Roma's Space

Being a great fan of pizza in any form this one is really special to me. When I dont have a pizza base ready at hand and really want a bite of a cheesy pizza I make these little Toastizzas.

I bought a bottle of Maggie Pizza Sauce a few months ago. It had a recipe booklet inside which suggested many different types of Pizzas. I liked Toastizza the most among them.

Toastizza is like an open sandwich which you can close with a grilled butter toast if you like. This is my entry to the Sandwich Festival hosted by Anupama.

Ingredients :

• 2 bread slices
• 2 tablespoons of Pizza sauce
• 1/2 cup of chopped mixed veggies (onion, capsicum, mushroom, Fresh corn, Spring onions)
• Grated cheese

Procedure :

1. Heat oil. Cook mixed veggies until soft.
2. Place bread slice on a greased oven plate.
3. Apply Pizza sauce on it. Spread cooked veggies on it and sprinkle with some grated cheese.
4. Preheat oven at 180 Deg C. Bake Toastizzas for 3-5 mins, till cheese melts.

Variation :

1. If you dont have Pizza sauce then blanch tomatoes and fry the puree in oil with some salt and pepper till it reduces to a sauce.
2. If you want to eat it as a closed sandwich apply butter on a plain slice of bread and bake it along with your toastizza, by the side. Once done, close the toastizza with the grilled bread and enjoy your pizza sandwich.

Please NOTE :

1. Check if your Pizza sauce already contains salt. Accordingly add salt to your veggies. The Pizza sauce I used had so much salt in it that I am glad I didnt add any salt at all!
2. My Oven provides me a setting in which only the top filament gets heated in the oven. In dishes where the base is already cooked and only the top coat needs to be cooked ( like our toastizzas ) this mode should be used.

Being the mother of a little baby and a frequent traveller I’m constantly on the look out for good homemade dishes with a long shelf-life. Thepla is a Gujarathi version of the methi paratha and is one such dish which can be preserved for over a week. I packed this for dinner during our train travel a couple of weeks ago. The parathas were soft and tasty. They were supposed to last for a week but we finished them off in one sitting!!

In the train I met a Gujarathi aunty who told me about a lot of other breakfast recipes that can be preserved for a long time (typically snacks and savories made out of besan and deep fried)

Try thepla for your next week-long trip. This paratha is particularly useful to mothers who dont want to give kids any outside food. Also, sometimes you dont want to break your journey for a meal and would rather eat something on the drive.

This is my entry to the roti mela organized by Srivalli. Thanks for hosting this event and giving us a forum to share our Indian Bread recipes.

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon Besan
• 1 tablespoon Oil
• Pinch of Haldi powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Mirchi powder
• 1 teaspoon Dhania powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Jeera powder
• 5 pods of Garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup of Methi leaves, fine chopped
• 1/4 cup Curds
• 1/2 teaspoon Jeera seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon Til seeds
• Pinch Hing
• Salt (to taste)
• Sugar (to taste)

Procedure :

1. Knead the above ingredients with water and make a soft dough.
2. Dust in dry flour and roll out.
3. Apply oil and cook on both sides on a hot tawa.

Please NOTE :
Spread out the theplas and allow the steam to escape before packing, else the condensed water droplets will spoil it quickly.