En-thali Delicious.

As is de rigeur in my house these days, I decided to utilize the scraps left over from last night and also to decimate some of the odds and sods in the deep recesses of the refrigerator.  I had some turmeric rice and some aloo dum left - I decided to just reheat the spuds, but my intention was to make some egg-fried rice.  I also had half a cucumber, half a tub of yoghurt and a single corn on the cob.

Spying some moong dal lentils on the top shelf I decided to make a bit of a mish mash of curries, or as they call it in India a "thali".  Thali, in Hindi, literally means plate.  A thali is invariably vegetarian, or carnivorous and usually consists of up to 5 or 6 dishes with a yoghurt or chutney included, bread, is of course, mandatory.

So, along side my rice and potatoes I made a dry Sindhi-style moong dal and a cucumber raita.  The corn I would throw into the karahi with the rice.

Without the raita I think this selection would not have worked.  It really needed something to focus the other components.  I was really pleased with the combination of flavours and textures.

Vegetarian Thali

I will give you the recipe for my:

Cucumber Raita

•   In a serving bowl add 250-300g of yoghurt.  Give it a good mix and whisk with a fork to lighten it up.
•   Peel half a cucumber.  Cut it in half lengthways and scoop the seeds out using a teaspoon.  Using a potato peeler pull off long ribbons of paper-thin cucumber and add to the yoghurt.
•   Peel and finely chop a clove of garlic.  Add to the yoghurt.
•   Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the yoghurt.
•   Finely chop about 20 leaves of fresh mint.  Add to the bowl.
•   Add a pinch of salt and a few generous turns of the pepper grinder.
•   Stir to mix it all well.