This is my own version of  eggplant Parmesan that I made couple of days ago. Eggplant Parmesan is a dish which has eggplants coated with breadcrumbs, shallow fried or baked, then layered with pasta sauce/marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. I adore this dish. When I bought a eggplant during my last grocery trip, this was the first thing that came to my mind.
Planning ahead in cooking is something I will never be able to do. I always decide and cook at the very last moment. So when I started making this, I realized that I didn’t have some of the ingredients needed for this. I decided to make this with whatever I had on hand, I also thought of adding some spaghetti to it to make it a complete meal. It was made in a hurry, so I don’t have exact measurements . I am still posting the recipe as I really liked the way it turned out.
Ingredients: 1 eggplant 2 eggs 1/2 cup bread crumbs Pepper 1 and 1/2 cups pasta sauce or marinara sauce (use any brand) 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup ricotta cheese or mozzarella cheese 1/3 package spaghetti Oil Salt
Method: Beat eggs with salt (or use garlic salt), pepper. Keep is aside. Take breadcrumbs on a plate (I toasted 4 bread slices and powdered them as I didn’t have breadcrumbs) Peel eggplant. Cut it into 1/4 inch slices. Dip the eggplant in eggs and then coat it with breadcrumbs. Heat oil in a shallow pan(or use tava) and fry them till they are golden brown. Cook spaghetti according to package instructions with enough salt. Preheat the oven at 350F for 10mins. In a baking dish, take the cooked spaghetti. Spread some ricotta/mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and mix everything. Keep a layer of eggplants. Spread a layer of sauce, followed by ricotta/mozzarella cheese. Spread remaining eggplants, sauce, cheese. Spread parmesan cheese on top. Bake the dish at 350F for 30mins or till all cheese is melted. Serve hot.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 60mins
Pictorial
Saar/saru is a very thin soup kind of dish which can be consumed with rice or like soup. I am a big fan of all kinds of sarus as they are very easy to make and very tasty.
I have many childhood memories associated with tomato saru .  While growing up, my grandmother was incharge of our kitchen. During those days, cooking gas was very expensive, so it was used only for making tea/coffee or some quick dishes like sarus . My grandmother used to cook on the  fire created by burning wood. As my father was a great fan of saru made by me, he would ask me to cook this daily. He liked to drink it with his dinner. So we had this for dinner almost every day. After I got married, the frequency of this in our meals considerably reduced, as everybody here liked coconut based dishes. Still I make this once in a while and  this is still one of my favorite dishes.
Few other kinds of sarus – Horsegram(kulitha) saru , Â Limbe saru , Coriander saru , Tomato saru
Ingredients: 2 big tomatoes 1 tea spn jaggery 4 green chillies 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 4-5 curry leaves 4-5 strands coriander leaves A pinch asafoetida Oil Salt
Method: Heat 3 cups water and cook the tomatoes. Peel them and grind them (do not throw the water, use it for saru). Add enough water to pureed tomato to make it thin (use the water used to cook tomato), add jaggry, salt and green chillies. Bring it to a boil and let it cook for 2-3mins. Heat ghee/oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add cumin seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida and add this to the saru. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice or as soup.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 15mins
