Minced Meat with Snow Peas and Green Peas

I love minced meat..Kheema mattar..its quick and easy to make and goes well with rice or roti's. I make this so many times that sometimes they get boring, so this time when i found some snow peas sitting in my fridge i jazzed it up a notch :=) I threw it in along with the kheema matar and voila....it tasted so good.


Ingredients:

Minced Meat (Lamb or beef) – 1 lb
Shallots (Sliced finely) – 10 – 12
Garlic (Sliced thin) – 5
Tomato Paste – 3 tbsp
Garam Masala – 2 tsp
Pepper Powder – 2 tsp
Turmeric Pwd – 1 tsp
Chili Pwd – 2 tsp
Salt as required
Coriander (chopped) – 2 tsp

In a pan, add oil and fry the shallots and sliced garlic until brown. Add the tomato paste and let it mix well into the onion mixture. Add all the powders and once mixed well add the minced meat. Close the pan until the meat is cooked. Once cooked, open it and add the snow peas and green peas. Let the vegetables cook for about a good 5-10 minutes and then fry well until all the water (if ever there is) evaporates.
Garnish with Coriander and serve hot with roti’s.

For the love of street food - Bangkok

There is something about Thai food that is so pleasing to the palate, especially for us Indians. Its probably the type of cooking that is so reminiscent of ours. Their curries, spices and tastes is so seemingly similar...but yet so very different. Its what makes Thai food so popular everywhere. In a recent visit to Bangkok, we got a chance to taste the street food that is so popular there.


Different type of Noodles displayed


As soon as the sun sets,the food vendors bring out their carts and set them up on the streets and pretty soon it gets crowded. All the locals eat here, and we as tourists will eat where the locals eat..that's the key to grabbing some good food. You see Thai people in a Thai restaurant,you know the food is good.In Bangkok, there is no need to shell out big bucks or go to some fancy shmancy restaurant to eat a three course meal.It is all here on the street.From starters like chicken satay on a stick, steamed pork balls to entrees like noodles and pad thai to desserts like jellies, custards and fruits ...they had it all.



So we gorged on the staggering array of eatables we found at each and every stall and topped it off with some fresh fruits.Lychees, rambutans, mangoosteens are in abundance here and sold at every nook and corner by the street vendors.




The most appealing part of Bangkok to me was not the high scale restaurants or the palaces or the age old relics and temples - it was the street food.I have always loved street food and its authenticity.In all its simplicity,it defines the culture of the people and the country . I would definitely visit Bangkok again just to savor the delicious street food ...cause there's nothing more satisfying than food so simple and authentic...and of course cheap !!!

Black Glutinous Rice Pudding

My first recipe post begins with something sweet, yup and it's healthy too.Black glutinous rice, also known as black sticky rice, has long dark grains and a nutty taste reminiscent of wild rice.This rice is mostly in thai, chinese and philippino desserts. You can get this rice at any asian stores in the US. The basic recipe calls for coconut milk, but here I have used grated coconut.It can be baked or cooked like rice. It has numberous health benefits like helping lower cholestrol levels and improving blood circulation...so I guess we can consider this a healthy dessert - right ?

Ingredients

Red Rice – 1 Cup
Water – 2 ½ Cups
Salt – a pinch
Sugar -2 ½ tbsp
Grated Coconut – 1/3 Cup

Soak the red rice with some water for about 15 minutes. Pressure cook the rice with 2 ½ cups of water for about 2 whistles or 10 minutes. Add a pinch of salt to the rice. Once the rice is cooked, add the sugar and the grated coconut.

Garnish with a little grated coconut of top while serving.

An Ode to the Oldies...

This blog is not a display of my culinary skills, it is rather a huble collection of recipes collected over the years from my mother, grandmother , mother-in-law, kith and kin et al. Some of these recipes are plain old - probably made in everyone's home , some are defined and manipulated by the maker, some borrowed from friends and cookbooks , some just played around by me. Like the saying goes "No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers." Laurie Colwin