Burmese Egg Curry (Jet-u Jhet)

I first tasted Burmese Lamb curry at Madhu Mavshi's place way back in the year 2000 or so. I simply haven't gotten closure from the taste and the explosion of the flavors ever since. It was in pursuit of that taste, that I scoured the local markets for fish sauce, which I finally found in Reliance Mart at Pokharan Road No.2 in Thane.

Here in Thane I have searched enough ingredients in enough places to tell you where you may find certain things.
D-Mart - Near Eden Woods, Hiranandani Meadows, this is your big kirana store. You will find everything of everyday use here. No use trying to search for exotic ingredients though, you won't find them here. You won't find non-vegetarian food items here.

Big Bazaar - (Kapurbawdi) Again a big kirana store. You may find some frozen food items, Hershey's syrups, and Maple syrup here.

Star  Bazaar -  In Korum Mall, this is where I first found BBQ sauce. It is also the place to go to if you want basic meat cuts, salami, sausages, nalli, lamb chops, and lamb feet for paya soup. You will also find tuna fish, and dried fish. I also saw a prawns balchao ready-to-eat preparation the last time I was here. There are also some basic items in cheeses, like cheddar, mozarella, Britannia cream cheese and gouda. In the veggies section you will find iceberg lettuce, ginseng, fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, and tarragon. Celery, avocado, brocolli also have a place in their exotic veggies section. A good place to go to if you are making Italian or French recipes which do not call for other varieties of cheeses.

Hypercity-  In Kasarwadavli. Just-too-damn-far! But man... you will find almost everything here! Right from different types of cheeses (I found Ementhal, parmesan, swiss cheese and more varieties here) to sundried tomatoes. The last time I went, I found Dijon mustard, horse-radish relish, cajun pepper etc. There are different varieties of teas too to suit your taste. In the meat section you will find different varieties of hams too, apart from the regular meat cuts. You will find just about anything and everything under the same roof at this market. I also saw a can of ready-to-use whipped cream (In chocolate and butterscotch flavor) the last time I went there. It is all slightly over-priced though.


Reliance Mart- Pokharan road no.2. A decent store. This is where I found my oyster sauce and fish sauce. They might be stocking it in other stores too, but I haven't come across any store that has them.


Godrej Fresh- A small store in Hiranandani Meadows at Patlipada. Once again, a little too far, although not as far as Hypercity. Small shop, few good items. I saw Rich's Whipping cream here.


These are the hypermarkets. In the next section I will write about the small shops stocking cake essentials.


Till then, my Burmese curry recipe.


You will need,

• 6 eggs
• 2 medium onions finely chopped
• 1 small onion thinly sliced
• 15 cloves of garlic chopped
• 4 large tomatoes finely chopped
• 1 small bunch coriander
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 cup thick coconut cream
• 1/2  vegetable stock cube
• vegetable oil
• salt to taste
  

Boil the eggs and shell them. Make a small slit on the side. Keep them aside.

Separate the leaves of coriander from the stalks and mince them separately. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a wok and throw in the sliced onions first. Once they have caramelized, remove them on kitchen towels.

Next add the chopped garlic. Fry them till they are slightly brown and keep them aside.

Now throw in the chopped onions, minced coriander stalks and saute well for three to four minutes till the onions are cooked.

Add the tomatoes, dry spices, fish sauce and salt and saute for five to seven minutes till the tomatoes are completely cooked. Add 2 cups of water and bring the curry to a boil. Add the tamarind paste and vegetable stock cube and boil for two more minutes.

Finally add the coconut cream, and stir well. Turn off the heat. Add the eggs, and the fried onions, garlic and minced coriander to garnish.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

Happy Cooking!

Kid-friendly Quick Egg Frankies

It's Sunday morning, and that day of the week when all of us want that much needed break. Sadly, for mommies, there are some things that never end. One of them is cooking food. If you do like cooking, then it's as much fun as pursuing any hobby on your day off.

Yet, on a Sunday, you want to make something that's quick and still doesn't compromise on the taste. Novel, yet has to go down the tummy of rebellious little taste buds. Here is one which doesn't go wrong with my daughter, ever!

Plus if you have left over chapatis, this is a perfect way to use them without sounding like a leftover. Instead of chapatis you can even use paranthas, or tortillas. If you are a vegetarian, skip the eggs. Of course, then you can't call it an egg frankie, you can simply called a veg frankie.

Ingredients

Can you see them in there?

• 3 eggs
• 3 leftover chapatis/ tortillas
• 2 cups finely shredded cabbage
• 1 cup finely julienned green capsicum
• 1 cup thinly sliced onions
• any other vegetables of your choice (carrots, jalapenos if you have them)
• chat masala
• green chutney
• barbeque sauce
• 1 tsp oil
• 3 tsp butter
• salt
• pepper

 Prepare the veggies first. Heat one tsp olive oil in a wok and flash fry the veggies individually for about ten seconds each. Not more, as you still want to retain their crunch. By flash frying I mean saute them on the highest heat. The cabbage remains slightly raw, but gets a burnt brown edge, the taste of which is simply indescribable. Season each vegetable with a little salt, and season the cabbage with a little pepper as well. Don't overdo this, you want the children to eat it.

 Now heat a skillet. Add a teaspoon of butter and watch it melt. Now beat an egg in a bowl with a little salt and pepper. Pour the beaten egg onto the skillet. Place the chapati on top of the egg. Fry till the egg turns golden brown and flip the egg and chapati, so that the chapati is now on the skillet with the egg on top. Fry for a few seconds and remove on a plate.

Place each veggie on top of the egg side, as per your child's taste, add the chat masala, barbecue sauce and mint chutney. Roll the chapati  and cover with a tissue paper (trust me, it gets messy while eating!)

Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Happy Sunday Cooking!

Healthy Carrot and Raisin Muffins

Might I say these taste really good, and you absolutely must must try them on your own. It is just so satisfying to bite into a spongy, soft and sinfully moist muffin, that is a healthier version as compared to most other muffins available in the market. I made these from wheat flour and plain flour combined and they turned out really good. Happily I watched my kid bite into her second cake and love, absolutely love the raisin when they made their mushy sweet appearance in her mouth.

Ingredients

• 100 g sugar (you can have 120 g for a sweeter version or 80 g for a less sweet alternative)
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 3 tsp butter
• 130 ml buttermilk
• 1 egg (if you are a vegetarian, substitute with 1/2 cup condensed milk)
• 1/2 cup grated carrot
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 large pinches cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 75 g plain flour
• 100 g whole wheat flour
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• 1/2 level tsp soda bicarbonate
• 1/2 tsp salt (it brings out the rest of the flavors so well)

In a large mixing bowl, whip the sugar, oil, butter, buttermilk, egg (or condensed milk), vanilla and cinnamon powder. Once they are well blended and the sugar has dissolved, add the carrots and raisins and give them a good mix.

Sieve together the flour, wheat flour, baking powder, soda bicarbonate and salt directly into the above mixture. With a rubber or wooden spatula, carefully mix the batter. DO NOT OVERMIX. About five large mixing strokes in a figure of eight motion (give or take one or two more strokes) should suffice. You mix the batter too much, and your muffins will go rock hard. It doesn't matter if a little dry flour remains here or there.

Spoon it out into prepared muffin tins. Fill the muffin tin about 3/4th full. If you fill the cup to its full capacity the muffins will have a flat top.

Place in the oven and bake for about ten to fifteen minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin emerges clean.

(As an alternative, I also made chocolate puffins. Dip the back of your spoon into melted butter and make a well in the center of the batter. Fill this well with chocolate syrup or a jam of your choice. Place in the oven and bake as usual.)

Good to eat freshly made in the morning with tea!

Happy Cooking!

ILE FLOTTANTE : The Floating Island Dessert

I am in heaven! Who knew eggs could taste like that? Besides, there is something about eggs, vanilla and sugar. They never fail to delight you. Use a different technique and they will yield something different yet entirely exciting for you.

This is one such dessert. It is called the floating island, because of the little meringue floats on the custard sauce. I think it should be named as the Edible Clouds. They are so soft, and fluffy, they just melt on your tongue! And the custard... the heavenly custard, oh! Together, they make a dessert that is so smooth and velvety in texture, it tortures you for pleasure as it slides down into your heart!

It didn't take me long to make it. Thanks to my mom who gifted me the electric egg beater, my work was done in half an hour. Such a perfect recipe in under thirty minutes! This is not the only time I am ever going to make it!

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar ( I don't like my desserts irritatingly sweet)
• 1 pinch salt
• a few drops of vanilla essence
• 3 cups milk

Separate the whites from the yolks.

For  the meringues:

Beat the egg whites with salt, a few drops of vanilla essence and 1/4th cup sugar until stiff peaks form. Boil water in a large pan and once it begins to boil, drop blobs of egg whites into the water. (They float like beautiful spotless white clouds). Keep them undisturbed on the boiling water for two minutes. Turn them around gently and keep them for two more minutes. Remove them and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for five minutes. Remove and keep them aside.

For the custard sauce:

Beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar till it changes color to light yellow. Boil the milk with the a few drops of vanilla essence. Add the milk in little quantities to the egg yolks while beating the egg yolks continuously. Once all the milk has been added, place the custard sauce over heat and boil while stirring constantly. Boil it until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon.

Chill the sauce. Then pour a ladle of sauce into a bowl, and float a meringue on it. Ta da!

It would have looked better if I had a bit of mint to garnish it. A little green to offset  the yellow and white.

Instead, I have bordered the picture with green. Looks just as delectable I think!

Happy Cooking!

Deviled Eggs

What a lovely breakfast I had this morning! Except, it was too less. I wish I could have made more. I found the recipe for eggs on the internet. Deviled eggs is a recipe where you stuff the yolk in the egg. :-P

Haha. I know, the yolk is stuffed in the egg as it is. But you hard boil the eggs, remove the yolks, add some wonderfully aromatic things to it, and re-stuff it in the eggs. And the result? A creamy, smooth and buttery mixture stuffed in a boiled egg white which provides the base flavor.

The tanginess of the mustard is offset by the earthiness of the yolks. I made a very basic recipe, but you can add a lot more to it to add more definition and variety.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp mustard sauce (preferable Dijon mustard)
• 2 tsp butter
• salt (just a hint)
• 1/2 tsp tobasco sauce (or as per your taste)
• a few flakes of paprika (to garnish)
• 1/2 tsp oregano powder

Place the eggs in a deep vessel and cover them with water to about an inch above the eggs. Bring the water to a rolling boil and then turn down the heat and simmer them for around ten to fifteen minutes.

Once this is done, drain all the hot water and cool the eggs under tap water. Crack the eggs gently and roll them to and fro with feather touch under your palms. This will make the shells to peel off easily.

With a sharp non-serrated knife, cut the egg lengthwise from the base to the tip in just one easy motion. If you move your knife back and forth, you will end up mincing the egg. Just one long deep gash is enough to make a clean cut. Now hold the egg half yolk side down over a bowl and tap on the white lightly over the point of the egg yolk. The yolk will fall into the bowl without breaking the white.

Remove all the yolks in this manner. Put the mayonnaise, butter, mustard sauce, tobasco sauce and salt in this and mix well. I squeezed the yolk mixture through the sieve to remove lumps.

You can just spoon out the yolk mixture into the cavity in the egg white, or do what I did. I poured the mixture in my icing bag and used a star nozzle to squeeze out the yolk mixture onto the whites. This makes for a great presentation.

All that remains to be done is to sprinkle the oregano on top and garnish with paprika flakes. Serve chilled!

Happy Cooking!

Layered Omlette

Ever since I could cook, I remember making strange recipes. Strange because no one had heard of them. I didn't know at that time that you could concoct recipes on your own. I thought you always followed age-old recipes. It may still be the method de regueur, but I love experimenting every now and then.

Nothing fancy, food you can cook easily within five to ten minutes and is still tasty. This is one of those recipes. I didn't know what to call it. It serves as an excellent breakfast or a mid meal snack. Try it and do tell me if you like the taste.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs (for 1 person)
• 3 mushrooms, minced
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 2 sun-dried tomatoes chopped
• 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• salt to taste
• 3 tsp olive oil

Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and keep them aside.

Now heat the oil in a wok and add the mushrooms. Add salt and seasoning and saute for two minutes. Add the jalapenos and sun-dried tomatoes. Add just half a teaspoon of soy sauce and the tomato ketchup. Remove in a separate bowl.

Heat a tsp of oil in a non-stick pan. Add half the beaten egg and allow it to fry for a minute. Now add the mushroom mixture and spread  it over the egg layer. Now pour the remaining egg on top of the mushroom mixture and flip the whole assembly over. Fry again for a minute.

Remove in a plate and serve hot!

I agree, the picture is bad. Sorry :-)

Happy Cooking!

Egg Fried Rice

What a splitting headache I had this evening! Why are crossroads always present like a crucifix in our lives? Why must we 'Eat that frog!' I'll tell you more about this phrase on www.drgaurikekre.com.

I was torn throughout the day with my brain being torn between the right brain and the left brain (or what's left of it!) Or should I say I was divided between the diversity of opinions between my head and my heart? Why does God do that? Why does he make the head and heart so that they always disagree? Why has life got to be so complicated? Why can't it be as simple as 1+1 = 2? Why does a simple equation like 1+1 always lead to an answer like square root of 4? Although the end result is same, it doesn't come to you so simply does it?

I know I am rambling. I ramble! I get fogged in my brain and I let loose a volley of meaningless mindless words in what I call my 'verbal diarrhoea'. It is a phrase I picked up from Bridget Jones' Diary. Other than the fact that she wasn't married, I'd say Bridget and I have much in common. There. I am rambling again.

Forget it. Forget what you just read. Just concentrate on the recipe part.

There you go. (Ramble... ramble... ramble!)

Ingredients

• 3 cups rice
• 2 eggs beaten
• 5 spring onions finely chopped
• 2 inch piece of ginger finely chopped
• 4 to 5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 3 green chillies chopped 
• 3 dry red chillies not chopped (Ramble alert!)
• 1 tsp pepper powder
• salt to taste
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil

Boil the rice in plenty of water. After about ten minutes pick up a grain and taste it. It should be cooked but not so much that it gets squishy. Once the rice reaches this stage drain the water and add ice cold water to the rice. This stops the heat within the rice in its tracks and you get a rice which is grainy and not like a unified mass. Spread the rice on a large plate and allow it to dry further.

Beat the egg and add some salt to it. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and pour the beaten eggs into it. Wait for them to cook a bit and then mash them with the help of a spatula. Keep them aside.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a wok and throw in the green chillies and the red chillies. After about fifteen seconds throw in the garlic and ginger. Saute for half a minute and add the onions. You do not need to fry this for a long time. Just a couple of seconds. But always, and I mean always while making fried rice, maintain the flame at high.

Now quickly add the fried eggs and the rice and toss them around in the wok. Bully them a bit. Add salt to the rice at this stage and add some pepper. Mix it well and serve hot!

Happy Cooking!