Curry Puffs

Curry Puffs are my one of my favourite ‘anyday, anytime’ snacks. Relishing Curry Puffs on the roads of Hyderabad with Irani Chai was my favourite pass time…especially on a rainy day. Though curry puffs at home taste better, the atmosphere is just not there. I miss those days very much 😦

Anyways, here goes the recipe.

Cooking Time: 45 Minutes

Serves: 3

Ingredients:

• Potato (Aalu, chopped into 1 inch pieces ) – 3 Large
• Green Peas (optional) – 1 cup (tea cup)
• Onions (finely chopped) – 2
• Tomatoes (finely chopped)- 2
• Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 Tsp
• Curry Powder – 1 Tsp
• Coriander Powder – 1 Tbsp
• Chat Masala – 1 Tsp
• Chilli Powder – 1-2 Tbsp
• Turmeric Powder – 1 Tsp
• Curry Leaves (torn) – 6
• Cumin Seeds – 1 Tsp
• Mustard Seeds – 1 Tsp
• Jus Rol Puff Pasty Roll – 1
• Oil – 5-7 Tbsp
• Water – According to Quantity
• A Pizza Cutter
• A Kadai

Method:

• Add oil to a kadai and let it heat. Then add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add cumin seeds and fry them a little…later add curry leaves and fry till they are crispy
• Now add onions and fry till they are golden brown. Then add turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste and mix.
• Leave for a couple of minutes and then add tomatoes and mix well
• One the mixture becomes soft, add curry powder, coriander powder, chat masala and chilli powder
• Mix well and let it simmer for a couple of minutes on a low flame
• Now add potatoes, green peas and mix well. Add water to the mixture if necessary….in order to cook the potatoes. I usually do not cook potatoes in a pressure cooker before hand since I absolutely hate washing up 😀 I try to keep utensils to a minimum
• Once the mixture is partially cooked, turn off the flame and let it cool (very very important)
• The mixture will be going into the owen, allowing it to cook completely

• Once the mixture is cool enough, add it to the cut puff rol pieces and tap the openings leaving some gaps in between to let the heat out whilst in the owen

• Pre-heat owen to 150° centigrade for 5-8 minutes and place the tray with the puffs  in the owen. Leave it for 15-20 minutes but keep checking in between since they cook very quickly.
• Once the puffs swell up and reach light brown is colour, remove from owen
• Serve with Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce. Totally Yummy!!!

Pic Courtesy:http://www.secretrecipe.com.pk/cakes.html

Njoy!!

Beetroot Fry

Pic Courtesy: http://www.simplyfreshfruit.com.au/store/images/beetroot.gif

Beetroot is not one of my favorite vegetables….well actually, I tend not to like vegetables that are healthy for the human body 😉 but I am conscientiously trying to prepare more dishes with nutritious veggies. More about beetroot here.

Ingredients:

(Recipe Serves 2)

• Beetroots – 2 (Diced into 1 inch pcs)
• Onion (medium sized) – 1 (finely chopped)
• Garlic Cloves – 2 (finely chopped)
• Red Chili Powder – 1 tsp
• Salt – According to Taste
• Turmeric Powder – A Pinch
• Oil – 2 Tbsp

For Tempering (Talimpu):

• Mustard Seeds – 1 Tsp
• Cumin Seeds – 1 Tsp
• Urid Dal – 1 Tsp
• Chana Dal – 1Tsp
• Curry Leaves – 5

Method:

• Add oil to a pan and let it heat. Then add mustard seeds and once they start spluttering add cumin seeds, urid dal & chana dal.
• Once they turn golden brown in colour and curry leaves and the finely chopped garlic cloves
• Fry them a little bit and then add finely chopped onion
• Fry them till they turn golden brown in colour and then add the beetroot pieces
• Fry the beetroot until the pieces are crispy
• Turn off the flame and serve with rice or chapthis

Pretty straight forward 🙂

Recipe for Curry Puffs coming up tomorrow.

Njoy!

Food Processor for Indian (Asian) Cooking

If you’ve read my ‘About‘ page, you must know that I am a lazy person by nature. I absolutely hate chopping veggies…esp onions and I think most of us do…and I also don’t like cooking for hours and hours together. Some people have all the patience in the world but I don’t 😀 I like it quick. So, I recently bought a Kenwood FP730 Food Processor.

My friend bought one (Kenwood FP530) some time ago and she strongly recommended that I get one too. I was doing some research on the internet to choose the best one but also one which was economical. I read a lot of reviews but not one on how food processors could help with desi cooking so I decided to write one! 🙂

I will write this in an orderly manner…starting with the attachment I use the most and so on.

• The most important attachment of all is the knife blade (5). I use this attachment for chopping onions, tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables. It is most useful when making Non-Vegetarian dishes which need large quantities of finely chopped onions. I also use this attachment for chopping cabbage, potatoes  and variety of other vegetables for a nice veggie dish. You can also use this attachment to finely mince boneless meat for burgers etc.  There’s also a smaller jar (1) with a knife blade (6) attachment for chopping smaller quantities of onions, tomatoes, herbs and veggies.
• The next attachment I use quite often is the dough tool (7) for chapathis. It takes only a few minutes for the processor to knead the dough and you can re-knead it in a bowl. Try adding as little water as possible.  Here is a very helpful video.

You can also use the dough tool for mixing ingredients for baking.

• When making Pilaus, Biriyanis, and any vegetable curries, I prefer long, thin slices of onions. For this, I use the slicing side of discs 3 (you can use disc 2 to get very fine slices). Just chop the onions into a size that fits through the opening. You can also use this if you want long thin slices of carrots, cucumbers for salads. Also use this attachment to chop Beans, Tindora (Dondakaya/Ivy Gourd), Carrots…literally any veggie you prefer in a thin, round shape (I haven’t tried Ladies Fingers yet…will let you know how it goes when I do try them). Make sure that you push in the vegetables holding them vertically with the help of the pushers for a nice round shape.
• There are some attachments which I don’t use that often but are equally useful…like the julienne style chipper (4), the whiskers, juicers and the shredding sides of discs 2 and 3 for shredding cheese and veggies.

What used to take me at least half hour now takes me just a couple of minutes. It saves time and energy. The hubby made Mutton Pulao today in literally under an hour when it used to take atleast 2 hrs.  All the chopping, the tears are gone!

The FP730 has a 1000 watts motor which is quite powerful and takes only a couple of minutes to chop. It is very quick and efficient piece of machinery. I will suggest everyone to buy one 🙂

Whole Grain Flour Biscuits with Sugar and Coconut

OK…I came up with my own name for this. I tried looking for this recipe on the blogging world but without any luck. I absolutely love these biscuits and the first time I had them was a S’s G’Mom’s place. My common sense prevailed and I decided to take the recipe from her.

So here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

Whole Grain Wheat Flour – 1 Mug (A Coffee Mug)

Dessicated Coconut – 1 Mug

Sugar – 3/4 Mug

Ghee/Unsalted Butter – 1/2 Mug

Oil for Deep Frying

Milk – For mixing ingredients together. Add as appropriate. If you have a food processor, add milk very carefully; tiny amount should do.

Method:

• Add Wheat Flour, Dessicated Coconut, Sugar and Ghee to a bowl and mix well.
• Once butter melts completely, knead the flour by adding milk.
• Once it gets to chapathi flour consistency, roll it out. Since sugar caramelises during the process, when you roll out the flour, it will not come out as regular chapathi flour does but it doesn’t matter.
• Now, cut the rolled out flour into any shape and fry them till they turn light brown (I use a pizza cutter and prefer rectangular shaped biscuits. It usually depends on the size of your kadai). Do not leave them for long as they tend to fry very quickly.
• Store them away. They will last fora few months.

Tips:

• Since the cut flour pieces tend to fry very quickly, it is advisable to completely cut the rolled out flour into desirable shapes and then concentrate on frying them. It’s much easier this way….personal experience 🙂

Channel 4 and its Love Affair with the Slums of Mumbai

OK…at first when I saw a bunch of  Indians (and cows) getting out of a truck in their various outfits, holding variety of props…I had my doubts of how this Indian winter would turn out on Channel 4 and wallahh….it’s lived up to my expectations. It’s totally crap!!! What’s with channel 4 and its love affair with slums. Gimme a break but India is not all slums and stray dogs. I am not saying channel 4 should not show the slums at all, but I guess one program should’ve been enough. But no, the season started off with Slumdog Millionaire the movie, and then Kevin McCloud Slumming It, and Slumdog Secret Millionaire with Seema Sharma and The Slumdog Children of Mumbai. There’s just one show that appealed to me in this season and that is Gordon Ramsay’s The Great Escape. Watched the first episode yesterday and I really liked it. His trip to Lucknow and his meeting with the really old muslim chef (whose name I cannot remember now) was fantastic…and the biriyani…wow!

But enough with the slums already! India is not all slums and open drains and cows roaming about on the roads. There is so much more. Discovering Indian food is a step in the right direction. It is so diverse. Every state has its own cuisine. Classical dance of India, like its food, is unique to the states. The history of India is immense. The architecture of India does not end with the Taj Mahal…there is so much more…like Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, Sun Temple in Orissa, the Meenakshi Temple in Tamil Nadu, Golconda Fort in Hyderabad just to name a few.

We really don’t need Kevin McCloud and Seema Sharma slumming it out for us to understand the problems of the slum dwellers. Though I really appreciate what they are doing…I think most of us already know that dreadful conditions these people live in. It is good if we can help but please please do not portray India as a country of slums. If you cannot resist, then at lease show some positives along with the negatives. I think Slumdog Millionaire did its jobs well when it comes to slums and Mumbai. We do not need anymore!!