipe on my blog. I've made a vegetarian version of the sandwich. It has a lightly flavoured garlicky yoghurt spread, with lots of crunchy veggies. Make it 15 minutes in advance, chill the spread a bit and serve fresh!

2. Masala Upma

The recipe can be found here.

Masala Upma

Masala upma is my take on the breakfast classic. I've used congruent tastes of rasam powder to spice up the traditional upma. Serve hot with a squeeze of lime and see it dissapear!

3. Waldorf Salad

The recipe can be found here.

Waldorf Salad

Waldorf salad is an American classic. Fresh sweet red apples are mixed with hints of sharp celery, crunchy walnuts and served in a creamy mayo dressing. The best way to have this is chilled and served on lettuce.

4. Fettucine in Pesto Sauce

The recipe can be found here.

Fettucine in Pesto Sauce

This one is for the kids! Which kid doesn't love pasta? Make the pesto sauce in advance. Cook this noodle pasta in 10 minutes, toss it with sauce and top it with parmesan, or your kid's favourite cheese. Serve with lots of love.

5. Homemade Apple Cinnamon Jam

The recipe can be found here.

Homemade Apple Cinnanmon Jam

Brunch can never be complete without some hot buttered toast slathered with a thick layer of jam. Make some homemade apple cinnamon jam for your next brunch. It takes about half an hour to make and is not rocket science! Feel free to gather all the praises!

6. Pan Seared Aubergines with a Yoghurt Dip

The recipe can be found here.

Pan Seared Aubergines with a Yoghurt Dip

Having friends over for brunch? Cook something 'fancy' in 15 minutes for them. This recipe preserved the flavour of aubergines and mixes it up with a light, refreshing yoghurt dip. Worried that your friends (of you for that matter) don't like aubergines? Trust me, people who hate aubergines have loved this dish and eaten loads of it!

7. Homemade Pizza Sauce for Pizzas

The recipe can be found here. 

Pizza with Homemade Pizza Sauce

Satisfy your weekend pizza cravings (I know you have them!) with pizzas made from a homemade sauce. It takes 10 minutes to make this sauce. You'll have something fresh and preservative free (which just tastes so much better!) on your pizzas. Trust me, your phone-dialling for pizzas is about to go down quite a bit!

8. Veg Hakka Noodles

The recipe can be found here.

Veg Hakka Noodles

This is another very popular recipe on my blog. A dish that is the favourite of adults and kids alike. It's very easy to make and the recipe demands for quick cooking as the technique to get the flavours right. So there you have it... a perfect recipe for a weekend brunch! 

9. Mooli Ke Paranthe

The recipe can be found here.

Mooli ke Paranthe

Do you crave carbs when you wake up on weekend mornings (or afternoons?) How do hot parathas sound? Make these mooli ke paranthe in 15 minutes. They are bursting with taste and love. Sounds like you need just a dollop of butter and a plate now.

10. Kulhad Masala Chai

The recipe can be found here. 

Kulhad Masala Chai

Is your first thought of the day "chai!" like me? Then brew yourself this spicy, sweet decoction and you won't be disappointed. You'll simply be hooked!

Dal Ke Parathe

We Indians always cook in additional quantities. The basic idea behind this is that if an unexpected guest ever comes over (which is quite common in our culture), there should always be something to offer to them. It is okay if there are leftovers, but food should never fall short for anyone. With this tradition comes generations of great food recycling ideas. Mothers have some of the best of these ideas! Dal ke parathe is one of them.

Since this trick to use up leftover dal is as traditional as it can get, the proportions presented just as traditionally - as guesstimates from experience.

Leftover Panchmel Dal

I had some leftover Marwari Panchmel Dal from last night's dinner that I used for this. The recipe for the Panchmel Dal can be found here. 

There are two more ingredients needed to make the parathas - whole wheat flour and salt. 

The transforming ingredients - flour and salt

A good estimate would be to use 1 1/2 cups of flour for every cup of dal.

I poured the dal in the flour and added some salt to it. Before adding any water, I used my fingers to thoroughly mix in the dry ingredients together. 

Dal and flour to knead the dough

You can use a little water (I used about 1 tbsp) for easier kneading of the dough. Once it has been knead, you can let it rest for 10 minutes. You will be able to see lovely flecks of the dal interspersed in the dough!

Resting the prepared dough

After the dough has rested, roll out parathas and roast them with a little oil on the tawa.

Roasting the parathas on the tawa

These are best had with a dollop of butter melting all over it!

Dal ke parathe with a dollop of butter

Thalipeeth

Thalipeeth, sigh. The name itself brings water in my mouth. There is a simple reason why... the flavours of the flour! The flour used for thalipeeth is called 'thalipeethachi bhajni'. The word 'bhajne' in Marathi literally translates to roast. Yes, you guessed it right, the flour is made by slow roasting rice, pulses such as chana dal, moong dal, urad dal, bajri, jowari, nachni and spices such as corriander seeds and cumin seeds individually and then grinding them together into a fragrant flour. This fragrance is also a great way to determine whether the flour is fresh or not.


Thalipeeth is the flatbread made by flattening the dough prepared from the bhajni on a tawa using your fingers and then shallow frying it to give a crispy, golden brown flatbread. This beauty of a dish is crisp on the outside and a little soft on the inside. It has the flavours of slow roasted flours, onions and corriander. It makes for a great snack or main course. Thalipeeth is best enjoyed right off the tawa with loni (white butter).

Thalipeeth hot off the tawa... now where is that loni?

Ingredients

1 cup thalipeeth bhajni
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 tsps red chilly powder
10-15 corriander leaves finely chopped
Salt to taste
Water to knead the dough
Oil to shallow fry the thalipeeth

Method

Mix with your fingers a dry mixture of the bhajni, onion, red chilly powder, corriander leaves and salt. Add a little water and knead a firm dough. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Make balls of around 2 inch diameter with the dough.

On a cold tawa, put some oil and using your fingers flatten the ball from inside to the edges. Heat the tawa and shallow fry the thalipeeth till golden brown on both sides. It is best done on a medium flame, though it takes a little time, you will get perfect crispiness on both sides and the inside will also be cooked properly.

Eat it with white butter (loni).

Apple Cinnamon Oats

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. But it can get too boring to eat the same apple in the same way everyday. It has happened to me so I tried my hand at creating something new from the same old apple. And voila! I thought why not use apple with its best spice partner cinnamon in my morning oats? The dish turned out to be good, so here I am sharing away the recipe.

Apple Cinnamon Oats

Apple Cinnamon Oats

Ingredients

3 tsps plain oats
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 apple cut into thin small slices or grated
1 pinch cinnamon powder
2 tsps sugar (or more if you prefer)

Method:

Put the milk and oats to heat in a deep pan. Add in the apple pieces and sugar. Let the milk come to a boil.

Lower the flame and let the oats cook in the milk. About a couple of minutes later add in the cinnamon powder. The oats will take another minute on the lowered flame after that to cook through.

Serve garnished with a slice of apple. Enjoy a healthy and filling breakfast!

Breakfast Challenge Week 5: Bread Butter Jam (A Cool Tip)

Hahaha! Yes, that was my breakfast today. Today, was one of those lazy mornings that I was not up to letting my alarm wake me up. So I used whatever 5 minutes I had left over from my 15 minutes to quickly toast two pieces of bread, slather them with butter and mango jam and eat it with great relish.

A cool tip I have learnt and can share is when applying butter, make sure you apply it on the hot toast. Nothing absorbs butter like hot toast... the effect is simply awesome!

Breakfast Challenge Week 4: Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie

I have heard a lot about breakfast smoothies and seen a lot of recipes. But I have never tried them really.

Smoothies are fruits and flavours, and sometimes oats, blended in milk to make a thick shake. There are many variants of smoothies too. There can be made with fruits and yoghurt blended together with honey for a low calorie version of the smoothie. They are quick and easy to make, nutritious with milk, fruits and oats, delicious and very filling. Today, I tried making a smoothie for the first time with milk, bananas, chocolate and oats. One glass of it in the morning at around 8 a.m. had me going till 12 noon.  

Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie

Preparation Time: 7 minutes

Ingredients

2 tbsps oats

1 large banana/ 2 small bananas

150 ml milk

1 tbsp drinking chocolate

1 tsp sugar or 2 tsps honey (optional for sweetness)

3 cubes ice (optional)

Method

Soak the oats for about 5 minutes. Chop the banana. In a blender, blend together all the smoothie ingredients. Add ice if you wish; the milk I had was using was cold, so I did not need it.

Pour this rich thick shake into a tall glass or a go-cup and enjoy! 

Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie enjoyed in the balcony!

Breakfast Challenge Week 3: Anna's Tomato Cheese Sandwiches

I have been getting pretty nostalgic about Xavier's days for the last couple of days. Today morning when it was raining, I was reminded of (again) of rains in the first quad, where the water would flow from the terrace via the gargoyle's mouths to the ground and make a very interesting sound on the stone basketball court of the first quad. Sigh. Xavier's.

And that brought me to memories of breakfasts at Xavier's! Especially those at Anna's mess! One of my regular favourites were his tomato-cheese sandwiches. So on that nostalgic note, today's breakfast was anna's simple and filling tomato-cheese sandwich. I can say great things about how the sandwich tastes, like how the acidity of the tomatoes, balances the saltiness and richness of the cheese and the sprinkle of pepper and salt just add an edge of spice to it. But no, to me the taste is as simple as those times were: it's the taste of mornings of Xavier's!

Anna's Tomato Cheese Sandwich

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Ingredients

2 slices of bread
1 cheese slice/ 1/2 cheese cube/ 1 tsp cheese spread
1 tomato sliced into 4 round slices
Sprinkle of black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Method

Toast the bread if you wish. It will add about 3-4 minutes to the preparation time. Spread the cheese spread over one slice or put the cheese cube slices/ cheese slice on it. Add the tomato slices. Sprinkle the salt and pepper on these slices. Close the sandwich with the other bread slice and enjoy the sandwich!

The taste of Xavier's mornings!

Breakfast Challenge Week 2: Masala Upma

Today is one of those rare mid-week 'holidays' for me. The only advantage of this 'holiday' is that I do not have to travel and so I had some more time to prepare a breakfast and savour it. I have still put in an eight hour work day for projects and assignments.

 My breakfast menu for today was a twist on the upma I make almost frequently - masala upma. I have had this recipe in my head for some time and I tried it out today. It has had great results and so I am sharing it with you.

Masala Upma

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 tbsps oil

2 tsps mustard seeds

1 tsp asafoetida powder

10-15 curry leaves

2 tbsps white udad dal

1 medium onion finely chopped

2-2 tsps rasam powder

1 cup rawa

3 cups water

3-4 tbsps lemon juice

Salt to taste

Method

Put the 3 cups of water to boil.

In another pan, heat the oil and temper with mustard seeds. Add  in the asafoetida powder and the curry leaves. When the curry leaves crackle add the udad dal and fry till it turns reddish. 

To this add in the onions and saute them for 1-2 minutes till they start to release the oil. Add in the rasam powder and cook it in the mixture till it's aroma releases a couple of minutes later. Add in the rawa and roast it well.  

Add the boiled water and salt and let the rawa mixture cook in it for 5-7 minutes till the rawa cooks through and the mixture has the consistency of thick porridge. 

Serve hot with lemon juice. This goes very well with filter coffee!

Masala upma in all its glory!

My leisurely breakfast today morning: masala upma and filter coffee. 

For the days when I have a time crunch, I can prepare the dry upma mixture one evening before and store it in the refrigerator after it cools down to room temperature.  The next morning I would simply have to boil water (3-4 minutes) and cook the upma in it (about 7 minutes) and I will have hot upma ready in about 10 minutes!  

Breakfast Challenge Week 1: Masala Oats

I have started skipping breakfasts again. My schedule has started getting extremely jam-packed again and I stay up late at nights to complete my work. So I end up choosing the extra half an hour of sleep in the mornings over making and eating breakfast. Hence, I have made a deal with myself. I am going to divide up the half hour into 15 minutes of additional sleep time and 15 minutes of breakfast time. I will make dishes for breakfast that are healthy, filling and take only 7-8 minutes to prepare, so I can eat them at a decent pace too. And if they take more than 10 minutes to prepare, then I should have enough time to pack them up in a tiffin and eat them on my hour long commute (thank you Mumbai city for that!) Needless to add that since I am giving up 15 minutes of precious sleep for cooking them, these recipes better be delicious! This of course has the added advantage of giving me more blog posts to write!

In the Breakfast Challenge Week, the first recipe is Masala Oats. As we all have often heard, oats have a lot of health benefits and make for a hearty and healthy breakfast. Yes, there are a variety of flavoured (sweet and savoury) oats available now in the market. I have tried and liked some of them but I do not want to eat them much over the long run as they do have preservatives. For me, they are okay once in a while when you are in a real crunch, but not an option I would go for everyday.

Masala Oats

Preparation Time: 6 minutes

Ingredients

2 tsps oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3 tbsps oats
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilly powder
1 1/2 tsps Kitchen King masala or garam masala
1 1/2 cups water
Salt to taste
1-2 tsps tomato ketchup (optional)

Method

In a pan heat the oil and add the cumin seeds.

When they start to turn red, add in the oats, and the turmeric powder, chilly powder and Kitchen King/ garam masala. Dry roast them for about 30-40 seconds till the masalas release their aromas.

Add in the water and salt. Bring to one boil. Then lower the flame and simmer for about 3-3 1/2 minutes till the oats are cooked and it has a porridge-like thick soupy consistency.

Serve in a bowl. Add in the ketchup if you wish to have a tangy flavour (this kind of reminds me of eating Maggi noodles with ketchup, especially when it is made with the Kitchen King masala)

Enjoy your quickly prepared breakfast!

Healthy, hearty and quick: just how I like my breakfasts!

The Dals Week 4: Upma

When I started the dals week, I was thinking about the versatility of dals. They not just as used to make dal for dipping rotis or having rice with, they are also used to add texture to pliant vegetables and flavor to bland ingredients like rawa in upma.

So coming to upma, I recently tried the recipe using udad dal in it about two months back and have transformed from a ­I-HATE-upma  to a I-LOVE-upma person! I have had more upma in these last two months than I have even bothered to look at in my entire life. I have found the balance of flavours in it that I enjoy, and I really am enjoying it!

Upmaaaaaaaaaaa!

Upma

Ingredients

2 tbsps oil

2 tsps mustard seeds

1 tsp asafoetida powder

10-15 curry leaves

2 tbsps white udad dal

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 cup rawa

3 cups water

3-4 tbsps lemon juice

Salt to taste

Finely chopped corriander to garnish

Method

Heat a pan and dry roast the rawa on a low flame for 7-8 minutes till it starts turning reddish and releases its aroma. Remove and keep aside.

On the other side, heat the water till it comes to a boiling point and let it be.

In the same pan, heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds and the asafoetida powder. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the curry leaves and let them crackle.

Now, lower the flame and add in the white udad dal. Fry in the oil on the low flame till its starts turning red.

Add in the finely chopped onion and fry till it softens and starts losing its raw aroma. Now add in the roasted rawa and sauté it for 2-3 minutes.

Pour the hot water into the rawa mixture and add the salt. Bring to a boil. Then on a medium high flame let the rawa mixture cook in the water till it starts to thicken and achieve a porridge-like consistency. You can let it continue cooking for a bit more if you like it thicker.

Lastly, add in the lemon juice.

Serve hot topped with fresh corriander or sev and chopped onion. Don’t wait, dig in!

Upma with sev and chopped onion

P.S. You can add in more vegetables such as carrots, beans or peas. Just parboil them and add them in about 2 minutes before your desired consistency is achieved so as to avoid overcooking of the vegetables.