Lemon Rice with a twist

I know I've been MIA since a few weeks. Life has taken me over with a force. An invisible hand guiding me through days. An invisible girdle blinding me from loosing sight of my Things-to-do, appointments to make etc. My parents came over to spend half a year with me and my little one. So, I did not venture outside "traditional" stuff. After they left, I've been cooking on Sun evenings 3 or 4 items to last me through Thurs.

One such sunday, there was an abundance of mint. Since in the past, I've always let the mint to wither before making good use of it, I decided to change. All the mint, one day, 4 dishes. Lets see what all I have

A. Lemon Rice with Mint Leaves

Ingredients:
1. Rice - 1 cup
2. Lemon/Lime Juice - 3 tbsp
3. Mint Leaves - 10 medium size
4. Onion (totally optional) - 1 medium

For Tempering/Tadka/Thirumari/Thalikardhu
1. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
2. Peanuts (I love them!) - 2 tbsp
3. Channa Dhal - 1 tsp
4. Asafoetida/Hing - 1 pinch
5. Curry leaves - 2 to 3
6. Green Chilli - 3 nos
7. Salt to taste

Method de prep:
1. Cook 1 cup rice with 1 cup water in rice cooker. The rice needs to be separate pieces after cooking. A mushy lemon/lime rice isn't as enjoyable.
2. In a small frying pan, heat 1 tsp oil. Add Hing, channa dhal and fry a little till the channa dhal is light brown.
3. Add mustard seeds, green chillis and curry leaves and fry. The popping of the mustard seeds must stop.
4. Add the peanuts and fry till they are light brown. (If you are using onions, then fry the onions here)
5. Add the mint leaves and gently cook till the mint leaves are dark green
6. Remove from flame and add this to the cooked rice.
7. Add salt and mix well.
8. Once the rice is cooled, add Lemon/Lime juice.

Delicious, simple, tasty and a new lemon/lime rice is ready to be enjoyed and shared!

Tangy Bagala Bath

I drew inspiration for this recipe from another Chutney recipe posted by my friend. You can find her recipe here.

B is not a big fan of Eggplant. I am always looking for ways to incorporate it in our diet without him ewwing at it. Knowing his love for pulav style food, I decided to try this recipe. The core idea was to make it tangy and flavor it enough so that the eggplant doesn't play the main character.

Ingredients:
1. Eggplant - I used the big fat one. 1/4th of it. Diced into cubes
2. Mango - 1/2 a medium. Shredded
3. Basmathi Rice - 1 cup
4. Onion - 1 medium- well chopped
5. Green chilli - 2 for taste/flavor
6. Mustard - 1 tsp
7. Salt to taste

For spice powder:
1. Dhania - 1 tbsp
2. Jeera - 1 tbsp
3. White sesame seeds - 1 tsp
4. Curry Leaves - 4 to 5 nos
5. Asafoetida(hing) - 1 pinch
6. Vendiyam - 1 tsp
7. Peanuts - 1/4th cup
8. Gingelly oil - 1 tsp
9. Bengal Gram Dhal - 1 tbsp
10. Red Chillis - 3 to 4 nos (spicy)

Method de Preparation:
1. Heat gingelly oil in a tava. Add the raw ingredients for the spice: Bengal Gram dhal, vendiyam, hing, dhania, jeera, red chillis, white sesame seeds, curry leaves and fry well. After the lentils turn slighly orange, add the peanuts and fry. The peanuts need to turn slightly brown. Remove from flame and cool
2. Meanwhile, you can cook the basmathi rice in the rice cooker. I use 3/4th cup of water for 1 cup of basmati rice. The rice needs to be cooked to end as separate grains (mushy rice wouldn't suit).
3. While the spice mix is cooling, heat some vegetable oil, add mustard and let it splutter. Add the minced onions and fry until transparent. Add the mango and eggplant pieces and cook on low flame. You can add just a little bit of water. Keep the vessel cover so that the vegetables cook just in steam.
4. While the veggies are cooking, grind the spices into a dry powder. The powder can be coarse.
5. Now, time to relax till the eggplant and mango veggies are cooked. Usually about 15 mins tops. Make sure that all the water is evaporated and the veggie mix is slightly dry. Once the veggies are cooked, you are ready to mix them all for a fantastic bagala bath
6. In a serving bowl, put a layer of cooked basmati rice, add the cooked veggies on top, sprinkle salt to taste and add the dry spice powder. Mix well. Continue to do this for the rest of the basmati rice you have. If you want a spicer bagala bath, just add more of the dry spice powder.
7. Decorate with some curry leaves. Your yummy, tangy bagala bath is ready to be enjoyed! This can be served with cucumber raita.
Enjoy!
Bon App!

Carrot Rice and Raita

Hey All!
I am back from my slumber, but may be not too long. This recipe was the result of a lot of carrots in my fridge and a sudden urge to better my vision :).

Ingredients
1. Carrots - 3 medium size
2. Onions - 1 medium
3. Green Chillis - 3 nos
4. Bay Leaves
5. Cloves.cardamon/a spoon of dhania or jeera powder
6. Rice - 1 cup
7. Green Bell Pepper - 1 medium
8. Salt to taste
10. Oil to fry



Method de Preparation
1. Cool Rice in 1 cup of water. I used basmati rice for flavor and fragrance
2. Wash, Peel and grate the carrots
3. Cook carrots in the microwave in 1.5 cups of water. I microwaved the carrots for about 10 mins
4. Finely chop the onions and green chillis and the green bell pepper
5. On a tava, melt a spoonful of ghee. Add the bay leaves, cloves, cardamon and the dhania or jeera powder. Add the chopped green bell pepper, onions and green chillis.
6. Once it is well fried, add the cooked carrots (strained from the water). Add salt to taste and cook till you get the flavor of the spices.
7. Once well cooked, add rice and the carrot mix in layers and toss all together.
8. If you like the taste of corriander, you can add some fresh, finely chopped corriander leaves to this rice.

The rice is now ready to enjoy!
I made cucumber/tomato raita to go along with this rice. Here is the quick and simple yet tasty recipe

Ingredients:
1. Yogurt - 4 tbsp
2. Cucumber - 1 medium, chopped.
3. Tomato - 1 medium, chopped
4. Green chillis - 2 nos, finely chopped
5. Oil, mustard for tadka

Method de preparation:
1. Heat 1 tsp of oil and add mustard to prepare tadka
2. Once the mustard seeds pop, add the cucumber, tomato and green chillis.
3. Once the tomatoes look half cooked, remove from flame and add to a cup of yogurt
4. Add Salt and some chaat masala and mix well.
A tasty raita to complement the carrot rice is now ready!!
Enjoy
Bon App

Green Rice

My friend has recently gotten into the blogging world. I drew inspiration from one of her recipes of Kothmira Rice. I had a lot of beans staring at me in my fridge. I put them together and had my greens for the day!

Ingredients:
1. Spinach - 1 bunch
2. Rice - 1.5 cups
3. Corriander - a handful
4. Ginger - 1 small piece
5. Green Chillis - 2 nos (to taste)
6. Beans - 1.5 cups
7. Tomato Paste - 2 tbsp (you can use 1 tomato too.I had only paste)
8. Onion - 1 piece
9. Cashews - handful
10. Cloves, Bay Leaves, Anise - as needed

Method de Prep:
1. Wash spinach bunch and boil in a pot of water. Chop and keep the onions, green chillis and ginger
2. Wash and cook rice in a rice cooker/pressure cooker. Ensure that the grains are separate. You can use basmati rice too if you wish
3. Chop beans and cook till soft. You can cook either in pressure cooker (1 whistle) or in microwave
4. Once spinach is cooked, grind it with corriander, green chillis and ginger
5. Heat a little oil in a pan. Add a pinch of asafoetida(optional), cloves, bay leaves and anise. Fry a little
6. Add cashews and the chopped onions and fry till brown
7. Add the cooked beans to turn around a coupla times. Make sure that the beans don't mash.
8. Once the flavor of the condiments arises, add the pulp from the mixer. Let it boil for couple of mins.
9. Add the cooked rice and turn it couple of times. Again, ensure that the rice doesn't squish together. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy! Bon App