A couple of days, I was searching for some recipes on the blog to cook something. It is then I realized how much I miss this space. After the month of January when I did the Phyllo Custart Tart, I haven’t done any post here. I have come back a few times, during Ramadan and both the Eids, and I wasn’t even able to get past the first paragraph, let alone posting.

In the meantime, I didn’t even realize more than nine months have passed, so much has happened in my life, the face of the world has changed tremedously that you don’t know who is here and nowhere with the crisis in the world. I wouldn’t want to dwell around it. The life seems to be unfair and whatever is happening makes no sense to us, but our belief tells us that everything that happens is a part of His Big Plan and whatever will happen in the future will be a befitting response to the evil doers.

I have a few drafts that I can feed the blog till I am in a mood to try some new recipes and update on the blog. At the moment, I would like to keep it slow and steady. That is why I chose to kick off with a very simple recipe but tastes amazing. We all love our French Toasts, but not every time you want it to be laden with eggs. This is a viral Tik-Tok recipe, that involves only two ingredients over and above a thick slice of bread.

Even though the ingredient list is limited, the recipe calls for an immense amount of patience to get the beautiful crust on the bread without burning the milk. I would really want you all to try this recipe and find it yourself, that how you don’t need so many ingredients to make an amazingly tasty recipe. This toast can be a quick breakfast or a teatime snack when you need something sweet. Off to this recipe… and sincerely hoping, I can post at least on and off on this little space of mine…

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Milk Butter Toast | Eggless French Toast

Course Breakfast

Cuisine International

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 thick slice brioche bread refer notes
• 10 gm butter
• 3/4 cup milk
• Honey or maple syrup to serve
• Berries for garnish

Instructions

• In a thick bottomed pan, melt half the butter. Keep the flame low.
• Keep the slice of bread on top and pour half the milk around it.
• With a ladle, keep pushing the milk on to the bread, so that the milk gets soaked into the bread and starts forming a crust around it.
• Repeat this process till the milk is all soaked.
• Now flip the bread and melt the remaining butter onto the side.
• Add the remaining milk and repeat the earlier process - ie. keep pushing the milk towards the bread to soak it up and get cooked.
• Flip and cook the four sides of the bread, just till it is a little crusty.
• Switch off the flame and transfer to a plate. Top with honey or maple syrup and berries and enjoy warm.

Notes

Brioche bread is thick and hence one slice is enough per person. However, if using normal bread, slather little butter between two slices and use instead for this recipe. 

The post Milk Butter Toast | Eggless French Toast appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

As much as I am not fond of doing things at the last minute, these days the frequency of it has increased quite a bit. I am somebody who likes to get things done as early as possible and be ready before hand, but I guess the old saying of “time and tide waits for none” seems to be even more probable now. How much ever I plan, things just don’t seem to go its way. I try my level best not to feel disappointed, because we as human beings are not in control of a huge majority of our life. We can only plan but Allah is the Best Planner, so He calls Himself in Surah Aal-Imran: 54. I am trying to not panic when things don’t get done and go with the flow. It is a long lesson indeed, yet I am trying, Alhamdulillah…

You must be wondering why this big lecture before beginning the post. I am doing the second post for this week’s Blogging Marathon #146 theme of “Trending Recipes”. Just like the tortilla wrap, my mind fluctuated between many easy recipes that I came across online. But this toast tugged my heart and I had to try it. The only thing is that I made it on Wednesday for breakfast, clicked it, ate it and still struggled to finish off the post.

I used Luisine brioche bread for this recipe. I love it while making French Toast – it gives a totally different vibe altogether. Since the bread is thick, it is easier for it to hold on some amount of liquid. But if you use regular bread, try using two slices together stuck together with a little water or maybe indenting it and pouring very little liquid so as to not soak. The custard used in this is very interesting – Greek yogurt, egg and a little sugar. If you don’t have Greek yogurt, of course you can use regular yogurt, but do make sure to remove some of the whey before using it. I was really wondering how it would taste. Once it baked and I had a bite, it was really mind-blowing. It somehow reminded me of the baked yogurt dessert on the bread.

Topping are totally your choice. As you can see, I used chocolate chips and almond slices on one, and blueberries on the other. I loved both the toppings, please don’t ask me to choose. Hehe… The quantity of custard made was perfect for the two loaves of brioche use. You can airfry the recipe at 180 degrees for around 8-10 minutes till the custard settles and the bread is crunchy. Just make sure that the custard is set. My oven takes a little longer time than usual, so I baked for almost 20 minutes, though 15 minutes should be more than a good enough time. Make this as a lazy weekend breakfast and enjoy!

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Custard Yogurt Toast

A viral TikTok recipe of baked toast with a delicious yogurt custard filling

Course Breakfast

Cuisine International

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 2 brioche bread slices refer notes
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt or really thick yogurt
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla or flavoring of choice
• Toppings of choice I used blueberries, chocolate chips and sliced almonds

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment.
• Place the bread slices on the tray. Using fingers dipped in water, create an indent into the bread without making any holes, just enough to hold the custard filling.
• In a bowl, whisk together the yogurt, egg, honey and vanilla till well combined.
• Divide them equally onto both the slices.
• Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or even more dependent on the oven heat, till the bread looks toasted and the custard is set.
• Enjoy warm as is or with an extra dousing of icing sugar, whipped cream and fruits.

Notes

The bread has to be thick to ensure that it holds the liquid. If you use regular bread, try to use more bread with lesser filling, or layer on two slices of bread. But for sturdiness, brioche is best and tastes best too... 

The toppings are entirely your choice. You can leave it plain, use granola or fruits like banana, peach, etc. to top. Or even make it savory by skipping the honey and topping it with seasoning of choice. 

The post Custard Yogurt Toast appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

Is it just me who feels time is running at super speed? Last week, I had plans to do at least one post on the blog. I did some basics of it but then I don’t know how the days flew by that I just didn’t get the chance to even sit on my blog. Somehow, the blog numbers have been disheartening as well post Ramadan. During Ramadan, being a Muslimah blogger’s food page, I get a good number of hits then, which then dissipates and sinks back to the old or even newer lows. Hehe… Anyway, somehow participating in the Blogging Marathon just makes sure I put some content on the blog, if nothing extra. This week, I have chosen “Trending Recipes” as my theme for the BM #146.

TikTok has become the base of a lot of easy recipes especially during the lockdown period. Dalgona coffee was definitely one of them, among the many that surfaced. When the whole world was trying and posting them in their stories or otherwise, I was still in my cocoon trying to push myself to cook for survival. I somehow don’t get fazed by trends as such. I don’t know if it is a good or a bad trait. Hehe… So I have decided to pick up this theme each time it appears under BM themes because I found so many interesting recipes that I would really love to give a try. One of the most well received recipes has to be this tortilla wrapping idea, that went viral for good reason.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can make it the way you want. The idea of wrapping it into a triangle actually makes the process of eating it less messy. Plus, you don’t have to wrap it up in an extra foil or wrapping paper for the fear of dripping. Hehe… The whole point is to cut the tortilla on one side to depict a one-fourth, keep four different fillings on each of the quarter, flip to cover and then toast lightly. I love the combination of egg and cheese, so made an omelette – you can make scramble too -, used one cheese slice in one quarter, and used lettuce and cherry tomatoes in the other quarters. My only problem was that my tortilla was small. To comfortably make a nice looking triangle wrap, try to use wraps which are more than 9 inch. Mine was 8 inch, so the fillings were tough to contain. Even then, I just ate it down, it was too good… Never going to wrap a tortilla any other way… hehe…

Before going to the recipe, a little personal update… My elder one Rasha is sweet sixteen today. I wonder why this age is called “sweet”. I feel it is the most awkward age where you neither feel here nor there. I still can’t forget how tiny she was when she was born and sometimes my heart swells looking at how fast she is growing. Before we even know, they just grow out of our hands and then just become different people. All we can do is to cling their childhood and accept time that is moving on… As always, my prayer, like is the prayer of every mother, is that the Almighty give her the best, keep her in His Path and Guidance always… Aameen…

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Breakfast Tortilla Wrap | Egg and Cheese Tortilla TikTok Viral Wrap

The TikTok viral tortilla wrap, filled with egg and cheese

Course Breakfast

Cuisine International

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• A splash of oil
• Seasoning of choice
• 1 slice cheese
• 2 leaves lettuce chopped
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• 1 tortilla 9 inch and above

Instructions

• Whisk the egg along with seasoning. In a small pan, add a little oil and make a small omelette or scramble it. I made an omelette.
• Keep the tortilla on a flat surface. Cut from one side to the mid point.
• Place the egg, lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes and cheese in each quarter.
• Fold three times till you have a triangle shape.
• In the earlier pan, toast the tortilla with or without butter till done. Enjoy!

The post Breakfast Tortilla Wrap | Egg and Cheese Tortilla TikTok Viral Wrap appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

This week has been difficult. I lost my ammayi – who is my uncle’s wife – in her battle of SLE on Sunday. She has been suffering this illness since long, which slowly and steadily deteriorated her health in ways that are difficult to accept. When I went home for my cousin’s wedding in end of January, she looked a reflection of herself, but little did I know that this was going to be our last meeting. One side of mine is relieved that she is finally devoid of all the pain and suffering she went through in her life. Allah has promised His Eternal Home for those who go through life’s tests with patience.

And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, who, when faced with a disaster, say, “Surely to Allah we belong and to Him we will ˹all˺ return.” (2:155-156)

“Be patient [steadfast]: God does not let the rewards of those who do good go to waste” (11:115)

Despite going through so much pain and issues, she was never without a smile. I have never heard her complain about her situation. All I can pray now is that our Lord gives her what is worth for her in her hereafter… Her death was as saddening as my elappa’s a few years ago… But the show must go on. The living must live on, praying for those who have departed for their good eternal life and with hope that we meet them in His vast paradise, InShaAllah…

Talking of commitments, I signed up for the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge and for the month of February, the theme was “Protein Rich Vegetarian Breakfast”, as suggested by Renu. My partner is Aruna, who is back to blogging after a really long time and she suggested my secret ingredients to be garam masala and kasuri methi. I eat eggs for my breakfast all the time and usually don’t exercise my thought process too much in this case. For this theme, I had to think a little hard. Even though as Indians, breakfast is a staple food, it is more carb-centric than protien-centric. It is during this time my mentor asked me to try tofu as an alternate form of protein in lieu of non-veg. My instant thought was to make scramble out of it. I found that tofu had absolutely no flavor on its own, but it is good at adapting to anything you add to it. The recipe is very straight forward. I used our normal base of onion and tomato and the regular spices to go with it. The beauty of tofu is that it doesn’t need much cooking time. All you need to do is crumble, add and cook for just a couple of minutes till it mingles with the flavors. Unfortunately, as soon as I had the first bite of tofu, my mouth started itching and I realized it isn’t for me. So with this burji ends my rendezvous with tofu. However, HD loved it so much that he enjoyed it for breakfast two days in a row. Off to this simple recipe…

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Tofu Bhurji | Spicy Scrambled Tofu

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Fusion Indian

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 onion thinly sliced
• 3-4 green chillies minced
• 1 large tomato chopped
• 1/4 tsp turmeric paste
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
• 500 gm tofu crumbled
• 1/4 tsp garam masala powder
• 1 tsp kasuri methi crushed
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves for garnish

Instructions

• In a saucepan, heat oil. Splutter the mustard and cumin seeds.
• Saute the ginger garlic paste till raw smell is gone.
• Add the onion and green chilies, along with some salt and saute till wilted.
• Add the tomatoes, turmeric and red chilli powders and cook till all mashed. Sprinkle a little water to avoid sticking to the bottom.
• Add in the crumbled tofu and toss. Cook for another five minutes.
• Sprinkle in the garam masala powder and kasuri methi, adjust seasoning.
• Switch off, add coriander leaves and serve hot with bread or rotis.

The post Tofu Bhurji | Spicy Scrambled Tofu appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

We are almost hitting the end of the year. Is it just me who is feeling the jitters? As far as I am concerned, I feel like 2022 is a year that I achieved hardly anything. There were so many things that I thought I would do, but when I look back, I feel that I am seeing a blank canvas. Whether it is on career front or the blog front, I don’t feel like I have done much. But sometimes I feel it is OK. There is no point in lamenting that things haven’t worked our way. Many times, things aren’t meant to work our way anyway. However, it isn’t all negative this year though. It is upto us to train our mind to see positives in the negatives as well. It ain’t easy but ain’t difficult either…

Of late, the climate has been amazing. It has started to feel like winter. We had some rains for the last couple of days, which caused that lazy chill in the air, that makes you want to just sleep all the time. Hehe… I can’t exactly say “sweater weather” even though my sweaters are out waiting for a chance to be used, but there is a nice coldness in the air and that urge to have hot chocolate and loads of tea/coffee most of the time just to keep warm and awake… And that is why scones are one of the best things to bake when you have such chilled evenings, because they make the perfect warm bites for your cup of tea or coffee… This is my post today for this year’s Bakeathon with the sub-theme “Main ingredients 5 or less”. Can you believe we are already on the last leg of this series? Wow…

A couple of friends asked me whether I would be interested in doing an impromptu tea at a park during one of the weekends. Now I love being in parks or mountain sides for meals. Whenever my parents come, much to the irritation of D, me and umma always cook lunch and move out. We then stop at a park or a rest area on the way and enjoy our food there. Even though D doens’t like the idea of having food outside in adjusted conditions, he still wouldn’t mind. We usually make something like fried rice or vegetable pulao along with chilly chicken or dry chicken fry to take along. I also bake something along at times, like I made the cornmeal muffins. I was missing that feel, so the invite was well received. I baked these scones – that I roughly adapted from here, since I was sure that scones aren’t something that my friends would have had.

They really loved it. It was mildly sweet and went very well with the cup of tea in that beautiful climate. One of them carried the leftovers home. I left a couple of them at home for the folks to enjoy. HD and B really liked it. The pecan has to be the star. It is not a nut that is used quite widely, so I guess that is what helped. Pecans go amazingly well with cinnamon and butterscotch flavors, so overall these scones were a big hit. I loved the idea of brushing the cream on the top of the scones. It gave it a beautiful golden hue and a slight caramelized flavor as well once baked. Off to the recipe…

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Butterscotch Pecan Scones

Course Breakfast/ Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup corn flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 70 gm butter cold, cut into small pcs
• 1 egg large, room temperature
• 170 gm cream pack, divided
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup pecans roasted and roughly chopped

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking pan and set aside.
• In a bowl, sift flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt.
• Whisk in the brown sugar.
• Add the cut cubes of butter and rub it in with your fingers till the mixture represents bread crumbs.
• Toss in the butterscotch chips and pecans into it and mix.
• In a bowl, whisk together the egg, 1/2 cup of the cream and vanilla till homogenous.
• Add into the dry ingredients and just bring together to shape it. Just ensure that all the dry ingredients are moist.
• Transfer onto the baking sheet and shape into a round shape with equal thickness. Cut into 8 peices of equal size and put a small separation between them.
• Brush the remaining cream generously on top of all the scones.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Take out, transfer to a cool rack. Enjoy the scones warm.

The post Butterscotch Pecan Scones appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

I have been wanting to make Dutch Baby since a really long time. First of all, what an interesting name! Second of all, it isn’t even Dutch! As per Wikipedia, “a Dutch baby pancake, sometimes called a German pancake, a Bismarck, a Dutch puff or a Hootenanny, is a large American popover.” Wow, so many names and American! Since this dish uses limited ingredients and is baked, it was a perfect material for this month’s Bakeathon posts, with a sub-theme of “Main ingredients 5 or less.” Today is actually not a day to post, but since I missed posting on the first day, I thought of compensating by doing this post in between. Hehe…

The recipe is actually easy, but the execution can be a bit of a challenge. There are basically majority eggs, some flour, some milk, very little butter. hardly any sugar, and a flavoring agent. The step of blending the batter reminded me of how we used to make cakes very long back. Hehe… Of course, the difference is in the baking. This recipe was supposed to be done in a 10 inch skillet, but I had only an 8 inch one. This explains why mine wasn’t very flat in the center with poofy sides. The end result is a slightly eggy, milky, crisp on the sides and custardy in the center kind of treat…

Let me put the pointers to look for while making this recipe:

• The trick lies in how hot your skillet and oven are when the batter goes in. Instead of heating the skillet in the oven, I heated it on my stove top while the oven was preheating, so that it is easier for me to handle.
• Blend the wet ingredients first and then add the dry ingredients, so that all the ingredients are well mixed. And blend as long as possible for more rising.
• Also, don’t worry if you see your pancake puffing up. It is supposed to. Once the top gets browned and you pull out the pancake, it will automatically start to deflate and give you a Eureka moment. Hehe…

I have read that you can use non-stick pans as well to make it. However, do make sure that the pans that you use are compatible with oven baking. Since it isn’t sweet on its own, have it the way you like. We enjoyed it with a sifting of icing sugar and strawberries. You can drizzle some honey or maple syrup and have it with a side of cream, if that is how you like it. Off to the recipe…

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Dutch Baby Pancake

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract refer notes
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp melted butter seperated
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Keep a 10 inch skillet to heat on the stove top, as the oven preheats. (I used an 8 inch)
• In a blender, add the eggs, milk, salt, vanilla, 2 tbsp of the butter and honey and blitz till it is well combined and slightly pale.
• Add the all purpose flour and blend for another 3-5 minutes.
• Brush the hot skillet with the remaining butter all over it.
• Pour the batter into it, switch off the stove and transfer the skillet immediately into the hot oven.
• Bake for 30 minutes or till the pancake is all puffy and the top turns brown.
• Take out and leave it for a few minutes. The pancake will start to deflate in the center.
• Enjoy warm with sides of your choice.

Notes

Instead of vanilla, you can use cinnamon or lemon zest as well. 

The post Dutch Baby Pancake appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

While putting a list of recipes to try for the Bakeathon this year under my sub-theme of “Main ingredients 5 or under”, cornbread was always on my list. I still have my packs from the US and thanks to the long expiry dates, I have no pressure to finish my stock soon. After having tried the pancakes and the muffin, I have been wanting to make the cornbread recipe on the pack but then my family’s lack of interest in bakes made me take a backseat till this series had to happen. Even within the wanting to bake the cornbread, there was a twist…

The day I decided to bake the cornbread, I took out my milk from the fridge to curdle it to make buttermilk. I then noticed that the milk was smelling odd. So basically, I had sour milk in hand and I was upset that I will have to discard it. That is when some searches on Google and I was assured that sour milk goes perfectly well in recipes using buttermilk, since it is anyways spoiled with a little tinge of sourness. What a hurray moment! Got to make the cornbread and didn’t have to throw the milk… On a side note, my heart aches when I throw away leftover food. It makes me feel really bad. Anyway, I used that curdled milk to make the cornbread and there was no inkling of it. Hehe…

I baked the cornbread recipe from the pack with some changes – upped the cornmeal and reduced the all-purpose flour, used less baking powder and used butter instead of oil. Cornbread is usually very mild in sweetness, so if you want sweeter, then add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup to enjoy it. However, it is usually eaten in South American households with savory dishes like fried chicken or chilli con carne. Be your own guest and eat it the way you want. As you can see, I enjoyed it on its own with a cup of coffee over breakfast. Off to the recipe…

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Old Fashioned Cornbread

Course Breakfast/ Dessert

Cuisine South American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup cornmeal I used yellow
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg large
• 1/4 cup butter melted
• 1 cup buttermilk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line an 8 inch pan with baking paper hanging out.
• In a mixing bowl, add the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and whisk together to incorporate.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together egg, butter and buttermilk till nicely done.
• Add into the dry ingredients and fold with a spatula till the whole mixture is moist. Do not overmix.
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean from the center.
• Cool in pan for five minutes. Enjoy warm...

The post Old Fashioned Cornbread appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

Are you a breakfast person? I am unfortunately not… Even though I love breakfast meals, I don’t like the idea of eating anything much, apart from maybe a cup of black coffee, early in the morning. During work times, all I would carry is a tall mug of hot black coffee with little stevia and a teaspoon of ghee – call it the madness of “fat first” but I loved the taste of it too… – and I wouldn’t finish that coffee till I reached work. Even now, my breakfast is usually during the brunch time. It is always boiled eggs or an omelette at the most. There are very rare times I get into a mood to make something elaborate like an English breakfast. It may look as though you have labored in the kitchen for a long time, but it is easiest yet fulfilling breakfast you could even make.

This week, I am doing the Blogging Marathon #140 with the theme “Restaurant Specials” and I had to choose posting this one. Since I started off saying I am not a breakfast person, let me flip another side too. I love breakfast meet-ups. If any among my friend circle tells me, “Let’s meet up for breakfast”, I will literally be in a picnic mood. I won’t sleep properly and I will wake up before my alarm to get ready. Last year in December, when my sister came here for a brief while, I was already up quite early waiting for her pick-up call. HD was in a half asleep mood and he was like surprised that I was up early on a Friday morning. I then casually asked him, “Can we go for breakfast? Let the girls sleep in…” I wasn’t expecting him to say a “yes”. Then the rest they say was history… We had a lovely breakfast on the Majaz waterfront side and it was really delicious. He commented, “Can’t you make something like this?” He will still not take me for a breakfast without me asking for it…

Usually, a breakfast at a cafe would usually be eggs on toast with some avocadoes, French Toasts in various forms, pancakes or some variation of an English Breakfast. As per Wikipedia, an English Breakfast or a Full Breakfast “is a substantial cooked breakfast meal, often served in the United Kingdom and Ireland, that typically includes back bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, baked beans, some form of potato, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, and a beverage such as coffee or tea.” So it basically means that you can have all these items on your plate. To make it more acceptable to the current diet masters, some green leafy salad or boiled vegetables are added into the plate. I guess let us go with it one by one:

1. Bacon – It is salted and cured meat from the belly or back of pork, usually but now you find it for beef. Here, we do find Halal bacon in some stores. I don’t like it much and hence don’t tend to buy them.
2. Sausages – I guess this needs no introduction. You can cook the sausages any way you want. I have used fresh chicken sausages with minimal seasoning.
3. Eggs – this can be totally made to your liking, as a sunny side up, an omelette – just plain or with some veges thrown in like this one or as scrambled, which I will share in the recipe card below.
4. Black pudding – It is a different type of sausage made with non-Halal ingredients, so we can safely skip it out of our platter. The best replacement is a serving of leafy green salad with some microgreens or boiled vegetables like broccoli and carrots. I have used a frozen pack of winter vegetables, which I thawed, boiled, drained and seasoned.
5. Baked Beans – These are usually white beans cooked and soaked in a tomato sauce. It is very easy to find them off the shelves. I used to always get irritated that they would only have the usual 400 gm tins, but now you find smaller ones too, apt for two people. My girls are not fond of them at all and one tin used to be too much for both of us.
6. Potatoes – you can have them fried or roasted, or even as hashbrowns. I completely forgot about it while preparing this platter, considering how we all are potato fans.
7. Tomatoes – you can roast a whole tomato on a flame or pan roast some cherry tomatoes like I did.
8. Mushrooms – this is another ingredient I forgot to buy. HD loves them and he asked specifically for it too. Here is a way you can cook your mushrooms.
9. Toast – The best to have is a toasted piece of sourdough bread. It is just so good to be dunk into the baked beans or if you make sunny side-up. Of course, you can use toasted white or brown bread.
10. Beverage – it is usually a cup of black coffee, black tea or cold orange juice. I haven’t seen milk drinks being served. Of course, you can have it but I feel with how heavy this platter can be, a light beverage is the best bet.

To make it for a lavish weekend breakfast, just make sure to stock up your pantry with the ingredients needed. A simple list would be eggs, a tin of baked beans, cherry tomatoes, baby potatoes, mushrooms, sausages, toast and juice, if using or fruit for freshly squeezed one. The potatoes can be boiled the previous day if using, so that in the morning, you just need to roast it in the oven for 30 minutes. The rest of the platter comes together in no time, if you go one after the other. Even though it isn’t much of a recipe, I am still putting some of the steps I followed…

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Simple English Breakfast

Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 4 chicken sausages
• Seasoning of choice I used creole seasoning
• Oil or butter as needed
• 6-8 cherry tomatoes
• 250 gm pack frozen vegetables
• 100 gm baked beans in tin
• 2 cups orange juice fresh or bottled

FOR EGGS

• 4 eggs
• salt and pepper as needed

Instructions

• Heat a skillet and melt some butter and/or olive oil. I love a mix of it.
• Add the sausauges, sprinkle seasoning. Cook on all sides just till done. Drain into serving plate.
• In the same oil, add the cherry tomatoes and roll them till just roasted. Drain onto the plates.
• Whisk the eggs, salt and pepper with a splash of water or milk (optional but recommended). Add more oil into the pan if needed. Add the whisked eggs and keep stirring just till done.
• Drain and divide half into each plate.
• Boil and drain the frozen vegetables just till done. Once the water is gone, divide into plates.
• Keep a serving of the baked beans on the plate. Serve with a cup of orange juice.

Notes

You can serve toast with this plate, either as is or well toasted with some butter.

You can include potato in any form, like mashed, wedges or hashbrowns. 

Instead of the frozen vegetables, you can prepare a fresh green salad with greens like rocket leaves and arugula. 

You may add a serving of lightly roasted mushrooms with seasoning. 

The post Simple English Breakfast appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

A cuisine that has intrigued me for quite some time and I have been really wanting to try has been that of the Parsis.  Parsis are a very small community in India that are known to have their ancestors from Persia, are primarily settled in Gujrat and some parts of Maharashtra and follow a religion called Zoroastrianism. Their cuisine has a heavy influence of Persian cooking with Indian styles and is heavily centered on non-vegetarian delights. I have already posted a couple of Parsi recipes – the Marghi na Farcha and the Akuri  – on the blog and wanted to try more recipes. So when Valli did her announcement post for the Blogging Marathon #139 with a theme “Select one cuisine and cook three dishes” and the list had Parsi cuisine, I jumped at the opportunity to try at least a few easy ones that I can try.

One very iconic breakfast or snack that is a product of the Parsis but is extremely popular in Mumbai in the Irani cafes is the Bun Maska. The dish is very straight forward – bun slathered with some “maska”, which is a mixture of butter and cream. A couple of months ago, I happened to watch a movie called Maska on Netflix, about a son who is pressurized by the mother to carry on his father’s dream of becoming a “maskawala”. The scenes where they show the actor throwing in the flour and then kneading the dough for the buns is a thrill to watch, especially for someone who loves to bake, but hasn’t been doing much due to a lot of reasons and excuses. Hehe…

Since I took some pains in doing the set-up, I thought – why not make a reel with a trending audio, was so apt to this dish!

While I tried reading up about this iconic recipe, it lead me to some beautiful articles like this one that captures the essence of this simple dish. It is usually served with a cup of strong Irani Chai and enjoyed by dunking into it. The bun used can be your regular pav, however the general consensus seems to be to use a slightly sweetened bun that is studded with some tutti frutti. I couldn’t track down sweetened buns and hence settled in with regular pav.

All you need to do is to cut through the pav, toast them for a little time – optional but highly recommended, slather a blob of butter on one side of the hot bun – the heat will melt the butter and make it spreadable – and equal amount of fresh cream on the other. Then bring them together and enjoy it warm with your tea – dunking or no dunking is your choice. I am the latter. Despite being an extremely simple dish, it tastes phenomenal. I have always had toast with just butter or just cream, so combining both of them together is genius. Some do say that you can try sprinkling some sugar in it or add a little jam too, but let’s keep it simple. Try it out for yourself while you enjoy your next cup of tea… The only thing you need to ensure is that the buns are fairly fresh for the best taste.

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Bun Maska

Course Tea Snacks

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 2 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 pav or tutti frutti bun fresh
• 10 gm butter softened
• 1 tbsp cream use more if you like

Instructions

• Slit the pav or bun and toast on a hot pan just till done - this step is optional but highly recommended.
• Take out, slather the butter on one side and the cream on the other bun.
• Attach together and enjoy with a cup of chai!

The post Bun Maska appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

I so look forward to the Blogging Marathon every month, so that I would at least try something new instead of lazying around, which has become one of my favorite pastime now. Not mentioning, the climate hasn’t been exactly conducive to feeling energetic either. Anyway, this week, the theme I selected for the Blogging Marathon #139 is “Don’t be Cheesy”. I love how Valli sometimes coins the phrases for themes. Hehe… I know of people who are extremely mad about cheese, but I am not one among them. I like them in a limited dose and if it goes more, it nauseates me – cheese lovers, please ignore me… So the three recipes in this theme will use just enough cheese to make them “cheesy”.

While my head was in a rut regarding making a breakfast that would be well within my macros – yes, I am trying to eat cautiously to push back some of my weight, that I have already derailed shamelessly over the past couple of years… -, the IG post from Fufu Kitchen popped up on my feed and I immediately had to try it. Of course, I didn’t add as much as cheese like she did, but of course, you could. For HD, I used a square cheese plus a sprinkling of shredded mozzarella, and he really enjoyed it. The dipping is simply eggs with very little milk, regular seasonings and the star ingredient – zaatar. I would suggest to increase it as much as you would like by sprinkling on the toast while you get it done. This is something I make once a week now for myself – I love it so much!

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Cheesy Zaatar French Toast

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Arab

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tbsp zaatar heaped plus more if needed
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 slices large bread
• Olive oil for toasting
• 2 cheese slices
• 2-4 tbsp grated mozarella cheese optional but recommended

Instructions

• Whisk together the eggs, milk, zaatar and seasonings till well combined.
• Dunk the bread in the mixture to coat as much as possible and well.
• Heat a pan. Drizzle some olive oil. Cook two toasts at a time. Toss both sides till done. Sprinkle some more zaatar on it while cooking if using.
• Keep one slice of cheese and mozarella if using on one slice. Top with the other slice. Press down and cook briefly on both sides just till all melted.
• Enjoy hot!

Notes

Use more cheese and zaatar as needed. 

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