Food Adventure XVII - Pudina Rice

I had a mixed opinion of mint/pudina. I used to like it's fragrance, but was apprehensive of cooking with it. It might be because, pudina would grow on its own with weeds and such in our quarters in jorhat, or maybe because i sometime in past ate something so strongly pudina-y that i am scared that it would over power the dish. But, today I gave in to the fragrance (and kaushik's farmaish) of pudina rice.

To prep for the dish - I separated leaves from the bunch and washed them thoroughly, chopped an onion, tomato and green chilli, grated half n inch of ginger and soaked 2 cups of basmati rice.

In a little oil, added some cumin seeds and hing. when the seeds splutter added the chopped onions and tomatoes. when they were done, added the mint leaves. cooked till the leaves wilted and turned off the flame (yes, we have a gas stove!). when cool, made a paste of the mixture.

In the same pan, added some oil, saunf and this paste. after few seconds, added the soaked basmati rice and mixed thoroughly. added 4 cups of water and cooked till the rice was done.

We loved the pudina rice - cucumber raita combo.

When spaghetti met a south indian

I've learned spaghetti is as versatile as chapati.. can be eaten by itself or with any side dish. spaghetti and meatballs is such a common dish that i wondered if it could be vegetarian-ised. and what you know... it can be! so we soaked up some black-eyed peas (alasandalu), pressure-cooked till soft and sauted them with some chopped onions, tomato, ginger and green chilli. when cool, made the mixture into patties and grilled them for 5 minutes on the skillet (tava). made the pasta as per instructions on the box ( i use the whole grain ones). added some store-brought marinara sauce and my very favorite maggie hot and sweet sauce to the cooked pasta. once i toss these together to coat the pasta, i soaked my black-eyed peas patties in the marinara sauce and voila! we have the very vegetarian spaghetti with b-e-p balls!

PS: We ate the leftover b-e-p balls with chapati, tastes great!

¡Buen provecho! ¡Buen apetito!

It's friday night and we needed something fun to eat with our weekly dose of movie. kaushik had promised me chana masala and i had promised him cilantro rice. and we both agreed to make them tonight. and we didn't feel like eating either of them when we were done. so we bring out the store-bought taco shells, spread a layer of jalapeno-cheddar cream cheese, add a tablespoon full of chana masala, add another teaspoon full of cilantro rice, sprinkle some freshly cut salsa.. drizzle some maggi hot and sweet sauce... and we have the most flavorful tacos we ever had! it was a great meal!

Food Adventure XVI - Mango Ice cream

It was a bit sunny that weekend and what comes out of the kitchen - mango ice cream.

The picture below shows all things you need to make this delicious eggless ice cream - 1 can mago pulp, 1 can condensed milk, 1 pack of whipping cream and a freezer :).

Whip the cream until it forms steady peaks (it's a lot of arm-exercise if you are doing it mechanically). In a large bowl, add mango pulp, condensed milk and the whipped cream. Fold with a spatula until combined.

Freeze the mixture for 4-5 hours, mixed it every one hour. We loved the end product.