Spanish Omelette

For this third and last day of BM #50 I am choosing from a List_of_potato_dishes. I was looking for something different and easy to try. So I picked up Spanish omelette.

I invariably end up cooking omelette every other day for dinner. H loves to have omelette with sambar rice. So I was all the more interested to try a different version of omelette. I followed the recipe from here

Spanish omelette is a delicious omelette. It generally includes a lot of vegetables and I have chosen a simple one here. This would serve as a wholesome breakfast as it includes eggs and lot of vegetables. We can also add cheese to it but the version I am giving below doesn't include cheese.

Ingredients:

Oil - 2 tsp
Potato - 50 grams (1 small)
Onion - 50 grams (1 small)
Tomato - 30 grams (1 small)
Capsicum - 15 grams (1/4 from a whole capsicum)
Salt - to taste
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Eggs - 2

Method:

Peel the potato and make very thin slices - as thin as possible with a knife.
Beat the eggs and keep it aside. Add salt and pepper powder needed for the eggs while beating.
Take a frying pan - one suitable for making omelettes. Pour oil. Since this omelette is spanish, olive oil is recommended. But I used the normal coconut oil which I use regularly at home.
Spread the potato pieces and place them in the pan. Cook them in medium flame. The idea here is to cook the potatoes in oil. Leave it for about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile chop the onions, capsicum and tomatoes. After cutting the onions, split the layers so that we get thin pieces of onions - similar to that of potatoes.

After 2 minutes flip all the potato pieces. By this time one side of the potatoes should have become light brown. Leave the flipped potatoes for 2 minutes.

Now add the chopped onions and capsicum pieces. Saute for one minute and then add the tomato pieces.
I noticed that my pan had started to show some black patches. So in order to avoid burning, I sprinkled little water and closed and cooked the vegetables in the pan for about 30 seconds. Ideally the vegetables have to be sauted and cooked in oil. Add salt and pepper needed for the vegetables while sauting.

Now spread the vegetables in the pan evenly and pour the beaten egg carefully so as to cover the entire vegetables.

Pour 1 tsp of oil in the sides. Cover and cook in medium flame for 1 minute.

Serve hot!!!! Delicious Spanish omelette is ready!!!

Karadayan Nonbu Adai

For the second day I have taken List_of_snack_foods. I was confused as to which item to pick up from this list and finally decided on Adai. Karadayan Nonbu - a festival followed in brahmin (Iyer/Iyengar) houses was around last week. For this festival they make a special type of sweet and savoury adai of which I am a big fan.

Savithri Vratham or Karadayan Nonbu is generally observed on the day when the Tamil month Masi ends and Panguni begins. Married women observe a fast on this day for the well being and long life of their husbands. Unmarried girls pray to be blessed with a good husband. There is a particular time, (the time changes every year), at that time, the women tie a yellow charadu or thread around their necks and break their fast by eating these special adais with unsalted butter.

Before going to the recipe I would like to share the story behind Karadayan Nonbu. The story behind observing this Vratham is that, Princess Savithri, daughter of King Ashwapati, married Satyavan a penniless prince. She also knew the fact that Satyavan would live only for a year. Three days before the destined day of Satyavan’s death, Savithri vowed to fast. On the last day, when Yama the God of Death came to take Satyavan’s soul, Savithri prayed to him to either take her with her husband or to leave her husband behind. Impressed by Savithri’s love and devotion, Yama agreed to grant her any boon other than Satyavan’s life. Savithri asked for a son. Yama granted her wish. But how could she have a son without her Satyavan and hence Yama was forced to give back Satyavan’s life. Thus Savithri rescued her husband Satyavan from death. It is said that later she broke the fast by having these adais

Ingredients:

Rice Flour – 1 cup

Grated or powdered Jaggery – 1 cup

Cardamoms – 3 -4

Coconut cut into small pieces or grated – a handful

Ghee – 1 tsp

Water – 1 1/2 cup

Method:

• Dry roast the rice flour till light brown on medium heat. 
• In a Kadai, heat the said 1 ½ cups of water with the grated jaggery.
• Once the jaggery dissolves completely, remove from heat. Strain impurities and place it on heat again. Let it start boiling. 
• Once the jaggery water starts boiling add the coconut pieces and cardamom powder and roasted rice flour. Mix well without forming any lumps.
• Add a tsp of ghee and mix well. The whole flour should become a round mass. Remove from heat. Let it cool a little.
• Grease idly moulds. Knead the dough a little to make it smooth.
• Make small balls out of this mixture and flatten them. Make a small hole with your finger in the middle. Place in idly moulds and steam for about 10 mins. Once cooked the Adais will have a shiny appearance

Adai is ready!!! This is generally had with a dollop of plain butter. We had it as snacks with tea.

Note:

• Cowpeas / Karamani is generally added to this adai. Pressure cook the Karamani, mash them coarsely and add it to the flour before steaming.

Falafel

For this week's Blogging Marathon I have picked "Pick one Category, do 3 or Do one from each category". I decided to do one from each category. Today I have picked up List_of_fried_dough_foods. Valli has requested me to pick up recipes which are not Indian. So here I am posting FALAFEL - a traditional middle eastern food

Falafel is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both. I have used chick peas here. I found many variations of this recipe in internet. After reading all I understood that it is basically our vada made with chick peas (kondai kadalai in tamil).   

From internet I also understood that most of the time falafel is used as a patty inside a sandwich. But for us it tasted more like vada and we enjoyed it as it is. Also falafel is made in various shapes like balls or donut shaped. There is also a tool available in the name of "aleb falafel" to shape these falafels. Falafel is a very famous street food. 

Another change or I don't know if I should say improvement - is that I have tried to capture some step-wise snaps :-). At least for the important steps. Will try to do so more often. I understand that step-wise snaps are more helpful for my readers but most of the time I make recipes in hurry. I will have to plan more efficiently my future recipes.

Ingredients:

Dried chickpea / Kabuli Channa - 150 grams

Onions - 1 medium

Coriander leaves, chopped - 2 tbsp

Garlic - 3 pods

Salt to taste

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Red chilly - 2 nos

All purpose flour / Maida - 3 tbsp

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Wash and soak the chickpeas overnight or atleast for 8 hours.

In a mixer take the soaked chickpeas (without water), along with onions, garlic, cumin seeds, coriander leaves and salt. Pulse into a coarse mixture

Transfer to a bowl. Add flour an mix everything together. 

Form into small medium sized patties. Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry in batches.

Drain into tissues and serve hot.

Falafels are ready!!! Serve with sauce or chutney of your choice. We had it plain!!!

Notes:

• While researching on Falafel I also saw that Falafel (falafil) in arabic meant pepper. So adding pepper powder would be an apt choice I believe.
• I added only 2 red chillies. But after preparing the first batch we felt it needs to be more spicy. Chick peas has a very little sweetening taste so I added 1/2 tsp of chilly powder for the remaining mixture.
• The mixture can be refrigerated as such or make patties and refrigerate and fry them just before serving.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM