Avocado Sauce
Avocado is the English name for what is commonly called butterfruit owing to its taste resembling that of butter. While the usual practise of eating this 'very nutritious' fruit is to scoop out the soft fleshy part (when ripened), mash it and mix it with sugar, here is another recipe which has Hispanic origin(also called Guacamole sauce). While the Mexicans use it in their cuisines as a sauce along with other ingredients, i prepare it as a dressing(similar to ranch or thousand island etc etc) for regular garden salads to make it more intertesting and less boring in taste. A must try for those who are on a weight losing spree.Serves about 2-3 people.
Ingredients Used:2 ripened medium sized avocados
4-5 tsp yogurt
1/6th of a medium sized onion
1/4 of a garlic clove
1/2 a tomato
Salt and lemon to taste
Method of Preparation:Choose
avocados which are really soft and have darkened skin(blackish brown). If they are hard and green in colour, keep them for a day or two until they ripen. Then, peel and deseed them. Mash the pulp finely with either a wide based spoon or a mixer. To this, add yogurt, lemon, very finely chopped onion, tomato, grated garlic and salt(Mexicans use what is called garlic salt as a substitute). Enjoy with plain salad containing carrots, lettuce, cabbage etc.
Note:Make sure that the amount of garlic and onion used is just right, for, otherwise, it would make the sauce very pungent and repulsive. .Labels: Avocado, butterfruit, Chatpat, Chatpat. quick, dressing, dry salad, Easy, garlic sauce, Guacamole, Indian, Jhatpat, mexican, tasty.
Simple Egg Curry
This is my mom’s recipe. It requires a lot of ingredients, but its very simple to prepare. Tastes best with rice.
Time taken: 35-40 minutes
Serves about 3 people
Ingredients required:
4 large white eggs
2 medium sized onions sliced
2 small tomatoes sliced
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1-inch ginger chopped
4 dry red chillies
1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1 Tsp coriander seeds (dhaniya seeds)
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
3-4 peppercorns
5 –6 cashew nuts
1 tsp poppy seeds (khus khus)
3 cloves
1-inch cinnamon
4 Tsp grated coconut
Handful of coriander leaves chopped
2 Tsp heavy cream (milk can be used instead)
2 Tsp kasuri methi (optional)
4 Tsp of oil
salt for taste
Method of preparation:
Take about 3 liters of water in a large vessel and bring it to a boil. Add the eggs with the shells on and let it boil uncovered for 10 to 12 minutes. Once this is done, switch off the gas and cover the vessel for 5 minutes. Drain and peel the eggs, cut it into half and keep aside. To save time, the gravy can be prepared when the eggs are being boiled. Heat 3 Tsp of oil, add jeera and let it crackle. Now add cloves and cinnamon and fry for about 30 seconds. Now add coriander seeds, peppercorns, poppy seeds, cashew nuts and fry for another 30 seconds, now add onions, garlic and ginger. Fry till the onions turn translucent. Now add tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes are mashed properly. Then add red chillies and coconut and fry till the coconut starts turning brownish. This takes about 3 to 4 minutes. Now add coriander leaves and fry for about a minute. Switch off the fire and transfer this mixture to a large plate so that it cools down to the room temperature soon. As soon as the mixture cools down , grind it to a paste with a blender using very little or no water.
Now take the remaining oil in the same vessel in which the mixture for the gravy was fried and add the paste. Once it starts boiling, add cream and kasoori methi. Add a glass of water and bring the gravy to boil. More water can be added as per your required consistency. Now add the eggs and simmer for about 2 minutes on low flame. The egg curry is done.
Labels: Anda, Chatpat, curry, Easy, Egg, Gravy, Indian, Jhatpat, quick, Simple
Mixed Vegetable Curry
This is another coconut based curry which has a south Indian touch. It requires a blender or mixer for the paste. So keep that in mind before you try it out, but I assure you that this dish is a pleasure to your taste buds.
Serves about 2 – 3 people
Time taken: 30 to 35 minutes
Ingredients required:
1 big cup of cut vegetables (beans, carrots, peas, cauliflower, potato etc)
(The vegetables must be cut into medium size)
1 handful of toor dal
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 medium sized tomato chopped
4 Tsp of grated coconut
2 pods of garlic
5 green chillies
1 handful of chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
3 Tsps of oil
Salt to taste
For seasoning:
1 tsp mustard seeds
Few curry leaves
3 tsps oil
Method of preparation:
Wash the vegetables and the toor dal and pressure cook it together on medium flame for 2 whistles or till the dal is cooked. Make a fine paste of coconut, garlic, green chillies, jeera, turmeric powder and the coriander leaves with as less water as possible in a blender. Heat oil in a kadai, and fry the chopped onion till it turns soft. Add tomatoes to this and fry till the tomatoes are mashed properly. Now add the green coconut paste to it and fry till the raw smell of the coconut and the garlic is gone. That takes about 5 minutes. To this add the cooked vegetable and toor dal along with water in which it was cooked. Bring it to a boil . Reduce the heat to low and add salt. Simmer for about 2 minutes. In a separate kadai, heat the oil for seasoning. Add the mustard seeds. When they start to splutter,add the curry leaves . Now add this seasoning to the curry and mix. The mixed vegetable curry is ready.
Note : It tastes very well with roti as well as with rice also. If you are having it with rice, then make the consistency of the curry a little thinner by adding more water.
Labels: Chatpat, Coconut, curry, Easy, Indian, Jhatpat, quick, South, Vegetable, Veggie
Avocado is the English name for what is commonly called butterfruit owing to its taste resembling that of butter. While the usual practise of eating this 'very nutritious' fruit is to scoop out the soft fleshy part (when ripened), mash it and mix it with sugar, here is another recipe which has Hispanic origin(also called Guacamole sauce). While the Mexicans use it in their cuisines as a sauce along with other ingredients, i prepare it as a dressing(similar to ranch or thousand island etc etc) for regular garden salads to make it more intertesting and less boring in taste. A must try for those who are on a weight losing spree.
