BABY EGGPLANT WITH SWEET AND SOUR GRAVY

BABY EGGPLANT WITH SWEET AND SOUR GRAVY

HYDERABAD STYLE BAGHARE BAIGAN

Hyderabad is the capital of an Indian state of Telangana and the fourth most populous city in India. Hyderabad is famous for its tourist attractions and historical monuments like Charminar etc. Hyderabad is also famous for its cuisine, particularly for chicken and mutton biryani, and lots of other sweet and sour Mughlai dishes, baghare baigan is one of its popular dishes. In many restaurants in India and abroad, anyone can find these famous Hyderabad dishes in their original names because of its awesome taste, these dishes are very popular.

 

A few months back when I was talking to my brother on the phone, who lives in Delhi, India, we talked about his tour to Hyderabad, he told me that apart from so many other things, he really enjoyed the food there. During his visit to Hyderabad and while eating in restaurants, he saw the famous biryani being packed in nice takeaway packaging, which people were taking even on long distances. He told me that he also decided to take a packet of the famous biryani to Delhi which is very far, around 1500 km, at that time he was travelling back to Delhi by air. So he called the restaurant, one hour before and gave the order of two packets of biryani of his choice, when he boarded in the taxi to the airport, on his way he collected the packets of biryani for his kids, and his kids in Delhi, really enjoyed this tasty and unique gift from their father.

A few years ago in Botswana, during my holidays, I travelled around 600 km and visited my friend and stayed with her for a week. At that time, she was living in a beautiful town called Maun and my family and I enjoyed visiting the beautiful surroundings of the town and of course the world-famous Okavango Delta. During the stay, my friend's neighbour who was originally from Hyderabad invited us for dinner; we enjoyed the dinner and talked a lot about Hyderabad cuisine. The next day we invited her over to come and demonstrate the cooking of a few dishes from Hyderabad. That is when I learned this recipe of baby eggplant in sweet and sour gravy. I have made this recipe in many gatherings and parties at our house after that, and every time, people have really enjoyed it and appreciated the recipe.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 500 grams baby eggplant/brinjal
• One big onion (200 grams)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• A small piece of ginger
• 3 tbs raw peanuts
• 2 tbs sesame seeds
• 3 tbs lemon juice/tamarind juice
• 2 tbs desiccated coconut
• 1-2 tbs sugar or to taste
• salt and chili powder/flakes to taste
• 1 tbs coriander powder
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• few fresh green curry leaves OR Coriander/Cilantro
• 3 tbs oil

METHOD

• Finely chop or grate onion, garlic and ginger. Slit the eggplants lengthwise.
• Dry roast peanuts, coconut and sesame seeds and let it cool.
• Heat 1tbs oil in a frying pan on a medium flame. Add the mustard seeds and let it splutter, then add eggplants with salt, turmeric, chili and coriander powder and cook till they are soft and cooked properly by covering the lid.
• Till eggplants are cooking make a paste of the roasted peanuts, coconut and sesame seeds by adding 1/2 to 1 cup of water in a blender.
• Take out the cooked eggplants in a plate and in the same frying pan heat the 2 tbs oil and roast curry leaves, ginger, garlic and onion till brown in colour on a medium heat, then add the paste of peanuts etc. in it. Now add the lemon juice and sugar in it; mix well and fold the cooked eggplants in it.
• Serve hot with rice, naan or any other flat bread.

I am sharing this recipe with the following link parties-Cook once eat Twice and Fiesta Friday
and Full plate Thursday and Hearth and soul blog hop and Sweet Inspiration link part, with Meatless Monday

CREAMY SPINACH CURRY

CREAMY SPINACH CURRY

This is one of my favorite recipes, which is regularly made in my kitchen. I use different types of spinach to make this recipe and enjoy it every time. In my long stay in Africa, I used white silver beet spinach, which was the only type that was locally available there. I even enjoyed cooking with this type of spinach straight from my kitchen garden in Africa. This type has long and hard leaves like kale, takes more time is chopping, cooking and the taste is also a little bit different. There I had no choice but to use that type only because tender baby spinach or English spinach was not available, I even tried to grow the soft and tender baby spinach in my kitchen garden but failed, I think the harsh African sun, the dry and hot climate there was not suitable for it.

Here in Calgary, baby spinach is available in plenty throughout the year and if I buy a big packet, it is triple washed, which I am also using in my salads. Because of its availability in abundance, I am using it a lot in my old recipes which were already made in my kitchen and trying some new recipes as well.

I tasted this recipe, the very first time, in a four-star hotel, around 20 years ago, where I stayed with my family for 2 and half months. It was a long time ago, isn’t it? I was staying in the hotel after getting transferred from a town to a city, I couldn't get accommodation in teacher's houses available in my school. The head chef of that hotel was very nice, I met him personally and informed him that all four members of my family are vegetarian. He really made our stay enjoyable with his lovely and tasty vegetarian dishes, which were made by him personally every day. Some of the days he really surprised us by serving some tasty Indian vegetarian dishes as well.

This recipe is not only my favourite recipe but the whole family likes it, even my grandchildren. Spinach is one of the vegetables which they really enjoy, so I try to use spinach in different curries, salads and lentils as well so that they get the health benefit of this green vegetable. This is a simple recipe, which can be enjoyed with rice, naan, Indian flat bread or even with dinner bun.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg fresh baby spinach (frozen can be used in this recipe)
• 500 ml fresh/whipping cream
• 1 big onion (200 grams)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• A small piece of ginger
• 2 green chili (optional)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbs coriander powder
• salt and chili flakes to taste
• 2 tbs oil
• 2 tbs tomato puree

METHOD

• Chop and wash the spinach thoroughly.
• Grate or finely chop the onion, ginger, garlic and green chili.
• Heat oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds, once changing the colour add the ginger, garlic, onion and green chili and saute till onions are brown.
• Add spinach and salt, chili and coriander powder and cook for 8-10 minutes till spinach is cooked and the extra water evaporates.
• Add cream and let it boil for 2-3 more minutes, then add the tomato puree, mix well and switch off the stove/gas.
• Serve hot with rice, naan, roti or dinner bun.

I am sharing this recipe with Sweet Inspiration link party and Cook once and eat Twice and with Fiesta Friday, and with Full plate Thursday and with Meatless Monday and Hearth and Soul link party and with Whats for dinner and Cook blog share and with eat your greens

CHEESY JALAPENO POPPERS

CHEESY JALAPENO POPPERS

Normally, we bloggers say that blogging is not a joke because it requires a lot of work. Starting from planning, this includes the recipe selection, then making the item with the properly measured ingredients, then taking nice and presentable photographs of the process and the final product. Not only that but the real work starts after that, which is writing a post about it and then about the recipe with the detailed ingredients and list of steps to follow, which should include all the details so that readers can easily understand and reproduce the recipe and so on and so forth.

But, on the other side of the coin, blogging is a lot of fun. I get the feeling of contentment whenever I share my recipes or even when I do something for my blog. There are enormous reasons behind it, first is that cooking is my passion and when there is an intense desire to do something, a person will definitely enjoy it, the same thing is happening with me. The other reason is that blogging has opened many ventures/doors for me to learn not only new recipes but also to try new cuisines and a lot of new things about food and the food industry. The other thing which I like most about blogging is the integration with people, not only with my readers and people who come and comment on my posts but also with other bloggers. In the last three years, I have made many many new blogger friends, who are from different continents, countries, and cultures and we share the same interest in blogging.

Blogging has not only opened doors for me to learn about the culinary art but also has opened doors for me to learn so many other aspects of life and particularly to learn a lot about DIY projects because many of my blogger friends have blogs in which they share their awesome DIY projects. This recipe is my blogger friend Nikki's recipe; surprisingly her blog is not only about food but about lifestyle too, where occasionally she shares some food recipes. This is the link to the recipe.

I met Nikkki Frank-Hamilton, around 3 years ago, soon after I had started my blog. She is a beautiful lady with a beautiful heart, even apart from her busy life; she is always willing to help others. Her blog is View from in here, which is an awesome blog. She is a great writer and a very good friend of mine. Her friendship is a treasure for me which I want to save for the rest of my life. Her posts are so informative, interesting and knowledgeable that anybody would love to read them. Recently she wrote about “Life lessons learning over 50 years”, which is a must-read for everyone turning 50, every single paragraph of this post is awesome and worth reading. Here is the link-

She also has a Facebook Community group of bloggers, Way-Wow community group where we 20 bloggers help and promote each other. If you would like to join this group, please do contact her.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 8 jalapeno chili peppers
• 100 grams grated mozzarella cheese
• 100 grams cream cheese.
• 1-2 tbs of milk if required
• 2 tbs oil for greasing the chilies and the oven tray
• 100 grams chopped cilantro
• salt and black pepper to taste

METHOD

• Wash the chilies thoroughly, slice in the middle and cut them half lengthwise and de-seed them.
• Mix cream cheese and mozzarella cheese together with salt and pepper and cilantro, if the mixture is too dry, add the milk to make it smooth.
• Grease the skin of the chilies and the oven tray with oil, Stuff the mixture into the chilies.
• Heat the oven for 400 degrees F /204 degrees C.
• Place the chilies in the greased tray close together so that they do not fall over.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, when chilies are brown on the top serve hot as a side dish and enjoy.

I am sharing this post with Sweet Inspiration Link party and Meatless Monday and Fiesta Friday

and Cook once and eat Twice and we are pinnable and Hearth and Soul Link party and with Cook blog share

CORN ON THE COB CURRY

CORN ON THE COB CURRY

One of the joys of life is to see your children move on in their lives and settle into beautiful relationships and start their own families. When my son announced to me about his special someone several years ago and his intention to marry, not only was I thrilled with the news but also the realization that she was the daughter of my best friend. I had seen her grow up right before my eyes, and now she was going to be my daughter-in-law. It was a warm fuzzy feeling that the friends I had known for so many years were now going to be family.

I wanted to share this good news with my friend as soon as possible, assuming that she may not know about this relationship. I called her and told her that I will see her in the evening that day. We (my husband and I) met that evening and gave them the good news. My assumption was right, they had no idea about this relationship and they were also thrilled with the news we gave them. That evening was remarkably good as we all enjoyed each other’s company more than ever before.

I am writing all this because today I am sharing her recipe. Many of her recipes are regulars in my kitchen and when corn was in season, this curry was always on her menu. Whenever I make her recipe I miss her a lot as she now lives in New Zealand which is far from Canada. I miss those days when we were together in Africa, when we used to chit-chat the whole day, enjoyed each other’s company, nice food and drinks. Yesterday when I talked to her she said, “That was the golden period of our life when we were together in Africa”.

Coming to the recipe, if you like corn, you will love this awesome recipe. To enjoy this corn on the cob curry, get ready to have messy fingers; that is the only way to enjoy this, you cannot eat this with a fork and knife!

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 2 corn on the cob
• 1 onion (medium)
• Small piece of ginger
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup yoghurt plus 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp corn starch
• Few curry leaves
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• pinch turmeric
• salt and chili powder to taste
• 1 tbs coconut oil ( any other oil)

METHOD

• Peel the corn and slice into 3-4 pieces
• Boil in water for 15-20 minutes till it is done.
• Heat oil in a frying pan, add mustard seeds and curry leaves, let it splutter, then add thinly sliced onion and ginger, saute until light brown.
• Add coconut milk in it plus salt and turmeric and let it boil. Add the beaten yoghurt (mix yoghurt with water and beat the mixture) and let it boil.
• Add boiled corn in it.
• Mix well cornstarch with 2 tbs water and add it to the curry and boil for one more minute.
• Corn on the cob curry is ready; you can serve to 3-4 people.

I am sharing this recipe with meatless Monday and Cook once eat Twice and Hearth and Soul blog hop and Cook blog share and I am pinnable and Sweet Inspiration link party and Fiesta Friday co-hosted by Colleen and Alex and with Simple and in Season