The Egg Curry

I call this the compromise between not cooking meat and not eating my greens. Egg curry for the confused soul.

Hard-boil some eggs. Peel them and put slits on them all around (without cutting through). Meanwhile heat a little oil and sauté onions and tomatoes with salt, turmeric, coriander and cumin powders, and some garam masala. Take off the heat and grind to a pulp. Heat a little more oil; add dried red chillies and ginger garlic paste, and then the boiled eggs. Fry them a little before drowning them in that ground pulp. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with hot parathas!

The Aussie Pie

If you have been to Harry's Café de Wheels you might be in love with the curry chicken pies they've got. I actually dreamt of making these in a drugged slumber I indulged in mid-migraine.

Get some shortcrust pastry and some puff pastry and let thaw. Meanwhile cook up small pieces of boneless chicken with tandoori masalas or curry powder. Add a fistful of flour, about that much cheese and a drizzle of milk to thicken up the chicken. Set aside to cool.

Cover muffin tin slots with short crust pastry. Add the chicken mix in your pastey bowls. Cover with a circle of puff pastry and poke a few holes on top. Brush with egg and bake for 25-30 min. Enjoy!

The Kadhi

My husband has been requesting this one for a while.

Kadhi is a gram flour-yogurt based curry with fried pakoras. My mom makes the pakoras without onions, but my husband would happily put onions on/in EVERYTHING.

Mix a bowl of a cup of gram flour with chopped onions, a pinch of baking soda, some red chilli powder, a pinch of turmeric, salt and water. Put spoonfuls in hot oil and deep-fry till brown. Set aside.

Mix another bowl of a cup of yogurt with a few spoons of gram flourflour, salt, turmeric and red chilli powder. Heat a little oil and crackle cumin seeds and dried red chillies in it. Add the yogurt mix and some water and simmer until happy with the consistency. Add the pakoras and simmer for another two minutes. Serve with rice!

The Pink Patê

Get fancyyyyy

Smoked salmon patê

These things are the easiest to make! Throw into a grinder some smoked salmon, less than half that quantity of cream cheese, a spoon of mayonnaise, a little lime, and parsley. Stuff into a bowl to set in the fridge; serve with a topping of parsley and scallion. That's it! Throw a baguette into the oven and toss up a pasta salad for the side!

The Bhuna

Bhuna chicken masala

I love chicken on bone. Chicken breast just doesn't taste as good as a yummy drumstick or a wing. I sound like a vegetarian's nightmare.

Get curry-cut skinless chicken, or be fancy and get a whole chicken and do it yourself. Dice onions; don't chop them. Heat some mustard oil and pop in a couple of green chillies, some ginger-garlic paste and the diced onions. Fry and add salt and turmeric. Add the chicken and stir vigorously. Add cumin and coriander powder, and fresh garam masala. Then add some of your favorite achar masala. I also added a drizzle of soy sauce for color. Stir in almost a cup of yogurt. Cover and let cook, stirring every 2-3 minutes. Add very little water if it gets too dry, but the idea is to make it a little dry and sticky. Serve!

This Little Piggy

Pigs in a blanket, amiright?

Get cocktail franks, or regular sized ones and cut them into threes. I refuse to make my own puff pastry, nope... Buy some. Wrap each frank with a slice of cheese (or skip the cheese like I did) and then a square of pastry, and brush a side with egg to bind the two ends together. Brush the top of the pastry with a little egg too, and maybe sprinkle some parmesan on top. Bake for 20 min and done!

Serce with a pasta salad, possibly a tomato capsicum pesto with rocket like I did. Get the pesto, or make some by blending together cashews, roasted capsicum, tomato, basil, a little lime and olive oil. Toss with your favorite pasta and greens :)

The Shukto

There's a certain type of Bengalis that love eating bitter food, and would gladly eat karela (bitter gourd) for lunch as often as possible. Even if you're not one of these weirdos, shukto is that one Bengali vegetarian dish you should know, because not only is it quintessential, it gives you bragging rights to know how to make a good one.

I made my shukto with bitter gourd, eggplant, drumsticks, raw banana, and potato. Cut long slices of each vegetable. You get these little nuggets called bori, which you need to lightly brown in oil and set aside. Soak some poppy seeds in water for about ten minutes before draining and grinding. Heat a little mustard oil and add a tiiiny pinch of ginger paste, and paanch phoron. Once the seeds sputter, add the vegetables and lightly fry. Add salt and a pinch of sugar and add a little water for simmering. Add a spoonful of ground poppy seeds. Then add half a cup of milk and a small fistful of flour. Mix, cover and let cook till the potato is done and the gravy is at the right consistency. Now add the fried bori and simmer for another 5 minutes before taking off the heat. Serve with hot rice!

The Meze

Finish off the week with a meze platter!

I think most meze platters are incomplete without kibbeh on the plate, but I'll do a kibbeh recipe later sometime. Meanwhile...

Homemade hummus with grilled eggplant, feta, stuffed olives, pita chips and carrot batons.

THE HUMMUS

If you're one to eat lots of this, the $4 dip with not even 25% of this quantity can get expensive. This takes 5-10 minutes to make so go make some!

Throw into the blender a standard can of boiled chickpeas (around 400g?) with a big spoonful of tahini and a whole lime. Grind while slowly drizzling in olive oil and maybe a little water (to avoid using too much olive oil). Add salt, garlic and paprika to taste. Stop when you're happy with the texture.

THE EGGPLANT

Slice eggplant, coat in salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, oregano and paprika and pan-fry in barely any oil (or grill) on both sides till a little blackened. Chop up some tomatoes, onions and coriander and mix with lime to serve on top of the eggplant slices.

THE REST

Cut bite-sized pieces of feta and slices of salami or any cured meat. Blanch long slices of carrots for a couple of minutes to soften them just a little. Cut up pita, brush with olive oil and pop in the oven for 10 minutes (I used leftover tortilla chips at home).

You get stuffed olives in the market, but for a DIY, make a garlic chilli mixture and stuff into a plastic bag. Cut a hole in a corner and use to squeeze mixture into each pitted olive. Marinate these olives in olive oil and chilli flakes.

Serve prettily and get to chompin'!

The Ensalada

... Con pollo, because chicken is my life.

Bread and bake some chicken, and make a little homemade salsa (salsa recipe in previous posts). Boil beans. Add onto lettuce boiled beans, chopped onions and peppers, chicken pieces, salsa, garlic salt, chopped avocado, cabbage, carrots, coriander and maybe even corn. I also added a few strips of oven-toasted tortilla. Garnish with a sprinkling of parmesan. Mix and eat! Super-low calorie and so yummy!