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.