Piquant Pineapple Salsa

The post title may say "salsa" but I'm having this for lunch as a salad. Very simple recipe with pineapple, cucumber, onion. The veggies are dressed in red wine vinegar, liquid jaggery, chilli flakes, basil, and garlic.

Onion, Cinnamon, and Dry Fruit Pilaf

This is a really nice comforting rice dish with caramelized onions, a ton of cinnamon, and made richer with cashews, raisins, and green grapes. I made mine using red rice, which is notorious for having a really long cooking time (40 minutes!).

Parsi Ras Chawal (Spicy Tomato Gravy with Rice)

I usually have one meal a week with my family, with me taking a break from making my own meals or ordering takeout. I do ask my mom to either make a vegetarian Parsi dish or to make my portion seperately and then add the meat to their portions later on. This time, its a dish called ras chawal, which would translate to spicy tomato gravy with rice. It's quite unknown compared to other Parsi specialities and I can't find a single recipe of it online.

We usually add mutton to this dish, or serve it with boiled eggs. But this one's all vegan with just potatoes and drumsticks. You're supposed to suck the flesh inside the drum stick, not eat the chewy fiberous outside. The recipe is a rough gist I got from my mom.

Cabbage and Sunflower Seed Parathas

Between Bobby Chin's Punjab-special episode, and a live tandoor station at the back of my own building for some function I wasn't invited to, I just had to make some parathas, or Indian flat bread, for myself. These are generally made of spinach, cauliflower, potato, or paneer stuffed inside or mixed alongside the dough made of wheat. I made mine with wheat and soy flour, added sunflower seeds. I would have liked to have added some saffron too, but didn't have any handy. And finally, I used very little water - instead just used extra virgin olive oil and coconut milk to bind the dough. I'm usually very yucky about getting my hands dirty while kneading the dough, but soldiered on nonetheless.

I had the parathas with a green and red pepper relish I got a couple of weeks back from the farmers market.

I wish I had access to that tandoor oven at the back of my building. I later learnt it was 10 days since some old chap died and they were celebrating with tandoor-cooked breads and such.

Oil, water, and flour measurements are approximations only. I just kept adding them as needed.

Cabbage and Sunflower Seed Paratha

Servings: 4 parathas

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups wheat flour
• 0.5 cups defatted soy flour
• Approx 0.5 cups of olive oil
• 1 cup cabbage
• 1/2 an onion
• 1 green chilli
• 2 handfuls of sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons of coconut milk
• Lukewarn water, as needed
• Salt to taste

To make:
Chop your chilli, cabbage, and onion finely.

Mix the veggies with your flour with salt, olive oil and coconut milk.

Add the sunflower seeds and water, as needed, to form the dough. Keep kneading till the dough is not sticky  - when you lift it off the plate, it comes off clean. If its too sticky, add more flour. If its too dry, add more water.

Divide the dough into four pieces and roll them into a ball using your hands.

Dust some flour on your rolling board, and roll the dough ball into a thin round roti. Hopefully, more round than mine. :)

In a flat frying pan, add some olive oil. Remember you're not frying the paratha - the oil is just so the paratha doesn't stick to the pan. When the oil and pan are hot, gently place your paratha and let it cook for 3-5 minutes on each side.

Enjoy immediately with some pickle, or yoghurt.

Veg Biryani and Cabbage, Onion, Tomato Upma

Lately, I've been feeling a bit lazy to cook anything for myself and also feeling a bit stifled with having so few fresh ingredients to work with. I'm waiting for this sunday when I can buy a truckload from the farmer's market. So, last night, I just ordered a Vegetable Dum Biryani. It came with a yoghurt raita, which I chucked away. My brother's always amazed why someone would pay Rs. 120 for a vegetarian biryani, when for only Rs. 10 more you get the chicken version. Ten rupees - that's the worth of a chicken's life?!

And this morning, for breakfast, a cabbage, onion and tomato upma, along with my coffee-coconut milk concoction.

Cabbage, Onion, Tomato Upma

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup semolina or an upma premix
• 1 cup chopped cabbage
• 1 tomato
• 1 onion
• 1 cup of water
• Teaspoon of olive oil
• Half a lime
• Handful of coriander

To make:

• In a pan, gently dry roast the semolina/upma premix for a minute or two.
• Add water to the roasted semolina and cook for approximately 7-10 minutes.
• Once the semolina is cooked, add the chopped up vegetables and stir for 1-2 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve immediately with lashings of lime juice.

Zesty Spinach Salad 2

Well, this one's just another twist of my original zesty spinach salad recipe, since Mr. Spinach doesn't just eat itself and goes bad real quick.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of spinach
• 1 cup cabbage
• ½ a large pomegranate
• 1/2 a sweet lime
• 1 spring onion (onion, plus the entire green stalk)

Dressing:

• Teaspoon of olive oil
• Juice of half a sweet lime
• Roughly 10 black pepper corns
• Dash of basil

To make:
Wash and chop all the ingredients roughly the same size. Make the salad dressing and pour over the salad ingredients.  

Vegetable Upma

Upma, or savoury semolina porridge, is a staple of any self respecting South Indian household. This tasty breakfast staple is best eaten piping hot and can be endlessly adapted depending on what you add to the basic semolina mix. Carrots and peas are the most commonly used veggies used to complement this dish.

We also have handy upma pre-mixes available - most famously by MTR, which is what I had and happily used this morning. I was originally going to make a ragi (millet) based upma, but then I realized I hadn't soaked my ragi overnight, so, screw that!

The pre-mix is essentially semolina with all the seasonings - so all you have to do is pour the mix into boiling water. In case you cannot find such a pre-mix, go to the bottom of the post for the full version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup upma pre-mix
• 1 1/2 cups of assorted vegetables (I used carrots, onions, peppers, cabbage, tomato)
• 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
• Coriander to garnish

To make:

Bring two cups of water to a boil in a pot.

Drop the cup of pre-mix semolina into the water and let it cook for 5-7 minutes.

Be sure to stir regularly to ensure no lumps are formed.

When the semolina looks cooked (no more than 7 minutes, usually), turn off the gas.

Add the vegetables. Stir thoroughly.

Garnish with the coriander and squeeze a quarter of a lime over.

Serve immediately.

If you do not or cannot find an upma premix packet, use plain semolina and add the following in addition to the ingredients outlined above:

• 2 green chillies slit lengthwise
• 1" piece of ginger grated
• 3/4 tsp mustard seeds
• Pinch of turmeric powder 

Onion and Olive Crackers

My second attempt at baking in two days and this time I did have my hands in the flour-oil-water mixture to form a proper dough. Well, don't know about "proper" - Once again, my baking time is far more than the recommended baking time for crackers and such. I had them in the oven for at least an hour. Can someone suggest what I'm doing wrong? I'm just really paranoid about eating raw dough batter and so would tend to leave the baking tray in the oven even longer than necessary.

Anyway, they turned out looking very sexy...They'll go well with my Baba Ghanoush! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1/4 -1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 - 1 cup of warm water
• 2/3 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 cup of fried onions
• 5-10 green olives, chopped up fine
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of dry basil
• 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds (as garnish)

Prep work: Cut an onion lengthwise and fry till its a deep brown color. Do this a day before and place in refrigerator. They should be crunchy.

To make:

To the flour, add the oil and water (leave some in reserve). Along with the fried onions and cumin seeds. Add the chopped olives and the basil.

Form a sticky dough - Adjust the oil and water according to the consistency of the dough you are seeking.

Using a rolling pin or the palm of your hand, roll out the dough into a thin sheet (no more than 1/8th of an inch in height)

 Oil your baking tray and gently place the dough inside.

 With a knife coated in oil or dipped in water, gently cut the raw dough into thin slivers or the shape you desire.

Bake for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown. (Mine took more than an hour - thats my headache to figure out what I am doing wrong)