A few days back Cat brought over some tomatoes that has been sitting in her fridge for some time, I suggested making tomato quiche or bruschetta. She opted for bruschetta as she couldn't get the picture of what is a tomato quiche, or maybe I should correct my terminology, as I told her to make tomato pie, big difference? Hmm...
Anyway, I brought the ingredients into storage the day after I got the tomatoes, and only started to make the bruschetta yesterday. A bad thing I did was to had 4 pieces of bread before I made the Italian snack, which resulted in my almost vomiting just by looking at bread. laughs*Anyway, the Italian snack turned out to be quite good, Cat and the other housemates seem to liked it, though the spicy and tangy garlic was overpowering our taste buds at times, but it was nevertheless very appetite arousing. laughs*
The methodology of this recipe is not hard, bruschettas are not meant to be hard to make. I gave the garlic part a twist, which I think was the part which demanded more work, otherwise, its pretty straight forward provided you are not making for 10 people or so, that would be effort taxing no matter how easy things are. The ingredients used are:
2 loafs of long french bread (the ones they sell in bakery shops, cut diagonally into 2.5cm thick slices), butter, 1 whole garlic (or more! Skinned and crushed), a pinch of basil and thyme, salt and pepper to taste and 2 tbsp of lemon squeeze, not forgetting about 8-10 tomatoes (coarsely chopped), try to use fresh ones, they are less watery, 3 bunches of fresh basil leafs, discard the stems (finely chopped, or to own preference) and lastly olive oil (preferably).
As mentioned, the method is pretty straight forward, it's hard to go wrong with this snack, using an electric blender, mix together garlic, lemon squeeze, 1 tbsp olive oil, basil and thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Meanwhile, bake the sliced breads on a tray for 5 minutes at 240 degrees Celcius, repeat with the bread turned sides. In a mixing bowl, mix together chopped tomatoes and basil leafs, add another 2 tbsp lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Finish with a good drizzle of olive oil and toss well.
On one side of the toasted bread, brush lightly with butter and then another coat of garlic mix, repeat with other pieces of bread. Toast again lightly in over for 2 minutes, remove from heat, top with tomato mix, done, drizzle with more olive oil if desired, enjoy!
The ingredients used are pretty simple, with the eggplant being the main character here. For a start, peel the skin of eggplant, cut into rectangular chunks, mix together with 2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp black pepper powder, 1 tbsp sweet paprika and 2 tbsp five spice powder before leaving aside to marinate. Prepare another two bowls, one with beaten egg wash of 1 egg, and another with the mixture of 5tbsp bread crumbs, 1 tbsp dried chives, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp plain flour, and 2 tbsp of curry and tumeric powder each.
Method:Dip one piece of eggplant in the egg wash before coating with the breadcrumb mixture, repeat with all eggplant cutlets. Lightly saute the breadcrumb -coated eggplants in a hot pan with some oil, do not overcook the eggplants, and beware not to overburn the breadcrumb coating. Leave aside on a kitchen towel after browning the eggplants for a few minutes. Next, bake the eggplants in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 40 minutes, changing sides every 10 minutes or so. Serve hot from the oven immediately for best taste. I think it is possible to grill the breadcrumb-coated eggplants as well, but I will have to try that next time before I can be sure, maybe someone else can try it out and tell me?
