Five Morsels of Love - A Review

Before we proceed into the post, here is a spoiler - I absolutely loved the book, Five Morsels of Love, from all perspectives - as a book lover, food blogger, food lover and a cooking enthusiast.  

I loved how brilliant the book feels in my hand - the weight, the texture of the paper, the fine details in the book's styling, everything is brilliant. This book feels like a true book-lover's dream come true. Really.  

Five Morsels of Love

Five Morsels of Love by Archana Pidathala

The fabric cover of the book sets the tone of the book. It makes you feel right at home with what the book is about. The words from the first page, with the photographs of the author, the subject and a few other family photos make you feel this is a book about family, and food.  

Allam Pachadi

Ah, that quintessential Telugu pachadi, that makes everyone's mouth water. I cannot eat Pesarattu without Allam Pachadi, and I know many others in the family who love it to bits.

 

Cauliflower greens soup

 It always looked like such a waste... throwing away all those greens that come with the cauliflower head. I knew they had to be healthy, but never knew how to cook them.
A quick internet search landed me at this page, which inspired me to go make this soup.

Peperoni Arosto

Well, am not sure if this is really peperoni arosto, but this is my version of it, and it tastes pretty damn good.
Can be used as a topping on toasted garlic bread like a Crostini, or can be eaten with lavash crackers. I intend to use this in a pasta, to get a smoked bell pepper flavor next time. Another idea is to add this to a salad, with tons of feta cheese, and may be some pineapple cubes. If all else doesn't work out, you can slip in these smoked peppers into your mouth as it is!

This dish takes a long time to make, but is very easy, and can be made well ahead in time. I've noticed that it stays well in the fridge for up to a week.

Method -
1. Over roast full bell peppers at 200C for 30-45 min, till the skin blackens.
2. Once roasted, keep them in an airtight container for 10 min.
3. When the peppers are still hot, peel the skin off and chop coarse.
4. Mix in washed parsley , oregano, sea salt, red chili flakes, grated/chopped garlic and extra virgin olive oil.
5. Store in an airtight container for up to a week

Zucchini Casserole

Baked tomatoes with garlic

Sometime last year, there was this chain-reaction-like thing. Everyone I knew was baking these tomatoes, and posting the pic on their timeline, and I could smell these beauties from within the comp. Yeah, that’s possible ;-)!

There is no recipe to this awesome dish, and there is no decided way in which you can use this too. I have mashed the baked tomatoes and used them as a dip when we feasted on a Mediterranean-type dinner. This goes well with garlic bread, or with bread sticks too. One time, I mashed it well, and used it as a pasta sauce. Then, there are a zillion times these tomatoes didn’t even make it out of this tray. I stood at the kitchen counter and polished off all of them in one go, many times! :)

Here’s how we make this -

1. Cut the tomatoes into halves along the spine and arrange in a bake-safe dish.
2. Crush garlic pods and insert into the tomatoes. ( I inserted an average of 3 thick pods for two halves).
3. Sprinkle sea-salt and pepper generously. Drizzle virgin olive oil more than generously on these halves.
4. I used my herbed olive oil, and even topped the halves with some of those herbs.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 C, and bake this for 60-90 min at 120 C or 140 C. (depends on the oven, I had to bake for 90 min). The key is to get a heavenly smell in the kitchen! 😄