Spicy & flavorful rice...

For our team dinner, we went to a fancy restaurant and the food was great. I loved the starter (cucumber salad with dill). For the main course, I ordered a vegetable stir fry with rice. The way they had described it on the menu sounded really exotic. When I received the dish (don't have pictures to show- unfortunately) it was a simple dish where the chef had cooked the vegetables with soya sauce and blended it with basmati rice. I was expecting something complex but received something simple and flavorful! Full marks to the chef :)- Well, this is not a restaurant review- But an explanation of my source of inspiration for my egg plant rice. For my dish, I cooked the eggplant (with Indian flavors, of course) and mixed it with basmati rice to create a simple and a unique eating experience. Enjoy!

Ingredients-

1. Basmati rice (cooked- 2 cups)
2. 1 egg plant (medium sized)
3. onions (sliced- 2 small)
4. one tomatoe (chopped)
5. 3 cloves garlic
6. green chilli (1- chopped fine)
7. salt
8. paprika powder
9. cooking oil

For the Indian flavors- (optional)

1. 3/4 tsp garam masala 
2. corriander leaves chopped fine
3. mustard seeds (1/4 tsp)
4. grated coconut (2 spoons)

Preparation- Cook your basmati rice and keep it separate. Preparing the egg plant is quite simple. In a wok, pop some mustard seeds in cooking oil before adding onion. Saute the onion. Once onion is golden crispy brown, add crushed and chopped garlic, chilli pieces and tomatoes. Don't allow the tomatoes to get mushy. Add egg plant (chopped in cubes) to this and stir fry with a bit of oil. Add paprika powder, salt, garam masala, grated coconut. Give it to a twirl and finally add the corriander leaves. Mix the vegetables with rice and enjoy!

Bring on the cabbage...

Cabbage is one vegetable which never catches my attention- I will go to the market and be interested in all the vegetables except cabbage. Never got around to know that vegetable, may be? Did you know that cabbage is a good source of vitamin c and contains a great deal of roughage! So finally, I swing by the market and get a big cabbage and cook it south Indian style- Enjoy!

What do we need?


1 big sized cabbage ( chopped)
mustard seeds (1 tsp)
cooking oil
curry leaves
turmeric powder (1/2 tsp)
chilli powder (3/4 tsp)
salt (according to taste)
broken dried red chilli pieces (3-4)
1 cup grated coconut

How did I put together?


The tough part is chopping the cabbage. Once done, cooking is just a matter of time...In a wok add oil and allow the mustard seeds to sputter. Add chilli pieces and chopped curry leaves. Toss in the chopped cabbage and allow it to cook on a low flame. I will sprinkle a little bit of water and cover the wok till the cabbage cooks and becomes soft. Do not put too much water otherwise the cabbage becomes soggy. As the cabbage becomes tender, add turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt and grated coconut. Mix thoroughly with a little bit of cooking oil. Enjoy with rice or rotis!

My mom is my inspiration and is the worst critic of my cooking- She looks at my post and says, this looks fine but you could have done it a bit differently. So I go, how different? She said, you need to chop the cabbage super fine (which apparently I haven't done in my recipe) and second instead of sprinkling water and cooking your cabbage, use liberal dose of oil to make it more sleek. I defended my cooking saying it is a healthier version. She wouldn't let me go so easily and said to compensate for the extra oil, you could omit the coconut. Okay, the final verdict is- you can do so many variations with this dish- Some add peanuts, yellow lentils (chana dal), green peas and some may choose to omit coconut powder. As usual, be creative and don't be afraid to bend the rules with cooking!

Cottage cheese bean wrap

Full credit for this recipe goes to my favorite chef Jamie Oliver. I love his recipes and the ease with which he creates culinary magic. Being a vegetarian, I hardly get to cook most of his recipes, but I do get my inspiration from his recipes. One of my friends tried his cool mexican bean wrap and recommended that I should give it a shot. The recipe is pretty simple and I did not follow Jamie's recipe by the book. I tried to add a bit of creativity on my own and here is the verdict- YUM...

Ingredients-

1 onion (sliced)
1 cup sliced bell peppers (red and green)
2 cloves garlics (crushed and chopped)
1/2 tsp chilli powder (if you want it less spicy add only 1/2 or a dash)
1 tsp tomato puree
1 small canned tin of red kidney beans (drained and washed)
4 tortillas
1 cup cottage cheese/ paneer (cubed)
1 fresh tomato chopped
dash of crushed black pepper
salt (according to taste)

For the filling-
Saute onions in oil for 7-8 minutes. As they turn golden brown, add garlic, chilli powder, dash of black pepper and fry them for a minute. Add the chopped tomato, tomato puree and kidney beans. Cook them for 10 minutes till the juice has reduced. Add salt according to taste. Take half of this mixture and using a hand blender/mixie grind it to a paste. This becomes our spread on the tortilla. Set aside.
In a separate frying pan, saute bell peppers and cottage cheese. As they turn light golden brown, toss in the other half of the mixture (not used for the bean paste) and fry them for 3 minutes. This is our stuffing.

Final step-
Spread the bean paste on the tortilla. Add around 2 spoons of the filling. Sprinkle some grated cheese (original recipe calls for this, but I omitted it). Roll the tortilla and place them in a pre heated oven (200 degree celsius) and cook them for 15-20 minutes. Serve them with garlic sauce.

Mixed Vegetable Rice

Rice is truly a flamboyant ingredient as you can be super creative with it. You can mix and match spices and come up with something really flavorful. My recipe is a simple vegetable rice where I cook the vegetables with Indian spices and mix them with Jasmine rice or Thai rice. 

Ingredients-

• Jasmine rice 1 cup 
• Half a cup of peas, bell peppers, cauliflower, carrot and boiled potatoes
• One onion (sliced)
• One tomato (sliced)
• One spoon garlic-ginger paste
• Cumin seeds
• Salt (according to taste)
• Corriander powder (1 tablespoon)
• Hot curry masala powder or Garam masala powder (1 tablespoon)
• Crushed cardamom seeds

Preparation- (Rice)

Wash the rice thoroughly and leave it soaked in water for about half an hour. After half an hour drain the excess water and keep it separately. In a wok heat some oil and add cumin seeds once the oil is hot. As the cumin seeds start sputtering add the rice and pour two cups of water. Allow the rice to cook on a high flame for few minutes and once the rice starts boiling close the wok with a lid and allow it to cook on a low flame. In about 15 minutes, the rice should be ready.

Preparation - (Vegetables)

In a separate wok heat some oil. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and fry them till golden brown. Add the chopped tomato and vegetables and fry them till tender (don't allow it to get mushy). Add the garlic- ginger paste, corriander powder, garam masala and crushed cardamom seeds. Mix the vegetables with spices and add salt according to taste. Once the vegetables are fried and have completely taken the spices mix them with the prepared rice. Enjoy it piping hot :)

Summer Barbeque

Being a vegetarian is pretty tough (especially when you have people eating meat all around you). The entire process of barbeque is always focussed on meat- Being vegetarian doesn't have to be boring and here is the proof-  I grilled vegetables with herbs and it turned out really cool- Grab bell peppers, zucchini, tofu or paneer (cottage cheese), cherry tomatoes, mushrooms- cut them in blocks or chunks. Dab the vegetables with herbs (oregano, rosemary, basil)- olive oil and salt- put them on a skewer and grill on.... I also dabbed a bit of butter and salt on some corn cob and grilled them with the vegetables- Yum!                                     

The best part is these grilled vegetables make a great sandwich! Put them on a toasted bread and enjoy a different kind of sandwich. And it doesn't take much time to make either!