Pasta Salad -- for a Light Lunch

Near my home there is a place called Tuscany.

Beautiful rolling hills, wind rustling through the olive branches, bales of golden hay rolled up in meadows....

Okay, Cut, Cut...That is the other Tuscany

Repeat again.

Near my home there is a place called Tuscany, the Italian Gourmet Food store. BigSis loves the pasta there. I love it too but she loves it more so lets blame it on her.

The other day I got a cold pasta salad for myself from the same place. It was a very simple salad, pasta, tomatoes and red peppers tossed in olive oil and with a generous sprinkling of Feta. It was really very good. I don't sing glories of vegetarian food just like that.

Big Sis wanted a taste and then she finished almost all my share. Not so good.

But I thought, "Hey, if the kid can eat Pasta Salad at Tuscany, she can sure eat one at home. That means so much less work for me. For the next 10 years or so until she goes to college, that is what I am going to feed her. Simple, light, almost healthy Pasta Salad. That leaves me with an enormous amount of time for blogging about food that I don't need to cook. Yippee."

So I searched high and low and settled on this recipe. Only I did not have mushroom OR bell pepper OR green onion OR black olives.

That did nothing to dampen my spirits. I had Grape Tomatoes AND Baby Spinach AND more lovely Grape Tomatoes and more tender Baby Spinach.

So in a big bowl I happily poured some Olive Oil, the EVOO...glug, glug, glug

Then I splashed some Balsamic Vinegar...splash

Added some Garlic Powder, Pepper powder, Sea Salt, bit of Sugar, some Parsley Flakes...sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle

Whisked together.

Meanwhile cooked Pasta according to package directions and a minute extra. I had Farfalle.

I had also roasted some of the grape tomatoes earlier, they were sweet.

To the big bowl which had Olive Oil etc., I added the cooked Pasta, the roasted as well as some fresh tomatoes and baby spinach. They were tossed and turned till everyone was happily coated with the dressing.

I wanted to add sausages too but totally forgot.

I then let it chill in the refrigerator. While serving a generous sprinkle of Herbed Feta went on top.

Everyone loved it. And after two meals of that BigSis said "I love your pasta salad, but can we not have any more of it?"

This one I am sending to Red Chilies to share with her for a Light Lunch, her brilliant series for June. I absolutely love light lunches as that is what I cook for us all through the week. I am looking forward to see  more light lunch ideas through out this month at Red Chilies.

Kancha Aamer Chaatni -- Mango Chutney

Remember my rant about nail paints some weeks back ? Remember me as the Mom who does not like kids to indulge in such pleasures ?

Well, after a long, long time I went for a pediacure last week. Other than work, I don't go out much without the kids so these ventures are very notable in my life.To achieve the said task, I went to work an hour early and then left an hour early so that in spite of my detour I could be back home in regular time.(I am okay if the Dad is home but in this case he was traveling). And then at the salon I could not enjoy my solitude and kept thinking of how I could have used up this hour at home instead. Talk of the perils of a working Mom.

Now either the salon people were very very diligent or my feet really needed work because even after 45 whole minutes I was sitting there having a hard time relaxing while this young girl kept rubbing one thing or the other on my feet and attempting small talk. Finally, while she tickled my toes with gooey aloe-vera, I had to tell her to hasten the process so that I could go home. Only, I did not say "go home", I said I had an important appointment, as if.

The young Chinese girl was very affected by my suggestion. She kept saying I should relax and enjoy but clearly those things were going above my head. As soon as she finished with the nail paint I scooped my bag, paid and ran, ignoring suggestion to sit and let the nails dry.

The moment I reach home, what do my two girls notice ? Ta-Da my toe nails. And they don't take it well. They keep asking about the garish pink nail color and why I didn't bring it along. They want their nails painted the same garish pink nail color.

I don't want to indulge and so I say "You can paint your nails when you are big".

The little one jumps at this prospect hoping to become B..I..G the next day and thanks me profusely.

The older one asks, "Big as in college ?"

I say, "Yeah".

She says, "By that time you will be old". This one forever seeks pleasure in my turning old.

I say, "So?"

She says, "If you are old, you will not be able to enjoy my nail colors. So don't you think you would like to see them now"

Me, "Yeah, Good try"

The green mango chutney or the kaancha aamer chaatni is something I adore. I have blogged about it here with full explanation. Here is a quick recap.

Wash and roughly peel 1 raw green mango. You don’t have to take out the peel very smoothly

Chop them up in small pieces(cubes)

Heat Mustard Oil in Kadai/Frying Pan

Add 1/2 tsp of Mustard seeds and 1 Dry Red Chilli. The mustard seeds will sputter and dance so use a splatter screen.

As soon as the mustard seeds start sputtering , add the chopped mangoes

Add a pinch of turmeric powder and sauté the mangoes

Saute till the mangoes turn a nice yellow because of the turmeric and soften a little.

Add salt and about 1-2 Cup water. Water should be enough to cook the mangoes. The chaatni should be thick and so add water moderately

Mix and cover and cook till mangoes are almost done. With the spatula check to see if the mangoes have softened.

Add about 2/3 Cup of sugar and mix well. Bengali chutneys are usually sweeter and so a little more sugar might be added if desired.Add a little more water.

Cook and reduce the water till you get a thick consistency and the mangoes are soft but not mashed up.

Roast about 1 tsp of panch puran/paanch phoron till you get a nice aroma, cool and dry grind it. Sprinkle this powder on the chaatni. More on Paanch Phoron.

Note: There are small variations to this which you can try.

1.Use Jaggery instead of sugar.

2. Instead of Paanch Phoron Powder use Bhaja Masala.

3. Instead of Paanch Phoron powder, roast Cumin seeds and Dry red chili, cool, grind to a powder. Sprinkle that on top. Thanks to Ushnish Da  for reminding.

4. You can use raisins in the chutney along with the mangoes. Sra says she likes that.

5. Add more water and cook mangoes till soft but not at all mashed up so that the chaatni is more liquid with pieces of mango

Roasting couple of Dry Red Chili on fire for Bhaja Masla #3.

Salmon with Cilantro -- Mexican really

Salmon with Cilantro | Mexican Style Salmon

I first had this dish at a Mexican restaurant in suburban Maryland. It was beautiful with high notes of fresh coriander aka cilantro, jalapenos and lime. I do not know if it is an authentic Mexican dish or a creation of the chef at this restaurant as I have not had it at any other Mexican place. This recipe of Salmon with Cilantro in Mexican style is totally my take on the dish. It tastes delicious and that is all that matters

Jump To Recipe

Summer is here upon us, all with its 90F+ temperature and I am lovin' it. As usual summer gets me extremely hyper. With first signs of warmth I start planning outdoor weekend trips which eventually leads to fun weekends but very very tired weekdays.

A couple weeks back we took BigSis and Little Sis to the Philadelphia Zoo. This was LS's first zoo visit and she was very excited. BS's school had a class trip to the same zoo later in the month but we were not sending her there so she was excited to visit the zoo before any of her class friends. The trip was really nice if you can overlook LS's throwing up in the car, there not being enough backup for the incidence which actually happens too often and us stopping at a Wal-Mart off the road to buy clothes, tissue, wipe etc. for LS. An hour long drive took us 3 hour with all the fiasco and the fact that every other parent in the tri-state area had decided to visit the zoo over the same weekend.

Though LS had fun running and jumping around I don't think she was awed by all those animals except the Peacock which kept crossing our path. Oh, and the tiger did scare her.

Over the long memorial day weekend we went to a music event organized by a major Indian publishing group. The arrangement was unprofessional, the seating deplorable and choice of venue very inappropriate.The Food as promised on the website was nowhere in real site.Fortunately the music was very good.

There was a three hour concert by Pt.Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hariprasad Cahurasia. I am not much of a music connoisseur and I have never heard them live. It was a wonderful experience to say the least, would be better with more peace and quiet around. Next up was Shaan and he wooed the crowd as expected. BigSis enjoyed the entire show including the Santoor recital and is now a huge fan of Shaan. LS fortunately slept through the classical rendition and was ok for most part of the later until Dad took her home.

Now few weeks back we were visiting our friend in a neighboring state and food connoisseurs that they are, they treated us to a lovely dinner at a Mexican place. This was not your usual run of the mill Mexican chains that dot the map of USA but was more of an authentic Mexican place. We had a Chicken Mole, my first mole time and I didn't really care for it much. Then came the salmon with cilantro. It was beautiful with high notes of fresh coriander, jalapenos and lime. We were in love with that salmon.

Now usually if I love something in the restaurant I don't try to cook it same way at home, instead I just go back to the restaurant to eat it. In this case though it would mean a 3 hour drive each way.So since the meal we had 3 weeks back, I have been trying to re-create it in my kitchen almost every week.

I am not totally successful. It is close and tastes very good but never perfect like the dish we had. I do not have their recipe and this is totally my creation with huge inputs from D of course.  Also since Mexico is a hop, skip and jump from India (no ?), I have used some Indian spices in the recipe. If you make this dish leave your inputs and idea to make it better. I will <3 you for that.

I am cool or what, I used my first ever heart sign so very casually. And here I did not know what "xoxo" meant until BigSis explained it all. Sigh.


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