This is something I have on my lunches some days. When the men at home carry pasta with lots of cheese in their lunch boxes, I ask Cristine to keep some boiled pasta aside.... later in the afternoon I prepare a salad with the pasta and few vegetables, use some store bought dressings. The thing is that do I wish to share such recipes in the blog? Is it a May Day kind of a share? What is more important is that today is the birthday of my Eye Surgeon based in Kolkata... if he sees this, he is not going to furnish me with first track appointments anymore.... today's share had to be a chicken or mutton chap or something with "ilish or chingri".... that is however a meat-o-phobic family. Then, if they set out for a foreign tour every six months, they might have trained their taste buds to different cuisines, they definitely would not get our kind of Biryani in Athens or Johannesburg. You never know, we have such friends who after a seven days of stay in Greece fell homesick, unable to eat local anymore, they followed a gentleman from Bangladesh for a couple of kilometres and requested for "dal, bhaat, aloo-sheddo, maach bhaja".... I loved and laughed at it.
Looking at that kind of couple bond, I turn to the rebels at this home and say... "look at you, why cannot you guys agree with me in most of the matters?".... On a tour, they will not look for Bengali eateries, that is when I prefer having oats and yogurt... I even carried "muruku" to Australia, now thinking of carrying "chirey-muri-naru" from my next trip.... I mean it. If I eat variety on tours, that is only to share my experience with my readers. Had my men agreed and bonded with me in this matter, I would have owned a "Didir Hotel" in Australia. I loved the quiet, smaller townships there with lots of greens. People who can have burgers & pizzas three times a day, who lack poetry in them will not understand my requirements. "prokritir roop rosh gondho ahoron korer jonyo ekta anubhutishil mon chai..... onekta Shirshendu, kichuta Buddhadeb Guha portey hobey, Rhitu Guhar gaan o shuntey hobey".... You see I do not care, in my broken, untrained voice, I do sing "jokhon prothom dhoreche koli amar mallika bone".... often.
When in such a mood, it is difficult to prepare a spinach & garlic stuffed bread or share the recipe of this more or less healthy CHILLED VEGETARIAN PASTA SALAD. I do these for you all who do not share similar taste buds as mine. Like the garlic tempered spinach & cheese filling I used to stuff my buns yesterday did not go with my taste bud. I did taste them, where is the spice factor? I have my share of oriental soups adding spoonfuls of chilli paste.
Some ten years back, I used to enjoy cheese, not anymore except for smoked cheese, okay, feta to an extent. I enjoy pizza, not when there is some brown rice and "shutkir bhorta or ilish-kanchalanka or mutton curry" in the refrigerator. In that case, I reserve my share of the pizza to be had by the men the next day. This salad with pasta I do enjoy if not love. This can be your easy, lunch solution. I keep a couple of salad dressings in stock. I got my hands on a Vietnamese Lemon Grass salad dressing some two months back. About a month back, I had a visiting vegetarian friend, a Marwari last month. It was our evening teatime which was actually nearer to their dinner time. I fried some pakoras and prepared this pasta salad.... I never imagined this would become such a hit with the person.... I was surprised I was unable to handle the applause. I decided to share the recipe of this vegetarian delight CHILLED VEGETARIAN PASTA SALAD in the blog. The ingredients I have used are boiled pasta, chopped coriander + green chilli + tomato + cucumber +onion, olive oil, black pepper.
You can browse similar recipes clicking on the bold letters : CHILLED PASTA SALAD, RAW MANGO AND GREEN MOONG SALAD CHAAT, YELLOW PEAS SALAD CHAAT
BOILED PASTA : 1COFFEE MUG
CHOPPED FRESH CORIANDER : 2-3TBSP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1TSP [YOU CAN ADJUST OR SKIP]
CHOPPED TOMATO : 1/2SMALL TEA CUP
CHOPPED CUCUMBER : 1/2SMALL TEA CUP [I USE THE JAPANESE VARIETY]
CHOPPED ONION : 1TBSP
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1TSP
LEMON JUICE : 1-2TBSP
VIETNAMESE LEMON GRASS SALAD DRESSING : 3-4TBSP [CHOOSE YOURS]
SALT : VERY LITTLE IF YOU WISH, CAN SKIP
OLIVE OIL : 2TBSP
PROCEDURE :
I always add few drops of oil and some salt to the bubbling water when boiling the pasta. Once cool, refrigerate the drained and boiled pasta for an hour.
Chop the vegetables directly taken out of the refrigerator. Discard the seeds of the tomato, peel the onion well. Wash all of them thoroughly.
Get everything ready on the kitchen counter.
Better we take the pasta in a wide mouthed bowl, the mixing part gets easier. We have added every thing to the pasta except for the salt, olive oil, Vietnamese salad dressing, lemon juice.
Mix them well. Now add the lemon juice, Vietnamese salad dressing, olive oil and salt. Add the salt only if required.
Your grandparents, parents are not watching right? Just taste a bit, make sure to wash your hands before you touch the food again. I have been scolded on several occasions for this habit [etho-katar bichar nei, ghenna lagey amar].... our mother says so!
You bet it is still cold and I enjoy having it just this way.
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