Cultivated, Colorful and Casual: Caprese Salad

What is summer without a Salad made with sun ripened tomatoes? While at a gourmet food store I picked up a "Made in India", Bocconcini. This fresh Buffalo Mozzarella cheese is made in Haryana and let me tell you it was impressive!

The beauty of this dish is from the creamy cheese, flavor of the tomato and basil and a drizzle of balsamic reduction....oh its Caprese heaven for sure.

Caprese Salad

Ingredients

2-4 large ripe tomatoes

100 gms Bocconcini

10-12 fresh basil leaves

4 tbsp balsamic reduction (cook 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar down till it becomes syrupy)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Slice tomatoes into thick slices place a basil leaf on the tomato, top with sliced boconcini and drizzle with mixture of balsamic reduction and olive oil. Serve at room temperature. Sprinkle salt and pepper just before serving.

Instant green chilli pickle: Get you chilli fix

Sometimes a new product or idea can spread like fire, which is exactly what happened when the chilli pepper was introduced to the Indian continent by the Portuguese who in turn brought it from either the Caribbean islands or Chile/Brazil.

Indian cooking and Ayurveda are not exactly accepting of "foreign" foods but the green chilli was quickly incorporated into our cuisine and particularly Ayurvedic medicines. The chilli pepper soon pushed aside the black pepper in many Ayurvedic formulations to cure diseases from Cholera to medicated ointments/balms to relieve joint aches. Today one cannot dream of indian cooking without the chilli in its many forms, fresh, dry, powder, marinated...

Last week I visited the produce market several times and each time I picked a batch of green chillies....I cannot understand why I did that considering we don't really consume too many chillies as the boys don't like to eat even faintly spicy foods! It's okay though, as I really needed to make a batch of Instant chilli pickle. Ever since I started eating unpolished brown rice, Jowar berries and ragi rotis...I CRAVE some chilli heat, so I always have a small jar of this pickle in the fridge. It goes well with dal roti/rice or mixed into a salad.

Ingredients

100-150 gms fresh green chillies, washed, dried and cut into small pieces
1/3 cup split mustard seeds
1tbsp Nigella seeds
1/2 cup white vinegar
3tbsp mustard oil or any oil you may have at home
1tsp turmeric powder
2-3 tbsp salt

Method

Mix all the ingredients and stir well. Store in a glass jar, preferably in the refrigerator to keep the chillies crisp. The pickle is ready to consume in a few days after the chilli heat has had a chance to mellow in the salty sour brine.