A Weekend Breakfast – French Toast

Our weekday breakfasts are usually hurried as we get ready to make our way to work and get on with our day ahead. So on weekdays, its usually a couple of slices of buttered toast, a cup of coffee and a fruit or some cereal or porridge and a fruit. So over the weekend, I feel its only fitting to have a more leisurely and stepped-up-a-notch type of breakfast. Some of you will remember that one of these types of breakfast is a helping of pancakes. Another such fairly simple, yet very satisfying breakfast option for me is French Toast.

There are a few variants to this basic French toast that I’ve tried and I’ll list them at the bottom of the post. Something that I’ve been longing to try is a stuffed French toast. I seriously hope I get around to trying that sometime soon; I have so many ideas for those. This basic recipe I picked up from watching my mother in the kitchen. People find it hard to believe that when I was a kid, I didn’t fancy spending much time in the kitchen watching my mother cook. One exception was  when she was making something sweet. So when she was making us French toast for breakfast or when we were making goodies to go on the Christmas platter, it was hard to get me out of the kitchen. Till this day, I really enjoy making the sweeter stuff, desserts, cakes, cookies etc. Its the everyday cooking that sometimes leaves me lacking inspiration. 
Anyway back to the French toast. What I really like about making this at home is that you get to decide what flavors you want to work with and just how sweet you’d like it to turn out. When frying the slices of bread be sure to let it color a little. Its the browning that caramelizes the sugar and gives it a delightful crunch. 
What’s your favorite French Toast recipe? Drop in a line in the comments section and let me know. I’d love to try some new variants.
French Toast
(This recipe should make enough to dip about 4-6 slices of bread)
4-6 slices of bread
1 egg
1/2 cup of milk
Sugar, to taste
A few drops of vanilla extract
Butter / oil to fry
Heat a knob of butter or a little oil in a pan.
Whisk the eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla till well combined. Use a shallow bowl that is wide enough to fit the slices of bread in.
Dip the slices of bread in this mix, one at a time to cover well on both sides and soak in some of the liquid. I usually do a double dip on both sides. 
Carefully place the slice in the hot pan and let it cook on a medium flame till it caramelizes a little. Flip and cook the other side as well. 
If your griddle or pan is large enough, you can do multiple slices at a time. You’ll finish off faster. 
Enjoy it warm with a nice cup of coffee. 
If you’d like, you can drizzle some honey over the slices when you’re ready to eat. Don’t drizzle the honey before hand, it will make your toast soggy. If you don’t fancy honey, you could dust it with some powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar as well.
Variants
– You can substitute the vanilla with some cinnamon powder. You could also use a combination of both.
– You can also substitute the vanilla with some freshly grated nutmeg. 
Both this variants are gloriously flavorful. Try them all and see which one you prefer.
This recipe is linked to – 

Sprouted Moong Salad

I love sprouts. If you do some reading up about moong sprouts, you’ll realize what an amazing superfood this is. It has all sort of medical benefits. Once sprouted the moong bean is an amazing source of Vit C that the seed in itself can’t provide. It’s also a great source of protein. These are just a few benefits that I can remember off hand. I’m quite sure the list goes on.

Here’s something that I’ve had floating around in my head for a while now. Each time I’d pass the sprouts shelf at the supermarket, I’d long to pick it up. For reasons even I’m not aware of, I just never did. So recently when I was buying my grains and pulses at the local store, I decided to pick up some dried whole moong (mung beans) and try sprouting it myself.

It’s such a simple process, I wonder why I have never considered sprouting beans at home, before. Better late than never, I’d say. So back to the salad. The only thing you need to ensure is you prep the moong the previous day. If you’d like to omit the sprouting yourself, there’s no harm in using store-bought sprouts. This is not so much a recipe but a guide. Feel free to adapt to your liking.
How to Sprout Moong at home – 

Soak the dried whole moong in sufficient water. (The water level should be atleast an inch above). Soak for about 8 hours or overnight. 
After soaking, drain off excess water. Gently rinse with fresh water. Cover with a wet muslin cloth and keep till the beans have sprouted (approx. 8 hours).
I usually soak the beans in water before going to bed at night, drain and cover with a damp cloth in the morning and its ready for use by the evening.
Sprouted Moong Salad

A handful of Sprouted Moong
1 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 green chilly, finely chopped (optional)
Fine Sev, for garnishing (optional) (Sev is a snack that can eaten just about anywhere at anytime. These are thin noodles of dough made from chickpea flour and deep-fried until they’re crispy enough to eat. )
Fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Salt, to taste
Lime juice, to taste
Mix the sprouts, onion, chilly, tomato and cucumber in a bowl. 
Season to taste with salt and lime juice. 
Sprinkle some fine sev over it. Garnish with the chopped coriander leaves.
** I tuck it in the fridge till I’m ready to serve it.
You can also switch this salad up a bit by adding some plain unflavored natural yogurt, beaten well, to the salad veggies in the bowl in the first step mentioned above. Continue by seasoning and garnishing it.
Again, refrigerate till ready to serve.
This recipe is linked to – 

Mixed Raita

This is a salad like accompaniment that is widely served with Indian food. The dressing is a yogurt based one, which makes this salad ideal for warmer climates and hot summer days. Its really healthy, refreshing and tasty, of course. You will find a number of varieties of raita being served at an Indian restaurant. The base to all of these is  identical, the veggies you find in these salads will vary. Today I’ve made a basic raita with an assortment of salad veggies which you can adjust to your liking.

You can serve this with biryani, jeera rice or any other spicy Indian food. The yogurt helps soothe the palate.

Mixed Raita

1/2 cup curds / natural unflavored yogurt
Salt, to taste
Lime juice, to taste
A pinch of black pepper powder
1 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1/4 yellow pepper, chopped
1/4 red pepper chopped

Mix the veggies in a bowl and season with salt, lime juice and pepper to taste.

Beat the yogurt in a bowl. You can add a little sugar if you’d like to. Add the beaten yogurt to the veggies.

Mix well.

Check for seasoning and adjust, if needed.

You can garnish with some chopped coriander leaves.

Refrigerate till ready to serve.

Moussaka

This baked delight is supposed to be a classic Greek dish. Typically, it is made of eggplant and lamb mince. We’re not overly fond of lamb mince for regular eating. So I used the next best thing, beef mince. I find it more flavorful. Now let me tell you something about this dish. It is good, really good, so very good. Sometimes, I wonder why I don’t make it more often. Hmmm. Anyway, each time I make it, it gets polished off. Ofcourse, one casserole lasts us a couple of meals atleast. But what I’m trying to say is none of it ever goes to waste. I use Nita Mehta’s recipe from her book “Continental Cooking for the Indian Kitchen”. I’m pretty sure this recipe will not be a classic Moussaka recipe, but nevertheless, its pretty darn good.

The inside still remains luscious, moist and full of flavor.

Moussaka
Adapted from: Continental Cooking for the Indian Kitchen by Nita Mehta
(Serves 6-8)


2-3 eggplant, thin long variety
2 tomatoes, chopped
500g beef mince (you can use lamb if you’d like to)
2 large onions, finely chopped
6 flakes garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp red chilly flakes
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
Salt, to taste

For the Cheese Sauce – 
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
1/4 – 1/3 cup Grated cheese
1/4 tsp mustard
Salt to taste

Thinly slice the eggplant and arrange them on a platter. Sprinkle salt on both sides of the slices and let it stand for about 1/2 an hour to drain the juices. Rinse in cold water and pat dry.

Heat some oil in a pan. Fry the slices till brown. Make sure you do not burn them. Drain on absorbent paper towels and keep aside.

Heat the olive oil in a pressure cooker.

Add the onion and stir fry till they soften a little.

Add the chopped garlic and stir fry till the onions turn pink.

Add the tomatoes and stir fry till the juices evaporate.

Add the mince and cook on a high flame till brown and dry.

Add the tomato puree, chilly flakes, oregano, salt and pepper. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water and pressure cook. After the 1st whistle, simmer on low flame for 2 minutes.

Remove from the gas and cool till the pressure dies down.

Open the cooker, check for tenderness, adjust seasoning if needed and cook till almost dry. Dry the excess liquid but don’t make it too dry. Keep aside.

For the cheese sauce, heat butter in a saucepan. Add flour and cook on a low flame for a minute till it changes color slightly. Remove from the heat. Add the milk and mix well. Return to heat and cook till the sauce thickens. Add salt, pepper, mustard and cheese. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.  Add the beaten egg to the cooled white sauce. Keep aside.

To Assemble
Spoon half the meat mixture in a shallow ovenproof dish. Top with half the eggplant slices. Repeat with a layer of the rest of the meat and top that with the rest of the eggplant slices. Pour the cheese sauce on top.

Cook in a preheated oven at 200ºC for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbling hot and browned.

Serve hot with some garlic bread.

This recipe is linked to –
Tuesdays at the Table
Hearth and Soul
A Little Birdie Told Me
Delectable Tuesday
Recipes I Can’t Wait to Try
What’s on the Menu Wednesday
What’s Cooking Thursdays
It’s a Keeper Thursday
Full Plate Thursday