If we'd not turned in so late the night before, perhaps we could have woken up at a decent hour for grocery shopping. Instead we found ourselves barely making it in time for my niece's baptism ceremony at 11 am which was followed soon after by a luncheon. When lunch ended, I found myself running back to back with another appointment. My daughter's Music Appreciation workshop!
If I'd not forgotten that it was to take place on that very Sunday itself, I would not have even ambitiously called for dinner guests on a Sunday evening. The good thing about being in motion and at a harried pace too is that there is hardly time to dwell on the "Ifs" and "shouldafs". When all was finally set and done, it was 4.30 pm. Our guests were due at 7 pm and we'd not even shopped for groceries yet!!
Decisions, decisions! I had 2 options at this point : (1) Stubbornly strive for a home-cooked meal; OR (2) Just go out to eat ( as would be the logical thing to do). Our buddies being old chums from way back when wouldn't have minded either way.
In the end, stubbornness prevailed over convenience and this is what we had for dinner!
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| Lemon spiced rice with grilled lamb chops topped off with a mango salsa and green kiwi and cucumber raita |
First, I marinated some lamb chops with the following ingredients for the BBQ grill. This way I can still cook when the guests arrive. If I'd ever for a second in the past pondered the merits of purchasing a gas fired BBQ set over a charcoal one, well I can say with much conviction after this - Gas fired BBQ set anyday! The convenience and ease of cooking is so so worth it!
Ingredients for Lamb Chops (10 chops) marinate :
1) 1 tbsp black mustard seeds
2) 3 tbsp whole grain mustard (from the bottle)
3) 1 tsp turmeric powder
4) 2 tbsp coriander powder
5) 1 tbsp oil
6) 2 tsp sea salt
I roughly pounded ingredients 1-5 above and mixed in some oil to form a paste. Sprinkled the sea salt over the lamb chops and marinated for as long as possible. Given my circumstances, the chops were marinated for nearly an hour.
When the guests arrived, all I had to do was fire up the grill and grill the lamb chops for about 10 minutes. 5 mins on each side and ready to go.
Lemon Spiced Rice :
For those of us who own rice cookers, you'll have to agree that rice is the easiest to whip up when you're in pressed for time. I thought that lemon spiced rice would certainly spruce things up a little.
Ingredients for Lemon Spiced Rice:
1) 1 3/4 cups of basmati rice
2) 1 tsp of cumin seeds
3) 10 curry leaves (fresh from the garden)
4) 4 cardamom pods
5) 1 cinnamon stick
6) The juice of 1 lemon
7) 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
8) 1 tbsp of butter
9) 1 tbsp of oil
10) 2 cups water
11) Salt to taste
I sauteed cumin seeds, curry leaves, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick in a tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of butter in a pan. When the sauteed spices releases a fragrance (after 2 -3 minutes), introduce the washed and drained rice into the pan and give a little stir. Add the 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder and the lemon juice (you don't have to use all the lemon juice if you don't want your rice to be too sour - just grate some of the lemon zest in for some lemony flavour) . Add in some salt (I used 1 and a half teaspoons here) to your liking and toss the rice mixture around for 2-3 minutes. Next pour this mixture including the 2 cups of water into an automatic rice cooker and you're set. Rice comes out perfect and you don't have to watch the flames or stand there stirring the pot!
And while the rice was cooking, I found time to quickly chop up some fruits and vegies for a cucumber and kiwi raita and mango salsa which was the perfect accompaniment for this combo.
Note : Recipes for the raita and mango salsa up next.
P/S : No pictures for food prep as I hardly had time to breathe. But this is one combo that I would like to revisit at a more leisurely pace.
