Lemon Rice

It has been a while since I posted a South Indian dish here. Here’s something simple and quick that I made for dinner yesterday.

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked basmati (or any other long-grain) rice
2 Tbsp oil (gingelly/sesame oil would be ideal here)
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
2-3 red chillies
A pinch of asafoetida
½ tsp turmeric powder
3-4 green chillies, minced
4-5 curry leaves
½ onion, finely chopped
¾ tsp ginger paste
A good handful of coriander leaves, chopped up
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used 2 large and juicy lemons)
Salt
Sugar

Method:
Cook the rice. (I always use the microwave for this.)

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large pan. Add chana dal, urad dal, mustard seeds, red chillies asafoetida, turmeric powder, green chillies, and curry leaves. Next add the onions, ginger paste, and salt. Cook till the onions soften.

Add the hot rice and mix well. Turn off the heat; add lemon juice to the rice. Add a touch of sugar too if you so desire. Keep for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the rice to absorb the lemon juice and all of the other flavors.

I normally use rice that has been left over from the previous day to make preparations like tomato rice, tamarind rice, ghee rice, etc. In the case of lemon rice though, I have found that it tastes best when the rice used is fresh and steaming hot.

Vegetable And Egg Noodles

Ingredients:

2 packs of instant noodles and tastemaker (I used Maggi)
3 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped up
4-5 shallots, sliced
½ tsp red chilli flakes
8-10 baby carrots, chopped into small pieces
½ capsicum, finely chopped
1 tsp sabji masala
2 eggs
Salt


Method:
Cook the noodles in some salted water according to the instructions on the packet. Drain after reserving ½ cup water.

In a pan, add garlic followed by shallots, red chilli flakes, carrots, capsicum, and sabji masala, in quick succession. Cook till the vegetables soften.

Make a well in the center of the pan and add the beaten eggs. Allow it to cook well before mixing it with the other vegetables cooking in the pan.

Add the drained noodles (use the reserved water if required) and mix everything together till the noodles are coated with the vegetable-egg mixture. Serve hot.

Strawberry Jam

Despite the fact that strawberries are available year round here and we buy them regularly, I really don't do much with them when I bring them home. Usually, they end up in some kind of a milkshake or smoothie, or I make some kind of a dessert using them.

In my previous post I'd mentioned that we'd gone strawberry picking. We came back home with more strawberries than I knew what to do with. We enjoyed some as is, then had some more with balsamic syrup (which by the way is the best way to enjoy strawberries, in my opinion), and then I made this.

By this point I was down to 2 cups of strawberries and was looking to make something that I'd never tried before. I decided that it was time to give jam-making a shot. While searching for recipes, I came across many simple ones for making jam before I finally discovered Zainab's recipe, which was by far, the easiest of them all. I also found Mandira's adaptation of the original version. And so, with the help of these two recipes, I set out to make my own jam for the first time ever last week.

Ingredients:
2 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered
3/4 cup brown sugar (adjust according to sweetness of berries)
3 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ tsp powdered cloves
A pinch of salt

Method:
Place the quartered strawberries in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring often. Crush the larger pieces of fruit. Skim any foam that rises to the top if necessary.

As soon as it starts to boil, add the brown sugar, lemon juice, clove powder and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens (it took me about 30-35 minutes).

Allow the jam to cool to room temperature, spoon into a clean jar (2 cups of strawberries gave me just enough jam to fill the small jar you see in the picture above) wipe the rim with a clean cloth or paper towel, and seal with lid. Store in the refrigerator. It will keep for at least a week.

Sterilizing the jars is required for long-term storage; I did not do it since I did not expect the jam to last more than a week. To preserve the jam longer, sterilize, pack and seal in canning jars according to the manufacturer's instructions. You can find some guidelines here if you are interested.

Nothing beats the feeling of making your own jam. And because I’d made my own jam, H and I had a breakfast of bread, butter and homemade jam for dinner that night!
Making jam was so incredibly easy that I'm wondering why I hadn't tried it before.

This goes to the Happy Cook for her event, Strawberry Feast.

Strawberry Crisp

H and I went strawberry picking over the weekend at one of the pick-your-own farms in our area, and returned home with nearly 3 quarts of sweet, red and juicy strawberries. Once back home, I set about cleaning the strawberries and gathering the ingredients required to make a crisp, a baked fruit dessert with a sweet, crunchy topping- one of the easiest ways to enjoy fresh fruit.



I adapted a recipe I came across on Kristin’s The Kitchen Sink Recipes.

(For 4-5 servings)
Ingredients:
4 cups/1 quart strawberries, hulled and quartered
¼ cup sugar (adjust according to sweetness of strawberries)
Juice of a lemon
3 Tbsp cornstarch
A pinch of salt

For the topping:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ -3/4 tsp cinnamon
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (plus more for greasing the baking dish)
A pinch of salt

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter one 8x8-inch baking dish and set aside.

In a bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, chopped walnuts, and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and mix well (I used my hands here) until the mixture begins to hold together.

Place strawberries in a bowl; add sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch (I used some Brown and Polson custard powder I had since I did not have any cornstarch) and toss well to combine. Place in the buttered baking dish and sprinkle the topping over the surface evenly. (I had about 3-4 Tbsp of topping remaining after using it for this crisp so I refrigerated the rest.)

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the fruit juices are bubbling around the edges of the dish.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

I'm sending this across to the Happy Cook for her event, Strawberry Feast.
I think the first picture fits the theme for Jugalbandi's Click: Bi-colour.