Tomato and Basil Bruschetta - with balsamic reduction - fresh flavours.

Italian food is my all time favourite - easy, healthy, lots of vegetarian options to choose from. And I always like to add a bit of red chilli flakes to most tomato based recipes. Tomatoes and red chilli is match made in heaven (for me at least)

Now, there are two ways I do bruschetta. One is the quick way when I don't have fresh ciabatta on hand but I still want to eat bruschetta with pasta or soups. Other is of course with ciabatta on hand. So, let's see how I do it n you can pick and choose. 

No Ciabatta on hand Bruschetta. 

8-9 slices of garlic bread 

10-12 ripe cherry tomatoes

Handful of basil

Balsamic vinegar reduction 

Good quality extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees 

I like to line up the baking tray with kitchen foil if the tray has holes in it

Bake the garlic bread slices for 5-7 mins 

Slice the tomatoes into halves or depending on the size you like. If you have a lot of time and patience, scoop the seeds out. I just leave them in as cherry tomato seeds are quite small n flavourful 

Roughly chop the basil leaves 

Once the bread is ready, place the tomatoes on the slices, sprinkle the basil leaves, olive oil, balsamic reduction and a bit of pepper. You can add salt and chilli flakes if you like. 

Bite into it and enjoy 

2) Bruschetta with Ciabatta on hand

If I have ciabatta at home, I like to cut it in half, opening up the bread from the middle. 

Heat up a griddle pan or a normal pan. 

Once the pan is nice n hot, I put a dash of olive oil to it and also put the oil on the bread slices.

Place the bread on the pan and press it down quietly firmly. That makes such a difference to the texture. Turn it over, press it down again and cook for 2-3 mins until the bread is golden n crunchy. 

Rub the bread with crushed garlic, top it up the tomatoes, basil, balsamic reduction, pepper and good lug of olive oil. Voila. It's ready to dig in. Nom Nom. 

Mooli and Spinach pranthas with a dollop of butter and yoghurt- Comfort food for Sunday afternoon !

I have to say, I absolutely adore mooli pranthas, guess it comes with being a Punjabi. As I always try to make everyday food a bit more healthy, I put in a few extra nice bits like soya and barley flour to the whole wheat flour for making the dough and adding a whole bag of organic baby spinach in the mooli mix. Superb !

Fresh Mooli from the fresh food shop :)

Ingredients for a delicious mooli spinach prantha. Serves 4

For the dough
Whole wheat flour - about 4 cups
Soya flour - 1/2 cup
Barley flour - 1/2 cup
Luke warm water to knead
1-2 tsp rapeseed oil

For the stuffing
1 medium to big size mooli or radish - grated and squeezed to get rid of the water
250 gems organic baby spinach - chopped
1/2 cup fresh coriander - chopped
1-2 green chillies - chopped
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp carom seeds or ajwein
1tbsp - dry fenugreek leaves or kasoori methi
Salt to taste

Knead the flour into a soft dough using Luke warm water. Add a bit of the oil to finish off. Oiling the dough prevents it from getting dark.

Make two small dough balls and roll them out into 2" diameter round disks .  Lightly dust the surface where you want to roll out the pranthas.

Spread the mooli mix carefully on one of the round disks.

Cover with the other round disk and gently pat to seal the edges. Lightly dust with dry flour again
Carefully roll out the dough disks to slightly thinner and bigger size.

If the mooli mix comes out while rolling, don't panic. Just add a bit of dry flour.

Heat the flat griddle pan or tawa and wait for it to be nice and hot.

Place the prantha on the pan and cook until both sides are cooked perfectly. I like mine a bit crispy and charred (don't ask why). You can use a bit of rapeseed oil on both the sides to fry the prantha a little. If will make it a little more crispy.

Once cooked, serve with a dollop of butter or ghee and some yoghurt.

Enjoy.

Hot and Spicy Noodle Soup

Perfect for the wet and cold weather !

I have been feeling rotten for the last couple of days, out sick from work and just feeling miserable because of my head cold.  When I got up in the morning, all I could think of was a Hot Manchow Soup that I used to slurp on in India. But I knew I can't find anything even closer to that here in Dublin, so I had to put a brave face on and make it myself, only to find out I hadn't done fresh vegetable shopping in yonks. So, I took a cup of lemsip, slept for 2 hours, got up and went out to get fresh vegetables from my local Fresh shop. I Love it so bad ! Came home with dozens of freshly picked beauties and couldn't wait to get cooking.  Of course, with many interruptions in between (thanks to my adorable kids), I managed to produce something super comforting, super delicious and my idea of heaven !!

Here is a quick recipe for the Hot Noodle Soup.

Ingredients:

• 3 spring onions - finely chopped, keeping the greens aside for garnishing
• 4-5 cloves of organic garlic - finely chopped
• 1'' fresh ginger - finely chopped
• 1-2 green chillies
• A small bunch of coriander - finely chopped for garnishing
• 1 organic fresh carrot - finely diced
• 1/2 green pepper - finely diced
• 4-5 button mushrooms - finely diced
• 1/2 cup - shredded cabbage
• 4-5 green beans - finely chopped
• 250 gms firm tofu
• 100 gms - eggless noodles
• 4 tbsp - soya sauce
• 2 tsbp - vinegar
• 2 tbsp - red chilli paste
• 2 cubes of Oxo vegetable stock - 1ltr
• 3-4 tsp of cornflour, mixed in with 1/2 cup cold water
• 3 tbsp - roasted peanuts for garnishing
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3-4 tbsp  - peanut oil for frying
• 3-4 tbsp - rapeseed oil for frying tofu

Method:

• Heat up a wok on a high flame
• Once smoking hot, add the oil, add ginger, garlic, spring onions(whites) and saute for 30 seconds
• Add all the chopped vegetables and cook for 2-3 minutes. Make sure not to over cook as we need that lovely crunch.
• Add the chilli paste, soya sauce, vinegar and cook for a minute
• Add the stock and bring it boil
• Add the cornflour and cook for 2-3 minutes more. I like my soup to be slightly thin so I added more water to the cornflour mix. You can vary it according to your liking.
• Add very little salt as both soya sauce and the vegetable stock has salt in them
• Add some black pepper
• Now, in a separate pan, add 3-4 tbsp of rapeseed oil, add the diced tofu and cook for 4-5 minutes until brown n crispy. Add it to the soup
• Cook the noodles according to the package instructions, you can also deep fry noodles for crispier taste. Once everything is well combined, heat the soup thoroughly.
• Serve hot with fresh coriander, green spring onions, peanuts and boiled noodles.
• Enjoy !