Uttapum, and egg curry

The other day I wanted to make an egg curry, but realized I was out of atta flour, the stone ground wheat flour used to make chappati. So I made some uttapum instead, and it was pretty good. I love eating my egg curry with chappati, but this was a close runner up for sure. 

Uttapum is a south Indian dish, similar to a dosa. It is made from urad dal, and rice, left to ferment, and then cooked thick like a pancake with tomatoes, onions, or other veggies right in the batter. Remember the other day I showed you a wonderful Korean type pancake, the KIMCHI PANJEON, well this is a sounth Indian type pancake, similar in that you cook veggies right into the pancake. 

I have never soaked my own dal or rice before to make either dosa, uttapum, or idli, rather just use a mix, or already ground flour. This mix is really easy to make, you just add water, and I added some curd (yogurt) into it as well. 

Then I diced up some onions and green chillies, really finely, and sprinkled some salt and red chilli on them. You need a little olive oil or ghee to add to the hot tava or pan, and thats it folks. 

 The uttapum turned out super soft in the middle, much like an idli, and the outside was just the slightest bit crispy. I used very little ghee. Had I used more, they obviously would have even tastier, and crispier.

 This is what the batter looks like when mixed. 

 After spreading out the uttapum, immediately add the onions and chillies to the batter before it sets. 

 The onions and chillies, finely chopped.

 This is the mix I used.

This is the egg curry I made. I will post the recipe for this soon. I love adding extra veggies in it such as spinach int his case. Adding spinach to almost any food, is a wonderful way to incorporate a healthy veggie, without changing the flavor of the food. Getting kids to go near it, that's the tricky part though. 
Have you ever had a uttapum before? How do you like it prepared?

EASIEST Rotisserie Chicken Curry Ever ~~ GIVEAWAY ~~

~~ Rotisserie Chicken Curry ~~
and a giveaway :)

This is seriously the EASIEST chicken curry recipe, and I assure you than ANYBODY can make it.


Last week I bought two rotisserie chickens from Costco. I knew I wanted to eat some for dinner than night, make some chicken salad, and make some chicken curry with it. Mission accomplished, and it turned out so good, might I add.

Here's how I made the most delicious, and super easy chicken curry ever. Are you ready?


Ingredients
* One Rotisserie chicken, all the meat
* One pack of SHAN chicken curry mix
* Small container of mushrooms
* Extra large onion, or two small ones
* 2 tsp oil for frying onions
* 2 tbls ginger garlic paste
* 2 cups plain fat free yogurt
* 1/2 large diced green pepper
* one large diced tomato
* cilantro for garnishment
* salt to taste
* 2-3 cups water (depending on how much gravy you want)

1. Take your chicken, and remove all meat from the bird. I removed all skin too, so just the meat. Rip it up in bite sized pieces, but larger is better. The chicken is already cooked, and if you cut it too small, it will shred further in your curry, leaving you with shredded chicken curry.

2. Slice the onions and add them to a hot pan with a little oil. Saute the onions until slightly brown.

3. Add ginger garlic paste, and a little salt, continue to saute to remove the bitterness from the ginger garlic.

4. Add the mushrooms and saute until juices run, and mushrooms are also browned just a little.

5. Add the chicken, yogurt, and chicken curry mix, stir, and let simmer for a minute or two.
WARNING, if you can't handle spicy food, start off with much less of the mix, and you can always add more. Adding the whole box gives an incredible flavor, especially when using a WHOLE chicken, I thought it was perfect, but it was a bit spicy. We of course love spicy, so you may want to use less, and add more, if needed.

6. At this point, since the chicken won't let of any juice itself (it's already cooked), you need to add some water, so you have a nice gravy. Make it as thin as you want, or leave it thicker.

7. Add the diced green peppers, and tomatoes, and let it simmer, with the lid on, med flame, for about 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes, and peppers soften a bit.

8. Garnish with cilantro, serve over rice, or with a chappati, or fresh naan!

This was the first time I made a curry using a store bought mix, and I must tell you, gosh it was easy, and the taste was incredible. Even my kids ate the heck out of it, and that was the best part. The chicken is so moist, because you are using rotisserie chicken. The mix is perfectly seasoned, I didn't add a single thing, other than a bit of salt at the beginning, and don't even think I needed that.

I did add extra yogurt to my curry, but I love the flavor of yogurt, so you can add less if you'd prefer. Also the extra ingredients were added because I had it in the fridge, and I always try to add extra veggies to my curry dishes. Some spinach would have also been delicious in here.

I served this meal with naan that I also bought from Costco, but if you don't have naan, serve it over some rice, or even a tortilla, if you don't know how to make chappati.

I added a link where you can get a box of SHAN Chicken Curry mix, but I must tell you, if you have an Indian grocer near you, go there, and get it. I can't wait to do a post on some of my Indian grocery stores, it will be so fun to walk you through, and show you the goodies there.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO WIN A FREE BOX?

I will be sending FIVE lucky people a FREE box of this amazing chicken curry mix, so you can try it out, and see how tasty and easy it is to make. 

** I am not getting any compensation for promoting this product, neither am I being given any product to review, or giveaway. This is just something I tried, and loved, and want to share with my readers. I will be buying and sending all product myself. **

Here's how to win:

Please leave a comment for each entry.

Open to US and CANADA.

Winner will be announced Tuesday 5/24.

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5. Promise to do a follow up post, once you get this and try it out, of course linking back to me. 

OK, I hope you enjoy, and can't wait to hear from you.

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Veggie love, Indian and Italian Style!

Last week, I spent an afternoon cooking. I like to make multiple meals when I get to cooking, and always make extra, for leftovers, guests, mom, neighbors, or the freezer, lol. I had a drawer full of veggies that were starting to be not so fresh, and so I knew it was time for sambhar. This is a south Indian meal served almost daily with dosas, idlis, vadas, or just plain rice. Most families eat this at least once a day in the south of India, and usually with some fish. When mummy first came for a visit several years ago, I watched eagerly, and learned how to make this tasty dish.

I make this once a week, or two at the most. It's a wonderful way to use up all your veggies, and hello, it is sooooo tasty, and nutritious. My husband and I love it spicy, but I usually make it more mild so everyone else can enjoy it, and we just add some lemon pickle to it, for my enjoyment. More on lemon pickle at another time, lol, just know its lemon, and its pickled, in LOTS of red chilli powder, lol. It is sooooo good. We usually just eat our sambhar with rice, but sometimes I do make dosas.

Ok, now for the Italian part, well, I was looking at my lovely veggies, and thought how about I show all you lovely people how I make two completely different tasting meals, with the literally the same veggies. Enjoy reading the rest as you see how people from two different parts of the world, enjoy the same food, but with the addition of some spices, how it can change dramatically. I thought this was pretty cool, so I wanted to share with all of you.

Oh and since I was on a roll, I just went ahead and made three more meals, with some leftover chicken from soup a couple days earlier.

Five meals, and a whole lotta veggies. Check it out!!!

hmmm, what do we have here, well, let me break it down for you ok.
In the front of course the stars of the show, the veggies.
In the middle I have my daal, chicken and carrots, spinach, pickles, and ginger garlic paste.
In the back I have peas, cream of mushroom, mayo, mustard, beans, green sauce, canned tomatoes, and veggie broth.
Lets get cooking shall we!!!

I diced up onions, and celery, and carrots, with some fresh garlic, and a chili pepper. Then let it saute.  This was the base for my MINESTRONE soup.

I added the veggie broth, canned beans, canned tomatoes, cut up zuchini, and squash,  shredded some more carrots,  and added a bunch of italian dried herbs, as I didn't have any fresh. Then I let this baby cook, until everything was nice and tender and then I added my cooked whole wheat pasta.

What makes this Italian, is of course the lack of indian spices, and addition of italian ones, and the EXTRA tang from all those canned tomatoes, which I love, and the difference in legumes. Rather than daal, we used red kidney, and white northern beans, as my protein. Everything else is the same. How cool, right?

Ok on to my sambhar....

Washed up some daal, and put it in my pressure cooker. 

Diced up all the rest of my veggies, big bites, and put that all in the pressure cooker.  I threw in a big handful of curry leaves, and a couple teaspoons of ginger garlic paste, and 3 packets of sambhar seasoning. This is only the 3rd time using these packets, as I've always made my own sambhar mix, but whenever I buy the dosa mix (and I buy it often, as it's instant dosas ) it comes with a packet of sambhar mix. I had so many that I thought I had to try it, and its not bad at all, so for now, I will be showing you this way, since its SUPER easy.

You can add any veggie you like in here, but I like to use carrots, squash, zuchini, onions, tomatoes, eggplant, and these little cucumber looking veggies you find at the indian super market. Didn't have any this time, but they are really tasty. I have also started using radishes, and like the flavor it gives. 

Add water,  to fill, and you can put the lid on here, and let it go. I add a bit more for some extra flavor, and you can too. 

The hing powder, (on top) also called asafoetida and the fenugreek are what give sambhar its unique flavor. SO I added just a bit more of these, along with you guessed it chilli powder, as the mix is very mild.

At this point I simply put the lid on and turned on my pressure cooker for about 40 minutes, then letting it go for another 15 or so on low, then turning it off, and letting the steam go down on its own.

I like my veggies to be a bit firm, but mostly cooked very soft. I then add my seasoning, which I didn't take a picture of.
All this means, is taking a bit of oil, and frying up some flavor in it. I choose, mustard seeds, onions, curry leaves, cumin seeds, red chillies, and a bit of hing powder at the end. I poured this over my sambhar and let it sit. Then I added my tamarind paste, which is soaked to release the pulp. Sorry for not taking pics of these steps, don't know why I didn't, but next time I will try to be more thorough.

MINESTRONE SOUP .......AFTER

SAMBHAR.......AFTER

GREEN CHICKEN ENCHILADAS.... one of my favorites. 

I also did not take pics of the daal, or the chicken salad. Next time I will make these I will surely take some better pics. I guess I was focusing on the veggie dishes above. Oh well, I hope you liked that, and if you are ever in need of a healthy veggie meal, try one of my suggestions above. You'll love it!

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