No Cheese Whole Wheat Tandoori Chicken Pizza & announcing a chota-sa break

Its been a long time since I have been around in the food blogging world.. guess its one week... yes that seems long to me. My system crashed and the mother-board doomed. I am not sure when everything will be back to normal and hence have decided to take a break till I am back to Chennai... Will miss all your posts and will not be able to hop in as usual... So take care till I am back... I will be trying loads of new recipes in the meantime and hence will have a cartload to blog about when I am back. :)
As promised I am publishing my pizza post now.

Healthy whole wheat pan pizza crust topped with tandoored chicken pieces and an olive-oil mayo sauce. Guilt free indulgence

I have a thing with yeast... I am terrified to use it. The first time, I tried activating yeast, it didn't even rise and that was the last time. But I have always been drawn to all the yeast-ed recipes out here. My mom uses yeast in making aappams and since she is around me now, I mustered my confidence and started working with yeast... to be frank it was amma who did it and me just popping my head in at times to check if the yeast had risen. So finally I activated it... it doubled and tripled in volume by and by...

OMGosh. I was too excited. Only after I activated the yeast did I think about "What to make with it"... I have been longing for pizzas for quite sometime since I have been put on a no-outside-food diet these days. What best than making it at home. Went for a healthier version with the wheat crust and no cheese but I will be trying the cheesy versions very soon. The result was a healthy yet deliciously creamy pizza which everyone loved. Now off to the recipe. Again see ya guys... Will be back in a month with lots more to offer...

~*What U Need*~ For the Whole wheat crust Whole wheat flour - 1 cup Active dry yeast - 1 tsp Sugar - 1 tsp Luke warm water - 1/2 cup Olive oil - 1 tsp Salt- 1/4 tsp For Pizza topping Tomato chunks - 1/4 cup Onion rings - 1/4 cup Shredded Tandoori chicken pieces - 1/2 cup Garlic mayo - 2 tbsp Pizza Sauce - 3 tbsp For garlic mayonnaise cream sauce Mayonnaise - 1/4 cup Garlic cloves - 2 Heavy Cream - 2 tbsp Olive oil - 1 tsp

How I Made:
The pizza crust
Dissolve sugar in warm water and add yeast to it. Set aside until frothy. Meanwhile combine whole wheat flour and salt. Make a well in the middle and pour the yeast mixture and olive oil. Knead the mixture well until it is no more sticky. You can add few spoons of atta if needed. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and leave it aside until it doubles in volume. Transfer this dough into a greased baking tray and evenly press this dough to form a thin or thick crust.

Garlic mayonnaise cream sauce
Mix together all the ingredients and whisk well till fully incorporated. I mixed 2tbsps of mayo with 1 crushed garlic clove and spread it on the base before topping with pizza sauce. The remaining mayo I mixed with the other ingredients and used it to top the pizza instead of cheese.

Spread the garlic mayo followed by pizza sauce, arrange veggies and tandoori chicken over the prepared crust leaving 1/2 " on all the sides. Bake the pizza for 25-30 mins at 220 deg C or until crust turns golden brown in color.

Slice and serve with garlic mayo cream sauce... indulge guilt-free...

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Fresh Tomato Basil Pizza Sauce

Pizza sauces are easy to make and so are pizzas. Truth unveiled yesterday. Yes, you heard made right. I made a pizza yesterday and that too from scratch. No store bought pizza base or pizza sauce. Made everything from scratch... High five to me.
I first thought of dedicating only one post for the whole episode but then the post went on and on.. so have put up the making of pizza sauce in this post and the pizza post is coming up.

Fresh tomatoes sauteed with basil leaves and reduced to a flavorful sauce

I didn't have mixed herbs in hand and hence threw in few basil leaves to get that beautiful flavor. The sauce was just perfect to be topped on a pizza and that is what I did!!! This makes 3 tbsps of pizza sauce. You increase the quantity as needed.

~*What U Need*~
Tomato(large) - 1
Garlic (crushed) - 2 cloves
Chopped Basil leaves - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/4 tsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Olive oil

How I Made it:
Make 2-3 slashes in the skin of the tomato. Bring water to a rolling boil. Place the tomato in water for 30 sec. Remove the tomato and peel off the skin. Chop the tomatoes finely and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan and add the finely chopped garlic and saute. Now add the chopped tomatoes and mix well. When half done, add the basil leaves, vinegar, sugar, pepper powder and salt. Cover and cook until the tomato is completely cooked and mashed up.
Allow to cool.

Fresh and flavorful homemade pizza sauce ready!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Mac 'n' Tom | Macaroni in Tangy Tomato Desi sauce | Pasta recipes

I have always loved noodles, American chop suey / any kind of pastas. When Maggi released their 2 minute Pazzta I immediately caught hold of the pack and tried it out. Ever since I have become a great fan of Pazzta... Though hubby does not like Pasta / noodles, I always find a reason to make home made noodles occasionally. It may be 'I will be late from office or I am tired, Can we have a simple veggie noodles to end the day' reason (Between U and me, he loves the PAZZTA a lot, and dumps a packet or two with the lame excuse of it being my favorite).

Mr.A likes anything to be spicy and he is against anything tangy except his mom's signature recipe - Thakkali Thokku. This recipe is a twisted version of Sharmi's Tomato Pasta. The twist being I added garam masala to make it Desi style. We loved the tangy spicy sauce and I was awed to see Mr.A cleaning his plate in mins.

~*What U Need*~
Macaroni - 1.5 cups
Onion - 1/2 of Large
Tomato Sauce - 1 tbsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Grated Cheese - 1 tbsp
Salt - as needed
Olive oil - 1 tbsp

To grind
Tomato(Large) - 1
Onion - remaining half
Dried Red Chillies - 2
Garlic cloves - 4

How I Made it:
Chop the onions very finely. Grind the ingredients mentioned under 'to grind' into a smooth paste without adding water.
Bring enough water so that the macaroni sinks in and there is excess water. Add salt and 1 tsp of oil when boiling.
Once the water has come to a boil, add the macaroni. Stir gently (occasionally) to prevent the macaroni from sticking to the pan.
Cook for 10mins or until the macaroni is soft yet firm enough to bite. Do not overcook it. It should not become mushy.
Strain water and slide it into cold water. This will prevent the macaroni from cooking further. Keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan, add the onions and fry till slightly browned.
Then add in the ground paste and fry till the raw smell of tomatoes and garlic goes off.
Now add the tomato sauce, garam masala, pepper and salt and combine well.
Add the cooked macaroni and mix gently till the sauce coats the macaroni evenly.
Sprinkle grated cheese and serve hot.

We washed this yummy mac down with a simple Mango lassi.

With Love,

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Homemade Breadcrumbs

I always make my own breadcrumbs at home. It can be made in a jiffy and it is a great way to use leftover stale bread slices. I was not planning to do a post on breadcrumbs until I came across a couple during one of my visits to Nilgris supermarket. They were loading their basket with all sorts of frozen foods and ready to eat food packets. Sounds normal to everyone!!! but I am one who is always against these. Why incorporate all sorts of chemicals into your body when you can make them at home cheap and fresh. But I was amazed when the woman took a packet of breadcrumbs from the shelves and dropped it into her basket. Actually I wanted to walk up to her and tell her the recipe to make this @ home but I knew that it would make an embarrassing moment.
So now you would know the reason behind this simple post. I wanted to let people who read my blog to know how simple and easy this is to make.

~*What U Need*~
Left over wheat / white Bread - 4 to 5 slices

How I Made it:
Preheat oven to 180 deg C for 10mins, place the bread slices in the tray and toast for 5-7 mins until the bread slices turn golden brown / microwave in high for 3 mins or till crisp / toast in a pan till brown on both sides. Break the toasted bread slices roughly into pieces and pulse it in mixie as fine as possible. Store in airtight container and refrigerate it.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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