Imagine its a weekend...a Saturday with friends over at your place to watch a game.. You have been planning the menu for days now... gotten it all ready to be popped into the oven at the last minute...you have your cocktail shaker and the drinks in place...your fine linen laid out... music paired perfectly to set the mood...and a gracious you as host of course!!
Everyone is exclaiming over the food you made... (or ordered in).. The entrees of cheese stuffed mushroom, the Antipasti..the Chicken tikkas and the Paneer kebabs,... Cheese balls and the Nachos with cheese...
The main course of grilled chicken, pasta al forno ....or that scrumptious heavenly bowl of Mutton Biriyani...the bite sized cake pops, the buttercream frosted cupcakes... the ghee laden halwa....and the baked rasgullas.. and lets not forget the Mojitos and the bloody mary's , the cosmos and the sex on the beach, the pina colodas, screw drivers or the tequilas!! ;)
Everything is yum yumm yummmm....
You and your friends have eaten, danced..done some head banging to old rock faves, cheered at the game..had your drinks and generally had a terrific time.. At the end of the meal everyone has had three helpings..but are still not satiated... Thats when you know you had a great party!
However, next day ( after the hangover is gone) you feel repulsed at the thought of eating. You want something that will make you feel a little less guilty... a little less naughty. Thats when you start thinking of "Fresh". Its something that everyone craves.. especially after a crazy indulgent weekend..and when you talk about fresh , the color that instantly pops into my mind is green...and the food that one associates with the color green is of course a fresh salad!
Given our sedentary yet busy life styles, our addiction to the idiot box and the easy take out dinners, today, we are eating out a lot more than we used to earlier..and exercising a lot less!
We have forgotten the simple pleasure of riding a bike in the open air, of playing throw with our kids or even something as simple as running!
The result: Obesity and all lifestyle related diseases!
No..I am not going to give more lecture on healthy eating. God knows I should be the last one to preach !! But I do love salads...I can make a salad with almost anything available in the fridge and have a plethora of dressings yumm enough to uplift the simple bowl of green to a different altitude of gourmet freshness bowl altogether....and yes, be patient my dearies, I will share salad recipes here !
But before I wrote this post,I was in a dilemma as to what to name this particular dish...
Should it be a corn salad, a salsa... or what!!?? Technically , it is a salsa..coz salsa is a mix of choppped ingredients and used to eat with anything... but to me salsa is more pureed.. and has to have tomatoes..!
This on the other hand was chunky, not soupy.... yet fresh and light enough to have with nachos or tortillas...
This was Chunky, Colorful. Lovely, gorgeous, and fresh.
And so, after much consideration and wrestling with myself, I decided to call this Corn Pico de Gallo.
My heart led me in that direction. My soul told me it was the right thing to do. My instinct told me to go for it.My stomach told me to get over myself so I could start eating already.My stomach is so bossy sometimes.
Lets start fresh ..
Ingredients:
Fresh Corn 2
Tomatoes (deseeded) 1
Red onion 1/2
Cucumber ( spoon out the seeds) 1/2
Carrot 1/2
Spring onion for garnish
Pear 1
Red apple (Fiji) 1/2
Green apple 1/2
Ginger chopped very finely 1/2 inch
Green chillies (deseeded) 2
Bell peppers ( any color ) 1/2
Parsley for garnish
Mint leaf for garnish
Juice of 2 small lemon
Salt acc to taste
Pepper acc to taste
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Method :
Dice all the vegetables and fruits finely. Try to keep them of an equal size...
Chop the herbs..
Take a bowl, throw all the ingredients together.. toss them well...
Serve !!!
Tastes best as a side to grilled chicken or fish...and I love it with pasta as well!! Or simply gorge on a bowl of it on special slim eating days.... Absolutely easy...and has the perfect blend of sweet, sour and heat coming from the ingredients...
Enjoy!
