Chai Saga....

One of the best news that i chanced upon was that Taste of India
was back up and somewhat running!!what a relief!

And parsing through it came upon this conversation on a blog
Now i am a big time fan of chai..well actually addicted..if i don't get my morning hot of ghar ki chai (homemade tea) brew my entire day is lost...a headache is imminent so is a sour mood.My husband makes sure that the side effects don't reflect on him by religiously making it every morning for me since we got married 3 years back..it was one of the contractual obligations (amongst others) that he signed up for when we got married. :)
Coming back to chai ...the only chai i knew in my childhood and loved to the core was the one made by my mother..no connoisures recipe but all the ingredients thrown together with 'Brooke Bond' tea in one 'Patila' (vessel) and boiled for a couple of minutes. Sometimes a piece of ginger was thrown in during the winters or when someone had an headache...

Occasionaly we would visit my mother's elder sister who lived in Shahdol...a small town in MP ( i am not sure if its in Chattisgarh now). The trains we travelled did not have pantries and at every station, usually they were all very small ones, kulhad chai (tea in small earthen pots) was amply available, long before our own Laloo decided to popularise them. It was very watery in consistence but its USP was the flavour of the earthen pot which would invariably permeate the hot tea when it was poured into it. It was flavored with cardomom a mainstay of any tea that you would care to have from any Indian railway stations.

When i started working I was invariably introduced to the dip chai..

dip dip dip...dip a little longer if you want it stronger..add the sugar and milk and its ready to drink.....

The worst of its kind ...so the penchant to look for a better option led us to small 'gumti' pushed to the corner near the office building.Here i tasted the clove flavoured tea..and
it has stayed with me till date. We would brave the hot afternoon sun even in the summers to have a cup of this tea.I try to replicate in my kitchen..and relish it every time...just add 2-3 cloves when the tea is boiling.

An interesting thing happened.When ever we go for long drives we carry this tea with us in thermos to have during the journey. One day we forgot to add the cloves while boiling...so we added it directly into the thermos and shut it up....the result was amazing when we had the tea after an hr or so..the flavour was so well assimilated and strong..it gave the simple tea a different definition altogether...a must try.

Namak Paare

My second snack for Deepawali is the Namak Paare. I have noticed that the love for Namak paare and its sweet counter part Shakar Paare pans across all age group alike. This can be prepared in large quantities without too much of an effort. I have been planning and trying to make this for quite some time. Now i guess most of you would say 'whats there to plan so much for such a simple stuff?' :)

So here goes my recipe..as i made it

Ingredients:
3 cups of Maida (all purpose flour)

1 Tbsp of Ghee (clarified butter)

3-4 tsp of Ajwain

3/4 Cup+ 1 Tbsp of Water

Salt to taste

Oil to fry.

1. Sieve the maida and add salt and ajwain to it and mix well.

2. Now add the ghee and try to spread it all through the maida.

3. Add water to the maida 1/4 cup at a time and make it into a tight dough. I tried to capture the exact amount of water that gave me a tough dough.

4. Now make small balls of maida dough around 1" in diameter and roll it like a roti/chappati in shape but thicker in width.

5. Cut it diagonally once from N-W to S-E and then once from N-E to S-W to get rhombus shaped pieces. The pieces can be around 1/2 " to 3/4 ". Try to use a jagged end sharp knife since its easier with it.

6. Using the knife Scrap the pieces off the rolling board on to a plate. Repeat the process with the entire dough.

7. Heat oil in a wok and fry the Namak Paare on high flame till they are golden brown. The oil should be so hot that the Namak paare should kind of boil in it. Remove it from the oil onto a tissue paper to absorb the extra oil.

Namak paare are ready!

Coconut Laddoo

Our office basement where i park my vehicle just got whitewashed last week. The fresh smell of whitewash can evoke just one memory in me- Deepawali! As kids we waited for almost month long holidays to start - starting from dussehra up to deepawali. As we grew up these holidays did come down to around 10 days but still the enthusiasm was the same!

The preparation for Deepawali used to always start with whitewashing and selling off 'Raddi' Old news papers-magazines-tin boxes anything that can be used in the reusable market. Then came the vendors selling artificial flowers and other knick-knacks who would shout at the top of their voices around the streets. Of course now that the house is cleaned of the unwanted stuff, its time to decorate it!

The last few days of the rundown to the the D- Day, the entire neighbourhood would be filled with such delightful aromas of different goodies being made. And we knew that we would have a share in it since everything that is prepared would be shared amongst neighbours!

I am starting my rundown this week with Coconut Laddoos, fairly easy and quick to make.

You would need

6 cups of Shredded dessicated coconut (khopra)

400 ml Condensed milk ( I used Amul Mithai Mate)

10 pods of Green Cardamom

1 Tbsp of Sugar

1 Tbsp of Ghee (clarified butter)

1/3 Cup of Raisins (kismish)

Separate 1/2 cup of shredded coconut and keep it aside for rolling the laddoos at the end.

Remove the grains from inside the cardamom and powder it with sugar. I did this using a mortar and pestle. Keep the mix aside.

Heat the ghee in a pan and add the raisins. Once it starts popping take it off the flame. Keep it aside.

Heat the remaining 5 1/2 cups of shredded coconuts in a thick bottomed wok. Keep the flame low and keep stirring. Do not let it Brown. When heated add the condensed milk and mix well for roughly two minutes.The entire mixture should become heated just enough for us to be able to hold it in hand. Remove it from flame at this point.

Add the fried raisins and the grounded cardamom seeds to coconut and mix well. Immediately make it into balls and roll the coconut balls in the shredded coconut we had kept aside earlier so as to cover them entirely.

Delicious laddoos are ready to savour!

Things I learnt while making these laddoos. We went about shredding the dessicated coconut with the hand grater. I found cutting it into small pieces and running it through the mixie also produced the same desired results. It would have definitely spared my hubby of half an hour of sheer hard work :)

Also prior to shredding, the outer brown cover of the dessicated coconut can be scraped off and not used. I used them which gave my laddoos a darker shade.

This is my entry to Yummy Festival Feast - Diwali and JFI - Festivals- Deepawali

Arbi (Colacasia) ki Sabji

I have been on a lookout for a recipe for colacassia but incidently i found that all recipies were oil oriented something i try to avoid for a weekday menu. Therefore i decided to tweak the recipies to come up with my own. This one is simple easy and usually gets ready in a moderate time.

Ingredients

1/2 Kg Arbi (colacassia)
3 Tbsp Besan (gram flour)
1 tsp Zeera powder
1 tsp Garam Masala
1/4 tsp of Turmeric
1 tsp Aamchoor (dry mango powder)
1 tsp Red Chilli powder
1 Tbsp Corriander powder
1 Onion(big)
2-3 Green Chillies
2 Tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
Oil to cook and Salt to taste

Method

Wash the colacassia and put it to boil in a pressure cooker. For a 1/2 kg quantity, I add 2-2.5 cups of water and boil it in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes. When done, cool it and remove the skin and keep it aside. You may cut some of the bigger pieces into smaller ones, but i use unchopped arbi for this dish.
Sieve the besan and mix it with zeera powder, red chilli powder, corriander powder, garam masala,aamchoor. Now saute this mixture without oil in a pan. Stir it constantly other wise the it might get burnt. Remove it from flame when the colour changes,it would become darker. You will know its done since a nice aroma will waft out of it.Keep it aside.

Thinly dice the onions. Slit the green chillies and fine chop the tomatoes.

Take a wok and add 1 Tbsp of oil to it and heat it. When done add onions and green chillies to it and saute till the onions are translucent. Add the besan mixture to it at this point and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute it further. Add a little bit of oil at this stage if you think the mix is sticking to the pan a bit too much.Add the tomatoes and let it cook further. Its done when the tomatoes are squashed the mix has cooked in its juices. Now add the arbi and stir it in the mix so that it gets coated fully with the mix.

Remove it from flame and serve hot with Rotis.

Coconut Paratha

One cannot give coconut a miss in a south indian household.My mom used to make these coconut parathas as a treat for us whenever we had some extra coconut left over from any other dish. It basically came in two varieties either with jaggery or with sugar.

Ingredients

1.5 Cups of Coconut shredded

1/4 cup of powdered Jaggery

1/4 cup of Sugar

2-3 pods of Cardamom - crushed

Dough for making around 8- 9 chappatis

Oil to cook

Method

Divide the coconut into two parts of 3/4 cup each. Add sugar to 1 part and jaggery to the other . Add equal amount of crushed cardamom to each part of coconut mix.

Now take a big ball of dough. A little bigger than one we might take for a chappati and roll it out into a chappati of around 5-6 inches diameter and with a thickness greater than that of a chappati. We want the Parathas to be strong enough to hold the filling but not too thick so that they don't cook.

Take 1.5-2 Tbsp of coconut mixture (either jaggery or sugar as per choice)and spread it on one half of the chappati. Raise the other half of the chappati and cover the coconut spread part and press the edges to stick.

It should look like this.

Heat the girdle and place the paratha on it. Turn the paratha when the lower side becomes light brown in colour. Apply oil on the turned side and turn it back again. Keep on pressing the paratha to saute it better but be carefull that the mix does not spill out of it. Remove it from flame when it turns crisp brown

Serve it hot with lime pickle.

This is my entry to Sweet Series and AFAM - Coconut

Dhokla

I shifted residence 2 months ago.I have hardly any furniture to speak of. Only space i have lavishly piled up is the kitchen and the pantry. So i had this 'misconception' that its going to be an easy task. Well shifting house was never meant to be an easy task isn't it..and with that the pain of settling down. Next came the challenge of finding a decent domestic help..and add to it a very hectic work schedule.I am still struggling. One of our boxes is still lying packed.

I therefore these days without guilt look at an oppurtunity of cooking 15 min meals.And in that pursuit ended up with a delicious breakfast of Dhokla's

The recipe I followed has been picked up from the Jai&Bee's site Jugalbandi

I prepared the dhokla's from this site and followed their recommendation of making double the quantity. I must tell you we were left wanting for more. :)

So here's the recipe with a few personal touches

Ingredients:

2 cups of Besan (chickpea flour)

2 cups of Water

2 Tbsp of Lime juice ( Original recipe has 3 Tbsp)

2 tsp ENO Fruit salt (lemon flavoured)

2 tsp Mustard seeds

2 Green chillies finely sliced

5-6 green chillies whole

5-8 curry leaves

1 tsp Sugar

2 Tbsp Oil

2 Tbsp dessicated coconut

Salt to taste

Sieve the Besan. Mix it with 1 Tbsp of Lime juice, 1 Tbsp of oil, salt, sugar, green chillies and water to make a batter. The batter should not be too thick or too thin. I ended up not using the entire quantity of water in the recipe.

Add 3 cups of water to the Pressure cooker and let it heat. Meanwhile grease the inner side of the two pressure cooker insert vessel and pour the batter equally in each vessel. When the water is heated, add 1 tsp of Eno fruit salt to the batter in each of the insert vessel, give it a quick mixing action and place it inside the cooker one over the other. Cover it with the pressure cooker lid but without the weight and let it cook 6- 8 mins after the steam starts coming out.Keep it aside with the lid on.I would recommend use one insert vessel at a time. Keep the vessel with the batter on top and the other can be used to just raise the height of the top vessel. This would help in evenly cooking the Dhoklas. I used both the vessel together and the lower ones did not turn out well.

In a pan add 1 Tbsp of oil and fry the whole green chillies. When fried take it out and sprinkle 1 Tbsp of Lime juice on it and keep it aside. In the same oil add the mustards and let them splutter. Then add the Curry leaves and remove from flames after a min.

Open the cooker. The steam should have been fully released.Take out the vessels and turn them upside down on a plate. Pour the tempering of mustard and curry leaves on it. Sprinkle the coconut.Cut it in a criss cross manner to have square/rhombus shaped pieces. Place the green chillies soaked in lime juice on the pieces and serve.

This is my entry for WBB #23, MBP Street food

Palak Matar Paneer

As a kid my nephew was big fan of 'Johny Bravo' the spinach eating, muscle flexing animation character. But however we would try to inspire him to eat spinach by giving him examples of his hero, he would never touch it. I guess its the same still.

When I first wanted to cook something with Spinach..i did not want the regular potato-spinach combination. So I made something which holds a proud place in my recipe book now..because not only did it turn out to be likable ..its simple and absolutely no efforts and original..something which would allow me to lazy once in a while and still churn up meal which is healthy. I recommended this dish to one of my collegues when she was on a lookout for vegetarian low fat, low cholesterol dish. She came back with a good feedback.

Ingredients:

2 bunches of Spinach (palak)(300-400gms)

A cup of Peas (matar)

200 gms Paneer ( cottage cheese) (optional - for the low cal/fat version avoid this)

5-6 green Chillies

7-8 Garlic flakes

3 medium Tomatoes

1 medium Onion

water to cook

Salt to taste

Clean the spinach thouroughly and cut it into a 2-4 inches pieces.Slit the green chillies. Cube the tomatoes and the onions into large chunks and crush the garlic. Pressure cook the spinach, green chillies, tomatoes, garlic, onions with salt and the 3/4 cup of water.Do not put the whistle. The quantity of salt added would also be less than usual since spinach has its own natural salt. Remove the spinach from flame after 15-20 mins.

Boil the peas also separately. I usually microwave the peas at high for 10 mins in water. The quantity of water is just enough to cover the peas. You may optionally pressure cook it. After cooking the peas should not have much water left off.

Use a handblender to blend the spinach and the cooked vegetables to a paste consistency.Add the cooked peas. Cube the paneer and add them also. Serve while hot with hot roti's.

This would be my entry for 'Eat Healthy - Fibre Rich'

Note: One can use diced potatoes instead of paneer. Just boil it along with peas.

Errata: My nephew read this post and duly informed me that it was not 'Johny Bravo' but 'Popeye' who was the spinach eater. Also for records he is a fan of both the animation characters. :)