Sunday breakfast and filo-sophical experiments

Surviving without the gas (still) is, unfortunately, equal to surviving without a stove. Everything has to be either baked or steamed.  I don’t complain – I like it that way, only it makes breakfast choices rather limited… But necessity is a mother of invention and, in this case, worked quite well. Apart from smoothies, overnight porridge and sandwiches, I started making egg cups and I love it! Not only they are delicious, but they look cute too.

I usually mix ingredients into egg white, and top the whole thing with egg yolk – works the same but looks much better. 

Salmon cup – whole egg with pinch of salt and pepper baked till set, topped with smoked salmon and caper

Parmesan cup – egg white mixed with 1/2 tsp of flour, ½ tsp of  powdered flax seeds, pinch of salt and Italian herbs; topped with egg yolk and caper, sprinkled with parmesan and baked till set

Pesto cup – egg white mixed with ½ tsp of pesto and 1 tsp of wheat bran and pinch of salt; topped with egg yolk and baked till set, topped with mozzarella slice and olive – baked till cheese melts

Zucchini cup – egg white mixed with ½ tsp of bread crumbs, grated zucchini, grated mozzarella, pinch of salt and Italian spices, topped with egg yolk, baked till set

Potato cup – egg mixed with 1 tsp of flour, grated potato, garlic, pinch of salt and pepper; baked till set then topped up with greek yogurt

 

Apart from giving my muffin forms good exercise, I decided to check out the filo pastry. Somehow, I never tried it before coming to India, and here… Well… finding normal butter is a challenge. Couple of days back I found few packets of frozen filo and was jumping for joy.

I’m dying to make baklava, but I didn’t want to start with such a project hence experimentation. Instead I made nutella – almond rolls. Turns out, filo is not only delicious, but also very easy to work with and quite forgiving. I just stacked stripes of pastry, brushing with peanut oil in between, then smeared some nutella with almond flakes on top and rolled. Yummy!