Recipe : Bocconcini Salad with Mustard Dressing from "The Sood Family Cookbook"

As most of my friends and family know, I have a ton of cookbooks. My husband jokes that even if I cook 5 recipes from each of my books every day of the year, I will never be able to repeat a dish. However, in reality, I normally end up cooking from memory, concocting something, following a recipe a friend has uploaded on her blog or referring to a few cherished books.

So, when I read about Srivallis Cooking from Cookbook Challenge I thought it was the perfect way to get me motivated into actually using "all" my accumulated recipe books. Not "all" the recipes, but at least "all the books"

So, this recipe goes for the Cooking from Cookbook Challenge - April Week 2

Well, this month, I've just about set up my kitchen and given how badly we were eating during the actual moving process (late meals, greasy takeaways, tons of carbs etc), I'm currently making really light, easy to digest food.

The other day, I finally found Bocconcini in the market and knew I had to make a salad out if it. But, I couldn't find any basil, no matter where I tried. So I decided to combine it with lettuce and cherry tomatoes instead.

Instead of one of my regular dressings, I thought I would try something new. The Sood Family Cookbook is the most recent addition to my Cookbook Shelf, so I started randomly browsing through it and chose a mustard dressing from the book.

The Sood Family Cookbook is a brilliant collection of recipes by Aparna Jain, from various members of her Himachali family. While their roots might be Himachali, the recipes are much more global. She does share a lot of Pahaadi recipes from chaachwale alu and fiddlehead ferns to Rali mili dal and Pahaadi Mutton. The book is divided into Breakfast, Comfort Food (Pahaadi recipes and her favourite family recipes, there are a lot of Manglorean recipes in this section, courtesy her Sister-in-law Nita, the light and healthy section of salads (from where I got this recipe), from near and far (recipes range from I-won't-cook Tagliatelle to Hangover Vodka Pasta and Dushmani Chicken) soups, snacks, chutneys, drinks and desserts.

The index at the beginning of the book is easily color coded - green for veg, yellow for dishes with egg and red for non-vegetarian dishes. There's a very good balance of veg and non veg dishes in The Sood Family Cookbook.

The recipes are quite straightforward and easy to try, so this book makes a great addition to any collection.

Ingredients :
500 gms bocconcini
250 gms lettuce leaves
100-150 gms cherry tomatoes

Ingredients for dressing:
1.5 tbsp mustard oil
1.5 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 tbsp apple cider vinegar (I'd run out, so I used a mix of balsamic and Navsari sugarcane vinegar)
1 red chilli slit
2 tbsp kasundi (Bengali style mustard)
1/2 tsp pepper powder
salt to taste

Method :
Roughly tear the lettuce leaves and place in a serving bowl
Tear the bocconcini into 2 (tearing gives a better texture and flavour than slicing in two) and add it to the lettuce.
Pick up the cherry tomatoes and holding them inside the salad bowl, press slightly (with the tomato facing downward)  and squeeze with youfingers, so they squish a bit and release their juices.
Toss Roughly.

Put all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Whip with a fork until it emulsifies.

Slowly fold the required amount of dressing into the salad, without disturbing or pressing down on the salad too much. Don't overdose on the dressing.

If you want to make a meal of it, serve with warm or toasty bread.