Ek Godd Suruvat- Its new year!!!

Yes, unlike New year in the west which is always on 1st January,our New year falls on a different date every year- It is usually mid March- April.
 In India we follow the Hindu calendar, and Gudhi Padva (Marathi New Year) falls on the first day of the Chaitra month.It is also known and celebrated as Ugadi by telegus ,Yugadi by Kokanis,Navreh in Kashmiri Pandits and Cheti Chand by Sindhis.

The names might be different but the idea still remains the same-to celebrate creation,to celebrate life to celebrate new season of spring.

A little Trivia-

In Maharashtra,people raise a Gudhi in their window or balcony to symbolize victory.
*A gudhi is a long stick adorned with a bright yellow-orange colored cloth with a kalash (copper pot)inverted over it and neem leaves and flowers tied around it.
Here is a pic of gudhi i got from the internet: (Pic Courtesy- Google)

Gudhi

Ideally we eat Shrikhand Puri on this day at home,but to get that here in London, i would have to travel an hour. So we had Mango flavored yogurt instead :P
But i decided to make something sweet in my  kitchen. Now while everyone of you reading will know what a Puran Poli is I am going to make its variant called Tel Poli.

Ingredients-

Plain Flour (Maida)- 1 cup

Oil- 2-3 tsp for adding and about 6-7 tsp for rolling

Sugar- 1/2 cup

Chana dal (Split Bengal Gram) - 1/2 cup

Cardamom - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Procedure-

1. Take 1 cup of maida and add 2 tsp of hot oil to it (we call this as mohan and it gives crispiness to the poli) add water and knead.

Plain flour,oil and water.

2. Knead it to a soft dough. Add oil on it and keep aside.

Soft dough covered with Oil

3. Wash and soak the 1/2 cup chana dal for 2-3 hours and then pressure cook it in a cooker with 1 cup of water (chana dal becomes double in volume after soaking).Drain the excess water after dal is cooked.

Drain additional water from the cooked dal

4. Now add 1/2 cup of sugar (or more if you have an extra sweet tooth-just as salt the sweetness of sugar varies from place to place)

Cook the dal and sugar

5. Cook it on a medium flame, stir from time to time.

6. Cook it until all the water has evaporated and it is dry enough.

Keep stirring occasionally

Water has evaporated

7. Now pass this dal mixture through a sieve to make it smooth  (you can use a blender-if you are in a rush) but i highly recommend manual straining.

It should look something like this:

8. Now we are ready with the dough,the filling and rolling pin and board.

9. Rub a little oil on your palm before rolling (Well it is called Tel-poli meaning oil for a reason)

10. Make a small disc with the dough.

11. Place a small portion of filling and make it into a ball.

12. Roll it thin (Apply oil to the rolling pin and board as well- believe me this helps) Turn the rolling board while rolling and not the dough. As we do not use any flour while rolling we roll it on an oily surface.

13. Lift it on the rolling pin like this:

14. And place it on the tava or a flat griddle.

15. Roast on a medium flame on both sides. (Apply ghee if you wish- i love adding ghee while serving)

16. Enjoy the crispy and crunchy Tel Poli.

My tip-

The tel poli should be rolled,lifted and roasted immediately or else it tends to stick on the rolling pin. 

Read More

Maggi- Instant Noodles with Instant Nostalgia

Crispy Maggi

Now you will think what is so special about it? Instant noodles haan- thats it. 

Well yes, but for me  (and many like me ) it brings a sense of instant nostalgia.Those born and grown up in 90's will know what i am talking about. Maggi was the like the international fast food for us.

I remember coming home from school and having a bowl of Maggi almost everyday watching hindi dubbed American series like I dream of Jinnie.Wow those were the days of playing Lapa Chupi ( Hide and seek),watching shaktimaan,slurping Dudh ki pepsi (milk flavored ice popsicles) and collecting trump crads.

Now before i drift into the past,let me share with you my version of  Maggi. It is like an exotic cousin of the plain water maggi that one can has It has 3 layers, with boiled maggi at the bottom a sauce in between and topped with fried maggi. 

Why complicate a simple dish? Well ITS TASTY.. Simple!!!!

A little Trivia-

Maggi was introduced by Nestle in the 80's in India and topped the charts in the instant noodles market for a decade.For those of you who havent had Maggi before this is how it looks. It has instant noodles and a packet of taste maker inside.

Maggi packets

Inside- Noodles and a taste maker

Ingredients- 

Maggi noodles- 2 packets
Tomatoes- 2-3
Onions- 1
Capsicum- 1 small
Ginger and Garlic paste- 1 tsp
Vinegar- 1 tsp (optional)
Soya Sauce - half tsp (optional)
Tomato ketchup- 2 tsp (optional)
Oil - to fry
Water- 1.5 cups
Salt- to taste


Procedure-

1. Add 1 packet of maggi with the taste maker to 1.5 cup of water. Cook it on medium flame for 2-3 mins till the noddles are cooked. 

   
    

   Boil Maggi

2. Make a paste of Ginger and garlic.
3. Chop tomatoes,onions and Capsicum.

   
    

   Chopped Vegetables

4. In a pan add 2 tsp of oil,add ginger garlic paste and saute for 2 mins.
   
   

   

   Saute ginger garlic paste in oil

     
5. Add in the onions and saute till they are translucent.Add capsicum and stir fry for a min.
   
   

   

   Saute onions and capsicum

6. Add in the tomatoes and salt.Stir.Cover and let it cook.
   
   

   

   Add in tomatoes

7. Now add vinegar and soy sauce and ketchup (this is optional) and add in the taste maker
   

   
   

   Add in sauces for taste



Sauce 

 
8. Let it cook for a min more. (Add water to adjust consistency)

   
   

   Add in tastemaker

9. Deep fry the remaining packet of maggi noodles till golden brown colour( Crush it into small pieces before frying for ease).

   
   

   Fry crushed Maggi noodles

10. Assemble - Sauce on the boiled maggi topped with fried noodles.

    
    

    Assemble Maggi and sauce

11. Garnish with coriander and enjoy it Hot.

    
    

    Enjoy your Maggi

My tip-

You can add boiled carrot,peas to the sauce incase your kid doesnt eat it otherwise.

Read More

A quick Breakfast- Pohe

There is an old saying - Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.

Well in our case it somehow doesn't seem to get through. Its been a week we have returned from our US trip but have been struggling to adjust back to the UK timings. So instead we - Eat no breakfast,munch for lunch and dine like a royalty- which is quite the opposite of how it should be.
Desperate to change our eating habits i decided to get up early today and finally make some breakfast- only to know that we had very limited ingredients :( Determined to give up the idea i decided to create something with the available ingredients.

And the verdict- It was yumm!!!

So here is my version of ' Pohe'

Kande Pohe

A little trivia

Pohe is a very popular breakfast preparation of Maharashtra (India).In fact it is so popular that it is a dish served during the bride- viewing programs in arrange marriages in Maharashtra.[ Now imagine a dad telling his son- I chose your mom because she could make the best Pohe in the world :P]

Pohe literally means flattened rice (easily available in the Indian grocery stores). It can be made with Onions (Kanda Pohe) or Potatoes (Batata Pohe).Either of them are equally tasty!!

My version of Pohe

Ingredients-

Onions - 1 medium sized
Tomato- 1 small
Carrot - 1 small (to make it healthy)
Jeera- 1 tsp
Pohe - 1 cup
Turmeric powder- 2 tsp
Red chilly powder- 1 tsp
Coriander and Cumin powder- 1 tsp
Salt- to taste
Coriander - for garnish (i didn't have any,so i used spring onions instead)
Lemon juice- 2 tsp
Asafoetida- a pinch
Oil

Procedure:


1. Wash the Flattened rice (pohe) drain and keep aside.

Washed and drained pohe

2. In a hot pan, add 3 tsp oil. Once the oil is hot enough, add a pinch of asafoetida, and jeera (make sure not to burn it) If the oil is too hot,take it off the flame and add the powder masalas- turmeric,red chilly and coriander and cumin powder.This is what gives it its colour.

My Spice Dabba

3. Now add the onions and saute for a min. Add the carrots and tomatoes.Saute for a min.

Saute for a min well

4. Add salt at this stage as you do not want to mix too much after adding the flattened rice. (the salt should be slightly more considering you will add the flattened rice )

Stir in the Pohe gently

5. Garnish with lemon juice and coriander (i used spring onions though)

Garnish it

Your mouth watering breakfast is ready

My tip - 

Eat it while its hot. You can also add some sev incase you need a crunch in its texture.

Read More

My experiment with cooking

My experiment with cooking

‘No, just don’t teach her how to switch it on’, my mom said. I put my entire energy to it,but the gas knob refused to turn. As a kid of 11 yrs i didn’t know how to switch on the gas, each time i would try hard to turn it on unaware that the knob needs to be pressed. Since i would be alone in the house (my parents were working that time) my mom was very reluctant to teach me how the kitchen basics work fearing it might lead to some accident, as i was too young to operate the gas without any supervision. But curiosity just cannot be killed, and during one of my desperate attempts to turn the gas knob on, i accidentally pressed it. 
And wallah- what a discovery!!! 
I quickly practiced it a couple of times and there i was an expert knob turner. :)

Future Chef

Now that i knew how it worked, I was in for some more experiment .My mom had made chapattis, now i knew it had to be something with this (as i wasn't still trained in cutting, chopping, dicing etc) so it had to be something which required no knife, no fancy cuts, no technique involved. 

I don’t know what went through my mind ,i quickly poured some pure desi ghee in the pan, and added chapatti broken down to pieces with my hand, i saw a lump of jaggery in a jar and added a few pieces to the pan. The jaggery melted to a nice gooey consistency coupled with the aroma of desi ghee – it smelled truly divine. I stirred it a little and there it was- my first own creation.

And now was the moment of truth, i took a spoonful- ummm...the chapatti was nicely coated with jiggery and the sweet smell of desi ghee- i just loveddd it!! 

After 25 yrs this dish still brings on fond memories to me and takes me back to where it all had once started....
Though most basic i would still want to share my special recipe:

Still unnamed lets call this- The magic potion

What you need-

2-3 rotis

A small lump of jagery

1 tsp desi ghee

What you do-

Heat the pan

Add the desi ghee in the pan

Add jagerry and remove off the flame(to avoid it from burning)

Add pieces of roti

Stir fry till crisp (but not burnt)

Enjoy it while its hot.

Read More