Indira’s Favorite(at the moment) Salad

This is so pretty with the red,white, orange and green, I like to make it as much for the visual treat as for the taste of the bell pepper and feta cheese !

The same day, some weeks ago, that we had the delicious steamed fish at Celine’s home, her mother Doris also made a green salad to which she added feta cheese.

Up until then, Indira and Noor had never quite taken to the taste of this sheep’s milk cheese which is why I usually only mix it with boiled potatoes to make croquettes with it, but that evening Indira declared,  “I love this cheese !!”

Which suits me because Shri and I like it a lot too 🙂  So since then we have started to add it to salad, though we have yet to convert Noor.

As with most other salads, I make this at least an hour before we are ready to eat. Tonight we had this with chole masala and rice.

Bell Pepper,Feta Cheese and Carrot Salad

1 small red bell pepper, sliced fine

2  carrots, peeled and grated

100 gms of feta cheese, cut in to small cubes

some salad leaves

Mix all 4 ingredients and dress with olive oil, lime juice, sea salt  and dried basil flakes.

For another dash of color, you could add some sweet corn too.

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Spanish Omelette(Tortilla)

All this last week, I have had a solitary red bell pepper sitting among the other vegetables in the fridge and  looking at me -I felt -reproachfully for being left unused.

I usually love red bell pepper in salads, but I haven’t felt like making salad since the weather has turned cold. So I decided this evening to make a Spanish omelette instead, since red pepper makes a healthy, tasty,colorful addition to it. I will use some of it for lunch tomorrow for Noor and me – it is a food she loves. This omelette, called a tortilla in Spain, luckily keeps well for a few days in the fridge, so the rest of it will be handy for dinner for the 4 of us one evening later this week.

You could add meats (such as diced ham) and vegetables to the basic egg and potato combination, to make different kinds of tortilla. Here’s the recipe for my version of it.

Spanish Omelette

6 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut across in to very fine round slices( I use a food processor to do this; I’d find it a challenge to slice the potatoes as fine by hand)

6 eggs

1 large red bell pepper, cored and diced

2 medium sized onions, peeled and sliced fine

4 tablespoons of olive oil

Heat 3 tbsp of the olive oil very slightly in a large, fairly thick-bottomed frying pan. Add the onions and the potatoes, cover, and leave to cook till the potatoes are soft, over moderate heat. Turn the mixture gently from time to time with a flat/wide cooking spoon, taking care that the onions and the potatoes don’t brown or burn. Try to separate the fine slices of the potatoes – which tend to stick to each other because they are so thin – each time, so that all of it gets cooked. Half way through, add the pepper.

When the mixture is cooked (the potatoes should be soft but not lose all form and become mushy, though they will be smashed up a bit), take it out in to a large dish, and allow it to cool.

Break the eggs in a separate bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Add to the first mixture when it has cooled and stir gently to mix evenly.

Return the frying pan to the heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turn the egg and potato mixture back in, cover, and leave it to set, on moderate heat. When the mixture is almost set (this will take about 10 minutes;the middle won’t yet be set but don’t wait for this to happen else the other side will get burnt), turn the omelette over by sliding it on to a large plate, and then leave the other side to set. This will take just a few minutes.

Take it out when it is cooked on to a large serving plate and when it has cooled down, wrap it in cling film to store in the fridge.

This omelette makes a complete meal, with a green salad or soup, and some bread. And since it is easy to carry, sliced up, it is a great picnic food as well. I also make it sometimes for an indulgent, leisurely sort of weekend breakfast.

I am looking forward to my delicious lunch tomorrow, already 🙂

Indira’s favorite Red Bell Pepper,Carrot(or pumpkin or orange sweet potato), and Tomato Soup

This past Sunday, we were eating dinner when Indira said, “can you tell me how you made this soup because I’d like to make it when I am a big girl”.

Well that is what this blog is supposed to be for, I thought so here’s the recipe for this soup, which actually looks quite pretty sitting in it’s bowl since it is a gorgeous red-orange color.

Ingredients: (to serve 4)

1 red bell pepper

3-4 medium sized carrots, or 2 small sweet potatoes, or a about 200 gms of pumpkin

2 small (or 1 large) leeks

2 pods of garlic

3 large tomatoes

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Discard the hard part of the leeks, and chop the rest, after washing it carefully. Chop the garlic too.

In a large casserole/pressure-cooker, warm the oil and then add the leeks and garlic. Sweat these down gently, making sure not to let them brown or burn.

Next, add the red pepper and sweet potato or carrots (all chopped in to fairly small pieces) to the leeks and garlic mixture, and cook together for 10-12 minutes, turning frequently, till the vegetables start to really glisten and look soft. Then add the tomatoes (chopped), salt, and cook till the tomatoes start to break down.

Now add about half a liter of water, and then pressure-cook the vegetables so that they cook down thoroughly.

Blend the vegetables after waiting for them to cool down a bit, and then strain the mixture through a sieve to discard the seeds/skin etc.

Voila, le soup !

You could add a little bit of milk  to the soup before serving it, to give it a nice creamy taste.

Do add some black pepper too; this aids with digestion (this is one of my mom’s fundas; may or may not be true but I play safe and grind some in to each bowl).

This is a real hearty filler; all you need to make it a complete meal is a loaf of some wholesome bread, and scrambled eggs or grilled fish on the side if you like. Our preferred accompaniment is a loaf of corn bread; I will post that recipe as well, one of these days, should Indira want to make her own bread too !!