Category: Salads

Telia Batata or Potatoes in a mustard dressing. This recipe is to die for. Especially for those who enjoy the taste of mustard. I believe you should put enough of it so that the mustardy sensation shoots right into your head. Believe me, you’ll love the taste of this dish.

My grandma made this dish for the large joint family that mom lived in and they ate it with hot puris. The dish is spicy, mustardy and I promise sooooo yummy!

Here is the recipe

Telia Batata

Serves 3

Ingredients

500 gms boiled potatoes, chopped into quarters.

1/4 cup oil

3 teaspoons readymade mustard powder or 3 teaspoons ground split yellow mustard

Salt to taste

2 chillies finely chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

A handful of finely chopped fresh coriander

Method

1 Mix the ground mustard in the oil vigorously for 5 minutes. Add the salt and mix again.

2 Put the chopped potatoes into the oil mixture. Add the lemon juice, chillies and fresh coriander and give them a good but gentle stir. Avoid mashing the potatoes too much.

3 Keep in the refrigerator or outside for 1/2 an hour to let the flavours blend before serving.

I don’t really like the banana and curd combination too much, except for this recipe, where I love it. This is a treasured family recipe. My maternal grand mother’s mother in law gave it to her. She gave it to my mother, and my mother handed it down to me.

You’ve not tasted banana raita unless you’ve tasted this version. It’s so yummy. My middle sister ate it when she came home and said it was party worthy. Eat it with hot chapatis or parathas for lunch or dinner. So go ahead and make it for your loved ones and let me know in the comments, what they have to say!

Banana Raita

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 large or 1 1/2 medium sized banana chopped into small pieces

2 cups curd

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 tablespoon freshly cut coriander

1 finely chopped chilly

Salt to taste

Method

1 Beat the curd until smooth. If it is too thick add a little water to bring it to raita consistency.

2 Add the chopped banana, mustard powder, coriander, chilly and salt to taste and gently mix.

3 Keep in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. Serve cold.

This is the Jamun season. Jamuns are sweet and sour but delicious still. They’re also very good for diabetes.

We are three sisters. My youngest sister who is eleven years younger than me wasn’t even born when we went about our daily adventures, climbing jamun trees in the neighbour’s garden to pluck juicy, plump jamuns.  We didn’t give a fig even when we were bitten by big black bully ants who were after the same mouthwatering feast that we were. My youngest sister did miss all the fun though!

These days this fruit is so expensive that you can buy only a few at a time and enjoy the fruit occasionally.

So here I am with the recipe of jamun raita inspired by a recipe from Tarla Dalal. It’s cooling, tasty and healthy. The raita can be eaten with hot ghee chapatis, parathas, with pulao, or even as a dish all by itself.

Jamun Raita

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 cup jamuns chopped into small pieces

2 cups curd

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 tablespoon finely cut fresh coriander

Chilli powder to taste

Salt to taste

Method

1 Beat the curd and add a little water if the curd is too thick.

2 Add all the ingredients into the curd and gently mix.

Serve cold.

This salad is from the Middle East. A region known for its warmth and hospitality. It is made with olive oil and olives and other delicious yet easily available ingredients that make it taste exotic. Certainly like nothing I’d tasted before, especially in an Indian salad.

The recipe is from Rawia Bishara’s cookbook Olives, Lemons and Zaatar. Rawia is a Palestinian Arab, now settled in New York and owns a popular restaurant there called Tanoreen. She opened her restaurant in 1998, as a tribute to her mother who she says was not rigidly authentic in her cooking and often bent the rules with her creativity. This she admires greatly in her mother, and at Tanoreen she celebrates tradition and embraces change in her cooking. She says “ Cooking is so very personal- use your imagination, intuition, and most importantly, taste buds”.

Tanoreen Potato Salad

Serves 6

Ingredients

15 small red potatoes in 2.5 cms dice

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

1 tablespoon sea salt

120 ml extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons

80 gms chopped fresh leaf parsley

6 spring onions, green parts only, chopped

30 gms finely diced green pepper

30 gms finely diced red pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground paprika

Garnish

50 gms chopped green olives

3 tablespoons chopped coriander

Method

1 Place the potatoes in a large saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and cook over a medium-high heat until a cocktail stick slides easily into a piece but doesn’t cause the potato to fall apart, 7-10 minutes. Transfer to a colander to drain, then rinse under cold water. Spread the potatoes on a baking sheet to cool.

2 Combine the garlic and salt in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Using a fork, mash the garlic into a paste. Add the oil and lemon juice with the parsley, spring onions, green pepper and red peppers, mint, cumin, black pepper and paprika; mix to combine. Tip in the potatoes and using a wooden spoon, toss gently until thoroughly coated with the dressing. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the olives and coriander.