Greek Salad

Atlong last I got all the items needed for making the greek salad this weekend. I have been planning to make this since the time I got back from California trip. We had this in CPK (if you cannot make out what this place is - it is California Pizza Kitchen) when we ordered the Mediterranean Pizza. It was too good. So I wanted to try it out as a salad. Will try to mimic this pizza too some time.

I made this yesterday for dinner and it turned out pretty good. I was happy with the result. I followed the recipe given on the feta cheese package but made some changes to suit my taste....the salad was awesome....It is a very simple salad but pretty filling and you get to eat this yummy salad (with a low calorie content).

Ingredients (Serving Portion 2)

2 Handful Lettuce chopped
1 Cucumber cut into cube size
1/2 Bell Pepper cut into small pieces
Onion few thin slices
Olives (Add it as per your taste - I am not a big fan of it)
1/2 Tbspn Olive oil
1/2 Tsp Oregano (This was the first time I tasted it....and I felt it tastes like omam/ajwain....need to dig and find out whether they are the same!!)
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tbspn freshly squeezed lemon
2 Tbspn Feta Cheese

Mix all the above ingredients except feta and lemon. Add Feta and Lemon just before serving.....Enjoy the simple yet delicious salad... eat to your heart's content - without the guilt of adding those "extra" calories .....since it has all the goodness in it! I liked it so much that am making it again for tonight's dinner....

Onion Tomato Chutney

I made this as a side for Pesarattu since kids love onion tomato chutney a lot. It goes well with Idli and dosas too. I made this when I had called friends home for dinner and it was a great hit! Hence, sharing with you all....it is very simple and easy to make....

Ingredients:

1 Big Onion Chopped
4 Small Tomatoes Chopped
3/4 Tsp Red Chilly Powder
Salt to Taste
Oil
Mustard and Urad dhal for tempering

Take a little oil and heat it. Add the onions fry till it turns slightly brown. Add the tomatoes and cook. Allow it to cool. Grind this into a smooth paste.
Add salt and red chilly powder to the grinded mixture.
Take a little oil in a pan and mustard  (let it splutter),add urad dhal.  Add this to the Chutney.

Tofu Masala

For the past few weekends we have not been at home....so I was not left with anything to cook yesterday...hence wrapped up a totally South Indian meal - Capsicum Sambhar, Zucchini Kootu and our favorite Beans Usili....since my husband is coming home for couple of days in a week for lunch...it is making things lot more easier in terms of preparing food ...I can make roti and some sabzi for dinner and have South Indian lunch for afternoons (it is nice to follow this routine even though it is just for few days in a week!)..I would say it is a bit of luxury for me (I skip packing lunch boxes...they are a big menace) even while I was working I always loved to go home for lunch and have food in a relaxed manner.... good old memories....now getting back to where I left -

My son seems to have a liking for tofu....I am not 100% sure but he ate the spinach tofu masala whenever I made it and also likes to eat it when we visited noodles and company. I had spinach too with me....I started weighing the options - do I want to make the same stuff "Spinach Tofu Masala" with it or try something different as I had planned. Different dishes replacing panneer with tofu. I went with the second option of making something different...hence popped the spinach back into the refrigerator..may be I will make Spinach Rice with it (long time since I made it). Planned to make the tofu masala by adding couple of  veggies to it but I had forgotten to buy green bell pepper...I like the other colors too but the taste from the green bell pepper is a lot better than their counterparts (yellow, red or orange - they look good ....some how I feel they are not hot and less Indianish!). I could not do much now hence used the mini sweet peppers that I had in hand. I have started liking the recipes involving some amount of baking...not sure why...my recent craze "may be"...now that I have decided on what to make...there it goes (tofu) into the oven ...read further to know the recipe...

Ingredients:

1 Pack Extra Firm Tofu (organic)
4 Medium Sized Tomatoes
8 Mini Sweet Peppers (cut length wise)
10 Whole Cashew
1 Big Onion
1 Inch Cinnamon piece
1 Bay Leaf
2 Cardomoms
1 Tsp Zeera
1 Green Chilly
1/2 Tsp Chilly Powder (you may add more or less depending on your spice level and the spice level of the chilly)
1/2 Tsp Garam Masala Powder
1/2 Tsp Coriander Powder
Salt as per your taste

As mentioned earlier....look for the instruction in the pack for using the Tofu.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 Degree. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil.
Cut the Tofu into 1 inch cube. Line it on the baking sheet. Sprinkle some salt and drizzle little bit of oil on top of the tofu.
Bake it for a maximum of 40 minutes...until it turns golden brown.
In the meantime, cut the onion and saute it till it turns golden. Let it cool.
Grind the onion, ginger along with the cashews.
Take a table spoon of oil and add the zeera, green chillies and the pepper. Fry it for sometime. When the pepper is half cooked add the tomatoes and fry it for some more time. When they are almost done.
Add the onion, ginger and cashew paste.
Add the Red chilly powder, Salt and Coriander Powder.
Let it boil for sometime. You may  add  little bit of water if it is too thick.
If the tofu is done....you may add it to the above mixture and turn off the gas after few minutes.
(Note: If the tofu is not baked by the time you are done with the gravy. You may turn off the gas and then later add the tofu and bring it to a boil.)

This will go well with rice or roti. A nice option for people who want to have a twist to their palate with a low calorie option!!

Stuffed Mini Sweet Pepper

I am so happy that I have posted 50 recipes...even though I liked the generic 50th post....felt did not do much justice to it since it was not made by me :( ....so I wanted to post something different...and marched into the kitchen with a big smile in my face (to make something new....it always makes me happy)!!....I had very little things in my refrigerator since I am having another trip this weekend (will tell you about it after I come back!!)....so had not stocked up the refrigerator to its brim (it was seemingly empty compared to how much it always stores)

I had got the mini sweet peppers to make bajjis...but did not find time to make pakoras with it this time too...I had both the giant bell peppers (call it this way because back in India...so do not get to see these big ones). Just think about stuffing this giant pepper...I felt it will need atleast 3 big potatoes to stuff one !! So choose the mini sweet peppers ....I like the texture, the firmness and the color of them....they are teeny tiny petite ones....and these will not need as many potatoes as the giant bell pepper would and also makes serving easier!!

I take them and cut their head off and take the seeds out....a pairing knife comes in handy to do this and be carefull not to cut them in the middle. I used the whole bad around 2 Lbs of the mini sweet pepper I got from Sams!!



Now coming to the ingredients and the recipe part -

2 Lbs (reserved like 10 of them from the bag for another experiment) and wash, cut the head part and de-seeded the rest
1/2 finely Chopped Onion
4 medium sized tomatoes
1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 Tsp Red chilly Powder
1 Tsp Salt
2 TBSPN Olive Oil

For the filling

3 Medium Potatoes
1/2 Finely Chopped Onion
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Coriander powder
1/2 Tsp Red Chilly Powder
1/2 Inch Ginger Finely chopped
1 Green Chilly
1/2 Tsp Jeera
1 TBSP Oil

Coming to the stuffing part - Microwave the potatoes as a whole for about 8 minutes. Remove them from the water after microwaving them as you do not want them soaking and absorbing the water. Mash them well you do not want any chunky parts in it.

Take oil in a pan and add the jeera, green chillies and the ginger. Add the onion and fry them till they are slightly brown, Add the salt, red chilly powder and the coriander powder. Add the mashed potatoes and mix it well. The stuffing is ready to be filled into the sweet pepper.

Before that....I forgot to mention that I baked them in the oven....So before you start filling pre-heat the oven upto 350 degree. Make small balls and start filling them with your hand. I feel it works better when you fill them with your hands rather than with a spoon. If you are scared that the filling my spill...you may close it with a paste made from all purpose flour and then bake it.

Now place them in the baking tray and sprinkle some salt and drizzle some oil on top of each pepper for about 30 minutes...the smell when it is baked is so goooddddddd...........

You may serve them as is after baking them....but what I did was took little bit of oil in a pan. Added Jeera and onions. Fry them then add the tomatoes till they are done. Add the sweet peppers slowly and make sure the filling does not fall out. Add more salt if needed.

I served it with rotis......was pretty happy about the way it turned out...happily posting this recipe..I am posting this with a big smile on my face "the 51st one"...with your wishes and patronage looking forward to doing more.....see you soon with another post ...bye bye