Week #34 An Indo-Chinese fusion perfection

Deepa, my awesome cousin from CA got it right! This dish is an amazing and perfect fusion of Indian Chinese flavors. The garlic, ginger, and soy sauce and regular Chinese ingredients, but the green chillies and red chilli sauce give it that kick and this dish is not for those that dont like spicy food. California has some really good Indian Chinese restaurants and my fav is the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and their spicy baby corn is pretty darn good. I made this dish with some crumbled firm tofu, but can easliy be made with ground chicken.

Ingredients :
Garlic and ginger- minced - 4 tablespoons each
Soy sauce- 4-5 tablespoons
1 egg- beaten if using tofu
green chillies- minced- as needed
onions- minced- 5 tablespoons
breadcrumbs- 1/2 cup
crumbled firm tofu patted dry or ground chicken- 1 cup
salt and white pepper- as needed
corn flour- 2 tablespoons
vegetable or chicken stock- 5 cups
red chilli sauce- 2 tablespoons
capsicum- diced- 5 tablespoons
oil for frying.
Green onions or scallions- 1 bunch diced for garnish
Method:
If tofu is very wet, make sure to drain properly in paper towels as a first step.Mix tofu or chicken with bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons each of ginger/garlic/onions and green chillies as needed. Add salt and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. If using tofu, mix egg as well as it will be the binding agent. You may need to add some more breadcrumbs if needed so the mixture comes together. Form small balls and deep fry in oil and drain in paper towels.
For the sauce, heat 2 tablespoons oil, Put the remaining garlic, ginger, onions and saute 1 minute on high heat, add green chillies and capsicum and then add salt, pepper, rest of soy sauce and the red chilli sauce. Add the stock and allow it to boil for 4-5 min. Mix cornflour with 2 tabelspoons water and add to the mixture. The mixture will thicken. Now add the green onions and switch off the gas. Serve with Fried rice or Noodles and Enjoy!

Week #34 Guess this week's dish

Garlic,ginger,green chillies, onions and soy sauce make up ingredients for this week's dish....

Week #33- A very Southern Indian specialty

Paruppu Vadai:
If you need to eat something fried- might as well be this Vadai which has 2 pulses mushed together. At least its low-carb :) :) I have to say I make this vadai quite well. I grind Toor and Chana Dals together with some red chillies, asafoetida and add some salt and curry leaves in the end before patting them and frying them up. We had a small party for my dad's 75th birthday over the weekend and the catering was by my favorite traditonal caterer in Coimbatore, Sabari caterers. In fact, he is the one who catered for my wedding. Though he has lost some following in recent times due to various reasons, I have to say, his traditional food like avial, sambar sadam, vadai and rasam are really by far better than the more well-known cooks of Coimbatore. The food in my wedding has got to be the best wedding food we have had since. This is not just my view, but pretty much everyone that attended my wedding. Just my 2 cents, the traditional Tamil food is so unique and so important for weddings and such, that just beacuse you are ready to pay money or get more "famous" caterers,you dont necesarily get the actual taste . The vadais they brought were just mind blowing Just sticking to basics are awesome and Sabari caterers r my pick in CBE for such occasions....

Recipe:
Ingredients:
Toor Dal and Chana Dal- equal measurements soaked in water for 6 -8 hrs in cold water
Dry Red chillies- 2 or as needed
salt- 1 teaspoon or as needed
Asafoetida powder- 1/4 tablespoon
Curry leaves- 1Oil for frying

Grind both dals together with red chillies and asafoetida in a mixer with no water at all or just a few sprinkles of water. Do not grind too fine. Add curry leaves and salt and mix toegther. Pour 2 tablespoons of the heated oil and mix them, this will get the vadai to be nice and crispy. Pat them into patties. I like thme fairly thin, though the traditional vada they make at home is quite thick.The oil should be preheated but not overly hot that its fuming.Fry the patties and drain them in paper towels when they turn brown. Enjoy!!!

Week no.32 Choco-chip pancakes

With all the travel and eating Indian food, Sahana was longing for this. The key in this recipe is good quality choco chips. Otherwise its fairly easy to make.


Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup choco chips- semi sweet
1 egg beaten
1 tablespoon butter melted
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Method:
Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add melted butter, egg and sugar and beat until mixed. Combine all and whisk it together.
Preheat greased non stick pan and pour 1 scoop of batter evenly. Sprinkle choco chips evenly and let it cook until browned(abt 1 min) Keep a check on it,so it doesnt burn. Flip it over and let it cook for another minute.
Chocolate chip pancakes are ready. They r super easy and is awesome for sleepovers!!!

Week 31- Paradise for Vegetarians

This week's food blog is dedicated to some wonderful and varied recipes of the state of Rajasthan. From unique vegetables to dried beans and pulses, its surely a true haven for vegetarians all over the world. The Dal-Baati-Churma is a specialty here. The Churma and Baati are crushed and the hot daal(pulses) added on top of it. This week I havent had the chance to try cooking this while I am traveling, but will have it for u guys shortly. But here is a photo of all the dishes that is served ona Thaali in a restaurant called Gypsy in Jodhpur.... the food was heavenly and didnt even feel heavy or oily....

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...