Grubbs n Critters

July 8, 2017

Monthly Mystery Munchies #27 with Gen

Have you been told to keep calm and curry on? Because for the wellness of all human kind, good curry (needs) no hurry? Could anyone ever get all curried away?

As you can already tell, the theme for this month cannot be that hard to guess. It’s not just curry mind you, but when the word curry is being used in tandem with food, you bet it will usually be synonymous with Indian cuisine.

Because. That’s just the way it is. With Indian as our chosen theme, it’s all about the spices. It’s that aroma, that fragrance, that satisfaction…mmmmm.

Here’s what Gen made using no less than 10 different types of spices for her Lamb Rogan Josh:

In her words:

Give me any excuse to throw it down in the kitchen and I will take it. I know a lot of people don’t like to fuss, but I was in my element in the kitchen, trying various dishes for hours at a time, and after a stressful couple of months, I was blissing out on cinnamon, cardamom, masala, cloves, you name it. What a joy this past month has been! Oh, and my house smelled amazing! I’m sure my neighbours thought I was setting up a spice factory. I would absolutely be Ginger Spice, because I had that in abundance. Aah yes, I do like abundance of a culinary nature.

If you have a smanzy-fancy plate like the one Gen has in her picture, use it! There’s something about well-plated food – it draws you IN to the dish in which it will strangely expand your palate. (I love, love her plate by the way!)

Before you start grimacing thinking this is an impossible task, don’t be! Gen’s Lamb Rogan Josh does NOT require you to slave for hours in the kitchen. By her own admission, you can do this within 45 minutes.

Don’t believe me? You now have my permission to click away from my blog and pop over to Gen’s Lamb Rogan Josh Recipe like pronto because I am certain that her recipe (and don’t forget mine!) is (are) all you”ll need to satisfy your craving for Indian food.

Bon Appetite! Or as said in Hindi āp kā khānā svādiṣṭa ho!Google says so.

Follow Gen on Instagram here and me @Ann Grubbs ‘n Critters

Monthly Mystery Munchies #27: Indian(Bengali)-style Spicy Eggs

Category: Monthly Mystery Munchies

This month’s theme came about from a craving in the form of Indian food. Though I do cook some sort of Indian-influenced dishes every now, what I make would be the usual Singapore-style cooking like my Chicken Curry and Potato Curry.

It’s hardly authentic Indian; more like comfort food I grew up with.

Here in the Netherlands and within the location we live in, I haven’t seen any Indian restaurants around. I have a feeling that the demand for for it is not as hot as it was back in Asia. Or in England for that matter.

As such, we don’t get to feast on proper Indian cuisines as often as well. The kind where it’s hot, spicy and full of strong flavours that makes the dish authentically Indian. The kind that makes you go weak in the knees. Bummer.

So every once in a while (thank heavens for every once in a while!), the craving comes creeping in. And when we want it, we want it all and we want.it.now.

Inspired by a Bengali dish I found on Pinterest only by looking at the pictures, I thought I’d give this Spicy Egg Curry a spin Grubbs ‘n Critters style without losing the originality of this made-at-home dish.

The thing with Indian dishes is that they usually are made with a variety of spices. There is no way around it and with my love for spices, that’s just the way I like it. Spices make your food so, so good.

This one comes with about 13 different spices, with a little bit more time needed to braise the sauce. While it sounds pretty daunting, it really is not as bad as it looks. And, as we always say with curries, “good curry, no hurry!”

Indian-Style Spicy Eggs

2017-05-08 04:55:20

Serves 4

Spicy egg curry braised in onions and tomato-based gravy infused with 13 types fo different spices would make you go weak in the knees!

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Prep Time

40 min

Cook Time

40 min

Total Time

1 hr 20 min

Prep Time

40 min

Cook Time

40 min

Total Time

1 hr 20 min

Ingredients

8-10 hard boiled eggs, peeled
2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic
2.5 inches fresh ginger
2-3 fresh tomatoes, chopped
3-4 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
2 tspn cumin powder
half tspn nutmeg powder
1 tbsp turmeric powder
2-3 tspn red chilli powder
1 tspn cumin seeds
4 cardamoms
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
2 tspn black mustard seed
1 tbsp mustard sauce
4 tbsp chilli-olive oil
6 tbsp olive oil (for frying boiled eggs)
2 tbsp pepper
half tspn sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat oil in the pan. Add the black mustard seeds till they pop. Then stir in add mustard sauce. mix for about a minute then add the boiled eggs.
Fry with a pinch of salt and turmeric powder till dark and golden. Strain and set aside
In a deep pan, heat chilli oil and add the mustard sauce. Add all the whole spices. Once the spices start to give out fragrant, add the thinly sliced onion.
Caramelise till they turn dark brown
Add in ginger and garlic. Continue frying
Add tomatoes, turmeric, chilli, sugar, bay leave. fry till oil separates
Add cumin and nutmeg..Continue stirring
Pour some water and braise for about 20 minutes then add about 1 cup and bring to boil.
Cover and simmer over a small fire. Add coriander
Add fried hard boiled eggs. Stir for about 2- minutes.
Serve hot with rice.

Notes

The original recipe used ginger-garlic paste usually bought ready-made available in supermarkets. I've substituted it with using fresh garlic and ginger due to my personal preference for fresh ingredients as the paste here are usually commercially made with preservatives.

Adapted from Let's Talk Food

Grubbs n Critters https://grubbsncritters.com/

Feeling inspired yet? Let’s hop over to our Recipe-Goddess Gen toiling over at her dish all the way in South Africa and have a peek at her Indian cuisine for this month!

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Monthly Mystery Munchies features every first Friday of the month in collaboration with Gen, Author of Eat, Play, Clove. Stay tuned with next month’s edition from the Grubbs ‘n Critters’ Kitchen!

Onward to the Next Half Year!

Category: Rant and Thoughts

Fourth day into July. Already.

That’s half a year gone. With another half-year to sprint towards, onward and forward. There’s no end to this sprint, really. For as long as there’s life, we’ll be sprinting.

We’ll be running our own life’s marathon, albeit in our own pace in ways that we only know how. There’s only one thing to do when we fall during the sprint: we get back up. There’s no other way; unless we got a heart attack while at it, drop dead and perish.

No, I have never ran a marathon and I have no desire to. Plus my knees would hate me for it.

Still if you think about it, life in itself IS a marathon isn’t it? Except that it does differ in speed and pace of the individual runners. Some would eye on the prize, others for the sheer experience and a few joining in just for the ride. Some (like me), would prefer not run at all and would rather be on the side to pass the water along.

After all, who and what are they running for? What exactly are they after?

If I have a crystal ball, I’d love to be looking into my future. I’d love to know what I’ll be running towards and what my first few check-in points are before I continue on. Except that I have none of those crystal shit.

And if I do have one, it’s kind of broken.

Because all I’m seeing is a murky terrain, blurry headlights and not the tiniest flagpole in sight.Perhaps I should just be reading tea leaves instead; I hear they could give a rather accurate fortune telling.

The only question is, should it be a Pickwick, Lipton or Twinnings?

The weather has been pretty moody these few days.That and it’s getting dark ever so slightly earlier by the day. It ought to be summer, but instead we have been greeted with lots of grey clouds and rain. Not a weather I mind too much to be honest.

It’s my kind of weather – made for a pensive mood and nonsensical thoughts. Best accompanied by a warm cup of hot chocolate topped with Dutch marshmallows.

It’s hard to focus. There’s just too many distractions, yet it still is essential to continue this sprint with our hearts, minds and eyes open wide as we chart out sprints in life. Beware of karma.

Here’s to the next half year. Prost!

What’s your next sprint? What would you like it to be?