Pepper and Red Onion Melt

Lunch Option: Pepper and Red Onion MeltAnother lunch option which is vegetarian as well as low on calories and saturated fat! Most things that are smothered with cheese are high in saturated fat, but lighter choices like Mozzarella thinly sliced is much better than melting cheddar. Plus you're adding some tasty vegetables and accompanying it with a side salad - who knew cheese toasties could be healthy! I took this recipe from a new app by the NHS called 'Be Food Smart' (more info here) - I'd really recommend it!Things you'll need:This amount will get you 3 lunches worth.3 x Slices of wholemeal bread1 x Mozzarella Ball1 x Pepper1/2 Red Onion1 x Mixed Salad BagSlice the Pepper and Red Onion and put in a baking tray with a splash of Olive Oil. Place under a hot grill for 3/4 minutes until it's just starting to brown.Meanwhile, toast your slice of Wholemeal Bread in a toaster. Then thinly slice your Mozzarella and place on top of the toasted Bread.Remove the grilled Pepper and Red Onion from the grill and spread on top of the Mozzarella, then place under the grill for a further 3 minutes until the cheese has melted over the Bread. Serve with side salad.My cheapest meal option to date! If you're feeling particularly hungry then toast two piece of Bread instead of one and make it a proper sandwich! But if you want a light lunch, this is perfect!

Recipe : Manglorean Style Pepper Pork

 My friend May, over at The Chef is a great cook and a wonderful friend. We studied together for 5 years of college and we have now been friends for 20, yes TWENTY years! Wow, how the time flies!

Last month when I wanted to make Pork Indad, May's blog was one of the first ones that I visited to check on her version. Unfortunately, she has not yet uploaded her version of Pork Indad, but she did have a recipe for Pepper Pork, that I instantly bookmarked. Pepper Pork is not a dish that was cooked in our house while we were growing up, but it is cooked in a lot of Manglorean households.

May's recipe is more authentic, but I had my sister visiting and she hates seeing large pieces of onions in her pork (and to be honest, neither do I - large pieces of anything other than meat, in a meat curry tend to be pushed to the side on our plates), so I modified the recipe a bit and made it spicier for our taste. You can check May's Pepper Pork recipe on her blog My version takes a little longer to cook as I cook the cuttings (chopped ingredients) almost to a paste, so this also gives a thicker curry.

And if you don't eat pork, this recipe would be suitable to make a lovely pepper chicken too, you just need to cut down on the cooking time.

Ingredients:
1 kg pork with fat and skin
4 large onions chopped
1 pod garlic chopped
2" ginger chopped
6 green chillies chopped
5 tbsp pepper powder
pinch of turmeric powder
salt to taste
vinegar to taste 2-4 tbsp (I like my pork dishes on the sourer side and it also depends which vinegar you are using)
1 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp tomato sauce
1-2 tbsp oil

Method:
Wash the pork, mix with salt (little less as we add soya and tomato sauce in the end which have their own salt), pepper powder, vinegar and turmeric powder and keep aside.
In 1-2 tbsp oil, fry the finely chopped onion, ginger, garlic and 4 of the green chillies. (You can even just grind all these ingredients into a paste to avoid the chopping if you prefer)
Fry till the ingredients are completely cooked and mash together into a thickish paste.
Add the marinated pork and cook till done, stirring frequently (if not cooking in a pressure cooker) and adding a little water whenever necessary.
Once fully cooked, add the soya sauce and tomato sauce and adjust liquid content, salt and vinegar to taste.
Give it a final boil and serve hot with rice or poli.

I was so busy chatting away with my sister, that I forgot to take pictures, I just have this one that was clicked on the phone. But I'll definitely be cooking this again, so I'll upload more pictures when I do.

Pepper and Red Onion Melt

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Lunch Option: Pepper and Red Onion MeltAnother lunch option which is vegetarian as well as low on calories and saturated fat! Most things that are smothered with cheese are high in saturated fat, but lighter choices like Mozzarella thinly sliced is much better than melting cheddar. Plus you're adding some tasty vegetables and accompanying it with a side salad - who knew cheese toasties could be healthy! I took this recipe from a new app by the NHS called 'Be Food Smart' (more info here) - I'd really recommend it!

Things you'll need:
This amount will get you 3 lunches worth.

3 x Slices of wholemeal bread1 x Mozzarella Ball1 x Pepper1/2 Red Onion1 x Mixed Salad BagSlice the Pepper and Red Onion and put in a baking tray with a splash of Olive Oil. Place under a hot grill for 3/4 minutes until it's just starting to brown.Meanwhile, toast your slice of Wholemeal Bread in a toaster. Then thinly slice your Mozzarella and place on top of the toasted Bread.Remove the grilled Pepper and Red Onion from the grill and spread on top of the Mozzarella, then place under the grill for a further 3 minutes until the cheese has melted over the Bread. Serve with side salad.My cheapest meal option to date! If you're feeling particularly hungry then toast two piece of Bread instead of one and make it a proper sandwich! But if you want a light lunch, this is perfect!