Sweet Corn Pudding for a Mexican Feast!

I wrote this post maybe a year ago, then forgot about it! It really is an amazing side dish, sure to be a hit. 

From left: beef shank in pipian mole, tortillas, chile-lime-garlic pork shoulder, charred onions with herbs, chimichurri, salsa verde, roast chiles, corn pudding, jicama slaw, salsa roja. UTTERLY DELICIOUS.

Food's ready! 

My plate: beef with chimmi and pork with salsa verde. And charred onions on both. I went back for corn pudding afterwards. Several times.

Awhile back, Adam and I hosted out traditional "don't forget we exist" barbecue in our backyard. I think this is the second one--maybe the third? This event is to put ourselves back on the social radar of our not-in-the-ski-house friends, whom we've ignored for six months.

This year was particularly great. Some of my favorite new colleagues were there, plus two baby puppies, one adorable child, and many of our favorite people in Denver. And the food was BOMB. I went with Mexican food, because Mexican food is the most delicious single cuisine on the planet.

Here is a recipe for corn pudding, which was a huge hit. It was eaten up completely by meat eaters and vegetarians alike. It tasted rich and creamy and wildly corn-y.

Corn Pudding for Tons of People (play with the ratios feed a more normal-sized group)
Ingredients
(all the vegetarians put this in their tortillas instead of meat--goes great with the salsa)
20 ears of shucked freshcorn
2 cups of coarse corn meal
2 quarts (or so) of whole milk
1 stick of salted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
salt to taste (about a tablespoon)
Pinch of cayenne (this won't be discernible in the final dish, but will add an element of depth)

What to do:
Cut the kernels off the corn. Use the large, covered pot you plan to cook the pudding in: hold the cob vertically and cut downward, scraping as close to the cob as you can.This is annoying and will take awhile.
Add the two cups of coarse corn meal to your pot with the kernels.
Add the milk and sugar, and a heavy dash (2 teaspoons to start) of salt.
Mix all ingredients together.
Place the pot over low heat and cook, stirring every few minutes, until the corn meal has completely absorbed the milk. If it seems too dry, add more milk and continue cooking.
Add the butter and pinch of cayenne, and stir until completely incorporated. Taste for salt.
Then, look at the consistency and use your judgement--it is a pleasingly pudding-like texture? Play with the cornmeal and milk ratios until it's perfect.
Serve!


Enjoy!

Pad Thai

Pad Thai for a crowd! 

I have been neglecting my recipe blogging this school year--all the post planning-and-grading evening hours I typically spend writing about cooking was suddenly shunted into writing college letters of recommendation for our VERY FIRST graduating class (*tear*). It was exhausting but worthwhile. I was thrilled and proud to have written a letter for my school's very first Ivy League accepted student.l. So work has been crazy busy, but also productive, rewarding, and fun.
During this hectic time, I've been cooking quite a bit--but just haven't bothered to take pictures of anything I made, let alone write it up.
So, I finally remembered with this Pad Thai, which I made last Tuesday night. I have been revising and re-revising my Pad Thai recipe for about a year--and I've finally settled on the definitive version. My recipe is authentic enough in a white-washed way, not crazily intricate or inclusive of impossible-to-find ingredients, like most of the pad thai recipes online written by actual Thai cooks. (The best website for actually-authentic Thai recipes is Thai Table, whose pad thai recipe includes preserved turnip and banana flower.) On the other end of the spectrum are super-whitewashed pad thai recipes, whose egregious, gross Americanizations include using ketchup or including turkey and a fucking slow cooker! No no no. This is Republican-mom recipe whitewashing, what Ann Romney probably thinks is pad thai.
On the Democrat side of fucking-up recipes, you have bullshit of the cider-vinegar, vegan, agave-syrup variety--even calling this "pad thai" is just wishful, deluded thinking on the part of sad, shivery, anemic vegans, consoling themselves with these disgusting fake noodles in the dark, skinny evenings of their empty and virtuous lives.
So my recipe is authentic-enough, makes no attempt at health consciousness, and tastes AMAZING. The one ingredient you need to go to an Asian market for is tamarind paste or tamarind concentrate (the paste is a solid, gummy block--the concentrate is liquid). Although, you can often find tamarind concentrate in a Hispanic market, too--just be careful not to buy the pre-sweetened kind.
All measurements are mere suggestions. I have never measured this. But this is an inexacting recipe--measurements are unnecessary.
This amount feeds 6-8 people. I always make this for a crowd. Last Tuesday I made it for Bachelor Night, for eight-ish people, and finished all of it.
Just halve things if you want dinner for two, plus leftovers.

Ingredients
2 or 3 packages of Pad Thai rice noodles
garlic
shallots
peanut oil
tamarind concentrate
fish sauce (Thai or Vietnamese)
brown sugar
2 or 3 eggs
bean sprouts
crushed peanuts
cilantro
lime
optional spicy stuff of your choice


Step 1: Soak two or three packages of rice noodles. Go buy dried or fresh pad thai rice noodles(you can find fresh in Asian supermarkets. Shout out to Pacific Ocean Marketplace). You can use thin, traditional pad thai noodles(often called "rice stick"), or thicker rice noodles usually used for Pad Seau. Put them in a bowl of room-temperature water with a few drops of peanut oil. Soak while you do everything else. NEVER BOIL RICE NOODLES.

What I usually buy. 

Step 2. Make the sauce (these measurements are estimations). Combine 3/4 cup tamarind concentrate, 1/2 cup packed, light brown sugar (otherwise known as a handful and a half of brown sugar) and 1/2 cup fish sauce. Whisk together until sugar is dissolved. At this point, I include something spicy--a tablespoon of asian chile paste, a big squirt of sriracha, or a teaspoon of cayenne. But spice is optional and to taste.

Step 3: Dice up a BIG HANDFUL of garlic cloves (10-12 cloves) and two big handfuls of shallots. This is the most annoying part of the whole recipe.

Step 4: Cook! Ok, here is what you do: pour enough peanut oil into the bottom of your pot to coat it, then heat the oil up on high heat. When shimmering, toss in your minced garlic and shallot and fry, stirring frequently,  in the oil for about 3-4 minutes. This will infuse the oil with these flavors, and mellow the aromatics out a bit.

Garlic and shallots frying in peanut oil. 

Then, drain your noodles and place them in the hot pan. Use tongs to turn them--they'll slowly soften and cook. After about 3 minutes, add the sauce, then continue turning.
When noodles are hot and cooked, break two or three eggs over the noodles, and turn with tongs some more, until the eggs are broken and softly cooked, clinging to the hot noodles.
Then, toss in two handfuls of white bean sprouts, turn with tongs to incorporate into the noodles.

Step 5--finish! Top the noodles with a cup of crushed peanuts (put cocktail peanuts in a bag and step on them) and a bunch of chopped cilantro (buy one bunch, rinse and chop) (note--in the pictures I have green onions instead of cilantro, because the market was out). Quarter several limes and serve on the side for people to juice onto their portions. Some people might want soy sauce, for more salt. I also serve mine with sriracha, but that's just me.

Mountain of noodles, ready to be attacked. 

My (first) plate. I used thicker rice noodles this time. 

This is a basic, meatless version, but I also love it with shrimp or fried tofu.
Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato, Pepper and Carrot Soup with Spicy Herb Yogurt

I distinctly remember the very first time I had tomato-garlic soup--it was back when my parents were still married, so I must have been somewhere around 3rd or 4th grade. We went out to dinner as a family to this restaurant in Chico called Basque Norte (just googled them--apparently they just sell marinade now), and I ordered the tomato-garlic soup and lamb chops and INSTANTLY REALIZED I LOVE TOMATO GARLIC SOUP.

Ultimately, the night went sour because my Dad was being a dick. (A few years hence we'd be unable to afford dinner out at a nice restaurant, but much happier because my Dad wasn't invited). 

Plus, who needs dinner out? In elementary school I developed my first tomato-garlic soup recipe. Here it is: 

Stir together:

2 cans of Campbell's tomato soup, diluted with water according to whatever the can says

A few vigorous shakes of garlic powder or garlic salt

Boil and serve in bowls or coffee mugs. Sprinkle with Cheez Its as croutons. 

That was great! And my first copy-of-a-restaurant meal recipe.

But in the years since, I've made a far more delicious, complex and wonderful tomato soup recipe. It's a lot more work, though. I start by roasting about 3 lbs of veggies with some balsamic, olive oil, garlic, and a sprinkle of salt. Then, I blend the roasted veggies and add some stock--that's it! This is more a template than a recipe--you could make any kind of vegetable soup by following this basic routine. 

Tonight I made a spicy, herb-y yogurt topping, too.

Ingredients 

For soup

2 lbs Roma tomatoes 

1 package cherry tomatoes 

4 carrots

2 red bell peppers

1 head garlic

2 TB olive oil

2 TB balsamic vinegar

sprinkle salt 

2 white onions

2 cups white wine

2 TB butter

1 piece of bread (anything is fine--sourdough, wheat, white, etc)

6 cups of vegetable stock (I like to make my own--recipe below. But canned or boxed is fine. You could also use chicken stock)

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

Cut the veggies other than the onions. Quarter the Roma tomatoes, chop carrots and peppers into large chunks. Leave the cherry tomatoes whole. Peel a head of garlic. Toss everything together in a large roasting pan. Drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic, and sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of salt. 

Veggies before roasting. 

Place into the 400 degree oven and roast, uncovered, for an hour.

An hour later--the veggies are fragrant, concentrated and soft. 

Remove the vegetables from the oven and set aside to cool.

Melt the butter in a large soup pot. 

Put the two onions in a food processor and blend into a paste. Put them into the melted butter and saute for about five minutes.

Pour the wine into the pot and simmer for about five minutes. 

I used this classy vintage. 

Meanwhile, scoop the roasted veggies and slice of bread into the food processor and blend. You may need to work in batches. 

Roasted Vegetable Puree. 

Add the pureed vegetables to the onions /wine/ butter in your pot. Stir to mix. 

Add vegetable stock and stir--bring to a boil, then turn the heat off. Taste--does it need a teaspoon of sugar to temper the tomatoes? A dash of lemon or some more salt???

Serve with toast, grilled cheese, or anything! 

Spicy Herb Yogurt Sauce

Blend together:

1 large container (32 oz) of 2% Greek yogurt

2 jalapenos, with seeds (remove seeds if you want it less spicy)

1 bunch parsley

handful of basil 

1 bunch scallions 

juice and zest of 1 lemon 

Yogurt sauce--bubbly as a result of recent blending. 

How to Make Veggie Stock

Add--carrots (3?) 2 heads of garlic, 2 quartered onions, then stems of your parley and the ends of your scallions to the bottom of a pot. Sprinkle lightly with salt.  Cover with 8 cups of water and boil, covered, for an hour. The veggies will become tasteless mush while the broths becomes fragrant and delicious. 

(Look in the veggie drawer of your fridge--anything about to go bad? Throw it in the stock)

Veggie stock ingredients. 

I toasted some bread with cheddar to dunk in the soup--YUM.

This was a great winter dinner--warm, flavorful and delicious. It's a bit time consuming, but worth the effort--though, if you're in a hurry, my original tomato-garlic soup recipe is pretty great, too. 

Enjoy!

Thai Squash Soup

Crockpot of goodness.

Thai Squash Soup with  sriracha-lime yogurt. 

I made this for my and my sister's birthday party. I baked tons of beer-yeast french bread, then made stuff that goes well with bread--bleu cheese butter, melted tomatoes, and soup! 

This was super delicious---spicy and warm and toasty-tasting. Winter squash is so yummy in any preparation, even just roasted plain--but this soup made it just fantastic. The cayenne and ginger gave it a lot of heat and the coconut milk made it rich and creamy. This soup also made me feel smugly healthy and all through the party I bragged to people like "have you tried this soup? It's a flavorful play on seasonal vegetables. I love vegetables, don't you?" Then I would smile condescendingly. Then I ate some deep-fried turkey. 

                                                        

Ingredients 

2 large yellow onions, diced 

1 4 inch piece of ginger, minced or grated 

2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste 

2 butternut or acorn squashes 

1 tablespoon olive oil 

1 can coconut milk (not the light kind) 

3 cups vegetable stock 

2 tablespoons soy sauce 

2 tablespoons fish sauce 

juice of 2 limes 

2 tsp cayenne pepper 

I have enough red curry for the next several years. 

What to do 

Cut the squashes in half and remove the seeds. Roast at 350 for about 45 minutes, or until entirely cooked and soft. Remove and allow to cool. 

Cover the bottom of a soup pot with olive oil and saute the onions and ginger until barely browned, about 15 minutes. Then scoop the onions and ginger into a food processor and blitz them into a smooth paste. 

Add a tablespoon more of olive oil and heat the pot back up. Cook the curry paste in the oil for about a minute. 

Add the onions and ginger back in and mix everything up. Turn heat to the lowest setting. 

Peel the roasted squashes and put the flesh into the food processor. Blend up! Add the squash to the onion-ginger-curry mixture. 

Add the vegetable stock, fish sauce, cayenne, lime juice, and coconut milk. Stir everything together and bring to a boil. You are done!

I put mine in a crockpot to keep warm at the party. 

I suggest serving with chopped cilantro, or sriracha lime yogurt (mix some greek yogurt with sriracha and lime).

Homemade sourdough to go with!

Melted Tomatoes

These taste AMAZING.

Melted tomatoes and ricotta on beer yeast bread. 

This summer was my first experience with home gardening--and it was fabulous. I have a year's worth of pesto in my freezer and am a master of no less than seven zucchini recipes (bread, latkes, crisps, pasta ribbons, ratatouille, nut muffins, fritters, strata). We love having a garden--a great way to shake the work-day out of your head is to come home and putz around out there for awhile, inspecting the plants, weeding, rearranging branches, etc.

Our tomatoes have been developmentally delayed--early squirrel attacks set them back a month--so ours are only maturing now--when there's already snow in Summit county! But better late than never. 

the garden

Tomatoes! 

Now that the tomatoes are coming alive, I've been making tons of tomato salad, one of our all-time favorites. But I wanted to try something new, and I've been reading recipes here and there for "melted tomatoes" for years. 

And holy shit--these were UNREAL. Absolutely delicious. Fresh tomato x 100. Fruit-jammy and tangy and rich and deep.
The perfect dinner or lunch is to toast some good bread, spread with a thin layer of ricotta, and top with melted tomatoes and maybe a scattering of crunchy salt. Drink with wine.

How to Make Melted Tomatoes 
Chop some tomatoes into big chunks. Quarter big tomatoes or slice smaller ones in half. Spread into the bottom of a roasting pan, pie pan, or casserole. I don;t think the amount of tomatoes particularly matters--enough to cover the bottom of the pan, but if they fill the pan, that's fine.
Mince several (5?) fat cloves of garlic. Scatter over the tomatoes.
Add two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of balsamic. Toss everything together.
Place in a 210 degree oven for 8 hour, or a 225 degree oven for 5 hours. You could cook these overnight at 210.
Eat however you want! As a condiment on sandwiches, on salads, on top of meat, by itself.

Chopped tomatoes 

Ready for the oven 

Yummmm. Many hours later...

Put the finished tomatoes and all their juice into a tupperware or jar and refrigerate. Should last quite awhile. 

Melted tomato toasts. 

Enjoy! 

Spicy, Smoky Veggie Tacos with Cilantro-Cumin "Crema"

Spicy, smoky, creamy, tangy. 

If you read this blog or interact with me in real life, you know I adore consuming excellent meat.
But--this is not how I eat all day, every day. I don't like having meat during the work day--something about it seems weird and unappetizing. Maybe it's the way meat looks under florescent lights. And it's impossible to pair your meaty lunch with a nice glass of wine or beer, which ruins it. Microwaving braised short ribs in tupperware and pairing them with tap water is disrespectful. Not to mention un-tasty. Stupid teaching job, preventing me from drinking all day.
So I made some yummy veggie taco filling to bring as lunch during the week. I made it SUPER spicy, because I love heat. Then I made a tangy, cooling yogurt sauce to cool it down. The paprika and chipotles lend a rich smokiness. Very strong flavors for a vegetarian meal.

These were delish! Somewhat sloppy, but totally tasty. Plus my students are totally used to seeing food dripped all over my clothes.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 chipotles, chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 red onion, diced
7 carrots, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped (I left the seeds in for more heat)
6 Anaheim peppers, sliced into strips
1 can of black beans, drained
salt, pepper, sugar

What to do
Saute the onion in the olive oil for a couple of minutes. Add the tablespoon of paprika and the chipotles and mix around for a minute or so. Add the can of tomatoes (with juice) and bring to a boil. Add about a teaspoon of sugar. Put the carrots in, cover the pot, and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes to cook the carrots. Open the pot and add the rest of the ingredients--garlic, peppers, and black beans. Mix everything in and allow to cook for about 10 more minutes, until the peppers are just barely done.
Season with salt.
Serve with warmed corn tortillas and whatever sides you'd like (I like lime wedges, avocado, and cilantro-cumin crema).

Taco filling!

To make Cilanto-Cumin "Crema":

Blend 2 cups of lowfat plain yogurt with a bunch of cilantro, juice and zest of 2 limes, and a teaspoon of cumin.

Ingredients 

Finished "creama" 

Enjoy!

Chickpea and Lentil Salad with Coconut Curry Dressing

Fantastic news---I got married! The wedding was a blast, and the first event of the wedding weekend was a barbecue in our backyard that Thursday night. All our friends and relatives who were in town early came over and made merry. We brewed a keg of apricot blond, and I made a ton tried-and-true recipes which are always crowd favorites: smoked brisket, glazed pork shoulder, tomato salad, summer salad.
But: throughout my life, I've accidentally made friends with a number of vegans, vegetarians, people who only eat chicken and no other meat, people who observe Jewish food rules even though they only actually believe in karma, and people who are perpetually embracing whatever new fake-science fad diet is current. These individuals dazzled me with their personalities before I could reject them for their dietary lameness. So, what were they going to eat at the BBQ? I wanted to make something vegan that would be hearty and taste awesome.
So I settled on a curried chickpea salad. I started with one of Mark Bittman's recipes as a base, and improvised a few additions (more heat, more flavor elements, fresh herbs). I tend to love anything including coconut milk, but had never tried it in a salad dressing before.
It was a wild success! This salad came out absolutely delicious and was eaten nearly as fast as the glazed pork. I got more compliments on it than any other dish, and not just from the karma-vegans.
I will definitely be adding this to our regular rotation. It would make great, healthy lunches and is the perfect thing to keep a big batch of in the fridge for the work week.

This was amazing. 

Ingredients 
(This is for a huge amount. Halve the recipe for a more normal amount. Or just eat it all week!)

6 cans of chickpeas
1 1/2 cups of dry lentils
4 shallots
1 can coconut milk (use full-fat, not the light kind)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons curry powder
1.5 tablespoons whole cumin seeds
juice of 3 limes
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce (leave this out if you want the recipe actually vegan)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
dash soy sauce
dash sriracha (or any heat element)
3 jalapenos
1 bunch of cilantro

What to do
Drain and rinse the chickpeas and place in a large bowl. Cook the lentils and add them to the bowl with the chickpeas.
Dice the shallots and jalapenos and add them to the bowl. If you like things spicy, leave the seeds in the jalapenos. If you want it mild, take the seeds out before dicing.
Pour the can of coconut milk into a container (I used an old jelly jar, but a smaller bowl is fine too).
Pour the olive oil into a small saucepan and heat until shimmering. Add the curry powder and cumin seeds and toast / fry in the oil until fragrant--about 2 minutes. Add the toasted spices to the container with the coconut milk. Add lime juice, dash soy sauce, dash sriracha, and the fish sauce (or not). Mix well (shaking works best).
Pour the coconut mixture over the chickpea mixture. Toss to mix. Place in the fridge for at least and hour--this allows the dressing to soak in.
Just before serving, chop the cilantro and mix it in. Add the pecans if you're using them, and mix those in too.
All done!

This was a really, really easy recipe, in addition to tasting fabulous. I can't recommend it enough.

Enjoy!

Rainbow Summer Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

The dressing looks a bit green because the cutting board still had parsley remnants.

Summer produce is so delicious and wonderful, you just want salad all the time. During the summer, I love to keep a big tupperware of a mixed, lettuce-free salad in the fridge to eat with everything. 

This salad contains some of my favorite summer things: sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, herbs. Roasting the corn and red peppers gives extra sweet flavor. I also like to throw a few diced jalapenos in any salad for the occasional burn-bomb.

I don't think people really actually a recipe for salad, but here's what I put into this one: 

Rainbow salad

Ingredients: 

1 cucumber, chopped 

2 packages grape or cherry tomatoes, each tomato sliced in half

4 ears of corn on the cob, roasted, kernels sliced off

2 red peppers, roasted and chopped

2 yellow peppers, chopped

1 bunch spring onions, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

1 bunch Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped

2 jalapenos, finely chopped (I left the seeds in))

What to do

Start by roasting your corn. Rub each ear with olive oil, place them on a cookie sheet, and place under the broiler. As the ears start to look roasty-brown, rotate them. When they're roasted on at least two sides, take them out. Wait for them to cook slightly, then slice the kernels off and put them in the salad bowl. 

Roast your peppers. I use the gas burners on my stove. Poke a hole in the peppers, then lean them up against the flame until their skin is blackened. Rotate to get all sides. Allow to cool, then chop and add to the salad bowl. 

Chop all the other veggies. Add to the bowl. Mix. Add dressing and eat!

I like to serve this over a bed of spinach leaves. 

Mustard Vinaigrette 

Ingredients

3/ 4 cup olive oil 

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

3 TB whole-grain mustard 

2 garlic cloves, minced 

juice of 1 lemon

2 TB brown sugar 

salt and pepper to taste 

What to do: 

Mix all the ingredients in a jar. Screw the lid on, then shake like crazy. Taste for salt and re-season as needed. Pour over salad. 

Fiery Veggie Masala and Cucumber-Mint Raita

This masala is SPICY. 

This is another thing I made for Bachelor-watching Indian Feast night. I wanted to make something seriously spicy to go with raita. Raita is a refreshing yogurt sauce designed to relieve the burn of a tinglingly-hot dish. If I was making the raita, I wanted to really NEED the raita. So I made a basic chana (chickpea) masala with cauliflower, and just loaded it up with jalapenos, fresh red chiles, and cayenne.
If you want a delicious, hearty vegetarian meal without the burn, just halve or eliminate the spicy things in the recipe.
Lastly--raita is a wonderful sauce. So easy to make, and pairs great with any number of things. It takes about three minutes to make.

Veggie Masala of FIRE

Ingredients

• 2 TB butter or oil 
• 2 yellow onions, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced or grated (I blitzed mine in the food processor) 
• a 4 inch, chubby piece of garlic, minced or grated (I blitzed this up with the garlic) 
• 3 TB garam masala spice power
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 1 tsp cumin 
• 2 TB sugar 
• Salt to taste
• 1 large 32oz can of diced tomatoes (or use crushed tomatoes for a smoother sauce)
• 2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 head of cauliflower, chopped up or pulled into florets 
• 3 jalapenos, diced, with seeds
• 2 red hot chiles, minced (note: I bought a bag at the Asian grocery and keep it in the freezer--they freeze great) 
• 1 TB cayenne pepper 
• 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped 

What to do:

Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onions and saute until barely browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garam masala powder, cinnamon,, and cumin, and fry the spices with the onions and butter for about a minutes (this brings out more fragrance and flavor). Add the ginger and garlic and continue cooking for a few more minutes. All the ingredients should be cooking through and your kitchen should smell great. It's ok if the mixture begins to look at bit dry.
Add the canned tomatoes to the pot--don't drain. Mix, scraping up all the spice which may have started burning on the bottom of the pot. Get the tomatoes simmering, then add the sugar, chick peas, cauliflower, jalapenos, chiles, cayenne, and a dash of salt. The sugar helps the tomatoes "meld" and gets rid of the metallic "canned" taste.
Cover the pot and let everything simmer on low for about ten minutes.
Taste--does it need salt? Do you want it even spicier? More sugar? Season to taste.
Allow to cool slightly. Mix in the chopped cilantro.
 Serve with raita!

Finished!

Cucumber-Mint Raita

Ingredients
1.5 cups of plain yogurt (don't use nonfat)
half of a cucumber, grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
3-4 TB (a small handful?) of mint leaves
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste

What to do

Put the yogurt in whatever container you plan to use.
Toast the cumin and fennel seeds in a dry pan. To do this, get the pan hot and add the seeds. Shake the pan a bit to prevent burning. They should be toasted in about a minute. Add to the yogurt.
Grate your half cucumber and add to the yogurt.
Chop the mint finely and add to the yogurt.
Juice the lemon and add to the yogurt.
Sprinkle in a pinch of salt.
Mix everything.
You have raita!

Finished raita!

Yum.