Spicy eggy bread

When you get tired of your daily egg and bread breakfast and wish to twist it into a spectacular bronzed meal of cheesy topping, you make these babies; that in reality are nothing more than your daily fare of omelette and bread, all jeujed up into spicy fragments of burnished toasts. Not only do they take away from the mundanity of an everyday same ol’ breakfast but also kick it up a notch with flavours that feel just right for the most important meal of the day.

Also a good way to use up any leftover bread that you’ve been trying to ignore.

The ingredients are not much and can easily be improvised to suit your taste buds. Just butter, oil, pepper, paprika, milk, eggs, spring onions, cheese and bread.

chop spring onions as fine as possible, or not. Totally depends on your morning mood.

Shove it into a bowl and crack a couple eggs on top.

add in the milk

a few shakes of paprika, and at this moment this bowl feels like it’s got a face.

scrunch in some black pepper. Don’t be shy, smatter generously.

and finally salt. Not a lot.

mix everything until it’s pretty well mixed.

get onto a bit of bread knifing. Now this step could totally be dispensed with if you’re using stale sandwich bread like one should, but somehow I had this stale piece of baguette that no one wanted to touch with a ten foot pole and thus had to use it up.. how it crumbles. Domesticity you see.

Take some time to chop, shred, grate some cheese. Any cheese you fancy. I’m using Manchego cheese because there were a few slices knocking about in my fridge.

soak pieces of bread into the spicy eggy mixture

in the meanwhile heat some butter in a bit of oil.

flip bread on the other side so it soaks up all the eggy richness evenly.

once the butter begins to froth, place bread slices onto the foamy fat. Don’t let the skillet get too hot, or else you’ll burn this artistic piece of heavenly breakfast. Dot the tops with whatever onions are let languishing in the bottom of the bowl.

Turn them over a dozen heartbeats later, totally depending on the heat. Try and keep the heat towards medium.

and immediately stick cheese on these bread slices

like so. Well, the hardest part is all done.

reduce the heat to low and cover the skillet with a lid for about thirty seconds or so.

Voila! it’s like magic. A moment ago there was lid and now there’s melting cheese and an easy most delicious breakfast on your table.

Ingredients

Eggs: 2

Milk: 1/4 cup

Spring onions: 1-2

Cheese: 2 tbsp

Bread: 2 slices

Pepper: 1/4 tsp

paprika: 1/4 tsp

salt to taste

Butter: 1 tbsp

oil: 1 tsp

Recipe instructions: finely chop spring onions and into a bowl with eggs, milk, paprika, pepper and salt. Mix well.

Coat slices of bread with eggy mixture on both sides and cook in foaming butter+oil mixture over medium flame on a skillet.

Turn over after half a minute and sprinkle cheese on the cooked part. Turn gas to low and cover the skillet with a lid for another minute.

Your spicy eggy bread is done!

Breakfast power smoothie

As days get colder I get lazier. leaving the comfy confines of a chair that’s been warming under you simply to make breakfast feels a bit treacherous, but we gotta eat and breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

And I’ll tell you what’s better than a healthy quick morning breakfast.. one that doesn’t need much eating. Yeah all you gotta do is drink and feel your insides give you a thumbs up.

This breakfast morning smoothie is fast, ferociously energizing and full of good things. It’s fresh, fruity and fantastic.

You can of course change any of these ingredients according to whatever your fridge spring or local fruit market sustains. All fruits, any kinds are welcome, and these are what I put in. A mushed up half of an avocado, pineapple, banana and frozen grapes.

just bung everything in a blender.

add a bit of water just to help everything combine, or it might get too thick

admire the colours and blend.

make a mess while pouring

Ingredients

Pineapple: 150g (1 cup heaped)

Grapes: 110g (1/2 cup) (use frozen for a thicker smoothie texture)

Avocado: 1/2 or 1

Banana: 1

Water: 2-3 tbsp

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Recipe instructions: Blend together all the fruits. Add a little water if the consistency is too thick.

Serve.

Note: you may use any fruits of choice. Either ones from your deep freeze or fresh. Add some blueberries, or frozen strawberries with banana. Apples and peaches work well too.

Enjoy

Breakfast doughnut French toast

That’s right my darlings..doughnuts for breakfast, except these are actually French toasts masquerading as doughnuts..but do you care? They’re hot, coated thickly with cinnamon sugar and doused with your favourite toppings to make one heck of a breakfast meal.

They may not look much like doughnuts, but looks aren’t everything, and so you’ll understand as this recipe and your life progress. The best part about these toasts is that they take no time to conjure up and are so pleasantly imbued with the seraphic aroma of vanilla and cinnamon that you wouldn’t care about Mondays anymore. You do need to coat these in vulgar amounts of sugar and really that’s the charm of this breakfast. It’s breakfast after all and you can get away with a good lot of calories every morning..and honestly these pack a fraction of calories than doughnuts do. Once you’ve wolfed down these golden chunks of doughnut toasts you’ll look for excuses to make them all week.

Eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, sugar and bread. That’s it. High rewards for such few ingredients.

This step doesn’t apply to those who live in a world of pre sliced breads. I used a stale baguette, and it does help a lot if you’ve a stale bread lying about the house dying to be used up.

Crack in the eggs and add milk

vanilla

and salt

mix, smear, whisk, besmirch the calm

and proceed to making the sugary coating with sugar

and cinnamon

and lo! cinnamon sugar. Alchemy I tell you.

melt a fat knob of butter in your pan over medium heat

and dunk the bread in eggy pool of golden promises.Let it stay in there for at least half a minute. It’ll start drinking in the eggs.

Turn them over to let the other side soak up the sun.

and whoa! all the egg’s been absorbed by these little babies

the butter should be nicely frothing

transfer the eggy toast to the pan to cook to a nice golden tan.

just a couple minutes

Mmm..golden and gorgeous.

once these are cooked on both sides, let them cool for a few seconds before transferring them or rather slathering them with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Coat all sides, roll them into the sugar if you have to. Be barbaric about it.

et voilà..we have doughnut french toast. These are fantastic to eat just as they are, but if you want to add a bit of luxury to the richness then please do not restrain yourself as you go totally berserk.

bathe it with chocolate syrup

cloak it with your favourite fruit jam/marmalade or preserve

or how about chunks of banana drowned in maple syrup?

These are just a few things you can do to make these remarkable doughnut french toast into a morning treat.

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Ingredients

Eggs: 2

Milk: 30 mls (2 tbsps)

salt: 1/4 tsp

Vanilla extract: 1 tsp

Sugar: 50g (1/4cup)

Cinnamon: 1/2 tsp

Bread: 2-4 slices

Butter: 1 tbsp

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Recipe instructions: Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla extract and salt.

In a separate plate mix together the cinnamon and sugar.

Begin melting butter in a frying pan to cook the toasts.

Dunk the bread slices in the eggy mixture on both sides until they’re well coated.

Transfer to hot frying pan and cook until both sides are golden.

Wait a few seconds before transferring into cinnamon sugar mixture and coat the toasts well on both sides.

Eat as they are or top with your favourite fruits, syrups or jams.

Enjoy!

Oven baked spinach frittata

This gorgeous piece of yellow green slab that’s seductively prying your mouth open is in fact just an omelette, with a twist. Frittata just sounds so much more deliciously exotic..probably something about the way how the T’s roll out your tongue, or maybe how the layers of yellow egg mixed with cheese and veggies beckon you to dive in face first. There’s nothing about this dish that isn’t deserving a round of applause. The sunshine glint of eggs, the golden ooze of cheese and healthy chew of vegetables is what makes this frittata a breakfast must..and I didn’t even mention how easy it is to put this baby together.

Breakfast is the most important meal of your day, and no reason why it can’t be the most pleasurable too.

You needn’t potter about the stove waiting to flip an omelette when you can just as easily bung it in the oven and get about your morning rituals while it silently cooks to breakfast perfection..and the best part about this lover is that it begs no effort or creativity.

Put it together with whatever vegetables or meats you have at disposal as result of a languorous fridge raid. It’s a very forgiving and loving recipe.

I’m calling this a spinach frittata because I realized my refrigerator needed a quick bit of deforestation. I’d bought an obscene amount of spinach a day earlier and didn’t end up using them all in a recipe. I was left with pretty hefty bunch and decided to roll with it. But you can make this into an onion, mushroom, pepper or any imaginable frittata you fancy. The premises stay the same no matter what the ingredients..so here they are. Eggs, ham (optional), boiled potato, green onion, some milk, butter, spinach, cheese and salt and pepper (not pictured)

I wanted to give the pallid potato a bit of colour and more flavour by cooking it in some melted butter, just so that it gets bronzed. So, melt a knob of butter in a pan.

Dice or cube the potato in bite sized pieces, and when the butter begins to froth, tumble them in a single layer and let cook for 3-4 minutes over medium heat.

flip on the other side and repeat treatment until both sides are nicely blushing.

like so..and that’s the end of cooking.

crack the eggs and add in the milk

season with salt and pepper

add in the chopped green onions

and whisk

until it’s…umm..whisked.

now for the grand assembly. A layer of potatoes..

followed by a layer of ham that you tore into uneven shreds because you were too lazy to chop them into equal pieces. (keep this completely meatless by adding in some other vegetables of choice)

a healthy sprinkling of cheese of choice (I used cheddar)

and a quick bit of rainforest, also torn into uneven shards of leafy green mess. (why didn’t you cook the spinach first you ask? – well, because It’s breakfast time, and quick prep and brisk efficiency isn’t exactly one of our morning hallmarks..also it really won’t matter. I promise!)

and finally a rain of sunshine bliss in the form of perfectly whisked eggs.

and (drumroll), it’ll look like this. What? you’ll wonder..where are the perfectly whisked eggs? They’ve taken root under all that greenery..but have faith my darlings. bake at 190°C for 15-20 minutes

what? where? I know you’re still wondering.. but lemme give you a sneak peak.

Look how gracefully it has puffed up, minus the bloat. The spinach has elegantly shriveled into a thin carpet of green perfection giving just a hint of its existence. The Sunlit eggs have puffed to form a thick slab of such moulting tenderness that you’d be ever so willing to pop this hot piece into your salivating mouth, be it at the expense of burning your lovely tongue. Let it rest for a couple minutes before you dive in.

and then what do you do? You cut a generous portion, slather it with ketchup and balance it on a fiercely toasted bread. It’s breakfast!

Isn’t it just lovely?

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Ingredients

Eggs: 4

Milk: 30 mls (2 tbsps)

Cheese: cheddar 70g (4-5 tbsps) – or use any you prefer

Green onion: 1 (chopped fine)

Potato: 1 (boiled)

Spinach: 1 big handful (shredded/chopped)

Ham: 1-2 slices chopped

Butter: 1 tbsp

salt and pepper to taste.

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Recipe instructions: cube the boiled potato and cook in a single layer on a hot pan with butter until golden on both sides.

Whisk the eggs, salt & pepper, chopped green onions and milk until well combined.

Layer the potato, ham, cheese and spinach in a baking pan. Pour over the eggs and bake at 190°C for 15-20 minutes until the sides have nicely puffed and the eggs have cooked through. Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting into portions.

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Note: You can use any vegetables or seasonings to make this into your favourite breakfast frittata.

Enjoy.

Eggs in a basket

This my lovelies, is an egg, enshrined in a bread and lovingly called egg in a basket. No gourmet affair mind you, but an affair still, of the wondrous bread and egg..meant to be eaten as a morning staple, after a night of excesses in bar or bed.

This is just the kind of breakfast you make, while groggy from last nights decadence. You want something simple but not too sloppy, and it does not get simpler than this, while still maintaining a bit of rustic chic. I mean what could be better than a buttery golden crisp toast, with a cavity filled with golden ooze of sunlit eggs? This is a miracle cure and a smashing breakfast, especially if you’re in a critical need to nurse your hangover or sore aching parts.

don’t you love it already? it has only three ingredients. Bread, eggs and butter.

to make the basket to fit in the eggs, grab a cookie cutter or even a random glass and press into your bread

to get a basket

I used two different sized glasses to get two different sized baskets, because sometimes in food and in life you gotta live on the edge.

check them baskets out..or holes, or voids that is your life if you make these and eat alone.

over medium heat, melt as much butter in a skillet/pan. This is supposed to be comforting, so if you’re looking at skimping on the fat then you might as well feast on air and call it a day.

swirl the butter around to coat the pan, and put your basket bread on the melted butter

gently, lower in the cracked egg. It makes life a lot easier if you crack the egg in a separate bowl.

see, make sure you slide it gently, and it’ll sit pretty.

season lightly with salt

and pepper

and gently nudge the sides after 30-40 seconds to see if you can flip it.

flip and let it cook on the other side as well.

ok, so let’s revise again! this time with the other bread with a smaller basket…so bread atop melting butter on medium low flame

slide in the egg

admire your handiwork

season with salt and pepper

flip after few seconds and we don’t want the basket covers going waste, so we toast those too.

oh my my, what do we have here? a perfect breakfast?

totally optional, but I do it..because life is short and it’s always a good idea to make it shorter..add a slice of ham

bask in glory

but just this is absolutely perfect too.

Ingredients

bread- 2 slices

eggs- 2

butter- 2-4 tablespoons

Recipe instructions

cut out cavities from the middle of your bread by sinking in a cookie cutter or proportionately sized glass rim, make sure its diameter isn’t bigger than the surface of the bread.

melt butter in a skillet on medium heat and place the bread on the melting butter, and slide in the cracked egg in the bread cavity. Season with salt and pepper and flip after a 30-40 seconds once the lower side is golden and egg is cooked. Cook the other side until golden and cooked.

Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Breakfast quesadilla

These beautiful mounded beauties that you feast your eyes on, are my put together in a jiffy breakfast quesadillas. There’s a certain delicious hum to the word ‘Quesadilla’, like uttering an exotic mantra for a cheesy sandwich. Well, that’s what it really is..it’s cheese in a tortilla and while I confess these are not completely authentic or remotely Mexican, I assure you that these are delightfully tasty to eat and offensively easy to put together. This is the kind of dish that requires minimum efforts with maximum rewards.

This dish belongs to the ‘lazy day special archives’. It happened simply becauseI was in no mood for chopping, cutting, baking, cooking or even lingering around the stove. I just wanted to settle with a bag of chips when I saw some leftovers, cheese, and ham in the fridge and it was nothing short of a divine revelation when I decided to myself that this is SPARTAAA!! no not really though! I just decided that I’d make meself some quesadilla. This is how it began..

wholewheat tortilla, pepper, mozzarella and parmesan cheese, ham, leftover sauteed mushrooms and some leftover chopped onions and dijon mustard.

Before I begin, let me tell you that you can substitute these ingredients with whatever you fancy, or whatever leftovers you have in the fridge. Fried eggs, baked potatoes, leftover chicken, crispy bacon are all good. Anything that suits your mood or your appetite can be turned into this quesadilla. Just raid your fridge and go nuts.

a good heap of dijon mustard, for what would be life without this goodness?

spread it liberally. I might have gone overboard but you know how you like it.

Mozarella

leftover sauteed mushrooms and onions and a sprinkling of pepper.

cover with some more cheese, in this case parmesan.

fold over the plain side on the fillings to form a half moon.

on a hot dry pan (you don’t need any oil) let it cook for a couple of minutes and flip once it’s browned a bit.

In the meantime lets build another quesadilla..Again with some cheese

hap hazard placement of ham

leftovers of leftovers

finally some cheese, form into half moon and on a hot pan.

let brown on both sides and this is pretty much done.

I like to slice them into three wedges

like so

to form something like this

oooh this melting hot cheese. This is sandwich heaven right here.

this cheese!! can you see all the melting richness?

these are so unbelievably gorgeous. It’s the breakfast to end all breakfasts. The quesadillas of oomph!! This took me about 10 minutes to make. Couched with a flask of hot tea, this breakfast made in moments was also one of the most satisfying ever.

Ingredients: this doesn’t have any set of ingredients or measures, since it’s something you just put together according to your own tastes and what you have available in the fridge..however,

Tortilla : 2 wholewheat (or use any you have handy)

pepper: 1 teaspoon

Mozarella: 50 g (3-4 tablespoons)

parmesan: 30g(2 tablespoon)

ham: 2 slices

sauteed mushrooms: 50 g (3-4 tablespoons)

chopped onions: 2 tablespoons

dijon mustard: 1 tablespoon

How to: Lay out the tortilla and spread some mustard. On one side layer the cheese, the vegetables, sprinkle some pepper and add some more cheese. Fold to form half moon and transfer on a hot pan to brown and melt the cheese. Cut into 3 wedges and serve.

Repeat the same steps and add ham either cut into thinner strips or just as whole slices. If you wish you can add the remaining vegetables and transfer on a hot pan to let cheese melt and tortillas brown and crisp.

This is just an interesting idea to prepare a feast like breakfast without any effort. Of course by all means, eat it any time of the day and it’d still taste as delicious.

Enjoy!!

Apple Cobbler Crumble

What what? a cobbler and a crumble together? Yes indeed.. for why just have a cobbler when you can also have a crumble and vice versa.

This idea happened not because I was feeling very inventive, well maybe I was.. I was greedy and the fat juicy apples sitting in front of me asked me how they’d like to be cooked.. now I’m just hallucinating. Actually I initially wanted to make a crumble but midway I started making a cobbler and then came back to crumble.. I’m confused that ways. But seriously, once you’ve had this divinity, you’d probably end up making this all the time.

Out of habit I always make a lot of crumble topping and freeze it for instant crumbles, so of course I had the crumble ready.. you never know there might be a surplus of fruits and you’d want to top them with crumble.. Be prepared in life I say.

Okay, so this is how I went with it..

I know, I know.. I couldn’t resist another picture of the gorgeousness that was this crumble cobbler or vice versa.. yes it’s an ice cream atop that.. Yes it’s winters, and yes its French vanilla ice cream.. thank you.

These are 3 apples. Peeled, cored and sliced. Use whichever ones you want. In your baking dish try to pile them evenly.. I did say TRY !!

Sprinkle some sugar. I used about 3 tablespoons of granulated white sugar

Sprinkle some cinnamon.. you can be a bit more generous.. I couldn’t because le huzbend don’t like no cinnamon very much (cry a little)

Set the apples aside and start with the crumble topping. I have flour and salt (mixed), sugar, baking powder, butter, egg and vanilla.

Sift together the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl melt the butter, add the vanilla, and bet in the egg.. so basically a bowl of dry ingredients and a bowl of wet ingredients.

Mix in the dry ingredients into the wet one or vice versa. and mix till all’s well mixed. It’ll be a thickish batter. If your batter doesn’t get to a dropping consistency then add 1 tablespoon of milk.

Spoon the batter over the apples.

I spooned over the batter in 9 uneven albeit somewhat pretty dollops. Don’t laugh.

Here’s another close up..

Here’s the crumble part. I added a bit of rolled oats to the crumble. As I said I had this crumble ready in the freezer for any passing fruit might need it..

Now sprinkle the crumble over the exposed apple parts. Honestly I didn’t mean for it to sound dirty. Sprinkle the crumble over the non cobbler parts and bake @ 180℃ for 20-25 minutes.

the baked result.. Let it cool a bit. Cut a generous slice, top with vanilla ice cream and please eat it already..

Le another picture.. ok no more.. Enjoy !!!

Ingredients & Recipe

3 Apples

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

For the cobbler

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter melted

1 egg

1/2 tbsp vanilla

For the crumble

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup almond flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup cold butter cut into cubes

2 tbsp rolled oats.

Recipe

Peel core and slice the apples and line into your baking tray. Try to make them even.

Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

For the cobbler, mix all the dry ingredients into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the melted cooled butter with the vanilla and egg and mix.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and form a batter. If the batter is too thick add in 1 tbsp of milk. Spoon the batter over the apples.

For the crumble sift together the flour,sugar, almond flour and baking powder. Cut the cold cubes of butter. You can either use a food processor, pastry cutter or simply your fingers. Once your mixture reaches a porridge like consistency add in the oats. Let there be clumps of butter since these will brown and give your crumble a burnished look.

Sprinkle this crumble mixture over the apples which do not have any cobbler on them. Make sure your apples are mostly covered with either cobbler batter or crumble mixture.

Freeze the remaining crumble mixture and use them as and when needed..

Bake 180℃ for 20-25 minutes.

Aloo parantha

The traditional Indian Aloo Parantha or potato stuffed bread if you please..it makes up for the most popular and loved breakfast in India. It’s hearty, tasty and a complete meal in itself without the addition of a lot many things. Easy to make, and honestly- extremely tasty !! The only catch is to make it right and evenly so that there are no thick chunks of flour in between while you eat. The potato stuffing needs to be even and spread well out between the soft flour folds.

Fix your dough. It’s made of whole wheat flour and water and shouldn’t be very hard. The dough has to be soft but not sticky. Keep it aside to work on the stuffing.

BOILED POTATO !!! I haven’t said it enough. Always, always keep a couple of boiled potatoes handy. They’re by far one of the most useful vegetables in the market. Once boiled they turn into instant food.. you’d never go hungry..

Anyways 2 boiled potatoes and mash them.. mash them with all you got.. use a potato masher or your hands, but please dont use a food processor..

Now we are going to doll it up..

here I have 1 green chilly (not red) chopped- I used scissors remembering the burns I got while channeling my inner Joan of Arc and dismembering crazy jalapenos last time. My fingers burnt for almost 2 days. 1/4 tsp red chilli powder, 1 tsp ground coriander and 1 1/2 tsp salt.. the worst thing on this earth is to have bland aloo parantha.

Right.. now cautiously mix it up. Don’t let your fingers burn with the chillies because you might end up rubbing your eyes with it, like I did..I’m kidding.. no I’m not !!

This right here can be eaten as it is..It’s tasty I tell you.. it is..well this is the stuffing made.. now for the stuffing to be stuffed

Here is the elusive dough.. nice & soft. Scoop out and roll into a thickish ball.. we have to stuff it remember.. so roll it well.. admire it’s roundness and pray it ends up pretty..

I don’t know how to explain it all in writing.. but here it is. This is how we do it. Flattening the round ball (sigh…) putting a scoop of potato stuffing between it (please make it a lot smaller than the dough ball)

Envelope the dough around the potato mixture.. voila !! it’s disappeared make it like a pouch around it and flatten the tepee like top.

using extra wheat dough and dabbing it all too generously, flatten it gently, making sure the stuffing stays inside.. Now whip out your rolling pin and gently roll it out.

Rolling out the disc and ensuring tings don’t start peeking out from everywhere.. This ain’t a perfect round, in my defense my rolling pin is all wrong..

This is it.. In a pan heat some oil.. this isn’t low calorie, so make sure both the sides get coated. It takes nothing more than 3-4 minutes to cook on a very hot pan (sorry no pictures, I was trying to feed my hungry man and cooking in a kitchen which was almost furnace like in the heat and humidity… my camera was nowhere in sight..

It’ll turn a burnished brown and smell like fries..Eat it with pickles, cheese, or my favourite ketchup..

Enjoy !!!

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