Corn Bruschetta

I am sure many of you are aware of what a Bruschetta is. It is antipasto which is basically a snack or appetizer from Italy made by grilling the bread and topping it with your choice of vegetable and seasoned with olive oil and salt.
Whenever I go to supermarket, the smell of freshly baked breads somehow pulls me towards it. I generally prefer baking them at home. But this time I just picked up a French bread. As soon as I saw it I knew what I was making then. You can actually use any type for bread, but this particular one and most importantly the way you cut it makes all the difference; else it would just another open faced sandwich.

Mostly you would see tomatoes with herbs as a topping and the toasted bread, but I this time add another ingredient to it. Yes.. as you can see, its the corn.

Ingredients

For Topping:

Chopped Tomatoes
About a cup of corn.
Basil
Salt & Pepper
Chili Flakes

Bread( French Loaf)
Cheese Spread( Optional)
Olive oil

Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients for the topping. Slice the bread as shown in the pic. This what makes it stand as a separate dish.

In the meanwhile preheat the oven to 350F.
Now spread the cheese on the slices and place a spoonful of the topping on each one of them. Sprinkle with some chili flakes.

Place the tray in the oven and let it back for about 10-12 mins, till the slices are nice and toasted. Remove from the over and add a dash of olive oil over each. and serve them warm.
Works great a easy snack or lovely party appetizer.

Notes:
If you do not have oven, just toast the slices separately. Slightly saute the topping in the separate sauce pan and place it over the bread. 

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PS: All recipes are without Onion and Garlic

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Oats Almond Cashew Cookie

I love experimenting with baking variety of cookies at home. My LO is a huge fan of Biscuit n cookies.So instead of feeding him store bought one I prefer making them at home.At least I can control  what goes into it and the joy of eating these goodies at its freshness is beyond words.

This is one of the zillion ways in which I make them.

I have used the regular Quaker oats, dry roasted and roughly grind them. Here goes my version of Oats Almond Cashew cookie.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup of powdered oats
1/2 cup grounded cashew and Almond powder
1/4 Cup Ghee ( clarified butter)
1/3 cup of brown sugar
2-3 tbsp of Honey ( Adjust sweetness as per your taste)
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Baking powder

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F.
2. Take a bowl mix the ghee and sugar and whisk it.
3. Now add honey and rest of the ingredients.Mix it well till it forms a manageable dough.
4. Grease your Palm and Make small balls and flatten them. Place them on a baking try lined with a sheet/ parchment paper.
5. Bake them at 325F for about 18-20 mins till lightly golden brown. Remove them on the wire rack , let it cool down, then store it in a air tight container. Njoy for the rest of the week. Do give it a try and let me know how it went for you.

Please do like my page or leave your comments if you are inspired. It is motivating to see your comments.Thanks!
PS: All recipes are without Onion and Garlic

Happy Cooking! Inspire and Get Inspired :)

Chakli

Chakli/ Muruku is favorite in every hold. And every regional has their own way to prepare these crispy anytime snack. This  recipe is from my MIL's kitchen. Extremly easy to make and light on hand. It is made from Rice flour instead of using Bhajni( mix of various lentils and rice) which could be time consuming. 

Ingrediants

3 Cup Rice flour

1/2 cup Curd

2-3 tbsp Ginger chili paste

1 tsp Salt

2 tbsp Melted Ghee / clarifed butter

water/ Buttermilk as needed to Knead the dough

1 tbsp Sesame seeds

Procedure

Take a mixing bowl. Add all the above mentioned ingredients and make a soft dough. Let it rest for about 20 mins. 

In addition to above ingredients you may add some cumin coriander powder or any spice as per your flavoring. I just kept it simple.

You would need a tool like this to make the chakli. 

Now make these rounds/ curls. Take a small portion of the dough. make a log and put it in the machine

Seal the edges. You may choose to bake them for about 30 mins at 350F. I did the traditional method to deep fry them.

You need to fry them on medium flame. Drain of the excess oil in the tissue. 

Once its completely cooled , store them in air tight container and Njoy for coming weeks.

Please do like my page or leave your comments if you are inspired. It is motivating to see your comments.Thanks!

PS: All recipes are without Onion and Garlic

Happy Cooking! Inspire and Get Inspired :)

Chiroti

This is Flaky, buttery sugar dusted delicacy is called Chiroti. I am not very sure of its origin, but I love it. I do not make them often. But this is the time of the year.Diwali ..I don't mind taking in calories :) No better reason to make them.

source: nishamadhulika

Ingrediants

2 Cups All purpose Flour
Pinch of Salt
2 Tbsp Clarified Butter/Ghee
Milk /Water as need for Kneading

For paste
All purpose flour
2 Tbsp Ghee Melted


Procedure

Mix the flour, salt and melted ghee and add water/ milk to make a hard dough. Cover and let it rest for about 15-20 mins at least.

Now divide the dough into set of 3 balls and keep it aside.

Make a paste of melted butter/ Ghee and All purpose flour. This is known as satta. This is basically the stuffing kind of thing that goes between  the rolled dough.

Roll them into big thin circles. Place one circle on it apply this satta generously ,now place another rolled dough on it. Again apply the satta on it and and place another rolled dough on it.

This way you have 3 rolled circles on each other with satta in between. Roll them again to a bigger circle. You want to make them thin. Now again apply  little more satta and now tightly roll them all together. And Cut them using a pizza cutter or knife into 1 inch pieces.  they appear something like pinwheels.

Now Keeping then cut side up, slight press them open and Lightly roll them again but not too much. You can actually flatten them more, I just preferred not to.

Sounds like along process but its actually not. Continue the same procedure with the rest of the dough.

Heat the oil well. Now slowly fry them on slow to medium flame for about 8-10 mins.

Now you have 2 options.
1: Grind the sugar and make a powder of it. About 1/2 cup. After frying drain the excess oil and generously spread the suger powdder on them. Apply on both sides.
This is what I did.

2: Make a sugar syrup and Dip in them- this is bit more sweeter

Enjoy your Flaky, melt in mouth, super delicious sweet snack. Once completly cooled store them in air tight container and enjoy of some more weeks!


Please do like my page or leave your comments if you are inspired. It is motivating to see your comments.Thanks!
PS: All recipes are without Onion and Garlic

Happy Cooking! Inspire and Get Inspired :)

Methi Puri

This is another post of my on similar lines with Jeera Puri. This is somewhat spicy, made of whole wheat. Equally tasty..We love both the variations. Anytime snack.

Ingrediants

2 Cup Wheat flour

3 Tbsp Oil

Salt

Turmeric powder

Chili Powder

Coriander powder

3 Tbsp Crushed Kasturi Methi/ Dry Fenugreek Leaves
Water/ Milk to make dough

Procedure

Add all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and make a semi hard dough. Cover it and let it rest for about 15 mins. You may choose to you fresh chopped fenugreek leaves instead, but in that case I would strongly suggest to add a tbsp of sugar as well.

Now divide them into smaller ball. Roll them into a thick big circle. Now using the fork keep punching it so that it has holes all over. This is important step, if the holes are not made then the puris would puff up while frying, and they would be soft. 

Now using a cookie cutter or lid of bottle , cut them in circles. Repeat this till all the dough is used up. 

In the meantime heat oil, add the pieces into the oil and fry them on SLOW flame. Slow frame is extremely essential to get that perfect crunch for at least 7-8 min. 

Remove then from the oil, and drop them on tissue to drain excess oil. They would be slightly soft when you remove them, but would turn crunchier as they cool.

Let them cool completely before storing them in air tight containers. They have pretty long shelf life.

Please do like my page or leave your comments if you are inspired. It is motivating to see your comments.Thanks!

PS: All recipes are without Onion and Garlic

Happy Cooking! Inspire and Get Inspired :)