Hi I am Ayush.

Wanted to put this post from a very long time but kept on postponing it. This is my baby Ayush born on 29th Jan 2010 and this is the reason for my disappearance from the blogosphere. He is now 9 months old and very sweet but also very naughty. Here I am putting some random pics of the apple of my eye for my blogger friends .

Toast Sandwich

I am sorry for not posting regularly. Life's become a little busy these days. Also I am having some problems with blogger ever since I came back to India. Photos appear as html tags, still I go ahead and publish them as they appear normal in the blog.
Here's a simple and easy breakfast recipe that I learnt from my mil. It can be made ready in just a few minutes but mind you it tastes superb. I have added some grated cheese while taking this snap but the original recipe doesn't require cheese. Both ways it tastes great.

Ingredients

Bread
Onion - Finely chopped
Tomato - finely chopped
Coriander Leaves - finely chopped
Red Chilli Powder - as per taste
Turmeric powder - pinch
Salt
Grated Cheese - (optional)
Butter
Tomato Ketchup

Mix together onions, tomatoes, cilantro, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric pdr.
Take 2 slices of bread. Apply butter on one side of both slices. Take one slice and place some of the above mixture on the buttered side. Apply a small amount of ketchup on this mixture. Add some grated cheese if desired and cover with the other slice.
Heat a tava and fry it till golden brown using butter. Serve hot with additonal ketchup.

Note: Don't keep the onion-tomato mixture for too long after adding salt or else it leaves water. If this mixture has to be made in advance add salt just before making sandwiches.

Simple and yummy Egg Curry and my first awards.

Hubby loves egg curries. When in US, eggs were a must have in my refrigerator. I used to make 2 varieties of egg curry. This one is my mil's recipe and gets ready in few minutes itself. It tastes great with Jeera rice or plain rice.

Ingredients
Eggs -4
Coriander Seeds - 2tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Khus Khus - 1 tsp
Lavang/Clove - 1
Cinnamon - small piece
Freid Bedgi Chillies - 3 - 4
Coconut - 3/4th cup grated
Garlic - 1 big or 3-4 small cloves
Onions - 1 medium, chopped
Oil - 4 tsp
Coriander leaves- garnish

Boil eggs, remove shell and keep aside.
Fry coriander seeds, jeera, lavang, khus khus, cinnamon in 1/2 a tsp of oil and grind together with fried red chillies, coconut and garlic.
Heat 2-3 tsp of oil and fry the onions till pink. Then add the ground paste and water to make it into a gravy like consistency. Add salt.
In the mean while make 3-4 small slits on each boiled egg. Take care not to cut it into pieces.m
When the gravy boils add the eggs and garnish with chopped cilantro.
Cook for few more minutes.
Serve with naan or rice.

Aparna of Aps Kitchen and Suparna of Food Fascination have awarded me with these awards.






Thanks a lot Aparna and Suparna for these lovely awards.

American Chopsuey

Few years back one of my college friends took us to this eatery in Ghatkopar and suggested that we try this dish. I found it very tasty but at the same time it was very very spicy. Years later I started craving for this dish while in US. I am not sure if the dish we tasted was actually American Chopsuey or something else. But from whatever I could remember I tried to recreate something similar. I couldn't recollect the exact taste that we tasted years back but my dish was definitely worth eating.
I made it twice thereafter and hubby too enjoyed eating it. Both times I boiled the entire pack of Hakka Noodles for making Veg Noodles and saved some boiled noodles for making this dish.

Ingredients
Hakka Noodles - 1/3 pack boiled as per instructions on the pack
Onions - Chopped lengthwise, 2 tbsp
Bell Pepper - chopped, 2 tbsp
Carrots - chopped lengthwise, 2 tbsp
Cabbage - chopped, 1 tbsp(optional_
Soya Sauce - 1 tsp
Chili Sauce - 1 tsp
Tomato Ketchup - 1 tbsp
Corn Flour - 1 tsp
Salt
Sugar - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp

Deep fry the boiled noodles on low flame till crisp and slightly brown. Drain on kitchen towel.
In a pan take a some oil and stir-fry onions, carrots, cabbage, bell pepper till they are slightly cooked. Then add the sauces and salt and sugar. Adjust seasoning. Make a paste of corn flour with 1/2 a cup of water and add to the above. Cook for 2 mins till the mixture thickens.
To serve place some noodles in the serving bowl and top it with some of the above mixture. Serve hot.

Note: You can also use frozen mixed veggies and spring onions in place of onions.

Lettuce Saag

I had never used Lettuce in my cooking. I brought it for the first time for making burgers for which I used only 3-4 leaves. I was left with a quite a big lettuce and started searching for recipes. All I could get were salad recipes which we are not very fond of.
Then suddenly I got the idea of using lettuce in place of Sarson in saag. I followed the Sarson ka saag recipe given to me by my NY neighbour ‘D’ aunty and replaced sarson leaves with lettuce. The outcome of the experiment was quite good and my hubby couldn’t even guess that it was lettuce.

Ingredients:
Lettuce – 1
Onion – 1 medium, finely chopped
Garlic – 3 cloves, chopped
Ginger – 1 inch, grated
Green Chillies – 2 finely chopped
Kasuri methi - 1 tbsp
Corn Flour – 2 tsp
Salt
Oil – 3 tsp

Boil water in a big vessel. Dip the lettuce leaves in the boiling water for 5 mins. Till they become soft. Remove the leaves and blend it to a fine paste.
In a pan, take some oil and fry the onions. When the turn translucent add the ginger and garlic. Continue frying till it turns brown. Then add the chopped green chillies and lettuce puree. Add salt and kasuri methi. Give it a boil.
Finally make a paste of corn flour and water and add it to the above. Heat for a minute or two and serve with hot phulkas or makki ki roti.

Note: For Sarson ka Saag use Sarson and Spinach leaves in the proportion 2:1

Corn Pizza

Seeing the variety of pizzas in the blogosphere I wanted to try my hand at a corn pizza.
I just followed my Pizza recipe for the dough and replaced ½ a cup all purpose flour with corn flour.
I used plain Heinz tomato ketchup instead of the homemade pizza sauce and used the same toppings as before, in addition I also used some chopped broccoli. The pizza tasted great but became a little dry at the base.

Hey Friends I'm back

Hi Friends...I'm back. I haven't disappeared from the blogosphere I just took a small break from blogging as I had no other option. I know its been quite long since I blogged any recipe. The reason for my absence is that we have moved back to Mumbai as my hubby's project assignment was over. Last few days have been very hectic for us. Now things have settled a bit. I am not sure if I will be able to continue blogging as before but I will try my best. Recently when I tried to put a post blogger was giving me some errors while putting pictures. Hopefully I will find out a solution soon.
Thanks for all your concerns and sweet comments my dear blogger friends and sorry for not being able to comment on your posts since the last few days.
Happy Blogging.
Enjoy.