The garden and salad series

Te garden is green and lush, with all still plenty of lovely green lettuce, lots of lovely fresh lettuce and berry trees that are begining to wake up. The first of these are the blueberries that adorn their tiny little plants in pretty little clusters. I have been trying hard to get some pictures with them just with one or two berries turning blue, and finally managed to get something this week. The beauty of the seasons is there predictability and of course there landmarks, the daffodils tell us that spring is on its way, followed by the vibrant forsythia's that fill our hedges with yellow and of course the rains that bring with them the beauty of late May flowers.

These delicate and pretty breakfast radishes were what came in this week. I know dear reader that you are probably getting tired of all my salad posts. It is one of those downsides of seasonal eating, you cannot plan what you get and you make do with what nature gives you.

This Lemon Wasabi Salad recipe was inspired by this post and something that I had tried a while back adding a touch of wasabi powder to the radishes. So this is how my lemon wasabi radish salad ended up.

Lemon Wasabi Radish Salad

Prep Time: 25 minutes (includes some time to let the salad mature)

Ingredients

4-6 small radishes (I used tender breakfast varieties)

1/2 teaspoon powdered wasabi

1/2 teaspoon black salt

1 red onion, thinly sliced into rings

2 cups chopped fresh green leaf letuce (optional)

1 teaspoon chaat masala

2 tablespoons minced cilantro

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 fresh lemon, cut into half and seeded

Method of Preparation

1. Slice the radishes thinly and add the wasabi and the black salt.

2. Add in the red onion and toss well and set aside for about 5 minutes to let the flavor deepen.

3. Add in the letuce, chat masala, cilantro and the sugar and shake well.

4. Squeeze in the lemon juice and set the flavors settle for about 5 minutes, before serving.

Lately I have been at home for a few weeks, mostly nursing my shoulder and trying to figure out how to stay engaged. One of my activities have been to play house. By this, I am looking at some of the really dated furniture in our lower level, consists of a 18-year old futon that I had from my college days. We do not have a whole load of space downstairs, especially since we now have a piano, for my budding musicians, the idea of a medium sized sectional sofa sounds appealing.

Lemon Rice/Rice Pulihora

Among the many wonderful Indian blogs that I like to follow, is Sailu's blog. Here blog is usally really well illustrated with pictures, clear directions and has a wonderful mix of both authentic Indian and several experimental and innovative recipes for pasta and wholesome kid friendly mean. This particular recipe caught my attention, because of both its use of lemon instead of tamarind and also used delicate broken rice also called rice rawa. There are I guess several variations of pulihora, which I realized essentually translates to sour rice in Telegu, which is spoken in Andhra Pradesh. Well, I did not have rice rawa (broken rice available in the house), but I did have delicate fragrant kalajeera rice available. So I made a pulihora, that was very close to her recipe power packed with a lot of fresh lemon juice that ended up being a lovely refreshing meal for a summer night. Here is how I did it.

Lemon Rice/Pulihora

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

1.5 cups of kalajeera rice

1 and 3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

For the tempering

2 tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/8 teaspoon asafetida or hing

1 teaspoon chana dal (yellow split lentils)

1 teaspoon urad dal

10-12 curry leaves

2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

3/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts

3-4 dried red chilies

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

2 lemons, halved and seeded

2 green chillies, very finely chopped

1/3 cup cilantro leaves

Method of Preparation

1. Cook the rice in the water for about 12 minutes, drain and rinse throughly and set out to cool.

2. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida and wait till the mustard seeds begin to crackle. Add in the lentils and let them brown for 2 minutes.

3. Add in the curry leaves, ginger and dry roasted peanuts and cook lightly for about 1minutes. Add in the red chilies.

4. Mix in the rice and the turmeric and mix well.

5. Squeeze in the lemon juice and stir in the green chilies and cilantro.

Note: The flavor of this rice improves considerably served after 30 minutes and also tastes good warm rather than very hot.

No Fuss Shrimp...

This week I ended up inadvertently changing the entire look of my blog. I often keep playing with buttons on the dashboard. This week when I logged on, the dashboard said something like, template designer. So I clicked on a button or two and without warning, I had a new looking blog.

Talk of change you can believe in. Well, so like it or not, I now have a totally different set up to the blog, that I am trying to get used to. Last evening we had some friends over and I made a few interesting things actually a Mexican inspired menu. I did not take any pictures and with the slow cooker I felt like I was on top of my game, I shall be posting what I made over time.

I made this no fuss, shrimp gently kissed with spices, that I mixed with the garden lettuce leaves I tossed with red onions and sliced strawberries. Sorry no picture, of the salad either. Just could not make the time.


No fuss -citrus spice kissed shrimp.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 lemon
1 orange
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 jallapeno, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound of large shrimp, shelled with the tail-on
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup lowfat sour cream
3-4 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon garam masala

Method of Preparation

1. Cut the orange and lemon into half and squeeze the juice into a bowl.
2. Mix in the ginger, jallapeno, salt and the shrimp and let the shrimp marinate for 15 minutes.
3. Stir in the sour cream.
4. Heat the oil and add the shrimp in a single layer in a skillet and cook for about 6 minutes on each side.
5. Sprinkle with the garam masala.

Fresh greens shrimp salad

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients

3 cups shredded fresh greens
1 red onion thinly sliced, cut into rings
10 strawberries, hulled and sliced thinly
1 serving no-fuss citrus kissed shrimp prepared as above
Newmans balsamic vinegar dressing

Method of preparation.

1. Mix the greens, onions, strawberries and shrimp and toss well.
2. Serve with the balsamic dressing on the side.

Kashmiri spiced roasted vegetables

Well, this week along with the turnip greens we were blessed with some turnips, not a lot about 3 fairly large and pretty purple topped varieties.
Well, I pondered on what to do with them, I like these with lamb, however I needed to put together a vegetarian main dish and my vegetarian (sans garlic eating MIL) is visiting for the week.

I did not know whether this would work with lettuce which is the other thing that we have so much of in our garden. So finally I thought of adapting a fairly rich recipe for the oven.

I know that a lot of people avoid the oven in summer, but I have to tell you I prefer it sometimes to stove top cooking. Today it was time for the oven.

Kashmiri spiced roasted vegetables

This recipe came together very nicely and with fairly interesting results.Kashmiri Dum aloo uses small baby potatoes, that are deep fried and then cooked till dry in a nice spice base.

Here I roasted vegetables and then baked them further with the spice and yogurt sauce.

Ingredients

3 medium turnips, peeled and cubed

2 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 cup medium sized broccoli florets

1 cup medium sized cauliflower florets

1/3 cup oil

1-2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1/8 teaspoon asafetida

2 cups low fat yogurt

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon red chili powder

Method of Preparation

1. Prick the vegetables well, until they appear porous. This is a tip I got from some recipe that Sanjeev Kapoor had suggested. It makes the vegetables crisp and helps absorb the sauce.

2. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

3. Place the vegetables in a baking pan and drizzle with some of the oil and salt and bake for 15 minutes.

4. In the meantime, heat the remaining oil and add the ginger and asafetida and cook until the ginger is nice and crisp.

5. Add in the yogurt.

6. Grind the fennel and cloves to a powder and add in with the red chili powder and remaining salt. Bring the sauce to a simmer, it should be a fair thin sauce.

7. Pour this over the vegetables that should be nice and crisp at this time and cook for another 10 minutes, until the sauce is almost absorbed by the vegetables.

A nostalgic potful...

I recently was chatting over email with fellow westchester blogger - Phyllis and was quite amazed and impressed by all the culinary greats that she has learnt cooking from. She has actually learnt Indian cooking from Madhur Jaffrey, she describes this beautifully with some recipes in this post.
Well, possibly one of my first Indian cookbooks were by this grand dame of Indian cooking Ms. Jaffrey. I could not actually find it today. I made these kidney beans - Punjabi Rajma, inspired by memory. I do know that here recipe called for two things that I did not do, the first was to add cream and the second was to simmer the beans for 3-4 hours, hey, that is why I have a pressure cooker....

Punjabi Rajma - Spicy creamy red kidney beans

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked red kidney beans
2.5 cups of water
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated garlic
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 large tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon powdered cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
Salt to taste (please take care to balance this with the amount of salt that the beans have been cooked in)
1 lemon
1-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Take about 1/2 the beans and grind to a puree with about 1/2 cup water and set this aside.
2. Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds and cook till fragrant and aromatic.
3. Add in the onion and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally until the onion in soft and begining to turn golden (about 3-4 minutes).
4. Add in the ginger and garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Mix in the tomatoe and cook for 5-7 minutes.
6. Add in the whole beans, chili powder, powdered cumin the bean puree with about 1 and a 1/2 cups of water.
7. Simmer on low heat till for about 25-30 minutes till thick, creamy and smooth.
8. Squeeze in the lemon juice.
9. Remove from the heat and garnish with garam masala and cilantro prior to serving.

This recipe is being sent to MLLA no #23, being hosted by Susan at the Well Seasoned Cook.

Creamy Punjabi Style Turnips Greens

On Thursday, just in time for the long weekend my husband brought in two full bags of turnip greens. I really was not sure what to do with this unexpected bounty. These greens have rougher taste than spinach and therefore need some coaxing to be mellowed. I also read that there greens taste and mimic mustard greens aka sarson ka saag in Hindi. Now it is difficult if not impossible (if you love Indian regional cuisine like me) not to think of the classic punjabi mustard greens recipe, where these lovely greens are slow cooked till they are nice and creamy. So, I wanted to do this with the turnip greens, with just one problem - the mustard green recipe that I speak of is a winter classic in Indian, when you do not mind cooking something till it is nice and soft and cooked to a puree, unlike the hot summer day that we had today.

Well, here is where perusing the blogosphere comes in handy. I came across this recipe, where the pressure cooker comes in handy. It cuts through both the energy needed as well as the cooktime.  I added in a handful of whole cooked dried peas, these are the whole version of split peas, which enhanced the creamy texture of the greens.

Salgam ki Saag - Creamy Turnip Greens

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

4-6 cups of chopped turnip greens (tough stems, discarded)

1 cup of chopped spinach (I actually had some frozen spinach on hand)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cooked whole dried peas

1 cup water

3 tablespoons maize flour (this is Indian style cornflour, not cornstarch)

2-3 tablespoons oil

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger

3 cloves grated garlic

1 tomato, finely chopped

1 green chili, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1 -2 teaspoons of butter

Method of Preparation

1. Place the greens, salt and half the water in a pressure cooker and cook for about 12 minutes. Cool and mash with the spoon.

2. Add in the cornflour and the split peas with remaining water and cook on low heat until the mixture is thick and creamy about 5-7 minutes.

3. While this is cooking heat the oil and add in the onion, ginger and garlic and cook till the onions are soft and begining to turn golden.

4. Add in the tomate, green chili and red chili powder and cook until the tomato is nice and soft and the mixture is well cooked, you should see the oil on the edges of the spice mixture.

5. Mix into the greens and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

6. Add in the garam masala and top with the butter.

These greens are typically served with handmade cornbreads much like tortillas, I actually did make a version of these, I shall post recipe later.

Zippy Egg Salad Sandwiches

It was a group party event - one of the several that dominated her life as the mother of 2 elementary school children - birthdays, school pot lucks, general gatherings and of course just lunch at home with friends. This recipe worked really well - it seemed to still retain a touch of novelty, got done in a hurry, did not bother the little palates too much and actually met all the alergy restriction and got done in somewhat small order - the recipe being her tested and tried egg salad with zip! Usually she toned up or down ingredients, like the onions, green chilies depending on her crowd, but overall stuck to the same formula.

Today was no different, she boiled her dozen eggs, cooled and shelled them, carefully reserving the shells for the compost when her daughter Maya rushed in and hugged her. With her hands on her hips, she demanded -, :"Lana told me your egg salad is different, is that true?"

She looked at the child and smiled and said, "Well, anything I make for you is different, since you are special..." Mentally, she thought, "Please, dont create troubles with this one..."

Maya happily informed her, "Lana told me they all love it, but its different, did your mother teach you how to make it?"

This question caught her by surprise and threw her back to a time almost a decade and a half ago, a time she had forgotten, a time when life was different.

She remember the little graduate apartment, in Cambridge, the one unknown to anyone she knew today, the one she shared with Nick - her first love, the one who got away.  It was her first year away from home, away from that sheltered quite life in Cal, where everything seemed so secure, predictable and without trouble. She came to college for graduate studies and in the two years also grew up and learnt more about life that she had ever expected.

Two months, into college, she was paired with Nick for a class assignment with Nick - for reasons she could not explain, they fell in love. Theirs was a deep and passionate love, and yet full of laughter, intense and heady. It stayed that away for 2 years until it was time for them to make serious decisions. Then somehow, she just could not just follow her heart, she left amidst tears, without too many words carrying the image of his shocked pained expression with her in the deep recesses of her secret self. 
She allowed herself few regrets - life just did not allow that. That time in life, with its unfulfilled promise left her, taking some of herself with it.

Over time, she went to work in NYC, in time through appropriate connections and introductions met Anil - an amiable and suitable boy. Life was not unhappy, Anil travelled and worked hard as did she. In time, their life had settled into a busy predictable pace, particularly after Maya. It was very rarely, on late nights when the house settled down after everyone went to sleep, she could not help wondering about what might have been had she been braver - would life have been different?

Maya's question reminded her of the origins of this infamous salad - a summer picnic at Nick's sisters house, when they wanted something Indian. Her sparse pantry had very few "Indian" ingredients but nonetheless this salad emerged as an "Indian" egg salad and stayed that way even when "they" were done.

"Ma, you look sad?" the girl asked quietly... She looked at her daughter and quietly hugged her and proceeded to chop the eggs.

Zippy Egg Salad

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Makes 1.5 cups of egg salad

Ingredients

1 dozen hard boiled eggs, shelled
1/3 cup mayonaise
1/4 cup mild mustard
1/4 cup tomato ketchup
1 red onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Method of Preparation

1. Place the eggs in a mixing bowl and mash coarsely.
2. Mix in the mayonaise, mustard and tomatoe ketchup.
3. Mix in the onion, cilantro, pepper, salt and sugar.
4. Use for sandwiches.

I release this post from its shadows from my drafts, with some trepidation, for an interest event called Chalks and chopstickes, started by Aqua, making a second edition appearance at Sandeepa's blog.

Well, the story might not be good, the salad is actually pretty tasty...