Carrot salad – Keralan style!
So, if the tagline for my blog is about burgers and steaks, why on earth am I banging on about salads and side dishes? I hope you don’t think I have lured you here under false pretences but I really must share with you my love for fresh zingy vegetables. My husband calls me the queen of salads. I can think of other things I might like to be admired for but, hey ho, I am not so choosy these days. Anyway, on to the recipe – this dish will pick me up out of even my most narky of moods. My obsession started in Kerala, from where the dish hails, and can also be made with white cabbage or green beans so it is often on our kitchen table. Just splash some oil into a frying pan, add half a teaspoon of mustard seeds and curry leaves (don’t even try to leave them out – you can buy them in Tesco and Asda these days) until the mustard seeds splutter and the curry leaves darken, chuck in a couple of grated carrots, a tablespoon or so of unsweetened desiccated coconut, turmeric, salt, pepper and lemon to taste. Yes, not sure how authentic the addition of lemon is but it really does make the dish sing. And arguably you need fresh coconut but that is far too much effort on a Sunday evening. Delicious with some spiced roast salmon – and beer served out of a tea pot, Keralan style.
tinazdinaz 