Summer salad from my garden : Carrot, greens and watermelon

My first story (and photographs) for BBC Good Food India magazine covers the restaurant Chez Mariannick, in the Off the Eaten Track section. Do check the April 2012 issue. If you love good food, you must subscribe to BBC Good Food online. And I'm not saying this only because I'm writing for them. This magazine is full of inspirations for enthusiastic cooks.

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After indulging on food through the weekend (trying out new restaurants, having friends over or going out to friends' places) Sunday evenings are mostly just salad based dinners. Neither do I have the appetite or the energy or enthusiasm to cook and eat anything elaborate on a Sunday evening. 
It was no different this Sunday evening, when I went up to the garden, plucked a few things, soaked them in a sink full of water. 

Basket of freshly plucked produce sitting in a water bath

Come supper time, I quickly put together the ingredients to make a deliciously refreshing salad, perfect for the hot evenings in Bangalore. I must say that my salad making skills have been encouraged by two factors. One, the terrace garden that is always a source of a few fresh salad greens, and two, my two friends - Ajit & Nandini, who are full of praise for any salad I put together. So I've decided to blog more of my impulsive salad making sprees.


Growing the multi coloured carrots has been a most fun experience, because when you pull it out of the ground, you don't know which colour it is going to be. Also, the purple carrots, when peeled are yellow inside, as shown in the picture below.

The purple carrot is yellow on peeling!

Now, rocket / arugula / rucola, I'm so in love with this spicy salad green, that I simply cannot have enough of it. I've let the first batch of rocket sown grow into a jungle, literally, so I can let them go to seed and then collect the seeds to share with friends, and sow more rocket in my garden. I've been using them in every salad, made pesto, added it to pasta, and even to a mint and coriander chutney with brilliant results. I'm surprised how my crush over rocket is sustaining over the last 9 months. Some nurseries in Bangalore sell the seeds. If you are in and around Whitefield, I'd love to share some of the rocket seeds with you. It's extremely easy to grow, even in pots. Give it a try!

Summer fresh salad with Carrots, Herbs and Watermelon
Serves 2
Time taken - Under 10 minutes, apart from the time taken to wash and dry greens


Ingredients
3 medium carrots - peeled and shaved
Small bunch of fresh rocket leaves ( you can substitute any other lettuce varieties or baby spinach)
Small bunch of fresh lettuce leaves
Handful of fresh herbs like thai basil / lemon basil 
Handful of fresh mint
Handful of roasted almonds
2 cups of watermelon cubes


Dressing
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar (you can substitute with red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar)
1 tsp of pesto (or use 3 tbsp finely minced/pounded basil in 1 tbsp olive oil)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp honey
Pinch of ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt


Directions


Wash the greens and herbs in a sink full of water 2-3 times. Use a salad spinner to dry the leaves or spread between two clean absorbent kitchen towels for up to 30 minutes before proceeding with recipe.
I used an orange, purple and yellow carrot each because that's what was the day's harvest from my kitchen garden. You can use any carrots that are in season. I shaved them using a vegetable peeler. 
Roughly chop the dried salad greens and herbs into bite sized pieces.
In a large bowl, mix the salad greens, thai basil, mint and shaved carrots. Keep aside.
Mix all the ingredient for the dressing in a small glass jam jar and give it a good shake. 
Just before serving, pour the dressing over the greens-carrots in the bowl. Toss well.
Divide into two plates, top each plate with half the roasted almonds and the watermelon cubes.


Tip:
Adding grilled chicken or tofu or paneer or chickpeas will make the salad a heartier meal


[All pictures for this post taken on iPhone. I've realised that if I have to blog more often, iphone pics are my best friend :)]


Shopping notes:
All kinds of salad greens (except for rocket) are always available fresh at Namdhari's
Apple Cider Vinegar - I use Waitrose brand from Hypercity

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Fusilli with roasted fennel and carrots in vodka sauce

Yesterday morning, with my son at playgroup, I went off to my favourite supermarket to stock up on vegetables and fruits for the week. This place has the freshest produce I have seen in Hyderabad, including most exotic vegetables. When I spotted fresh bulbs of fennel with vibrant and lush green tops, I had to bring one home. At that point I had no clue what I would do with the fennel, but it was too pretty not to take back home.

I had some vague idea of roasting it with garlic and olive oil, but then i'd have to think of another dish to go with it. That's when it struck me to saute this with carrots and toss it with pasta in a light faux cream sauce.

My spaghetti loving husband pronounced this pasta dish totally out of the world, despite the fact that I'd used fusilli for this dish. The vodka is totally optional, but I just felt happy using it in a Friday night pasta dinner inspired by the pasta sauce Rachel Ray popularised by the name of "You won't be single for long Vodka Cream Pasta".

When you taste the fennel raw it has very strong taste of fennel seeds - but sauteeing mellows down the flavour to a great extent. I trimmed off the greens from the thick stems and stored it overnight in the fridge to make a thuvaiyal this morning. This lovely green chutney made in the tambram style, by grinding roasted red chillies, udad dal and coconut along with wilted fennel greens tasted so fresh and different in flavour. With rice and a roasted papad, it made a super lunch for me. My resolve of not to waste any edible food totally paid off and discovered this new twist on a thuvaiyal. 

You could make a classic white sauce for this pasta, but my faux cream sauce has all the positives of a white sauce minus the calories, so do give it a go!

Recipe for Fusilli with roasted fennel and carrots

 Serves 2 generously

Ingredients

4 handfuls of fusilli pasta

1 fennel bulb

2 medium carrots

1 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

salt

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 sprig fennel greens for garnish

For Sauce

1 cup milk

pinch of grated nutmeg

3 cloves garlic,finely grated

1/2 tsp black pepper powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp of whole wheat flour or all purpose flour

1-2 slices cheese

Direction

1. Place a large pot of water to boil. Once this starts boiling put the pasta to cook.
2. To prepare the fennel - cut off the top part with the greens. Take the bulb (lower part) and separate the stalks and slice. Wash these well in a large bowl of water to dislodge all the soil and grit. Drain and keep aside.
3. Peel the carrots. Slice off the tops and tails. Cut into not-very-thin rounds. Keep aside.
4. In a large pan, heat the oil and saute garlic for a few seconds, followed by chilli flakes.
5. Now, add the prepared fennel and carrots. Saute on a medium-high flame till the oil coats them thoroughly and let this brown a bit on a low flame for around 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle salt.
6. Add 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook till the fennel slices are soft. Since fennel is quite fibrous it will not turn as soft as carrots, there will be a bite to it even when cooked.
7. Whisk all the ingredients for the sauce with a fork in a bowl and pour it over the cooked vegetables. Let this simmer till thick (3-4 minutes). Add 30 ml vodka to this and then add the drained, boiled pasta.
8. Add dried herbs, adjust salt, pepper - 1-2 slices of cheese and simmer for 2 minutes, until flavours come together and cheese has melted into the sauce.
9. Serve hot.

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Carrot - Alfalfa Sprouts salad sandwich

This month Latha is hosting WBB with combi breakfasts as the theme. Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of my fellow bloggers who have kept the event going despite my prolonged absence from the blogging scene. If Latha is ok with a salad in a sandwich as a combi thing, then this is my entry for her.
31st Aug is the last date for sending her entries.

Sorry about the break that just kept getting longer and longer. This is an attempt to stick to my promise of getting back before the month of August ends and it is about a refreshing & inspiring breakfast I had this morning.

Alfalfa sprouts are one the most delicate sprouts you will find in a supermarket. I don't usually find them in mine, so when I do find them, I like to bring them home. These are nutritional powerhouses belonging to the pea family. More info here. In short they are very rich in most vitamins, protein and calcium and is a commonly used tonic in homeopathic medicine.

I usually saute them for a few seconds on high heat to kill any bacteria that could be harbouring as a result of water used for sprouting and this reduces their volume considerably.

Although I have stuffed the salad in a sandwich for a hearty breakfast, you can eat the salad as it is along with a soup for a light lunch, or serve it as one of the courses for a dinner party.

Carrot - Alfalfa Sprouts Salad

Time taken - around 15 min

Serves 2 or enough stuffing for 4 sandwiches

Ingredients

2 medium carrots, scraped and shaved / grated

1 cup alfalfa sprouts

1 clove garlic, smashed and minced

1 tsp sunflower /olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp or more balsamic vinegar

few fresh basil leaves, torn

optional extra: raisins / walnuts / candied nuts

Directions

In a non stick pan, heat the oil. Saute the garlic for a few seconds.

Add the sprouts and saute on high heat for 10-20 seconds.

Toss the grated / shaved carrots in the pan and remove the contents into a bowl.

Let this cool for 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar.

Toss in the torn basil and nuts if using.

Refrigerate if serving as salad.

For sandwich, spread your favourite chutney on one slice, load with the salad and eat immediately.

Carrots can be easily replaced by zucchini in this salad and fresh basil with any other fragrant herb of your choice.

I would love to send this to Greedy Gourmet for Snackshots # 6 if it is not too late already :)

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Traditional Lunch Series - Day 5 (Carrot Sambar, Avarakkai Curry)

Here's wishing my dear friend Sig and her partner of 10 years Siv a very Happy Anniversary! Here's to many many more decades of togetherness, love and warmth sweetheart.

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Nothing much to ramble or 'show' today. The menu was an attempt to clear up the Sword beans (English equivalent of Avaraikkai ) my help had chopped up yesterday. The fat sweet carrots found themselves sliced and being thrown into the Carrot sambar...where they swam until they were devoured by us.

Recipe for Avaraikkai Curry (Dry Sword Beans Saute)
Serves 3

Ingredients
3 cups finely sliced beans (first top, tail and remove the stringy fibre if any from the sides)
1 tsp oil
1 pinch asafoetida
1 long dried red chilli
1 tsp udad dal
fat pinch turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp scraped coconut

Directions
1. Pressure cook the chopped beans in one of the separators of the pressure cooker, for two whistles and on sim for another 4-5 minutes. Take care not to add water to the container in which you are cooking the beans or they will get mushy on pressure cooking. Cooking them dry is akin to steaming and they get soft yet hold their shape at the end of the cooking process.
2. In a wok, heat the oil. Put in the asafoetida, then splutter mustard seeds.
3. Add the udad dal, saute till golden. Throw in the cooked beans with salt and turmeric. Stir to mix well and garnish with fresh coconut.

Recipe for Carrot Sambar
Serves 4

Ingredients
3/4 cup tur dal pressure cooked in 2 cups water, mashed well
3 medium carrots, scrubbed and thickly sliced
1/2 cup thin tamarind puree or 1 tbsp tamarind paste
3 tsp sambar powder
1 tsp oil
Tempering: asafoetida, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, fresh curry leaves
Salt to taste

Directions
1. Pressure cook the carrots in the other separator while cooking the beans with a sprinkling of water and pinch of salt.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat oil, temper with asafoetida, mustard seeds, curry leaves.
3. Add the cooked carrot slices. Saute for a few seconds. Add the mashed dal and tamarind puree / paste. Bring to a simmer.
4. Make a slurry of the sambar powder in 1/2 cup water, add it to the pan, simmer for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt, taste and adjust.
5. Serve hot with steamed rice and a dry curry.

Notes
You can also add raw carrots in stage 3, add some water, cover and let the carrots cook in the pan itself. Pressure cooking makes this very quick, and you can save over 8 minutes while waiting for the carrots to cook in the pan. You can leave the sambar thick or thin it with some water to get a desired consistency.

Making a variety of sambars using the same technique
Sliced radish, beetroot chunks, bitter gourd slices, pumpkin chunks can be similarly used as a substitute to carrot to get radish, beetroot, bitter gourd, pumpkin sambar respectively. Capsicum squares can also be used, but these can just be sauteed in stage 3 instead of being pressure cooked.

Tags: sword beans, avaraikkai, carrot, sambar, tamil lunch menu, tamil recipes, carrot sambar, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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Baby Carrots and Thyme

That is a shot glass!

The day before, in Godrej's Nature Basket, I found some infant carrots :) (Smaller than baby carrots) Some were smaller than my little finger and thinner! I couldn't resist buying a bag full of them. Also on the offer were fresh herbs at under Rs.5 a pack - another irresistible deal - so brought 2 packs of basil, one each of thyme and oregano. While basil is available in most supermarkets all the time, this is the first time I found thyme and oregano, fresh...

Carrot as small as thyme :)

Right there, I knew I wanted to roast the cutie carrots whole with loads of fresh thyme and garlic. I also threw in some onion layers which were promptly devoured as soon as they came out of the oven as they has crisped into brown DELICIOUS chips.

Nothing much of a recipe here, the pics will tell you all :)


How to roast carrots?

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Scrub and wash the carrots well. Wipe dry. Slice off the tops and any hairy tails. Line a roasting tin with foil. Put in the thin carrots as it is, and halve the slightly thicker ones vertically.

From a small bunch of fresh thyme, remove the leaves and add to carrots. Add some stalks as it is too. Chop 4-5 garlic cloves into big pieces and add to tin. I also added layers of one medium onion, but this is optional. Salt the carrots and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and mix everything well with hands.

Bake for 40-45 minutes at 200 C. Remove the whole stalks of thyme and serve as a side or use in a wrap or sandwich (like below).

The thyme-carrot combination was fantastic but could try this out with any of your favourites like rosemary or oregano.

In the pic above, you'll see that the babies have shrunk considerably and the tin looks quite empty. That's because I took the pic after eating quite a few of them. And you don't see any onions either - as they were the most yummy bits!

"Ain't I such a pretty sandwich?"

While I ate most of the roasted carrots and garlic straight from the roasting tin last evening, the ones saved were used in a sandwich for breakfast this morning.

Just bread, roasted carrots and loads of fresh basil leaves and some freshly ground black pepper. We had this with some Mild Tabasco (Green Pepper) to counter the sweetness of the carrots.
I also added a sliced boiled egg to my sandwich. This is the hubby's :)

Loved this simple sandwich. You could use a cheese spread or mayo to spread on the slices before assembling, but this tasted divine to me as it is!

This is my entry to Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Jugalbandi

Tags: baby carrots, roasting, vegetable sandwich, basil sandwich, basil, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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Orange-Sesame Soba Noodles

There are some recipes that the minute you lay your eyes on them, you know it's going to taste great. And you can't wait to make it and taste it yourself. This was one such yummy recipe that I came across in Prevention magazine a couple of months ago. It featured soba noodles, which I had in the pantry; peanut butter which I had just made a bottle of; fresh oranges for the dressing and there was nothing to stop me from trying this one out.

The result was so delicious that the hubby and me lapped up the noodles with our chopsticks in pin drop silence, except for the 'hmmm this is good' every two minutes. If you don't have soba noodles, try this out with any sturdy noodles, because the dressing is to die for.

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Recipe for Soba noodles in a sesame-orange-peanut butter dressing
Category : Asian cuisine, Vegetarian Asian, One dish meal
Serves : 2
Time taken : Under 20 minutes

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Noodles
2 portions soba noodles (about 250 gms)
Cook the noodles as per directions,remove and rinse in cold water and drain. Keep aside.

For dressing, in a jug, whisk together :
3 tbsp smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tsp finely grated orange zest
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 to 1 tsp red chilli powder
(Have a taste of the dressing to adjust the salt depending on the salt in the soy sauce. It's quite addicting. I must have taken several licks of this :)

Vegetables
Lightly steam 1 cup julienned beans and thin carrot sticks from 2 medium carrots OR Microwave for 3 minutes with pinch of salt and sprinkles of water.

Bringing it together
In a large bowl, toss the noodles with the steamed vegetables. Pour the dressing over the tossed noodles and toss well to coat evenly.
Top with diagonally sliced spring onion greens.

Serve warm or cold. You can prepare this in advance and serve it the following day so that the noodles can absorb all the flavours of the dressing. This kind of combination was very new to me, and the orangey-peanut butter dressing is something I want to make again very soon.

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Weekend Breakfast Blogging # 21 is being hosted at 100% Microwave cooking and the theme is Microwave Breakfasts. Last date for entry is 30th April, 08. Event details here.

After I lost all the matter on the sidebar widgets, I've prepared an exclusive WBB Archives & Updates page - which links up to all the previous 20 editions, plus who's hosting next etc. Anyone who is interested in hosting, please leave a comment on the WBB page and I shall get back to you soon.

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Tags: soba noodles, peanut butter dressing, asian vegetarian recipe, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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