Pizza

The Base:

You need:

• 1 cup brown bread flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 1/2 tsp black onion seeds
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 cup plain curd
• 1/4 cup grated cheese

Mix all the dry ingredients properly. Add the oil, and then the curds and lastly the cheese. Make a soft dough which you must cover for 10 – 15 minutes.

Topping:

You need:

• Tomato sauce
• Your choice of vegetables (left-over roasted chicken works very nicely)
• Top with cheddar cheese
• Sprinkle with rosemary leaves
• Bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes

Capsicum Cutlets

The name of this dish is quite deceiving, I didn’t know what to call this experiment. My youngest, who loves these, came to my rescue and suggested “Capsicum Cutlets”, as it sounds catchy, although these aren’t cutlets. They are, however, great snacks, especially with tea.

Ingredients:

• · 2 big capsicums (red or yellow are preferable and look better too!), washed and dried with their seeds removed and halved.
• · 1 small tomato, washed and chopped.
• · 1-2 small cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
• · 1 egg
• · 1 Tbsp basil leaves, fresh and chopped
• · 1 cup of corn
• · 1 Tbsp breadcrumbs
• · ¾ cups of cheddar cheese
• · 1 tsp oil
• · 1 green chillie
• · 1 zest of lemon
• · Salt and pepper to taste

The capsicums before they were baked

The capsicums, hollowed out

Method:

• · Steam the capsicum for about 5 minutes in a microwave steamer at full power (you know your microwave best)
• · Remove the capsicums from the steamer and keep them aside.
• · Oil a baking tray and coat the capsicums with oil as well.
• · In a bowl, mix all the other ingredients, but using only half of the cheddar cheese (3/8 cups)
• · Fill the capsicums with this mixture.
• · Top the filled capsicums with the remaining cheese.
• · Grill the capsicums for 5 – 7 minutes.
• · Good luck and god bless.

Chicken Chorchori

Chorchori is another traditional Bengali dish, which can either be vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Chorchori is characterised by the fact that it is dry and spicy hot. Non-vegetarian chorchori usually uses fish, shrimp or fish head. However, mine is special as it is chicken.

আপ রুচি খানা - “Aap ruchi khana”

Eat according to your tastes

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken, washed and cut into small pieces and dried
• 1 big onion finely chopped
• 2-3 green chillies
• 2 tsp 5phoron (kalo jeera, methi, mouri and radhuni all mixed)
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 Tbsp ginger garlic paste
• ½ tsp tumeric powder
• Salt to taste
• ½ cup bread crumbs
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp poppy and mustard seed paste which can be prepared by mixing these in a food processor: 1 Tbsp mustard seed, 1 Tbsp poppy seed and +- 2 Tbsp (30ml) water

Method:

• Use a heavy-bottom frying pan with a lid
• Put the oil in the pan and allow it to heat up
• When the oil is hot, add 5phoron, black pepper and the green chillies
• Stir for 1 minute
• Add the onion and fry for another 5 minutes at medium heat
• When the onions are lightly brown, add the chicken pieces
• Thoroughly stir for about 5 minutes
• Add ginger-garlic and poppy seed and mustard pastes
• Stir thoroughly so that the masala covers the chicken evenly
• Put the lid on the pan and turn the temperature down
• After 5 minutes, add salt and tumeric powder. Stir and cover.
• After about 10 minutes, add the breadcrumbs.
• Leave the temperature low and keep checking until done and be careful that the chicken doesn’t burn (like I did).
  
• Enjoy!

This was one of my original creations and my critical husband even agreed that it was delicious.