Lentil dumplings in yoghurt sauce

Dahi vada

Dahi wadas are fried lentil dumplings prepared using skinless split black gram dal (urad dal) and served with loads of yoghurt (dahi). Dahi wadas are my top favourite in chaat items. They are easy to prepare (you just need some preparation ahead of time like soaking the dal).

Fresh Dahi Vada is very refreshing and easy to digest. Dahi wada is generally served as an evening snack though for me it qualifes to be in the dinner category.

So without further ado, here is one of the numerous delicacies that I crave for.

Ingredients:
1 cup skinless split black gram dal (urad dal)
3-4 cups yoghurt
1 tsp red chilli powder
2-3 tsp roasted cumin (jeera) powder
pinch of rock salt (kala namak) - optional
salt
Oil for frying

Process:
Soak the dal overnight. Grind it adding as little water as possible to get a coarse paste, a batter similar to that of medu wada. It would be better if you don’t add water at all but if you think your grinder won’t coperate just add necessary water little by little. Add salt and mix.

Heat oil in a pan. Make small lemon-sized balls with your hands using a wet hand and place the batter into the hot oil and deep fry it until both sides turn golden brown. Fry all the wadas and keep aside.

Take care to keep the flame on medium to medium high as if the oil is too hot, the wadas will turn crisp on the outside but the center will not be cooked and if the flame is too low and the oil is not hot enought, the batter will soak in too much oil.


Take water in a bowl, and put all the wadas into the water. After soaking them for about half an hour, take out the Vadas from the water and squeeze out the excess water by pressing the vadas with your hand. The best part of it is that most of the oil will get squeezed out too.

Meanwhile in another bowl, take the curd and whisk it without adding any water. Add salt to it also rock salt if you want and roasted cumin powder and mix properly. To serve, scoop out the wadas on to a shallow bowl & add some of the curd. Pour date tamarind chutney liberally on top. Sprinkle a little rock salt, roasted cumin powder, and chilli powder and serve.








The batter freezes well for upto a week. Alternatively, you can make the vadas and store them in an air-tight container in the freezer for quite a while and when required just thaw the amount of vadas you need.

Spinach paratha

Palak paratha

Palak paratha is a great way of enjoying the goodness of spinach. This Indian recipe for the unleavened flatbread is a bit different from the traditional stuffed version of parathas and the best part is that you will not realize that you are eating spinach.

Palak paratha is made with fresh spinach leaves, whole wheat flour, and spices and can be served with curry, pickle, and a cup of yogurt. It can be eaten at breakfast, lunch or dinner and is a perfect food to take for a picnic.

The recipe which I had seen from my moms recipe book called for bajri (pearl millet) flour or a mix of millet flour and whole wheat flour, but since I had no millet flour at home I decided to make it with only normal whole wheat flour.

Ingredients:

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

4 cups Palak

1/2 cup cilantro

2-3 pods of garlic

1/2 inch ginger

1/2 tsp ajwain seeds (carom seeds or bishop's weed)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

3-4 green chillies

1 tbsp garam masala powder

Pinch of asafoetida

salt to taste

Yoghurt (as needed to make a soft dough)

Oil/Ghee (Pan-fry)

Process

Chop palak finely. Add all the above ingredients to it and mix well. Add yoghurt as required and knead to a smooth dough. After making into a smooth dough, smear oil(a spoonful) all over the dough to prevent drying up. Keep it closed for about an hour. Then when ready to eat, make parathas and serve hot. You can serve them with yoghurt, chutney or pickle of your choice.

Dal vada

Yesterday it was raining the whole day and what better on a rainy day than a cup of tea and hot bhajis. Well I was not in the mood of eating onion bhaji so decided to make dal vada instead.

Ingredients:
1 cup skinless Moong dal
1/2 cup urad dal
3-4 green chillies (+/- to taste)
1/2 inch ginger
2-3 garlic pods
1 small onion (finely chopped)
few twigs of cilantro
salt to taste
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Oil for deep frying

Process:
Soak moong daal and urad dal in water water for 4-5 hours. Then grind the moong and urad dal along with ginger, garlic, and green chillies adding as little watter as possible until it turns into a coarse paste. Add all the other ingredients to it and mix well. It is the trapped air in the batter that makes them light and fluffy. Make lemon sized balls out of this. Heat oil in a wok or fryer. When the oil is ready, drop the batter balls ito the oil using your fingers. Fry gently on medium fire turning over frequently until they turn lightly golden brown. Remove from oil and keep aside on an absorbent paper.

Serve them hot with sweet and sour tamarind chutney or any other sauce of your choice.

Date tamarind chutney

Date tamarind chutney is a popular Indian sweet and sour sauce. This tangy chutney is used as a dip or stir-in sauce for numerous Indian snacks like samosas, sevpuri, panipuri, bhelpuri, dalvada, tikkis, and chaats.

Dates act as a fantastic natural sweetener and work very well in lieu of other sweeteners. The acid pulp of tamarind is a natural astringent and is very useful for cutting bland tastes. Tamarind tends to go well especially with dal or lentil dishes.

Ingredients:
100 gms tamarind (remove seeds)
200 gms dates (pitted)
grated jaggery (optional)
2-3 cups water
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chilli powder

Process:
In a saucepan, put the tamarind, dates, and water and cook on a medium flame till the dates and tamarind are soft. Turn off the flame and allow it to cool. Use a mixie to blend the mixture together into a smooth sauce. Next, strain tihs mixture through a strainer into a container. Strain it out completely so that you get a smooth consistency. It should not be too runny. Add salt, red chilli powder. Taste it and see. If you feel it is still a bit sour, you can add grated jaggery per taste. Chill and serve.

Tips:
1. As a general rule, take twice the amount of dates or more compared to tamarind. I hardly use jaggery when I make this chutney.
2. Many of my friends make this chutney in bulk and store it in the deep freezer. It keeps very well for a month or so. Just keep it in an airtight freezer container. Whenever you want to use it, just take it out, thaw, and use it. It tastes just fine every time you use it.

Ragda patties

Ragda patties is a popular fast food snack. It is usually found at places or stalls that offer chaat-based items like belpuri or panipuri. Main ingredients in this dish are, as u must have already guessed, the ragda and the patties. Ragda is prepared by boiling dried green peas in water along with flavouring agents like turmeric powder, asafoetida, and salt until they are almost dissolved. The patties are pan-fried and are mashed potato cutlets. Just before serving 2–3 patties are covered with the stew-like ragda and are garnished with finely chopped onion, coriander leaves, sweet tamarind chutney, and some spicy chutney (optional).

This is an excellent snack though for me it is a meal in itself (I like it so much that I hate to have anything else after that).

Ingredients:

For patties:

3 large potatoes

3-4 green chillies (+/- to taste)
1/2 piece of ginger

1/4 bunch Cilantro

1 tsp sugar

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Salt to taste

For ragda

1-2 cup green dried peas soaked overnight

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 pinch asafoetida

salt to taste

To garnish

Onions – chopped finely

Cilantro - chopped finely

Cumin powder

Chaat masala

Sweet tamarind chutney

Process:

For patties:

Boil the potatoes and mash it well. Add green chillies, ginger, cilantro, salt, lemon, and sugar and mix well. Then divide the potato dough into small portions, I had about 8-10 small round portions. Put the potato mix on your palm and flatten it into a small patty. Heat oil on a flat skillet. When it starts sizzling, put the patties and shallow fry them on each side on medium heat for 2-3 minutes till they turn golden brown. Let it cool on paper towel to drain the excess oil.

For ragda:

Pressure cook the soaked green dried peas. Pour it in a thick bottomed pan and add turmeric, asafoetida, and salt to it. Let it cook on medium heat for roughly 5 minutes. Then mash some of the green dried peas in the gravy to make it thick and to give it a nice consistency.

Assembling ragda patties:
Put 2-3 potato patties in a deep bowl. Add ragda on top of it generously so that the patties is immersed in the ragda completely. Add 2 tsp of tamarind chutney and garnish it with onions, cilantro, jeera powder, and chat masala. Serve hot.

Karanji

Ghughra/Karanji

This is a traditional sweet made especially for Diwali by one and all with a little bit of variation in the recipe. Ghughras are flour dumplings which are stuffed with a sweet mixture of fresh or dry cocunut, sugar, cardomom powder, ground cashews and almonds, and raisins and then deep fried. The health conscious often bake them instead of frying.

As you bite into each ghughra, its crunchy texture along with the subtle sweet flavor of dried coconut and sugar laced with the aroma of cardamom stretches into every bite and leaves you craving for more.

Ingredients:

For Dumpling:

2 ½ cup maida

Pinch of salt

3 tablespoon hot oil

Water as needed for kneading the dough

For filling:

3 cup dry coconut

2 cup powdered sugar

½ cup dry fruit powder (Almond, cashew nut, Pistachios)

2 tsp Charoli/chironji (Other names: Cudpah Nut or Buchanania latifolia)

2 tsp cardmom powder

Raisins (I like to put lots of it)

Ghee for frying Ghughras

Process:

For Filling: Take the dry coconut and roast it in a pan till it turns brown. When it is cool, grate it and keep aside. In a mixing bowl, mix in the grated coconut, powdered sugar, cardamom, dry fruit powder, and charoli. There your filling is ready. This filling can be made in advance. It stays well for upto 10-15 days as all the ingredients used are dry, just be sure not to add the charoli and the raisins because the filling will not stay for long if these two ingredients are added.

For Dumpling:

Sieve the flour. Add salt. Add hot oil to the maida. Mix it well. Now add some water and knead lightly. Keep adding water as required and knead into a soft but pliable dough, not too soft. Set aside and cover with a damp cloth. Let it remain for an hour or so. Divide the dough into small equal sized balls and roll each ball with the rolling pin into a thin puri. Place a spoonful of filling on one side, fold over, and pinch it down into half-moons. For a proper ghugra, the twisted edge is key to traditional presentation. This takes practice and patience. Also it means longer time to prepare them. I learnt this watching my mom make it during Diwali (and also eagerly helping her out thereby ruining many of her ghughras in the process). Prepare all the ghughras and cover it with a damp muslin cloth.

Heat enough ghee in a wide vessel to deep fry the stuffed ghughras. Drop 3-4 ghughras into the ghee slowly and deep fry them till golden brown turning them carefully to the other side so that it cooks on all sides. Deep fry on medium heat. Cool and store in air tight containers.

They can be stored for upto two weeks or so.

Tips:
1. The correct frying medium is oil for all savouries and ghee for all things sweet.
2. The pinching of the dumpling is very very important prior to twisting it as this thins the dough. If you do not do this, the final edge will be thick and will stay under-cooked or it may taste too doughy.
3. Ghughra moulds can be used (they are available in any indian store or market). When using moulds, place the rolled dough ball in a greased ghughra mould and fill it up with a tblsp of filling mixture on one side. Moisten the edges of the round and fold one side of the mould over the other. Remove the excess edges and reuse.

Aloo methi sabji

Here is a recipe with methi and aloo that goes really well with chapatis or as a side with rice and dal n best of all it can be prepared in a jiffy. I got this recipe from one of my friends and made this yesterday for the first time. It turned out really well. The slightly bitter methi taste goes well with the crispiness of the potatoes.

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes, boiled (peeling optional) and cubed

2 cups methi,washed and chopped

2 tsp oil

Salt to taste

For tempering:

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp urad dal

1/4 tsp asafoetida powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Process:

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and add the chopped methi to it. Stir fry on high heat until it has wilted and then remove from the heat and keep aside. In another pan, heat the remaining 1 tsp of oil and add the tempering ingredients. Then put in the boiled and cubed potatoes and stir carefully at regular intervals to mix the ingredients taking care not to break the potatoes. Add salt to taste. Let the potatoes fry over medium heat until they begin to crisp a little. Add some oil to the pan if required. When the potatoes are done to your liking add the methi and mix in carefully. Serve hot with chapaties or as a side dish with rice.