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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Frittata...

This is one another recipe which I have never tasted. I was just browsing through one of the recipe sites, when I happened to discover it. Since Mr Husband is a great egg -o -holic , I decided to give it a shot.Now the wiki says: "Frittata is an egg-based dish similar to an omelette or quiche, enriched with additional ingredients such as meats, cheeses, vegetables or pasta". The original recipe had sausages and bell peppers as ingredients , but since I didnt have either of them , I made my concoction.
Ingredients I used:
2 eggs
A small Tomato, A small onion, Green chilies
a slice of bread
grated cheese
A little oil and may be butter
To do:
Dice the tomatoes, chop the chilies and onion. Dice the slice of bread into very small squares. Heat a pan with a little oil. Add the onions. Saute till translucent. Now add the bread squares. You may add a little butter at this point. The bread soaks the butter which makes it yummy..(the bread was a substitute of sausage and believe me it tasted amazing with the buttered bread popping into your mouth now and then ) Now add the tomatoes and chilies. Season with salt.You can add veggies like pepper , mushroom. I had none with me today so had to keep with just these. Next time definitely. While the veggies get sauteed, beat the eggs vigorously with salt and black pepper, make sure the egg is fluffy . Spread the fried veggies evenly on the pan and now pour the beaten egg. Spread it evenly through out the pan. Cook on low flame. Once done, transfer it to a baking dish. Sprinkle grated cheese generously. Grill for 5 minutes in oven or till the cheese melts. Sprinkle chopped coriander, chilly flakes and oregano if you wish.
Raven with a cup of tea !!!!!!

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Egg rolls

With my exams over and few days left before flying to India, I decided to try out something different from the usual sabzi roti for dinner. Since my hubby loves eggs I decided to make every bong's favorite snack egg roll. Oh we bongs love to devour egg roll. Every lane of every colony in Kolkata has a stall of these mouthwatering egg rolls. And they are too easy to make at home. 

So I started with 4 parts of maida , 2 parts aata, you can change the ratios as needed, more or all of maida will make it more tasty while more of atta would make the roll more healthy). Add a little of melted butter for moyan and a pinch of salt. Kneed the dough as you would for paratha. Adding a little of buttermilk or milk would make the roll crisper. Keep it aside for an hour or so covered with a muslin cloth. Make roti balls and roll the individual balls into round parathas. Beat eggs (I used 5 eggs for 7 parathas) in a bowl. Add green chilies, corinader , chopped onion. Now what I did was, I cooked the paratha a little without any oil. Then adding a few drops of oil in a non stick pan, poured 2-3 spoons of egg batter in the same shape as the parathas(actually my hubby did this part for me). Then I kept the half cooked paratha over the egg. Flipped it around when the egg side was done. You can directly put the paratha over the egg without cooking the paratha before. Or you can first put the paratha on the pan with a little oil, while the lower side is being done pour 2-3 spoons of egg batter on the upper side. Once done place roll on a flat surface with the egg side up. Add julians of cucumber,onion chilies in the center and pour some tomato sauce. Roll the paratha and cover half of it with kitchen paper. Your mouthwatering egg roll is ready to be served and hogged.

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Caramel Pudding

What do you call a person who hates milk? Well whatever it is called , my dear hubby is one such person. I have to trick him constantly with milk recipes. Someday I prepare a shake the other day I end up making kheer (although I do not know how healthy it is). So now a days I very frequently make the dessert of Caramel Pudding which seems to be a healthy alternative.
All you need is:
2 eggs, 2 cups milk, a slice or two of white bread, 1-2 drops of Vanilla essence , 2 - 3 tablespoon sugar for pudding , 2 tablespoon sugar for caramel
For pudding:
Bring the milk to boil. Add sugar.Keep it on low flame for sometime stirring frequently so that the milk reduces in volume, the denser the milk the tastier is the pudding (but if are on diet just boil the milk , do not reduce). Allow the milk to cool. Once cool, beat the eggs , add the bread slices (diet freaks please use wheat bread) , a drop of vanilla essence and churn in the mixture twice. The bread gives a wonderful texture to the pudding.
For the caramel:
Melt sugar on low heat, I usually add some drops of water to make it manageable. Once the sugar turns deep brown remove from heat and pour in a mould or container (the one in which you will make the pudding)
Now pour the pudding mixture in this caramel coated container. Steam for 30-45 minutes on low flame. Insert a fork and check if pudding is set. Cool the pudding. Once cool place a plate on the mouth of the container and turn over and low you have the delicious pudding ready.

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