Baked Egg with Vegetable Hash and Spinach Salad.

BAKED EGG WITH VEGETABLE HASH AND SPINACH SALAD

A healthy and delicious brunch is what one can treat himself with to unwind after a crazy schedule at work. Egg , hash and salad is a classic example of a filling and satisfying hungry souls.

Ingredients : (Serves 4)
For Baked Egg : 5 eggs , 1/2 cup milk , Salt to taste ,black pepper , 1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese
For Hash : 2 large potatoes , black Pepper , salt to taste , 1/4th cup chopped green onion ,
1/4th cup button mushroom , 2 tbspn olive oil.
For Salad : 2 handfuls of baby spinach , 2 tspn lemon juice , 1 tspn vinegar , 1 tspn honey , 1/2 tspn toasted sesame seeds , pepper , salt to taste , 1 tbspn olive oil ,
Toasted peanuts , croutons , pistachios or any crunch per your choice.

Procedure :
For Baked Egg : Preheat oven at 450 degrees. Grease a 2 inch deep baking sheet with butter. Break 5 eggs in a large bowl . Add the milk , salt pepper and whisk them together to blend all the ingredients well. Mix the Swiss cheese. Pour the liquid into the greased baking sheet and place it uncovered in the oven for 20 minutes. The eggs fluff up and turns golden brown on top indicating that its ready.
For Hash : Peel and grate to large potatoes. Sprinkle and apply salt to the grated potatoes. Place them on a muslin cloth and squeeze out all the water that the potato has released. Heat olive oil in a nonstick flat pan and saute chopped green onion and mushroom for a minute or two. Salt the potatoes again to taste as the salt sprinkled earlier drains away with the water. Add the salted potatoes to the pan and mix well with the mushroom and green onion. Spread the mixture throughout the surface of the pan. Cover and let cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Place a plate on top and flip the hash on the plate. Gently slide the uncooked side back onto the pan so that the other side also caramelizes. Cover and let cook for another 10 minutes. This helps brown both sides of the hash.

For Salad : To make the vinegrate mix honey , olive oil , lemon juice , vinegar , salt to taste and pepper in a small mixing bowl.Place baby spinach in a salad bowl and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds . Add peanuts , pistachios , croutons or crunch of your choice to the spinach . Drizzle the vinegrate over the the spinach. Mix well.

To serve : Cut the baked egg in a quart size piece and the hash as well. Place the baked egg first and the hash on top. Serve salad on the side. A healthy brunch retreat is ready to serve.

Vegetable Kung Pao

VEGETABLE KUNG PAO.

Kung Pao is a classic dish in Szechuan cuisine. Although chicken is traditionally used, seafood items such as shrimp or scallops, or other meats such as beef or pork, are sometimes used in place of the chicken (although typically only a single meat or seafood is used). It can also be prepared with tofu instead of meat. Vegetarians may exclude meat out of the recipe , as it is , in this recipe.

Ingredients :

2 tbspn Oil , 1/2 tspn finely chopped garlic , 1/2 tbspn finely chopped ginger ,

2 cups coarsely chopped vegetables ( like onion , carrot , green beans ,

corn niblets , zucchini , tofu , broccoli , cauliflower , mushroom , spring onions ) ,

Salt to taste , 2 tspn corn starch , 1/2 tspn crushed black pepper, roasted peanuts.

Sauce Concoction : 1 cup water , 1 tspn red chilly flakes , 2 tspn sugar , 3 tspn white vinegar , 4 tspn soy sauce .

Procedure :

Mix all the ingredients for sauce concoction.

Heat Oil in on high heat , add ginger garlic till they change color. Then add onion and stir well . Add the mix of the coarsely chopped veggies. Do not turn down the heat so that they get a little charred where the veggies touch the bottom of the hot wok. Make sure you stir at regular intervals. Do not overcook . It helps maintain the crunch in the veggies. After about 5 minutes stirring on high heat sprinkle about 2 tspn corn starch and add the concoction to the veggies.

The corn starch sprinkled on the veggies acts as a thickening agent for the concoction. The sauce then coats the veggies and brings the shine and the taste. Sprinkle roasted peanuts and spring onions on top.
Vegetable Kung Pao can be served as an entree or a side with Rice or Noodles.

Spaghetti in Peanut Sauce.

SPAGHETTI IN PEANUT SAUCE
Peanut sauce is used in Indonesian , Malaysian, Thai and Chinese cuisine. This sweet and sour sauce brings in a different taste more close to Pad Thai Noodles.

Ingredients :

1/4th Cup chopped onion , 4-5 cloves garlic , 1 tspn red chilly powder,

Salt to taste , 2 tbspn Vinegar , 1 Tbspn Sugar ,

Peanut Butter (Smooth or Chunky)

Procedure :

Blend the onion Garlic and red chilly powder together for a minute or two , to form a fine paste.

Heat the mixture on medium low heat in a sauce pan. Let it simmer for some time. Add the vinegar , Salt to taste , sugar , and a generous tablespoon full of peanut butter. You may use smooth or chunky peanut butter. Add little water as needed. Let simmer on medium low heat for about 12-15 minutes. Taste to check if the sauce has the right combined taste of vinegar and sugar. The peanut sauce is ready to serve as a dip or to be stirred in with spaghetti.

Boil the spaghetti for about 4-5 minutes in water and salt to taste. Drizzle some oil over the spaghetti after you get them out of water to avoid them sticking to each other.

Heat oil in a pan and saute coarsely chopped onions and sliced button mushrooms. Once cooked Add the spaghetti and pour over the peanut sauce . Mix well . Add some coarsely chopped spring onion. Top it up with some roasted peanuts before you serve.

Veg. Manchurian.

VEG. MANCHURIAN

( Veg. Dumpling cooked in Indo-Chinese style. Indian Chinese cuisine is the adaptation of Chinese seasoning and cooking techniques to Indian tastes . Veg Manchurian is a good accompaniment with Szechuan Rice / Noodles , Fried Rice , Garlic Noodle and other Indo-chinese cuisine. If made in Dry gravy it can be served as a starter.)

Ingredients :

For the Dumpling :

1 cup finely chopped Cabbage , 2 tbspn finely chopped capsicum ,

1.5 tbspn Corn Starch, Salt to taste , Oil to fry.

For the Gravy :

1 tbspn oil , finely chopped Garlic and ginger 1 tspn each,

1/4th cup finely chopped onion , 2 tbspn finely chopped capsicum ,

2 tbspn finely chopped spring onion, 1/4th tspn finely choped green chillies

1 Cup water , Salt to taste , 2 tspn Soy Sauce , 3/4th tspn vinegar

1 tbspn Corn Starch.

Procedure :

Mix finely chopped cabbage , capsicum , salt and corn starch together and rub it well with hands so that the moisture from the veggies dampens the corn starch enought to bind them all together . Make small size dumplings and deepfry till they are dark in color. Fry them on medium heat so that they cook well in the center.

Heat oil in a wok . Cook garlic , onion , capsicum for about 2 mins. Add water , salt , ginger , green chillies and let it boil for about 3-5 minutes . (You may use Vegetable stock instead of water). This helps to extract the flavors from the ingredients. Add corn starch dissolved in little water , vinegar and spring onions . Garnish with Cilantro and spring onion.

Veg Manchurian is ready to serve.

Variation : To make Chicken Manchurian , marinade bite size chicken pieces in egg , salt , 2 pinch chilly powder and ginger garlic paste (for about 45 minutes). Deep fry them on medium heat. Follow the same procedure to make the gravy.

Szechuan Rice (with Homemade Sauce).

SZECHUAN SAUCE.

(Szechuan cuisine is famous for bold flavors, particularly the spiciness resulting from liberal use of chilies . This condiment can be used for stir fry , with rice/nooodles , as a dip and in many other ways.)

Ingredients :

20 Dry red chillies , 6 cloves of garlic ,

1 inch ginger finely chopped , 2 tbspn finely chopped onion ,

1 green chilly , salt to taste , 1 tbspn white vinegar ,

2 tbspn sugar , 1/4 tspn all purpose flour.

Procedure :

Soak dry red chillies for minimum 8 hours.

Grind he chillies with ginger , garlic and green chilly to form fine paste.

Heat oil in a pan cook the onion on medium heat. Add the all purpose flour and stir well till the flour looses its raw flavor. Flour is used as a thickening agent in this sauce. Then add red chilly paste , salt , sugar let it come to a boil. (You may add water to get required consistency). Add white vinegar. The sauce is ready to use or to be frozen for future use.

SZECHUAN RICE.

Heat oil in a pan and add coarsely chopped veggies as you may like (e.g carrot , green beans , cabbage , green peas) . Once the veggies are half cooked add well cooked rice and stir well. (Cooking the veggies half way through gets the crunch to the dish which many enjoy) . Add the szechuan sauce , salt to taste , a tspn vinegar. Cover the pan so that rice can absorb all the flavors. Rice is ready to serve hot.

Variation : You may use noodles instead of rice. You may also add chicken or shrimps.