how to cook goat (mutton) liver | recipe of goat liver fry and fried rice with mutton liver

Goat or mutton liver is not one of my favourite foods. I started eating it when I realised this is the easiest way to get a booster dose of Vit B12 which we tend to be loosing too fast in our stressful life. Stress and Vit B12 (cobalamine) deficiency feed each other and we just can't afford to be deficient in this Vitamin which is not found in any vegetarian source.

The only vegetarian source of Vit B12 is fermented foods, but I am not sure how many people consider fermented foods as vegetarian or if it is considered vegan, going by the way these trends are gaining statures like one of the manic religions. And for some reason many people think I am a vegetarian knowing I write a healthfood blog. I mean they consider vegetarian eating healthy and anyone who is writing about health must be vegetarian. This kind of logic is beyond my understanding, especially when vegetarians eat loads of processed foods and consider it healthy.

But anyway, even mutton liver was beyond my imagination and I could never eat it initially when I started eating meats. I hated the texture and even the smell. Then I started experimenting with the recipes and found a few ways even I like my mutton liver. One of those recipes is a curry patta spiced mutton liver and another mutton liver with coriander greens.

Sometimes the most basic recipes end up being quite nice and this ghee fried mutton liver with just salt and loads of pepper is one of the ways I like it. Just remember to use freshly crushed pepper corns and cook the liver just for about 10-12 minutes or till it is succulent when you cut one of the pieces.

It is very important to know how to cook mutton liver, as wrongly cooked mutton liver may make you hate it for ever. Over cooked mutton liver is chewy and rubbery and under-cooked liver oozes blood. The piece of liver should stop bleeding when cooked, and it is done as soon as it stops oozing. If cooked more it starts getting chewy and you may not like it.

Ingredients

250 gm mutton liver
salt and pepper to taste (freshly crushed pepper, more the better)
1 tbsp ghee

procedure 

Heat the ghee and dump the liver pieces into it. Fry for about 2 minutes and then sprinkle the salt and freshly crushed pepper. Stir fry till the liver pieces start changing colour and stop oozing blood when cut through.

Once done this kind f mutton liver is loved by most people, especially with drinks.

Making the mutton liver fried rice

I sometimes make it in large amount and reserve some of the pieces in the pan to make a fried rice with it, using leftover refrigerated rice.

Just chop the mutton liver pieces into really small bits using a sharp knife or spatula within the pan, sprinkle loads of chopped spring onions and a dash of soy sauce, stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Now add some cooked plain rice, adjust seasoning and mix well while stirring it to cook well too.

Serve hot with some radish slices or any green salad.

In fact this fried rice has also become my way or eating mutton liver. I cut the pieces so small that I don't even realise the texture (that I am not too fond of) but the flavour is great along with spring onions and a dash of soy sauce.

Do let me know if you try this. Adding leftover refrigerated rice is a good way to make such fried rice for two reasons. One, the rice mixes up really well with the vegetables and whatever meat or eggs you are adding. Secondly, the rice starch become resistant and hence the glycemic index drops. So this mutton liver fried rice recipe is a very low glycemic meal. Safe even for diabetics.

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lunch boxes for adults : assembling lunch boxes if you are a rice eater and announcement of the giveaway

With this lunchbox series I got to learn that there are many people who like eating rice in their lunch boxes too. Most people in north India prefer a roti subzi kind of lunch box meal but an occasional rajma chawal, chhole chawal or tahiri is not uncommon.

I love my rice too by the way, and I find it way lighter than the rotis for a meal. Personally rice makes me satiated faster and I need very small amount on my plate. For everyday meals even roti is needed in small serving as we make multigrain rotis always and those are quite filling too.

I observed in some regions rice is such a staple that the plate is full (*read heaped) of rice with just a little amount of vegetables and lentils or meats. All those who have grown up eating that kind of meal find it really tough to balance a rice based meal in adult (*read desk bound) life.

When you are young and active, play some sports you can have a lot of rice and other starches but once you are desk bound, office going and sitting long hours on a chair you better mind your rice and roti both.

So here are a few lunch boxes with rice meals where about 2-3 tbsp of cooked rice is used to make a satisfying filling meal. Balanced rice meals for a desk bound adult, eat more if you run marathons.

All these lunch boxes are gluten free by default.

1. Eggs and vegetables fried rice...

This kind of lunch box is made in my home when in a hurry. Leftover rice (2-3 tbsp per serving) is used to make it a 10 minute meal.

For 2 servings fry 1 cup finely chopped cabbage, 1 cup chopped onions along with chopped green chillies (or capsicum too) and 1 tbsp butter or ghee. Add slat and pepper when the vegetables are translucent, break 3-4 eggs and scramble lightly. Add reheated (in microwave or steamed on the other burner) or freshly cooked rice and mix well, fluffing up the rice as you mix. Add chopped coriander greens or rocket leaves ( I used rucola from garden) or spinach leaves and pack. Some pickle or raita is good to pack along. 

Find karonde ki subzi recipe here.

2. Methi matar paneer tahiri for lunch box...

This Tahiri is a 15 minute meal. One of those meals where you just dump everything together and make a tasty meal, suits me in the mornings when I get up really late.

Two-three tbsp uncooked rice (rinsed), a cup of finely chopped cabbage, 1/4 cup dry fenugreek leaves (these are home grown and sun dried but use kasoori methi if you don't have this), 1/2 cup frozen peas, some paneer cubes (I use about 3/4th of a 200 gm pack), salt, pepper, cumin seeds, turmeric powder and 1 tbsp ghee is dumped into a pressure cooker. 3/4 cup water is added and the mix is cooked till the first whistle blows. Cool, open the lid and pack along with raita/pickle and yogurt or buttermilk. 

It is better to pack some kachumber type salad and pickle with this one.

3. Lemon rice with millet for lunch box...

This lunch box takes about 30 minutes to assemble.

Barnyard or Prosso millet is cooked just like rice, then tempered with ghee, asafoetida, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and loads of chopped curry patta. Turmeric is added to the tempering along with chilli, then it is mixed with the cooked millet, seasoning it well. Add loads of lime juice to make it as tart as you wish.

I packed a quick vegetable stir fry and some karonde ki subzi with it along with roasted peanuts to sprinkle over the millet meal. Buttermilk is a must with this.

4. Multigrain khichdi for lunch box...

Earlier I used to have these multi grain khichdi for lunch almost 3-4 times a week. Now I manage about once a week and sometimes the husband also agrees to have it. He generally doesn't like khichdi but those who love khichdi find it really tasty.

This multi grain khichdi is made with 1 tbsp each of Red Kerala matta rice, barnyard millet, urad daal, chana daal and masoor daal along with 3 cups of chopped marrow and the usual khichdi seasoning and tempering. I make it a point to have a vegetable mash with it, parval ka chokha fits the bill in summer months. Karonde ki subzi makes it delicious.

5. Dal chawal meal in a lunch box...

I crave for hot daal chawal meals sometimes. I have grown up eating dal chawal almost every single day and whenever I manage to make dal chawal with some bhujia I feel really happy. This is a rare lunch box for both of us but we love it a lot.

Peeli daal cooked with arhar (pigeon pea) sourced from I Say Organic is so good to taste as it is unpolished and some of the husk is still attached, giving it a earthy taste. For quick meals I just pressure cook the daal with salt, turmeric powder, pinch of asafoetida and little ghee and serve it without tempering with a little more ghee.

For lunch box I mix the daal chawal and add some bhujia on the side. Kachhe kele ki bhujia or parval ki bhujia is favored with our daal chawal meals. Some diced cucumbers and yogurt make this meal light yet satisfying.


6. Curry and rice for lunch box with lotus stem curry...

This is bhien ki besan wali subzi (lotus stem in chickpea flour spicy gravy) which has become a favourite and we like it even for cold meals.

Topped over plain boiled rice, a generous amount of this subzi makes a delicious meal if you love curry and rice.

7. Curry and rice lunch box with ridge gourd curry...

This would become one of your favourite meals too trust me. The Bengali jhinge posto curry is one of the most favourites of mine. The gravy is made using poppy seeds paste but you can make it using mixed seeds (melon and sunflower seeds) paste too if you don't get poppy seeds in your part of the world.

Plain boiled rice and this protein rich curry is good enough, I packed a boiled egg salad with it just in case.

8. Curry and rice lunch box with marrow chaman kaliya (Kashmiri paneer curry)...

I love chaman kaliya and have learnt to add marrow to it to make it a one pot curry. This way I don't need to cook or serve any other greens on the side. Poured over plain boiled rice this curry tastes great even when cold. I love loads of this curry with a little rice. Nothing else is needed.

Chaman kaliya is made using either milk or whipped yogurt so I don't serve yogurt with it. It is a complete meal in itself. Will share the recipe soon and link it here.

9. Cabbage and sesame fried rice for one pot lunch box ..

This is another 10 minute meal if you have the chopped cabbage and spiced sesame powder. Saute loads of chopped cabbage and chopped onion along with some curry leaves, then add the sesame spice powder and cooked rice. Mix well and pack.

10. Chhole chawal and rajma chawal meals in lunch box...

I can't sign off this post without mentioning my absolute favourite rice meals. Rice and beans are popular in many parts of the world and cooked in different ways. Chhole chawal and rajma chawal are favourites since childhood. We like is spicy.

I like serving some mashed boiled vegetables or steamed vegetables with chhole chawal, and parval ka chokha appears once again.

With rajma chawal there is okra stir fry and cucumber onion pineapple raita.

Note that the portion of chhole and rajma is more compared to rice and the side serving of vegetables is also generous. Making the meal balanced is not that difficult.

Balance it in the next meal if you missed something in this meal I say.

This lunch box series was quite exciting for me. Yes a lot of work also has gone into it, I would never have clicked pictures early in the morning after preparing lunch boxes and packing off the husband to office.

Although all the lunchbox pictures are shot in a couple of minutes before fitting the lid on, I did make some effort to take those to a well lit area and reflect the light too. It was good fun. I wanted a post on snack boxes too but we have run out of time as I had promised to announce the Giveaways in July last week. I am doing so just in the nick of time.

So the winners for the giveaways of this lunch box series are ..

1. The Tupperware steamer goes to Suranga Date
2. The three layered handpainted lunch box from ToveIndia goes to VJ Sharma 
3. Two sets of the steel containers with plastic lid go to Piyush Verma and Nirupama Sunder 
4. A set of two glass bottles fit for carrying buttermilk goes to Navneet

Please provide your mail id in a week so I can inform you about the giveaway if you are reading this. I assume you follow my blog to get this notification too. I will wait for a week before doing another draw to chose another winner if you don't claim yours.

Thanks you for being with me on this journey. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I will keep sharing ideas about lunch boxes whenever possible, your feedback is always very encouraging.

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lunch boxes for adults | vegetable fried rice for dieters, mango salsa and home made yogurt

Someone asked me about lunch box options last month and I started rattling about the various options one can carry to office everyday. I was talking to a new mother who has to leave her daughter to her grandparents before leaving for office, the lunch box is prepared by a part time cook who can prepare only the basic Indian dishes.

One of the challenges faced by working mothers is taking care of their own health and they often find themselves compromising on their own food, mostly to save some time or just succumbing to whatever is available. There is so much to tackle everyday.

As I was talking to this acquaintance, I decided I will do a series of lunch box options with very simple yet tasty recipes that can be prepared easily with limited cooking skills. These lunch boxes have to be healthy and calorie smart, something that is filling, satisfying and energizing for a working day. And yet something that keeps one stick to their dietary goals.

I will be doing a series of lunch boxes for health conscious adults, what kind of lunch boxes to use and what kind of foods to carry in different seasons. In summers one needs to take care of the food that may get spoiled in a sealed lunch box, while in winters one needs reheating the food in office microwave or oven. We will discuss all those concerns one by one.

There is no limit to options but one has to plan smartly, make arrangements for ingredients and instruct the cook accordingly if the food is cooked by a part time or full time cook. There are many who cook their lunch boxes on their own and pack for office, in that case you may need to do some preparation the night before. I would recommend you get some help in chopping the vegetables and keeping them refrigerated in Tupperware containers or Ziplock pouches.

And then preparing a balanced lunch box meal wouldn't be difficult within 20-30 minutes in the morning. Here is a fried rice with mixed vegetables and sesame powder with just 3 tbsp cooked rice used per serving. A mango salsa makes a good accompaniment for such a rice dish and some home made yogurt balances the meal perfectly.

You can get the vegetables chopped finely the previous night, the rice can also be cooked and refrigerated or can be cooked in rice cooker in the morning while you prepare the vegetables. Mango salsa needs to be chopped in the morning, it stays well for about 4-5 hours at room temperature.

Recipe of fried rice (2 servings)

ingredients ...

cooked rice 5-6 tbsp
finely chopped cabbage 1 cup
grated carrots 1/2 cup
par boiled or frozen peas (frozen peas cook faster if they are tender) 1/2 cup
sesame powder 2 tbsp
salt and pepper to taste
garlic powder a pinch
dry ginger powder 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
ghee 2 tsp
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
lime juice or anardana powder (optional)

procedure... 

Cook rice on the side if precooked refrigerated rice is not being used.

Heat the ghee, add cumin seeds and let them crackle. Add the chopped vegetables at once along with salt and pepper. Stir to mix and cover for 5 minutes on low flame.

Add the powdered spices and stir well to mix. Cook for another couple of minutes, add lime juice or anaradana powder if using. Add the cooked rice and sesame powder and mix well. Adjust seasoning and pack.

Recipe of mango salsa (2 servings)

ingredients...

ripe mangoes chopped in small cubes 1 cup
finely diced red onions 2-3 tbsp
finely chopped coriander and mint greens 2-3 tbsp
finely chopped green chillies to taste or red chilly flakes
salt to taste
lime juice to taste if serving the mango salsa immediately
or balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar if packing the salsa in the lunch box

procedure...

Mix everything together and give it a good stir. Pack as required.

I have been setting my own yogurt for years and recently I shifted to making yogurt in an earthen pot. Both of us are so addicted to this home made yogurt set in an earthen pot that we don't eat any packaged yogurt anymore. So much so that Arvind used to get single serving packs of yogurt from his office canteen earlier during his lunch, but now he carries the home made yogurt everyday. That is one good change that we made recently. Even I am eating more yogurt that I used to eat or force myself to eat.

You can always set yogurt in glass containers as I used to do earlier. Let me know if you find it difficult to make your own yogurt at home. I will do a detailed post on how to make yogurt at home using pasteurized milk as that is what we get in cities mostly.

This lunch box is very filling and not at all heavy. When I eat the same lunch I prefer eating the yogurt a little later as a snack. Plain home made yogurt will be much more tasty than the packaged flavoured ones trust me.

There will be more on lunch box options here, stay tuned. And ask any questions if you too want a balanced lunch box meal best suited for you.

The lunch box set featured here is from Tupperware
.

Tupperware is giving away a steamer for the readers of healthfooddesivideshi.com who are following this lunch box series spread across 6 weeks. Just comment on this post saying what are the lunch box options you like generally and what more you would want to learn to make your lunch box more balanced. Please provide your mail id too so I can contact you once the winners are decided.

The winners will be decided on the basis of answers provided in the comment section. So start commenting, this give away is valid for 6 weeks (till end of July), there will be 2 winners and 2 giveaways. The other give away will be announced in the next post in lunch box series.

If you like eating rice there are a few rice recipes that will satiate your rice loving appetite and yet make the meal balanced for you. Try them for lunch box rice meals too if you wish.

This giveaway is open till the end of July 2015, applies within India, apologies for not being able to ship worldwide. 
Please provide your mail id in the comment section so I can get in touch with you.

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