Bread and Cheese Frittata

My weekdays are absolutely frenzied! Not being a morning person just adds up to that mess. In the mornings, I can just manage to squeeze in enough time for a quick bath and a hurried breakfast before rushing off to the office. Working for late hours makes matters worse. Had it been left to me, after office, I would have hogged on a fast, unhealthy dinner and flopped into my bed straight away. No such luxuries! My husband, the fitness enthusiast that he is, makes sure that we go to the gym in the evenings (he has long resigned to the idea that I won’t be up in the early morning J). After gym, I just have enough time for a quick bath and a rushed (and healthy L) dinner. By the time I flop into my bed, I’m so tired that I instantly doze off. Since my husband also has a similar routine, he doesn’t really complain. So, we truly, badly, madly wait for the weekends when we can indulge in things and people that we love. And of course, there is always good food!

Given this routine, I was delighted when one particular weekday, we both got to leave office in the early evening…..this meant, we could spend a whole evening together!! I decided to cook something special using a favourite ingredient of each of us (eggs for my husband and cheese for me J). Plus, it had to be quick given that I wanted to spend maximum time with my husband and not in the kitchen. So I ended up with this awesome bread frittata which required very basic ingredients and was done in 15 minutes flat!

Ingredients:

Eggs – 4

Whole wheat bread – 2 slices (shredded)

Salami or ham – ½ cup (shredded)

Frozen peas – ½ cup (thawed)

Mozzarella – ½ cup (grated)

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Whisk the eggs with salt and pepper until fluffy and set aside. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan. Once hot, add the shredded ham or salami. Add the peas after a couple of minutes and stir fry the same for 2-3 minutes. Add the shredded bread and mix everything well until the bread is coated with oil and the peas and ham / salami are evenly distributed. When the bread is a little toasty, add the egg mixture all over the bread. Make sure the egg covers all of the bread, peas and ham / salami. Do not mix. Cover the pan with a lid and let it set on low heat for around 3 mins. When the sides are set and crisp and the top is still runny, add the grated cheese on top of it. Cover again for 1 min or until the cheese melts. Enjoy the goodness!!

I got the idea of this dish from here. While she had set it on a grill, just before finishing the dish, I preferred to melt the cheese on my pan itself. I’m sure her effect was equally amazing.

You can add anything else you fancy along with the peas and ham. It could be red, green or yellow bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, bacon, sausages….anything that catches your fancy and goes well with eggs. This is what the blogger from this blog suggested too.

My husband said it was restaurant quality! That just made my day…or should I say evening J. We had coffee along with this and I could feel the cares and worries of my day melting away....just like the cheese....

Love,

Anjali D.

Mashed Jackfruit Seeds

Do you have a dish the mere thought of which that takes you back to your childhood days? Well, I have one of those and it is this dish that I’m gonna share with you today. When I was in school, I and my siblings used to spend most of our summer vacations at my mom’s village home. One of my mamas (maternal uncle) still stays there with his family. So we still visit the village whenever we can; though not as frequently as we did during my childhood. Some of my best childhood memories are associated with this village. Of course, the ones I remember most are associated with food!

Now my mami (mama’s wife) is a heavenly cook whose cooking can turn absolute haters of some particular veggies into pure lovers of them. Whenever we used to visit her, she would ask what we wanted for lunch each day. This dish was one of my frequent requests. The major ingredient might be a bit difficult to find; but once you find it, do not leave until you grab enough to last you at least two meals (I’ll share another wonderful recipe casting this ingredient as the star later J ).

So, the other day, on our weekend grocery shopping spree, I and my husband located these beauties at the local supermarket and immediately bought a packet. Oh! The weekend meal was a delightful walk down memory lane when I tried to recreate my mami’s magic….albeit with my own touch!

Ingredients:

Jackfruit seeds: 10-12

Onion: 1 (finely chopped)

Green chillies: 2 (finely chopped)

Mustard oil: 1 teaspoon

Salt: as per taste

Method:

Peel the jackfruit seeds to remove their outer white casing. Wash the seeds thoroughly and boil them in sufficient water for a good 15-20 mins (these seeds are quite hard and require boiling for longer duration). Remove from water and let them cool. Grind the boiled seeds in a grinder to form a thick coarse paste. Mix chopped onions, chopped green chillies, salt and the mustard oil and voila! We are done. Enjoy it as a side dish with rice, dal (pulses) and vegetables.

* My mami used to boil the seeds along with dal in a pressure cooker and then mash them with her hands which lent this dish its own unique taste. If you are using her method, make sure to let them pressure cook until 7-8 whistles so they turn real soft…soft enough to mash them with your hands. And DO NOT wash the dal off them. That is what will lend it its unique flavor…mami way!!

** Oh by the way, the bowl that you see is made of bell metal….. very traditional Assamese crockery. Got a complete set of these utensils during my wedding and I treasure them more than my jewellery J…..Doesn’t the bowl look lovely with that golden sheen?

Love,

Anjali D.