Non-vegetarian

Funda – Steamed Egg Korma

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“The eggs are the backbone of cooking, the cement that holds the castle of cuisine together.”

From the book mastering the art of southern cooking!

As you all know the main components of egg is albumen and yolk, which is mostly composed of protein.  Apart from proteins egg white contains water, small amounts of minerals and sugars whereas the yolk contains fat, vitamins A, D and minerals such as calcium, thiamine, and riboflavin. Depending on the feed of the bird the yolk colour ranges from yellow to deep orange (when the birds are fed with good feed).

The proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids.  In the raw eggs proteins are in their native state, i.e. they are in globular form, which means amino acids are twisted, folded and/or curled up in a very specific way giving the protein its shape and properties. Any induced alteration (mechanical or heat) to these proteins will in turn significantly alter the entire structure of the egg.

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Connections – Poached Fish with Garlic Paprika Sauce

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Surprisingly at sometimes few connections just happens. This was the case with professor from Santiago. By the end of the training, he arranged a group dinner in one of the local restaurant so I could taste fine Galician cuisine. Before reaching the restaurants we stopped by his house where I got to meet his lovely wife and two adorable boys. Briefly he made plans to take me around the city and market along with his family. I was overwhelmed by their kindness and affability. In between I got to know he loved cooking and he is a food blogger too, though it has been dormant for a while (Prof. if you are reading this, the world would love to learn more of your Galician recipes…so please post more!). Oh you know how it works between the food blogger’s the endless topics on love for food, photography, cooking and eating! I promised; next time if I go for training again I will carry a goodie bag of spices so I could cook some for them.

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Not yet – Tom Yum Soup

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It’s difficult for a physicist to crack and deal with css codes: days running with speed of light feels like it’s taking ages but we are reaching there. By then….

Are you all set and ready to hop in with me in a culinary express to Thailand?  You will be served a warm, spicy tom yum soup.

Tanginess in the soup to tickle the coldness and sparks from chilly to warm up

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Inheritance – Chicken Dum Biryani

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There are many thing that we inherit from our parents and grandparents. Dum biryani is one such…it runs in our family. Starting from my late grandfather who was a pro in making them. Usually at home mutton dum biryani is made. Be it family get together, wedding and or Diwali it has always been biryani, grandpa has led the kitchen during those times. Let me tell you, almost a decade before these biryani were always made in bronze cooking pot on wooden fire. The whole process of making this is no less than a festival at home, with whole big bunch of family around. Usually the briyani is accompanied with chicken masala, raita and double ka meeta (bread halwa) is must! We kids we were aw struck with the whole making process, all mom’s in the kitchen taking care of pre-preparation step, men at backyard cutting the woods, setting the fire and getting the heating right.By the time we get to eat biryani is late after noon, we end by eating a sweet pan made by grandma. But elders always looking forward to eat biryani the next day. I have admit, now I realise that biryani taste best after its one day old…..With time cooking of biryani move to gas top, the taste did diminish a bit but the essence still remains….so this Diwali I’m here to give you chicken biryani from our family recipe. Here’s wishing you a very happy Diwali, may this Diwali brighten all your lives, do have a safe one …also try to say NO to crackers!

Easter holidays! – Pan fried fish fillet

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Lots of cooking, photography and shopping was my agenda during easter break. Rarely I’m focused during weekends to completely the agendas, but this holiday was exception. So there was heavy shopping, good amount of photography and mild storm in the kitchen. Pan fried fish fillet with caramelised onions was simple yet flavourful. Great thing is that it hardly takes anytime to cook. Palak dhal with ginger & pepper eggplant fry was for soul. Chicken breast in spicy tomato sauce for a cold evening. Mushroom briyani with greek yogurt enough to miss home. Wanted to end with red wine chocolate cake, not sure what went wrong it had excess moisture, which made the cake very gooey.  Have to retry this cake, because the cake had great taste and flavour of wine was tantalising!
Wish I could share mushroom briyani recipe as well, i have great recipe from my sister but every time I jazz up the recipe according to my own mood, that I don’t end up documenting here. I’m still optimising the basmathi rice I get in Belgium, I don’t get aged rice so most of my food is getting mushy! Sigh! Anyhow people here is pan fried fish with caramelised onions! And hope you all had a eventful and colourful easter!
Oh btw…Do you guys by any chance have any idea to shoo away the winter? Or may should I bribe The Summer by saying “Honey how about Tres Leches cupcake with mascarpone frosting?”….Lets see if this work, if at all weather God/Goddess reads this!!!

Fish fry
 
Ingredients
Two fish fillet (I used roodbaars meaning red fish) All white fish would be great!
Half lime
1/4 tspn lemon/lime zest
Sea salt
3 fresh spring of thyme
1 tspn finely chopped fresh dill
1- 2 pod of garlic grated
Pepper according to your taste
Dash of chilly flakes (I insist touch if spiciness is heaven with caramelised onions!)
2 tbspn of extra virgin olive oil
Method
Mix all this ingredients with fish fillet and let them marinate in refrigerator for about 1 to 2 hours.
Pan fry them on medium heat till fish gets cooked for 3 to 4 mins and then turn the heat to high to get them roasted for about 3 to 4 mins.
Caramelised onions
Ingredients
1 large onion – thinly sliced
4 table spoon of olive oil (add butter if you wish)
Salt
Good pinch of sugar
Method
In a wide thick bottom pan on medium heat, pour oil. When oil warms, add sliced onions, salt and fry till onions become and soft transparent. Add sugar and let them fry till they are golden brown. In case if onions are getting dry add few table spoon of water when necessary!
Serve warm fish with caramelised onions along with rice cooked with peas and beam or mashed potatoes!
Enjoy!!