Amy in her new Pool

How else could she cool off in this crazy heat, after playing in the dog park?

Brazilian Rice in my new Le Creuset

Celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary last week, Shankar totally surprised me with a Le Creuset 5 1/2 Qrt Dutch oven! And we had our friends Brooke and John visit from Nebraska and spend the weekend with us. We had an awesome time, my only regret being that I didnt get a chance to cook a good meal for them. I made pancakes and french toast for breakfast and rava dosas stuffed with cheese for dinner one day, but that was it. I was hoping to use my new pot for making something yummy.

And I did make two yummy dishes tonight in the new pot. First I made a Brazilian rice, inspired by this recipe. In the pot, I added a tsp of butter and a tsp of olive oil. To this I added 1/2 a chopped onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic and let it cook. Then I added 1/2 chopped tomato. Once the tomatoes were soft, I added 2.5 cups of water and brought it to a boil. To this I added 1 tsp of vegetarian broth powder and seasoned with salt and pepper. Once the broth was boiling, I added 1 cup of rice and cooked under high heat for 5 minutes and simmered it for another 5. The rice turned out to be very flavorful but in a subtle way and not over power the accompanying curry. Perfectly cooked flavorful rice garnished with chives = Yummy :)

Katogo Matoke from Uganda

I had a non-functional keyboard on my laptop for the past week and has not been able to post on the blog and missed quite a few events. I am back now with a new keyboard, and hope to catch up. 

This recipe from Uganda adapted from here, has the influence of Indians who migrated there. The recipe is simple and doesn't take much time. I heated a tsp of olive oil in a pan, tempered 1/4 tsp of mustard seeds and cumin, and added 1/2 a chopped onion. Once the onions were soft, added 1 chopped tomato along with 2 cloves of minced garlic, grated ginger and a couple of chopped green chilies. To this I added 2 chopped plantains, and a pinch of turmeric, salt, pepper and 1/2 tsp of cumin/coriander powder. Then I added 1 tbsp of peanut butter and 1/2 cup of water. Once the stew boils, I served it with hot rice!