UP wala Boondi ka raita

Boondi Raita

Boondi raita is cherished all over India. Boondi are deep fried small crispy balls of gram flour. Boondi raita is liked with everything -pooris, parathas, or chapatis. Boondis mixed with spices are served as garnishing with rice in South India. 

So today I bring you the same old raita but with a different type of tempering normally done in UP. The zeera/cumin seeds are burnt with oil over flame which gives a very different flavour to the raita.

You need:

Beaten Curd: 250 ml

Plain Boondi (without spices): 1 cup

Roasted cumin seeds (powdered): 1/2 tspn

Black pepper powder; 1/2 tspn

Black salt: 1/2 tspn

red chilly powder: 1/2 tspn

Salt: to taste

Zeera (cumin seeds): 1 tspn

Heeng (asofoetida); 1 pinch

Cooking Oil: 1/2 tbspn

Chopped green coriander for garinishing.

• Mix 250 ml water with beaten curd (this raita very thin in consistency, but you may add water depending on the consistency desired)
• Add salt, black salt, pepper powder, cumin seeds powder, red chilly powder in curd, mix well.
• Add Boondi in hot water, keep it for 5 minutes, drain water. Add to curd.
• For tempering, take oil in a round steel laddle. Hold it over flame, when the oil is hot add asofoetida and cumin seeds/Zeera. Cumin seeds will splutter and tilt the laddle a little so that the oil and cumin seeds catch fire. Dip this fired laddle in curd mix and cover it immediately, so that the fumes after fire extinguishes are trapped in the raita. 
• Pictures of tempering are here.
• Garnish it with chopped coriander, red chilly powder and serve.

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Paneer Wrap

This yummy recipe makes a good light dinner. It does require some effort but it is worth it...

(serves 3-4)

Dough: To make dough, take 1 cup of white flour (maida), fine semolina (bareek suzi), 1/2 cup curd, 3 tb spn oil and salt. Mix them all. Knead it with warm water, keep it covered with soft wet cloth for 2-3 hours.

Filling: you need

1. Cottage cheese (paneer): 200 gms (chopped into 1/2 " cubes)
2. capsicum: 2 medium sized (chopped 1/2" size)
3. Onion: 2 medium sized (chopped)
4. ginger: 1" grated
5. garlic: 6-7 flakes finely chopped
6. green chilly: 1 large finely chopped
7. red chilly: 1 tspn (optional to make it spicy)
8. Tomato puree: 4tbspn
9. tomato sauce: 4 tbspn
10. sugar: 1/2 tspn
11. ajonomoto (mono sodium glutamate): 1/2 tspn (optional)
12. pepper: 1 tspn
13. soya sauce: 1 tspn
14. vinegar: 2 tspn
15. salt to taste
16. Oil: 4 tbspn

You will also need Green Chutney

Preparation:

Make 10 balls from dough and roll them into big chapatis/ pan cakes (around 10" dia). Cook them on both sides over a hot tawa/flat pan . Keep aside.

• Heat Oil.
• Add green chilly, ginger, garlic and saute for half a minute. Add Onion and cook for 2 minutes.
• Add capsicum, cook covered till capsicum is crunchy.
• Add cottage cheese cubes, mix well and cook for 2 minutes.
• Add tomato puree and tomato sauce.
• Add sugar, salt, pepper, red chilly powder and ajinomoto. Add soya sauce and vinegar. Mix well
• Take off from fire.
• Divide into ten portions.
• Heat a tawa/ flat pan. Reheat a Chapati/ wrap cover layering it with little oil on both sides.
• Put a layer of green chutney on one side. Put one portion of filling in the centre along the dia, leaving some space on one end to roll back. Roll back this end over filling. Now wrap in the filling by rolling the other two free ends. 
• Cover it with tissue paper or foil on the closed end.
• Serve hot with green chutney and tomato sauce.

To make egg wrap, reheat the wrap cover with oil. Take it off. Now beat one egg, add salt and  a pinch of red chilly and pepper to it. Put one tspn oil on it on hot pan and spread it to make an omelette of the size of wrap cover. After it is cooked on one side, lay the wrap cover on the other (uncooked) side. Turn over, put a layer of green chutney on the omelette. Add filling and wrap it as above. Serve hot with tomato sauce and green chutney.

Egg rolls make a healthy and tasty item for kids.

Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji is a simple, quick and very tasty delicacy from western India. It is healthy as well. My daughter likes it very much.

Bhaji is a mixed veg curry which is served with Pav (white bread/ bun). Pav are cut in two, toasted on a flat pan with  butter and served hot with hot bhaji.

Things you need to make Bhaji: (six servings)
Onion : 2 medium sized grinded
garlic: 5-6 flakes finely chopped/ meshed
green chilly: 1 large chopped
ginger : 1" grated.
Tomatoes: 4-5 medium sized (pureed)
Potatoes (boiled and meshed): 5-6 medium sized
Capsicum, peas, carrot, french beans, cauliflower(all chopped): 1 cup each
Bottle guard, white raddish (chopped) : 1 cup each (optional)
Pavbhaji masala: 4 tbspn
dry mango powder: 1 tspn
black salt: 1tbpn
salt: to taste
oil: 5-6 tbspn
butter: 100 gms.

Onion: 1 chopped for garnishing.

green coriander: 1/2 cup chopped for garnishing

Lemon: 1 cut in two pieces.

• Mix all the chopped vegetables and boil them for a whistle in pressure cooker or cook covered in a pan with water. Make sure they are cooked but don't mesh.
• Heat oil, add ginger, garlic and green chilly. Saute for a minute.
• Add onion paste and cook till golden brown. 
• Add tomatoes and cook till the masala leaves oil. 
• Add 3 tbspn pav bhaji masala, dry mango powder and saute for a minute.
• Add the boiled vegetables, salt,  and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add 4-5 cups of water and let the bhaji simmer for 10-15 minutes, till you get the desired consistency. The more the bhaji simmers on low heat, tastier it gets. 
• Add black salt, 2-3 tbspn butter (optional)
• For tempering: heat 2-3 tbspn butter in a thick pan, add 1 tbspn pav bhaji masala and top it on bhaji.
• Mix the tempering well, transfer in serving dish and garnish it with chopped coriander, spate of butter.
• Serve bhaji with toated pav.
• Chopped onion and lemon juice are topped on bhaji suiting to individual taste.

Sama ke chawal (Mordhan) ki khichdi

I am jotting down another recipe for vrat/fast. Sama ke chawal or mordhan are white round grains, I was told by mom that they are seeds of some grass. Cooked like upma with potatoes and peanuts, this recipe is very light to eat, as compared to sago/sabudana.

Sama ke chawal: 1 cup

Peanuts (roasted, peeled and coarsely crushed): 1/3 cup

green chilly: 1 chopped

potato (chopped): 1 medium sized

tomato (chopped): 1 medium sized

grated ginger: 1 tspn

curry leaves: 8-10

Cumin seeds (Jeera): 1/2 tspn

garam masala: 1/2 tspn

Fresh coriander chopped: 1/4 cup

Oil 2 tbspn

1.     Roast sama ke chawal for 3-4 mins on low heat in a thick bottomed pan. 

2.     Heat oil in thick bottomed pan.

3.     Add Cumin seeds, green chillies, curry leaves and ginger. Saute for half a minute, add potatoes and cook uncovered till they are crispy golden brown. Add tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes.

4.     Add sama ke chawal, mix well. Add two cups hot water, mix and cook covered on low heat for 5-7 minutes.

5.     Open, add peanuts, garam masala, half of chopped coriander  and mix well. Cook covered for 2-3 minutes till all water is absorbed.

6.     Garnish it with chopped coriander, can add lemon juice and serve hot with green chutney and curd.

(You can also add other vegetables like chopped beans, carrot, cauliflower, cabbage and capsicum)

Chilly paneer

Things you need:

Paneer (cottage cheese): 250 grams (3/4"dices)

Capsicum: 2 medium sized (cut into 3/4" pieces)

Onion: 2 medium sized (cut lengthwise into four parts and layers peeled)

green chilly: 1 chopped

Garlic flakes: 5-6 chopped

Flour (maida): 3 tbspn
red chili powder: 1 tspn
pepper: 1/2 tspn
Vinegar: 1 tbpn
soya sauce: 2-3 tspn (depending on the colour desired)
tomato sauce: 4 tbspn
aginomoto: 1/4 tspn
sugar: 1/2 tspn
Oil and salt

Mix maida, salt and red chilly powder. Add 5-6  tbspn water to make batter . Marinate paneer pieces in this batter for 30 minutes. Deep fry coated paneer pieces till golden brown.

Heat 3-4 tbspn oil. Add green chillies, garlic and saute them for 1 minute. Add capsicum and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add Onion and again cook till both capsicum and onion are crunchy. 

Add salt, sugar, aginomoto and pepper and stir. Add vinegar, soya sauce, tomato sauce and mix well. Add 1/2 cup water and boil. Add the fried paneer pieces, mix them all well, cook on heat for 1-2 minutes.

Serve hot.

( To taste it a little different try this: In the end, slightly shift the pan from fire, take some mix on jhara (laddle with pores), burn it over fire for 7-8 seconds. Mix it back. Take another scoop and repeat this 4-5 times. This gives a different flavour and smells good. Serve immediately.)

Malai Kofta

This is a very tasty slightly sweet tasting curry...impressive to serve it over dinner...

Things required for making Kofta: (for six servings)
Potaoes: 5-6 (large) boiled
araroot/ arrow root: 3-4 tspn (used as binder for koftas)
Paneer (cottage cheese): 50 gms
Raisins: 15-20
cashew nuts: 7-8 broken
Pepper: 1 tspn
sugar: 1 tspn
green coriander (chopped): 2 tbspn
salt: to taste
Oil: to fry
Boil potatoes in microwave. In case you are boiling in pressure cooker, strain to drain water as soon as the pressure cooker cools, let the potatoes cool in uncovered on strainer. This helps to keep potatoes dry. Mesh potatoes, add arrow root and salt.
Filling: Mesh paneer, add coriander, pepper, raisins, cashew nuts, sugar and salt.
Take a small 11/2 " ball of potato mesh, flatten it, place 1tspn of filling and roll over to make oval koftas. Heat oil, and fry koftas 2-3 at a time in very hot oil turning once or twice only.
Lay the koftas in a flat serving dish.

For Curry You need

poppy seeds: 1 tspn

fresh/dry grated coconut: 2 tbspn

makhane (fox nut): 1/2 cup

cashew nuts: 5-6
onion: 3 medium sized
ginger: 1"
green chilly: 1 medium sized
tomatoes: 4 (pureed)
mustard seeds: 1 tspn
creme: 3 tbspn
milk: 1/2 cup
oil: 5-6 tbspn
Garam masala: 1 tspn
(to make fresh garam masala slightly roast 2 cloves, 4 black pepper corns, small piece of cinnamon, 4-5 seeds of cardamom, Mix all the ingredients, roast for a minute on pan and then grind coarsely)

White masala: Soak poppy seeds, coconut, foxnuts and cashew nuts in 1/2 cup water for 2 hours, grind to a paste.

Grind onion, ginger, green chilly in mixer. Heat oil, add mustard seeds to splutter, add the onion mix. Roast this masala till golden brown, stirring in between. Add tomato puree and cook till dry, stirring in between. Add 1/2 cup of water and again roast till the masala leaves oil. Add white masala and milk. Add water to get desired consistency of curry. Boil once.
Add creme, garam masala and boil.

Just before serving , pour hot curry over the koftas. Garnish it with grated cottage cheese, creme, tomato sauce.

Sabudane ke Vade (Sago cutlets)

Another recipe for vrat/fast.

You need:
Sago: 1 cup (soak sago in water for 1/2 hr., drain water, and keep it in refrigerator for 6-8 hours in closed box)
potatoes: 6-7 medium sized (boiled, peeled and meshed)
Ginger: 1" grated
green chilly: 2 nos chopped
coriander leaves: 1/4 cup chopped
peanuts: 1/2 cup (roasted, peeled and coarsely grounded)
coriander powder: 2 tspn
mango powder: 1 tspn
black pepper powder: 1 tspn
salt: to taste
Mix all the ingredients and make into small flat balls with a hole in center. It is must to have a hole for proper cooking and to avoid bursting of sago.

Frying: Heat oil, add 3-4 vadas in very hot oil. If the oil is less hot then the vadas may spill. Turn over the vadas after half a minute and reduce the flame, frying frequently turning over on reduced flame till they are golden brown. Increase the flame, make fry them till crispy, remove from oil. Add another round of vadas in high heat.

Serve hot with curd chutney and green chutney.

Tip: Making the flame high in the end makes vadas crispy and prepares the oil for next round of frying. Vadas often burst due to sago so keep your face away from oil pan.

Makhane ki kheer

 A sweet recipe for vrat/upwaas/fast.

You need: (3 servings)
Full creme milk: 1 ltr
sugar: 4 tbspn
Makhane/ Fox nut (puffed kernet of Gorgon nut): 1 1/2 cups chopped
Charoli: 1 tbspn (optional)
raisings: 2 tbspn
Kesar flakes (5-6)

Preparation:
Boil the milk in heavy bottomed pan. Add sugar and cook on medium flame till it thichkens. Add makhane and cook it till desired consistency or the preparation is approximately 350 ml . Soak raisins in water for half an hour during this preparation. Drain raisins, wash charoli, kesar in 1 tspn of milk and add them to milk.

transfer in serving dish and serve hot. You can garnish it with chopped pista flakes also.

Sabudane ki khichdi

Navratri begins today and with this begin one month of festivity in India. Navratri means Nine+ Nights. This is the part of year that I love most, as the environment is so festive. Followers keep fast for nine days during Navratri. Dandiya and Garba form of dances from Gujrat  are performed in the evenings in whole of northern and western India during these days. People in groups of 20-500 dance in circles on gujrati tunes. Bengali celebrate it in different style, make big mandaps of Goddess Durga and hold cultural programs. Everywhere in the streets we can see Mandaps of goddess Durga in different forms and styles.

In these nine days of fasting there are some sabudana (sago) recipes that are normally made like sabudane ki khichdi, sabudane ke wade, sabudane ka mixture, sabudane ke papad. Other things made are kheer, kuttu ki puri, sama (a grass seed) ke chawal, singade ( a seed of aquatic plant) ke bhajiye, singade ki burfi and so on.

I plan to put in some of these recipes in the coming days. Today I made sabudane ki khichdi and makhane ki kheer in the morning. and they are here..

Sabudane (Sago) ki Khichdi  : (six servings)

You need:

Sabudana/ sago (Tapioca balls): 3 cups
green chilly: 2 chopped
ginger: 1/2 inch grated
curry leaves: 12-15
potato: 2 medium sized finely chopped.
fresh green coriander leaves : 1/2 cup chopped
peanuts: 1 cup (roasted and crushed: some small and some big pieces should be there)
coriander powder: 2 tspn
adofoetida (heeng): 2 pinch
cumin seeds: 1 tspn
Black pepper powder: 1 tspn
Garam masala: 1tspn
salt: to taste
sugar: 1 1/2 tspn
Oil: 4-6 tbspn

How to make:
Wash sabudana with water and soak it in water for 1/2 hour. Drain the water in colander. Transfer in a closed box and sprinkle some water on top. Leave it for 6- 8hours in refrigerator. I normally soak it in the evening and  refrigerate it overnight.
Heat 4 tbspn oil, add cumin seeds, green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and asofoetida in order. Saute for a minute, add coriander powder and again saute for half a minute on low heat. The oil should be hot enough to swell the cummin seeds and not very hot to burn the coriander powder. By putting green chillies and ginger, the oil temp comes down. Add sabudana and peanuts. Mix well, add salt and cover cooked for 8-10 minutes stirring in between.
Meanwhile, heat two table spoon of oil and cook the potatoes (with salt) uncovered stirring in between, till they are cooked and are little crispy. (You can use boiled potatoes, or cook potatoes with green chilly and then add sabudana, I prefer to cook them separately.)
Mix the potatoes in sabudana, add pepper powder and garam masala, 1/2 cup chopped coriander and cook covered for 2 minutes.
Transfer in a serving dish, garnish it with remaining coriander and serve hot with green chutney and curd. (green chutney without onion and tomato is preferred for upwaas/fasts)

Instant Hide and Seek brownie

This one is from my instant recipes. When you feel like having a hot dessert after dinner, you can make this in minutes and enjoy.
Things you need: 
Hide and seek biscuits: Three packets
Baking powder: 1 pinch
Walnuts and raisins: 2 tb spn

Preparation:
Break the biscuits and powder in mixer. Add enough water to make it thick pouring consistency (same as cake batter). Add a pinch of baking powder, walnuts and raisins and mix well.
Transfer  in a greased microwave dish. Microwave for 3 minutes.

Instant brownie is ready. It tastes very good when hot.
You can serve it with vanilla icecream.

Sambhar

I make sambhar in 4 different ways. This one is different because it uses two diff types of dals (pulses) and really tastes different and good. I always serve my guests with this variety as it is different..
I must thank my Mami Kalpana who is a very good cook to have taught me this. I always look forward to her dishes when ever I visit Bhopal my native town.

Things you need: (6 people)
Masoor dal (split red lentil): 3/4 cup
Arhar dal (split red gram): 3/4 cup
Chopped veggies (bottle guard, french beans, carrot, lady finger, white raddish, brinjal): 1 1/2 cup
Onion: 1 large, cut length wise

garlic: 4-5 cloves (chopped)

Dry red chillies: 3-4

Whole coriander seeds: 10-15
Mustard seeds: 1 tspn
Hing (asofoetida): 2 pinch
Oil: 3-4 tbspn
tamarind paste: 2 tspn or extract of 1" ball of tamarind
Sambhar masala: 4 tbspn (I prefer Everest brand for this preparation)
Fresh sambhar masala: blend one 2' piece of fresh coconut with 2 tbspn roasted bengal gram dal, 1' piece of ginger and 1 green chilly.

What next:
Wash the lentils together and take one whistle in pressure cooker. Open, add the chopped vegetables and again cook it for one whistle. Add salt.
Heat Oil. Add mustard seeds, garlic, curry leaves, coriander seeds, red chillies in order. Add onion and cook till brown. Add fresh sambhar masala saute for a minute. Add sambhar powder and saute for a minute. Add tamarind paste, salt, 1 cup water and let the masala boil. Add boiled lentil and vegetables and water to get desired consistency. Give it a boil, simmer it for 5-8 minutes.