How can a chilling Mango-Yogurt concoction be wrong for you? It is not. Easy to make and definitely much better with fresh Mango Pulp rather than the canned ones, this is easily one of the more popular Indian Beverages. Substitute the yogurt with Milk for Milk Shake!!!…
1 Cup Mango Puree
2 Cups Yogurt
1/2 Cup Milk
Sugar to Taste
Blend everything in a blender along with some Icecubes…
Of all the american things that I have adopted in my day-to-day life, the one thing that I have accepted with open arms is the “Sunday Brunch” Tradition. What an excellent excuse for sleeping late into mid-morning. Wake up, make lunch that is neither here nor there and call it “Brunch”. One of the things that has become quite common,at my home, for brunch is Chole Batura, the quintessential Punjabi Dish. Chole would be curried Garbonzos while Baturas are deep fried breads made with regular flour and yogurt.
My friend, who is a punj (Of course!), once told me that traditionally,chole-batura is an breakfast item served along with sweet lassi. Can you imagine that? “I would probably skip lunch and Dinner with that kind of breakfast!!!!…”, I told her. Of course, this was me in my college days, when chatting up friends over the phone and buying new clothes seemed to fill me up pretty good. Where as, today, I eat this same combination for brunch and end up feeling hungry at 4 pm. I blame it all squarely on the huge hormone fluctuations during pregnancies.Forget the fact that I delivered over 6 months ago and my obstretician told me 2 days ago that all is normal in Vee-land. Well, Doc, you wouldn’t say that if you saw the amount of food I can still gobble up. And what about those pair of jeans that look at me forlornly, whenever I open my closet?
Anyway, all that frustration didn’t stop me from enjoying Chole-Bature with Mango Lassi on my patio today. Good Combination. Highly recommended.
To Make Baturas
Make a dough using
2 cups regular flour
1/4 cup Yogurt
1 small potato, boiled and mashed
2 tbsp ghee/oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
salt to taste
Add warm water or flour, as required. Knead into a soft pliable dough. Keep aside for about an hour.
When ready to make, roll out golf ball sized dough balls into about 2 mm thick rounds and deep fry as described in the recipe for Mangalore Bun.
To make Chole,
Pressure cook or boil until tender using about 3 cups water
1 cup Chickpeas/Garbanzos soaked overnight
with
1 Black Cardamon/Badi Elaichi
1 Bay Leaf.
Meanwhile, heat up
3 tbsp Corn Oil/Vegetable Oil/Peanut Oil
in wide pan.
Add
2 medium Onions, sliced thinly
Cook on high heat stirring frequently till the onion browns. Add
1 medium Tomato,chopped finely
Continue cooking on high heat stirring frequently till the tomatoes break down and the mixture starts leaving oil. Transfer to a food processor and blend into a paste. Transfer back to the Pan.You can make the paste first and then brown it. But I prefer to do it this way. Don’t ask me why. I am weird that way. Ok, I will tell you. Its just that I think this process browns the onion faster.
Add
1 tsp Red chilli Powder
1 tsp Black Pepper Powder
1 tsp Garam Masala Powder
Stir and cook for a minute. Add
cooked Chickpeas/Garbanzos along with the water.
1/4 tsp Anardana Powder
1/4 tsp Amchur Powder
Salt to taste
Add more water, if necessary or decant some from the beans before adding, if it is more. Bring to a boil. Smash some of the beans by pressing them against the sides of the pan with the ladle. This helps thicken the sauce. Cover and cook for about 5-7 minutes on medium to low heat to allow all the flavors to meld together. Remove from flame. Finish by adding,
1 tsp roasted Jeera/Cumin powder.
To Make tamarind Chutney
Soak
1/4 cup Tamarind
1/2 cup Dates
in
1/2 cup water
for about an 2-3 hours.
Blend into a smooth paste adding
1/4 tsp roasted cumin/jeera powder(optional)
a pinch of salt
To serve
Serve 2 ladlefuls of chole topped with 1 tbsp of Tamarind Chutney and 1 tsp finely chopped onion in a bowl per person with 2 baturas and a glass of chilled Mango Lassi.
I picked this recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking. It is very rare that I try out a recipe without tweaking it, But this one sounded good just as it was and it has remained so after several tries. Of course, I vary on the veggies, that I choose to make this dish with, every time. But, the gravy remains the same. Today, I made it with the same veggies that Madhur presented in her book. Make it watery enough to eat with rice or thicken it enough to go with rotis. Its very versatile and can go from being an impressive side dish in an elaborate dinner to the main dish in your everyday meal. The best part, no bhunoing involved.
Chop
1 Medium Sized potato into cubes
1/4 Medium Sized Cauliflower into bite-sized florets
1 Carrot into 0.5 cm thick rounds
Take
3 tbsp Vegetable/Corn/Peanut Oil
in a Kadhai/Pan. Fry Potatoes first and then the cauliflower till golden brown. You can skip this step and directly cook them with the gravy.
In the remaining oil, add
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
When they start sputtering, add
1/2 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
1/4 tsp Fennel Seeds
1/4 tsp Kalongi/Nigella seeds
Stir for a minute. Add
1tsp Red Chilli Powder
1tsp Coriander/Dhania Powder
1/4 tsp Haldi/Turmeric Powder
1tsp Jeera/Cumin Powder
Stir and immediately add
2 tbsp Tomato paste
1 medium sized Tomato, chopped
1/4 cup Peas, fresh or frozen
Chopped Carrots
Salt and Pepper to taste
Stir, Cover and cook till the tomatoes blend together with the paste to form a gravy and the veggies cook. About 2-3 minutes. Add the potatoes and the cauliflower. Stir together and cook for another minute. Remove from flame. Serve with rotis.
I love making this dish for entertaining because it seems very exotic for such a simple recipe.I am breaking down the ingredients as per the steps of the recipe for simplicity’s sake. Otherwise, just the list of ingredients seem so daunting that you are discouraged from trying it. I hope I am successful in presenting the recipe as simply as it is to make.
For the stuffing, mix the following in a bowl. Add or Remove to taste. I mean, the sky’s the limit. Since I planned to serve these in a gravy, I went for simple flavors.
1 Medium sized potato, mashed
2 tbsps paneer/Firm Tofu, mashed
2 tbsps Bread Crumbs, toasted
2 Green Chillies , Finely chopped
Salt, Pepper to taste
Prep 4 firm Tomatoes by dipping them in boiling water for a minute. Remove and peel. The peel just slides off. Cut open the tops and scoop out the insides. A melon baller works great here. Completely fill the cavity with the above stuffing. Again, I did this because I planned to serve them as a main course with gravy. If I wanted to serve them as starter, I would halve them, remove the seeds and bake them in the oven with the stuffing.
Makhani Gravy…
Pressure cook the following to 1 whistle or boil in water till soft. Blend into a paste.
1 tomato, peeled and chopped
4-5 almonds, soaked and peeled
1 clove Garlic
1 green chilli
Heat
1 tbsp of butter
in a skillet. When melted, add the following
Tomato+almond paste
1 tsp Ginger paste
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Coriander/Dhania Powder
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
1 Bay leaf
Salt, Sugar, Pepper to taste.
Cook for a minute, stirring constantly and add
1 cup water
2 tbsp heavy Cream
Stuffed Tomatoes
Cover and cook for 3 mins. Finish with
Fresh Chopped coriander.
Photo courtesy : The Times of India.
For more Photos and detailed report please click on the photo
As a writer of a food blog, I usually shy away from anything that would destroy your appetite. But, things are different today. Seven Serial bombs blasted in commuter trains in my home town of Bombay killing, at last count, 135 people instantly and injuring scores of others.
My heartfelt condolances to the people of Bombay.I could write lots about how the local people are coming to the rescue of the injured and how the spirit of Bombay is not broken. But, seriously, just because Bombayites are good at shrugging off tragedies and moving ahead, does it mean it is Ok for things like these to happen? Yes, Life goes on and yes, tomorrow, Bombay will be Bombay again.But, will those people who have lost near and dear ones in this senseless carnage, be ever the same?
My thoughts are with not only those died, but those who survived as people around them died, who saw charred and broken bodies, with those people who are waiting for their near ones to come home, hoping against hope that they were not among the 135 who didn’t make it. As time goes by and hope lessens, these same people are going to pray that they indeed were among those 135 who died immediately and not among those who are severely injured or burned, but still alive counting their last breaths. I pray for these people and I pray for those who have already lost their lives. I pray for the kindness of heart of the people who dived in to help those injured. But, most of all, I pray for those who were responsible for this carnage. I pray that you live long enough to experience the same pain and loss you have caused today. I pray that when such time comes, and it surely will, you will beg for forgiveness from God and I pray that you never find it.
This is a quintessential konkani treat. They are basically rice+dal ground coarsely with coconut+chillies+tamarind that are steamed like an Idli. But unlike an Idli, they are very savoury and can be had as a snack or as a side dish with rice and dal for lunch or maybe instead of a lunch. They can be quite filling. This is one of my favorite konkani dish after pathrado, of course. Which is why when Sailu announced dal as the ingredient for jihva, I knew I was going to send this one in.
You know, there is such a thing as ‘too much of a good thing’. Same comes to mind with the ingredient for this time’s jihva. With such a wide variety to choose from, I was completely at sea as to which dish is special enough to be included. My instinct in such situations is always to go for the most simple thing. Now, you know, why I avoid shopping in supermarkets. I almost went with daali thoi which is a konkani plain tadka dal. Then, I remembered this dish and decided to go with this one.
Since the announcement of the ingredient, I have been noticing, that there is rarely a day when I don’t use dal in some form or the other. If I am not cooking it or rolling it into a dosa or grinding it into a paste as a stuffing, I am using it as a tadka. A pregnant friend of mine tested positive for gestational diabetes and has been asked to lay off lentils in any form. I have a more clear idea of how much tough it must be for her to come up with something that doesn’t need dals in some form or other. I mean, most of our cooked leafy veggies(which she is allowed to eat in abundance) tend to be thickened to be thickened with besan. poor Girl!!!…
Anyway, mudde are basically steamed cakes. They are khotte if they are steamed in jackfruit leaves(4 jackfruit leaves stitched together to form a container) which makes them very aromatic and a something, something that makes them special. Check out this versatile dish.
1 cup toor dal
3/4 cup rice
1/2 cup coconut
a handful of roasted red chillies (the dish should be really Hot)
a lump of tamarind (marble size) or 1/2 tsp of tamarind paste
1/2 tsp Asafoetida/Hing or 1/2 an onion finely chopped
1/2 cup cabbage finely chopped (optional)
Wash and Soak Rice+Toor dal in water overnight.
Grind together coconut+Chillies+tamarind into a fine paste using little water.
Decant water and add the rice+toor dal mixture into the blender and let it rip for a few minutes. The rice and toor dal mixture has to be ground coarsely and not too finely. Kind of like the way, rice is ground for Idli’s. Add water only as much as needed.There might be some whole toor dal left which is not a problem. They taste better. Just make sure, that not all the toor dal is left whole, thats all. Remove to a vessel, add hing or onion whichever you opt to use and the shredded cabbage. I used onion only today. Salt to taste. Mix together and steam like you would an Idli. That really is the only option I have.
Serve with a tsp of coconut oil on top.
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