Green bean Salad

So you have seen -warm wild rice salad and garlic mashed potatoes thus far. Today I present before you - Green Bean Salad

A clear family favorite, this recipe pops up without fail during our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations and on countless days during year. WHY...you ask? Being quite health conscious , I really need to know why I am eating something (a logic I conveniently forget on days when I eat myself into oblivion on holidays). Beans are very good source of fiber ,vitamins , minerals and plant derived micro nutrients (most importantly Iron) and most of all - very low in calories , so guilt free eating. Makes for a happy Moi:)

The crunch of the walnuts , onion coupled with tartness of the Dijon mustard elevate it several levels and take it from the slightly boring , bland bean to a multi dimensional casserole/salad.

Go ahead , try this and Iam sure you will love it. Thank you to Ellie Krieger (food network) whose recipe this is:)

You need :
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 tablespoons chopped red onion
2 teaspoons walnut oil or olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper

This is how you make it :
Bring a large pot of water with a steamer basket to a boil, add green beans and steam for about 4 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl.
Toast the walnuts in a small dry skillet over medium heat until they become fragrant, about 2 minutes, and then transfer them to a small bowl to cool. Add the parsley and onion to the walnuts and stir to combine.

In another small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar and mustard. Toss the dressing with the green beans, top with the walnut mixture and season with salt and pepper.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Stay healthy and Enjoy

Green Bean Salad

Coming up- Pumpkin cheesecake, butternut squash soup, Cranberry chutney, turkey .

Bharwa Karela

Iam so happy to be back and writing on my blog again. After the not so positive returning post,let get's to my first recipe of the year.

Iam very fond of karela.For those of you not familiar with the Karela, its also called bitter gourd(yes,its bitter but there are ways to do away with that.)From what I know, the bitter gourd has excellent medicinal virtues and one of its multiple medicinal uses if for diabetic patients to lower their sugar.Iam sure its got a ton of other uses(let's save that for another day.)I can tell you that as a child, I did not deal well with this weird looking, oh-my-god-bitter vegetable(but then kids are famous for not eating their veggies.My mom was very persistent though and with time I have come to love this humble looking green colored vegetable.



Before you even ask me, I want to tell you how to remove the bitterness. Once its peeled,karela is rubbed with salt and then left alone for a while.The juice that oozes from this process this process is drained and voila,you are now ready to make "stuffed bitter gourd" a.k.a bharwa karela or any other preparation that you may want.Let's start,shall we?:))

You need:

8 long Bitter Gourds
5 grated Onions(I use the box grater)
2 teaspoons Ginger paste
2 teaspoons garlic paste
2 teaspoons Amchur(Dried Mango Powder)
1 teaspoon Red Chili Powder
2 teaspoon Coriander Powder
2 tablespoons canola oil to pan fry(you can use any other oil)
1.5 teaspoon to cook the stuffing
salt to taste

This is how you make it:

Wash and peel the bittergourds. Slit them in the Center keeping the end intact. Sprinkle salt on the peeled bittergourds(eye ball it)and let them sit for half and hour.Fry the grated onions till they turn brown,then add ginger and garlic and stir.Add dried mango powder,red chilly powder,coriander powder and cook.Take it off after its cooked and let the mixture cool. Now pan fry the bittergourds carefully till they turn brown in color.keep them aside and let them cool.Your stuffing and bittergourds are now ready for the next step.Stuff the bittergourds with the mixture carefully, leave a spoon or two for later.Now arrange them in a pan, add the mixture, remaining oil and a little bit of water, the remaining mixture and cover the pan.Now cook on low heat for about 10-15 minutes. Serve hot with rotis/paratha.



I dedicate this recipe to my friend "V" who loves it:) Enjoy!!

Rock Fish fillet in Red Curry

Last evening I did'nt feel like eating fish grilled or the Indian way ,so I decided to go Thai.And cooked some Rock fish in thai red curry.

Cooking the curry :
This involves dicing rock fish fillets in medium sized cubes .Diced a large red onion into cubes and chopped soem baby carrots.Heated some sesame oil to which I added a couple of dried red chillies and then sauted the vegetables.When the veggies were a little soft added the fish cubes ,salt,red pepper flakes ,black pepper and some fish sauce .When the Veggies and fish were almost cooked ,added some thai red curry paste to which I had added coconut milk .Simmered the vegetables in sauce for a little while and there you go.

Cooking the Rice :
The rice that I cooked to accompany the fish curry was'nt the traditional jasmine rice but long grained basmati rice .For this ,I heated some ghee(clarified butter) and then added Nigella seeds(kalonji),whole red chillies and a couple of bay leaves .Added water and salt and then when the water was hot and bubbling , added the rice .And then cooked the rice on slow heat till it was done.



The fish in red curry



Fish curry and rice

Satisfied customers :-)

Suchita , my freinds younger sister was visiting me on july17,2005 and had been deprived of home made food .She's bengali and Iam part bengali too so I thought I would treat her to nice Bengali food .

I cooked pulao(rice with spices,ghee and salt),kosha mangsho(spicy chicken bengali style),dim curry(egg curry),aloor dom( baby potatoes in spices),luchi (pooris) and added yougurt and salad to the mix .Suchita enjoyed the food and I had a great time making it .Even more fun looking at the happy and satisfied faces of Suchita and Pankaj .

I will discuss recipes in the next post, Till then here are some pictures I would like to share .Enjoy


The spread


Suchita and Pankaj clink their beer glasses


They seem satisfied