10-minute egg curry

I had boiled eggs in the refrigerator and used them today to make a simple and fast curry. The curry itself should not take more than 10 minutes. If you don't have boiled eggs in hand already, then make sure you have eggs cooking on the side while you are preparing the curry sauce. This recipe can also be used to make other quick curries. For example, you can substitute the eggs for a can of chicken or tuna or vegetables. Jord and I ate today's egg curry on rice and chapathi. We had left-over chapathi from last night. This curry will make 2-4 generous servings.

Step 1: Toss in 1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds and 1/4 tsp of black mustard in 1 tbs olive oil, and fry until the mustard seeds pop and the fenugreek seeds turn slightly brown. Note: Don't let the fenugreek seeds get black or they will impart a bitter taste to your curry! If you don't have mustard or fenugreek, simply pour 1 tbs of oil in a pan and wait for it to heat.

Step 2: Saute 1 generous cup of thinly sliced onions until they become translucent.

Step 3: Stir in 1.5 cups of chopped tomatoes, and salt to taste. Let the tomatoes cook.

Step 4: When the tomatoes are mostly done, as seen in picture, add 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tbs coriander, 1/4 tsp chilli powder and 1/4 tsp garam masala. Mix well.

Step 5: Finally, add 1 cup of lukewarm water and 4 boiled eggs, and let the curry boil. Serve over hot rice or with chapathi. Note: I like to score my boiled eggs as seen in the picture. Use a knife and cut into the white part of the egg without cutting through the yolk. This helps the masala seep into the egg so the eggs don't taste too bland.

Yogurt-marinated chicken curry

Jord and I had friends over for dinner last night, and I made chicken curry. It was a very yummy curry. We also had basmati rice, chapathi and Mango lassi. This curry recipe will yield about 6-8 servings.

Step 1: Make a marinade with 2 tbs low-fat plain yogurt, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1/2 tsp chilli powder. Stir in  2 chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces, and let the chicken marinate for at least 2 hours covered in the refrigerator.(I know, the picture kind of looks gross but it tastes good when cooked!)

Step 2: Fry 1/2 tsp of fennel seeds, and cinnamon sticks in 3 tbs of olive oil.

Step 3: Let the spices slightly brown and add two cups of finely chopped onions and saute until the onions become golden brown. (Note: The picture only shows 1 cup of onions as the next cup was still being chopped).

Step 4: Add in the marinated chicken and keep stirring until the chicken gets half-cooked.

Step 5: Stir in 2 cups of finely sliced tomatoes and 1/2 tsp of salt and mix until the tomatoes are well cooked.

Step 6: Add 1/2 tsp of chilli powder, 2 tbs of coriander powder, 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp of garam masala. (Sorry about the blurry picture. My lens was fogged).

 Step 7: Add 1/2 cup of coconut milk lite.

Step 8: In this next step let your imagination work its magic. Add any vegetable(s) if you want. I added 1/2 cup of carrots, 1 whole green bell pepper cubed, 1/4 cup of green peas, 1/4 cup of cilantro. The curry will still be good if you did not have any of these ingredients.  Let the curry simmer on medium heat until the chicken and the vegetables are cooked. Serve with chapathi or rice.

(Note: Potatoes go really well with chicken. If you choose to add potatoes, then make sure you cook them and cut them into bite-sized pieces before you add them in the curry).

Chapathi

Jord made some really good chapathis today, but I was unable to take pictures. He quietly made them, and I did not even notice. By the way, we were both in the kitchen together. I was in my imagination world cooking up the "Apple Varatu" in my head that I missed out on seeing what Jord was up to.  Anyways, here is a recipe from Jord. There are very few pictures. We will post more pics when we cook chapathis again. We are actually thinking about posting a video in the next few days. Its hard to explain all the little steps with pictures and words alone. A video will be better.
 

In India, the people who make bread are called "Masters". This is because good bread is usually hard to prepare, and the Master of course has mastered the art of bread making. Jord is almost a Master. He makes tasty chapathis. He is still learning how to make them perfectly round. (....and he still needs to learn how to make other kinds of Indian breads :) I love my husband!)

So here's Jord typing...

Step 1: Add about 3-4 cups of whole grain wheat flour, about 1/4 cup olive oil, about 1 1/4 tsp salt, and just enough water to make a good, moist dough (add water until the dough is soft but not so soft that it still sticks to your hand--add just a little bit at a time if you're not sure, and add a little extra flour if you overdo it).

Step 2: Knead the dough with your hands until it forms into a ball.  Wipe the extra dough and flour from the sides of the bowl with your dough ball and knead it all together.

Step 3: Pull off chunks of dough about the size of of a lime. Roll it into a ball and then squish it until its kind of flat.

Step 4: Pour a small pile of extra flour on the table, and then rub some of that flour onto both sides of your squished ball.

Step 5: Roll the squished ball out into a thin patty (like a tortilla).

Step 6: Throw the patty into a frying pan (without any oil--it shouldn't stick). Wait until the patty starts to bubble up. Press down the bubbles (not totally necessary, though) and flip the patty over.

 Step 7: Cook until both sides look like the picture above.

Apple Varatu

I wanted to try something different today, and so I decided to make something out of gala apples. "Varatu" in Tamil, my mother tongue, means stir fry. We ate the varatu with chapathi. Jord is the master of chapathis. He learned how to make chapathis from my mom, and he is so good at it. I can't make chapathis as good as him. He finished kneading the dough before I could take pictures. So I only have a few pictures for the chapathi. I will post step by step photo instructions on a later date. So, here's the recipe for the "Apple Varatu". Makes 4 generous servings.

Step 1: Saute 1 cup of pearl onions, 1 apple finely chopped and 1/2 tsp of minced garlic in 1 tbs of olive oil.

Step 2: Add any vegetable of your choice. I added the Asian stir fry mix vegetables from Costco. Let the vegetables cook.

Step 3: Stir in 2 cups of cubed, cooked potatoes. (I peeled, microwaved and cubed red potatoes).

Step 4: Add the following spices: 1/4 tsp of garam masala, 1 pinch of turmeric, 1 pinch of chilli powder.

Step 5: Stir in 1/2 cup of coconut milk (lite) and turn down the heat to low-medium. Add salt to taste. Cook for 7 more minutes or until vegetables are done to your satisfaction. Serve with chapathis.

Baked and Curried Eggplant

If you are some one who loves tangy foods, you will love this curry. If you don't like sour so much, skip the tamarind paste. It's cold here, and this curry on rice tasted very good! It was not Jord's favorite when he first started eating it, since he is not a fan of sour taste, but the curry grew on him, and he liked it, for he ate a whole big plateful of it.

Step 1: Cut the eggplant as shown above and apply spice paste inside and out. Make the spice paste using
2 tbs coriander powder, 1/4 tsp cumin powder, 1/4 tsp chilli powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and 1 tbs oil and 2tbs water.

Step 2: Bake the curried eggplants at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Step 3: In a pan fry 1/2 tsp of toor dal (type of lentil), 1/4 tsp of coriander seeds, 1/4 tsp black mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp cumin seeds in 1 tsp olive oil. If you don't have these spices, skip them. Add oil to the pan and go to the next step.

Step 4: Add 1 finely chopped medium onion and saute till onions brown slightly.

Step 5: Add 2 tbs of tomato paste. We ran out of tomatoes today and hence I used tomato paste. Feel free to use 3 fresh ripe tomatoes here.

Step 6: Cook on medium-high heat the tomato paste for about 3-4 minutes and then add the following spices: 2 tbs coriander powder, 1/4 tsp chilli powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and 1/4 tsp cumin powder. Mix the spices well.  If you use fresh tomatoes, let the tomatoes cook well and then add the spices.

Step 7: Add 1/3 cup of coconut milk lite and 1/2 tsp of tamarind paste. Mix well. (You can find tamarind paste at a Mexican or an Asian grocery store).

Step 8: Add 2 cups of lukewarm water and let the curry come to a boil.

Step 9: Add the curried and baked eggplants to the gravy and let the curry simmer for about 15 minutes on low-medium heat. Add 2 tbs of cilantro, if you have any and serve over hot rice.

Tips...Tips...Tips

Tips: (I will update this often. So be sure to check this out regularly).

Rice is good to serve with most curries. You can also serve curry with nan bread or chapathi or any of the bread recipes I have posted. 

You will notice that most of my curries have 4 basic spices – CORIANDER, CHILLI, TURMERIC, GARAM MASALA). So if you are someone who wants to try out my recipes simply invest on these four spices. You can make most of my curries with them. 

If you go to an Indian store, you can buy these spices for a better price than a departmental store.

Garam masala is NOT curry powder. Garam masala has more spices in it than curry powder).

If   you don’t have the whole spices that I use on step one for most curries, simply skip it. Go to the next step.

You can use more oil than what the recipe calls for. Oil hides a lot of calories. So be careful with the use of oil. Butter will make the curries smell better and tastier.

Be patient with the onions. They usually take a while to cook. But once they are done, the rest of the steps go really quickly.

Add salt after the tomatoes. This helps to cook the tomatoes faster. Let the tomatoes fully cook before proceeding to the next step.

If you don't like too spicy curries, cut down on the chilli powder. You may want to add just 1 pinch of chilli powder. My recipes are usually not very spicy. So if you want spicy curries, then simply add more chilli powder. 

Soy Chunk Curry

I was at the Indian store today and saw soy chunks. I haven't had soy chunks in a long time and I decided to make a soy chunk curry. I made up this recipe and was not going to post it if it didn't turn out good. Jord liked it. He had it with tortillas and I had it over a bed of romaine lettuce. Yum!

There was a little bit of heat to to the curry. If you like your curry spicy you can follow the recipe. If not cut down drastically on the chilli powder. This recipe will make 6 generous servings.

Step 1: Fry 1/4 tsp of cumin seeds in 1 tbs of olive oil.
Step 2: Saute 1.5 cups of finely chopped onions until translucent.

Step 3: Add 1 generous tbs of garlic paste and 1/4 tsp of ginger paste and saute a while longer.

Step 4: Add 2 tbs of coriander powder, 1/4tsp of chilli powder, 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp garam masala and mix well.

Step 5: Add 2 cups of finely chopped tomatoes. Add salt to taste. The salt will accelerate the cooking time for the tomatoes.

Step 6: After the tomatoes are well cooked add 1/4 cup of fat-free plain yogurt.

Step 7: Next add some carrots and peas. You can add any other vegetable too. Or you can skip this step. Suggestions for veggies: Green bell peppers, potatoes, spinach, green beans

Step 8: Stir in 1/3 cup of lite coconut milk. Bring it to a slow boil.

Step 9: Add 2 cups of soaked and drained soy chunks. (So the soy chunks need to be soaked for about 15 minutes in hot water with salt. Drain well and then add to curry). You can find soy chunks at a Indian grocery store near you. It is very cheap. I paid $2 for a whole bag that will make about 10 cups of soaked soy chunks.

Step 10: Add 2 tbs of fresh cilantro and let the curry simmer on low-medium heat for about 10 minutes. Serve with rice or bread. (Or with any salad greens!)