Kitchen Experiments: Chorizo-Smoked Cheese Omelette

After years of year-ning (aah, pun!) for chorizo, I finally got my hands on one. Rather, two - a packet of a pair of plump, pink, paprika-laden chorizo. After seeing the luscious Nigella Lawson using chorizo as a short-cut ingredient to add oomph and chutzpah to several dishes, I was crazy keen to get started with the ones I had.



Chorizo is essentially a dried/smoked/cured spicy sausage of Spanish and Portuguese origin, that can be used in a double role as both a type of meat and a flavouring agent. With colonialism, the chorizo travelled with the Spaniards and the Portuguese and now there exist regional variants of the chorizo like
Mexican, Goan, South American, Filipino etc. Chorizo slices when heated in pan, give off a vivid red paprika-flavoured oil that can be used to cook the rest of the dish.



Continuing with the trend of giving old-fashioned breakfast dishes a sizzling makeover, I whipped up chorizo-and-smoked-cheese omelettes for breakfast last Sunday. In one word, they were - yum!

Ingredients :
Chorizo - 1 sausage
Smoked cheese - 1 thick slice (I used smoked Gouda, but you can use whichever cheese you like - it need not be a smoked one)
2 eggs
Chilli flakes
Salt, to taste
A splash of milk
Oil

Method:
Slice the chorizo into medium-thin slices, and cut the cheese in small cubes.
 
Heat a pan (don't add oil!) and layer the slices in it.



While the chorizo heats through, whisk the eggs with milk, chilli flakes and salt.


Once the chorizo slices start giving off oil with a gentle crackling sound,  turn them over and let them heat through on the other side as well.
In a minute, the sausage slices will start hissing and spitting in the pan. At this stage add the egg mixture. Lower the heat and let the omelette cook for 30 seconds.

Sprinkle half the cheese cubes evenly over the top, and let the omelette cook further till the sides start looking dry.




Add a drizzle of oil around the sides and let it further cook for 30 seconds or so.

Free the omelette from the pan by inserting the spatula around the sides. The omelette should easily move in the pan without sticking to the bottom or sides. If it sticks, let it cook a bit more.

Once the omelette has cooked through on one side, gently flip it over on the other and after 5 seconds take the pan of the gas - the omelette can cook in the pan's residual heat.



Do NOT cook it for long (max 15 seconds) else the cheese will stick to the pan and burn. You want the cheese to be just-molten. Flip the omelette back on the original side.
 

Serve hot with buttered toast and coffee, and sit back and enjoy a sumptuous Sunday breakfast!

Kitchen Experiments: Pesto French Toast

French Toast is one of those super-flexible recipes, a culinary chameleon, if you may - it can take on the colour and flavour of whichever cuisine you may choose to dunk it in. So here's presenting an Italian twist on the good ole breakfast table classic : Pesto French Toast

Ingredients:
Eggs (1 per person)
Stale bread (2 regular slices / 1 hefty slice) per person - I used an artisan bread from a fancy bakery, but you can use any bread you can get - though try and avoid the standard-issue mass-produced white maida bread. Its texture doesn't allow it to ABSORB the egg mixture, which is the whole point of French Toast
1 tablespoon pesto
1 tablespoon milk
Grated Parmesan cheese / garlic -herb seasoning (optional)
Salt to taste
Butter/oil

Method:
Lightly whisk the eggs with milk, pesto, cheese/garlic-herb seasoning in a shallow bowl. Add salt, if required.

Cut each slice of bread into two pieces if the slice is huge. Stand the bread in the egg mixture for about 1-2 minutes and then flip the slices over so that the other side soaks the egg mixture as well.

 Heat the butter/oil in a frying pan, and fry the bread slices on both sides till a lovely golden brown.




 
Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Variations can include schezwan sauce/chutney or Sriracha sauce or tomato chutney instead of the pesto. For a sweet version replace the pesto and salt with Nutella and sugar. :) Enjoy!

Cookery School: Pumpkin Soup

I had first sampled pumpkin soup at Le Plaisir, the cosy little cafe on Pune's Bhandarkar Road. It was so yummy, that I resolved making my own version some day.

I got all the ingredients (that I had thought would go into the soup) the day before I was to leave for Pune (for a good long break from work) thinking I'd try my hand at some culinary experimentation while at Pune.

As luck would have it, I had lunch at Le Plaisir the first day of my Pune sojourn, and ended up getting the recipe from the chef himself. So I was saved from having to figure out the recipe and possibly from having to gulp down failure!

So here is Siddharth's recipe for pumpkin soup:

Ingredients:
Pumpkin (nice red/orange one)
Olive oil
Cream
Fresh (not dried!) oregano leaves
Cumin seeds
Garlic
Salt and pepper
(There aren't any measures, because they can all be varied according to taste!)

Method: 
Peel and dice the pumpkin in 1-2 inch dice.

Lay them out on a baking tray (in a single layer), drizzle on some oil and scatter with oregano leaves, cumin seeds and garlic. (I skipped the garlic because I didnt have any at hand, and added fresh basil leaves (torn) because I DID have them) Smoosh everything together by hand till its all mixed well.

Roast in an oven for 20-30 minutes, till the pumpkin is almost cooked.

In a saucepan/wok/kadhai, heat the cream (I didn't have the guts to use cream or even half-cream-half-milk, so I went with whole milk with a touch of cream added). There should be enough liquid to cover the pumpkin pieces. Once the milk comes to the boil, add the pumpkin (with the herbs, garlic etc)



Let the mixture come simmer on the lowest heat till the pumpkin is fully cooked (a spoon should easily slide through the pumpkin piece). Take the saucepan off the heat and let it cool down to room temperature.

Whiz it through the blender till really fine and smooth.

Put it back in the sauce pan, and put it on low heat. Add salt and pepper to taste, and milk to adjust the consistency (if you think its too thick)



You can use garlic salt instead of plain salt (especially if you skipped the garlic earlier as I did). Another little deviation that I made from Siddharth's recipe was to add half a cube of Maggi seasoning (use less salt if you use seasoning since that is very salty itself) to the soup as it simmered.

Serve in a large bowl, garnished with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and fresh oregano leaves. Enjoy with warm crusty, toasted bread.