BHEL PURI

INGREDIENTS

1. Puffed rice - 1 cup
2. Crushed potato - 2 table spoon
3. Chopped onion - 1 table spoon
4. Chopped coriander leaves - 1 tea spoon
5. Papdi - 6-8
6. Green chutney
7. Sweet chutney
8. Sev
9. Raw mango (chopped) or pomegranate seeds- 1 tea spoon (optional)
10. Chaat masala - optional

METHOD

Just before serving mix puffed rice with 1 tea spoon each of both chutneys. (Adjust the amount of chutney as you like). Add crushed potato, onion, raw mango or pomegranate seeds and coriander leaves. Mix gently.

A little chaat masala  may be added if you want a spicy bhel puri.

Garnish with sev and crushed papdis.

SEV PURI

INGREDIENTS


1. Papdi - 8-10
2. Sev
3. Potato - 1 medium ( boiled and crushed)
4. Chopped coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
5. Green chutney
6. Sweet chutney
7. Chopped onion - 1/4 cup
8. Chaat masala

METHOD 

1. Place the papdis on a plate.
2. Put a tea spoon each of potato, onion and coriander leaves and a little green chutney/sweet chutney (or both) over the papdis. Sprinkle chaat masala. ( optional. Sev puri tastes good even without chaat masala) 
3. Add sev lavishly.

PAPDI AND SEV

Papdi and sev add crunchiness to chaats.

PAPDI

Papdi itself can be eaten as a snack.It is an ingredient for chaat items like bhel puri, sev puri and papdi chaat.

INGREDIENTS

1. Maida - 1 cup ( or 1/2 cup maida and 1/2 cup wheat flour)
2. Ajwain (omam) - 1/2 tea spoon
3. Salt 
4. Butter or dalda - 1/2 tea spoon
5. Oil
6. Turmeric powder - 1/8 tea spoon (optional)

METHOD

1. Mix maida, ajwain, turmeric powder, salt and butter. Add very little water and knead gently to form a firm dough.
2. Divide the dough into 4-5 portions. Roll   into  thin chapathis and prick  all over with a fork. Cut small puris using a steel tumbler or cookie cutter.
3. Fry and drain on paper towel.

SEV (Omappodi)







Detailed recipe of sev is given in the post MIXTURE

Sev  is made using  dough prepared with besan ,  rice flour(optional) ,chilli powder, turmeric powder, ajwain, salt , butter and water. It is then passed through a "seva nazhi" or sev press into hot oil and fried.

A very fine sev known as "nylon sev" is also used to make chaats. Whenever I feel lazy to make sev at home , I go for "Haldiram's Nylon Sev"

NORTH INDIAN STREET FOODS - GREEN CHUTNEY AND SWEET CHUTNEY

I wanted to write about North Indian street foods for a long time. About 2 years ago I had done some online research to get a general idea about common street foods . It was from a sea side shack in Juhu beach that I had bhel puri for the first time. It tasted great but was extremely spicy as per my standards. Later I got the recipe of a less spicy version from my sister in law and it became an instant hit at home.

Pani puri ( gol gappa) was the second dish I tried.Got the recipe from my daughter  who picked it up from her friend Veena.They both were famous on campus for the “pani puri corner” put up during get togethers. They used the easy method,getting most of the ingredients  (sev, chutneys and puri) from the local Indian store. I too prefer buying puris from   Thakkar or Amman Bhelpuri ( both are N Indian restaurants) in Salmiya since the puri making process takes quite some time, preparing semolina dough, rolling out small puris, frying and finally baking to keep them crisp . 

Both bhel puri and pani puri belong to the "chaat" group of street foods. Snacks like sev puri, dahi puri , papdi chaat (the list is long)  too come under this category.(As per Wikipedia    Chaat is a term describing savoury snacks, typically served at road-side tracks from stalls or carts in India.with its origins in east India )

Other than chaat items there are various other snacks like tikkis, kachoris, vada pav, pav bhaji , misal pav, dahi vada etc  served by street venders in Mumbai and other North Indian cities. I have  tried to recreate many of them at home, of course with slight modifications. I am planning to post recipes of some of the most popular ones here.

As mentioned above the chaat items have some common ingredients like sweet and hot chutneys, sev, cooked potato or chick peas, chopped onion , chopped coriyander leaves, chaat masala etc.Chaat masala is something similar to garam masala in looks but with different ingredients like aamchoor (dry mango), dry ginger, black pepper,,cumin, black salt, ,etc..ground to a powder. It is available in all supermarkets under different brand names. 

Let me start with the most important ingredients. They are the 2 chutneys, green chutney and sweet chutney,the amount of which decides the spiciness of the "chaat"There is  one more chutney,(which I seldom use) the red chili chutney which may be added to make the dish more spicy.

GREEN CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS

1. Coriander leaves - 2 cups
2. Mint leaves - 1/2 cup
3. Garlic - 2-3 cloves
4. Green chilly - 3-4
5. Lime - 2
6. Salt

METHOD

Extract the lime juice. Mix it with all other ingredients and grind to a paste.

SWEET CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS

1. Dates - 20
2. Jaggery - 1/2 cup
3. Tamarind - 1 table spoon
4. Red chilly powder - 1/2 tea spoon
5. Chaat masala - 1/2 tea spoon
6. Salt

METHOD

Presure cook dates , jaggery and tamarind with 1/4 cup water for 5 minutes. Cool, remove seeds from dates and tamarind and grind to a fine paste. Add chilli powder,salt and chaat masala and mix.

RED CHILLY CHUTNEY

1. Red chillis - 10-12
2. Garlic - 2 cloves
3. Salt

Deseed and soak chillis for 20 minutes. Grind to a paste with garlic and salt.

NOODLES

INGREDIENTS

1 Wheat noodles -  3 cups (heaped)

2. Vegetable oil - 2 table spoon + 1/2 tea spoon

3. Garlic - 4 cloves 

4. Ginger - 1/2'' cube

5. Onion -  1 small

6. Vegetables - 2 cups (julienned carrot, beans, thinly sliced cabbage, capsicum and green peas)

7. Paneer - 2 table spoon

8. Soya sauce -/2 table spoon

9. Spring onion chopped - 2 table spoon

10. Salt

11. Pepper powder - 1/2 tea spoon

12. Cashewnuts or peanuts - 8-10 (optional) 

METHOD

1. Break the noodles. Immerse in 8-10 cups of boiling water and keep closed for 5 minutes. Stir and check in between until soft.

2. Wash in cold water and allow to drain

3. Mix with 1/2 tea spoon oil and keep aside.

4. Crush ginger and garlic. Slice onion thinly. 

5. Heat oil in a pan and fry cashewnuts. Keep aside. Saute ginger and garlic for 15-20 seconds. Add onion and saute for 1 minute. Add vegetables and stir fry on medium high heat till just cooked. ( medium high or high heat is used to retain colour and crunchiness. If you are using a non stick pan dont use high heat as it may affect the non stick coating)

6. Reduce heat to low.Add soya sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir and add cashewnuts, spring onion. and noodles.

7. Mix well for 1 minute and switch off heat. Mix again till the noodles get evenly coated with sauce.

VEGETABLE PUFFS

Making puffs is time consuming if you decide to make puff pastry sheets at home. Nowadays there are a number of puff pastry brands available in the market which makes puffs making really easy.

I have used Americana  puff pastry sheets in this recipe

INGREDIENTS

1. Americana 10 cm square puff pastry sheets - 8

2. Onion finely chopped - 2 table spoon

3. Ginger, garlic finely chopped - 1 tea spoon each

4. Green chilli chopped - 1

5. Pepper powder - 1 pinch

6. Garam masala powder - 1/2 tea spoon

7. Equal amounts of chopped carrot, capsicum, cabbage, beans, paneer and a handful of green peas - total 2 cups

8. Salt

9. Vegetable oil - 1 table spoon
10. Milk - 1 table spoon

METHOD

1. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Saute for 2 minutes, add ginger, garlic and chilli. Saute for 2 more minutes.Add the vegetables and cook on medium heat stirring continuously. When 3/4 done add pepper powder, garam masala and salt and cook till done.

2. Preheat oven to 200 Degree C

3. Line a baking tray with Aluminium foil.

4. Keep a table spoon of milk ready. (can be substituted with beaten egg white or yolk )

5. Put the puff pastry sheet on a level surface. Place  a table spoon (heaped) of the prepared filling on it. Smear the edges with a little water using your finger. Fold and seal the edges.

6. Arrange the puffs on the baking tray and brush with milk or beaten egg.

7. Bake for 12- 15 minutes

ALMOND CAKE

 It was an accident. I was trying to make maccarons following "Beth's foolproof recipe" and it seemed Beth had fooled me once again.  Even though  I was extra careful, the first step itself went wrong. The egg white sugar mixture failed to produced those stiff peaks as per the recipe.I stopped there, got busy with other chores and thought about the ingredients only after some time. They were on the kitchen table for a long time and had to be cooked immediately.

I had to find a recipe of something with sugar, eggs and almond powder in it I did a google search for almond cake recipes, but none of them seemed convincing enough after the maccaron incident. Finally I  decided on  a recipe of my own and baked the cake. It came out nicely and the taste was divine.

INGREDIENTS

1. Almond flour (not a very fine powder, resembles semolina) - 1 cup

2. Sugar ( powdered) - 1/2 cup

3. Vegetable oil - 1 table spoon

4. Eggs - 3

5. Baking powder - 1 tea spoon

6. Maida - 1/2 cup

7. Lemon zest - 1/2 tea spoon

8.Orange zest - 1/2 tea spoon

9. Salt - 1 pinch

10 Chopped almonds - 6 ( for garnishing)

FOR ORANGE GLAZE

1. Orange juice - 1 table spoon

2. Icing sugar - 8 table spoon

METHOD

1. Beat the egg whites well with salt in an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat again. 

2. Add egg yolks, almond flour, maida and baking powder in that order and beat.

3. Detach the mixing bowl from the mixer and add lemon zest and orange zest. Mix well by hand.

4. Line a 9 inch round cake tin with parchment paper and pour the batter. Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 10 minutes.

5. Beat the orange juice and icing sugar well and drizzle over the cake. Garnish with chopped almonds.

RICE VADAAM

Arisi vadaam (thick rice pappadam) is a weakness for my husband and daughter and nothing available in the market is comparable to the home made vadaam. When my MIL was alive we used to get a regular supply of vadaam  from home. After that I tried various products available in Tamil stores, but  none was as tasty as amma's vadaams. I knew the recipe and wanted to make it at home , but getting the  vadaam maker was the difficult part. Every time I visited Chennai I looked for it in all major shops and it seemed as if the thing was non existent. Finally I got it ( with an extra set of thattu )from "Sundar Store" in T Nagar.(opposite Thanga Maligai) Chennai last week.

I couldnt wait to give it a try and just 2 days after landing in Kuwait I decided to make vadaam for the first time using amma's recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1. Par boiled rice ( puzhukkalari) - 1/2 cup
2. Raw rice - 1/2 cup
3. Green chilli - 1
4. Asafoetida  (hing or kaayam) - 1 pinch
5. Salt
6. Nallenna (sesame oil) - 1 tea spoon
7. Sesame seeds (ellu) black or white - 1 table spoon
8. Oil - for frying

METHOD

1. Soak the rice ( I used Ponni puzhukkalari and basmati rice, 1/2 cup each) for 4-6 hours

2. Grind the rice well, adding the chilli, asafoetida and salt towards the end. The batter should be similar to that of dosa, easily pourable, but not too runny. Mix in the sesame seeds (this can be done later too) Let it  ferment overnight.

3. Boil water in a steamer, "appa chembu" or pressure cooker.

4. Wipe the vadaam plates dry and apply sesame oil using a cloth. Spread 1 table spoon of batter evenly on the plate Make it as thin as possible. When enough plates are ready put them on the stand and place inside the steamer close and cook for 3 minutes. Do not put the weight if pressure cooker is used.

5. Spread batter on the spare plates

6. Take the vadaam stand out and remove the plates Put the spare set of plates in the stand and cook.

7. Remove the vadaams from the plates without  folding or breaking and spread on a plastic sheet. Vadaam need not be dried in the sun Keep it under the fan for 4-5 hours.

8. Vadaam doubles in size on frying. Make sure there is enough oil in the pan.

PANEER CUTLET

It has been a very very long time since I posted anything here. I was  undergoing ayurvedic treatment with a lot of dietary restrictions which prevented me from trying out new recipes. I usually post a recipe  after making the dish, measuring each ingredient carefully, and of course tasting it.

Finally when I was fit enough to start experimenting in the kitchen I was faced  with yet another big problem. It was nothing but  starting trouble. I did the cooking, took pictures, but I was lazy to put a new post in the blog. It took quite a while to overcome that.

I like cutlets. It was one of the many things I had to avoid for more than a year. ( not only cutlets, all types of fried food were banned with a lifetime ban on papads and pickles) I am making paneer cutlet for the first time and the recipe is the same for any kind of vegetable cutlet.

INGREDIENTS

1. Paneer - 200 gms

2. Potato - 1 medium sized

3. Chopped onion - 2 table spoons

4. Curry leaves - 1 sprig

5. Green chilli - 1 ( chop)

6. Chopped ginger - 1 tea spoon

7. Chopped garlic - 1 tea spoon

8. Garam masala powder - 1 tea spoon

9. Salt

10. Vegetable oil 

12. Bread - 2 slices

METHOD

1. Chop the paneer (can be done in the mixie)

2. Boil the potato. Remove skin and crush lightly. Do not mash.

3. Heat 1 table spoon oil in a pan and saute the onion., chilli, ginger, garlic and curry leaves. Add garam masala and salt and mix. To this add the paneer followed by potato. Mix carefully and make 6-8 balls.

4. Powder the bread in a mixie (or use bread crumbs) and spread on a plate.

5. Make a loose paste of maida with water.

6. Flatten each paneer ball a little, dip in the maida paste and cover with bread crumbs.

7. Heat oil in a pan and fry the cutlets. Flip when one side is done.