Oh...how I love my bread. Its the one thing that keeps me alive. I'm not a great cook. While I can get the basics right - like making tea, coffee, maggi, rice, even dal and roti/paratha - I fail miserably at making 'sabji', 'bhaji' and 'curry' of any sorts. I always screw up when I start adding the spices. Frustrated, I have to then end up throwing my entire creativity into the bin. And then, comes to my rescue - my bread. And, I've experimented with it too - tried different fillings and somehow, the bread has not failed me - and, I'm alive. Its keeping me alive! \ :D /
My go-to quick experiments with my bread has been - the usual toast and butter, then, add in a cheese slice or omlette between the toast or add both with some mayonaise ( there are plenty variety of those in the market ); adding peanut butter, jam or honey between the toast works too ( don't forget to add butter to the toast while its hot ); sometimes, add in mashed boiled potato with spinkle of chat masala, tomato, onion, beet, capsicum and cucumber slice with a layer of dhaniya/pudiya chutney ( its available in market too ) - and voila, it becomes a sandwich! Or, instead of plain boiled potato spice it with some chilli, garlic and corainder mix called 'thecha' ( its available in market too, yippee ) and it becomes a masala toast - add in the veggies; and, if you don't add veggies but instead fry it in some besan batter it becomes a bread pakoda; make a coleslaw of curd and mayo with carrot, cabbage and cucumber add in salt and pepper - it becomes another type of sandwich; stir-fry some methi leaves and potato with salt and pepper and stuff it in the bread, or make a tomato burji type chutney and stuff it in your bread. Add cheese, spinach and corn ( cook it a bit with salt and pepper ) another sandwich recipe ready! Mash bread and boiled potatoes with salt/pepper and make another type of bread pakoda by shallow frying it. Add malai or milk and sugar to your bread - it becomes a sweet dish; toast the bread with butter before adding the milk and sugar it becomes a 'shahi tukda'. Mash bread into balls, fry and then soak in sugar syrup - it becomes bread gulab jamun. Well...I can go on and on and on...the bread dabeli or the bread pizza...aahhh...and, I'm happy my experiments with bread has never failed. But, I've re-discovered another trick with bread - which, I've always known, but, just somehow had forgotten due to my various experiments. So, recently, I decided to go back to the roots with my bread. And its very simple as I re-discovered; and, ideal for lazy-me ;-)
Take two slices of fresh bread ( or however many you want, lol ), and, butter it generously. Donot toast it, keep it raw as it is. Keep it aside as you make your tea. Its the original 'regular' tea with sugar and milk - I detest black tea and this post is not for diabetics or calorie conscious people. I believe its okay to eat once in a while anyways. So, if you wish add in spices like ginger or some ready tea-masalas ( its available in market ) and some elaichi. When the tea is piping hot, take the buttered bread and dip the edge and eat immediately. Yeah...its hot, but, there's where the magic lies. You get the salty taste of butter melting in your mouth and its heaven. Trust me. Its the most simple and short-cut route to bliss. The bread vanishes in your mouth and you simply can't get enough of it!
