Gatte Ki Sabzi

As a kid, I was very choosy in terms of what I ate, not like I am not choosy anymore, but at least I am eating more things than I used to as a kid. I rejected all those things that I didn't like the sound or look of. One of these many things that I have started eating is Gatte ki Sabzi or Besan ke Gatte ki Sabzi.
My mom, she loves feeding people maybe a tad bit more than cooking food and thus - if me or my sister don't like something - she will make an alternate dish for us. So since dad loved the dish, it has been cooked often with an alternate dish for me. 
One day, as mom was cooking the dish, she boiled the besan gatte and once they were ready, cut a small piece and ate it to check on the balance of spices. My reaction at that time - how are you eating it raw? Well she told me, what maybe I knew in my subconscious, it wasn't raw, it was properly cooked when it was boiled. And then she asked me to give it a try.
A little apprehensively, I did manage to put a small piece in my mouth and - it melted in my mouth, leaving a perfect balance of spices, the tangy and spicy taste - a bit dry without the gravy - but it tasted delicious. And that day, I finally ate the gatte ki sabzi. I felt like such a fool to haven't tried it before that day - of missing out on this wonderful dish for so many years.
But since that day on, I never stopped eating the dish, whenever mom cooked it; which unfortunately wasn't long. I got married, and it wasn;t a dish prepared in my sasural, so every time I went home, I demanded this dish be made. So finally I decided to learn it but wasn;t confident enough to make it till my pregnancy craving finally kicked in and I wanted to have the dish - so called up mom and finally made the first attempt at this wonderful dish.
So another recipe, passed on from a mom to her daughter...

INGREDIENTS:

Onion 2 small sized or 1 big sized
Tomato 1 big and 1 small sized or 2 medium sized
Gram Flour 4 and 1/2 tbsp

Refined Oil 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Curd 2 and 1/2 tbsp (or as much required)

Salt to taste

Red Chili Powder 1 and 1/2 tsp

Turmeric Powder 1 tsp
Coriander Powder 1 and 1/2 tsp
Grounded Anar Dana 1 and 1/2 tsp
Green Chili 1 no.
Garlic 3-4 cloves
Ginger 3/4 inch piece

PROCEDURE: 

1. Take a pot and add gram flour, salt (half amount of what you would normally use), 3/4 tsp of red chili powder, 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder, 3/4 tsp of coriander powder and 3/4 tsp of grounded anar dana. Mix gently.

2. To this, add curd and 1 tbsp of oil and knead into a dough. 

3. Put water to boil on a burner and add a few drops of oil to it.
4. Apply oil on your palms, make small balls of the dough and make them into rolls of almost equal sizes. 

5. Put these rolls into the boiling water gently and let it boil for about 15 to 20 minutes.

6. Take them out and let them cool. Once they cool down, cut them into bite size. 

7. Finely chop or blend or grate green chilies, garlic and ginger. 

8. Finely chop onions and tomatoes and put them aside.

9. Take a wok, add 1 and 1/2 tbsp of oil.
10. Put ginger, garlic and green chilies in the wok and let it saute for 30 seconds. 

11. Add onions to it and saute for about a minute and half, till they turn golden brown.
12. Add tomatoes to the wok and saute them till the oil separates. 
13. To this add, remaining spices and saute for another minute. 
14. After a minute, add cut besan gatte into the wok and saute for 30 - 45 seconds with continuous stirring to avoid them sticking down to the wok.
15. Add water to the wok, about 3 or 4 cups and bring it to boil on a high flame. 
16. Once the water comes to boil, cover the wok, and let it simmer till the gravy reaches the consistency you want. Stir in every now and then.

17. Transfer it to a serving bowl. Garnish with chopped green coriander and serve with rice or chapatis.

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. The gatte would come out more softer if you use a slightly thicker grounded gram flour. 

2. Avoid using water to knead the dough, instead increase amount of curd. This will make the dough a little unmanageable but gatte would remain soft.

Chocolate Balls

When everyone says, CAL is an addiction, I didn't realise what they meant until couple of days ago, or should I say nights ago, I suddenly craved chocolate balls, not as much to eat as to cook and present my efforts to the group. 

It being middle if the night, I didn't have all the ingredients I usually cook with, so I altered the recipe to suit the ingredients I had... The result wasn't bad. 

So this blog isn't just about my recipe, but the alternate recipe as well...

Beginning with the original recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Marie Biscuits 10-15 nos.

Chocolate Sauce 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Cocoa Powder 1/2 tbsp

Melted Butter 1 and 1/2 tbsp

Gems 1 small packet

Melted Chocolate 3 -4 tbsp

PROCEDURE:

1. Grind Marie Biscuits into fine powder. 

2. Add cocoa powder and mix till they are properly mixed. 

3. Add melted butter and mix well. 

4. Add chocolate sauce spoon by spoon and make into dough.

5. Form balls and refrigerate them for 20 to 30 minutes. 

6. Once set, roll top half in melted chocolate and place a gem. 

7. Refrigerate them for another 15 minutes.

8. Take out and transfer to serving platter and serve.

And here goes the alternate recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Mc Vities Biscuits 10-15 nos.

Powdered Sugar 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Cocoa Powder 2 tbsp

Milk 1 and 1/2 tbsp

Gems 1 small packet

Nutella 3 -4 tbsp

PROCEDURE:

1. Grind Biscuits into fine powder. 

2. Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar and mix till they are properly mixed. 

3. Add milk spoon by spoon and make into dough.

4. Form balls and refrigerate them for 20 to 30 minutes. 

5. Once set, roll top half in nutella and place a gem. 

6. Refrigerate them for another 15 minutes.

7. Take out and transfer to serving platter and serve.

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. Keep the balls refrigerated, so you can keep them for 5-6 days. Take them out 10-15 minutes prior to serving. 

2. You can use different garnishing instead of gems. 

3. You can dip the whole ball into chocolate. 

4. If you prefer to have it plain, no need to roll on melted chocolate.

Cook with love...

Crispy (no onion) Bhindi

Wanted a quick recipe for bhindi and something different from the usual varieties that I cook (besan wali bhindi, bharwa bhindi and bhindi pyaz ki sabzi); so as always, called up mom. And as always, she had something up her sleeve - a no nonsense, quick and simple recipe.

So here's her, jhatpat crispy bhindi recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Bhindi 500 gms.

Oil 2 tbsp

Salt to taste (I used 1 and 1/4 tsp)

Red Chili Powder 2/3 tsp

Haldi 1/4 tsp

Dhaniya Powder 1 tsp

Garam Masala (mom made) 1 tsp

Pisa Anaar Dana / Amch1ur 1 tsp

PROCEDURE:

1. Wash bhindi and let it air dry completely.

2. Once dry, cut it lengthwise into four.

3. Add oil in a wok and let it heat.

4. Add all the spices except garam masala and anar dana.

5. Add bhindi to the wok.

6. Cook on high flame with continuous stirring for about 20 minutes or till almost cooked.

7. Add garam masala and anar dana and cook for another minute.

8. Transfer to serving dish and serve hot with rotis and raita.

P.S. Onion is Added Only as Garnish

Cook with Love...

Tehri (Or Luckhnowi Veg Biryani)

Every time I suggested khichdi to my husband, he would come up with the name 'tehri' - his fall back option when in doubt or when needing something light and something that doesn't require too much effort.

Since I had never heard of tehri, (tehri is more of a Uttar Pradesh dish), and since the husband kept demanding it, it meant calling up saasu ma for her recipe - which I did. 

Being a person, who has always had rice plain, except for salt and jeera in it (I wasn't a pulao person - because of the sheer amount of vegetables in it), this seemed like a dish I will just have to put up with since the husband loved it so much...

But to my utter delight, I actually found out, that I too loved tehri - I didn't mind the veggies in it at all. So it became, not just his, but our fall back option when we weren't sure what to cook, or were too tired to cook.

So, here's the mum-in-laws super easy recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Potato 2 nos. large

Onion 2 nos. medium

Carrot 1 no. medium

Peas 1/3 cup

Elaychi 2 nos.

Tej Patta (Bay Leaf) 1 no.

Long (Cloves) 4 nos.

Dal Chini (Cinnamon) 1 medium piece

Oil 2 tbsp.

Salt to taste (I used 2 tsp.)

Haldi (Turmeric Powder) 1/4 tsp.

Rice 1 Cup

PROCEDURE:

1. Wash the rice, drain them and keep aside.

2. Wash and cut potato in to dices, onions long and carrots in small pieces.

3. In a pressure cooker, add oil and let it get warm.

4. Once hot, add crushed elaychi, tej patta, long and dal chini. Saute for about 30 seconds.

5. Add onions and saute for about 2 minutes or till onion turns translucent.

6. Add potato and carrot to the pressure cooker and saute for another minute and half.

7. Add peas and saute for half a minute. Then add salt and turmeric powder. Saute for another minute.

8. Add rice and mix well. Let it cook for another couple of minutes.

9. Now add about 2 cups of water and let it cook for about 3 whistles or it is cooked.

10. Transfer to serving dish and serve with curd or achaar and papad. 

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. Instead of oil, you can use desi ghee for more flavor.

2. Use Basmati rice for best results.

3. You can add more spices like star anise (chakri phool) or badi elaychi (instead of small ones).

4. Do not let out the steam by removing whistle, it robs tehri of its flavors. 
5. You can also add cauliflower (gobhi) to the vegetable when you add potatoes and carrots.

Cook With Love...

Kurkuri Arbi

Arbi... one of the humble vegetables, I loved eating it, but never dared to cook it. Reason was simple - the whole exercise of washing them, drying them, peeling them and cutting them like my mom was too much of a task - it was time consuming and difficult. 

But then, I learnt this new way of cooking this humble vegetable post marriage from my mum-in-law. Not only, it was the easiest recipe but at the same time, it was even more delicious - made using most basic of ingredients.

Here's my mum-in-laws super simple recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Arbi 500 gms

Oil 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Ajwain 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida (Hing) 1/4 tsp

Salt To Taste (I used 1 and 1/2 tsp)

Red Chili Powder 1/2 tsp

Haldi 1/4 tsp

Dhaniya Powder 1 tsp

Coriander for garnishing

PROCEDURE:

1. Boil arbi. Let it cool and peel the arbi (this is the most easiest way of peeling arbi).

2. Cut it into pieces.

3. Take oil in a wok and let it heat.

4. Add ajwain and let it splutter.

5. Add remaining spices and mix.

6. Add arbi to the wok. Mix it well.

7. Cook on slow heat till its golden brown and crispy. Mix occasionally.

8. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with coriander and serve hot.

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. Keep the pieces big in size about 1 inch by 1 inch.

2. When leaving on slow heat to cook, spread the arbi across the wok so that it cooks evenly.

Cook with Love...

Coconut and Coriander Filled Khandvi

Going through the posts on the facebook page of CAL, I stumbled upon this wonderful 7 minute microwave recipe for khandvi by Ms. Charu Bhargava. I decided to try it out, since it was the simplest recipe I could find on CAL page and least time consuming. How I thought I would surprise the husband, if the dish came out perfect.

The joy, when husband came in, saw the dish and simply said, "arre waah, kahan se mangaya" and when I told him, I made it. But the joy was only short lived because when I asked the husband to taste it, he simply said, he didn't like the khandvi much.

Well, I said, if you don't want it, its okay. I can have it all since I love khandvi; I picked up the plate and started eating it all on my own. And the husband gave me such a look and said, "zyada pasand nahi hai, lekin thodi to khaunga". That certainly made my day. Since then, I have been wanting to give this plain and perfect recipe a twist of my own. And today, I finally found some time to try the filling waali khandvi.

Here's the recipe with the hope, that husband likes this one as well :)

INGREDIENTS:

For Khandvi:

Bengal Gram Flour (Besan) 1 cup

Curd 1 cup

Water 1 and 3/4 cup

Salt to taste (I used 1 tsp)

Haldi 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida (hing) 1/4 tsp

For Tadka/Tampering:

Oil 1 and 1/2 tbsp

Til 1 tsp

Rye 1 tsp

Curry Leaves 4 to 5 nos.

For Filing and Garnishing:

Dry Coconut Grated 2 and 1/2 tbsp

Coriander Leaves Finely Chopped 2 tbsp

PROCEDURE: 

1. Mix all the ingredients of khandvi in a microwave safe bowl.

2. Blend them together till there are no lumps left.

3. Put the bowl in the microwave for 2 minutes.

4. After 2 minutes, take out the bowl and stir the mix well till no lumps remain.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 two more times. Total 6 minutes.

6. After 6 minutes, put the bowl in one last time for 1 minute.

7. While the batter is cooking, ready your spreading area (you can use back side of steel thalis or spread foil sheet on the platform or use platform directly).

8. After 7 minutes of cooking, take out the batter, put about 2 spoons of batter on your spreading area (depending on the size of your area you can alter the number of spoons to be put)

9. Using a flat steel spatula spread the batter as thin as you can.

Without Filling

10. Repeat the process till you have spread all the batter. Steps 8 and 9 to be performed very quickly as batter hardens very fast - but don't burn your hands :)

11. Leave the spread batter aside while your ready the tampering.

12. Put the oil in a small wok and let it heat.

13. Once oil is hot, add rye and til and let them splutter. 

14. Add the curry leaves to it and take off the burner. Leave aside.

15. Cut the spread batter as per the size you desire. 

16. Spread 3/4 amount of coconut and coriander each evenly on the spread batter.

17. Start rolling the batter to form khandvi rolls and arrange them in the serving dish.

18. Put the tampering on the arranged khandvi.

19. Garnish with remaining coconut and coriander.

ADDITIONAL NOTEWORTHY POINTS:

1. If you don't want the filling, you can skip step number 16. The quantity of coconut and coriander required can be changed to 1 tbsp each.

2. In the tampering, you can skip til.

3. In the tampering, you can also add half slit green chilies.

4. Spread the tampering evenly. For best results, you can spread the tampering using spoon.

With Filling

Cook with Love...

Kashmiri Dum Aloo

In my quest to search and cook new things for hubby, I stumbled upon this wonderful group - Chef At Large (CAL). The wonderful people, cooking wonderful dishes inspired me to no end.

I had bought a kg of baby potatoes to try my hand at 'dhaniye ke aloo', inspired by my mum in law and my bua saas. That my friends, was a failed first attempt. I will need to go back to those wonderful cooks to learn that recipe properly. So I had these left over baby potatoes and a husband who kept mentioning dum aloo and how he is going to cook the dish one of these days.

Being inspired by the group, I fired up my laptop, searched the internet for a recipe, found one - altered and tweaked it a bit to my taste and voila - I had the perfect Kashmiri Dum Aloo! And the real happiness comes when after the first bite husband says - bahut badhiya... oh the joy that filled me!

So here's my altered recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Baby Potatoes 20 nos. boiled in salted water and peeled

Onion 1 medium size, finely chopped

Thick Curd 3/4 cup or 5 tbsp

Bay Leaf 1 no.

Asafoetida (Hing) 1 pinch

Red Chili Powder 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp

Coriander Powder 1 tsp

Cumin Powder (bhuna pisa jeera) 1/2 tsp

Ginger 1 pc.

Garlic 4-5 cloves

Green Cardamom (Elaichi) 1 pod

Cinnamon 1 small pc. 

Cloves 4 nos.

Kasuri Methi 1/2 tbsp

Sugar 1 tsp

Cooking Oil 3 and 1/2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Corriander Leaves 1 tbsp, finely chopped (for garnishing)

PROCEDURE:

1. Take boiled and peeled baby potatoes and poke them slightly with a fork (this would make sure that flavors go deep inside).

2. Dry roast cardamom pod, cinnamon and cloves on a flat tava for 2 minutes and then crush them in a mortar and pestle till they are grounded to a fine powder. Keep it aside.

3. Grate ginger and garlic and keep aside. 

4. Take about 1 and 1/2 tbsp oil in a wok and heat it. Then add the potatoes to it and shallow fry them till they are golden brown. 

5. Strain them and keep aside.

6. Add remaining oil to the wok and heat it. Now add asafoetida and saute for about 10 seconds.

7. Add the bay leaf and chopped onion and saute till the onion turns slightly translucent.

8. Add the ginger and garlic from 3rd step to the wok and saute for another 30 seconds.

9. Now add the dry powder from 2nd step to the wok and saute for a minute.

10. Beat the curd and slowly add it to the wok. Add the turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder to it. Mix again.

11. Continue stirring  for about 3 minutes or till the oil separates.

12. Add shallow fried potatoes from 4th step to the wok.

13. Add kasuri methi, sugar and salt and cook on low heat for about 2 minutes.

14. Add 1 cup water and bring to boil.

15. When it starts to boil, cover the wok with a lid and cook on low heat till desired consistency of the gravy is achieved.

16. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot.

Additional Noteworthy Points:

1. Grating ginger and garlic imparts extra flavor. You can grind them in a mixer or use garlic ginger paste instead.

2. Dry roasting and then crushing the pod, cinnamon and cloves imparts more flavor. You can grind them directly in a mixer as well.

3. For additional richness, you can grind about 8 to 10 cashews with the spices as well.

Cook With Love...