In a small restaurant somewhere in India, not so long ago, I spotted an unusual entry in the menu: 'fired salad'. I asked the waiter what it consisted of and he said, 'Oh, that's a mistake. It should be 'fried salad.'' As if that made everything clear.
I didn't order the fried salad so I still don't know what was in it, but I tried making something I thought might be similar and it came out well, so I'm adding it to the cookbook. I added a few chillies to the mix to keep with the Indian theme, but I also added some dill, which isn't Indian at all....it's a good salad, but.
I called it fried summer salad because we had it first in summer.
A couple of potatoes
A couple of carrots
A large green pepper
A small onion
A couple of tomatoes
A cup of sweetcorn
Fresh dill, spring onions and mint
1 or 2 green chillies
Olive oil
A squirt (or two) of lemon juice
Salt
Peel and chopp the potatoes, carrots, pepper and onion. Fry for a minute at a fairly high temperature, stirring well to coat the ingredients with oil, then turn the heat down very low, sprinkle on a little salt and cover the pan tightly. Cook for 20 minutes, occasionaly stirring very gently.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chopped tomatoes, herbs and chillies and add a little lemon juice.