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!).

Veggie Takeaway Day - Kashmiri Biryani and Tomato Bharta

One of those days when you just want a break from work, watch cartoons, and order greasy takeaway foods. For lunch, a Kashmiri biryani which is sweeter than the usual Hyderabadi biryani and with chunks of pineapple (YUM! But since when did Kashmir become synonymous with a tropical fruit like pineapples?!). It was served with a yoghurt raita (thrown away) and a spicy pea-based gravy and a papad.

Kashmiri Biryani

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.

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.

Red Rice with Beetroot Leaves

How many of you have had red rice? For lunch yesterday, I made a bowl of red rice and used up my beetroot leaves as well. The rice takes an awful lot of time to cook. The packet said 45 minutes. I cooked mine for 30 minutes.

Also, if you are wondering where is the all-important salt in my recipes, the answer is I havent forgotten to add that to the ingredient list. I just dont use salt. And I didnt for this recipe as well. But I would definitely recommend using salt for this one. I will next time. The taste was quite bland.

Red rice with beetroot leaves

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of red rice
• About two cups of beetroot leaves (including stalks)
• Teaspoon of sumac powder
• Drizzle of olive oil
• Salt to taste

To make:

Wash your red rice, drain, and soak the rice again in water for approximately 20-30 minutes before cooking. Cook for 30-40 minutes, along with the sumac and salt, with almost thrice the amount of water as the rice. Start off with a little less - keep adding water as you go along.

Chop up the beetroot leaves.  

Once the rice is cooked, let it cool for 10-15 minutes. Then add the chopped leaves and mix well.  Finish off with a dash of olive oil on top.

Coconut Rice and Carrot Sambal

Continuing with my South Indian culinary adventure, I made carrot sambal and cocunut rice for dinner last night.

Coconut rice is typically made in the south of India, where coconuts are aplenty. There, they typically add coconut milk or shards of fresh coconut to rice and cook the rice as usual. I had neither fresh coconut shavings, nor coconut milk. But I did have plenty of my coconut chutney from my morning order of dosas and wadas. Seemed like a shame to toss out the perfectly good coconut chutney that came with my order.

To make your own coconut chutney, blend together one cup fresh coconut, 2 green chillies, piece of ginger. Temper mustard seeds, chilli, and curry leaves for a minute and add that mixture to your coconut paste.

Since I did use more coconut than rice, the result was more a coconut risotto with a creamy texture and very heavy to eat.

I am especially proud of my carrot sambal, which is unbelievably easy to make and tastes great! Indian Sambals, unlike their Thai cousin, are not a sauce, but rather a dry condiment-like addition to a dish. The sweetness of the carrots, combined with the mustard and chillis in the sambal go really well with the heavy creaminess of the coconut and starchiness of the rice.

Coconut Rice

Ingredients:

• ½ cup rice
• ¾ cup coconut chutney
• Tablespoon of coconut oil
• 1 cup water

To make:

Add all the ingredients in a pot and cook for 15-20 minutes, or till the rice is done. I stopped cooking when the rice was done but there was still a little liquid left in the pot.

Carrot Sambal

Ingredients:

• 1 carrot
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 green chilli
• 5-10 curry leaves
• Teaspoon of oil

To make:

• Grate the carrot and chop the chilli finely.
• In a small pan, add a little oil.
• Once the oil is heated, add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, and the chilli.
• Temper for one minute and then add the carrot.
• Turn off the gas after a minute. Mix well and serve hot.

Spicy Tamarind Rice

This is my version of Tamarind rice, with only bare minimum cooking time (for the rice), and a lot of heat (one whole green chilli with seeds and all, per person). I also added an equal amount of veggies as the rice and added those only after the rice was cooled down a bit.

Spicy Tamarind Rice

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup rice
• Handful of yellow/orange lentils
• 1 tablespoon of tamarind paste
• 1 large green chilli
• 1 cup assorted veggies - I used capsicum, spring onion and cabbage
• 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
• Half a lime

To make:

• Cook the rice and lentils along with the tumeric powder in 2.5-3 cups of water for 15-20 minutes.
• Slice the chilli horizontally and then chop it up into large chunky pieces. (Remove seeds if you want less heat)
• Once the rice pot comes to a boil, add the chilli and the tamarind paste. Mix well.
• Turn off the heat when there is still some liquid left in the pan. The rice will continue to cook and will absorb the remaining water even without the heat.
• Let the rice cool down for 5-10 minutes.
• Chop up some veggies and add to the rice. Mix well, add the lime juice, and serve immediately.
  
  
  
  
  
  

The Leftover Salad

Everyone's got clumsy leftovers - not bad enough to throw out, and not tempting enough to eat them on their own. So, what do you do? Lazy that I am, I toss them all up in a salad. I had a quarter of an avocado and pepper each, and some mushroom rice from the previous night. My rice was slap-bang cold and I didn't have the time to thaw or heat it before as I was already late for work!

The Leftover Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fried mushroom rice (boiled would work great too!)
• 1/4 of an avocado
• 1 cup lettuce
• 1 cup green and red peppers
• Handful of red cabbage
• Handful of watermelon and sesame seeds (to garnish)
• Dash of olive oil
• Dash of dark soy sauce

To make:
Chop up the peppers and avocado into cute little squares, the cabbage into long slivers.

Add the rice. Mix well.

Add the olive oil and soy sauce.

Garnish with watermelon and sesame seeds.

Parsi Vegetable Dhansak

Once upon a time, I was a Parsi - I have Persian blood, which would explain why everyone thinks the Parsis are a crazy bunch. However, religion  - like milk - stopped making sense to me over a decade ago and I am now proudly atheist.

However, my point is, we do have some lovely food! My personal favorite is was the Patra-ni-Machhi (fish fillets with a spicy pesto, steamed inside a banana leaf).

The most famous of the lot is probably Mutton Dhansak. Dhansak is essentially white rice caramelized to a red/brown colour; topped with a spicy lentil and meat curry.

Here's a vegetarian recipe for Dhansak, courtesy of My Diverse Kitchen.