Egg Potato Curry

Every Sunday growing up I remember my mom would make idly , dosa or on occasions appam for breakfast, now that I am a mom myself I have few traditions of my own since the weekdays are so busy with two kids and jobs the weekend I prefer to make a hearty breakfast and the one that my 6 year old loves the most is appam and egg curry. Some days he will specially request for it.
Since we all love it this one is a pretty common breakfast and easy to make too. I usually boil the eggs and potatoes the evening before make things a lot easier. Now to the recipe

What you need :
eggs-4 boiled
potatoes-1 boiled cut cub size
onion (shallots ) - 1/2 cup chopped
ginger- 1 tablespoon chopped
tomato-1 finely chopped
turmeric- 1 teaspoon
chilli pwd -2 teaspoon (add spice as needed)
paprika - 2 teaspoon
garam masala - 1 teaspoon
curry leaves- 4-5
half n half or coconut milk-1/4 cup
whole spices -cinnamon, cardamon, bay leaves ,anise ,mace (few each)
olive oil-2 tablespoon
salt as needed

heat a pan with the EVOO.
add the whole spices in to get the flavor going,
add chopped onions and chopped ginger into the hot oil and
cook till the raw taste goes away or till the onion turns a little brown
then add turmeric, paprika, chilli pwd, and garam masala and
let it cook for a few mins more till the spice blend into the onion .
Add the tomatoes mix well let it cook for at least 5-10 mins
add the salt as per your taste
let it simmer till the gravy is thick .
Add the eggs and the boiled potatoes mix well now the give the sauce a creamy texture add coconut milk or half n half. Simmer for few mins more DO NOT BOIL.
Serve with soft appams .

Mint Vegatable Biryani

Some days are just so hectic it is hard to make a full course dinner especially both me and hubby working and two kids it seems like we are always running and 24 hours do not seem enough, so to satisfy our hunger I usually try to make up some with whatever is left in the fridge since no one of us want to really go grocery shopping.
So this is a very common biryani whipped up with everything left in bitesN bits in your fridge. Also since my mint plant is growing by leaps and bounds have to chop it off like every month had to add some of those too which made this dish turned out pretty much like a mint vegetable biryani.

What u need:

basmati rice 2 cups
sliced onions 2
thinly sliced onions seperate for garnish 1 cup optional
tomato 1 cup
chopped vegetables like cauliflower, potatoes, beans, carrots , peas etc
green chillies 4 optional
garlic 1 inch
ginger 1 inch
minced coriander leaves
mint leaves about 1/2 of the cilantro
salt to taste
Star anise 1
Bay leaves 3
peppercorns 10
cloves and cardamon 8 each
cinnamon 2 pieces
garam masala Sanjeev Kapoor's 1 tsp
half n half 1/2 cup
turmeric 1/2 teaspoon
lemon juice 2 tsp

Heat with oil fry whole spices lighlty.
A minute or two later add onions cook till they r soft and little brown add tomatoes and veges fry well with the onions .
add ginger and garlic in paste form along with mint n cilantro.
Add to this turmeric powder and the spices u can add garam masala too I added Sanjeev Kapoor's garam masala.
Once the veges are nice crispy n half cooked add the half n half or cream also is an option gives a very soft flavour to the biryani , let it simmer till the sauce is thick about 10-15 minutes.
Now for the rice boil a pot of water with salt and lemon juice (lemon juice makes the rice fluffy ) and whole spices add the washed rice and cook till half done.
Strain the rice and let it drain ,then mix the vege gravy and rice little at a time till even and bake for 30 mins at 350 C. What I need did was took it baking pan out slightly mixed the biryani put it back in again makes it even color .

For garnish add fried onions and raisins serve with a yogurt based raita.

happy onam 2009

wishing all of you very happy and

prosperous onam
2009!

Moong Khichidi

There is something about khichidi that makes it so appealing when u are sick , or down with a cold the gluey texture makes u feel a lot better along with all the tender , love and care . I was first introduced to this recipe years back when I was at my friend P's house and as usual we were chatting non stop didn't realise it was almost lunch time and I was suffering from a cold all stuffed up . So she being a good cook decided to whip up some khichidi with the veges that were available . Although at that age ( being teenagers) nothing was really measured just eyeballed ,threw all the ingredients in a cooker after 2 whistles the khichidi was done.
P served this with homemade mango pickle and roasted papad YUMMY!!
Since then this dish is usually served at my place pretty regularly or if some one is sick.
Recently my 5 yr came down with a cold all stuffed up, didn't want to go to school but did play with toys all day . All he wanted was to stay at home , so for lunch I decided to make the moong khichidi which was pretty simple done in 20 mins.
Turned out great so here is the recipe :
Ingredients:

• 1 cup Basmati rice
• 1/2 cup spilt moong dal
• 3 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped
• 1/2 cup shallots chopped
• 1 carrot chopped
• handfull of green peas
• 2 halopeno peppers chopped
• 1 tomato chopped
• 1 potato cubsize
• 1/2 tsb jeera
  
• 1/2 tsb paprika
• 1/2 turmeric pwd
• 1 tbsp olive oil EVOO
  
• ghee to serve
  
• Salt to taste

wash the rice and moong dal , soak for 5-10 mins .
cut all the veges , heat the cooker add EVOO , add the jeera seeds
after they splutter add the veges and saute for 2-3 mins
add turmeric, paprika , and salt cook some more
add the soaked rice and dal,
mix well add 3 cups of water.
add the chopped cilantro leaves
close the cooker , cook till at least 2 whistles blows,
which makes the rice a lil more gluey.
If u don't like the gluey texture one is enough .
serve hot with a dollop of ghee and pickle.

Coconut Chutney

Coconut chutney has been a staple at our home as and when we have idlis or dosas which is like every other weekend . My mom would make this by adding a little tomato which tasted fine to me as I grew up loving it. But after our wedding every time I made the chutney i.e with the one with tomato in it my hubby dear would eat it , but somewhere down was not very happy with the end product coz he grew up having the orange nadan style chutney like the ones u have at thaatu kada . For all of u who do not know what a thaatu kada is it is a roadside eatery not necessarily in one of the best locations , or decor or hygiene but one thing u can be sure of is it has one of the best tasting foods. Every visit that we make to India we usually love trying food from these joints whether it is mumbai or kerala .

So then I began a quest for the recipe for the orange coconut chutney which I knew was simple but for some odd reason I never got it right. One time while during my trail and error experiments I added the shallots in the grinder along with the coconut and then I had to look no further , my orange chutney was born :) I guess the shallots gave it a raw taste to the chutney which goes very well with idlis .

What u need

• coconut 1/2 cup
• shallots 1-2 chopped
• ginger 1 inch
• curry leaves 4-5
• oil 1 tsp
• salt as needed
• chilli pwd 1/2 tsp
• mustard seeds 1/2tsp

grind coconut, ginger and shallots in to a fine paste , add oil in a pan when hot add the mustard seeds as they start to break add the finely chopped shallots and curry leaves,
keep the heat on low so that nothing gets burnt.
Add the chilli pwd stir well, add the coconut mix soon after the chilli pwd is added .
Keep in stirring for few mins then add salt.
Serve it with idlis or dosas.

Baghare baingan

I was one of the most pickiest kid ever, and just to get me to eat my veges mom would try different recipes. Some vegetables didn't ever make in to my system as they never left my plate and eggplant was one of them. I remember my mom would make eggplant thorans and other possible mallu eggplant versions which never interested me until I came across this recipe .

She would make eggplant which were fried and then simmered in thick groundnut gravy which was tempered with jeera and mustard seeds, tasted great with hot parathas or rotis and I Loved it !!

Here in the US there are so many types of eggplants , but for this particular recipes u need the typical small purple Indian kind eggplants. The recipe turns our much better .

This is a recipe that I made from a fellow food blogger Zaiqa » Baghare Baingan original recipe link posted below, as the bookmarked recipe list had been getting longer and longer so about time I started to make them.

We had it with hot rice and dal tadka :)