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Corn bhajia

corn bhajias pakorasThe best part about knowing a little bit of cooking is that you can whip up a dish that you have a sudden craving for at 4 pm. And trust me in spite of there being all kinds of good restaurants in the vicinity, none could provide me with hot deep fried bhajias at chai time! Also I had frozen corn lying in the freezer, threatening to perish. So I found and followed this maharastrian recipe of corn bhajias (the video is in Marathi which I happen to understand pretty well. Man, as long as they’re talking food, I will get pretty much any language on earth.) and they were crispy, crunchy and just what I had thought they would be.

For corn bhajias, you’ll need

  1. 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed
  2. 1 onion, finely chopped
  3. 1/2 cup besan (gram flour)
  4. 3 tbsp of rice flour (I used brown rice flour, but white rice flour is perfectly fine)
  5. 2 green chillies, finely chopped
  6. 1 tsp freshly prepared ginger garlic paste
  7. 1/2 tsp of whole jeera seeds
  8. 1/2 tsp of whole coriander seeds
  9. 1/2 tsp of baking soda
  10. Salt to taste
  11. Oil for deep frying

Take the oil in a deep-frying pan and while it’s heating up mix all the other ingredients, in a bowl. Add water (less than 1/4 cup) slowly -  a few drops at a time, till you have a thickish batter. Gently drop small roundles of the batter in hot oil. Fry evenly on both sides and keep on tissue paper so that it absorbs the excess oil.

Serve it with fried green chillies to get the roadside food effect (after you’re done with frying the bhajias, just deep fry 4-5 slit green chillies in the same hot oil for half a minute and sprinkle with salt. ) or ketchup or any chutney you like. They go perfectly with a cup of adrak chai.

This is my December 26th recipe for the one week recipe marathon from December 25th to 31st at Nupur’s One hot stove.

Dal fry

dal fry

I am a dal person. Dal fry makes a quick, humble, homely meal when served piping hot with phulkas or bhaat in a steel plate. When nostalgia hits and I crave something simple and desi to the core, I make dal fry with ghee instead of oil. The ghee makes the dal fry so fragrant and silky. Unfortunately, none of my friends or family share my love of ghee, so when I’m alone and lonely, this is one recipe I fall back on to comfort me. To make dal fry for 2 or 3 people, you’ll need

  1. 1/2 cup chana dal
  2. 1/2 cup moong dal
  3. 2 tbsp of ghee (preferred, but can be replaced by oil)
  4. 1 large onion, grated
  5. 1 tomato, finely chopped
  6. 3 dry red chillies
  7. 1 small piece of cinnamon
  8. 1/2 tsp of haldi powder (turmeric)
  9. 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder
  10. 1/2 tsp of dhania powder (coriander)
  11. 1/2 tsp of jeera powder (cumin)
  12. 1 tsp whole jeera seeds
  13. 1 tbsp of freshly prepared ginger garlic paste
  14. 1 pinch of hing (asafoetida)
  15. Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Soak both the dals in water for 15-30 minutes, while you chop your vegetables. Pressure cook the dal with a little salt, so that it is cooked but not fully mashed up.Heat 1 tbsp ghee/oil in a skillet and saute the grated onions till slightly browned. Add in the ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander and jeera powder. Add in the tomatoes and cook till tomatoes turn soft and fat separates. Pour the cooked dal and add water if required to get the desired consistency. Taste and adjust salt. Switch off after a couple of minutes.

In another small pan, heat the remaining 1 tbsp ghee/oil. Once hot, add jeera seeds, hing, dried red chillies, cinnamon and pour it over the dal. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.

I am sending this recipe to the one week recipe marathon from December 25th to 31st at Nupur’s One hot stove.

Eggless Plum/Fruit Cake ~Xmas Special

eggless plum cake fruit cake

What’s a Christmas without gorging on rich moist yummy plum cakes! Come December and the husband takes it upon himself to hunt down the perfect Xmas plum cake and picks up plum cakes from all over the town. In Bangalore the only perfect plum cake I’ve had is that from the Taj’s Sugar and Spice available at the overseas women’s club (OWC) Christmas bazaar. The regular cakes available in the stores are too dry and the ones available at bakeries are too chyawanprashy. And none of these are eggless.

Every year I attempt baking eggless plum cakes but they never turn out perfect. Well, this time around I already had this Kerala style plum cake recipe in mind and was itching to try it out since months. This recipe is from Ammini Ramachandran (who single handedly led me to admire the rich vegetarian legacy of Kerala) who was invited as a guest at show me the curry.

I modified the recipe to make it eggless by using flaxseed powder as an egg substitute and the eggless plum cake turned out soft, moist and full of fruits and nuts – just the way a Christmas plum cake should be. Ignore the bad photographs because my zero photography skills don’t do any justice to this gorgeous eggless plum cake, more so because good eggless cakes are really so rare to get.

Here’s my eggless version of Christmas plum cake.

For Eggless Xmas special plum cake, you’ll need -

  1. 2.5 cups of flour
  2. 2 cups of sugar
  3. 150 gms of unsalted butter, at room temperature
  4. 2.5 cups of chopped nuts and fruits – I used cashews, almonds, walnuts, sultanas, raisins, figs, tutti fruti, black currants, apricots.
  5. 3/4 cup of pitted and chopped dates
  6. 1 tbsp of chopped candied ginger
  7. 1/2 cup of rum or brandy
  8. 4 tsp of flaxseed powder, mixed in 1 cup of water
  9. 1 tsp baking powder
  10. 1 tsp vanilla essence
  11. 3 cloves, powdered
  12. 1/2 tsp of nutmeg powder
  13. 1 tsp of cinnamon powder

For the caramel

  1. 6 tbsp sugar
  2. 3 tbsp water
  3. 1 tsp of lemon juice
  4. 1/2 cup of boiling water

Pour a couple of spoons of rum over the chopped dried fruits and nuts and store them in a jar overnight. If you have the time, you can soak them in enough rum to cover the dried fruits and nuts, for weeks or even months like it is done traditionally. But I personally didn’t find the taste compromised because of the overnight soaking.

Next day, take 1/2 cup of rum in a pan and add the chopped fruits and nuts and heat everything for a couple of minutes, while mixing it well.

For the caramel, take 6 tbsp of sugar and 3 tbsp of water in a pan and heat it till the sugar dissolves and turns into caramel (approx 6-7 minutes). Do not use a spoon or spatula, just keep swirling the pan as necessary. Once it turns into a nice golden brown caramel colour, gently add 1/2 cups of boiling water. Be very careful while doing this, as boiling hot caramel can cause some serious burn injuries.

I find it difficult to powder small amounts of spices, so I added 2-3 cloves, one small piece of cinnamon, one small piece of nutmeg in the jar with the sugar while making powdered sugar. Beat the softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla essence and flaxseed powder dissolved in 1 cup of water together using a hand blender or whisk till light.

Sift the flour, baking powder and slowly fold it into the butter and sugar, adding a little at a time and whisking it well. Again whisk this mixture well and finally add in the fruits and nuts.

Grease the pans well with butter, specially the corners and dust it lightly with a little flour. Pour the cake batter in the pans and bake it in a preheated oven on 180 C till the top turns golden brown or a when a skewer comes out clean. Invert on a wire rack and let it cool for 30 minutes. Then gently tap the bottom of the mould.

Voila – take a fork and dig in!

Vegetable biryani ~

When I came across this vegetable biryani recipe at Show me the curry, I had to try it, given the husband’s unconditional love for anything biryani.

If I may say so myself, the biryani was light, colourful and loaded with all the good stuff. I served the biryani with some onion raita and chips and it was very fulfilling. For detailed instructions to the recipe, please watch the video or logon to their website.

Stay off the roads

… cause I’m finally driving by myself at the ripe age of 29. So what if takes me 45 minutes to cover 3 kms. Today I even managed to put the AC and the radio on without knocking anyone down and it was fabulous. THIS is women’s liberation my friend.

Also I figure it is more difficult for a woman to drive because have you seen the way roads are choked with billboards these days? I bet the number of bad women drivers shoots up during sale times.

Ho Gaddi jaandi ae chalanga maar di…

30/10

Just finished reading Richard Branson’s autobiography. No sleep in sight yet. Can’t believe I didn’t read this book before considering it’s been in the library for years now. It must’ve been all the comparisons between him and the local liquor baron that put me off.  Totally fascinated with this guy and would love to know more from the perspective of his wife Joan and his kids and how they dealt with him being on the phone all the time etc.

The awesome vegetarian legacy that Kerala has been seriously undermined. Everyone goes nuts talking about the non-vegetarian stuff, that you would think there’s nothing much in there for a vegetarian like me. Big big mistake. I can kill for a pathiri from the local thattukada or ishtu for that matter. And from the jackpot that the Onam Sadhya is, my current favourite is Pumpkin Erisseri. Oh and I could eat an entire mountain of Kerala pappadams. They are very different from papads or appalams, in short totally divine. Maybe its the Richard Branson overdose, but seriously there is a fortune to be made here.

I never ever imagined being one of those mothers who shed a tear at the smallest excuse for a baby milestone.  However, the other day while we were travelling in an overnight train, my kid who’s < 1.5 yrs technically, went up to an infant in the next compartment and started “playing” with it, as in how we adults “play” with kids. The fact that he is “old enough” to play with someone younger made my face go red in a fraction of a second and I almost burst into tears in full public view. Also when we go shopping to the kids’ store, it kills me that there are THREE sections of clothes that my kid has overgrown – I mean there are actually clothes now that are too small for him.  I thought we could fit into one of the fingers of my glove. Motherhood is sloppy business.

Nan Khatai

nan khatai

I have baked these gorgeous cookies called Nan Khatai from Nupur’s Happy Burp many times and they have always turned out perfect! I didn’t let the dough rest for a few hours as the original recipe suggests without any problem.

To make nan khatai, you’ll need

1. 2 cups of maida
2. 3/4 to 1 cup of powdered sugar or bura sugar
3. 1 tsp of elaichi powder
4. Ghee or Plain butter
5. 1 tsp of baking soda

Sieve the maida, sugar and soda. Add elaichi powder and keep adding melted ghee till you have a pliable dough (i.e you are able to make golf sized balls that don’t fall apart).

Preheat the oven. Line the baking tray with butter paper and arrange the slightly flattened dough balls, 2 inches away from each other. Bake at 180 C till the bottom is slightly browned. Let it cool completely.

Cholafali

Here’s another traditional yet simple Diwali farsaan recipe.

To make cholafali you’ll need

1. Besan (Gram flour) – 3 cups
2. Urad dal flour – 1 1/3 cups
3. Oil for deep frying
4. Soda bicarbonate – a pinch or 1/2 tsp
4. Salt
5. Chilly powder
6. Rock salt

Add the soda and salt to half a cup of boiling water. Once the water is cool, mix both the besan and urad dal flours and knead it into a tight dough using the boiled and cooled water. You can add regular water as required to knead a tight dough. I used roughly a cup of water in all including the 1/2 cup of boiled and cooled water. Now punch and flatten the dough using a pestle. Knead it back into a ball. Punch the dough similarly for about 4-5 times and you’re good to go.

The punching process makes the dough nice and soft and is absolutely essential for that perfect thin, crisp and puffed up cholafalis. It also calls for some serious muscle power. So if you can make it a friends and family event, it is far easier. For large scale cholafali making at home, the dough used to be sandwiched between two large, clean and dry plastic sheets and kept on the floor. Then women actually walked on it and punched the dough with their heels!!!

Keep the dough wrapped under a clean cotton cloth. Pinch out lemon sized balls and roll them out as thin as you can (thinner than fulka rotis). While rolling it out, keep flipping it and dust it with urad flour as required to prevent it from sticking. Remember the thinner you roll them out the crunchier they’ll turn out to be. Since the dough is stiff, the rolling out too takes more power compared to the regular rotis prepared from soft dough. spread out an old bedsheet/saree/cotton dupatta in two layers. As you finish making the cholafali rotis, keep them covered inside the two folds of a bedsheet. Once all the rotis are rolled out, put one roti on an inverted thali and cut it into thin long strips using a knife or a pizza cutter. Deep fry in medium hot oil till they get a slight colour change. As you fry out one batch, sprinkle the masala (salt, chilly pdr, rock salt mixture) on that batch instantly. This way the masala sticks to it. While you fry the next batch, transfer the previous batch into a large container and so on.

Ghughra

ghughra
Ghughra is one of the traditional mithai prepared during Diwali in Gujarat/Maharashtra. Different versions of ghughra are pretty popular with various names all over the country. Kopra and khoya are two popular stuffings. I prepared the one that is common at home – with kopra stuffing. This version stays fresh for longer and I associate Diwali with this version of Ghughra.

To make ghughra, you’ll need

For the filling
1. 3 cups of grated kopra (three kopra halves)
2. 1 cup of bura sugar or powdered sugar
3. 1 tbsp khuskhus (poppy seeds)
4. 1 1/2 tsp elaichi powder (cardamom powder)

For the crust
1. Maida
2. 1 tsp salt

Oil for deep frying

Roast the grated kopra in a thick bottomed pan for a few minutes on low to medium heat. Take it off the stove and add sugar, khus khus and elaichi powder.

Mix the maida, salt and knead it into a stiff dough. Let it rest for half an hour. Make a small puri and keep about 1 tbsp of filling on top. Fold the puri into half. Seal the semi-circular edges using a little water. Optionally, you can make a pattern on the edges as is traditional or use a fork to seal the edges.

Deep fry on low to medium heat. They stay fresh for about 10-15 days without refrigeration.

Happy Diwali

Wishing you a very happy diwali and a prosperous and fun-filled new year ahead!

PS. In case you were wondering, I went and had a wonderful time while I was away from this blog. Life has been AMAZING and the proof is that I didn’t feel the need to blog/vent!!