Egg soya bean dum biryani

So one fine day I was in no mood of making the same old lunch of rice and veggies and daal or fish and neither was I in the mood of too much labor. I was looking for something interesting and easygoing. And then I thought about "Egg soya dum biryani" I had never tasted this recipe before leave alone trying it. Also two of the key ingredients of biryani : mint and coriander leaves were missing from my fridge but I decided to do away with them. "Lets see how it tastes the nontraditional style" I told myself.
I used :
eggs(hard boiled),
a cup of Basmati rice ,
biryani spices like : large(black) cardamom, cinnamon sticks, a few javitri, bay leaves,
ginger garlic chilly paste
chopped onions,
onion julienne
a small chopped tomato
nutrela soya bean chunks(boiled in water and drained)
4  tablespoon curd,
garam masala powder
few cashews and raisins
Ghee
saffron
Heat water in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the biryani whole spices, half a teaspoon ghee and salt. Boil the water then add the rice. Stir time to time. Once rice is done, drain out the water.
Heat oil in kadai,  free the onion julienne such that they get caramelized , keep aside. Make slits on the eggs and shallow fry them, keep aside. Now add a few green cardomom, cloves, a bay leave and jeera to the oil. Add the cashew and raisins saute them for a min , now add the chopped onions. Saute till brown, then add the chopped tomato and ginger garlic chilly paste. Add salt and turmeric and chilly powder as per taste. Fry till oil separates. Now if you have mint and coriander, chop and add them(I proceeded without them). Add the curd. Fry for few minutes , now add the eggs and the boiled soya chunks. Cook for few more minutes such that the soya chunks are completely cooked.
Now  grease a heavy bottomed pan with ghee. Add half the egg- soya masala . Layer half of the cooked rice. Top it with caramelized onions , sprinkle few drops of saffron milk(soak a few strands of saffron in 2-3 tablespoon milk). Spread the remaining egg-soya masala topping it again with a layer of rice. Top it with caramelized onions and saffron milk. Sprinkle a little ghee. Place the lid. You may keep some heavy utensil on top of the lid, to keep it tight. Lower the heat to minimum for dum , and keep for 20 minutes. Serve with raita.

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Instant microwave dhokla

Am I turning this blog of mine into a food blog? Well I don't intend to that, but I could not resist myself from posting this super duper easy recipe which I tried for the first time. And boom!! it turned out so well. Cutting short my blabbers , here's the quick recipe
Ingredients
1 cup Besan,
1/2 cup curd,
a teaspoon salt, half a teaspoon sugar,
a teaspoon of ginger -green chilly paste
a sachet eno, 1/2 cup of water
a pinch of turmeric, one and a half teaspoon oil
For tempering:
1 teaspoon of rai(mustard seeds)
a pinch of hing,
3-4 green chilies slit into long pieces
a teaspoon of lime juice, a little oil
Chopped coriander for garnishing(i didn't have it)

Method
In the besan , add the salt, sugar, haldi, oil, curd, ginger-chilly paste. Mix well so that no lumps are formed. Slowly add water. The batter should have idly-like consistency. Now grease a microwave flat bowl. Add the eno to the dhokla mixture, mix well and transfer the mixture to the bowl.
Microwave for 6 minutes, do not cover it.
Keep aside, let cool for few moments then transfer to a dish. Cut into desired pieces.
Now for the tempering, heat a teaspoon oil in a kadhai , splutter a teaspoon mustard seeds(rai), add a pinch of hing, add chopped curry leaves(I didn't have this either) and slit green chilies. Now you can pour this on the dhokla, but I transferred the dhokla to this kadhai, poured a teaspoon of lime juice a pinch of sugar and salt and tossed the dhoklas for a minute. This gives a nice crispy texture to the dhoklas.
While i njoy the instant dhokla, hope next I return to my blog with an article or a story..

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Achari bharva baigan(Stuffed baby brinjal)

Phew .. the last few weeks have been quite stupendous on me.. loads and loads of academic work. Finally I am done(hopefully for good). Though there are many priorities assigned in line, I plan to take a short break and indulge myself in whatever i like best.. which is of course cooking blogging and painting..not to forget watching Star Trek with Mr husband. Oh I have become a huge fan of Star Trek recently thanx to the better half. I always despised Sci-fi, but that's past now. It all started with "Star Trek : The next generation". Now Janeway and Chakotay of Star Trek Voyager fascinate me. I always refrain my self from any sorts of addiction but I should admit Star Trek has become a complete addiction.


The other day I tried this recipe. I wanted to improvise on the Bharva baigan recipe but nothing I found on the internet seemed quite interesting. Then I came across this particular video on you-tube. The original recipe on you-tube is very different, and mine as I would say is a collection of stolen ideas blended with some of mine. As long as there is no copyright violation, I think we can very well enjoy the recipe.
So all I used was:
few small brinjals or eggplant or aubergine or guinea squash or baigan or begun.. oh my god this vegetable has so many names
onion, green chillies, grated ginger, salt, turmeric, a small tomato or little puree(this is entirely optional), amchur, dhaniya powder and
..

the secret ingredient(as the sweet lady on youtube said): any pickle(achar) you have at home
For the stuffing , I fried the onions till light brown. Then added green chillies, salt turmeric , grated ginger. Added a small finely chopped tomato to make the stuffing little mushy. You may skip the tomato. Once the stuffing was almost done, added a teaspoon of dhaniya powder and a little amchur. Let the mixture cool. While the mixture was cooling down, I slit the brinjals into quarters (hey do u know the paste tense of slit is slit.. frankly I didn't , I thought the word was slitted but then my PC said "ITS WRONG"), dipping the slit ones into water to prevent blackening. Now before filling the brinjals, I added a spoon of the pickle masala-oil to the stuffing. Believe me this is all needed to make the recipe "Achari". The slit baigans are then stuffed with this spicy tasty mixture. Then in a kadai, I poured little oil. Once hot, I lowered the stuffed brinjals into the oil. Kept the flame on full for a few minutes, tossing the brinjals to other side(to get the outer skin crispy). Then before closing the lid, I sprinkled a little salt on the brinjals. Kept the the brinjal covered for around 10 mins(this time may wary), checking and flipping them time to time. Once soft , removed from flame.. and served.

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