Summer vegetable sandwich

I know it has been really quiet here. For that I offer my apologies and propose to mend my errant ways. This summer is turning out way busier than expected and is keeping me away from what I should be doing, like blogging.

Now without further ado, I shall proceed to describe this summery vegetable sandwich. We are neck deep in summer squash through the CSA right now. Not that I am complaining. The summer squash can be super versatile, chopped into chunks that can be used in soups or pastas, grilled as a nice accompaniment or as in this recipe, grated into a vegetable medley. Along with the squash, I used other vegetables available at that moment, carrots, green peppers and a little bit of onion. The great thing about this recipe is you could add in whatever veggies you have on hand. It goes something like this: you grate up a bunch of veggies, you saute them with some garlic, add desired seasonings, then add a binder (boiled potatoes or breadcrumbs). You can then either shape these into patties and shallow-fry them or you can stuff the mixture between two slices of bread and convert it to a grilled sandwich. 

These grilled sandwiches are inspired by the ever popular Bombay chutney sandwich. This is the panini's Indian cousin, where thin sliced veggies (potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes) are layered on to thin slices of bread slathered with a spicy mint and cilantro chutney, then slapped on with butter and pressed into an individual sandwich press which is heated on an open flame. Heaven! My summer squash vegetable sandwich is tasty but not a patch on the original! It is going places though, it is my first entry to Weekend Herb Blogging hosted at this wonderful blog, The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Recipe:
2 summer squashes, peeled
2 medium sized carrots
1 green bell pepper
1/4 onion
1 cup corn
2 small potatoes, peeled and boiled
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chaat masala (optional)
1 tablespoon oil
- Grate all vegetables from squash through onion in a food processor or by hand. 
- In a pan heat the oil, when hot add the grated vegetables along with garlic and saute for a couple of minutes.
- Add the corn and saute for a few more minutes till vegetables are soft. 
- Mash the boiled potatoes and add to the vegetable mixture.
- Add the salt, black pepper and chaat masala if using.
- Butter slices of bread and add the vegetable mixture, cover with another bread slice and grill!

- Makes 3 cups of vegetable filling.

Vegetable Biryani

This is my second entry for the Recipe Marathon on the One Hot Stove blog. I made this the day before for our Christmas dinner and its an adaptation of the meat biryani recipe from this great blog, Sailu's Kitchen. I have tried making this with Chicken as well as vegetables and both times the results have been delicious! The thing that I like the best about this recipe is that even though its a biryani, you cook the rice and meat/vegetables all together. The original recipe called for pressure cooking everything together. Since I was using vegetables I just cooked it covered without pressure. Also reduced the amount of ghee/oil and the ginger/garlic paste. The results were quite good :)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups Basmati rice
3 cups, mixed vegetables (I used carrots, green beans, red potatoes and green bell pepper)
1 cup thick buttermilk
3 cups water
2 cloves, 1 elachi, 1/2″ cinnamon stick
1-2 bay leaves
2 onions, finely sliced
1 large tomato finely chopped
1 tsp red chilli pwd (adjust)
1/4 tsp turmeric pwd
1 tsp coriander pwd
very small pinch of nutmeg pwd
little less than 1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
1/4 cup pudina leaves
salt to taste
1 teaspoon ghee + 1 teaspoon oil

Biryani masala, make powder:

3 cloves

1″ cinnamon stick

1 elaichi

pinch of shah jeera

pinch of jeera/cumin seeds

small piece of japathri/mace

1/2 anaasa puvvu/star anise

For marinade:

juice of half lemon

1 1/2 tbsps curd

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

1/4 tsp red chilli pwd

1/2 tsp coriander pwd

few mint leaves

1 Marinate the vegetables with the ingredients called for ‘marinade’. Keep aside for 20 mts. While this is marinating, work on the rest of the preparation.

1. Wash Basmati rice. No need to soak in water
2. Slice onions
3. Chop tomato
4. Pick pudina leaves and chop the coriander leaves
5. Prepare biryani masala pwd
6. Beat curd to form thick buttermilk

2 Heat 1 tbsp oil + 2 tbsps ghee in a pressure cooker vessel, add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, marathi mogga, elaichi and saute for a few secs. Add sliced onions, saute for 7-8 mts. Add the ginger garlic paste and coriander-pudina leaves and saute further for another 5 mts.
2 Add turmeric pwd and red chilli pwd, saute for another 2 mts. Add the chopped tomatoes and saute for 3-4 mts. Add the marinated veggies along with 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Cook covered. Turn off heat and cool. Remove lid and you will find that it will appear like a thick gravy. If the gravy appears very watery, cook further without lid till it forms a thick gravy.
3 Turn on the heat again, add 3 cups of water and 1 cup of thick buttermilk. Add the biryani masala and nutmeg powder followed by salt. Add the drained basmati rice and combine. Wait for the gravy to boil once and adjust seasoning. Cook covered till rice is soft. Serve hot with raita.