Should I call it Chutney or Pachadi?! King of Vegetables smashed and sqaushed...

Even though Brinjal is considered king of vegetables, only quite a few of them know why is it termed as "KING"... And I am not one of those who know it but I prefer calling it king of vegetables only because of the awesome chutney what one can make out of it...

I have seen Mom, Aunt and Grand Mom make this chutney but I was always in a confusion would it turn out to the same when I make it and thanks to my friend Harsha, we both experimented and cracked it out.

Brinjal Chutney

Ingredients - (Four four people)

Big Fat Long Brinjal - 1 no (Approx 300 gms)

Green Chillies - 8-12 nos (Depending on the spice of the chilly)

Onion - 1 medium sized

Garlic Cloves - 12 flakes

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tea spoon

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tea spoon

Salt - 1 table spoon (15 gms) or as you wish

Oil - 3 table spoons (45-50 ml)

Method to prepare -

It's quite simple to prepare a dish where you don't have to work too much, and when I say too much I mean that you don't have quite a number of steps to follow to prepare the dish...

• Apply some oil on the brinjal and please don't make insertions or cuts on the brinjal
  
  
• Put that brinjal on direct fire and fry it from all side till you see the skin getting burnt and falling off from the brinjal, check the picture to understand how it needs to be done
  
  
• In the mean time, keep a bowl of ice cold water (just put some ice in a bowl and pour water into it and there you have ice cold water)
  
  
• The minute your water is ready and the brinjal is fried properly from all sides just go ahead and give it a nice dip in the ice cold water
  
  
• The secret for putting it in the ice cold water is that the brinjal stops cooking immediately and the same time the peel comes off quite easily


• Now go ahead and cut the brinjal, chillies, onions and garlic into small pieces before putting them aside
  
  
• Heat the oil in a vessel, add cumin and mustard seeds and let them fry till they crackle
  


• Add the cut pieces into the vessel and fry them for about 2-4 minutes on high flame
  
  
• Leave the mixture to cool down before putting into a mixer/grinder and blending it into a paste

Now there is no fixed time to check whether the mixture is blended or not but surely got a very simple technique to check if it's done... All you need to do is go ahead and take a spoonful and check if you find any lumps, if you don't find any lumps then there you have your Brinjal Chutney or the true telugu style "Vankaya Pachadi" is ready....

You can serve this chutney with hot rice and little bit of ghee or even serve with Dosa, Idly, Rotis or use it as a sandwich spread for evening snacks. Do try it out and let me know what you guys think about it through your comments on my blog, facebook, google plus or even on twitter...

- Thotaji Baawarchi :)

Lazyman's Egg Curry or Innovation in traditional egg curry cooking!!!

There has always been fight about what is the right recipe to cook any dish?! Because when you search for any recipe online or ask your mother or grand mother, they always come up with different recipes... So I guess why not innovate a new kind of recipe rather than following the age old style with just a difference in the presentation.

What is the meaning of "Innovation"?! As per Wikipedia, "The term innovation derives from the Latin word innovatus, which is the noun form of innovare "to renew or change," stemming from in-"into" +novus-"new". " But I have a different meaning to it... When someone is capable of great work but is just too lazy to work then out of their laziness is born "Innovation"... And this recipe is dedicated to all those brainy lazy bums...

Lazyman's Egg curry

Ingredients - (For four people)

Eggs - 6 nos

Onions - 4 medium sized

Tomatoes - 4 medium sized

Salt - To taste or about 1 tea spoon

Chilli Powder - 1 table spoon

(As please reduce if you aren't used to eating spicy food)

Turmeric Powder - A pinch

(Be careful while adding turmeric powder as it not only makes the curry look a lot yellow but also spoils the taste by making it bitter)

Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tea spoon

Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tea spoon

Garlic Flakes - 4 nos

Green Chillies - 3 nos

Oil - 1 table spoon

Water - 3 cups (Or approximately 250 ml)

Method to prepare -

As the name itself suggests you can prepare this when you feel very lazy to cook but hunger is killing you or specially when you piss off your spouse. Obviously, when you piss of your spouse there are only two options left in front of you either cook yourself or pick the phone to order for home delivery.

• First of all fine chop garlic and chillies together and keep aside to fry
• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard along with cumin seeds and let them fry till you start hearing the crackling sound
• Immediately add fine chopped garlic and chillies and fry for sometime but reduce the flame below otherwise you will soon find burnt garlic
• In the mean time chop up the onions and tomatoes quickly so that you can add them but same time be careful not to chop of your fingers in a hurry
• Add chopped onions to the pan with the salt, because when you add salt to onions they sweat and help in cooking faster
• The secret behind this recipe cooking is "LOW FLAME", keep the flame as low as possible because if you put the flame high you need to keep waiting next to the stove to watch it over, rather just pick a drink depends what mood you are in whether alcoholic or non alcoholic and enjoy watching TV in the mean time
• After about 4-5 minutes of cooking onions on low flame just go ahead and add the tomatoes
• Mix it up properly before covering with a lid and cooking it on low flame
• Cook for at least 8-10 minutes, post that add turmeric along with chilli powder and mix it up
• Add 250 ml/3 cups of water to the dish and leave it boil for another 12 minutes
• When you see that the water added has almost reduced, go ahead break the eggs directly into the pan over the onion & tomato mixture.... Confused how to do that, then check out the picture as it would give you more realistic picture...
• Cover it up and leave it to cook for another 10 minutes

Once, you feel the egg yolk is cooked then just go ahead and removed the pan from the stove and serve with freshly made hot rice...

This dish if served with rice is a meal all by itself and don't worry thinking that egg dropped raw into the curry would spoil the taste or give you a raw taste.

Egg white actually cooks up faster than many other ingredients and doesn't need too much of heat to cook and the same time there is a very fine layer around egg yolk which actually forms a strong bond around the yolk as soon as heat is applied.

Try it out and you will find it does taste awesome, otherwise find the nearest dust bin and throw it in before picking the phone and calling for home delivery.

- Thotaji Baawarchi :)

Couch Surfer's Aloo Tikki or Bachelor's Burger Patty...

Mom always hated me when I was in college as I used to just lie on my couch or the dewan next to the idiot box and keep watching Star Movies and HBO back to back. But obviously as all moms are sweet and pamper their kids a lot, used to make different kinds of munches and straight from the kitchen in a plate to where ever I am lying around and lazing around it used to come. Love you mom...

Okay, coming back I thought will share one of my mom's recipe of munches what she used to make for me but with a twist and my style... LOL... :)

Aloo Tikki / Potato Burger Patties

Ingredients - (For four people)

Potatoes/Aloos - 5-6 medium sized nos

Salt - 1 tea spoon

Chilli Powder - 2 tea spoons

Garam Masala Powder / Chicken Masala Powder - 3 tea spoons

Turmeric Powder - A pinch

(Be very careful with turmeric powder as any more than instructed would lead to disaster)

Bread Crumbs - 300 gms

(If you can't make your own bread crumbs then substitute by taking about 10 rusks and crushing them to fine powder, but you would need to increase the spice as rusk is generally sweet)

Oil - 4 tables spoons (If Shallow frying and if deep frying then your wish...)

Method to prepare -

It's very simple to prepare and incase if you are scared of even making the most simple thing then call your nearest restaurant and ask them to deliver Aloo Tikki for you... LOL.. :)

• First of all put all the potatoes to boil with the skin on in a big bowl with water level higher then the potatoes
• Once the potatoes are completed boiled to the extent that they have turned soft and you can check that by poking a knife through the boiling potatoes, if you feel the potato is sliding off the knife when you try picking it up then they are done
• Put them aside to cool and once they are cooled down, removed the skin and cut them into small pieces into a mixing bowl
• Add salt, garam masala/chicken masala, turmeric powder and chilli powder along with cut potatoes
• Now you have two ways of mashing them into a fine paste consistency either you could use a fork or you could use the dal/vegetable masher otherwise my personal favorite using a small bowl with a big base and firm grip
• Take out all the frustration and anger that you might have on your boss, work place or even spouses/partners on to those ingredients and there you have properly mashed mixture ready
• Now spread out the bread crumbs or rusk powder on a piece of news paper (Why news paper, who is going to wash so many vessels if you keep using different vessels for every step of recipe method...?!)
• Now make equal portions of the entire mixture and shape them out to look like small miniature cakes, post that coat them with bread crumbs or the rusk powder before setting aside on a plate
• You could go ahead and fry them on a pan with little bit of oil or you could go ahead and deep fry them as your wish
• And incase if you planning to deep fry then first you need to keep it in the fridge for at least 3 hours before you fry them, otherwise there are chances of them breaking down while frying in hot oil
• Now talking about the bachelor's burger, all you need to do is buy the bun from any local bakery and put the tikki along with raw vegetables of your choice or my favorite red chilli pickle before hogging it to glory sipping on some ice cold coke

Finally, after a little bit of hard work you would always enjoy the benefit of the outcome. So, go ahead and try it out and let me know what you think....

- Thotaji Baawarchi :)

Power Packed Snack.... Chilli Cheese Sandwich

My friends have always been asking me why don't you start blogging recipes and share, so that even they can experiment... I don't know how many of them would be successful and how many of them would burn down their kitchens, but hell why not give it a try?! So, here I go with my first recipe blog...

When some one says, power packed snack... What does that mean?! Probably, it's energizing snack or even it could be something like heavy in calories and stuff like that... But when I say that... It means Calories as well as real blazing fire packed snack. Being a telugite can't help making my dishes little over spicy so if you don't like spicy stuff, please normalize the bombs as per your taste. (I mean chillies or red chilly powder or anything and everything that burns up and down... LOL... :P)

Chilli Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients - (For two people)

White/Brown Bread - 4 Slices

Cheese - 4 Slices

(If you have cheese spread then use 3 table spoons=45 gms)

Green Chillies - 2 nos

Garlic Flakes - 6 nos

(When we say garlic flakes it means from a whole garlic pod when you remove the individuals)

Butter/Cooking Oil - 1 teaspoon

Salt - Avoid it as cheese and butter generally consists of salt and adding any additional salt will make it worst...

Method to prepare -

Now, it's time for you to learn how to destroy your ingredients... LOL... No, don't worry I won't let you destroy it.

• First of all never directly run to the stove, pick your chopping board and make a fine chop of green chillies and garlic flakes together
• Put them into a bowl and then chop of your cheese if they are slices and if its cheese spread, add the same to the bowl containing chopped chillies and garlic
• Mix chopped chillies, garlic and cheese together for about 2-3 minutes because the heat which generates on friction while mixing makes it a fine cheese paste just to have the ingredients equally spread out
• Take your bread slices and cut out the edges if your don't like them and if you "LOVE" bread, please leave the edges on
• Now, put all four slices of bread next to each other and apply the mixture equally on every alternative slice which means slice 1 applied then slice 3 apply, don't add to slice 2 and slice 4 as bread slices wouldn't stick together
• Put together slice 1 with slice 2 and slice 3 with slice 4
• Soooorrryyy, almost forgot to tell you.... You would need either a sandwich maker or bread toaster
• If you making it with sandwich maker, first open the maker apply oil on both sides and pre-heat for about 3 minutes and then places the bread in between them
• Don't over roast them, only put them inside the pre-heat sandwich maker for about 3 minutes as cheese melts very quickly and will start burning if you roast it for a longer time
• And if you are making it with toaster then first toast/roast your bread slices and then apply the cheese mixture, simple... :)

And in about 10 minutes your CHILLI CHEESE SANDWICH is ready which you can serve with Tomato sauce but my personal favorite is Mustard Mayonnaise Sauce, try it you might like it.

If you like the recipe, please do leave a comment and if you don't like the recipe then leave a feedback.....

Now got to go clean my kitchen :( - Thotaji Baawarchi