Rice fritters with nigella seeds

The same way one doesn’t need a velvety voice to sing fantastic songs - Dave Faulkner is there to prove it – food doesn’t have to be all fancy and complicated to be good. A simple salad, made with fresh ingredients, can be a wonderful meal. And these fritters, made of leftovers, are delicious snacks.

The original recipe calls for poppy seeds, but since I don’t have them here I used nigella seeds instead - they added a crunchy/earthy/nutty touch to something I ate on a regular basis as a child.

Rice fritters with nigella seeds
adapted from a Brazilian cookbook

2 cups rice, cooked
2 eggs
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Coating:
2 eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
¼ cup nigella seeds
vegetable oil for deep frying

In a bowl, place the rice with the 2 eggs, parmesan, parsley, flour, salt and pepper. Using a fork or a potato masher, smash the ingredients together until well combined.
Take small portions (1 tablespoon) of the mixture and roll into balls.
Place the breadcrumbs in one bowl and mix in the nigella seeds. Place the other 2 eggs in another bowl and lightly beat them.
Dip each ball in the egg mixture, then in the breadcrumb mixture and turn to coat.
Heat the oil in a small and deep saucepan over medium-high heat and fry the rice balls, 3 at a time, until evenly golden.
Remove from oil and place on paper towels.

Serve hot.

Makes about 20

Roasted squash salad with tahini

My husband thinks I’m funny. He tells me that all the time – maybe I am. I find it a good thing, actually.
One of the things that make him laugh is when I almost scream “God I gotta eat that” while going through my cookbooks. Depending on the “reading”, I say that quite a lot.

I saw this salad on a book Monday night and more than quickly wrote down the ingredients I needed to buy, in order to make it for dinner last night. I made 2 changes: used lime instead of lemon and nigella seeds instead of black sesame seeds.

I bet Joao can’t tell you how many times I said “this is delicious” while eating the salad. Really – I stopped counting at the tenth.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Rinku, from the blog Cooking in Westchester.

Roasted squash salad with tahini
from Marie Claire Easy

1 small butternut squash
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to season
3 tablespoons tahini
½ cup plain yogurt – I used non-fat
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon lime juice
3 ½ cups arugula (rocket)
1 large handful flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 tablespoon nigella seeds

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Peel the butternut squash and cut it into large chunks. Toss it in the oil, season with salt and pepper and then put the chunks on a baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes, or until the butternut squash is tender, then allow it to cool.

To make the dressing, mix the tahini, yogurt, cumin, garlic and lime juice to a smooth paste; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss the arugula and parsley leaves together and pile them onto a serving plate. Top with the roasted squash, add a spoonful of the dressing, and garnish with a sprinkling of nigella seeds.

Serves 4