Muttai Omelet Kuzhambu (Egg Omelet Gravy)

Muttai Omelet Kuzhambu (Egg Omelet Gravy)
Those who love eggs will be excited to taste different recipes of eggs. I have tried to make gravy with the omelets. I have heard that in some parts of Tamilnadu this gravy is a usual one. I was not able to gather any authentic recipe of the same. So I have made a trial. The gravy turned out good. So you people can certainly give the recipe a try. An easy and handy recipe when we are short of vegetables or time.

Ingredients for the omelets
Eggs -4
Minced onion -1/2 cup
Turmeric powder -1/2 teaspoon
Pepper powder- 1 teaspoon
Chopped green chili -1
Salt to taste

There are different ways of making this omlette. If you have time and patience it can be baked in the oven. As my readers know, I am allergic of using my oven; I made the omelets in my dosa pan. The thing to be noted while making the omelets is that it should be made thick.
Another way is to pour the mix in kuzhi paniyaram moulds and make egg paniyarams.
Easiest is the regular way of making omelets but little thicker. If you make like this or bake then after making cut into small pieces and keep aside
Ingredients for the gravy
Small onion -20 or chopped big onion -2
Garlic -20
Tomato -2

Tamarind –little (as shown) (too much of tamarind will not be good)
Sambar powder-2 teaspoons
Coriander powder- 2 teaspoons
Turmeric powder -1 teaspoon
Curry leaf –little
For seasoning
Mustard-1 teaspoon
Fenugreek-1/2 teaspoon
Fennel seed-1 teaspoon
Curry leaf-little
Procedure to make the gravy
The gravy is the normal puli kuzhambu that we make. But for the beginners sake I repeat.
Mix the tamarind and the salt needed in two to two and half cups of water.
Drain it and keep aside
Keep the kadai in the stove
Pour 1 table spoon of gingili oil or any other oil you use for cooking
Season the gravy with the items given for seasoning
Add the onion, garlic and tomato pieces one by one and sauté well for 5 minutes in medium fire
Now add the salt tamarind water into the kadai
After one boil add the sambar powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder.
Keep the stove in medium fire
Cook for 10 minutes
When the gravy has turned to half the quantity add the cut omlette pieces.
Cook for 3 more minutes
Remember that the omelet pieces will become little big after boiling
So make the pieces little smaller.
Heat the gravy before serving

Clementine Christmas Cookies

Happy holidays everyone!

For about 40 cookies (depending on their thickness and the size of your cookie cutters)

• 250 g (2 cups) flour
• 200 g (1 cup) sugar
• 125 g (1/2 cup or just over 1 stick) butter
• 1 clementine
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 or 2 egg yolks

1. Cut the butter in small pieces and allow it to warm up to room temperature (you can use a microwave for a few seconds).
2. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Rub the ingredients between your hands to obtain a uniform "sand."
3. Squeeze the clementine. Add half of the juice to the flour mix and briefly kneed with your hands. Add more juice as needed to obtain a shiny, elastic dough that doesn't stick to your hands. Shape dough into a ball. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.
4. Roll the dough down to 3 or 4 millimeters. Cut out shapes. Place on a non-stick cookie sheet (or use parchment paper). Lightly brush each cookie with egg yolk.
5. Bake in a 360ºF (180ºC) oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Keep an eye on the cookies as they will rapidly change color. Uneven oven temperature and uneven cookie thickness will make them cook more or less rapidly.
6. Let the cookies cool down and enjoy, or store in a metal box for later.
   

Chestnut stuffing

When I see fresh chestnuts at the farmer's market or in the produce aisle, I can't resist: I buy a bag. They remind me of the "chestnut fair" ("la vogue des marrons"), a traveling carnival that takes place every fall atop the Croix Rousse hill in Lyon. Amidst the noisy, flashy rides and cotton candy vendors are fire-roasted chestnut vendors. They roast fresh chestnuts from Ardèche, the nearby producing region, in big barrels over a crackling and smoking wood fire. They serve the hot, blackened chestnuts in cones made of newspaper. You warm up your hands by holding the cone for a few minutes, then shell the chestnuts one by one, trying not to burn your fingers, and eat them while still steamy. What a treat.

Chestnuts also remind me of Christmas meals. Chestnut-stuffed roast turkey, served with sautéed apples and more chestnuts, is one of the traditional Christmas dishes in my family. Here is a recipe for the stuffing, adapted from my 1991 Larousse de la Cuisine.

The recipe is for a 9-lb (4-kg) turkey. Since this attempt was just for fun (and for the 4 of us), I didn't buy a whole turkey but two drumsticks, and baked the stuffing (or dressing, rather) around them. The turkey pieces were simply seasoned with salt and pepper and brushed with sunflower oil. I baked them for about one hour at 350ºF (180ºC), adding the dressing about 20 minutes before the end.

• one bag fresh chestnuts (1.6 lbs or 740 g)
• 4 strips bacon, diced
  
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 thin, boneless pork chop (about 1/3 lb or 150 g), diced
  
• 1 apple (Pink Lady for example), thinly sliced
  
• salt, freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg, 2 whole cloves, 1 pinch ground cinnamon

1. Cut a cross into each chestnut with a sharp, pointy knife.
2. Roast the chestnuts on a cookie sheet, cross facing up, in a 450ºF (230ºC) oven for about 30 minutes. Let them cool down a little then peel them (use your hands to break the shells and remove them). Crumble the chestnuts between your hands or chop them coarsely with a chef's knife.
   
3. Fry the diced bacon and chopped onion in a pan for a few minutes.
   
4. Add the diced pork and cook for a few more minutes.
   
5. Add the apple slices. Season with salt and spices. Toss well. Cook for a few minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and toss in the crumbled chestnuts.
7. Use as turkey or chicken stuffing, or bake separately as dressing for 20 minutes.
   

Karuppatti Paniyaram and Elai Mavu

Pillayar Nombu is fast approaching and many of my young readers want the recipe for this and Elai mavu. Elai mavu is karuppatti paniyaram mavu without water. As I go to nagarathar sangam, I don’t usually make this at home. But for the sake of my readers, I learnt it from my mom this week when I went to chettinad to attend a function. So there are no photos attached.
Ingredients
Raw rice -2 cups
Black jaggerry (powdered)-1 ½ cups (karuppatti) if you don’t get karuppatti in you area then try with vellam
Procedure
Soak the rice for 30 minutes. Drain and dry in a paper for 20 minutes and dry grind it in a mixie.Here in India we sieve the flour in a fine siever half and remaining half in medium siever.If you don’t have siever just finely grind and keep. Now powder the karuppatti and add ¼ cup water and keep in the kadai. Once the jaggerry gets melted and gets hot switch off. No need of any string consistency. If the pagu start boiling switch off. Wait for 2 minutes and then add the pagu to the flour and mix in the consistency of chappathi mavu. If there is ecess pagu it can be used for thirattu paal.Dont pour all the pagu atonce. slowly add. Sometimes there will be excess.
This flour can be made in advance and refrigerated. So make it the day before itself.
Karuppatti paniyaram
Take the paniyaram mavu in a bowl and mix it in the consistency in between idly and dosai batter. Keep a small flat kadai in the stove and with a proper ladle pour one ladle into the oil when the oil is hot. Allow some seconds to cook then with the ladle slowly pour little oil in the kadai on top of the paniyaram. Now the paniyaram will get nice border. Turn side and cook for a minute and remove from the kadai draining the excess oil from the paniyaram. After taking out wait for a minute and break one paniyaram and see to check wether it is fried well.If not fry little longer.

Potato gratin with bacon

A beautiful potato dish came out of the oven yesterday night, all steamy an bubbly. We took a few bites, then a few more, and we would have eaten the whole dish if it wasn't for this blog. I wanted to take a picture but there wasn't enough light... Now this cold leftover doesn't look half as nice as the dish did yesterday, but hopefully it gives you an idea... The potatoes literally melted in our mouths. Yum!

Serves 2
(prep time: 10 minutes, cooking time: 1 hour)

• 4 big Yukon gold potatoes
• 4 strips bacon
• 1/2 big yellow onion
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and cut in half
  
• 1 tsp butter
• about 1 cup whole milk
• about 4 oz. (100 g) gruyère cheese
• salt, pepper, nutmeg

1. Peel the potatoes, rinse them and slice them. Dice the bacon. Chop the onion. Place all in a large bowl.
2. Sprinkle with salt, freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Toss well.
3. Rub a glass or ceramic oven-safe dish with garlic (here's my dish). (Discard what remains of the garlic clove.)
4. Butter the dish, then throw in the potatoes and gently shake the dish from left to right to arrange the potatoes in an even layer.
5. Pour the milk.
6. Bake for about 45 minutes at 360ºF (180ºC).
7. Take out of the oven momentarily and grate gruyère cheese on top. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes or so, checking from time to time until the cheese forms a nice, golden crust.
8. Eat with a side of escarole salad.

Kathirikkai Sadam (Brinjal Rice)

There are different ways of doing this item. I too used to do it in a laborious way until I tasted a very tasty and easy recipe in Sathya’s house. Sathya my neighbor who may be known to my readers through my blog on sathya aunty’s rasam is good in cooking and provides me with some interesting recipes.
When we are short of much vegetables or time or interest, then this is an excellent choice. The same recipe can be used for capsicum and some other vegetables also. Try out with some more vegetable available in your area. Kopra or dried coconut is best suited for this recipe. Here in India only in Andhra we get this easily. If kopra is not available grated coconut can be used and sauted well.

Ingredients
Cooked rice-2 cups (don’t over cook .cook like you cook for tamarind or lemon rice)
Brinjal -1/4 kg
Tomato-1
Onion-1
Curry leaf –little
Coriander leaf –little
Ingredients for the masal powder
Red chilies -10
Coconut-2 table spoons or kopra
Urudh dhal-2 table spoons
Channa dhal ( kadalai paruppu)-2 table spoons
Dhania (coriander seeds)-1 teaspoon
Cinnamon-a small piece
Clove-2
Fenugreek ( vendayam )-1/2 teaspoon
Procedure to make the powder
In little ghee or oil first roast the chilies and keep apart. Then sauté everything adding one by one in the order in which it is given. No need to fry it till red. Switch off when you feel it is roasted. In a mixie powder it and store it.
Procedure
Keep the kadai in the stove. In a table spoon of oil and ghee mixed, season with a small piece of cinnamon, clove and curry leaf. Add the minced tomato and onion and sauté. Add the brinjal pieces too and sauté in low fire adding salt and turmeric powder. Make sure that brinjal pieces don’t get over cooked. Stay near the stove and sauté. If necessary sprinkle some water. If you close the kadai for a minute, it will get cooked fast. Once you feel that the brinjal pieces are cooked, add the masal powder and mix well. Mean time transfer the rice to a flat bowl. Add little ghee or oil and little salt to the rice and allow it to cool. Once you feel the rice is not very hot add the rice into the kadai or the brinjal into the vessel and mix well in such a way that the rice or brinjal pieces do not get smashed. Garnish with coriander leaves. Heat the rice in a microwave or kadai while serving
You can prepare this powder in lots during weekends and can store .Then making this rice will only be a few minutes job.

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