French Toast

Brunch time special french toast can be easily made at home. I realized a little late that I can make it at home the way I like it and earn some brownie points from the hubby and others too. With this in mind, I decided to give it a try. I recently made Scrumptious Chocolate Pecan Bread Pudding and thought that French toast can be made with similar ingredients.

To suffice my craving for brunch time food that I usually order at any restaurant, I decided to make it at home (cost efficient and also because of my newborn baby I couldn't go out very often).

Ingredients: 
Thick Bread slices - 4
Eggs - 2
Milk/Fresh Cream - 1/2 cup
Ground Cinnamon - 1/8 tspn
Ground Nutmeg - 1 pinch
Sugar - 1 tbspn
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tspn
Powdered Sugar - 1/2 tbspn

Procedure: 

1. Beat eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon and nutmeg till well mixed. 
2. Heat a griddle on medium heat and spray oil on it
3. Now dip the bread slices in the egg mixture on both sides and place it on the griddle. Cook on both sides till it becomes golden brown.
4. Sprinkle some powdered sugar and drizzle some chocolate syrup on top and serve it with your choice of fruits and maple syrup (if desired).

Variations: 
Sugar can be adjusted as per your taste. Also, spices can be added or removed to suite your taste buds.

Conclusion:
No need to go to the restaurants for french toast anymore :). I can try new things at brunch now.

Indian Cupcakes / Sheera / Sooji ka Halwa

We were planning to visit my husband's cousin in San Diego, CA and wanted to make something for her. I had prepared Masala Dosa Batter and chutney and was going to make the sabzi (potato curry) at her place. To make it a complete meal, I wanted to take some sweet dish and I could think of 2 types of sheera: One is Ravyacha Sheera/ Sooji ka Halwa (Sapat - that's what the konkanis call it) and second was Pithacha Sheera/Aatte ka Halwa, which my mother used to make with loads of love and ghee. I ended up making Ravyacha Sheera/Sooji Ka Halwa  as I wanted to use the banana I had and Pithacha sheera would have been an experiment ( I have never made it before but I have seen my mother make it) on her and her family which comprises of herself, her husband and a cute lil dog (Sammy).

The best part of our short visit to San Diego was the Gourmet Food Truck Festival at Del Mar. It had 30-35 gourmet food trucks - Right from Naan-Stop to 'Cupcake Wars' Winner Corner Cupcakes. There were huge lines for every food truck but we still managed to get some awesome food without a loooong wait. We had some attractive Potato Tornadoes which made people stop and ask us what exactly it was(that is what even I did). We also did some crazy photo session as if I was drowning in beer glass.

Potato Tornadoes (Cajun Style held by Ram and I am holding the Sweet Potato Style)  were the 

head-turners

HEEEEELP!!! I am drowning (read enjoying) in a glass full of beer!

Ingredients: 
Rava/Sooji/Semolina - 1 cup
Ghee/Indian Butter - 5tbspn
Milk - 1 cup
Water - 1cup
Sugar - 3/4cups
Cardamom/Elaichi, Powdered- 4 pods
Cashews, chopped - 1/3 cup
Raisins - 1 Tbspn
Ripe Banana - 1

Procedure: 

1. In a pan, roast the rava/sooji, cashews and raisins for 3-5mins on medium heat, stirring constantly. Make sure you don't over-roast it and make it brown.
2. At the same time, boil the water and milk together on med heat.
3. Now slowly pour the boiling water+milk mixture over the roasted rava stirring it simultaneously. Make sure no lumps are formed.
4. Now add the sugar, mashed ripe banana and the ghee and mix it well and shut it with the lid. Let it cook for 4-5mins on med-low heat.
5. Lastly, add the elaichi powder and mix it and serve warm or cold.

Variations: 
Remember that the Rava : (Milk+Water) proportion has to be 1:2. So you can vary it to make more water less milk or vice versa (I prefer it more milk and less water).
Also, you can roast cashews and raisins separately in butter and then add it to sheera after step # 3.

Conclusion:

It was very yummy, low in sugar (as everyone prefers less sugar now a days) and super moist Sheera. Even Sammy enjoyed a small morsel :).

Poori Bhaji

I studied in Solapur till my 12th standard and then joined Engineering College in Mumbai. I stayed in hostel for 4 years and those were the best days of my life! I relate Poori Bhaji more with my hostel because we were served Poori Bhaji for breakfast twice a week. Those were my favorite days of the week.

During study leave, we studied all night and had breakfast in morning and slept all day.It sounded really cool then but now the thought of staying awake kills me. We waited for the Canteen to open so that we could eat and sleep. The canteen guy 'Anna' served us one poori more as we ate there very often unlike other girls.

I was craving for some fried food and the Hostel wala Poori Bhaji came to my mind.

Ingredients for Poori:

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups

Salt – 1 tspn

Yogurt – 1 tbspn

Water– 1 cup

Soda - ¼ tspn

Oil to fry

Ingredients for Bhaji:

Potato – 3 medium-sized

Onions, sliced – 1

Green chillies – 3

Ginger – ½ tspn

Haldi/Turmeric – ¼ tspn

Kadipatta /Curry Leaves – 5-6 leaves

Hing/Asafoetida – ¼ tspn

Rai/Mustard Seeds – 1 tspn

Jeera/Cumin Seeds – ½ tspn

Cilantro – 5-6 strands

Salt

Procedure for Poori:

1. Mix all the ingredients except oil and knead to make soft dough
2. Add some water if the dough is not soft enough. Make sure you do not make it too soft or watery. In that case, add some flour to it.
3. Now knead the dough for 2-3 mins with 1tbspn oil.
4. Now make 8-12 egg-sized balls of it and roll each ball with rolling pin into a 2” diameter poori.
5. Heat some oil(Enough for frying) in a wok and when the oil is very hot, fry the pooris on high heat. Never fry them on low heat.
6. Fry them till they are golden-brown in color.

Procedure for Bhaji:

1. Boil and peel the potatoes and make small cubes/pieces of it.
2. In a wok, heat some oil and put hing, rai and jeera and wait till they crackle. Now put the kadipatta , green chillies and onions in the given order.
3. Sautee the onions for 2 mins and then add ginger paste to it. Lower the flame when onions turn translucent and add haldi and boiled potato pieces.
4. Add some salt and water and cook it for 5 mins on medium flame
5. The ‘Bhaji’ is ready to relish.

Variations: 

You can add jeera or chilli powder to the dough to make variations of Pooris. 

You can serve Poori bhaji with some Coconut Chutney.

Conclusion:

Want to relive the hostel life again. How I wish I was in india!!