The Egg Affair

Egg is the saviour of all lazy cooks. Scramble, omlette, boiled eggs, egg curry, casserole, french toast and not to mention so many yummy desserts. Its nutritious and gives you a wide variety of recipes. Its the perfect binder and stabilizer.
Some quick egg recipes for a lazy day when we are in no mood of cooking but still want to eat something homemade.

Scrambled eggs:
Scrambled eggs are all about technique. Its just butter, eggs, milk or cheese, salt and pepper.
Add butter to the pan on medium heat. When butter melts add lightly beaten eggs (about 3 eggs). Keep stirring lightly with the spatula. Keep scooping with the spatula from oustide to the inside ( in a circular pan, its like drawing a radius over the egg mixture) and then spread again. Keep the motion on till the eggs mixture is still moist. Now add cheese, let it melt and mix with the eggs. When cheese is just mixed well, season with salt and pepper. Dont let the eggs dry up. Put off the heat when scrambled eggs are creamy. Serve with toast and some stirr fried vegetables.

Omlette: For Omlette no trick is required. Beat the eggs, mix finely chopped onions, green chillies and salt.You can also add your favourite vegetables like cabbage, capsicum, tomatoes etc. On a heated pan, brush some butter or oil. Pour the mixture and move the pan in circular motion for the mixture to spread evenly all over. When omlette is firm, you can turn it and cook on the other side. Serve with toast or chapati or just like that.

Half Fry: Heat little oil in a pan on medium heat. Break two eggs on the pan itself (beating not required). Let it spread on its own. Season with salt and pepper. Dont turn it, let the beautiful yellow yolks be seen whole on the white background. And dont overcook it. Trick is to cook it on medium-low heat.

French Toast: Whisk 3 eggs with 1/3 cup milk, sugar and some cinnamon/cardamom powder.
Soak the bread slices in the egg mix on both sides. In the pan spread liitle butter, when butter melts put the soaked bread slice and cook on both sides till golden brown. Serve hot with some strawberry or chocolate syrup on it.....yummy!

Savoury French Toast: This is my favourite dish. Beat 3-4 eggs, season with salt. Add chopped onions and green chillies. Now cut the bread pieces in diagonally into triangular halves. Soak the bread in the beaten egg mixture on both sides and shallow fry with some oil in the pan. Turn over and fry on the other side till it turns golden brown. Serve with tomato ketchup. Its really Yummy!

Boiled Eggs: Just boil the eggs with enough water to cover the eggs for around 20 min. When done peel, cut into half, season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Boiled Egg n' chutney Sandwich: Cut boiled egg into half. Spread green chutney on both halves of the Sandwich bun. Club the boiled eggs halves and onion slices between them.

Green Chutney: Grind together corriander, green chillies, mint leaves, and few garlic cloves and little cocunut. Add cumin seeds and salt for taste. Green chutney is ready.

Boiled Egg Bhaji: Cut the boiled eggs into small pieces. In a pan heat oil. Add Mustard and cumin seeds. Then add finely chopped one medium sized onion and few garlic cloves. Saute till onions turn light brown. Season with salt, red chilli powder(1/2 teaspoon) and garam masala (1/2 teaspoon). Now add the egg pieces. Saute well and serve with Chapati. Its tastes very good!

Egg Bhurji: Egg bhurji is the Indian scrambled egg. Here we put the tadka and cook the eggs really well till the egg mixture turns into small crumbles.
In a pan heat oil. Add mustard and cumin seeds. When they splutter, add finely chopped onions, garlic and green chillies. Saute till onions turn light brown. Now add turmeric and salt. Mix well. Now break the 3-4 eggs directly into this tadka. Mix well stirring constantly on medium-high heat. Stir well till the eggs turn crumbly and no moisture is left behind. All chunks of the egg mix should appear distinct. Oil will be seen on the sides of the pan. Egg bhurji is ready. Serve with Bread slices or chapati/paratha.

So many yummy and quick dishes can be made with eggs (though I have not covered the desserts here) and that makes it so adorable. Its a perfect breakfast element. Its a must in my kitchen!

Paneer Bhurji

Paneer bhurji is a quick dish made with paneer. Paneer is so versatile, I feel its the vegetarian's meat. But it delights the vegetarians and non vegetarians equally. From Kebabs, tikkas, different curries, paratha and bhurji too. Paneer can make a perfect recipe for special occasions as well as everyday cooking, like this one!

Ingredients:
Fresh paneer finely chopped or crumbled
1 Onion finely chopped
2 Green chillies
Few curry leaves
Cumin & mustard seeds
1 tbsp Oil
Salt as per taste
1 pinch of turmeric

Method:
In a pan heat oil and add mustard and cumin seeds. Add onions, chillies and curry leaves and saute till onions turn light brown. Add paneer and mix well. Now season with salt and turmeric. Cook for 5-10 min. Crumbled or chopped paneer cooks quickly. Paneer bhurji is ready in just 15 min.
Serve with phulka or paratha. Its good to go in lunch box too.

Chiwda

Its the ultimate homemade snack for munching while you are travelling. Its also one of the main items in the Diwali Faral(Festive snack). It may make so many hostellites nostalgic thinking how they have survived on the chiwda and how chiwda kept their taste buds happy when they had no option for the mess food :(
So lets indulge in the chiwda making process to discover what was the secret of those memories apart from mom's love in it :)

Ingredients:

4 cups Thin Poha (Rice flakes)

Onions thinly sliced (1 cup)

Green chillies slit

Peanuts

2-3 Garlic cloves(thinly sliced)

Saunf (fennel seeds)

Cumin and mustard seeds (I can't do without these)

Salt

Turmeric

Chilli powder (optional)

Curry leaves

Corriander leaves

Oil

Thinly sliced dry coconut

Method:

Lightly roast the poha in a pan till little crispy and keep aside.

In a pan add 1/3 cup oil enough for frying. Fry the peanuts and keep aside.

Add Mustard seeds, cumin seeds, onions, garlic and slit chillies. Fry onions and garlic on medium heat till it turns brown and crispy ( this will take at least 10-15 min). Add Fennel seeds, curry leaves and corriander and coconut slices. Fry till coconut is light brown in color. Now add the remaining ingredients i.e salt, turmeric, chilli powder. Mix well. Now add the fried peanuts and roasted poha. Mix well till all the poha mixes well and not a single poha is white in color. Mix till the whole mixture takes same yellow color.

Let the chiwda cool completely. Then store in an airtight container.

Whenever you feel the urge for some munching action, you know which container to look upto!

Tava Gobi/ Cauliflower in Griddle

Tava Gobi is an instant dry sabji that goes well with soft parathas or curd rice. Its simple recipe makes it ideal for the bachelors. Only extra thing to do here is the cleaning part of the cauliflowers. As we all know that a cauliflower may turn a veggie into a non-veggie :) (considering the insects it may have :)). It becomes so imperative to wash it thoroughly with salt in warm water. But don't be discouraged with the effort, as the end product is absolutely worth it!

Note the Ingredients:

Cauliflower florets thoroughly washed,

2-3 Garlic cloves

2 Green chillies finely chopped

1/2 tsp Mustard and cumin seeds

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Garam masala powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric

Salt as per taste(apprx 1/2 tsp)

Fresh Corriander

Method:

Heat oil in a tava/griddle. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds followed by pressed garlic cloves and Cauliflower florets. Saute on medium heat for about 5 min. Then add green chillies, salt, turmeric and garam masala powder. Cook uncovered for another 5 -10 min taking care that the florets dont stick to the tava. When done put off the heat.Garnish with fresh corriander/cilantro.

Serve the nice n crunchy tava gobi with chapati/paratha or curd rice.

The Foodie Blogroll

Here is a good news for all the silent food bloggers who want to make their presence felt online! There is a wonderful blogroll dedicated to the food related blogs "Foodie Blogroll".

Foodie Blogroll is one of its kind online. If you have a Food related blog, submit it to the list and experience the increased popularity of your blog.

Isn't it true that appreciation inspires you to work better and harder? Here you can meet so many fellow food bloggers, get to know them through their Culinary art. You definately get inspired and that brings the best in you!

Join the Ultimate source of recipes and Cooking sites. Explore the vast culinary knowledge and treat your family with some wonderful recipes. Check out the Foodie Blogroll!

Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji is another simple recipe. I am trying to make it more simple for the bachelor section.

Ingredients:
4 Potatoes
1 cup tomato puree
1/3 cup Green peas(optional)
1 1/2 tbsp Everest Pav bhaji masala
1/2 tbsp red chilli powder( or as per taste)
Salt for taste
4 tbsp Butter
Cilantro/Corriander for garnish

4-6 Pav or buns

Finely chopped onions and one lemon cut into quarter for serving


Directions:
Peel and dice the potatoes. In a pan add 2 cups of water and add the potatoes and boil.
Diced potatoes will cook fast and cooking in pan will save the cleaning effort of an extra vessel used for boiling potatoes :)

When potatoes are tender, mash them with a masher. Add tomato puree and rest of the ingredients. Add little water if required. Keep stiring till the nice familiar pav bhaji aroma starts spreading. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro.

In another pan heat pav or buns with liberal amount of butter till light brown on both sides.

Serve bhaji and pav with finely chopped onions and lemon pieces. Put some more butter on bhaji while serving.

Tomato soup with Garlic Toast

The first thing my husband served me, after my tiring India to US flight, was Tomato soup and garlic toast. It was his rescue recipe and he survived on it for some 6 months.
He was using Campbell tomato soup and frozen garlic toast. But the soup was sort of not so tasty as my tastebuds were used to the flavourful and spicy indian food.

Then I showed him the twist to the tomato soup adding just simple flavours to it. And his eyes went bright when he tasted the same soup he was having for so many months.

Well, what I did was very simple.

Directions:

Pour the campbell tomato soup in a vessel, adding 1 cup of water. Bring it to boil. Add 1 tbsp butter, finely chopped garlic (2 cloves), some salt and pepper.Cook for 10 min. Garnish with chopped cilantro while serving.

Serve with Garlic toast. Texas toast in the oven 475F for 10-15 min.

Just the tomato soup and garlic taost can be comfort food in the winters.

Welcome to the Bachelor Cooking

These days we are visiting different countries, living away from families for work. For the bachelors it becomes difficult to manage the cooking along with long office hours. Even the separated(due to work related reasons :)) couples have to rely on outside food. But it will certainly have ill effects on the body in the long run.

Some of us might have never entered the kithcen or have a cooking phobia :)

This is my effort to offer some hassle free, easy to cook recipes for the people pressed for time and new cooks fed up with outside food.

Trust me cooking is fun and cooking all by ourselves is an achievement in itself!

Banana Cake Trifle

I wanted to serve the chocolate banana cake with fresh ripe bananas. What better way than a trifle for serving the cake? It definately adds to the eye appeal and enhances the taste as well.

Ingredients:
Chocolate Banana cake without frosting (refer previous recipe)
Bananas
Chopped dry fruits
Grated coconut
Whipped cream
Strawberry jelly

Method:
Toast the dry fruits and coconut at 400F for 10 min.
In a glass arrange a layer of banana cake. Then some banana slices. Next layer of strawberry jelly, follwed by toasted dry fruits and coconut. Now cover with whipped cream. Garnish with remaining toasted dry fruits, coconut and remaining banana slices.

Repeat the layers depending upon your glass length.

Banana chocolate cake

Banana cake is super simple to make and extremely tasty. Here the banana work as flavouring agent as well as a substitute for the eggs ...good for the veggies!
This recipe contains egg (just one) but can be made without it also. The chocolate and banana flavours go so well together that the chocolate banana cake will become your favourite cake! It requires minimal whipping!
Frosting is also simple and eggless!

Ingredients for cake:
2 Bananas
1/2 cup melted Semisweet chocolate
1 cup Milk
1 Egg
1.5 cup All purpose flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup melted Butter
pinch of Salt
1.5 tbsp Baking soda
1.5 tbsp Vanilla extract

Ingredients for Frosting:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate
1 cup cream
1 Mashed banana (optional)
Strawerry syrup

Chopped almonds/walnuts for garnish.

Method:
Preheat the oven at 350 degree F.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt together and keep aside these dry ingredients.
In a mixing bowl add melted chocolate, sugar, egg, mashed bananas, milk, liquid butter and vanilla extract.
Now put dry ingredients to the wet ones in three parts, one third at a time. You can also add some chopped walnuts if u like.
Butter and flour the baking dish and shift the mixture into it.
Now bake at 350F for 30-35 min. Insert a toothpick, if it comes out clean, the cake is done.
Let it cool.


For the frosting, melt butter in a pan on medium heat, add 1/2 cup cream to it. When it just comes to a boil put off the heat and add chocolate to the butter cream mixture. Chocolate will melt in the warm mixture.
Let it cool in the refrigerator for 30-45 min. Add remaining whipped cream to it and the mashed banana or banana smoothie. Cool for another 10-15 min .
Sprinkle strawberry syrup on the cake and then cover it with the frosting. Garnish with chopped almonds or walnuts.


As we have added mashed bananna to the frosting it better to eat it fresh. If you wish to store it then make the frosting without banana just with chocolate, cream and butter.

Banana cake is too good to resist!

Pasta in spinach sauce

I am a great fan of spinach and like to add it to almost every recipe. Here is a spinach twist for the Pasta along with crunch of the corns!

Ingredients:
Pasta 1 pack (spaghetti)
Spinach 1 bunch
Boiled corns 1/2 cup
Rosted garlic 2-3cloves
Flour 2 tbsp
Butter 4 oz (half stick)
Milk 1 cup
Salt and Pepper

Method:
Boil Water in a tall vessel and put pasta. Boil till cooked well. Remove water and set aside.
Puree spinach with roasted garlic and set aside.
In another pan put butter. Add flour when butter melts. When flour and butter are nicely incorporated add milk to make nice white sauce. Now add garlic and spinach puree, followed by boiled corns. Let it cook till the raw smell of the spinach disappears. Remove from heat
Mix boiled pasta with green sauce and season with salt and pepper.
Transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with fresh herbs like basil or cilantro.
Spinach corn pasta is ready to eat!

P.S:

Roasted Garlic: Cut off the upper 1/2 inch of the whole garlic. Bake in the owen for 45 min. Garlic cloves turn brown. Just push the back of the garlic and roasted cloves come out like a brown colored paste. It can be stored for later use.