Curried Egg Skillet

Growing up, our typical meals at home included chapati, rice, dal and some vegetables in the form of dry or wet curries. Mom often interspersed it with interesting dishes such as an egg skillet which included a layer of sautéed onion and tomato masala, topped with eggs. Simple yet so delicious and fun to cook and eat! I still love making this dish and to make it a complete meal I often add vegetables to the onion-tomato masala. It’s a great way to incorporate leafy greens in your meals.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion - finely chopped (~1 cup)

2 medium tomatoes - finely chopped (~1.5 cups)

1 cup packed chopped kale (or other greens of your choice - optional)

1 cup peas (or other veggies such as cauliflower, green beans etc. - optional)

5-6 large eggs

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chili powder (not chili seasoning)

1 Tbsp coriander powder

Salt

~1 Tsp butter/oil (I used coconut oil)

This recipe has two steps - Step 1: cooking the onions, tomatoes and other vegetables and Step 2: spreading that mixture, in the pan, topping with eggs and cooking until eggs are done. I like to use as little oil as possible to cook the vegetables since the pan needs oil for greasing later for Step 2. Greasing the pan is not necessary if more oil is used while cooking the veggies, however you can cut that fat down a lot by using barely any oil for cooking the veggies, rinsing the skillet after this step and then using a thin layer of butter/oil for greasing the pan before adding the cooked mixture back into the pan to finish cooking with the eggs.

Step 1: Start by heating a few drops of oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and sauté until translucent. Add tomatoes and continue cooking until tomatoes are softened. Add turmeric, coriander and red chili powder. Season with salt and mix well. Add kale and peas (or any other vegetables you’re using). Cover and cook stirring occasionally until vegetables are cooked al dente.

Transfer the cooked vegetables to a bowl and rinse the pan to make sure there is no residue which can get burnt during Step 2 of cooking.

Step 2: Grease the pan with oil/butter. Add the vegetable mixture back to the pan and spread it evenly. Crack the eggs over the mixture, season lightly with salt and red chili powder.

Cook on medium-low heat until the eggs are cooked to your liking. I like to leave the yolks a little soft. If you want the beautiful yellow yolks to be seen on top, do not cover the pan. If you’re okay with the egg white covering the yolks, cover and cook to save some cooking time. I started off cooking uncovered and then lost patience and covered the pan causing some of the yolks to be covered by egg whites.

Let the skillet cool for a few minutes, then slice and serve!

~Gayatri

Mushroom Asparagus Quiche

What can I say about quiche that hasn’t already been said? It’s an easy-to-make dish, it can be customized however you like, and, with its filling of eggs, milk (or cream), and cheese, it is substantial enough to satisfy just about anyone. You can get super creative with assembling the various ingredients and produce works of art, but even fledgeling foodies can prepare a quiche that looks and tastes delicious. The main fillers in this quiche are mushroom and asparagus - which is a fairly misunderstood and underappreciated vegetable! For other tips and suggestions on how to cook asparagus, please visit our friends at Quick Easy Cook. Their blog is teeming with information on subjects ranging from kitchen utensils to specific ingredients and foods to chef apparel (think comfortable shoes!) - and has a plethora of quick and easy healthy recipes that even novice cooks can master.

Okay, back to the quiche - here's a simple dice-and-dump recipe for a hearty breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

 

Ingredients: (serves 6-8)

~8 asparagus spears

~4oz mushrooms

4 eggs

1 cup milk (I used 1%)

~1 cup + 3 TBSP shredded cheddar cheese

~2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Pepper, salt, paprika to taste

1 pie crust

Heat oven to 350°F.

Beat eggs in a bowl. Add milk and spices and mix well. Finely chop the asparagus and mushrooms.

 

Toss the chopped mushroom and asparagus with 1 cup of shredded cheese. Place pie crust in a 9” pie pan, spread veggie-cheese mixture into the pie crust, then pour in the egg-milk mixture. Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese on top.

Bake 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the quiche cool for 5-10 minutes, then dig in!

 

~ Karla

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Chicken Lemon Rice Soup

Sometimes on a rainy, grey day, there’s nothing better to eat than a nice hot bowl of soup, whether it’s tomato bisque, chicken noodle, beef stew, minestrone, or this delicious take on vegetable soup. Even though they seem pretty easy (broth plus veggies plus protein, right?), I’ve never been particularly good at making soups - most of the time they end up too bland and watery. But I can be a rather stubborn person, and am determined to master at least one variety! I found this Greek-style chicken lemon rice soup in my mother’s recipe box, and it looked right up my alley with only a handful of ingredients. I made some minor tweaks and ended up with a deliciously flavorful soup!

Ingredients: (makes 4-6 servings)

4 cups chicken broth

4 oz (~½ cup) uncooked rice

~½ - ¾ lb chicken breast, cooked and shredded or diced (see this post for instructions on cooking chicken)

3 eggs

4 TBSP lemon juice

salt, pepper to taste

In a 2-quart pot, bring chicken broth to a boil over med-hi to high heat. Add rice and cover, reducing heat to med-lo, and simmer until rice is tender, about 45 minutes. Add chicken to the pot.

In a small bowl, beat eggs and lemon juice. Then, stirring constantly, add about 1 cup of hot water from the rice to the egg/lemon mixture, a little at a time so the eggs do not curdle.

Slowly add the egg mixture back into the soup. Cook and stir over low heat until slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Take care not to boil or the eggs will curdle. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.

~Karla

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Eggs Baked in Pepper Cups

Low carb, no added oil or sugar, packed with veggies, and very delicious! - eggs and vegetables baked in bell peppers make a healthy and satisfying meal. It’s a great way to incorporate different veggies, and can be easily customized to your taste or to whatever you have in the fridge.
 

Ingredients: (2 large servings)

2 bell peppers (any color)

½ cup chopped spinach

½ cup mushrooms - sliced

¼-½ cup broccoli florets

Grated cheese - any kind (optional - I didn’t use any)

2 eggs (or more if you prefer)

Salt, black pepper (to taste)

Chopped parsley/chives for garnish (optional)

Any other vegetables would work as well - I used what I had at hand.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Heat a pan over medium high heat and sauté the mushrooms and broccoli (I didn’t use any oil). Cut the tops off the peppers. Save it for a salad or just snack on it while the peppers bake :-). Remove the seeds. Make sure the peppers can stand upright on their own. If required slice off part of the bottom of the peppers (leaving the “pepper cup” intact).

Divide the spinach between the peppers. Add the sautéed vegetables. Sprinkle with some salt if the veggies are not seasoned. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. The idea is to soften up the peppers a little and to let some of the water from the veggies evaporate so it doesn’t puddle up under the eggs. Remove the peppers from the oven.

Add the cheese to the cups if using. Break an egg into a small bowl and carefully transfer it to one of the peppers. Add the other egg to the other pepper.  If you like, you can add 2 eggs per pepper cup. Season with salt and pepper. Return the peppers back to the oven for another 20 - 25 minutes until the egg whites are set. Poke with a knife and check if you’re not sure.

Remove from oven and serve warm garnished with chopped herbs.

~Gayatri

Note: Slightly runny yolks work as a delicious sauce!

Other recipes you might like:
Stuffed peppers
Stuffed sweet cubanelles


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Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Thursday, September 10, 2015

Egg curry in a hurry!

For several years in India, egg curry was what I ate on Sundays. My family typically eats meat on Sunday, goat curry most often - so after I gave up meat, my Sunday staple became egg curry. I love making the traditional egg curry starting with the onion & tomato masala made with cilantro and spices - grinding it, carefully making slits in the hard boiled eggs and stuffing in the masala before making a gravy. As you can see, that’s a little bit involved. Some days I just want to fix dinner quickly after work, hence the curry in a hurry! This one also uses onions and tomatoes, but doesn’t have a liquid gravy as the base. However it isn’t completely dry either - just perfect to eat with either rice or roti.

 

I generally start boiling the eggs and then chop ingredients and make the curry while the eggs are cooking. The whole thing is ready in no time!

Ingredients (~4-5 servings)

8 eggs - hard boiled

1 large onion - chopped (~ 2 cups)

2-3 small tomatoes - chopped (~1.5 cups)

3 cloves of garlic (or garlic powder)

1 tsp grated ginger (or ginger powder)

2 tsp coriander powder (optional, but really helps the flavor!)

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp red chili powder (or to taste)

Salt

1 tsp oil

Chopped herbs for garnishing (optional) - cilantro, parsley, green onions

Optional tempering (Definitely helps the taste, but isn’t crucial if you don’t have the ingredients)

⅛ tsp mustard seeds

⅛ tsp cumin seeds

⅛ tsp asafoetida powder (See note)

Heat oil over medium high heat. If using tempering ingredients, add the mustard seeds; once the seeds start spluttering, add the cumin seeds and asafoetida powder. Immediately add the chopped onions and saute for 4-5 minutes until translucent (if you are skipping the tempering, just add onions once the oil is hot).

Add the chopped tomatoes and saute for a minute. Add the spices and season with salt. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally until some of the liquid evaporates.

While the onions and tomatoes are cooking, peel and coarsely chop the eggs. Add the eggs to the onion, tomato mixture. Mix well, adjust seasoning if required, and take off the heat once heated through (~30-60 seconds). Do not cook for too long after eggs are added to prevent them from getting chewy.

Garnish with chopped herbs and serve warm.

~Gayatri

Note: Asafoetida, or hing, is an herb used extensively in Indian cooking to enhance flavor and aid digestion. It can be found in any Indian store.


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Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Monday, August 24, 2015

Garlicky Egg and Cheese Dip

Whenever I’m visiting someone and they serve something I really like, I try to learn how to make it. This dip is one of those recipes from Pani Natalya (Pani  is an Ukrainian honorific for women), whom I’ve had the pleasure to visit with a couple times at Purdue. True to the incredible Ukrainian hospitality, she always has a delicious fare laid out for her guests. One of her dishes that I really enjoyed was an egg and cheese dip which has been in her family for years. The first time I had it, it was served on roasted eggplant slices topped with tomato slices. A fantastic appetizer! Another time we had the dip with crackers and veggies, and it was equally delicious. She was kind enough to pack some for me to take home and also told me how to make it. In the recipe below, I’ve made one minor change - replaced mayonnaise with sour cream. It doesn’t turn out as creamy with just sour cream, so I did add a little bit of mayonnaise. Still tastes great if you leave it out, so feel free to adjust the sour cream/mayonnaise ratio to your liking.

Ingredients

2 eggs - hard boiled and finely chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic

1-1½ cups shredded cheese - 5 cheese Italian blend (or other cheese of your choice)

1-1½ cups sour cream (or mayonnaise)

~¼ cup mayonnaise (optional - use if you like the dip very creamy)

½ - 1 Tbsp chopped dill (or other herbs) - optional

Crush the garlic cloves (preferably in a garlic press). Fine mincing would work, but crushing helps release the juices which make this dip so garlicky.

Mix the eggs, garlic, cheese in a bowl. Add the sour cream/mayonnaise and mix. Adjust quantity till you get the consistency and creaminess that you want. Mix in chopped herbs if using. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serving suggestions

This dip tastes great with crackers or crunchy vegetables like carrots, sweet peppers, broccoli, celery or other crudites.

If you have time and want to make a fancier appetizer or side, you can serve it with roasted eggplant and tomatoes. I had baby eggplants and cherry tomatoes on hand, so I pan roasted the eggplant slices, sprinkled a little bit of salt, added half a cherry tomato on each piece and a small dollop of the dip; sprinkled with crushed black pepper and chopped parsley for a colorful vibrant bite sized snack.

~Gayatri


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Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Friday, July 31, 2015

Portabella Caps with Spinach, Egg, and Wild Mushroom Sauce (or: Portabella kind-of-Benedict)

A Cooks of Cake and Kindness Culinary Experience Part I: It had been WAY too long since Gayatri and I had gotten together to cook one of our fabulous meals, so we decided it was high time we did. We drew up a menu for a tantalizing 3-course meal (recipes for the other two courses to come!) and threw a small dinner party to show off our mad skills. The first course was inspired by this dish, and, of course, we made some modifications of our own. It has a Parmesan-mushroom sauce that turned out to be a big hit, and when our guests left with some leftovers, they came up with creative ways to repurpose the sauce themselves!

 

 

Ingredients

8 large Portabella mushrooms (with stems)
8 eggs
2 ounces dried mushrooms (ours was a wild mushroom mix)

½ onion finely chopped (we used about ¼ to ½ cup dried chopped onion)

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup milk (we used whole milk)

½ tsp thyme

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 lb fresh spinach

salt and pepper to taste

Canola oil for cooking

Preheat oven to 400F.

Soak the dried mushrooms in hot (but not boiling) water (about ¾-1 cup) for about 20 minutes.

 

Rinse and de-stem the Portabella mushrooms, setting aside the stems for later use. Bake the mushroom caps with the gill side up for about 20 minutes (time will vary depending on thickness of the mushrooms), until they are tender. Set them aside to cool. Water from the mushrooms will have collected in the baking pan; set this aside for later use.

 

 

While the mushrooms are baking, either steam or blanch the spinach. We didn't have a steamer handy, so we blanched: bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, then add spinach to the boiling water and let it cook for only about 20-30 seconds before removing from the water.

 

Chop the Portabella mushroom stems, as well as the re-hydrated dried mushrooms, reserving the water they were soaking in.

In a large saucepan, heat canola oil. Sauté the chopped mushrooms, onion, garlic, and thyme, adding salt and pepper to taste. Add the reserved water from the dried mushrooms and the baked Portabellas and simmer at medium-high heat until the liquid has reduced by about half. Add the milk and Parmesan cheese and simmer until the mixture thickens, about 5-10 minutes.

In a separate pan, heat oil for cooking the eggs. Individually fry each egg (this is what makes it kind-of-Benedict, which layers a poached, rather than fried, egg, on a base). Egg rings come in really handy for this so you can make more than one egg at once! We made ours to order, and everyone wanted over-easy, but sunny-side-up could be another popular option.

 

 

To assemble, top a Portabella mushroom with spinach, then layer on a fried egg, then top with the mushroom sauce. Take a moment to admire before devouring!

 

 

All the components of this dish are pretty simple to make, but combined they add a nice complexity to the finished dish. Each bite has distinct layers of taste and texture that blend really nicely - and the slightly runny egg yolks (if you're a fan) make the sauce even more delicious!

 

~Karla