Tomato Rice with Grilled Tomatoes

 This month always brings in mixed emotions to my mind...birthdays, winding down of a year gone by, a new year to look forward to, the gnawing pain that this is the month that took my father away from us back in 2011 so on and so forth.

This month also brings the family together and I get to pamper my family and feel more pampered. Everybody at home will be calling out for me ...

Looking back in time, so much has happened, I have evolved. I have failed miserably as well

In various situations I decided to stay clear and steer away than get trapped in all the drama that happens amongst "fake friends"
One or two incidents did take a toll on my sensibilities and questioned me umpteen times whether these people mattered to me in any way and whether I was in the right company?

It's sad and I know only one coping mechanism that is to steer far away from such God fearing humans lest my personality changes.

I wish them all well and hope that they will see through the veil of darkness against one another and utilize their time and energy with their conscience as their guide.

 It was hard initially but then such moments against concreted walls teaches us to retrospect.

My recipe despite all odds is some chenna/chick peas in grilled tomatoes, grilled onions and Tomato rice.

 I learnt that rice can be the perfect hero to flirt around with-be it curd  rice, vegetable rice, coconut rice, lemon rice or just tomato rice. Of late as one of my earlier posts mentioned when we cross a thousand bucks of our shopping we are entitled to a free kilo of onions or tomatoes at this supermarket within my radius. Thus having a lot at home, I decided to make tomato rice.

Chunks of at least four to five diced tomatoes were added to some oil in which a tsp. of mustard spluttered, some cumin seeds, a garlic pearl, a pinch of turmeric, a clove or two, some whole or sliced shallots  were sautéed. Once they all got mushy I added a little bit of red chilly powder and salt to taste. Some cooked rice be it ordinary white rice or Basmati was then added to this mushy mix and stirred through and mixed thoroughly. The tomato rice is done.

If you prefer to use ghee instead of the oil please feel free to do so. A bay leaf may also be added to the rice to flavour it. Garnish with sliced green chillies or finely chopped cilantro.

The scooped out tomatoes and onions were halved for the grill and lightly fried over the greased tawa.

Check out on how to make the kadala curry or chickpeas curry in this link
http://potsnpans-peanuts.blogspot.in/2013/05/kadala-curry-healthy-lentil-curry.html?q=chickpeas