Peanut and Potato Salad

It is the season of peanut harvest in and around Bangalore. There is an interesting story around peanut harvest in our city.
Legend has it that a bull would roam over the fields every full moon night destroying the peanut crops. Flustered farmers offered their first harvest at the Bull temple and the roaming of the bull ceased!Local farmers offer their first crop to Nandi, the bull devotee of Lord Shiva at the Bull temple in Bangalore to this day. The temple vicinity wears a festive look during these two days. A village fair unfolds in the middle of the city. This annual fair is known as ‘Kadalekai Parishe’.
I love the earthy aroma of freshly dug up peanuts here. Call me biased, but the aroma and incredible, sweet, nutty flavours of peanuts that I buy from this fair every year beats all other. I cook the peanuts in their shells in salted water. All of us then gather around the steaming hot bowl of boiled peanuts, shell them and gobble them before some one else grabs it! Warm bonding  during chilly evenings over hot boiled peanuts!
Mostly I have no peanuts left over to include in any dish. However, I managed to make this peanut-potato salad from some that survived the onslaught. Even if the salad was made up from simple, readily available ingredients, it was bowl-scraping, finger-licking, slurp-worthy good. Ok, I’ll stop now.
I am documenting this recipe as much for myself as for sharing with all of you. Fresh seasonal ingredients. A good mix of crunch, soft, and crisp textures. A tongue tickling interplay of flavours. No fried ingredients. Healthy carbs and protein with a giant dose of fibre and vitamins. Do you need any more reasons? Just try it once. I am sure you’ll be hooked.

ALLERGY INFORMATION

• Does NOT contain gluten, lactose, corn, soya, eggs.
• Suitable for lactose or gluten intolerant people
• Contains peanuts.
• NOT SUITABLE for people with nut allergy.

Preparation time – 30 minutes + 30 minutes optional chilling time, Cooking Time – 30 minutes, Serves – 3-4.
You Need
Cookware - Pressure Cooker with 2 containers that fit into it, Metal/Glass Bowl, Colander/Salad spinner, Knife, Chopping Board
Ingredients

1. 2 cups peanuts in their shells
2. 2 medium potatoes, chopped with skin into quarters. 
3. 3 heaped cups Iceberg/Romaine Lettuce
4. 1 big Tomato
5. 2 tsp salt
6. 2-3 cups fresh water
7. a big bowl of ice water

For Salad Dressing

1. 2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2. 1/2 a red onion
3. 8-9 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil (EVOO)
4. 2 generous pinches crushed black pepper
5. 1/4 tsp salt

To Assemble

1. Dunk the peanuts in shells into a huge bowl of water. Let it sit for a few minutes. Rub the shells vigorously with both hands to loosen the dirt on them. Drain the water and repeat with 2 more changes of water. You can omit this step if using shelled peanuts. Just rinse peanuts once in water is enough.
2. Now place in a container, pour enough water to cover all the peanuts,  scatter 2 tsp salt over it. Place the rinsed and chopped potatoes also in another container. Place both containers in pressure cooker and pressure cook for 3 whistles.
3. Rinse the lettuce first under tap water, then place in ice water.
4. Peel and dice/slice the red onion. Place in a bowl, add 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar to it and let steep.
5. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining vinegar, EVOO, salt and crushed pepper into an emulsion.
6. Shell the peanuts and peel the potatoes. You can dice the potatoes into smaller size if you wish. Chop the tomato finely. Place all these together in a bowl.
7. Drain the lettuce, use a salad spinner if you have one. Else just drain in a colander and shake it well. Tear up the large leaves into bite size ones by hand. Add to the other vegetables.
8. Combine the onion and dressing from step 4 and 5. Drizzle over the salad vegetables. Mix well.

The salad tastes best if allowed to chill for half an hour before serving. But, if you are in a hurry, just dig in and enjoy! We coupled it with 2 slices of warm toasted baguette for an after school snack.

Technorati Tags: peanut salad,peanut potato salad,kadalekai parishe,seasonal ingredients,high protein,high fibre salad

Using Leftovers–Veg Cutlets

 

This recipe is about leftover-makeover. Celebrating the nifty, resourceful cook, who I guess most of you are! What would you do when faced with small bowls of random curries in the fridge? Make parathas? Or some fried rice and toss in those veggies, perhaps? We made these cute cutlets last week.

Even if we discovered the combination quite by chance, it had a great balance of protein, tubers and vegetables thrown in. Our kids could not find any fault with the textures and flavours in this melange. After polishing off several of them at their post-school snack time, they asked for it at dinner too! It was then I realised we had a killer combo in hand. Quite versatile too, for they can be devoured as such, can be sandwiched between buttered bread and packed for school lunch, or get converted to burger patties, or get drenched in the very Indian ragda pattice.

Since we made them with whatever was in the fridge, I am not sure as to how to record a recipe. Here is what we threw together -

Preparation time – 20 minutes + 8 hours soaking time, Cooking time – 40 minutes pressure cooking + 20 minutes, Serves – 4 - 6 

Allergy Information

• Does NOT contain egg, dairy, lactose, corn, soya.
• Can be made gluten free by substituting bread crumbs with rice flour or corn flour for dusting.

You Need

Cookware – Pressure cooker, electric mixer, colander, mixing bowl/basin, non-stick skillet / any other skillet.

1. Boiled* and mashed potato -  1/2 cup
2. Cooked* kala channa / Brown channa (Garbanzo beans)– 1/2 cup
3. Raw plantain* –peeled, chopped and cooked till just done -  1/2 cup
4. Beetroot* – peeled and boiled, 1/4 cup
5. Onion – finely chopped – 3/4 cup
6. Chopped Coriander leaves – 1/4 cup
7. Chopped green chillies – 2 tbsp
8. Garam masala / Pav bhaji masala / Chole masala – 1 heaped tbsp
9. Salt – 1+1/4 tsp
10. Bread crumbs – 3 - 4 tbsp ( Use rice flour or corn flour to make it gluten-free)
11. Oil – for sautéing, about 2-3 tsp

To Assemble

1. Peel, rinse and chop onion, green chillies, and the coriander leaves as finely as possible. Set aside in a colander.
2. *To save time, you can place the soaked channa in a container topped by another with all the other veggies (add 1/2 tsp salt to the vegetables to avoid getting mushed up) and cook in the same pressure cooker. I normally pressure cook the channa on a low flame for 20 minutes after the cooker’s first whistle. We want a just cooked texture without being mushy.
3. After the pressure has released, drain all the cooking water into another bowl, place all the cooked contents in a mixer, pulse until coarsely mashed.
4. Take a mixing bowl. Transfer the contents of the mixer into it. Also add the chopped onions, chillies, green coriander, add 1/2 tsp salt, the masala powder you are using, bring them all together using your fingers. It should feel like a moist coarse mixture (not paste), but should not ooze water or extra fluid.
5. Make lemon sized balls, flatten slightly using your palm, dredge in bread crumbs and set aside. You can keep these in the fridge for half an hour to stabilise the texture. (Or prepare ahead till this stage, store them in a suitable air-tight container in the freezer. Thaw and fry as many as needed each time.)
6. Heat a skillet, season the skillet with a few drops of oil, place as many cutlets as the surface of the skillet holds, and fry over high heat first and medium flame later on both sides till well browned.
7. Remove to kitchen paper.
8. Serve warm with mustard and tomato ketchup as accompaniments. Or make it into a sandwich filling. Or make thicker pattties, shallow fry on both sides and use to assemble burgers along with some onion, tomato rings and crisp lettuce. Whichever way you choose to gorge on it, you will find it delicious!

Minty Garlic Potatoes

This was a recipe I tried out on a whim ages ago. I did not think much of it then. That is, until my child requested for it again. Isn’t it is true that potatoes are so versatile and can work with any flavours, seasonings and is an all time favourite with kids?

I am particularly fond of this recipe since the flavours taste very fresh if you follow this method of preparation. Of course, I have just made it up the way my family likes it. You could tweak, add, change ingredients to suit your favourite flavours too. After all, what is a dish without improvisations? Useful for last minute lunch prep or when guests land up at mealtimes and you need to rustle up more food. I have used baby potatoes because I had them and because they look cute. Of course, normal potatoes boiled and cubed are fine too. Take it forward anyway you like. This could even be a salad with boiled potatoes, pomegranate, some diced tomatoes and use the pudina as a dressing. The results are sure going to be delicious.
What’s good about potatoes?

• It is popular belief that potatoes are full of starch and fat and offer little else. Potatoes have complex carbohydrates, which are a good source of carbs as opposed to refined flours and refined sugars.
• It may also be surprising to know potatoes are a good source of several minerals like Magnesium, Potassium, Zinc, Copper.
• Potatoes are also fair sources of Iron, Vitamin B complex and Vitamin C. Despite losses during cooking potatoes can deliver 2- 5 % of daily requirement of Vitamin B and C.
• Potatoes are fatty? No way – they are a zero cholesterol food! The total fat in 100 gm. of potatoes is only 0.1 g and that is Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids.
• While the skin does not have any nutrients, it is the layer of potato just below the skin that has them. The best way to harness all these great vitamins and minerals is to cook/ boil them with skin on. This locks the nutrients in. When we peel potatoes after cooking, instead of before, we save a lot of the nutrients.
• A lot of vitamins and minerals ‘leach into’ the cooking water. So it is a good practise to cook/boil in just enough water (instead of excess water) to optimise the maximum value of any vegetable, especially so in this recipe.
• Adding a good bunch of fresh herbs like pudina (mint) and coriander to this recipe enhances it’s iron and fibre content.

I guess we need no more incentive to cook a lovely batch of minty potatoes. So here goes -
You need

1. Baby potatoes – 500 gms
2. Onion – 1 small, diced
3. Mint leaves (Pudina leaves) – packed, 1 cup
4. Coriander leaves – remove roots, clean, chop and measure 1/4 cup (optional)
5. Garlic – 1 medium clove
6. Juice of half a lemon
7. Any vegetable oil – 2 tsp
8. Saunf (fennel seeds) – 1/2 tsp
9. Jeera – !/2 tsp
10. Salt – 3/4 tsp
11. Sugar – a pinch

To Assemble

1. Immerse the baby potatoes in a water bath for half an hour if you have time. Else, leave in for 5 minutes and clean the skin well. You can boil the potatoes in enough water for 20 minutes or just pressure cook it till 1 whistle.
2. Leave the boiled potatoes on the chopping board to cool naturally. Peel when sufficiently cool to handle.
   (Why not dunk in cold water? – Because that lets more minerals and vitamins dissolve into the ‘cooling water’ too.)
3. Make a coarse paste of the following ingredients – half onion, pudina leaves, coriander leaves (if using), juice of half a lemon, sugar and the garlic clove. I used the ‘pulse’ button in my mixer to get the coarse texture.
4. To a pan set on high heat, add the oil, sizzle saunf and jeera. Tip in the other half diced onion, fry until pink.
5. Add the potatoes, salt and toss well. If you wish to get a nice ‘roasted feel’, let them simmer, scraping and tossing occasionally for 10 – 15 minutes.
6. When the potatoes are done, add the coarse ground paste as a final step, toss the pan well to let the paste coat all the potatoes. Switch off flame immediately.
7. Cover and let flavours rest for 10 minutes. Serve warm with steamed rice and sambar or with hot phulkas.

Notes

• Add the crushed garlic to the hot oil instead of adding it to pudina paste if you detest the flavour of raw garlic.
• Toss boiled potato with cherry tomatoes, (or regular tomato diced) and cucumber with the coarse ground pudina paste, chill and serve as salad.