Saturday 31 March 2012

Tangy Sweet Corn salad



We all love American corn. Healthy and tasty!!! But I'm not a big fan of the corn sold in theaters and malls. I find the salted ones too plain, and the flavored ones, too buttery and artificially flavoured. So, I have my own corn salad recipe. Everybody in my family likes this salad. My husband is not very fond of salads but even he likes this one because it has a tangy taste. I serve it as a starter with bites of salad leaves or some times use it as filler for canopies. This one is for my friends who like it hot and spicy...





Ingredients

1 tbsp oil/Butter
 2 cups packed American sweet corn
1 Green capsicum seeded and diced
1 Small red chili seeded and diced
2 Spring onions sliced
15 Cherry tomatoes halved
Chopped parsley/ green coriander
Salt and ground black pepper as per taste


For dressing

½ tsp brown sugar
1-1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves
1 tbsp low fat mayonnaise or hung yogurt
¼ tsp chili sauce (if you like it spicy increase the quantity of chili sauce)


Directions


Sauté the sweet corn, green capsicum, chili and spring onions in oil for 5 minutes till the corn become soft. Keep the flame high so that you get a nice smoky flavor. Put them in your salad bowl. Add cherry tomatoes and parsley.

Mix all the ingredients of dressing nicely and pour over the sweet corn mixture. Add salt and pepper as per taste. Toss the salad well and serve warm with bites of salad greens or as filler for canopies.





Sunday 25 March 2012

Cabbage Parcels

       During my overdue lunch last week with a group of friends, two of them asked me to mail few healthy recipes. Then came the suggestion from a family member that instead of sending them to individuals, why don’t I post them on my blog. Few other friends who did not want to do hit and trial methods, before standardization, immediately appreciated it. I decided to go ahead with this idea, since cooking is an acquired hobby for me, which is always appreciated and encouraged by family and friends for obvious reasons.  
I decided to go for something very easy, tasty and healthy as my first step. This starter is very easy and convenient to cook. You can prepare it before hand. Just steam it when you want to serve and gaze the surprise in everybody’s eyes when different flavors hit the taste buds. So this is for Sumita and Parab and other friends……………
Cabbage Parcels

Ingredients
         Cabbage-1 (try to get fresh one of medium size)
        Keema-300gms. (Whatever meat your taste buds prefer)(boiled soya keema for vegetarians)
        Thai red chillies-2
        Garlic cloves-2
        Ginger- 1 inch piece
        Light soya sauce-1 Tbsp.
        Fish sauce-1 Tbsp.( one can use oyster sauce also but I prefer Fish sauce because  of my daughter’s allergy)
        Sesames Oil-1 Tbsp.
         Brown Sugar-1 and ½ Tsp.
     Ground nuts-1/4 cup




Make a paste (not very fine) of Thai chilies, garlic and ginger.
Roast the groundnuts in a dry pan. Remove the brown skin and make coarse powder of them.
Heat the oil in a pan and add the paste of chilies, garlic and ginger when it is hot. Stir it and roast it a bit till the flavor starts coming. Now add the keema and start cooking it. It will start releasing water. Add soya sauce, fish sauce and brown sugar. Keep cooking till the water evaporates and meat is granular. It will take 7-8 minutes.Remove it from the heat.

Separate the cabbage leaves from the bud in a manner that whole leaf is separated. Discard first 1-2 leaves. Take out 12-15 leaves for 300 gms. Keema. Take a big pan and boil enough of water in it. Now dip one leaf at a time in water while the water is still boiling. Dip it for two or three minutes and remove from the boiling water with the help of a tong. Put it on a dry kitchen towel and repeat the same procedure with another leaf. Basically this is to make the cabbage leaves tender so that they can be folded easily. You have to make all the leaves tender this way and let them dry on a towel.
By this time your keema mix is at room temperature. Add the groundnut powder to the mixture.
Take one leaf at a time. Trim the hard part of the leaf from where it was attached to the bud. Put 2 teaspoons full of mix on the leaf and fold it like a parcel. If your leaf is not tender enough and parcels are opening up, you can secure them with the help of a toothpick.

 Make all the parcels this way and steam them for 10-12 minutes in a steamer. Serve them hot with any sauce or dip of your choice, though I prefer hot garlic sauce or a mix of sweet and hot chili sauce.

 You can also store them in a box in the fridge and steam them when you want to serve. That is what I usually do.





  


Wednesday 15 February 2012

A Story Around Alphabets

 A story woven around alphabets. Simple yet astonishing, that is how the calligraphy work of Nikeel Aphale can be described. It is fascinating to see letters expressing different human emotions. Medium is not a limitationn for him. On his blog  leehkin.blogspot.com , you can see his work in different mediums, even a green gravy in a plate in the form of calligraphy.

Recently he wrote about a nameplate, which he made for us, on his blog. It is a functional art piece and projects the personality of the people living inside the house. Devnagari script has given an edge to this. It shows our belief in simplicity and Indian culture but at the same time the blue ink and white color of plate gives it a modern look.

name plate in davnagari




Matching the name plate’s look with the design of the door was the main challenge for him. I wanted him to incorporate the hand made tiles in some way, since these tiles were already present in the door. Nikheel did it tastefully. Every time I get a compliment for my nameplate, I thank him in my mind.

co-ordination of door and name plate






Another calligraphy painting done by Nikheel is adorning the wall of my living room. Harvest, the painting has golden glowing letters of roman script like the ripe wheat crop ready to be harvested. Imagination of an artist has no limits!

side view of harvest 
ripened golden letters

                            


Nikheel is a graphic designer and calligrapher and so is his wife Maithili. While Maithili is more into organized work, Nikheel left his job and is concentrating on his art full time. He has exhibited in groups and his work got honor of mention in reputed art magazines. I wish him the best in future.



p.s.Credit for first two pictures to Nikheel

Tuesday 31 January 2012

Animal Art


This is a much-delayed post. Many things happened in between. A close friend said good-bye forever, wedding in the family brought another member to family and welcomed the New Year with many new resolutions with family. One of them is to write the post on a regular basis. I hope I will not break this resolution, which usually happens with all of us.
After a long break, I was unable to decide what I should write about but a cow got me so inspired on my vacation that I want to dedicate my first post of New Year to it.
On a short holiday, away from chilling winters of Delhi, I was feeling more rejuvenated and full of enthusiasm, my usual self. During one of our shopping tours I saw this cow. The moment I saw it, I wanted to take it home. It was looking so pious and angelic, quite different from my other cows, which are more hoity and fashionable!!!
Yes! I am talking about my ceramic cows and stone bull.
Two years back, on a tour to Jaipur with my daughter, we stopped at a stone craft shop on the way. Outside the shop, few damaged pieces were lying. One of them was a grey bull, which drew our attention. Its one horn was broken. The look on its face was, “my horn is damaged but it’s not my fault!” We decided to take it home despite the shop owner’s warning that damaged statues are inauspicious. Of course, it is unlucky but only for the statues because they are ignored. It found a graceful place in my balcony, sitting there like the owner of the small green territory.


owner of green patch in balcony
my grey bull


Within next few months I found my trendy young cows adorning the show window of a kitsch art shop. The two of them were with an equally fashion conscious bull. They were wearing exciting body colors and flashing ornaments. I brought them home with zeal. Everybody found them very carefree and joyful. All three of them were too fragile to sit outside. So, I decided to make them sit in my living room. They are attention seekers and always get noticed by my guests. It seems when nobody is around; these three discuss every visitor to their territory.
fashion conscious cows

equally fashionable bull









Three fashionistas
The new member to my cow family, whom I had earlier mentioned, has a more mature look. She is very simple and unlike the three fashionistas sitting in the living room, she seems to have more of a bovine persona. She has a peaceful aura around herself. When I look carefully, it seems that she has just got up from her meditation session. Her simplicity is impressive. She does not seem to like the company of my fashion conscious cows. I was thinking of making her sit next to my stone bull, but I realized that probably he will not like to share his space with a new member and his male ego may get hurt. Besides this, she looks strong emotionally, but physically, she doesn’t look strong enough to bear the severe weather conditions. After all, she has the female fragility too.
A simple soul

After taking into consideration all the factors, I placed her in my living room. She is sitting at a distance from the other group. Her place is more commanding, where she can meditate without any interruption. Maybe her aura and maturity will motivate my young cows someday!!!!
In deep meditation