MATAR PINEAPPLE RICE WITH CARROT N TOMATO SALAD

If you think my men have turned obedient all of a sudden and started having salads with every meal, you are utterly wrong. The salad is for me, there definitely had some scrumptious mutton or chicken curry or a baked fish kind of thing with this Matar Pineapple Rice with a desi touch. Some people always say S you must incorporate salads and soups and stews in your family diet knowing how difficult it is to handle my men. My boys' healthy eating is limited to chicken, mutton or fish stew that too accompanied by anda paratha or aloo paratha or luchi / poori / naan. They love their rice only when it is fried with meat or egg, that is when I get to play some trick and add some veggies to it. I was clearly told some 25 years back ..... do not ever try to control my life, I love my freedom neither will I try to control your's. He does not ever try to either. That is where the equation is and there is no reason why I will not cook what they love. 

I always try to feed a bit of that extra morsel to my chopsticks. Living with these two weirds is quite an interesting journey even if it has caused early greying.... though this greying started as early as at age 16. My sixteen has not been that sweet either but I always had wonderful people around to keep me going and this lady does not take much time to eliminate people from her life who she does not like. Take it as my negativity or what I cannot rub shoulder with people who intentionally put me down. My note to the beautiful people around me.... do not leave a single chance to show your power or ignore people who took it on you once.... purposefully... in full consciousness .... I feel no guilt in doing that because I take too much care of people who mean.

Unlike my men, I always believe and say there is an Almighty who takes note of everything. Remember one thing... how much of a tiger your man is.... they are unlikely to mingle with people who the wifey dispels from life for genuine reasons. I tell him these are the people I do not wish to be in my life, but you can go ahead. He laughs out loud at the phrase 'you can go ahead' and says when a wife says this it only means if you do that, I will turn this home into hell.... hahaha ..... I do not mingle with people to get some benefits from them, hence I keep the best ones in the circle because friendship has a different meaning to me. Then there is certain kind of equation between couples that keeps us going for 15-20-25-40-45 years under one roof even if we have major differences of opinion. So far broken homes are concerned, one cannot be an angel and the other devil. There are faults on both sides .... more in one or less in the other. In most occassions we fail to see our own faults.

Coming to my favourite subject food, I am more into this kind of smart platters may be a fried rice or stuffed poori / paratha served with meat curries, fish, dum aloo or so. When I cook typical Bengali style vegetables, I have to pack it for my friends too or call them home. The senior may have a bit of panchmeshali tarkari or chanchra or shaak, the junior will not allow them on his plate. What else a mom can do but to cook what her lifeline loves? Even my craze for typical Bengali fresh water fish has lessened. The frozen ones we get in the Asian stores here are not up to my level of satisfaction, I hear they are of better quality in other foreign countries. 

If you can adapt to sea fish, this island is the best place to be, I could not as yet. Hence, our fish fair is limited to salmon.... the only sea water fish I can have a bit, pomfret that my men love, prawns[we call fish haha], Bengal Carp, Ilish and yeah recently I discovered one shop in Tekka market selling 'jeol magur'.... live cat fish dancing in water. I wish to share a recipe soon, my dear friend Chandrayee wished too. On this visit to Kolkata, I told my mother 'amai choto mach khaoabey'.... feed me my favourite small variety of fish.. charapona, puti, kajoli, tyangra, pabda, choto rui-katla..... I am not translating them because I know my readers are not interested in Bengali Fish Curries from me.... but if you ask my wish, I will blog about each one of my family favourite fish preparations before I quit blogging even if there is not a single reader for it.

The mother fed me my favourites and also told me the stories she heard from her mother-in-law.... how much my dad loved 'tyangra mach' as a young boy who back from the school would run to the football ground without eating..... the mother had to allure him saying.... 'tyangra massss diya bhaat khaiya jsa'....that is a Bangladeshi provincial accent meaning there is your favourite tyangra mach cooked today, have it with some rice and go. Do not question my flair for that, I can speak it well, though you should not expect me to decipher the Chittagong language... it is near impossible if you are not particularly from there, they are nearer to Burma. Anyway, I could not tell my mother I hear a similar story from another mother... I wonder how can there be such similarities and then the immediate reaction....  damn it... why do I have to bother, my dad is gone and the rest does not concern me. 

My baked / grilled fish loving son will not eat a single 'tyangra' unless mumma debones them; is there an ache inside?.... yes for various reason taken together. It is better to cook what makes my loves to eat double servings than on a normal rice day..... this time a green pea and pineapple rice done with few ingredients. You can serve it with some grilled fish, eggplant or aloo masala, meat curries... if your men are not as naughty as mine you can also serve this freshly made carrot n tomato salad with it. Come let us prepare it together. I will not claim authenticity of the Pineapple Rice as I do not use fish sauce.

INGREDIENTS :[for the rice]

Long Grain Rice : 1 coffee mug [I prefer Basmati]
Green Pea : 1/2small cup
Pineapple[chopped] : 1 small cup
Onion[sliced] : 1medium
Garlic[minced] : 1tbsp
Soya Sauce : 2-3tbsp
Black Pepper Powder : 1tsp [coarsely ground]
Salt : As Required
Oil : 2tbsp [we can use sesame oil too]

INGREDIENTS : [for the salad]

Carrot : 1medium
Tomato : 1medium
Coriander Leaves[chopped] : 2tbsp
Green Chilli[chopped] : 1-2
Olive Oil : 1tsp
Lemon Juice : 2tbsp
You can add other veggies too but 
I had only these on that day

METHOD :

Take the rice on a bowl and wash 3-4 times. Soak for 1/2 an hour. Take enough water in a heavy bottomed vessel and put for boil. As the water comes to boil, drain the water from the rice and add to the boiling water gently. Cook until 60% done and discard all of the water.

Spread the rice on a big plate and allow it to cool. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the minced garlic and saute till we get that nice aroma.

Add the sliced onion and saute till translucent. Add the green pea, increase the heat and give a quick stir. Add the chopped pineapple pieces, black pepper and a little of salt. Stir at high heat for a moment.

Add the cooked rice and soya sauce, fold in well. Stir gently at high heat for a minute or so. Do not allow the rice grains to break. Transfer to a serving plate.

For the salad, wash and chop the carrot, tomato [discard the seeds], coriander leaves and green chillies. Add the lemon juice, olive oil and coarsely ground fresh black pepper powder. Fold in well and serve with the Matar Pineapple Rice. You can also add some pickle  to  this meal.