Medhakaki's Mexican Rice - Dish 2 of the Mexican Dinner

Like I said in my Enchiladas ... post, Dhrumil's parents and sister had come over for dinner. We planned a mexican menu and this is the second dish from that dinner. Now, I had been planning on making this mexican rice for couple years now and just never got around to doing it. The first time I had Medhakaki's mexican rice was the in the first week of my coming to the US in 1996. She had made it for us along with Enchiladas and it was yummy.. I've been a fan ever since.. I modified her recipe just a little. I couldn't find any ginger in my house (it was in the fridge, I just couldn't locate it..) and then mom doesn't like garlic, so, I didn't add that either.. Also, I cooked the rice in part vegetable broth and part water. I think it added a little different flavor to it. I liked it a lot and I think everyone liked it as well.. So, here goes the recipe


Ingredients:

1 cup washed rice
1 can vegetable broth
2 cups water
1/2 medium white onion diced
1/2 medium white onion sliced
1/2 medium green pepper sliced
1 tomato sliced
1 tbsp butter
salt to taste

Method:

1. In a pot, mix the vegetable broth and water and start heating it up
2. Sauteé the diced onions in 1/2 tbsp of butter
3. Once the onions are translucent, add the washed rice and sauteé for another few minutes
4. When the rice is also translucent, pour in the water/broth mixture and add salt to taste and let the rice cook for 20 minutes
5. While the rice is cooking, sauteé sliced onions, bell pepper and tomatoes in butter
6. When rice is done (i.e. no water left), spread the onion/pepper/tomatoes on top of the rice
7. Serve warm

Enchiladas with Sital's Special Sauce --- Dish 1 of the Mexican Dinner

We (my mom - who is visiting me and I) had invited Dhrumil's parents and sister, who are visiting from India over for dinner yesterday. My mom was suggesting Indian food cos, she wasn't sure if they would like any other cuisines.. Normally, I would be up for that, but I've had too much Indian food last week, so, I wanted to cook something else.. Now, the closest thing (in my mind) that comes to Indian food and is also easy to cook is Mexican food.. So, I decided to just make Cheese and Onion Enchiladas (Generic Recipe with Sital's Special Sauce), Mexican Rice (Medhakaki's Recipe) and Warm Corn and Zucchini Salad (My Recipe). We served all this with Fruit Punch and Ginger Ale (Mom's Recipe). And for Appetizers, I made Guacamole (Raja's Recipe) and served it with Tortilla Chips. And then for dessert, we had Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (Shaw's Recipe ;-)). All the food was amazing and everyone loved it.. Dhrumil's dad said that he generally doesn't like foods other than Indian food, but, he loved this.. Yea!! Here is the recipe for the Cheese and Onion Enchilada with Sital's Special Sauce..

Ingredients:
15 Flour Tortillas Soft Taco Size
1 Tsp Butter to grease baking pan
1 Large Yellow Onion Diced
2 8oz Packets of Mexican Flavored Shredded Cheese
3 Cans of Refried Beans (Your favorite flavor, we used a mixture of Ranchero and Original)
1 Red Onion Diced
1 Green Pepper Diced
1 Red Pepper Diced
1 Can of Tomato Puree
1/2 Cup water
1 Tsp of Red Chilli powder or 2 Jalapenos finely chopped
Salt to taste
1/2 Cup Corn Oil
1/2 Cup Sour Cream

Method:
Sital's Special Sauce:
1. In a sauce pan heat up about 2 Tbsp of Corn oil on high heat.
2. Once the oil is hot, sauteé the onions till they are translucent
3. Next add the peppers and sauteé them for a few minutes
4. Now add the tomato Puree and mix well
5. Then add the Chilly power or Jalapenos and add some salt to taste
6. Next add about 1/2 cup of water
7. Reduce the heat to medium low and let this sauce cook till you are ready to top the enchilads

Tortillas (This step should be done when you are almost ready for filling):
1. Start Pre-Heating your oven to 350F
2. Add the rest of the corn oil in a frying pan and heat this up till its at frying temperature
3. Take 1 tortilla at a time and fry this for 2 - 3 seconds on each side till they start puffing up just a little
4. Remove it from the frying pan and lay it on paper towels to drain the excess oil

Filling + Baking + Serving
1. In a microwave safe bowl, heat up the refried beans for about 2 minutes

2. Next form a little assembly line on your counter as shown in the picture
3. Grease your baking sheet with butter.
4. Take 1 fried tortilla, lay it on your assembly plate
5. Lay about 4 Tbsps of refried beans in a line in the center of the tortilla
6. Sprinkle the beans with about 2 tbsp of onions and 2 tbsps of cheese
7. Fold the left half of tortilla half way till it covers the beans
8. Fold the right half of the tortilla over this.
9. Hold this folded tortilla with 2 hands between your thumb and 2 fingers with the thumb at the bottom and fingers holding the tortilla shut
10. Now flip the tortilla such that your thumb is on the top taking care that the tortilla remains shut
11. Lay this inverted tortilla on your baking sheet
12. Repeat Steps 4 through 11 for the rest of the tortillas.
13. Pour the Enchilada sauce over the tortillas (About 1 medium ladle full for each tortilla) such that they are completely covered in sauce
14. Sprinkle the rest for the cheese on the sauce
15. Bake this in the pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes or untill the cheese starts to bubble
16. Remove it from the oven and let it sit for couple minutes
17. Serve this fairly hot with couple dollops of sour cream and enjoy!

Spaghetti - A justification for having Wine on mondays!

We had some sort of a power surge/failure in my office yesterday, so, I decided to pack up and work from home the rest of the day.. Now, leaving home around 6ish is a pretty rare thing for me.. So, I felt like going home and relaxing for a bit and having some Wine.. And, seeing as it was just Monday (a long way from the weekend, which usually seems to be a good time for alcohol), I felt I need to justify my drinking cravings.. Which made me think of Spaghetti.. Since it was still early, I drove over to my favorite pasta store in Davis Square called Dave's Fresh Pasta . Now this place has all different flavors of pasta. I generally get their cracked pepper pasta. However, they were all out of it, so I decided to get their special for the day, Lemon and Basil Pasta. I had them cut it Spaghetti style. I also picked up a bottle of red wine from there.. I also got picked up some green and red peppers from the neighborhood store, Evergood Grocery Store .

Once I got home, I opened the wine to let it start breathing and started cooking the pasta.. Took me about 1/2 hour to cook, and the result was amazing.. This morning, Jacquelyn said, "oh and pasta was amazing last nite. the best yet".. Can't wait to go home and have left-overs.. Pasta always tastes better the next day, because it absorbs all the sauces.



So, here is the recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 Medium Onion
1/2 Green Pepper
1/2 Red Pepper
2 Small Green Chillies (or 1 Jalapeno)
1/2 Pound Fresh Pasta (You'll need more if you are using dry pasta)
1/2 Jar of Classico Four Cheese Sauce
1/2 Cup of Stella 3-Cheese (Parmesan, Romano and Asiago) mixture
1 Tablespoon olive oil
6 Cups of Water
1 Tsp Salt

Method:

1. In a pot, start boiling the 6 cups of water (This step takes the longest amount of time)
2. While the water is boiling, start dicing the chillies, onions and peppers.
3. In a saucepan, start heating the olive oil, remember that olive oil heats up very fast, So, I'd atleast have the chillies and onions chopped before heating up the oil
4. Once the oil is hot, add the chillies and onions and sauteé them.
5. As the onions start getting translucent, add the peppers into the sauce pan.
6. Next, add the sauce to this and let it simmer.
7. If the water has started boiling, add the salt in it and then add the pasta
8. Cook the pasta either as instructed on the box or till the water starts to boil again for fresh pasta.
9. Once the pasta is sufficiently cooked, (I like it a little Al-Dente) strain it and transfer to a bowl
10. Next mix it well with 1/2 of the cheese and all of the sauce.
11. Plate it and garnish it with some more cheese and Enjoy!

Note. Now, I don't like mushrooms, but these would also be a good addition to this dish. Also, for protien, you could choose to add meatballs to this.

Guacamole - Raja's recipe

When I was in in california over the winter break, Raja made his signature Guacamole a few times and it was very very yummy.. And, then a few weeks ago, I came to know of Jacquelyn's obsession with avocados.. So, the other day, I brought home some avacados and the necessary supplies for guacamole and decided to give Raja's recipe a try.. It ofcourse wasn't as good as how he makes it, but, I think it came close. We had it with the scoop shaped tortilla chips.. And was definitely a big hit with Jacquelyn, Danielle and Rina!! Here's the recipe..

Ingredients:

1 Avocado
1 Roma Tomato diced
1 Medium Red Onion diced
1 Jalapeno pepper finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt to taste

1. Grip the avocado gently on one side with one hand. With a large, sharp knife in the other hand, cut the avocado lengthwise around the seed. Open the two halves to expose the pit. Gently tap the pit with a knife with enough force so that the knife edge wedges into the pit, but not so hard as to cut all the way through it. Tap it very gently a few times, each with increasing pressure, until a cut is made in the pit sufficiently to twist the pit out. With the edge of the knife, twist the pit out of the avocado and discard the pit. The scoop out the avocado flesh with a spoon into a mixing bowl.
2. With a fork, gently mash the avacado. I like to have texture in the avocado, so, I tend to not over mash it.
3. Fold in the rest of the ingredients and mix well
4. Serve with tortilla chips and enjoy!

Vegetable Biryani - Oh the possibilities

The wonderful thing about this dish to me is that I can make it with whatever vegetables I have on hand.
Now, there is probably some official way to make it, but, I will tell you about my way..

Now, I often don't keep a lot of vegetables in the house. I don't end up cooking a lot and things tend to go bad, even if they are in the fridge ;-).. So, on a cold saturday afternoon, (the temperature was around 35 F), as I was looking for inspiration for lunch, I happened to come across some green and red bell peppers that were about to start growing furry things on them.. So, I decided to use them in my Veg Biryani.. As luck would have it, I also had a yellow onion and some green spring onions and carrots. I unfortunately didn't have any peas, potatoes, green chillies or cilantro, but, that didn't stop me. Here's the "Recipe" I used :

Ingredients:

1/2 medium yellow onion chopped
2 springs of green onion chopped
1/2 red bell pepper chopped
1/2 green bell pepper chopped
1/2 carrot chopped
1/2 cup rice
2 tsp oil
1 tsp butter
1 tsp biryani masala
1/4 tsp cummin seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida (Hing)
1/2 tsp grated ginger
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups of water
2 sprigs cilntro (for garnish)

1. Heat up the butter in the pot that you are going to use to make the rice.
2. When the butter starts to melt, add the cummin seeds
3. Wait for the cummin seeds to sputter slightly

4. Then add rice. Sauteé the rice for couple seconds till it turns translucent
5. Add water
6. Let it cook for about 15 - 20 minutes. I like to have the rice left "Al Dente" - slightly undercooked as it will cook when mixed with the veggies
7. In another pan, heat up the oil
8. Add Hing when the oil is sufficiently hot. The Hing should sizzle a little when added
9. Add the two types of onions and sauteé them for couple minutes

10. Add the peppers and carrorts and let them cook for a while.
11. Once the veggies are sligtly tender, add the biryani masala, ginger and salt to it and mix well and let the flavors marry.
12. Let this cook on medium heat for a few minutes (Approx. 5 minutes). Stir every mintue or so, to make sure that nothing stick to the bottom of the pan.
13. Once the veggies are tender, add the cooked rice to it and mix well.
14. Let this cook for another couple minutes or so.
15. At this point the biryani is cooked are ready to be served.
16. Garnish it with Cilantro (which I didn't have and wished that I did!)

I ate this with "chundo", a sweet gujarati mango pickle. But, I would have ideally liked to eat it with some form of raita. All in all, it came out pretty good. Now, if you didn't have these veggies, you could add anything you have at home. You can also add chicken to make it chicken biryani!!

Batata Poha - An Easy Emergency Snack

This past saturday, Shivani, Dhrumil and little Viraj came over to my place. Initially I was thinking, that we would go out shopping for stuff for them and then just eat out. So, I hadn't planned on making anything at home. When I said this to my mom, she suggested that I make some Batata Poha just as a snack, so that there would be somethng for them to eat. At first, it seemed like too much work, so, in my mind, I tried to resist it. But, soon I realized that it would look quite bad on my part if I didn't feed them. I quickly went through my pantry and discovered to my relief that I had "Thick Poha", the kind required to make this dish. I however didn't have any potatoes or cilantro. That meant a quick trip to the neighborhood store, Evergood Grocery Store . After the shopping trip, I got home, called my mom and got the recipe for the dish. While my mom's recipe didn't include onions, I thought it would be a nice addition. And it actually turned out to be pretty nice. So, here is the recipe..


Ingredients:
1 medium red onion - chopped
1 medium potato - cubed
1 cup Thick Poha
Cilantro - chopped
2 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Oil
1/4 tsp Turmeric
Lemon juice
1 tsp Ginger Chilli paste
Sugar (optional)


1. Heat the Oil in a deep pan on high heat
2. Reduce the heat to medium Suteé the choppped onion in the oil till translucent
3. Add the cubed potatoes to the pan and mix well
4. Add turmeric, 1/2 of salt, 1/2 of ginger chilli paste to this and mix well.
5. Cook this potato mixture covered on medium heat till the potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes)
6. While the potatoes are cooking, rinse the Poha couple times under running water in a colander. While you are rinsing the Poha, it will absorb some water and plump up. Let it sit for couple minutes to let the excess water drain out.
7. Fluff the poha with a fork and add the remaining salt, ginger chilli paste and lemon juice and sugar to it.
8. Mix this well and let it hang out in the colander.
9. Once the potatoes are cooked, add the poha to it and mix
10. Cook it for couple more minutes to let all the flavors mix with each other
11. Garnish this with cilantro and serve hot.

Sev Batata Puri (SBP) - A reason to go to the gym

There are some foods, whose mere thought makes my mouth water. Sev Batata Puri (SBP)
is one of those things. Even now, as, I write this blog, I'm thinking of the awesome taste of this dish. Yesterday evening as I was thinking about what to have for dinner, I remembered that a couple weeks ago, I had bought some puris from New Apna Bazar, an indian store in Waltham,MA. So, I decided that I was going use them for dinner. So, now, all I could think about was dinner. While making a mental checklist of things I had in the house for the dish, I realized that I didn't have any chutneys or sev, which meant another trip to the grocery store.. As I was driving to the grocery store, I realized that SBP has almost no nutritional value and could be considered almost as junk food. Once I started thinking of SBP as junk food, I felt guilty about not going going to the gym for the longest time. So, I made yet another detour to the gym before I could savor the taste of SBP. After a nice work out, I drove to a bangladeshi store hoping to find the chutneys and sev. Alas, they only had the coriander chutney, but no sev, and no date chutney. At this point I was starting to lose hope, but, I finally found another indian grocery store *sorta* close to my home which had the date chutney and sev. I finally got home, boiled the potatoes, chopped the onions and cilantro and made my SBP.. And, it was YUMMY!!!! Definitely worth the trip to the gym and 2 grocery stores. Following is the recipe..

Ingredients (All of these should be available at most Indian Grocery Stores)

Puris for Bhel
Thin Sev
Red Onion
Potato
Corriander Chutney
Date and Tamarind Chutney
Lime and Cilantro
Salt to taste

1. Boil the potato till it is soft and you can peel it easily with your fingers. Once the potato is done, chop it into small cubes.

2. While the potato is boiling, chop the onion into very small cubes. Also coarsely chop the cilantro.

3. Now, make sure that the consitency of your chutneys is a little runnier than Ketchup.

4. Arrange about 8 or so puris in dish

5. Layer the chopped onion and potato on top of the puris

6. Sprinkle some salt on it for taste

7. Next layer it with the corriander and date chutneys

8. Top it off with some Sev

9. Garnish it with Cilantro and lime juice

10. Sit back, relax and enjoy this awesome dish



Steps 1 - 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Panki (Rice Flour Pancake)

Yesterday evening, as I wrapping up work and thinking about what to have for dinner, I had this sudden craving for Panki. Panki as my mom makes it is this savory rice flour pancake with lots of pepper. So, I promptly called my mom and got the recipe, got home and tried making it. It was actually pretty yummy!! Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:
1 Cup Rice Flour
1 Cup Yogurt
2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Pepper
2 Tsp Ground Cummin
1/4 Tsp Turmeric
1/4 Cup Water
3 Tsp Oil



Method:

1. Mix all the Ingredients well till you form a batter slightly thicker than regular pancake batter

2. Heat a non stick pan over medium high heat. I usually add 1/4 tsp of oil to this just to make sure that the pancake doesn't stick to the pan

3. Spoon about 1/4 of the mixture onto the pan and spread it evenly

4. Place a lid on the pan and cook covered over medium high heat for around 3-5 minutes till the bottom is golden brown

5. Flip it over, cover it and cook it for another 1-2 minutes

6. Voila, its done!! Plate it on the side that was cooked first, serve hot.

You can serve this with Cilantro chutney. I like to eat it plain.