Homemade garlic bread snack

I had been to Taj Westend sometime back and had ordered this item. It had some exotic name but turned out to be a garlic bread toast decorated with a mixture of tomatoes and onions.

At home, after some experimentation I could make a clone (almost similar but not the same)

1) Take 5 spoons of virgin olive oil
2) Take 5 cloves of garlic, strip the skin and chop into small pieces.
3) Heat the olive oil a bit and add the garlic pieces
4) Use a masher to massage the mixture - garlic pieces should almost blend with the oil
5) Alternatively you can also use one spoon of garlic paste
6) Spread the mixture on 2-3 pieces of regular bread - choose white or brown based on your preference
7) Chop 1 onion and 1 tomato into small pieces
8) Add some coriander for extra minty flavor
9) Mix the three together and then spread them out on the bread pieces
10) Heat for 10 seconds in a microwave to soften the bread and serve

Homemade tomato soup

Here is a quick recipe for good homemade tomato soup.

1) Take 3-4 tomatoes, cut into 4-5 pieces each and add to mixer
2) Add 1 glass of water
3) Run the mixer and check if no tomato chunks remain
4) Rerun mixer if necessary
5) Extract mixture and pour into a vessel
6) Heat vessel, add salt, black pepper to taste
7) Add 1/2 spoon sugar
8) Let it boil for 2 minutes
9) Serve in bowl and garnish with fresh mint/herbs

Try this with khicadi - makes for great sunday evening dinner :)

Upma

There are many variations of Upma available from a quick 2 min receipe to something that takes upto 15 mins

Here is mine:
1) 1 cup Rava /Fine Sooji (Semolina)
2) 1 chopped onion
3) 1/4 cup peanuts
4) 1 green chillies
5) 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
6) 1/2 teanspoon lime juice

Instructions:
1) Fry rava in 1/2 teaspoon oil until light brown
2) Heat 1 teaspoon oil in another pan and fry onion until light brown
3) Add peanuts and fry for 2 mins with #2
4) Add fried rava to pan
5) Add green chillies, salt to taste
6) Add lime juice
7) Add 2 cups of water and mix well

Leave it for 5 mins for the mixture to thicken. Keep it covered

Consume after 5 mins

Light breakfast

This is quick and light for breakfast

1) Heat one spoon oil in pan
2) Add mustard & sesame seeds
3) Add 2 spoon peanuts and fry until dark brown
4) Wash puffed rice in water. Leave for 2 mins.
5) In the washed rice add 1/4 tumeric powder, 1 cut green chilli, 1 spoon sugar, 1 spoon lemon juice and salt to taste. Note: add this to the puffed rice and not to the pan
6) Add puffed rice mix to pan and stir well - keep on low heat
7) Sprinkle 1 spoon water and keep stirring to ensure rice doesn't stick
8) Leave it covered and cook for 2 mins.
9) Mix well

It is now ready to eat

Dosa tips

Today I tried making dosa. I use readymade batter available in most groceries stores. That is the easy part. Even after getting the batter it is a tough task to make dosas. Here are some tips

1) First 1-2 dosa will be bad. Can't do much about it
2) Make sure you clean & scrap the pan
3) Before putting the batter, spray a little water on the pan to cool it. Keep flame low
4) Pour batter and quickly spread it evenly across. Don't try to over do it. Make one attempt to spread and leave it as is. Over time you will get the right round dosas
5) Increase flame to full for 1 min
6) Pour one teaspoon oil around the dosa
7) Leave for 1/2 min and remove using a flat spatula

Enjoy

Healthy & Light breakfast

Today I write about making Poha. This is usually made for breakfast from flattened rice. This is easily available in markets. There are two kinds - very flat like paper and mid sized. You will need mid-sized Poha for this dish

1) Wash poha is water and remove excess water.
2) Add a tea spoon of oil to pan and heat
3) Add cummin seeds and mustard speeds (1/2 spoon each)
4) Cut 2 green chillies into small piece and add to pan
5) Add 2-3 tea spoons of peanuts
6) Fry until peanuts turn dark drown
7) Add washed Poha
8) Add salt to taste - mix well
9) Cover and leave for 5 mins
10) Mix well and it is ready to eat

You can also add potato at #5 above if you like it

Spicy Macaroni

Another one of my favorite. Takes about 20 mins to make

1. Take a cup of macaroni, mix with a cup of water and heat in microwave for 12 mins
2. In parallel, cut 1 onion and 1 potato into small slices - this can be optional, don't use if you don't want to
3. Heal 1 spoon oil in pan. Add 1/2 spoon cummin & mustard each.
4. Add 1/4 spoon tumeric powder
5. Add onion/potato to the pan and leave it covered for 5 mins
6. Add salt, red chilli to taste
7. Once the macaroni is done, add to pan and mix well
8. Add tomato sauce/ketchup - 4-5 spoons should be ok, can add more as per taste
9. Mix well and leave covered for 3 mins

I personal use Maggi Hot & Sweet ketchup to give it that right mix of spice and sweet taste that I enjoy