Spinach and Cauliflower Frittata

I'm in shock over the death of the most popular icon from my school days. His music touched everybody alright. While my parents would wonder out loud how this man's screaming & screeching could be called music, our maid could be heard singing "ambe, ambe" (for "I'm bad, I'm bad')! Like him or not, there's no denying that he was a great artist, the true King of Pop. RIP, MJ!

Seems a bit frivolous to talk about food right now. But I've been MIA the past few weeks (which sticks out since I've been pretty good with posting until recently) and I didn't want to fall completely off the track, as I have done in the past. Here's a quick recipe for frittata that always works for me. Add any combination of veggies you have available. I try to avoid using the oven as much as possible. This here is a stove-top version that's faster and saves energy too. This is what my friend ISG would call a 'green' frittata and not just because of the spinach! :)



Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp tabasco or any other hot sauce
1/4 cup shredded cheese
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped fine
1 cup spinach, finely chopped
15-20 small florets of cauliflower
1 tbsp oil for frying
Oil spray to coat skillet

In a bowl, break the eggs and add in the seasonings & the cheese. Whisk well until well blended. Set aside.
In a microwave-safe bowl, nuke the cauliflower florets in salted water for 2-3 minutes, until soft. Keep aside.
Coat a heavy bottomed skillet evenly with oil spray. Heat 1 tbsp oil and fry onions and garlic for a few minutes.
Add the chopped spinach and fry for another 2 minutes.
Add the cauliflower and mix well. Spread the mixture on the bottom of the skillet.
Pour the egg mixture on top.
Cover and cook on the lowest setting until the top is set (about 20 minutes).
Cut into wedges and serve.

Dahi Bhindi & Ayam Masak Merah for T&T

Hooked on Heat was one of the first few blogs that I came across soon after I started blogging. Meena's recipes and pictures are delightful! I was very happy to see that this month's featured blog on Tried & Tasted was HoH. Thanks to Zlamushka, the creator of the event and Kits Chow who is hosting it this month.

I tried not one but two recipes. Both came out well and are keeper recipes. Thanks, Meena! I clicked these pictures in pretty bad light and they do no justice to the dishes. Be sure to check the original pictures.

I love, love okra and was very surprised to realize that I've not posted a single okra recipe before! Remedied right now with this flavorful curry with yogurt sauce.


Original recipe here

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen , chopped okra
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup yogurt, beaten
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp oil
red chili powder and salt to taste

HEAT oil in a non-stick pan and saute cumin seeds till they begin to sizzle. Add onions & grated ginger, fry for 2-3 minutes on medium-high heat till transparent. Add in okra and cover cook for a few minutes till done, tossing occasionally.

ADD red chilli powder, turmeric and salt, and stir-fry for a few minutes. Slowly stir in beaten curd forming a smooth gravy base.

SPRINKLE garam masala and cook covered for another minute or two.

Over to the second recipe now -
I've always enjoyed Malaysian food and the Ayam Masak Merah (chicken in red chili sauce) was certainly calling out to me! It is pretty high on the heat factor and that glass of lemonade will really help! I enjoyed this thoroughly, with white rice.

I'm a little squeamish about handling raw chicken. So instead of chopping the strips first and then frying them, I did the reverse. I cooked them first and then cut them into chunky pieces.

Original recipe here.



4 chicken strips
1 medium onion
1 medium tomato
2 lemon grass stalks, discarding the rough green tops
1" ginger
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp sambal olek / chili paste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp light cooking oil
salt, to taste
water, as needed

MARINATE chicken in salt and turmeric, and set aside for 20-25 minutes.

BLEND onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and lemon grass to a smooth fine paste, adding a little water if necessary.

SAUTE the marinated chicken in hot oil till lightly browned, and set aside. In the same pan, fry Sambal Olek and the ground paste, stirring continuously till it starts to give out oil from the sides.

ADD in chicken, salt and water if necessary, and stir fry till chicken is cooked through and the flavours absorbed. Serve piping hot with coconut rice and tall glass of iced lemonade.

Badanekayi Eeruli Huli - Dal with Eggplants and Onion

Check for the recipe at Beyond Curries. Looking forward to your input and comments there! :)

Home Alone..

It was a not-so-bright, not-so-sunny afternoon. Hubby N was away at work. Little M was at her sitter's house. I was working on my computer in the study, sipping a refreshing hot cup of coffee. The only sound one could hear was the clack-clack-clacking of my keyboard. It was a nice, relaxed kinda afternoon.

Suddenly the calm was shattered by the sound of the television in the next room. I went cold! There was no one else at home but me. Who could have turned the TV on? My heart dropped! There's someone inside my house! I thought. How on earth did he get in? Something you need to know about my house - there is no sneaking about here. Only because everything in the house squeaks - the doors, the windows, the floors and heck, even our cat Ginger, who prefers to squeak rather than meow! So this person must have been hiding inside my house all along!

What do I do? Call 911? And say what - "my TV came on?!" Yeah, that sure sounds like an emergency! Wait..how about my knight in shining armor? Yes! Maybe he can help! So I call him (that was N, by the way!). And got his voicemail! Rats! Now what do I do?

I grabbed the heaviest thing I could find - one which I could hold comfortably in one hand, yet be able to cause decent damage to the intruder's skull when I whacked him - a narrow but heavy vase. I wanted the intruder to think me unsuspecting. So I carried on a pseudo-conversation with the dial tone on the phone. Let him think I'm talking to someone and can out him anytime, I thought, walking into the bedroom, phone in one hand and the weapon..er..vase in the other. Heart racing, hands clammy but raised to strike, I walk into the bedroom and.....
there was Ginger sitting on the bed, next to the TV remote control - she had accidentally pressed the 'on' button!

Eggplant Moju - Sri Lankan Eggplant Curry

I've been cutting Little M's hair myself and I think I've been doing a pretty decent job so far. With my cousin's wedding coming up next week, I thought it was the right time to get her started with professional cuts. But the kid created such a fuss when I was trying to prep her for the hair cut trip that I decided to do it myself again. I should have stuck with what I've been doing so far but of course I did not! I wanted try to give her some short bangs in the front and ended up with what looks like something leftover after a mouse chomped away at her hair! Trying to fix it only made it worse! Despair!! This was last week. Now my only hope is that it'll grow a little bit by next weekend and won't look too bad. It's already looking better this week. Fingers crossed!

Onto the recipe now. "A Worldly Epicurean's Delight" or AWED is an event started by DK and hosted this month by Siri, with Sri Lanka as it's theme. I got some lovely green Thai eggplants from the Indian store and thanks to the event, searched specifically for a Sri Lankan dish to use them in. This recipe is adapted from here. It calls for frying eggplant and green peppers in oil separately. I wanted to avoid that and so, nuked them instead. I used onions in place of shallots & added some green chilies for heat. Here's my recipe.



Ingredients:

6 Thai eggplants, sliced
1 small green pepper, cut
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp ginger, grated
2 green chilies, chopped
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp mustard paste
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil

- Cook the eggplant and green pepper in a microwave safe bowl for 4-5 minutes, until soft. Keep aside.
- In a pan, heat oil. Add ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, mustard paste and vinegar. Saute for a few minutes.
- Add the cooked eggplant and green pepper and salt to taste.
- Add about 2 tbsp water and mix well. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 minutes.
- Stir in sugar just before serving.



This was just delicious! The tartness of vinegar was perfectly balanced with the sweetness of sugar. Not sure if the texture should have been dry, like a sukhi bhaji. Mine was thinner because of the microwave cooking and the added water but it was just perfect with the rice and I declare my foray into Sri Lankan cooking a success! :) Thanks, Siri and DK!

Tuvar Lilva Methi Corn Pulao

The weather is certainly better now. Even though most nights have been chilly and I still haven't put away all of the winter bedding yet, I'm happy that the days are long and mostly sunny. We have a wedding in the family in a few weeks and some of my family will be staying with us. I am excited about both! The family visit has given us the impetus to finish up projects around the house that we'd put off. It's been busy, busy, busy!

I haven't cooked anything very intersting the past few days. This here is a quick dish that came about in an attempt to clear out leftover veggies from the freezer/fridge.



Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil
1 tsp saunf
Whole spices (cinnamon, cloves and cardamom)
2 green chilies, split
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, cut into small strips
1 potato, diced
1 tomato, chopped fine
1 cup frozen tuvar lilva (fresh pigeon peas)
1 block frozen methi (1 cup fresh)
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 cup rice
2.5 cups water
red chili powder, salt & lime juice to taste

In a pressure cooker, heat oil. Add saunf and the whole spices. After they start to sizzle, add green chilies, garlic & onion and fry for a minute or so. Add the methi leaves and fry for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, pigeon peas, corn, potatoes, salt and red chili powder & mix well. Add rice and water. Normally I use 1:1.5 ratio of rice to water for pulaos. But this time with the tuvar lilva and the other veggies, I needed more water. Add salt and adjust seasonings. Cook until done. Finish with lime juice. Serve with raita and pickle.

Kimchi Fried Rice

When AWED-Korea came about last month & I was researching into Korean cuisine, Kimchi or Korean pickled vegetables caught my eye. Kimchi is the most commonly used side dish in this cuisine and is also used in soups, stews, rice and as accompaniment to other dishes. Based on geography and season, various vegetables are used to make kimchi, the most common one being chinese cabbage. At my last visit to the small Asian grocery store in the neighboring town, I shopped specifically for kimchi and made some Kimchi Bokumbop or Kimchi Fried Rice. As with all other dishes, home made kimchi is supposed to be far tastier than the store bought ones but since the fried rice tasted good, I'm not complaining! Here's my version, based on various recipes on the net.



Heat some oil in a pan and fry one crushed garlic and a tbsp of chopped onion. Saute for about a minute. Then add about a cup of chopped kimchi and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add 1 tbsp of gochujang (Korean red pepper paste), 1 tsp soy sauce and about 2 cups of cooked rice and mix well. Garnish with chopped spring onions and serve with a fried egg on top or side. The fried egg I made was quite sad-looking, so did not feature it here :)