A Major Fail, And Green Beans Save The Day!

    This was how this post was originally supposed to go. The beauty of  shrimp wrapped in banana leaf, the fresh shrimp glistening, the marination process. Note  the show-offy intricate tying of the banana leaf with actual strips of banana fiber. Wow, ain't I smart. I had everyone in the kitchen gathered around watching me perform on the night of this dinner party. I was a regular Julia Child... only Indian style. I had two pounds of fresh shrimp, a packet of banana leaves and I was rockin'. Everything looked great, smelled great. Aren't those the famous last words though..."Well...it smelled okay... how was I to know......."

   As I brought my steaming packets of shrimp to the dining room table, the guests clustered around the platter waiting me to cut the banana fiber ribbon. Shrimp cooked to perfection. Another culinary triumph. People were piling them on their thalis. For one fleeting moment I worried that perhaps I hadn't made enough. Then they tasted it.

   What is the opposite of "Winning!" ?

  That was me. I was Julia Child if the flipping omelet had flown out the window. Charlie Sheen stripped of his goddesses. I won't say that people were spitting them out onto their plates... but hell yeah they were. I had had a major fail and I don't say that lightly. It gets pretty drastic when your main course is inedible. Especially when it looks so beautiful and has the added value of being  inedible.

  Growing up, I experienced plenty of these moments. The exploding canned tamale that my mother forgot to take the lid off of before boiling. The blackened fish sticks waaaaay before the Big Easy turned America on to Cajun cooking. These weren't spiced, they were Gortons and just blackened. The flattened angle food cakes and the early "discovery" of volcano cake when my mother forgot to put her cupcakes into a preheated oven. So I had plenty of experience with "When Good Recipes Go Bad"  and I made a vow when I started cooking..."Not on my watch!"

  Of course everyone has their "little weaknesses." Mine continues to be cream puffs, but that's neither hear nor there. I pride myself on giving my guests a good meal when they come here to eat. And since I write about what I cook and how I cooked it, and I've also been cooking this cuisine for 21 years, so I figured I was sort of bullet proof. Boy was I wrong! 

  I'm still not sure what exactly was my fail point. I was using a recipe that contained some spices that I've never run across in Indian cooking. Actually, that was what intrigued me, and yes I know, there's one born every minute. Needless to say I will not stick my paw in that beehive again.

  But what to do when one's guest are ptooey-ing your entree onto their plates. Admit it, I guess. I had to. There was no getting around it. The dish was wretched. It was Superbad. In most cases this would mean death to the dinner party and we'd all be going out looking for pizza somewhere. But this was an Indian meal and that was what made me glad that this is the cuisine I've chosen to make my cooking life's work.

  In ordinary circumstances, when the fish burns, or the meat is overcooked, all that's left is a boring veg or two and maybe some potatoes or plain rice. Not so with an Indian feast where meat/fish is never the be-all and end-all. Besides the shrimp in banana leaf I was also serving 7 other dishes and 2 desserts! Needless to say my guests may have gone home disappointed that they didn't get to enjoy a very pretty looking shrimp dish, but they didn't go home hungry. 

   One of the big hits of the evening was a very simple and easily made ahead (a great reason to serve it) green bean dish.

   This recipe is usually made with Chinese long beans, coconut and peanut powder, but regular old string beans work just as well. It's the sort of dish that makes all the green bean haters at the table relent and finally give that vegetable some props. Plus it's easily put together and travels like a dream. It saved my ass the night of that dinner and goes a long way toward proving the point to carnivores that a perfectly delicious meal can be made without any meat or fish in sight.

Indian Green Beans

Here's what to do:

 Cut about 3/4 of a pound of string beans into small 1/2 inch pieces.
 In a skillet or kadhai heat:
  2 tbs of vegetable oil
 When the oil is hot toss in:
  1/2 tsp of brown mustard seeds
 When the mustard seeds start to pop, add in the green beans.

Give them a stir, pop a lid on them and cook them for about 8 minutes or so. You want to make sure the beans stay nice and green, (something I never knew existed growing up, I always thought they should have been called grey beans.) Take the lid off and let the beans come to room temperature.
 Then add in:
  1 tsp of seeded chopped fresh serrano chili
  1/2 tsp of salt
  1/2 tsp of sugar

 Sprinkle in:
  1/4 cup of peanut powder ( to make peanut powder at home, dry roast plain peanuts and then grind them in a blender or spice grinder)
  1/2 cup of grated unsweetened coconut.

 And you're done.
 Serve it up at room temperature.

  So there it is, easy simple, fast. I love this dish. Serve it up as a side dish or do as I did (without screwing up the shrimp) and make it one of the stars of a totally meatless meal... on purpose.
  Coming up next, a mixture of vegetables and rice that looks like a mosaic in the making. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Vadouvan, Custom Blended Especially For You

    A couple of years ago on my birthday Alan took me to Strange Invisible Perfumes in Venice (that's California not Italy) and had a custom perfume made for me. Now I'm not a real perfume kind of person. I like clean. I like citrus. I like subtle. I was so glad when the disco days of White Musk were behind me, and don't get me started on Patchouli. I'm totally down with John Cusack on that.

Get Your Patchouli Stink Outta My Store

   But there was something really special about having something made just for me. It's kind of the way I feel about a lot of stuff. It's why I started getting into making as many things as I can from scratch. The custom touch. It's what those tony British banker guys are always talking about when  they mention bespoke suits and bench made shoes. Well, I thought, what about some bespoke spices? Custom made just for me. Of course I was going to have to make them, but what the hey.., that's what I do, right?
   One of the basics in any sort of cooking is spices, and Indian cooking uses a lot of them. Spices and spice blends. Curries and masalas. Panch purans and chaunks. Anyone wanting to cook Indian quickly learns that curry powder out of a box does not a curry make, and every good Indian cook has their own special blend of spices. It's similar to the "gravy" found in Italian American homes. Everybody's family has their own special way of making it.
   After toasting and grinding spices for Indian food for the last 21 years, I thought I'd pretty much seen it all. And then I met Vadouvan. If I hadn't taken on the challenge of attempting to add an Indian twist to Workman Publishings' Bastille Day Celebration of Richard Grausmans' French Classics Made Easy I never would have heard of Vadouvan.
  So just what is this mysterious Vadouvan? In doing my research into the connection between Indian and French cuisine, I discovered a spice blend that found it's way back to Europe from the Subcontinent. Unlike the curry powder that the Brits took away, the French came up with a chunky blend of onions, shallots, leeks and assorted roasted, toasted, ground spices. But that's where the specifics end, because Vadouvan can be customized and tailored to one's individual taste. Pinning down one basic recipe is pretty nearly impossible.

Indian Vadouvan Watercress Soup

So here's how I  made my vadouvan:
 Chop  up:
  3 onions
  3 leeks
  12 shallots
 Drizzle them well with olive oil.
 Spread them onto a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet.
 Roast them in a 350 degree oven for about 1 and 1/2 hours.

Stir them around occasionally so nothing sticks and burns. When they're nice and caramelized, take them out.

  Meanwhile while all that's going on, dry toast in a skillet:
   1 Tbs of urid dal
   1 T of coriander
   2 T of cumin
   10 curry leaves
   1 tsp of ground cinnamon
   1 tsp of turmeric
   2 dried red chili peppers
   4 tsp of mustard seeds
   1/4 tsp of ground cloves

 After the spices are toasted, put everything into a spice grinder or blender and whirl it into powder.

Mix the ground spices into the caramelized onions etc.

When the mixture is blended, give it a taste. Add in a bit of light brown sugar, 1 tsp at a time until the spice mix has a nice, hot, spicy, blend with a sweet finish. Or not. You may like it just as it is, or want to put in some salt. You may choose to add garlic cloves to the onion mix or leave out the leeks. It's up to you. It's that kind of recipe. Vadouvan keeps for a month in the fridge in a nice tight jar. In the freezer it will last 6 months.
   But now the big question. You have your vadouvan, what to do with it?  Well, it can be added to sauces a tablespoon or teaspoon at a time. It can be put into dips or soups, and it can also be put into what goes into soups. Which is exactly what I did with it.
   I took Richard Grausman's  recipe for French Watercress Soup which you can find here.
I decided to make a sirkhand out of plain yogurt.  (Take a cup of yogurt and place it in a yogurt strainer suspended over a glass. Let it drain for at least 4 hours, or until it's slightly thickened.)
  You may also use thickened Greek style yogurt.
  Whip the sirkhand until it's creamy and add in a nice dollop of vadouvan. Swirl a tablespoon of this mixture into each serving of soup.

 That's it. You're done. You've added Indian flavors to a French classic.

 So there it is, a simple spice that you can put your own personal imprint on. Have fun. Coming up next Green Beans perfect for a Summer lunch. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Mousse or Squirrel? Kaffir Lime Mousse, The Perfect Pal For A Gluten Free Cookie

   Last week when I was in the midst of planning my Franco-Indian Bastille Day Lunch based on Richard Grausmans' book French Classics Made Easy,  from Workman Publishing, one of the recipes that really got my attention was a dessert. Lime Mousse. Now like anyone from my generation, I can't think about mousse with out thinking about this Moose. Bullwinkle J. Moose to be exact.

 Yeah I know it's juvenile, but I couldn't help it.
   In thinking about the lime mousse and how to give it an Indian translation, I only had one thought in mind and that was Kaffir lime. The Kaffir lime is used a lot in South Asian cooking and I've almost always used it in soups. It's one of the main ingredients in tom yum. It has a distinctive double leaf with a rather perfumy  aroma.
  Now I've always had Kaffir lime leaves in my freezer (they're commonly found in all Asian markets) and I've always used them for savory dishes, but never a dessert. The idea of using them in a sweet course was really appealing. I'm nuts for floral scented dishes so this was right up my alley.
 I scouted around and found a couple of mousse recipes that seemed they would be candidates,  and with a bit of modification on my part, I found something I liked.
  French mousse dishes use eggs and lots of cream. This Indian flavor version uses yogurt and a bit of cream and no eggs. It makes up fairly easily (1 hour) and it's a great make-ahead dessert. It sets up overnight and is ready to go the next day.

Kaffir Lime Mousse

Here's what to do:
In a heavy pot mix together:
 1/3 cup of cream
 1 and 1/2 tsp of lime zest

  1/4 cup of sugar
  3 or 4 Kaffir lime leaves

Mix it together until the sugar is dissolved and then bring it to a simmer. Keep stirring, and when all the sugar is dissolved, take it off the fire, put a lid on it and let it steep for 30 minutes.
  In another bowl mix together:
   1/2 tsp of lime juice
   1 Tbs of water
Sprinkle 3/4 tsp of gelatin over the water lime juice mixture.
When it starts to get soft, heat the cream mixture again and pour it through a mesh strainer into the gelatin lime water.

 Press on it to get all the juices out, then mix it all together for about 1 minute until the gelatin is all dissolved.
  Whisk in:
   1 cup of plain yogurt

 Put it all into the fridge to chill for about 25 minutes.
 Put a metal bowl to chill in the freezer.
 After 25 minutes pour 1/3 of a cup of cream into the chilled bowl and hand beat it into soft peaks.
   Yes, I did say hand beat. It's important not to over-beat the cream, that's why you use the 'by hand' method. I'd never done it before I made this mousse and it doesn't take long to get it whipped up so don't be scared. It does work, and just think how proud your grandma would be to see you do that.
  Once the cream is whipped, fold it gently into the chilled lime yogurt mixture.

Cover it and place the whole thing back in the fridge for at least 8 hours. That's it. You're done. Perfect mousse.

   I loved this mousse and I'd never personally made any sort of mousse before, I'm planning on trying it with other flavors as it's so light and simple to make. I paired it with Bibi from Katmandus'  Gluten Free Cardamom and Coconut Cookies and the flavors were perfect together.
  Coming up next, a simple soup and a fancy homemade spice that takes the taste from France to India. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Sometimes You Are The Stick And Sometimes You Are The Pinata, But You're Always Gluten Free.

    A few days ago @AlecBaldwin who I follow on Twitter, and who is probably one of the wittiest guys out there, sent out a Tweet that I found truly inspiring. "Sometimes You Are The Stick and Sometimes You Are The Pinata." It gave me pause. It was short and sweet and almost "Dudeist" in it's purity. Pure Alec. I had him on my radio show in Los Angeles as co-host a couple of times and he always rocked the house.
  Stick, pinata, that's it in a nutshell. And it was one of those sorts of days. I was thinking about a few friends of mine who were truly having their paper mache donkey moment. Of course we've all been there, where fate is an over-sugared 5 year old with a baseball bat and we're just twisting in the wind.
  A very good friend of mine is recovering from a pretty bad horse back riding accident. She's been flat on her back for the last couple of months and all of us have been trying to help out as best we can. But if that weren't enough a few weeks before her accident, she discovered she was gluten intolerant! So picture this. Flat on your back with a busted whatever and not even the comfort of a brownie or a cookie. Stick, meet pinata.
   Luckily a lot of the Indian recipes that I make regularly are naturally gluten free, but I really was searching for something outside my regular recipe list. I started reading up on how to make gluten free treats, cookies, cakes, shortbreads and pies. I stocked up on gluten free flour and xanthan gum, tapioca flour and almond meal.
   So there I was with all these gluten free tools and not too sure how to use them. I know I'm going to eventually master the art of Western style baking without the gluten, but I needed to be able to make something like...yesterday.  I needed to bring Terri something sweet and crunchy that would be easy to make with readily available ingredients that I didn't have to study up on. I wanted a fast train to cookie town. And boy howdey! Did I get a great answer to my gluten difficulty. Right through the email ether I got a recipe from my friend Bibi in Katmandu with the golden cookie of desire.
   A few weeks ago I happened to have made some very delicious though gluten-riddled Rose Pistachio Cookies. The next day Bibi sent me an email. It turns out her mom-in-law makes a very similar cookie to the one I wrote about. She also passed along a couple of intriguing cookie recipes, one of which was gluten free! I'm going to be making all the various cookie recipes she sent me, but the first one I decided to try was the gluten free one made with besan, or chickpea flour aka garbanzo flour. I tested it this last weekend on our guests for my Indo-French, Bastille Day Feast and it was a hit. See. All gone. Fast. And just to be honest, not a single person at the lunch had any gluten issues.

   The cookies came together almost as fast as they were gobbled up. They're just as easy to make as any old gluten cookie, and did I say they were good? They are. If you want to venture into the gluten free arena, here's what to do.

 In a large bowl mix together:
   2 sticks of unsalted butter
   1/2 cup of sugar
   1/4 cup of brown sugar or jaggery. If you'd like a crisper more shortbread-like cookie (I did) use    1/4 cup of powdered sugar instead.
 Beat the butter and the sugars together until it's all light and fluffy.

Add in:
 2 eggs
 1/4 tsp of salt
 1/2 tsp of baking powder
 1/2 tsp of baking soda
 1 tsp of ground cardamom
Keep beating until it's smooth.
Gradually beat in 3 and 1/4 cups of besan (chickpea or garbanzo flour) at a low speed.
 Just a note: This can be difficult as things tend to get rather stiff and sticky, but keep a goin'. You"ll finally get a nice thick dough.
 Add in:
  3/4 cup of grated dried unsweetened coconut

Divide the dough into three sections and roll each into a ball and then into 10 inch long logs of dough.

Set the logs of dough on some waxed paper and roll them up

Tuck the logs into the fridge for at least 30 minutes. If you'd like to bake these cookies later, the cookie dough logs can also be frozen. When you want to bake the cookies, just take them out, slice off as many cookies as you'd like and bake away.

But say you'd like to have these cookies right now. Immediately, almost. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wait the 30 minutes and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Slice off the number of cookies you'd like to bake and pop them into the oven.
 Bake them for about 10 minutes, turn off the oven and then let them rest for about 5 minutes before taking them out.
 Crunchy, crispy, delicious, I served them with a kaffir lime mousse.

 The cookies were so popular they were all gone. Boom! What Alan doesn't know (well once he reads this he will) is there are 2 other cookie logs in the freezer all ready to go. I'm going to be baking them up tomorrow. Stick. Pinata. Here's hoping that when she gets these cookies Terri will not feel like she's leaking Tootsie Roll Pops anymore.
@kathygori

A Bastille Day Feast. French Classics Made Easy...Indian Style

   Growing up in my Italian American family, Bastille Day (French Independence Day) was not something we paid a whole lot of attention to. Columbus Day on the other hand, well that was a different matter. I say that as a former San Francisco Columbus Day Princess. Bastille day was the other Independence Day. Well as it turned out, I should have paid more attention. As it turns out my very, very, very first ancestor in this country was a Frenchman! My great great great grandfather was brought to New Orleans from France at the age of 2 by his parents in 1832. He moved on to California for the Gold Rush in 1849 where he had a colorful career as a political leader, chief jailer and the founder of one of the first meat markets in San Francisco.
   So when it was suggested that I participate in Workman's Publishing Bastille Day Celebration of  Richard Grausmans' book French Classics Made Easy, I was ready to rock and roll. After all, I used to watch Julia Child on TV as a kid. How hard could it be? Made Easy, right?? That's what the book says right there in the title! It's not like I'm an amateur. I'd cooked French food before.
   I was 15. My parents, to humor my desire to cook, bought me a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and let me have at it. Of course I chose to make Beef Bourguignon 'cause it had real WINE (lots of it) and I invited my "boyfriend" Mark (victim) to dinner!!! How did it turn out? Well, I was a teensy bit heavy handed on the wine and Mark and I wound up rolling around on the floor laughing hysterically at nothing after dinner. I don't know what his parents thought when they picked him up to take him home but I wasn't allowed to cook unsupervised again for a long, long time.
   Okay, so I'd grown up and matured, and I figured it was time to try my hand in the French Kitchen again. I was a big girl. I could handle it. The challenge was to cook some of the delicious French dishes from the book and see if I could put an Indian spin on my very own Bastille Day Party.

   "Hmmm", I thought, "this would be a challenge. It's not enough that somebody from an Italian background has spent the past 21 years cooking Indian food; now it has to be combined with French??? What has French food got to do with Indian cuisine?" Quite a lot as I discovered.
   I knew that the British, the Portuguese and the Persians had all been in India, and the evidence of their exchanges was easily found in many dishes I've cooked over the years. I mean.. Vindaloo... hello?!  But the French? No way, I thought. But of course I was underestimating them. Totally way, as it turned out. It seems the French had quite the history in India as Lord Google informed me, involving trade, factories, military conquest, some British frenemy action, romance and of course...food.
   The Challenge involved re-creating a recipe or recipes from French Classics Made Easy. I chose to tackle the classic French Watercress Soup, and a Lime Mousse. I started doing my research into exactly how the French and the Indians had influenced each other, and it all seemed to focus on the cooking of Puducherry, or as it once was known Pondicherry. As it turns out, in my sleuthing I discovered something I'd never heard of before. It was an unusual spice blend that had been taken to France from India. A sort of French Masala, or a Franco-Indian version of the British staple curry powder. It became my key to the meal and my secret ingredient. It's called vadouvan!

    Now there are almost as many recipes for vadouvan as there are cooks, but the one thing it always includes is a base blend of finely chopped onions, leeks and shallots caramelized with a bit of olive oil on a parchment-covered cookie sheet in a slow oven.

After that spices are toasted and ground, and then it's all mixed together. Packed in a jar, it keeps in the fridge for a month and in the freezer for 6 months. This spice blend is popular in France and Belgium but not very well known here. It was just what I was looking for. I had my key to the world of French Indian cuisine. 

  I made the French watercress soup following the recipe, then instead of adding cream, I made some sirkhand (drained Indian yogurt) and mixed some of the vadouvan blend into the sirkhand and then added a dollop to each of the soup servings and swirled it in and mixed it up.

 It was the prefect touch. France by way of Puducherry!
    For dessert I decided to change up the lime mousse by using the Indian Kaffir lime and a yogurt base for a lighter touch.

 I paired it with some cookies that came from a recipe sent to me by Bibi, one of my readers in Katmandu. The cookies are made with cardamom and coconut and chickpea (besan) flour so they're gluten free! Also they're delicious and a snap to make. One other great thing about the cookies: I rolled them like butter cookie logs at Bibi's suggestion and popped the unbaked logs into the freezer for use any time I want a cookie. All I have to do is unwrap a roll and slice off what I want. Yes, it was easy. Too easy. Diabolically easy.

    So I had the beginning and the end of the meal all set, but what about the main course?? There is a classic French Indian dish served at La Porte Des Indes in London. It's a simple roast chicken (tres French) where the meat is taken from the bone and then served smothered in a slow cooked sauce of onions, yogurt and spices. I decided to lean more French in my interpretation of the dish and keep my meat on the bone. I served the sauce on the side. I fixed one of my favorite dishes, an Indian version of the classic French creamed spinach. Potatoes and small spring onions pan roasted in some olive oil with garam masala rounded out the meal.

    Normally when I serve an Indian meal, I get out my thalis, the classic stainless steel Indian dinnerware. For Bastille day however, I decided to go all the way and broke out my real deal Cordon Bleu Dinnerware, bistro sized and imported from Paris. You can't get it anymore. At least not the French originals. So I don't use it very often, but this was a special meaI. I was going full tilt French.
  Lunch was served. It was a gorgeous Wine Country Sunday afternoon so we had our lunch on the deck overlooking the neighbors' vineyard.

It was like we were in....I don't know...France??

 Instead of wine, our guest Mr.X brought some Arrogant Bastard Ale. Of course he would know about that stuff, and since most of the time beer is the perfect accompaniment to Indian food, the combo was perfection.

   I'll be  posting all the recipes in detail in the next few days, but what I have to say here is that this meal was easy to prepare. The recipes from the book were clear and straightforward. The soup and the mousse can be made ahead of time.The base of the chicken sauce is made ahead and put together in a few minutes before serving. The potatoes and onions cook in about 15 minutes. As to roasting a chicken, pop it in a 400 degree oven seated on a ceramic roaster with a lemon up it's hoo-ha for an hour and its done. No muss no fuss. The Lime Mousse was amazing, and I'd never made any sort of mousse before. It was so easy I know I'm going to be embarking on some kind of mad mousseing frenzy. You already know about those cookies.

    I'm so glad I decided to take part in this challenge. It allowed me to exorcise the ghost of corrupting my 15 year old boyfriend with too much vin de rouge and also to explore a range of Indian cooking that in 21 years of studying this cuisine I honestly had never run across before.
I can't wait to try more of these absolutely delightful combinations. I'll be posting the recipes for all of these dishes in the days to come. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori until then: Bon Appetitte, Vive La Revolution! and Namaste!

So Now You've Got All That Rice...Put It To Work!

   Rice seemed to be the one thing that regularly turned up in the leftover bowl in our house. Not that we didn't eat rice growing up. It's just that rice always seemed to be something that my mom would make and there always seemed to be so much of it ! No matter how much we choked down, there always was more of the damn stuff, and nothing is more depressing than looking into the fridge on the morning after anything and finding a hard, cold, tough, stiff, congealed bowl of rice. It usually got tossed after a few dispirited days of all of us staring at it hiding behind the "real" butter my parents always bought for big dining events, trying not to be noticed, wishing we'd all just go away and let it harden in peace. And sure enough, a couple of days later there would be a bowl-shaped rice sculpture sitting in the Hefty bag awaiting it's final trip to the dumpster.
    Now I hate hate, hate waste. I will go out of my way to make a meal stretch more ways than Silly Putty on a July day. What's not eaten gets recycled and composted. Also I try to cook only the amount of stuff that I know will get eaten, one day or another. But sometimes no matter how careful you are, you just get rice, rice and more rice. There's nothing to be done, and that's where this recipe comes in, the makeover for tired rice. 
   Rice, meet Rice Curd, the solution to leftover, neglected, lonely old rice. This cold salad can be made in just a few minutes, and for pennies. It works with Indian food and also goes fabulously  with any Potluck bringalong, or back yard Summer time event. You'll never toss it again.

Indian Rice Salad

Here's what to do:
 Take 1 cup of cooked rice. In this case I used the leftover rice from the Coorgi Roti I'd made earlier. The Coorgi Roti demands soft, freshly made, fluffy rice, the Rice Curd is not so particular. In fact it actually helps if your rice has been hanging around for a few hours.

 Take the rice and mix it together with:
  1 cup of plain yogurt
 Add some salt to taste.
 Now for the chaunk or tempering:
 In a small pan heat  2 Tbs of vegetable oil.
 When the oil is hot toss in:
  1 tsp of mustard seeds
  3 dried red chilies
  5 curry leaves (if you have them)
 When the mustard seeds start to pop and the chilies darken, you are done.
 Pour the oil and spices into the rice and yogurt mixture.
 Give it all a stir and sprinkle a few chopped cilantro leaves across the top.

   There it is. Yes, that is all there is to it.  Nothing exotic (well maybe the curry leaves) nothing fancy, just a simple cold rice salad with a bit of a kick. Every now and then it's good to be simple and put that leftover rice to good use.
 Coming up next. I take a challenge to turn a Bastille Day Lunch in an Indian direction. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori
  

We have Winners!

I'm happy to Announce  the Winners for my 2nd Blogiversary Giveaway.
 1st prize to Asan Khana of Not Yet 100
 You'll be receiving a copy of one of my personal all time favorite cookbooks :  Mangos and Curry Leaves  from @WorkmanPub 

 2nd prize goes to Annapet of The Daily Palette .
 You'll be receiving one of my new favorite things, a big bottle of Organic Coconut Water Vinegar
from @Troptraditions

  Thanks to everyone who participated, and thanks to Workman Publishing and Tropical Traditions for their generous donations of prizes!
 If the winners will send me an email with their names and info, I'll get their gifts right out to them.