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.
