Lila Lasan Nu Charvelu Edu – Scrambled Eggs with Green Garlic

In a Parsi household charvelu edu (scrambled eggs) is a hot favourite, for breakfast. The charvelu edu (eggs) gets special treatment during the winter months when green garlic floods the market. It’s then time to add some chopped green chilies, cilantro and those gorgeous garlic greens to the eggs. I rarely cook these days as I’m tied up with an ailing dad, but I do whip up simple stuff from time to time. Here goes with a very simple recipe. 

Ingredients:

6 eggs

10 shoots of garlic greens (with the garlic head), washed and chopped fine

A handful of cilantro (kothmir), washed and chopped fine

4 green chilies, slit and chopped fine

Salt to taste

Black Pepper, to taste (optional – I did use some coarsely ground black pepper)

4 tablespoons light cream or milk

3½ tablespoons Clarified Butter (Pure/Shudh Ghee)

Method:

1.    Heat ghee in a thick-bottomed wok or a non-stick wok. Add the green chilies, cilantro and garlic greens and sauté for a few seconds. Do not allow the green to burn or turn colour.

2.    Take the wok off the heat and add cream/milk, salt, pepper and eggs. Give it a good stir to break up the yolks evenly.

3.    Put the wok back on low heat (I cannot stress enough on the word LOW).

4.    Keep stirring the eggs continuously until you achieve a soft, creamy consistency. (Please read Chef Note, point number 5, for the perfect scramble egg technique)

5.    Serve with buttered toast.

Chefs Notes:

1.    I used gavran garlic chives coz they are readily available in the vegetable market this time of the year. The flavour imparted by the gavran variety of green garlic is way superior to that of the chives one buys from a supermarket. Trust me on that.

2.    While I did sauté the greens a wee bit, feel free to merely sauté the chilies and add raw greens and eggs together and scramble. Mum cannot handle raw cilantro hence sautéed the greens a wee bit before adding the eggs. Feel free to go with whatever you prefer.

3.    You may, of course, make scramble eggs in butter but Clarified Butter (Shudh Desi Ghee) imparts a superb aroma to the eggs. I’ve tried making scramble eggs with both, clarified butter and regular better; clarified butter definitely won the game in my kitchen.

4.    The best way to scramble eggs is always on very low flame. It takes time and patience, but the end result is so worth the time spent.

5.    To avoid overcooking the eggs, scramble on low heat for a bit. Then, take the wok of the hob and allow the eggs to cook in its residual heat; keep scrambling all the while, even when the eggs are off the heat. If the eggs aren’t yet cooked to soft-creamy texture, put the wok back on low heat for a few seconds more. This back and forth, on the heat-off the heat technique is what prevents eggs from getting overcooked. Eggs always continue cooking in residual heat so use the ‘on the stove-off the stove’ technique to ensure you never serve hard, overcooked eggs.

6.    You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site, or website, without my explicit consent, or attempt to pass off my recipes as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.

Mayur Veg Thali @East Street - Needs A Lot Of Improvement!

I went to Mayur, with mum, for their Special Weekend Thali. We went two Saturdays in a row as the second time around my masi was keen on having a veg thali. Both mum and masi wanted something similar to the Samrat thali in Mumbai, hence, Mayur was the only choice I could think of.

The thali wasn't great the first time but it definitely wasn't bad either. Decent, is how I'd term it. The Palak Paneer, Khichdee, Rabdi and Malpua were pretty good. Of the Dal Bati, the dal was quite good but.. the Bati sucked. It was so hard we could barely crumble it. I'd happily use it as a rock, if ever, I need to knock someone out.

The second time, though, nothing about the thali felt 'special', except the service. Very, very average food. The Dal and Mixed Lentils were not bad. The Hara Bhara Kebab was anything but that. I've known simple Udipi restaurants to make way better ones. The Paneer was soft malai paneer but the gravy was overly sweet. 

The thing that put me off completely, though, was that the dishes were served at room temperature, instead of piping hot. I barely took 15 seconds to half a minute to click the pic so had they served piping hot food, it could not have gone cold so fast. They assembled the full thali quite quickly so that, too, cannot be a valid reason for the room temperature food. The jalebis were served at room temperature when, in fact, they could have been served hot. Would've made such a difference had they done so. It felt like, 'restaurant chal toh raha hai, chalne do; we don't need to make any special effort to retain the quality'. Sad, coz I've had their thali years ago and it used to be superb! Alas, not any more! :(

The first thali was 'kinda' worth the 450 bucks i paid for it; the second one, definitely not! If they charge you more over the weekend and call it a 'special' thali then they actually need to get their act together and make it 'special'. Not going back there for a long time.

Address: 2434, East Street, Pune
Tel: 020 26053534

Three Kitchens Restaurant & Bar @The Ritz Carlton, Pune

Visited Three Kitchens at Ritz-Carlton today. Their Dinner buffet is priced at Rs 1600 plus taxes.

5 stars for service. Absolutely stellar service. We had a very sweet, helpful & pleasant server.

2 stars (very average) for food. When a chef at a luxurious 5 star over cooks-over grills prawns to rubbery texture, it's unforgivable. I've had way better Aglio Olio and the prawns in the Aglio Olio were also overcooked. Sigh! The food at the Chinese counter was cold. The burnt garlic fried rice was cold as were the Sambal Prawns. The mutton kebabs (starters) were hard. We would have preferred a juicier kebabs. The Chicken Tikkas, though, were nice. The only dimsum worth having was the Prawn Hargao, it was really very good. The Chicken Dimsum & Mushroom Dimsum were way below average. Simple restaurants make them way better hence it feels terrible when a chef at a 5 star messes up.

I also tried the Cream of Mushroom soup. It was anything but a Cream of Mushroom. A strong blend mushrooms with a bit of seasoning was all i could taste. The chef either forgot to add cream or decided it would be too expensive to add cream to a soup for a buffet meal. Two sips was all i could manage because of that strong hit of blended mushrooms. Just so you know, I love mushrooms but this was 'urghh'. Compared to the soup I had this evening at Ritz-C, a packet of Knorr Cream of Mushroom is way better. Harsh, i know.. but true!

The Antipasti section was great hence giving Ritz-C an overall rating of 3 stars. Good cheeses, excellent smoked salmon, good breads & herbed butter. The hummus was pretty good too. The pork with the balsamic drizzle was delish.

The dessert section, too, has much room for improvement. The quality of cakes are very basic & average. The only good dessert tonight was the Kaju Roll; very similar to a Baklava. It was very well made. I really loved it!

Ritz-C, you definitely need to put more heart into the 'cooked food' section.

P.S. I was at Ritz-C with my bestie for a peaceful evening hence only clicked one pic of the Antipasti plate. Did not bother with the lighting etc hence a very average pic. I had no intention of writing a review but as the evening progressed and i tried various things from the buffet and decided to pen this as an eye-opener with the hope that we get better food the next time we drop in.