Angel's Baked Eggs

Savoury, healthy and classic baked eggs

My recipe

The blissful part of a weekend is waking up late, 😉 past the breakfast hour, too starving to wait for lunch and so brunch it often is.. 😊 Free of all week's hurries; chit chatting with family and slurping delicious food together!! 😊

This dish is something that's often on the menu for a lazy weekend brunch at home. But, you could also serve this savoury, baked egg dish packed with a healthy amount of veggies for breakfast, lunch or dinner.. An any time meal! 😊

No! this is not Shakshouka nor Mexican eggs. Neither is this dish inspired from them.. It's The Angel's baked eggs.. 😊 The name has a surreptitious tale of a little girl who bravely fought and surpassed a nightmare solitary! 😌 

Ingredients :
Bell peppers (yellow, orange, green and red)	-		1/2 of each
Button Mushrooms	-		1 cup chopped
White or brown onion	-		1/2 or whole
Tomato	-		1 large
Cilantro / Coriander leaves	-		A handful (coarsely chopped)
Sesame seeds	-		1 teaspoon
Salt	-		To taste
Black pepper (freshly ground)	-		As required
Dried Oregano	-		1/2 teaspoon
Black olives	-		1/2 cup
Fresh eggs	-		5 or 6 nos.
Oil or butter	-		As required
Preparation Method :

Wash and chop all the Veggies. You could either bake the eggs in the oven or slow cook them on the stove itself. If you prefer baking it in the oven, set to preheat at 180 degrees now. Make sure you use an oven-proof skillet in that case.

 I simply loveeee colours in my food! Natural, healthy colours I mean! :)

Roughly crush the sesame seeds to release the flavour and oils. In a hot skillet, pour in some olive oil or melt some butter and add the sesame seeds.

When it begins to sputter, add the onions and sauté on high for half a minute. Then add the Mushrooms and sauté until all the water evaporates and the onion and mushroom being to brown.

Then add the chopped peppers. Season with salt and pepper. If you like the dish a bit spicy, add more pepper.

Add the dried oregano and sauté until the bell peppers too are well roasted and the oil begins to clear at the bottom of the skillet.

Move the veggies to a plate. and retain the oil in the skillet and reduce the heat to medium.

Lay the sliced tomatoes on the pan and cook for a minute. Then turn them over.

Sprinkle some cilantro over the tomatoes. Season with a pinch of salt and some pepper.

Top that with the roasted veggies and top with some olives.

Make five or six gentle depressions on the surface of the veggie mix with your spatula and crack open an egg each into them, so that the yolk sits well into the veggies.

Sprinkle on the rest of the chopped cilantro and if baking, bake in the oven for 5-6 minutes if you'd like your yolks half done, or 8-10 minutes, if you like your yolks almost well done. If you prefer cooking on the stove itself, reduce the heat to low and cover with a tight lid and slow cook for 5 minutes.

Then turn off the heat and do not open the lid until another 5 minutes. Allow it to cook in the remaining heat inside.

This is a meal in itself. If you like to have some carbohydrates, you could have it with breads of your choice. 

Enjoy with a refreshing glass of smoothie / fresh fruit juice / coffee or tea. If you'd like to have an elaborate meal, you could serve it with garlic bread! It's awesome! :) 

Szechuan MaPo Tofu

  Chinese Recipe - My Version 

While we travel to any country in east Asia, we usually opt to eat only vegetarian and occasionally seafood, because you never know what meat you may gulp down.. I have learnt from experience, that even with ordering seafood, you may sometimes end up with being served crocodile meat or sea snakes.. 😉 It has happened to us!! 😁 So, we are very careful while placing an order at restaurants and quite often have translators with us to help. But, I do collect recipes of non-veg dishes, so that I can try them out on getting back home. Since, I like tofu, this was a recipe our Chinese friends recommended as a popular Chinese tofu dish and they also know that Indians love spicy food, thus a spicy hot tofu. 

Ingredients :
Organic Fresh Soft Tofu	-		250 gms
Chicken mince	-		1 cup
Szechuan pepper (ground)	-		3/4 teaspoon
Dried red chilli	-		1 tablespoon
Freshly ground black pepper	-		As preferred
Crushed Garlic	-		3 cloves
Red chilli	-		1 no.
Scallion (white cut diagonally and green cut into 1" long pieces)	-		2 stems
Black bean Stir fry sauce	-		2 tablespoons
Extra virgin Olive oil	-		2 tablespoon
Light Soya sauce	-		1 tablespoon
White rice vinegar	-		1 teaspoon
Water	-		1 cup
Corn flour	-		1 tablespoon
Salt	-		To taste

In the actual recipe, you do not need dried red chilli and you need chilli bean sauce and not black bean sauce. I didn't get chilli bean sauce this time from my grocery store. Anyway, chilli bean sauce also has black bean and in addition it has chilli, that's all. so no worries. Also, traditionally sesame seed oil or peanut oil is used, but, I personally don't like the smell of both. So, I used olive oil. This recipe requires Soft Tofu.

Preparation Method :

Drain the tofu and dice them into 1 cm cubes. In a wok, heat 2 tablespoons of oil. I like Olive oil infused with garlic. It smells great. Add the ground chicken and sauté. Add pepper. Add the black bean sauce, mix well and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Throw in the scallions, red chilli, garlic and sauté. Drizzle in the white rice vinegar. Add the water and cook for 5 minutes on high. Blend chilli in some water and add the mix to the gravy. Add soya sauce.  Gently add the tofu. Remember that it is soft tofu. If you do not handle it gently, it will crumble.  Blend corn flour in some lukewarm water, and pour into gravy and stir very gently until gravy thickens.  Throw in the spring onions. Sprinkle the crushed Szechuan pepper and turn off flame. Serve with steamed rice.

Serves two

Beginner's Guide to BALCONY GARDENING

"Gardening is a blissful and tranquil experience altogether." :) Well, those of you who have had their own gardens would definitely be able to relate to my statement. However, I have met many, who are literally afraid to garden, either because they fear they need to know a lot and invest a lot into having a garden of their own or they need a lot of "SPACE". Nooo! you don't!! All you really require is a safe window sill or a balcony would be even great!! A couple of pots, some potting mix, some seeds or vegetable cut-outs from your kitchen and of course water is all you really need for a simple start!! :D If it works for you, and is indeed developing a tranquil experience, well, then it's the most blissful and satisfying hobby ever! :) 

Well, if you have been wanting to garden, but, don't know where to really start from.. Then, here you are.. at the right place and at the right time of the year to start anew! :) Your very own Garden can soon turn into a reality.. :)

To transplant a plant into a pot, gently slide the plant out of the container, by lightly pressing the sides and tapping the bottom to loosen the root ball if necessary. Then, into a pot with potting mix, make a small hole and set the seedling into it and fill in around the roots with soil. Water it moderately and then add more soil if needed to completely fill the hole.

Different seeds germinate differently. Therefore, even transplanting time would vary from plant to plant. 

Some plants do not really require much care. But, some plants require time to time fertilizing, shielding from insects and diseases and even artificial insemination during the flowering stage. Well, that's an entirely different story altogether, which is truly a learning experience and nothing that needs to be panicked about. Let's not complicate things at the beginning itself.. ;)

Another option is to buy seedlings, perennials or fully grownup plants from plant nurseries or the farmer's market. The advantage of doing so, is that you can personally inspect the plants to make sure they are healthy. However, here's a guide to inspecting perennials that are displayed and picking the best for your garden.

1.      Do not pick a plant with yellow or wilted leaves. This is an indication of illness or improper watering.

2.      Frail stemmed plants or a plant with its roots crawling out of the pot bottom are signs that the plant has been growing in a starting pot for far longer than it should. Avoid such plants.

3.      If you discover weeds in a container, chances are that it has already begun slowly robbing the plant of its required nutrients. Avoid them too.

4.      Do not pick a perennial which already has many flowers. This could be an indication that the plant has exhausted most of its energy into blooms and may easily die off when transplanted. 

As soon as you have brought home your new perennials, water them slightly and allow them to settle into the new atmosphere for a day or two. 

Then, fill a clean pot with pot mix and prepare a planting hole. Gently slide the plant out of the container, by lightly pressing the side of the container and tapping the bottom to loosen the root ball if necessary.  But, never remove any parts of the root. Set the seedling into the hole and fill in around the roots with soil. Press down the surrounding soil so that it is firmly anchored in place. Water it moderately, yet, well soaked and then add more soil if needed to completely fill the hole. If you are using a watering hose, make sure that the force of the water does not expose out the roots of  your new plant.

Make sure you do not place the newly transplanted plant under direct sunlight for the first couple of days. Every new plant is fragile, and needs time to settle in.

Hope this post has inspired you to start your own little garden. Trust me, "Gardening is a blissful and tranquil experience altogether." :)

Wishing you a blissful gardening experience.. :) Stay Happy! :)