Papaya Casserole

Blogger ate up my Mango curry and all your last recipes too! Bummer!!!!And I got so many wonderful comments - that you all :) It was wonderfully encouraging to read all those beautiful words :)

This is a recipe that came along as I started cooking and let me tell you instincts mostly lead you in the right directions – This ended up being a gourmet dinner idea J You may ask, how can this be a curry in a hurry to which I say esp. to people in India, you got maids to chop your veggies and wash your dishes, so this should be a cinch for you. To those in other parts of the world where help is non-existent unless another family member pitches in, you can either have your hubby chop the veggies or buy veggies pre-cut at the stores. Over the years, I have realized that nothing is such a ‘big deal’ at the risk of sound extremely clichéd and American! You just get used to doing your own thing and for someone like me who gets waited upon hand and foot when I visit my sibs in India, this is the toughest part of living abroad – each time i come back, I become my own chottu or Lakhsmi or bayi! But I find the satisfaction of doing it myself far more satisfying that dealing with the frustrations of having to explain to someone else how to do things and watch over them when I want to take really snatch it from them and do it myself!

Bad scene – from the time I wrote this to now, my daughter fell on the soccer field and has a whopping sprain on her ankle – took her to the doc and the most bizarre disappearance of my car keys (a big thick bunch with home key, club keys), all gone- vanished into thin air!!!!!

Here I am in a panic stricken state with a girl on crutches, searching high and low for my keys – have not found them yet, but rescue came in the form of Patishri who brought his spare keys to the van- Don’t you just hate it when things go badly!!! But getting back to my daughter, her accident was most untimely since she has her 8^th grade dance tomorrow L She is home with her feet up, icing her ankles.

Anyway, I am sure you will enjoy this casserole almost as much as I enjoyed making it and I tried to do a good pictorial for you too. Enjoy friends!

Ingredients

Half a ripe papaya (big sized) chopped in biggish cubes

½ head of broccoli chopped into medium sized florets

1 yellow bell pepper chopped and diced

2 yellow squashes peeled and diced

1 16qt cottage cheese dubba

1 big red potato sliced into thin rounds

Bruschetta spice mix (or any Italian seasoning mix)

Please determine cheese based on pictures below

6-8 sliced of toast

½ cup of grated cheese

1 tbsp of oil

3-5 green chilies

Preparation

Cook the veggies (except the potatoes) in ½ tsp of oil along with the chilies

Add the spice half way along (cook for about 5 minutes) or until tender but not soggy soft

Salt after turning flame off

In a flat pan, add oil and cook the potatoes adding the same spice mix

Keep oven ready at 400

Toast your bread pieces in a toaster

Now in a lasagna type rectangular pan, arrange a layer of toast pieces (about 4-5)

Add the veggies over the bread and layer with cheese

Now crumble the rest of the toast pieces over this.

Add the cottage cheese in an orderly fashion over this

Now place the potato rounds over that

Add your grated cheese

Bake for 30 minutes

Cut like you would a lasagna and serve hot! You are going to LOVE this.. Do dry and let me know. That will be the best compliment (:

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Cool Lassi(e), Harini, Kalyani, Priya Mahadevan, Suma
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Priya Suresh, Veena,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Shylaja, Srivalli
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Priya Yallapantula
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast:Aarthi, Vaishali