Omelet version 2.0

Unlike many of the bloggers I follow religiously, I'm not a whole-time cook. However, since cooking is almost therapeutic for me and also because I enjoy it so much, I try to make atleast one meal of the day , everyday myself. In the weekdays, it's usually the breakfast or a one-meal brunch. The tough, time-consuming, adventurous recipes are bookmarked and attempted on weekends.While I adore super-women who make three course meals all by themselves on weekdays, I'm just happy with one little wholesome dish that would let me be good for hours.
 Simple eating, High thinking is what I swear by, and  it's the combination of Dal-Rice-Omelette that has fed me and kept me happy on many a busy working day. It's delicious, it's hassle-free and who doesn't love a well-cooked fluffy omelette?
I came across a novel way of making omelettes recently in a Bengali story by author Bani Basu. She is a renowned writer , a champion of urban middle class women and their issues, and much of her writing focusses on daily domestic lives of women in Bengal. Food, naturally is a big part of her stories. The story I read has a twice divorced painter as the protagonist who lives on her own terms in a sprawling North Calcutta mansion . She unwinds by cooking when she's not painting, and makes Khichuri with Omelette one rainy night while sipping on Coke and Rum as the story begins.
While all I sipped on while making my omelette today afternoon was water, the story's description of adding cornflakes to the egg for a fluffy, crunchy omelette intrigued me enough to try it out. I went ahead and added whatever I found in the pantry that suited my mood.

OMELETTE - featuring Cornflakes ver 2.0

Break 1 egg into a bowl.
Add half a chopped onion, one chopped green chilly and a handful of chopped capsicum.
Add 2 tsp of milk.
Coarsely crush 1 tsp of corn flakes with a mortar and pestle. Add to the bowl.
Add salt to taste.

Beat well.
Heat a non-stick pan. Add 1/2 tsp of oil and spread it around.
Pour the egg batter in the pan and turn around to form an even circle.
Sprinkle a pinch of red chilly powder all around the cooking egg. -> (This is a neat little trick I picked up from my friend G when I was visiting Pune last year. G made 3 omelettes in 3 different ways and this was the one I absolutely loved. It just makes the omelettes look bright with tiny specks of red all over. I do the same to my poached eggs.)

Wait for the egg to set.
Fold it up and eat hot.

For a change, today instead of the Rice and Dal, I had homemade Rotis, Alu Posto and the Omelette.for lunch. The cornflakes is a great little twist that I enjoyed, it made the omelette fluff up in no time and also the texture was  really crunhcy and it tasted delicious.

 

Raita on Toast - guilt free snack!

One of the major mistakes I make time and again is falling prey to a heavy and unhealthy snack, usually store-bought chips,noodles off roadside or fried stuff like chops and rolls. The fact that the locality of Kolkata I live in is swarming with eateries of all kinds, esp. streetfood, doesn't do anything to help my cause. I've been meaning to do something about my bad snacking habits and lately, have hit upon a nice idea for a quick snack - that's healthy and doesn't give me pangs of guilt afterwards.

The novel idea is eating Raita for a snack. Yogurt with its wealth of good bacteria and calcium is essential for good female health and a Raita is just a no-fuss, easy way of fortifying it up with some more vitamins and minerals, courtesy the added fruits and vegetables.

Here is a basic version of Raita I make : -


Take 100 gms of plain yogurt (homemade is fine) and to it add half a chopped cucumber, half a finely sliced onions, half of a finely chopped tomato and a handful of boiled green peas.
Add salt to taste, some chaat masala and a sprinkling of red chilli powder and mix well.
Serve.

You can add a  handful of coarsely chopped roasted peanuts to make a Marathi version.of this.  Other things that can be added are boiled potatoes, boiled carrots and boiled chopped eggs to make a more filling version.

My latest idea has been spreading a big spoonful of this Raita on a Rusk Biscuit/ Crisp Toast . I even had this one day for a light dinner.

 

Phodnichaa Bhaat - a quick brunch

Film-making is often a frustrating job. Especially when you are the screenwriter as well. There are days on end when writer's block can set in, and You just don't know how to put two and two together even though You know the entire picture in your head. It's the teeny tiny details that ofen leave You confused and hapless. I have been staring at my computer monitor at an incomplete screenplay for hours without being able to proceed to the next scene for the past one week. Trying to convincingly pull off  a crime story with a clever twist in the screenplay is tedious, and involves a hell lot of patience, imagination and thinking on the writer's part.
What does one do on weekdays then, all alone at home, when hunger strikes in between trying to write an exciting scene while  the brain refuses to work without some tasty foodwise interruption? Ordering in is always an option, but sometimes one craves for something simple, something that can be quickly rustled up, using basic pantry ingredients and yet something that would be flavourful, nutritious and would leave one satiated for hours.
Yesterday, during one such tedious hunger pang induced afternoon, I checked and saw that the fridge had some leftover cooked rice. A small food blog search later, I arrived at this recipe that seemed right for the moment - Phodnichaa Bhaat - a Marathi staple of frying pre-cooked rice with temperings and seasoning. I assume it's a common practice among cooks to use up leftover rice this way, it also dresses up the common lunch staple of dal and rice to something a little bit special. It's not at all elaborate and took under twenty minutes from start to finish and turned out to be a really nice brunch fix for me.

PHODNICHAA BHAAT - tempered, stir fried rice, MAHARASHTRIAN style

(adapted from this recipe)

I modified the recipe according to my taste and available ingredients on hand. Here is how I did it.

Chop one medium onion. Dice one medium potato . Slit two green chillies.
Heat 1 tbsp of white oil in a wok/kadhai.
Temper with 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 1 tsp of whole cumin seeds.
Add the chopped onions and green chilly.
Fry over medium heat till onions turn pink and translucent.
Add the potatoes and stir fry.
Add a handful of peanuts and fry. (optional. I omitted)
Add 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder and salt to taste.
When the potatoes seem done, add the rice and stir fry to coat with the spices.
Cook for 3-4 minutes till the rice becomes evenly yellow.
Fluff the individual grains with a fork.
Serve hot with  raita/pickle/chips/papad.

P.S. - The original recipe calls for asafoetida/hing. I omitted it. If you want to use it, add a pinch with the mustard seeds, cumin seeds as tempering.


I enjoyed my Phodnichaa Bhaat with some crispy fried Masala Appams (Rice Papad). This is a neat little discovery, and I'm guessing  this recipe will gallantly come to my rescue on many more hungry afternoons of screenwriting.


P.S.P.S. - Following the success of this recipe, this again got made in the weekend for a family lunch. This time I added the hing for tempering, and also used some coriander leaves for garnish. Here is a shot straight from the kadhai.

Tausalli - Konkani Cucumber Pancakes

I realise I've been gone from the blogging world for more than a year now. I had a very busy 2012, which involved serious family illnesses (and recuperation, yay!), house repairings, living in another city for some weeks and making two films, one of which was shortlisted at a short film festival in Cape Town and made me feel jubilant for days. However, excuses for not blogging must not be encouraged for more than one needs to and I'm back today, on a crisp February afternoon, with something I had bookmarked for ages.
Lonely afternoons often come with food pangs, and today was no exception. I had fresh, large cucumbers in the pantry, and some rice flour left over from Sankranti's Pithe making. These lovely Konkani breakfast pancakes called Tausalli (Taushi - Konkani for cucumbers)  that I first read up about on onehotstove seemed like the perfect choice to toss up.



TAUSALLI - Konkani Pancakes

(made from this recipe at Onehotstove)
















I more or less went with Nupur's exact measurements. The only notable differences in my cooking were : -
1) I substituted a pinch of Kashmiri Chilli Powder in place of the green chillies. I do not like solid pieces of chillies in my pancakes in the first place, and the red from the chilly powder added a dazzle of colour.

2)  I added a tablespoon of Rava/Suji and a pinch of Poppy Seeds/Posto. Many Bengali recipes use poppy seeds to crispen fried items, and I went with that analogy.





I served them with tomato ketchup on the side.

These lovely, green, soft and dense pancakes were a very different culinary experience for me. They were more filling and satisfying than I had expected and this was a novel way of eating up cucumbers. I look forward to delving in and exploring more of Konkani cuisine in the days to come.