Category: Sango’s Kitchen Page 1 of 3

Food from Sango’s kitchen

Baked eggs in Avocado

Since we are on avocado , here is my next love – Eggs! I have never figured out how folks survive without eggs – there are so many ways to make them and have them. So one of my colleagues mentioned to me that she had scrambled eggs and avocado one day for breakfast; and could not stop thinking about me given my love for both these food items. This was stuck in my head and I kept wondering how could I combine the two instead of making separate items. So I thought what if I bake the egg in avocado, and then all I did was checked online if avocados could be baked directly in the oven and viola!

I took 2 avocados (ripe) and cut them in half. Removed the seed and scooped the flesh out leaving a thin layer on the skin. I sliced out a small portion from the oval skin portion from behind so there was a flat base for the halves to stay steady on the tray without the egg mix spilling out. In another bowl, I took 2 eggs, added milk, italian herbs, chilli flakes, coarse black pepper and salt to taste. Mixed well and poured it steadily with a spoon in the split avocado halves.

I had pre-heated the oven at 180 degrees and then put the tray with the avocados inside. I kept them in till the egg mix was well cooked. Once the layer was formed and solid I removed the tray from the oven. Of the scooped out avocado made quick guacamole to serve on the side. The result in 20 minutes preparation time below – another quick fix delicious appetiser for any avocado-egg lovers you know and a good item to convert new folks to avocado-egg lovers !

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P.s: You can also add mozzarella cheese as a topping when the egg is about to be cooked. Melted cheese just adds more yumminess to the already tasty dish!

Roasted Potatoes with Guacamole & Hummus

My latest addiction (ever since I got to London) is Avocado. I love all things avocado and guacamole. In fact, my sister is jokes that I will stuff it into any food item just so that I can make an excuse for a new dish attempted! I also love potatoes – I mean who does not? Roasted, mash, boiled, fried, as a veggie , in biryaani,  in prawns or chicken/mutton/kheema curry – I love potatoes in all forms.  So I was thinking how can I combine these two items and hunted for some recipes online to chance upon the one below with the added delicacy of hummus!

I took 4 medium sized potatoes and semi-boiled them, soft enough to scoop out the insides to form 2 equal hollow portions from each potato. Then rubbed some olive oil, rock salt, coarse pepper and italian herbs (dry mix of basil, oregano and parsley) to them. Then I put them on a baking tray and placed them in a pre-heated oven (180 degree celcius) and kept them in for 20-25 mins till they turned light brown.

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Then I mixed guacamole and hummus (bought the ready mixes available in Marks&Spencer Food). You can even make them at home – recipes easily available online.

Then I stuffed the hollow potatoes with the above mix, topped the stuffing with half sliced cherry tomatoes and some cheese to serve it as a perfect appetizer.

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Try it out – the hot potato + cold guacamole/hummus combination is absolutely delicious and one of the easiest starters to make when hosting a party!

Garides Saganaki

We have a delicious family-run Greek food restaurant Mosfilo near our place. I tried the Garides Saganaki (shrimp saganaki) and fell in love with it. I have been wanting to try this dish at home for ages since I first tasted it. I hunted for the recipe online and found many variations and finally attempted it at home. It is an extremely easy recipe. This is the recipe on YouTube I followed and here is the final result:

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Garides Saganaki

Chicken Enchiladas

For a quick fix dinner on a work evening – this dish turns out filling and very easy to make. 

Main Stuffing :

Boil chicken cubes 3/4th in hot water with 1/2 chicken stock. Heat 2 tablespoon olive oil in a pan and sauté crushed garlic (3-4 cloves) , fine chopped onions (2 small) red/green/yellow pepper (one each) fine chopped, canned tomatoes, salt, add chicken , spicy fajita mix , chilli flakes, oregano and fresh parsley. Then add 2 cups of chicken stock, let it simmer, once water dries out half way add sour cream and some tomato sauce, let it cook on slow flame. Add cheddar/mozorella cheese to the mix. 

White Sauce

Heat 1 ½ tablespoon of butter in a small vessel, add 1 ½ table spoon of maida (Wheat Flour) and stir well. The mixture should stay in liquid state. Then close the stove, let it cool down a bit and then add cold milk, shredded mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper. Mix well to form thick white sauce.

Enchiladas:

Take tortillas ( I used the wheat ones here) , spread butter, put chicken mix,white sauce, corn and cheese.
Fold and place on baking tray, add remaining white sauce, gravy sauce , cheese and bake for 15 minutes

   
 

My comfort food – Cauliflower and White Peas Veggies

As much as I love non-veg, I love my Maharashtrian veg food. My mumma makes these two awesome simple delicacies which take minimal effort and time. These are cooked without onion and garlic and serve as excellent veggies to make on days you fast and need to break the fast with foods without onions and garlic.

Cauliflower Veggie

Ingredients
500 gms of cauliflower chopped into small buds
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Kala masala – 2/3 tbsp depending on how spicy you want. If you don’t have this famous Maharashtrian spice powder substitute it with a mix of red chilly powder and Garam masala in 2:1 proportion.
Salt to taste
Sugar – 1/2 tsp
Coriander and fresh grated coconut to garnish
Oil – 1-2 tbsp

Method
Marinate the chopped cauliflower with salt, sugar, turmeric and kala masala.
Set it aside for 15-20 minutes.
Heat oil in a wok/kadai and add the cauliflower once oil has heated well. This dish tastes better with a little bit extra oil.
Set the gas on medium flame and place a lid (preferably a big steel plate) with water on the lid.
Keep checking after 5-7 minutes, stir to avoid it from sticking to the pot and reduce the flame.
The vegetable should be well cooked in about 20-25 minutes.
Garnish with fine chopped coriander and a dash of freshly grated coconut .

Best had with varan-bhaat (traditional marathi daal and rice).

White Peas in Green Masala

Ingredients

White peas – 1 cup soaked overnight or minimum 8 hours
Green paste – 14-15 coriander sticks with 2-3 green chillies ground to a fine paste in the mixer.
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida – 1/2tsp
Turmeric – 1tsp
Freshly grated coconut – 1 cup
Oil – 1-2 tbsp
Curry leaves – 6-8 pieces
Tamarind and Jaggery pulp: 1tbsp tamarind & equal quantity of jaggery, mix and soak it in water in a small cup.

Method
Ideally cook this dish directly in pressure pan or cooker (small size of 1.5-2 ltr). Heat oil in the pressure pan. For seasoning add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, turmeric , green chilly paste and curry leaves. Add salt and sauté the mixture, add the White peas , add warm water and bring it to boil in the cooker. If you have a normal gas 2-3 whistles suffice but if you are stuck with hot plate like I’m currently with, try atleast 5-6 whistles. Taking too many whistles may result in melting the peas completely ruining the taste entirely.
Let the mixture simmer down and once the vapours have died down, open the pressure cooker.
Now add the tamarind and jaggery pulp and then the freshly grated coconut . Bring to boil to your desired thickness for the next 4-5 minutes.

Serve with hot chapattis ( wheat bread )

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Lemon and Butter Garlic Prawns

Mahesh Lunch Home is the super famous seafood restaurant from Mumbai based in Fort Area and last year opened a branch in Dubai. We moved from Dubai but managed to visit it a couple of times. MDH loves their speciality Crab in Lemon & Butter Garlic sauce while I crave the Prawns with the same mix.

I have been craving this dish for long now and decided to go ahead and use my decent cooking knowledge and try this dish out at home. It wasn’t as picture perfect as the one served in the restaurant but I kid you not it was quite close in taste 🙂

Ingredients
Mid-sized Prawns : 15-20
Garlic cloves medium-sized: 10-12
Crushed Black Pepper : 1 tsp
Lemon : 1 tablespoons
Butter : 2-3 tablespoons
Green Chillies : 3-4 fine chopped
Olive Oil: 1tsp
Salt to taste,
Spring Onion Greens to garnish

Method
Fine chop half the garlic cloves and crush the remaining with a garlic crusher. Heat the butter in a pan, as it starts frothing add olive oil and then add the garlic. Sauté it till they turn slightly light brown, add the fine chopped green chillies , and salt and continue to sauté. After 5 minutes, add the prawns and mix well. Then add crushed pepper, at this point if you feel the butter is drying up you can add some more. Then add lemon juice and stir the mixture till you get your desired thickness. Sprinkle the spring onion greens on top and serve.

The taste is amazing , try it and let me know how it turns out. The dish takes only 15-20 minutes of your time.

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Prawn Chettinad Pepper Curry

I get bored of making same old prawn curries that I know so I hunted on the internet to try something new. I found my love for south indian non-veg cuisine in Dubai and was quite craving the good old curries from Simran Appa Kadai and Calicut Paragon that we had so often when we lived there.

I found this easy and quick recipe – and I made a little bit of my own variations. I added some more curry leaves, sautéed the onions till they were dark brown, a bit more pepper and bit more water to have more medium rather than thick gravy. The one on the link looks scrumptious too and next time will attempt to maintain the thickness and red chilly colour. Here is the one I landed up making based on the above recipe. I garnished it with coriander and boiled egg slices. Try it – I love curry leaves and pepper taste and South India has some lip-smacking, finger-licking meat and seafood recipes!

Prawns Chettinad Pepper Fry

Lamb Chops Masala

We all have our favourite dishes – mine are any that have mutton and it really drives me mad when folks equate mutton and lamb. The one thing I’m missing after moving to London is not finding mutton in meat shops around. Guess I will have to venture out a bit far to find it here. So to overcome my psychological barrier with respect to lamb, we finally got lamb chops from the butcher near our place and with some tips from my friends who are cooking experts at different cuisines and have cooked lamb often; I ventured out experimenting my mutton chop masala recipe with some variations.

Ingredients:

Marination

  • Lamb Chops – 4 pieces (total weight 500 gms)
  • Turmeric – 1 teaspoon
  • Red chilly powder – 2 tablespoons
  • Ginger-Garlic paste – 3 tablespoons
  • Mixed spices dry masala : Dry roast the following ingredients and then grind into a fine dry powder – 4-5 whole peppercorns, 4-5 cloves, 3-4 cms long cinnamon stick, 2 black cardamoms, 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, 1 star anise, 1 dry Kashmiri chilly.
  • Curd – 3-4 tablespoons
  • Salt as per taste

Marinate the lamb chops with the above ingredients. Since I was cooking lamb for first time I let it marinate for 24 hours.

Gravy

I made the gravy directly in a pressure cooker. Add 3-4 tablespoons of oil , add 3 medium sized finely chopped onions and sauté on medium flame till they turn brown. Once the oil starts oozing out from the sides, add the marinated chops and mix well. Place a lid for few minutes and let it cook for 5-10 minutes. Then add 3-4 cups of boiling water such that it is enough to boil the chops in the pressure cooker. Shut the gas off after 3 whistles and let it simmer. Once the steam is gone, open the lid, and check if the meat has cooked well. If not, you may need to put the lid on for couple more whistles. When I attempted, the meat cooked perfectly with 3 whistles of the cooker. Garnish it with coriander and serve with hot parathas/rotis and rice.

Enjoy your lamb chops masala

lambs chop masala

Stuffed Egg Masala

Every kid is biased towards his/hers mom’s cooking but in my family the bias is not just from my side as everyone agrees unanimously how awesome her dishes are; especially this one. She completely owns this recipe. I have not had this dish anywhere – neither at friends/cousins’ homes nor not seen it in hotels or restaurants that I have been too prepared in the manner that she does.

Finally my home is set-up in London and most important part – the kitchen is now fully functional. Now with no luxuries of the cook – I have to think of a new dish everyday as more than MDH it is me who gets tired of eating the same dishes every other day. So here goes mumma’s famous stuffed egg masala that I managed to prepare last week.

Ingredients:

Eggs – 4

Onions – 2 medium size (finely chopped)

Ginger-garlic paste – 1 teaspoon

Turmeric – 1/2 teaspoon

Kala (Black) Masala – 3-4 tablespoons. This is a Maharashtrian masala which is easily available in stores and mainly used for all non-veg curries.

Coconut Paste: 2-3 tablespoons. ( This is the common paste we use in our non-veg curries and usal (pulse gravy) preparations).

Salt to taste

Coriander – Finely chopped to garnish

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Method

Boil the eggs and peel of the shell. Then slice 4 cuts evenly into the egg – keeping the base intact and the cuts good enough to insert the stuffing.

Coconut Paste:

Roast dry grated coconut – 1 cup till medium brown in a pan. Then dry roast 1 chopped onion and 1-2 garlic petals in a pan. Roast till the mixture turns light brown. Then grind all 3 ingredients into a thick paste. The paste should be smooth and you should not be able to feel the coconut particles. You can make this paste in bulk and the same is used in chicken/mutton gravies as well as various pulses commonly made in Marathi household

Stuffing:

Heat oil in a small wok (kadhai as we say) and add finely chopped onions. Once the onions are brown in colour, add turmeric, ginger-garlic paste , kala masala, salt and sauté for 5-10 minutes. Then add the coconut paste and little water so that it cooks well. Ensure the stuffing remains dry and not too watery else it will be difficult to fill it into the eggs. Add some coriander and mix well.

Let the mixture cool down, then with a small spoon fill each egg with the stuffing taking care that eggs do not break. Use very light pressure in the hands to fill this stuffing. Then ensure that the stuffing is smoothened out evenly on all sides and place these eggs back into the wok. Heat the wok, and turn the eggs on all sides delicately.

Serve with parathas – tastes delicious and can serve as starters or even main course ( your choice)

egg masala

Malvani Crab Masala

Crabs are so dear to everyone in my family and I’m the odd one out to not eat them. I have tried crab cakes or crab mince but not been able to develop a taste for the typical Malvani Crab Curry as my mother makes it. MDH is a foodie (you already know that by now if you have been reading this blog) and crabs are way way close to his heart (or rather stomach) . I wanted to learn how to cook this curry and after having done so I can proudly claim it turns out quite super – so here is the recipe for you all.

Ingredients:

1 Kg crabs – cleaned and if large have them cut into halves to separate the claws and the main body.

Onions – 6 medium sized fine chopped

Turmeric powder– 2 tea spoons

Ginger Garlic Paste – 2 table spoons

Kala Masala (Black masala) – 4-6 tablespoons depending on how spicy you want to make the curry. My recommendation the spicier the curry the better the taste.  The Kala Masala is a Maharashtrian masala which is easily available in stores and mainly used for all non-veg curries.

Coconut Paste – 3-4 table spoons

Salt to Taste

Preparation:

Clean the crabs well and apply little salt and set them aside.

Heat oil in pan, about 3-4 tablespoons and add finely chopped onions to it. Sauté till the onions are dark brown and the oil begins to ooze out from the sides.

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Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Add turmeric powder and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Then add the Kala Masala powder in the given proportion and salt to taste.

Add the crab pieces and mix well. Add  3-4 cups of boiling water and let the curry cook on medium flame.

While the onions are turning dark brown and the crabs are getting cooked – prepare the coconut paste on the side as below.

Roast dry grated coconut – 1 cup till medium brown in a pan and set aside. Then dry roast 1 chopped onion and 1-2 garlic petals in a pan. Roast till the mixture turns light brown. Then grind all 3 ingredients into a thick paste. The paste should be smooth and you should not be able to feel the coconut particles. You can make this paste in bulk and the same is used in chicken/mutton gravies as well as various pulses commonly made in Marathi households.

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Once the crabs are 3/4th cooked in the curry add the coconut paste (3-4 tablespoons) and let the mixture cook on low flame. Keep stirring the mixture every 10 minutes. Add boiling water depending on how thick/thin curry you wish to have. We prefer thick curry. Crabs take time to cook and let the gravy cook for 20-30 minutes on low flame. Once the colour of the shells of the crab legs turns orange/reddish you know the crabs are done.

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Add little lime juice and garnish the gravy with fresh coriander leaves fine chopped and serve it with Chapattis or what we Maharashtrians love – Tandalachi Bhakri ( Rice Roti)

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Enjoy your crab curry – try it out and let me know how it turned out.

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