Kathirikai Kara Kuzhambu

I got this recipe while I was browsing for some new "try-out" dish for friends gathering event. Though I dont prefer to follow any new recipe for gatherings/potlucks and make guests as guinea pigs , I was pretty sure on this recipe that it would never go wrong. Like I thought, this one was perfect for a winter afternoon and received lots of credits.
No of Servings - 4

Ingredients

1. Eggplant - 5-6
2. Onions - 1
3. Garlic - 2-3
4. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
5. Tamarind water - Lemon size tamarind soaked in water
6. Salt - to taste
7. To grind
1. Tomato - 1 
2. Coconut - 1/4 cup 
3. Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp 
4. Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp 
5. Black Ground Pepper - 1/4 tsp
6. Channa dal - 3/4 tsp 
7. Urad dal - 3/4 tsp 
8. Red chillies - 5 
9. Curry leaves - a few
8. Tempering 
1. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp 
2. Curry leaves - a few 
3. Red chillies - 2

Method  

1. Dry roast the "To grind" ingredients and grind it to coarse paste 
2. Put "+" in egg plant and stuff it with this grinded paste.
3. Heat oil in a pan and add garlic, onions and tumeric powder. Saute onions for few mts with salt. 
4. Add the stuffed egg plants and fry in simmer till the eggplants shrink. 
5. Add the remaining paste and 1.5 cups of water. Cover the lid and let it cook for 3-4 mts
6. When the egg plants are half cooked, add the concentrated tamarind extract
7. Simmer down and let it cook  till the mixture thickens and the oil seperates out from the water. It would take 20-25 mts approximately
8. Remove the kuzhambu from the flame
9. Heat oil in another pan and add tempering items
10. Add the tempering to the kuzhambu.

Indo-Chinese Vegetable Noodles

I wanted to try something new dish as I'm bored with all south indian varieties for dinner. Indo-Chinese food varieties are very popular in India especially among kids and youth. A good reason to try :)

No of servings - 3

Ingredients 

1. Linguine or any noodles 
2. Sesame Oil - 2 tbsp 
3. Onion(chopped) - 1 
4. Carrot - 2 
5. Green/Red/Orange pepper(any) - 2 
6. Baby corn - 7-8 
7. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp  
8. Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp 
9. Egg - 1 
10. Soy sauce - 2 tbsp 
11. Teriyaki sauce - 2 tbsp 
12. Maggi hot and sweet ketch up - 3 tbsp 
13. Bamboo shoots - 7-8 
14. Tomatoes - 1 
15. Salt - to taste 
16. Oil - 2 tbsp

Method

1.  Cook noodles in water according to package instructions(approx 6-7 minutes)
2. Add salt to the boiling noodles(preferred) 
3. When its thoroughly cooked, drain and run on cold water, add sesame oil to the  noodles and keep aside 
4. Heat oil in a vok and add onions 
5. Add the ginger garlic paste to onions and fry till the onions get shiny(onions with ginger garlic paste also gives you a nice aroma) 
6. Add the carrots, pepper, babycorn, bamboo shoots one by one and allow it to cook 
7. Push veggies to one side of vok and break an egg.  
8. Scramble the egg till its cooked and mix with veggies 
9. Add the soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and maggie ketch up and mix well 
10. Toss the noddles and let the noodles coat well with the saucey mixture
11. Garnish with green onions and fresh tomatoes. If you think that you have added more sauce than to your taste buds, minimize the saucey flavor with raw tomatoes.
     

Good for parties and gatherings