Leftovers: Rice Salad

When I get into the kitchen to cook these days, it's only western cuisine. A few reasons for this. The first is that my kids love non-Indian food. The second is that my cook makes all the Indian stuff pretty well. The third is that I am not a big fan of the labor surrounding most Indian dishes.

Call me lazy if you will, but that's the truth.
And today's recipe I'd the perfect example if what I am taking about.

Rice Salad. Here is my version of it, much influenced by the leftovers in my fridge.

Ingredients
1. Leftover cooked rice
2. Lettuce leaves - torn
3. Basil leaves
4. Walnuts - chopped
5. Cottage cheese (paneer) - cubed into bite sized pieces
6. Pear - cubed into bite sized pieces
7. Thai chili dressing

Method
1. Combine ingredients 1 to 6 in a bowl.
2. Pour dressing over it.
3. Toss, serve and eat.

Enjoy!

posted from Bloggeroid

Beetroot salad

I am a fledgling balcony kitchen gardener. Recently, my basil has been flourishing, and my little balcony has the oh-so-refreshing fragrance of basil every time a gentle breeze blows. I even gifted a pot to M... Keep growing, dear basil!

So, I have been looking for new recipes to include basil in.

Now beetroot was one of those vegetables that somehow was prepared in just one on two ways at home- both dry Malayali preparations. One was beetroot thoren, which is with coconut and the other was the tongue twister mezhukupuratti, which is almost the same as the north Indian sabzi with different spices. I had never made any non-Indian dish with beetroot. Part of the reason was that I hate the boiled beetroot salad one generally finds in these buffets. No taste.

And here I was stucl with some beetroot in the fridge, and no Indian meals on the horizon since my cook was on leave and I usually don't cook the laborious Indian dishes. Was searching the net for an easy beetroot and basil salad to go with my Rice Casserole and got inspired by the Triple beetroot salad. So here is my version of it.


Ingredients
1. Beetroot
2. Basil leaves
For dressing
3. Olive oil
4. Balsamic vinegar
5. Salt
6. Pepper

Method
1. Pressure cook full beetroot with the skin on for two whistles or boil it till a knife inserted does not face crunchy resistance. The water and knife will be stained fuschia... Oh so pretty
2. Dunk the boiled beetroot into ice cold water. This stops the beetroot from over cooking.
3. Peel off the skin and chop the beets into half inch cubes
4. Toss with basil leaves and the dressing.




Enjoy!






posted from Bloggeroid

Leftovers: Rice casserole

Generally by the end of the week, I have little containers of leftovers in the fridge. Can't think of throwing them, yet can't bring them to the table in their current avatars. The casserole is my failsafe method of infusing new life into these leftovers.

The building blocks are simple.
1. The main carb... Rice or pasta or bread
2. Protein... Sometimes meat, fish or egg. Sometimes I go vegetarian and use lentils (dals) or cottage cheese (paneer)
3. Veggies... In leafy, grated, chopped, sliced or pureed form
4. Sauce... Red or white or some combination
5. Topping... Have used mashed or sliced potato, bread slices, bread crumbs, beaten egg, cheese, milk with one of these...

Here are the ingredients of today's leftover rice casserole. Layer the following in a glass baking dish and pop into the microwave or oven for about 10 min till the top is cheesy and bubbly.

1. Leftover rice
2. Cottage cheese crumbled
3. Corned beef lightly sauteed
4. Marinara sauce. Which is basically home made sauce of roasted tomatoes, garlic and bail
5. Topping of beaten egg and grated Parmesan cheese







Enjoy!

posted from Bloggeroid

Egg in a hole recipe

I am a big chick flick fan. Shamelessly so. I like the soppy dialogs, the predictable endings and the general sweet and warm feeling a movie leaves you with. It's good fun to watch the older chick flicks... The ones from the 80s with the big hair. 90s air brushing. And the millennium ones with the story lines becoming less sticky sweet and more real. 



Today's breakfast was inspired by a chick flick. The old Cher one... Moon struck. The scene where her mother makes breakfast. Eggs in a hole. She used a crusty baguette, it looks like but I used our trusted sliced white sandwich bread.

The movie may not be all that great but breakfast sure was!

Here's the recipe in pictures.








And if you want it double fried...

posted from Bloggeroid

Rice & Sausage Casserole

My dear cousin has been experimenting away with cooking in her  new city of residence. And has been encouraging me to post my recipes online, so that experimenters like her can benefit from my experience. So thank you dear ARV.

Today's recipe is dedicated to you - Mwuah!

Rice & Sausage Casserole

Ingredients

1. Cooked Rice (I used leftovers) - 2 or 3 cups
2. Sausages (I used chicken sausages, but this recipe will work with just about any kind of sausage), chopped - 2 cups 
3. Onion, chopped - 1/2 cup
4. Oil, for sauteing - 2 tbsp
5. Tomato ketchup -  1 tbsp
6. Cauliflower, cut into florets - 1 small head
7. Carrot, chopped into 1 inch cubes - 3 medium size
8. Butter - 1 tbsp
9. Maida - 2 tbsp
10. Milk - 1 1/2 cups
11. Salt & Pepper - to taste
12. Pizza (Mozarella Cheese)  - 2 tbsp

Method

1.  Boil/steam the vegetables (Cauliflower and carrot)

   

   Veggies merrily boiling away - i used the veg stock also in the recipe ;) shhh... secret ingredient which is not mentioned in the recipe!

2. In a frying pan, heat oil and saute onion. When onion is translucent, add the chopped sausage and stir fry till sausage is cooked. Add tomato ketchup to this, mix and set aside.

   

   Blurred close-up of chopped onions

   
   

   

   Chicken sausages whole

   
   

   

   Onion & Sausage stir fry. Yum, can eat this itself as a meal.

   
   
   
3. Make white sauce with butter, maida and milk.
   • Melt butter in saucepan
   • Stir in maida so that there are no lumps
   • Add milk and keep stirring till milk heats up through
   • Season with salt and pepper

     

     This is a photo of the white sauce after i dumped the boiled veggies in it

4. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
5.  In a casserole dish, layer the rice, sausage mix, vegetables and pour the white sauce over all. Top with cheese.

   

   Rice Layer

   
   

   

   Sausage Layer

   
   

   

   White sauce and veggie layer

   
   

   

   Cheese Layer

   
   
6. Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has just melted.

   

   And the final product!

   
   
   Enjoy!

Hi there

I haven't blogged here for so very long. My Bangalore Mama blog had me excited, and also want to share with you another blog that I have started - Annu's Calligraphy Portfolio. Why did I start a separate blog for my calligraphy efforts? I don't know, maybe to keep these facets of my life all compartmentalized.

Yoga goes on once in a while. Have been baking muffins. Will post recipes and photos soon. My Nokia phone camera is acting weird.

And lots more happening in life. This is the update from me :)

Breakfast Pizza

And another recipe!

Had an extra pizza base at home. And was wondering what to do for breakfast. Married the two, and here is the result of the union:

BREAKFAST PIZZA!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1. Pizza Base: 1
2. Tomato Sauce: 2 tablespoons
3. Chilli Sauce: 1 tsp
4. Basil Leaves: a few
5. Black Olives: 5, halved
6. Sweet Corn kernels: 1 tablespoon
7. Mozzarella Cheese, grated: 2 tablespoons
8. Egg: 1

 Method

1. Mix tomato sauce and chilli sauce, and spread on pizza base.
2. Sprinkle the basil leaves, olives and corn over the pizza base. 
3. Cover pizza base with the grated cheese.
4. Bake at 180 C for 7 minutes
5. Crack egg over hot pizza, and place back in the oven for 6 minutes.
6. Check if egg is cooked to your liking.
7. Voila! Breakfast Pizza!