Hearty Lettuce, Carrot, Cherry tomatoes Salad with homemade dressing

A crowd pleasing salad with homemade vinaigrette

I am back from my vacation to India and back to blogging with a hearty salad recipe from my kitchen. Actually blogging took a back seat after arrival of Anshika,my darling daughter. This post has a reason to be here on my blog, if interested read on.......

June's 1st weekend we drove to Albany, NY to attend a birthday party of our closest friend's daughter. For the party I made this salad which everyone appreciated and enjoyed eating as much as I loved making it all the while hoping it to turn out well. You won't imagine people loved it and few of them took a second serving too! I was so overwhelmed with the kind of response and appreciation I got for the salad, thought of sharing it with all my readers too. Also many asked for the recipe there, I have a similar salad recipe but the dressing is a little bit different so thought of posting it on my website.

Salads are a healthy way to eat good and nutritious food. And for a basic salad recipe what I do is just peep into my refrigerator and pantry for necessary ingredients like salad greens, dried fruits, any kind of nuts and lastly some acidic ingredient like vinegar or citrus juice, that's pretty much it. I start making delicious salads by combining friendly veggies that go well with each other and the flavors kind of marry with each other quiet well. I try many dressings doing my own version, sometimes, I like it, sometimes they take a ride into my kitchen sink. Coming to this dressing, it is simple homemade vinaigrette with vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, honey and Dijon mustard with little seasoning.

Source: My own
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 10 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
6 leaves of Romaine Lettuce, torn
6 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 carrot, grated
½ red onion, chopped
1 seedless cucumber (optional)
1 pack seasoned bread croutons (optional)
Handful of toasted almonds/pinenuts/walnut(any)
dried cranberries for garnish

for dressing:
1 T distilled vinegar or lime juice
1 t dijon mustard
1 T honey
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of salt/ as per taste
1 tsp ground black pepper

Method:

1. Mix all the salad ingredients except nuts and croutons in a large bowl.
2. Prepare the dressing by first adding dijon mustard in vinegar juice whisk well.
3. Add freshly ground black pepper, salt, honey mix well.
4. Whisk vigorously while adding extra-virgin olive oil.
5. Spread over the salad, mix and cover it with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated.
6. When ready to eat top it with toasted almonds and croutons.


Tip: For crunchy salad, wash the greens and use a salad spinner to remove excess water out of the leaves or you can dab excess water in the leaves with a kitchen towel.

Click on Salads from my kitchen

Chicken Fry with Green Peas Pulav Rice

Chicken fry inspired by Cinnamon trails

Chicken Fry

After getting inspired by seeing Cinnamon's mouthwatering Chicken fry the other day, I immediately planned the same for my Sunday lunch with green peas pulav. Today we had a treat having the chicken fry with some onion-cilantro-yoghurt's salad/raita with a can of cold diet pepsi. Yeah I have soda when I have something non-veg dish cooking, thats helps with digestion (my funda). Hope you will enjoy this nice, tasty and juicy chicken fry. Keeping it short and sweet though, here is my adapted version of Cinnamon's chicken fry followed by green peas pulav recipe.

Source: Adapted from Cinnamon trails
Cuisine: Andhra, South Indian
Prepration & Marinating time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
1 pound of chicken thighs
1 medium size onion, sliced
2 green chillies, cut length-wise
2-inch cinnamon sticks (2)
4-5 cloves
2-3 bay leaves
1 tsp turmeric powder
1-2 tsp chilli/cayenne powder(paprika)
freshly greated nutmeg
1 tsp garam masala powder/spice mix
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
2 tbsp cooking oil
5-6 cashewnuts, halved and toasted for garnishing
1 tbsp chopped cilantro, for garnishing
salt as per taste
Grind to smooth paste:
1 small onion, roughly chopped
½ tomato, roughly chopped
2 green chillies, roughly chopped
1 inch ginger
2 cloves of garlic

Method:

1. Clean the chicken and cut into bite size pieces or as per your requirements, you can keep the whole chicken thighs as it is.
2. Marinate the chicken with turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt and the prepared paste for at least 15 mins.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet, to this add the bay leaves, jeera/cumin seeds, cinnamon stick and cloves, fry for a minute.
4. Add the sliced onions, green chillies and saute till the onions are translucent. To this add only the chicken pieces and fry them covered till they look cooked or for 10 mins.
5. Afterwards add the remaining marinated paste, mix well and add the garam masala powder/spice mix, grate the nutmeg on top.
6. Saute on medium high till all the moisture evaporates and the chicken pieces starts to caramelize, keep on frying till you get the desired color and flavor. Do check the spice level and salt, add if required.
7. Garnish it with toasted cashew nuts and chopped cilantro.
8. Serve with hot rice or any pulav/biryani.

Note:adjust your spice level accordingly while using green chillies or chilli powder.

Chicken fry served with green peas pulav

Green Peas Pulav

This green pea pulav recipe I learned from my Mother, who has inspired me in lot many ways and is a superb cook. I made a genuine attempt to bring in the same flavors as of my Mother but as is said, "Maa ka haath ka khane main kuch alag hi jaadu hain" But her formula works with ginger-garlic paste. This is a very simple and easy recipe to lay your hands on!

Source: My Mother
Cuisine: Indian
Prepration time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
2 cups of Basmati rice, wash and soak for 10 mins
1 red onion, sliced
2 green chillies, cut lengthwise
½ cup fresh/frozen green peas
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1-inch cinnamon stick
2-3 cloves
2-3 bay leaves
1 tsp garam masala powder/spice mix
1 cup whole milk or 2% milk
pinch of saffron strands (optional)
5-6 cashewnuts, halved
3 cups of water
salt as per taste

Method:

1. Wash and soak the basmati rice for 10 mins approx.
2. Heat oil in a medium size sauce pan, to this add the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cloves jeera/cumin seeds and cashew nuts. Fry for a minute or till the nuts change to golden color and add the sliced onions, green chillies.
3. Saute and add ginger-garlic paste, season with some salt, garam masala/spice mix, green peas and mix well all the ingredients. Lastly add milk to it.
4. Stir in the rice and add water. For every 1 cup of uncooked basmati rice we have to add 2 cups of water, since we already added 1cup of milk to it we now add the remaining 3 cups of water.
5. Stir, check the salt in it and cook on medium high heat uncovered for 10 mins and then cover and cook for another 5 mins.
6. Once cooked fluff the pulav with fork and serve hot.

Chicken fry served with Green peas pulav, raita and lemon slices

Roasted Butternut squash with Rosemary and Balsamic Vinegar

Butternut squash tossed in rosemary, balsamic vinegar

This is my first indulgence cooking with it, whom am I referring to? Its none other than Butternut squash. It is a winter vegetable and comes from the gourd family. It has a hard, thick skin and it is filled with seeds. It can range in size from 8 to 12 inches long, and about 3 to 5 inches wide, weighing up to 3 pounds. The color of the Butternut squash ranges from a yellow to a light tan. Inside, the flesh is orange and has a sweet flavor. Available in early fall through winter, you will want to choose a squash that is heavy with few blemishes and moldy spots.

Storage: Butternut squash can be stored longer than summer squashes because their skin is so hard and thick. Store in a cool dry place for at least a month. If the squash has been cut into pieces, then wrap in a plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 5 days.

Nutritional Qualities: The following qualities are available in one cup of mashed squash: 80 calories, 2 grams protein, 1 gram fat, 18 grams carbohydrates, with riboflavin, iron, Vitamins A and C.

Source: Seeds of Knowledge

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Rosemary and Balsamic Vinegar

Recipe Source: Kalyn's Kitchen
Cuisine: American Cuisine (South Beach Diet)
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:
1 medium sized butternut squash, about 6 cups of peeled, de-seeded and cut into cubes
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp + 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp rosemary, finely chopped
kosher salt as per taste
freshly ground black pepper

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400°F [200°C]. Cut the butternut squash into half and peel it with a knife (do not use peeler, it tough to work with). Cut into bite size pieces or you can use ready made store brought.
• Toss with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, rosemary, balsamic vinegar and freshly ground black pepper. Spread them single layered either on a cookie sheet or large dish.
• Roast until squash turns soft and lightly caramelized about 40 minutes in the oven.
• Remove from oven, toss it with 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, freshly ground black pepper and kosher salt. Serve hot.
• Kalyn says "This is also excellent made ahead and reheated. For a holiday like Thanksgiving where there are lots of demands on the oven, it could be cooked early in the day and kept warm in a crockpot while other things bake"

Thanks Kalyn for this wonderful recipe, both of us enjoyed eating it hot and on next day too! This makes a great side dish for Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

Here She Is......

Its been a while I was away from my blog/kitchen..... Well I have a good reason to be away. There is a new member added in our family "Padma's Kitchen"

I am so happy and delighted to introduce "Our Little Princess - Anshika" She enlightened our lives on July 28th 2009.

I will be back to blogging world once I get adjusted to my new responsibility.

Introducing my kitchen

They say the kitchen is the focal point of the household, and that's the way it is in our home too. My actual interest in cooking started after coming to USA, as I had lot of time to invest in this new hobby. I was introduced to the food blogs by Sharmi of Neivedyam, a dear friend and well wisher. Soon I was hooked to food blogs like Sailu’s Food, Mahanandi, Akshayapatra, Kalyn’s Kitchen, Chubby Hubby and few others to mention.

Cooking happened to me when I was a kid helping my mother in kitchen, though I was not experienced in bringing the delicious mouthwatering taste as my mother did, after all its "Maa ka haath ka khana". Most of the recipes, cooking tips and tricks I learn't from my Mother, few from my Mother-in-law, my cousins, friends, cookbooks, cook shows, Sanjeev Kapoor's Khana Khazana and internet.

My hubby encouraged and inspired me to start my own collection of recipes. So this is my first trial to create a virtual kitchen, where I can share my interest for life’s tastier side with others.

Padma’s Kitchen is a book of my-tried-out recipes; you will find tastes from India especially from Andhra, Maharashtra, South and North Indian recipes with a fusion of east and west, and few International cuisines too. I hope you will enjoy trying them too. Comments left on the blog go directly to the email, and are always appreciated. Feel free to write in.

This Kitchen is seasoned with *Love*