Instant Bhatura

Here is the quintessential Punjabi dish that both me and my husband simply love to dig into, on an indulgent day. Bhaturas or the fried Indian bread made with all purpose flour is not an instant one. It needs to be prepared the previous night to be made perfectly. I just discovered that it could be made instantly which prompted me to make and share the awesome recipe with you all.......so here it goes

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour that is maida
1/2 cup semolin that is rava
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 boiled and mashed potato
1 cup yogurt
1 tiny spoon of edible soda

Method

Mix all the above ingredients to make a nice semi soft dough, should be a little firmer than the one made for normal rotis. You may not need water for this since there is yogurt and the boiled potato. Smear oil and rest it covered  for half an hour.

In a pan heat oil, make make equal sized balls, roll out each bhatura and fry till golden and nice. Serve with chana, fresh onion pieces and fried chilli.

                                         
                                                        Churdkani Or Black Bean Curry

Another recipe from the Indian hills and valleys. The beans were given to me by Shimpaji, my sweet friend, my inspiration. She boosts my passion for food. There is so much knowledge and information we share about food, that whenever the few of us foodies meet it is a total food meet to the T!! Bengali, CKP, Pahadi and a fusion of Maharshtra and Karnataka. Amazing to have friends from all regions of India, pleasure to share all our food experiences and savouring cuisines from all over the globe. So this one comes from the hills......

Ingrediets

1 cup of black beans or bhatt ki daal
1/2 cup chick pea flour 
2 onions
Salt to taste
1 small spoon of asafoetida
1 small spn of turmeric powder
1 tspn of coriander powder
2  green chillies slit

Method

First in a pan take a little oil and roast the black beans till they splutter and in a way burst. Keep aside. I ate some just roasted too and they taste awesome.  In the same oil take the chick pea flour and roast till lightly golden, keep aside. In the same pan take a little more oil and add the slit green chillies, asafoetida, turmeric powder, onions chopped into thin long pieces. Saute till golden add the beans, the chick pea flour, salt and enough water, keep stirring see that there are no lumps. Keep adding water and adjusting the consistency since it will keep becoming thicker. Adjust till you get the right consistency and the beans get cooked. The colour will become into a deep brown as the beans infuse the colour and the taste to the curry. Every bite has an amazing taste of the beans. I loved having it with steamed rice. Hope you enjoy making this too.

This picture shows you the lovely beans, bhatt.

                                       Indian Flat Bread With Home Made Cottage Cheese

I make this paratha when I have some extra milk at home. Just boil the milk add 2 caps of vinegar in it, wait for the milk to split and separate, strain and use the cottage cheese freshly made in your flat breads. An amazing, super soft, melt in the mouth breakfast or main course dish can be the result of this preparation. Here goes the recipe.....the pic above shows you the stages of the paratha, the just rolled out one, the next in the process of roasting, then finally the pile that can be polished off!!

Ingredients

1) 1/2 litre of milk made into cottage cheese by the method mentioned above

2) Ingredients below to be ground into a coarse mixture

1 bunch of fresh coriander
2 tspns of cumin seeds
4 green chillies
3 grated goose berries ( the big variety) available in plenty at the bazaar now

3) Salt to taste 

Method

Ina mixing bowl take all the ingredients from 1, 2 and 3. Mix well to make a  semi soft dough, do not use water. Smear some oil and rest the dough covered for about ten minutes. Heat a pan, make equal sized dough balls, roast with oil or ghee to a nice golden colour and enjoy with either yogurt or any chutney. 

                                                           
                                                                             Hurda

A winter special dish. The grains are removed when tender and had with some accompaniment or cooked with some spices and aromatics.What I am showing here are the tender awesome coloured green wheat and sorghum grains. The first lot I always like to get the original sweet taste. So here goes the way I made it.......my mum loved it and this goes in her memory. 

Ingredients

50 gms of sorghum
50 gms of wheat
1 pack of bhujia sev, to mix as per your taste
Some lime jiuce
Chopped coriander
2 green chillies chopped

Method

In a mixing bowl take all the ingredients and mix well, add salt if required, sprinkle some sev on top, you can bite into a freshly roasted chilli if you like it more spicy. Can be eaten as an evening snack with tea. Available right now at the market with the local vendors. 

                                           
                                               Potato Stir Fry With The Crunchy Jakhya 

The Jakya seeds play a very important role in Garhwali cuisine. Something that brings an amazing crunch and pungency to any dish that it is added to. Dals and subzis from Jharkhand cuisines specially use this as a seasoning. Thanks to my lovely friend Shimpa Rathore for getting me the Jakhya straight from the hills.....loved it.

Ingredients

4 potatoes well washed, chopped with skin, into medium sized thin pieces
2 spns of ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste
2 tspns of jakhya seeds
1 tspn chilli powder
Coriander for garnishing 
Mustard oil for tempering

Method

In a pan take mustard oil, add the jakhya seeds, let them splutter, add the ginger garlic paste, saute a bit, add the potatoes, stir well, add the salt, chilli powder and the coriander. Stir fry till done. Enjoy as it is or with rotis and rice too. The crunch is so so amzing in every bite!!

                                                             
                                      Beetroot Potato Paratha With Greek Herbs And Olives

The awesome coloured  paratha has three  main ingredients, gooseberries, potato and beetroot. This  sprinkled with some mixed herbs and rolled up with chilli and olives made for an awesome lunch. 

Ingredients

1)
2 beetroots and 2 potatoes pressure cooked to only 1 whistle, basically parboiled and grated
1 tspn of chilli powder
1tspn of cumin powder
1/2 cup of grated gooseberries
Few sprigs of chopped coriander
Salt to taste
2 tspns of oil

2)
Mixed herbs for sprinkling
Pickled olives and fried chillies for rolling up in the parathas

Method

In a mixing bowl take all the ingredients from 1) mix into a firm dough and roll them into parathas few minutes after, else the dough may become too soft, roast well on a pan to a nice golden colour. Roll up with ingredients from 2) and enjoy. This can be had as it is or with yogurt or pickle of your choice.

                                               
                                                                           Girmit

Girmit is the snack enjoyed by me with my cousins at Hubli, a town in North Karnataka. That time was a crazy time when we six cousins would meet during every holiday, enjoy watching films, playing cricket, breaking glasses of windows, playing hide and seek, getting fired for laughing and chatting through the nights, it was a huge haveli where one could easily get lost, can still picture my royal grand uncle sitting on the easy chair munching on his dry fruits, keeping an eye on all the happenings, my grand aunt busy supervising the haveli and everything around the place ......those were the memorable childhood days. We would all invariably want to watch every film that released, my aunt would feed all of us sitting in a line, uncle gave us all the money,  and the ritual was, after a late night movie, eating this super spicy girmit, biting into the green chilli, with the famous goti soda which would make a sound when opened!! The vendor outside the haveli would serve us this snack on a paper. The small pleasures of life which we miss now.
Here goes the way it was made....

Ingredients

Crisp puffed rice, the thinner variety
3 onions finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
4 green chillies finely chopped
 2 cups of fried gram powdered (chutney dal)
1/2 cup tamarind paste
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander chopped
Sev for garnish

Oil, mustard seeds. asafoetida and turmeric powder for the tempering

Method

In a pan take some oil, make a tempering, add chillies, onions, sate well till golden, add tomatoes, stir well,add the salt and the tamarind paste. Cook till mushy. Keep aside.

now in a bowl take 2 cups of puffed rice, add a ladle of the cooked masala, add salt if required, mix well, add chopped onion, tomatoes, mix well, garnish with sev, coriander and serve with a fried chilli......yummm your snack is ready.  

                                                                 Kiwi Tomato Juice

One of my experi-mental juices. I have used two beautiful fruits, ripe kiwis and tomatoes in this. A real tangy, tasty, little spicy delight. Also made use of the sweet basil seeds.

Ingredients

2 ripe kiwis peeled roughly chopped
2 ripe tomatoes
2 tspns of ginger juice
1 tspn of lime juice
1 pinch of red chilli powder, use kashmiri
1/4 tspn of black pepper powder
Salt to taste

2 tspns of sweet basil seeds to be added later

Method

Grind all the ingredients together all the above ingredients and add water as per your taste. no need to strain it. Add the sweet basil (sabja) seeds just before keeping it t chill. Once you remove to serve the seeds would have soaked and puffed up to give it a lovely taste.  

                                                 
                                                    Mirchi Chutney With Gooseberries

My love for chillies is nothing new to my friends and relatives, love to keep trying new things with the fiery beauty!! Every time I see them at the vendors I go crazy like a child would with glee looking at a bar of chocolate. Now at this time gooseberries are available in plenty, as mentioned in one of my earlier posts I am substituting all the sour elements with gooseberries till the season lasts. Here i am using it in my chutney too. Two varieties of the berry. Now for the recipe

Ingredients

100 gms of chillies, any variety would be okay, as per your choice of heat
6 big variety of gooseberries grated
10 small variety of goose berries
1/2 tspn of asafoetida
1/4 tspn of fenugreek seeds
Salt to taste
Oil for sauteeing

In a pan take all the ingredients, keep them on a medium fire  sprinkle little water so they do not burn, keep covered for a few minutes then quick stir to see the change in colour, cool and grind coarsely to a chutney like paste. This is an accompaniment in a main course, eaten with curd rice, a spread on sandwiches, rolled in parathas and theplas too.

                                     
                                             Greek Herb And Olive Sandwich With  Eggs

What you see here is an experi-mental sandwich which I thought of making when Ashwini my daughter got me pickled olives and herbs from Greece. The dish came out well and I would like you to try this too. Makes for a yummy breakfast or an evening snack.

Ingredients

Slices of whole wheat bread
Pickles olives deseeded and sliced
4 boiled eggs
Mixed herbs, this one is called Feta
Mustard sauce
Mayonnaise, with egg is the one I like to use

Method 

Apply mayonnaise on one slice of bread, another slice you apply mustard, chopped olives on one slice and chopped eggs on the other as shown in the picture, sprinkle herbs on all the slices,  keep one on top of the other so your sandwich is ready to savour. Be generous with the mayonnaise, so there is no need of any butter. You can toast them on a pan with oilve oil or have them as they are, the choice is yours.   

                                                    Curry Made Of Black Eyed Beans

Chaulichi usal is the Marathi name for this curry. It is very tasty with subtle spices. Can be equally enjoyable with rice and roti.

Ingredients

1) 
1 cup beans soaked overnight, pressure cooked to 2 whistles

2)
Ingredients to be ground to a fine paste

1/2 a cup of freshly scraped coconut
2 onions roughly chopped
1 tomato
4 garlic cloves
1 inch of ginger chopped
1/2 a spoon of chilli powder
few sprigs of coriander
2 gooseberries grated ( amla, big variety)

3) 
Ingrediets to be used later

1 tspn of malwani masala 
Some freshly chopped coriander

Method

In a pan take oil, add cumin seeds let them splutter, add turmeric and asafoetida, add the ground paste, cook till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan, add the malwani masala, water asper taste, salt to taste, stir and mix well, add the beans and let it cook well. Serve garnished with fresh coriander.

                           
                                              Sprouted Whole Red Lentil Curry (Masoor)

This curry is made with two additional main ingredients, which arecaramelized onions and garlic, both chopped into thin strips. Coming up here is the recipe which goes well with rice, bread and roti. The lentil has to be soaked for 3 hours, drained and kept at least for a day tied in a thick cloth, this will help it to sprout. I have used gooseberries  (amla) which are abundant in the market right now. I am almost substituting this in all dishes which need a sour ingredient, till the season lasts.

Ingredients

2 cups of  sprouted whole red lentil pressure cooked to 2 whistles
2 onions chopped into thin strips
6 garlic cloves chopped into long strips
1 tspn of chilli powder or as per your taste
1/2 cup of grated gooseberry, the bigger variety
Salt to taste
Freshly chopped coarinader

Method

in a pan heat oil/clarified butter, add the garlic, caramelize it, add the onion too saute till caramelized, now add the rest of the ingredients, mix well add water as per your need, more if you wish to have with rice, less if you want to have with  read or roti. Cook well, let all the taste of the caramelized ingredients come into the curry, serve hot.

                                                                Aubergine In Hung Curd

You can call this baingan bharta made in a different way. There are many middle eastern ways of making this dish. This is my expei- mental take on it. It has hung curd and some aromatics infusing the taste into the roasted aubergine. I prefer the aubergine roasted on a flame directly till the skin almost turns black and gives it the smoky flavour. Now for the recipe...

1 big seedless aubergine, roasted on the gas flame after smearing a little oil on it
1 onion chopped fine
6 garlic cloves 
2 green chillies
1 inch of ginger pounded freshly in a mortar pestle
1/4 tspn of chilli powder
1 cup hung curd
Salt to taste
Oil for the tempering
Chopped coriander for garnishing

Method

First peel and mash the roasted aubergine roughly. In a pan take some oil, add the chilli ginger garlic which is pounded, let it turn golden, add the chopped onion, let this too turn golden, now add the chilli powder, salt and then the aubergine, mix well, no need to cook for long, add the curd at this point, give it a stir and remove in a moment from the fire else the curd will separate. Serve with phulkas, bread or any bread, roti of your choice. This gives you the colour of the chilli powder, hit of green chillies, ginger, garlic and the sweetness of the curd combined with caramelized onion.

                   
                                                       Choco Banana Indian Flat Bread

Bored of the same old routine roti subzi?? Why not try the sweet version of the flat bread? You just need some chocolates which we usually have in our fridges, banana is a fruit too which is invariably found in almost all homes. So another easy to make recipe coming up for you.

Ingredients

1)
3 ripe bananas mashed, the small yellow dwarf variety 
2 tspns of clarified butter
 Shavings of 2 small chocolate bars, any kind of pure milk chocolate 


1)
1/2 tspn of salt
1 cup of whole wheat flour, or as required when you mix the dough

3)
Some clarified butter to use while roasting the flat breads

Method

In a pan take the mashed banana and the clarified butter from 1) caramelisze it till it becomes mushy, add chocolate shavings just before taking it off the fire. Let the mixture get well mixed, the chocolate melt completely. Now in a mixing bowl take this mixture, the flour and the salt from 2). Make a semi soft dough and keep aside for 10 minutes. Make equal balls, roll out like you would to make parathas or flat breads, apply clarified butter and roast them to a colour as shown in the picture above. Smear clarified butter, roll and enjoy. Chocolate lovers can grate some chocolate before rolling and have them too!! 

                                                                   Triple Idli Platter

 This is what my husband called it when it was served to him. Idli the quintessential South Indian snack which everybody in the world enjoys I guess. I thought of just bringing in some colour, taste and zing into the simple humble idli. So the platter happened and it is super tastsy. Highly recommended is the one with green chilli for chilli lovers, the next on the recommendation would be for the pepper lovers like my son and myself. The third variety with the carrot and beetroot taste amazing too. This is made with white pepper brought from Kerala, yumm it is. Here goes the simple method.

Ingredients
For the batter

1 cup of split black gram lentil soaked for 2-3 hours by evening, add a handful of beaten rice the thin variety, ground to a fine batter, kept overnight for fermentation
3 cups of idli rava which is available in the market, wash, drain and keep over night

For the toppings

Chop 7-8 fresh green chillies fine
Grate 1 beetroot and 1 carrot keep mixed 
3-4 tspns of white pepper freshly pounded in a mortar pestle

Method

Next morning take a large vessel, mix both, add salt and a tea spoon of edible soda, mix well. Smear the idli moulds with oil or clarified butter, pour some batter and sprinkle all the three toppings separately on each idli, steam for ten minutes, enjoy as they are or with the ever famous coconut chutney. 
The hit of the  infused chilli is amazing, the heat of the white pepper is appeling and the sweetness of the beetroot and the carrot is a change of taste for the palate. 

                           
                                                              Carrot Dry Fruit Milkshake

Some experi-mental cooking happened this time for Diwali. Lots of dry fruits and carrots gave this kheer a new taste. Here comes the recipe

Ingredients below to be ground to a fine paste
1)
 Carrots 200 gms cleaned chopped and pressure cooked to 2 whistles, drained and kept ready
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup walnuts

2)
Sugar can be to your taste and can be skipped too, I used about 2 spoons to just balance the taste
Some nutmeg powder
Some green cardamom powder
 Few strands of saffron

3)
1 litre of milk

In a large vessel take the ground mixture add milk and blend well with the hand blender, add the saffron, cardamom and mix well. Once well blended chill the mixture and serve in glasses, sprinkle the nutmeg powder in each glass individually.

                                                                 
                                                                    Begoon Bhaja

This is a Bengali speciality that we were served at the famous eatery named Bhojohari Manna, coutesy my sweet Bengali friend Debdutta Roy. We visited the one at Versova. It was so tasty that I had to learn and post the recipe  for my blog readers. The same is made in a Maharashtrian way with different masalas and a different name too, that is Kaap. I love it both ways, now comes the Bengali style recipe.

Ingredients

A)
1 seedless big variety of brinjal, chopped into roundels neither too thick nor too thin and kept in salt water for about half an hour

B)
 A dry mix to be made ready with
1 tbsp of dry mango powder
1 btsp of chilli powder
1 tbsp of garam masala
Salt to taste

C)
Rice flour and salt mixed together for dusting, as per requirement

Poppy seeds for sprinkling on the roundels, as per requirement
Mustard oil as per requirement

Method

Once you are ready with all the above preparation, you can remove the roundels from the water, rub the dry mixture B) on each one, preferably with hands, keep for marination for about fifteen minutes.

Now dust each one with C) the rice flour mix, sprinkle a bit of poppy seeds on both the sides, shallow fry on a pan with mustard oil, till they turn golden brown and crisp on both sides.

                   
                                                      Potato Hash Browns My Way

Potatoes basically are loved by any and everybody but I am not such a great fan of them. Yes what I like made of potatoes are the French fries made in several ways. the best I have eaten and loved till date are the ones with herbs and truffle oil served at The Table Colaba......yummmmmm. Another dish that I love is the famous Hash browns.  I had them at Moscow and fell in love with them. They were deep fried but I have made a different shallow fried version of my own and here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

1)

3 large potatoes par boiled and grated
4 cubes of Britannia cheese grated
100 gms of cottage cheese grated 
Salt to be added carefully since the cheese has it and sometimes the cottage cheese is salted too
1 tspn of  Kashmiri chilli powder

2)

For making them I used olive oil, you can use any oil of your choice
Tapioca pearl flour for coating
Sprigs of parsley for garnishing

Method

In a large mixing bowl add all the 1) ingredients and mix well, make small patties out of them and pan roast in olive oil by coating each in tapioca pearl flour. Tapioca flour makes them super tasty. The crisp outer layer, the softness inside, the burst of the subtle flavours  lets you enjoy different textures of the dish. For me this is an all time dish, can be eaten any day anytime!! any number of times!!

                             
                                                   Simple Vegetable Made Of Ivy Gourd

In Marathi ivy gourd is called tondli, my simple recipe made with saar masala is always a hit and super simple to make. I vouch for the amazing taste of this simple preparation eaten with phulkas and also curd rice. One of my favourites too.

Ingredients 

1/2 kg of ivy gourds cleaned, ends removed and chopped into thin roundels
Salt to taste
1/2 a tspn of sugar
1/2 tspn of chilli powder
1 tspn of saar masala
Oil, mustard seeds, asafoetida and turmeric powder for the tempering
Fresh coriander for the garnish

Method

In pan take oil and make a tempering, for this preparation you need a little more oil than we would normally use. Now add the ivy gourd and let it cook on a slow flame, keep stirring and once the colour changes a little, add the dry spices and cook till almost crisp. In the picture you can see some pieces almost brown too. They taste yummy. You need to be around stirring the vegetable at intervals else it will burn. No covering since we want it like a stir fry.
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                                                                    Arugula Salad

The salad which you see here has all the other ingredients too but I am calling it Arugula since the dominant flavour and ingredient is arugula. I love the leaves on my pizza and a lots of them!! Love the combination of cheese, arugula with the drizzle of olive oil.....super yummm. I have wandered off the main topic, let me give you the recipe for the salad. The credit for the salad goes to my daughter Ashwini.

Ingredients

A huge bunch of arugula or rocket leaves roughly torn
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup grated beetroot
1/2 cup grated cucumber, water squeezed out
1/2 cup pomegranate
1/2 cup of fresh cranberries
A few pieces of cottage cheese, you can crumble it and use it too
A drizzle of honey
A drizzle of olive oil
A squeeze of lime
A dash of pepper powder

Method

in a large mixing bowl take all the ingredients except the salt, toss well and keep ready, add salt if required just before serving. Many people have salads without salt, the choice is yours. Can be had at any time of the day.

                             
                                                                Batatyacha Bhareet

One more in my salad series, this is a favourite among the ones made on festival days. Tastes yum with all the pulao varieties, moist enough to be eaten with chapati and pooris too. Here goes the recipe

Ingredients

4 potatoes boiled, peeled and chopped into small squares, they are the main ingredient of the salad
3 big cups of fresh thick yogurt

For the tempering

2 tbsp of clarified butter
3 dry red chillies, broken into small pieces
1 tspn cumin seeds
1 small spoon of asafoetida
1 tspn of split black gram lentil

Fresh coriander for garnishing
Salt to taste

In a bowl take the pieces of potato, make a tempering of the clarified butter, cumin seeds, let them splutter, add the asafoetida, now the lentil, wait till it turns golden, now the chillies, make them crisp, add to the potatoes. Keep this ready till you are ready to serve. When it is time to serve add the yogurt, the coriander, salt and mix well. Serve with your meal a s a side. The medley of textures like the soft potatoes, the crisp chilli, the crackle of the lentil is fun to savour. 

                     
                                                             Vegetable Galouti Kabab

A kabab always manages to tempt me!! Though a vegetarian I am attracted to all the non-vegetarian kababs like the malai, reshmi,  acahri, galouti.......and many more. When I see my son eating the galouti kabab with so much liking I tried to make a vegetarian version at home. Looking at the texture I felt they were melting in the mouth, a little difficult to even pick up, the name Galouti is very apt I must confess. Here goes my version of the melting in the mouth kabab recipe.

For pressure cooking to 1 whistle I used all the vegetables below roughly chopped

1 beetroot
1 carrot
1 large potato
50 gms of french beans
A few cabbage leaves
4 cauliflower florets
4 broccoli florets
1/2 cup green peas
Drain well in colander and keep ready

The next set of ingredients

3 slices of wheat bread
4 green chillies crushed
1 tspn of cumin powder
1 tspn of dry mango powder
1 tspn of ginger paste
1 cup full of coriander chopped
Salt to taste
Semolina for coating the kababs

Method

Once you are ready with all the ingredients, put all together in a mixing bowl except the semolina.
Now mix all well, make equal sized balls, coat them with semolina, pan fry like patties with oil, flipping on either side and making them to a nice crisp brown. Savour with green chutney, sauce, mustard sauce or dip of your choice.

I need to mention here that it is difficult to bring together and bind the kababs since the vegetables arr pressure cooked. You need to work hard to get the texture. 

                           
                                                               Aromatic Dal Khichdi

This dish comes under one of my experi-mental dishes and believe me this has been my most aromatic, tasty and flavourful of them!! Dominated by the flavour of the awesome fresh parsley, green chilli, which is my favorite, has been added for the heat. Blissful one pot meal with a drizzle of the home made clarified butter!! is what I would call it. So here goes the simple preparation.

Ingredients

1 cup long grain rice soaked and drained
1 cup split pigeon pea lentil soaked and drained
1 huge bunch of parsley chopped roughly
3 green chillies chopped
Salt to taste
A dash of lime juice
Oil, mustard seeds, asafoetida and turmeric powder for tempering

Method

In a vessel take the lentil and the rice, add water double the quantity, a pinch of asafoetida and a pinch of turmeric powder, pressure cook to 2 whistles and keep ready. 
Now in a kadhai take oil, and make a tempering with mustard seeds, asafoetida, turmeric powder, add the chopped chillies, saute a bit, add the chopped parsley and saute, now add the rice lentil mix, add salt to taste, stir well and add water if you find it too thick. It should be a semi flowy consistency, mix well add a dash of lime juice mix well and serve garnished with parsley and a helping of clarified butter.

                                                                     Kantola  Bhaji

A vegetable from the gourd family, Teasle Gourd, on the lines of Bitter gourd but less bitter and much smaller in size. Makes for a good accompaniment in a meal platter, both as  dry and curry preparation.

Ingredients

250 gms Kantola
1/2 cup freshly scraped coconut
2 onions chopped fine
1 big tomato chopped fine
1 small spoon ginger garlic paste
1 spoon garam masala
1/2 spoon aamchur
Salt to taste
1 small spoon chilli powder
1 table spoon tamarind pulp
1 small spoon mustard seeds
1 small spoon asafoetida
1 small spoon turmeric powder
Oil for tempering
Finely chopped coriander for garnishing

Method
Wash, deseed and chop kantola into small squares, take oil in a kadhai add mustard seeds let them splutter, add asafoetida, turmeric powder and then add the chopped kantola let it cook well then add salt, aamchur, chilli powder and the scraped coconut, kaap aside.
In another kadhai take little oil add chopped onion, ginger garlic paste and cook till light brown , add just enough salt for the masala, add the chopped tomatoes, the tamarind pulp, garam masala, now once the masala is ready add the cooked kantola, mix well garnish with chopped coriander serve with roti or hot hot phulkas.

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                                                              Tomatochi Koshimbeer

An addition to my salad series, the above is the name by which it is called in Maharashtra. It is a salad made with tomatoes and yogurt. I have used cherry tomatoes which taste very nice in this preparation. The cool yogurt, the nutty taste of peanuts and the sweet sour tomatoes make for a real tasty side dish. So here comes my recipe.....

Ingredients

250 gms of cherry tomatoes chopped into fours
2 cups of thick fresh yogurt
2 green chillies chopped 
A small bunch of coriander
1/2 cup peanut powder made after roasting and peeling them
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp sugar
Tempering as given below in the recipe

Method 

In a mixing bowl take the tomatoes and chopped coriander and the peanut powder, in a small pan make tempering with little oil, mustard seeds and asafoetida. Mix this in the tomatoes. Keep it ready to serve, add the salt and yogurt just before serving it. Tastes super yum with chapatis and puris.

                                                     
                                             Cheesy Zucchini Sandwich Fritters (Bhajiyas)

Rains and fritters or bhajiyas or pakodas are a hit hit combination for  us Indians!! So one of those cheat days when indulgence takes over.......yeah and here goes my version of the cheat dish, of course not to forget the mention of the batata vada and the mirchi bhajis on the platter!!! In the picture above you can see the zucchin, the melted cheese and the cottage cheese.......yummmm

Ingredients

1 yellow zucchini chopped into thin roundels kept ready with a wee bit of salt sprinkled on them
Cottage cheese chopped into thin  pieces  as big to fit into the zucchini
Britannia cheese slices made into pieces as big to fit into the zucchini

For the batter

3 cups of bengal gram flour (chana atta)
1/2 cup of rice flour 
1 tsp of carom seeds crushed between palms
Salt as per need
Chili powder as per taste
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp of edible soda

Oil for frying

Method

In a vessel take the flour and the rest of the ingredients mentioned with it and mix with water to a consistency which is neither too flowy nor too thick. Keep oil for frying once the oil is hot you can just put a small portion of the batter first and taste to check if salt and the consistency are all good. Once ready you take the zucchini pieces make a sandwich with cottage cheese and cheese, dip each one in the batter, leave it in the oil with care and fry on medium flame till light brown and crisp. have with masala chai on a rainy evening.

In the same batter you can make fritters or bhajiyas only with zucchini, cottage cheese, cheese and chilies too.

The platter

                   
                                  Green Sprouts  And Vegetable Salad On A Bed Of Spinach 

Boiled vegetable salad served on a bed of fresh crunchy spinach leaves. The plate in the picture shows you the salad on a big leaf but this can be actually made into bite sized servings by spooning salad on each leaf of baby spinach with a cottage cheese garnishing. In the bunch I happened to find a tender flowery portion of the spinach too! So the recipe for the next salad variety......

Ingredients
1)
1 bowl of sprouted green gram
1 small potato peeled and cubed
1 small beetroot peeled and cubed
1 small carrot peeled and chopped into medium sized pieces
4 french beans chopped into medium sized pieces
Few roughly torn pieces of red cabbage
All the above to be pressure with 1/2 tsp of salt cooked to 1 whistle

2)
For the dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tbsp freshly pounded  white pepper powder
2 cloves of garlic freshly crushed
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tbsp of chilly flakes
Mix all the ingredients 1 hour before mixing them into the salad

3)
A bunch of baby spinach, each leaf plucked and kept in chilled water for the crunch, to be used just while serving

4)
250 gms of cottage cheese grated 

Method 

In a mixing bowl take the ingredients from (1), add the dressing (2), take each leaf serve a spoon of the salad on each leaf of spinach(3), grate a bit of cottage cheese(4). Enjoy the crunchy juicy bites of of salad. Picture below shows you the salad in the bowl.