Mexican Rice Bowl:

One of the much-loved foods for my daughters is the Californian Burrito rice bowls. It is a healthy, balanced meal which has protein, carbohydrate, good fat as well as all the goodness of vegetables. As  rice eaters, it used to be our choice as a go to meal.

When my daughters asked me to replicate their favourite meal at home, I tried my best to attain the taste and it was turned into a super hit and it got a thumbs up from everyone. So, thought of sharing my recipe in my blog as well.

Here, I have teamed up garlic – celery flavoured rice , Red beans/ dry rajma , pan roasted capsicum – zucchini, Tomato – sweet corn salsa , Avocado guacamole, and healthy sour cream by mixing hung curd with little mayonnaise.

Let us see how I made this: For 4 servings

For Garlic – Celery Rice:

Rice – 1 ½  cup (small grain rice)

Butter – 1 tablespoon

Garlic – 6 ( sliced)

Celery greens with stalk – 2

Salt , pepper

Method:

-Wash rice, Boil 6 to 8 cups of water in a vessel , add little salt, 1 tsp of oil. When it starts boiling, add rice, cook for 7 to 8 min ( al dente ). Drain the starch , cool, and keep aside.

-For seasoning, take one wok, heat butter, add garlic, chopped celery, and toss until it is done. Add little salt, pepper powder, and mix in cooled rice. Adjust the seasoning.

For Dry Rajma/ Red beans:

Rajma/ Red kidney beans – ¾ cup

Butter – 1 tbl sp

Onion – ½

Tomato – 1

Garlic – 4 cloves (sliced)

Cumin powder – 1 tsp

MDH  curry powder – 1 tsp (or any other masala of your choice)

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Salt

Chopped coriander leaves – 1 tbl sp

Method:

-Take a short variety of Kashmiri Rajma. Soak for 7 to 8 hrs. Cook soaked beans in sufficient water for 6 to 8 whistles in a pressure cooker. Remove the content and do the seasoning.

-take the cooker, add butter, fry garlic and onion, add turmeric, red chilli powder, Curry powder, cumin powder, salt and if you prefer add pinch of sugar as well,  fry for 2 min and add chopped tomatoes.

-When tomatoes become mushy, add cooked rajma, close the lid, switch off after the first whistle.

-Open the lid, keep it in a simmer to drain, remaining water content. When it is semi solid, garnish with coriander leaves and switch off.

For Pan roasted Capsicum – zucchini :

Capsicum – 2 (diced)

Zucchini – ½ (diced)

Onion – 1 (diced)

Salt , seasoning of your choice or red chilli flakes or slit green chilli

Olive oil or butter

Method: Heat oil or butter, if you are adding green chilli, add now. Then diced veggies and toss until it is half cooked, sprinkle salt and preferred seasoning.

For Sweet corn – Tomato salsa:

Cooked sweet corn – ½ cup

Tomato – 1 big

Onion – ½

Green chilli – 1

Salt

Lemon – ½

Chopped coriander – little

Method: Chop onion, tomato , green chilli into tiny bits ,add salt, lemon juice and mix. Garnish with chopped coriander.

For Guacamole:

Recipe is here 

For low calorie Sour cream:

Take a 2 tbl spoon of hung curd, mix it with garlic mayo and beat a little.

How to Assemble:

Take one wide bowl, serve 1 serving spoon of prepared rice, then beans, roasted veggies, salsa in a circular manner. Top it with Guacamole and sour cream and serve with couple of tortilla chips or without chips.

Guacamole / Mexican Avocado or Butter fruit dip:

I tasted my first fresh and authentic Guacamole which was prepared by a native Mexican couple in Key west during my recent trip. Personally, I had never liked it before. It was by accident that we spotted a cart over there, due to my tiny niece who loves her dose of Guac at any time of the day, and that is the reason why we picked up one.

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We got an opportunity to taste Authentic key lime pie and visited “Peppers of Key west” which is a small pepper bar. We sat at the pepper bar and did a taste test as well. They had more than thousands of varieties of sauces and dips with spice levels ranged or ranked from 0 to 10 and my daughters and sister who enjoyed this tasting session earned their ” I have the Hottest tongue in this island” badge as well.

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At Mallory square, one will get to see lots of things like Magic shows, tarot reading or some amazing food in different kinds of carts. We browsed a bit and decided to taste Budapest special Chimney cake, Caribbean grilled corn and this Guacamole. After all these experiences and eating sessions, we enjoyed the sunset over there.

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Now we will see how I tried to replicate their recipe and I want to dedicate this recipe to that couple.

Ingredient:

Avocadoes/ Butter fruit – 2 (small size)

Garlic cloves – 5 to 6

Crystal cooking salt – as needed

Tabasco chilli sauce – 1 tea spoon

Tomato ketch up – 1 teaspoon

Tomato – 1 (big)

Spring onion greens – 2 table spoons

Fresh Lemon juice – as needed

Method:

-Make a paste of garlic, salt and Tabasco sauce by using pestle and mortar.

– it should be like a semi ground paste and it takes little time and energy of yours.

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-Now cut open the fruit, remove seed and scoop out the flesh and mash this into fine texture.

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– Mix in tomato ketch up and ground garlic and salt paste.

-Garnish with finely chopped spring onion, tomato and juice of lime .

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Serve fresh with tortilla chips or with some other choice of yours.