Whole egg omelette

This is a recipe that takes me down memory lane, it's something that my mum would whip up in the school holidays for breakfast or if we had guests staying over this was guaranteed to make an appearance at the table for a hearty filling breakfast. Mum would traditionally serve this with paranthas - crispy buttery chapatis - and steaming cups of chai.


With this omelette as the eggs are left whole, you can leave the yolks runny or fully cooked through to your preference, either way this is definitely a tastebud pleaser. 

For this omelette it's super handy if you've got a frying pan with a lid as in the last step the use of the lid helps to cook the yolks with the help of the steam, if not you can place the pan under the grill until the yolks are cooked to your preference 

To make my whole egg omelette to serve 4 /5 people you will need:

5-7 medium eggs* ( depending on the size of your pan you may be able to fit in more or need less )
1 chopped red onion  
1/4 each of red, yellow and green bell pepper sliced 
A large handful chopped mushrooms
1 green chilli finely chopped 
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp smoked paprika 
Handful fresh chopped coriander 
1 tsp cumin seeds 

• Start by cracking the eggs carefully into a bowl ensuring the yolks stay whole and don't split. Set the bowl aside.

• In a frying pan, add a little olive oil and on a medium heat, add in the onion and cook until the onion begins to soften.

• Add in the mushrooms and continue to cook on a medium heat, when they are almost fully cooked, add in the peppers, along with the chilli, chilli flakes, salt and smoked paprika and continue to cook until the peppers are just soft but not mushy. Spread the vegetables evenly over the base of your pan.

• Slightly lower the heat, then carefully pour the eggs into the pan. The eggs may end up all on one side, carefully tilt the pan to help spread the eggs out. 

• When the whites just begin to cook, sprinkle over the cumin seeds and if your pan has a lid, place the lid on and totally lower the heat ( alternatively place under the grill on the lowest setting ) and leave to cook till the whites are completely cooked and the yolks have set to how you like them. 

• Once cooked, sprinkle over some smoked paprika, garnish with the chopped coriander and drizzle over some of your favourite sauce - I went with sweet chilli and garlic but even good old ketchup or brown sauce will go well 

• Serve with toast and any extras as you wish



* I managed to fit 8 eggs in my pan as it is rather big, if your pan is small, adjust the amounts of the ingredients accordingly 

Cinnamon churros

Churros are something I've steered well clear of due to the fact that they are made from choux pastry but thankfully not anymore as in my last post I shared my succesful recipe for choux in my last post, so I thought it was high time I gave them a go.

The beauty of churros is that you can experiment with different flavours or dipping sauces to go along side them as they are so simple in flavour themselves.

For my first attempt I decided to stick to the classical cinnamon sugar, but I discovered a jar of lotus roscoff spread lurking in my cupboard of baking stuff so I ended up using it as a dipping sauce and it went very well


You could just have them dusted with icing sugar and devour them on their own or drizzle with melted chocolate or for a bit of a cheekier treat - a good lashing of nutella.

For my cinnamon churros you will need

1 x batch of my choux pastry
Piping bag with a star nozzle attached
Caster sugar
Ground cinnamon
Sunflower/ vegetable oil for frying

• To start, make up the cinnamon sugar by mixing tog some caster sugar with some ground cinnamon in a large flat plate- I didn't measure the cinnamon or the sugar, I just did it by eye.  I then lined another flat plate with kitchen paper to drain the oil off the churros as they are deep fried.

• I then made up one batch of my Choux pastry, and transferred the dough to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.

•  Heat up your oil in either a deep fat fryer or a a deep heavy based pan. The oil needs to be at a temperature of 190/195c 

• Very carefully, hold the piping bag with the dough in over the oil, and pipe the batter straight into the oil. Use a knife or pair of scissors to cut the dough off to your desired length. I piped my churros roughly just a little longer than my index finger, and fried 5- 6 at a time.*

• The churros should take about 4-5 minutes to cook and turn golden brown in colour. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon, then straight onto the kitchen paper. 

• Quickly transfer the churros to the plate with the cinnamon sugar and toss gently until evenly coated. Serve them as they are, or for a bit more of a treat, I drizzled mine with melted biscoff spread 




* I ended up with a batch of  almost 30 churros with the amount of dough for this recipe 

Stuffed Karelay

This is one of my husbands absolute favourite but its a dish very much like liver curry .. You either love it or hate it - both the husband and I love it, but I hardly ever make it as it's a dish that my kids are guaranteed to turn their noses up at which to be fair this isn't a dish that many a child would like. 

Since i had a real craving for them the last couple of days I just had to make them and this time I even took step by step pictures which are up on my Facebook page @foodymama 


To serve 4 people you will need :

4 large karelay (1 per person)
1 lemon 
2 tsp salt 
6 large onions
1 1/2 tsp salt
3  green chillies
2 -3 tsp garlic paste/ 2 frozen cubes 
3-4 tsp ginger paste/ 4 frozen cubes 
1 tin chopped / plum tomatoes 
2 tsp curry powder 
Oil for shallow frying 

• Start by taking one karaela at a time and with a knife lightly scrape off the outside skin. I don't tend to scrape it all off only bits that are really knobbly and lumpy. Then carefully slit each karela in half down the middle - you dont want to cut all the way through as you won't be abe to fill them.
• Taking one karela at a time again, carefully open it up and remove the seeds and as much pith from the inside as you can. I find using a teaspoon makes it quick and easy and saves you getting bits of the pith stuck in your fingernails.
• Place all the karelay in a bowl, squeeze over the juice of a whole lemon and sprinkle the 2 teaspoons of salt all over. Mix the karelay together ensuring they are well coated with juice and the salt. Set aside
• in a heavy based pan, slice the onions and cook in a little oil till soft, add in the garlic ginger and salt. Cook until the onions are golden brown, add in the chillies, curry powder and tomatoes
• Continue cooking through until the chillies have softened and slightly darkened in colour- this way they will be cooked all the way through- and the oil separates from the masala. 
• Set the masala aside to cool completely. While the masala is cooling, the karelay should have released all the bitter juice. You should be able to see the juice at the bottom of the bowl, remove them from the bowl but as you remove them, gently squeeze them to remove any juice that hasn't released, and fill the karelay once the masala has completely cooled.
• To fill them, take teaspoonfuls of the masala and add to the inside of each karela being careful not to overfill as when you seal them with the toothpicks you'll find it will spill out.
• Once they are all filled seal each one by pushing a tooth pick from one side through to the other, i found 4-5 toothpicks per karela was right. You can also use string to tie them up, simply tie it at one end, wind the string tightly all the way round and tie up at the other end.
• You should find that you have some left over masala which will be used also- set it aside and next step is to fry the karelay.
• Fill a large heavy based pan with oil.. I didn't really measure it out, i just filled my pan till it was about 2-3 inches fill. Heat up the oil on a medium heat and carefully place the karelay into the oil. I managed to fit all mine in at once, if not just add them in batches.
• Fry the karelay till they are dark brown almost charred (but not black and burnt) all over. Carefully remove and place on a plate or dish with kitchen paper to drain any excess oil.
• Drain all the oil from the pan that the karelay were fried in (if all your karelay don't fit you'll need a bigger pan ) and add in the left over masala. Carefully add the fried karelay back in, and on a medium heat, simmer the karelay and masala on a low for about 10-15 minutes just to ensure it  is heated up all the way through and serve. 
• As an extra just before serving, garnish with fresh chopped coriander and crispy fried onion, remove all the toothpicks and place on to a serving dish . Serve 1 karela per person with the karela sitting ontop of the masala or serve as a main with chapatis.  

Step by Step Gulab Jamun pictures

As promised below are pictures of how to make your Jamuns :

From the bottom frame working upwards:


• in a bowl I've put the semolina, milk powder and melted butter
• I've then added the milk and the dough has started to come together, the final picture in the first frame is the dough all combined. A good tip at this point is to leave it for about 10 minutes to firm up

•the first picture in the second frame is of the dough shaped into Jamuns .. Told you they look like baby new potatoes !
•next is them in the oil getting slightly golden
• the final picture is of them fried and ready to be soaked in the sugar syrup

• the final frame has the sugar syrup bubbling away first.. For about 10 minutes
• next it's the Jamuns added to the syrup and left to simmer for about 10 minutes
• and the final image is them in the syrup in a dish ready to be served hot or to cool and pop in the fridge to go cold

**From the last picture I hope you can see the syrup is golden in Colour and not clear ..this colour change means that the syrup is at the perfect consistency though you can boil for longer for a thicker syrup**