Week #30- A Nagpur specialty

Traveling in India, you come across some seriously unique recipes. I had this very first time in Nagpur in 1990 when I had come to play a tournament as a 12 yr old.I had it the 2nd time about 15 years later when I got married to Sanjeev who is from Nagpur! I think this dish seems to be more famous here in this city where my husband grew up. I am just posting the recipe this time as I got to taste this yummy dish here and I didnt even have to go through these steps below. But when I crave for this- I have made this on a few occasions. Here the locals eat this for breakfast, but I guess if you eat this, its best at breakfast as you have a chance to brun off the calories.- Like they say Breakfast of Champions !! hahahaha! Unfortunately, this isnt the healthiest snack there is out there, but its good to have it on a rainy day once in a while...

For the filling:
Mashed boiled peeled potatoes- 2 cups
1 green chili, finely chopped
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro/coriander leaves
½ tsp red chili powder
1 tsp amchur powder - add more if required
salt - 1/2 -1 teaspoon

Mint chutney:
½ cup of mint cilantro chutney( grind mint, cilantro, salt and green chilies with 1 clove garlic and salt and 2 tsp lime juice)

For the outer crisp coating:
2 cups besan (chick pea flour/gram flour)
a pinch of hing
½ tsp red chili powder
salt per taste( 1/2 teaspoon)

6 slices of Brown or White Bread
water
salt
oil for frying
INSTRUCTIONS
Preparing the potato filling:
Mix all ingredients for the filling together and taste to adjust seasoning
Preparing the besan batter:
In a bowl, take the besan (chick pea flour/gram flour).
red chili powder, asafoetida and salt.
Add around ½ cup water and mix.The batter should not be very thick nor too thin. Check the seasonings and adjust accordingly.
Add a few drops of oil to the batter and mix well.
Keep the ready batter aside.

heat up some oil for deep frying the pakoras.
On your cutting board, slice the bread into triangle or rectangle slices.
Keep a single triangular slice of bread on your tray or rolling board or cutting board. Take a teaspoon of the mint-coriander chutney and apply it evenly on the triangular slice of bread.
Take around 2 tbsp of the mashed potato mixture and apply it on the bread evenly.
Cover this potato stuffed slice with another slice. I choose to keep it plain. But if you want, you can apply the same green mint coriander chutney or tomato sauce or sweet chaat chutney to this second triangular slice.
You have now a beautiful triangular bread sandwich. Just slightly press the sandwich. Take the entire sandwich in your hand and dip it in the besan batter.
Coat the stuffed bread sandwich evenly with the besan batter. Be gentle with the pakoras. Take care not to keep the stuffed bread sandwich a long time in the batter as the bread tends to break. By now, your oil is hot and you can easily slid the besan batter coated bread sandwich in the oil.
Fry the bread pakoras on a medium flame till they are crisp and golden brown.
Drain on a tissue. Serve with ketchup or the same green chutney.
Enjoy!

Week #30 Recipe from this week has bread,potatoes and mint leaves- Any guesses?

Sorry for the delay but I have been traveling...

Week #29 Spicy Egg curry

There are so many variations to this recipe and in every state in India, they have their own version of it. Tamil Nadu- they put coconut in it, Kerala- its coocnut milk, but I have made this the Maharashtrian way( sort of).The biggest secret to making an awesome gravy in this recipe is the amount of oil that is added to fry onions. I have tried this before, it never comes out if u hold back on the oil. I never use insane amount like they do in restaurants, but in this you will need to use more than 2 tablespoons of oil as with all my other recipes. But the taste is well worth it. I also used some maharastrian methods and spices which I feel adds more color and taste.

Ingredients :

Onions- Sliced 2 cups
garlic- 5-6 pods
red dry chilies- 5-6
ginger paste- 1 tablespoon
turmeric powder- 2 teaspoons
Chilli powder, coriander pwder, garam masala powder- 2 tablespoons each
eggs- boiled - 5-6
tomatoes-ripe and cut into small pieces- 2
tomato paste- 2 tablespoons
Oil- 3/4 cup
salt to taste
water-2 cups

Method:
Soak garlic and red chillies in warm water for 20 min and grind them to a fine paste. Heat 1/2 cup in a hard bottomed pan. Put the onions in and turmeric powder. Fry on high heat for about 2 minutes. Then add the garlic and chilli paste and ginger paste. Saute on medium to high heat for abt 4-5 minutes. Add tomatoes and all the powders and saute for a minute. Switch the flame off and grind to a fine paste. Add remaining oil and fry this ground masala. Add salt and tomato paste and after a minute add 2 cups water slowly. Bring the gravy to a boil and then switch the flame off. Now half the eggs and fry it if you want in a bit of oil and chilli powder and add to the gravy. Add cilantro in the end and enjoy!

Week #29- This week is abt eggs, onions and a few more spices....guess the recipe???

One other ingredient I can add to this is tomatoes.....can u guess it?

Week #28 Khumb Palak Matar

I had this dish in Luxembourg in this Nepali restaurant called Himalaya. It was my favorite Indian restaurant while I lived there.Being a mushroom fan, this dish goes so well with rice or with roti. Photos to follow...

Ingredients :
Mushrooms- cleaned and sliced- 2 cups
onions- 1 cup diced
garlic and ginger minced- 1 tablespoon each
boiled green peas- 3/4 cup
spinach- rinsed and cut-2-3 cups
tomatoes- diced 1 /2 cup
tomato paste- 1 tablespoon spoon
sour cream- 2 tablespoon
red chilli powder, garam masala, coriander powder- 2 tablespoons each
turmeric powder- 1 teaspoon
salt to taste
cilantro- 2 tabelspoons cut
vegetable oil- 1/4 cup

Method:
heat oil in a wok. Add the mushrooms to oil and let it cook without touchign it for 4 minutes, so its browns on one side. Then saute it and add onions and saute for 3-5 minutes until onions r translucent. Add garlic and ginger and all the powders. Add a teaspoon salt and saute all these for abt 2-3 min. Then add tomatoes and spinach and sprinkle a bit of water and cook until spinach wilts and get cooked.Now add peas and the tomato paste and keep it on high flame for 5 minutes until the whole dish comes together. Adjust seasoning accordingly. Then reduce heat and add sour cream and mix well. Aftre a minute, switch flame off and add cilantro for garnish!

Week no # 28 Guess the recipe

Week #27 -For a South Indian- this is elixir

This week's recipe is plain old curd rice- with South Indian tempering of mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. I added some red onion and chillies marinated in yoghurt to it. Everyone makes this, but my recipe collection cannot be complete without it!

Ingredients:
Yoghurt- 2 cups
Rice- (extra well cooked-almost mushy)
Tempering- mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves- 1 teaspoon each
diced red onion- i tablespoon
green chiilies- minced
ginger- grated 1/2 teaspoon
grapes or pomogranate for garnish
salt to taste
Oil - 1 tablespoon

Mix the yoghurt and rice and salt as needed. Heat oil and add mustard seeeds, urad dal, curry leaves. When it splutters, add green chillies and red onions and fry for 2 min. Add on top of the yoghurt rice and mix. Add ginger and the grapes or poegranate and mix well. Enjoy!