Creamy Eggplant and Bell Pepper Stew with few rants

Dear Foodies,

I cant tell you how much i have missed blogging in last two weeks. I felt as if an important part of me was missing. I thought all my blogger friends will forget me :((( thats seriously a scary thought and gave me nightmares! Blogging started with a hobby and now has become a passion for me. This blog gave me lots of new things, a new identity, people from all over the world visit my blog and appreciate my efforts, its such a great feeling and thats what every blogger is craving for, right? I got so many new and extremely talented friends, whom i respect and love for their talent of creating marvellous dishes, this blog is also a place where i can share my views and of course my recipes and experiments!

Shifting to a new place has some serious disadvantages. I have misplaced so many things which i am not able to find, either they are taken away by JADOO (remember KMG?) or i have a ghost in my house! Every morning there is a treasure hunt going on, the only difference being there is no actual treasure to be won but only to find my misplaced things back. Boxes and bags are lying around and with working 12 to 16 hours a day I hardly find time to sleep forget cooking and unpacking. Seriously gals if you are living alone dont ever shift apartments, its bad idea. My new kitchen is quite smaller as compared to the older one, it finishes the moment i step in :( At first i thought its ok as this is only a temporary place and as i will be moving back to india in another 2 months but now it has actually started to bother me, which in turn is worrying me .....ah ....sigh....

Now in such a scenario i require something comforting to my taste buds. No traditional khichdis or rasams and rice but today i present you extremely delicious and easy "Stew". Stewing is a method of cooking meat or vegetables using small quantity of liquid at a moderate heat for a long time. This way of cooking helps in enhancing the flavors in the dish and also helps in absorbing the spices in the meats and veggies. More information on Stews here. Do read it, quite interesting! I have adapted the below recipe from Pooja's traditional Ishtu. Thanks Pooja for this wonderful recipe, its one of my favorites now :)

EC, Rekha, Sanghi Indrani and Muneeba all have passed the below wards to me, once again thank you gals, this drives me to deliver more....oooohh talking like an IT professional now, arnt i? Thank you for having faith in me. The tag i have answered in my previous post here.

Ingredients: 1 big eggplant chopped 1 bell pepper chopped (i used an orange one) 1 spring onion chopped 1 medium onion thinly sliced 1 can coconut milk (400 ml) 2 green chillies slit 1 tsp black pepper 1 tbsp olive oil 3 elaichi (cardamon seeds) 1 cinnamon stick 3 cloves 1 bay leaf 1 tsp ginger paste Salt to taste 1/2 cup of water Procedure:

• Heat olive oil in a pan, add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamon seeds , cloves, ginger paste and green chillies.
• Temper for a min, now add in sliced onions and spring onion, keep some greens aside for garnishing.
• Cook them until soft, now add in eggplant and bell peppers chopped.
• Saute for another 2 mins and then add the coconut milk, water, salt and pepper.
• Cover and cook on slow to medium heat for 15 to 20 mins, until eggplants have absorbed the flavors and are cooked.
• Garnish with some srping onion greens.
• Serve the stew warm accompanied with a bread or enjoy it with steaming rice.