Bread pizza bites...in a paddu pan!

Just woke up from my afternoon nap craving for pizza. Didn't want to order in and it was time for my boy's evening snack.. so came up with this super simple..throw-together recipe that's good on your taste buds!

What i used:

》3 slices of bread: edges removed and cut into quarters. 
》1 tsp frozen corn
》1/2 capsicum and 1/2 onion finely chopped
》garlic flakes, oregano and basil flakes
》 1 tsp pizza sauce
》 1 slice cheese cut into 12 equal portions
》12 black olive slices
》 about a tbsp of butter
And of course..a paddu pan!

I put a bit of butter in all the cavities in the pan and put it on hisg heat. Then smeared a bit of sauce on each of the 12 quarters of bread.

When the pan was ready..i places each of the quarters into the cavities and gave it about a minute while i prepared the filling.

The filling: mix the frozen corn, chopped capsicum and onion with the herbs and garlic flakes.

Divide the filling equally on all the slices.

Top each slice with a black /green olive and then a piece of rhe cheese slice.

Cover with a lid and keep on low flame for about 10 minutes.

The crispy cheesy pizza bites are ready to eat!!

Versatile Tomato Thokku (a tangy, mildly spicy tomato preserve)

I'm leaving for Mumbai tomorrow, for over a week. While emptying my fridge, staring at me was a bag full of beautiful organic tomatoes that my aunt had carried all the way from Madanpalli. Certainly didn't want them to rot away and they were too precious to be  given away.

My options: puree the tomatoes and freeze or make some kind of a preserve that can be refrigerated. The second option definitely seemed so much more appealing. Here's what I did:

Cut up all the tomatoes into quarters and pureed them. Didn't bother to sieve as I prefer a chunky thokku to a pasty one. Then in my chopper, whizzed a couple of large pods of garlic, some birds eye chillies and a piece of ginger. set this aside. About 5 tbsp of this ginger - garlic - green chilli mixture. You can use as much as you wish to, depending on how hot you want the thokku to be.

Other ingredients used:

- 2 tbsp rasam powder - i used this because it is much more flavourful compared to plain red chilli powder.
- 4 tbsp rock salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp amchoor / dry mango powder
- 1 tbsp fenugreek / methi seeds

1 cup oil
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp jeera
1/4 tsp hing

a few sprigs of curry leaves.


you can also add 2 tbsp of 'menthyada hittu'if you have it handy. It lends some flavour, some paste like body, bringing the thokku together. Totally optional, though.
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First heated the oil and allowed the mustard to splutter. Added jeera, hing, curry leaves and the Ginger-garlic-chilli mixture and allowed it to become slightly cooked.

Then, the puree, and all the powder masalas, salt and sugar. Mix well and allow it to simmer away (without lid) for at least 45 minutes.

The thokku will turn a reddish brown and will separate itself from the oil. At this stage, take it off the flame, and allow it to cool completely before transferring to a glass, air-tight jar.

When refrigerated, this should stay for a few months, if it's not polished off by then, that is!

Once I tasted it, I realised that that it is such a versatile thokku -
> can be used as an instant mix for tomato rice / bhath /
> as a base for tomato rasam - just add dal and water and boil /
> can be added to subzis for a kick of flavour
> can be added to poha, with onions to make tomato-kanda poha
> can be added along with other veggies while making upma / khara bhath

I love it with plain, hot, steamed rice. Yummm.

Do try it out

Bisi Bele Bhath (BBB)

My version is a quick fix meal. One pot. 30 minutes. Ready to eat.

So here's what I do - a meal (or probably 2 meals!) for a family of 3.

Chop whatever veggies you have handy. I had: beans, potatoes, carrots, onion, broad beans, and green pepper. Large chunks are preferred. 

Wash and soak 2 small cups of rice. If you're not a fan of white rice, you may use broken wheat (lapsi / Godi nuchchu) / millets (pearl millets / foxtail millets). Set aside for about 20 minutes or so, if you have this planned out. Else, if this is a last minute quick fix,  wash and use immediately. 

My Masala mix: I also use a ready mix sambar powder**. 1 Tbsp of this sambar powder mix. To this I add 1 tbsp of regular BBB powder, 1 tsp dhania powder, 1 tsp jeera powder, a small piece of jaggery, 1/4 tsp garam masala.

In the rice cooker, heat oil, add a tsp of mustard and let it splutter. Then add jeera, turmeric and asafoetida (hing). Then toss in all the chopped veggies, the washed rice, the masala mix and water*. At this point, you may also add a lot of chopped / whole curry leaves. And let it cook away.

Keep stirring in between so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel. Just as it is getting ready, after about 25 minutes, when you see that the rice and the veggies are cooked well, add 1.5 tsp of tamaring paste and give it a good stir. Top it with coconut milk or dessicated fresh coconut.

 In about 30 minutes, your BBB will be ready to eat.

If using a pressure cooker, the same procedure applies, then allow it to cook for 3- 4 whilstles. In this case, add the tamarind paste after opening the cooker and cook for a few more minutes till it gets incorporated.  

A lot of people prefer adding the tadka after the BBB is ready. You may do that too. I find it tedious and it's not really a 'one-pot' dish if I have to use a tadka pan ;)


*The usual proportion of water for my sona masoori raw rice is 3 cups of water to 1 cup rice. For BBB, i usually add 2 -3 extra cups of water in the end. 
**If this is not available, replace with 1 cup of uncooked and soaked tur dal + an additional spoon of regular BBB powder. 

Accompaniments: You can make this tastier by including khara boondi / bombay mixture / Sandige (traditional south Indian fryums)/ fried Balaka chillies / papad / potato chips. Anything fried is a good accompaniment :). Also a raita - boondi / onion-tomato raita goes well with BBB. 

Overall: Tess than 1 tbsp oil. a good serving of veggies. A full meal in itself. Can easily subsitute rice with broken wheat / millets. 

Enjoy!