Years ago, I discovered an Omlet pulao recipe and have since experimented with various modifications. Now, I’ve perfected a version that my family loves, which I’d like to share for future use. I usually make this on busy weekdays for a delicious dinner. Serve with a raita and a simple salad for a complete meal.
Omelette Pulao Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
1 can thick coconut milk
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 tsp chili powder
1 tea spn garam masala
1 tea spn fresh garlic-ginger paste
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped tomato
Oil
Coriander leaves for garnishing
For Omlet:
2 eggs
1/2 tea spn chilli powder
2 tbl spn onion
Oil
Coriander leaves
Salt
Method:
Heat oil in a pan and add cardamom and cloves.
Add onion and ginger-garlic paste and fry for few minutes.
Add chopped tomato; cook until it turns mushy.
Stir in chili powder and garam masala; fry briefly.
Add washed basmati rice to the pan(if needed, add more water); stir-fry for few minutes.
Pour in coconut milk, season with salt, and cook till rice is done.
Garnish with coriander leaves.
Prepare an omelette using eggs, coriander leaves, chili powder, and chopped onion; cut into small squares once cooked.
Mix omelette pieces into cooked rice gently before serving.
Living in Kansas for more than 9 years now, we have made some very close friends. We feel it is such a blessing when we are so far away from family. One of our friends invited us for dinner during Thanksgiving holidays. I was supposed to take a dish, but I had no energy to make anything that day. So my friend prepared the whole dinner. The dish that I loved most was a eggs in  coriander leaves curry. I remember I had tasted a similar curry sometime before, but don’t know where. She shared her recipe with me. I tried it at home with few changes and we loved it.
Pictorial: Boil eggs and cut them into half. Â Make the spice paste. Â Fry onion and add the ground paste. Â Make the wheat flour paste. Add eggs tomatoes and the wheat flour paste to the curry. Â
Eggs in Green Curry
Boiled eggs cooked in a flavorful coriander leaves curry.
5 years ago, if someone had told me I would be a big fan of cast iron, I would have laughed. “There is no way” I would have said. I had this myth in my mind that cast iron takes a lot of oil. The first entry of cast iron in my kitchen came in the form of grill pan – I bought this after I read about it at Sig’s blog. I love this pan so much, it is perfect for grilling. But I was still not too comfy about caring for it. I guess I was doing it all wrong!. Then one day Nupur mentioned she had bought a cast iron pan and she absolutely loves it. She even posted this lovely post about cooking in cast iron. I was still skeptical. Then we visited Nupur’s family and I saw how she was using it for most of her cooking. One of the recipes that I make frequently in my cast iron skillet is this simple spicy egg fry.
So I went ahead and bought a skillet, I thought I may not use it very frequently, but wanted to give it a try. Initial few days needed little bit of patience – because you need to season them well before they become almost like non-stick. I have re-seasoned the skillet once – I had to do that because V unknowingly put it in a dish washer and next day it came out looking all rusted!.
I have been making a lot of dishes on my skillet these days. After the use, I just wash it, warm it up a bit to remove any moisture, add couple of drops of oil to it and spread the oil with a paper towel. We all love the taste of food cooked in this skillet. Our favorite has to be egg omelet – it just brings the taste up to a different level. I just use few drops of oil in cooking – if you read my blog, you have seen how little oil I use and I have no intention of changing it. Well seasoned cast iron works as good as a non-stick. Did I mention I threw away all my non-stick pans? I just have one non-stick tava with me, I may soon go for a cast-iron tava – the skillet I have is little small for dosas.
Here is one dish that I frequently make in my cast iron skillet – you can make it in any pan. This is my go-to dish on many nights when I am running out of ideas and want to make something quick and tasty. I used to throw away the yolks earlier but that is the only part Ishaan eats (if at all he eats eggs, he does not care for them too much!).
Method: Heat little oil and add onion, curry leaves, ginger, garlic. Sprinkle some salt on top and let the onions soften. Then add chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, fry for a minute. Add eggs, salt, mix well. Add tomatoes, cover the lid and let them get cooked a bit. Sprinkle coriander leaves if desired. Serve hot with chapatis or rice.
This recipe was sent to me by my friend Siva. Few days ago, while chatting with him, he mentioned that his friend had made a egg dish which he really liked. He also said I can try it out and post on the blog if I liked it. Then he also emailed the recipe to me. Since V and I both really like any dish made with eggs, I gave it a try. I made some simple changes like including curry leaves, ginger-garlic and adding chopped onions to make the gravy a little thicker.
Ingredients: 6 eggs 1 and 1/4 cup onions 6-7 curry leaves 1 tea spn mustard seeds 1 tea spn cumin seeds 1 tea spn chilli powder 1 tea spn tamarind extract or soak a lemon sized ball of tamarind in water and use the water 1/4 tea spn methi seeds 1 tbl spn ginger-garlic pieces A pinch tumeric Oil Salt
Method: Boil eggs and remove the shells. Put some deep slits on the egg. Heat oil and fry 1 cup onion, ginger, garlic till they turn brownish. Make a smooth paste. Heat a little oil and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, methi seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves, remaining onion. Fry for few minutes. Add turmeric, chilli powder, tamarind, 1/4 cup water and cook till the mixture thickens. Now add onion paste, salt and enough water to make it gravy consistency. Slowly slide the eggs into the gravy. Let it cook for about 10mins. Serve hot with rice.
We returned from our holiday trip last week. I had cleaned out the fridge before going on a week long vacation. The only available things were a couple of tomatoes and eggs. We were craving for something spicy and I made this dish similar to egg patia. Some 4 years ago, few of our friends had invited us for dinner and they had served something similar. So both these recipes were inspirations for this. I served this with rice and a simple dal.
Method: In a flat bottomed pan, heat oil and fry all spices. Then add 1/4 cup onion and fry for few minutes. Add tomato, coconut, salt. Fry till tomatoes are soft. Grind to a paste (do not add too much water. Make it chutney consistency). In the same pan, heat some more oil and fry remaining onion. Add the paste and spread it evenly in the pan. Add the eggs on top. Sprinkle little salt (masala already has salt, here only the eggs needs little more salt). Slightly poke the egg yolks. Cover and cook till the eggs set. Cut it into pieces and serve hot.
PS: If you cook the eggs too long, they become rubbery. So take it off the heat once they set.
Many times when I feel lost about what to cook, eggs come to my rescue. I like to make something new every time to keep it interesting. Recently, I tried this, where I used methi(fenugreek) in the egg curry. As I had imagined, they both were great combination. Methi egg masala with Aayi’s hot chapatis was a great combination.
Ingredients: 7 eggs 1/4 cup chopped onion 1 cup fenugreek(methi) leaves Oil Salt
For masala : 1 cup roughly chopped onion 1 cup roughly chopped tomato 4 cloves 1″ cinnamon 1 tea spn poppy seeds 1 tea spn cumin seeds 5 red chillies 1 tea spn coriander seeds 1 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut 1 tbl spn chopped garlic 1 tbl spn chopped ginger
Method: Boil the eggs and peel them. Heat oil and add cloves, cinnamon, poppy seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds. Fry for a minute. Then add onion, ginger, garlic, coconut and red chillies. Fry till onions turn translucent. Add tomatoes, salt and let it cook till tomatoes get mushy. Grind to a paste. Heat oil and add onions. Fry till they turn translucent. Add methi leaves and fry for few minutes. Pour in the ground masala and enough water to get it to required consistency. Put some deep slits on eggs and slide them into the gravy. Boil for few minutes. Serve hot.
Dried green peas are one of my favorite dried beans, they taste quite different than the fresh/frozen green peas. I like to sneak them in wherever possible. This time when I had a bunch of soaked peas, I thought of mixing them with rice to make a one pot dish. I added eggs to it as we love eggs, but this is fully optional. Fennel seeds give a very strong and nice flavor to this dish.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup dried green peas (soak overnight and pressure cook) 1 and 1/2 cups basmati rice 5 eggs (boiled, peeled and cut into pieces) (Optional) Ghee 2 Bay leaves 2 cardamom Salt
Method: Heat oil and add cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, onion, ginger, garlic and fry for few minutes. Add tomato, little salt and let it cook till tomato becomes slightly mushy. Add chillies and mix again. Grind it to a paste (I left it a little coarse, make a smooth paste if desired). Heat ghee and add cardamom and bay leaf. Add washed rice and fry for few minutes. Add paste, mix. Add salt, cooked peas and eggs (if using). Pour in about 3 cups water (be careful while adding water, if cooked peas have a lot of water, modify the water added at this step). Cook till done. Serve hot on its own or with raita.
If I ask V any time what he wants in his lunchbox, his immediate reply is Egg Biryani. For me, it is very difficult to stick to one recipe. So I try to make it a little different each time. That makes lunches more exciting. I made this couple of days ago and it was very delicious. The recipe is based on a Egg rice that I had tasted many years ago.
I have got some kind of beetroot craze these days. I add it to many dishes and I love the sweetish taste that it gives. If you are not a beetroot lover, leave it out completely.
Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped beetroot 1 and 1/2 cups basmati rice 2 cardamom 1/4 cup chopped onion Oil/Ghee 5-6 curry leaves 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 5 eggs Salt
Paste : (Fry everything in little oil and make a paste. Do not add too much water). 2 cloves 1″ cinnamon 5 red chillies 1/2 tea spn shah jeera 1/2 tea spn poppay seeds(khus khus) 1 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 cumin seeds 1/4 cup onion 1/4 tomato 2 tbl spn coconut 1 tea spn garlic 1 tea spn ginger
Method: Cook rice with whole cardamoms, so that each grain is separate(I use little less than 3 cups water and cook the rice in cooker). Keep aside. Hard boil the eggs. Heat a little oil and fry all the spices listed under paste. Then add ginger, garlic, onion. Fry till onion turns brownish. Add coconut, tomatoes and fry for few minutes. Grind to a thick paste. Heat ghee/oil in a big thick bottomed pan. Add cumin seeds, curry leaves. Add onions and fry till they turn brownish. Add beetroot pieces, a little water, cover the lid and let it cook. Now add the paste, salt and fry for new minutes. Peel the eggs and cut into small pieces (you can also cut them in halves, I use only egg whites and cut them in bite size pieces). Mix well. Now add rice and mix well. Serves hot.
Nupur sent me a lovely package of very fresh & fragrant Kolhapuri masala. I had totally forgotten the aroma of this masala which I had tasted in Belgaum at my pachi’s place. I have always relished this aromatic masala and continue to do so. Thanks a lot Nupur.
Now, I wanted to experiment with this masala. I used it in all kinds of dishes, one particular dish which I am sticking to is, this very fragrant pulav. If you don’t find this masala, you can always use goda masala or a simple garam masala. A very tasty and simple dish for the lunch box :). Leave out the egg if you are a vegetarian.
Ingredients: 1/4 cup onion 1/4 cup green beans 1/2 cup potatoes 1/4 cup capsicum 3 boiled eggs 1 cup basmati rice 3 green chillies 2 cloves 2 cardamom 1 tea spn ginger paste 1 bay leaf A pinch turmeric 1/2 tea spn kolhapuri masala/garam masala/goda masala Ghee Salt
Method: Heat ghee and add bay leaf, cardamom, cloves. Add ginger paste, finely chopped green chillies and all vegetables. Fry for few minutes. Add rice and fry again for few minutes. Add masala powder, turmeric and fry again. Now add water(about 1 and 3/4 cup), salt and cook till done.
Peel eggs and cut into small pieces (I discard yolks and just use white part). In another pan, heat some ghee and add little salt, pepper and tumeric. Saute them for a few minutes. Mix with rice before serving.
I call it newbie’s egg biryani. It cannot get easier than this and even the people who have never cooked biryani can get it right. So if you want a first step in biryani making, you can very well try this.
This was created out of necessity. We both are great fans of Mishmash’s Egg biryani. It must be one of the best egg biryanis I have ever tasted. Ever since I found it, I cooked it very regularly. V started asking for this in his lunchbox. Though, according to me, Mishmash’s recipe is quite simple and can easily be cooked on a working day, just out of laziness, I started simplifying it.
I have to leave for office at 8 in the morning and I can’t wake up before 6, no matter how much I try. So in 2 hrs, I cook lunch for both of us and breakfast, eat breakfast, get ready and run. I love it when I get some 15mins to sit and eat breakfast, instead of rushing through it. But then, I want to cook the biryani atleast once a week. So I started changing the recipe, so that I could get the prep work done in 15-20mins, remaining is just cooking time where I don’t need to pay attention to it.
The biryani purists may say it is not even a biryani – because of all my shortcuts. But I am okay with it. This tastes great :D. I am writing it down exactly in the order I make it, so it would be easier for newbies to follow it.
Ingredients: 1 cup basmati rice 3 eggs 3 tbl spn chopped coriander leaves 1/2 cup onion 1/2 cup tomato 2 green chillies 2-3 strands saffron 1 tbl spn yogurt 1 tea spn ginger paste 1 tea spn garlic paste 2 cloves 1 cardamom 1 tea spn biryani masala (use this or this or store bought) or goda masala Ghee Salt
Method: Take water in a vessel, slide in eggs and let them cook. Wash rice and add 1 and 1/2 cup water, cloves, cardamom, salt. Cook till water is absorbed, I cook it in cooker. Here rice gets undercooked because we are using only 1 and 1/2 cups water. While that is cooking, Chop onions, tomatoes. Chop green chillies, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves as finely as possible (do not make a paste of coriander leaves, just chop them). In a thick bottomed pan, add ghee and add onions. Fry for few minutes. Then add tomatoes, salt(be careful as rice has salt too) and the coriander-ginger-garlic-green chillies. Fry for 2-3 minutes. Keep the flame on medium. Run cold water on eggs and peel them. Cut them into 1/2″ X 1/2″ pieces. I discard the egg yolks and use only the white portion. You can even use whole egg, I like to cut them to make it easier to eat from lunchbox. Add the egg pieces to the cooking onion-tomato mixture. Add the spice powder. Tomato and onions leave lots of water, which helps in cooking rice, so do not fry for long. By this time, rice would have been done. Add the rice on top and spread yogurt on top. Spread saffron on top. Cover the lid. Keep the heat on medium-low. (cooking on low flame is very important, don’t rush this). You can keep a heavy object on top of the lid to avoid any fumes escaping (not very necessary). Cook for about 15-20mins. Switch off the heat and leave it as it is on the warm stove for another 10mins. Mix everything very carefully before serving.
