Mushroom Bell Peppers Curry April 30, 2009

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White & Brown Chocolate Chip Cookies

I followed the recipe on the packet of Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies.  The recipe called for semi sweet chips but I used combination of semi sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips.  I made ½ the recipe that was on the packet.

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Cucumber Yogurt Rice

I am back with another cucumber treat from Tarla Dalal, Cucumber Yogurt Rice. I don’t like plain yogurt rice and don’t eat it everyday, which is very uncommon for a south indian. Whenever I am on a guilt trip that I am not getting enough calcium from my diet, I make cucumber raita, spinach raita, tomato yogurt chutney or any chutney or salad that has yogurt in it. This is my only source of calcium rich food. When I saw Cucmber yogurt rice, I was curious to try it, as it is another calcium recipe for me and it seemed like a variation of Daddhojanam, Flavored Yogurt Rice.

I usually have the tendency of tinkering with recipes when I make them and it ends up in a disaster. So this time I stuck to the recipe and used all the ingredients listed in the recipe and made some adjusts to the measurements (bad habits die hard, no matter how hard I try 🙂 ). Rice was tasty and is very easy to prepare. However, the next time I make it, I would add few more ingredients to the tempering to make the rice more flavorful, such as mustard seeds, chopped ginger and may be little bit of butter.

Total Time: 40 minutes

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (For cooking and cooling of rice)

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Uncooked Rice cooked and cooled (the measuring cup that comes with the rice cooker)
• ¾ cup Cucumber peeled and cut into small pieces
• ½ – ¾ cup Grated Carrots
• 2 ½ – 3 cups Yogurt (I used homemade yogurt)
• ¼ cup Cilantro
• Tempering
  • 2 tbsp Oil
  • 1 red Dry Chili
  • 4-6 Curry Leaves
  • 1 tsp jeera
  • 1 tbsp Urad Dal
  • ½ tsp Hing
  • 4 Green Chilies chopped

• Mix yogurt, carrots, cucumber, cilantro, salt and rice.
• In a pan take oil and add all the tempering ingredients.
• Mix it with yogurt rice.
• Garnish with some cilantro and grated carrot.
• Serve immediately. Refrigerate rice immediately as yogurt becomes sour at room temperature.

Suggestions:

• To make it more flavorful try add mustard seeds, chopped or grated ginger and little bit butter when tempering.

Sahaja of SpicyRasam asked for a Single Serving Recipe and Trupti is hosting Cooking for Kids: Rice started my Sharmi of Neivadyam.  I am sending this recipe to Sahaja and Trupti for their events.

Cucumber Watermelon Cooler April 29, 2009

This recipe is from Tarla Dalal. When I saw the recipe, the list of ingredients raised by eyebrow, melon and cucumber??  Since I like cucumbers, I wanted to try it. The recipe called for musk melon or cantaloupe and I used watermelon instead.  It tasted just like watermelon juice. Last 3-4 days, it felt like summer out here, although summer is 2 months away and this cooler was exactly what we needed. It is indeed a good summer cooler.

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Onion Egg Curry April 24, 2009

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Lisa’s Black & Yellow Chickpeas in a Sweet & Spicy Sauce April 21, 2009

For the month of April, Lisa’s Kitchen is the featured blog for Tried & Tasted event, started by Zlamushka.  Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen is hosting it this month.  Lisa has an array of Indian vegetarian recipes on her blog.  I usually cook Indian food at home and hence tried her Black & Yellow Chickpeas in a Sweet & Spicy Sauce.

I followed her recipe with a few changes.  I substituted Red Kidney Beans with Red Cow Peas, as I did not have any kidney beans in my pantry.  I used 8-10 green chilies and ½ tsp of chili powder  to satisfy my palate.   I pressured cooked the beans for 5 whistles as it is faster to cook in a pressure cook.  My Urad and cow peas were a over cooked and mushy, and chickpeas were cooked to perfection.  Next time I prepare it, I will pressure cook the beans for only 4 whistles and if required,  I will either pressure cook for another whistle or cook the beans on the stove top until the beans are cooked.

I served my Chickpeas in a Sweet & Spicy Sauce with rice.  It would be a nice side dish to serve with roties and parathas too.

Strawberry Pistachio Pudding April 14, 2009

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