Novel egg curry

Egg curry is the one of the simplest, fastest and most delicious curries that you can have with rice. 

First of all, chop roughly chop onions, chilli pepper and tomatoes. Spring onions if you have, but not necessary.  

Heat some oil in a pan. When oil is hot, fry soem jeera and methi. Then start with the chilli pepper. Put in onions. Stir for a minute and add spring onions. Finally add the tomatoes. Sprinkle salt to taste and enough turmeric to give yellow color. Add ground garlic and ginger. Cover and cook until tomatoes lost their texture and gravy is formed. Add water if mixture threatens to burn.

Once gravy is achieved, add water to make the dish runny. Bring it to a boil. Once it has boiled, break eggs into the soup as shown. Do not break the egg, though you may change its texture by moving it around. Let simmer is low heat until egg is cooked, that will reduce the water too. If egg takes too long to cook, flip it after a few minutes.  

When eggs are done, yummy egg curry is ready. Serve hot with rice, chiura, or roti.

 P. S. There is an alternative way of making egg curry. Instead of breaking raw eggs into the gravy, boiled eggs can be used. Every other method is the same. Will be adding pics when I make, else Junkeeri can add one if she makes before me. 

paneer chilli for dummies

This paneer chilli recipe is actually not for dummies. It is for people like me who miss paneer because there is none in their village. And then they go out and make their own paneer. I only called it dummies because that's what they say when they give instructions from scratch. Anyways, here goes:

First of all, boil some milk. And if you are farther sighted than me, you will boil more milk than the quantity shown, which yielded a very tiny quantity of paneer. Once the milk comes to a boil, pour a misture of water and vinegar into the milk. Vinegar can be replaced by anything acidic, like lemon juice.

The milk will start curdling. Boil for a few minutes, until all of the milk is curdled and separated into crumbly pieces and greenish water. If the milk is still milky after a few minutes, pour more vinegar and water. Boil for a couple minute, this will help the crumbly pieces to congeal.

Ideally, at this stage the paneer should be tied up in mulmul ko kapada and left to drip overnight for best texture. But I have neither the expertise, nor the equipment, for that complicated procedure. So I will settle for straining the crumbly pieces, with a jhaanjhar, or spoon, and putting them in a separate bowl. Throw the water away. Gently squeeze any remaining water from the milk solids, Don't squeeze too hard, as that will result in very compressed paneer. Be sure put all crumbly pieces together in a mound. Refrigerate for a few hours. 

When you are ready to cook, take the mound of paneer out and cut it as you would cut normal, store bought paneer. But be careful, because this paneer has rough edges and is liable to be slightly more crumbly than the industrial version. If you are using industrial paneer, follow rest of recipe for paneer chilli. 

Heat some oil in a pan and fry on medium heat for a few minutes (remember medium, else the paneer will burn on the outside)

When the paneer is golden brown, take it out and put in a separate box. This is the right time to remind you to use lots more milk than I did and avoid ending up with a minuscule quantity.

In the same oil, fry some chilli (that's what makes the paneer chilli), onions and capsicums. When they are nearly done, add tomatoes. Also, a tiny pinch of salt to taste.

Add a mixture of water and ketchup (Maggi hot n sweet is THE best, but if not, any will do). The mixture should be thick but not sticky like chasni. Add paneer: the sooner you add paneer, the more time it will have to absorb the flavor and expand. Bring it to a boil and then let simmer until the sauce condenses to a thick gravy. 

Voila! Yummy paneer chilli is ready. My version looks like charana ko tarkari lai barana ko masala, but if you add the right amount of paneer, this dish can surely be paneer chilli instead of chilly with paneer topping :) This amazing snack can be served hot or cold!

Ingredients

Paneer

Milk

Vinegar / lemon juice

Water

Sauce

Oil

Green Chilli

Onion

Green pepper

Tomato

Tomato Ketchup

Soy Sauce (Optional)

Simple bodi

This recipe is here specially for Nimitta Tamrakar, who loves bodis. And for anyone else who wants a simple recipe.

First of all, soak the bodi. This is a very important step. I Know people cook bodis without soaking in America, but being NEpali and used to soaking beans overnight, I do not prefer it. And I have no recipe for unsoaked bodis either. Anyways, let soak overnight in lukewarm, and if that is not possible, then at least an hour in warm water. THe bodis should rise to double their size. If you want, test by eating one grain, it should be edible and not tough.

Next, mince some chilly peppers, onions and tomatoes. If you have spring onions, the better.

Heat some oil in a pressure cooker. Once it is hot, fry some jeera and methi. The oil should be hot enough to make them sputter. Add some turmeic.

Add the bodis and fry for a while. Finally, add tomatoes. Stir for a bit and add water to make the gravy. At this point, add the following spices:

a. Ground garlic and/or ginger
b. Jeera / dhaniya ko dhulo
c. Garam masala (if you want it extra spicy)
d. Salt to taste (you can taste by slurping the gravy)

Put the lid on the cooker, and let it whistle for about 15 times. Then switch off the gas, and let the cooker cool off on its own! Voila, spicy bodis at your service. Add coriander for garnish (I ran out when this picture was taken), and mash the bodis in if you want thicker gravy. Else, serve hot with rice or chiura :)

Note: follow same recipe for chana (chickpeas) and matar (dried green peas)

Ingredients:
Soaked beans
Oil
Chilli
Onions
Tomatoes
Few grains of cumin(jeera) and methi (fenugreek)
Turmeric powder
Powdered cumin and coriander
Garam masala
Ground garlic and ginger
Salt
Cilantro leaves

Guaranteed yummiest aluko achar

I recently made aluko achar and forgot to take the picture. No matter, the process is so simple that one picture will suffice. First of all, boil potatoes. Peel and dice them. Add salt to your taste. Grind a tablespoon of garlic and put it in RAW. Add lemon juice to your taste. Heat some oil in a pan. When it is sufficiently  hot, fry some methis in it. When the methis are done, fry as many chillies as you want. Turn off the heat and add a sprinkling of turmeric. Pour the sizzling oil into the potato mixture and stir. Preferably let sit for at least an hour before eating, so that the potatoes can soak all the flavor. Optionally, Add coriander for garnish.

This is, by trial and error, the best aluko achar that I have eaten, no qualifiers!

Ingredients (In order of use):

Boiled and diced potatoes

Salt

Lemon Juice

Ground garlic

Oil

Methi

Chillies

Turmeric powder

Coriander

Deviled Eggs for Beginners

I loved deviled eggs the first time I had them, and have loved them ever since. When I started looking for recipes online, they were so easy that I was ecstatic (I expected the recipe to be fancy since the eggs look fancy). My first try was a little saltier than I would have liked, though it was still good. I am sure that with time and more experimentation, I will get better results. So here goes: 

1. Hard boil a few eggs and cut them  in half.

2. Take the yolks out and put them in a separate bowl

3. Add a little bit of mayonnaise, a dash of vinegar, and a very (very) small pinch of salt. Many recipes called for mustard at this stage, but I hate mustard anyways. The mixture should be slightly gooey, like in the picture.

4. Put the mixture back into the eggs (I know there are all these pretty pictures online with fancy patterns on the filling, but I am yet to figure out how to do that)

5. Garnish with pepper. Look how pretty they are, I finished three of them before I even thought to take the picture :)

Corrections and additions will be made as when they occur in real life. Until then, enjoy deviled eggs for beginners. 

Ingredients

Boiled eggs

Mayonnaise

Vinegar

Salt

Powdered red pepper

How to make a dump salad

This is an alternate version with yoghurt and strawberries

My colleague once made a dump salad – she dumped all thefruits she had and covered it in some kind of ready made sweet dressing. It wasdelicious, but that’s not what this recipe is about. It’s about another saladthat I invented and named it dump salad, because it involves dumping togethereverything in the fridge.

My dump salad has 5 groups of ingredients:

1. The essentials

2. Vegetables

3. Fruit

4. Moisture

5. Spice

6. Nut

1. The essentials.

The essentials are the things that youabsolutely cannot do without. Salt,khorsani, lemon, and oil fall here. Use them as per taste.

2. Vegetables

As I said, just dump everything in yourfridge. Just follow a few guidelines:

a. Choose veggies that are relatively bland. Forexample, veggies like karela and bhede khorsani have a distinctive taste andflavor of their own and do not taste good when eaten raw or semi raw. Cauliflowers, boiled corn, mushroom, cabbage, are some of my favoriteingredients. But you can go ahead and add green beans, peas, boiled chana,asparagus, iskus or anything else you want. I do not like the taste of rawcarrot, and if you do, go ahead. If not, grated carrot should be good.

b. Dice up all these veggies into minute pieces.

c. Take the veggies that you do not normally eatraw, like mushrooms, which might smell if raw, and cauliflowers, which are toocrunchy when raw, and either micro, steam or boil them for 2 minutes. Do notcook for more than 2 minutes, else they will lose their texture and turn intoslime. This is a dump salad but not baby food.

Mushroom amd cauliflower about to be microed. I only added corn because they are frozen, I do believe fresh boiled corn is better.

d. Dump everything else that is eaten raw – banda,peas, green beans, etc. Saag is wonderful too. I personally dislike rayo. I luvsup ko saag but many people find it too strong. Anything in between, chamsurpalungo, romaine spinach, go for it, but sprinkle it on top, else it may becomewatery.

3. Fruit

Frankly, vegetable salads always soundedbland to me, until I discovered that I could add fruit to it. I got the ideafrom the book lemony snicket, where Beatrice Baudelaire makes a salad of peasmangoes and avocados. Anyways, fruit is an essential part of this salad.Choose a fruit that has a tang (imagine a very sweet fruit like banana in aveggie salad. No, it would absolutely not work.) My favorite fruit to putin a dump salad is amilo aaru, or tangy peach. Strawberry, kiwi, pear, alubakhada, and pineapple workgreat too. Raw mango would be the best, but if the mango is too hard to bite,then you can either cook it with the veggies or grate it. I would assume thatother berries like cranberry, and ainselu would do great too. Just chop up n mixwith salad.

5. Moisture

Moisture is a vague name. I guess it can loosely be called chhop. This ingredientgives some kind of lassa to the dish, There are three options for this. Avocado,yoghurt, or boiled egg yolk. Dahi is my favorite, and though avocado works,sometimes it gives a strong fishy smell in company of other veggies. But if you can stand it, go for it. Boiled eggs work great, the whites add to the salad and the yolk can be blended thoroughly to provide a creamy texture. And if you like none of these, then don't use any. Salad tastes fine without this ingredient.

4. Spice

You can use either onions, or garlic, orgreen onion. Using more than one would be overkill I think, because salads requiremilder flavor than cooked veggies. My personal fav is onions, from all theversions that I have tried.

This version has green onions as spice, avocadoes as moisture and nectarines as fruit.

6. Nut

The nut adds flavor and texture to the salad. Use chopped walnuts, cashews, or almonds. Do not use whole nuts, they might prove too hard to chew. And don't use too many nuts, as the the vegetables should be the main ingredients and nuts should be just the garnish. Again, do not use more than one type of nut at a time, because it takes away from the vegetables. A sprinkling of raisins or dried cranberries and the like wouldn't harm. Nuts, like moisture, are optional, but are highly recommended.

Finally, throw everything together, sprinkle salt and lemon juice to taste, and garnish with oil of your choice. I use olive oil, which works fine and is healthy too, but I get misty eyed thinking of tori ko tel. The oil can be used raw or heated. The benefit of using heated oil is that you can jhano the dish with methi and khrsani, but I often use unheated oil and raw khorsani which works great too. Go wild withjimmu heeng or any other exotic spices that you would like to use (I use heeng to great effect).

Enjoy yummy and pretty dump salad :)

Alternate version with pineapples, cucumbers and boiled beans, ground carrot 

Flipping a yummy Tomato Cheese Omelet

For this I have to thank Anil Bhenaju. We had gone over to Prabha Di’s place for lunch, and among all the delicious stuff like Mushroom Choela and Dai Vada was the Cheese and Tomato Omelet. I watched Bhenaju making it from scratch, and was mighty impressed. Cheese and eggs and two of my favorite foods, but the idea of combining them, though so simple, had not occurred to me. And even if it had, I wouldn’t have known how to best mate them. But Bhenaju put up such a simple display I make it every other day. And whenever I ask Mayuri what she wants as a lunch accompaniment, she says “Cheese Omelet!”

Two eggs, one half-whisked. Half a slice of cheese that passed through the shredder.
 And tomatoes  plucked from the vine.

Well, the ingredients are so rudimentary you do not even need to list them down. For a person, you need just one egg, around fifteen shreds of cheese (no, you needn’t count!) and one large tomato. Or two small ones, depending. And salt and oil, of course. Onion and tomato if you are into that sort of thing. Which I amn’t, as I find them too intense in an omelet.
Just shred the cheese, slice the tomato into tiny pieces, and whisk the egg around on the bowl. Add the salt to the egg and heat the oil. Once heated, pour in the egg and wait till it sizzles and then settles down to half-cooked consistency. The trick, as I have learnt through trial-and-error, is knowing exactly when to put in the cheese and tomatoes. That is JUST before you turn it over, otherwise it either sticks or burns. Sprinkle the cheese around, dash in the tomatoes, then flip the omelet and wait till it settles too.

I command you to flip me at this exact moment!

 The end product should send off a heavenly smell, you will be reminded of pizza. The texture is similar too, the mushy, spongy feel. Scrape it off and enjoy!

Not my best picture, but I taste yummy!