Pesto Pizza

I wanted to have a homemade pizza for so long, but it was either i did not have the necessary materials or was on short of time. This monday it was time for the pizza though :)

I had a bottle of pesto which i had never used. I had brought it for adding it to pasta but never got around doing that. on allrecipes.com i saw a recipe for pizza where they had used only pesto as the base sauce, and then put all the veggies and cheese.  I changed that recipe a bit by adding home made pizza sauce on top of the pesto and it turned out amazingly delicious. The left over pizza was like by everybody at the office when i brought it for lunch.

Ingredients

4 tomatoes

1 finely cut onion

3 garlic cloves

olives

jalapeno

pesto ( i used a store brought bottle)

mozzarella cheese

salt

sugar

basil seasoning

red mirchi 

ajmo (also known as ajwain or carom seeds)

green chillies 

ginger

1 pizza crust (i got mine from traders joes)

1. With a knife put an X on the bottom of a tomato and put it in boiling water. After about 5 minutes remove the tomatoes from the boiling water and put it in cold water. Tt will crumple up the skin and it would be easier to remove it.
2. Remove the tomatoes peel and add the tomatoes to the blender.
3. Add 2-3 chillies, a pinch of ajmo, a small piece of ginger, garlic and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion to the blender and make a puree.
4. In a vessel add some olive oil and pour the tomato puree in it. Add salt, sugar and red mirchi and let it simmer. Atleast 1/4 of the water should be evaporated and the puree should have become thick in consistency.
5. Heat the oven to 350F.
6. Brush the pizza crust with olive oil, specially the sides.
7. Spread pesto all over the pizza generously. layer it with the pizza sauce. Add onions ,olives and jalpenos for topping. sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and put it in the oven to bake.
8. It should take about 15-20 minutes. Remove the pizza when the sides turn a little brown and the cheese has melted.

Bread Poha

Every time i make this dish i screw it up somehow. It always comes out soggy and in part inedible. I think it might be because of the use of tomatoes. So yesterday i googled up some more ways to make this dish. It turned out pretty great. Next time around i will try some more modifications by adding some vegetables. This  is good when you are very hungry and dont have much patience to cook something extensive. This recipe takes a maximum of 5 mins to make.

Ingredients

5-6 slices of stale bread

3 tablespoons curd

salt

red mirchi

haldi

oil

mustard seeds

1. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds to it after it becomes hot. add asofoetida after the mustard seeds splutter.
2. Break the bread into pieces. Add the salt, mirchi and haldi to the bread and mix it up with your hand. I do this before putting   everything into the pan.
3. Let the bread pieces turn to light brown in color.
4. Add a few drops of water to curd and whisk it up.
5. Add the curd to the bread mixture. Take care in the quantity of curd as too much curd would make the bread soggy.

Other additions that can be done. Before adding bread, saute some onions and green bell peppers. Jalapeños would also be a good addition.

Rabodi ki sabji

well, my husband is a marwadi and he likes all the traditional marwadi dishes. so for lunch today he wanted fresh rotis and rabodi ki sabji.
rabodi is sour in taste. I have got homemade rabodi from my mother-in-law. I dont know exactly how the rabodi made so i will update my post later tonite after asking her.
This is how uncooked rabodi looks like.

Ingredients
2 cups rabodi
water
2 tablespoons curd,
ginger
green chillies
red mirchi
salt
ghee
jeera
asofoetida

Heat the ghee in a pan. after it heats up add jeera. after the jeera splutters add asoefoetida, green chillies and ginger.
mix the curd with some water and form a paste. add it slowly through a strainer so that it does not separate out.
add all the other masalas and water and let it boil.
after about 5 mins add the rabodi to it and let it cook for another 5 mins.
the rabodi is ready. quick and easy. :)
enjoy with phulka roti.
i realized i hadnt taken a pic until almost all of it was over. here's a pic with the leftover rabodi sabzi

Handvo

Handvo - is as a spicy cake made with a flour mixture of  lentils and rice.I usually buy the pre-packaged handvo flour or sometimes use the instant mix too. With the instant mix i follow all the steps listed below except for the ferment part. I learnt this recipe from my grandmother.

ingredients
1 dhoodhi/lauki. you can also substitute with squash.
2 bowls of handvo flour
1 cup yogurt /dahi /curd.
roasted peanuts
mustard seeds,
red mirchi
ginger
green chillies
sesame seeds
salt
sugar
eno

Mix the handvo flour and curd and water to a not too thick consistency. the batter should not be too liquid. for the batter the more sour the curd the better. let it ferment overnight.
The next day mix half a teaspoon of eno to the batter. instead of eno you can use soda bicarbonate. i just prefer eno.
grate the doodhi. Take some oil in a pan and heat it. add the mustard seeds. after the splutter add asofoetida,chopped up green chillies and ginger, the grated doodhi, red mirchi, salt and sugar.
Tip: you can also add other vegetables. i sometimes add grated carrots and peas.
mix this with the batter. add some peanuts too.

Now the mixture is ready and you can either make it in the oven or on a stove top.

For the oven, put it on 350 degrees.
Grease a pan and put spread sesame seeds all over it. Pour the batter on top. again sprinkle some more sesame seeds on top.
put it in the oven for around 30-40 mins or till a toothpick comes out clean.
It should form a dark brown crust.

for the stove top version, take a flat pan.I use a non-stick pan. heat it and add some oil. Temper with sesame seeds. pour the batter in the pan and let it cook. cover the pan with a lid.
after about 15-20 mins the handvo should be done and a thick crust would have been formed on the bottom.
flip the handvo over so that the crust is formed on the other side too.

enjoy the handvo with chundo or red mirchi and salt mixed in olive oil. you can have it as it is. it is just plain yummy,

The Origin of this blog

I love cooking and it is a great stress buster for me. It helps me de-stress ,calms me down if i am angry or brings me back to normal if i am depressed. I started cooking around 4 years back after i came to Boston. Back in college, the worst thing i cooked was making a disaster of a Maggi. ( i have no clue what went wrong there, i blame the maggi). But even though i did not cook anything, i would be moving in and around the kitchen when somebody was cooking. Unconsciously i must have picked off their ways.

I used to live with my mom, grand mom and aunt, and all of them have their own specialties and cooking styles. My cooking is heavily influenced by all three. I constantly keep asking them for newer recipes or ways to improve on what i have already cooked.

Also whenever i want to try something new, i Google up at least 4-5 different recipes and then mix them up to get my own. And after all this effort i forget, so the next time i am back to square one and googling again. That is why i started this blog as my recipe book so that i have easy access and reference whenever needed.