Sabudana Thalipeeth

A savoury dish which could make a good breakfast or supper a satisfying experience. Usually eaten on fast days. Can be called a Sago Pearl potato crostini.

Ingredients

2 cups sabudana soaked overnight
2 potatoes boiled and mashed, another option is to grate the potatoes
4 green chillies finely chopped
Small bunch of coriander finely chopped
1 cup powder of roasted and peeled peanuts
Salt to taste
Clarified butter to grease the pan and for sprinkling on top
If you choose to grate the potatoes then you must make the dish immediately or else the dough will become watery since the potatoes will release water and make the process difficult.

Method

Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl, make equal sized balls, spread the mixture on a greased pan, make 4-5 holes in the spread and fill little clarified butter in each hole. Now cook covered and flip and cook the other side uncovered till it becomes golden brown on both sides. While flipping take care to see that you do not break it, since it is very delicate. Eat with white butter, yogurt or fried chilli.  

                                         
                                            A salad made with stalks of the colocasia leaves

This is a picture of the stalks  after they have been peeled off the thin skin which does not cook.

Ingredients
Stalks of two bunches of colocasia leaves, cleaned and the skin pulled off by hand.
2 green chillies chopped
Salt to taste
1 and a 1/2  cups of yogurt, thick
1/2 cup peanut powder ( powder made after roasting and peeling the peanuts)\
Oil, mustard seeds and asefoetida 
Coriander for garnishing

Method

First roughly break the stalks into small pieces by hand and keep ready. In a pan take one table spoon of oil, add mustard seeds once they splutter add the asafoetida and the chilli, Now add the stalks and saute only for a wee bit since they cook super fast. Remove from fire, transfer into a serving bowl and let it cool. Once cool add the peanut powder. Mix salt and the yogurt just before serving, garnished with fresh coriander. It tastes good with phulkas, rotis, chapatis and pooris too.

Green Parathas

Looking at all the greens I had purchased, got the thought of trying a new dish. It turned out super tasty with the one thing I love......green chillies !! I don't need any other accompaniment then :) I used Spinach for the colour, Green Sorrel for the acidity, Dil for the aromatic aspect, Fenugreek for the taste, crushed Green chilli for the heat, fresh coriander for more greenery and punch.

Ingredients
1/2 cup finely chopped spinach
1/2 cup finely chopped fenugreek leaves
1/2 cup green sorrel
1/2 cup fresh chopped coriander
1 table spoon full of crushed greeen chilli
1/2 tspoon carrom seeds roughly crushed
Salt to taste
1 table spoon of oil
Water for mixing the dough
3 cups of wheat flour for making dough

Method
In a mixing bowl put all the above ingredients, mixing wheat flour bit by bit taking care to see that there is more green than flour, now add water to make a dough like a chapati dough. Put little oil over the ready dough, mix and leave it to rest for 15 minutes. Now heat a tava, roll out the parathas and roast them sprinkled with clarified butter, till done on both sides. I made the green chillies with spices, rolled them in parathas as shown in the picture and enjoyed them.

                                                                 
                                                                     Bisibele Bhat

Bisibele bhat is a very popular South Indian rice dish which has all the flavours like sweet, salt, spicy, and can safely be called a whole meal since it has lentil and vegetables too. When it is eaten topped with a dollop of clarified butter and lentil crispies as accompaniment the the pleasure multiplies.

Ingredients
1 cup rice, I used brown rice, 1 cup split  pigeon pea lentil (Toor dal)
1/2 cup french beans chopped into medium sized pieces
1/2 cup broad beans
1/2 cup carrots chopped into medium sized pieces
1/4 cup green peas
6-7 curry leaves
A small spoon of turmeric powder and a small spoon of asafoetida
All the above ingredients need to be pressure cooked with 3 cups of water to three whistles, since there is brown rice. If you use white rice then 2 whistles will suffice.

Now for grinding into a paste
1/2 cuep grated dry coconut
1 t spoon cumin seeds
1 t spoon coriander seeds
1/2 t spoon black peppercorns
3 t spoons tamarind paste
2 marathi moggu, a spice looking like cloves used in South indian dishes
6 dry red chillies
A few fenugreek seeds

For tempering you need 4 teaspoons of oil, some mustard seeds, some turmeric powder, some asafoetida powder, 3 red chillies roughly broken, few curry leaves.

Keep 1/4 cup grated jaggery, the use of which I will specify in the method.

Method

Once the pressure cooked ingredients are ready which you will be directly making in the pressure cooker, continue the process in the pressure cooker itself. Add salt as required, add the ground paste, add the tempering, now comes the grated jaggery, mix all well, keep covered without the whistle, on the gas again on low flame for the jaggery to melt and all the spices get infused in the rice mix. This should take not more than 7-10 minutes, but keep a look out so it does not burn. The consistency should be a bit runny. Now serve the dish with crispies or papads of your choice, and a dollop of clarified butter. Tastes best with the Lijjat punjabi masala papad or the traditional South Indian Papad.

                                                 
                                                     Cumin Flavoured Potato Cauliflower

A super tasty vegetable made of potato  and cauliflower with the dominating cumin flavour. I can never forget this tasty breakfast dish which was packed for us on this misty morning  when we started off from Hotel Spick And Span at Leh for the awesome Pangong Lake. The aroma of this vegetable is still there in my memory, the lovely pooris actually complimented the dish. I came back home and learnt to make it, since then it  is often one of the favourites on my dining menu.

Ingredients

4 poatoes chopped into medium sized squares, medium sized florets of 1 cauliflower par boiled and drained, ready to go into the spicemix.
1 tspoon of cumin seeds
1 tspoon of chilli powder
1 small spoon turmeric powder
1 small spoon asefotida
1 heaped tspoon of cumin poder
Salt to taste
Corinader for garnishing
3 tspoons of mustard oil 

Method

Take mustard oil in a kadhai, let it heat well, add the cumin seeds, let them splutter, add the asefotida, turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, salt and give it a quick stir, now add the parbolied vegetables, sprinkle very little water and let the vegetable cook open, I chose to add even the fresh coriander in the oil, it tastes awesome in my opinion, let the vegetables almost cook to a golden brown in the spices, at this stage you can remove the pan from the flame. Tranfer into a serving bowl. The brown crust which forms at the bottom can be scraped and ....this tastes awesome too. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with hot Indian fried flat bread... phew!! I mean puris. 

                                                             Stuffed Baby Bittergourd

This vegetable was made on an impulse, I went to the market and my eyes fell on these super fresh baby gourds and I was instantly tempted to pick them up, so  here comes the dish made out of them. Showing you the picture of the stuffed ones before they are ready because I have neither scraped them, nor have I boiled them in salt water and drained them. Without doing any of this the vegetable tastes super yummy.

Ingredients

300 gms of baby bittergourd, sides removed with a slit in the middle, deseeded
1/2 freshly scraped coconut
5 onions 
2 tomatoes
2 tspoons of ginger garlic paste
A small bunch of coriander
2 tspoons of malwani masala
1 tspoon of garam masala
1 tspoon amchur powder
2 tspoons of chilli powder
Salt to taste

Method
For grinding take 2 roughly chopped onions, the scraped coconut, 1 tspoon of chilli powder, 1/2 tspoon amchur, salt to taste. 1 spoon of ginger garlic paste 1 tomato roughly chopped, garam masala and keep the paste ready, 

In a kadhai take oil, add 3 finely chopped onions, 1 tspoon ginger garlic paste, sautee till golden brown, add the finely chopped tomato, little chopped coriander, 1/2 tspoon amchur, 1 tspoon of chilli powder, malwani masala, salt to taste and let it cook well till it comes together and leaves the sides of the kadhai. Once it cools stuff this in the gourds as shown in the picture. 

Now take some oil and add the stuffed gourds into this, sprinkle little salt and water, cook them covered, till almost done. In the meanwhile in another kadhai add a bit of oil and add the ground paste and keep it to cook till it leaves oil, now add the remaining masala if any, after stuffing the bitter gourds, add the stuffed gourds and let this cook for a while, add water as per requirement, see that the gourds are well cooked, take care to stir carefully so the gourds do not break open. This tastes best with phulkas or parathas.

                               
                                   Aubergine Salad With Red Green And Yellow Bell Peppers

This salad is also known by the name of Baingan Ka Bharta commonly. I have put in  my experi-mental twist to it. My guests loved the dish, hope you all like it too. The roasted smoky flavour gives it a super flavour.

Ingredients

1 big sized aubergine, usually used for the salad and it is mostly seedless or with very few seeds.
The aubergine should be roasted on the gas directly after smearing little oil over it. The cooked pulp removed  kept ready.
2 green chillies chopped into small pieces
Fresh thick yogurt as per need
1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 yellow bell pepper, 1/2 green bell pepper, all chopped into small squares
Salt to taste
Coriander for garnishing

Method
 In a pan take some oil, add the green chilli, saute a bit, add the bell peppers and sautee on a high flame, see that they do not get fully cooked, they should be crunchy in the bite, reduce the flame, now add the roasted aubergine pulp, salt to taste and mix and cook for five minutes, remove in the serving bowl. Cool it and then add the yogurt, garnish with coriander, serve with bhakri or chapati.