Cranberry Rice

Hope you all had a very good Thanksgiving. We had a very relaxing Thanksgiving this year. Most of the time we make travel plans during thanksgiving. But, this year we decided to stay home and relax.
Moreover we got back from a trip to a beautiful resort just last week and did not want to travel again.
We had a potluck at a friend's place and I made the curry leaf chicken and this cranberry rice. Sometimes it feels so good just to sit back and relax.
So, do you have any cranberries left from the cranberry sauce you made for Thanksgiving? If so, you can try your hands at this simple cranberry rice. This is a colorful and vibrant looking rice. The pink cranberries and the yellow turmeric blend together to give this beautiful color to rice. This is similar to the South Indian lemon rice, I used cranberries instead of lemon. Even the taste is kind of similar to the lemon rice.

Ingredients:

• Long grain white rice(Cooked): 2 cups
• Fresh cranberries: 1/2 cup
• Chopped onions: 1/2 cup
• Salt to taste
• Green chillies: 3
• Oil: 1 tbsp
• Cilantro(finely chopped): 2 tbsp
• Grated ginger root: 1/2 tsp

Tempering:

• Oil: 2 tbsp
• Urad Dal: 1 tsp
• Mustard Seeds: 1 tsp
• Curry leaves: 4-5
• Dried Broken Red Chillies: 2
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
• Asafetida: a pinch

Procedure:

1.  Make a paste of fresh cranberries and green chillies and set it aside.
2. Add oil to a pan and when the oil is heated, add the chopped onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. Now add the grated ginger and the cranberry paste and cook for 5-6 minutes.
3. Add the cooked rice to a mixing bowl and apply the cranberry paste to the rice mixing gently. Add salt.
4. Now take a small pan and add the oil and turn on the stove. When the oil is heated, add the tempering ingredients one after the other in the order mentioned and when the seeds start spluttering, turn off the stove and add it to the rice in the mixing bowl.
5. Mix the rice gently and do a taste test to check the salt. Adjust the salt and garnish with cilantro.

Note: Change the number of green chillies according to your spice level. You can even omit the green chillies. You do get little spiciness form the red chillies in the tempering.

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Red Beer - Hubby's recipe

Do you like beer? I hate beer. If you are a person like me who doesn't like drinking beer then this is for you. In this house 'P' is a beer person and I am the wine person. Yes, I don't like beer and he doesn't like wine. Red beer is something we both like and we occasionally make this. Bloody mary mix is combined with beer along with hot sauce, salt and pepper making it taste more like spicy tomato juice than beer.
'P' is not very fond of cooking. I am the one who cooks and he is the one who cleans(....once in a while).
The only time he enters the kitchen to make something from scratch is to make this "Red Beer"(Oh...he can make Maggi - instant noodles btw! :-)...)
Even to make this simple cocktail, he shouts some hundred times asking me where is this and where is that :)
But, I must truly admit that I totally love this Red Beer. Not sure if it is his own recipe or he got it from somewhere, he claims it's his secret recipe though.

So, here is the recipe.

Combine equal quantities of bloody mary mix and beer, add few drops of hot sauce and half a tea spoon of lime juice. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper on top and mix gently.

Note: You can change the beer to bloody mary mix ratio as you like. I prefer 1/4 cup beer and 3/4 cup bloody mary mix.
If you do not want to use alcohol, you can substitute beer with sparkling water.

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Beetroot Rice

Rice is a staple food in the South Indian families. We eat rice for at least one meal everyday. Some of my non Indian friends call me "Starch Girl" :)
Most of the times rice is served with a curry or a vegetable side dish or the rice is cooked along with vegetables and/or lentils.

I often find it easy and interesting to make rice with different vegetables.
Here is a simple rice dish made with grated beetroot.




Ingredients:

• Beetroot: 2 medium sized
• Onion: 1 medium sized(finely chopped)
• Salt to taste
• Garam Masala: 1 tsp
• Oil: 3 tbsp
• Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp(optional)
• Cooked Rice: 2 Cups

Tempering:

• Split black gram(Urad dal): 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
• Curry leaves: 4
• Dried red chillies: 2(broken)
• Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
• Asafoetida(Hing): a pinch

Procedure:

1. Add oil to a pan and when the oil is heated, add the seasoning ingredients in the order mentioned.
2. When the seeds start spluttering, add the onions along with a pinch of salt and fry for 2-3 minutes.
3. Now add the grated beetroot and mix well and cover the pan with a lid and cook for few minutes until the beetroot is cooked and becomes soft.
4. If you want to serve the beetroot as a side dish with cooked rice, you can stop here.
5. To make the rice, continue reading.
6. Now add the cooked rice to the beetroot mixture, add the garam masala powder and mix gently.
7. If you like your rice spicy, add the red chili powder and adjust the salt.
8. Turn off the stove.
9. Serve with Raitha/Yogurt chutney.

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Red Lentil Rice

Before I start cooking, when time permits, I go through the food blogosphere to get some inspiration and ideas. Sometimes it is the recipe that grabs my attention, but most of the time it is the beautiful pictures that really make me drool so much that I cook immediately.

Even though you know that recipe, have been cooking for ages, when you look at a beautifully taken shot, you feel like eating it right away.

This is one such recipe from DK's Chef In You. this is the second recipe I am trying form Chef In You. The first was Tres Leches Cake. What I like about her site is the step by step instructions with pictures. You don't even have to read through the whole post. A glance at the pictures is enough.

Red lentils are the easiest of the lentils to cook. You don't need to use a pressure cooker. when you are in a time crunch these are the best lentils to use. You can make any kind of dal or sambar too with these red lentils.



Ingredients:

• Onions: 1 medium sized.
• Red bell pepper: 1/2
• Green bell pepper: 1/2
• Red lentils: 1/4 cup
• Uncooked Rice: 1 cup
• Green Peas: 3 tbsp
• Green Chillies: 3(cut length wise)
• Cilantro( finely chopped): 2 tbsp
• Green onions(finely chopped): 2 tbsp
• Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
• Oil: 4 tbsp
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
• Garlic" 2 cloves(minced)
• Bay Leaf: 1
• Cinnamon: a small piece
• Cardamom: 2
• Cloves: 4-5
• Water/stock: 2.5 cups

Procedure:

1. Add oil to a pan and saute the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf, garlic and turmeric for a minute.
2. Now add the onions, green chillies and salt and saute until the onion becomes soft and transparent.
3. Now add the vegetables - bell pepper and peas and fry for few more minutes.
4. When the vegetables are half cooked, add the rice and lentils and fry fore 2-3 minutes.
5. Now add the water/stock and adjust the salt.
6. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for few minutes stirring in between until the rice is cooked. Takes about 10 minutes.
7. Fluff the rice gently with a fork and turn off the stove and keep the pan covered for few more minutes.
8. Garnish with cilantro and green onions before serving.

Note: You can add any vegetables. Carrots, potatoes and green beans would taste great.

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Colorful Potato Curry

Potato is one vegetable that is everybody's favorite. I have never met a person who doesn't like potatoes and they obviously taste good cooked in a any form.

I usually make this as a side dish with rasam or sambar. Addition of cilantro and red pepper falkes make this dish vibrant and colorful.
The picture was taken before adding cilantro. The kiddo doesn't like the cilantro, so I had to add after she was done eating.



Ingredients:

• Potatoes: 4(medium sized)
• Onions: 1(medium sized)
• Green onions: 3
• Red Pepper Flakes: 2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil: 2 tbsp
• Cilantro(chopped): 2 tbsp

Tempering:

• Mustard Seeds: 1 tsp
• Cumin Seeds: 1 tsp
• Turmeric Powder: 1 tsp
• Curry leaves: 4
• Hing: a pinch

Procedure:

1. Wash the potatoes, peel them and dice them into small cubes and add them to a bowl of water and set them aside.
2. Finely chop the onions and set them aside.
3. Add oil to a pan and when the oil is heated, add the tempering ingredients and when the seeds start spluttering add the onions and fry for 2 minutes.
4. Now add the potatoes, sprinkle 1/4 cup of water on the potatoes, add slat, mix them well and cover the pan with a lid and cook the potatoes for 5 minutes.
5. Now remove the lid stir the potatoes and fry them util they turn little crispy and are completely cooked.
6. After the potatoes are completely cooked, adjust the salt and add the red pepper flakes, chopped cilantro and the green onions turn off the heat.
7. Serve with hot steamed rice.

Note: This curry can be used as a sandwich stuffing too. I usually make sandwiches with the left over curry.

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