Egg Sandwich Three Ways

The sandwich here shows my love for eggs, specially boiled eggs and the various ways in which you can relish them. Now when you make a dish you need to keep all the members of the family in mind!! My husband loves the chutney and tomatoes. I love the one with the mayonnaise the best. My son does not like tomatoes! So it is a situation where you need to mix and match the choices and try to give the best to all including yourself. I must mention here that the mayonnaise is home made. Turned out good, should be better the next time.

6 eggs boiled and peeled
Brown bread
Butter is optional since we are using mayonnaise
Tomato roundels

For the green chutney I blended a bunch of coriander, few sprigs of mint, few green chillies, 1 tomato, 1/2 an onion, salt to taste, juice of half a lime.

For the Mayonnaise you need to blend 2 eggs, some mustard sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper powder. You need to add olive oil bit by bit as the mixture keeps thickening.

Now the first sandwich I have used mayonnaise, chutney, the tomato roundels  and the pieces of egg.

1st  sandwich on top is made of mayonnaise, chutney and the eggs.
2nd sandwich in the centre, I have used mayonnaise, chutney, the tomato roundels  and the pieces of egg.
The one at the bottom is made of only a generous spread of mayonnaise and eggs.

                                   
                                      Fruit Custard With Sago Pearls And Sweet Basil Seeds

Since now is the season of strawberries and other fruits I have made use of them in this recipe. The change is the addition of sweet basil seeds and sago pearls which gave the dessert a different taste and texture.

Milk 1/2 a litre
2 tspns of sweet basil seeds soaked for about half an hour
3 tspns of sago pearls soaked for two hours
2 tbspns of vanilla custard powder mixed in a small bowl of milk
Sugar to taste
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
2 strawberries chopped as shown in the picture

Method

Boil milk in a deep bottomed pan, add sugar and then add the custard powder which is mixed in little milk, stir constantly to see that there are no lumps, add the sago pearls and the sweet basil seeds, now mix well and keep to cool. Once cool add half the fruit pieces and half the pomegranate seeds in it, mix well. No wto serve decorate the bowl as shown in the picture with the pieces of strawberries, add the pomegranate, serve chilled.

                                                       
                                               Winter Special Indian Semolina Kous  Kous

This is our own good old upma which is with a winter twist. I must here mention that I have started using whole black peppercorns after I ate the upma given to me by my friend and neighbour Anuradha. This is when I went to my mother's house at Bengaluru my hometown last winter. Anu and me always went for our walks and our typing classes on  early, misty, cold mornings as teenagers. We still meet even after 35 years of me being married in Mumbai, when I go there for my holidays. One early misty morning she comes calling me out quickly and hands over a box of upma, the tastiest one I have eaten in a long time. The taste of the ginger and the peppercorn is still fresh on my tongue. Thanks to her for the dish and here I am sharing my own winter special with Anu's added flavour!!
The greenish yellow colour of the dish is because of the green tomato paste and the turmeric powder.
When you bite into the peppercorns it is a different hit on your palate!!

I have used fresh green chick peas, fresh green pigeon peas, the regular evergreen peas and green tomatoes in this dish.

Ingredients
2 cups of semolina roasted in 3 tablespoons of clarified butter, a teaspoon of split black gram, a pinch of asafoetida a pinch of turmeric powder
 Paste of 1 green tomato, small piece of ginger and 3 green chillies
8 black peppercorns
1/4 cup of fresh green chick peas, 1/4 cup of fresh green pigeon peas, 1/4 cup of normal green peas
A few fenugreek cress leaves, mine is homegrown
Salt to taste 
1 tea spoon grated jaggery
Some fresh scraped coconut
Chopped coriander

Method
In a deep bottomed pan make a tempering of oil, mustard seeds, splutter them and add all the green pulses and the fenugreek cress, sprinkle little salt and water and cook covered for a while, then add water 5 cups, salt the jaggery, tomato paste, chopped coriander and let the water come to a boil, add the roasted semolina bit by bit stirring all the time to see that there are no lumps. Now add more salt if require, and a tablespoon full of clarified butter, mix well and keep to cook covered. After a while stir and check if cooked, serve garnished with freshly scraped coconut and coriander.

                                                                 
                                                                      Bell pepper curry

Mirchicha Kaayras is the Marathi name for this curry. All ingredients which are used in this generate heat and the fat content in them helps to keep warm, so they are an essential part of many winter dishes. They give a very sweet nutty flavour to the vegetable or curries. Hoping you all like this one.

Ingredients 
250 gms green bell peppers, washed and chopped into small squares, you can use all colour bell peppers too to make it more colourful.

All these ingredients to be ground into a nice paste
1/4 cup  dry roasted peeled peanuts
1/4 cup dry  roasted dry grated coconut
6 red chillies dry roasted
1 small ball of washed tamarind

Dry masala is 1 table spoon of Goda Masala
Salt to taste

2 tea spoons of jaggery to be added in the last stage 

Method
In a kadhai take oil, add mustard seeds let them splutter, add turmeric powder and asafoetida, add the bell peppers, salt and the goda masala, sprinkle water and cook covered. keep checking to see that it does not burn and once it is cooked and the colour changes add the ground paste, the jaggery,  adjust the water to make it into a semi curry consistency, add salt carefully since we added it while cooking the bell peppers. Cook covered, does not take too long since all ingredients are already cooked. The purpose is to see that the jaggery melts fully and finally get all the flavours and aromas to mix well into the vegetable. Garnish with fresh coriander after transferring into a serving bowl. Tastes best with parathas and rice too.

                             Vegetable Made From Potato And Fresh Green Gram Leaves

Since it is winter and we are all using and enjoying the lovely greens available in the market, this dish is made from the fresh leaves of the whole green gram. The cleaning is a huge tedious process though!! It gives out a very distinctive flavour to the otherwise bland potatoes. Enjoy this with lovely parathas and some home made pickle.

Ingredients
I used the leaves of two bunches of the green gram and 4 boiled potatoes peeled and chopped into small sized squares
2 tspns of chilli powder
Salt to taste
Oil, mustard seeds, asafoetida and some turmeric powder for tempering

In a kadhai take some oil, little more than we would use normally for tempering, else the vegetable will taste too dry, add mustard seeds let them splutter, add the turmeric powder and the asafoetida, then add the cleaned leaves, let them saute for a while, add the potatoes, the salt and chilli powder mix well, lat it cook for a while. Transfer to a serving dish. I have skipped the coriander garnish so as to not spoil the beauty of the tiny leaves that can be seen in the dish.

                                                     
                                                      Winter Special Bhajni Thalipeeth

A very simple Maharashtrian snack dish. Very tasty and depends upon you how tasty you could make it with a few additions and innovations. I say winter special because I have used a bunch of fresh green fenugreek leaves cleaned, dried and ground to a fine powder.  When the dough is ready it looks so good with the fenugreek powder. All greens are available in abundance in winter and are a pleasure to cook and innovate with! 

 Here the flour is multi grain, lentil and few aromatics.
The ingredients mentioned below should be dry roasted separately till they release an aroma and ground to a fine powder. 
1/2 kg Rice 
1/4 kg Bengal Gram Split 
100 gms Whole wheat
1/4 kg Jowar or Sorghum
2 tbsp Coriander seeds
1 tspn cumin seeds
Some people also add a handful of beaten rice 

To make the thalipeeth you need
2 cups of the flour made in the above method
2 onions chopped to medium sized cubes
1 cup of  fenugreek leaf powder
Salt to taste
5 green chillies well crushed

Method
Now in a broad plate, we call it paraat, take all the above ingredients and make a dough like we would for a roti. Make equal sized balls and spread it on a greased pan as shown in the picture. Make holes with the finger and fill each hole with little oil. Cook covered on one side, flip and cook on the other side too till crisp and golden brown. The thickness can be adjusted according to individual taste.
Eat with any chutney, sauce, curd or fried chillies. It tastes yummy as is is too!

                                                                     
                                                                   Semolina Pancake

A quick fix breakfast dish, tasty and satiating. Made with ingredients usually available in our daily pantry. Can be eaten with tomato sauce or the green chutney too. For the not so diet conscious a nice blob of butter is yummy option!!

Ingredients

2 cups of semolina
2 cups of yogurt, or adjust according to need
a small bunch of coriander finely chopped
1 tspn of chilli powder
Salt as required
1/4 green, red, yellow bell peppers each chopped fine
1 small tomato chopped fine

All ingredients mixed to make into a batter little thicker than the dosa batter, spread a ladleful on the pan with little oil, cover cook, flip cook to a golden brown and there your pancake is ready to savour.

Koot, A South Indian Curry With Pulses

Ingredients

Moog-whole green gram,
Hara chana-whole green chick peas,
Rajma-kidney beans
Matki-turkish gram,
Vaal-field beans
Chawli-black eyed beans
Green peas

Take quarter cup of each soaked and sprouted or right now in winter a of these are freshly available in the markets.

For making into a paste we need

6 dry red chillies
1 tspn mustard seeds
1/4 tspn asafoetida
1 tspn black gram split- udad dal
1 tspn rice
2 tspns of coriander seeds
1 cup dry grated coconut
1 tspn turmeric powder

Method

Pressure cook all the pulses to 2 whistles if they are fresh or three whistles if they are the dry soaked ones, see to it that they do not become mushy.

In a pan roast all the above ingredients in ghee- clarified butter. Make a fine paste.

Now in a kadhai, take ghee and put the spice paste, let it cook for a bit and then add salt the pressure cooked pulses. bring it to a boil, decorate with fresh chopped coriander leaves, serve with chapati, white rice or even with bread.