Daily Food Post #4: Masala Omelette

The Sunday morning masala omelette for breakfast has become a ritual of sorts around here. I am usually a pretty no-fuss kinda person when it comes to food, but in case of an omelette, I have certain specifications:

Specification #1: I like mine with everything please. Everything includes at least four of these- onion/green onion, tomato, green chilli, mushroom, ham, cilantro, spinach, broccoli (you read that right), corn, red chilli powder, and grated cheese, preferably sharp cheddar or pepper jack. Salt and pepper are the default ingredients of course.

Specification #2: I like mine to be browned up a bit, no very french yellow fluffy omelette for me, thank you very much. I am not French.

Specification #3: I like mine to be cooked in oil, not butter.

Specification #4: I don't really care whether or not you incorporate milk in the eggs while beating them. I absolutely don't see how milk contributes anything to a masala omelette.

Specification #4: When you add that cheese, please crisp it up.

Specification #5: Give it to me nice and hot.

The above specifications have been finally understood by my husband. And he is now able to make a decent omelette for me pretty much every Sunday. He makes it lovingly, and gives it to me exactly the way I want, while I sit on the couch, watching the birds outside the window.

This morning's omelette had green onion, green chilli, tomato, spinach, and pepper jack cheese. It was delicious!

Yummy Masala Omelette

 

Egg-in-the-Hole

May is National Egg Month and apparently, June 3rd was National Egg Day. Well, how would I know- I mean, out here, pretty much everyday is egg day! I think that every human being should know how to cook an egg. If you haven't taught your children how to cook an egg, I suggest you wait no more, and teach them!

Here's an easy, quick, healthy, and delicious recipe for egg-any-time-of-the-day, simply called Egg-in-the-Hole:

Yield: 1 serving

Ingredients: 

Bread- 1 slice 

Egg- 1 

Cooking oil or Pam- a few drops/1 good spray

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Spray your pan with some Pam or put a few drops of cooking oil. Get the heat going. 

2. Cut a "hole" in a slice of bread. You can make it fun by cutting out different shapes such as heart, mickey or minnie mouse, or a skull! Save the cut-out bread piece. 

3. Place this slice of bread with the hole onto the heated pan. Then crack an egg into this hole. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place the cut-out bread piece very gently back into the hole with the egg (avoid pressing it). Cook for about a minute on low flame, and then flip. The bread will have become nice and brown and crisp on that side. 

4. After flipping, cook for an additional 30 seconds to a minute. If you like the yolk runny, half a minute will do. 

5. That's it, egg-in-the-hole is ready to be enjoyed! 

Psst: if nobody is watching, you may lick the plate clean! ;) 

The Hole

Egg cracked into the hole

Salt and Pepper

Place the "heart" back to cover the hole

Golden brown and crisp, then flip

Ready to eat! 

Delicious yolk under the "heart" 

Mm mm! 

Dunk and eat!

Last bits.....

Devoured! 

Egg in Avocado

You might have seen ads stating, "Lose Belly Fat," and they show an attractive picture of egg in an avocado. It actually looks pretty good. I love avocados, and eggs are quite the staple in our diet. So this morning I figured I might as well try this egg in an avocado for breakfast. Upon searching online I found a super easy recipe, and here it is:

Ingredients:

1. Avocado- 1, nice and firm, not too ripe

2. Eggs- 2 

3. Salt to taste

4. Freshly ground pepper

5. Couple drops of oil

Method: 

*Pre heat the oven to 450 degrees F. 

*The online recipe called for a ramekin, and didn't use any grease at all. But I wasn't too sure, so instead, I lined a baking pan with aluminum foil, and also added a couple drops of oil onto the foil, just in case. 

1. Cut the avocado into two longitudinal halves. Scoop out just a tad bit of the inside to make space for the egg. Place in the baking pan. I put a couple drops of oil before placing the avocado, just because I didn't want it to stick to the foil and get all messy.

2. Crack 1 egg each into each avocado half. Some of the egg white might spill over, but that's OK. You might have to do a little balancing act with the avocado so it can hold the egg. Add salt to taste, and freshly ground pepper. 

Egg in avocado ready to go into the oven

3. Place this in the oven pre heated to 450 degrees F for about 12 minutes. At the end of 12 minutes, the egg white should have firmed up, leaving the yolk almost firm, but not quite, with a little bit of ooziness to it (I like it that way). That's it, it is now ready to be eaten. 

Egg in Avocado ready to be eaten! 

The Eating:

As I dug into the egg with my spoon, the yellow yolk oozed out, and looked very enticing! I went all the way down so as to get some of the avocado goodness as well. When I placed this spoonful of baked avocado and egg into my mouth, I was taken aback at how buttery and creamy it was. The avocado was warm and had got a lovely smoky flavor to it. As for the egg- one can't really go wrong with eggs. The interesting thing I noticed was that the avocado retained its green color. The other more interesting thing I noticed was how filling it was! I felt extremely full after eating a few spoonfuls- I could barely eat that one half avocado!  

Avocado retained its green color!

A couple things: 

1. Personally, I think I prefer cool avocado rather than warm. But maybe it is a matter of acquired taste. Baking does impart a smoky flavor to the avocado, which is nice.

2. I like my food to have a little bit of a crunch factor- so maybe next time around I'll sprinkle some nuts. Bet that'll taste good. Plus one can get creative with the toppings here, so you can jazz it up with chopped green onion or leek, cilantro, etc.

Final Verdict: 

Baked egg in Avocado in an excellent way to start your day. Your body and mind will thank you. And even if you don't lose your belly fat, you'll most certainly decrease your empty calorie intake that you might be doing during the course of the day. Because after eating this, believe me, you will not feel hungry for hours together!! No kidding!

Fried Egg on Rice

My daughter introduced me to this very simple yet delightful dish- where you take some hot steamed rice, and top it with a beautiful fried egg. That's it, there is nothing else to this dish. However, you are sure to fall in love with it- for its simplicity, and taste.

You need: 

1. Plain steamed rice- white or brown, your choice

2. 1 or 2 eggs- fried (poached will work too)

3. Optional- Soy sauce

Method: 

All you gotta do is take some nice, hot steamed rice in a bowl and place your fried egg(s) on top. Add a drizzle of soy sauce, if you'd like and maybe some freshly ground pepper. 

Then comes the best part- use your spoon to poke the part with the yolk inside, and the yolk starts oozing out, and seeps into the rice..... mmm! That is delicious!! And you are overcome with this unexpected feeling of comfort with every spoonful of that rice, egg, and soy sauce. Yes, really! 

My daughter told me that this is a Korean dish. Korean or not- she and I love it! 

You don't have to always make Fried Rice!

Happy 2013!!

I bet sometime in your life in the kitchen, when you have run out of ideas, you have gone ahead and converted leftover rice into your very special Egg Fried Rice. Aww, come one, I know you have! I used to think that egg fried rice is all you can make out of that leftover rice lying in the refrigerator, until recently, when we made our annual year-end trip to my brother and SIL's place. They introduced a new and very interesting eggs and rice dish to me.

Ever heard of Omuraisu? It is supposedly a Japanese omelette made with eggs of course, and rice, and topped with ketchup. Therefore the name Omu, meaning Omelette, and  Raisu, meaning Rice. Pretty cool concept, I think. Any kind of rice should work for this, though my brother recommends a rice-medley.

Ingredients: 

1. Cooked Rice- any kind- white, brown, green, red..... you get the idea! (2-3 tablespoons for 1 egg)

2. Eggs- beaten (typically 1-2 eggs per person)

3. Finely chopped onion, green chilies. I also like thinly sliced mushroom (Not too much, else the omelette will break....)

4. Oil to cook

5. Salt, pepper, any other seasoning you like

6. Ketchup, or any sauce that you like

Method:

1. Beat the egg(s).

2. Get your pan going on the stove, with some oil.

3. Throw in finely chopped onion, green chilies, and mushrooms and sauté for a couple minutes. I add salt-pepper at this stage.

4. Add a couple tablespoons of rice and sauté everything for another minute or so.

Fried Wild Rice 

5. Pour the beaten egg(s) onto this fried rice. And cook like you would an omelette. Be careful not to break the omelette- it tends to be heavy because of the rice..... if it breaks, no worries! It'll still be good!

Beaten egg(s) poured onto the fried rice

Flipped to complete

Omuraisu Ready! 

I used some leftover wild rice from last night, and the rice omelette, or Omuraisu, turned out real good! Instead of ketchup, I used, yes, my very favorite Ghost Pepper Salsa on the side. And since I have a huge crush on sharp cheddar (I can be crazy that way!), I sprinkled a tad bit of shredded sharp cheddar on the top. The wild rice added a nice nutty texture to the omelette, that I quite enjoyed. And not to forget, it was super-filling. I mean, eggs, veggies, and rice--- now that's a complete meal!

The next time you decide to make egg fried rice, try a little change, and make Omuraisu instead! It'll make you happy!

Masala Bhurji

It was the fourth day of the new year, freezing outside and it was time to cook dinner. I had a few veggies lying in the fridge, but was in that laze-around-kinda-mood. Aha! Masala Bhurji! You know, scrambled eggs, all jazzed up with onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and spices---YUM!

Required:

Eggs, finely chopped onion (you could just slice it too), smashed up garlic+ginger, green chillies, tomatoes, fresh coriander/cilantro, a couple different spices that you like--- I usually like to add mustard seeds, turmeric, red chilli powder, cumin powder and sometimes even garam masala-- totally upto you, little bit of oil to cook and of course, salt to taste.

My Method: 

1. I take a couple teaspoons of oil in a pan and get the heat going. I splutter some mustard seeds and then throw in some chopped onion, garlic, ginger, green chillies, fresh coriander/cilantro as well as tomatoes*. Quickly sautee it all, adding turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt.

2. I then break eggs directly into the above mixture in the pan and start stirring it all up (just like scrambled eggs).

3. Within a couple to max 5 minutes, Masala Bhurji is ready! I sprinkle a tad bit of garam masala right at the end or maybe some cilantro+cumin powder for that final oomph.

*I was out of tomatoes and so I substituted that with tomato ketchup. OK, some of you might smirk at the idea of adding ketchup......but hey, it totally works, I tell ya!

Masala Bhurji all ready to go

With chapati/tortilla/bread


Hot chapatis with hot Masala Bhurji on a cold Tuesday night worked out great!

P.S.: If I was in that laze-around-kinda-mood, how on earth did I suddenly get the energy to make chapatis? Well, those were pre-made chapatis.......

The Other Egg Curry

I often make egg curry where you boil some eggs, make the usual curry sauce with onions, ginger, garlic and tomatoes and throw in the eggs into the sauce. Pretty simple and of course, delicious.

Now I remember, back when I was a kid, my mom used to make the regular egg curry (with the boiled eggs) and also another kind wherein she would first make an omelette and then cut it into bite sized pieces and put this into the curry sauce. To be honest, I used to hate that version of egg curry! But apparently my dad quite enjoyed it. Not sure about my brother, though.

Last evening I ended up making the very same egg curry, omelette style!

I took:

1. Eggs- whisked them up the old way with a fork and made one big, fluffy (and it was super fluffy!) omelette. I then cut the omelette into bite sized pieces.

 Gorgeously Fluffy Omelette!

Cut up into bite sized pieces

2. Onion finely chopped, grated ginger+garlic, tomato paste.


3. A couple potatoes.


4. Cumin, fennel and mustard seeds, salt, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, oil, water.


The Curry Sauce:


1. Just heated up some oil in a pot, spluttered cumin, mustard and fennel seeds and threw in the onion, ginger and garlic and sauteed it a bit. Then added some tomato paste, followed by some salt, red chilli powder and garam masala. Added some water and brought it to a boil.


2. Then added the potato (rough chopped) into this and covered the pot so as to cook it.


And Finally: 

After about 15 minutes, when the potato was cooked, added the omelette pieces into the curry. Covered the pot and let everything hang out.

Omelette curry! Almost looked like fish curry!

Served with:

Some quick simple peas and "jeera" (cumin) fried rice. The fluffy omelette pieces had soaked up the beautiful curry sauce. One bite and it was a blast of juicy goodness in your mouth........mmm, fantastic!

Omelette Curry over some peas-jeera fried rice

It is funny how my taste buds have changed over the years. I mean, I used to hate this omelette curry as a kid and look at me now--- I quite like it! My husband and son like it too. As for my daughter..........well, she reminds me of me all those years ago!!