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 | Mar 7, 2013 | BLOG
I have been postponing this post now for a long time simply because I wanted to sit down and write about this wonderful cooking experience with a 10 year old girl, Anaya.
Anaya is such a sweet, brilliant, creative 10 year old who loves to cook. On her 10 th birthday, her mom Shruti decided to host a birthday party where Cooking was the theme. Anaya was thrilled with her mom s idea and decided that she wanted to throw a party by cooking a meal for a bunch of her close friends at her home.
Shruti had found me on Facebook through one of our common friends and decided to call me to help Anaya prepare this wonderful meal for her friends. I was super excited, immediately got working on what Anaya and her friends liked to eat and what they didn’t care too much for and so forth.
I exchanged a couple of emails with Shruti, Anaya s mom who in turn checked with her daughter to see if all of us were in agreement:)
So here goes the menu:
For Appetizers, we decided to make
Paneer or Indian Cottage Cheese Quesadillas.
For the dip, we made fresh Guacamole with Onions and tomatoes and a hint of lemon juice!yum!
For Main course,
Penne pasta with broccoli and peppers in a Pink sauce.
Shruti also mentioned that Anaya loved mangoes so I decided to whip up a
Mango Smoothie with a wedge of strawberry!
We took about 2 hours to prepare everything. Anaya wore her apron and chef hat and looked like a Junior Master Chef:) in the kitchen. She loved to chop and sauté and mix and did such a wonderful job.
I am pretty sure she will be a great food critic when she grows up as she aspires to be one:)
What can I say? Anaya was thrilled to serve her friends with all the food that we cooked together and the kids simply loved it and were so appreciative.
I must certainly commend her mom of being so supportive and giving me and Anaya an opportunity as wonderful as this that I will treasure lifelong:)))
Thanks Shruti and Anaya for a great cooking experience in your wonderful home.
by Currylicious | Mar 7, 2013 | BLOG
I have been postponing this post now for a long time simply because I wanted to sit down and write about this wonderful cooking experience with a 10 year old girl, Anaya.
Anaya is such a sweet, brilliant, creative 10 year old who loves to cook. On her 10 th birthday, her mom Shruti decided to host a birthday party where Cooking was the theme. Anaya was thrilled with her mom s idea and decided that she wanted to throw a party by cooking a meal for a bunch of her close friends at her home.
Shruti had found me on Facebook through one of our common friends and decided to call me to help Anaya prepare this wonderful meal for her friends. I was super excited, immediately got working on what Anaya and her friends liked to eat and what they didn’t care too much for and so forth.
I exchanged a couple of emails with Shruti, Anaya s mom who in turn checked with her daughter to see if all of us were in agreement:)
So here goes the menu:
For Appetizers, we decided to make
Paneer or Indian Cottage Cheese Quesadillas.
For the dip, we made fresh Guacamole with Onions and tomatoes and a hint of lemon juice!yum!
For Main course,
Penne pasta with broccoli and peppers in a Pink sauce.
Shruti also mentioned that Anaya loved mangoes so I decided to whip up a
Mango Smoothie with a wedge of strawberry!
We took about 2 hours to prepare everything. Anaya wore her apron and chef hat and looked like a Junior Master Chef:) in the kitchen. She loved to chop and sauté and mix and did such a wonderful job.
I am pretty sure she will be a great food critic when she grows up as she aspires to be one:)
What can I say? Anaya was thrilled to serve her friends with all the food that we cooked together and the kids simply loved it and were so appreciative.
I must certainly commend her mom of being so supportive and giving me and Anaya an opportunity as wonderful as this that I will treasure lifelong:)))
Thanks Shruti and Anaya for a great cooking experience in your wonderful home.
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 !
by Currylicious | May 8, 2012 | Recipes
Ingredients:
1/4 cup Grated coconut(fresh/ frozen)
2 Ripe mangoes or 1/4 cup Mango puree’
1tbsp cumin seeds
1/4tsp fenugreek seeds(if you have it, this gives such flavor! else u can skip this)
1 Red Chilli 🙂 as per individual spice level(you can take off the seeds if you like less spice)
Nandini’s tip: 1 tbsp Sour cream (my twist to make it creamy and a tablespoon doesn’t hurt-Moderation people:) that’s the key)
1/4 cup low fat or fat free yogurt (you can use greek yogurt for richness/ creamy consistency)
Canola Oil
Salt to taste
Preparation
Take a pan, add 3 teaspoon of canola oil and to it add cumin seeds, red chilli, salt, fenugreek seeds and grated coconut(fresh or frozen). Saute till coconut starts turning brown. You will definitely know since the flavors will fill up your kitchen:) I promise!
Blend this coconut cumin fenugreek mixture in a blender to a smooth consistency.
Cut your mangoes and take the pulp and puree it. You can also use the store bought mango puree’.
Now transfer the mango puree’ onto a crock pot and start cooking on a low flame till it starts simmering, stirring intermittently.
Whisk up some yoghurt and sour cream in a bowl or put it in a blender and blend it!
Now transfer the blended mixture of coconut paste and the yogurt-sour cream mixture onto the simmering mango pulp.
Check if you have added enough salt at this point. Add more if required and wait till it starts boiling. Your Mango Coconut Soup is almost ready…..
Most importantly, cook this on a low flame so the yogurt sour cream mixture does not curdle so be very patient !
Take a small pan add some oil and add mustard seeds till it sputters. Use this to garnish the final Mango Coconut Soup.
Tranfer to a bowl and enjoy my currylicious Mango Coconut Soup.
Now if you cannot get hold of grated coconut, just use coconut milk instead and works perfect!
For the spicy baked Egg plant:
Ingredients
1/4 Large Eggplant
1 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp lemon pepper powder
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp Garam Masala
Canola Oil
Preparation:
Chop the eggplant into approximately equal cubes so they cook evenly.
Transfer the eggplant cubes to a baking pan with some oil in it. Add all the spices/ powders on top of the eggplant and mix well so they are evenly coated. Place in an oven at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.
Spicy Baked Eggplant dish is ready!
TRUST ME PEOPLE, ITS A HEAVENLY COMBINATION.
