Pudina pacchadi(Raita)

Simplicity is a virtue. Be it a human’s character or a food’s preparation. Exotic is good and fun for a change, but definitely not for keeps. A man could be a great fan of Aishwarya Rai, but isn’t the simple girl next door his true love?(unless, of course, the man happens to be Abhishek B ) Likewise, eating out is fun. But, is not simple dal-chawal or thair samdam (curd rice) the ultimate comfort food?

A simple yet elegent companion for your favourite rice treat. That is the way I would like to introduce this pachaddi. No hard work, minimal cooking time, but unequalled satisfaction to the tongue. Looking to make a quick side dish to go with your meal? This is it! So friends, keep it simple, keep it sweet and before I start sounding too much like Sandra Lee and you think I am making something semi-homemade, here goes:

Mint leaves – a bunch

Curd – 3 cups

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

Udad dal – 1 tsp

Hing – a pinch

Oil – 1 tsp

Salt – to taste

Chop up the mint leaves coarsely. Heat up some oil and add the mustard seeds. Once they splutter add the udad dal and hing. After the dal browns up, add the mint leaves and cook for a minute. Add the curd and salt after it cools down. Now, simply serve it with rice or paratha.

Poli

I had made poli on bhogi, the first day of pongal. A good friend read out the recipe from her Samaithu paar (cook and see) part I by Meenakshi ammal. I have made poli before, but I always had problems working with the maida. Hoping to get a better result this time, I heeded the book’s advice of adding all that oil that it recommended to make it more workable. The dough worked well but the filling was not upto the expectations. Why?  because, the recipe suggested that the chana dal be cooked well and then the excess water removed. Smart that I thought I was, I cooked the dal in minimum water and didnt realize that some portions of the dal though cooked, remained hard until it was too late to go back and correct it.

For the filling:

Uncooked chana dal – 1 cup

Jaggery – 1 cup (I used less since we prefer  it that way)

Cardamom – 1 tsp

Ghee – 2 tsp (The recipe did not list ghee. Just my choice)

For the dough:

Maida – 2 cups

Salt – 1/2 tsp

Turmeric – a pinch

Sesame oil – almost 1/3 cup

Water enough to make a soft dough

The method is same as what you would find here or here.

                                     

Filling cooked to the right consistency (Click to expand)

The verdict: The poli was actually pretty good since the grinder did a good job of hiding my stupidity. The next time, I will try adding some atta alongwith the maida.

Pudina (Mint leaves) Vatral kuzhambu

Vatral kuzhambu or more commonly called vetha kuzhambu is a sambhar-like preparation made without the use of any cooked dal. It is a spicy concoction made with lots of tamarind, typically one vegetable and of course some spices. Though traditionally, dried vegetables (vatral) like sundakkai and manathakalikkai were used to make this kuzhambu (hence its name), baby onions, egg plant, potatoes, carrot, radish or any other fresh vegetable or even  a combination of vegetables can be used. Venkaya (baby onion) vethakozhambu happens to be my and almost everyone else’s favourite. Pudina (mint leaves) and vendiyam (methi/fenugreek leaves) come a close second for me.

Here’s what you need:

Mint leaves – A big bunch

Tamarind – 1/2 cup thick extract

Turmeric – 1/2 tsp

Sambhar pwd – 3 tbsp

For tempering:

Sesame oil – 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Hing – 1/3 tsp

Red chillies – 2-3 nos

Tur dal – 3 tsp

Chana dal – 2 tsp

Methi/ fenugreek seeds – 2 tsp

Curry leaves – about 10

Salt to taste.

Always use sesame oil for vethakuzhambu. It just tastes a whole lot better. Heat up the oil. Add Mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add the dals, red chillies, methi and the hing. [The block hing (the one sold as a block-not the powdered one) tastes better. Powder it coarsely before adding it to the oil.] Once the dals turn brown, add the curry leaves and the sambhar pwd. Saute for just about 5 seconds and add the mint leaves. Saute for a minute or so till the mint leaves turn dark green and reduce in volume. Add the turmeric,tamarind extract and salt. Tamarind concentrate does not taste as good in this recipe. Add some water and let this boil up for about 15-20 minutes. Add more water later if needed. If the kuzhambu gets very watery, just dissolve some rice pwd in water and add the paste. Boil until it thickens up to the required consistency.

Vethakuzhambu easily keeps for about 15 days in the refrigerator. In fact it tastes even better as it gets older. So, make sure you have made enough to last at least a couple days! Mix it with rice and a drizzle of sesame oil or eat it with curd rice – but eat with your hand and not the spoon, for, the hand smells divine long after the meal is digested.

 

Gol Gappa

Gol gappa if you are in Delhi or Pani poori elsewhere. That’s what it was (previous post). Nothing to do with the diwali treats as many of you guessed. I was trying to make my own pooris. At first, I decided to call amma, who BTW makes amazing pani pooris,  but it was 3 a.m in India and it has been ages since I called amma at that hour (yes, have done this numerous times during my school days). Did’nt want to scare her this time. I found all these recipes online, but was not sure which one would work best. So, I just decided to try all of them and made dough enough for 3-4 pooris for each recipe. Having tried all these recipes, the winner was…..actually none. Most of them did not puff up. If they did, they did’nt stay crisp. I was disappointed and finally had to call 911(U-Know-who). This is what was instructed to me:

Soak 1 cup sooji in water just enough to wet all the grains well. Let it soak up for 10 minutes. Once the grains turn soft, knead the sooji well by rubbing the dough to the vessel with your palm. It turns to a creamy while color. Add 1 cup maida, 2 tbsp atta and 1 tbsp rice pwd and salt. Add enough water to make a stiff dough. Roll into small round bite-sized pooris and deep fry them in medium – low heat for about 7-8 minutes, 3-4 minutes on each side. If none of the poories in the 1st batch puff up, add little more water to the dough and soften it up. Most of my poories puffed up and stayed crisp. Needless to say – I was elated!

Pani:

Mint leaves – 2 bunches

Cilantro – 1/2 bunch

Green chillies – about 6 (reduce the amount if needed. I like it spicccccy)

Dry ginger powder - 1 tsp

Black pepper powder – 1 tsp

Hing – A pinch

Salt – 1 tsp

Black salt to taste

Cold Water - 4-5 cups

lime juice – 2 tbsp

Grind the leaves and chillis in a blender with water. Strain out and add the dry ingredients. Add about 5 cups of water, salt it up with kala namak / black salt and add lime juice. Taste it and add water or salt as required. Intead of the dry ingredients, you could also add a couple spoons of pani poori masala. Pani should be served cold. Refrigerate before-hand or add ice for immediate use.

Khatta meetha chutney: There are two ways of making this:

Method 1:

Tamarind- 1/4 cup

Jaggery – 1/2 cup

Chilli pwd – 2 tsp (again, reduce heat if you cant take spice)

salt – 1 tsp

black salt – 1 tsp

jeera pwd – 2 tsp

Boil Tamarind and Jaggery in water till the raw smell goes. Add the dry spices and strain it. I like the chutney a little thick. Add more salt or water if needed. I like to make extra chutney and store it in an empty ketchup bottle for later use. This goes well with samosas, puffs, bread rolls, cutlets etc.

Method 2: This is healthier and tastes just as good

Dates – 1/2 cup

Tamarind – 1/2 lime sized ball

Aamchur pwd – 2 tbsp

Chilli pwd – 2 tsp

salt – 1 tsp

black salt – 1 tsp

jeera pwd – 2 tsp

Boil the Dates and tamarind. Add the dry ingredients and strain.

Potato-chickpea filling:

Potatoes – 2

Chickpea soaked and boiled in salted water - 1/4 cup

Cut potatoes to small pieces and boil in salted water till done.  Drain and mix it with the chick-pea. Add salt and chilli pwd to taste.

To assemble: Break the thinner side of the poori with your thumb. Fill 3-4 pieces of the potato mixture. Pour a little khatta-meetha chutney. Dip it into the pani and fill it up to the brim. Put it into your mouth as it is without biting. Enjoy!

So? what is the curd is doing in the photograph? It is an answer to another question. What do we do with the poories that did not puff up? First, we start by changing their name to papdi and then make a quick papdi chat. Dip 5-6 papdis into the pani and arrange it on a plate. On each papdi place some of the potatoes. then pour some salted, churned curd. Drizzle the khatta-meetha chutney on top. Garnish with little chilli pwd, jeera pwd and chopped cilantro (Sorry, no photographs here).

Diwali treats Part II

Mixture: This was the most time consuming. It has 7 parts to it: oomapodi, boondi, maida biscuits, aval, curry leaves, peanuts and seasoning

1. Oomapodi
besan 1 cup
salt to taste
oomam (ajwain) – 1 1/2 tsp
turmeric – 1 pinch
oil for frying
Mix all the ingredients to make a soft dough. Transfer it to the achchhu and fry in batches

2. Boondi:
Besan – 1 cup
salt to taste
chilli pwd – 2 tsp
turmeric – a  pinch
hing – a pinch
Soda-bi-carb – a pinch
Make a batter using water with the above ingredients. You can use a boondi karandi (a big flat ladel with holes) or a plate/colander if you dont have one. th eholes should be about 2-3 mm in diameter. Hold it over the hot oil and pour a spoonful of batter on it. Now spread the batter on the karandi as if making a dosa and the drops that fall down should fry up into nice round boondis. For checking the consistancy, test fry with little batter first. If the boondis turn out pear shaped, then more water needs to be added and if they are too big and stuck together, you may need to add more besan. Trial and error is the way to go

3. Maida biscuit:
I am not sure if it has any other name, but that’s what we call this at our place. This is the best part of mixture in my opinion
Maida – 1 cup
rice pwd – 2 tbsp
salt – to taste
Oil for frying
Make a soft dough with the roti dough consistency and roll it out to the thickness of a thin roti. You do not have to be precise about the shape here. Use a knife or a pizza cutter and cut out diamond shapes. Deep fry the biscuits and make sure they are crisp before removing them from the oil
Deep fry (4) 2 cups of Poha, (5)1/2 cup of curry leaves and (6) 1 cup peanuts. Crumble the oomapodi and add together items 1 through 6.  Heat up 1 tbsp oil. Mix salt, chilli pwd and hing on a plate and pour the hot oil over it. Now, add this to the mixture and season it uniformly.
Thattai: I was not around whan MIL made these, but got the recipe from her.

Rice pwd – 1 cup
Udad pwd – 1 tbsp
Chilli pwd – 2 tsp
Til – 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter – ¼ cup
Mix the Rice and Udad pwd. Add softened butter and mix it well with you hands till you get a crumbly mix. Add the chilli pwd, til and salt and make a soft dough with water. Heat up the oil for frying and make small flat discs with the dough. The best way to do it is to use a thick plastic sheet or cloth. Deep fry in batches of 5-6 and store in an airtight container.

Gulab jamun – used the GITS mix

Ribbon pakoda: My achchhu did not have the perfect ribbon making option, so I decided to go with a plain, thin slot.
Besan – 1 cup
Rice pwd – 1 tbsp
turmeric – 1/4 tsp
chilli pwd – 1 tbsp
salt to taste
Oil to fry
Make a dough with all the above ingredients using water. Transfer to achchhu and deep fry

Thenguzhal:
Rice Flour – 1 cup
Udad flour – 1/2 cup
Jeera – 2 tsp
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Hing – 1/4 tsp
Oil for frying
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Heat up the ghee and add it to the flour and mix it up with your hands. Add enough water to make a soft dough. The consistancy: should be tight enough to retain a depression made with your fingers and soft enough to let the dough pass easily through the achchhu (I will post a picture for those of you who do not know what it is – its like a pasta press). Transfer the dought the achchhu. Heat up oil and fry up the thenguzhal in batches till done.

Gajar Halwa:
Carnation condensed milk (or any other brand) – 1 can
Carrots – 1 lb 
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cardamom pwd – 1 tsp
Almonds, raisins, cashews – 2 tbsp each or according to taste
Grate the carrots using a medium sized grater. In a pressure cooker (or any thick bottomed skillet), add a tablespoon of ghee or butter. Put in the condensed milk and grated carrots. And stir it till all the water content evaporates. This may take about an hour. Keep stirring it so that it doesn’t get stuck to the bottom. Once done, heat up some ghee in a small pan. Add sliced almonds, raisins and halved cashews. Fry them for a bit till the raisins puff up and the nuts turn a little brown. Put it into the halva. Add cardamom pwd to the halva and stir it up well. Though I have never tried, my guess is this should work well in a microwave as well. It will take a lot less time. Just make sure you use a big glass container

and, last but not the least! My latest creation for my little one for Diwali….

Mysore Sambhar

One of my favourite cookbooks DAKSHIN, by Chandra Padmanabhan had been lying on the counter- top without being used for a long time. I got this as a gift from my MIL 2 years back and have tried various recipes from this book with wonderful results each time.  This recipe for Mysore sambhar always caught my attention, since this was a new recipe to me. The only reason I had not tested this was because there was no tamarind in the list of ingredients and sambhar sans tamarind……hmmm? Yesterday, however I decided to go for it. I couldn’t help but add a little bit of tamarind never-the-less. I was quite impressed with the outcome. Though, the tamarind did add that little bit of taste that I like, I am pretty sure the recipe would have been as good if not better even without it.

Tur Dal  - 3/4 cup uncooked

Water – 3 cups

Beans – 1 2/3 cups

Potato – 1 medium

Green peas – 1 tbsp

Tamarind – 1/2 lime sized ball

Turmeric – 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

For the paste:

Dhania  - 1 tbsp

Grated coconut  - 6 tbsp

Hing -  1/2 tsp

Methi (fenugreek) seeds - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Raw rice (soaked) – 1 tbsp

Red chillies – 6 nos

For tempering:

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Cumin - 1 tsp

Red chilli – 1

Curry leaves – 5-6 nos.

Cook the dal and soak the rice in water for about 15 minutes. Cut vegetables to about 1 inch size and boil in water. Add the tamarind and salt when the vegetables are half cooked and let it boil up together till the vegetables are fully cooked. Make a fine paste of all the ingredients listed with minimum water. The original recipe did not have methi (fenugreek) seeds, but I decided to add some for the flavour. Add turmeric and the paste to the veggies and let it simmer up for about 5 minutes on medium flame. Next add the dal and cook the sambhar for another 3-4 minutes. Temper with Mustard, cumin, red chilli and curry leaves and serve hot with rice.

Vendakkai pacchadi (Bhindi raita)

Microwave has slowly become a default appliance in everybody’s kitchen. It has made life easy and saved time for every house-hold around the globe. Though it is mainly used for re-heating food, simple preparations can be prepared without much effort. In fact, a friend of mine uses the microwave for making everything including sambhar, rasam and curries. Though I am facinated by her methods, I am comfortable cooking the conventional way and using the microwave just for certain things. I love making appalam (papad) and vadams in the microwave. Just rub a little bit of oil on the papad and microwave it for 30-40 seconds and they look like they have been fried…well almost. But who cares? It helps me reduce my oil intake. My mom was totally against the use of microwaves a few years back, but now she has started teaching me recipes to make better use of my machine. This pacchadi is one of her recipes too. The bhindi stays crisp and crunchy for a long time after adding the curd. Here’s what you need

Bhindi – about 15

Curd – 1 1/2 cups

Salt – to taste

Red chilli pwd - to taste

Oil – 2 tsp

For tempering:

Rai - 1 1/2  tsp

Udad dal - 1 tsp

hing - a pinch

Cut the Bhindi and add oil and 1/2 of the required salt to  it.  Mix it well so that all the pieces are coated with oil and salt evenly. Put this in a microwavable glass container and microwave it on medium power for 4 minutes. Always use glass. Plastic will melt! Here is how it looks after 4 minutes.

Now add the remaining salt and chilli pwd and mix well. If you like the bhindi to look deep fried like I do, microwave for another 4 minutes. It will turn black but dont worry, it will taste great. If you would like to retain the green color, microwave for 2.5 to 3 minutes. It will still be as crisp.  Here is my charred bhindi.

Temper with rai, udad dal and hing.  Add the curd just before serving.

Khaman

GUJARAT. The place. The beauty. The people. The language. The festivals. The food. What can I say? I can never get enough of it. I spent most of my growing years in Ahmedabad and Baroda. This place has a rustic charm that you learn to love. The simplicity, straightforwardness and hospitality of the people you learn to respect. The language in its various forms is beautiful. The colors of the festivals especially garba during Navratri is enchanting and the food….oh I am lost for words now. A lot of people from other places do not like the sweet that goes into every food item that is prepared, but the taste grows on you slowly and it stays. In fact a lot of times, preparations do not taste as good without a little bit of the sweet ingredient – Sugar!

Khaman, is one of my favourite Guju preparations – more commonly and wrongly called dhokla in other parts of the nation. Dhokla is very different from khaman and I will blog about it some other time. But for now, here is an easy khaman recipe that I hope you will all make and enjoy. I got this recipe from Tarla dalal’s site and modified it a little bit.

Besan (Chickpea flour)        1 cup

Rava (Sooji)                      1 1/2 tbsp

Citric acid crystals               1/2 tsp

Ginger, chilli paste               1 tbsp

Salt                                   1 tsp

Sugar                                2 1/2 tsp

Baking soda                       1 1/4 tsp

For the garnish

Oil                                     1 1/2 tbsp

Mustard seeds (rai)             2 tsp

Hing                                  a pinch

Green chillies                       2-3 nos

Coriander leaves (cilantro)     2-3 tbsp

Grated coconut (optional)     2 tsp

Seasme seeds (til) (optional) 1 tsp

Water                                  1 cup

Mix all the ingredients except the baking soda. Add about 3/4 cup of water. I usually grind about a tsp of ginger and 1 chilli in 3/4 cup of water since I never buy ginger-chilli paste. The batter should be about the consistancy of dosa batter. Add little more water if required. There are two ways of preparing the khaman, steaming or microwaving. Microwaving is easier but khaman tends to become too dry and rubbery if you keep it out long (2-3 hrs). I would recommend microwaving only if you want to eat it up as soon as you prepare it.

Steaming: Apply some oil to a deep, flat bottomed stainless steel vessel (like a cake pan) that fits into your pressure cooker. Pour some water into the cooker and let it boil up. Once the water boils, add the baking soda to the batter and whip it up. It should froth up. Pour it into the prepared vessel to half the height (about 3/4 inch). Remember, the batter is going to rise up further and it needs some space. If you think the amount of batter is too much for your vessel’s capacity, just do it in batches and make sure you add the baking soda just before steaming each batch. Place it into the cooker at an elevated level making sure no water gets into it from the sides. Close the cooker and let it steam for about 10 minutes. Do not put the weight on the cooker. (This is done just like idlis).

Microwaving: Use a plastic/glass container that has a flat bottom and apply oil it. Add the baking soda to the batter and half-fill the container. Microwave for 4 minutes.

After steaming/microwaving, do the needle test and make sure it comes out clean. Let the khaman cool down and then transfer it to a plate and cut it into large squares. The original recipe by tarla dalal called for 1 1/2 tsp of eno fruit salt instead of salt and soda. Again, if you use eno, add it right before steaming or microwaving.If you have microwaved it, sprinkle some water on the khaman. For the garnish, heat up some oil and add mustard seeds. After they splutter, add hing and chillies and then pour it over the prepared khaman. Decorate with cilantro, coconut and til and you are done.

Idlis – The easy way out!

I am a working mom and there are days when I get back from work just to start another 8 hour shift. There will be more than a few of you who can relate to my schedule. Apart from weekends, I usually indulge in short-cuts to cook up a supper that is both nutritious and easy to put together. Hailing from the south, we usually had either idli or dosai batter at home on any given day and my mom, who was a working mom herself, found it convenient to get a stock of batter ready for the week lest her kids should come home from school rubbing their tummies. I am sure all of you would agree with me that the best batter is delivered by the wet grinder. I was devoid of this precious commodity until last year when my in-laws gifted me one. Before then, I made idlis the ‘no-grinding’ way. Though, it was not the perfect idli, it was very close and definitely better and economical than the ready to make idli mixes. The ingredients are available at any indian store.

Rice pwd                1 cup

Udad pwd               1 cup

Idli rava                  1 cup

Fast rising yeast      1 1/2 tsp

salt to taste

Just mix these ingredients in warm water to the idli batter consistancy. Place it in the oven or any warm place overnight to rise and thats that! Its that easy. Though I dont make Idlis this way any more since i have graduated and have been awarded the ultra grinder, I thought this recipe could be useful to some of you who are yet to graduate.

Updated: 09/27

One of my friends complained that the idli she made using this recipe smelt of yeast, though the taste and texture was just perfect. I would recommend reducing the amount of yeast to about 1/2 tsp in that case. Varieties differ and some yeast may just be more active than the others!

Bread rolls

Bread rolls reminds me of my school days when amma used to prepare this snack quite so often, and my brother and I used to devour these rolls as if we were born to eat and just eat. Though I have made bread rolls more times than I can count, they have never tasted close to what my mother makes. Maybe it is just the extra bit of affection she puts into all her recipes. There is always something about mom’s preparations…even if it is simple curd rice, when mixed with her hands…adds that unique flavour. Hmm….flavoured hands;) This is now one of my husband’s favourite snack and hopefully someday my daughter’s too once she is old enough to realize that her 10-something teeth are not just for biting her mom’s fingers:)

what you need:

Stale bread                   8 slices

Potatoes                      4 medium

Green chilies                 3-4

Jeera pwd                    2 tsp

Ginger                         1 tbsp

Chopped coriander leaves           3 tbsp     

Hing                            a pinch

Turmeric                      a pinch

Garam masala(optional) 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Lime juice                    1 1/2 tsp

Oil for frying

Boil the potatoes. Ginger could be cut into small pieces or grated/pureed. Add in all the ingredients except bread and mash well. To prepare the rolls, first sprinkle some water on a bread slice, just enough to soak it. Press the bread in-between your hands and squeeze out all the extra water. It is ok if the bread tears, just patch it back up. I generally use left-over bread. This recipe tastes best with white bread that is not very soft. Take some of the potato filling and press it in your palms with your fingers, as if kneading a dough. Place this in the centre of the bread slice. Close the filling with the bread and press it into an oval shape. You can either make small rolls with one slice or big ones with two slices filled accordingly. Deep fry in oil till dark brown in color. Serve hot with ketchup.