Beet Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Feta

Grated raw beets and carrots, with par-boiled red pearl onions, a splash of distilled white vinegar and a dash of salt is my Dad's signature "salad", perfect if made a day ahead. Finely diced green chilies is optional. My version of beet+carrot salad is a bit different these days.

Since childhood beets has been a favorite with me - my mom's spicy beets+potatoes curry goes perfectly with Mor-Kozhambu and rice.

On and off, I add beets to salads. And sometimes, beets is the primary ingredient as in this salad recipe. It is a wonderful summer salad, served cold.

I pressure cook the beets in bulk, with skin on, then peel and chop, and freeze them if not using right away.

This Beet Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Feta is best when prepared a day ahead and allowed to develop flavors.

Ingredients
Whole beets, cooked, still firm not mushy, bite-size slices
Red onions, thinly sliced
Feta, crumbled

Balsamic Dressing:
1 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp Pomegranate Red Wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp Agave nectar (more if preferred)
1 tsp Tabasco® sauce
1 tsp ground smoked paprika


Whisk the ingredients for the dressing, drizzle as much as needed and toss lightly with the beets and onions; top with feta, cover and save in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

Black rice, Bean salad, and Pan-fried Butternut Squash

'Kadhambam', as they say in Tamil, is a catch-all word for 'combination/mixture' of unlikely things.

Kadhambam is what this dinner turned out to be one weekend:
- a tiny butternut squash was beckoning to be sliced and pan-fried with just a touch of salt+pepper
- a cup or so of black rice bought on a whim from the bulk food store was waiting to be cooked
- last of the Pickled Pearl Onions needed to be used up to make room for others
- a quart jar full of 4-bean salad was developing flavor for over a week and ready to be enjoyed

Black rice was cooked in the rice cooker much like brown rice, with the last of the pickled pearl onions tossed in and a light sprinkling of salt.

Four Bean Salad: Soak and cook white beans, black beans, chickpeas, and pinto beans till firmly cooked, not mushy. Add some chopped zucchini and onions, if preferred. Toss with favorite balsamic vinaigrette.

I make a batch of this Bean Salad (3-bean, or 4-bean, sometimes even 5-bean) on and off and leave it in the fridge to use as salad topper for quick meals - adds the proteins and carbs to the green salad and doubles as a dressing/vinaigrette. 

Pear Apple Sauce

Not a fancy recipe, just a plain old staple with my signature fusion of organic home-garden fruits - viz., apples and two varieties of pears.

We had a lot of apples and pears and plums from our garden this year. Usually, the trees skip a year or two bearing bountiful fruits only once in 2 years or so. This was one of those good years.

As we don't use any pesticides or chemical synthetic fertilizers, the worms and bugs get to the fruits often unless we are vigilant. Plums seem immune from any infestation so far.

After canning about half a dozen pint jars of Apple Plum Butter, I still had enough apples leftover to make something else.

We had very few traditional pears - the kind that kids loved eating off the tree for a snack. But, there were plenty of Asian Pears. (Also susceptible to bugs.)

And that's how this Pear Apple Sauce came about: After cutting and discarding worm-eaten fruits, there was enough pears and apples to make about 2 half gallon jars and 2 pint jars of Pear Apple Sauce.

Simply chop the fruits coarsely (skin and all), cook in just enough water to soften them. Puree in batches. Return to boil. Keep simmering while canning as usual in a Boiling Water Bath.

I added a hint of cinnamon and some Agave nectar as I had splashed some lemon juice on the cut fruits to keep them from browning too much. If it is too tart, the kids don't prefer it, but I didn't want to use any sugar.

Just 4 simple ingredients (two is probably all the is traditionally used): fruits, water, cinnamon, agave nectar, simmer and save.

Soy Bean Kofta Curry

Not another kofta recipe again... I was telling myself when I thought of posting this, but the dish was quite tasty as usual that it would be a nice addition to this Kofta collection.

Soak soy beans overnight. I like how the round dry pearl-like beans soak and get into the oval-ish bean shape. Pressure cook them with some salt and spices. At this point the beans can be cooled and frozen for another day.

When ready to use, mush them in a blender and add some flour to make a dough that can be shaped into firm balls. Either bake or deep fry the balls. Sometimes, I coat the balls in batter made from chickpea flour before deep frying.

For the curry, blend some garlic, ginger, tomatoes, mint, coriander, cumin; heat oil in a pan, saute some onions along with the curry paste, add some water as needed and simmer.

Slide in the fried or baked kofta before serving; garnish with cilantro, spring onions and serve warm with naan or basmati rice.