Eggplant tomato curry

Eggplant has never been my favourite, but when i found that this vegetable can adapt to various combinations i decided on trying out this great recipe of eggplant tomato curry which i am sure, most of you must have tried this at home. A simple recipe which, is usually prepared by households throughout India. It was a calm day with my brother and my nephews around, and sister-in-law was at work. I took a look into the fridge and found there were excess of eggplant and decided to make this dish for the evening, so that my family could savor it.

Ingredients:

Eggplant dice 1ea

Onion dice 1ea

Tomato 2ea (depending on size)

Whole mustard 1tsp

Dry red chilli 3ea

Cumin seeds 1tsp

Curry leaves 5 leaves

Green chillis 4ea (depending on size)

Cumin powder 1Tbsp

Coriender powder 1Tbsp

Red chilli powder 1Tbsp

Turmeric 1tsp

Oil 2Tbsp and also have oil for frying the eggplant

Water 1/2cup

Salt tt

Method:

1. Cut the eggplant into large dices of equal size.
2. In a pan heat oil and deep fry the eggplant until it turns golden brown.
3. Strain excess oil and reserve.
4. In a pan pour 1Tbsp oil and add dry red chilli and mustard seeds.
5. Once the mustards crackle add curry leaves, cumin seeds cumin powder, coridender powder and red chilli powder.
6. Saute them ( make sure to have some ventilation for the fumes to escape)until it turns dark brown.
7. Add the onion and saute until it looks translucent and the spices sticks evenly to the onions.
8. Add turmeric to the mixture.
9. Add tomato to the mixture and cookuntil the tomatos absorbs the spices, cover and cook for few minutes.
10. Add water to the mixture.
11. Add the eggplant and season with salt and let cook for another 4 minutes covered.

You can either add ground cashew, ground peanuts and black or white seasme seeds to give it extra flavor. I perfer to evoperate excess moisture and concentrate the flavors. Hope you enjoy making this great dish.

Marinated Mushroom Amuse Bouche

Eggplant stir fry

As i am following the tradition of posting simple but tasty groumet foods that is served throughout the world, this would not come as a surprise for my readers. It is a great side dish that can be had with both roti and also with a rice and can be served during occations when you have surprise guests and relatives that insist on having lunch/dinner with you.

Ingredients:

Eggplant (preferably japanese eggplannt) 1#
Onion dice 10 oz
Garam Masala 1/2tsp
Coriender powder 1tsp
Cumin powder 1tsp
Chilli powder 1tsp
Salt tt
Curry leaves 8 leaves
Oil 2Tbsp

Method:

1. Add oil to pan on a medium heat.
2. Add Onion and saute until it reaches golden brown.
3. Add cumin powder, chilli powder, coriender powder, garam masala and curry leaves let sweat in the pan for another 3 minutes.
4. Add eggplant that is cut into large dice, and season with salt.
5. Let cook for another 10 minutes.

Beans poriyal

There are serveral instances in our daily lives, that we are too tired to prepare eloberate dishes, that carry a Wow! factor to it when you are back from a long day at work. The beans poriyal as it is called towards southern India, is nutritious and healthy by all means. It works great with either roti or even our famous rice. The process invovles simple methods.

Ingredients:

Fresh green beans (french beans) 1.5#

Grated coconut 3Tbsp

Chilli powder 1.5tsp

Tumeric 1tsp

Salt tt

For the tempering:

Oil

Mustard seeds 2tsp

Curry leaves 5ea

Dry red chilli 3ea

Urud dal 1Tbsp

Method:

1. Clean the beans with fresh water, and slice them.
2. In a saute pan add oil, once it sarts to shimmer.
3. Add the mustard seeds and allow time for it break and realease the flavor.
4. Add the red chilli which is recommeneded to be broken up.
5. Add the urud dal and let cook until the dal turns a golden brown.
6. Add chilli powder.
7. Add the beans and let cook.
8. Add salt and coconut to the beans and turn to a low heat, mix thoroughly and cover and cook for another 4 minutes.

Fish curry kerala style

Fish as i had mentioned in my earlier posts is a staple diet among the people of India. This is a recipe that is similar to the dry fish recipe but has a total different approach of preparing the dish.

Ingredients:

Fish 1.5#
Coconut grated 1/2 cup
Chilli powder 3Tsp

Coriender powder 1 Tbsp
Curry leaves 8ea
Salt tt
Onion julliene 1ea
Ginger 2oz
Kodam puli 5ea
Oil 2floz

Method:

1. Cut the fish
2. In a pan add julliene onion and ginger and saute.
3. Add coriander powder and chilli powder
4. Once sauted add oil and saute again.
5. Transfer this mixture to blender with 3floz of water.

6. Add coconut to the blender and blend.
7. Add water according to concistency
8. Tfransfer back to pan bring to a simmer
9. Add the fish and let cook covered with the kodam puli.
10. Finish with curry leaves

Rasgulla

A famous dessert popular among the people of orissa and west bengal. As the taste and its texture and simplicity advanced, it has caught the people of India and the rest of the world with a sweet tooth. There are other desserts which are variations that are made from rasgulla, as rasmalai, cham cham and many others.

Ingredients:

Milk 5 cups

Lemon juice or vinegar 2Tbsp

Sugar 2cups

Water 5cups

Method:

1. Place milk in a clean pan.

2. Bring to a boil.

3. Add lemon juice or vinegar diluted with 1Tbsp of water.

4. Let the milk curdle, wait until you see the milk solids have been seperated from the water.

5. Strain through a cheesecloth and pour cold running water to release the lime flavor.

6. Drain out all the water from the milk solids, by squeezing the cheecloth tightly.

7. Take the milk solids off the cheesecloth and work it with the flat of your palm, until it gets soft.

8. Make 15 small equal size balls. (Don't be surprised if the balls look small, it will grow in size once cooked)

9. Pour the 5 cups water into a pressure cooker, add the sugar and bring to a boil make sure all the sugar is melted in the bottom.

10. Add the balls that were made from the milk solids to the sugar syrup.

11. Cover with the lid of the pressure cooker and place the stopper for blocking the steam from escaping.

12. Wait for the stopper to release the first pressure, and reduce the flame to low and let cook for 5 minutes.

13. After 5 minutes cool the pressure cooker under running water.

14. Remove the lid and transfer the rasgulla and the syrup to a container to cool.

I would suggest to pour rose water the sugar syrup to give a distinctive flavor.

It is a great favourite with children and elders and will be enjoyed in all occasions.

Walk in the woods

I am out for a long walk in the woods. It's the call of the appalachian trail which stretches from maine to georgia, but not that i am going to treak the whole stretch but it is just one state that i and my elder brother are planning on completing. This is just to inform that i won't be posting for 2days and will be back with more.

Potato Cakes

Ingrediens for the potato cakes

Potato cakes garnished with tamato wedges and mint spring

This is a recipe that my wife handed over to me, she is a expert in cooking with various ingredients and also a great cook herself. This idea came to her with a lot of trail and error that has worked wonders at home that my daughter who is just about to be 2 years this september demands at the top of her voice that she be pampered with potato cakes.

INGREDIENTS:


Flour 1 Cup
Black pepper 1 Tbsp
Jeera (cumin) 1 Tsp
Mint leaves 1/2 CUP
Spinach 1/2 CUP
Potato 1 ea
Curry leaves 4ea
Coriender leaves 1/2 bunch
Salt 1/2 Tsp
Ghee (Clarfied butter) 1Cup

Method:

1. First boil the potato and remove the skin
2. Add flour, black pepper, Jeera.
3. Cut the mint leaf, spinach, curry leaves, coriender leaf into tiny bits and add together with the salt and add to the mixture, and mix thoroughly.
4. In a nonstick pan add 2 tbsp of ghee and gently drop the mixture of potato which needs to be flattened into the form of a cake.
5. Cook for 3minutes on each side till it attains a even golden brown colour
6. Add ghee accordingly as you make new batches.

It is advisable to add vegetables like carrots, cabbage (chop) into the mixture, as the kids are going to enjoy it as there is mint, jeera and this is a great source of protein and carbohydrates.

Mango Pulisheri

Indian cuisine has a varied sense of taste, smell, and mouth feel. It is absolutely mouth water when you have a little bit of sweetness, tangyness, spiceness all in one dish coming at you from every sides from the taste perspective.
Mangoes are in ambundance through out south India and across various states. The aroma of a ripe mango or for that instance even a mango grove can be distinguished when you land in any vegetable maket in India. The flavor profile of a mango be it ripe or unripe has been enhanced in the cooking methods of people from different states in India. Here is a dish that would have your craving for more.

Ingredients:

Mango 2ea
Salt tt
Chilli powder 2tsp
Sugar 2tsp
Yoghurt 1.5 cups
Green chilli 2ea (cut into halfs)

Method:

1. Select medium ripe mango and cut them into bite size pieces.
2. In a pot cook the bite size pieces of mango with salt, chilli powder, green chilli & sugar with 1.5 cups of water.
3. Cook until the pieces seem to break apart.
4. Whip the yoghurt in a blender.
5. If the mangos are cooked turn off and let cool.
6. It is the right temperature to add the yoghut to the mango when it is hot enough to the touch.
7. Mix thoroughly.

For the tempering:

Mustard 1/2tsp
Curry leaves 7leaves ea
Dry red chilli 4ea (break up)
Oil 2tsp

To temper in a hot pan add oil, once it starts to shimmer, add the mustard and let it crack then add the curry leaves and the red chillis broken up and then add the mango mixture to it and mix everything together.
It is time to serve. It is going to be a great dish which would be great with rice, or roti.

Dry Fish Curry

Fish is abundant in India. It is a staple diet of the people of Keral which is a state to the southern part of India. This is a state that is rich in greenery and has a high litracy rate. Here fish is preserved in different ways, by salt curing, sun dried are a few of the techniques used by its inhabitants to preserve their catch.
Kerala fish curry is truly exceptional with taste and the method of preperation. The recipe and the method that i am going to show here is not time consuming and also has a levage to alternations to the process.

Ingredients:

Dry fish 1#
Coconut 1/2 ea
Kodam puli (gamboge) 4ea
Greend chilli cut 5ea
Turmeric 1tsp
Coriender powder 3tsp
Chilli powder 3tsp
Potato (dice or matchstick pieces) 1ea
Coconut Oil or veg oil 5tsp
Salt tt

Method:

1. Wash the dry fish and keep aside
2. Boil the kodam puli in 1/2 cup water to extact the juices for about 5 mintues.
3. In a pan add the dry fish, coconut,coriender powder, chillipowder, green chilli and tumeric and the kodampuli with the juices, potato and salt (if it is salted fish please avoid salt)with the oil.
4. Close with a lid and let cook on low heat for about 15 minutes.

You must be wondering, why do i have to put everything together and cook, but trust me on this it is a experience that you are going to enjoy.
There can be a few variations done to the process. If you are unsure of what kodam puli is, it can be substituted with un-ripe mango. Another variation can be adding plantain jardiniere (finger cut) that can be added instead of the potato or also along with the potato in equal proportion.

A sweet treat, called, Pooran poli or Holige& Obbattu in Kannada

I must admit my wife is a expert in making holige. I can tell this proudly as, i have seen her mother, aunts and relative, asking for tips on making holige. It is a dessert that is savored by every state in India. Towards the north of India it is known as Pooran poli and towards the south Holige or Obbattu.

The Ingredients are:

Channa dal 1 cup
Jaggery 1 cup
Cardamom 1 tsp
Maida 1.5 cups
Coconut grated 1/2 ea
Turmeric pinch
Oil 1 tsp
Salt a pinch

Method:

1. Maida flour, salt and turmeric needs to be mixed with water to make a dough
2. Add oil to the dough and knead well.
3. Let rest for 1 hour, cover with a parchment paper.
4. Cook the channa dal and cardamom with 1/2 cup water (just about 3/4th doneness)
5. Mash the Jaggery.
6. In a bowl put the jaggery and melt it 3/4th.
7. Add the channa dal to the jaggery mixture.
8. Add the grated coconut mix it thoroughly and let bind.
9. Blend the mixture in a blender.
10. Prepare small balls of the dough that has been resting. (flatten it with your hands)
11. Place the mixture of jaggery, coconut, dal (double the amount as that of the dough), in the centre of the flattened dough.
12. Wrap the dough over this mixture and flatten it.
13. On low heat place the flattened dough on a non-stick pan.
14. Cook on each side until you see even golden color.

This is going to be a treat for you and for your family.

A feast with snowcrab.

This is the final product once cooked

The crab with the seasoning on a doubleboiler

The shell is soft so you can cut a slit for the seasoning to penetrate

Crab once cut in a perforated pan

Cutting into large pieces

The crab legs before being cut

Corn before marination and grilling

(Follow the procedure from bottom top as i had problems uploading the photos)

A recipe which is easy and worth the treat for your taste buds.

This is a simple recipe that is followed by my sister-in-law, which was a treat for the whole family. I am going to share with you the secrets of this recipe.

Alaskan Snowcrab 2#

Celery powder 2tsp

Salt tt

Celery seed 1tsp

Mustard powder 1tsp

Red pepper 3tsp

Black pepper 2tsp

Bay leaf 1ea

Cloves 1ea

Allspice 5ea

Pimento powder 2tsp

Ginger powder 1tsp

Cardamom powder 1tsp

Paprika powder 2tsp

The reason that i posted this is naturally being a weekend, the treat will surely be special. The corn was just marinated with salt, pepper & Lime juice. Once it was marniated it is grilled. The meat was this wonderful crabmeat which was to be had by scooping out the meat from the shell. If it is snowcrab it does not need any explanation, it is just filled with meat.

The method for cooking the crab was:

1.Just prinkle the ingredients on the crab which is placed on a perforated container.

2. Place the perforated container on a double boilder with 3 cups water.

3. Cook it for about 10 minutes.

I am sure this is going to be a easy task for your weekend special.

Vada snack

The word vada might seem confusing to some, but this is a simple snack that can be done in about 10 minutes once the urad dal or the white lentil is soaked for a minimum of 2 hours. Did i tell you this is a Indian dish, especially made in south India.

This dish can be served with a chutney which is made of coconut(the base), small onion, green chilli, ginger and saute of mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried red chilli (broken), urud dal.

The process of making this simple but tasty snack is by soaking the white lentil for about 2 hours.

Transfer the lentil to a blender with 3 small onions, 1/2 ea ginger, and blend it to a smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water.

Once the lentils have formed a fine paste, add in 2 green chilli finely chopped, and salt to taste, mix thoroughly.

Let rest for about 20 minutes.

In a cast iron pan heat about 2/3 oil or just enough to cover the mixture.

Shape vada with hand into rounds and leave a hole in the centre for even cooking.

When it turns golden brown remove from oil and pat dry of excess oil.

It is now ready to be served with the chutney(needs to prepared before making vada).

The process of making chutney is by grating fresh cocounut (can be done with dry coconut also by adding hot water), to this add onion, ginger and blend fine with minimal water.

In a saute pan add oil and once it is hot, add mustard seeds and let it crackle, add curry leaves, broken red chillis and urud dal let it cook for little while under low heat, (do not let the curry leaves to change colour). Add the blended coconut mixture to the pan and finish with salt to taste.

This would be a dish that you will always enjoy.

A legacy

I was reading a post on turulu which is a turkish interpretation of the ratatouille, and what a co-incedence this was just the moive that i watched with my nephew this afternoon (not that i have never seen this movie but just because he insisted on it). Coming back to the fact, turulu has been famous with the rest of turkey as is with the rest of france with ratatouille. Tomatoes can play different roles in turlu, depending on the proportion and form of tomatoes used. If you add relatively few tomatoes and leave them in fairly large pieces, you get a stew of diced vegetables. Use a high ratio of tomatoes, and the turlu becomes a vegetable medley in chunky tomato sauce. I can give you the recipe for turulu which i read, the exact same as the one that i had read.

EASY EGGPLANT, ZUCCHINI AND MUSHROOM TURLU
For this simple meatless version of Turkish turlu, I use canned tomatoes to save time. Mushrooms are not classic but they give the stew a terrific taste. Serve it as a vegetarian entree with pita, green salad or Israeli salad, and, if you like, with feta cheese, labaneh or yogurt.

350 gr. eggplant
225 gr. zucchini or pale-green squash (kishuim)
110 gr. large mushrooms
2 to 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3⁄4 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
1⁄2 cup water, or more if needed
1 to 11⁄2 Tbsp. tomato paste

Cut eggplant in 2-cm. cubes, and zucchini in slightly smaller cubes than the eggplant. Halve mushrooms and cut in thick slices.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy saucepan. Add onion and sauté briefly over medium-low heat, then cover and cook, stirring often, for 3 to 5 minutes or until just beginning to brown.
Add eggplant, top with 1⁄4 cup diced tomatoes, then top with zucchini, followed by remaining tomatoes and 1⁄4 cup water. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Stir once to bring top ingredients to bottom of pan. Cover and cooked over medium-low heat for 7 minutes.
Add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Mix tomato paste with 2 to 3 tablespoons water and pour over vegetables. Cover and cook for 3 more minutes or until vegetables are tender; check, and add water by tablespoons if pan becomes dry. If you like, drizzle lightly with a little more olive oil. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Makes 4 servings.

Beef shashlik

It being the weekend, there is a natural tendency to be dragged into a treckking and some good food. It happened this weekend also, there was a good family reunion (lasted for only the saturday) and there was some good food also. It started off with my aunt making great tomato rice and curd rice for the lunch. It was just mouth watering, to taste them together. What i meant by tasting them together was, I took half spoon of each and eat it together (just heavenly). Today being a sunday decided on heading to a trail which is meant for families to hike with their kids, but unfortunately there was a influx of traffic heading to the NJ shores and this prompted us to head back home for some grilling frenzy. It was to sacrifice beef to the gourmet gods. It was the same marinade as i had done the last week but this time i eliminated the tamarind date paste and added some tahini paste to the marinade (make sure it is just enough to stimulate the taste as it can overpower). My brother who is a master griller, cooked it to perfection. It was a succulant meat and vegetables (onion and bell pepper).This was a superhit with my nephews and family. It left us craving for more.
There was another surprise that my sister-in-law, treated us to. It was simple but again heavenly. She cut the pineapple into rings and my brother grilled it to perfection and she topped it with some butter pecan ice cream. This was a weekend which was a total blast.

Murg Makhni

BUTTER CHICKEN

French cuisine has a large following that keeps it's secrets alive. Indian cuisine on the other hand is a combination of spices and essence of the ingredients that go into the preperation that makes it stand out among the rest of the gourmet experience.
I wanted to make a dish that i was so fascinated with it's taste that i had tried several times to get deep and understand the flavors that makes the difference. Finally yesterday my pallet could not resist the crave for this wonderful dish, and finally i decided to go ahead and do what my sensable pallet wanted.

• Cut the chicken into bite size pieces
• Apply ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, coriender powder and salt
• Heat a pan with 3 TB of oil and sear these chicken pieces
• Remove them set aside.
• In the same pan add cumin seeds, onions and ginger garlic paste and add little water just to release the fond.
• Put corriender powder, blanced almonds, red chilli powder, fenugreek powder.
• Once it is a little done, add diced tomatos.
• Cook until the tomatos are done.
• Puree this mixture to a fine paste.
• Now in the pan add butter with the juices from the chicken.
• Add the puree to the pan, then add the chicken to the sauce.
• Add salt and add little tomato ketchup to get the tangyness.
• Once it comes to a boil add cream.
• Finally add garam masala (Already posted)
• Let it simmer for another 5 minutes

This is surely going to be a great experience. Enjoy!