Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney

These days I have been saving vegetable peels, stalks and even leaves hoping to make edibile and delicious dishes from them. I have heard many a times from different people that vegetable and fruit peels, stalks and leaves have lots of nutrients in them. I agree, we can easily transform some of these veggie wastes which we usually toss in the bin into tasty delicious dishes. One such dish that I often make with vegetable peels is this Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney. I served this chutney with the Masala Dosas I made for dinner sometime last week. This chutney tastes just as good as regular coconut chutney and one wont be able to guess that it was made from peels that usually get thrown away!

Ingredients -
3 cups ridge gourd peels
3 green chillies
1 inch piece ginger
1 tbsp crushed peanuts
2 tbsps fresh grated coconut
1/2 cup grated raw mango (or tamarind to taste)
1 handful cilantro leaves
1/4 cup jaggery
Salt to taste
2 tbsps oil
1/4 tsp asafoetida/ hing

Method -
1.Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and fry the green chillies and ridge gourd peels till they turn slightly brown and crisp.
2.Transfer this to the blender and add the remaining ingredients such as ginger, crushed peanuts, coconut, raw mango, cilantro, tamarind, jaggery, salt and some water. Blend this into a fine paste by adding some water as needed.
3.In a small kadai, heat a tbsp of oil and add hing. Pour this oil on the chutney and mix well.

This goes to Nithu's 'Best Out Of Waste' event.

Kandyachi Bhakri/ Onion Bhakri

Bhakri is a traditional Maharashtrian flat bread which is mostly made from jowar flour, bajra flour, nachni/ ragi flour, rice flour or even wheat flour and is a staple diet in rural Maharashtra. Typically, the dough for this bhakri is made by adding the basic ingredients such as salt and water to the flour. In Maharashtra, the pitla bhakri and junka bhakri combo is very popular. It is also common to serve them with a red/ green chilli thecha (thick red or green chillies are fire roasted and pounded in the mortar pestle into a coarse paste) , garlic chutney and raw onions.

One such bhakri variety which I grew up eating is this Kandyachi Bhakri/ Onion Bhakri. My mom made this quite often at home particularly when she was out of veggies and I loved eating these with her spicy peanut chutney. This bhakri is basically seasoned with finely chopped onions, green chillies, cilantro and fresh grated coconut. For soft thin bhakris I usually steam the dough (see procedure below). But if the rice flour is very fresh, you can directly make the dough in warm water. Traditionally you spread the bhakri into a round circle with the help of your palm and fingers. I use the fast and fool proof ziploc method where in I place a medium sized ball of dough inside a greased ziploc bag and roll it into a round bhakri using my rolling pin. This method never fails and yields thin and even bhakris every single time. We love these bhakris with this quick potato bharta. All you do is mix together some peanut chutney, yogurt, finely chopped onions and chopped/ mashed boiled potatoes and serve it with warm bhakris for a traditional maharashtrian meal.

Makes @ 7-8 bhakris
Ingredients -
1 cup water
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
2 green chillies – slit in the middle and chopped into medium pieces
Handful of cilantro leaves – finely chopped
3 tbsps fresh grated coconut
1/4 tsp sugar (optional)
Salt to taste
Oil as needed

Method -

1. Boil a cup of water in a pan and add salt and 1 tsp oil to it.

2. Switch off the stove and add rice flour to the hot water little at a time and constantly stir the mixture. Cover it and let it cool down before you add the other ingredients.

3. When the dough it slightly warm, add the onions, green chillies, cilantro, coconut and sugar.

4. Knead the mixture to form a soft dough and apply some oil to your palm to help with kneading the dough. You may need to add little more rice flour if the dough is very sticky.

5. Adjust the salt according to your taste. Let the dough rest for half hour.

6. Heat a skillet while you prepare the bhakris.

7. Take a medium size ziplock bag and cut it open on 2 sides. Place the Ziploc on the rolling board/ polpat. Apply some oil on the inside of the bag and place a medium size ball of the dough on it. Cover the dough ball with the ziploc and roll it with your rolling pin into a round bhakri just like chapattis.

8. Slowly lift the bhakri and roast them on the hot skillet on both sides. Drizzle few drops of oil on each side and fry for some more time, till they turn slightly golden brown.

9. Serve hot. Goes well with peanut chutney or potato bharta.

This goes to Healing Foods -Onions event hosted by Priya for the month of June and started by Siri of Siri's Corner.

Bhajaniche Vade

'Bhajani' which is a flour of mixed roasted pulses and some spices is typically used to make 'Thalipeeths', a famous snack item from Maharashtra, India. This delicious flavored flatbread is traditionally served with a dollop of home-made butter and an accompaniment of either chutney, raita, pickle or any other relish. Every year my mom makes big batches of this bhajani flour for me along with home made cumin powder, coriander powder, goda masala, upvasachi bhajani (for vrats/ fasts), pickles, chundas etc that I bring back with me during my India trips. 

Last year, for some reason I didn’t get a chance to make thalipeeths that often and therefore have some flour left from last year along with my fresh batch that I brought back with me during my last India trip in December 2009. I wanted to quickly use up the old bhajani, so that I could start using my fresh batch of bhajani for making thalipeeths. While searching for some new recipes that call for this bhajani flour, I came across these bhajani vades on this Blog. I think this is an excellent way of using the leftover flour before it loses all its flavor. I made a few changes to the original recipe. The vades were delicious, puffed up beautifully and went really well with this simple Batatyache Bhareeth (Potato Bharta).

Ingredients -
1 cup Bhajani Flour
2 tbsps wheat flour
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp green chilli paste
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp sesame seeds
salt to taste
1-2 tbsps hot oil
Oil for deep frying

Method -
1. In a bowl, take the bhajani flour and add wheat flour, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, sugar, green chilli paste, cilantro, cumin powder, coriander powder, sesame seeds and mix well.
2. Add the hot oil and with some warm water form a medium dough (like puri dough). Cover and set the dough aside for 15-20 mins. In the meantime, heat oil for deep frying.
3. Form medium sized balls @ 8- 10. Lightly grease a plastic sheet or cut open a Ziploc bag and grease the inside. Place the ball of dough on the greased side and with help of your fingers and palm flatten it into a round puri. Deep fry the vadas in the hot oil on medium heat until done. Fry on both sides.

Batatyache Bhareeth (Potato Bharta) 

Ingredients -
1 cup chopped boiled potatoes
1 finely chopped green chilli
1/2 cup chopped onions
4-5 curry leaves roughly chopped
1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped
1/2 cup thick yogurt
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp hing/ asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste

Method -
1. Heat some oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add cumin seeds, curry leaves, green chillies, hing/ asafoetida, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and mix well. Make sure you don't burn the spices. I usually turn off the stove, after I add the cumin seeds and then add the other seasonings to the oil.
2. Add the onions and cook for couple of minutes. You want the onions to have some crunch.
3. Take the pan off the stove and add potatoes, salt, sugar and mix together.
4. Let this mixture cool down and then add some beaten yogurt and mix well.
5. Add chopped cilantro and serve it at room temperature.

I'm sending these vadas to Nupur's BB4 event as it uses ingredients lurking in my kitchen and the recipe is inspired by another blogger.

Thalipeeth Bhajani

'Bhajani' which is a flour of mixed roasted pulses and some spices is typically used to make 'Thalipeeths', a famous snack item from Maharashtra, India. This delicious flavored flatbread is traditionally served with a dollop of home-made butter and an accompaniment of either chutney, raita, pickle or any other relish.  This is my mom's recipe of Bhajani.

Ingredients -
1 kg raw rice
1/2 kg bajra
1/2 kg jowar
1/4 kg green gram/ moong
1/4 kg urad dal
1/4 kg chana dal
1/4 kg kulith/ horsegram
100 gms wheat
1/2 cup coriander seeds
1/4 cup cumin seeds

Method -
1. Wash the rice and dry it by spreading the rice on a piece of cloth.
2. In a pan, roast each of the above ingredients separately.
3. Mix everything together and grind it into a fine powder.

Dark Chocolate Walnut Bars

Though I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, every once in a while I like to indulge in something sweet specially after a hot and spicy meal. I had a big bag of walnuts that I bought around Christmas time last year. Since I saved them in the refrigerator they are still very fresh and I wanted to bake something using these nuts. These days, my go to baking book is this 'The Cook's Encyclopedia of Baking' book by Carole Clements that I bought from Amazon few years back. Every single item that I have baked from this book so far has turned out really good and I'm always confident baking anything from this book. While browsing through this book, these Chocolate Walnut Bars caught my attention. This seemed like a perfect recipe to use up some of the walnuts and also the Hershey's dark cocoa powder I bought few months back to make this Zebra Cake. These bars were easy to make and were delicious. They had just the right amount of sweetness to satisfy anyone's craving. Though the original recipe called for regular cocoa powder, I used dark cocoa powder and both D and I thought the dark chocolate made the bars even more delicious!

Makes 24
Ingredients -
1/2 cup walnuts
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup flour, sifted
6 tbsps cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces
FOR THE TOPPING
2 tbsps unsalted butter
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch processed Hershey's dark cocoa powder)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs
confectioners sugar, for dusting

Method -
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease the sides and bottom of a 8 -inch square baking pan.
2. Grind the walnuts with a few tablespoons of the sugar in a food processor, blender or nut grinder.
3. In a bowl, combine the ground walnuts, remaining sugar and flour. With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Alternatively, combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Pat the walnut mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan in an even layer. Bake for 25 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, for the topping, melt the butter with the water. Whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the vanilla and salt and let cool for 5 minutes. Whisk in the eggs until blended.
6. Pour the topping over the crust when baked.
7. Return to the oven and bake until set, about 20 mins. Set the pan on a rack to cool. Cut into 21/2 X 1 inch bars and dust with confectioners sugar. Store in the refrigerator.

I'm sending these to Sugar High Friday - Edition # 67 hosted by The Well Seasoned Cook, where the theme is Bar Cookies.
I'm also sending these to Champa's Baking from the Book event hosted by Suma for the month of June.

Indian Cooking Challenge - Pani Puri/ Gol Gappa/ Phuchka

I'm a huge CHAAT fan and can skip many a meals for any chaat item, though pani puri happens to be by far my most favorite!! Pani Puri also known as 'Gol Gappa' in Northern India or 'Phuchka' in West Bengal is a very popular street snack from India. It comprises of a crisp hollow semolina puri filled with sprouts or hot ragda, boiled potato stuffing, tamarind chutney and chilled mint flavored water.

I have 2 favorite 'panipuriwallah's' in Mumbai, one very close to where my parents live and another one in Central Matunga. Every time I go to India, I make sure I indulge in these panipuris every opportunity I get at both these locations. The standard serving in 1 plate is about 5-6 puris but I easily finish 2-3 plates and crave for yet some more! When the chaat wallah bhaiya is serving me these sweet, spicy and tangy puris one after the other, I just go on eating and the only thing I say as I'm eating my pani puri is "Pet bhar gaya par ji nahi bhara" :-)

My parents didn’t quite approve of us eating from the street vendors when we were kids and so my mom made pani puri quite often at home to satisfy our cravings. She usually bought puris from the 'ChaneWallah' and made the other preparations at home. I have also been making pani puri for the last several years since I got married but I have never tried making puris at home. I always buy them from the local Indian stores. So I was really excited when Srivalli chose Pani Puri for this months ICC Challenge as this would be an excellent opportunity to try making puris from scratch at home. I followed my regular recipe for the mint water which tasted great. For the puris and the sweet chutney, I followed the recipe provided to us with minimal changes. I made puris with a cup of semolina and had about 65- 70% success at perfect puffed puris. We had enough puffed puris for the 2 of us, so no complaints. The ones that didn’t puff will make excellent Sev Batata Puri. I think the extra efforts put into making these puris at home is well worth the trouble. These  Gol Gappas were truly divine with fresh home made puris!!

Ingredients -
For Puris

1 cup rava/ sooji/ semolina

1 tbsp all purpose flour/ maida

Salt to taste

Oil for Frying

For Spicy Mint Water

1 bunch cilantro/ coriander leaves

1 cup mint/ pudina leaves

5 cloves garlic

1 inch piece ginger

4 green chillies/ to taste

1 tbsp black salt/ kala namak

1/2 tsp freshly roasted cumin powder

1 pinch salt

juice of 1 lime

6 cups water

FOR FILLING

For Potato Filling

Boiled potatoes - finely chopped/ mashed and mixed with a pinch each of salt, red chilli powder and cumin powder

For Lentil Filling

White peas/ vatana

Green gram/ whole moong

Soak the lentils in water overnight and cook in pressure cooker. Drain any excess water and add a pinch each of salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and cumin powder

For Red Tamarind Chutney

1 cup brown tamarind

1/2 cup jaggery

4 tbsp sugar

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp dry roasted cumin powder

1 tsp dry roasted coriander powder

2 cloves

2 cups warm water

Salt to taste

Method -

For Puris

1. In a bowl take semolina, salt and add some water and mix together. The semolina will absorb all the water

2. Now add all purpose flour and knead well to form a stiff dough like regular puri dough.

3. Add a tsp of oil and knead some more. Cover the dough either with a wet muslin cloth or cling wrap and let it rest for 15-20 mins.

4. Then take a medium sized ball, apply some oil on the rolling surface and roll into a very thin chapati. Using some round cutter (I used small pickle katori)cut into several small round puris.

5. In the meantime, heat oil in a deep pan for deep frying the puris. Once oil is hot, deep fry puris until crisp and golden brown color. Remove the puris with the help of a slotted spoon on a plate lined with paper towel to absorb any excess oil.

6. Allow the puris to completely cool and store them in an airtight container.

For Spicy Mint Water

1. Clean the cilantro by discarding all the large stems and only using the tender leaves and stem.

2. Grind the cilantro, mint leaves, garlic, ginger and green chillies into a fine paste adding some water.

3. Transfer this to a bowl and add 6 cups for water to this. Also add lime juice, salt, cumin powder, black salt and mix well.

4. Refrigerate the water for few hours and strain the water through a fine siever before use.

For Red Tamarind Chutney

1. Extract the pulp from tamarind.

2. Dry roast the cumin seeds and the cloves in a pan and pound them into coarse powder.

3. Add jaggery, sugar, red chilli powder, black pepper powder, roasted cumin powder, roasted coriander powder, cloves and salt to the tamarind pulp. Also add some water.

4. Heat this mixture for a few minutes and let it cool down. Add some more warm water if the chutney thickens up.

Assembling the Pani Puri / Gol Gappa

1. Assemble few puris in a plate. Poke a small hole in the center of the puris

2. Add some potato filling and lentil filling inside the puri.

3. Add some red tamarind Chutney and pour some spicy mint water in the puri. Stuff the whole puri in your mouth.

Avacado Pineapple Smoothie

This past weekend kept us very busy with house cleaning and yard work. I didn’t have time to cook an elaborate breakfast. So I went ahead and made this quick avocado pineapple smoothie which made a healthy and delicious breakfast.

Serves 2
Ingredients –
1 ripe avocado
½ cup crushed pineapple (I used canned crushed pineapple)
1 cup pineapple juice
½ cup orange juice
1 tbsp honey

Method -
1. Cut the avocado, remove the pit and scoop out the avocado into the blender.
2. Add the other ingredients inthe blender and puree into a smooth paste.
3. Add some ice cubes and blend again. Serve chilled.

I'm sending this to Divya's 'Show Me Your Smoothie!' event and Priya's 'Vegetable/Fruit A Month' event with Avacado being the chosen fruit for the month of May 2010.

Kulith / Horsegram Dosa

These last few days I haven’t really done any grocery shopping except buying basic ingredients such as tomatoes, onions, peppers etc. Inspired by Nupur's BB4 event, I'm forcing myself to come up with tasty dishes with ingredients I have in my pantry. I have already made a list of ingredients that have been sitting in my pantry and refrigerator for months/ years and plan to cook as many dishes as I can using these ingredients.

I found some Kulith/ Horsegram in the refrigerator which is as old as my daughter 'Swara,' who is 18 months old now. My mom got these from India when she came here to help me out after Swara's birth. This is a kind of legume which is generally used as cattle feed. Since it is rich in iron and a good source of protein and calcium, it is considered to be good for new moms. My mom made Kulith usal for me a couple of times but I didn't like it very much. So they were neatly stored in a Ziploc bag in my refrigerator and have been undisturbed for more than a year or so. I don’t like to throw anything my mom has specially carried for me all the way from India. So I was really thrilled to find this Kulith/ Horsegram dosa on Shilpa's blog. I followed her recipe with the addition of few more ingredients like methi seeds and some cooked rice which I usually add for good fermentation. I didn’t have time to make a special chutney or sambar to go along with these. So I made these more like uttapams by sprinkling some finely chopped onions, cilantro, green chillies and spicy peanut chutney right after spreading the dosa batter on the skillet. The dosas were very crisp and delicious. They tasted slightly different than the regular dosas and are much healthier with the addition of kulith. I think the kulith gave the dosas a lovely golden brown color and also made them very crispy. I was really happy to see my little Swara enjoy these as much as we did. I might have to buy more kulith to make these dosas specially for her :-)

Ingredients -

1/2 cup regular rice

1/2 cup boiled rice / ukde tandul

1/2 cup urad dal

1/2 cup kulith/ horsegram

1/4 cup chana dal

1 tsp methi/ fenugreek seeds

1/4 cup cooked rice
salt to taste

Optional -

finely chopped onions

finely chopped green chillies

finely chopped cilantro

peanut chutney/ any chutney powder

Method -

1. Soak the rice, urad dal, horsegram, chana dal and methi seeds separately in water overnight or 5-6 hrs.

2. Grind everything to a smooth paste along with the cooked rice like regular dosa batter.

3. Leave the batter in a warm place for fermentation. 

4. Add salt to the fermented batter.

5. Heat your dosa pan/ griddle and grease it with some oil when hot.
6. In a bowl, mix together finely chopped onions, green chillies and cilantro
7. Pour the dosa batter on the pan with the help of your ladle and spread it in circular motion starting from the center to form a thin dosa.
8.Immediately sprinkle the onion, green chilli and cilantro mixture on the dosa. Also sprinkle some chutney powder on it.
9. Put some oil on and around the edges of the dosa and cook the dosa until golden brown. Serve hot with your favorite chutney.

This is a perfect entry for Nupur's BB4 event as it uses ingredients lurking in my kitchen and the recipe is inspired by another blogger.
I'm also sending these to Helen and Sarah's 'Breakfast Club # 1 - Asian' event.

Potato Masala N Sesame Toast - French Toast Indian Style

Last memorial day weekend, my nephew was in town and spent the weekend with us. I treated him with all his favorite Indian food from chicken kadhai to shrimp balchao and masala vada to masala dosa. As a result, I had plenty of leftovers and didn’t have to cook much last week. Sometimes we are not in a mood to have the same food for 2-3 consecutive meals and I love to transform the leftovers into innovative tasty dishes. I had some leftover potato masala and coconut chutney that I made for the masala dosa and decided to make this Indian style French toast for a quick evening snack last week. This 'Potato Masala N Sesame Toast' was delicious and would make an excellent breakfast. I guess you can use any leftover curry (that goes well with egg) for the stuffing and make delicious French toast (Indian Ishtyle) with ingredients you have on hand.

Ingredients-
2 bread slices
1 egg
2 tbsps milk
1 cup Potato Masala/ Bhaji
2 tbsps Coconut Chutney
2 tsps tomato ketchup
2 tbsps chopped cilantro
Salt to taste
1 pinch pepper
Butter
Sesame seeds

Method -
1. Mash the potato masala to form a smooth mixture and add some chopped cilantro to it. Reserve a tbsp of cilantro for the egg batter.
2. Mix the tomato ketchup with the coconut chutney
3. Beat the egg and add the milk, salt, pepper, remaining chopped cilantro and mix well
4. Heat your skillet/ pan while you prepare the bread slices.
5. Spread some butter on the bread slices on one side followed by the chutney- ketchup mixture.
6. Now spread the potato stuffing on the bread to form a thin layer
7. Dip the bread slices in the egg batter and place them on the hot skillet with the stuffing side up. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on the bread. Fry both the sides by drizzling some melted butter around the bread slices. Fry till they turn golden brown.
8. Serve them hot with ketchup or chutney.

I'm sending these to Priya's Global Kadai - Indianized French Toast event and Helen and Sarah's 'Breakfast Club # 1 - Asian' event.

Chawli Vada/ Black- Eyed Pea Fritters

I keep a decent stock of dried peas/pulses in my pantry and use them regularly in my cooking. However, Chawli or Black- Eyed Peas is one of the pulses that I had not cooked with until last year. Although these peas are used in many traditional Indian dishes, the red peas were more popular at my mom's place and were widely used in several dishes. These red peas are called 'Alsande' and are similar in shape and size to the black eyed peas. I believe they are only available during a particular season in certain regions in India. My mom usually buys these in bulk during her trips to Goa.

Anyways, coming back to the black eyed peas, I came across a recipe for the black eyed peas vada on Indira's blog almost a year back and immediately bought these peas to try these vadas at home. However, my plan to make these vadas never materialized and I ended up using them to make this Chawli Methi Dhokla, definitely a healthier option to the deep fried vadas. Since then, I have made these dhoklas a few times but never got to making the vadas. When I read about Nupur's BB4 event and was looking through my pantry, I found some black eyed peas in a canister. I immediately soaked them overnight in water and finally made these delicious vadas for dinner last week. I used the regular procedure I follow to make any other dal vada batter and shaped them like medu vadas. These vadas tasted really good and from what I understand are usually served with non- vegetarian chicken or mutton curries. However, I served them with some coconut chutney and sambhar and they go very well with these too!

Ingredients -
1 cup black- eyed peas/ Chawli
2 cinnamon sticks (or 5-6 small pieces)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
2-3 green chillies finely chopped
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
6-8 curry leaves roughly chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
Pinch of sugar
Salt to taste

Method -
1. Soak the black eyed peas in sufficient water overnight or 6-8 hrs.
2. Drain the peas and grind them along with the cinnamon sticks and cumin seeds into a coarse paste in your food processor or blender. The batter should be such that if you form a round with it, it must hold its shape. Do not add water while grinding as there's enough moisture in the soaked peas.
3. Remove the batter in a bowl. Add chopped curry leaves, green chillies, fennel seeds, onions, cilantro, sugar and salt and mix well.
4. Heat oil in a pan or kadai. The vadas can be formed on the palm of your hand or on a Ziploc bag whichever is convenient for you. With clean dry hand, take a small ball of the batter and put it on your palm. Then lightly flatten it and make a hole in the center like doughnuts or medu vada.
5. Gently drop the vadas into the hot oil and deep fry the vadas on both sides till golden brown. Several vadas can be fried at a time.
6. Serve hot with sambar or chutney of your choice.

I'm sending this to -
Nupur's 'BB4: Whats Lurking in the kitchen' event
Susan's 'My Legume Love Affair (MLLA)' event hosted by Diana for the month of June

Though we had these vadas for dinner, they would make an excellent breakfast. So, I'm also sending these to Helen and Sarah's 'Breakfast Club # 1 - Asian' event.