Oye Brinner with Sweet Potato Hash and Nestled Eggs!

Brinner- I love this concept! Pancakes and maple syrup is awesome at any time of the day and so is my recipe for fried egg and chunky hash. And throw in a fresh loaf of homemade bread, and it’s a meal made in heaven. Pair it with a glass of white chilled wine; and that would be a brinner to not forget.

Let me give you some reasons as to why I love brinner so much. Now, in the morning to get up and make hash is really painful. It takes a lot of time to prepare. So that’s never an easy fix when you want express breakfast, as you actually have been fasting for that long. For a brunch though it seems ideal. Plus a glass of wine that goes so well with this dish; is not an ideal breakfast drink. And a fresh loaf of bread is so difficult in the mornings. Can we even imagine baking fresh bread that early, for domestic eating! It’s an out of the world thought. So, the classic breakfast to be had on dinner time is such a wonderful idea to me.

Ingredients:

2-3 big sweet potatoes cut in small chunks

2 potatoes cut in small chunks

Dried thyme

Dried oregano

Salt

Pepper

Oil/butter

Red pepper flakes

Fresh Garlic crushed

1 big Onion chopped

4 eggs

To serve along with fresh loaf of bread and some tomato based marinara sauce or any other gravy.

Method:

In a skillet, heat some oil/butter with crushed garlic and pepper flakes. Till it reaches the desired temperature, get the 2 potatoes in a microwave-safe bowl, add some salt and a 1 inch of water; and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Give it a stir and microwave for a minute again.

After the garlic is lightly browned, add the onions and fry till golden.

Add dried herbs and fry for a few seconds. An important tip, always crush the dried herbs between your palms before adding it to your dish. This releases the flavour and helps the herbs break down!

Now tip in the cooked soft potatoes and on a high flame, get a bit of colour on them. Let them sit prettily on the hot skillet for at least 2 minutes before turning them. That way you will get that beautiful crisp and caramelised side.

Once the potatoes are cooked to your liking, it should be soft and easily crushed between fingers; make a bit of space in the skillet and crack open 4 eggs. Salt and pepper the eggs and put on a tight lid to finish cooking the eggs in steam.

It shouldn’t take more than 4 minutes for the whites to set, while yolk remains runny. Keep the flame of your stove at medium low and cook it on a steady heat.

Enjoy with a fresh loaf of bread and some tomato based curry/sauce! Cheers!!

Paper Boat- A review in the Nostalgic lanes of Childhood Favorites!!

‘Paper Boat’- what an awesome name...  and the young vibe behind the company is very visible! They are striving to get some nostalgic memories out, but for me, it made some new memories, that were sweet, sour and spicy!

So a mailman came with an orange pack of 8 paper boat drinks at my doorstep, for me to taste and review. Not a paid review, but something that I call a freebie review. So here tumbles down my take on these drinks, from the bottom of my heart...

Jamun Kala khatta- one of the loved, classic flavours of gola! For people who are new to India, gola is a blob of snow, which is flavoured and coloured fresh to make us swoon and suck on a stick! (uhhh.. this is a food blog, and I am serious about it.. no wayward thinking allowed!!) A kind of desi sorbet on a stick; available in every nook and corner of India. So... this flavour is very close to my heart. And paper-boat has exploited this nostalgic memory of mine well. I loved this flavour. It was just the right amount of sweet, spicy and fruity. Beautiful, and definitely my favourite flavour of it all!

Not a fan of jal-jeera, (a spicy cooler made with cumin) and; this one didn’t make me fall in love with it as well. A bit too spicy, it definitely needs a tone down in the spicy levels. The burning sensation that it left me in my throat, umm.. wasn’t pleasant at all.

Aam Panna- Loved it! Perfectly refreshing, spicy and sour at the same time! But Aamras- well, quite sweet and pulpy, but not too sure if I want to shell out 30 bucks to buy a pulpy Frooti.

Over all, the products were very appealing. The packaging was one of my favourite features of this drink. It was perfect to sip and play. Really innovative, I had never seen something like this. The natural ingredients in the drinks really shone through. But I am not too sure about this that I read on the label- ‘nature-identical flavouring substances’. It mischievously sounds a bit like chemicals disguised naturally, but again chemicals are derived naturally too! Can u imagine onions without H2So4??

I do hope they look at their price a bit. 30 INR for 250 ml of a nostalgic drink, seemed a bit too steep. I do know, the nostalgia of paying 50 paisa for a kala khatta gola would not be possible anymore, thanks to the rapidly rising inflation. But if something could be done; the A team should look at it soon!

Cheers!!

Weekend was fun!! :)

Weekend was fun!! :)

Saturday we met with the uber energetic team behind Jiwa Healthy Ataa. Everything in that little experience centre of theirs was pretty to look at! Starting from the vertical garden, to their really innovative idea to open up a Roti Bar, it was an experience yes! A third generation of wheat millers, bound to get to these amazing heights! More on the review of the lunch we had, and a recipe using their flours coming up soon!

The whole of weekend, I had been sipping on these pretty little sippy packet of very refreshing Indian drinks. One of the best flavours of Paper-Boat Drinks according to me- Jamun Kala Khatta! Lovely and refreshing!!! Cant wait to write down the full review on these products!

And yesterday, well the colours and the heavy thandai! It was truly a magical little Holi! Cheers!!

Nutella Mugsy!!!

The new fad of 1 minute mug cakes has hit us since long! But I delayed this post as much as I could. It’s not really my kind of thing to make mug cake for myself and eat. It’s so highly addictive!! And there is nothing stopping you from making these if you have the required ingredients at hand. But now with Ansh, work and full time cooking, my outlook to see these amazing marvels of science changed. If someone came to meet Ansh, I know I can whip up a dessert for them to have in a minute. And the texture of this little mug delicacy was very close to a cake pudding that I absolutely love!

While making this cake, I didn’t really care so much for the amounts of the ingredients used. It’s entirely up to you! If you want it fudgy, add more nutella. If you want it cakey, add a bit of flour. If you want it pudding-y, then follow the recipe I am giving out here. I love my mug cake to be more like a pudding. The smooth texture keeps it very nice and enjoyably edible even after it cools down, unlike other microwave cakes. 

Ingredients:

3 spoonfuls of Nutella

1 spoonful milk

1 egg

A big pinch of coffee

Method:

Combine the nutella and milk in a microwavable ceramic cup, and microwave the 2 on high for 15 secs.

Once the nutella melts, whisk the milk and nutella vigorously to cool it down, while fluffing the mix up.

Then add the egg, again stir it off nicely to make a nice chocolaty mix. Add the coffee and mix well.

Now microwave on high (900 watt) for a minute and 10 seconds! The cake would rise up madly and then flop down after cooling, quite like a soufle. It will remain gooey and chocolaty inside, while the top of the cake sets well. It’s almost like a wonderful mix of molten lava cake and a brownie.

Cheers!


The same post could also be found here. 

Masala Nuts on a Plate!

I am venturing into videos, for the very first time! After making a few of them, I am really excited and am trying different combinations and styles of video making. Bear with me for a few months, till I figure out my style. But it won’t be too long, I promise.

This is one of the first easy videos I made after Web-chef ones. I am embarrassed to even tell you how easy this recipe is. Completely adaptable to what u want or like! I keep doing so many different combinations of masalas, but this is the most classic and the first type I made. It’s another of my non-baked, easy veggie delight, and a staple at my place. Perfect easy snack on the go and a wonderful appetizer served with drinks. Hope you try it and make it into another success, just like our Pinwheel Kachoris!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Almonds

1/4 cup of Cashew nuts

1/4 cup Walnuts

1/8 cup dry Pumpkin Seeds

1/2 cup dried Cranberries

1/2 tsp Red Chilly Powder

1/2 tsp of Cinnamon Powder

1 tsp Cumin Powder

1.5 tsp Coriander Powder

Fine Table Salt to taste

Rock salt to taste

Dry Mango Powder to taste

Daab Chingri!!!

Bengal has a unique bond with fishes, fresh river water fishes. And it’s quite difficult for other communities to understand this, especially the caste-ridden, vegetarian communities of India! Bengal is the only place in entire India where eating habits are same along every strata of the community. Poor to rich or, Brahmin to Shudra, everyone eats the same multicourse cuisine, which starts with something bitter and ends with something sweet. And fish is the star of the meal, eaten right in the end, before desserts.

Fish is deemed very holy in the big Bengal province! It’s a food noted for luck and prosperity. People are amused of the fact that when, we worship the fish, then how can we eat it too. Well, it’s a pagan concept! This is the food which ensured that the flood ridden delta thrived and survived. Bengal has always given importance to survival, rather than irrational concepts of higher castes being pure and hence vegetarians!

Though we have talked so much about fish, today’s recipe is about prawns, another little guy from the river beds! Daab Chingri is a bong classic! And trust me here, u really can’t go wrong. Pungent mustardy sauce, with soft melt in mouth prawns and the fresh hit of green chillies, paired with a dollop of simple white rice; perfection on a plate. And in a party, you actually don’t need another platter to serve it in. Serve it in the rustic manner right in the tender coconut. The ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ that your guests will shout after looking at them will always be very memorable!

Ingredients:

3 tender coconuts with a layer of soft creamy coconut.

300 gms of prawns, deveined and cleaned

Salt

Turmeric

3 heaped tsp of mustard paste (I use yellow variety of mustard to make the paste, as I love the zing it gets along with it. You may use the simple black ones, also known as 'rye'.)

4-5 green chillies, slit

2 tbsp dark mustard oil

¼ cup water (or less, depends on the thickness of curry you want.)

Method:

In 1/8 cup of water, mix together mustard, scraped out coconut paste, salt and turmeric.

Smear each piece of prawn in this paste till well covered on all sides. Keep it to marinate in this mix for 10 mins.

After 10 mins, depending on the amount of curry you want, add in some water, the mustard oil and chillies. Put this mix inside the empty shells of tender coconut, and cover it tightly with cling film, which is poked with several holes for the air to pass while cooking. 

Now microwave the filled up coconuts on high for 3 minutes. After giving it a bit of a stir, microwave again for 2 minutes, till the prawns are well cooked, opaque and the tails turn a delicious red. Depending on the size of each piece and the amount of water you add, cooking time will vary.

For me 5 minutes at 900 watts always gives out the best results.

Media Coverage!

We got Covered yet again, twice last week!! 

First in The Statesman- Unconventional route

To Read the article: http://www.thestatesman.net/news/39272-unconventional-route.html?page=2


Second in the Mid day: 

Ilish Bhanpe Recipe 

Love of Zouqh with Chicken Croquets

My morning, today was a bit special. Not only because it’s Valentine’s Day, but also because I came across Love of Zouqh, (taste in English). I came across a vegetarian friend who very casually started chatting to me about keema (mince meat). I was surprised! Wasn’t she the same person I was mentioning tips on how to eliminate egg wash in our Pinwheel Kachori recipe yesterday? On enquiring, I came to know that the love of her hubby leads her into trying out non veg cooking, for his sake, for him to devour, for him to savour. This my friends is the Love of Zouqh!! And hats off to you my darling!

Chicken croquets are a widely discussed, made and tried appetizer. Its simplicity is way beyond imagination and I always grope for this when I have no clue what to make as an appetizer for a zesty cocktail. Now here I have a fried version, but very simply you can bake or even microwave it. It’s a universal dish and it can be put in a curry as well. For curry, microwaving it is the best option as it would maintain its shape, while you cut down on the oil required for frying. Simple and tasty dish for all veggie friends of mine; who, want to make something special for their valentine’s non vegetarian taste buds, today.   

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken Mince – 500 gms

Boiled egg – 1

2 medium onions finely chopped

1 tbsp ground ginger

Handful of Coriander leaves finely chopped

Couple of Green chilly finely chopped

1 raw egg

Bread crumbs

Oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

In a big bowl mash the boiled egg properly and mix the chicken mince, onions and ginger together. In this mix, add the coriander and green chillies as per taste. Though I am not too sure of how much coriander one wants, yet try to put in a little more. The smell of coriander with chicken goes very well. And in the absence of any masala (Indian spices), this flavour renders the dish a unique taste. Now add the raw egg in the mix, transforming it into a dry paste. Don’t make it too watery. If it happens then add some bread crumbs and/or rolled oats in it which will make it come together in a ball.

Now oil your palms slightly and shape the mince mix in small balls or flatten it like a kabab. 

Spread the bread crumbs on a plate and dust the kebabs well with it. Once all the croquettes are dusted and done, refrigerate for at least 2 hrs before deep frying in hot oil till it browns from both sides.

This dish is very different from the normal chicken kababs or balls as it has no masala into it.

Serve hot with hung curd dip and a nice cocktail (blue lagoon!!!)

Cheers!!

Weekday Dinner with Paneer Gravy-ed and Sumac-ed Cous-cous!!

Zouqh got a mention recently in DNA after hours. Apparently our Pinwheel Kachoris is in the must watch list from Famebox Webchef channel. So that propelled me to do more all veg recipes. A very good veggie friend of mine, since school, had always been asking me to give her recipes which are easy main course and non-baked. And so we figured, let’s go 100% veggie this time!

This is my go to meal on a boring Tuesday. After all the hoopla in the day, I would settle for a nice plate of warm curry and cous-cous. Intererstingly, this is very simple to conjure up, as it has no weeping onion or smelly hand garlic, involved!

Week day Dinner 2:- Curried vegetable-Paneer with Sumac cous cous with Nimbu ka achar (Lemon Pickle) and home-made curd.

          

Carbohydrates, in the form of Sumac cous cous

Protein and veggies in the form of curried vegetables and paneer

A fresh zing in the form of fridge cold, fresh homemade curd and nimbu ka achar (Lemon Pickle)

The pickle was store bought, from a certain gujrati food stall. The tangy sweet taste of the pickle was perfect accompaniment for the dinner. If you don’t have it, you could easily substitute it with homemade imli chutney (tamarind chutney) or mango chutney.

For the gravy dish, you would need:

200 gms Fresh Paneer (cottage cheese)

A handful of peas

3 small potatoes, cubed

½ tsp nigella seeds

Fresh coriander powder chopped

3 Green chillies slit

2 small tomatoes, pureed

½ tsp cumin powder

½ tsp coriander powder

¼ tsp red chilli powder

¼ tsp cinnamon powder

Salt to taste

Oil as needed

Water for the gravy

1 tsp Ginger paste

1 tsp of wholewheat flour

Method:

I know, the big list of ingredients look endearing, but these are very basic things which you would find lying in your kitchen shelf anyways.

In a non-stick wok, put in a couple tbsp of oil to heat up. Any flavourless oil will do. Once hot, let the nigella seeds crack in it.

I like to crack up my nigella seeds first so that I m ensured it’s got cooked and flavoured out. 

Now scatter the seeds on the sides, while u put half of the fresh cubed paneer in the hot oil to grill. I do just half as I like the flavour profile of a grilled paneer in a gravy, but I enjoy the soft creamy texture of the non grilled ones. So I went through lord buddhas’s middle path and grilled half for the flavour and kept half raw for the texture.

Once, both sides are seared, take them out and drain on a paper towel.

Now put in the cubed potatoes and fry till golden. Take them out and drain.

Now, put the nigella seeds back on the mid section and add the tomato puree mixed with turmeric, cumin, coriander and chilly powders. Let all the spices cook down well and reduce. The best way to know when it’s done is by checking the sides of the paste. If oil seeps out, the spices are well toasted and aromatic.

Now add in your peas and fried potatoes. Mix well and add water to the mix. Add enough water to cover all the veggies and let it come to a boil.

Once there, add the paneer and reduce the gravy to your liking. Check and season well.

As the last step, in a small bowl mix together the flour, ginger and cinnamon powder with a tbsp of water. Add it in the gravy and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle on the coriander leaves and take it off the heat.

Serve hot with a simple dish of cous cous which needs:

A big bowl with a tight lid

A cup of cous cous

Boiling hot water in a jug

Olive oil

Salt

Sprinkling of sumac powder (to your taste)

Put the couscous in the bowl and salt it well. Add the oil and mix well.

Now cover the cous cous with an inch more of hot boiling water and clamp on the lid.

Let it stand 5 minutes and fluff it well with a fork.

Now sprinkle on the tangy sumac powder to taste or squeeze on some lime juice.

Cous cous ready in literally 5 minutes!

Home-made creamy curd and some chutney; and you have a wonderful dinner ready in 30 minutes. Hot and steamy, perfect vegetarian comfort meal for the cold weather! 

Cheers!!

Famebox Webchef Contest - Pinwheel Kachori!

Hey people, Here is another recipe for the contest Famebox Webchef. This time Zouqh goes vegetarian gourmet.  Pinwheel Kachori are a great starter to whip up during a party. 

We have sent an entry and now I need your help to win it!! If you want to see Zouqh as a YouTube Channel, Please View, Share, Like and vote for our video...

                                                                          Cheers!!