Partners-in-Crime

Picture the perfect lazy afternoon. Lying across comfy armchairs and staring into space. Procrastinating.
Then of course we get hungry. We have to have something to eat.
That is when the brainwave strikes - go to the Monday market and find some essentials to reconfigure into an original and tasty dish. So we drag ourselves outside, and since we are there - buy a lot of vegetables. And then my friend atomicgitten and me - we launch into the process of making dinner. Thinking about the process now in hindsight - it seemed like a relay tag-team. Onions, spinach and potatoes in then taken off the cooker, cauliflower and coconut milk followed next. The room was a simmering mists of spices, steamed nuttiness of rice and the underlying heat of chili.

Monday market, Sitaphalmandi[Hyderabad]

The entire meal was stirred on the induction cooker which is like an answer to a prayer. Induction cooking makes everyday busy life throwing together fast and delicious. The recipe which consisted in making a main-course vegetable dish of cauliflower and spinach simmered in coconut milk and a side-dish of fried potatoes easy. After all it took all of half an hour to make it. The only work we did was prepping up the vegetables for it.

Mise-en-place:
Dice potatoes and boil them[This should take twenty-five minutes]
Wash and chop spinach
Cut cauliflower into little florets
Slice onions, tomatoes and slit green chillies.

Cauliflower simmered in Coconut Milk

Courtesy-Sree

Ingredients:
1 medium onion[sliced]
1 medium tomato[sliced]
1 slitted green chilly
1 large cauliflower chopped into florets
1 cup spinach
2tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2tbsp red chilly powder
2tbsp coriander powder
1tsp turmeric
1tbsp garam masala
salt as required
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water
3tbsp oil

Method:
Heat oil. You can regulate the temperature of the cooker by reducing it to 8:00. Saute sliced onions till browned.
Add ginger-garlic paste and fold in. Cook for five minutes till the masala browns. Add the slitted chilly and tomatoes. Cook for five minutes.
Sprinkle the spice powders except the garam masala. Add the cauliflower and 1 cup of water. Simmer for fifteen minutes. Season, add spinach and cook for five more minutes. Check for the spice - if needed add some more red chilly powder.
Add the coconut milk and the garam masala. Simmer for five minutes. The dish is ready to be served

Spicy-Spinach Potatoes:

Courtesy-Rijuta

Ingredients:
1tsp kalonji or nigella seeds
3 medium potatoes[boiled]
1 cup spinach[chopped]
1 medium onion[sliced]
3tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 slitted green chilly
2tbsp Red chilli powder
1tbsp coriander powder
1tsp cumin powder
1tbsp garam masala
2tbsp oil
Water as required

Method:
Heat oil. Splutter the kalonji [and this is the ingredient that takes the recipe to the next level of deliciousness]
Saute onions till translucent. That will be about ten minutes. The temperature setting is the same as the cauliflower dish.
Add the ginger-garlic paste, green chilly and tomatoes. Cook for ten minutes till the masala fuses. Add a little water if the masala sticks to the bottom of the pan
Add the spinach and the spice powder. Cook till the spinach melts.
Add the boiled potatoes. Season with salt. Cook for seven more minutes till the potatoes are semi-mashed into the masala. The side-dish is ready.

Serve both the dishes with steamed rice and tomato pickle. 

Nourishing deliciousness

Thali at Saravana bhavan, Connaught Place - It was a lot of very tasty food[some of which I don't even know the names of]

Parippu, avial, sambar, beetroot chutney, rasam, curd, papad, rice, beans sabzi, achar and sweets

Loveofmylife: Spot#4

Tuscana pasta with warm bread

Courtesy: Truffles Cafe

Anda chop

In the heart of Oriyaland chops carry a different connotation. They come in a range of vegetables and meats encased with a shell of mashed potatoes, crumbed and fried. Lamb, mutton, chicken, egg, vegetables, potato - they all undergo this uniform and delicious treatment and people go far and wide to avail themselves of this delicacy. There are people who chart the map of the town based on which places sell these crispy fried mouthfuls. My mother learned to make these chops for chai in the afternoons because I loved it so much - which would account for my growing weight in the pre-teen and teen years.This post is dedicated to my favorite among all these varied offerings.

The egg chop is one of those snacks that you have once a week and then salivate about it for the rest of the month until you break down and give into the urge to make it again. Unless of course you take a vacation home and have it every alternate day. The key to this is having the eggs done just right - not soft nor hard but the perfect yellow yoke. Then of course you have to have the potatoes boiled right so that the mash is firm enough to form a shell around the egg and then have the batter stick around it.

The boiling of eggs and potatoes are the main waiting parts. The assembly is easy and made with minimal of ingredients. After that it is almost surprisingly easy - going one after the other till you have a golden brown crispy exterior and melt-in-the-mouth interior. And I will stop before I descend into a stream of cliches.

Mise-en-place:
2 eggs
3 medium potatoes
Peel potatoes and cut into quarters. Add into the water along with the eggs.
For the eggs bring the water to boil and then lower down to simmer. Cook for twelve minutes. Remove after twelve.
Cook the potatoes for seven more minutes.

Ingredients:
Boiled eggs and potatoes
2tsp Red chilli powder
2tsp garam masala
salt to taste.
3tbsp besan or gramflour
water as required.

Method:
Make batter with the besan and add water to make a thick batter. Season with Red chilli powder, garam masala and salt. This step depends on the eyes-whenever you feel right just stop.
Mash the potatoes and season with red chilli powder, garam masala and salt.
Slice the eggs. Take a handful of mashed potatoes and encase it on the eggs so that the it resemblance a complete egg.
Dip into the batter.
Heat oil. Add the eggs one after the other. Fry till golden brown.
Serve with red chilli sauce or coriander chutney.

Birthday lunch

Middle-eastern platter: Falafel with sour cream followed by Chicken Tagine and Herbed pilaf

Warm Apple pie dessert with vanilla ice-cream

Courtesy: Truffles cafe