Toast pe Post!

In this post I just wanted to share really easy-to-do, healthy and lip-smacking toast preparations. These are really good for breakfast or evening snacks.

Baked Beans on Toast: This one is the easiest to prepare!

You Need:

·         A can of baked beans in tomato sauce

·         Olive Oil/Vegetable Oil

·         Onions

·         Green Chillies

·         Brown Bread

·         Fresh Oregano/Lettuce

·         Pepper, Salt, Red Chilly Powder, Seasonings

 Preparation: Fry some finely chopped onions in a non-stick pan. Add the baked beans and let it heat on medium flame for 1-2 mins. Add some salt, pepper, red-chili powder and chopped green chilles. You can add any Italian seasoning of your choice. Stir while mixing the ingredients for about a minute. Your beans are done! Separately, toast the breads in a pop-up toaster.

Then spread the toasted bread with butter/cheese/mayo/thousand island sauce … I mean whatever tastes best to you. Spread the beans on top, add some fresh oregano leaves or lettuce and you are ready to serve!

Baked Beans + Lettuce on Toast

Spinach, Corn and Cheese Toast: Healthiest of all and tastes great too!

You Need:

·         Fresh Cream

·         Cheese Cubes

·         Sweet Corn

·         Spinach

·         Brown Bread

·         Salt

Preparation: Boil the spinach leaves for 10-15 mins, chop/mince and keep aside. Boil some sweet corn for 3-5 mins and keep aside. Mix the two together along with salt and 1-2 dollops of cream (depending on how creamy you want it to be) to make a batter. Separately, toast the bread in a toaster.

Spread a generous layer of the batter on the toasted bread and grate some cheese on top. Tada!!!

Spinach and Corn Toast

Mixed Vegetables Toast: Quick and Easy! 

You Need:

·         Vegetables (Zucchini, Capsicum, Spring Onions, Mushroom (Button & Portobello),

Fresh Oregano

·         Brown Bread

·         Salt, Pepper, Seasonings

·         Thousand Island Sauce

·         Olive Oil

Preparation: Chop the vegetables in small pieces and sauté/stir-fry them over high flame one at a time. Add salt, pepper and some garlic-bread seasoning and mix it up. Separately, toast the bread in a toaster such that they are brown and crisp.

Spread a thin layer of thousand island sauce and spread the sautéed vegetables on top. Sprinkle some fresh oregano to enhance the flavor. And you are good to go!

Mixed Veg. Toast

You must have realized, all these are fairly trouble-free to prepare with high nutritional value. A great alternative to parathas in my opinion J. Also, you can try different combinations of veggies, cheeses, seasonings etc. and do your own experimentation. An example below:

Capsicum, Cucumber Cheese Toast with Sauteed Mushrooms on the side

Try these if you may and do share how it turned out in the space below!

Happy Toasting!!!

Mad Over Donuts

Location: Noida (GIP), Bangalore (Whitefield, Phoenix Market City)

The first time I ever had a donut was at a CCD in Agra during my college days. It was as if I was eating some sweet rubbery goo. Yuck! They might have improved it now ... I'm not sure ...

But, my tryst with Donuts was not over yet. I rediscovered them at ‘Mad Over Donuts’ in Noida at the Great India Place (GIP) Mall. And they were just so so great! Light, feathery, soft, well textured and just the right amount of sweetness. This time around I fell in love with them! I went mad over donuts!
What's more, all their donuts are 100% vegetarian!

And yeay they have now opened their outlet in Bangalore too @ Phoenix Mall Food Court.

:-D Going mad over 'em

Eating It Out @ Pondy

My second half is bitten by the travel bug and more often than not, we try to hit the road. It’s a really good thing though cuz that means I get to try out even more avenues to eat:-p. I have been to Pondicherry twice and in no particular order, here is the list of eating joints I’ve tried:

• 1.       Don Giovanni
• 2.      Le Cafe
• 3.       Sciro Pizza
• 4.      Tantos
• 5.      Baker Street
• 6.       Bon Bakes
• 7.      La Dupleix
• 8.      L’ Orient
• 9.      Promenade
• 10.  Surguru

Sharing with all you lovely folks, my take on each of these:

Don Giovanni – yes the name sounds promising and it has its very own Italian chef preparing the food for you. However, the taste is mediocre. We ordered Greek Salad and Spinach and Mushroom Ravioli. The salad was mostly tomatoes while the pasta was very chewy. Due to the roof top setting and moderate prices it didn’t pinch us so much.

Le Café – is always crowded since it’s the lone café right at the rocky beach. We had café mocha, Grilled Veg. Sandwich and Cold Coffee. All were quite good except that the cold coffee was a little too watery for my liking. However, the awesome sea facing seating made up for it.

@ Le' Cafe

SciroPizza – Run by Antonio Scirocco and located in the Auroville visitor center cafeteria, its offers a variety of wood burn pizzas. Also serves regular south Indian food and healthy platters. We ordered a Veg. Tasty Pizza (yeah that was the name) and the Veggie Healthy Platter. The pizza had this rustic, woody burnt feel to it which we loved and the platter was unconventional almost bordering on continental. What I really loved was the combination of Ragi Roti and Mushroom Sauce.

Healthy Platter @ Auroville Cafeteria

Wood Burn Pizza @ Sciro Pizza

Tantos - Again located in Auroville cafeteria … its good for trying out wood burn pizza, calzones, pasta and the like.

BakerStreet – had heard rave reviews about this place and had to visit this for breakfast. We ordered Veg. Focaccia Sandwich and Butter/Chocolate Croissants. We just loved the Croissants. Nice and buttery they were. We got some packed for the journey back to Bangalore as well J

@ Baker Street

Bon Bakes – again one of the several bakeries in Pondy, we went to this one by chance while strolling around in town. I loved the Mushroom roll here. Coffee was good too. Would recommend this place for evening snacks.

LaDupleix – went to the Gourmet restaurant for dinner. The building is worth admiring for its Tamil and French architecture. We tried out their French dishes (names I cannot spell or pronounce now :-P). But, whatever it was … it was awesome!

L’Orient – Located on Rue Romain Rolland road, this is one of the heritage hotel in Pondy. The restaurant was recommended for its Creole and we chose this one for a quiet dinner. The ambiance was pretty amazing. You sit in a old world French villa for a charming candle light dinner. Loved this place!!! We ordered -  Curry Creole Au Choix, Quiche Aux Courgettes ET Tomato, Trilogie Chocolat ... :-)))). Simply speaking … Mushroom Curry Creole (a coconut based curry) with Rice, Spinach and Tomoto Quiche and Triple Chocolate for dessert. This time around I ensured I had the names right.

Promenade – tried out their dinner buffet. One of the best buffets in town. Consists of continental, Indian and Italian cuisines. Should try if you get a chance.

Surguru – one of the best restaurants for south Indian food in Pondy. I had the meals here!

Hope this was useful for you all. Do share your restaurant experiences in Pondy in the comments section below. I will use your recommendation for my next visit.

Related Posts: Give Time a Break @ Pondy

Roasted Vegetables with Potato+Bean Cutlet

Here is a very quick and easy way of preparing a healthy continental snack.
For the roasted vegetables you will need (quantity as per need):

• ·         Button Mushrooms
• ·         Bell Peppers – Yellow, Red, Green
• ·         Baby Corn
• ·         Haricot Vert Beans
• ·         Zucchini
• ·         Olive Oil
• ·         Seasoning: Salt, Pepper, Garlic/Any Italian seasoning

Preparation (Damn simple):

Chop the vegetables in large chunks in any shape you like (use your creativity:-p)

Heat two table spoons of olive oil in a non-stick frying fan on high flame. Wait till the pan is red hot, add the zucchini and shallow fry it on high flame. Keep tossing it at intervals and let the Zucchini develop slight brown patches.  Repeat this for all the vegetables one at a time.

High flame is necessary to avoid the vegetables from releasing moisture and turning soggy.

You may also tilt the pan and let the veggies be in direct contact with the flame from time to time to get that awesome burnt taste.

Just before serving sprinkle it with salt and pepper or any other seasoning you’d like to add. Garlic goes well with it.

For the cutlet you will need (quantity as per need):

• ·         Potatoes
• ·         Beans
• ·         Onions
• ·         1-2 slices of brown bread
• ·         Olive oil

Preparation (Damn simple):

Boil the potatoes, peel the skin and mash it up. Add finely chopped onions, green chilies, salt and spices as per your liking. Slightly dampen the bread and add it to the potatoes (this is to hold the cutlet together). Mix it all up.

Finely chop the beans and stir fry them separately till they are cooked. Add this to the mashed potatoes and mix it all well to make a batter. Take a large spoonful of this batter and round it up into a cutlet by hand. Finally shallow fry these on a non-stick tawa/pan in olive oil on medium heat till they turn brown and slightly crisp in the middle.

Plate it up! Tada … you are done! :-)

Tastes best when served Hott!!!

Happy Cooking! Do share comments on how it turned out.

Spaghetti in the Kitchen

Having enjoyed so many exciting dishes last week (courtesy my mom), this week I wanted to cook up something on my own. The whole while since today morning till evening I was thinking about what to cook. I flipped open a Tarla Dalal book I had purchased sometime ago. Then thinking of delighting Cheenu (she is fond of continental) and myself wanting some change in taste, I decided to try something exciting from the options.

We went through the several options together and zeroed in on ‘Potato Ring with Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce’.

Mostly I followed the recipe but added some of my customization as well. Here is how you cook it up. Serves: 1-2 people

Step1: Boiler Plate!

1. Boil two potatoes and cut into small sized pieces

2.  Boil 200gm of Spagehetti

3. Boil 2/3 cup of Sweet Corn (keep all these aside)

Step2: Choppy Waters!

Meanwhile chop two Onions, two Green Chillies and 6-7 Tomatoes (large pieces)

Step3: Saucy Sautee!

Boil the cut tomato pieces in a quarter cup of water. Once boiled use a sieve to separate out the pulp from the juice. Keep the juice aside.

Fry half of the chopped onions in 1 tb spoon ghee. Add the tomato juice, half spoon red chili powder, 1 tb sugar, some salt and let it boil on medium heat for about 10 mins. Your sauce is done.

Step4: Mixed Bag!

Now in your sauce, add spaghetti and 3 tb spoon of Fresh Cream. Mix it all well.

Step5: Couch Potato!

Fry remaining half of the chopped onions in 1 tb spoon butter. Add the green chilies, boiled cut potatoes, corn, half a cup of boiled spaghetti and half a cup of milk. Add some salt to taste. Mix it all well and keep aside. Your potato mix is done.

Important: the sauce preparation and the potato mix preparation should go in parallel as these two are served together hot. Here’s how:

The Plating: Take a small cup/bowl and fill it with the potato mix. Now turn it upside down on your serving plate and remove the cup/bowl. Surround the mix with the spaghetti in tomato sauce. Grate some Cheese on top.

Tada!!! Your dish is ready to be served.

Have Funn Cooking. Enjoy Madi!

South Indies: Mokka Junna Miriyalu Fry

Location: Bangalore (Indiranagar)

For a change I didn’t feel like cooking, I had had enough of north indian, Italian, burgers and sandwiches. I felt like having something different, something refreshing. I needed a change in taste. And because it was the end of a weekend, I needed something to cheer me up.

We (me and Sakshi) circled around on Indira Nagar 80 feet and 100 feet road thinking and re-thinking. We thought of several options but couldn’t decide where to dine. Then, it struck me. I decided to have my Sunday dinner at South Indies and try out some interesting south Indian options they had to offer.

As we were early, we got the table quickly and the waiter brought the menu. Along with it he got us some chips to munch on.

Their ‘Mokka junna miriyalu fry’ seemed to be especially tempting. This is basically baby corn marinated with crushed pepper , tamarind and besam flour served with three varieties of chutney. I wanted to try it for a looong time. The menu had an enlarged image of this and looking at it made my water. It tasted exactly the way it looked like in the menu … a-mazzing!!!

For the main course, we browsed through the menu and very quickly reached a consensus. We wanted to have their Appam and Kari Kari Stew. This stew is garden fresh vegetables cooked in a coconut milk based gravy, flavored with curry leaves and green chilies. This stew goes well with Appams and had been recommended by many friends.

The waiter came up to us and swiftly took our order on his i-phone.

The service was quick, I’m guessing probably because the order taking was computerized. The waiter takes order and sends it out. It is then automatically displayed on the digital signage along with serial number in the kitchen. The process is simple and quick. Coming back to food …

As soon as we had finished off the baby corn, he served us the stew. For the Appams there is always a live counter. It was delightful to have the freshly cooked steaming appam, served right off the pan. We ate off those in no time. For the repeat order we ordered the Podi Appam. This is appam sprinkled with a spicy masala and tastes even better.

We wanted to keep it light that day and so we stopped at this. But, there are several curry options here and you can accompany these with interesting varieties of dosa, roti, appam or parotta. Please click here for the menu.

I would suggest to all north Indians … Go on … do try if you want to have something beyond the regular.

Italian Khana

Location: Bangalore (Indiranagar)

I had not been for a buffet in a long time. I got the best excuse of going for one when I got up late last Tuesday. It was May Day and we had a holiday.

As it was already 10:30am when I got out of bed, I dint see any point in preparing breakfast. I woke-up my partner in crime (Sakshi) and suggested going for brunch.  As always, I started browsing on my smart phone for some good options. In just a few minutes we narrowed down to Little Italy weekday buffet brunch – one of the best in the city in my opinion. Probably the only place you get 100% vegetarian Italian food.

At the restaurant, we chose to sit outdoors.  As soon as we were seated the waiter arrived and then began a beautiful, splendid journey of Italian epicurean delights with a bit of Mexican tadka. And guys, let me share some of these visually … please don’t hate me for this gastronomical torture … though I love doing this to you all ;-))

Tossed veg. Salad from the Live Counter

Mixed sauce pasts with capsicum, sun dried tomatoes, broccoli and italian herbs

Here comes the wood burn pizza

Just can't stop ...

Here is another one ...

Crepe with fruits and chocolate sauce from the live counter ... yummylicious

Time for dessert

Everything wiped off the plate

Ahh mann ... im soo full ... 

One good thing about the buffet is that they serve you small quantities in a serving. That way you can taste everything and and enjoy the whole course from the starters to the dessert.


And guys let me tell you, the Weekend brunch offers more variety ... its bigger and better!!!