A Sindhi Dinner

I am a huge admirer of bloggers who passionately strive to place their native cuisines on the global culinary map. There are a lot of Indian bloggers who do this. Nupur’s One Hot Stove, Priya Mitharwal’s Mharo Rajasthan, Kamala’s Kamala’s Corner, Alka’s Sindhi Rasoi, Shilpa’s Aayi’s recipes, Lakshmi of Taste of Mysore are a few names that come to my mind immediately. There is a certain pride in the way a recipe is introduced, the ingredients and the method of cooking explained or a little family tradition discussed. This pride in them is what hooks me on to their blogs. Also being an Indian, it is nice to know what is cooking in my neighbour’s cooking pot.

Sindhi rasoi is one blog which showcases a wide variety of sindhi food. Alka has truly simplified sindhi cooking for new cooks like me. I dug into her treasure and chose two very easy ones. I wanted a simple combo – and picked up Raahn (black eyed peas or Lobhia) in a tomato base and Satpura phulka. The moment I made the Raahn gravy, I knew this gravy is going to come to my rescue on several time-strapped weekday dinners. It calls for limited preparation and cooks in under 20-22 minutes (excluding soaking time – I am taking only active cooking into account). I made it in a stew pot since my cooker was not ok.

Now, off to the two lovely recipes:

Raanh (lobhia) in tomato gravy

Ingredients:

Lobhia: ¾ cup (raw)
Tomatoes: 2 Nos (chopped fine)
Turmeric powder: ½ tsp
Dhaniya powder: 1 tsp
Green chillies: 2,slit
Jeera: 1 tsp
Oil: 1 -2 tbsp
Ginger: 1 cm bit (grated)
Curry leaves: few
Corriander leaves (to garnish)
Potato (optional): 1, boiled and made into big chunks (I forgot all about it and remembered only after I finished the curry)

Method:

Wash, soak the beans for about 8 hours and cook in the cooker for about 2 – 3 whistles. Take care that the beans do not become mushy.
Start the tadka of jeera, green chillies, ginger and curry leaves on a kadai.
Now add the tomatoes and let it cook for about ten minutes.
Add all the powders.
Add the lobhia with the water.
Let it boil and come together to the desired consistency.
Done!


Satpura Phulka

Ingredients

Wheat flour: One and a half cups
Pepper powder: ½ tsp
Salt: to taste
Oil: 3 – 4 tsps plus for drizzling over the roti
Water: for kneading the dough


Method:

Make a soft chapatti dough with wheat flour, pepper powder, needed salt and about 2 tsps of water and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
Take a portion of the dough. Roll it like a chapatti using a rolling pin.
Now, using a knife, make vertical lines which are one inch apart. Basically you will have several ribbon kind of long strips.
Apply a tsp of oil and sprinkle some wheat flour over this knife-marked chapatti strips.
Now take one strip and roll it like a ribbon. Roll the next one over this. Repeat with the next strips. This will form a bundle of strips one rolled on top of the other.
Now, carefully roll it like a chapatti, thicker than normal chapatti.
Cook on both sides on medium flame drizzling some oil over it, turning it few times in between.

Alka has made a beautiful Satpura Phulka with so many layers. All I could manage was a little whirlpool at the center. Probably I would be able to get there with some more practice.
On the whole, myself and my family had a lovely Sindhi dinner. Thank you Alka.


This is my contribution to 'Tried & Tasted - Sindhi Rasoi' - conceptualised by Lakshmi and hosted for this month by Ria.

Aviyal

My mom is a wonderful cook. It is not only about the taste. Her cooking has a methodology. She is a person of exact measurements. If you were to ask her a recipe, you would hear her say, ‘a tsp of this, a tbsp of that, ½ cup of this.......... etc’. This makes it easy for advise-seekers like me not only to get a dish right the first time, but also successfully replicate it several times in future.

This aviyal recipe, which serves four, comes from my cooking diary which is a store-house of a lot of my mom’s lovely recipes. This aviyal was the result of a telephone conversation with my mom some three years back. For some strange reason, I could never get down to making it till this morning.

Aviyal, a festive dish, is nothing but a medley of variety of chopped vegetables cooked in a coconut-green chilli sauce. The strong flavour of coconut oil is the highlight of this dish. It goes great with any variety of mixed rice like coconut rice, tamarind rice, sambar rice, or even plain rice. Avial is a great accompaniment to adai also. Though this avial has a daunting list of vegetables, I used only about 5 – 6 types (whatever I had handy).

Ingredients:

Potato: 1 No
Carrot (big): 1 No
Beans: 7 - 8 Nos
Colocassia / Arbi: 5 - 6 Nos
Elephant yam: 3/4 cup chopped
Green peas: handful
Cauliflower: 7 – 8 florets
Drumstick: 4 – 5 pieces
Red pumpkin: 3/4 cup chopped
White pumpkin: 3/4 cup chopped
Chou-chou: 3/4 cup chopped
Cluster beans: 7- 8 No
Sweet potato: 1 No
Mocchai (hyacinth bean): handful
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Coconut oil: 2 tbsp
Curd: ½ cup

To grind:
Green chillis: 4 Nos
Coconut (grated): 1 cup or more or less as desired

Method:

Wash, peel and chop all these vegetables in a slightly longish fashion.
Add a cup of water, some salt and a pinch of turmeric.
Pressure cook the vegetables for three whistles.
Now heat the pressure cooker or another kadai.
Add the cooked vegetables and curry leaves with the vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
Add the ground chilli-coconut paste and bring to a boil.
Add the curd and bring to a boil.
Adjust salt and switch off the flame.
Now drizzle coconut oil over it and mix well.
Aviyal is super-ready to be served with anything you wish!

Since this recipe is from a bookmark, this bowl of aviyal goes to ‘Bookmarked Recipes – Every Tuesday’ event by Priya Mitharwal.

Chana Palak

The theme of the Blog Bites event is really good - taking inspiration from other blogs while giving them due acknowledgement. Great! There cannot be a better opportunity to write a few words about one of my favourite bloggers –Nupur She must be a great inspiration not only to fledgling bloggers like me, but also to many others who are united by a common interest - 'food'. And I am not saying this because she is the owner of this Blog Bites event. I guess Nupur must be immune to such appreciation by now. But, this is my little way of letting her know that I really admire her blog.

Today’s recipe, Palak Chana, is from One Hot Stove. This curry is subtle, very down to earth and hearty and a perfect side dish for roti. If the paste is made beforehand (to save valuable time during busy weekdays), the curry is a true breeze! My only changes to the recipe were that I added one boiled and mashed potato and one tsp of red chilli powder. And I made mine a little gravy when compared to Nupur's.

Ingredients:

• Black chana: 1 cup
• Spinach: 1 bunchOnion (thinly sliced): ¾ cup
• Turmeric powder: ½ tsp
• Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
• Chana masala: 1 tbsp
• Jeera: 1 tsp (for tempering)
• Oil: 1 tbsp
• Salt: to taste
• Potato (boiled and mashed): 1

For the masala paste:

• Oil: 1 Tbsp
• Garlic: 2 – 3 cloves
• Onions (coarsely chopped): one and a half cups
• Tomatoes (medium)(coarsely chopped): 7 nos

Method:

• Soak chana for eight hours or overnight and cook till tender. It takes about seven whistles in my pressure cooker.
• Take one tbsp of oil in the kadai. Saute onions and garilic till brown. Then add in the tomatoe and toss for five minutes. Grind to make the masala paste. Keep aside.
• In the kadai, heat oil and temper the jeera.
• Add onions and sauté till brown.
• Add salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, chana masala and sauté for a minute.
• Add the chopped spinach, cooked chickpeas and masala paste.
• Bring to a boil on medium flame and cook on simmer for another ten minutes.
• Done, serve hot!

This gravy goes to Nupur’s ‘BB-6 – The Potluck Edition’ and to My Legume Love Affair : MLLA – 26 hosted by Bricole for the month of August and brainchild of Susan.

Capsicum Paruppusili

Go to any traditional celebration like a wedding or an upanayanam in Chennai - you are bound to be greeted by the famous paruppusili, staring at you from the vaazha yelai (banana leaf). Paruppusili is basically a dry curry which is an amazing combination of lentils and vegetable tossed together with minimum tempering. A prominent hing signature adds a brilliant aroma to this dish. This paruppusili is mostly had with Mor Kuzhambu (the tamilian kadhi) or venthiya kuzhambu (a non-dal tamarind based gravy).

The procedure to make paruppusili is slightly longer than most south indian dry curries. But believe me, the effort would definitely be worth it. The most common vegetable used in paruppusilis is beans. But, any vegetable would actually go well with the legumes. This recipe is from my mother. I just substituted beans with capsicum.

Ingredients (serves 2 – 3)

• Toor dal: ½ cup
• Red chillies (long): 3
• Capsicum (deseeded and chopped): 1 and a half cups
• Oil: 4 – 5 tbsp
• For the tempering:
• Mustard: 1 tsp
• Urad dal: ¾ tsp
• Curry leaves: 15 – 20
• Hing: ½ tsp

Method:

•Wash and clean the toor dal. Soak for a minimum of 2 – 3 hours along with the red chillies
•Drain all the water. In a mixie, make a coarse dry mixture (without water) of the dal and the red chillies adding the required salt
•Now, steam them in the cooker for about ten minutes. I use idli plates to do it. But, it is upto you to use them or not
•Once steamed, let them cool. Crumble them into pieces. Now, run it in the mixie for exactly one whip. This removes all the lumps in the steamed mixture
•Now, a kadai
•Add about 1 – 2 tbsp of oil and fry the vegetable very well. Add a little salt so that it cooks faster. Once it is done, keep aside
•Now in the same kadai, add the remaining oil
•Finish off with tempering and add the dal mixture and fry very well. This requires tossing and turning of the dal constantly on medium flame
•Once this is done, add the cooked vegetable
•Toss it repeatedly so that the two blend well
•Hing should be prominent. So, adjust it to the point that it casually dominates the dish but not to the point of making the curry bitter. Adjust salt also
•Once you feel the two are blended, switch off the stove
•Serve with hot rice and ghee
•Done!

Capsicum paruppusili is my contribution to ‘My Legume Love Affair – 17’, created by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook and hosted by Sra

Cabbage Kofta Curry

It gives me enormous happiness in refering to my friend - R's visit again and again.. She gave me a great recipe of Cabbage Kofta curry. I could never believe this humble hostel vegetable could metamorphose into such a scrumptious party dish. After googling for some more information on the curry, I realised that there are umpteen variations to this dish. So, armed with the culinary wisdom R bequeathed me and some google-insights, I set out to make my own version of Cabbage Kofta Curry. This curry made out of cabbage balls, simmered in a rich thick gravy is a definite once-in-a-while indulgence!


Ingredients:


For the koftas:
Cabbage: 1/2 of a slightly big cabbage, chopped very fine
Green peas: fresh or frozen: 1/4 cup
Green chilli: 1, finely chopped
Shajeera or Jeera: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp or to taste
Besan: About 1/2 of a cup (or more or less; since this is the binding agent which holds the koftas together)
Salt: to taste
Oil: to deepfry the koftas


For the gravy:
Onions (medium): 3
Tomatoes (large): 3
Garlic: 5 - 6 cloves
Ginger: 1/2 inch piece
Cashews: 7-8, soaked in warm water for half an hour
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp or to taste
Garam masala: 1 tsp
Salt: to taste
Oil: 2 tbsp
Corriander leaves, chopped: to garnish


For the tadka:
Cloves: 2
Cinnamon: 1 inch piece
Elaichi: 2
Bay leaf: 1
Jeera: 1/2 tsp


Method to make the koftas:

• Wash and clean the vegetable. Chop into very fine bits. Now, in a pressure cooker, steam the cabbage and the peas in an open vessel for about ten minutes
• Let the steam release. Cool the cabbage a bit, so that the skin on our fingers is not compromised
• Now, preferably using a clean cloth, (or, if a cloth is not found handy), atleast using your hands, squeeze all the water from the vegetable. Do NOT throw away the vegetable water. This can be conveniently poured into the gravy at later stages
• This step is very important because removal of all the excess water would mean that the koftas would be easy to make and difficult to break. If this step is not done, then, the whole kofta mixture would become soggy and would definitely not yield right results
• Now, add the shajeera, salt, chopped green chilli, red chilli powder, and the necessary besan and make koftas out of them
• Deepfry the koftas
• Now, we are done with one part of the dish

Method to make the gravy:

• Take a kadai
• Heat oil and make the tadka
• Now add the ginger-garlic-tomato-onion paste. Cover the kadai. Let it cook for about ten minutes on a slow flame. Just keep giving it an occasional stir.
• Add salt and all other masala powders. Again let it cook for about 5 - 6 minutes
• Once you feel it is done, add the cashewnut paste. Cook well again for about five minutes.
• Add necessary water whenever you feel. The gravy should not be too thick because, after introducing the koftas into the dish, the koftas would soak up all the available water and the curry would turn out very thick.
• After introducing the cashewnut paste, keep stirring because, this paste tends to stick to the bottom of the kadai
• When the gravy has cooked enough, introduce the koftas gently
• Keep the stove on a slow flame all the time, slowly toss the koftas around in the kadai. Do it gently so that the koftas do not break
• Once done, garnish with corriander leaves
• Done!
• Serve hot with roti or naan!

Kadai Vegetable

In reality, all of us have personal favourites. Be it a TV show, or an aunt, or an actor, or a cricketer - all of us are both perpetrators and victims of favouritism. And, we 'definitely' have our favourite food! Instinctively, we are drawn towards our favourite food..

If we introspect carefully, whenever we visit restaurants, we would probably be ordering a particular dish again and again - probably seeking some kind of comfort given the bewildering array of choices presented in the menu cards.. This definitely happens to myself and K. When at any restaurant, no matter what we order or dont order, Kadai Vegetable would eventually find its way up our table, and eventually, our stomachs!

Such personal favourites should be made at home, for sure. My search yielded these two recipes that came close to what I taste all the time. Making a medley of both these recipes, I have made my own. It yields yummy results all the time.

Ingredients (serves three)

• Capsicums (medium): 2
• Carrots (medium): 2
• Beans: 6 - 7
• Cauliflower: 6 - 8 florets
• Potatoes (small): 2
• Tomatoes: 2
• Onions: 2
• Paneer: 10 - 15 pieces
• Green peas: A handful
• Garam masala: 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
• Ginger-garlic paste: 1 tbsp
• Bay leaves: 2 Nos
• Oil: 5 - 6 tbsp
• Salt: to taste
• Cashews (optional): 5 - 6
• Corriander leaves: to garnish
  To grind to a coarse powder:
• Corriander seeds: 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
• Red chillies: 3
  

Method:

• Chop all the vegetables into fairly big one 3/4 inch pieces. Do NOT chop them too small
• Coarsely grind cumin seeds, corriander seeds and red chillies and keep aside. Dry roast it if you feel like to increase the aroma. Else, omit it
• Fry one onion in one tsp of oil. To this, add curry leaves, cashews and tomatoes and make a fine paste
• Now, in a kadai, add 2- 3 tbsp of oil and fry all the vegetables till they are done. No need to add paneer now. This can be added later. Keep the fried vegetables aside.
• Now heat another kadai (or the same one, as per your wish)
• Add oil and tadka using bay leaves
• Add ginger-garlic paste and onions and cook well
• Add the ground tomato paste and cook again till all the raw smell disappears
• Meanwhile add the ground dry masala, turmeric powder, garam masala
• When you feel the tomato paste has cooked enough, add the saute'd veggies and paneer
• Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup water and cook covered till the vegetables are soft
• Let the gravy thicken to reach the right consistency
• Garnish with corriander leaves
• Serve hot with rotis
• Done!

Chitrannam

Chitrannam is definitely one of my favourite rice items. This is straight from my patti's kadai. My patti in turn, learnt it from her aunt, who hails from Bellary. It is a hybrid of tamarind rice and coconut rice - slightly blander than the former, but, spicier than the latter. The aroma of ground mustard seeds is definitely a bright underline in my patti's chitrannam.

Ingredients:

To grind to a fine paste:

• Grated coconut : 1 cup
• Red chillies: 10 Nos
• Mustard: 1 tsp
• LG: 1/4 tsp
• Tamarind: 2-inch piece
• Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
• Salt: to taste

For the tempering:

• Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
• Groundnuts: 2 tbsp
• Cashews (optional): 5 or 6
• Channa dhall: 1 tsp
• Urad dhall: 1 tsp
• Red chillies: 2, broken into pieces
• Curry leaves: 10 - 15
• Coconut oil: 1 - 2 tbsp
• Gingelly oil: 1 - 2 tbsp
• Raw rice: 1 cup

Method to make Chitrannam:

• Pressure cook the raw rice adding 1 tsp gingelly oil to it. The cooked rice should not be sticky Now, spread the cooked rice on a plate, preferably under the fan
• Take a heavy-bottomed kadai.Add coconut oil and gingelly oil. (Both oils add to the flavour of the dish)
• Temper using all the items listed above
• Add the ground paste and fry very well till the raw smell of the tamarind and coconut disappear.
• Add the cooked rice in it
• Mix well
• Done!
• Serve hot!

Dal Makhani

One of the nice things that happened to me last week was the visit of my friend R. It was a lovely rendezvous after a looonnnnnggg time. Though both of us have been in touch very regularly, meeting in person was something very special.

Naturally, my head was full of ideas as to what I would make for dinner.. With a lot of yeses and nos, I decided to make few of my favourites. I tried to keep it very simple so that we have enough time to just sit and talk. With a menu as simple as Dal Makhani, Jeera rice and Phulkas, we did get ample time to catch up on our two-years’ bottled-up tales till four in the morning!

Coming to this post, I would like to dedicate it to my dear friend R. She wanted this recipe and I am blogging it, particularly for her. My recipe for Dal Makhani s adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor and Sanjay Thumma.



Ingredients: (serves three)

Sabut urad dhall: ½ cup
Rajma: 2 tbsps
Ginger ( grated or chopped): 2 inch piece
Garlic (grated): 6 cloves
Tomatoes (medium): 3, ground to a fine paste
Garam masala pwd : 1 tsp
Dhaniya pwd : 1 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp
Kasuri methi : 1 tbsp
Butter : 3 tbsp
Oil: 2 tbsp
Milk : ½ cup
Salt: to taste
For the tadka: Cloves, cinnamon, elaichi, bay leaf and 1 tsp jeera
Corriander leaves: to garnish

Method of preparation

· Soak urad dhall and rajma in three cups of water for eight hours or overnight
· Add half the ginger, half the salt and half the chilli powder and pressure cook the dhall till the rajma becomes soft. Do not throw away the cooking liquor
· Take a kadai. Heat oil. Tadka with the items mentioned
· Add ginger – garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes
· Now add the tomato puree
· Cook on a slow flame with a covered lid for five minutes
· When it starts boiling, add chilli powder, coriander powder and salt
· Cover the lid and cook well again
· Now, add the butter and cook again
· When it has cooked for about 10 - 12 minutes in all, add the cooking liquor and cook very well
· After it has cooked for about 10 minutes, add the dhall and mix well
· Adjust salt and cook again covered
· The cooked dhall would be brownish red in colour
· Now kasuri methi should be added. This is ‘the’ ingredient that adds all the lovely flavour to the dish
· Now add ½ cup of milk. You could go upto one cup also. The technique is to add the milk gradually, little by little, so that the milk does not curdle. You could add cream if you want to make the gravy rich
· Cover and cook on as low a flame as possible till the gravy reaches the right consistency. The more the gravy cooks, the better it tastes.
· Garnish with coriander leaves.
· Done!