Tomato Rice and Mixed Vegetable Pickle

Blogging has become a rare treat for me lately. Sometimes I miss the laid back life I had, with ample time to make whatever delicious food I wished for and taking plenty of pictures and writing about it.
Anyways, here I am today sharing the lunch we had this afternoon...
I made this tangy- spicy 'Tomato Rice' and a side of 'Mixed Vegetable Pickle' made by my mom in law...

 

Tomato rice
Ingredients:
2 Cups cooked rice cooled
2 ripe tomatoes chopped
1/2 onion chopped
2 clove garlic chopped
1/2tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder
2-3 Red chilies
7-8 curry leaves
1tb each Urad daal, Chana daal
2tb groundnuts
1tbsp oil
1tsp mustard and cumin seeds
salt
sugar
Chopped Cilantro

Method:
1)  Heat 1tsp oil, fry the dal and peanuts till golden brown, keep aside.
2)Heat oil, add mustard, cumin,curry leaves,garlic,tomatoes and onion.Fry till the onions and tomatoes are cooked well and the water evaporates.
3) Add the garam masala,red chili powder,salt,sugar cooked rice mix well.Add the fried dal and peanuts.Garnish  with chopped cilantro.
Serve hot along with Pickle or Yogurt.

 Mixed Vegetable Pickle:
1/2 cup each of Cauliflower(chopped), carrots (chopped) and frozen green peas(thawed).
1tsp chopped ginger
2tbsp Suhana Pickle masala
2tsp Lemon juice
1tsp oil
1/2tsp mustard seeds
salt
sugar

Heat oil, add the mustard seeds till they splutter. Mix with the chopped vegetables,ginger, pickle masala, lemon juice,salt and sugar.Mix well.
This pickle can stay in the refrigerator for few days.

"Everyday Cooking"- Cauliflower Potato Soup

Last week was all about 'colds' and 'coughs' in the house. M and E both were down with cold. Since 'E' started preschool, he comes with a new cold almost every week. A friend mentioned that something with lots of 'black ground pepper' can help colds...and since a steaming hot soup can surely do that...I put together this soup.Actually I would rather have made a 'broth' based soup, but I did not have the right veggies and all I had was cauliflower and potatoes.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup finely chopped Cauliflower
1/4th cup boiled mashed potato
1 cup whole milk
1cup water(add more depending on how thick you want the soup or just use 2 cups milk)
1/4 cup shredded cheese(I used Cheddar and Asadero blend)
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
1/2tsp garlic paste
1/2tsp Black ground pepper
Red pepper flakes
Croutons
Cilantro
Salt
oil

Method:
1) Heat 1 tsp oil.Fry the cauliflower till tender.
2) Add garlic paste and onions and fry till tender
3) Add the mashed potato, milk, water, black pepper.Boil together till the veggies are cooked. The soup should be semi thick consistency.
4) Add 2 tbsp cheese to the soup.Use the remaining for garnishing.
5) Garnisg with red pepper flakes, cilantro and serve hot along with toasted crunchy croutons.

                        Serve steaming hot with extra dash of black pepper!

"Appetizers"- Gobhi Manchurian

I am always intrigued ....how different cuisines are modified to suite the taste of the locals.Like for example....Chinese food.The 'authentic' Chinese food is much different than the Chinese food sold in the restaurants in India or US. It is more aptly called 'Indo-Chinese' food in India.It is heavily spiced with chillies,garlic,ginger etc to suite the taste of 'we' Indians...otherwise it will be mere 'bland' food for us.
It is interesting, that every person has an acquired taste for certain food.A food which is 'delicious' for one could be 'tasteless' for other person.As it is rightly said by Lucretius (96 BC - 55 BC), De Rerum Natura :'What is Food to One,is to others bitter poison".Leaving aside the extremity of 'poison',the quote is really true! We like food, which our taste buds approve of.If our taste buds are 'tuned' to certain taste,we prefer only 'that' type of food.You have to go out of your way to appreciate other tastes and other's food.
This makes me wonder,how the judges at food competitions like 'Iron chef' ,can judge impartially??? If the judge himself is born and brought up in .....say Italy and has mostly cooked and judged Italian food (And may be other European food),how can he appreciate a ..say..Japanese chef..or an Indian chef? Are his taste buds appreciative of all tastes???
Anyways.....the 'Indo-Chinese' dish that I prepared today,made me ponder on the 'Taste Buds' and these other thoughts...
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1) About 20 florets of cauliflower
2) 5tbsp All purpose flour
3) 3tbsp Corn flour
4) 1/4 tsp black pepper
5)1/4 tsp chili powder
6) 1/4-1/2 tsp chili sauce(depends how spicy you want)
7) 1tbsp Soy sauce
8)2tsp Ketchup
9) 1/2tsp Ginger garlic paste
10) Water
11) Oil to fry
12) Green onion stems for garnishing
13)Salt to taste
Method:
1) Wash the cauliflower florets and dry well.
2) Mix together all purpose flour,corn flour,black pepper,chili powder,salt and water to make smooth paste.Not to watery nor too thick.
3) Dip each floret in the batter and fry till golden brown on medium heat.Drain well and keep on paper towel.
4) In a pan,heat 1/2 tsp oil,add the ginger garlic paste,soy sauce,ketchup,chili sauce and the fried cauliflower florets.Mix all together.Take off the heat.
5) Garnish with green onions stems cut diagonally.
6) Serve with noodles/fried rice,soup etc.

Variations:
1) Other vegetables like carrots,mushrooms,onions,capsicum etc can be diced and added to the sauce.
2) Manchurian gravy can be made by adding water and corn starch to the above sauce.