Egg Kurma and lovely chickens

Past two weeks we had our county fair and there were variety of rabbits, goats, pigs, hen and ducks. They were very different from what I’ve seen in India. My brother is very much interested in all different species of farm animals. He had few pygmy goats, budgies, cockatiel and lovely Indian Fantail pigeons back in India.

Hope you enjoyed these few snaps and here comes an easy recipe of egg kurma. Quick and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

Roasted chickpeas (pottu kadalai) – 2 tsp (use minimal)
grated coconut – 3/4 cup
green chilies – 2-3
coriander powder – 1 tbsp
Egg – 2-3
Onion – 1 medium size
Tomato – 1
Curry leaves
Fennel seeds
Cardamom – 1
Coconut milk – 3 tbsp (optional)
Oil
Salt

Method:

1. Grind roasted chickpeas, grated coconut, green chilies and coriander powder.

2. Heat 3 tsp of oil in a pan. Add curry leaves,fennel seeds and cardamom. Saute finely chopped onion till they get translucent.

3.Next add tomato and saute till they get mushy. After this add the ground paste. Add required amount of water and salt.

4. Cook the paste for a while and add the eggs one by one. Cover and cook in simmer. After a while stir a little without breaking the eggs. Let the eggs cook completely.

5. Once the eggs are completely cooked, add coconut milk and switch off the heat. Add cilantro on top.

Easy egg kurma ready. This goes well with idly, dosa, aappam and paratha.

Friend’s favourite Chutney – Mint/Cilantro chutney

Another version of mint/cilantro chutney. This recipe is from my aunty(periamma).  Now that mint is everywhere in the backyard i tend to prepare this often. This chutney is my friend’s favorite. They all loved it a lot.

Ingredients:

Urid dal – 1 tsp
Red chilies – 2-3
Shallots – 10-15 or red onion – 1 medium
Mint/ Cilantro – few twigs
Tamarind – 2-3 small pieces
grated coconut – 1/2 cup
Oil – 2-3 tbsp
Salt

Method:

1. Heat a wide skillet pan and add oil. Once it gets heated add urid dal and red chilies. Fry till urid dal gets brown.

2. Next add the shallots/onion. Fry till golden brown.

3. Add mint/cilantro. Saute till they wilt.

4. Add tamarind, salt and coconut. Turn off the flame and saute the coconut with skillet heat.

5. Grind all the ingredients into fine paste.

This goes well with rice, dosa and idli.

Kanna laddu thinna aasaiya?!?!

Laddu is one of my favorite sweet and my DD loves it too. Almost everyone in my family loves it.I recently tried making some for my DD’s birthday. It certainly didn’t turn out like my mom’s but i was proud that it was certainly good for the first timer. LOL.

Lemme take you directly to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Besan flour (Chickpea flour/Gram flour) – 2 cups
Sugar – 2 cups
Cashew
Raisin
Cardamom
Cloves (Optional)
Oil – 1/2 litre

Method:

1. First make batter out of besan flour. It must be little watery than dosa batter/pancake batter.Make sure you don’t have any lumps.

2.Make sugar syrup.Take a stainless steel pan and add sugar. Add little water till the sugar completely immerses in it.

3.Boil the sugar syrup. Now and then take few drops of syrup and test it in cold water. If the syrup dissolves away keep boiling for some more time. You should switch off the stove when the sugar syrup forms a ball when rolled in a cold water. (This part is more important)

4. Heat oil in a wide pan. Using a small holed strainer add the besan batter so that it drops to form small balls like dippin’ dots(called Boondhi). Remove when it is cooked and add immediately to the sugar syrup. (Don’t let it brown.)

5. Keep mixing boondhi once in a while in sugar syrup so that all absorbs the sugar syrup completely in.
Fry some cashews, raisins and cloves in little ghee and add to boondhi.

6. Finally when all the besan batter is done, it is time to roll the laddus. Make balls out of boondhi absorbed in sugar syrup right away when it is warm. (In pic we have molded laddu using my daughter’s cereal scoop)

Yummy laddu is ready!!

P.S : If  the syrup turns crystallized by the end, try adding some warm milk before rolling.