Egg Curry with Coconut Milk

This was my Grandpa's favourite. Amma used to prepare this along with Ghee Rice. It was a combo to die for. I hardly make this egg curry because Abbas is too fond of Bong Egg Curry and also Ma is allergic to coconut. Now that she is not here, I am preparing most of the coconut based dishes and loving it. I prepared this curry along with Bong Mishti Pulao and the combination worked well. Since I used instant coconut milk powder, the curry got done with minimal efforts and time. In my attempt to further reduce the effort of de-shelling eggs, I delegated the task to Mantam only to see that I got uneven scrambled eggs mixed with petty pieces of egg shell. Sigh!

Ingredients:
Eggs - 3-4, hard boiled, de-shelled and halved
Onion - 2 medium sized, finely chopped
Tomatoes - 2 medium sized, finely chopped or pureed
Ginger-garlic-green chilli paste - 3 tbsp
Coriander leaves - a handful, finely chopped
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Coconut milk - 1 cup thick milk, 1 cup thin milk
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onions. Saute till they are translucent.
2. Add ginger garlic green chilli paste and saute till oil separates.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and keep pressing them against the pan using a spatula. Let them turn mushy and oil has to separate again.
4. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt. Combine.
5. Add coconut milk and give a brief stir. (I generally switch off the flame and add coconut milk due to the fear of it curdling. Then switch on flame on sim and slowly increase.)
6. Bring it to boil, place the halved eggs, add coriander leaves and let it simmer for 6-8 mins.
7. Let the gravy stand for atleast 30 mins before serving. With time, the taste of this curry enhances like with most non veg curries.

VaaLi Sukke - Malabar Spinach cooked in Spicy Coconut Paste

Due to unavailability of VaaLi or Malabar Spinach, this dish laid back in my memory which used to be my favourite. Whenever Amma brought VaaLi home, it was mostly Vaali Ambat. I used to make frequent requests for this Sukke also. It's so easy to make and finger licking good. I can have a couple of bowlfuls of this dish and easily skip a meal given an option. Recently most of the supermarkets have this on offer and I am a happy girl. During last visit, I bought two bunches and they were undiscriminatedly divided to make a Bong Side Dish with Hilsa fish head (which is like a classic) and the next day I make this dish.

Ingredients:
VaaLi / Malabar Spinach - 1 punch
Coconut - 1/2 cup, grated
Red chillies - 8-10 (or as per spice tolerance)
Tamarind - a marble sized ball
Salt - to taste
Coconut oil - 2 tbsp
Garlic cloves - 10-12

Method:
1. Chop leaves of spinach and cut the tender stems in 1" pieces. Pressure cook for 2 whistles.
2. Grind together coconut, red chillies, tamarind and salt together with a little water.
3. Add this masala to the cooked spinach and boil well till well blended. Adjust any salt required. Keep aside.
4. Heat oil in a pan. Add the garlic cloves and saute on low flame till they are uniformly cooked on all sides.
5. Pour this tempering on the spinach mixture.
6. This is served as an accompaniment with rice.

Sending this to Priya's Veggie/Fruit A Month - Coconut

Vison Masala Fry - Seer / King Fish Fry

Vison is called Brahmin fish. You know why? The fish has a single thin line on its body which resembles the thread that Brahmins wear as per religious customs. Vison to Konkanis is what Betki is to Bong if I may say so. In Kannada, this fish is called Arakozhi (Ara meaning half, Kozhi meaning Chicken) because of minimal bones and texture is close to chicken. Back home we used to fry fish by marinating in masala and rolling in semolina. But since my Bong family does not prefer semolina coated fish, I have begun coating in rice flour which turns out yummy too.

Ingredients:
Seer Fish - 3-4 slices, medium sized
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp or as per spice tolerance
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt - to taste
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Rice flour - 2-3 tbsp
Coconut Oil - 4 tbsp (I prefer coconut oil, any other cooking oil can be used)

Method:
1. Marinate fish pieces with ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and lemon juice. Keep aside for atleast half an hour.

2. Roll the marinated fish in rice flour so that it is well coated on both sides.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan, place the fish pieces in the pan and on low flame let it cook for about 5 mins. Invert the fish pieces. Once the fish pieces are cooked, increase flame and let it get roasted well on both sides.
4. It can be served with lemon wedges and onion rings.

Dulche De Leche Payasam

 

I was raving about how I made Dulche De Leche at home in my last post. While I had plans to make brownie and flan using it, I had some guests coming over. Due to short notice, I made this easy breezy payasam impromptu. There is no such recipe as such. I shallow fried some vermicelli in ghee. When it turned brownish, I add milk and let it cook. I finally threw in dulche de leche as per my sweet buds. It's as easy as that folks. I do not have the exact measurements of milk to vermicelli to dulche de leche ratio here coz I added by instincts and while tasting as I went about it. So follow your instincts folks! It came quite close to Nolen Gurer Payesh due to its caramelized taste.

Dulche De Leche - Homemade

When I learnt to pronounce this, I challenged my kids to say it! It was a tough tongue twister for them... But a tongue and soul soother with its caramalized taste. Amma used to make chocolates at home using milkmaid. And hence I used to always attack the refrigerator and have a few spoonfuls each time... Blogosphere introduced me to dulche de leche and all the rave reviews written about it made me wanna try making it at home. It was like magic turned the condensed milk into this caramelized goodness. I simply couldn't wait till the tin cooled and I could catch a glimpse and taste it.

I followed methods from here and here:

I used Amul Mithai Mate.

Remove the plastic lid and place the tin in a pressure cooker. Pour water and let the tin be immersed in water. Water should be about 2 inches above the tin.

Close the lid, cook on high flame and wait for steam to come out. Put the whistle on. After the first whistle, simmer and let it cook for 30-40 mins. Remove from flame. Let it come to room temperature and dig in to indulge in sheer bliss.

Watch this space for more on what I made with Dulche De Leche!!!



Pepper Tangdi

I buy half a dozen chicken drumsticks whenever we pass the fish and meat section during our grocery shopping. I would be making mental plans as to what was I gonna do with the leg pieces. But somehow I end up with something else. This time I bought with hopes of churning out tandoori chicken legs to send out for an event that is going on in the blogosphere. But due to lack of pre-planning and time, I ended up with Pree's recipe. I am glad I did. Abbas's comment after hogging on this dish was that "It's very yummy. There's only one thing missing." Guess what it could be? Of course it was Potatoes! My Bengali husband.... Phew!

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
Chicken drumsticks (skinless) - 6-7 (I used 4)

Onion - 1 large or 2 medium sized, finely sliced
Tomato - 1 large ripe, roughly sliced
Coriander leaves - 1 cup, finely chopped
Grated ginger - 1 tbsp (I used ginger paste)
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Freshly powdered garam masala - 1/2 tbsp (I used Tadka masala)
Freshly pounded black pepper - 2 tbsp
Green chillies - 3-4, slit (My addition)
Oil - 2 tbsp
Bay leaf - 1
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Marinate chicken drumsticks with ginger garlic paste, pepper powder, half of the coriander leaves and garam masala / tadka masala. Keep aside for 30 mins.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Add bay leaf and onion, saute till they turn pink.
3. Add chicken drumsticks and saute on high heat, till you get golden brownish colour on the meat.
4. Add coriander leaves and salt. Combine, cover and cook on medium flame for about 5 mins.
5. Now add the tomatoes, cover and let the chicken cook in the juices that the tomatoes release. Add a little water if you want semi gravy dish.
6. Once the dish attains your desired consistency, garnish with some more coriander leaves and serve with Indian bread or with flavoured rice.

 

Eggless Chocolate Cake

I have not been baking as rigorously as before. My oven is playing spoiled sport as in there were intermittent sparks seen from its rear end. But the baking itch is hard to let go. My kids too had not been taking baked goodies in their snack box to school for the past couple of weeks. I baked this Eggless version of Chocolate Cake which uses oil instead of butter. So, the cake was quite moist like Zebra Cake. Also, I did not have to wait for Eggs or Butter to come down to room temperature. Different toppings can be used but I stuck to the recipe which I adapated from coz I like the combo of walnut and chocolate.

Source: Easycooking

Ingredients:
Flour - 1 cup
Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp
Thick curd(homemade) - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla bean - 1/2 of 1 bean,scraped(or else use a tsp of Vanilla extract)
Chopped Walnuts - 1/2 cup
Vanilla bean sugar(or regular sugar) - 1 tbsp
Chocolate chips - 2 tbsp

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Grease an 8" round cake tin.
2. Sift together All Purpose Flour, cocoa powder and instant coffee powder.
3. In a separate bowl, beat sugar and curd till creamy. Mix in baking soda, baking powder and vanilla extract. Keep aside till bubbles form.
4. Pour oil and beat well. Add sifted flour mixture and combine till well incorporated.
5. Pour the batter into a prepared tin. Sprinkle walnuts, chochips and vanilla sugar on top uniformly.
6. Bake at 200C for 10 minutes and 170C for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake in the tin for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack for further cooling.