Jazzed up veggie sandwich

Toasted fresh veggie sandwich with honey mustard and pickled ginger. How does that sound? Delish, I know. I love fresh veggie sandwiches because they're easy to make and can be quickly customized to suit your tastebuds. There's an infinite number of ways you can tweak the flavours with different breads, spreads, vegetables and relishes. My mom bought pickled ginger a while ago - the type you get with your sushi - and I've been experimenting with it as a topping. I found that it complements the mellow mozzarella and sweet honey mustard perfectly.

 

If you love sandwiches (like me!) and you're looking to try new flavours, give this combination a try!

Tomato Salsa with Calamansi Orange

 

I've been told that this is pico de gallo, but after researching various ways of making pico de gallo, I can assure you that this isn't pico de gallo. I'm not sure how this came about but my family calls this "salsa" although, after researching various ways of making salsa, this is certainly not salsa either. Nevertheless, it is one of my family's favourite side dishes. I first came across this recipe in a food/travel show on Discovery channel hosted by Padhma Lakshmi. She was visiting a papadum factory and at the end of the show, they served this concoction as a simple way to enjoy papadums. 

This recipe is exactly the same one I saw in that episode - it's so easy and simple that I didn't even need a pen and paper to write it down. All it takes is prepping the ingredients, chopping them and mixing everything together.

I used calamansi oranges because they're a little sweeter and more fragrant, but you can use any kind of lime juice you have on hand. This salsa is also really dynamic - you can serve it alongside savoury rice dishes like biryani or pilau, or as dips for papadums, chips or nachos.

Alternatively, you can spoon the salsa onto nacho chips, sprinkle grated cheddar overtop, place them under the broiler for 3-4 minutes and serve on a platter.

Continue reading after the jump for the super easy recipe.

Zucchini pizza bites

"Zucchini? Yes, please. Zucchini pizza bites? Marry me!"

That's my stream of thought when I saw this recipe on The Comfort of Cooking. As I've mentioned in a previous post, zucchinis are currently my ulitmate favourite vegetable so I'm always on the lookout for recipes using these delectable moss-coloured squashes. I must have stared at the computer screen for a full minute after I stumbled upon this recipe.

I have to be honest, though, and tell you that the recipe had me at "zucchini". I didn't realize what a bonus the rest of the ingredients were until I assembled each "bite". The fun part of this recipe was that I got to play around with toppings. This made preparing and eating these little bites so much fun!

 The recipe only takes about fifteen minutes so this is definitely going into my bank of quick bites. I decided to jazz things up a bit with a few extra toppings but you can definitely make these with just the sauce, cheese and herbs.

A few extra tips for beginners:
1. Be sure to cut the zucchini slices no less than 1/4" in thickness and to grill them on medium high heat just enough to brown, NOT to cook through. This is important to ensure the zucchini slices will be firm enough to hold their toppings and keep some of their crunch.
2. If you're using relatively small zucchinis, as I was, cut them diagonally to get more surface area for your toppings.
3. Finely shred your cheese. If you're using pre-shredded ones, chop them up well. Long or thick strips of cheese might not fit well on the slices.
4. I used some left-over spaghetti sauce, but any marinara or pizza sauce should do the trick.
5. Feel free to substitute the vegetable toppings, cheese and and herbs to something of your liking.

How fabulous do these look?

Get the step-by-step guide and recipe after the jump.

Cheese stuffed grape tomatoes

Every summer, my parents zealously plan and work on their vegetable garden. Last year, we got over zealous with our tomatoes and peppers so this year, we decided to scale down so we don't end up with rotten unpicked vegetables on the ground. There was some improvement, but we still ended up with LOADS of tomatoes. Fortunately, we discovered the sweetness of vine-ripened tomatoes and have since learned to snack on freshly-picked tomatoes. Beside that, I also got to experiment with different - and SIMPLE - ways to enjoy tomatoes. One of my favourite is stuffing them with cheese.

I simply cut the tops off the tomatoes and gauged them slightly to make room for the cheese stuffing. I then added about one table spoon of olive oil to my baking dish and tossed the tomatoes in it. I found this step to be helpful because I can see how much tomatoes I need to fit them all snugly in the dish*. I cut Monterey Jack cheese into small cubes - about 1/8" by 1/2", but it depends on the size of your tomatoes and how much cheese you want in each. The next step is simply to push each cheese cube into the tomatoes. Some of the seeds would overflow out of the tomatoes - let these fall back into the dish and they'll make for a richer tomato-flavoured sauce! Finally, season lightly with salt and pepper, sprinkle some chopped basil or cilantro overtop and bake for 15 minutes at 350F. 

I would suggest letting the tomatoes stand for a few minutes before serving because the hot cheese inside could be an unpleasant surprise. I know, the waiting can be hard but it's worth it. Enjoy!

*Filling the baking dish snugly with tomatoes helps keep them upright, thus keeping the cheese inside the tomatoes rather than spilling over and filling the dish.