Herbed and oven charred aubergine bruschetta with sautéed asparagus

Bruschetta is now on the menu of every small diner in town, but it’s the same old tomato and basil or mushroom and anchovies. I am a big fan of aubergine and love it on my pizzas and lasagnes, so why not on bread? This is a great antipasto dish for dinner parties where you want to spend less time in the kitchen and more time with the gossip girls. Leave them in the oven at a low temperature and serve them as and when you like. No last minute ‘deep frying’ or ‘tossing with the dressing’. It’s fresh, fast and simple (like Donna Hay would say it).

I do make a longer version of this recipe sometimes. And that just involves spreading a layer of tomato salsa on the focaccia before placing the aubergine on it. I usually make the tomato salsa a day in advance; it only develops more flavour overnight with the balsamic vinegar in it (see my recipe for tomato salsa). But keep it simple and try this one first. You can always add and subtract ingredients, depending on what you find at the local grocer’s. Use different combinations of herbs, but not all at once. Use nuts if you like.

This recipe started to take shape when I came to mum’s place and saw this huge bed of sweet Thai basil in the kitchen garden! I just wanted to make something with it, and I think this recipe clearly brings out its beautiful oriental flavour and aroma.

If you multitask (all women know how to do this), you can get this done in as less as 15-20min. Isn’t that real quick?

Prep time: 10min

Cooking time: 25min

Serves: 4 pieces

Ingredients

Focaccia bread, sliced to get rectangular pieces

50g mild cheddar, grated

1 large aubergine, sliced and immersed in ice cold water

For the sautéed asparagus

5-6 stalks asparagus, keep only the top tender half

2tsp olive oil

20g softened salted butter

A pinch of ground black pepper

Salt to taste

Herb-mix for the aubergine (grind coarsely and keep aside)

10 leaves sweet basil

1 sprig rosemary, leaves only

4-5 pitted black olives

½ tsp lime zest

3-4 cloves garlic, peeled

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

A pinch of ground black pepper

Salt to taste

50g sour cream (home-made or bought); to serve

Method

Preheat oven to 150°C.

Marinate the sliced aubergine in the herb-mix for 5-10min. In the meantime, heat olive oil on a skillet and mildly sauté the asparagus stalks with some salt and pepper. Make sure they are nice and crunchy. Keep aside.

On the same skillet, heat some olive oil and cook the marinated aubergine slices. Cook them on both sides, till they are brown and soft (should take about 5-6min). Do not overcook.

Slightly butter the top and sides of the focaccia, place 2 aubergine slices on each piece, top it up with some grated cheddar and bake in a preheated oven for 5-10min. Remove and serve hot with the sautéed asparagus and some sour cream.

Note: To make sour cream at home, use a 60:40 proportion of single cream to milk. Heat the milk till it is warm; add it to the cream kept at room temperature. The final mixture should still be lukewarm (so heat your milk accordingly). Add a tbsp of sour yoghurt to this mixture, stir gently with a spoon, cover and allow to set for 4-6 hours (in summers; 7-9hrs in winters). This process is the same as setting normal yoghurt, which we do everyday at home. To get a thicker sour cream- use whole fat milk, whole fat cream, or just tie up the ready sour cream in a muslin cloth and leave to drain in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Rigatoni with crude almond-chilly sauce served with a rocket and rosewater salad

When I want to make a pasta dish, nothing can stop me. Regrettably, I don't have a pasta maker at home, so I have to do with commercially available pasta. Somewhere along the way I will get one of those nice pasta makers, with the fettuccine and ravioli cutter. But for now, I must be content with what I can get.

This sauce is my trademark recipe. And everyone who has ever tasted it has asked me for the recipe. It is a tomato and cream based sauce; but the real heroes are the almonds (or walnuts, whatever suits you). I make many versions of this sauce, but the most quick and crude one, as this, involves no blending and no fine chopping. Everything is just cut up coarsely and simply simmered in a saucepan and poured over cooked pasta. I used rigatoni, but use whatever you have handy- spaghetti, fettuccine, fusilli- basically any pasta. If you are serving this for a dinner party, you could blend the sauce to make it smooth and even. But, for me the crude version fits best; I like the textural effect on my palate.

I used some white wine in the pasta, to de-glaze the saucepan before adding the tomatoes. Again, superb flavour quotient. Make sure that you use a nice rich white wine. Always cook with a wine that you would think suitable to drink. Nothing lesser.

The salad absolutely compliments the pasta. It is not always necessary to serve some sort of bread with the pasta. Try salads instead. That gives you a mixture of hot and soft (pasta) against cold and crunchy (salad); and every good chef will tell you that balanced colours, textures and flavours make a good dish. Also here, the sweetness of the almond sauce is well balanced by the sharpness and slight bitterness of the rocket leaves in the salad. The flavours marry well together, and you have to try it to know what I'm talking about. 

The dressing for the salad is quite the usual; just a few minor tweaks- I used some rosewater, some maple syrup instead of honey, and some white wine vinegar (keeping in mind the white wine in the pasta) instead of the usual vinegar or juice of lime. I served the salad with a dollop of thickened sour cream, which unfortunately, I forgot to add before clicking the pictures. Some of you may find the rocket leaves a bit too tart, and hence the sour cream.

Too much said already. Here goes.
Prep time: 20-30min
Cooking time: 20min
Serves: 2-3 people

Ingredients

Rocket Salad

1 bunch rocket leaves, washed, dried and end of stalks removed

6-10 cherry tomatoes, halved

5-6 black olives, pitted and sliced

1 medium onion, sliced, rings separated and placed in ice water till serving time (this keeps them crunchy)

1 small cucumber, cubed with peel

5-6 almonds, roasted and sliced

3-4 stalks asparagus, pan fried with butter, salt, and pepper; chopped medium

100g thickened sour cream for serving

Dressing for salad

2tsp olive oil

1 tsp rosewater

2 tsp maple syrup

2 tsp white wine vinegar

Zest of half a lime

2-3 cloves of garlic, shredded

Pinch of ground black pepper

Salt to taste

Rigatoni 
150g rigatoni pasta or any other pasta, boiled with salt, drained and tossed with 1tsp olive oil
2tsp olive oil
1 pod roasted garlic, peeled
2-3 dry red chilies
5-6 almonds, room temperature
4-5 leaves of sweet Thai basil,  keep 1 sprig aside for garnish
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
Splosh of white wine
5 medium tomatoes, chopped roughly
1 red bell pepper, chopped medium
50g mild cheddar, grated
50ml full fat milk
A dash of full cream
A pinch of ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Method

Rocket Salad

In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the salad. Keep refrigerated until serving time. Pour the dressing over the salad just before serving (to prevent veggies from sweating) and toss gently. Serve cold with a dollop of sour cream.

Rigatoni
Coarsely blend the roasted garlic, dry red chilies and almonds. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Add the almond-chilly mixture. Stir for 2min until the mixture is slightly golden. Now add the aromatics, the thyme and basil leaves. Use your discretion while adding these, more if you want intense flavours, less if you like it mild. But with fresh herbs, always remember that less is more. Now add a generous splosh of white wine. Allow the spices to simmer for 2 minutes, stirring gently.

Add the chopped tomatoes, pinch of salt and pepper. Simmer for 10-12 minutes or until the tomatoes are completely cooked. At this point, you could take the sauce off the flame, allow to cool and blend to get a smooth mixture. If you prefer to go my way, then just continue to keep the crude sauce on the flame and go on with the rest of the recipe.

Once the tomatoes are done, add full fat milk and cream. Simmer for 2 minutes. Please make sure not to add the cream when the tomatoes are half done, this will just split the cream. Add the red bell pepper, stir for 2-5 minutes. Add the cheddar, and take the sauce off the flame. Pour the sauce steaming hot on a bed of rigatoni, serve with a cold salad.

Vada Pav with garlic and peanut chutney powder, mint and raw mango chutney, and stuffed green chillies

This is something I have grown up eating and loving. Having a whole bunch of cousins in Pune, I couldn't help myself from getting addicted to this wholesome street food winner. And yet, what I make at home seems like such a gourmet version of what you might find on the streets for only rupees 10. It is as close to the original as possible, as this recipe is a family pass on. So I can vouch for its authenticity.

When you are obliged to live in a city up north (like me), far far away from the vada pavs, bhel puris, and kacchi dabelis of Mumbai and Pune; this is the closest you can feel to your palate roots. Being from North Karnataka; having a host of family in Pune; and my obvious love for baking and continental food; render my cuisine at home so varied that you might find it odd that on the one hand I post recipes of cheesecakes and tarts, and on the other there is the very maharashtrian vada pav or the very 'namma bengaluru' kesari bhath. My recipes are mostly adopted from mum or grandmum, and I want to make sure that they don't get lost somewhere along the way.

I hope to post many more wonders of our simple Indian cooking in the months to follow. There's always room for suggestions and requests. If I know how to make it, I'll post it. For now, enjoy making and relishing the one and only 'vada pav'.

Prep time: 1 hour 30 min

Cooking time: 30 min

Serves: 4-5 people (10-12 pieces)

Ingredients

For the vada pav

10-12 Pav (bread), halved

50g softened butter

250ml vegetable oil for deep frying

Filling for vadas

½ kg potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed

½ tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt to taste

Masala mix:

6 green chillies

1 bunch fresh coriander

1 bunch Curry leaves

1½ inch piece ginger

1 whole pod of garlic (small), peeled

Batter for vadas

2 cups gram flour (besan)

1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder

Pinch of asafoetida (hing)

½ tsp whole caraway seeds (ajwain)

½ tsp whole cumin seeds (jeera)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt to taste

Water as required

 Mint and raw mango chutney

1 raw mango, peeled and flesh grated

½ bunch mint leaves

½ bunch fresh coriander

4-5 green chillies

¼ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 tbsp thick yoghurt

¼ tsp sugar or some jaggery (add only if the mango is very sour)

Salt to taste

Garlic and peanut chutney powder

½ cup roasted peanuts

½ cup roasted gram lentil (roasted chana)

2 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder

1 whole pod garlic, peeled

½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

2 inch piece of deseeded tamarind

3 tbsp desiccated coconut, grated

Salt to taste

Stuffed green chillies

4-6 green chillies, slit and deseeded

Rock salt (kala namak)

Cumin powder (jeera)

Asafoetida powder (hing)

Dry mango powder (aamchur)

Method

 Vada Pav

Grind all the ingredients of the masala coarsely.

Add oil to a large saucepan. Add the ground masala. Fry for a minute. Add turmeric powder. Add the mashed potatoes. Add salt, and stir well on a low flame. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the juice of a lime. Stir and keep aside, allowing to cool completely. Once cooled, divide the mixture into10-12 equal portions, and shape them into small patties.

For the batter, mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, adding water slowly to make a thick smooth batter without any lumps. Keep aside.

Dip the potato patties in the batter and deep fry on a medium flame until golden yellow.

Toast the pav with a generous helping of butter on a non-stick pan, till they are nice and golden brown.

Mint and raw mango chutney

Grind all the ingredients in a blender to get a smooth paste. Add water if necessary.

Garlic and peanut chutney powder

Grind all the ingredients in a blender to get a grainy and coarse powder.

Stuffed green chillies

Stuff the green chillies with all the ingredients mentioned above and deep fry in a small saucepan.

Assembling

Place a vada between the two halves of the pav, season with the two chutneys and serve with the stuffed green chilly! 

Roasted garlic pod: the 'godfather' ingredient

This isn't really a recipe but a game-changing ingredient that I use in many of my recipes. It's versatile as an ingredient and packed with bags of flavour. Roasting a garlic pod may take a bit of extra time and effort but the roasted, sweet and charcoal like flavour renders a wonderful taste and texture to the garlic, making it so yum and so more-ish. If you love to use garlic in your food, and don't mind a kitchen that smells of it, then you must give this a try.

It works wonders with most pastas, quiches, savoury tarts, salads and soups. I make a whole bunch at a time and store it refrigerated and ready to use for when I need it. However, it's best when its fresh out of the oven.

What you need:
1 garlic pod whole, keep the peel on
1 tbsp olive oil (pomace or extra virgin)
2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tsp rock salt

Next:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Just smash the garlic pod with the back of your knife and place on a baking tray. Smear the olive oil and salt on the garlic and sprinkle some fresh thyme over the top.

Roast at 180°C for 15-20 min or until golden brown and soft on the inside.

Allow to cool on a wire rack for 5-10 min. Gently squeeze the roasted garlic out of the peel (enjoy the feeling). It should have a pureé like consistency. Store or use instantly.