As someone who loves a good meal, cooking one, came to me as a natural passion. I belong to a family where meal times consisted of not just food, but also noisy conversation centered around the events of the day and discussing the menu for the next. (ah yes, we are a greedy lot! )

For the most part of my life so far, my contribution in the kitchen was assisting mom and my duties were limited, to chopping veggies and laying the table. Then along came the great Indian wedding, and I was suddenly the queen of my very own kingdom. My curiosity about this magical world, coupled with an enthusiastic sous-chef (my husband, Vineet), led me to take on the challenge of preparing meals on a daily basis, and not succumbing to the convenience of hiring a cook.

This blog is a product of my experiments with food (not all are life threatening :D) for my fellow culinary enthusiasts - especially the newly weds and hungry bachelors and is dedicated to the women who've inspired me in the kitchen;
Aji (s),Ma and Nigella Lawson.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Black rice salad with Mango & Avocado

Hello all! I have been meaning to revamp the format for CCG for a little while now. Have worked out a simple format that will allow you guys to download future recipes as a jpg/ jpegs. As a regular user of food apps on my iPhone, I am very conscious of the fact that most of us use our phones to replace recipe books in the kitchen and as I am not particularly impressed with the mobile view that blogger offers, I thought it was worth trying this format out. Do let me know what you think and if this format of recipe presentation made your life infinitely better :) hehe! 

Ok, now on to the recipe.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine from work introduced me to a nice little salad &sandwich place at Takashimaya (Ngee Ann City) called Marmalade Toast. It has a delightful selection of salads, wraps , sandwiches and stone fired pizzas at fairly (and surprisingly) reasonable prices, considering their location. I simply LOVE their wild rice salad with apple and raisins and have been itching to recreate it at home ever since. Somewhere down the line, I forgot all about it till recently when I came across an asian-style rice salad.
As usual I set about researching how to cook/store wild rice. Unfortunately, the grocery store near where we live doesn't sell any, so I decided to replace it with Black rice instead.
Black rice has always been a bit of a mystery to me. All I knew about it (besides its fab flavour) was that it used to be served only to royalty in imperial China. So I bought a bag of it (as I consider us nothing less than royalty!) and read up on its uses and cooking instructions while in the check out line.
To my delight it was easy-peasy to cook and not at all as sticky as I thought it would be!

I love salads that have an interesting mix of ingredients that keep your taste buds and eyes interested. I used fresh mango and avocado along with a lime-olive oil- honey dressing with plenty of fresh cilantro (coriander) for this salad. It was a vibrant and delicious side to the grilled fish main that we enjoyed on Saturday night (after the baby was tucked into bed for the night) ;)

(Click on the image for a larger view)