Surprise salad

Doing my mother proud

Because all meals need some veggie content.
Because my mother told me so.
Because I believe her.
Because she is just so right.
And because I love colorful salad.

Here's what I used:
For the salad
1 big tomato
1 medium sized capsicum
1 medium cucumber
2 medium carrots
A handful of olives
A handful of fresh corn

For the dressing
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Lots of olive oil
1 tsp mustard
A splash of Balsamic vinegar
A pinch of salt
Lots of freshly ground pepper
Assorted herbs, as your heart fancies
A dash of sugar
Juice of half a lime

Spicy noodles: home style

A quick flavourful fix, by no means "really" chinese

Last weekend, the husband and I ate every single meal at home. Weekends are usually when we step out, try out new restaurants/drinking places, and enjoy the Goan outdoors, and get time alone after the hectic round-the-clock-work-week. But last weekend we didnt want to step out into the crowd. So quick meals at home was the only way to go. I had a packet of hakka noodles lying at home and we decided to put it to use.

Iv also discovered that this food blog thing is a good thing for us to do together because it combines 2 of the things each of us loves to indulge in: cooking/food experimentation and photography. So it makes for interesting together time :)

What I used:
1 packet hakka noodles
1 medium onion sliced thin
1 small bell pepper sliced thin
1 medium carrot julienned
A handful of french beans chopped long and thin
A generous amount of finely chopped garlic
Some freshly chopped ginger
Chilli garlic sauce
Dark soya sauce
Tomato ketchup
White vinegar

How I made it:
Chop up an assortment of veggies you would like to use in the noodles.

In a wok/kadhai, heat some oil (I used olive :P). When its hot enough throw in the chopped ginger and garlic and saute till brownish. Then quickly add in the onions, before the ginger burns. Saute for a minute until the onions get lightly golden-brown. Then, add in the soya sauce and chilli garlic sauce, some ketchup and a few drops of vinegar,and continue to stir around.

After a couple minutes more of sauteing, add in all the vegatables and mix well. Cook on an open flame till the vegatbles are semi-cooked, but still crunchy.

Then, add salt and pepper to taste. Its good to taste it before you add in the salt and pepper, because the soya tends to make it a little salty to begin with. Then, add a pinch of ajinomoto.

Meanwhile, in a pot of boiling water, add a packet of egg noodles, and cook till soft. Drain and run through col water.

Add the noodles to the vegetables and mix. At this point, continue to cook it for a while, if you feel the need to blend the two components really well.

Done!

Slow cooked tomato basil pasta

Quick-fix meal for when youre too lazy to really cook.

I know slow cooking and quick fix dont really go together, but even though this is a slow cooked dish, it makes for a quick fix meal because the recipe is just a series of acts in assembling the dish, rather than really cooking it. The cooking sort of just happens on its own.

This recipe was shared with me last week by Anand: friend, culinary partner in crime, inspiration and my biggest source of entertainment and company through my days in Goa. Anand visited us last week, a trip that was mostly prompted by the promise of much cooking. We didnt get to do all of what we had planned, but we did get up to some pretty fun kitchen shenanigans. This pasta was just one of the things ;)

It was also just what I needed today, when the flu has left me too tired to really cook and too sick to order in. I needed home cooked food. Even if it was slow cooked pasta. With just tomato and basil.

And a ton of cream and cheese to make it all worthwhile. But Im trying not to focus on that part.

Here's what I used:
1 large onion, chopped
7-8 pods of garlic, finely chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 pack tomato puree
1 knob of butter
Olive oil
Some grated cheese (parmesan if youre feeling fancy, but cheddar will do if you want to make do with what you have in your fridge..like I did)
Basil (fresh would work wonder, but in the absence of fresh basil dry works just as well)
Fresh cream
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste
Pasta (I used fusilli, because its easy to eat)

Here's how I made it:
Heat up some butter and olive oil. Throw in the chopped garlic and onions and saute till nice and golden.

Next, add in the chopped tomato and stir around, and quickly add in the tomato puree.

Anand showed me how to get every last bit out of the carton, and it only made me realize just how much puree Iv possibly wasted in the last few months :O

Add in the salt, pepper and sugar as per taste. Sugar cuts the overtly tangy tomato-ness, leaving you with just the right smooth creamy silken tomato pulp you need.

Then, cover the pan and let the puree simmer for a good long while. At least 20-30 minutes, opening it only to give it a turn every now and then. This is where you can take a long break and come back only to throw in the last few ingredients in the assembly line.

It isnt called "slow cooked" for nothing. You'll notice that every time you take a peek at the puree when you take the lid off to stir it, the puree would have gotten thicker and darker.

Let it bubble away for as long as possible. In the meanwhile, get a pot of water on. Add some salt and bring it to a boil. Add in the pasta and let it cook. This usually takes anything from 7-10 minutes if youre using fusilli for 2.

After your pasta has cooked for about 10 minutes and your sauce has simmered away for about 30 minutes, turn the heat off on both.

Turn to your sauce, add in the grated cheese, basil and cream. And mix!

Drain the pasta, retaining some hot water. Just in case you want to loosen the sauce a little bit. The slow cooking tends to dry out the tomato puree quite a bit and the best way to bring it back to a looser consistency is to add hot water from cooking the pasta! Something else Anand taught me.

Mix together. And we're done.

Crispy Potatoes

Another quickie!

Im on a quest to learn to cook things that are easy to make, dont take much time and are tasty. So here's another recipe that definitely goes into my quick-to-make-and-perfect-to-take-to-work log. Because its simple, quick, crispy and tasty. Oh and it features POTATOES. who doesnt like potatoes? And when the potatoes in question are crispy, theres no doubt about it.

Here's what I used:
Potatoes, chopped into fingers. Not too thin so they turn into wafers, and not too thick so they dont get crispy. They need to be just right.
Jeera
Mustard
Turmeric
Chilli powder

Here's how I made it:
Peel, wash and chop potatoes into slender fingers.



Heat a little oil in a pan. When relatively hot, throw in some jeera, followed by mustard and a pinch of turmeric. When the mustard and jeera begin to sputter, throw in the potatoes and toss around continuously.


Continue to toss around on a medium-high flame, so that the potatoes cook and get crisp. Add some chillipowder, as per taste/spice threshold and continue to toss. The potatoes will first turn a golden brown, and later crispy brown. You'll know when its done.

Crispy Potatoes go best with a humble dal rice and a wintry night.


Done!
EDIT: Not quite done. As my mother rightly pointed out i forgot to mention the pinch of asafoetida that needs to go in right after the jeera and mustard seeds and right before the turmeric!

Vegetable Pulao. My way!

When I decided to get brave and let the experiments begin

Its been a while since I made a veggie pulao at home. Mostly because I have never been able to get it right, spot on. Yeah its always just short of hitting the spot and leaves us feeling like "something's missing", without being able to really say what that something was!

Today though, I decided to give it another shot. I decided to trust my instincts and the many months of experience I have added on to my culinary repertoire. I decided to go with my gut and throw things in as I felt they would fit, combining a few lessons and tricks I have picked up along the way, with my sense of smell and flavour. Dont look so confused. I did say this was going to be about being brave and letting the experiments begin.

What you need
For the pulao:
Assorted chopped veggies. I used potatoes, carrots and beans, but feel free to add in whatever you want.
Rice, soaked for at least 30 mins before cooking. I used 2 cups, and it was enough to feed 3 hungry people.
One handful of roughly chopped mint leaves

For the pulao masala
1 large tomato chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1/2 a handful coriander leaves
2 green chillies
A large-ish piece of ginger
3-4 cloves of garlic

Dry masalas for the rice
1 tsp jeera (whole)
2-3 cloves
1" piece of cinnamon
1-2 bay leaves
1 star anise (if easily accessible)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp dhaniya powder

What you need to do
Wash and clean the rice. Leave it to soak in water for at least 30 minutes (until you get all the rest of the preps done).


Chop up all the veggies you need and keep them aside.


Grind all the ingredients for the wet masala to a fine paste.



Dont add any water to begin with as the tomato and onion releases juices. If it is too dry you can add a wee bit of water, just enough to grind it easily.


In a pressure cooker/pan, heat some ghee/oil. When its hot enough, throw in the whole spices like jeera, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon, and star anise, and saute till it smells divine.

Next, add 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder and 1/2 tsp dhaniya powder. Then, add the wet masala and saute continuously till the masalas cook well, dry out a bit and the oil begins to separate.


Next, throw in the vegetables and mix it well with the masala. Add salt to taste at this stage. It will release a bit of water, so dont add any extra water just yet.



Add the soaked rice and slowly add the required amount of water to cook it through.



Finally throw in the chopped mint leaves and mix well. Shut the lid and let the pulao cook to as many whistles as your pressure cooker would need to cook rice.



Done!

If I started off by calling this an experiment, I must say it ended being a successful one. The pulao was fresh-tasting (thanks to the coriander and mint) and light and flavourful. I tend to enjoy a pulao when its not overly packed with masala. While I did use a wide variety of spices, using them in smaller quantities balances it out, giving just the right amount of flavouring.

I can already see this recipe being repeated at our home on a night when I cant think of what to make and dont wish to spend too much time in the kitchen!

BisiBeleBhaath

..OR, what to do on your last week of freedom

With one week of extended freedom before I step back into the world of having a regular job, I find myself with a lot of empty time that I hadnt planned for. Im all about planning what I want to do, even if it is to laze around all day. In a happy coincidence, I also had this really strong longing to have my cooks (back home) BisiBeleBhaath. Because the way she makes it, is to die for. It is comforting, homely, satisfying and altogether scrumptious.

There are some tastes that are just meant to be reminders of home. Comfort food, home food, call it what you want. These are things one tends to enjoy best at home and no substitute can come close. BisiBeleBhaath (BBB, as I call it) is one such home delicacy for me. Since Iv moved out, every trip back home features one BBB meal, and truly completes my going-home-experience. Without it, something is amiss.

Despite the massive cravings and pangs for BBB I have had since I moved to Goa, I still hadnt mustered the courage to try my hand at making BBB on my own. However, there is always a first time, and it seems that time for me, was today.

What you need
For the masala:
1 tbsp poppy seeds (khus-khus)
1" piece of cinnamon
2-3 cloves
3-4 tbsp dry coconut (if you dont have dry coconut, you could dry roast freshly grated coconut, like I did)
2 tbsp sambar powder (I get this home-made from my cook back home, so I dont really know what secret ingredients she puts in it, unfortunately)

For the main dish (to feed 2 hungry people):
2-3 cups chopped vegetables of your choice. I used carrots, potatoes and peas because thats all I had handy. But you can even add cauliflower, french beans, double beans, or even sambar onions or small brinjals.
1 cup toor dal
1 cup rice
2 small tomatoes chopped
1 small onion chopped (I took the liberty to add this in, inspired from an online recipe of BBB that I was looking at yesterday)
1-2 tbsp tamarind paste
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 dry red chillies roughly chopped

What you need to do
First, dry roast the poppy seeds, cloves and cinnamon on a low flame. Keep this going till the poppy seeds turn nice and brown.



Next, dry roast the fresh coconut till it has lost all its moisture and begins to show some brown specks. If youre using dried coconut to begin with, you can skip right to the next step.




Grind together the sambar powder, poppy seeds, cinnamon and cloves, along with the coconut. This should give you a deep brown, rich and flavourful dry masala.



Meanwhile, par boil the chopped veggies. Start to cook the dal and rice (mixed together) on a low flame.






In a deep bottomed pan/pot, generously add some ghee. When its hot, throw in the mustard seeds, curry leaves, onions and roughly chopped red chillies.




When the mustard seeds stop sputtering, add the onions and saute till slightly translucent. Next, add the dry masala and roast well. Continue to saute this on a low flame till the masala is cooked. Note that this is all done without adding any water.



Next, throw in the chopped tomatoes, add the tamarind paste and a cup of water. Continue to cook the masala.




By now, the dal and rice should be more than half cooked. Tip it into the masala, mix well and continue to simmer on a low flame.



The best BBB is usually mixed so well that the masala, rice and dal are well combined into one giant pot of flavourful splendour. So continue to simmer and add water when necessary, until you get that rich silky looking BBB.

At the very end, add in the parboiled veggies and add salt to taste. Cook for a few minutes more so that the various components are all well combined.




BBB is best enjoyed with something crunchy. Traditionally it is served topped with khara-boondi, but back home it was tradition to have it with locally made potato chips.



Done!

My first endeavour at making BBB was quite a success, so I can safely say that future BBB-homesickness-pangs will be efficiently dealt with and put to rest.