Tangy Gourmet Potatoes

My brother came up with this recipe. We tried it out on beans and broccoli but both of those veggies couldn't hold the marinade too well. We had a bag of potatoes (fingerlings + baby reds + purple potatoes) lying around and well, best thing to do: grill 'em up in the oven.

I didn't measure ANYTHING, here's an estimate

Ingredients

Potatoes
Fresh lime juice - 1 tbspn
extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbspn
italian seasoning (spices like oregano, rosemary, thyme, etc.) - 1 tspn
garlic powder with herbs - 1 tspn
Salt - 1/2 tspn (to taste)
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tspn

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Mix everything but the potatoes.
3. Coat the potatoes with marinade and bake in oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy with other grilled veggies or as is.

Pigeon Pea Soup Version 2 aka Varn

I like this version more than the previous one. I could eat this everyday. This is extremely simple to make and has very subtle flavoring. Pair it up with white rice and a spicy side dish, and you're set.

Serves 2 - 3
Ingredients

Pigeon Pea - 3/4 cup (soaked overnight in water)
salt to taste
cumin powder - 2
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn-1/2 tspn
ghee (optional; oil or butter is not a substitute in this case) - 1/2 tbspn
water

Method

1. Boil pigeon peas in water until mashable consistency.

2. Mash and add water until desired consistency is reached. I like mine semi-liquidy so I can enjoy it on rice.

3. To this add the turmeric, cumin powder, salt, and ghee. Mix well and bring to a boil on the stove.

4. Serve over hot white rice and that's it!

7 Layer Bean Dip

Shout-out to Closet Cooking for this addictive and delicious recipe. LV made it for our latest BBQ/Picnic and not one of us (including LV) could stop shoveling it into our mouths. I decided to make it 2 days later for my brother. Naturally, I ate 1/2 of it. SO SO GOOD. I actually did mine based on LV's description and added a couple more ingredients, and her's was a carbon copy of the one at Closet Cooking.

This should serve 4, but it ended up serving 2 adults one of whom had no self-control.

Ingredients

Refried beans (I used the "vegetarian" "no lard" version) - 1 can
Green chillies- 2-4 or 1/2 Serrano finely chopped or jalapenos.
Black olives - sliced, about 15
Avocados - 1, coarsely chopped
Roma tomatoes (since it's summer, use cherry or grape tomatoes instead, so much better)- 2 finely chopped
Cheddar Cheese - to cover the top, about 1/2 cup-1 cup
Fresh Cilantro - finely chopped for garnish
Scallions - finely chopped 1 bunch
Cumin Powder - 1 tspn
Cayenne/Chilli powder - 1 tspn
Pickled Jalapenos (optional)
salt to taste

Method

1. Heat up the refried beans and add water until dippable consistency is reached. To this add the cumin and cayenne powder. Also add the green chillies to the hot beans and mix everything.

2. Pour the beany mix into serving dish. Top it off with cheddar cheese. Microwave this for about 30seconds for cheese to melt.

3. Next up are the avocados, follow this up with the tomatoes, jalapenos, black olives, cilantro and scallions.

4. Serve warm. Add sour cream to make this a 9 layered bean dip. ;)

Serve with tortilla chips.

Desi Fried Egg

I really hate cooking eggs...I don't mind eating them if they are cooked right. I don't like brioche or anything (I don't mind if my bread or whatever doesn't have a shiny glaze, thankyouverymuch) that's too egg-ish. This includes all the horrible ice cream here in America that smell like the yolk of an egg (haagendaaz is the prime example of this ridiculousness). Just wanted to get all of that off my chest. Vegetarian ice cream FTW. I don't eat a lot of sweet stuff though, so I survive without ranting too much.


I took a chance last week when I bought 6 brown eggs from vegetarian hens who were free range. I have to say, the odour (for the clean up anyway) wasn't as strong as after cooking generic white eggs. That's fabulous! After making our tradition egg-white-only-kitchen-sink (garlic, spinach, mushroom, onion, tomato, basil, olives, cheese, whatever else is on hand) omlette, we were down to 2 eggs.

I decided to pan fry 'em up for a late sunday brunch. the recipe that follows was concocted at random by SOMEONE (no one is taking credit for it. I know it's not me or my dad, so it's down to mom or brother) in my family. This is definitely an interesting way to eat an egg. Hope you enjoy!

OH AND IT'S SPICY!

Serves 1
Ingredients:
1 egg
Pinches of: salt, black pepper, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli (indian) powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala.
1 tspn vegetable oil

To make a sandwich:
regular bread, some iceberg lettuce, and personally? i slather mine with the green tobasco sauce. Minutes after this meal MY mouth remains lit with a satisfactory fire.

Method:

1. Heat up oil in a nonstick pan (use as little oil as possible, it's only to prevent egg from sticking to the pan) on low heat/medium low.

2. Crack open egg onto the pan and break the yolk to spread it around. (optional. you can leave it as is, if you want. I hate yolks so I either chuck them or spread them out)

3. sprinkle all of the powders onto the surface of the egg.

4. After it seems like it has cooked on the other side and the yolk/yellow part is no longer runny, flip and let it cook some more. Again, I like my eggs severely cooked + it might be required for this recipe so the spice powders infuse into the egg.

5. Serve as a sandwich! I cut mine in Half in the picture above.