Broccoli and Cauliflower Stir fry

A simple side dish for rotis. Can also be served as a snack for kids. Nice combination of two great vegetables, rich in nutrients.

A true visual feast for the vegetarians

 Ingredients:

1 cup – Cauliflower florets
1 tsp – lemon juice
½ tsp – crushed pepper
Salt
Butter – 1 tsp

Method:

Melt the butter in a pan and slip the florets into it. Stir them for a minute, sprinkle some salt and cover with lid. Allow them to cook by themselves with the steam. Still in between and cook them just until they become tender and yet retain the crunchiness.

Sprinkle the lemon juice and the pepper powder and remove from the fire.

Serve immediately.

Roasted Potato with herbs

Tried this combination during last week end and it was a good effort. Instead of using more oil, I have steamed the potato chunks in the microwave for about 2 minutes and then combined them with herbs grown at home and spices along with oil and roasted them.

 Roasted Potato with herbs

Ingredients:

Potatoes – 4 large chopped into big chunks

Mint leaves – hand full
Green chilli – 3
Parsley – hand full
Cumin – 1 tsp
Salt
Oil – 1 tsp

Home grown herbs, Mint and Parsely

Method:

Grind mint, parsley, green chilli along with salt and cumin.

Steam the potatoes either in microwave or in a pan. Take them into a wide container, add oil and the ground herb mixture and mix every thing thoroughly.

Line a baking tray and place the potato chunks and bake them, by turning in between until they become crispy out side.

Potato wedges mixed with herbs and ready to bake

A nice snack for the whole family

And ready to eat...

Paani / Spicy water for Paani poori

This is the spicy water flavoured with mint and curry leaves. A nice companion for golgappas.

This comes for about 100 paani pooris

Ingredients:
Coriander - 1 small bunch
Mint - 1 small bunch
Curry leaves - handfull
Green chilli - 5-6
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Kaala namak (Black salt) - 1/2 tsp
Salt as per taste
Tamarind - 2 lemons size

Coriander, Mint, Curry leaves, Green chilli, Cumin powder, Coriander Powder and Tamarind

Method:
Grind all the above ingredients except tamarind.
Soak the tamarind until soft and extract the juice. Mix the tamarind pulp along with 8-10 cups of water and add the ground mixture.

For the filling
2 cups of boiled chickpea
2 cups of mashed potato
1 cup of  finely chopped onion
1 tsp - Chat masala
1/2 tsp - chili powder (optional)
Salt as per taste
lemon juice extracted from 1 lemon

Mix all the above ingredients and keep it aside.

To make the paani poori, take each poori, make a whole by tapping it gently, fill it with the potato mixture and pour the paani into it.

Golgappas ready to serve with spicy paani

Golguppas / Poori for paani poori

This is another famous street food served in various forms like Paani poori, Dhahi poori, Chaat Poori, Bhel poori. Hmm I am great fan of Paani Poori.  But, after coming to UK, I didn’t find this for ages. One fine day I found this street food in front of an Asian store. But, a great disappointment as the paani (water) was so cold and so do the filling and didn’t give enough kick. I have strongly decided to learn this recipe.

After making few successful attempts, I am now confident to publish this recipe. There are few versions of making the dough like mixing the fine semolina with plain flour, or mixing the semolina with warm water etc., I feel making the dough with just semolina and few drops of lemon juice is suffice to make them crispier.

I have also followed another tip given by my Gujarathi friend is to make use of the roti maker to press the poori which simplifies the complex problem of rolling the tiny pooris into exactly same size and of same shape.

Golgappas

Ingredients:

Fine Semolina – ½ cup (makes about 50)

Lemon – ½

Salt

Oil to fry poori

Method:

Knead the semolina with water by adding salt and lemon juice and make a stiff dough. When the dough is made, add 1 tsp of oil and knead it again for another 4-5 minutes. Keep the dough wrapped up in cling film or even a freezer bag will do. Leave it for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Semolina dough

Heat a pan with oil for deep frying. 

In the mean time divide the dough into 50 equal size balls. Roll each ball into thin round disc. Repeat the same with other dough balls.

Pooris rolled into flat discs

Alternately, you can make a big flat disc, and using the cookie cutter cut it into small round discs.

Fry them in batches. 6-8 pooris at a time. You need to fry them under medium high flame for a while in order to get the crispiness. You can also use roti maker to press the golguppas. You need to turn on the roti maker, press 4 balls at a time by keeping them in 4 corners of the roti maker. By doing this, you will get the pooris in even shape with less effort. Not only that, the heat will remove the moisture which in turn makes the poori to absorb less oil.

Tip: If the poories turned soft, then bake them in oven for 10-15 minutes at Gas mark 3 or until they become crispier. Make sure to check them in between to avoid burning.

Gool.... Gupppppp

Udhi vada / Minapa garelu / Black gram fritters

This is another variety which is served as a tiffin in Southern part of India. Can be eaten as a snack as it is or with Sambar , chutney or even with rasam. You can prepare the vada by either making it on your palm itself or can use any leaf like beetle or banana leaf. As I don’t have any leaves and my palm is not big enough to hold the vada, I prepared them on a piece of plastic sheet. Most important thing is always keep a bowl of water next to you whilst preparing the urad daal vada to wet your fingures and avoid the stickyness of the batter.

Ingredients;
Urad daal – 1 ½ cup
Rice flour / ground rice – 2 tbsp
Onion chopped – 2 tbsp
Corriander chopped – 2 tbsp
Pepper corns – 1 tsp

Method:

Soak the urad daal for about 4 hours.

Drain the water and grind it into smooth paste. If necessary add 1 or 2 spoons of water, but try to avoid it. The batter should be stiff enough to form the vada shape.

Vada batter and water

Take the batter into a bowl and mix it with rice flour. Leave the batter in fridge for 30 minutes. Remove it from the fridge and allow it come to room temperature.

In the mean time heat a kadai / pan with enough oil to deep fry the vada.

Always test whether the oil is hot enough or not by dropping a small amount of batter into the oil. If the batter floats immediately, then the heat is perfect. If it settles down at the bottom or floats after a while, then heat the oil for some more time.

Wet your hands. Take small amounts of batter, place it on the piece of plastic sheet or any leaf. Just press it slightly, to make it flat and make a whole in the centre using your index finger.

Slightly wet your fingers and slowly transfer the batter onto your fingers and slip it into the oil. Repeat the same for the rest. Do 4-5 vadas at a time as per your convenience.

Serve them with Sambar and/or chutney.

Udhi vada / Minepa gaarelu with Coconut chutney and Sambar

Happy Deepavali / Diwali

Diwali, the festival of lights, eliminates the darkness and illuminates everyone's heart. The festive season propels me towards adding these little extras to my home which transforms the home into happy and cheerful living.

Hope you like them.
This is another terracota pot, that I have painted and decorated with some kundans.

A light filled corner

Another joyful corner at my home

For a change the fire place has been covered with a gift wrap that is reflecting due to the diyas

Aaloo baaji / Potato fritters

This is another variety of fritters with potato. I treat them as mild fritters as we don't use much chili in this. Just to make this bit interesting, I have included spicy onion mixture as filling.

Ingredients:
Potato – 1 large
Besan / gram flour – 3/4th cup
Rice flour – ¼ cup
Salt
Baking powder – 1/8th tsp
Oil for deep fry
For the filling:
2 Medium Onion – Chopped finely
Salt – a large pinch
Chili powder – ¼ tsp
Cumin powder – a large pinch
Coriander powder – a large pinch
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Method:
Chop the potato into thin slices, roughly about ¼ cm thick. Place them in a bowl of water to which ½ tsp of salt is added.

Place the pan with oil on medium high flame. By the time, oil gets heated up, we can prepare the batter.
Combine both the flours and sieve into a large mixing bowl.
Now add the baking powder, salt and water.
Mix the batter well. The consistency should be like beaten thick yoghurt. The batter should not be too thick as the batter will not cooked properly, or not too thin as it absorbs more oil.
Drain the potatoes and keep them aside.
When the oil is hot enough, take each slice of the potato and dip it in the batter and slowly slip in into the hot oil.

 Repeat the same with 4 to 6 slices. If the oil has become too hot, reduce the flame and wait for 4-5 minutes and then drop the potato slices dipped in the batter. Otherwise the fritters get burnt outside and not cooked inside.

Always fry any fritters under medium to medium high flame.
Turn them in between and remove them into a paper towel.
Allow them to cool just enough to handle them.

Slice each potato bhaji with knife or any sharp spatula. Place the onion mixture and serve immediately.