Bread Upma

I haven't even heard of bread upma until the day I made it. My hubby suddenly had a craving for it, and told me about this dish that used to be very popular in Tamil Nadu during his childhood. Before chaats from north India became popular and invaded the snack scene in south India, these were a regular item in most tea shops. Nowadays, you can never find this in a restaurant menu. So he asked me to look it up and make it for him. I went through a few bread upma recipes online and mostly followed Preethi's.

Ingredients:

Bread - 6 to 8 slices
Ghee - as required
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Green chilli - 1, chopped
Ginger - 1/2 inch, minced (optional)
Tomato - 2, chopped
Vegetables of choice - like crumbled potato, green peas, carrots, beans, chana (garbanzo), chopped and cooked. You can also add cooked ground meat.
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana Dal - 1/2 tsp
Cashewnuts - handful, broken
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Tomato puree or water - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves - minced (or coriander chutney) - to taste
Lemon juice - to garnish

Method:

Toast bread pieces on a skillet with ghee. (You can skip toasting the bread, but I felt this step made the dish really tasty!) Cube them into bite size pieces. In a wok, heat ghee and splutter mustard seeds. Add chana dal, urad dal and cashewnuts. Stir well so that they fry evenly. When they brown, add onions, ginger and green chilli. Fry till onions turn translucent with salt. Then add tomatoes and fry till they mush up. Then add cooked vegetables and combine. Add turmeric powder, asafoetida, red chilli powder and garam masala. Sprinkle some water or add tomato puree and cook for a few minutes. Finally add the cubed bread pieces and combine well. Garnish with cilantro chutney and squeeze a bit of lemon juice. Serve hot.

Read More

Chicken Parmesan and Spaghetti

I bought a chunk of the original Parmigiano-Reggiano from Spar about a month back. I've used it while making different Italian dinners but have been wanting to try the Chicken Parmesan, and I decided to try it out when my sis came to visit me on a weekend. Oh, it was super tasty! I'm thinking of repeating it again for dinner tonight.
Parmigiano-Reggiano is the original Parmesan cheese from Italy. Its a bit grainy and salty to taste, so be careful about adding salt to your dish when using this cheese. You can identify if the cheese is original by checking the seal on the outer ring which has Parmigiano-Reggiano printed on it.

Inspiration: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/simple-chicken-parmesan/detail.aspx

Ingredients:

For one serving:
Chicken Breast - 1 breast half
Butter - 5 tbsp.

For chicken coating:
Coating 1:
All purpose flour (Maida) - 50 grams

Coating 2:
Egg - 1, beaten

Coating 3:
Bread crumbs - 100 grams
Parmigiano-Reggiano(Parmesan cheese) - 50 grams grated.
Oregano, Garlic bread seasoning - 1 tsp (optional)
Ground black pepper - 1/2 tsp.

Pasta:
Spaghetti: A bunch

Spaghetti Sauce:
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp.
Garlic - 2 cloves, minced finely
Tomatoes - 2, chopped
Onion - 1 chopped
Tomato puree - 5-6 tbsp.
Water - 1/2 cup
Parsley - handful, chopped
Basil - 1tsp chopped (I used flakes since I did not have fresh ones :( )
Pepper - 1 tsp.
Sugar - A pinch
Salt - to taste

Method:

For Spaghetti:
Boil water in a pot, add a pinch of salt and put the spaghetti into it. Also add a tablespoon of oil into it. Allow it to cook. Make sure spaghetti has a thin layer of oil coating, otherwise it would stick to each other after draining. Drain and keep aside.

For Spaghetti sauce:
In a pan, heat olive oil. Do not heat it too much like other oils. Add garlic and allow it to start sizzling. Add onions and allow it to soften. Now add tomatoes and mix again for 2 minutes. Add the tomato puree and a pinch of sugar. If the sauce starts to stick to the pan, add some water to it to get desired consistency. Add parsley, basil, pepper and salt. Simmer until sauce thickens a bit and flavors meld, 10 to 12 minutes. Cover and keep warm. If you have black olives, chop them and add that as well.

Chicken Parmesan:
Wash and clean the chicken breast. Put the chicken breast into a plastic bag. Take a heavy bottomed pan and whack the hell out of it! Lol.. just batter it so that its flattened until its about a quarter inch thick.
Spread out maida on one plate. Pour the beaten egg in another plate. And in a third plate, mix all ingredients of Coating 3 and have them all ready. Heat a frying pan and add butter into it.
Dip both sides of the pounded chicken into the flour first, then dip it into the beaten egg, now transfer it to the bread crumb and parmesan mixture. Make sure chicken is well coated. Now place it on the frying pan and fry till golden brown on both sides. Top each with a portion of the cheeses. Broil cutlets, 4 to 5 inches from heat source, until cheese melts and is spotty brown.

Serve with spaghetti and top it with the spaghetti sauce. Yummmm....

If you dont have Parmesan then you could try with Mozzarella or any other cheese you like..

Read More

Tomato Sambar - Tomato Lentil Stew

Quick and easy accompaniment with steamed rice.

Credit: http://www.tarladalal.com/Thakkali-(tomato)-Sambar-15592r

Ingredients:

4 to 6 big sized tomatoes
1 cup toovar (arhar) dal
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
2 tbsp sambaar powder

For Seasoning:
1/2 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)
few curry leaves (kadi patta)
1/2 tsp fenugreek (methi) seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
3 to 4 whole dry kashmiri red chillies deseeded and broken up
4 to 6 tbsp oil

For Garnishing:
3 to 4 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania) leaves
3 to 4 tbsp ghee
2 to 3 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Steam the tomatoes peel off the skin mash well & keepPressure cook the thuvar dal with 2 cups of water, turmeric powder & asafetida pwd. tii soft (say for about 15 mins – on low flame after the first whistle.
Once the dhal is cooked remove from heat & leave to depressurize – open & mash well –keep aside
Take a vessel heat the oil kept for seasoning – when hot add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, dry chillies,curry leaves
when mustard seeds crackle add the mashed dhal, sambar powder & 2-3 cups of water mix well
Let it bubble nicely till sambar thickness is achieved
Remove from heat add lime juice & garnish with chopped corriander leaves

Read More

Spicy Tomato Chutney

This is what I prepared for tonight's dinner. Bee came back from the UK today. Boy what a HOT day today was!! Bangalore has become unbearable hot to withstand. Bee is feeling kinda sick coz of the climate change and wanted somethin to cool his body down. When I told him I had chappathis and havent figured out the side dish yet, he asked if I could prepare a spicy tomato chutney. I reckon he remembered the usual tomato chutney which was chilled and spicy that we used to have at this north indian mess called Prayag Raj. So I googled it and found something similar..
Credit: http://www.foodreference.com/html/spicytomatochutney.html

Ingredients:

½ cup corn oil (I used canola oil)
1 tablespoon mustard seed, toasted
4 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon cumin
4 yellow onions, finely minced (used 1 large and 1 medium onion - sliced it, and put it into the mixer jar and gave it a quick turbo pulse)
20 Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped (I used about 6 usual tomatoes)
4 tablespoons minced ginger
Salt
6 jalapeños, minced (I used 3 long green chillies sliced finely)
3 cups packed cilantro, cleaned and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon ground fenugreek seed**

Method:

In a large pot, over medium heat, (I splutteed mustard seeds first, added jeera) fry garlic, onion, ginger, and jalapeños(green chillies) in oil for one minute.

Add spices (fenugreek powder) and continue cooking for one more minute.
Add tomatoes and a dash of salt and bring to a boil.

Cook for 15 minutes (covered with lid) or until almost reduced to a coarse paste.
Cool it.. try serving it chilled with chappathis and coriander chutney on the side.

Read More