BEGUN MURGI BHAAT

This was our last Monday's dinner. After having Vangi Bath at MTR last week; I knew I had to make a spicy rice for my family that would have FRIED EGGPLANT in it. Some of the people around would know last year I tried a BRINJAL RICE at home just watching the photos people shared, neither did I taste VANGI BATH at that time. I always had the wish inside to try all kinds of South Indian Rice meals as sooner as possible. The thing is; last week I had FRIED EGGPLANT RICE, KARNATAKA STYLE for the first time in life and fell for it! If I have loved some thing, I have to prepare it for my family. Now, my family would not have something like "begun bhaat" alone; they cannot. So, I got this plan, so that we do not need anything else with this CHICKEN & FRIED EGG PLANT SPICED RICE. It is a MEAL in itself and I did not mind naming it BEGUN MURGI BHAAT. I had used a freshly made SPICE POWDER without following any recipe of vangi bath powder. Before the man could shout at me with regards to the spice level; I told him whilst serving the dinner about it. He definitely liked it; jokingly told Cristine that her ma'am is trying to kill them feeding spicy food. I have always maintained that it is the oil that is villainous to our body, the most! It feels sad not to have the son around during meal times; else cooking is always a thing of pleasure for me; specially trying out a new dish is kind of an adventure to me. It is really very sad to have mango without placing a plate of it on the son's lap. I got mango home after three to four months and had it without the son around; may be so they did not taste that sweet, although I got the THAI HONEY MANGO variety. 

I like any variety of mango if it is sweet, the son too. The man prefers the Indian varieties. I think fruits should be eaten seasonal and I will wait for few more months for the summer to come. I was having the mango just an hour back after having two big egg rolls stuffed with broccoli, carrot, onion with a drizzle of sriracha mayo atop. The senior also took egg rolls in his lunch box; all prepared with store bought parathas. I do not know what the son ate last night or before that or what he will be eating waking up next. He eats well but mumma cannot feed him, the pain is there. 

I do not know how could I have two egg rolls. I do a sixteen hours of intermittent fasting but eat so much in the eight hours window. I have asked Cristine to prepare some spicy semolina appe for my evening tea. Appe pan and the oven's bake & grill mode gifts you less guilt fries & fritters. Like yesterday, I did an eighteen hours of intermittent fasting; had about 7 km of walk locally and ate at the food court, at the back of our condo a bowlful of Eee-Mee which has noodles, mince meat, egg, greens; costs 3$ and then had a sugar free ginger tea with a tea stall kind biscuit from the Indian Muslim stall just beside. Then I headed back home, took a good shower, sat and waited for the man to come back home. 

 I do not get bored, I just miss the son, miss cooking for my child. Today, I did not go out, on days, I write a new blog post, I do not go out. I enjoy this exercise called writing. I have changed the bag I carry whilst walking, using now one from the son's backpacks. 

Today's BLOG SHARE needs more time to compile, the freshly made spice; then the rice, the eggplant fries, boiling of the CHICKEN; all taken together got us this NON-VEGETARIAN MEAL with CHICKEN, RICE, EGG PLANT, GROUND SPICES. I named it BEGUN MURGI BHAAT.

Yeppie, Cristine is doing some spicy semolina fritters in appe pan. Tea / Coffee time is a big thing for me, if only the senior was a food lover.

Let us proceed with the recipe! I did not follow any vangi bath spice powder recipe for doing this dish, I was not willing to give anyone, any credit for this, except the fact MTR makes it really good and it is the sole inspiration for me to prepare this.

 INGREDIENTS [FOR THE SPICE MIXTURE]

CURRY LEAF : 10-12

CUMIN SEED : 1/2 TSP

CORIANDER SEED : 1/2 TSP

BLACK PEPPER CORN : 1 TSP

FENNEL SEED : 1/2 TSP

BENGAL GRAM / CHANA DAL : 1 TBSP

PEANUT : 2 TSP

DRY RED CHILLI : 3-4

INGREDIENTS [FOR THE RICE DISH]

THE FRESHLY MADE SPICE MIXTURE

COOKED RICE : 1 BIG BOWLFUL [MADE OF 1 COFFEE MUG OF RAW RICE; I USED COOKED BASMATI]

CHICKEN : 350 GM [I USED THE MEATY BREAST PORTION]

SMALL EGGPLANT / BRINJAL / BEGUN : 2-3

SLICED ONION : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP

CHOPPED TOMATO : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 2-3

CURRY LEAF : 7-8

CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP

MUSTARD SEED : 1/4 TSP

CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/2 TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP

GINGER PASTE : 11/2 TSP

GARLIC PASTE : 1 TSP

LEMON JUICE : 2-3 TBSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 4-5 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

I had cut the chicken breast into cubes, washed and marinated with salt, lemon juice & crushed black pepper for 45 minutes.

Then, I had added one coffee mug of water to the vessel and boiled the chicken for 10-12 minutes at low heat.

We will reserve the chicken stock. We have some cooked rice ready in hand. We can use any variety that is not sticky.

In a heated wok, I dry roasted for 3-4 minutes, the usually available spices in my kitchen; cumin+coriander+fennel seeds+black pepper corn+dry red chillies+curry leaved+ Bengal Gram dal+peanuts and powdered them together in a blender; pausing in between.

We have the washed & chopped tomato, sliced onion & slitted green chillies ready on the kitchen top.

We will heat the oil in a wok, lightly fry the curry leaves and take them out.

We have cut each eggplant into 4 pieces, washed them and marinated with a little of salt.

We have fried them until 70% done and had taken out.

We have then tempered the oil with cumin & black mustard seeds; added the washed, sliced onion to it.

Once the onion turned brown, we had added the ginger & garlic paste and stir fried for 2 minutes.

Then, we had added the salt & turmeric and fold in well; stirred for 2 minutes.

We have added the washed tomatoes now and cooked until soft.

We had added the boiled chicken along with the stock and cover cooked for 10 minutes.

We had opened the cover and added the slitted green chillies & the fried curry leaves and gave a stir.

There after we had added the partially fried  eggplants and half of the spice powder.

We had given a gentle stir and added the cooked rice and the rest of the spice powder.

We had gently folded in the entire thing, stir cooked cautiously for 2-3 minutes and we are done with the BEGUN MURGI BHAAT. We had a peanut salad alongside; please get some raita too; yogurt helps digestion.