Egg Aviyal..

I am back with a bang after a gap.. Today i am going to post a quick easy to make side dish with our favourite ingredient Eggs... This dish goes well with steaming white rice and any gravy..


Ingredients You need:

Hard boiled Eggs - 2 nos
Potatoes - 1 no (optional)
Onions - 1 nos
Tomato - 1 nos
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Green chillies - 4 nos
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - As reqd
Coconut oil - 1 tsp

To Grind:
Coconut
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - a pinch
Shallots
Curry leaves

Preparation
Grind the ingredients to grind to a coarse paste.
Boil thinly sliced potatoes, onions, tomato, silt green chillies in a pan with some salt and turmeric powder.
When the potatoes are cooked, add the ground coarse mixture into this and heat it till the gravy becomes thick.
Now sprinkle some coconut oil and a spring of curry leaves and switch off the flame.
Cut theboiled eggs to four quarters and mix with the coconut gravy.

Fish in coconut gravy..!!

Fish is an indispensable item in Kerala menu. It comes in the form of either fish fry or fish curry or both in every household. Nothing is so sumptuous than a steaming cup of rice with fish curry and fish fry to accompany.

So the recipe for the day is Fish curry (Fish in coconut gravy). You can use any fleshy fish for this recipe. My favourites are Thilapia and Mahi mahi.. Generally fish curry is prepared in an earthern pot in Kerala which adds a unique flavour to the dish.

Ingredients You need

Fish (Mahi mahi/Thilappia/Mackerel/King Fish/Smelt)

Tomato(small)-1no
Green Chillies - 2 nos

2-3 pieces of Gambooge (Kudampuli)

Oil

To Grind

Coconut - 3/4 th of half piece
Chilly powder - 1 tblspoon

Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Shallots - 2nos
Garlic - 2 nos
Ginger - oru piece (small)

To season

Shallots - 1 no

Mustard seeds

A sprig of Curry leaves

Red chillies - 2 nos

Preparation:

• Clean the Cambooge pieces in running water and soak them in luke warm water.
• In a mixer put all the ingredients to grind and 1/4 cup water and grind it to a thick paste.
• Now in a pan loosen this thick paste by adding some water.
• Add the fish pieces to this gravy and boil it in a low flame.
• Add the cambooge soaked water (along with the cambooge) to this and stir well.
• When it boils add the chopped tomato pieces and the slit green chillies
• Boil it in low flame for atleast 5 mins. If you want fish curry with thick gravy boil it for some more time. Make sure that the fish pieces are cooked properly.

For the seasoning:

• In another pan heat some oil and when its hot add mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chillies and finely chopped small onions. Saute them well and pour this seasoning over the fish curry..

Scrambled egg and peas...!!

Recipe for the day is Scrambled egg peas curry.. Its a great side dish which you can make in a jiffy...

Ingredients You need:

Medium size Onion 1no

green chillies 3nos

Cooked Peas 1/4cup

Egg 2nos

Garam masala 1/2 tsp

chilly powder - 1/4 tsp

turmeric 1/4tsp

mustard seeds

Oil

A sprig of curry leaves

Preparation

• Finely chop the onions, green chillies and set aside
• Heat oil in a wok and splutter some mustard seeds and curry leaves.
• To this add finely chopped onion, green chillies and saute well.
• Then add the powders turmeric, chilly and garam masala to this and stir well.
• Now add the cooked peas to this and saute well so that the peas is coated with masalas.
• Break the eggs into this and scramble well till it is cooked.

Kungpao Chicken...!!

My first tryst with Kung pao chicken happened long back, during my first visit to T.G.I. Friday's. My order of main entree, low carb Dragon fire chicken, came with a grilled chicken breast glazed with Chinese Kung Pao sauce served with brown rice and broccoli. I fell in love with the Kungpao sauce at the first bite.. I became a big fan of their mashed potatoes as well..

After my last visit, I seriously thought of trying it at home. So this weekend we had a chinese day in with egg fried rice and Kung pao chicken.

Inredients You need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 teaspoon rice cooking wine (bought it from Shaw's super market)
2-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoon oil ( i use corn oil)
8-10 whole dry chili peppers (if longer, cut in half)
1/4 cup diced green onion
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon garlic paste

11/2 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1/2 tablespoon water

For the Marinade:
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 egg
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons oil

Preparation

• Cut the chicken breast into small pieces and keep aside
• Mix all the marinade ingredients.
• Add the cut chicken pieces into marinade,mix well and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Make a mixture of rice wine, soy sauce and water and set aside.
• Heat wok. Add 2 tablespoons oil and heat well.
• Remove chicken from marinade and add to wok. Stir-fry quickly for 2 minutes.
• Remove chicken and drain well.
• Now to the same wok add some oil, and add dry chili peppers. Stir-fry until they darken.
• Add green onions, ginger, garlic and crushed red chili pepper and stir-fry 15 seconds.
• Now add the chicken to wok, stir soy sauce/wine mixture and add; stir until sauce boils.
• Then add cornstarch mix to thicken. Stir and cook until ingredients are thoroughly mixed and the chicken pieces are cooked.

Baked Chicken in gravy..

Today's recipe is Baked chicken in gravy. It is a combination of many recipes that i have come across on the net. It goes well with chappathi or nan or poori...

Ingredients You need:

Chicken Drumsticks - 5 nos

One medium Potato

For Marination

chilli powder- 1 tblspoon
coriander powder- 1 tblspoon
ginger paste - 1/2 tblspoon

garlic paste - 1/2 tblspoon
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
garam masala - 1/4 tsp

chicken masala - 3/4 tsp
lemon juice
Butter
salt to taste

Make a marinade of the above items and marinate the chicken and keep refrigerated overnight or atleast for 4-5 hrs.

Ingredients for gravy

1 Medium onion

1/2 of a medium tomato

Green chillies - 2nos (optional)

turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

chilly powder - 1/2 tsp

coriander powder - 1/2 tsp

garam masala - 1/2 tsp

chicken masala -1/2 tsp

fennel seeds - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tsp

Preparation

• Cut the potato into thin long strips same as the way we cut for french fries.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degree Farenheit.
• In an oven safe bowl put the marinated chicken drumsticks and the cut potato pieces. Drizzle some oil over the chicken and the potatoes and bake the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes.
• After 15 mins take the chicken out, flip the pieces, baste it with some oil and bake it again for another 15 minutes. Mean while you can prepare the gravy.

For the gravy

• Heat some oil in pan, add the fennel seeds and saute. To that add the thinly sliced onion, green chillies and saute well.
• To the sauted onions add all the remaining powders and fry well.
• Now put in the cut tomatoes and stir well till the oil separates.
• Now add some water to this and boil to get the gravy. Dont forget to add salt.

After the intial half an hour of baking, take the chicken out, pour the above gravy over the chicken and bake it again for 30 minutes, flipping the pieces after 15 minutes.

Angel hair pasta with Sausage sauce..

I had some pasta left in my grocery shelf. I had actually bought it as a substitute for vermicelli for making payasam/kheer. Yesterday i decided to put it to its actual use. To go with that i made a sauce of my own with some of the left overs. The sauce and the pasta can be made in a jiffy and is an ideal option for dinner especially if you are tired after a busy day..

Ingredients You Need:
Angel hair pasta
1 Medium size Onion
Half of a green Capsicum
2 Cups of Spaghetti sauce
One Sausage link
2 Cloves of Garlic
Pepper to taste
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tblspoon

Preparation

• Finely chop the garlic, onion, capsicum and keep side. Cut the sausage into small circles.
• Boil water in a pan and cook pasta in it. Add a little bit of oil as well.

For the sauce:

• Heat Oil in a wok.
• Put the finely chopped garlic and saute for a minute
• Add the finely chopped onion and capsicum to it and saute well.
• Now Add the sausage pieces to it and fry well.
• After 2-3 minutes pour the spaghetti sauce into this and stir well.
• Add pepper and salt according to your taste.
• Cover and cook it for some time and your yummy sauce is ready to serve.

Different tryouts:

• In the same recipe instead of the sausage, you can add boneless chicken breast pieces.
• To make the dish more healthy you can add chopped carrots, beans and other veggies to the sauce.

Fish Cutlet

Yesterday i made fish cutlets for the first time and to my surprise it turned out really well. So I thot of sharing the recipe with you. It didnt take much time to prepare as i used the canned tuna for this.

Things You need:
Canned tuna(i used the chicken of the sea brand) - 1
Medium sized Onion - 1
Medium sized potato - 1
Small piece of ginger
Green chillies - 3-4
A sprig of curry leaves
Pepper pwder - 1/2 teaspoon
Garam masala - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Egg - 1
Bread crumbs
Oil

Preparation:
1. Boil the canned tuna in water with little salt added for some 5 mts. Remove the excess water and pat it dry with a tissue. Shred the pieces and keep

2. Boil the potatoes and allow them to cool. Mash it into a paste.

3. Meantime, in a wok add some oil and fry onion, green chillies and ginger. Once it is sauted add the pepper power and garam masala and saute well. Now add the shreded fish peices and mix well. Add salt as per the taste. Allow this mix to cool now.

4. Once the mix is cooled and ready, mix it with the mashed potatoes.

5. Now make balls of desired shape, dip it in the egg, roll on the bread crumbs and fry it in the oil.