Veg Casserole

It is that time of the year again. When you want to snuggle into your quilt and watch movies all day long or sleep or well just not study. So I am jealous of all you people out there who do not have to write exams. 

To snuggle you need comfort food. This is when all your mac n cheese, soup pasta, french toast etc come of use. 

Here is another. That you can make and tuck away into your refrigerator to be warmed up and has with buttered bread. Presenting the casserole!

You can add whatever vegetables you want (chicken if you eat meat).

I have here: Green Bell Pepper, Broccoli, Carrots, Yellow Squash and Mushroom. 

You can also add: French Beans, Potatoes, Cauliflower and Zucchini. 

A very important component of a casserole is the cheese. I bought Cheddar from Go Cheese. It isn't at all expensive. The pack you see below is only Rs. 139 a quarter of what you would pay for the imported stuff. The cheese mixes beautifully into the sauce and it smooth and gorgeous.

So chop all the veggies, into bite sized pieces.

Boil the broccoli for 2 mins, saute the carrots in olive oil with basil and garlic.
Then add the bell peppers, saute more, ass the broccoli and the mushrooms.
Close and toss it around for a while till almost cooked.

Make a white sauce and add the cheese, so it becomes a beautiful liquid.

Layer the veggies as desired and pour the sauce on top. Make sure it goes all the way through.

Grate some (a lot) of cheese on top.

Cover and bake on 180 for well 30 minutes.

Then take it out, let it cool or like risk burning your tongue.

Cuddle up and enjoy.

What are your yummy cuddly winter treats? 

Basil. Mushroom and Tomato Omlette or egg crepes.

We love eggs. Yes, we are an egg loving Tam Brahm family. I think we will very soon drop the Tam Brahm title because of our non Tam Brahm-ness.

It has been pouring in Bombay this past week and it makes the weather very gloomy and depressing. Stuck home you are left with nothing to do but while away your time in front of your laptop or the Tele. Then a sudden thought drifts into your mind. There are eggs in the fridge and mushrooms. So you jump up and head to the kitchen with a mission. Long forgotten is the humble roti subzi made for lunch. You are now whipping up something awesome, which will forever convert your omlette hating sister, who is now asleep.

One, bite down,she proclaims that this is the best omlette ever. And you modestly agree.

The pictures below were taken when I made the same omlette for breakfast. So here goes.

Ingredients:
3 tomatoes, chopped
5-6 big mushrooms, chopped
Basil (i use dried basil)
4 garlic pods chopped fine
butter or oil for sauteing
4 eggs
salt for seasoning

Chop up the tomatoes real fine. Like this:

Heat oil in a pan and let it become nice and hot.
Add the garlic an let it fry till it become fragrant. You can let it fry till golden, if you like.
Now add the basil and fry till you get that heady aroma of basil and garlic.
Now add the tomatoes and toss.

Did I say toss? Yes, I am a tosser now. I have taken the sage advice of Julia Child and have fearlessly tossed my way through this omlette. I suggest you do the same. And it is better if no one is watching, if you make a boo boo, you can always put it back in the pan.

Then add the chopped mushrooms and toss again.
Let the mixture simmer and cook till the tomatoes have cooked down and the water has evaporated.
You can add the salt now.

Beat your eggs nicely and add some milk if you like.

Heat oil or butter in a pan and pour some egg mixture and twist and turn the pan till it coats the pan evenly. Like this

Let the egg cook till the sides come off the pan.

Place the mushroom and tomato filling on one side very gently. Gently because I made my omlettes thin, so they were in danger of getting torn. Keep the gas on low while doing this, you can take your own sweet time and your omlette won't burn.

Now take a wooden spatula and gently start to lift up the other side. Fold it over the filling very gently.

Slide it onto a plate. Yes, slide not lift with a spatula or you will stand in danger of breaking the precious omlette.

Toast some bread. Butter it, my sister drowns her toast in butter. And enjoy.

You can add cheese to the filling. There wasn't any at home. The cheese will complement the filling and reduce the tartness of the tomatoes. I personally love the tomatoey taste, but you know, just in case you want to indulge and have a great figure.

I think this omlette qualifies to be a crepe. It is too thin to be an omlette and some omlette purists will kill me for this.

It is a great breakfast, lunch, dinner, mid-day snack, mid-night snack any time of the day food.

Enjoy and have a Happy Sunday! 

Stir Fried Veggies

I love stir fried vegetables. It makes me feel like very nice and healthy. So when I felt like having something nice and not the regular lunch, I checked the fridge and decided to make a stir fry.

If you are a vegetable cutting nerd like me, who loves cutting veggies and actually finds it soothing, go ahead chop away. But, if you hate the thought of cutting everything into juliennes then head to the high-fi supermarts who sell cut vegetables. You even get whole sets of vegetables in a cover which says "stir fry". Talk about laziness!

So I chose ginger, onions, carrots, beans, cabbage and capsicum. Cut them nice and thin, so they cook faster. They go in the wok in the order mentioned above. Also the vegetable that takes the longest to cook, put it in first.

Heat your wok and add oil (I chose olive oil) and heat till it smokes.
Lower the heat and add the ginger and the onions and fry till the onions turn translucent. Add the carrots and beans and about 2 tablespoons of water and cover and cook on a medium flame till the carrots are halfway done.
Add the capsicum and cabbage and close and cook some more.
In a cup mix soya sauce, chilli sauce and some water. add this to the pan and mix fast. Add salt according o taste.

To go with the stir-fry I made some burnt garlic fried rice.
If you live in a family like mine, you will always have left over rice. Just take it and loosen it up a little.
In a non-stick pan add olive oil and wait for it to smoke. Cut the garlic into small pieces. (I had about 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice and added 3 cloves of garlic). fry the garlic in the oil till it is golden brown.
Add the rice and fry again for about a minute. Then add salt.

That's it. Your stir-fry with rice is done!

You can also add babycorn, mushrooms, zucchini and egg. Another thing which would be divine is a sunny side up egg on top of the stir fry.

I must apologise for my not so great picture. My friend, Shreyas has promised to help me. You can check out his work here.

Let me know if you like stir fry and what you think about chopping veggies? I would be nice to hear about fellow nerds.