Lettuce salad with Homemade vinaigrette

To make homemade Balsamic vinaigrette you need
3 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp balsamic vinegar or any other vinegar
3 cloves garlic finely minced
1 tsp salt
Mix all the ingredients in a glass bottle and refrigerate for 24 hrs before using. This will stay upto 2-3 weeks.



To make salad, I used 3 leaves of romaine lettuce and 4 leaves of iceberg lettuce. You may use any leaves of your choice. Wash the leaves under water. Use plenty of water and float the leaves. Then transfer the leaves to a bowl and let them drain. Its easier to drain till the last drop in a salad spinner. If you do not have one just let the leaves drain for 30 mins. Chop the leaves into tiny ribbons or strips. Pour the vinaigrette onto the leaves and gently mix them.

Vegetable Pulao

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
2 cup mixed vegetables , (carrots, beans)chopped
1 tsp garam masala
¼ tsp turmeric powder
oil or ghee
1” cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, 2 cardamom

grind to paste
2 medium onions
4 cloves garlic
1” ginger
4 green chillies
Method

Soak rice for 30minutes, drain and set aside to dry.
Prepare the paste grinding the ingredients listed above.
Heat oil/ghee in a pan or wok, called kadai in Hindi. Add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom and fry for a minute
Add the paste and fry under low flame. Add just enough oil so that the paste does not stick to the kadai. Fry until the oil comes out on the sides of the pan. i.e the raw smell goes off approx 20minutes
Add turmeric powder and garam masala and stir for 2 more minutes. Add rice and fry for 2 minutes. Now add the vegetables and fry for another 2 minutes.
Transfer the contents to the pressure cooker. Add 2 cups of water to the empty kadai and bring it to a boil. This helps you to get all the stuff from the kadai and also cleans the kadai. Add boiling water to the pressure cooker. Add salt and stir. I add water double the quantity of your rice, adjust water quantity according to your rice. Use the same proportion of water that you would use to make your rice otherwise.
Close the lid of the pressure cooker lid and cook to your desired level. I cook for 3 whistles

Tips : Let the cooker cool down on its own. Do not hurry to open the lid. After the pressure comes down, open the lid and let the rice cool down for another 30mins before you insert the spoon. Hot rice will get smashed down easily and the pulao may get mushy.

This is just a variation in the making with same ingredients. Instead of grinding the onions, green chillies, garlic and ginger into paste and frying, you can just reverse the process. First fry these ingredients and grind into paste. This just helps you to judge better when to stop frying.

For a quick pulao, do not grind onions and green chillies to paste. Use red chili powder instead of green chillies. Use ginger garlic paste if you have it ready. Finely chop onions. Fry onions and ginger garlic paste.

This recipe serves 2 people

Moong or Green gram dosa

Ingredients
1 cup green gram
1/4 cup rice
1/4 inch ginger
4 green chillies
salt to taste

Soak green gram and rice overnight or for 6-8 hrs. Grind to paste in a blender. Add ginger and green chillies and grind till they get crushed. Add salt to taste. Make dosas instantly.

Mung Bean Sprouts

Mung bean sprouts are available in the local and chinese supermarkets in USA. The sprouts are usually 2-3 inches. These are industrially grown sprouts. Such long sprouts cannot be achieved at home.

Here are a few konkani recipes I tried with mung bean sprouts. Wash the sprouts thoroughly in water before using.

Potato Onion Upkari(Stir fry) with sprouts
1 onion, chopped lengthwise
1 small potato. chopped into sticks(optional)
2 fist full sprouts broken roughly into same size as onions
3 red chillies , broken
mustard, urad dal, oil for seasoning

Heat 1 tsp oil in a wok, make a seasoning of mustard, urad dal and red chillies. Add onion and fry till light brown. Add potatoes, salt and water, cook till potato is half done. Add the sprouts. Cook for 5mins so that the rawness of sprouts goes off but retain its crunch.

Onion butti with sprouts
1/2 coconut
1 tsp coriander seeds
5 red chillies, roasted
tamarind
1 big onion
1 fistful sprouts

Make a paste of coconut, red chillies and tamarind. Add coriander seeds and grind of a minute more. In a kadai, roast onions till its wilted. Add coconut paste and salt, cook till done. Add sprouts and cook for 5mins so that the rawness of sprouts goes off but retain its crunch.

Ambat with sprouts
1/4 coconut
5 red chillies, roasted
tamarind
1 cup mixed vegetables
1/2 onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup tor dal
1 fistful sprouts

Make a paste of coconut, red chillies and tamarind. Cook tor dal, add the vegetables and half the onions. Add the cococnut paste and salt, cook till done. Add sprouts and cook for 5 mins. In little oil, fry the rest of onions till golden brown and add to the curry. This curry is called Ambat in Konkani

Chakkuli

2 cups rice flour (slightly coarse for more crispiness)
1 cup urad flour (black gram)
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
1/2 tsp jerra
1/2 stick butter/oil
salt to taste
2 cups ghee for frying
Fry urad flour in a dry pan on the flame until it darkens a few shades. Let it cool down. Mix the rice flour, urad flour, butter, sesame seeds and jeera in a large container. Add sufficient quantity of water and salt to the flour and butter mixture. Mix all the ingredients by hand to make a soft dough and knead well. Using a chakli press, press the dough to make round chaklis on a plastic sheet. Deep fry the chaklis until brown over slow heat.

Chaklis are usually very crisp. You can make urad flour at home by washing the urad dal, drying in the sun, frying slightly and grinding to a fine powder.