BREAD UPMA

Recipe Source & Acknowledgement: Homely Food

If you are really bored with sandwich or bread toast or French Fry, just try this South Indian touchy Bread Upma. A wonderful breakfast, very flavorful and it cooks in jiffy. In my school days, my mom oftenly made this dish in my lunch box and she also loved this toothsome dish very much. Since then, I am foodie...:) Bread upma tastes best if you use a day or two old bread (or stale bread), which is little hard and dry - a spiced, a stir fried bread dish. So, lets get started.

INGREDIENTS:
8 Bread Slices
1 Parboiled Potato, cut in 1/2" cubes
1 Onion (finely chopped)
1 Tomato (finely chopped)
2 Green Chillies (chopped)
1 Sprig Curry Leaves
A pinch of Asafoetida
1/2 tsp Urad Dal
1/2 tsp Bengal gram Lentil (chana dal)
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Lemon Juice
4 tbsps Oil
Handful Coriander Leaves (chopped)
Salt to taste

METHOD:
Trim the edges of the bread slices, then cut each bread slice into 9 small cubes.

Heat oil in a pan or kadhai. Add mustard seeds, asafoetida, cumin seeds, urad dal, bengal gram lentils. Saute for 40 seconds, let them crackle.

Add green chillies now, saute for another few seconds.

Now add onion and curry leaves in it. Fry till onions are translucent.

Then add potato pieces in it. Fold well.

Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder in it. 

Mix tomato and salt. Fry till tomato gets mushy.

Add bread pieces now. Immediately fold nicely.

Pour 1/2 Cup of water. Fold everything very nicely. Bread will be soggy but not mushy. Add lemon juice and coriander leaves. Mix well.

Serve immediately.

Sending to: Homely Food Event / Giveaway; "Spotlight: Show Your Best Creation" @ Cuisine Delights; Taste of the Tropics @ ESHO-BOSHO-AAHARE; Jagruti's Mom's event

GRILLED SCRAMBLED COTTAGE CHEESE SANDWICH / PANEER BHURJI SANDWICH

Usually, we made sandwiches with eggs/chicken/veggies/cheese, but today I made sandwiches with the scrambled cottage cheese filling. Very easy to make, may use your leftover scrambled cottage cheese in a great way. My mom is pure vegetarian, she loves cottage cheese (paneer) a lot. Usually she makes paneer bhurji (scrambled cottage cheese) weekly once. So made these sandwiches specially for her and she relished it truely. Thanks a lot to my friend Meena Bhatia for this healthy and yummilicious recipe. You made my mom's day today...... 

INGREDIENTS: 
8 Bread Slices
Salted Butter For Spreading On The Bread Slices
Tomato Ketchup (for serving)

FOR MAKING SCRAMBLED COTTAGE CHEESE:
1 Cup Cottage Cheese/Chena (grated paneer)
1/4 Cup Green Peas (frozen)
1 Small Onion Chopped
1 Small Tomato Chopped
2 tbsps Small Cubes of Green Bell Pepper
2 tbsps Small Cubes of Red Bell Peppers
Few Sprigs of Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves
1-2 Finely Chopped Green Chillies
1/4 tbsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 tsp Coriander Powder
1/2 tsp Roasted Cumin Powder
1/2 tsp Garam Masala Powder
1 tbsp Clarified Butter (ghee)
Salt to taste

METHOD:
TO MAKE SCRAMBLED COTTAGE CHEESE (PANEER BHURJI):

In a pan, heat little clarified butter. Add chopped onion and green chillies, saute for 3-4 minutes. Add green peas, tomato, chopped bell peppers and fry for 2-3 more minutes. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, roasted cumin powder and garam masala powder. Fry another 2 minutes. Now add grated cottage cheese, coriander leaves and salt in it. Fry on high heat for 3 minutes, till all spices incorporate well with cottage cheese. Switch off the heat now. Scrambled cottage cheese is ready now.

TO MAKE SANDWICH:
Butter the bread on one side.

Spread scrambled cottage cheese on it.

Cover the slice with another buttered side of bread.

Place both sandwiches on the sandwich toaster.

Grill them nicely.

Serve immediately with tomato ketchut or any other sauce. Enjoy this yummilicious breakfast...

Sending to: Homely Food Event / Giveaway; "Spotlight: Show Your Best Creation" @ Cuisine Delights; Taste of the Tropics @ ESHO-BOSHO-AAHARE; Jagruti's Mom's event

2 MINUTES EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

This dense moist easy chocolate cake we can make just in 2 minutes. I got this recipe from Meena's space, Homely Food. I slightly adjusted the recipe to suit our taste. I prefered to add lemon juice, as it makes cake super moist and spongy. We can prepare this cake with very few ingredients, which are easilly available in our pantry. I simply loved this cake and I was completely satisfactory with the outcome. Let us begin cooking this delicious cake.......

INGREDIENTS:
3 tbsps All Purpose Flour (maida)
1&1/2 tbsps Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 tbsps Confectioner's Sugar / Powdered Sugar
3 tbsps Butter (melted)
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
A pinch of Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
3 tbsps Milk (at room temperature)
1 tsp Lemon Juice
Few Nuts for Topping

METHOD:
Put 3 tbsps confection's sugar in a mixing bowl, add milk in it. Keep stirring till sugar dissolves in milk.

Sieve all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

Add vanilla essence, lemon juice and butter in it.

Fold nicely, so that all ingredients are incorporated well.

Grease a microoven safe bowl with little butter, arrange few nuts at the bottom of that bowl.

Pour beaten mixture on it.

Place the bowl in microoven, micro it for 2 minutes at 100 MW power. Keep it 5 minutes on standing time. Cool for 10 minutes, take out the bowl now.

Turn cake out of the bowl, yummy super moist chocolatey cake is ready now. 

I served each cake wedge with topping by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!!!

Sending to: Homely Food Event / Giveaway

Sending to: "Spotlight: Show Your Best Creation" @ Cuisine Delights

Sending to: JCO's Gain Popularity event

MISAL PAV

A mouthwatering yummy tasty and popular dish is spicy Misal Pav. It is the most popular street food in the entire state of Maharashtra. Very simply, misal is nothing but mixture which mixed in gravy and serve with pav buns. Traditionally it makes with matki or moth beans, though it is not available in our place, I used dried white peas instead of that. This recipe requires loads of oil, I made it by using a very less oil to make it healthy. Try this yummy street food, you will surely love to have it.

Recipe Source & Acknowledgement: Homely Food

INGREDIENTS:

FOR MAKING PASTE:
3-4 Dried Red Chillies (as per taste)
4 Onions (chopped)
4 Cloves Garlic
1/4" Ginger (chopped)
2 Tomatoes (chopped)
1/3 Cup Grated Coconut
3 Cloves
3-4 Black Peppercorns
1" Cinnamon
1 tbsp +1 tsp Oil

FOR PREPARING USAL:
1&1/2 Cups Dried White Peas
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 tsp Dry Mango Powder (amchur)
3 tbsps Oil
Salt to taste 
Water as needed
1 tbsp Chopped Coriander Leaves

FOR GARNISHING:
Mix Farsan / Hot Mix as required
Finelly Chopped Onions
Finelly Chopped Coriander Leaves

TO SERVE WITH:
Pav Buns as needed
Lemon wedges

METHOD:

FOR COOKING DRIED WHITE PEAS:
Wash and soak dried white peas overnight.

Drain water and add new water, boil peas in pressure cooker upto two whistles. They should be cooked, but not mushy. Set it aside.

FOR MAKING SPICES FOR CURRY:
Soak dried red chillies in 1 tsp oil overnight.

Now pour soaked red chillies, ginger, garlic, cloves, cinnamon and black cardamom in a chutney jar of a grinder.

Grind for 30 seconds to make a coarse paste. (instead of grinding, you may use pestle and mortar)

Dry roast grated coconut till it turns golden colour, and keep it aside.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or pan. Add coarsely pounded paste in it.

Saute till a nice aroma comes out, add onion in it. Fry till onion turns golden brown. Switch off the flame now and let onion comes cool down completely.

Now grind, fried onions tomatoes and roasted coconut with a small amount of water to make a smooth paste. 

HOW TO MAKE USAL:

Heat 3 tbsps oil in pan or wok. Add cumin seeds in it. When cumin splutters, add onion paste in it. and saute for 8-10 minutes on medium heat. 

Add turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, coriander powder, dry mango powder and salt in it. 

Fry for another 5-6 minutes till spices leave oil from the sides of the wok.

Add cooked white peas in it. Fold well.

Add 1/2 cup water in it and mix nicely. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves on top. 

Remove from heat now. Usal is done here. Usal means the gravy, which can be had as it is with pav buns.

HOW TO MAKE MISAL:
In a bowl, pour usal. 

Top it with mixed farsan/hot mix.

Garnish with chopped onion and coriander leaves.

Sprinkle 2 tbsps usal gravy on the top and misal is ready to serve now.

SERVING PROCEDURE:
Serve it with pav and a slice of lemon. Serve immediately otherwise farsan will be soggy.

Linking to:  Homely Food Event / Giveaway

Linking to: "Spotlight: Show Your Best Creation" @ Cuisine Delights

Linking to:  JCO's Gain Popularity event