So this week I finally went and got the stuff I need to learn to crochet (hook, yarn - not a very long list!) and spent hours on-line watching videos and downloading 'how-to' guides. So with my new-found desire to crochet and going to work everyday, I haven't had much time for cooking.
I've still had time to take Coco for walks, and sit quietly in the garden watching her explore. I've seen 6 different types of butterfly all brightly coloured like someone splashed paint all over them. I've seen the owl, swooping low, silently flying along my road in the wee hours. I've had time to read sections of the 3 different books I've got on the go at the minute. I've also had time to start my new blog - Claire's Crochet Quest! :)
Recently I've definitely been in a rice mood, which is quite unusual for me. So several times this week I've resorted to variations on this dish - Vegetable Pulao. It's really simple to make in the pressure cooker. So here goes...
Vegetable Pulao
1 tablespoon Oil / Ghee
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin) seeds
1" piece cinnamon stick
2 laung (cloves)
2 elaichi (cardamom) pods
2 black peppercorns
a few curry leaves
1 carrot, finely chopped, length-ways
1 handful french beans, chopped into 1.5cm pieces
1 potato, copped into small cubes
1 handful peas (fresh or frozen - I prefer to use fresh, but can't get any at the moment)
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 green chilli, halved and deseeded
1/4 teaspoon haldi (turmeric)
1 teaspoon chilli powder
salt to taste
1 cup basmati rice, washed and soaked for an hour
360 ml water
fresh coriander leaves for garnishing
1. heat oil / ghee in the pressure cooker. Add jeera, cinnamon, laung, elaichi, peppercorns & curry leaves. Fry until jeera splutters.
2. Add carrot, french beans, potato and peas and cook for a few mins, stirring every now and then.
3. Add ginger paste and green chilli and cook for a few minutes more.
4. Add haldi, chilli powder, salt, rice and water. Mix well.
5. Pop the lid on the pressure cooker and cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to cool until the pressure releases.
6. Open and serve with coriander
And it smells soooooo good when you open the lid - especially if you use ghee.
You can make this without a pressure cooker, but it'll need more water and more cooking time. Obviously you can put different veggies in too. It's good with cauliflower, and onion comes out suprisingly good - sweet and soft. If you're extra lazy, you can use pre-cut veg too!
Must dash... got more crochet to do :)
Showing posts with label rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rice. Show all posts
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Mellow Yellow... aka Yellow Mung Dal
Yellow is a lovely colour for food. When the weather is dull and grey, cold and rainy, a splash of yellow is like sunshine on your plate - guaranteed to brighten your day and bring a smile to your face. Banana and custard, Scrambled eggs, Yellow Mung Dal... all favourite comfort foods of mine.
This weekend has been mentally, physically and spiritually fulfilling, but the weather has been a little grey and rainy, so yellow food was needed to make my weekend complete. Scrambled eggs for breakfast and Yellow mung dal and rice for lunch. I'm thinking about bananas and custard for later, but I'll need to go out in the rain for supplies, and find a recipe to make proper custard from scratch... I think I'm enjoying my lazy Sunday too much for all this. Instead I'll probably make Alu Bhaji for dinner...it's also yellow!
I'm not sure where I got this recipe from, but it's become one of my favourites as it's so easy to make, and uses just a few ingredients. I usually eat this with rice, but it's also really yummy with warm, buttered pav (bread rolls).
Yellow Mung Dal:
1/2 cup yellow mung dal, washed
2 cups water
salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon haldi (turmeric powder)
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
a pinch of hing (asafoteida)
1 teaspoon garlic paste or 4 roughly chopped/crushed cloves of garlic
5-6 curry leaves
1 green chili - slit and deseeded
1 medium tomato, finely sliced
a squeeze of lemon juice
a handful of coriander, chopped for garnishing
1. Put the mung dal, water, salt and haldi in to a pressure cooker and cook until soft - I usually do 4-5 whistles, then leave it to cool and release the pressure naturally. Leave this water and dal mixture in the pressure cooker.
2. In a small, heavy based pan heat the oil over a medium flame. Add the jeera and hing.
3. When spluttering, add the garlic, curry leaves and chilli and stir for 30 seconds or so.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook for a minute or two then add this to the dal.
5. Bring the dal to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Add the lemon juice and coriander. Stir through and serve.
As an alternative to the jeera, garlic and tomato you can use rai (mustard seeds) and ginger instead.
I really do like dal, it's a great vegetarian dish that really fills the tummy. I was also lucky this week to eat some channa ki dal which was delicious. I'm hoping to get the recipe soon, and if I do you'll definitely get a blog post about that!
But enough about me. What about you? What's your favourite dal?
This weekend has been mentally, physically and spiritually fulfilling, but the weather has been a little grey and rainy, so yellow food was needed to make my weekend complete. Scrambled eggs for breakfast and Yellow mung dal and rice for lunch. I'm thinking about bananas and custard for later, but I'll need to go out in the rain for supplies, and find a recipe to make proper custard from scratch... I think I'm enjoying my lazy Sunday too much for all this. Instead I'll probably make Alu Bhaji for dinner...it's also yellow!
I'm not sure where I got this recipe from, but it's become one of my favourites as it's so easy to make, and uses just a few ingredients. I usually eat this with rice, but it's also really yummy with warm, buttered pav (bread rolls).
Yellow Mung Dal:
1/2 cup yellow mung dal, washed
2 cups water
salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon haldi (turmeric powder)
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
a pinch of hing (asafoteida)
1 teaspoon garlic paste or 4 roughly chopped/crushed cloves of garlic
5-6 curry leaves
1 green chili - slit and deseeded
1 medium tomato, finely sliced
a squeeze of lemon juice
a handful of coriander, chopped for garnishing
1. Put the mung dal, water, salt and haldi in to a pressure cooker and cook until soft - I usually do 4-5 whistles, then leave it to cool and release the pressure naturally. Leave this water and dal mixture in the pressure cooker.
2. In a small, heavy based pan heat the oil over a medium flame. Add the jeera and hing.
3. When spluttering, add the garlic, curry leaves and chilli and stir for 30 seconds or so.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook for a minute or two then add this to the dal.
5. Bring the dal to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Add the lemon juice and coriander. Stir through and serve.
As an alternative to the jeera, garlic and tomato you can use rai (mustard seeds) and ginger instead.
I really do like dal, it's a great vegetarian dish that really fills the tummy. I was also lucky this week to eat some channa ki dal which was delicious. I'm hoping to get the recipe soon, and if I do you'll definitely get a blog post about that!
But enough about me. What about you? What's your favourite dal?
Sunday, August 1, 2010
My signature dish... I don't have one! Will Masala Rice do?
I love watching food programs. Nigella, Jamie, Kylie Kwong, Anthony Bourdain, Man versus Food, Rachel Allen's Bake, Hell's Kitchen... the list goes on. So this weekend I caught a couple of shows of Masterchef Austrailia. The concept's a little different of the Masterchef (UK) of my childhood, as there's pressure tests and cook offs now, I guess to satisfy the reality show generation. It's not good enough to just kick off the worst cooks every week, the viewing audience will get bored... we need some spice!
On one of the shows the 45 contestants had to cook up their signature dish... and they had some strange concoctions. Cheese and snail souffle was one that really didn't appeal to me (ok I'm veggie, but if I weren't I still wouldn't eat this). Another contestant dreamt up a wattleseed, avocado and chocolate mousse... which sounds good, except I have no idea what wattleseed is.
All of their creativity made me realise that I don't have a signature dish yet. I guess I'm just too new at this cooking malarky to have one. So why have I chosen Masala rice this week? Well it's probably the opposite of a signature dish. It's not posh and showy. You wouldn't serve it at a dinner party. It's plain and simple comfort food. And really quick to make if you use left over rice like I do.
Masala Rice:
Left over Basmati Rice
Enough Onion, Potato and Tomato for the rice
Enough oil to cook the onion potato and tomato
Some Rai and Jeera (Mustard and cumin seeds)
A green chilli or two, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
A little Haldi (Turmeric powder)
Some Dhaniya (Coriander powder) and Chilli Powder
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped, for garnishing
1. Finely chop the onion, potato and tomato. I slice the potato in really thin slices to speed up the cooking.
2. Heat the oil and add the rai and jeera.
3. When seed pop add the chilli, onion and potato. Cook on a low heat until nearly done.
4. Add the tomato, haldi, dhaniya and chilli. Add any salt at this point too.
5. When everything is well cooked, add the rice.
6. Mix well and heat the rice thoroughly.
7. Garnish with Coriander and serve
I usually eat this with curd and it's really yummy.
I know I've not been at all precise with the amounts, and that's because I never have the same amount of rice left when I make this, so I don't know the quantities myself! Just start off easy with the spices, you can add more if necessary, and remember to put less haldi than dhaniya and chilli powder. Sometimes I also use Jeera powder too. If you fancy you could even add some cloves or cinnamon stick for a different taste. Sometimes I make it without the tomato or potato, and it's just as good.
BTW... Wattleseed is the seed of the Acacia tree and when dried and ground it has rich coffee, chocolate and hazelnut aromas & flavours.
On one of the shows the 45 contestants had to cook up their signature dish... and they had some strange concoctions. Cheese and snail souffle was one that really didn't appeal to me (ok I'm veggie, but if I weren't I still wouldn't eat this). Another contestant dreamt up a wattleseed, avocado and chocolate mousse... which sounds good, except I have no idea what wattleseed is.
All of their creativity made me realise that I don't have a signature dish yet. I guess I'm just too new at this cooking malarky to have one. So why have I chosen Masala rice this week? Well it's probably the opposite of a signature dish. It's not posh and showy. You wouldn't serve it at a dinner party. It's plain and simple comfort food. And really quick to make if you use left over rice like I do.
Masala Rice:
Left over Basmati Rice
Enough Onion, Potato and Tomato for the rice
Enough oil to cook the onion potato and tomato
Some Rai and Jeera (Mustard and cumin seeds)
A green chilli or two, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
A little Haldi (Turmeric powder)
Some Dhaniya (Coriander powder) and Chilli Powder
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped, for garnishing
1. Finely chop the onion, potato and tomato. I slice the potato in really thin slices to speed up the cooking.
2. Heat the oil and add the rai and jeera.
3. When seed pop add the chilli, onion and potato. Cook on a low heat until nearly done.
4. Add the tomato, haldi, dhaniya and chilli. Add any salt at this point too.
5. When everything is well cooked, add the rice.
6. Mix well and heat the rice thoroughly.
7. Garnish with Coriander and serve
I usually eat this with curd and it's really yummy.
I know I've not been at all precise with the amounts, and that's because I never have the same amount of rice left when I make this, so I don't know the quantities myself! Just start off easy with the spices, you can add more if necessary, and remember to put less haldi than dhaniya and chilli powder. Sometimes I also use Jeera powder too. If you fancy you could even add some cloves or cinnamon stick for a different taste. Sometimes I make it without the tomato or potato, and it's just as good.
BTW... Wattleseed is the seed of the Acacia tree and when dried and ground it has rich coffee, chocolate and hazelnut aromas & flavours.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Stray Dogs, Bugs, Rats and Perfect, Fluffy Rice with Curd...
Not a particularly appealing title for a blog about food, right? I agree! But India has a lot of these things.
Coco (my Lab) has a boyfriend! His name is Brownie, he lives in the grounds of our building and he's taken a real shine to Coco. So much so, that this dog now accompanies us on our walks, even though it's way outside of his territory and he's clearly quite terrified. He hides behind me if he feels threatened, which is a bit strange, as if he sees me without Coco he growls at me and runs away. In this mad dog's head I'm clearly two different people!
India is a place of bugs... the insect variety and the stomach variety. Why is this part of my blog today? Well I've currently got the second type of bug and I've been scared to death by the first type from time to time.
About a year ago, on the way back from an outing in Malshej Ghat, my friends and I stopped for food in a roadside dhaba. We didn't really have a choice, as we were in the middle of nowhere. The place had the lights turned down low, so you really didn't notice the immense number of bugs in the place until your eyes got used to the low lights. If the place had been empty, then I'd have run away screaming, but it was doing good business.
The food was fresh and good, and we were half way through when we saw two rats running though the place quite freely. Everyone ignored them, except us. As we watched them for a minute, we realised that these weren't rats after all. They were gigantic cockroaches - as big as my hand! Supersized bugs freak me more than rats - rats are meant to be that big!
So that brings me to the last bit... I've already mentioned that this weekend I'm suffering from a stomach bug. These are common place in a country with such a large number of stray dogs, bugs and rats running around the place. And monsoon time is the time when you need to be most careful about eating 'outside food'.
And I have been careful about outside food. Instead, I've managed to poison myself with my own leftovers! This did confuse me a little, as I made sure I'd heated everything properly and it was less than 24 hours old and had been carefully stored in the fridge.
Then last night after I dragged myself out to take Coco on her last walk of the day, with her boyfriend in tow, I got home and popped into my kitchen. That's when I see a rat run out of my window! I live on the 5th Floor of my apartment block. Now I think I know how I got this stomach bug and I swear I'm never opening that window ever again!
So I'm miserable. I've got a bad stomach, a rat and a stray doggie lusting after Coco. And all I'm allowed to eat is Plain Rice and Curd. All I can say, is it's a good job I learned to make fluffy rice a few months back. Up until that point, the rice I made was always sticky and starchy. Now I know why - I was dumping rice into cold water and bringing it to the boil - wrong!
Perfect, fluffy rice:
1 measure of rice
4 measures of water for cooking
Salt to taste
1. Wash the rice really well, until the water runs clear.
2. Soak the rice for half an hour.
3. Bring the water to the boil then add the rice and salt.
4. Bring it back to the boil then simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.
5. Drain off any excess water.
Some types of rice will take less time and others will take longer to cook. I use Basmati and it takes about 10 mins.
When you're ill with a tummy bug, eat this perfect, fluffy rice with curd (yoghurt) - preferably a probiotic variety to help the good bacteria in your tummy kick the bad bacteria to the kerb!
Coco (my Lab) has a boyfriend! His name is Brownie, he lives in the grounds of our building and he's taken a real shine to Coco. So much so, that this dog now accompanies us on our walks, even though it's way outside of his territory and he's clearly quite terrified. He hides behind me if he feels threatened, which is a bit strange, as if he sees me without Coco he growls at me and runs away. In this mad dog's head I'm clearly two different people!
India is a place of bugs... the insect variety and the stomach variety. Why is this part of my blog today? Well I've currently got the second type of bug and I've been scared to death by the first type from time to time.
About a year ago, on the way back from an outing in Malshej Ghat, my friends and I stopped for food in a roadside dhaba. We didn't really have a choice, as we were in the middle of nowhere. The place had the lights turned down low, so you really didn't notice the immense number of bugs in the place until your eyes got used to the low lights. If the place had been empty, then I'd have run away screaming, but it was doing good business.
The food was fresh and good, and we were half way through when we saw two rats running though the place quite freely. Everyone ignored them, except us. As we watched them for a minute, we realised that these weren't rats after all. They were gigantic cockroaches - as big as my hand! Supersized bugs freak me more than rats - rats are meant to be that big!
So that brings me to the last bit... I've already mentioned that this weekend I'm suffering from a stomach bug. These are common place in a country with such a large number of stray dogs, bugs and rats running around the place. And monsoon time is the time when you need to be most careful about eating 'outside food'.
And I have been careful about outside food. Instead, I've managed to poison myself with my own leftovers! This did confuse me a little, as I made sure I'd heated everything properly and it was less than 24 hours old and had been carefully stored in the fridge.
Then last night after I dragged myself out to take Coco on her last walk of the day, with her boyfriend in tow, I got home and popped into my kitchen. That's when I see a rat run out of my window! I live on the 5th Floor of my apartment block. Now I think I know how I got this stomach bug and I swear I'm never opening that window ever again!
So I'm miserable. I've got a bad stomach, a rat and a stray doggie lusting after Coco. And all I'm allowed to eat is Plain Rice and Curd. All I can say, is it's a good job I learned to make fluffy rice a few months back. Up until that point, the rice I made was always sticky and starchy. Now I know why - I was dumping rice into cold water and bringing it to the boil - wrong!
Perfect, fluffy rice:
1 measure of rice4 measures of water for cooking
Salt to taste
1. Wash the rice really well, until the water runs clear.
2. Soak the rice for half an hour.
3. Bring the water to the boil then add the rice and salt.
4. Bring it back to the boil then simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.
5. Drain off any excess water.
Some types of rice will take less time and others will take longer to cook. I use Basmati and it takes about 10 mins.
When you're ill with a tummy bug, eat this perfect, fluffy rice with curd (yoghurt) - preferably a probiotic variety to help the good bacteria in your tummy kick the bad bacteria to the kerb!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Cooking Rice (A visit from the Queen's personal Fire Brigade at Windsor Castle)
Let me start off with a disclaimer: My cooking skills are virtually zero.
So in my previous life (in England) about , I rented a flat from the Queen in the walls of Windsor Castle. For those of you that doubt such a thing is possible, I'm referring to a little flat above the Education Centre in St. Alban's Street - I'm sure you can find photos of it somewhere on the web.
A few years back, there was a big fire at Windsor Castle (not caused by my cooking), so all the apartments in the castle were linked to an internal (and silent) fire alarm system, monitored by HRH's own personal Fire Brigade.
So I decided one cold autumn night to make a nice hot meal (can't remember exactly what it was now) involving rice. I put the rice on the stove to cook and went to watch a bit of telly. Because watching rice cook is really quite boring. What happened next must have gone something like this:
Which lead to my front door nearly being broken down a several hunky firemen raced to save Windsor Castle from my cooking. Yes, I burnt the rice. So badly did I burn the rice that the whole kitchen was filled with thick smoke, several hunky firemen and one extremely embarrassed me.
I also had to throw that pot away as there were several inches of burnt, black rice stuck to the bottom of the pan that just wouldn't all come off even after much scrubbing.
You'd hope that I'd have learnt my lesson, right? Well I didn't. I still burn rice to this day - some 7 years later. Just not as badly. Except that once, about 6 months back...
Recipe: Rice
Ingredients:
Rice
Water
Salt to taste
Secret Ingredient:
Common sense
Method:
Do what it says on the packet.
Use your common sense and check on the rice regularly
Take it off the heat when done and before it bursts into flames
Enjoy
So in my previous life (in England) about , I rented a flat from the Queen in the walls of Windsor Castle. For those of you that doubt such a thing is possible, I'm referring to a little flat above the Education Centre in St. Alban's Street - I'm sure you can find photos of it somewhere on the web.
A few years back, there was a big fire at Windsor Castle (not caused by my cooking), so all the apartments in the castle were linked to an internal (and silent) fire alarm system, monitored by HRH's own personal Fire Brigade.
So I decided one cold autumn night to make a nice hot meal (can't remember exactly what it was now) involving rice. I put the rice on the stove to cook and went to watch a bit of telly. Because watching rice cook is really quite boring. What happened next must have gone something like this:
Which lead to my front door nearly being broken down a several hunky firemen raced to save Windsor Castle from my cooking. Yes, I burnt the rice. So badly did I burn the rice that the whole kitchen was filled with thick smoke, several hunky firemen and one extremely embarrassed me.
I also had to throw that pot away as there were several inches of burnt, black rice stuck to the bottom of the pan that just wouldn't all come off even after much scrubbing.
You'd hope that I'd have learnt my lesson, right? Well I didn't. I still burn rice to this day - some 7 years later. Just not as badly. Except that once, about 6 months back...
Recipe: Rice
Ingredients:
Rice
Water
Salt to taste
Secret Ingredient:
Common sense
Method:
Do what it says on the packet.
Use your common sense and check on the rice regularly
Take it off the heat when done and before it bursts into flames
Enjoy
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