Cabbage and Egg Stir-fry - A Simple Combo

Cabbage used to be one of my least favorite vegetables in my childhood. To me it was a stinky vegetable with no taste. As I grew, my taste buds changed and I started loving cabbage - even a plain steamed cabbage with salt is sufficient for me to enjoy this vegetable nowadays. As I started trying new dishes, I learned quite a few interesting variations with cabbage.

Here is a yummy variation - Cabbage stir fried with eggs.  Mom makes this often and it tastes yummy when she makes it as usual. This is the only recipe with cabbage my daughter loves too. Otherwise, she wrinkles
 her nose at the mere mention if this vegetable and she comes up with a myriad of excuses to not eat it. When combined with egg, it gives a different flavor and makes it quite different.

Egg and Onions Stir Fry

The tragedy in Japan is quite disturbing. Though the residents of Japan have already experienced their share of quakes through the years, 8.9 magnitude is quite high and followed by a tsunami is deadly. Its saddening to see the videos during the moment of the quake and the minute the tsunami hit. For the people there, the psychological trauma probably overweighs anything else. Hope the people of Japan bounce back from this tragedy soon.

Well, the weekend is gone already! We headed up to Milwaukee, WI this weekend for a change. It was indeed cold. Yes, it sounds wierd to head north and be in a colder place at this time of the year. But just to get away from our regular weekend routine and driving for 2 hrs, checking in a hotel, enjoying an Irish breakfast early in the morning and visiting the Milwaukee museum -- all these make the weekend totally special. No doubt I enjoy a hot breakfast accompanied by hot coffee on a cold morning. This morning, we were hunting for a good breakfast place and spent almost half-an-hour just driving up and down the downtown streets looking for a traditional breakfast place. When almost ready to give up, we sighted this small corner coffee place which looked ok from outside. We decided to give it a shot and I should say - we had an awesome breakfast! The place was small and cozy with original Irish setup. The people running the restaurant were dressed traditionally like Irish. They had a variety of choices and I made up my mind to try the Brazilian breakfast - a bowl of Vanilla and Strawberry yogurt mixed with fresh berries, granola, raisins and topped with sweet mango slices. Wow - that was super delicious! A simple, healthy and delicious way to get the day started! I enjoyed it with a cup of coffee and was totally charged for the day ahead. The mango sure adds a kick! I'm sure I'm going to try this recipe at home many times in next few weeks.

Alright, coming to this recipe.. This is one of my favorite egg recipes that I have tasted back in India in local restaurants. This was mostly available in road-side eateries that serve Parottas and Chalna and this egg stirfry is served as a side dish. Its called "Muttai Vengaya Varuval" in the menu. After I moved here, this dish was out of my mind until recently I suddenly remembered how much I used to enjoy this dish before. I tried this recipe just from the taste I remember - and surprisingly it came out pretty close to the original. Seems like I still have not forgotten the taste and its been lingering in the back of mind all these years! Another simple yet flavorful egg dish got added to my menu this week!

Ingredients:

• Eggs - 4
• Shallots or Pearl Onions - 20 to 25 (You can substitute with 2 medium Red Onions)
• G.chillies - 4 small (I make it hot, you can adjust to your preference)
• Tomato - 1 small
• Black Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Curry leaves - few
• Corrainder leaves - a handfull
• Salt as required

Procedure

• Hard Boil the eggs, remove the shells, cut the eggs into half vertically.
• Mix the pepper powder and salt together and apply it to the eggs on the yolk side.
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and place the eggs with yolk side down on the pan. Let it brown for a min and gently turn them over to the other side. Brown for a minute. Remove them to a plate.
• In the same pan, add 1 tbsp oil, season with mustard seeds, Urad dal and Asafoetida and fry for a min. Add curry leaves.
• Then add chopped onions and g.chillies and fry until onions are well fried.
• Add chopped tomatoes and fry until they lose shape. Adding more tomatoes changes the texture of the dish. So just 1 small tomato is sufficient to bring the taste.
• Add very little salt (the eggs are already roasted with salt) and mix well.
• Now add the eggs and gently stir-fry with the mixture until no moisture is left and the dish is completely dry and well fried.
• Garnish with corriander leaves.

Enjoy with any rice dish.

Omlettes in a spicy gravy!

Its February already! Before I realized, January is gone. And February usually goes by fast too, since its a shorter month. Overall, it feels like winter is going super fast this year! By march, the hope for Spring starts, and its manageable even if its cold now and then. I can't wait for Spring already. I haven't been in an elaborative cooking mood lately. One reason, I've been busy finishing up my school assignments for the term and I just had the time to manage with simple dinners for a couple of weeks. Another reason, with the depressed spirits of winter, I'm less energized when I get home with no mood to prepare an elaborative dinner. I actually made this dish a while back, I took the picture and had even started writing a post on it, and then I had almost forgotten this recipe in the last few weeks.

I like eggs and they have a respectable place in my cooking :) They are universal and can be part of any menu -- from breakfast to dinner or desserts. Obviously there are numerous egg recipes in Indian cooking too, and I personally enjoy preparing egg dishes at home the Indian way. It's a time-saver whenever I run out of veggies in my fridge. With just a few regular ingredients, I can quickly put together a simple and glorious dish which can be enjoyed with any main dish like rice, rotis, idlis,dosas etc. Here's one recipe that I've grown up with. Omlettes infused with a spicy coconut gravy. Mom use to make this quite often and I still love it to this day. Though she makes quite a few egg curries, this one tops the list. I don't know where she got this recipe from, but this dish has been always there ever since I was a kid.

The fun part is making the mini omlettes. I can enjoy them just like that :) I make a few omlettes separately for my daughter without the chillies and she enjoys them too.

Ingredients:

For Omlettes:

• Eggs: 4
• Onion - 1 medium (finely chopped)
• G.chillies - 3 small (finely chopped)
• Corriander leaves - 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

For Gravy:

• Onion - 1 medium
• Garlic - 4 cloves (medium sized)
• Tomato - 1 medium
• Kulambu powder - 1.5 tbsp (you can substitute with 1 tsp chilli powder and 3 tsps of corriander powder)
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
• Shredded Coconut (fresh/frozen) - 1/2 cup
• Cashews - 1 tbsp
• Poppy seeds (kasakasa) - 1 tsp
• Tamarind juice - 1 cup (or Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp)
• Curry leaves and Corriander leaves - as required.

Procedure:

• Soak the cashews and poppy seeds in water for 5 mins.
• Beat the eggs in a bowl with a pinch of salt until the eggs lose shape and the salt is well mixed.
• Heat 2 tsps of oil in a pan, add the finely chopped onions, green chillies, corriander leaves and salt, fry until the onions turn transparent.
• Add this mixture to the beaten eggs. Now make mini omlettes from this egg mixture. I use my paniyaram pan which has cup shaped dents, so I can make mini omlette balls. If you don't have this pan, you can make mini flat omlettes in a regular pan.
• Cook the omlettes by turning over both sides until they are well cooked. Set them aside.
• Make a smooth paste of the following - Coconut, 1 tsp fennel seeds, soaked cashews and poppy seeds, 1 clove garlic. Set aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard seeds , 1 tsp of fennel seeds. When they splutter, add the chopped onion, chopped garlic and curry leaves. Fry for 2-3 mins.
• Add chopped tomatoes, kulambu powder and salt, and saute until tomatoes lose shape.
• Add 3 cups of water and pressure cook the mixture for about 1 whistle. You can also cover and cook in the pan itself for about 12-15 mins until the raw spice smell goes away.
• Now add the coconut paste and tamarind juice. Let it boil for 5 mins.
• Finally add the omlettes and boil in low heat for 5 more mins.
• Garnish with corriander leaves.
• Let it rest for atleast 30 mins before serving.

Enjoy with steaming white rice!

Spicy Egg Masala

I'm going off the grid! Next week, around this time I will be flying to India! My long planned trip is finally around the corner. After booking my tickets what seems like a lifetime ago (actually in June), its now only a week more! I am excited. No matter howmuch ever we blend with the country and life-style here, going to India is always exciting! After all thats where I grew up! I love it when people around me speak the same language I do. That brings a sense of comfort to me. After a long time we all sisters are meeting together and have several things planned during our stay there. Hoping to have some great family time, do lots of shopping, enjoy home-made meals as well as my favorite Street foods!

I've been on my toes this week (shopping and packing) and still have a lot to do before I'm ready to leave. Hence didn't have time to cook anything elaborate in the kitchen and have been managing with some quick meals for dinner this week. Slowly have started emptying the refregirator too. During times like these, eggs are really handy to make a quick meal. A few days before, my sister was asking me for some new spicy egg recipes for a change as she was done trying all the egg recipes from my blog. To be honest, I ran out of egg recipes and I myself have been on the lookout for new recipes already. After my sister's demand, I scoured the internet for recipes, glimpsed through a couple of cookbooks and finally narrowed down a few egg recipes that looked and sounded interesting to me. I have quite a few bookmarked too but finally settled down to make this spicy egg masala that I got from Aayi's recipes, that looked scrumptious and super delicious in the picture. And ofcourse simple too! What I like about this recipe is, the eggs don't require lot of stir-fry because the spice mixture is cooked separately and ground into a paste before it gets stuffed into the eggs. So a quick seasoning and a stir-fry of the stuffed eggs makes it very easy. You can find the original recipe here too.


Ingredients:

• Eggs - 4
• Onions - 1 medium
• Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
• Curry leaves - 5
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Corriander seeds - 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon - 1/2 inch
• Cloves - 2
• Corriander leaves - hand full.

Procedure:

• Boil the eggs, remove the shell and set aside.
• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, season with Cumin, cinnamon, cloves. Once they pop, add corriander seeds. Saute for a few seconds.
• Now add, onions, ginger/garlic paste and fry for a couple of mins. Add chilli powder, salt and fry for a min. Cool and grind the above mixture to a smooth paste.
• Slit the eggs vertically half-way ( don't cut them fully) and stuff the spice paste in each of the eggs.
• In the same pan, heat more oil and season with curry leaves and corriander leaves.
• Now add the eggs and the remaining paste, if any, and saute gently until the eggs are coated with the oil properly.
• Cover for a few mins in medium to low heat. Then increase heat and stir-fry for a min. Remove from heat.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.

About Madurai & Egg Curry with coconut milk

My all time favorite egg dish is Egg Kothu parottas and Chalna that is famous in our hometown. My hometown Madurai is an ancient temple town, a city that was developed around the famous "Meenakshi Temple". It has a history dated back to the pre christian era. The Meenakshi temple complex is one of the largest of its kind in India, and undoubtedly one of the oldest. There are superb sculptures and paintings all over the 11 temple towers. It was recently nominated for the "New Seven Wonders of the World" through an on-line polling program. The city is called the "Athens of the East" because of its marvelous architecture and meticulous planning compared to the city of "Athens", the greek capital. I grew up pretty much around the temple campus and have explored in and around the temple several times. Its close to my heart and even now when I go there for vacation, just the sight of it gives a pleasant and soothing feeling in my heart.

Madurai is a town that never sleeps. Road-side restaurants are trademarks of Madurai and they have quite a few interesting items served. A few of the famous road-side items are Jigarthanda, Kalkandu-Pal and Kothu Parottas. Jigarthanda is a delicious drink made of Milk, sugar, nannari and a kind of Jelly. Its said to be good for stomach and oral ulcers. Kalkandu-pal is made of sugar candy and thick milk and is offered in a tall glass at the road-side coffee shops. I remember those good (g)old days when we used to stop at the road-side coffee shops on our way from a late night movie and enjoying this awesome kalkandu pal.. Kothu parottas are spicy shredded parathas minced and fried on the pan along with onions, tomatoes, g.chillies and mutton stock. The recipe itself is mouth-watering!

Egg is another type of comfort food with so much nutritional value and is inexpensive. There are plenty of way to consume eggs and obviously in Indian cuisine there are hundreds of recipes with eggs. This is an awesome egg-curry with well-balanced flavor and goes well as a side dish for both rice and chapathis. I usually make this when I make a flavored rice dish like Mushroom Briyani, Chana Pulav, or Veg Pulav.

Ingredients:

• Eggs - 4
• Onions - finely chopped - 1/2 cup
• Tomato - 1 medium
• Tomato Sauce - 3 tbsp
• G.chillies - 3
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Corriander power - 1 tsp
• Black Pepper corns - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon - 1 inch
• Cloves - 2
• Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Procedure:

• Cook the eggs in boiled water, Soak in cold water for 10 mins, remove the shells. Set aside.
• Dry roast the black pepper corns and cumin seeds and make them to a powder. Set aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, add cinnamon and cloves. Once the popup, add onions and g.chillies. Fry until onions are golden brown.
• Add chopped tomatoes and fry until the tomatoes lose shape.
• Now add the tomato sauce, turmeric and corriander powders and fry in medium heat for 5 - 7 mins.
• Add salt and water and simmer for 5 more mins.
• Add coconut milk and some more water and let it boil for 2 mins.
• Cut the eggs into half lengthwise and add them to the boiling gravy along with the roasted pepper-cumin powder. Boil in medium heat for 2 more mins.
• Garnish with Corriander leaves.

Muttai Milagu Masala (Egg pepper masala)

This egg recipe is hot, spicy and full of flavour! The main ingredient is the black pepper powder and gives a very good taste.. a bit of chettinad style..

My favorite egg recipe and learnt this from my mom.. She makes a similar one with chicken too.. both dishes are equally good and are very authentic..

Ingredients:

• Eggs - 6
• Onions - 1 medium
• Tomato - 1 medium
• Ginger/Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Corriander Powder - 2 tsp
• Black pepper powder - 6 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Procedure:

• Boil the eggs, cut them into half and set aside.
• Heat oil in pan, season with Mustard, fennel and cumin seeds.
• Add onions, ginger garlic paste and fry for a few mins..
• Add half of the pepper powder, turmeric, corriander powder and chilli powder and fry with the onions for a few mins.
• Then add tomoatoes and fry until the tomato becomes a paste.
• Add 1/2 cup water, salt and cover it for a few mins in low heat.
• When the onions are well cooked, add the egs and mix gently..
• Add the remaining pepper powder and fry until the egg mixture becomes dry.

Goes well with Rotis as well as rice.