Grilled Halloumi and Bell Pepper Salad

Adapted from this recipe at Tesco, this is a sweet and salty one. The salad adaptation is layered with the herby parsley at the bottom, succulent roasted bell peppers, salt and savoury halloumi, cruncy pine nuts and nibbles of sweetness from the raisins.

Ingredients (Serves 1):

• Fresh Halloumi- 50 gm
• Bell peppers- 2 medium
• Parsley- 1/2 cup; chopped
• Cayenne- 1 tsp
• Balsamic vinegar- 2 tsp
• Olive oil- 2 tsp
• Pine nuts- 1 tbsp
• Raisins- 2 tsp
• Lime- 1 quarter; juiced

Preparation:


Halve bell peppers and place in oven with skin side up. Grill on high for about fifteen minutes.

Once the skin turns to blister and char, remove from oven and skin. Chop peppers into small pieces. Refrigerate to cool it down. Dress with balsamic vinegar an olive oil mixture.

In a clean pan roast pine nuts till golden brown. Brush chopped halloumi into pieces and fry on high. Once cheese starts to melt and char set aside. Once cooled sufficiently rub in lime juice.

Chop parsley, and layer at bottom of bowl. Layer with grilled bell peppers and halloumi slices. Top off with roasted pine seeds and raisins.

 

Serve cold. Bon appetite.

Kanda Poha

An amazingly light and aromatic vegetarian breakfast/ tiffin dish from Maharashtra in Western India. Cooking this for the first time, from memory.

OK, we Indians eat a lot of rice. We even have rice for breakfast, in this case flattened rice or rice flakes. Think of it more like a convenience food- you could use it as a breakfast cereal in place of bran/ corn flakes/ etc. In fact historically, flattened rice was the dry food of choice for travelers. Light to carry, easily digestible it can be reconstituted by adding water or milk.

Anyway, during engineering college, this was a major breakfast draw and so here goes.

Ingredients (Breakfast for 2):

• Flattened rice (Poha)- 1 cup
• Onion (Kanda in Marathi)- 1 small
• Roasted Peanuts: 2 tbsp
• Curry leaves- 2 sprigs
• Fresh Coriander- 4 sprigs
• Green chili- 2 chopped
• Cumin- 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
• Lime- Half a lime
• Turmeric- 1/2 tsp
• Cayenne- 1/2 tsp
• Mustard Oil- 2 tbsp
• Salt- To taste

Preparation (Pre-process 20 mins+ 10 mins to cook=30 mins):

Wash the flattened rice, strain. Add a little salt and soak for 20 mins. Drain of excess water. 

Soak flattened rice for 20 mins with water and salt

Trick to a great Poha is to strain all excess water but make sure that the rice is moist.

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves. Once the mustard starts to pop, add the diced onion. Stir till translucent. Add in the roasted peanuts (I forgot this time round).

Stir on medium for a couple of minutes and add in the pre-soaked 'poha'. Add turmeric, cayenne and salt. Cooking on medium for five minutes. Work in the chopped green chilli, cover, and cook on low for five mins.

Fluff the rice, turn off heat, garnish with chopped coriander and drizzle the lime juice on top. Cover and serve hot.

Tips:

• For breakfast I recommend pairing this with a cuppa of hot 'kadak' milky Indian tea. 

Lentejas con Jamón (Lentils with Ham)

Being Indian, Bengali specially, I have this love affair with lentils. Back home we call it 'masur dal'. Anyway was quite surprised when one of my Spanish friends suggested this recipe, which seems to be a very popular dish both in Spain and Latin America. If you are interested you could check out this one with ham or this one with chorizo. Anyway, my version is a simpler one- love cooking but hate spending hours cooking. This one's with bacon, but tastes as great if you want to skip the bacon and just make a vegetarian version.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Lentils- 1 cup
• Carrots- 2 finely chopped
• Zucchini- 1 finely chopped
• Leek- 1 chopped (my recipe omits it as leeks are right now pretty expensive in Muscat)
• Onion- 1 large finely chopped
• Tomato- 1/2 pureed
• Bacon- 3 slices
• Bay leaves (laurel)- 4
• Turmeric- 1/4 tsp; this is totally optional, but as I was adding bacon without frying just put it in to be safe
• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Salt- To taste

Preparation (40 mins):

Heat the oil in a deep saucepan. Add onions, carrots, zucchini and fry on low heat.  









Wash the lentils, add into saucepan. Add water to cover the lentils and just a finger more. If you want, you could add a little turmeric like I did, but its not necessarily.








Turn down stove to medium-low. Cook for twenty mins. Now add in chopped bacon, tomato pulp and the bay leaves. Cook for 10 mins and your lentils are ready.

Tips :

• You could pair this with a small portion of rice, but the lentils by themselves are a complete meal.