Omlette with macaroni

                   Macaroni Omlette Kyar Singh Style

For Breakfast our faithful Bahadur decided to experiment with the omlette. First he cooked macaroni with mushrooms and capsicum. Then with two egg whites a traditional omlette was made. The mushroom-macaroni mixture was added on and then another mix of two egg whites was added. It looked like a pie. Eaten with toasts one could only take a slice of it.

Lauki bharta and pyaz tamatar ki chutney

                         Lauki bharta and pyaz-tamatar ki chutney

Lauki ka bharta made by grating the bottle gourd and cooking it in the usual baingan ka bharta style. With tomato-onion, ginger and green chillies. It’s a delightful change from the usual fare. In fact some people even make Lauki ka kheer and there have been times I have even swallowed lauki ka halwa.

Lauki some tout is the greatest vegetable particularly the faith healers. They claim that the juice will keep the arteries unclogged and the heart pumping happily.

If only things were that simple. But at some point it had my husband drinking lauki juice first thing in the morning. But as with all fads this was forgotten after a while.

This is a tomato-chutney Kyar Singh made after I showed the recipe from a blog. It was made with lots of tomatoes, onions and a bit of sugar which was substituted with a tablet of equal. But it tasted more like gravy. Eaten with a roti stuffed with moong sprouts it was a meal by itself.

This was the other variety of star fish that I got from Cornwall. That was one of my best holidays.

I remember gorging on croissants that we specially bought from the market that led our host Mike to remark, “Have you never eaten croissants before?”

   Please note the star-fish that has come all the way from Land’s End Truro. Is it any different from the ones we find on our beaches? 

Just Aloo pyaz

                            Just Aloo-pyaz ki sabzi

But it looks so delicious. Sometimes a simple meal is much more soul satisfying than a huge gourmet spread. Tonight’s dinner was roti stuffed with moong dal and aloo-pyaz ki sabzi. Lots of onion thrown in along with boiled potatoes. As usual the tiny cups are part of a tea set which is used for anything but serving tea. The milk pot has money-plant. And the cups are so tiny that unless one wants to really be mean to one’s guests one wouldn’t serve tea in them. I wonder who does. I was told it’s used for after dinner coffee. Tiny amounts enough to keep you awake.

The achar is special one of mixed vegetables made in vinegar a gift from Sia’s Dadi. Please note that my mogras still continue to flower. Thank you Maa Durga.

Idli upma

                                      Idli Upma

      Idli upma for breakfast. The idlis are crumbled and sautéed with rai-curry patta. And the usual veggies peas, boiled potatoes are thrown in. It’s had with green chutney and or coconut one.

    The chess pieces of onyx and marble are again a gift. The chess board I have fixed into a small table. It was supposed to be used as a peg table. But elder son sat on it, the poor table just gave way, not used to such heavy weights.

Egg Balls

                               

                               Egg balls Kyar Singh style

Decided to experiment with the usual eggballs in an unusual way. This is done with 3 eggs beaten in which  onions, chillies and ginger cut finely have been added. A table spoonful of maida(flour) and a pinch of baking soda is also whipped into it.

Normally this is then deep fried instead I used my Panirakkal pan to make them with just a drop of oil.

They tasted just as good and the masks from Kathmandu that Sujata gifted me from one of her Nepal trips complete the picture.

It’s another story that both Kyar Singh and Yam Bahadur failed to identify what gods they represent.

Chhanar Dalna and the Mermaid

                       Chhanar Dalna and the mermaid

This chanar dalna is a far cry from my Maa’s. The recipe was taken from Rajasthan Patrika and the paneer cut in cubes and fried. The seasoning was done with chota elaichi, onion-garlic paste and garnished with coconut. Kyar Singh even added a pinch of sugar but it was not the same. Firstly Maa used to mash the chana and knead it with a bit of maida and garam-masala and a pinch of sugar. She made little roundels of it and deep fried it in mustard oil. I used to just love popping them in the mouth even before the dish was complete. Little wonder she never liked me hanging around the kitchen.

The mermaid looks a little bewildered as it is out of its own sea. Nowadays the rich celebrate their grandchildren’s birthday with unusual invitation cards tucked inside a toy. So this mermaid arrived with one such missive.

The other bowl contains louki in chana dal. Nutricious and a complete meal with  roti.

Attempting healthy diet?

                          Gatte-ki-sabzi with methi

Gatta-ki-sabzi. This Rajasthani dish has a slight variation as Jagdish added kasoori methi to the besan dough. When fresh green methi is available in winters he adds that to make it aromatic and eating greens in any way is good. This has the dahi in its gravy.

The panchmel dal is a mix of five dals- moong, masoor, chana, urad-chilka and masoor. Jagdish has put in palak for good measure.

I had some leftover boiled kala chana that I decided to add some aloo and make it in gravy of tomato-onion-garlic-adrak paste. The other bowl contains my boiled dal which is not so insipid thanks to the green chilly soaked in vinegar that has been boiled along with tomato puree. In fact it quite tasty.

Eggsiting!

                                 Eggsiting

This was tried out by Kyar Singh thanks to Son2 being around ostensibly for his preparation leave. He uses it most efficiently by lounging around watching endless cricket. There’s the World Cup  ‘–it’s come after I was doing my tenth boards; Mamma’.

I never know what match is on cricket just puts me off. We have too much of it. Gone were the good old days that one heard the commentary on transistors and looked forward to our team going on a tour of England or Australia. Or the Pakistani team coming over. What excitement. It used to happen in large gaps and one savoured the matches. Now it’s an everyday affair its hard even to keep track of it.

Coming back to the eggs, this recipe I got from Begums Kitchen. It was really as good as it looks.

One has to make a gravy of onions and green chillies. I threw in some potatoes and mushrooms as well. Then just let the eggs settle on it.

Don’t miss my fancy tea-pot that is used now to grow Jade a type of cacti. The funny part is that at the bottom of the tea-pot is a screw which when turned gives out the old melodious tune. But since we like our tea dhaba type (everything brewed together)the teapots and milk pot and sugar bowl slowly become pots to grow my plants.

Butter Chicken

                       

                                  Butter chicken 

Butter Chicken

The solemn owl and the black bird are wooden whistles that have come from the Eden Project in Truro in Cornwall. They must be wondering at the fuss I make over Dinaer. But it was worth it all. Kyar

Singh had just out done himself. The decoration of cream was done by Guddu. This was savoured by Dinaer for next day’s lunch as well.

Aloo Chaat

                                           

                                    Aloo Chaat

  With the excitement of buying an electric grill that promised delicious dishes without oil I experimented with my favourite Aloo. Potatoes. Wow! They were just like the chaatwallas made it in Delhi. So the next time round I added cucumber, tomatoes, anardana to make it even more healthier. It goes without saying that all the hard work was done by Guddu (the latest entrant in my kitchen). I am hunting for the large lemons that the chaat wallas use to make it that much more tangy!

Aloo Tikki

                                   Aloo Tikki

This is one of my favourite breakfasts. Aloo tikki cooked on slow fire with little oil on tawa. Served with hari-chutney and tomato ketchup and crisp toasts it’s a healthy and hopefully nutritious. As a little girl passing Punjab Sweets on my way to school and back I used to look longingly at the aloo tikkis the halwais had on their huge round tawas. They were arranged in a tempting circle at the edge of the tawa. They would heat and serve a couple of them whenever a order was passed.

As a grown up I wanted to gorge on the tikkis of Nathu’s sweets of Bengali Market. In Delhi they are served with imli chutney which is in a class of its own.

In Rajasthan I discovered aloo-tikkis stuffed with dals and kaju.

At home I do mine stuffed with matar. Peas cooked in garam masala and amchoor and mashed a little.

The guitar is a papier-mâché again picked up from Srinagar. The Sitar is a fancy silver one probably a farewell gift.

Bharwan karela

           
                                            Bharwan Karela

Bharwan karela. Stuffed bitter gourd. Ever thought it could be so tempting?

Please do not miss Kyar Singh’s decoration of the onion rings and tomato sliced like a flower. Where would I be without him? The karela is boiled and slit. The stuffing is done with a paste of onion-tomato-garlic-chillies slightly sautéed and then shallow fried on slow fire so that we got to imbibe less oil.