THE RECIPE LARDER

Melted Caprese Salad

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melted caprese salad

You have all the right to give me a few kicks on the back side. Talking off which, I promise you, the lack of communique and posts were nothing to do with me lying on my back side. I have been traveling non stop, and in a good way. Went visited the son in San Diego, and then the daughter in San Jose.

Immediately after that there was a quick trip to Delhi, Bangalore, Chikmanglur, UK and Scotland – so you tell me, other than amassing a repertoire of good food recipes to develop, where would I have found the time to write a post? HUH?

I sent the husband to Food Hall (our best gourmet store in Bombay), for a spot of food shopping. Foodie that he is, he went quite unhinged and bought me back so much food, that when I think of it even now, I break out into sweat!

melted caprese salad

Within this shopping frenzy, he got back fresh Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese. Since it was staring at me from the fridge shelf for more than two days, I wanted to make something with it. Frankly I was quite done and dusted with the typical Caprese Salad. Using the same ingredients, we went about trying something completely new. I first considered topping it with mango salsa, but it sounded so bleh! And – the son made such a face, I immediately gave up the idea. So while standing and staring at the Mozzarella for more than 5 minutes, I came up with this concept.

melted caprese salad

One can call it a Baked Caprese Salad, but somehow the word “melted” made it sound a bit exotic and intriguing.

You will need a cast iron skillet. Mine was too deep, so I used my sizzler plate instead.

I sliced tomatoes and onions and sautéd them in a non stick pan with good old olive oil. Then transferred them to the sizzler plate. Then –  added the mozzarella and popped it into a hot oven. The Mozzarella melted overwhelmingly, and Voila I had a brand new dish in my hands.

melted caprese salad

I could have set the sizzler plate on top of the stove and roasted the tomatoes and onions directly on it, but I found it easier and cleaner to use the non stick and then transfer the contents.

I wanted to use basil leaves and/or pesto, but again not the same typical recipe. Instead I made Basil oil.

Melted Caprese Salad, is different, outlandish and out of the box. But hey! It’s tasty, wholesome and the best thing is it’s not boring. Enjoy it as a starter, or even as a heavy serving of side dish. I served it with thin slices of toasted baguettes drizzled with aged extra virgin olive oil. Melted Caprese Salad is garnished with pickled green peppers, but I think even capers would add an additional piquant flavour.

melted caprese salad

ENJOY!!

 

Melted Caprese Salad
Print Recipe
A new take on the old Caprese Salad.
Servings Prep Time
4 Pax 10 Minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
15 Minutes 10 Minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 Pax 10 Minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
15 Minutes 10 Minutes
Melted Caprese Salad
Print Recipe
A new take on the old Caprese Salad.
Servings Prep Time
4 Pax 10 Minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
15 Minutes 10 Minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 Pax 10 Minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
15 Minutes 10 Minutes
Ingredients
Caprese Salad
For the Basil Oil
Servings: Pax
Instructions
For the Basil Oli
  1. Crush and grind the Basil leaves in a mortar pestle.
  2. Taking a clean muslin cloth, put all the ingredients of the ground basil leaves (juice and crushed leaves) into the cloth and twist the tops to make a small pouch.
  3. Using clean hands, squeeze out all the juice into a container.
  4. Discard the leaves
  5. Transfer the juice into olive oil
  6. Keep aside. If you can make this a day or so in advance its even better, as all the flavours will seep into the oil, making the taste more enhanced.
For the Caprese Salad
  1. Pre heat oven to 200 Deg C.
  2. Set the non stick on medium heat.
  3. Pour the olive oil and let it heat, but not smoke and burn.
  4. Add the onions and garlic. Add half the salt and Italian seasoning.
  5. Sauté for not more than a minute - or till the onions starts looking a bit wilted. Remember its going to cook again inside a oven.
  6. Transfer the onions and garlic, on the sizzler plate, scraping as much of the seasoning with it, as possible.
  7. Arrange the onions next to each other and the garlic should be scattered all around.
  8. Add the tomatoes to the non stick along with the balance half of the salt and Italian seasoning.
  9. Do not over cook. When the tomatoes sizzle,immediately take off the fire and transfer the tomatoes on the sizzler plate. Arrange them on top of the onions.
  10. Arrange the slices of Mozzarella rounds on the onions and tomatoes.
  11. Pop them into the oven, keeping the sizzler plate on the top part of the oven.
  12. Heat till the Mozzarella melts and bubble. Do not over bake, else tomato will reduce to mush.
  13. Garnish with green peppers / capers, basil leaves, basil oil and chilli flakes.
  14. Serve immediately with thinly toasted baguettes, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
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Kachcha Sambhar (raw sambhar)

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kachcha sambhar

I was all set to meet the husband for a romantic lunch, but Bangalore being crowded, over populated, Bangalore, the traffic was such that it was either the lunch or the airport. And that airport had a plane parked which was going to take us to Goa! So really there was no dispute, the airport on time – it was.

 

I surprised our care taker with a lunch request. She wasn’t prepared to make anything since I had announced gleefully about my romantic plans. So she hemmed and hawed, wondering what to make. (And I was feeling fussy about food that day!) Her husband (I have mentioned him before in my blogs. He is a complete foodie- for which I am eternally grateful!) Well her husband suggested “Kachcha Sambhar” in his typical local accent. It took him three repeats of the word, before I realised that is what he actually meant. Raw Sambhar.

I have learnt to experiment and sometimes leave the suggestions to the experts. AND I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED. In fact I was in food paradise. Every spoonful going in, was ambrosia. Now I love garlic, and I love spice, and the funnest part was it has not one drop of oil!! Perfect right??

We did take off to Goa, and we had an amazing time, caught up on that left over romance and all that! 😛 But I raved and raved about the Kachcha Sambhar, and he finally told me to use other methods to turn him on!! ( 😛 we are a foodie family!!)

Here is the recipe — the tomatoes have to be burnt — burnt black on a high flame. Wait for it to cool, and skim the skin off. Please do wait for it to cool — this way the skin comes off and does not leave small pieces of black burnt skin behind. We don’t want any black stuff in the sambhar. Same goes for the green chilly.

This is a very spicy dish. Deseeding the chilly reduces the spice. If you want it less spicy, reduce the quantity of the chilly, but don’t delete it completely. That would be a SIN! and Karma will pay you back!!

Tastes absolutely amazing with rice and a bland veggie. I love it with chilla. You make your own combinations and message me.

I was on the floor worshipping this dish! Hope you like it too!

Ciao!!

 

 

 

 

 

Kachcha Sambhar (raw sambhar)
Print Recipe
Quick, elegant and earth shatteringly tasty!
Servings Prep Time
4 people 5 minutes
Passive Time
5 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 people 5 minutes
Passive Time
5 minutes
Kachcha Sambhar (raw sambhar)
Print Recipe
Quick, elegant and earth shatteringly tasty!
Servings Prep Time
4 people 5 minutes
Passive Time
5 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 people 5 minutes
Passive Time
5 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. Burn the tomato over high flame. Tomato should be rotated. It should char completely.
    Burn the tomato over high flame. Tomato should be rotated. It should char completely.
  2. Burn the green chilly over high flame. Rotate and burn till completely charred.
  3. Let the tomato and chilly cool.
  4. When cooled, peel the black skin off the tomato and discard.
  5. Wash your hands so that no black stuff sticks back on the peeled tomato
  6. Chop as finely as possible. This reduces the time required later while pureeing with hand blender.
  7. Peel the black layer of the green chilly. Deseed the chilly. (This is very important)
  8. Chop the chilly into small pieces.
  9. To a pot, add the tomatoe, green chilly, salt and water. Mix well with a hand blender. No large pieces of tomato should be left.
  10. There will be a few small pieces of tomato floating around, let them be.
  11. Transfer contents to a serving bowl, add onions, garlic and garnish with corrinader. Serve cold.
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Italian Tomato Sauce

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italian tomato sauce

Apologies about the link —- this is the corrected version.

———————————————————————————————————————

I am super super excited about this recipe. It’s complicated (a little bit!) but it looked so brilliant. I saw a version of this on a cooking channel and I got up from my chair, headed to my bar, collected the vodka, (yup! It has Vodka!!) and all the ingredients and started making it, changing a little bit of the recipe here and there.

After 15 minutes into cooking, the fragrance wafting from the kitchen to the rest of the house, drew many of the family members and a few neighbours into our kitchen. I tell you I am on my knees, worshipping this sauce.

It’s a thick sauce. Really thick. It’s not to be had on its own (but you might finish a lot of it while tasting it – I warn you!). You will have to mix it with some stock water, hell even mixing it in the water used to cook pasta lends it an amazing flavour.

Use it as a pizza base, as a base for Bruschetta, in a salad! Just make it, creative ideas will flow in.

I don’t want you to read all these descriptions and explanations. What I want you to do is get hold of all the ingredients and start making it. Let them family members walk in with appreciative sniffs and exclamations. Keep them waiting, and then hit them with a pasta made from this recipe. Lie back and bask in the glory!

PS: There is one very important thing that you have to follow, thats – the instructions. There will be times while making the recipe you might think I am joking or that I have lost my mind. Have faith. I am very serious when I say what I say, and I am very sane and going to wait for your comments after you have made this recipe. You can advocate my sanity.

Without more blah blah – here is the recipe for Italian Tomato Sauce.

PS _AGAIN__and here is the link to the video —–

A shout out to my school friends who always have my back — hey there girls 🙂

Thanks to Brinda – for helping me with this video.

 

Italian Tomato Sauce
Print Recipe
An amazing base sauce. Let your imagination flow and get creative.
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Italian Tomato Sauce
Print Recipe
An amazing base sauce. Let your imagination flow and get creative.
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Heat a heavy bottomed non stick pan. Add olive oil and butter. Olive oil should completely cover the bottom of the pan. Let the butter melt
  2. Add garlic and saute till it's a bit brown. Take out the garlic and keep it aside.
  3. Add 1 1/2 tubes of tomato paste to the hot oil/ butter mix. DO NOT STIR. I kid you not - DO NOT STIR!! Just see to it that the paste is completely submerged in the oil.
  4. Cover and cook for 10 minutes in med/ high flame.
  5. Add Brown sugar, salt and pepper. Once the bubbles subside, add the diced onions and cherry tomatoes.
  6. Now you can stir and mix. You might see a little blackened sauce when you mix. Don't worry, its normal. Ofcourse the entire bottom shouldnt be burnt. This means your pan wasn't thick enough at the bottom.
  7. Cook covered till tomatoes get squishy and cooked.
  8. Add the left over 1/2 tube of tomato paste.
  9. Add lemon zest and cayenne pepper and mix.
  10. Add the pre cooked garlic.
  11. Mix
  12. Add the vodka and mix.
  13. Cook covered for 5 minutes. Then add the basil. Cook again for 2 minutes.
  14. Add the red wine vinegar and taste!!! Voila-- you are done.
Recipe Notes

Dilute with pasta water or stock and add to pasta.

Liberally coat a salad.

Layer your pizza.

Use in baked dishes.

Use for base of crostini or bruschetta.

 

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Natural insect repellent. Spiders and Flies

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natural fly repellent

natural fly repellent

Ghastly flies buzzing around over every piece of food that is lying around? Spiders making their palaces on hinges of your ration cupboard doors? Join me — in my teeth gritting irritation!

I was- well for a lack of a better word “bugged”.I came back from a long vacation and opened my ration cupboard to find that an extended family of spiders had taken roost and claimed all the corners – the entire lot of cousins and uncles and aunts! Enough was enough! I mean you just look away for a few minutes and they come prancing in, ready to take over without paying any rent?!

I went on a savage google and pinterest hunt! Every single site suggested this trick – peppermint essential oil! Each site had their own version, so I made a hotch potch of all and came up with my own recipe.

I ordered the peppermint essential oil online, to be delivered within 24 hours. Them spiders were not going to stay in my cupboard longer than I could help it! I got a spray bottle, made the lethal concoction and went psycho with the mixture.

peppermint essential oil with water

peppermint essential oil with water

Now I am writing this after a month of having sprayed the brew, and my hinges stay unoccupied and shelves devoid of spider debris (they create filth!) Its sheer pleasure to open a cupboard, peek into its — and not get gluey spiders’ web stuck on your nose and ears, leaving you with a feeling that the spiders is crawling around somewhere inside your clothes. UGH!!

My other ugh! is the common house fly. Bloody things are found hovering around every place you can rest your eyes on! Try eating a meal without inviting them? They get offended and land on every morsel about to go into your mouth, and then quench their thirst in your glass of water. Ive had a few who thought they could swim in my class of cocktail, and then fly away feeling mighty pleased and tipsy!

Ewwww! Right?

Last night I was having a party at home. It being heavy, pelting rainy, season, we held the do indoors, and had the bar set up under an awning outside our door near the car park. At 10 am, when I went to check the layout, I almost screamed blue murder! Flies – hordes of flies – gossiping in corners, flying around courting their mates! And this was to be a bar – with sugar syrup, and other nectarous medley of ingredients. Party time for flies. I was about to sit down with my head weighing heavy on my hands, when “google” came up in my mind’s eye.

natural organic fly repellent

natural organic fly repellent

I was doing a jig in the evening, when I went to get a drink! Not a fly- NOT ONE! All it took was a lemon and some cloves.

These hacks are all repellents and not killers. The smell of peppermint drives the spider batty and the cloves make the flies dizzy.Go forth and squash them gnats!

PS: For flies burning camphor has also proven very effective.

 

Natural insect repellent. Spiders and Flies
Print Recipe
Easy and effective remedy to repel spiders and flies.
Natural insect repellent. Spiders and Flies
Print Recipe
Easy and effective remedy to repel spiders and flies.
Ingredients
Spider Repellent
Fly Repellent
Fly Repellent 2
Servings:
Instructions
Spider Repellent
  1. Add the water into the spray bottles.
  2. Add the peppermint drops into the water and shake well.
  3. Spray in all the areas those blasted spiders congregate.
  4. Spray twice a week initially, then once a week should suffice.
Fly Repellent
  1. Bury 5 cloves in each half of the lemon. (see picture)
  2. Place in areas of high gathering of flies. Place in your cooking and chopping counters.
  3. Replace daily.
Fly Repellent 2
  1. Burn camphor in all places flies congregate.
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Mango Curry – Fajeto

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While growing up, we lived in this huge rambling and wild compound. The coconut trees far outnumbered the humans. Everyone was equally immersed in the neighbours’ life, as much as their own. Without exception, every evening we kids met up at 4 pm and were dragged home at 8 pm, by parents who had to spell out dire consequences if we delayed leaving our playmates to come home. We cycled, played hide and seek – a complete torture for the person who was the “den”! The game went on forever because someone or the other always got the better of him. Our compound was massive, with many many hiding places. And new ones were found everyday.

We had a fish pond, which was religiously cleaned one Sunday a month, and in summer vacations. We lived by the sea, so horse riding, football, cricket were our favourite pass times.

Well – now that I have drowned myself in serious nostalgia, I might as well get to the point, before I sit down to write childhood memoirs of Appu!!

Mango Curry

Mango Curry

Our neighbours were 2 boys and their parents. Sweetest most friendly people alive. Of course the boys had to torture us time and again, which they did with glee and wild abandon. We are all grown up now and treat each other with respect, but I loose all semblance of maturity when I eat anything at their home. Aunty (the sainted mom, who handled two, very naughty boys) still cooks. We very unabashedly invite ourselves to their dining table every once in a while. Right down from the chapati to the pickles have hitherto unknown flavours and fragrances.

mango curry

mango curry

Yesterday I passed by their home, and the redolent aromas emitting from their kitchen window made my stomach growl. I had to stop by for a quick chat, and had a taste of the mango curry  –  or as the Gujrati’s call it _ Fajeto. I think I must have gone into a trance for a bit! Mango exploding with a bit of ghee and a high taste of asafoetida! This was made by the wife of one of the boys (ah! alright Men now!) – Smita. And … well I think the staircase to food heaven starts right there!

I made it today for lunch, it turned out amazing. I took her permission and am now publishing it in the blog.

mango curry

mango curry

Don’t wait up too long. The mangoes are perfect right now. Use ALPHONSO only. As far as I am concerned all other mangoes are not mangoes. They are frauds! Duplicates! Imposters!

Very easy, very quick and very tasty! You will make it again and again!

Mango Curry - Fajeto
Print Recipe
Made very quickly, eaten up as fast! Will leave you salivating for more!
Servings Prep Time
3 - 4 people 10 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Servings Prep Time
3 - 4 people 10 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Mango Curry - Fajeto
Print Recipe
Made very quickly, eaten up as fast! Will leave you salivating for more!
Servings Prep Time
3 - 4 people 10 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Servings Prep Time
3 - 4 people 10 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Ingredients
To blend together.
For the tempering
Add while cooking.
  • 1 Tspn heaped Sonth (Dried powdered ginger)
Servings: people
Instructions
To make the mixture for blending.
  1. Squeeze out the pulp of both the mangoes. Using your hands, squeeze and rub the pulp from the seed also.
  2. In a bowl, add the pulp, curds, besan and water, and blend well using a hand blender.
Tempering
  1. To a heavy bottomed pan, add the ghee.
  2. When the ghee heats up (don't let it smoke), temper the cumin seeds.
  3. When you get the fragrance of the tempering seeds (see that the seeds dont burn), add the ginger chilly paste and fry for a few seconds.
  4. Add the curry leaves (be careful, it might splatter).
  5. Add the hing, and quickly pour the blended mixture into the pan.
  6. PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY - from now onwards till the curry boils, keep stirring the curry continuously. It doesn't have to be vigorous. The curry might split and / or stick to the bottom and give it a burnt taste. PS - It's actually quite easy. Just be a pro and keep stirring it.
  7. After a few minutes add the salt. Keep stirring.
  8. After another few minutes, add the sonth.
  9. Keep stirring till you see big bubbles rise to the top.
  10. Still keep stirring. At this point I thought my curry had split, but not so. So don't get worried if you see small little pieces of now mango coloured curd floating around.
  11. Keep stirring till it boils vigorously.
  12. After one big large boil, take it off the heat and serve hot.
Recipe Notes

Smita said it goes best with Chapati and vegetables, as a side dish. I had it with rice. For my husband's birthday today, I plan to serve it as a small shot of soup. So many versatile ways to use it.

I was thinking of adding a little extra besan, to thicken it. Or maybe I could thicken it with corn flour - and then roll some baked sweet potatoes in it and serve it. how about with fried tofu?

To jazz it up a little, you could increase the spice quotient in the ginger chilly paste, or add a few dashes of red chilli flakes.

I think it will taste amazing with sticky rice too, in a hot bowl with some sesame seeds and crushed roasted peanuts.

mango curry shots

mango curry shots

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mango curry

mango curry


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