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| Pumpkin Soup |
Rains and more rains....after a very very veeeerrrryyyy long wait the rains finally arrived....and did they come down....started in the night and continued the whole morning...darkening the skies and casting a gloom over the day and our plans...
Had some errands to run....and some other things to take care of - so had decided to set out early in the morning - so as to avoid the traffic and complete all the jobs as planned...well that was totally taken care of by the rains...not that we were complaining as it was long overdue...causing the temperatures to shoot up...and a real possibility of water shortage due to the scanty rainfall we have had till date...but as I said this put a scrimp in our plans for the day .....so decided instead to spend the time enjoying the rains while staying indoors warm & toasty & dry...
Would have loved to have bhajiyas & hot tea with a good book and a fireplace ?!?.....well in lieu of that decided to go in for hot steaming soup and garlic bread...good book very much present ...fireplace very much absent :-)...anyways guess you have to make do with what you have...which reminds me of this saying... which is rather apt for the current weather...
"If you think sunshine brings you happiness, then you haven't danced in the rain"
So with that thought (though not dancing ) let us proceed to make the soup...and enjoy the rainy day....
What's for lunch / dinner ? This refrain sometimes makes me throw up my hands...
Racking my brains and trying to come up with something different ( within my repertoire ) every time is not an easy feat...somehow when we were abroad our fare was more varied - it included pastas, some Mexican dishes, more soups and bread & I find that somehow on our return our general lunch or dinner is chapatis, subzis, rice, dal, salad sort of thing....other than weekends when we would make other stuff...or even one pot dishes...sometimes it is a mix...of the regular and something new...but I feel I need to dig deeper and find some long lost recipes of mine...
So I am more than happy to come across new recipes which gives me more options to our regular fare...which does becomes boring after a while... :-( .....and gives me something new to answer to the above question...
I came across an old recipe book with a whole bunch of ways to make rice...it was like finding a treasure...it makes for a great light lunch or dinner with salad or raita or just curds or lassi...especially on a hot summer day...
So here goes the recipe for the capsicum & tomato rice....not sure why it was called Mexican rice in the book - maybe the combi of capsicum & tomato? anyways I did add a twist to the actual recipe by adding some tomato ketchup...this is to moisten the dish ( do not like if the rice is too dry ) and for added flavour...
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| Capsicum & Tomato Rice |
Ingredients :
1 cup - long grain rice - or basmati
2 capsicums ( green or a mix of green & yellow ), chopped into strips
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 inch ginger, chopped
1-2 green chillies, chopped
salt to taste
1/2 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 -1/2 tsp red chilli powder
2 Tblspns tomato ketchup
Method :
1) Soak rice for about 30 minutes - then cook it with about 1 and half cups of water and a pinch of salt till done...try to keep the rice grains separate and not mushy.
2) In a non-stick pan, heat a tsp of oil, add jeera, and when it splutters, add the chopped ginger and green chillies.
3) Fry for half a minute and then add chopped onions till it turns translucent, then add turmeric and chilli powder.
Then add chopped capsicums and fry till it softens a bit - for a couple of minutes.
4) Add chopped tomatoes and cook till it gets soft and mushy...and then add 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup and stir it in.
5) Stir in the cooked rice gently, keeping the flame on low so as to not overcook any further...while seeing that all the grains are coated with the above capsicum, tomato mixture.
Switch off the heat...and garnish with a few sprigs of coriander leaves and serve.
Enjoy !!!
