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I'm BAAAAAAAAAAACK! At least for today. This recipe is more for the salad dressing than the salad itself. You can use whatever salad vegetables you like, that you would eat raw. Mine had shredded carrots and beetroot, rocket (arugula), baby spinach, some lettuce of the red-veined variety (who knows what it's called!), tomato wedges, cucumber slices and of course boiled eggs.
Oh, and please ignore the rather gruesome grey-green ring around the yolks. I'm usually pretty deft at getting a perfectly yellow-yolk in my boiled egg, but it so happened that I completely forgot that I had eggs simmering away on the hob. I was distracted by a Facebook status and got sucked in, as you do. I don't know about you, but I blame Mark Zuckerberg. I was loath to throw the eggs away for this blemish and, besides, the green-ringed yolks aren't harmful to eat. So there you have it. By the way, the dressing works rather well with the eggs. I wouldn't have thought it, to be fair.
Recipe for: Egg salad with creamy salad dressing
Ingredients
For the salad dressing:
1 tbsp low-fat mayonnaise
4 tbsp Greek or natural yogurt (not sour)
1 htbsp grated parmesan cheese
1.5 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1 small garlic clove, grated
Freshly ground pepper
pinch of salt
pinch of smoked paprika
For the salad:
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup shredded beetroot
2 medium tomatoes, quartered OR 10-15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup cucumber slices
Generous mixture of salad leaves as desired
4 boiled eggs, peeled and quartered
Method:
1. Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl. Thin it with a little water, whisking it in, until the dressing is thick but pourable. Adjust the ingredients as required till it tastes good to you. Chill the dressing until required.
2. Put all the salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss them together until evenly distributed. Just before serving, divide the contents between two bowls and dollop most of the dressing over. Mix it into the salad lightly and carefully with your hands fingers or using salad "hands". Place the quartered eggs on top, dab with the remaining dressing and serve at once.
This is getting to be a repetitive sort of beginning to my posts, but I’ll say it anyway – beetroot was not among my favourite vegetables, growing up. I don’t remember if my dad was fond of this vegetable, but I’m pretty certain that my sister and brother would not have countenanced it, same as me. We were – regrettably - very alike in food preferences as children, in the process probably depriving my mother of produce that she liked but couldn’t eat at home – because let’s face it, when you have to cook, day in and day out for an entire family, it’s easier to go with the majority flow than deal with the said family’s collective groans and moans when faced with unpopular vegetables.
In her place I would probably have cooked my favourite items and let everyone else fuss unnoticed in the background – or even in the foreground. But my mother was (and is) much more in touch with her selfless side and she mostly avoided the things that the rest of us wouldn’t eat. Coordinating everybody’s likes and dislikes every single day, at least twice a day, must have been a painful, thankless job, one I would have hated doing. Even now, when I actually like being in the kitchen.
Anyway... where was I? Oh yes, beetroot. It’s only in the last few years that I’ve ventured out of my comfort food zone and tried things that I had disliked for the most part of my life. Pickled beets, beetroot dry curry, beetroot halwa even... I can and do eat all those now. I even cook beetroot at home, braving bright red-stained hands and red-stained cutting mats and sometimes utensils – and the occasional permanently-red-stained article of clothing (and, also, the shock during ablutions the next morning. There have been a few times that I’ve nearly called for an ambulance, only just remembering the previous day’s beetroot ingestion in time to save myself the embarrassment of public stupidity.)
So, a friendly reminder to the occasional beet eaters – remember, you are not bleeding to death from the inside, it’s just the beets doing their thing. (I shall abstain from further elaboration on this point to protect the delicate sensibilities of any readers... but if you eat beets, you will know what I mean!)
Back to what I made with beets this time – sambar! It was surprisingly tasty... vaguely sweet from the beetroot, tangy from the tamarind and spicy because of the red chilli powder with which I boosted the heat quotient, because I was afraid the sambar would otherwise end up actually sweet (ugh).
The jewel-like magenta hue of the sambar was an added bonus for my colour-lovin’ soul.
I ate the sambar over rice (well, what else) paired with spicy bittergourd curry, which added yet another dimension to the taste explosion. All’s to love here, that’s what I say.
Recipe for: Beetroot sambar
Ingredients:
3/4 cup tuvar/tur dal
2 medium beetroots, peeled
1 medium onion, minced
2 generous tbsp sambar powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp tamarind paste
2 tsp oil
1 tsp grated ginger root
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp rice flour
3 cups water
6-7 fresh curry leaves (optional)
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish
Method:
1. Pressure-cook the beetroots and the tuvar dal (in separate containers!). Mash the cooked tuvar dal and reserve. Cut the beetroots into 1/2-cm cubes and reserve.
2. Dissolve the tamarind paste and the rice flour in 3 cups water and set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida powder and turmeric powder. Cover and let the seeds pop.
4. Add the chopped onion to the pan and and fry it till it begins to turn soft,
then add the sambar powder and red chilli powder and saute on medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring often. Do not let it burn.
5. Now add the cooked cubed beetroot and stir it well into the masala
then add the tamarind water.
6. Let this come to a boil, then simmer it for 10 minutes or so to let the tamarind blend with the masala.
7. Add 1/4 cup hot water to the cooked tuvar dal and whisk it in to remove any lumps, then add it to the liquid in the pan. Add salt to taste, then stir it all till well blended again.
8. Let the sambar simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let it sit for covered for 15-30 minutes. Just before serving, heat the sambar thoroughly and sprinkle coriander leaves.
Serve hot with steamed rice and any dry curry, with poppadoms or crisps on the side (optional).
I got the basic recipe for this cake from Joy of Baking, one of my favourite blogs for cake porn. I’ve made carrot cake a few times before, but I like trying out new variations when I come across them, and the tip of adding crushed pineapple was tempting. Then, because there was a small beetroot in the fridge, I reduced the amount of carrot required and made up the deficit with the beet, grated. Well, why not? I just wanted to see if the beetroot would make its presence felt and if anybody would object to it in a cake.
As it turned out, nobody could tell there was beetroot in it. The batter turned pink thanks to the addition of the beetroot but the end result didn’t have the red colour that I imagined would show up. I could taste the beetroot, but perhaps it’s because I knew it was there.
I do like to sneakily make people eat things they profess not to like, wait for them to say “mmmm… that’s nice” and then hit them with the reality. (It gives me a certain satisfaction which probably has its roots in sheer meanness!) This formula worked perfectly with Pete and his daughter (yet again, haha).
Unfortunately for Pete, he cant play that trick on me… that sort of thing doesn’t work because my palate is very discerning and can pretty much always tell if there’s something I don’t like in my food. Nobody but NOBODY can sneak aubergine/brinjal/eggplant into anything I eat - and folks, this aint a challenge, so don’t force me to throw up a rainbow-coloured yawn. (I came across that phrase recently in a novel set in Australia – isnt that just the prettiest euphemism for a very unpretty physical reaction? I just HAD to use it myself!)
As far as beetroot in cake is concerned, I would say that a judicious use would be the best way. I don’t think I would care for a cake made entirely with beet – that would most likely be a bit too strong a flavour to mask with anything else.
Recipe for: Pineapple-beet-carrot cake
1/2 cup brazil nuts and walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup carrots, grated
1/2 cup beetroot, grated
1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp allspice + 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
6 tbsp oil vegetable of sunflower oil
1 heaping tbsp ghee
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, well drained
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Spray 8” round pan with non-stick spray and line the bottom with silicone paper.
2. Toast the chopped nuts on a skillet, stirring constantly, till the nuts are lightly browned and fragrant.
Let cool.
3. Peel and finely grate the carrots and beetroot. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and allspice & cardamom. Set aside.
5. Beat the eggs until frothy.
6. Gradually add the sugar and keep beating until the batter is thick and light colored.
7. Add the oil in a steady stream and then beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated.
Add the ghee and mix in.
8. With a large rubber spatula fold in the grated carrots and beet and chopped nuts.
9. Stir in the crushed pineapple.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan.
Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
10. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. After about 5-10 minutes invert the cake onto the wire rack, remove the pan and silicone paper, and then cool completely before cutting.
Couldnt think of a punchy title for what I made, so I had to settle for a descriptive one. For starters, I'm not sure whether this can be termed "thoran" or "porial" or "sundal" - it has elements of all three. I bought farm-fresh beets (with greens!) and fresh spinach (the adult kind, fully grown) at the Shrewsbury market, and I didnt quite know where to start. Had too many bookmarked recipes to choose from and vacillated between them, discovering that I was short of this or that ingredient for this or that recipe. (Indecision, as Charlie Brown says, is an awful thing.)
So eventually I ended up making a fairly simple dry "curry". I peeled and chopped two carrots and a medium size beet into small chunks, then put them in the pressure cooker along with a handful of green (or brown) lentils. Two whistles of the pressure cooker and the vegetables were cooked to perfection - retaining their shape and not too soft. Plus, the beets gave some of their lovely colour to the carrots, ending up all pink and red and orange.
The lentils could probably have cooked a little longer (or maybe they could have done with a little water, because I didnt add any!) - they were just about al dente. Still, I like them chewy and they acquired a slightly softer texture by the time I was done making the curry.
The greens I washed and dried. Then I stacked and rolled up the leaves and cut them to thin ribbons, including as much of the stem as I could. It took only a few minutes to saute/wilt them in a pan while still retaining their bright green colour. After which I added the coconut-green chilly-cumin mixture and stirred it all up. Sauteed the whole thing for a few minutes, then served it up with rice and celery thokku for a meal that was agreeably - and surprisingly - nice! The bright jewel colours of the finished product was an added bonus.
PS. Please forgive me the rather clunkily edited (background cut out) first photograph below - my first attempt with Adobe Photoshop! I hope to improve over time...
Recipe for: Carrot-beet-greens medley with lentils
Ingredients:
To pan-cook:
1 cup sliced fresh greens
Salt to taste
To pressure-cook:
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into 1-cm chunks
1 medium beet, peeled and chopped into 1-cm chunks
a generous handful of green/brown lentils
To grind together:
2-3 generous tbsp grated coconut
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
4-5 green chillies
For tempering:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
pinch of asafoetida
2 tsp oil
Method:
1. Put the lentils in a vessel with 2-3 tbsp water, then add the beets and carrots.
Pressure-cook for two whistles or till just done. Reserve.
2. Grind the coconut, cumin seeds and chillies together. Reserve.
3. Heat the oil in a pan, add the asafoetida powder, mustard seeds and urad dal. Cover the pan and let the mustard seeds splutter and the dal turns pale brown.
4. Add the sliced greens now.
Stir fry till they are wilted and nearly cooked, but still retain their colour. Add half of the ground coconut and stir in, cooking
on low heat for 2-3 minutes.
5. Now put in the cooked carrots, beets and lentils.
Add the remaining coconut masala and stir it all in, adding salt to taste.
6. Stir the curry for another minute or two, making sure it is heated through. Serve hot as a side dish with rice/sambar/thokku or roti.
