Valentine's Day Special #1 / No-bake fudgey Chocolate Peanut-butter cookies.

There are sometimes in life when Chocolate becomes a necessity. So much of a necessity that you consider getting a Continuous Ryle's Tube feeding of molten chocolate.

It could be post-breakup, especially when Valentine's Day and celebrity couples of amalgamated nomenclature and your late-teenaged neighbour flaunt their Two-Hearts-One-S***holeSoul status. It could be post-midnight, when all the shops selling candy (of the chocolate, not the substance-abuse variety) are closed. It could be post weddings of grandeur and younger cousins popping out babies; seats of higher-education or topnotch jobs gained. You're truly happy for them, but this gives you a fat nasty dose of Reality.

There's also another females-only situation.

Science recognizes this as the big M. Men may know this as a time in life where you've been forced to lie "you? Fat?! You're painfully skinny!" As for the women, I feel for you. I really do.

Apart from throwing back a couple of Meftal-Spas 500 and drinking black tea and doing your version of pranayamas, this is the only solution I have for you.

Load up on the carbohydrates, banish the bloat-inducing salt.

And by carbohydrates, I mean Sugar. Quite a bit of it. But there's also heaps of oats, peanut butter and milk, so it should cancel out, by the laws of Denial.

These No bake cookies require no oven. They require no eggs. They require no patience. And they taste bloody good. This is the closest I've got to Z's Fantastic Chocolate-Peanut Butter fudge, the ones I used to beg her to make (so good!) and not make (fattening). Of course, she would be outraged at the addition of oats.

This recipe is made out of pantry staples.

And if you close your eyes and add a little more salt, you can pretend these are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yum!

No-Bake Fudgey Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies:

(Adapted from Food Network)

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups white, granulated sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter (smooth is preferred, I used chunky)

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

3 cups oatmeal (instant oats)

1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Method:

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, whisk together the sugar, butter, cocoa and milk. Place the pan over high heat.

Bring it to a foamy boil, and let it boil for exactly one minute.

If it isn't nicely reduced and fudgey, boil for 30 seconds more.

Whisk in the peanut butter, vanilla essence, salt (if using) first.

Add in the oats.

If the mix is too runny, you can add a couple of tablespoons of oats. If it's too stiff, thin it out with a teaspoon of milk or peanut butter.

Place scoops of cookie dough onto a sheet of waxed paper or aluminium foil.

It will ideally set in its shape at room temperature, but if you live in Madras, refrigerate!

Things to do with the cookies:

Eat with milk for breakfast.

Eat by yourself in pajamas while watching one of Woody Allen's movies.

Pack them and give to your loved ones.

Invite a friend over and gossip/b**ch/polambify for hours over these.

Or if you have a boring life, you can chase random brats who steal your cookies and run out when you aren't looking.

This is Zaad's happy/hungry face. People say he takes after me.

You can easily halve the recipe and still get at least a dozen large cookies. Which will keep, wrapped in foil, for around a week in the refrigerator in a normal household and three hours in mine. There's just one niggling thought.

Please make it with Nutella and tell me how if it matches up to all my daydreams/fantasies.

P.S.: This post is dedicated to some skinny-yet-strong women:

Rad (who asked for egg-less); for Spica (who asked for more non-NEWT-y recipes); for Anisha L (cupcake liners and making me mildly famous!); for A, who would have eaten it with no regard to "calories-and-crap"; for Z, who made me fudge for the first time and for funding my two-Reese-cups-per day habit (for a whole week); for Sarbee (who likes her chocolate-laden cookies, but has no oven) and for Nigbe (who pretends to hate Valentine's Day, but is a closet romantic and the happiest when true-love stories do work out).

Ramadan Kareem, Part 2/Herbed Grape-and-Cheese Panini.

Ramadan is drawing to a close. I'm going to miss sleeping for long hours, nights spent in prayer and frantic Eid shopping. I'm going to miss dusk spent around the dining table, the sweetness of the first date after long hours of fasting and being given a free pass to laze around work/chores. And being a seasoned foodie, missing out on my daily dose of nombu kanji comes as a big blow.

Amidst the flurry of last-minute activities, it's hard to cook up a decent iftiari. This leads to a lot of deep-fried food being bought and on Day 28, I've long exceeded my grease quota. I can't face another soggy samosa that has been twice-cooked in its own steam in the takeaway foil-box.

To prevent a mini-fight (fight is the wrong word, really, since that leads to an invalid fast) of sorts, I tend to make a lighter dish that everybody says is unnecessary or claims to not want, but gobbles up along with their samosa-vada-cutlet, any way.

This is one of those classic raid-your-fridge sandwiches. Good, crusty, wholegrain bread. A hunk of good cheese. A handful of plump, sweet grapes. You've got yourself a sandwich.

I can't extol the virtues of a panini maker enough. Enough praises have been sung/spoken on this blog, but please, please get one.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to be a little bit of a bread snob and say that you can skip this recipe if all you've got is white Modern/Wonder bread. In that case, I'd toast my white bread and spread jam on it or make french toast. Not this panini. I've completely adapted this from Jamie Oliver's pizza recipe, and you know it's sacrilege to use trans-fat/mass-produced/plastic food in a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Also, the cheese can be anything except sliced pre-packaged American cheese. Feta, good. Cheddar, good. Parmesan, good. Pecorino Romano, great! The salty cheese holds it shape, and contrasts beautifully with the sweetness of the honey, the herbiness of the rosemary, the crustiness of the bread and the grapes were a hot, yummy mess at the end of the grilling. Whew.

Herbed Grape-and-Cheese Panini:

Ingredients:

8 slices whole-grain bread

4 tbsp honey (I used saffron honey)

1 tsp dried rosemary

1/3 cup crumbled Pecorino Romano cheese

24 grapes

Olive oil or butter, for greasing

Method:

Cut the grapes into half. Deseed the grapes and keep them aside.

Take two slices of bread and butter them on one side. I skipped this part. On the unbuttered side, arrange the sliced grapes, cheese. Drizzle with honey, sprinkle with rosemary.

Close the sandwich with the other slice of bread. Pop it into the preheated panini maker until the sides are golden brown. Repeat with the remaining slices of bread.

I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil for greasing, because I wanted a more savoury sandwich. The others however, liked their sandwich, pancakes-style, with a pat of butter and some more honey.

This should ideally be served steaming hot.

And rest assured, I'll be making this in different forms; on a cracker (post-gym food!), as bruschetta and as Pizza (the way Jamie intended it to be).

Get some water boiling for the tea, grill these babies and wrap yourself in a blanket. Nobody can fight/be unhappy with butter and honey and bread in their system. Tested and true.

Mock Caramel Corn/Sticky Date Popcorn!

I've got so much flak over posting exclusively fattening, buttery, unhealthy recipes on the blog, that I've decided to do something about it. As much as I want to post about W's birthday cake (Devil's food cake, layered with strawberry filling and a rich chocolate ganache, frosted with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream, and has a chocolate-y glaze on top), I've decided to go down the healthier route. For a change.

Caramel Popcorn is something I adore. I've used the L-word too many times to describe food, but I truly, really am head-over-heels in Love with Caramel Popcorn. I eat it by the tub. I make unholy amounts of it and eat handfuls of sugary, buttery caramel corn straight out of the pressure cooker. Still don't believe me? I buy the burnt, overpriced, undercaramelized popcorn that is sold at Sathyam/Escape and eat every last morsel and fight the urge to buy another tub.

However, it is an indulgence, even for me. Instead of quitting caramel corn cold turkey, I browsed for healthier alternatives. And quite accidentally, I landed up finding a fantastic recipe for sticky "caramel" corn.

It's vegan (except for the honey?), mostly healthy, and delicious. Nope, it isn't caramel corn, but it isn't your birthday or the day you found out that the guy you were crushing on has a girlfriend, is it? So if caramel corn is uncalled for, make this sticky date popcorn. You can have it on any given day and not feel so terribly guilty, it keeps you up at night.

Sticky Date Popcorn

Ingredients:

1/4 cup popping corn
8 Medjool dates
3 tbsp vegetable/canola oil
5 tbsp honey (I used Kashmiri Saffron honey)
1 tsp vanilla essence
a pinch of salt

Method:

Pop the corn via the method of choice.

I popped it in the pressure cooker with a pinch of salt and a couple of teaspoons of oil. I got around 8 cups of usable popcorn and that should be just about right.

Soak the dates with 2 tbsp of water for an hour or two.

Use very good quality dates, please!

Remove the pits and grind it to a fine paste in the food processor/mixie.

In a small bowl, heat the oil, honey and vanilla. Add in the dates and bring to a boil. Simmer it down for a minute more, and pour the sticky sauce over the popcorn. Mix well.

If you play around with the proportions, you can make this even healthier. Total post-gym snack food. Or something you pick away at, in front of the TV. Or eat an entire batch, in lieu of dinner.

Or make batches of caramel popcorn and kettle corn as well, and have a popcorn buffet party. Things to live for.

Cinnamon Rolls, creme de la creme style.

I seem to be on a bit of an old-school kick lately. It started with the Apple Crumble. I couldn't get over how the whole house smelt like when those apples were baking in the cinnamon-butter. Less than a couple of days later, I had one of those baking urges... it may or may not have been triggered by the fresh yeast I found at Nilgris.

Bread. Nothing like bread to help get over a stressful day at work. It feels like an accomplishment, when it's golden and soft and beautiful. When it flops, you'll feel like a failure, but that's just an occupational hazard.

How does one max the whole bread-baking experience to the extreme? Bring out the lovelies, of course-whole sticks of cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg; dark brown sugar that'll melt into the honey-butter to give out sizzling caramel and a bevy of nuts and dried fruit.

They all go and make the delicious wonder that are Cinnamon Rolls.

Cinnamon rolls are hard to come across in Madras. And when you do, they're an insult to cinnamon rolls. It makes you angry, almost, that these bakeries/shops can underestimate "uncultured Madrasis" and give us a sad, stale bun and call it a cinnamon roll. Eejits.

You can fight for your right for authentic cinnamon rolls. Or just make them yourself, already. Bet you knew that was coming!

So when it comes to searching for the recipe, I have two off-the-top of my head options. The Pioneer Woman has a kickass recipe for old-fashioned cinnamon rolls. Joy ups your regular cinnamon roll by dabbing on cream cheese. I took the goodness out of both the recipes, threw in my secret Spiced-sugar mix and used gorgeous, gorgeous fresh yeast in the place of Active Dry and oooh, baby. Bakery-style cinnamon rolls.

I made one batch healthy (relatively, at least), by cutting down the sugar and butter, replacing half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat and Nutralite instead of butter, the whole nine yards. The result was relatively delicious-a hot, fluffy bun you could enjoy with your morning cuppa that won't make you feel like your morning run went for a toss with two bites.

And the other batch, I went all out. Pecans, walnuts, raisins. REAL "cake" butter. Coorg honey by the spoonful. And white, white flour. Sticky, sweet cinnamon buns with caramelized nuts embedded between flaky bits of the roll. They need no frosting or glaze, but if you like Cinnabon and Krispy Kreme doughnuts, you could try coating it with glaze... And let me know once you crash from the sugar-high. I'm not judging; I'm a believer in the occasional sugar high.

I'll post the recipe for the uber-yummy batch. Mail me if you want the healthy one, don't be shy... told you I won't judge.

And the process might sound a bit complicated, so a full read-through could save you from potentially expensive disasters.

Cinnamon Rolls.

Ingredients:

4 cups whole milk.
1 cup vegetable oil.
1 cup granulated white sugar.
9 cups All-purpose flour (maida)
2 packed tablespoons Fresh yeast (or 4.5 tsps Instant Dry Yeast)
1 tsp baking powder.
1 tsp baking soda.
1 tsp salt.

For the filling:

3/4 cup butter.
2 tablespoons honey.

1/2 cup brown sugar.
1-1/4 cups white sugar, powdered
1 whole cinnamon bark-roll (or loads of powdered cinnamon)
5 cloves.
1/4 tsp nutmeg, grated.
1/2 cup pecans, chopped.
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped.
1/2 cup raisins.

Method:

In a bowl, combine the milk, vegetable oil and sugar. Mix well and place over a medium flame. Just before it comes to a boil, take it off the heat. Cool it for 45 minutes to one hour.

Dissolve the yeast in a ladleful of the warm (NOT HOT) mix. Add it back into the pan. After a minute, add 8 cups of All-purpose flour and fold it into the milk. Cover the bowl, keep aside in the warmest area of your kitchen for an hour.

After an hour, it will look like this. Add one more cup of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir the mix together. At this point, the dough can be wrapped with cling film and kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Making the spice mix:

Blitz the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg together. To this powdered mix, add the chopped nuts and raisins. Keep aside.

Making the rolls.

Place half the dough on a well-floured clean work surface/marble-ish counter top.

Roll it out into a rough rectangle.

Roll the rectangle out some more until it's just a tiny bit thicker than you would roll for parathas.

Pour half the melted butter over it. Pour a tablespoonful of honey over the butter. Sprinkle half your sugar-spice mix.

Massage it all into the dough.

Start rolling the dough from left to right.

Cut it into slices.

Place the rolls in a well-greased and foil-ed baking tray. Leave enough space between the rolls. Let them rise for 30 minutes.

In the meanwhile, preheat your oven to 180 C or 350 F.

The rolls would have puffed up some more. Bake for 20-25 minutes until they are golden and puffy.

You can sprinkle extra sugar-spice mix over the hot rolls or dab some cream cheese on them or making a simple glaze with a little buttermilk and icing sugar.

The only downside is that these have to be eaten in a day. I refrigerated the plastic-wrapped, unbaked rolls for a couple of days (remember to let them thaw out for 30 minutes before putting them into the oven) and they came out just as good great.

I know I've been posting errantly, thanks to the unholy hours of my new job. But if leaking out my cinnamon roll recipe isn't saying Sorry enough, I don't know what is.

Breakfast Panini with Eggs, Mushrooms and Peppers/The CSK sandwich!

Yellow is the colour du jour. Why? Yellow is the colour of the Chennai Super Kings, who have undoubtedly proven themselves to be the most kick-ass cricket team, ever. In honour of them opening the first match of the season, I thought I'd do my bit by making tribute food and yelling myself hoarse when they win.

The natural choices would be lemon bars or cheesecake. But then I got this whole Breakfast-of-Champions idea in my head and set to making a panini. Not that I'm saying you can't have lemon bars for breakfast. Would I ever do that?

This panini has eggs, mushrooms, yellow bell-peppers and cheddar cheese between two glorious pieces of bread. You can close your eyes, and each explosive bite might fool you into thinking it could be a pizza or a taco (with a little bit of imagination).

But I strongly suggest you keep them open and enjoy the goodness that panini is!

I'm giving you the recipe for what I made. Play around with it. Change the cheese, change the spread. Throw in chillies or baby spinach, whatever makes your palate sing. If it isn't for breakfast, you can even add bits of poached or grilled chicken. And as always, a sandwich press or a griddle can sub in for a panini press.

CSK-inspired Panini:
(Makes 4 paninis)

Ingredients:

8 slices whole-wheat bread
1 Yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
200g Mushrooms, sliced
Extra-virgin olive oil-1 tsp
Dried oregano & Chilli flakes, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste.
Spread of your choice-Cheese spread, muhammara, mint chutney, mayo.

Method:

1)Place a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add in the olive oil. When heated, add the mushrooms and saute for a minute (just before the water starts coming out). Add salt, pepper and herbs to taste. Keep it aside.

2)Prepare the eggs to your liking. Simple sunny-side up eggs, an egg-white omelette, poached eggs, etc.

I did them sunny-side up, with a pinch of salt and black pepper. I kept yolks runny, so that when you cut into it, it makes a delicious mess.

3)Shred the cheddar cheese and keep aside. You can use feta or parmesan, but I like cheddar in this; it melts like mozzarella except that it's got some sharpness to it.

4)Assembling the sandwiches:

Dab on the spread of your liking on a slice of bread. I used Britannia's Coriander and Mint Cheese Spreadz. You can skip it altogether, to keep it healthy and add extra herbs.

Add a quarter portion of the mushrooms, cheddar cheese, yellow bell pepper and half an egg to each sandwich.

Sprinkle on some dried chilli flakes/cayenne for some extra heat.

5)Close with another slice of bread and put it onto the heated panini press.

Recipe Source: My own! Yay!

Serve hot with mustard (for the punch and an extra bit of yellow).

I do hope they win. And even if they don't (no!!!), maybe I'll whip up something else next time. Do you think a pineapple or mango dessert will be luckier charms?

Eat. Eat. Love.

"Weekdays la weekend-ukku wait pannu vome."

That's just a lame line from the comedy track of an equally lame movie. Tamil movies are rampant with guys-with-no-jobs or whatever. But seriously, who doesn't count the hours until it's Friday/Saturday? Mostly to catch up on The Simpsons. Or if you feel like losing money the good way (eating, duh/d'oh), here are the places I emptied my wallet at, recently.

I would like to warn you though. Vegetarians, all of it is... not vegetarian.

And my meat-eating friends, all of it is chicken.

1) Bombay Sheek House:

Saturday night. You've just watched a movie/play/concert. It's 8:30 PM. And you've landed up on Greams Road. The popcorn didn't fill you up enough to last through dinner. Maybe you're lucky enough to have an extended curfew, and even luckier to have a couple of hours to kill, driving down to the beach. Make a pitstop at Fruit Shop. Get yourself a drink (Lime Mint Cooler/Fruit Cocktail Regular/Jughead's Special are the ones I order, depending on how generous I feel that day).

My vegetarian friends could arm themselves with a frankie/vada pav from Tibbs. Highly doubt they've stuck around after the warning, though.

A metre or so away, inside the Fruit Shop parking lot, is an incredible little kebab joint which had been unnamed until recently. Now it's called Bombay Sheek House (or was it Corner?). Not a very creative name, I know. But this place is not about creating miniscule portions of fancy food. More about serving amazingly cooked, amazingly spiced, tender old-fashioned kebabs in a jiffy.

This wasn't even on the menu. We asked for chicken tikka, in a roomali roti. I almost couldn't finish it, it was that filling. And I did finish it, because it was that good! Cost hardly 70 bucks.

2)If you decide to drive down to the beach straight, I know you'll go to Pupil. Duh, again. We're talking about Besant Nagar beach, right? (Marina after seven is just plain dangerous). Next to Pupil, there's another multi-cuisine-ish shack now, where we ordered a plate of Haryali Chicken Tikka.

It was expensive. And good, but the expense of it is what I remember more. Around eight little pieces cost about 130 bucks. Which sounds reasonable, I guess. Not at a little shack, but in a non-descript, yellow-lit room with cutlery. Still. You have the beach as part of the bargain.

3)And the last two chicken dishes are from Sparkys. They won't be good, taken away or eaten in the car. This is the kind of thing that takes approximately two hours to finish. See for yourself. Sunday lunch, maybe?

The promised photo of the Breaded Chicken Wrap! With a side of wedges (I've raved enough about those!) and a honey-mustard and buffalo sauce. Comes up to Rs.160 or so, plus tax, which is justifiable on a Sunday (no?). However, if it's a celebratory lunch of some sort, go ahead and order the...

The Grilled Chicken American meal. Two chicken breasts, spiced with a cajun rub consisting of cayenne pepper, garlic powder and the like. Grilled to perfection. Served with sauteed veggies (squash, zucchini, local produce), potato wedges, gravy AND a salad. All amounting to Rs. 210. Proper paisa vasool, if you ask me.

I also dined and lunched recently at two of the very best places at Madras (one south-Indian and the other Greek/Cypriot-any guesses?), so look out for those reviews!

And on a less happy note, I've given up on those pants. Don't even ask. Sigh.

12 ways to make a sandwich. And a tuna melt. 13.

Weekends have no rules. Sleep/don't sleep. Work/preferably don't. Eat like skinny jeans don't exist. And then comes Monday, like a strict school-teacher, all uppity and annoying. Meals have to be on the go. Or they have to be made and consumed within the span of minutes. Enter the panini press!

I've raved enough about mine, so I'll spare you this time. Except to say that you need to go buy one if you don't have it already. Stat.

Spy around the house for ingredients. Put them all in a bowl, season to taste. Place between two slices of bread. Toast it in the panini press. Finis. If you are running out of ideas, read on!

Since people keep asking me why I have 13 in the blog-address, I'd like to clarify: apart from it being a number I love, it's simply because I didn't get the original address I wanted. And to pay homage to the number, I'm going to give you thirteen simple ways you can make a sandwich.

1)Peanut butter+mashed banana in white bread-grilled-drizzled with honey.

2)Slices of boiled egg, sprinkled with pepper and salt in wholegrain bread. Grilled, drizzled with extravirgin olive oil.

3)Mediterranean sandwich.

4)Grate paneer. Grate equal amounts of cucumber (Drained completely). Add chopped garlic, pepper, salt. Serve on bread toasted with olive oil.

5)A plain omelette, mint chutney and a slice of Amul cheese between two pieces of Modern bread! If you're up to it, mash up some boiled potatoes with chilli powder and salt. Courtesy: Balaji Sandwich stall.
For more authenticity, put this in a triangle-sandwich machine, and eat some "timepass cucumber" while it cooks.

6)Bruschetta.

7)Sliced apples, raisins and crunchy peanut butter, a sprinkle of cinnamon in wholewheat bread. Grill it, or lunch-box it.

8)Mash a couple of garlic cloves into some mayo, spread it on a slice of bread and toast it with chilli flakes and oregano. Garlic bread!

9)Mint chutney, slices of tomato, onion, cucumber and boiled potato, with a tiny sprinkling of chaat masala. Wrap it in a piece of newspaper. Decorate with little blobs of ketchup.

10)Defrost a burger patty. Grill it/pan-fry it. Place between slices of thick white bread, spread with mayo, mustard and chopped jalapenos.

11)Pizza-sandwich: Pizza sauce, cheese, herbs and similar toppings spread on flatbread (pita/roti) and baked. If it's for a non-gourmet 6-year-old, you can just put ketchup and a slice of cheese on bread and bake it for 10 minutes.

12)Spread Nutella on white bread. Slice a banana and arrange it on the nutella'd bread. Cover it with another slice of white bread. Grill, and serve. You know what I'd do though? Screw the sandwich, and just eat plain Nutella by the spoonful. Mmmmmm!!!!

13)Tuna Melts (or not):
(Serves two. Or not).

Ingredients:

4 slices wholewheat bread
1/3 cup of flaked tuna (from a tin)
1 cup chopped cabbage (can be substituted with iceberg lettuce)
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
6 black olives, pitted and sliced
Pepper and salt, to taste.
1 slice of American/Amul Cheese (optional)

Method:

1)Preheat the panini press.

2)Chop up the cabbage into fine dice. If you're using lettuce, the pieces can be bigger.

3)I used tuna in sunflower oil. Yes, the image of the smiling fish is off-putting.

 Try to drain the oil off the tuna, especially if you're using mayonnaise and cheese. Tuna in brine, and tuna in olive oil are brilliant, as well.

4) In one bowl, mix the tuna, cabbage/lettuce, olives, mayonnaise and mustard. Add pepper and salt to taste.

5)Stuff the filling between two slices of bread. Add cheese, if using. Grill it on the panini press until golden brown.

I dipped mine in KFC's Hot 'N' Chilly Sauce. Pick up packets of mustard and ketchup at those chain-restaurants. Trust me, the amount you pay should override any guilt. It's also convenient; drop in a couple into your tiffin box.

And if there is anything you should be guilty about, it's eating at KFC. Perceive it anyway you want.

Panini. And then some.

You know how Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle Home have a section devoted to kitchen appliances? I behave like a kid set free in a candy store there. Actually, I behave like me-post-diet in a candy store there.

After much grovelling, I made Mum buy us a panini-maker (Morphy Richards). Ever since it made its appearance, the humble triangle-sandwich maker has been hibernating in the dark recesses of the store cupboard. You can grill vegetables and meat, toast bread, cook a burger patty... I don't know if the warranty will be valid after the first couple of crazy tries, but there's a tasty way to find out!

I made this panini on one of those days I had to fend for myself. And since I've got a lousy exam in ten days, I have to pretend I've mugged 100 Multiple-Choice-Questions instead of cooking up a storm. Plus, I was hungry and I needed food. Fast.

There's no set recipe as such. We've all made a version of this sandwich on that hungry day. Open your refrigerator. Find the most appealing thing there. Make a sandwich out of it. Think peanut butter, mustard, tuna, apples, eggs, anything.

My eyes fell on a can of black olives (un-pitted and un-fun). When I pulled it out, I discovered. the holy grail. A nice block of Feta cheese. Feta cheese is difficult to find. Even Nilgris, to whom I'm eternally loyal to, does not steadily retail it. And when it is, you can go home knowing that you spent 125 bucks on a small bar of cheese, but it is money well-spent.

Salty, crumbly cheese; half-a-handful spins the humble sandwich and churns out a Grilled Mediterranean Panini, one that you pay close to 200 bucks for at French Loaf.

Grilled Mediterranean Panini

Ingredients:

Bread-8 slices

1 yellow pepper, cut into strips

1 red pepper, cut into strips

1 small onion, diced

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 tomatoes, deseeded and chopped

Spinach- 1 cup, washed very carefully and shredded

Feta cheese- 3/4th of a cup

Olive Oil-1 tbsp

Dried Herbs (Basil, Oregano, Thyme)

Black Pepper, crushed or Chilli Flakes- to taste.

Extra ingredients of your choice- not authentic, but your palate won't complain, will it?

I add olives and jalapenos. You can add mozzarella cheese, capers, an omelette or maybe even sneak in leftover grilled chicken.

Method:

Prep the vegetables. You can substitute the peppers with zucchini or plain old capsicum if that's what you find at the grocer's. Do not use raw eggplant in a quest to get Greek-y. That needs the eggplant to be sliced thin, salted, rested, drained and pan-fried. Try keeping the proportions even though.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Put all of the vegetables except the spinach on a foil-lined tray (Yes, I know spinach isn't a vegetable... either way, don't add it here). Toss them with the Olive Oil. Extra-virgin would be a treat. OK. I'm lying. Extra-virgin is a necessity.

You'll notice how salt isn't added here. Feta cheese is naturally very salty so a forgotten addition would lead to a Sodium OverDose. Experience is the best albeit an expensive teacher.

Throw them into the oven and let it roast away for 20 minutes. Make sure the oven setting is on Bake or Broil. You'll know when it's done; the kitchen will smell heavenly.   

When the veggies look blistered and caramelized, take them out. Chop up the garlic in it.

They don't have much of a taste right now. Stay cool.

 Add in the feta, spinach (yes, raw spinach), herbs, pepper, and the aforementioned Additions-of-your-choice. Toss it all again. Taste it. Add extra olive oil, salt (if you need it), chilli flakes (if it's not hot enough).

Place a scoop of it between two slices of bread (butter it if you're lucky enough to be able to afford to). If you're serving it to company, try ciabatta or a honey-mustard bread. I used Modern Multi-grain bread; that'll do nicely for my face for weekday brunch.

 The pre-heated panini maker would do the rest. If you don't have one, any normal griddle greased with a little olive oil would do. As long as it doesn't smell of Masala Dosa.

When it's steaming inside and gorgeously crisp on the outside, it's ready!

You can also stuff the mixture into a roti and call it a wrap. You could place it on top of sliced baguettes and stick them in the oven, and they come out as bruschetta. You can stuff it into Pita bread with Tzatziki. You can make Quesadillas, heck, even triangle-sandwiches, with them. Puristas will cry. But you'll thank me for it.