Fellini Eggs (aka Garlic Bread Eggs)

Source:  Serious Eats

Finding this recipe made me so happy!  Just when I thought I had exhausted all brunch recipes with eggs, I found this.  I felt a little guilty making this because we haven't been eating too healthy lately.  But it's cold and rainy in LA.. we needed some comfort food!

Ingredients

• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups spinach leaves
• 1/2 onion, sliced thin
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 teaspoons grated parmesan
• 1 small baguette/ sandwich roll (cut in half)
• 4-5 eggs
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream or milk
• 1-2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• Cayenne Pepper/ Red Chili Powder to taste

Directions

1. Stir together butter, garlic, and parmesan cheese
2. Spread the butter mixture on the baguette slices and broil until crispy
3. Let the baguette cool and then cube into chunks
4. Sautee onions, spainch, and tomatoes with salt, pepper, and catenne/ red chili powder
5. Whisk together eggs and heavy cream. Pour on top of onions and spinach and scramble together
6. Spray/ lightly butter a baking pan and toss together eggs mixture with cubes garlic bread pieces
7. Place dollops of ricotta cheese over the top and broil until cheese melts
8. Sprinkle more crushed pepper/ crushed red pepper before serving

Kuty's Twist

I added onions, spinach, and red chili powder to "vegify" and spice it up.

You could probably make the same dish with cubed potatoes instead of bread.  I think the garlic bread makes this dish very unique!

Orange Paneer

Source: Love & Lentils

I haven't made a paneer dish in a while, and I was kind of sick of making the usual matar paneer/ saag paneer.  After a lot of "googling" for an unusual recipe, I stumbled upon this.  I've only had orange "chicken" made from fake meat (soy), so I wouldn't know how close this was to the real thing.. but it was pretty damn good! 

 

Ingredients

• 1 package of paneer (400g/ 14oz)
• 1/2 cup corn flour
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1-2 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce*
• 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2-3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1-2 tablespoons of ginger
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons maggi hot n sweet ketchup (I used maggi masala chili sauce)
• 1-2 teaspoons red chili flakes
• 1 small red onion (chopped finely)
• 1 green pepper (chopped)
• green onions (for garnishing)

*chili garlic sauce: I did not have any of this, but this is just made of red chilies, garlic, and vinegar so I added a little bit more of these ingredients.

Directions

Fried Paneer

1. Cut paneer pieces into triangular shapes (they can be uneven chunks)
2. Combine 1/2 cup corn flour, 1/4 cup corn starch, red chili powder, and salt to make a dry mixture
3. Add in paneer pieces with some water in order to lightly cover all of the pieces.  Set aside for a few mins.
4. Shallow fry the paneer pieces until golden brown

Orange Sauce

1. Grind together chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, 2 tablespoons tomato paste, ginger, garlic, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup water.  (I mainly did this because I was too lazy to cut the garlic and ginger into small pieces)
2. Wisk in 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup water, maggi sauce, and 1 tsp redi chili flakes to the above mixture
3. Sautee red onions and green peppers
4. Add the sauce and cook for a few mins.  At this point taste the sauce.  You may need to add in more of any of the sauce ingredients in order to find a good balance between sweet and spice.
5. Combine 2 teaspoons corn starch with 1/4 cup water and add this to the sauce.
6. After 1-2 mins add the fried paneer pieces
7. Top with chopped green onions and serve with rice and a side of sauteed stir fried broccoli!

Kuty's Twist

I pretty much followed the recipe from Love & Lentils.  I ended up putting a bit too much ginger, so I had to balance it out with more orange juice and water.  The key to this dish is that you have to taste and adjust the sauce ingredients a few times in order to get it right. 

In order to make this vegan, I'm sure you can substitute paneer with tofu.  Enjoy!

Cucumber Peanut Salad

Source:  eCurry

Even though this probably is the simplest and quickest recipe I've posted to date, I must say that I am quite proud of myself for making this.  My 2012 resolution is to #1- Use up whatever I have in my pantry, and #2- Not waste any food in my fridge.  Ironically, Food Network had a show yesterday called The Big Waste which addressed America's food waste issue.  According to the show, 40% of food in America goes uneaten – 200 pounds per person per year!!! I am ashamed to admit that I am guilty of contributing to this.. well not anymore!

Unfortunately my grocery shopping has been driven by the recipes I'm inspired to make.   Most of the time these ingredients end up in the back of my fridge and get forgotten.  One victim of this is the poor cucumber.  I always buy them hoping to make yummy sandwiches throughout the week, but end up with leftovers which slowly scoot to the back of the fridge.. but not today!

Ingredients

• 1/2 - 1 chopped cucumber (use your leftovers!)
• chopped red onion (use your leftovers!)
• lime juice
• coriander
• chopped peanuts
• red chili powder
• chat masala
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Lime juice dressing: Grind together lime juice and coriander
2. Combine rest of ingredients above with lime juice dressing

Kuty's Twist

I simplified the recipe from eCurry.  You can add other veggies such as carrot and raw mango.  Note that I didn't specify measurements above since it's really all up to how much of the ingredients you have and what your taste is.

How easy was that? :)