It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Regular Friday night dinners didn't start up again until late December. Regular, meaning I cooked and my mom didn't show up with nearly all of the food already prepared.
The weekend before Christmas, Meredith invited several friends from the travel industry for a nice dinner. I started cooking the night before just because I didn't have enough pots, pans and stove-top space to keep things sane.
The dinner also provided me an opportunity to take pictures of a couple dishes I hadn't previously photographed, including my channa masala and chicken tikka masala.
To compliment the chickpeas and the rice dish I made (no recipe for the rice, just some cloves, saffron and a bit of turmeric), I made a great cucumber ratia. I took extra care squeezing the liquid from the cucumber and using whole-milk yogurt to make it nice and thick. If I had salvaged more mint from my garden before the frost killed it, it would've been even better!
Cucumber Raita
- 1 cucumber
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped
- 2 tsp mint (dried) or 1 tbsp fresh mint finely chopped
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- Seed and shred the cucumber.
- Squeeze the shredded cucumber using a cheesecloth.
- Combine all ingredients and refrigerate to allow flavours to mingle.
Try other tasty recipes
every indian loves that :) I make it almost the same way .. except .. i dry roast the cumin seeds and then add them .. try it .. you may like it!
ReplyDeleteoh, that would bring out the flavour more, wouldn't it? I need to try that (and probably modify this recipe).
ReplyDeleteI love raita and make it often. Your photo makes me want to grab and spoon and dig in. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteThat looks amazing Dan!:)You can try adding a bit of sugar to this if you like...will really balance the flavor well!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Wit,wok&wisdom