Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Crostinis!

Ingredients:

Common Ingredients (other than topping):

1) A baguette (prefrably the ones without cheese cprinked on top, and whole wheat), diagonally cut
2) Parmesan or cheddar cheese, grated
3) Mozarella cheese, grated (totally optional)
4) 2 teaspoons fresh cream
5) Oregano, white pepper powder and salt
6) totato puree/ (I prefer fresh tomatoes blanched and pureed)
7) 2 teaspoons olive oil

Toppings:

A) Peppers

one red and one yelow pepper (this makes about 10-12 pieces). Roast or bake both n peel off the skin. Take off seeds and chop into small pieces.
Heat olive oil, lightly fry the peppers, and one tablespoon cooking vinegar. Let the vinegar evaporate. Then add one teaspoon cream (this acts as a binder and preverts toppings from falling all over the place.), and one large spoon grated cheese.
Add oregano, salt, pepper, heat some more.

Take the baguette pieces, roast with oilve oil in a pan for 1 min on both sides, coat lightly with puree and add the topping. Garnish with parsley.

B) Zuccini
One small green and one small yellow zuccini. (This makes around 12)
Chop both into small pieces.
Heat olive oil, lightly fry the zuccini, let them vrey slightly brown. add one teaspoon cream (this acts as a binder and preverts toppings from falling all over the place.), and one large spoon grated cheese.
Add oregano, salt, pepper, heat some more.

Take the baguette pieces, roast with oilve oil in a pan for 1 min on both sides, coat lightly with puree, add topping and garnish with fresh tomato.

C) Mushroom:
Chop both into small pieces.
Heat olive oil, lightly fry the mushrooms, let them vrey slightly brown. Add one large spoon grated cheese and let it melt (no cream here! GAG!)
Add oregano, salt, pepper, heat some more.

take the baguette pieces, coat with puree, add mushroom mixture, sprinkle more grated cheese.
Microwave on high for 1 min or bake for 6-7 mins in convection, 360/180 (top/base)

D) Tomato -FRESH
Take 3 large fresh ripe tomatoes, chop into very tiny pices, but do remove seeds. Mix with olive oil, a little fresh cruched garlic, white pepper, 4 drops of lemon juice and oregano and salt.

Lightly roast the baguette pieces in olive oil and add the mixture. Garnish with parsley (ESPECIALLY when yu kmake dieshes with fresh garlic, and not cook it, DO use parsley as a garnish)

Raw Mango Chutney

Ingredients:

1) A small-medium fresh, raw mango (one the size of your fist makes a medium cupful)
2) fenugreek seeds (methi)
3) mustard seeds
4) dried red chilli pepper
5) one teaspoon oil

Procedure:
1) Heat the oil and add both seeds till they pop.
2) add the chillies, fry till they become brittle (dont let them go brown)
3) grind above mixture, but not smooth
4) Add mango and grind again (not to a smooth paste, its nice when slighlty rough n yu hav to bite the mango-yum!!)
5)Add salt AFTER its done, else raw mango tends to ooze water.

Goes with anything, especially curd rice n dosas, ( I even like it with bread n cheese :))

Note: 1) This stays for a max os 2-3 days and is best when fresh.
Other variations:
Tomato (Braise the tomatoes on high flame with just 2 drops of oil and continue the procedure)
Green apple (raw apple - this tastes fantastic! Same procedure as the mango chutney)
Roasted brinjal (Roast brinjal on glame, or grill it(or make 3-4 slits in the vegetable, coat with oil, wrap in foil and bake at 360 degrees in convection oven for 15 mins), peel of the skin when cold, and repeat procedure)