Shakshuka or Shakshouka

Latest presentation from our kitchen, Shakshuka. A centuries old dish from Mediterranean parts, and we just love it.

Basically it's tomato sauce, eggs, spices and herbs. But the end form looks pleasing to eyes and is amazingly good to eat. It's almost like eating a colourful egg pizza but without cheese and pizza base.

From Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakshouka):

Shakshouka (Arabic: شكشوكة‎, also spelled shakshuka or chakchouka) is a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion and garlic, and commonly spiced with cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. The dish has existed in Mediterranean cultures for centuries

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Disclaimer:

This is our version of Shakshuka. No claims of being the original recipe or taste. But trust us, it tastes great.

Ingredients:

Eggs, depending on your appetite and holding capacity of your frying pan. We used 3.

Tomatoes - 2 large size, ripe. Diced.

Tomatoes - 2 large size, ripe. Blanched, peeled and blended.

Onions - 3-4 medium size. Chopped or diced.

Capsicum/Bell peppers - 1-2 peppers. Chopped or diced.

Ginger - Chopped, around 2 tsp.

Garlic - Chopped/sliced, around 2-3 tsp.

Green chillis (optional) - 2-3 big ones. Sliced in large pieces so that it's easier to pick it while eating.

Spices (optional) - Quantity as per taste. Turmeric powder, Red Chilli powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, Cumin powder, Coriander powder.

Salt - To taste.

Sugar - For colour, yes.

For garnishing - Coriander leaves, Basil leaves, Pudina leaves.

Method:

Heat some cooking oil in a kadahi/deep frying pan and saute all the vegetables one by one, onions first (do not over fry onion, only till they become translucent).

Add in the turmeric powder, chilli powder, kashmiri red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt.

Mix the masalas nicely into the vegetables and cook for some time.

Then add pureed tomato, mix it and cook for some time.

Add the sugar and mix again.

Make some holes in the vegetables and pour egg carefully into these holes, sprinkle some pepper powder and salt over the eggs.

Cook on slow flame. You can stop cooking depends on how your eggs you like the egg to be.

After turning off the heat, garnish the top with coriander, pudina & basil leaves. You could add any other herbs too.

After adding the garnishing, cover the top and let it rest for few minutes before serving. This will help in infusing the aroma of the garnished leaves into the preparation.

It's now ready to eat.

If you have any questions, do ask in comments.

Kerala style Chicken Stew

Stew is a popular breakfast item in Kerala and it goes well with Vellappam, Puttu, Idiyappam and some even eat it with Chappatis. Of course the Veg Stew is most commonly prepared but Mutton/Chicken Stew is also popular. Today's recipe is for Chicken Stew, Kerala style, with coconut milk. Do remember that for chicken/mutton stew, it's better to use meat with bones on it. It definitely gives a better taste to the stew.

Ingredients:

Chicken : 250 g.

Potatoes: 1 big, cubed.

Onion : 1 big, sliced.

Carrot: 1, cubed.

Beans : 5-6, chopped.

Green chillies: 2, slit length-wise.

Curry leaves and coriander leaves: For garnishing.

Grated Ginger: ½ tsp.

Coconut Milk : From ½ coconut. (Thick coconut milk ¼ cup and ½-1 cup thin 

                            coconut milk).

Bay leaf: 1-2.

Cinnamon: 1 small stick.

Cardamom: 3-4.

Cloves: 3-4.

Peppercorn whole: ½ tsp.

Oil: 2 tsp.

Salt to taste.

Method:

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a kadahi. Add cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf, peppercorn in the heated oil and heat for a minute. Add sliced onions and roast it till it gets pink. Add grated ginger and fry along. Add slit green chillies and curry leaves. Fry for a minute and then add chicken and roast for 10 mins. Add potatoes, carrots and beans and salt. Add water just enough for the chicken and vegetable to get cooked. Once it is almost cooked, add in thin coconut milk and then continue cooking until everything gets well cooked. Add thick coconut milk and switch off the gas immediately. Add few drops of virgin coconut oil, crushed pepper and coriander leaves.

NB: If you want to retain the white colour, you may cook the carrots and beans separately and then add them before the thick coconut milk is added.

Serve with Vellappams or Idiyappams or Puttu or Chappatis. It's almost white but it's evergreen side dish of Kerala.

(No Oil) Scrambled Eggs in Microwave Oven

Making scrambled eggs is a little messy and time-consuming task. In order to make it soft we tend to add lots of oil and that's not a healthy thing to do.

So, here's a simple way to make scrambled eggs and without adding any oil at all.

Preparation time - About 3 minutes for 2 eggs.

Ingredients (per egg)

• 1 egg
• 2-3 tsp of water (Approximately)

For Garnishing - You can use salt, coriander leaves, mint leaves, ground black pepper, red pepper flakes etc. 

Method:

I used two eggs here. For more or less eggs, check the ingredients section. For two eggs we needed 3 rounds of 30 second cooking in the microwave oven. If the eggs are more in number, you may require more number of rounds in the microwave. Please experiment and find out.

The added water lets the egg cook in itself and doesn't need oil. Without the water, the eggs will dry out quickly.

WARNING - PLEASE DO NOT SET FOR 1.5 MINUTES AT ONE GO TO MAKE IT EASIER. RESULTS MAY NOT BE THE SAME AS YOU SEE BELOW.

WARNING - THE EGGS COULD BE STEAMING WHEN DONE, SO HANDLE THE BOWL CAREFULLY TO AVOID STEAM BURNS

1. Take a microwave safe bowl. Break the eggs and pour the egg yolks and whites into it.

2. Add 5-6 tsps of water and beat it well.

3. Place it inside the microwave oven and set it for 30 seconds at full power.

4. After 30 seconds, take out the bowl. It will look like this, mostly liquid.

5. Take spoon and mix it well. Put it back in the microwave and give it another 30 second run.

6. Take out the bowl after 30 seconds. Now it will be more semi-solid (almost like a soft omelette) and less liquid.

7. Mix again with spoon and break it into small pieces. Give it another spin for 30 seconds.

8. After 30 seconds, take it out. Now the eggs would be ready, soft and fluffy. NOTE - If you find that the water content is still high, put it through additional rounds in the microwave, never more than 30.

9. Mix again nicely and then you can garnish it as per your preference. Your scrambled eggs are ready. I've sprinkled some black pepper on the eggs.

We mostly add a little dash of virgin olive oil or virgin coconut oil to the scrambled eggs. We mostly add black pepper and some salt to our scrambled eggs.

Hope you like this recipe/method of preparing scrambled eggs. You can follow us on our Facebook page, J & R Kitchen.

Saturday morning noodles for the lazy cooks

Saturdays are little slow as 5 days of working drains our energy and we need something simple and quick to eat on Saturday morning. 

Presenting here our recipe/method for the humble instant noodles. I have used Top Ramen here but this recipe can be used for Maggi, Yippee or any other instant noodles that comes with it's own tastemaker masala. Please note that cooking time for Yippee noodles is lesser than other brands that we have cooked till now.

This version almost always gets us non-sticky noodles to a certain extent. Of course over cooking can also do that to any noodles.

Ingredients:

• Instant noodles with tastemaker - 2 packets (any brand)
• Water - 1.5 cup/packet for boiling the noodles and another 1/4 cup/packet for adding at the end

Recipe:

• Boil the water in a vessel or saucepan. Thick bottomed vessel is better.
• Add the the noodles to boiling water. Mix well and stir the noodles in water. 
• At the same time heat/boil the remaining water separately in a vessel. Mostly I'll microwave the water in a porcelain cup for 30-40 seconds for 2 packets.
• Once the noodles have softened, drain off the water from noodles as much as you can (without pouring the noodles into the sink.  😏It happens).
• Then add the separately boiled water to the drained noodles, mix and put back on heat. 
• Add the tastemaker sachet contents and mix well. Cook for a minute or more, depending on the quantity of the noodles
• Turn off the heat and keep covered for 2-3 minutes. 
• Uncover the vessel, mix again and serve.

Do try this and let us know if your noodles turned out better or worse than your usual method. 

I missed writing about garnishing. Well, lazy breakfast and garnishing don't go well. That we do when we are preparing pan-fried noodles. When we have time and energy to cook.

Onion Chutney

Today we share our recipe for onion chutney recipe. This chutney can be a life saver if you are returning late to home without having dinner outside and you have nothing but idli-dosa batter in your fridge. Or you have enough ingredients to prepare a sandwich but no dip to go along with it.

You can make this chutney in short time, within 10-15 minutes. So, here it goes.

Ingredients:

Onions - 2/3 larges one, chopped roughly.
Garlic - 2/3 cloves, peeled.
Ginger - Small piece, peeled and chopped.
Dry red chillies - 3-4, for grinding.
Tamarind extract/paste - 1 tsp.
Curry leaves - 5-6, for grinding.
Oil - For sauteingas per personal preference (We used gingelly/sesame oil).
Salt - To taste.

For tempering:

Dry red chillies - 2-3.
Curry leaves - 8-10 leaves.
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp.
Cumin/Jeera seeds - 1/2 tsp.
Skinless Urad dal - 1/2 tsp.
Oil - For tempering, as per personal preference (We used gingelly/sesame oil).

Preparation:

Sauté the chopped onions along with the cloves of garlic and the ginger in heated oil.

Add salt and sauté until the onion don't have the typical raw smell. 

Turn off the heat, add in curry leaves, half of the dry red chillies, the tamarind paste/extract and mix well.

Once the mixture is cooled , grind it in mixie . Add water if needed but we got best results without water. We prefer thick chutney to watery chutneys.

Pour into a bowl.

Tempering:

Heat 2-3 tsp oil in thick bottom vessel. 

Once heated add the remaining red chillies, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. 

Once the seeds and dal start spluttering, pour the oil and its contents over the chutney bowl.

You are all set!

Serving:

Serve with dosa, idly, uthappam, rava dosa. Even samosa, bhajjis (fritters) and sandwich will taste great with this chutney. 

You can vary the spiciness to suit your individual taste but this one tastes best when spiciness is high.

Variation

Add chopped tomatoes during the sauteing stage to make tomato-onion chutney. 

A Little Video of our Kitchen Preparations.

Here's a small video of our kitchen preparations this year. Well almost. Some pics are from previous years but they were too good looking to be excluded. We'll try to put up more videos in future.

Thanks for watching.

Baked Pasta, some continental food for dinner.

Saturday night dinner was a surprise from wife as she cooked up two variations of Baked Pasta.

It's not very difficult to cook as the ingredients are few and the dish doesn't need too much preparation. We used macaroni pasta as the base. Boiled the pasta in water and drain once cooked. Chopped broccoli, beans, carrots and sweet corn were the main ingredients. In addition purple cabbage was used in the pasta with white sauce only version. The other version had white sauce and tomato sauce.

Tomato and white sauce based

White sauce based This version had purple cabbage as extra ingredient.

White sauce based

Ingredients:

Macaroni pasta (boiled with olive oil and salt, and drained).

Cheese slices.

Broccoli florets.

Carrot slices.

Chopped beans.

Sweet corn kernels.

Chopped purple cabbage.

White sauce/tomato sauce.

Olive oil for tossing vegetables.

Preparation:

Heat a pan, add some olive oil and add all the vegetables. Toss them for a minute or two and then take off the heat. Layer in the bowl - first the sauce, then the pasta, then the vegetables and finally the cheese slices. You can also add the cheese slice in between the pasta and vegetables for more cheesiness. Quantity of cheese slices is totally up to your personal preference. We used exactly one slice per bowl. Then bake in OTG for 20 minutes at 220 C. If you want the cheese to be more stringy/burnt, then increase the overall baking time to 25-30 minutes.

Serving:

Garnish (optional) before serving. We used  red chilli flakes. You can also add various herbs for seasoning like thyme, rosemary, oregano. Scoop out portions and serve. 

Hope you liked this recipe. Do let us know if you have any queries in the comments.