Lemon Rice: A 10 Minute Dinner!

We all have those days where there is just no time left to make a decent dinner... or no time left to make any sort of dinner at all!  When these situations arise, I used to immediately reach for Kraft Mac & Cheese or Ramen Noodles, but now I reach for lemons instead and I end up with this:

Indian Lemon Rice!

 
In the same amount of time that it takes you to make a bowl of Mac & Cheese, you can make a delicious plate of lemon rice!  Lemon rice is quick, it's easy, and it's great on its own or as part of a larger meal.  Be advised that it's not that nutritious (as in, there are no veggies or protein in it)... but well, it's better for you than Ramen.  Much better.

This is what you need (makes enough for 2-3 people).  Note: I am measuring all of these ingredients approximately for 1 cup of rice.  If you make more rice, multiply the ingredients accordingly.

- 1 cup of cooked rice
- 1 lemon (or equivalent in lemon juice)
- Vagarne / Tadka which (approximately) includes
     ~ 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
     ~ 1 - 1.5 teaspoons of mustard seeds
     ~ 1 teaspoon of udad dal & 1 teaspoon of channa dal
     ~ 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
     ~ 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
     ~ 1 inch of ginger (grated)
     ~ 2 small green chilis (finely chopped)
     ~ 3-4 curry leaves

This is what you do:

1. Cook the rice and keep it to the side 
2. Make the vagarne / tadka by:
1. I like to first keep all the vagarne / tadka ingredients measured and to the side 
2. Adding the oil to the tadka pan and let it heat up a bit.
3. Add the mustard seeds and once they begin to pop...
4. Add the rest of the vagarne / tadka ingredients listed above (be careful to not let any of the ingredients burn - they heat up very fast!).  Note: If you want an excellent way to grate the ginger, check out my post on the best ginger grater ever.
3. Turn off the heat on the tadka pan and add the vagarne / tadka to the cooked rice. 
4. Squeeze one lemon or the equivalent of one lemon in lemon juice over the rice and mix it together.  
5. You're done! 

The main part of making this dish is getting the vagarne / tadka right.  If you're serious about Indian cooking, arrange all these ingredients in a corner of your cupboard, because you usually will always end up reaching for the same things when you're finishing off a dish with a vagarne / tadka.  Again, you can read my explanation on what a vagarne / tadka is in one of my first posts.

And I should also add, that lemon rice is great for a summer snack or part of a summer picnic.  It's also a great potluck item (you're lucky if you can score the spot of making lemon rice, because your job is super easy).  Finally, I have to mention that my sweet husband is the one who usually makes lemon rice in our house - and he makes it well!     

Give it a try the next time you are strapped for time, or if you just feel like a citrus-y and delicious rice dish to go along with dinner.  Enjoy!  

A Cool Dish for a Summer Dinner

When the weather is sweltering hot, the only thing that often seems appealing to me is something cool.  Also, ice cream is always appealing to me - but that is pretty much true the whole year round :-)

This Indian dish, called "Mosaru Bajji" in my house, can roughly be translated to a "savory eggplant yogurt sauce".  It works well as part of a larger meal, or as the main dish of a light meal of its own.  This is how you make it:

You will need: 
- 1 large purple eggplant
- 3-4 tablespoons of light sour cream
- 1.5 - 2 cups of butter milk
- salt

The vagarne / tadka for this will include (see this recipe for what vagarne is): 
- 2-3 dried red chilis, broken up - use less if you are sensitive to spices
- 1 teaspoon of urad dal
- 1 teassoop of chana dal
- A pinch of hing
- 1/2 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
- 3-4 curry leaves (if you have them)
**All of these ingredients can be found at your local Indian store**

Process:
- Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
- Spray an oven safe pan with Pam Cooking Spray.
- Cut the eggplant in half (lengthwise) into two pieces.  Brush both sides of both eggplant halves lightly with extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil.  Then cut two diagonal slits (on each eggplant half) in the white part of the eggplant.
- Put the eggplant in the oven for about 15 minutes.  Then turn it over and put it back in the oven for approximately another 15 minutes or until the purple eggplant skin has shriveled up.  At this point, take the eggplant out of the oven, and let it cool.
- Scoop out the white eggplant pulp from the skin and mash it up.  Add salt to taste.
- Add the eggplant to the portions of sour cream and buttermilk listed above and mix everything together well.  Add a little more salt to taste.
- Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to blend all the tastes together.
- Make the vagarne with about 2 teaspoons of oil and the vagarne ingredients (listed above).  Add this to the dish and your done!

The Finished Product

This dish might seem a little complicated but it's actually an easy one to make.  Mosaru Bajji goes great with naan or even on top of rice!  It's light, cool and just perfect for a summer meal out on the deck.  So give it a try, and let me know how it turns out! 

Happy Ram Navami!

Almost every Indian person I know has heard the story of Ramayana growing up.  Whether we read the story in Amar Chitra Katha books or whether we watched the TV mini-series or whether we were simply told the story by our parents and grandparents, we have all heard it.  We have listened to stories of Rama and Sita's wedding day, of their exile into the forest, of Sita's eventual kidnap and how Rama heroically fought Ravana to rescue her.  We have learned of the deep loyalty of Rama's brother Lakshmana, and of his most faithful servant, Hanuman. But before all of this happened, there was one very important day - and that was the day that Rama was born - and that day is celebrated today!

Ram Navami always falls in the Spring time and it is, essentially, Rama's birthday.  It is celebrated all over India, and as usual, there are some special food items that are made on this day.  I decided to list one (very simple) recipe for Rasayana, a light dessert that is usually made on Ram Navami.

Rasayana.  Different people make Rasayana in different ways.  In my house, it is made in this simple manner:

1. Cut up some bananas 
2. Add honey, jaggery (or sugar) and some coconut 
3. Gently mix it together (you don't want the bananas to get squished) 

In other homes, it may be made in a slightly different way with slightly different ingredients, but regardless, it is simple. 

I got this picture here.  Go there to see a very similar recipe.

If you want another prasada or dessert recipe for any Indian festival, check out my Ugadi Post for an easy Paisa recipe.

Regardless of what you eat on this day, Ram Navami is a special day where we celebrate Rama and his life.  He showed us how an ideal person should be in a very imperfect world, and I think that those are qualities that are more important than ever in this present day.  I wish all my readers a very happy Ram Navami and I'll see you back here on Monday!

For a cold, rainy day...

Before I start today's post, I have to take a moment to send my prayers to all the innocent people in Boston.  I pray for their speedy recovery, physically and mentally, from yesterday's sad event.

***

This week, the plan was to put up a Butternut Squash Curry recipe, but when I was getting ready to make it last night, there was a little mishap with the butternut squash...  So I decided to replace it with this recipe, which is a great and easy one.  You can expect the butternut squash recipe next week :-)

So, this dish is one that goes by many names.  In my house, we call it "Huggi".  In some places it's called "Kichdi".  I think some people call it "Pongal".  And to translate it to English, we can call it a "Lentil-Rice Porridge".  It is extremely easy to make and is best eaten on a cold and rainy day (according to my husband).  People make this different ways, but I've boiled it down (pun intended) to a simple strategy that I use every time.

This is what you'll need:
- 1 cup of rice (I usually use sona masoori, but any kind will work)
- 1/2 cup of moong dal (this is a lentil you get at the Indian Store)
- Milk
- Water
- Vagarne / Tadka (if you missed the explanation on this, check out my first recipe on Black Eyed Peas)

A Simple Set of Ingredients

- The vagarne / tadka for this recipe includes:
     - 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorn
     - 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
     - 1/2 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
     - A few curry leaves (if you have them)
     - 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric

And the method is...

1. Cook 1/2 cup of moong dal, 1 cup of rice and 3 cups of water in the cooker until you hear 3-4 whistles. 
2. Once cool enough to open - add 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. 
3. Let this keep boiling until you can mix the dal and rice together into a porridge like consistency.  This will usually take about 10-15 minutes.                                               
4. Here's the trick that we really like - I hate finding whole peppercorns in my food and so does my husband.  So I grind all the vagarne ingredients (listed above) in a small coffee grinder (like this one) until it's a mixed powder.  I put this powder into about 2 tablespoons of ghee in the tadka pan and wait until it sizzles.  Then I add it to the Huggi and mix it all together.
5. Add 2-3 teaspoons of salt (salt to taste)   

This is what the final product looks like (note the final consistency)

And that's it!  We love the taste of the Huggi that comes out of this recipe. The only thing I don't like is the incredibly thick layer of crust it leaves at the bottom of my pressure cooker.  It takes a lot of scrubbing to clean the cooker once this is done.  If anyone has methods of avoiding build up at the bottom of cookers, I'm eager to hear it!

So if you decide to make this, I hope you enjoy it. And remember, it's best eaten on a cold, rainy day!

Also, remember to check out my blog topics page, for an idea of what you can expect on a weekly basis.  Thanks for reading!

Happy Ugadi!

If you're from the part of South India that my family is from, then today is the wonderful festival of "Ugadi".  It is the start of a new year according to the lunar calendar that people from many parts of South India celebrate and there is some great tradition related to this holiday that I have always loved!

For me, the best part of this day is a little mixture that we eat which is composed of:

1. Neem: Neem come from a plant native to India and the taste of the leaves are bitter... I mean bitter.  But neem is really good for your body.  Just google "neem leaf" and a bunch of websites come up talking about its wonderful and medicinal properties.  Wikipedia calls it "Nature's Drugstore" and the "Heal All".  (And if we can't trust Wikipedia, what can we trust, right?) 
2. Jaggery: I've mentioned jaggery before and I use it in a lot of my Indian cooking.  It's a very sweet and dense material that comes from sugar cane.  Jaggery is delicious, but there's nothing about it that is particularly great for your body.

  

During this festival, we crush a very small amount of these two ingredients together and take just one small bite of the mixture to remind ourselves that in the coming year, some things will be sweet (like jaggery) and some things will be bitter (like neem).  As we experience both the sweet and the bitter, we should remember that while the sweet things may be dear to us, the bitter things may also be good for us and our attitude towards both should be the same...  

Isn't that a great message?  I feel like this is a mental note that I should always remember!   

And with any Indian festival comes FOOD!  My husband and I are having a potluck with some friends and I have some good dishes planned for the evening.  Most every Indian festival is celebrated with sweets, and if you want to also make an Indian sweet to celebrate Ugadi, this recipe for "paisa" (as it's called in South India), which is similar to "kheer" (as it's called in North India), and roughly translated to "sweet vermicelli in milk" is a simple one that is so tasty.  Here is the recipe: 

Not my picture, but this is exactly what it looks like

Note: This amount makes enough for 5-6 people so if you want less, cut everything in half

You'll need: 

- 1 cup MTR vermicelli
- 6 cups of milk (2% is best but use at least 1%)
- 1.5 cups of sugar
- a few raisins
- a few cashews
- a few strands of saffron
- a few pieces of cardamom, shelled and crushed into powder (you don't need this but its tasty)
- 2 tablespoons of ghee

What you do:

1. Warm up the ghee in a small saucepan or skillet and roast the vermicelli in it until its golden brown.  (This happens quickly so make sure to watch out that you don't burn it).  
2. Bring the 6 cups of milk to a boil. 
3. Put the roasted vermicelli into the milk and simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes. 
4. When the vermicelli is tender, then add the 1.5 cups of sugar (everything should blend together) 
5. Separately, roast some raisins and cashews in a little bit of ghee and add this to the milk.  
6. Finally, add the saffron and cardamom for extra flavor.  

A traditional recipe that's easy to make.  I think a close variation to this is also found on the back of the MTR Vermicelli bag.

So, whether you celebrate Ugadi or not, I hope everyone has a wonderful day... and remember that while sweet things in life are enjoyable, the bitter things may also be very good for you :-)

Happy Ugadi! 

The Black Eyed Peas

No, not that one.

 



Yes that one!

 

As a vegetarian, one of the biggest things that I struggle with is how to make sure me and my family get the protein we need.  For a while, my husband and I just had just two staple protein items we would go to and needless to say, we both got really sick of them.  So now, we're on a mission to try new forms of protein every week!  And yesterday I tried a new recipe that was a success! 

Side Note: A part of my blog will be to document my various attempts at cooking different Indian dishes.  Listen, when I got married, I didn't even know how to make rice (the ratio is usually 2 cups water to every 1 cup of rice by the way).  I survived on ridiculously simple food items that did not involve any form of cooking or take out all through college and law school.  But now, I actually enjoy cooking!  And as I try these new recipes and have them come out well (certified by my husband's taste buds), I want to share them with you.  And even if you're brand new to Indian cooking, you should have confidence, because if I can make it well, there's a very good chance you can too!

So back to yesterday's dinner... and yup, you guessed it, the recipe involved black eyed peas... here's how it went:

 

What you need:

1/2 cup of dried black eyed peas (from the Indian store)

1/2 teaspoon of tamarind paste

2-3 tablespoons of sambar powder (I'm lucky because I get sambar powder from India, but if you can't get that, go for the MTR sambar powder from the Indian store)

A little bit of jaggery  

2-3 teaspoons of salt
2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil or olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds

A couple pinches of hing

 

What you do:

1. Put the 1/2 cup of black eyed peas along with 1 1/2 cups of water into the pressure cooker.
2. Let the pressure cooker steam for 6-7 whistles (please wait until it's cool before you go to open it - I've burned myself many times by trying to open the cooker before all the steam was out).
3. Add another 3 cups of water and bring it to a boil.  At this point also add about 2-3 teaspoons of salt and a 1/2 teaspoon of tamarind paste.  
4. Separately, mix the 2-3 tablespoons of sambar powder with some water to make a smooth paste.
5. Add this newly created paste into the boiling water while stirring.
6. Let this continue to boil on low for approximately 30 minutes (this is the key to getting this to thicken up)  
7. Add a little jaggery and turn off the stove. 
8. Final touch: separately, heat a little vegetable oil and into that put about 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds and a pinch or two of hing.  Wait until the mustard seeds start to pop and then add it in to the soup (make sure to stand back because sometimes the oil/water combo splatters).  (Note: This last element is called the vagarne or the tadka and if you're cooking Indian, this last step is usually always involved in some form or the other.  If you're serious about Indian cooking, I would invest in one of these so that you have the right utensil to make the vagarne/tadka to add to your dishes.  They usually sell them at your local Indian store.).

And that's it!  In South India this is called Black Eyed Peas "Huli", I'm not sure what it would be called in North India and I guess here in America, we can call it a Black Eyed Peas Soup.  We had it on top of rice and it was delicious.  My husband really liked it because it had a "smoky flavor" that he enjoyed.  As for me, I was just happy I found a new way to get protein and a new Indian dish under my belt. 

The Finished Product

 On top of rice - yum!

 

So give it at try! And maybe you'll find that "tonight's gonna be a good night" after all!  And there's my shout out to the musical Black Eyed Peas to bring this post full circle :-)

 



My First Post!

Hello world of blogging!  This is my first post and I'm super excited about it!  As my blog title suggests, I'm your average American-Indian girl who is also a wife, a lawyer and a new mom.  I'd like to think of my blog as a "lifestyle" blog because it's not about any one thing.  It's simply a chapter in my life that I'm hoping to document, and maybe along the way, I'll be able to make some new friends and share some fun ideas :-) 

Since it's Spring time - the perfect time for new adventures and new beginnings - and the perfect time for deliciously fruity sweet treats, I'm going to kick off my blog with a great little recipe that I love.  What recipe is that you ask?.. Mango Pie!  (I now realize I should have started this on Pi Day for an even better effect... oh well).  Mango Pie is the perfect symbol for my blog - it's a little American, a little Indian and totally scrumptious!   

This little pie was a huge hit among many of my friends in high school... it's been a decade and some of them still drool over it to this day!  It's the perfect dessert addition to any potluck or picnic in the Spring / Summer months.  There are a lot of variations of this recipe all over the internet, but here is the one my mom always used: 

**Note that this recipe makes enough filling for two pies - so make one for yourself and one for a buddy (or someone you'll soon be asking for a favor)**

Here's what you need: 
- 2 graham cracker pie crusts 
- 1 package (8 oz) of cream cheese, softened 
- 1 can of sweetened mango pulp (you get this in the Indian store) 
- Sugar
- 1 packet (I believe 2-3 packets come in a box) of unflavored gelatin (to keep it vegetarian - use kosher gelatin or vegan gelatin)

Here's what you do: 
1) Dissolve one gelatin packet in hot water (follow the instructions on the box) to make it a liquid
2) Mix the cream cheese, mango pulp, (kosher) gelatin liquid and sugar together in a big bowl with an electric whisker 
     *add as much sugar as you want for the sweetness level that you want - but remember that the mango pulp is sweet on its own
3) Pour the mixture into the graham cracker crusts and let it sit in the fridge overnight 

Then cut it up and enjoy!

Now I haven't made this yet this season myself, when I do, I'll be sure to put up a picture!  Meanwhile, I found some variations on this recipe that other people made.  Here's what this pie looks like when it's done:

And to see where I got this picture from and the slightly different recipe that goes with it, go here.
 
What do you think?  I'd love to hear your comments!