Khandvi - A Gujarati snack

We are hungry. There is nothing that proves this more than the fact that I havent been able to click a single photograph of a dish before wolfing it down over the past months. Blogging requires discipline and blogging about food requires restraint both of which have been happily absent in my world for some time now. My little boy is 7 months old and time flew like the blink of an eye. My sweet daughter is nearly 7 years old and is discerning when it comes to food. But to my delight, she is imbibing tolerance in her approach to home cooked food. For her nothing compares to home cooked food which is a boon but can be a pain on days when I want to take off. I love her and love cooking for her. She is my biggest cheer leader when it comes to making new dishes. But she is not the worst critic since she will only procrastinate eating anything she doesnt like by looks or taste.

Yesterday I made a nice little snack for those after school hunger pangs. It was in her favourite colour too!
Khandvi is a gujarati snack made out of besan (chickpea flour) and butter milk mainly. Thin rolls of the cooked flour served seasoned, with or without a delicious filling. I thinned home made yogurt to obtain butter milk. Since bland or sweet tastes are not appreciated in my house, I spiced up the dish with heat from green chillies.

The only decision point in this dish is when the flour is ready to spread. And the other important note to remember is to use ungreased surface for spreading. I went through a few blogs which said the surface has to be greased but with that I could not roll at all. I wasted atleast 10-15 mins thinking the batter was not ready for the spread. But as soon as I wiped off the grease and spread, I could roll easily. Hence a word of warning.
Stuffing in khandvi is optional and can be left plain. Folks at my house did not relish it without the stuffing so I didnt have much of a choice but to add filling. I personally liked either.
I have also provided some pictures of the stages of the batter while cooking. Spreading and rolling pictures are also provided. Hope that helps.

Khandvi 

Recipe adapted from here
Servings: 16 - 18 rolls (2 inches in width)
Prep Time: 10 mins  Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

1 cup Besan (Chick pea flour)
3/4 cup thick Yogurt
2 1/4 cup Water
2 tsp Lime juice
1/2 - 1 tsp Turmeric
Pinch of Hing
1/2 tsp Salt or to taste

Grind

3- 4 Green chillies
1/2 inch Ginger

Stuff

1 cup Coriander (cut fine)
1/4 cup grated Coconut (optional)

Season

3 tsp Oil
2 tsp Mustard seeds
2 Green chillies (cut very fine)
20 Curry leaves (cut very fine)

Instructions

1. Coarse grind green chillies and ginger with a couple of spoons of water.
2. Mix coriander and coconut required for the suffing
3. Keep the flat spreading surface ready. I used backs of steel thali plates as well as aluminium foil and both worked very well. Do not grease them.
4. Add water to the yogurt and mix well using a wire whisk or a fork.
5. To this add the ginger chilli paste, turmeric, hing and salt and mix well.
6. Now add the besan in while stirring and ensure that there are no lumps formed. Whisk till it is a smooth batter. Atlernately use an electric beater to make life easier.
7. Cook this batter in a heavy bottomed vessel, on low heat, while continously stirring. The batter should not become lumpy or stick to the bottom of the vessel. 
8. Continue to stir and cook while the batter becomes thick.
9. The readiness of the batter can be checked by spread a spoonful on a plate. Wait for around five minutes for it to cool and then roll from the edge. If it rolls it is ready else cook some more. 
10. When the batter is ready, work fast to spread it on the surfaces. The batter should not become overtly thick since it becomes difficult to spread. Ofcourse we do have a window of 5-10 mins. I took that much time to spread it on all available surfaces and the batter had not  become thicker or harder. 
11. Take a blob of the batter and spread it using a spatula on to the flat surface. Spread it thin.
12. Leave it to cool for nearly 10 mins.
13. If making a stuffed khandvi, then spread the stuffing evenly on top of the cooled batter.
14. Slice the spread batter into long strips, around 2 inches wide.
15. Pick up the end of the strip, at the shorter end and start rolling. 
16. Place all the rolls onto a serving plate.
17. Now prepare the seasoning by heating oil in a heavy bottomed vessel, add in mustard seeds. 
18. When the seeds crackle, add in finely cut green chillies and curry leaves. 
19. Spoon the filling onto the rolls.
20. Serve Khandvi warm.
21. Khandvi can also be prepared ahead of time. Refridgerate the rolls, warm (I used microwave oven) and season before serving.

Healthy Vegan Vegetable Mini Pie

I have become a part of the Eggless Baking Challenge Group where we are given challenges every month to convert a egg filled delicacy to eggless. July's challenge was one of my favourites because not only was it something I wanted to try from a long time but the twist was that it was savoury. A welcome relief from all the sweet bakes that I have been doing.

I have been wanting to bake a pie from forever but the quantity of butter required and the sheer size of a pie was holding me back. When this challenge came up the first thing I did was to logon to Amazon to buy pie pans. After browsing through a lot of options, I couldnt make up my mind on the large pans vs the mini ones. I found that the mini pans were also 4.5 inches or more in diameter and felt it was a bit too big. I prefer individual portions than an overwhelming big size. And thats the same reason I prefer cupcakes to cakes. I then stumbled upon some images of pies being made in muffin pans and I had the tool I was looking for right in my kitchen.

I also found a recipe for making the pie crust without butter (which I cant seem to find again to link to) and adapted it further to incorporate whole grains into it by substituting half the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

My tips for a happy experience:

1) Use parchment strips/aluminium foil strips lining each cup in a way that lifting the strip would lift out the mini pie. Aluminium foils are easily pliable and can line the cups better. Ensure that both ends of the strip jut out of the muffin cavity.
2) I found it easier to flatten a ball of dough with my hand using my palm. Since the pie dough is usually hard it is tough to roll it out using a rolling pin even if sandwiched between sheets of parchment/wax paper. I flattened the dough to 1/5 inch thickness and used a round cutter to cut out the pie bottom and top.
3) Cooling the ingredients before mixing and mixing it barely ensures a flaky texture. No muscle power required.
4) If placing a top crust then brush with little oil to get a better taste before baking.

This pie crust is a keeper because its low calorie and really good.

Healthy Vegan Vegetable Mini Pie

Servings: 6 Mini Pies (2 inch wide)
Prep Time: 2 hrs   Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients 

For the Pie Crust

3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/4 cup Oil (I used Canola)
1/4 cup Cold water
Salt to taste

For the savoury filling

1/2 Medium onion
1 Carrot
1/2 Capsicum
1/2 cup Corn
3 tsp Oil
1 tsp Cumin powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Instructions

To make the savoury filling

1. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and saute finely cut onions till transcluscent.
2. Add in the grated carrot, finely cut capsicum and corn and saute for a couple of minutes.
3. Mix in the spice powders and salt and saute for another couple of minutes till its done. 
4. Set aside to cool.

To make Pie 

1. Line the muffin cavities with aluminium foil strips such that the two ends of the strip jut out of the cavity.
2. Lightly grease the cups
3. Mix the all purpose flour and the whole wheat pastry flour in a bowl and freeze for 30 - 45 mins
4. Freeze the oil for the same amount of time
5. Mix salt into the chilled flour, add the oil and mix lightly. 
6. The flour becomes crumbly and should remain that way with big clumps
7. Add water very little at a time to form a hard ball of dough. Do not add too much water and also ensure that the dough does not become soft and pliable. 
8. Pinch off a golf ball sized dough and flatten it to form a 1/5 inch thick disc.
9. Cut the dough to a 3 inch diameter circle using a round cutter. (I used a container cap)
10. Push the circle into a muffin cup and lightly press against the walls of the cup to form a pastry shell.
11. Optionally, leave a little bit of the dough outlining the mouth of the cup especially if its an open pie
12. Spoon in a tablespoon of the filling into the shell, topping it with cheese optionally.
13. Cut out a 2 inch dough circle and place on top of the filling. Press a fork all around the top crust so that it seals the pie. Lightly brush oil on the top to aid browning.
14. Bake at 350 F for around 30 mins. The top may not brown all that much if using whole wheat flour. It is done when the dough gets crusty.
15. Serve warm optionally topped with cream cheese. 

Gunta Pongana/Guliappa/Paniyaram

While most of us occasionally yearn for dishes from our childhood nothing compares to my hubby pining for what his grandmother used to make for him. Ammaji, as we call her, may be old and frail today but her mind is as sharp as it used to be when she was in her hay days. She used to run an Anganwadi in her hometown, which was on the Karnataka Andhra border, and still remains a forward thinker. Her social work often kept her occupied for many hours of the day and consequently she was not the one cooking all the meals in her house but what she made, I am told, had the golden touch. T and his brother used to swoop in on the town during their summer vacation and, owing to the popularity of their grandmother and the position of their grandfather, were often treated as royalty. The doting grandmother gave them special attention and ensured she spent ample time with them while treating them to all kinds of delicacies. One of the most cherished dishes is the Gunta Ponganalu (or Pongadalu) that she is an expert at.
Coincidentally, I have a related story with this dish from my childhood. For the first few years of my life we lived in Hyderabad so my mom was well exposed to local cuisine and she picked up making this dish although she calls it Guliappa. It was one of the few snacks with the dosa batter that I absolutely loved. (Dont ask me why I did not like idlis and dosas, growing up!!)

Gunta, literally meaning ditch in Telugu, and Ponganalu (or Pongadalu) which I think means round balls is an extremely addictive and a very tasty way of using idli and dosa batter. The only hitch to making this dish is that there is a special pan required to make this. If you are equipped with the pan making this snack is a breeze.

We took my m-i-l who is currently visiting us to a trip around a store here a couple of weeks back and much to my delight and T's disbelief, we found an Ebelskiver pan which we knew we could use to make Gunta Ponganalu! We brought it home and that very weekend, armed with left over idli batter this amazing dish came to light in our kitchen. Such a happy coincidence and fun ending to a long story here.

I made this with idli batter but I know that it should turn out very good or even better with the dosa batter so long as it is thick and not too watery. I also had some dill handy and I popped it in and I must say that was the best decision. The aroma was heavenly and it gave the dish a mouth watering flavour.

They make for excellent snacks at home and also are very good for the lunch box.

Gunta Pongana/Guliappa/Paniyaram

Servings: 16 Gunta Ponganalu
Prep Time: 5 mins (if Idli batter ready)    Cook Time: 8 mins for each batch (16 minutes totally)

Ingredients

2 cups Idli batter
1 Medium Onion
1 tsp Cumin powder
1 tsp Coriander seed powder
3 Green chillies
A bunch of Dill leaves (or Coriander leaves)
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Cut onion, green chillies and dill leaves finely and add to the idli batter along with the spices and salt. Mix thoroughly
2. Smear oil into each pit on the Gunta Ponganalu pan or Ebelskiver pan. If using nonstick pan a drop of oil smeared into each pit will do. If not, then 1/2 tsp of oil needs to be smeared into each pit.
3. Heat the pan on the stove at medium heat.
4. Drop spoonfuls of batter into each pit, to reach 3/4 the height.
5. Wait till the bottom side of the batter starts to brown and then scoop it up with a spoon and flip it over. Drop some oil into each pit from the sides. This will enable the other side to cook and get rounded.
6. When the bottom side is browned remove from pan. At this time the batter should have turned into a fried well rounded and slightly browned ball.
7. Gunta ponganalu are dense on the outside and airy and fluffy on the inside.
8. Serve with coconut chutney or spicy chutney powder.

Uddin Vada

Craving. Drive. Closure.

 That would really define our Friday breakfast. For the whole day yesterday conversation around our house was centered around the Uddin Vada. Over the past year there has been a conscious decision on our part to cut down on the number of times we eat out. Also abetting this decision is the fact that the frozen, reheated stuff on offer in Indian restaurants here is below average. And there is only so much of pizza that one can eat. Moreover one doesn't trust Thai and Mexican food to be completely vegetarian. For T's birthday we decided to go dine at Cheesecake Factory to get that authentic American culinary experience. But I was left very disappointed by the size and rubbery feel of the patty inside the fall apart burgers. In a first of sorts we could not finish up the fries served on the side. I am very convinced that home cooked meals with twists once in a while is best even on the most exhausting days. Unlike the conventional idli, dosa as the time-saver meals in most south Indian houses, in ours there is always pasta to fall back on!

On all our visits to Indian restaurants, the mouth watering Uddin Vada had evaded us in a very big way. I think the last time I ate it was in St.Louis, more than a year ago, but it was so hard in the middle that it felt like eating cardboard.

Yesterday I found this video blog on making this crowd pleaser and geared up to give it a try. The recipe I tried came from here

Uddin Vada

Servings: 18-20 small sized ones (nearly 1/3 the size you get in Udupi Hotels in India)
Prep Time: 8 hrs (including overnight soak)  Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

1 cup Urad Dal
1/2 cup Water
5-6 Peppercorn whole (optional, I forgot to put it in)
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Asafoetida
1 tsp grated Ginger
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Wash (3-4 times under running water) and soak the urad dal overnight or atleast for 6 hours.
2. Gring the urad dal into as fine a paste as possible using as little water as possible. I used less than half a cup of water to grind the soaked dal. Scrape down the sides of the mixie/blender jar multiple times while grinding. Patience is the key here.
3. Add salt, ginger, pepper, asafoetida to the ground paste and mix with a spoon. Mix the batter with the spoon atleast 10-15 times to ensure the vada comes out light and airy and not hard. 
4. Heat oil for frying in a heavy bottomed kadai.
5. Dip your fingers into water and shake off excess from it. Now scoop a spoon of batter on the wet fingers. Flatten and Shape it using the wet thumb. Slowly spread your middle and ring finger and insert the thumb into the gap to make a hole in the center of the flattened batter. 
6. Very carefully turn the hand upside down and drop the batter off into the hot oil. (If you had wet your hands, it should slide off easily. Take care not to have drops of water into the boiling oil!)
7. Deep fry till golden brown. I kept the heat at a little less than Medium-High throughout. 
8. Remove and pat excess oil down on a paper towel.
9. Serve with coconut chutney. 
10. Drinking hot filtered coffee to wash it all down is like using fork to eat pasta :)

Sending to What is with my cuppa and Nupur's page

Herbed Pastry Twists

Puff pastry sheet is my new favourite go to solution for any situation. My friend introduced me to this wonder a year ago when we moved to Kansas and I havent looked back since. Be it bakery style puffs or spinach and cheese rolls or twists, they are super delicious. And they do a lot to boost the visual delight of a party spread. With the puff pastry preparations, the more the merrier. Well, people as well as the food. You cannot go wrong with it.
For one get-together at home I had wanted to make cheese twists as the starter course but a lot of things happened that day including the bedroom window coming crash down with glass strewn all over the place. Some of my friends do know the humour that generated at my expense.Things got a little out of hand with getting it replaced and cleaning up the whole area so I had to skip this delectable treat. But since I had thawed it by placing it in the fridge some hours earlier, I decided to make them the next day. I used a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese, dried basil, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to get these wonderful delights.
You can find the instructions here but right now I will treat you to what I made.

K square for Ganesha

Ganesha banda

Kayi kadabu thinda

Chikka kereli bidda

Dodda kereli yedda

Ganesha is such a cute God! Nobody thinks twice about teasing Ganesha or about using funny Ganesha similies in daily life. He seems to exude a certain tolerance for mere mortals :). V actually loves to make a small Ganesha vigraha her play mate at times.

I couldnt pass up on an opportunity to appease his biiig tummy with some of my khara kadabu and Kosambri. So here's how I made them

What you need to make Khara Kadabu

• Split Yellow Chickpeas (Channa Dal /Kadlebele) - 2 cups (normal thali type cup)
• Water - 4 cups
• Green Chillies - 6-8 depeding on how spicy you would like it
• Coriander - a handful of leaves
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Salt
• Idli stand (or whatever mechanism you steam idlis in)

Preparation to make Khara Kadabu (Time : 4 hrs)

• Soak the Channa Dal in water for 4 hours (ensure water level is atleast an inch above the channa dal level)

Method to make Khara Kadabu (Time : 20 mins)

• Drain the water from the soaked channa dal
• Grind the soaked channa dal, green chillies, coriander, ginger and salt together

Ensure that you do not add any extra water while grinding
Grind slow and repeatedly to get a smoother paste (it does not have to be a fine paste)

• Lightly grease each idli cup in the idli stand with a drop of oil
• Take a small ball of this ground mixture in your palm, make your hand into a fist and press lightly to get a longish, chubby shape
• Place this on the idli stand in one of the cups
• You could even place two of these in one idli cup to save on time
• Repeat the previous three steps till the idli stand is full or your ground mixture is finished
• Place the idli stand in a pressure cooker. Remove the weight from the cooker
• Pressure cook it for 10 minutes. (The time is the same as Idli would take to steam in your cooker)

My fundas

• The actual Ganesha habba kadabu comes with the ground mixture filling inside of a rice flour wrap. I did not make the wrap because the kadabu is what my family loves :)
• Onion is also a good addition to this kind of kadabu. Chop onion into tiny pieces and add it to the ground mixture and continue as above
• Coriander could also be added chopped instead of grinding it.

What you need to make Kosambri

• Moong dal (Hesarbele) - 1 cup
• Water - 2 cups
• Cucumber - 1
• Lemon juice - 2 tsp
• Coconut flakes - 1/2 cup
• Green chillies - 2
• Mustard - 1 tsp
• Oil - 2 tsps
• Salt

Preparation to make Kosambri (Time : 2 hrs)

• Soak the moong dal in water for 2 hours

Method to make Kosambri (Time : 15 mins)

• Drain the water from the soaked moong dal.
• Cut the cucumber lengthwise in the middle and remove the seeds and the rest of the gooey stuff.
• Cut the hard part of the cucumber into very small pieces.
• Mix the cucumber pieces, soaked moong dal, lemon juice, coriander, salt and coconut.
• For seasoning, fry the mustard and green chillies in oil till the mustard splutters out
• Add the seasoning to the Kosambri mixture.

My fundas

• You could replace cucumber with grated carrot and it would give you an entirely new salad

Kodbale (Kodubale)

Gokulashtmi is round the corner and I decided to celebrate it the Iyengar way this year since I am celebrating it for the first time on my own. And that can only mean one thing - lots of things to eat. However I have to limit my Thindis to those that dont need "Varalu" plus the fast consumed ones.

Kodbale is an all time favourite since its spicy and

savoury.

What you need to make Kodbale

• Rice flour (Akki hittu, Arsi maav) - 1 measure (small cup, tall cup whatever)
• All purpose flour (Maida) - 1/4 measure
• Puffed Chickpeas (Dahlia/Hurigadle) - 1/4 measure
• Butter - 1/4 bar or 3 heaped scoops in a regular spoon you use to eat (optional, you could also use ghee)
• Coconut- 1 heaped tablespoon
• Red Chillies - 4 long ones (assuming 2 inches in length)
• Asafoetida -a speck
• Jeera - 1/4 tsp
• Salt
  
• Oil for deep frying

Preparation to make Kodbale (Time : 20 mins)

• Dry roast the maida in a heavy bottomed kadai or pan till its warm
• Dry grind the Hurigadle in a mixie to a fine powder
• Fine Grind Coconut, Red chillies, As
• afoetida and Jeera together in a mixie (Do not add water)
• Mix Rice flour, warm Maida, Hurigadle powder, the other ground mixture and salt
• Now is the time to taste if the salt is ok, fix it and proceed to next step
• Add the butter which should be at room temperature so that it can be mixed easily
• 
  Make a dough akin to a chapati dough
• Keep aside for a few minutes (5 maybe)

Method to make Kodbale (Time : 40 mins, rolling takes practice!)

• Take a small portion of the mixture the size of a small lemon
• Knead it again after dipping your fingers in water
• Keeping the dough ball on a non-sticky surface (like the chapati board) and roll lightly using your fingers
• Make sure you dont press hard while you roll.
• Make a long thin roll, bend the roll to make a circle and seal the overlapping ends together by pressing on it
• (Refer to the Pictures)
• 
• 

• By the time the first batch is ready to be fried, heat the oil in a heavy bottomed kadai
• Put the dough circles into the hot oil, fry till brown and your kodbale is ready

My fundas

• Rolling is the toughest part of making kodbales. Keep water handy where you can dip your fingers and roll.

Hurrah it's Maggi Maggi day

No, you got it wrong. I am not going to dispense gyaan about how to make Maggi. As is evident on the back of the cover it's a simple three step process. What I am doing with this post is showing off. Yes. I finally got Maggi noodles looking exactly like the advertisement and not like Shavige Payasa gone wrong. So Yay to me!!

Here's the evidence

Vegetable Burger with a Vegetable Cutlet

I get the feeling that my blog is getting to be all about simple foods. Take the vegetable burger for example. The main reason for wanting to make one was the feeling of home-made plus the fact that I dont happen to get vegetable burgers in many McD or BK outlets. I experimented and found a rather simple way of making a veggie burger. Make a cutlet and place it between burger buns and voila! Try it if you would want to do the same

What you need to make Vegetable Burger

For the cutlet

• Maida (All purpose Flour) - 1 cup
• Peas - 1/2 cup
• Carrot - 1/4 cup
• Beans - 1/4 cup
• Potato - 1/2 cup
• Sweet Corn - 1/4 cup
• Onion - 1 cup
• Coriander - 4 strands
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Garlic - 5 pods
• Red chilli powder - 4 tsps
• Salt

For the burger

• Burger buns (sliced in half)
• Butter / Cheese
• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Lettuce

Preparation to make Vegetable Burger

• Cook the potato with the peel in either pressure cooker or by boiling in water. Once cooked peel the skin and mash the potatoes
• Cook the carrot, beans, peas and sweet corn either pressure cooker or by boiling in water. Allow it to cool.
• Cut the onions into small pieces.
• Chop the coriander finely.
• Grind the ginger and garlic to a fine paste
• Slice the tomatoes and cucumbers into round slices.

Method to make Vegetable Burger

• Heat some oil in a pan and add onions to it and fry till golden. Add the mashed potatoes to it and mix. Add the ginger garlic paste and cook all together for a minute. Remove from flame.
• Allow it to cool and then add the rest of the cooked vegetables and coriander to this and mix.
• Now add the flour, red chilli powder and salt to it to get the mixture to a dry texture.
• Make balls of this mixture and keep.
• Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, flatten the ball in hand in shape of a cutlet and place it on the pan to shallow fry.
• Shallow fry it on both sides.
• Once it turns a little browner and crisp its done.
• Butter the insides of the burger bun halves or place a cheese slice.
• Place two slices each of the cucumber and tomatoes and some lettuce.
• Place the burger on top of it and close with the other half of the bun.
• Burger is ready!

Bhelpuri

This is the quintessential time pass snack in India these days. Anytime one goes out and gets the urge for a quick bite one doesnt walk into a swank restaurant but rushes to the nearest road side Chaat vendor with a drooling request for "One plate bhel".

Its the simplest and fastest snack to make for that perfect tea time mazaa. Here's how you can make it at home :

What you need to make Bhelpuri

• Puri (Puffed rice/Murmura)
• Carrots
• Onions
• Potato
• Tomato
• Coriander
• Lemon/ Lemon juice
• Salt
• Red chilli powder
• Cucumber (optional)
• Sev
• Chaat masala (optional) - 1/4 tsp per plate

• For the spicy chutney
  Green Chillies - 6
  Garlic - 8 pods
  Ginger - 2 inch piece
  
• For the sweet chutney
  Tamarind - one small ball
  Jaggery - 2 inch cube

The beauty of this snack is that the quantity of vegetables you put into each plate is really upto one's taste. The amount of puri (puffed rice) that is put in is equivalent to the vegetables.

Preparation for making Bhelpuri

• Grate the carrots and keep in a bowl
• Cut onions into very small pieces and keep in a bowl
• Cut tomatoes into very small pieces and keep in a bowl
• Cut potatoes into half and cook them (along with skins) by using either the pressure cooker or boiling them in water.
• Once potatoes are cooked, allow it to cool a little and then remove the skins. Then mash the potatoes and keep them in a bowl
• Chop the coriander finely and keep
• Sweet Chutney - Grind tamarind and jaggery together with some water
• Spicy Chutney - Grind the green chillies, some coriander, ginger and garlic to a fine paste along with some water

Method to make Bhelpuri

• Making a bhel is very easy. All you have to do is mix the ingredients.
• In a large bowl take all the cut and grated vegetables and salt. Mix well.
• Now add the Puri and chaat masala (if needed) and mix well.
• Add a little lime juice, spicy chutney and sweet chutney and mix.
• Serve with coriander, a pinch or red chilli powder and sev for garnishing

My fundas

• Adding cucumber pieces adds a dash of freshness to the ensemble.
• Some people also garnish it with grated coconut.
• One could also add some small puris (or nipattus) crushed to the bhel to make it extra tasty
• Pomogranate seeds also adds a lot of flavour
• Substitute lemon juice for raw mango pieces during the season and it tastes yummier

Ambode

What you need to make Ambode

• Kadlebele (Channa Dal)- 1 cup
• Onion - 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup
• Coriander - 3 strands (optional)
• Green chillies / Red Chillies - 3 (more if you like it spicier)
• Salt
• Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Preparation for making Ambode

• Soak Kadlebele for 5-6 hours to make it soft
• Coarse grind the kadlebele along with coriander and chillies. Do not make it a very fine paste.
• Cut the onions into really small pieces. You could grind it along with the bele but I like it when I encounter onion pieces in my mouth :)

Method to make Ambode

• Take the ground mixture and add salt as required and also add asafoetida. Mix well like you would dough.
• Adding water to the dough is optional because the soaked lentils itself gives out some water when ground.
• The consistency should be good enough to make loose balls in our hand. (Do not imagine it will be smooth or solid like jamun balls)
• Heat oil in a frying pan.
• Roll the dough into a ball and lightly flatten the top of the ball. Do not press too hard. (It should be saucer shaped). Put this into the oil and deep fry.

You know its done when it turns to a darker brown just like in the picture below :

My fundas

Its great to eat Ambode with coconut chutney but its good just by itself.

A variation to Ambode is to put Pudina (Mint) leaves while grinding it. Gives it a fresh tangy flavour.

Eat hot :)

Pongal

Pongal is a dish with a lot of cultural value behind it. It is made in different ways in different parts of India (the places I know of are South India and West Bengal). In South India the dish has a strong presence and importance. We even have a festival dedicated to this dish. Its called "Makara Sankranthi" or "Pongal".

In most South Indian houses when a girl gets married there is a custom of keeping "Bidadi Mane" literally translates to "Separate House" in the wedding hall. The parents buy all the household appliances for the girl to use when she goes to live with her husband. (This might have been the beginnings of "Nuclear family" cravings in our older generations :)...)This is a tradition in which all the stuff (kitchen appliances, utensils mainly) are displayed for all the folks who attend the marriage to see. In Tamil houses there is a special tradition of giving the veritable "Pongal Patre" meaning a vessel to make Pongal. Its made out of brass and comes along with a brass ladle.

Its versatile in terms of eating time and easy to make.

Pongal was a dish I used to hate till I tasted the Kichdi version of it. One of the best Pongals I have eaten is what my mother-in-law makes. Contrary to south Indian beliefs, she makes it very like Kichdi but with all the spices required to make it taste south Indian. The best part about Pongal is that it doesn't require too many exotic spices. There is a sweet and a non-sweet version of this dish. Here I will give you the recipe to make the non-sweet version of it.

What you need to make Pongal

• Rice - 1 measure
• Moong Dal

(Hesaru bele in Kannada,

Pesarupappu in Telugu,

Paithuparappu in
Tamil)

- 1/2 measure as compared to rice

These are mung beans that have been skinned and split. They are flat and
yellow.

Jeera - 1 tsp

Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Red Chillies - 2

Ghee - 2 tsps (optional)

Mustard - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 10 leaves

Oil - 4 tsp

Water - 4 measures (measure same as what you used for rice and dal)

Salt

Preparation for making Pongal

• Take a heavy bottomed vessel and dry roast the rice till its lukewarm to the touch. Do not overdo this.
• Put the rice in a vessel and allow it to cool.
• In the heavy bottomed vessel put the moong dal and dry roast it till its lukewarm to the touch. Again do not end up burning it.
• Add this also to the vessel with rice and allow to cool.
• After it cools wash this mixture with water and drain out all the water (this step is optional. Its done only to remove some dirt and added colours from rice and dal. Also its done after roasting because logically you cannot "dry" roast it after washing can you?)
• Mash jeera and black pepper to a coarse powder. (Most people dont like it when they get a whole black pepper in their mouth because its too spicy)

Method to make Pongal

• In the heavy bottomed vessel, put the oil. When it is a little hot add the mustard and allow it t splutter.
• Add the mashed jeera and black pepper.
• Immediately add the curry leaves and red chillies.
• Allow all this to fry.
• Now put the rice, dal and the seasoning (done in the above steps) all into a cooker. Add the water, salt and cook.
• Once the cooker cools open it and you will find that the seasoning is all sitting pretty on top. You have to now mix this thoroughly.
• At this point you could add the ghee and mix it in well.

My fundas

• The consistency that I like Pongal in is not too dry but not to watery. Semi solid is best.
• Sometimes it so happens that the water that you added to cook is not enough and Pongal has become too dry. Dont panic because there is a remedy : Take some more water in a vessel and bring it to a boil. Add this water to the Pongal and mix well. Nobody will know the difference :)
• Pongal is eaten with Raitha, Chutney or Tamarind Sauce. I will be giving you the recipe to make chutney in the next post.

Upma/Uppit

I was in Montreal last week and this time set a record of sorts by eating Indian food for most of my meals. I also had a discussion with my colleagues there about cooking Indian food and felt that there were a couple of easy things that would be nice for them to try out. One of them being Upma! Upma or Uppit is basically a south Indian (a little bit Maharashtrian also) dish which can be eaten for breakfast or an early evening snack or even light lunch or dinner. So its a pretty versatile dish in the sense of when one would want to eat it.

What you need to make Upma

• 1 measure Semolina (Rava/Sooji/Cream of Wheat)
• 1 and half measures Water

(To serve two people, two cups of semolina and 3 cups of water
should be good.)

• 2 onions
• 1 strand of coriander (cilantro)
• 1 strand of curry leaves (optional) (whaddaya know, they do come out of a curry tree)
• 2-4 green chillies
• 1 spoon urad dal (white lentil)
• 1 spoon chana dal (yellowish and made by splitting chickpea in half)
• 1 spoon mustard (sarson/sasive)
• 1 spoon cumin seeds (jeera)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• Salt to taste
• 6 teaspoons of oil

Preparation for making Upma

• Take a heavy bottomed vessel and put it on a low flame. Roast the semolina till it becomes a little brown or goldeny. It should be stirred continuosly to avoid burning.
• Cut the onions into small pieces.
• Wash and Cut the green chillies lengthwise if you want it to be spicier else cut it in circles.
• Wash and cut the coriander into small pieces
• Pluck the curry leaves . Do not use stem to cook. Wash and cut the curry leaves into small pieces

Method to make Upma

• Heat a heavy bottomed vessel on a stove.
• I always like to wash the vessels before I start cooking just to make sure no previous residue remains. We dont really use an mechanized dishwasher at home. The dishwasher is a lady who comes everyday to help with the house cleaning :)
• When the vessel is nicely hot and there is no water in it put in the oil.
• As the oil is getting hot add the mustard, channa dal, urad dal, jeera to it.
• Wait till the mustard splutters and splits.
• If you have never experienced this before keep a lid handy. As soon as mustard starts popping hold the lid in such a way that they dont fly into your face.
  Also, I would advice you to keep the flame low, one shouldnt end up frying the ingredients beyond recognition.
  
• Add the turmeric and the chillies to the vessel.
• Add the coriander and the curry leaves to the vessel.
• Add the onions to the vessel and allow it to fry. You will know if its done when the onion turns glowy and soft to the touch.
• Now add water to the vessel, keep the flame low and allow it to simmer.
• When the water begins to boil, add salt.
• This is the point when I taste the stuff just to make sure everything is right.
• You know my mantra (if you have read my earlier blogs) - add sugar if the stuff is too hot.
• When the water is on a full boil, semolina needs to be put in.
• Herein lies the art of Upma - With one hand you need to stir the water continously and with the other pour the semolina slowly but steadily into the water. This is done inorder to avoid lumps.
  
• The mixture in the vessel would have solidified to a large extent. Stir and fold the mixture evenly throughout.
• Keep the flame low and allow it to simmer for five minutes.

My fundas

• You could use vegetables like french beans, carrot or peas or all of these in Upma. It tastes excellent. All you need to do is to pre cook these vegetables and keep them ready. Put it in after the onion is fried before water is added.
• You could garnish Upma with fried cashwenuts and/or coconut.
• You could serve it with coconut chutney which I will post next.
• A south Indian would wash down a plate of hot Upma with a hot cup of coffee. (R.K.Narayan style)