Thai Basil Fried Rice

Blogging after a long gap, cooking after eons - life has changed in more ways than one. I am now Mrs S. S has featured in this blog as my guinea pig and now he doesn't really have a choice :) I have resumed work now and things are getting a little hectic. It's a little chaotic to balance work and home, especially when everything is new - new maid, new house, new city, new husband, new work place. And cooking keeps the sanity intact.

On a recent trip to the grocery, I chanced upon fresh rosemary, sage, Thai basil and beautiful fresh red chillies. And it's tempting when you have the choicest stuff sitting atop the kitchen counter.

Ingredients:

Fresh basil - 1/2 cup

Rice - 1 cup (cooked and cooled. Recommended to use jasmine rice but feel free to use what is available)

Peppers - finely sliced - various colors

Beans - finely sliced - 100 gm

Onion - 1 - finely sliced

Fresh red chilli - 4 - finely sliced

Soy sauce - 2 tsp

Garlic - 2 pods - chopped finely 

Method

Add a little oil in a wok. When it's hot, add red chilli and garlic and stir fry until the garlic browns. Add the peppers and beans and stiry fry. Add the soy sauce. Keep frying until the beans are tender but not overcooked. Add the onions and stir fry for about 30 seconds until they are cooked but retain the crunch. 

Fluff up the rice and add to the above. Stir well. Add the basil and turn off the heat. Give it a thorough mix and serve with lots of love. 

Serving suggestion: Thai green curry / Thai red curry

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Dieter's Delight - Broccoli Stir-Fry

Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables. And it's one of the easiest to make. And whenever I can find some fresh broccoli, I make sure I pick up a head.

After all the wedding feast over the last week, I had to take it easy. And the dieter series is revived!

This is a fairly simple recipe and wont take more than 20 minutes including chopping.

Boil a huge pot of water with plenty salt. Add the broccoli florets. When they turn a bright green (after about a couple of minutes), strain and keep aside.

Heat a shallow pan, drizzle some olive oil and when the pan is really hot, toss the broccoli florets. Add the broccoli stems, carrots and any other vegetables of your choice. Keep tossing on high heat for a minute.

Transfer to a bowl.

For the dressing, squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and add some fresh ground pepper. Pour on to the broccoli and dig in!

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Dieter's Delight - Pesarattu

Having actually hogged and cheated on the diet over the weekend (well, can't really help it when you are part of an event that showcases amazingly exotic desserts), today is back to track with the diet.

On Dieter's delight tonight is pesarattu, an Andhra delicacy. (A variation of this is called MLA pesarattu, which is served with upma stuffed in the center. This apparently is / was served in the MLA hostel in Andhra Pradesh)

Here's how this is made:

Wash and soak green gram overnight. (as I typed this, I realized that my clothes are in the washing machine, waiting to be hung on the clothes line. so be back in a few minutes)

Right, I am back, after having neatly lined up the clothes on the line.

Grind the soaked gram, along with ginger, green chili, a little bit of raw rice, lots of coriander and mint, into a fine paste - along the consistency of dosai maavu. Add some salt, and the batter is ready.

Make pesarattu the same way a dosa is made. Can be served with any chutney or sambhar. This is best had with tomato thokku  (I couldn't use onion today, the day being angarika chathurthi (the sankata hara chathurthi that falls on a Tuesday - oh yes I made kozhukattai ), so I made coconut chutney - the coconut chutney part is NOT dieter's delight)

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Dieter's Delight - Stuffed Zucchini

Yeah, it's the same zucchini I'd picked from Gormei Market last weekend and it was wilting away in the fridge. I wanted to make some salad with it, and found a recipe too, but the sudden craving for upma last night pushed this to the background.

And this morning, as I was sipping the coffee, I saw Cheryl's post on HBG about making bread using the pressure cooker. I was looking through the website and then found this cute little zucchini recipe and I knew what I should do for dinner.

So here's how this is made. I made some alterations from the original.

Slice the zucchini into thick pieces (about 4 cm tall, I made them taller, my bad!) and scoop out the innards, leaving some at the bottom to serve as the base. Finely chop some beans and carrots. Add some olive oil in the cooker, add the minced garlic, zuzzhini innards, carrots and beans and cook well. (Alternatively you can cook this in the microwave, which is what I did).

Stuff the mixture in the zucchini.

Meantime, finely chop an onion and tomato. Add some olive oil in the pressure cooker, add the onion, tomato, some basil leaves and half cup of water. Cook for a couple of minutes. If you have a steamer, place that in the cooker, arrange the stuffed zucchini in that. If not, pour the onion tomato mixture along with the water inside a pan, and arrange the zucchini in that. (The idea is for the zucchini to absorb the flavor of the reduction). Add half cup water inside the pressure cooker. (You don't need to do this if you use a steamer). Cook on high pressure for about 5 minutes (without whistle. I did 3, and felt that this needed a little more cooking. That said, I loved the texture of the zucchini at 3 mins, crunchy yet soft. On second thoughts, may be one or two whistles could have done the trick)

Transfer to a plate and have fun! (Psst: I also did crumble some low fat feta cheese over it)

Recipe Source: http://www.hippressurecooking.com/2010/08/stuffed-zucchini-on-tomato-bed.html

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Dieter's Delight - Broccoli all the way!

Tonight's dinner - courtesy Gormei Market - Yeah I'd picked up the broccoli when I was there for the Easy cooking workshop by Sara Koshy :) It was an exhausting day at work and with the wretched traffic, I made it home really late.

So tonight's dinner is an amazingly easy to make soup and salad, with minimal ingredients.

The soup recipe is by Gordon Ramsay (Sunil - I made the soup finally and you may now call me D Gordon Iyer :-) )

Add bite sized pieces of broccoli in salted boiling water, and let cook until tender. (Pierce a knife through it and you'll know). Transfer the broccoli to a blender. Add the stock (about half the quantity) and blend well. Taste, and season as required. And yay, we are done. Drizzle a little olive oil and while you eat the soup, here's how you make the salad.

I'd read this recipe a few years ago and have been making it quite often. Perhaps my most favorite broccoli salad. Boil broccoli as above, except, let it be a tad crunchy. Finely chop garlic and ginger. Saute in high heat for under 2 minutes, until the aroma is released. Add the broccoli & a little salt, and stir fry for a minute or two until the garlic and ginger blend well with the broccoli. For the dressing, in about 3 tsp of sesame oil, add about 8 drops of soy sauce, mix well and drizzle over the salad. Toss well and serve.

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Dieter's Delight - Mushroom Mint Salad

It has been a crazy day; How else would you term a day when the carpenter is on full swing, cutting, sawing and drilling, and you can barely enter the house without being showered with sawdust! So yes, I was getting some shelves fixed and that's a 2 day job! Sigh

It was past 8 pm by the time these guys left, and I was hungry. There was a sly temptation to order out - a million thoughts running through my mind - Dominoes is right next door! Or should I call Mast Kalandar (they are 2 km away), or should I call Yo Potato or may be a peta wrap!

And then, I could hear the mind's mocking laugh! To shut it up and not feel guilty, decided to rustle up something quick!

The mushrooms should be used by today, so I chopped them up, set them on the pan, on low heat, along with some lemon juice and salt. Cook covered for about 10 minutes. Let cool and drain the water.

Meantime, finely chop a handful of mint and some coriander. Roughly chop some cucumber. Deseed tomato and roughly chop that too. Toss everything together; add some yoghurt, and we are done :-)

And this is the new entrant in my kitchen - magnetic knife holder :-). (Thanks to S, it sure matches the color of the decor)

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Dieter's Delight - Dal Kichdi

Yes I am on a diet, notwithstanding the fact that I dined at Crimson Chakra tonight. I had soup and dessert (the elaneer souffle, of course; too bad I couldn't resist this one) and I didn't miss my workout. (And I stepped into Gormei Market to say hello to Sriram and he goes - 'I thought you were on a diet?')

This is one of my all time favorite one-pot dish. Absolutely easy to make and tastes pretty good. The below recipe is a variation of the Gujarati Kichdi (served usually with kadhi, achar and roasted papad). Kichdi is a comfort casserole, more like our paruppu sadham or pongal, but loaded with the goodness of dal and vegetables.

This recipe serves 1.5 people ;-)

Wash and soak half cup of moong dal, about 2 tsp rice and a few tsp of masoor dal (red lentils).

Chop vegetables of your choice - typically onion, potato, cabbage, beans, carrot & peas. Saute them in a teeny bit of oil, along with some cumin, one bay leaf (optional), some cloves (optional), salt, 1 chopped green chilli, a pinch of red chilli powder, 1 tsp coriander powder and some turmeric. I also added the left over sprouts & mushroom mixture from last night's dinner.

Now, add all this to one big pot, add about 2 1/4 cups of water, some salt and pressure cook for about 7 - 8 whistles or more. I keep in the electric cooker for 30 mins. Let it rest for a while. Mix (or should I say mash) well and garnish with finely chopped coriander.

Can be served as is, or with raita or achar / papad / vegetables.

Suggested serving: Add a tsp of ghee over the kichdi and watch it melt away into the gaps and make the dish yummier by leaps and bounds ;-) And that's my lunch box in the picture! 

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Dieter's Delight - Lemon Coriander Soup and Stuffed Mushrooms

Day 3 of intensive cooking and dieting and working out and it has been a success. With the taste buds suddenly craving for mushroom, I'd decided to make lemon coriander soup and some stuffed mushrooms for dinner.

I finished prep and cooking in under 45 minutes, and in between some cleaning as well. So, that's how easy this is.

This soup recipe serves 1 (Adapted from Tarla Dalal Healthy Soups and Salads)

Boil about 500 ml of water, along with some chopped carrots, lemon grass (I used the dried variety), roughly chopped onions, some pepper corns, a few mint leaves, a teeny bit of salt, and some ginger. Boil this for about 15- 20 mins, on simmer, until the aroma is released and the broth is flavorful. Strain and set aside.

Chop some mushrooms, cabbage, spring onions (save the green for garnish later), carrots and saute in a teeny weeny bit of oil. To this add salt, and add the broth. Cook on simmer until the the vegetables are tender yet slightly crunchy. Add plenty coriander, the green of the spring onions, and a liberal dosage of lemon (depending on how tangy you like it - remember there's already some lemongrass in there).

Meanwhile, boil some sprouts in a microwave, on high for 5 minutes. Clean the mushrooms and remove the stem. Dry the mushrooms on a clean kitchen towel. Chop the stems & some onions. Saute on high heat for a few seconds; To this add the boiled sprouts, and some salt. Saute until they mix well. Add chopped coriander and mint. Brush the mushrooms with a little olive oil (remember mushrooms let out a lot of water, and they usually are basted), stuff the sprout mix inside the mushrooms. You can either bake them in the oven (if you are the lucky one and own an oven) or put them on a pan, on low heat, until it's cooked through but doesn't fall apart. (Or microwave on high for about 4 minutes, making sure the heat is even across all the pieces - that means you need to keep checking at regular intervals)


I made some mint yoghurt dip to go along with this (but that's not in the picture because I was in a hurry to eat and the picture was shot when the mushrooms were cooking).

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Rain, Girl Friend and Coriander Pesto

Not necessarily in that order, but it has been a great end to the week (not to mention the approaching long weekend) . I met Cynthia today for the first time, and it just felt like I've known her for years. (We've made plans to meet up tomorrow at Adoniya; hopefully Aarav lets her). Girl gossip after ages felt so therapeutic and time just flew by. Before I knew it, it was quarter to eight and I realized I had to get home before Masterchef Australia.

On my way home, it started to pour and pour it did! All the way back, my mind was constantly thinking of pasta and I was actually dreaming of the cilantro pesto pasta I had at Egg Factory, Bangalore a few months ago. I knew I had to have this today. This is not authentic and I quickly put together this dinner from whatever ingredients I had at home. (Alright, I just finished drooling over Simon Hopkinson and now Nigella is on TLC making me drool further - it's a purely dessert show today)

For the pesto: (I'm not giving exact measurements here, because I just went with whatever I had)

a bunch of coriander
a few mint leaves
a fistful of cashewnuts
one bulb garlic
dried chilli flakes
some parmesan
and olive oil

Grind all this in a blender, until it becomes a fine paste. Add more olive oil if required.

Cook the pasta (I prefer spaghetti) until al dente; My owl timer was really useful tonight.

In a pan, add olive oil and saute some onions and capsicum on high heat; (I wish I had mushrooms). Add salt. Add the drained pasta and mix through.

Finally add the pesto and mix well. Retain this until the heat spreads through.

Serve the pasta with a good amount of Parmesan grated. Dig in.

This is one of the best ways to finish off the left over coriander and mint. 

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A cozy evening, Hercule Poirot and Oven roasted tomato soup

When the work day turns out decent and you get a day off mid-week, the kitchen beckons. Having actually ignored the kitchen for a long while now, I decided to make some soup for dinner. Oh yeah, what's so great about making a soup? Nothing, really. It's simple and just gives you that warm feeling.

So, I just dump about 4 big tomatoes (cored), 1 piece of garlic, half a chopped onion, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper into the oven at 450 deg, for about 25 minutes. Boil water (you can use stock, if you like), add butter, bay leaves and some mint. Add the caramelized tomatoes, onion, garlic, and let boil. Simmer for a few minutes. Let cool a bit and blend in a processor. Strain the puree, and simmer on low heat.

Garnish with cream (if you are not on a diet ;-) )

Transfer to a soup bowl, and eat to your hearts content. Yummy, simple and filling.

(And yes, I'm now reading Hercule Poirot, The complete short stories collection)

And yes, this is the cute little owl timer that S got! :D :D I so love this owl, he's cute, isn't he! :)

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The humble upma - Comfort food

As I started off from work, I read the last tweet from Raj Ganpath that said I am sure all of you are planning your dinner menu. What's on the workout platter? Wonder how he read my mind - I was delayed at work and the first thing on my mind was dinner plans. Should I order something, should I buy something on the way, perhaps make Maggi (R - I'm sure you are drooling at the mere mention of this word :D)

I had some left overs in the fridge, but I wanted to eat something tasty, spicy and something that doesn't require too much of an effort to cook.  Oh what I can say, but every time I think of the above options, upma is the only dish that appeals to me. 

I can eat upma plain without any side dish (provided it's made properly), or if I am a little too ambitious, I can pair it up with chutney, sambar, thokku, pickle or even potato curry ! 

Few things to be noted while making upma:

a. If possible, make it in the traditional iron kadai. That way you'll get the extra-dried and fried bits (kaandhal) that you can scrape off! (S loves this)

b. The ulutham paruppu (urad dal) and kadala paruppu (channa dal) are to be roasted nicely until golden brown. They should NEVER become black. 

c. Roast the rava (sooji) in the same oil as the onions, ginger, chillies and dal. There's no need to roast it separately.

d. Make sure you do not rub your eyes after chopping green chillies and ginger. (That's my trademark; rubbbing the eyes, that is)

e. Add enough hot water, to the roasted rava. How much is enough? Add water just until the rava is submerged. Not more not less.

f. Cook covered, for a few minutes.

g. Open the lid, and then cook on low heat for a few more minutes. 

h. Upma should be "non sticky" and "non-pasty". (As they say in tamil - பொல பொல னு இருக்கணும்)

i. Add a dash of lemon and garnish with coriander. 

Variations:

a. You may add vegetables and make it a vegetable kichdi. Note: Kichdi in South India means vegetable upma, not the gujju dal kichdi.

b. You may add a little turmeric powder to make it look pretty.

c. Instead of onion / green chillies / ginger, add sugar and orange color to make rava kesari :P

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