Avocado Open Sandwich/Toast

Avocado has become an essential ingredient of my diet now (2-3 per week) and I feel very good eating it considering its mono-saturated fat content.  My love affair with avocados first started with Guacamole. When we moved to California, it become part of my weekday salads. Soon, I was eating it for weekend brunches with omelets. Then I found this great recipe about avocado toasts which I started enjoying for weekday breakfast.  You can call it avocado open sandwich or avocado bruschetta.  Here is my version of this recipe.

Ingredients:
2 slices of  multi-grain or whole wheat or sourdough bread
1 medium size ripe avocado (chunky pieces)
3 teaspoon extravirgin olive oil (or more based on taste)
1 clove of garlic
 salt to taste (~1/4 -1/2 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon sumac (for sourness)
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes

- Toast two slices of bread in a toaster
-  Rub the garlic clove on each slice and apply about 1/2 teaspoon oil on each slice
-  Place chunky pieces of half of the avocado on each bread slice
- In a small bowl, mix 2 teaspoon oil, salt, and chilli flakes (or you can directly sprinkle them on the avocado as well)
-Drizzle the mixture over the bread slices
- Sprinkle sumac over the slices

Enjoy this super yummy toast. Sometime when I am in hurry, I use garlic flavored olive or avocado oil and avoid garlic clove.

Cauliflower Soup

Sorry for disappearing for a while. Things are kind of busy at my front and I really missed not adding anything on the blog. Today's post is about "soups". Somehow I have never been a soup person. Really strange, I know. The first soup that I really liked was creamy carrot soup, which I learnt from a Chef in Philly, perhaps because it was full of cream and butter.

Surprise breakfast: Dukkah, honey glazed onion polenta and chocolate cake

Somehow weekends have been pretty hectic for the last couple of months and I didn't get much time to have a relaxing breakfast. Either we had to rush somewhere or high carb breakfast choice was on the plate!! To surprise Sid (or perhaps treat myself!), I woke up much earlier than my usual Sunday mornings to have the following on the table:

(1) Griddled polenta with caramalized onions, honey and goat cheese [winner of Food 52 contest for category " Polenta"]
(2) Dukkah (Egyptian mix of nuts and spices) with boiled eggs! Recently I learnt about it at the amazing blog Chocolate and Zucchini. I replaced chestnuts with walnuts in the recipe. Later on we also enjoyed dukkah in a more traditional way with olive oil and bread)
(3) Simple chocolate cake! [winner of Food 52 contest for the category "Best Chocolate Cake"]. I used instant coffee in this recipe.

All are easy to make and taste really good. Highly recommended!!!

Venetian Polenta with Swiss Chard

Somehow I have never been tempted with restaurants right across the street from our apartment in the past.  I don't have a solid reason but some hypothesis which I would rather not explain here:) Somehow, one fine Sunday night, with no desire to cook at home and company of my lazy legs, we found our way to have dinner at Spiritland Bistro which is right across the street from our apartment. It is a cute little, fine-dine restaurant with European style ambiance.  Their menu has large number of vegetarian options from many cuisines around the world (something that I have always dreamt of).  Food was delicious so much so that we ended up eating here again in less than a week with some friends!  Both the times, we tried their tasty appetizer - Venetian Polenta Cake.  Here is a reasonable attempt to replicate this dish in our own kitchen!

Whole tomato bruschetta

We went to Hawaii earlier this month.  I was wondering how different would it be considering we live in Santa Barbara which is on the coast.  It is so beautiful!  For me the temperature of water and snorkeling almost everyday were enough reasons to go to Hawaii. I have never spent so much time splashing in ocean water; it was a great feeling.

Red and geen salad - Christmas special from Sid

This winter salad is about bold tastes and vibrant colors. Roasted beets and pomegranate seeds are red and make the bulk of the salad. The green comes from the strong herbs: lime basil, mint, cilantro, arugula and green onions. Soft mild crumbled feta provides texture, contrast and balances sweetness of pomegranate; could be replaced with goat cheese. Roasted pecan and walnuts provide the crunch. Anjana suggested a sour lime and orange dressing, which was almost perfect.

Sooji Dhokla (Semolina /Yogurt Steamed Cake)

If I have to pick one "goto" dish which is tasty, repeatable and presentable, it would be the Sooji dhokla by Isha of Intrepidcook. It is easy to make "hard" dhokla - believe me I have done that so many times until this superb recipe came along to make the softest dhokla ever.

Babagnoush (Eggplant Dip)

Babagnoush is cousin brother of Hummus that uses chicpeas instead of Eggplant (baigan). Interestingly, there is a third cousin called mamagnoush which uses Zucchini instead of eggplant.

Khandvi - Chickpea flour cigar's

Khandvi (Chickpea flour cigar's  - as referred by Raghavan Iyer) - is a very popular Gujarati dish which is quite easy to make (well ..almost other than spreading the batter). These delicious cigar's can be  a show stopper for your finger food  party.   Like all the other dishes,  there are slight variations in the quantities and the sequence in which ingredients are added for Khandvi recipe.   Here is my take on the recipe :)

Handvo/Handwa - Gujarati Appetizer

Gujarati food, in particular the appetizers Khaman, Dhokla, Khandvi and Handvo are quite unique both in terms of cooking method as well as taste. After getting a really good recipe for Sooji Dhokla from my friend-Isha (which I have made zillion times with exceptional results each time), I was eager to try Khandvi and Handvo. Khandvi is perhaps the quickest (Stay tuned for a post on Khandvi!) while Handvo is the most time consuming.

Goat cheese ravioli - Sid's entry

It is clear to some of you how spoiled I am getting. Also, since "the chef" has been training for half-marathon, I decided to cook something nice to cheer her up on her long-run days!

Vols-au-Vent

When I am looking for something new to bake, I enthusiastically search on the Daring baker's site for the challenges that were rolled out before I joined this group. Usually these recipes are very reliable and most of the times fun to work on. The Vols-au-Vent challenge was rolled by Steph of a wish and a spoon in September 2009 which looked particularly interesting as they can be twisted towards savory or sweet mood/need.