Minced Meat Pizza/Breakfast-AND-Dinner of Champions.

I love pizza. I love breakfast.

Scratch that. I love good pizza and great breakfast.

Idli and filter coffee, frittatta and fruit, pancakes and espresso. Great breakfast.

Homemade pizza dough, bursting with three types of cheese, a rich tomato sauce and chunks of meat. Goooood pizza.

So, today, after all the dessert, Vegan and miscellaneous girlie food, I thought I'd post a recipe for minced-meat (kheema) pizza. You can use any ground meat, but the cooking time will vary depending on whether it's chicken, lamb or beef.

This recipe also does not require you to make a separate sauce or break the bank (non-existent in my case) on an expensive bottle of Ragu/pizza sauce. It's a stew on its own, which can be eaten with naan or Pav bread or over some Penne tossed with olive oil. It's versatile, one pot and man-approved. Win-win-win situation for us all.

And whether you want to top it with an egg is completely up to you. Some would love the yolk oozing over the beef and creating a hearty breakfast pizza (does the intro make sense now?) But make sure the people you're cooking for can take eggs, meat, cheese and bread in one go.

For a flavour boost, I'd suggest you used either stock cubes or packaged stock or if you can lay your hands on some, rehydrate porcini mushrooms in the hot stock. Yum.


Minced Meat "Breakfast" Pizza:

Ingredients:

Ground/minced meat - 400 grams (I used beef)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
400 grams tomatoes, pureed*
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 tbsp red chilli sauce
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 vegetable/beef bouillon cube
1/4 cup water
Dried oregano and basil-1 tbsp each.
Salt-to taste

To assemble:

1 onion, cut into thin slices
1 orange/red pepper, cut into thin slices
Tomato ketchup, mustard- to spread
Olive oil, for greasing
Egg-1 per pizza

*Tomato puree to be made in the mixie after boiling the tomatoes for around a minute, skinning them, deseeding them and removing excess water.

Method:

In a big pan, heat the olive oil on medium-high
.

Add in the minced meat after the pan has completely heated up. The meat should sizzle when it hits the pan.

Saute the meat for around 2 minutes, after which you can drain the excess fat.

Add in the onion and garlic. Saute over medium heat until the meat has browned and the onions have lightly browned.

Reconstitute the stock cube in 1/4 cup boiling water. Add it into the meat mix and cook until the water evaporates.

Add in the tomato puree, salt, ketchup, red chilli powder, pepper and sauce. Give it a good mix. Let it cook down on low heat. At this point, you can taste and see if your meat needs any extra seasoning.

Sprinkle in the dried herbs after the mixture has cooked downed.

To assemble:


I do not approve and wouldn't ever use this type of a pastry-ish white pizza base if I had my way.


Spread the pizza base with olive oil.

Coat it with 1 tsp tomato ketchup + 1/2 tsp mustard.

Add a portion of the meat.

Strew on the onion, bell pepper and cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven at 225 C for around 8 minutes.

Take it out, break an egg over the pizza (if desired) and bake for another 5 minutes. If you're not adding the egg, just bake until your cheese is gooey and the edges are browned.

Sprinkle on extra chilli flakes, hot sauce and oregano.

Dig in! And I mean it literally.

P.S. To the good people of Blogger. It's chiLLi, not chili, where I live. Annoyance.

Grilled Spicy Hamburgers/Juice-grease-peace.

See the little tag cloud on the right? Below those messy ads I've been meaning to clear up. It's been building up over the last few months. But the lack of reviews or meat dishes is astounding. It makes me seem like one of those "Indian love-marriage chicks who cook NV for their husbands" but are vegan/vegetarian themselves. I am most definitely not one of those.

I eat seafood by the platefull. My family thinks only poor people live without meat. So why does the blog not have any, right?

Because as much as I eat biryani and Prawn varuval, I can't cook those things with confidence. The Salmonella, over-cooking or raw meat thing is off-putting. You've seen Top Chef. You know how it goes.

As for the lack of reviews, does anybody want to know how the canteen food at the hospital I work at tastes? I got the specially-marked Renal Diet once (restricted food for patients on Dialysis and Chronic Kidney Failure). It's not good.

Am I allowed to use the adjective terrible for food? I don't want lightening to strike me. And I know 46% of Indians can't afford three square meals a day. So I won't say terrible.

Let's just say my social life is a little lacking at this point and move on? Shall we? OK.

As you might have guessed, I'm bringing out the meat. I've a big problem with red meat. I don't eat it. Unless, of course, it's minced very fine and hidden in a moussaka or a khuska kurma or koftas. And my Urdu-muslim man loves his meat.

And yeah. Burgers. Hamburgers. Hard to find in Chennai. If I wanted a cutlet in a bun, I'd have that. Call it what is. I wanted one of those burgers I've had in the US during my childhood. Double-patty, triple cheese, with a side of salty fries. And Diet Coke.

Do not skip the cheese or the mayo if you want juice and grease. Making
a mess is obligatory/inevitable.

So if you love yourself some burgers, but can't track down juicy, meaty, flavourful, grilled burgers... MAKE THEM YOURSELF. It isn't hard. Buy some minced meat. Throw in some seasoning. Fashion out some patties. Get yourself a macho man to grill those babies. Toss them in hamburger buns with store-bought condiments. Done. Which part of that is hard?

The macho man bit? I hear you.

Spicy Hamburgers with caramelized onions:

Roughly adapted from Nigella Lawson's Speedy Hamburger Recipe.

Ingredients:

500 g lamb/beef mince
1 tbsp yogurt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp tabasco sauce
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced

Bread crumbs, for binding

salt, pepper, chilli powder, to taste

Olive oil, for frying

Extras:

Cheddar cheese slices

Lettuce, tomatoes

Jalapenos, pickle

Mustard/ketchup/mayo

Method:

To caramelize onions:

In a non-stick pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil on medium. Add in the onions. Lower the heat. Add a little sugar, a little salt, and caramelize those onions until deep brown, but not burnt. 

This might take around 15 minutes.

To make the patties:

Mince the meat extra fine. Add the yogurt, soy and tabasco sauce, mix into the meat.

Add the chilli powder, salt, pepper, finally the caramelized onions and garlic and knead well.

If the mix isn't stiff enough to fashion out patties, add in a couple of tablespoons of bread crumbs and bind.

Form 6 or 8 balls out of the meat. Flatten it on a greaseproof paper into patties. Stow it in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Assembling the burgers:

Heat olive oil on a griddle. Cook the patties on medium heat for atleast 2 minutes on each side. You may need more.

If you're using cheese, cook the patty on one side, flip over, place the slice of cheddar cheese on the cooked side. It'll melt as the other side is cooking.

Toast the burger buns. Place the grilled patty. Add in the mayo, mustard, jalapenos/pickles, some more caramelized onions, and yes, ketchup.

And kindly ignore the onions rings I baked with semolina on the side. Half-hearted attempt at a healthy side.

Next time I'm making batterfried onion rings. The only thing that goes with Grease is Grease. And Diet Coke.

Moussaka/It's all Greek and Greek to me.

Logically, I should be exploring/exploiting my heritage/roots, in a Kylie Kwong-esque way (who I have total respect for, by the way). I should be telling you how to make idi appams (String hoppers) and coconut-milk stew. Or at least do a post on how to make 13 different types of chutneys to accompany your idlis. Instead, I give you yet another Greek-style dish.

I'm not crazy. Hear me out.

I'm sure you can make vadais better than I can. And I bet you anything there's a good Idli-Dosai kadai within a ten minute radius of your house. Assuming you're in Chennai/Madras, of course. If not... I'll work on it another night? Tonight, it's Moussaka.

The only time I've had Moussaka in Madras was at Kryptos. If you've read the post, you might remember how I raved like a lunatic over it. Meat and cheese in a tomato-onion-garlic broth? You seriously didn't think I'd be Googling around for Moussaka recipes and shoving one into the oven very, very soon?

It's like Lasagne, only with zucchini and Aubergines/Eggplant/Huge-ass Brinjal instead of the pasta sheets. It's hard to top that argument. Another thing Moussaka has going for it is that it is very Veggie-friendly. You can make a show-stopping, centre-piece style dish without any meat. I doubt even hardcore carnivores would miss the meat too much.

That's how thick the zucchini/courgette should be cut if you want it to stand out in the dish and have a bit of a bite to it. Replace with more potato and aubergine if you can't track it down at the greengrocers'!

Salt the aubergine well and let it drain the bitter juices out. Not dehydrating these babies and roasting them prior to using them in the Moussaka would be disastrous!

 This recipe is relatively healthy; I don't fry the potato or aubergine. I also sneak in a little garam masala because having an Indian palate, I can't eat meat unless it's well-spiced and well-cooked. Old habits don't die, let alone hard or not.

Moussaka.

Serves 6-8 hungry people.

Ingredients:

Method:

3 medium-sized potatoes, parboiled.

2 aubergines, sliced 

1 zucchini, sliced

500 g lamb meat, minced (can substitute with veg or tofu) 

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 onion, finely chopped

400 g tomato, pureed in the mixie

4 tbsp tomato paste or ketchup 

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp garam masala (yes, GARAM MASALA)

1 stick cinnamon

4-5 cloves

2 bay leaves

Olive oil, as required

For the bechamel

3 tbsp flour

3 tbsp butter

750 ml milk 

1 tsp nutmeg 

2 egg yolks

A handful of grated parmesan cheese or crumbled feta.

Salt and pepper

 Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 250° degrees centigrade.

2)Prepping the veggies:

Potatoes: Parboil for 15 minutes or so, so that it is cooked but not falling apart. Peel, cut into slices.

Brush with a little olive oil on both sides, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in an oven at 250 for 10-15 minutes.

Aubergines: Can be used peeled or not. Cut into slices. Salt them well and let it drain over a colander for 30 minutes. Discard the juice. Rinse the slices well. Pat dry with a kitchen towel or tissue. Brush with olive oil on both sides and roast in the oven for 15 minutes.

Zucchini: Slice and use.

3)For the meat filling:

In a hot pan, add the meat, little at a time, so it sears/sizzles the second it's put in the pan. Add a teaspoon olive oil if necessary.

When the meat is nicely browned, add the onions. Saute. When the onions are pinkish, add the garlic. Saute for a couple of minutes.

Add the tomato paste, mix well with the meat. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the tomato puree, mix well. Add the spices-bay leaves, cloves, cumin, cinnamon and garam masala(if using). Add salt and pepper, as per your taste. Mix until well combined.

Cook for 20-25 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally so that the bottom doesn't burn. Taste and adjust seasoning.

4)Bechamel sauce:

Heat the milk until warm, not boiling. Set aside. Bring another pan to heat. Add the butter. When melted, add the flour and stir.

Add the milk now to the roux and whisk until completely blended. Heat until the sauce is thick and bubbly. I used my Braun blender to get rid of the lumps.

Take the pan off the heat. Add the egg yolks, mix well.

Add salt, pepper, grated nutmeg and half the cheese.

5)Assembling the moussaka:

Layer the baking dish with half the potato slices.

Place on top, a layer of aubergine and zucchini slices.

Make a layer out of half the meat filling.

Place the remaining aubergine, zucchini and potato.

Add another layer of the meat sauce.

Finally, drown the whole thing with bechamel.

Sprinkle over the parmesan cheese.

6)Reduce the oven's temperature to 180 degrees centigrade. Bake the moussaka for 30 minutes. The top should be golden brown.

7)Take the moussaka out, and rest it at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Recipe source: loosely adapted from videojug.com

The moussaka is eaten warm, not hot. The resting stage is important, as the spices need to meld together. This is one of the dishes that taste best the next day, when all the components have marinated well in the tomato-y goodness. Sort of like biryani.

Speaking of biryani, that is also something we don't make at home because it'll be an insult to the marvel that biryani is. I grew up eating a lot of biryani, though, so if I come across or manage to cook up great biryani, I promise to share it with you guys. You don't even have to keep it a secret.