Vangibath - 2 (from scratch)

 Here is one more recipe for vangibath by making vangibath powder from scratch. This recipe(link given below) uses stone flower, which gives a very distinctive taste to the vangibath. I have tweaked(guessed) the quantity for one time serving and given it below. Do try.. 

Eggplant Parmigiana

 Last year, my daughter asked me to recreate olive garden’s eggplant parmigiana for her birthday. 

The recipe is not hard to guess, but I still googled to see if there is anything fancy. I found one in olive garden’s own website(I think) and it was just as easy as I thought it would be. I replaced their egg dip, with maida dip. And it turned out the same. But frying eggplant took forever! Then I found this recipe(link given below) for airfryer. Since I don’t own an airfryer, I did half frying on stove top and remaining in the oven. My friend Ashwini helped me by giving me tips on how to get the airfried effect from the conventional oven. 

If you own an airfryer, I think making this would be extremely easy. I am still debating if I should just buy one. I see all drool worthy recipes online, but don’t know how much it'll help with my style of cooking. Don’t want to use up my counter space unnecessarily. Anyways, for those who own one, this is the method mentioned in the blog - After the patties are coated well and ready to be fried, line them on the airfryer tray without crowding them and bake at 390 F for 10 min. Turn them mid point. Once done, put the toppings and bake them again until cheese melts. For more details you can follow the link below. 

Enjoy!  

Vangi bath - from scratch

There’s a youtube channel from Mallamma ajji - cooking granny or something(link given below), from which I have cooked couple of recipes, which turned out very good. Very authentic. I like mallamma ajji’s granny vibes and how she explains every recipe in a simple manner. 

Coming to the recipe, Vangi bath or Brinjal rice, is a famous Karnataka dish/rice bath. You can make a big batch of Vangi bath powder just like Sambar/Rasam powders and use it whenever needed. Original recipe has proportions for a big batch, but here I have also given proportions for one time serving in brackets along with the original. Also, original recipe uses onion - garlic, which I generally don’t use for vangi bath and they can be easily skipped. 

Do try! 

Ennegayi - Method 2

I am thrilled to share this easy ennegayi recipe I found online. 

Why? This recipe is relatively easy and can be made on a daily basis.. Less oil will also work, although more will always taste better. This recipe is probably close to the original, as it is given by an uttara kannadati. 

I have already shared another ennegayi recipe. Do check it out here. 

In this recipe, eggplants are fried lightly before stuffing. This one step makes making ennegayi so much more easy. Firstly, eggplants are not stiff to fill. You can easily bend them anyway and stuff as much as you want. Secondly, because they are already almost cooked, cooking time is reduced drastically and the chances of masala getting burnt are less, which makes me, a regular masala burn-er, so happy! All in all a keeper of a recipe. 

Do try! 

Badnekayi(Brinjal/Eggplant) Pulav

I am a sucker for pulavs. I try to make each and every version I come across either online or on TV.. It is fascinating how just change of vegetables and few spices here and there can bring about so many varieties... 

Badnekayi Pulav is again from oggarane dabbi cooking show. It’s fairly easy and comes out very tasty. As usual, instead of cooking it all together, I cooked rice separately and then mixed with the masala. 

Do try!

Baingan bartha - using oven roasted baingan

These days I am really hooked onto kannada serials. We had subscribed some Indian channels when my parents had visited. 

My mom was in the habit of watching these melodramatic serials, that specialize in storyline :) As my brother says, one cannot help but wonder what kind of a brain can come up with such stories. And then the story basically goes round and round in an infinite loop. Once in a while it goes in a tangent giving the illusion that it might end, but it would just start going in a different circle, this time a bigger one. Anyways, I had the time of my life making fun of these serials during my last visit to India and I was secretly hoping that I would enjoy it  equally this time around watching it with my mom. But my mom herself had given up watching these serials, saying that the storyline is getting worse by the day. The one serial in particular that I was making fun of, has still not ended, after 3 long years!! And guess what, the story is STILL THE SAME. A boy and a girl are married and nobody knows about it except these two, even after 3 YRS!  WOW!! Just so you know, these serials are aired everyday. That is (365-weekends) * 3 days. I must say, this kind of dragging is an art :)

Moreover by just watching the advertisements of these serials, you pretty much get the gist of what is happening. You don’t have to watch the whole serial. Still how so many seemingly intelligent people are hooked on to it, is a mystery to me. I was very intrigued to find out. Two new serials started right after my parents left. And I started watching them, you know, to solve the mystery :D 

I had warned my husband that if at all he wanted to remove the service, this was the time, before I start. But he wanted to keep the service for “cricket matches”. Now it’s too late. I am two months into these serials and there is no turning back. He has no choice, he has to watch it with me :) I can see myself getting pulled into it, curious to know what is going to happen today, but nothing happens, and I know what should happen. The thing that is supposed to happen, happens only after 2 or 3 weeks. So what happens everyday? basically nothing, but it is giving the illusion of something is happening. 

Now I think, I somewhat debugged how it is done. Basically you tell the story before hand. For example, in one of the serial I am currently watching, you are already let know, that by the end of a particular day, both hero and heroine are supposed to get married. Suppose that day starts today in “Serial Time”. Remember time is an illusion. 1 day of Serial time = could be easily 1 month of real time. It starts by people saying that something important is going to happen today. Then every 2-3 days(remember it is still the same day in Serial Time), there is a new twist, preventing that thing from happening. Then finally everything sorts out and after 3 weeks or so the day ends and they get married. So everyday people(like me) will turn on the serial hoping that the couple would get married today. But it’s postponed for tomorrow. I think that’s how they are keeping people hooked on to their channel. 

With this new found knowledge, I plan to watch further to see if it can really keep my interest going or it’ll just die down soon. I’ll keep y’ll updated :)

Coming to the recipe, 

Since I no longer have gas stove, I had stopped roasting eggplant for certain dishes. But roasting is roasting. The taste of the dish drastically changes by this one procedure. This particular recipe oven roasts eggplant. And the job was less messy compared to roasting it on the stove. The dish turned out lip smacking. Do try!

Andhra Style Brinjal Peanut Curry

I am not fond of brinjals! The ones that are available here in US, kinda have a thick, chewy skin which makes it even the more difficult for me to like them. Sometimes I like the smoked ones.. but that’s about it..  

But I like almost all the curries that is made for brinjals. That’s why I always bring brinjal every time I go for a grocery trip; and I always lookout for new ways of using it (as though I like it!).. 

I think to compensate for the blandness of brinjal, various cuisines have incorporated a very masala-dhaar curry to go with it. This one is no exception.. the curry is awesome! 

I’m a big fan of Andhra Cuisine.. My body literally cannot tolerate the heat of Andhra food, but I still love to have them all the time! But of course, when cooking at home, I reduce the spiciness to suit my capacity.. 

Since there is peanut in the curry, this curry has a strong North Karnataka flavor. It tastes more like ennegayi, but has no extra work that goes for the stuffing of ennegayi. 

Do try!

Badnekayi bolu huli - (Brinjal/Eggplant sambar-powder less sambar)

Udupi cuisine extensively uses coconut in almost every other dish. In fact, some sambars hardly use any toor dal, but are made with just ground coconut and sambar masala. A 'boLu huLi' neither requires coconut, nor requires sambar powder. The use of tamarind differentiates this huli from a regular tovve(dal).

Green chili, gives this huli a distinctive taste. Of course, you need to add a lot of them to  compensate for the lack of sambar masala.