Few days back, I was talking to one of my friends, who has just learnt cooking. He asked me – why I have not posted very basic recipes like Omelet, Burji, Bullseye (egg half fry). I said those are very basic things and everybody knows about them. Then I gave it a thought, I still remember when I was studying in high school, I didn’t know how to make a cup of tea. One day my parents had to go out and my dad gave me all the instructions to make tea for my grandfather. I was very scared to go near the gas stove, I asked mom if she could make the tea and keep in thermos flask. But for some reason, she could not do it and they left me with grandfather. Ooh…I know how I was scared when I finally managed to make tea and when grandpa drank it without saying anything, I felt I had done a good job. Then I tasted it and realized how bad it was. It was my bad luck that few of our relatives came home and grandpa asked me to make tea for them. I was silently praying god that they should refuse to drink tea!!!. When they said ‘No’, I felt relieved :). That incident has taught me a lot. So here I am with these basic recipes.
Omelet
I think each person has his/her own recipe for omelet. This is the very basic one. Some people add tomatoes, coriander leaves to it. But if I ask any guy who has studied in Belgaum for his favorite Omelet, he will say it is the one available at railway station. All the students eat this at midnight at this gadiwala. I heard from my brother that the gadiwala used to add some kind of chutney powder (chutney podi) to it. Since I have never tasted it (I stayed in hostel and the hostel door used to close at 9), I cannot guess the recipe.
Ingredients: Egg 1 Onion (cut into small pieces) 1 tbl spn Green chillies(cut into small rounds) 2 or chilli powder ½ tea spn Tomato(cut into small pieces)(optional) 1 tbl spn Coriander leaves(optional) 2-3 strands Oil/ghee ½ tea spn Salt
I did not add any optional ingredients when I clicked the picture. I used chilli powder instead of green chillies.
Method: Mix onion, tomato, chillies (or chilli powder), chopped coriander and salt with hand (by mixing this well, the taste increases). Now add the egg to it and mix well with spoon. Heat tava. Apply oil or ghee to it. Pour the egg mixture on tava. Lift the tava and tilt it sideways to spread the mixture on tava. Reduce the flame and fry it from both sides.
Burji or scrambled egg
There are many different ways to make burji. Burji can also be prepared with boiled egg . This is the one my Aayi follows.
Ingredients: Eggs 2 Onion(cut into small pieces) 2 tbl spns Tomato(cut into small pieces) 1 tbl spn Green chillies 2-3 Coriander leaves 2-3 strands Oil/ghee ½ tea spn Coconut(fresh or frozen)(optional) 1 tbl spn Coriander powder 1/4 tea spn Salt
Method: Heat oil in a pan(or vessel) and fry onions. When they turn translucent, add chillies(cut into slits) and tomatoes. Fry for a minute and then break the eggs one by one on top of this mixture. Add salt, coriander powder and mix well. Cook for around 3-4 mins till the egg is completely done (no watery thing should be visible). Now add coconut (this gives a very distinguishing smell to burji), coriander leaves and mix well. Cook for a minute.
Bullseye or half fry
I simply love this. Since there are no onions or any other extra things added to this dish, it gets ready within 2mins. Some people fry it from only one side and keep raw on the other side. The main difference between this and Omelette is, here the white and yellow portion of egg is clearly visible after frying (this is because the egg is directly broken on tava, so whisking of egg is not done.
Bullseye is called so because half fried or one side fried egg looks like a big EYE. However when you fry other side, the yolk ruptures and it no more remains Bulls-eye.
Ingredients: Egg 1 Pepper powder ¼ tea spn Oil/ghee ½ tea spn Salt
Method: Heat tava and apply ghee/oil to it. Break the egg and add the contents on the tava. Spread pepper powder and salt on it (more on the yellow part). If raw egg is preferred, serve at this stage without turning. Otherwise, turn it and fry from the other side (when turned, sprinkle some pepper and salt on the yellow liquid part).
I have seen making parathas is one of the most difficult tasks for beginners. In fact not only beginners even the experienced cooks have hard time in making perfect stuffed parathas. The outer covering of parathas should be in perfect texture or else it just breaks while rolling them. So it takes a lot of experience to get it right.
Few months back my cousin Usha sent me link from Bawarchi.com which had an easy Alu paratha recipe. She said she made the parathas with that recipe for a party and everyone was surprised (considering she was in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy, making parathas for a party is some miracle, in my opinion).
I tried the recipe and it was awesome (unfortunately I lost the link in between switching from old to new laptop). To make it a bit healthier, I tried it with mixed vegetables. First I tried with all raw vegetables, since it had a bit of raw smell, next time I tried with cooked vegetables.
Ingredients: Wheat flour Yogurt (curd) 1 tbl spn Mixed vegetables (like carrot, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, potato etc) 1 cup Ginger 1†pieces Cumin seeds ½ tea spns Chili powder 1/2 tea spn Garam masala (optional) ½ tea spn Coriander leaves(optional) 2-3 strands Oil 1 tea spn Salt
Instead of mixed vegetables, the stuffing used for Alu paratha can also be used. Basically any kind of stuffing used for stuffed parathas can be used for this recipe.
Method: Cook vegetables along with ginger pieces in cooker. Add masalas, cumin seeds and salt.
Grind it in a blender/mixer to a paste (do not add water). The paste need not be very smooth, it tastes great when there are a few pieces of vegetables. (If using Alu paratha stuffing instead of mixed vegetables, grind it to a paste at this step). Add the ground mixture and yogurt(curd) to wheat flour. Mix it into a dough(like chapathi dough). Apply oil to the dough. Leave the dough for around 30 to 45mins(this is mandatory to get soft parathas).
Take a big amount(bigger than chapathi) of the dough and roll it into parathas (parathas should be slightly thicker than chapathis to get the actual taste of it). Heat tava and fry the paratha from both sides. Apply ghee. Serve with pickle or masala dahi .
Serves : 3 Preparation time : 20mins
