Want to know

CUCUMBER AND BLACK OLIVES RAITA
Kristina Drociak from Stonyfield farm contacted me recently about their Oikos organic greek yogurt. She asked me if she could send me some free coupons and I could share my experience about Oikos organic greek yogurt with my blogger buddies. I was happy to do so and she had sent me a package with a cute yellow bag and lots of Stonyfield farm organic yogurt coupons. I started preparing raitas with this yogurt. It was very thick and creamy than the regular yogurt. This time I prepared a simple cucumber raita and added some sliced black olives to it. This was a new taste to me and the olives did go very well with the yogurt.

INGREDIENTS:
Thick yogurt, 1 cup.
Cucumber, medium-sized, 1.
Onion, small, 1.
Sliced black olives, ¼ cup.
Salt as per taste.
Cilantro, 2 sprigs.

PREPARATION:
Dice the cucumber and onion into very small pieces. It can also be grated if needed. Remove the cilantro from the stem, wash the leaves and keep aside. Beat yogurt well and add the chopped cucmber, onions, olives, salt, and cilantro and mix everything well. If needed, a teaspoon of water can be added while mixing to loosen it up. Garnish with cilantro and serve this raita with any variety rice or rotis.

VARIATIONS:
Diced red onions, tomatoes, and slices of green chilies can also be added here. I wanted to keep it simple this time, so I have used only cucumber and white Vidalia onions.

Kheera curry, This is the first time I made experiment with kheera. The other day I was talking to my best friend who lives in Texas, she told me about this recipe. First I thought it may not be good but after preparing this curry, I felt it would be difficult for any one to trace the difference between bottle gourd(Sorakaya) and this cucumber. I love it!!! hope you will love it too!!!

Ingredients:
Medium sized pealed and cubed cucumber-2cups
Tomato---------------------1big
Onions chopped------------1 cup
Coconut powder-----------2ts optional
Cumin seeds ---------------few
Mustard seeds--------------few
Ginger garlic paste----------1ts
Oil--------------------------2ts
Chili powder----------------1/2ts
Salt---------------------to taste
Cumin powder-----------1/2ts
Coriander powder--------1/2 ts
Turmeric-----------------pinch
Garam masala------------1/4 ts optional

Method

1. Heat 2ts of oil in a pan.
2. Add Cumin and mustard seeds and allow them to splutter, then add chopped onions and fry the until the onions are half cooked
3. Now, add ginger garlic paste and turmeric and cook for 2 min.
4. Now, add Cucumber pieces and cook by stirring for every 1 min, until all the pieces shrinks to half of its original size.
5. Now add tomatos and cook untill they are finely done.
6. Add chili powder, salt,cumin, coriander powder and coconut powder and cook in a closed pan for about 2-3min and here if u want some gravy you can add water at this point. 
7. After 2-3 min curry is ready to serve, garnish it with cilantro.

It serves as a best combination for roti or rice. Please leveve your comments before leaving!!!!