Pav Bhaji

OK so we know that pav in Marathi means a small loaf of bread. But did you know that the word has been derived from Portuguese pao, literally meaning bread? Fascinating!

Apart from the regular PB, I've come across 7 of its variations, namely:

1. Cheese PB (bhaji has an additional garnishing of cheese)

2. Paneer PB (made with paneer as one of the ingredients in the bhaji along with other vegetables)

3. Mushroom PB (made with mushrooms as one of the ingredients in the bhaji along with other vegetables)

4. Khada PB (vegetables aren't mashed, but small pieces are cooked with the gravy)

5. Jain PB (replaced potatoes with raw bananas, as Jains don't eat potatoes; onion & garlic aren't added either)

6. Kathyawadi PB (made with buttermilk)

7. Dry fruit PB (of course made with dry fruits)

But no sweat, am only posting the recipe of the vintage PB :D

You'll need the following:

* 12 pavs

* 6 lemon wedges

* 3 tomatoes

* 2 potatoes - boiled, minced, peeled

* 2 minced onions

* 1 sliced onion

* 2 minced green chilies

* 100 gm butter

* 2 cups of finely cut carrots, beans, cauliflowers & peas

* 1 cup coriander leaves

* 2 tsp chili powder

* 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

* 1 tsp garam masala

* 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

* 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

* Salt & sugar to taste

Sabse pehle, heat half the butter in a frying pan, and add the cumin seeds & green chilies. When they turn brown, add the minced onions, ginger-garlic paste, the mixed vegetables, tomatoes & potatoes. Cook till they turn absolutely tender, but keep adding water, and stirring & mashing from time to time.

When this is almost cooked/well mashed, add half of the remaining butter, chili powder, garam masala, salt & sugar. Key words here: mix well :P Now keep aside.

Then, slit the pavs horizontally into 2 joined to each other along a long edge. Phir smear the remaining butter on the pavs and cook both sides of them on a tava.

Finally, garnish the bhaji with the coriander leaves. Serve hot with pav, lemon wedges, onion slices and a whole lot of love ;)

Smack!

Bhelpuri

The classic street food of Bombay (AND Bangalore AND Calcutta AND Orissa), now on my blog. Say hello to the tangy Bhelpuri!!


LOTS of ingredients. But simple to whip up!


- 2 cups puffed rice
- 8 puris
- 1/2 cup sev
- 1 cup boiled & cubed potatoes
- 1 cup finely chopped onions
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp salt
- Coriander leaves for garnish
For green chutney:
- garlic
- green chilies
- lemon juice
- coriander leaves
For date (gud) chutney:
- dried ginger powder
- dried dates


Exactly 3 steps, and you are sorted :D


1. For the green chutney, grind equal quantities of coriander leaves, garlic & green chilies, then add some lemon juice to it.


2. For the gud chutney, cook & puree the dried dates, and add some dried ginger powder.


3. And finally, mix all ingredients (along with the chutneys), then garnish with sev & coriander leaves. Serve pronto. Smack!

Mysore Bonda

Table for Two's first Kannada dish. Give it up for Mysore Bonda! *drum roll* Swalpa smile maadi, saar!! ;)


A perfect accompaniment for evening tea/coffee/juice/daaru :P


Gather these:


* 2 cups of black gram (urad dal)
* 5 finely chopped green chilies
* 1 tsp whole black peppers
* 1/4 tsp rice flour
* 2 spoons asfoetida (heeng)
* 1 tsp coconut pieces
* 1 tsp curry leaves
* Coriander
* Cooking oil to fry
* Salt to taste


Here's how:


1. First, soak the urad dal for 2 hours, then grind it.


2. Then, add the green chilies, black peppers, coconut pieces, curry leaves, rice flour, heeng, coriander & salt to the urad dal paste. And mix well.


3. Now, heat the cooking oil in a kadhai, and start dropping tiny dollops once the oil is hot. 
Note: The easiest way to make the dollops is...wait, there is no easy way. You just have to pick it with your finger tips & hope for the best :P


4. Fry the dollops till they turn golden brown. Then serve pronto with chutney, and daaru :P

Aloo Ka Chokha

Yes I know this is the 3rd consecutive aloo dish am posting, but what the heck. We'll call it the potato-fortnight :P


Remember sometime last month I posted my recipe of littis? Well, AKC is one of the accompaniments of litti. Now you know to cook both :D


Gather the following:


* 200 gm potatoes
* 3 tbsp coriander leaves (dhaniya)
* 2-3 dried red chilies
* 4 cloves of garlic
* 1 tsp cumin-coriander powder (jeera-dhaniya)
* 3/4 cup water
* Whole coriander seeds
* Oil for cooking
* 1/2 cup onion
* 4 green chilies
* 1 tsp dried mango powder (amchur)
* Salt to taste


Here's how:


1. First of, chop the potatoes, onion & garlic. (Note: A weird woman told me that the potatoes should be chopped 1 inch long, and the onion should be chopped longitudinally :| Anyway, I tried it, and it worked for the recipe. Not so weird now, eh?) ;) Also, the garlic has to be chopped in really tiny bits.


2. Then, in a kadhai, pour the cooking oil  & fry the red chilies, along with the dhaniya seeds. Iske baad, once the chilies & dhaniya seeds start to sputter, add the onion. Followed by the green chilies & garlic.


3. As soon as the onions turn red, add the potatoes. And cook for 4 minutes, till they become tender.


4. After this, add the water, jeera-dhaniya powder & salt, and cover with a lid for a bit.


5. Finally, add amchur powder to the chokha. And serve with a garnishing of dhaniya leaves. And litti, of course :D

Kashmiri Aloo Dum

Did you know that J&K is home to half a dozen valleys like Kashmir, Tawi, Chenab, Poonch, Sindh & Lidder? No it has nothing to do with KAL; just a piece of silly info am sharing :P

Kashmiri aloo dum is not a complicated dish (contrary to popular belief). But it is tasty as hell, according to popular belief ;)

You'll need the following:

- 500 gm baby potatoes

- 1 1/2 cup curd

- 1/2 tbsp gram flour (besan)

- 4 black cardamoms (badi elaichi)

- 4 green cardamoms (choti elaichi)

- 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder (saunth)

- 3/4 tsp fennel seed powder (saunf)

- 5 cloves (laung)

- 2 cinnamon sticks (dalchini)

- 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 2-3 red chilies

- Mustard (sarso) oil for frying
- Salt to taste

Here's how:

1. First of, grind the black cardamoms, cloves & cinnamon sticks together, then put them aside.

2. Iske baad, boil the potatoes until they are half cooked, and peel them while they are still warm. Then pierce each potato 2-3 times with a wooden toothpick (I can't figure out why this is done, though) :| Damn it.
3. Anyway, now heat the oil in a kadhai, and fry the potatoes on a medium flame till they turn golden brown and begin to float on top. Then drain the excess oil from the potatoes and keep aside.
4. After this, add the gram flour, salt and a cup of water to the curd. Mix it well. Lump-free-ness to be ensured! :D
5. Now, take 4 tbsp of the same oil from the kadhai and reheat in another pan. And add the red chilies & green cardamoms and fry for a minute.
6. Then, remove this from the flame and allow it to cool for a bit. And then pour it onto the curd mixture, stirring continuously. Avoiding you-know-what ;) (lumps. duh!)
7. Now, bring this entire mix back to the flame, and bring to a boil. Finally, add the potatoes, along with the dry ginger powder, fennel seed powder, and the ground masala (of black cardamoms, cloves & cinnamon sticks). Cook on a medium flame for 10 minutes.

11. Rice lovers - have my KAL with plain boiled rice. Ungliyaan chaat-te reh jaoge! ;)

Pahaadi Madra

Classic winter dish. Comes from Himachal Pradesh. Weight watchers, don't bother to read further. I've used a cup of pure desi ghee in this ;) What were you thinking, this blog is inspired by a size 0 girl?! :P

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cups of kabuli chana or rajma (I used kabuli chana; tastes more yummy with rice; yummier that rajma, me thinks!!) :D

- 3 cups of beaten curd or yogurt

- 1 cup ghee

- 2 bay leaves

- 2 badi elaichi (black cardamom)

- 3 hari elaichi (green cardamom)

- 1 tsp aniseed (saunf)

- 1 1/2 inch piece of cinnamon stick

- 2 tsp turmeric powder

- Sugar to taste

- Salt to taste

- Cashew nuts

- Almonds

- Grated coconut

- Raisins

Method:

1. Sabse pehle, wash and soak the kabuli chana/rajma overnight. By next day, they'd have become plump with all the soaking :D So now, put them in a pressure cooker, add salt and boil for half an hour.

2. Iske baad, add the ghee to a kadhai and once it heats up, add the black & green cardamoms, bay leaves & aniseed. Once you see these spices sputtering, add turmeric powder.

3. Now, stir this for  a few seconds, then add the beaten curd/yogurt. And keep stirring the curd with the masala, till the oil begins to separate.

Note: Keep stirring vigorously, else the curd will curdle and the dish will be a flop show!

4. Once this is done, add the kabuli chana/rajma, salt, sugar, cashew nuts, almonds, grated coconut & raisins. Then cook for 20 minutes on a slow flame.

5. Voila! Pahaadi Madra done. But please promise me you'll have it with plain rice. Coz rotis ain't so much fun! ;) :P kidding

Bon appetit!

My madra wasn't all that attractive; hence not putting up the pic of the dish made in MY kitchen. This one looks far appetizing ;)

Aloo Amritsari

Straight from the heart of Punjab, I bring you Aloo Amritsari. 

Speaking of which, did you know that the Golden Temple at Amritsar has more visitors than the Taj Mahal? Eh, but who's counting? ;)

AA is a fairly easy dish (yes am a lazy girl, so you may not see too many elaborate recipes) :P You'll need the following, though:

* 4 big potatoes, boiled

* 2 sliced onions

* 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste

* 1/2 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)

* 1/2 cup besan

* 1/2 tsp coriander powder

* 1/2 tsp red chili powder

* 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

* 1/2 tsp garam masala

* 1/2 tsp anardana powder

* Oil for frying

* Coriander leaves

* Salt to taste

Here's how:

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them length-wise.

2. Now, add some water to the besan, ginger-garlic paste, ajwain & salt, and make a batter. No lumps, remember? ;)

3. Then heat 2 tsp of oil, and fry the onions in it on high heat till they turn brown. Now, add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, anardana powder & garam masala. Mix well. of course :D

4. Now, add the potatoes to this mixture, and toss well. And keep cooking for 6 minutes on simmer flame.

Note: If you want to, you can add water to get some gravy. But not too much water, else it'll be a very runny dish.

5. Finally, garnish with coriander leaves. Then serve with puri/pulao/roti/paratha, or even pizza. Kidding :P