Chole Batura/Bhature

Spicy Chickpeas with Deep fried bread

Winter has knocked the doors, with shorter days and longer nights. Last week it was cold, gloomy, dark and raining. Even though it was thanks giving weekend my husband was working from home. After eating rice for two days continuously we were desperately craving from something spicy and hot. What else could be more comforting than “Chole Batura” which also happens to be one of our favorites.

Chole – Spicy curried garbanzo beans/chickpeas
Batura/Bhature- deep fried crispy yet soft bread made out of white flour

Generally chole is served along with batura/ bathure ,  is a mouthwatering dish originated from Punjab. Chole batura is also a popular street food snack in Northern part of India. Traditionally leveling agents like soda, yogurt and yeast are used in preparing batura dough and fermented for hours (4-6 hrs) and deep fried, which sometimes consumes lots of oil while frying. I was searching for an oil free batura recipe, I googled and found one on Tarla dalal’s website. I have been making it since then. Chole is also known as Channa Masala. Puri/Poori and Chole/Channa masala is another popular combination.

Ingredients for chole /channa masala

1 cup Chole /chickpeaks/garbanzo beans
(Wash and soak chole overnight. Pressure cook with little salt and water for 15 – 20 minutes. Do not over cook.)
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 tbs ginger-garlic paste (fresh/ store bought)
2 Green Chillies finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 medium tomato finely chopped
1 small stick cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Chilli powder
2 tsp Channa/ chole Masala
Coriander leaves finely chopped
Salt to taste
2 tbsp Oil

Procedure

Heat oil in a heavy and deep skillet on medium flame. Add cinnamon stick, cumin seeds and allow it to splutter. Now add chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste, green chillies and sauté till the onions turn soft and golden brown. Add turmeric, chilli powder and channa masala powder sauté for couple of more minutes. Now add chopped tomatoes and tomato puree and sauté till the oil starts to separates and tomatoes becomes soft and mushy. Drain the excess water from the cooked beans add it to the skillet with salt and 1 cup water and mix well. Turn the heat to low and cover the lid. Let the mixture cook slowly on low heat for 20 minutes so that masala can blend well. Keep stirring in the middle. Add the chopped coriander leaves, stir well and turn off the heat. Reserve few coriander leaves and chopped onion for garnish.

Ingredients for Batura/Bhature

1 cup all purpose flour (maida)
1 cup potato, boiled and grated (1 large potato)
2 tsp oil (optional)
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying (1 ½ to 2 cups)
¼ cup plain flour for dusting

Procedure

Sieve flour and salt into a bowl, add grated potato, oil and knead into firm dough without using any water. Knead the dough very well till it is smooth and pliable. Cover with a wet muslin cloth and rest the dough for 10 minutes. Divide the dough into equal parts and roll out into circles. Mean while heat oil in a deep pan or skillet, fry batura’s one at a time till the baturas puff up and both sides are golden brown. Drain excess oil on paper towel and keep warm while you fry the remaining.

Serve hot with the chole, sliced onion and lemon wedges.

Notes and Tips

You can use canned garbanzo beans to avoid soaking and cooking. Drain all the liquids, rinse thoroughly and use the beans. You can use canned tomatoes/puree to substitute fresh tomatoes and you can use garam masala instead of channa masala or both. For thick gravy mash few cooked beans while simmering. You can serve chole with puri, naan, roti, paratha, kulcha or even with rice. Actually I was in a hurry so just too couple of pictures before everything gone. I will update it with better one’s soon.

Hop to Asha’s blog for more chole and Batura

Apple Pie

An apple a day
Sends the doctor away
Apple in the morning
Doctor’s warning
Roast apple at night
Starves the doctor outright
Eat an apple going to bed
Knock the doctor on the head
Three each day, seven days a week Ruddy apple, ruddy cheek.
Rhyme Courtesy(Zelo)

Photo courtesy “Lakshman”.

My cousin Lakshman “the coolest” was the inspiration/force for me behind making this delicious apple pie. For Diwali we went to “Big Apple” to my uncle’s place, as usual the house was flooded with guests (few of them are visiting US for the first time). After having yummy meal including desert we were totally stuffed and uncle told us that there are lots of apples which need to consumed, though there were people to eat, but consuming two dozen apples after a heavy meal is not an easy task. So I casually told my cousin that we can bake apple pie and it’s the easiest way to clean up before they are spoiled. At this point I had no clue how to make an apple pie as I never made it in my life before. Apple pie is one of his favorites he wanted to start immediately. I was not really confident to make everything from scratch; I got an idea of making pie’s using ready made crusts. I went and googled for the recipe and found a very simple one from epicurious.com. I made few modifications to the original recipe to suit our taste. For Thanksgiving my cousin baked another batch and he sent me the pictures. Thanks for the pictures Lakshman!!. Ok let’s jump to the recipe.

Ingredients

1/4 cup apple juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
5 Gala or Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 refrigerated ready-made pie crusts and top (9 inch)
1 tsp cinnamon (ground)
½ tsp nutmeg (ground)
1 tbsp milk(2% or whole)

For Crumbles
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1-2 tbsp brown sugar
1tbsp butter (unsalted & cold)

Mix sugar with flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Make the crumble once you fill the pie crust with apple mix.

Cinnamon Sugar
Mix 2 tbsp granulated sugar and ½ tbsp ground cinnamon and keep aside

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine apple juice, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Add apples and cornstarch. Place one piecrust in a 9″ pie pan and fill with mixture. Now sprinkle the crumble mixture over the apples. Roll out top crust and cover pie, sealing carefully, cut steam vents or you can slice the pie-top into eight 1/2-inch-thick strips and drape over filled pie shell in a crisscross pattern; pinch edges to fasten to bottom crust. To prepare topping, lightly brush pie-top of with milk; sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over dough. Place pie plate on a foil-lined baking sheet; bake 55 minutes until the crust is browned and apples soft. Cool down and serve with whipping cream or vanilla ice-cream.

One for me and one for you

Notes and Tips.

To avoid apples from browning add ½ tsp lemon juice. Always use cold butter to make crumbles soft butter will turn the mixture into dough and always make this at the end. You can add vanilla essence and lemon zest for extra flavor.

Thotakura Pulusu

Amaranth Stew
Leafy vegetables are used widely in my home. They are loaded with nutrition and packed with proteins. Thotakura which is referred as Amaranth (in english) is a delicious leafy vegetable related to spinach family and is used a lot in traditional Andhra cooking – stir fry’s, stews and dal. It blends very well with most of the vegetables and dals(lentils). Thotakura pulusu (stew) is a very simple and tasty dish spiced up with chillies and sweetened with jaggery. Pulusu, a clear broth (tamarind) cooked with vegetables and spices is served as a side dish along with rice. Basic ingredients in such stew always stays same only the additional ingredients either vegetables or lentils keeps changing.

Green, white and red amaranth leaves are available in India. Green and white leaves are used in stir fry’s or curries while the red one is often used in making stews. These leaves contain a very good source of vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, riboflavin, and rich in dietary minerals and the stem contains a good amount of fiber. Amaranth is also known as Red spinach and Chinese spinach.

Ingredients

1 bunch or 3 cups tender amaranth leaves & stems (clean & chopped)
8-10 pearl onions (peel and trim the ends)
3 green chillies
1/2 tbsp besan (chickpea flour)
(Mix besan with 3 tbsp of water without any lumps and keep aside)
2-3 cups water (to cook)
2-3 tbsp tamarind pulp (thick)
1-2 tbsp jaggery/sugar (optional)
1/4th tsp turmeric
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

Seasoning
2 dry red chillies (broken)
½ tsp mustard seeds
1/4th tsp mustard seeds
Big pinch hing

Heat 1 tsp oil in a small pan. Add all the ingredients listed below seasoning and fry till mustard seeds pop. Turn off the heat and keep aside.

Procedure

Heat remaining oil in a heavy bottom vessel. Add green chillies and onions and sauté for 3-5 minutes on medium heat. Add chopped leaves & stems, salt, turmeric and ½ cup water and cook until the leaves are done (3/4th) now add tamarind pulp, jaggery, besan mix, water and bring it to boil, keep stirring in the middle to avoid besan from curdling. Reduce the heat, adjust the taste add anything if need and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Crush the fried seasoning and stir into the pulusu (stew) and cook for 2 more minutes. Turn off the heat. Shift into serving dish.

Serve with steamed rice, dal and papad.

Notes and Tips

You can use frozen pearl onions or soak the onions in warm water for 10 mins, the skin will peel off easily. You can add garlic and tomatoes to this dish. If you are allergic to besan skip adding it.

Chinese fried rice-Desi Ishtyle

Cooking for one person doesn’t need to be boring and I’m not a kind of person who can just eat junk. Other day my husband had a lunch meeting and lil one already told me that he wanted to have dosa. I was the one left out and yesterday night’s leftover rice was looking at me. I was not in a mood to make elaborate meal and hence deiced to go with one pot meal. Fired rice is one of my favorite. I learn’t this yummy dish from my sister and it can be put together in no time at all.

Ingredients

1 cup long grain rice (cooked)
1 medium red onion
1 carrot (peeled & diced)
1/4th cup frozen peas
1/4th tsp red pepper flakes/ red chilli paste
1/4 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 tsp ajinomoto (MSG)(optional)
2 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp sugar (optional)
2 tbsp peanut oil/ sesame oil
Salt to taste
3-4 spring onions (finely chopped both white and green)

Procedure

Add one table spoon of oil to a hot wok/pan. Add rice and 1 tbsp soy sauce and stir fry. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat before the rice starts to pop. Keep aside. Heat remaining oil in the same wok/pan. Once the oil is smoky hot, add onions, carrots, peas, pepper flakes/chilli paste, spring onions (white) and stir fry for 2-3 minutes on high heat. Add remaining soy sauce, ajinomoto and white pepper. Stir fry for 2 more minutes on high heat. Stir in the rice, sugar and salt to taste. Stir fry all together for couple of minutes, mix lightly taking care not to break or crush the rice. Add the spring onion leaves (green) and remove from heat.
Serve hot with any Chinese gravy or wet Manchurian.

Notes and tips

You can add capsicum and cabbage to this dish. You can use chilli sauce instead of chilli paste and ketchup instead of sugar.

The other Chinese fired rice.

Bobbattu/Puran Poli

Happy Diwali

దీపావళి శుభాకాంక్షలు

Bobbattu, a flakey Indian bread stuffed with sweetened yellow lentils is a traditional sweet from Southern India made during special occasions and festivals. The dough is called poli and the stuffing is called purnam. This is one our families favorites. Pulihora and Bobbattu is a classic combination made during any festival. To tell you the truth I don’t like sweets. This is the exceptional one. Thanks to my mom who used to run behind me and make me eat this delicacy. Bobbattu is often served with a splash of warm clarified butter.

Bobbatu is also known as puran poli in Northern India.

Ingredients to make Poli

1 cup maida / all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
Water to make dough
1/4th cup oil

Procedure to make poli

In a wide bowl mix maida , salt and water (around 1/3rd -1/4th cup) and knead into a dough, this will be of a chapati dough consistency. Now slowly add oil to the dough and keep kneading until the oil is absorbed into the dough. Cover the dough and rest it for 45-60 minutes. By this time the oil will separate from the dough. The dough will be stringy and elastic.

Ingredients for Puranam/Puran

1 cup Channa dal
1-1 ½ cup sugar
1/2 tbsp Cardamom powder

Procedure to make Purnam

Wash and soak channa dal for 20-30 minutes. Pressure cook channa dal with little water, less than 1/4th cup (3 whistles). Once done drain all the excess water completely. Make sure that there is no water and cool down the cooked lentils completely. Mash this cooked dal using a potato masher. Add sugar, cardamom powder and mix well.

Procedure to make Bobbattu/Puran Poli

Divide the dough and puranam into balls of equal portions (lemon ball size). Take one portion of poli(dough) on a wax paper/foil/zip lock bag (traditionally banana leaf is used), apply oil (around 1 tsp) and roll out the dough into a small round with ur hand, you can use rolling pin. Keep the purnam ball in the middle and cover it by bringing the dough corners together. Dip your fingers in oil and flatten the ball (dough and purnam, like stuffed paratha) gently pressing the poli with your fingers from the edges to the center into to a circle, as thin as you can without tearing it (make sure the dough and the stuffing are distributed evenly).

Now carefully invert the poli using a spatula or with your hand on to a warm tawa/gridle. Cook both sides until the color changes into light brown color. Flip and drizzle little ghee on both sides and remove from heat. Repeat the process with remaining purnam and poli. Serve hot or cold.

Notes and Tips

You can use jaggery (grated) instead of sugar and wheat flour instead of maida. If the purnam is runny, keep in the fridge for some time and then use it. You can make the purnam ahead and refrigerate and use it when needed. You can use a rolling pin to roll the dough but I’m more comfortable with my hands. You can also use tortilla presser to press it but you should be very gentle and careful while pressing.

Freezing tips

You can refrigerate the cooked polis for 2-3 weeks in fridge or stack up the cooked, cooled polis layered with wax paper and freeze. It stays good for 2-3 months. Defrost and re-heat just before serving.

Look forward for step by step pictures. I will be updating soon.

Sabudana Vada (sago patties)

As a South Indian, I only knew that sabudana is used to make pappadams (saggu vadiyalu) and deserts (payasam / kheer). My mother-in-law introduced me to this first. She is a great cook. When she told me that she is going to make vadas with sago I was little unsure about the taste but I was curious at the same time to see and try these vadas. To my surprise they were absolutely delicious.

Sabudana vada is a popular and traditional snack from Maharashtra, India. Sabudana is widely used ingredient in North western part of India, kichidi and vada are most common dishes made during fasting time. It is very easy to make with very little preparation. Here it’s getting cold & chilli in the evenings and what more could be better than hot and crispy fried snack and garam chai( hot tea).

In general,sago vadas are little heavy when compared to other fried snacks. To keep it on the lighter side I modified it to suit our taste and tummy.

Ingredients

1 medium potato boiled, peeled and mashed
1 cup sabudana (sago)
Water (to soak sabudana)
1 medium onion (finely chopped)
3-4 green chillies (finely chopped)
1 tbsp ginger (finely chopped/minced)
Curry leaves ( tear or finely chopped)
2 tbsp corn flour/ rice flour
Vegetable/canola/sunflower oil (to fry around 2 cups)

Procedure

Soak the sabudana (sago) in water 3-4 hours. It will puff up and become translucent. Drain excess water and mix the sabudana with all he other ingredients and form a dough (more like a chunky paste) except oil. Add salt to taste. Divide the sago mixture into equal-sized balls and flatten slightly to form patties. Heat oil in a pan/kadai and fry the patties until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve with favorite chutney/ ketchup and garam chai( hot tea).

Notes and Tips

Do not add water to mix as it contains moistures and adding extra water will make it thin and will be difficult to fry. You can shallow fry instead of deep frying. If you are shallow frying, instead of mixing flour, use the flour to coat the vada’s(like breadcrumbs) also instead of medium potato use large potato. You can even soak sago overnight.

For more about sago check out wiki