Simple n Savory

One of my friends suggested me to watch the movie, “Julie and Julia”. It was a nice one time watch. The movie was all about cooking but yet, not just cooking. Anyways, this is not a review article but a tasty and crispy recipe with a different approach! So, am watching this movie where the protagonist and her hubby are having dinner. What catches my eye is a small slice of bread with some colorful edible pieces on it. The protagonist was shown shallow-frying the bread slices. Well that was a clue, good enough I say!

The first thing was to get the right bread, the slice of which could resemble what I had seen. So the search began. Fortunately for me, I found a baguette (French bread stick). I guess any other bread should be fine. But this one makes it more presentable. With the baguette in the bag, the next issue was the “colorful edible pieces”. I had no clue what it was in the movie. Oh yes! I didn’t even know if that was meant to be an appetizer or a desert. So it was upto me, to make it up.

I love such freedom in cooking. Somehow, I feel, cooking is an expression… expression of thoughts, feelings and freedom! Many a times cooking has helped me discard a bundle of sorrow, frustration and all not so good feelings. The aroma of food, the thought process in answering the question “What to cook?” and also the internal brainstorming for ingredients is simply amazing. I love to experiment with food. For me there are no defined rules for cooking or selection of ingredients. It’s a symphony of the spices and the base ingredient (BI). The BI by itself may not be the right note, but with the right amount of the right spice (condiment) it strikes a purrrfectt chord! At the end of the day, “good food” is all about being primarily edible, then palatable and at its best, presentable. To top it off, good food accompanied with good music (acchhaa khaanaa aur gaanaa) is bliss!

So to tackle the issue of “colorful edible pieces” I deployed green pepper (capsicum), tomatoes, and onions.All were finely and uniformly cut, so as to form small cubes. A perfect sauté (shallow fry for less than 2 minutes or stir fry) with red chilli powder, salt, and a pinch of chaat masala or sandwich masala gave me what I was searching for… the mysterious “colorful edible pieces”. Once that was done I sliced the baguette in small oval discs about 1.5 cm thick and then smeared both its sides with a small quantity of butter. Butter has a taste of its own. The health freaks frown at it, but a connoisseur knows that it’s the crown jewel of any cuisine (fact corroborated even in Julie and Julia :) ) ! As soon as the buttering was done, those slices were slid down a shallow pan with just 2 tea-spoons of oil for 5 slices of baguette. The shallow fry in oil and butter gave it a golden brown color to the slices. Not letting it char was the key!!

Once the slices are ready, put the “colorful edible pieces” (about a spoonful for one slice). I then garnished it with finely chopped cilantro (coriander). A presentable appetizer was ready in about 30 minutes (from cutting to frying and serving).