Blanched Spinach (Palak) with Crushed Garlic and Roasted Sesame

A bunch of spinach in the refrigerator and wondering what to prepare with it - wanted to do something different - something that I have not prepared before.  Remembered eating this at a restaurant and tried to mimic it with a little twist.  Served this to my family along with 'Vegetable Noodles in Schezwan Sauce' for lunch.

Ingredients:

1 bunch spinach
2 tbsp crushed garlic
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 tsp honey (optional)
Ice cubes

Method:

1. Roast the sesame seeds until it starts popping, remove from flame and keep them aside.

2. Wash the spinach and chop bunch into two or three parts according to the length.
3. In a wide bowl, put the ice cubes and some cold water and keep aside.
4. Take some water in a pan, when it starts boiling, put the spinach into this. 

5. Within 30 to 40 seconds in the hot water, remove and drop the spinach into the ice cold water.

6. After a minute, squeeze out spinach from the cold water.  
7. In a shallow pan add the sesame oil, once it is hot, add the crushed garlic and saute.
8. Add the squeezed out spinach, salt, pepper and saute for 1 to 2 minutes. 
9. Remove on to a plate, sprinkle roasted sesame and drizzle honey over this. 
10. Serve as a side dish.  

Filter Coffee

For any hard core south Indian the day begins with a cup of aromatic, freshly-brewed filter coffee or decoction coffee – the whiff of coffee is very invigorating and sipping this hot beverage energizes you instantly as if it were a morning fuel for the body.  This post is for a very dear friend, Samir Dholakia, who loves coffee but has never prepared the traditional filter coffee by himself.   

   

Filter coffee maker in available in stainless steel.  The decoction can also be prepared in an electrical coffee maker.   

The steel coffee maker consists of 4 parts –

• a cylindrical container at the bottom
• a container with holes that is placed on the top
• a lid
• a plunger

Coarsely ground coffee powder is available in stores, but it is better to get it from the coffee merchandiser where you can choose your coffee beans and get it ground – this is more aromatic.

Ingredients:

Coffee powder, 4 to 5 tsp

Milk

Sugar to taste

Water

Method:

1. Boil the water.
2. Assemble the coffee containers.  Put the coffee powder into the top container and place the plunger and press down the coffee powder.
3. Pour the boiling water into the top vessel.
4. It will take around 10 minutes for the decoction to collect into the bottom container. 

1. Boil the milk. 
2. Take a cup, pour hot milk into it, add required amount of sugar and add decoction.
3. Stir with spoon and sip away.
4. Alternatively, the coffee is poured into a steel tumbler and with the help of a flat-bottomed small bowl (called davara in Tamil) the coffee is transferred from tumbler to davara two to three times to get the frothy layer to the coffee.    

Omelette on Toast and Veggie Roundels

Just wanted to present the same old bread and eggs in a different avatar to entice my family this morning for breakfast.  It sure was a hit.

Ingredients:

For omelette on toast:-
8 slices of bread
4 eggs
1 finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped green chilli
ground pepper
salt


For the veggie roundels:-

roundels cut out from the 8 bread slices
1 cup mixed vegetable, finely chopped
1 tbsp vegetarian mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard sauce (optional)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp ground pepper
salt to taste
finely chopped coriander leaves
2 tbsp grated cheese

Method:

In a bowl, break the eggs, add the onions, green chillies and beat well.  Add the pepper and salt and keep aside.
With the help of a cookie cutter cut the center of the breads and remove the round disks and keep aside. 
Heat a pan and drizzle some oil, place the outer edge of the bread with a hole on the pan.  

Pour some egg batter inside the hole and let it cook on medium heat. 

Gently turn and flip over the bread and cook on the other side.

Remove on to a plate.

Assemble the finely chopped mixed vegetables (carrot, onion, capsicum, tomato) and add the remaining ingredients to this except grated cheese.
Brush the bread roundels with olive oil and place scoops of vegetable mix on it and top it with some grated cheese.

Toast these in a pre-heated oven for 5 to 7 minutes. 
To plate, cut each bread omelette into 2 triangles and place some vegetable roundels (crostini) and serve with tomato ketchup, cheese dip, or coriander chutney.