Cultivated, Colorful and Casual: Caprese Salad

What is summer without a Salad made with sun ripened tomatoes? While at a gourmet food store I picked up a "Made in India", Bocconcini. This fresh Buffalo Mozzarella cheese is made in Haryana and let me tell you it was impressive!

The beauty of this dish is from the creamy cheese, flavor of the tomato and basil and a drizzle of balsamic reduction....oh its Caprese heaven for sure.

Caprese Salad

Ingredients

2-4 large ripe tomatoes

100 gms Bocconcini

10-12 fresh basil leaves

4 tbsp balsamic reduction (cook 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar down till it becomes syrupy)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Slice tomatoes into thick slices place a basil leaf on the tomato, top with sliced boconcini and drizzle with mixture of balsamic reduction and olive oil. Serve at room temperature. Sprinkle salt and pepper just before serving.

Stuffed with Goodness – Vegetarian Calzone

I love everything Italian and of course their food is near the top of that list almost at par with their gorgeous men! Ahhh….amore……..

Pizza, the first thing one thinks of in Italian cuisine has been made world famous thanks to the Italian immigrants that brought it when they came over to the new world. A Calzone is the cousin to the pizza - basically one can describe it as a pizza turnover. The same goodness as in a pizza, just a bit more moist, and a crispier exterior making eating it even more delectable! A crunchy shell with the warm gooey cheesy interior makes this dish a winner all the way! 

 

You will find a million websites with an equal number of pizza dough recipes that do not really help; as most of them have copy/pasted someone else’s recipe and so most don’t work! After many years of trying the endless quest to find the best dough in my opinion, I found using bread flour makes the best dough (who would have thought)! My recipe calls for ¾ - 1tsp of yeast for every cup of flour. The reason why the amount of yeast is not exact is because if you make this recipe in winter, then you need more yeast and if you live in a warm place like Singapore (1° north of the equator) you need less. I use Prima bread flour, it’s not exactly King Arthur brand of flours, but a pretty good substitute.

Like any homemade pizza maker will tell you, cheese blends are a personal choice. While I was in the US I loved quarto formaggio from Traders Joes, now I use mozzarella, cheddar and add some parmesan for some extra sharpness. The stuffing is also variable, sometimes I like to add ricotta cheese and sometimes I just roast a whole bunch of vegetables on the stove top and add tomato sauce, and cheese. Since we are close to the weekend and I’m running out of vegetables options, I have decided to use eggplant, onion and bell peppers to make todays stuffing.

 

Eggplant Calzone 

makes 5-6 very healthy sized portions

Ingredients

5 cups bread flour

2 ½ cups water (keep an additional ½ cup, in case dough is ydry)

3 ½ - 5 tsp dry active yeast (about 1 ½ packets of yeast)

2 tsp fresh herb of your choice or 1 tsp dried Italian herbs

2 tsp sugar

1 + 1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper powder

¼ cup + 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 cup prepared tomato sauce

2 cups chopped vegetables

3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and grated

2-3 cups grated cheese

2 tbsp hot sauce

Method

Proof the yeast by allowing it to rise in ½ cup warm water and sugar, it will foam up when ready. Mix flour, salt, herbs and oil and make a sticky dough. Keep aside in a warm place and let it double, punch down and allow to rise again.

 

Heat oven to the hottest setting, mine is a convection oven and the max is 220 (450). Cube eggplant, salt it lightly and allow it to drain in a colander. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan, add garlic, onion and  cubed eggplant and allow to cook for about 3-5 mins on a low flame. Remove and set aside to cool. Add prepared red sauce, hot sauce, salt, pepper and mix.

In the meanwhile, after the second rise, divide dough to make into 5-6 equal sized balls. Roll balls into 8-10 inch disks. Spoon in 2-4 tbsp of stuffing mix, add 2-4 tbsp shredded cheese onto one half of the rolled base, fold to create a semicircle. Using the fork tines, press down on the edges of the calzone to seal. Make sure the edges are well sealed otherwise the cheese will leak out. On the top of the calzone make a ½ inch slit with a knife to prevent the calzone from ballooning in the oven.

 

Cook for 12-15 mins until the outer shell is golden brown. Remove and allow the calzone to cool for about 10-15 mins before serving, so the insides have a chance to cool down.

Popeye was right……….Spinach is good for you

Popeye the comic strip character - got instant boost of power/energy from eating cans and cans of spinach when he needed to duke it out with Brutus or other sailormen, or just to deal with grandma or his “girlfriend” Olive oyl.

The truth is that spinach has loads of iron thus making it an energized food {more hemoglobin content in your blood means more oxygen delivered to your vital organs}. So in other words I need to help myself to some serious amounts of greens to help me better cope with my life….………read on!

Just in case any of you are interested, {I know writing this blog is like I am starring in my own movie that NO one is watching} I’d like to blame two things for my lack of blogging {though there are more than enough excuses to pass the blame onto - I’ll stick to just a few to make this post short}.


1. Lack of sufficient/efficient household help, yup its true. As the beloved said, R you’ve had it good for a while now so don’t complain………….alas the cook and full time help are long gone and poor ole me has to do most of the domestic chores! Unfortunately cooking food, photographing the dish and then blogging about it does not make it on my “top 50” list of things to do for the day.

2. My new found love for Dish network {satellite TV} – the package we{I} bought {includes everything but the kitchen sink} and they feature channels in “popular” regional Indian languages like Marathi, Gujarati and Odiya {formerly Oriya} and all these channels have daily soaps, news, and yes EVEN musical reality shows – a MUST watch for me! So as you can see there is very little time left in the day to do the other 48 or so things on my daily chores list!

So enough of the lame excuses and back to Spinach - which can be boring……..but this version of Palak Paneer: Cottage cheese cubes in spiced spinach puree, courtesy my sis R is always a hit. Just a bit of FYI, the afore mentioned sis does not like to cook and rarely does, so acquiring this/a recipe from her makes it even more interesting!

Palak Paneer
Ingredients
2 bags or bunches of spinach leaves, washed and chopped
8-10 oz of paneer, queso fresco, panela, or halloumi, cubed and {shallow fried - optional}
1 medium onion or a handful of shallots finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic
½ inch knob of ginger, peeled
1 large ripe tomato, chopped
2 green chillies
1 cup milk or 2-4 tbsp cream
1 tbsp ghee/butter or oil
Salt to taste

Spice Blend: Lightly roast and powder

2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 inch piece of cinnamon
4-6 cloves
1 tsp black pepper
2-4 pods cardamom

Method
Cook leaves with 2-4 tbsp of water and allow it to cool. Liquidize the cooked spinach, fresh garlic, ginger, chopped tomato, and green chillies. Heat ghee/butter/oil in a large pan and add the chopped onions and allow it to brown. Add the spinach puree, salt and cook on low heat for 10 mins. Add the paneer/cheese cubes, milk/cream, and the spice blend. Allow it to cook for another 5 mins. Serve warm with chappati/bread or cooked rice.

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This recipe has been submitted for the event, Veggie/Fruit a month created by Priya M of Mharo Rajathan and hosted by Reshmi of Rasoi.