Recipe: Shakshouka

After an extremely long hiatus, I am back! And back with one of my new loves - the single-pan Tunisian, Libya, Algerian, Moroccan, Egyptian (phew!) breakfast, shakshouka.

I saw a friend's picture on Instagram taken while making shakshouka and was instantly fascinated. I absolutely had to make this eggy delight. I looked up the recipe online and shared it with my recipe-hungry (that's a compliment) mom. And as co-incidences happen, we found ourselves making the same thing on the same day, at the same time!

This recipe is a variation of the one I found online and is not will not yield an 'authentic' shakshouka but this is the one I liked the best, after making the dish 3-4 times. Hope you enjoy this truly spectacular, and simple dish.

Pictures are from both, my mother's kitchen and mine! :)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 chillies
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon chilli powder
• 2 tomatoes, squashed and squishy
• salt, to taste
• 4 eggs
• 3 sausages
• 1 tablespoon parsley or dhaniya patta
• Feta cheese (optional)
• Serve with bread, toast or pita bread for serving

Heat oil in a 12-inch frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.

 Place the tomatoes in a bowl and squish them with your fingers and hands till they are nice and pulpy. Add the tomatoes and their juice to the skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes.

Prepare the sausages in a separate pan (either fried or boiled), cut in slices and add to the skillet with the tomatoes. Season sauce with salt.

Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface.

Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle shakshuka with parsley and feta and serve with bread, for dipping.

Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk.

Don't forget, it's a single-pan preparation and it only tastes good if the family digs in as one!

Recipe: Veggie lettuce wrap

Been trying to eat healthy of late so that means no desserts, no sugar in tea/coffee, no sodas or colas, cutting down on meat intake, next-to-no eating out on weekdays, consuming lots of fruits and vegetables, multiple refills of green tea and mugs and mugs of hot water!

Of late we've developed a great fondness for lettuce wraps, especially Thai and Vietnamese style. However, the new 'go healthy' lifestyle doesn't allow for frequent meals of minced pork/ beef albeit wrapped up in fresh, healthy, green leaves. So, last night I decided to make spicy veggie lettuce wraps and see how that works out.

It. Was. Good.

Without further ado, here's the recipe -

Ingredients
Lettuce leaves, duh!
Mushrooms
Bellpeppers - I used red and green
Baby corn
Onions or onion powder
Green and red chillies
Garlic
Tofu or paneer
Cumin powder (jeera powder)
Salt and pepper
Chui-chow chilli oil (hoisin sauce or even chilli sauce will do the trick) 
Olive oil
Soya sauce
Boiled rice

Prep
Finely chop the mushrooms, bellpeppers, onions (if using), green chillies and baby corn
Cut the garlic in long slices

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick karahi (wok) and add green chillies and garlic once the oil is hot
Saute on a medium flame till the garlic starts changing colour
Add the baby corn and let cook till the corn is slightly soft and breaks easily
Add the bell peppers and saute on a medium high flame
Add salt and chui chow chilli oil
Mix well till the vegetables are cooked but crunchy
Crumble the paneer in a separate bowl
Add in the mushrooms and paneer
Let cook and simmer till the water from the paneer and mushrooms almost dries out but don't let it get too dry. 

Once done, add a generous helping of soya sauce and top with some pepper
Mix well and take off heat
Peel the carrot into strips using a vegetable peeler

And the ingredients for your wrap are ready!!

Now, to make your wrap - on a lettuce leaf, spread some chui-chow chili oil, add rice and top with the vegetable mince. Wrap and go for it!

You can believe me when I say it was good because I didn't even have time to take quality pictures... (much to my dismay) Vishal insisted that I ditch the phone and focus on the food instead! :)

Do let me know if you made the wrap and if you liked it. You can add a whole lot more and substitute what you don't like. Just enjoy the cooking journey people! :)

Slow Sunday breakfasts

Sunday - breakfast in bed day.

This week's Sunday breakfast required zero effort - it was a combination of all the food made over the week! :)

Tzatziki and hummus were made way in advance and stored in the fridge - a strategic move to prevent myself from snacking on junk food, and from bingeing on my favourite Doritos. The baby carrots were bought keeping in mind the ease of access and to assure my lazy self that low calorie food was within easy reach!

Tomato soup was a mid-week left over, the remnant of a healthy soup and Ceasar salad (with Greek yogurt dressing) dinner.

Soup, vegetables and dips - the perfect, low calorie, healthy start to a cold and lazy Sunday, spent under covers, watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S.!

Recipe inside: Pasta with corn

I haven't got some cooking done in a while now and the kitchen seems to be beckoning. So yesterday, I decided to get some grocery shopping done and put together a meal. Infact, like I was telling the husband, it was one of those rare days when I was feeling very efficient - bought groceries on the way back from work, set the house straight, cooked a meal, finished off some work work and went to sleep before 11pm too!

The fridge was full of drying vegetables bought two weeks back while the family was in town and it was time to put them to good use. On the menu was angel hair pasta with spicy aubergine topped with lemon pepper corn.

Recipe:

Lemon pepper corn

Ingredients:

• Corn kernels
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Juice of 1 small lemon or 1/2 a lime
• Salt
• Pinch of nutmeg powder
• Chilli flakes
• Oregano
• Pepper
• Basil
• Parsley
• Ketchup

To make:

• Heat olive oil on a frying pan and add the herbs (oregano, chilli flakes, basil, parsley) to the hot oil for a slightly smoked flavour
• Stir for 5-10 seconds and add in the corn kernels
  
• Mix the kernels well with the herbs, add salt and nutmeg powder
• Once the corn starts turning golden, cover the pan with a lid and let cook for 2-3 minutes, uncover and stir occasionally.
• Uncover it and pierce with a fork to see if it's slightly mushy and juicy inside, the corn should have also let off some water. Don't drain the water.
• Add some ketchup for a slightly thick consistency and for added flavour. Mix well.
  
• Add lemon juice just before turning off the heat and stir.
• Your spicy, juicy, lemon pepper corn is ready in less than 20 minutes!
  

Husband's rating: 4/5
My rating: 3.75/5

Hope you like the corn recipe. I would love to know how it turns out if you do make it... Angel hair aubergine pasta recipe coming up in the next post!