by Currylicious | Mar 20, 2014 | Nandini's Food Court, Recipes
I love baby eggplants but in India we always removed the skin and cooked it to a point where it gets mushy and it would drive me
nuts when my mom would insist that i eat this mushy eggplant curry with my rotis/bread. I wanted to come up with an eggplant dish that I would rather enjoy to eat than be forced to eat:(
So here goes people!
This is by far my best take on the Mighty Eggplant! and takes you less than 15 minutes to prepare this. Its an awesome dish to consider if you have guests coming over.
Ingredients:
4-8 baby eggplants
Olive oil
Goat cheese crumbs
5-6 Basil leaves
Salt to taste
Black Pepper
Lemon pepper powder 1/4 teaspoon
Garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon
Finely chopped onions- 1/4 cup
Habanero Mango Salsa( I sometimes make this at home using habanero peppers and finely diced mango cubes with onions and tomatoes but you can always find and buy a bottle of any salsa at the supermarket if you do not want to deal with the heat of habanero peppers)
Note: You can substitute any salsa depending on your or the guest’s tolerance to spice levels. BUT I strongly recommend this combination:) Trust me its delish!!!if you can tolerate spice or heat!
Preparation:
Cut the baby eggplants in half and place them on a baking pan lined with parchment paper(for easy clean up). Then sprinkle salt, black pepper, lemon pepper and garlic powder on top of each half to make sure that they are well seasoned. Then drizzle some olive oil on top of each half and top it with some chopped onions, 1/4 teaspoon of the habanero mango salsa and garnish with some crumbs of goat cheese and chiffonades of basil.
Stick this into the oven at 350 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes. Voila! I insist on a particular combination of salsa and cheese for this particular recipe since the habanero (heat) and the mango (sweet) in the salsa cuts the tanginess of the goat cheese and the flavors become so well balanced.
by Currylicious | Apr 11, 2013 | BLOG
My daughter goes to art classes in a small warm cozy art studio in Maplewood, NJ. The owner is an extremely talented, warm and nice. She was organizing an Art Show at her studio and wanted me to cater some short eats to go with wine for all the people who were invited. I decided to make Polenta but wanted to make it mess free for people to pick and eat. The first thing that came to my mind was the mini cupcake baking pan. I have baked so many cupcakes and done bake sales for my daughter’s school. I decided to use the cupcake bake pan to mold the polenta. I always try and use Bob’s Corn Grits or Polenta from the supermarket simply because its convenient and easy to prepare.
The instructions usually tell you to cook the corn grits with water but I do it differently.
Currylicious Tip: I whisk half heavy cream and half whole milk in a pot until it comes to a boil. Then, I add corn grits and whisk well to avoid lumps. By the way dont 
ask me why I whisk the cream/milk and bring it to a boil:))) lol I just feel that it tastes absolutely delicious when I make it this way!
Once the polenta is creamy and hot, I spooned it into the mini cupcake baking pans and leave it in the refrigerator to set for about 1/2 hour. Once you take them out of the refrigerator, you can scoop out the polenta cupcakes easily. I also made a baked 
eggplant dish which i used to top off the polenta cupcakes.
I also made a Tuscan ChickPea spread with garlic and tomatoes and it was served on toasted bread.
I took all the food to the studio as I was also invited to the Art Show. It was so much fun meeting several people and to see them taste my food and get their feedback and appreciation.
With much love …….
by Currylicious | Mar 20, 2013 | BLOG
Hello everyone,
As promised, I am posting some pics from my cooking demonstration at Williams Sonoma in Short Hills Mall, NJ on March 23rd. It was a lot of fun and
like always I had a wonderful audience. This time, I must confess that I had this one lady who came up to me and asked me how I could stay vegetarian for so long? and
if I missed eating meat? I said to her ” Not really since I love to cook with veggies and put a ton of flavor in it and share my secrets with everyone:)”
She was so thrilled she sat in a chair and watched me as I cooked away my dish. She had a pen and a book and was making a note of whatever I said.
So the dish I made was an Eggplant Tapanade with cilantro chutney served on a cracker. Lot of people walked in tried my dish and appreciated the flavors!
It was a truly memorable experience since the manager of the store at Williams Sonoma, Short Hills walked up to me, ate my dish and said to me” There was this lady who walked up to me and said that you did a great job answering all her questions, she loved your dish and thought it was great. That must mean a lot to you”.
And yes it did, I was so happy to merely listen to something like that and would consider myself lucky and all my efforts seemed to have paid off. This is the most rewarding job that I ever had – not in terms of money but in terms of happiness and appreciation! Nothing can beat this:)
Thanks again to all who walked in and tasted my dish- for all your kind wo
rds an
d time.
by Currylicious | Mar 20, 2013 | BLOG
Hello everyone,
As promised, I am posting some pics from my cooking demonstration at Williams Sonoma in Short Hills Mall, NJ on March 23rd. It was a lot of fun and
like always I had a wonderful audience. This time, I must confess that I had this one lady who came up to me and asked me how I could stay vegetarian for so long? and
if I missed eating meat? I said to her ” Not really since I love to cook with veggies and put a ton of flavor in it and share my secrets with everyone:)”
She was so thrilled she sat in a chair and watched me as I cooked away my dish. She had a pen and a book and was making a note of whatever I said.
So the dish I made was an Eggplant Tapanade with cilantro chutney served on a cracker. Lot of people walked in tried my dish and appreciated the flavors!
It was a truly memorable experience since the manager of the store at Williams Sonoma, Short Hills walked up to me, ate my dish and said to me” There was this lady who walked up to me and said that you did a great job answering all her questions, she loved your dish and thought it was great. That must mean a lot to you”.
And yes it did, I was so happy to merely listen to something like that and would consider myself lucky and all my efforts seemed to have paid off. This is the most rewarding job that I ever had – not in terms of money but in terms of happiness and appreciation! Nothing can beat this:)
Thanks again to all who walked in and tasted my dish- for all your kind words and time.
by Currylicious | May 8, 2012 | Nandini's Food Court
Mango Coconut Soup, yes you heard it right. I loveeeeeeee mangoes and my husband just got me a bagful the other day. Perfect excuse to tell him that the mangoes are going to go bad and have to be used in a “wise” manner so that they don’t get rotten over time 🙂
I learnt to make this recipe from my mom and for some reason she said the perfect combination of a vegetable is spicy eggplant! I have added my twist to the recipe. I also love bulgur wheat because it’s so much better and healthier than rice. To be completely honest, I developed or acquired the taste for bulgur wheat but once you eat it a couple times, it gives you the same satisfaction as rice! I think you must definitely consider substituting bulgur wheat for rice and you will thank me one day:)
Ok I hope I am doing a good job writing this because at the moment my second daughter is playing drums on my head and my older one s sleeping on me. I am stuck either ways so decided to share this recipe with you !
