Greek Style Panini

Good news is our area was not affected by hurricane Irene as much as predicted. We had gusty winds and heavy rain, but thank god we did not have power outages or flooding. So all is well that ends well..

Today is the last day of our week long Blogging marathon and keeping with the theme of "Cooking with 5 ingredients or less", I made this tasty and healthy panini. Another recipe from vegetarian times magazine. It turned out super simple to make, filling and tasty too.

Read more »

Masala Naan Pizza

I usually keep store-bought naans for impromptu guests and lazy weeknight dinners. All I need to make is a curry and dinner is served. But these naans are also great as pizza bases and also to make paninis. So with the masala naans I had on hand, I made these pizzas, very quick and filling.

Ingredients:
Naans – 2

Pizza sauce – ¼ cup, homemade or store- bought, I used Bertolli Tomato-Basil pasta sauce

For the topping:
Onion – 2 tbsp chopped
Peppers – ¼ cup chopped
Frozen chopped Spinach – ¼ cup thawed
Mozzarella cheese & Feta Cheese

Method:

• Toppings can be placed raw and baked for a crunchy pizza or can be sautéed in 2tsp oil till cooked through and then baked on the pizza. I did the latter, I sautéed all my toppings with 1 minced garlic clove.
• To make the pizza: Place naans on a foil lined baking pan; spread the tomato sauce; add the toppings and mozzarella cheese & feta cheese. Bake in a 400°F oven for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese has melted. I made another pizza with just the tomato sauce, mozzarella & feta cheeses.

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Panini

Paninis are Italian grilled sandwiches and they are very versatile, you can make them with absolutely anything (great for cleaning up the fridge). Here is a Desi-style panini recipe.
This weekend I decided to clean out my fridge and use up all the produce that I had, so I can stock up again ;-) I found onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, whole wheat pita bread and a bar of pepper jack cheese. So what can you make all these?? A lot.. but ended up making paninis. Here's my recipe.

Ingredients (makes 1 sandwich):
Whole wheat pita bread - 2
Red onion - 1 medium, thinly sliced
Mushrooms - 5-6, thinly sliced
Tomato - 1 small, cut into thin circles
Pepper jack cheese - 2 slices
Mozzarella cheese - 3 tbsp grated (I used Kraft fat-free grated moz.)
Salt and Pepper - to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp olive oil in a pan, add onions and saute till golden and slightly caramelized, takes about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove and keep aside.
• In the same pan, add mushrooms and saute till done. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and keep aside.
• Spray, the grill pan with non-stick cooking spray, toast the pita bread on one side. Add the jack cheese, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, moz. cheese and place the second pita on top.

• Put some kind of weight (I used a foil covered brick.. bought it for a buck in Home depot) and grill for about 2 minutes each side.

Enjoy!!!

Guys.. just a friendly remainder for WBB# 4, deadline to send in your entries is August 31st. Email me at cookshideout@gmail.com. Check out the updates here and here.
Hope to see you all in the round up.