Omelet Gravy

My little one was a bit fussy about food, so I made an omelet for her, since it is one of her favorite things to eat. But she didn't seem to want to eat that too. So I was left with a large omelet. For some reason, even though I like eggs I don't prefer plain omelet or  just hard boiled eggs. I had to still make dinner and was wondering what to do, when I remembered the omelet gravy one of my kashmiri friend made in the hostel. Yes, in hostel. Though legally we were not allowed to cook, all of us had a little electric stove that we used to make maggi or tea. She used to make this omelet gravy the days she didn't like eating the hostel food.

The omelet I made for my little one was just with pepper and jeera powder and salt. So It was pretty bland which I thought was ideal to make the gravy. Before blogging about this recipe here, I did a search and found that this dish is called omelet er dalna. they use lot of different spices. But the recipe that I made is still the hostel version may be with few extra added ingredient. Omelet gravy is also made in Srilanka with coconut milk. The recipe here is for two. You can increase the quantity as per your need.

What you need :
For Omelet:
1 extra large egg
black pepper powder
Jeera powder
Salt

For the Gravy:
1 medium onion - finely chopped
3 tablespoon of crushed tomato
1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
1 teaspoon Red chilly powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
salt to taste
1 tablespoon Oil

How it's made :

Omelet-  Break an egg and beat it until fluffy and mix in all the rest of the ingredients. Heat a skillet and make a thick omelet. You can make the omelet with any other added ingredients as per your taste. Cut the omelet, may be about 1 x 2 inch slices and keep it aside.

Gravy- Heat the oil, add the onions and fry till they turn a little brown, add the tomato, ginger-garlic paste and cook till well blended. Add water, garam masala, chilly powder, salt (just for the gravy- remember your egg has salt in it) and cook for few minutes till you get a gravy consistency. Keep it little watery as the omelet will absorb a lot of gravy. Add the cut omelete slices and cook for few more minutes. Serve hot with white rice. 

One may ask why make omelet, than gravy out of it, can't you just break an egg and put into the gravy. Sure you can, but this tastes completely different and since it absorbs the masala you won't get the egg smell too. If you like eggs give it a try.

Quick Pepper Chicken

My hubby loves chicken and he needs often. So we both try cooking different variations, though he still prefers his chettinad style. This is one quick modified version. If you have the chicken cut and ready to go you can make this in no time. (we normally get whole chicken, cut and freeze in small packets for one time serving). I normally start heating the pan while cutting onions, and while chicken is cooking, grind the spices ( I use coffee/spice grinder), so it gets done really quick in about 10 minutes.

What  you need :
About 2 cups Chicken - boneless cut into small pieces
2 teaspoon Ginger-garlic paste
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder
Salt - to taste

To Powder:-
1 1/2 tablespoon Whole black pepper corns
2 tablespoon Cumin seeds
2 Cloves
1/2 " piece Cinnamon

For tempering:-
2 tablespoon Oil
Few Curry leaves 
1 medium Onion - (cut into thin slices)

How it's made :
Heat oil in a pan and add the curry leaves and onions fry well, once done add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder and fry. Add the chicken pieces and fry until the chicken turns white and almost cooked. ( I cut into tiny small pieces so that it cooks quicker). Add the powdered spices, salt and fry for a 2-3 minutes until the chicken is well coated with the masala. Turn off the heat and serve as a side dish with rice and dal.

Corn Poha Mixture

My mom makes this spicy corn poha mixture often at home for evening snacks. Talking of snacks, back in Goa, we had a big Milton brand box where mom stored all snacks, both store bought and homemade .We would just devour out everything so quickly and she had to make different snacks very often to replenish the box and keep us satisfied :). The most snack consumer in our house was dad, he would wake up in the middle of night munch on snacks and sit to read newspaper. (yes, he had to read everything from headlines to obituary section never missed a single line). I make these often these days since my little one likes to eat it. 

What you need :

2 cups -Corn Poha 

1 cup thick poha

1/4 cup groundnuts

1/4 cup chana dalia

few curry leaves

2 teaspoon - red chilly powder ( as per your tolerance level)

salt to taste

Oil to fry ( I use canola oil)

How it's Made :

Heat oil in a deep pan (kadai), and deep fry all the first 5 ingredients seperately in medium heat and put in on a paper towel to drain off the oil.  when you add corn poha to fry, put very little in oil as they swell up and occupy the entire pan. When still hot sprinkle the chilly powder,salt and mix all the ingredients gently. You can also fry some dry coconut pieces for added taste,  I didn't use it this time since I didn't have any at home.  Cool it to room temperature and store in an airtight container.

Banana blueberry bread

There are hundreds of different variations of banana bread one can make. Every time I have ripe bananas at home I try a new version of banana bread. This recipe is adapted from food network by Emeril Lagasse. I made some changes to suit my taste. I used blueberries instead of suggested nuts.

For me banana bread is a comfort food and I can eat any time of the day from breakfast to late night dessert.

 

What you need:

            1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Pinch of cinnamon

For Topping :

2 table spoon sugar ,

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder

I love cinnamon flavor so I normally use it as topping for breads.

How I made it :

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Oil and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time and mix. Add mashed bananas and mix well. Add the baking soda, salt, flour, nuts and cinnamon and mix thoroughly. The dough will be sticky at this stage.

Pour the dough into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the topping mixture and bake about one hour or until the center is brown and set.

Black Chana gravy - karnatakan style

This is again my mom's recipe. This is a spicy gravy with predominant coconut and onion masala. It's a two step process, but worth a try. I like having this with puri.

What you need:
2 cups Kala Chana (chickpeas) - soaked overnite and drained
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoon oil
salt to taste

Masala 1 :
2 large onions
4 pods garlic
1 inch ginger
3 cloves
1/2 inch cinnamon stick
5 -7 strings of cilantro leaves
1 table spoon coriander seeds powder
1 table spoon red chilly powder ( or as per heat intensity)

Masala 2:
1 cup grated fresh coconut
1 big tomato

How its Made:

In a pan add 1 table spoon oil and roast onions, garlic, ginger, cloves and cinnamon till the onion turn dark brown. This gives a nice color to the gravy. Take it off the heat and add coriander, chilly powder and cilantro leaves.Grind to a fine paste with some water. In a pressure cooker heat 1tablespoon oil, add bay leaves and fry for a minute than add the soaked chana. Fry for 2 minutes and add the ground masala paste. Add sufficient water for the chana to cook. Add salt to taste. Close the lid and pressure cook it for 4 whistles.

Meanwhile, grind the grated coconut and tomato to a fine paste. Once the chana is cooked in the first masala add the coconut-tomato paste, mix well. Add water if needed and cook it again for another whistle. Check for the consistency. If too watery than cook it on low heat with the lid off for few more minutes or if its too thick add water and heat it for few minutes.

Serve hot with plain white rice, jeera rice or with puri / roti.

This dish is my entry to 'My legume love Affair-35', hosted by Smitha of Kannada Cuisine.

Poha Upma

This is one of the most commom form of poha dish we make at home. Quick, easy and comforting. It's ideal for breakfast or with evening tea. I am posting this recipe on request from one of my childhood neighborhood friend.

What you need :
2 cup thick Poha
1/2 onions chopped
2-3 green chillies( depending on your taste)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urad dal
about 2 tablespoons groundnuts
few curry leaves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt to taste
 1 table spoon oil /ghee
cilantro leaves for garnishing

How it's made:

Wash Poha in water, drain off all the water and let it stand for 5-10 minutes until it is soft and fluffy. Sprinkle some water if it gets too dry.  Add salt and turmeric powder and set it aside. In a pan heat oil or ghee, once heated add mustard seeds, curry leaves, urad dal and groundnuts, fry till done (cook on low heat or else the urad dal will turn black - I tend to burn all the time :) ). Add green chillies, onions and fry for  few more minutes till the onions start to change color. Add a bit of salt for the onions and groundnuts. Add the poha to this and gently mix, let it cook for 3-4 minutes just until it gets heated up well. Switch off the heat, add lemon juice, sugar  and mix. Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves and serve hot. You can also add some sev over it for some nice crunch.  

Happy Mothers Day

Wishing all Mom's a "Happy Mother's day".
This is my second mothers day as a mom and I received this wonderful card from my little angel.

cute feet imprint flowers

Khara Pongal

While we were in school, sundays would be a  busy day. Mom had to manage us and watch her favourite serials (Ramayan, Mahabharath)  and so for quite some years the standard breakfast on sunday was Pongal. I suppose it was easy to make for mom and pongal  would keep our stomach full  for quite sometime. I love the version she makes, it's probably mysore style, it's hot and spicy unlike the tamil venpongal ( I may post that version later). She ground the masala for it. I often make this at home for dinner.

What you need:
1 1/2 cups of rice
1/2 cup moong dal
curry leaves
2 tablespoon ghee
cashews to garnish  (optional)

To grind:
2  tablespoon of cumin
2 teaspoon black pepper
2 green chillies
1/4 cup  coconut
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
few strands of coriander (cilantro) leaves

How it's Made :
Grind the ingredients listed to a course paste. Heat pressure cooker and dry roast the moong dal,until it turns golden brown and gives off a nice aroma. Take it off and wash it along with rice and keep it aside. Heat ghee  in the same cooker, add curry leaves and the ground paste, fry it for a minute. Add the washed rice and moong dal, and mix the ingredients well. Add salt and 4 cups of water. Close the lid and cook like usual white rice. Once done stir the rice. Garnish with cashews fried in ghee and some freshly grated coconut and cilantro. Serve hot with coconut chutney.
If you don't have pressure cooker fry all the ingredients in pan, add rice and transfer it to rice cooker.

Tips- use raw rice, basmati rice doesn't taste that good.
        

Apple Jam

I was talking to my mom a few days back and she mentioned that she had made raw mango jam. She asked me to try it out, I just ignored saying there is no point, we don't get  good raw mangoes here. But after a day I was thinking about it and thought why not try her recipe with apples. I wanted to make with granny smith apples but I didn't have enough of them so ended up using red ones. (I called her at 11.30 pm IST to get the recipe.) It sure turned out good. I had it with my bread for my breakfast. I will probably make this often with different fruits rather than buying the store bought fruit spread that I normally buy. What I really like about his was unlike the earlier version that my mom made, grating the mangoes (which is very tedious) this time she just boiled them in water. It's simple and delicious.

What you need :

3 medium sized Apples
1/2 cup sugar

2 cloves, powdered

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

How its made :

Bring water to boil in a thick bottomed pan. Peel, deseed and cut each apple into pieces. Drop the apple pieces into the water and cook for 5 minuts or till the apples turn tender.Remove the apples out and mash it with a fork. Measure 1 cup of water that you used to cook apples and  leave it in the same pan.Add sugar to it and bring to a nice boil till the syrup startens to thicken. It shouldn't be too thick. Add the powdered cloves and the mashed apples. Cook the entire mixture until it thickens to a jam consistency, about 5 mins. Add lemon zest and mix well. Cool and fill it in glass jars and store in refrigerator.