Chickpea Pulusu

After blogging a few months now, my 'Recipes to Try' list has gone through the roof. I thought I should bring it down a bit so I focused on trying the things I wanted to try.
I started off with Nandita's Egg Curry and paired it with Sailu's Soya Chunks Vegetable Pulao
My hubby is not big on potato so I had to venture out and get my a bag of potatoes to make us Rooma's Jhatpat Aloo Paratha with a bit of potato curry. And since I had bit more time up my sleeve I made Zuccini Chutney. This the same recipe as my Red Capsicum Chutney but instead of capsicum, I made with zuccini. These chutneys are so handy I don't know what I did before them :)
And everyday I add more and more that I think hubby will never say, 'What! We have that again?'. And I would like to thank to all for sharing all your recipes that keeps the variety in my kitchen and the balance in my diet.
I know I am late for Meeta's Monthly Mingle but I am hoping she accepts my post as my way giving thanks to you all. So here goes.This recipe is actually my mother in law's and knowing my love for all things beany, she made this for me. It is quick and simple and great way to satisfy my urge for beans :).
Chickpea Pulusu

Ingredients
1/2 cup chickpeas- I made this with the small brown chickpeas. You can make it with any bean you prefer such as black eyed beans.
2 small onion
1 small tomato- diced.
1 small potato - diced.
4 dried red chillies- fried in a bit of oil.
1/2 cup fresh or frozen coconut
1 tsp coriander powder- freshly roasted and ground.
1/2 tsp cummin powder- freshly roasted and ground.
2 stalks fresh coriander- finely chopped.
1 lime sized ball of tamarind- soaked.
1 tsp salt- adjust as required.

Method

1. Soak the beans overnight and then pressure cook until tender
2. Grind together: coconut, fried dried red chilies, coriander powder, cummin powder, 1/2 an onion. This is your masala base.
3. In a saucepan, add the masala, salt, tamarind pulp, cooked chickpeas, potoato, remaining onion (diced), tomato. I usually reserved about 1/4 of the chickpeas which I grind and add to the pulusu to make the gravy thicker.
4. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the potato is cooked.

Baked Bean and Egg Toasties

When Nandita's (of Saffron Trail) WBB#7 theme was Baking, I scratched my head. Because I like baking and have a few muffins, breads and cakes up my sleeve but I didn't think I would eat any of it for breakfast. Even the savoury ones I couldn't really see myself getting up in the morning and baking (and of course eating!).

Then I remembered! I had come across this recipe ages and ages ago (from an unremembered source) but I had modified it to suit my indian snacking needs. Instead of the baked beans and egg, I would make them with whatever curry was leftover in the fridge for unexpected guests. This was impressive enough for my guests! :)

So I thought I shall come back to the original authentic Aussie recipe. Baked beans is a true Aussie icon. So much so that when Shane Warne went to India in 1998 for World tour he couldn't live just plain old Indian food (please note the sarcasm!) that he had to get a pallet of baked beans to keep him happy. It is a typical Aussie breakfast to have this with toast. Baked beans is nothing much more than cooked navy beans in tomato sauce. So I guess this a twist to the average baked bean breakfast. Enjoy! :)

The recipe below is for one toasty so just make as many as you need. I used a muffin tray for this, but hindsight is a beautiful thing, and I think you are better off using small souffle bowls or a texan muffin pan.

Baked Bean and Egg Toasties

Ingredients
1 bread slice- a day old is preferable and crusts are to be removed.
2 tbsp baked beans- from the can or cooked navy beans mixed in tomato sauce.
1 egg
salt and pepper- to taste.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius.
2. Wet the bread and squeeze out excess water. You may want to roll it out lightly othewise just pat with your hand.
3. Now carefully line the souffle dish or muffin tray with the bread.
   
4. Put in oven for about 15 mins or until the bread has started to regain its original texture.
5. In each shell (still in muffin tray or dish), place about two spoons of baked beans and then crack an egg on top. Alternatively you can put some left over curry.
6. Place in the oven for another 15 mins or until the egg has cooked. Or the curry has warmed up or crispy on top.
7. Remove from dishes/muffin tray and serve with salt and pepper.

Wheat Noodle Salad

Boy! What a week. As soon as I have started blogging, I have become so busy! Work is busy and home is busy! But I still have managed to cook and more importantly take photos. However it is not until Sunday night that I have managed to find some time to write up all that I have cooked.

If there is one vegetable that me and my husband would regard as our favourite (do people have favourite vegetables?) then it would have to be RED CAPSICUM. I don't know if it is the bright red colour or the sweet yet subtly hot flavour but we love it. It is also a very versatile vegetable. I can make Indian dishes and Western.

The best way to have red capsicum is roasted. And there are heaps of dishes you can make with roasted peppers. I am sure if Indira's JFI has peppers I will have no problems contributing (only prob would be picking which dish is best). Our latest favourite dish at the moment is Wheat Noodle Salad.

There is a Vegan collegue of mine, Albie, that gave me the recipe (he sourced it from somewhere). Him being the vegan and I the vegetarian we usually stick together at work lunches and order the same thing. The first time I had this dish was at his place in an all vegan barbeque. Usually when I go to a BBQ, I usually stick to salad due to fears of cross contamination but both me and Krishna were in heaven when we didn't have to ask 'Is this dish vegetarian?'

I hope that you all enjoy it as much as we have.

Wheat Noodle Salad

Ingredients
3 Red Capsicums
250g Dried Wheat Noodles
350g Snake Beans (any green bean will do. I usually use string beans if I have them or frozen string beans.) - steamed and chopped into bite sized pieces
1 small red onion - sliced
2 tbsp Toasted Seasame Seeds
1/2 cup parsley or coriander - coarsely chopped

Dressing Ingredients
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 peanut oil (I usually use a few table spoons rather than this. I guess use as much as it suits you)
1 tsp seasame oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar (you can find this in chinese grocery stores)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar

Method

1. Roast the capsicums. To do this I just cut deseed the capsicums, quarter them and spray a bit of oil on them and put them in the grill.
2. Grill until they are black.
3. Take them out of the grill while they are still hot and put in a plastic bag or in a bowl and cling wrap it. This is to sweat them a bit.
4. Once they are cool (or well sweated) peel the skin off and cut into strips.
5. Add all ingredients for the dressing in a jar and shake well.
6. Meanwhile cook the noodles according the packet.
7. Gently toss all ingredients with the dressing.

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