Pomegranate Sandwich

Pomegranate in a sandwich. Oh wow!
That's what I said to myself when I saw pomegranate and bread in my fridge. The best part about pomegranate is that when bitten into, the seeds flood your mouth with their juices and to me it is a much loved sensation.
If I ever got dentures, it would be so I could have pomegranates!

Pomegranate Sandwich

In this sandwich spread, I have added cucumber to add extra crunch and to just even out the flavors.

Ingredients: 

This recipe makes 2 sandwiches.

Sandwich bread slices- 4
Pomegranate seeds- 4-5 tbsp
Cucumber, diced- 2 tbsp
Mayonnaise- 2-3 tbsp
Processed cheese, grated- 2 tbsp
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Procedure:

In a small bowl, mix together pomegranate seeds, cucumber, mayonnaise, cheese and season with salt and pepper.

Your sandwich spread is ready.

Pomegranate Sandwich Spread

Divide and apply the spread on two bread slices. Place other two slices on top of each.

Remove crust and cut diagonally ( or in any way you like).

Enjoy with evening tea.

Banana Chips

Banana chips are all the rage these days in my home. These super tasty crispies are a delight to cook, eat and serve. An excitement fills me up while making these, probably because I anticipate the crunch and flavor of this soon-to-be-mine chips. These require no preparation, and I mean it! A cool, instant entree for unannounced guests or as a movie snack! Munch on them with (or without) your favorite dip and have a good time.

Banana Chips

I did not plan this post. It so happened that my mom bought some raw bananas from the farmer's market. She intended to prepare a raw banana curry but I snatched and staked my claim as soon as I saw them. My mom, wide eyed, exclaimed, "At least give me a few for the curry!" I clutched my bananas close to me, turned, and proceeded to secure their place in the fridge.

I used a chip slicer to slice the bananas into thin slices. I hope you can see how thinly sliced these chips are in this picture.

Ingredients:

Raw banana- 1/2 kg
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Yeah! That's it.

Procedure:

Heat enough oil for deep frying in a thick bottomed wok.

Peel a banana and slice it thinly.

Do not peel and slice all bananas at once. They turn black quickly. Take only one banana for each batch or two if your wok is large enough to accomodate without crowding.

When oil is hot enough, put banana slices into the oil one by one. This ensures that individual slices do not stick to each other. We do not want that happening as that hinders cooking and compromises the crisp.

Deep fry till slices turn light golden in color.

Let cool.

Season with salt and pepper.

Banana Chips

Roasted Cauliflower Spaghetti in Indian Basil Pesto

I was first introduced to pasta a few years back when my mentors took me and my friend out for a lunch on our last day of internship to Jugheads, Mumbai. It was love at first bite. For a while I associated pasta with tomato sauce, broccoli and zucchini. Later however, as I became acquainted with pasta variations, I started experimenting on my own. One great thing about pasta is that it can adapted effortlessly to various combinations and delightful flavors. This spaghetti recipe in this post is one such adaptation with Indian basil pesto.

Roasted Cauliflower Spaghetti in Indian Basil Pesto

Pesto is traditionally made with basil. In this pesto recipe I decided to make use of Indian basil. Indian basil has a stronger flavor than Italian basil, tastes great nevertheless. 

Indian Basil

For a few weeks I had been lusting after these homemade sun dried cherry tomatoes and decided to use them as base for my pesto. I used a local variety of cherry tomatoes, which are much smaller than the regular cherry tomatoes and herbed them with dried oregano and basil.

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Now, these tomatoes were totally dried, so I soaked them in olive oil for about 6 hours. You can use the canned sun dried tomatoes. I added a dried red chilly and soaked it with the tomatoes.

Ingredients:

Spaghetti- 250 gm

Cauliflower florets-300 gm

Clove- 3-4 nos

Olive oil- 3 tbsp

Salt and pepper for seasoning

For pesto

Sun dried tomatoes- 1/2 cup

Basil leaves- 1 cup, loosely packed

Cloves- 2

Dried red chilly- 1

Olive oil- 3 tbsp

Salt for seasoning

Let's begin by making our pesto.

Assemble all ingredients for pesto. As I mentioned I had soaked my sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, I drained them before using them.

Place all ingredients except salt in your food processor and grind to a paste. I ground it a bit coarse but you can make it a smooth paste. Season with salt and your pesto is ready.

Pesto

Now that our pesto is ready, let's get on with spaghetti.

Bring water to boil in a wok and cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain, and drizzle with some olive oil to keep spaghetti from sticking to each other and keep aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan till it's very hot but not smoking.

Add cauliflower florets and cook on high flame till they start to brown. About 3-4 minutes. Keep stirring at 20 second intervals while cooking so they don't burn. Cover and cook on low flame for another 5 minutes.

Add pesto and mix.

Toss spaghetti in and gently mix. 

Season with salt and pepper.

Cover and keep on low flame for a couple of minutes so it gets nice and warm. 

I topped mine with a handful of basil leaves and a few sun dried tomatoes.

Roasted Cauliflower Spaghetti in Indian Basil Pesto

Masala Stuffed Okra

If someone asked me to write an essay on Okra on a silly dare, I would secretly thank my stars and gladly indulge whilst only pretending to ridicule the challenge so people don't think I am some crazy Okraphiliac (I wonder if that's a thing). I would probably begin with, "Fair Okra! I loveth thee so.." (Studying literarure is really getting into my head) and go on to include the names of countless friends who equally love Okra (aka other probable Okraphiliacs) and end with thanking the Lord for making Okra available almost through out the year so we don't have to pine away in separation!

Ok! I agree! Fair amount of exaggeration involved. But in my defence, I was trying to make a point.

Truly, Okra/ Lady's Finger/ Bhindi is a much loved vegetable of most Indians (few who do not like it, I do not know how they live with themselves). It is prepared in a variety of manners, stir fry with onions, curried, fried or stuffed like this recipe here in this post. 

Masala Stuffed Okra

I especially like these stuffed Okra. My roommate in Gurgaon would always keep asking me to prepare this at least once a week. Yea! We love it!

So let's get on with the recipe, shall we?

Ingredients:

1/2 kg okra

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp red chilly powder

3-4 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

1 tsp amchur (dried mango) powder

1 tsp anardana (pomegranate seed) powder

salt to taste

Oil

Recipe:

Wash and dry okra thoroughly. Try to use smaller sized Okra for this recipe.

Make a deep slit along the length of each okra with a knife.

Mix all powdered ingredients and salt together.

Stuff okra with this powder mix.

Heat enough oil in pan. Add stuffed okra to the pan and mix to coat evenly with oil.

Cook uncovered on medium flame for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally. The okra will start turning darker in color as it cooks.

Serve as side dish with chapatis or parathas.

                                        

Creamy Cucumber Spread

This is a simple cucumber spread that can be used as a dip for fresh veggies and nachos. I used it as a spread in my Sweet Corn Sandwich (click here for recipe).

Creamy Cucumber Spread

Ingredients:

Cashews, soaked in milk for 2-4 hours- 15-20 nos

Cucumber, finely diced- 1/4 cup

Salt to taste

Pepper for seasoning

Recipe:

Grind soaked cashews with little milk, salt and pepper to a smooth paste.

Add diced cucumber and fold.

Refrigerate for at least 2-4 hours.

Tastes best when refrigerated for a whole day.

Tips:

I left the peel on and diced cucumber because I wanted a little crunch.

You can go ahead and totally peel it off, deseed and grate the cucumber to suit your purpose.

Sweet Corn Sandwich with Creamy Cucumber Spread

It so happened that last week one of my mom's friends sent over about 15 corn cobs from her farm. I had farm fresh sweet corn at my disposal (too much of it) and the wheels in my mind started churning. And they kept churning until last evening when I felt like having a sandwich and lo! then it clicked, a sweet corn sandwich! How elegant!

I hope you give this sandwich a go.
Let me know how it turned out for you in the comments below.

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 4 sandwiches.

Sandwich bread- 8 slices
Sweet corn, boiled- 6-8 tbsp
Onion, finely chopped- 1 big
Green chilly, finely chopped- 1
Milk- 5-6 tbsp
Cornflour- 1 tbsp
Butter- 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

For cucumber spread

Cashews, soaked in milk for 2-4 hours- 15-20 nos
Cucumber, finely diced- 1/4 cup
Salt to taste
Pepper for seasoning

Recipe:

Cucumber spread
Grind soaked cashews with little milk, salt and pepper to a smooth paste.
Add diced cucumber and fold.
Refrigerate for 2-4 hours.

Sandwich
Heat butter in a pan. When it starts frothing, add onions. Saute till they turn translucent.

Add corn, chopped chillies and salt. Mix well.

Dissolve cornflour in milk. Add to sweet corn. Keep the flame low.

Cook on low flame with continuous stirring till no milk remains.

The mixture will be sticky in texture.

Take 2 bread slices. Spread corn mix on one slice and cucumber spread on the other. Be generous!

Place the slice with cucumber spread on top of the other slice.

Grill your sandwich and indulge!!