Gobi(Cauliflower) Manchurian

Though this is such a famous dish, some how I never got a chance to taste it. So I decided to make it myself...My version here is not too dry...perhaps if we can reduce the amount of sauces that go into it we'll get a more dry version.

I don't have any story to recite with this dish...so lets go the recipe straight.

Ingredients :

to deep fry :
1 small cauliflower cut into florets
1/2 All purpose flour
Oil for deep frying
black pepper dust
salt to taste

for thick tempering sauce :
2 tsp corn starch
1/2 cup Red chilly sambal or sauce
1/4 cup Tomato ketchup/sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Oil for tempering
6 pods Garlic minced
1 small onion chopped
2 Green chillies cut into diagonal pieces
salt to taste

Garnish:
Coriander leaves finely chopped
Spring onions chopped

Procedure :
Prepare the cauliflower florets
In a container mix flour with enough water, salt and pepper dust to form a thick batter to dip the cauliflower florets keep aside
In a wok or shallow wide pan heat oil and add minced garlic, slit chillies and onion and fry till golden.
Now add the sauces, salt and cook till the raw smell is turned into nice aroma from the sauces.
Meanwhile heat up oil for deep frying and dip the cauliflower florets in the flour batter prepared and deep fry till golden brown and florets are cooked.
Add corn starch mixture to the thickening sauce mixture so that the sauce mixture will stick to the florets, and then add the fried florets to this mixture and coat the florets evenly with the sauce mixture.
Stir for a minute or two and garnish with chopped coriander and onion leeks.
Remove from heat and serve hot with roti or any fired rice.

Masala Vada/Vadai - Channa Dhal fitters

Its been a severe winter so far in Canada...For the past two months there is no break from extreme cold temperatures and tons of snow...Of all the years I lived here this has been one heavy, cold and absolutely white winter. Life has also been hectic to the core much like the weather for the past few months...though i catch up with the food blog world now and then...I'm hardly finding time to publish posts...But I somehow wanted this month to appear in my blog archive...so pushing myself to post a recipe...

I still have few more pictures in my drafts to go on with my Egg series. But being the first post in new year I decided to post something new.

Well having lived in South India who won't long for a savoury snack like Masala vada. All the more when it is biting chill out there. And being weekend who wants to drive on those snowy roads to Tamil stores to buy them. So hubby and i decided to make them at home for one weekend evening tea.

Though growing up I liked these store bought or home made by my granny, I really tasted the best masala vadai in my life when i came to Chennai newly wed. There was this Nayar Tea kadai (Store) right adjacent to the apartment we lived in...And boy the smell that use to fill the air every morning with freshly made masala vadai was so enticing and hard to resist. In andhra the vadai are small in diameter and more thick and hard unlike those in Tamil nadu where they are flatter and big in diameter. Therefore they are crisp on the outer and soft inside. Taste wise both are good...but different.

I'm giving the Tamil version here...no doubt for the last 10 years I have been transformed into a Tamil girl. But still I'm very much Telugu too. At least I want to keep the best of both.

So lets make our Tamil Masala Vadai here.

Ingredients:
Oil for deep frying
400gms or approx 1.1/2 cups Channa Dhal
1 medium Onion
2 long Green Chillies
10 Curry leaves
5 Garlic pods crashed into small pieces skin on
1/2 tsp Fennel seeds
1/4 tsp baking soda
salt to taste
Add chilly powder if desire more spicy.
chopped coriander leaves ( My addition)

If you want a fusion of Andhra an Tamil nadu then add 1/8 tsp garam masala powder and 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste. You can omit crashed garlic then

Procedure:
Soak channa dal in enough water for 2 to 3 hours.
Drain the liquid fully and keep 2 tbsp of full dhall aside.
Now grind the remaining strained dal into a thick course paste.
You can add half salt when grinding.
Heat oil in a wok or deep wide kadai/pot
Alternatively add chopped onion, chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves, crashed garlic, fennel seeds, baking soda and remaining salt and mix nicely.
Make lemon size balls with this channa mixture and on a wax paper or even on wet palm pat them into small patties keeping the centre thick and tapering towards the end with approximately 2 inch diameter.
Once the oil is heated nicely drop these channa patties into it and deep fry them till orangish brown color is achieved and a savoury smell feels the kitchen.
Once done remove from oil and place on tissue paper to remove excess oil.
Repeat till all the mixture is done.
Serve hot with tea and any desired sweet dish like chakra pongal, kesari bath, gulab jamun to contrast the spice.
These don't need any chutney or sauce to go with, cause they are spicy and flavoured by them self to make them a wholesome snack/savoury.

Merry Christmas & Blessed New year

Unto us a SON is given.....JESUS CHRIST THE LORD

May the Lord grant you all the blessings this season has in store...

...LOVE.....JOY...PEACE....AND MUCH MORE.

To all my readers & visitors -

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A PROSPEROUS 2009

Esther (Rina)

Egg Rice

Egg is so versatile that it be eaten just by itself or can mix with any other dish to enhance the flavour of the dish to which it is added...as in baking, soups, noodles, rice etc...

Though egg is extensively used in most kinds of fried rice varieties.. the dish i'm going to share now is precisely only with egg...no other vegies or poultry or meat or seafood here.

The relationship with this dish is as long as the years of my marriage...you can guess now who is the author of this dish...yes of course my dear hubby. And ever since i learned this dish from him it has been a savoir dish for me.



Ingredients :
3 Eggs
4 Cups of Cooked (preferably strained)
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 Onion Medium size
3 Green chillies cut
8 Curry leaves
1 tsp Ginger garlic paste (optional)
1/2 tsp Black pepper powder
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves finely chopped to garnish

Procedure :
Heat up a wok or wide kadai, add oil and after the oil is hot enough add green chillies saute, add curry leaves saute and then add onions and saute for 2min.
If adding ginger garlic paste add it now and fry till nice aroma comes
Now add eggs by breaking them one by one and thoroughly stirring and mixing to make egg scramble and fry for a min till scrambled egg is cooked and dry.
Now add little salt and pepper powder for the egg scramble.
Now add the rice and salt & pepper and mix it nicely to combine with the rest of the ingredients in the wok .
Add coriander leaves and mix and remove form heat.

This can be served as it is...with just a papad or with a heavy masala gravy or meat fries...

One good combo with this is a thick crab gravy or Butter chicken or Paneer Butter masala with a cracked papad.

Egg in Eggplant gravy

Its been a while, since I published a post. Life is hectic with business projects and festive season. Nevertheless, I'm continuing my egg series...This time its Egg cooked with Eggplant.
There are two methods to make this dish. We can either make it with the whole baby Eggplant cutting it into 4 length wise pieces and making a dilute gravy, or use the big Eggplant and cut into small cubes and as they cook mash them to mix with the gravy and then add the boiled eggs and cook.

The picture is of the second type.

A very staple dish in my childhood back home.

Ingredients:
5 Eggs hard boiled
1 Big Egg Plant (around 1 to 1.5 lb), cut into small cubes
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Garlic pods 4 - finely chopped
Green Chillies - 4 slit length wise
Onion - 1 Medium
Curry leaves - 8-10
Tomato Paste - 1 Tbsp
Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Tamarind Juice -Soak a medium lemon size tamarind ball in 3/4 cup of hot water for 1/2 hour and then squeeze the pulp and filter the juice and add an additional 2 cups of water.
Finely chopped Coriander leaves

Procedure:
1. In a deep pot add oil after the pot is hot. When the oil reaches a good temperature add mustard seeds.
2. After the mustard seeds splutter add garlic and saute till color changes slightly.
3. Add cut onion, green chillies; curry leaves - saute till onions change color.
4. Add tomatoes or tomato paste and mix.
5. Once the raw smell of tomato is gone, add the egg plant pieces, add salt, chilly powder and mix well.
7. Add 1 cup water, mix and cook for 10-15 minutes covered.
8. Keep mixing in between and add more water if necessary.
9. Once the egg plant is almost cooked, add the tamarind juice, mix well, and add the boiled eggs at this point too.
10. Cook for another 5 - 7 minutes and add the coriander leaves, cook for another minute and remove from heat.

Serve with plain rice, pilaf or rotis.

Tandoori Egg Scarmble

Continuing the Egg series...here is yet another different version of scramble egg...This is real spicy though and actually doesn't require any recipe writing...This is more of sharing a thought than writing a recipe. Obviously I used Tandoori malasa here... There was a day when I needed to do scrambled egg and my pan had this remaining oil and cooked tandoori masala from the pan fried Tandoori chicken on it...So the thought occurred to me why not make use of it. So I heated the Masala tawa and cracked eggs into it and scramble the eggs coating them with this masala. There is no need to add any other ingredient here....
But the end result is simply gr8. You get this spicy masala chilli egg scramble to go as stuffing into your wheat tortilla wrap...You can add same salad to make a more complete meal or snack.

Onion Tomato Egg Masala Curry

As I was blogging eggs for my last two posts, I decided to break some more eggs for the next few posts in my space. This egg curry preparation is inspired by my dear Mother. I remembering me, my Father, and my relatives always loved this dish whenever my mother served.

Preparation is quiet simple. All the time you need, is to chop onions and once the eggs are hard boiled you are ready to roll.

Though this can be enjoyed with Dosa, Chapati, Parota to take the real benefit of the masala, mix it with plain cooked Ponni/Sona Masoori raw rice and then finish it off with sambar.

Ingredients:
5 Large Eggs boiled
2 Tbsp Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
3 Big size Onions finely chopped
4 Green Chillies
2 large Tomatoes or 1 cup Tomato Puree or 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
8 -10 Curry leaves
1 tsp Red chilly powder
1/2 tsp each of Coriander and Cumin powders (if Desired)
Salt to taste
Finely chopped Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:
Heat a skillet medium high heat and add oil.
After the oil is hot allow mustard to splutter.
Now add the chopped onions, curry leaves and green chillies.
Saute' till the onions are cooked and change their color.
Noe add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a 1 minute or till raw smell changes to curried aroma.
Add the tomatoes(canned/ fresh/puree/paste)
And allow to cook til the raw tomato smell is gone.
Now add the chilly powder and the optional powders along with salt and mix thoroughly to coat the onion and tomato masala with the spice powders.
Add 1/4 cup of little water and cook for another 5 minutes or till all the water is absorbed by the masala.
Now add the boiled slit eggs to masala and the coriander leaves and mix well for the eggs to be coated with the roasted masala.
You can cut the eggs into half one the dish is fully done and spread the masala evenly on the halves.

I forget to mention this Egg masala goes very well with lemon rice or Tamarind rice too. I think that is the best combo.