GREEN APPLE CHUTNEY

I generally don't eat apples. Not that I don't like them but the only thing that's nutritious in an apple is its skin (The red carotenoids are anti carcinogenic) but I bet its skin contains more pesticide residues than carotenoids. Anyway last week I somehow got tempted by some really fresh looking green apples (this time round the temptation was not in Eden but in the vegetable market). I paid an astronomical price them but they turned out to be too tart. I couldn't bear to throw them nor does my Spartan kitchen allow processing them to jam or baking them so I came up with an apple chutney much in the lines of the ubiquitous tomato chaatney of Bengal.

INGREDIENTS

4 Green apples (Even plain apples will do) grated

1 cup Sugar/Jaggery (grated)

1 dry red chilly

2 bay leaves

2" stick of cinnamon (Dalchini)

2 large cardamons (grind seeds to a coarse powder)

1/2 tsp sauf/Fennel

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp chilly flakes

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp oil

LETS DO IT

1. Heat oil in a kadai

2. Add the bay leaves, cinnamon and dry chilli.

3. Sputter the mustard and fennel seeds.

4. Add the grated apple and salt. Cook on low flame for 10 minutes

5. Add the sugar/jaggery and chilly flakes. Continue cooking on a low flame stirring constantly till the chutney acquires a thick consistency.

6. Add the cardamon powder and mix well.

The chutney once cooled can be stored in a clean dry bottle.

Gobi carfreal

I attended a party recently where the table was loaded with food or rather overloaded with some three to four varieties each of fish, chicken, prawn besides several other types of sea food. However I got little to eat besides rice, watery oversalted dal and salad. People just dont think vegetarian in Goa, I think only cows and goats are vegetarian here. Its another story that I had already anticipated the menu and eaten before leaving for the party. Everyone around were praising relishing and taking good second and thrid helpings of the chiken carfreal which got me interested. It looked and smelt good. Later I got lot of information about carfreal from Googleji . It had travelled to Goa via the Portuguese colonies in Africa and today any self respecting kitchen in Goa serves carfreal especially on special occasions. The carfreal is unique due to its minty flavour and long hours of marination. Here I have tried to recreate carfreal in its vegetarian avatar.
WE NEED

1 medium sized Cauliflower broken/cut into large sized florets

1 large sized bunch of mint leaves (about 50 grams in weight)

1" piece of ginger

5-6 large cloves of garlic

1 tsp garam masala powder

5-6 dry red chillies

1 tsp black peppercorns

juice of 1 lemon

3 tbs rum

Salt to taste

6 tbs of oil

LETS DO IT

1. Grind together the ginger, garlic, red chillies, mint leaves, peppercorns to a paste.

2. Mix in the garam masala powder, lime juice, salt and rum to the paste

3. Rub in the paste to the cauliflower, cover the vessel and let it marinate for a good 8 hours.

4. Heat oil in a kadai and add the marinated mixture.

5. Cover and cook on a low flame for 10-15 minutes.

6. Garnish with either steamed cauliflower/palak leaves and slit green chillies .

7. Serve with steamed rice or bread.

P.S. I made it later on with mushrooms which too turned out really good.

MOMO MIA

Recently I got a forwarded mail highlighting the idiosyncrasies of Darjeeling..among them was "Its only in Darjeeling that the best thing on the menu in every restaurant will be momo and thukpa". How very true:)

Momos have made their humble but steady journey which had maybe begun from Tibet or China and have made acquaintance with Chinese food lovers in most Indian cities. But wait a minute unlike the panch rupaiya pela (Rs 5/plate) momos in Darjeeling these cost up to 10 rupees per piece that too in a wayside stall [I nearly passed out on hearing this:)].

http://pattypans.blogspot.com/2008/03/this-one-is-for-vir-sanghvi.html

Searching for the perfect greens

Its been really hot for the past few weeks and I have walked to at least some seven eight odd bhaji shops around in search of some greens. Bunches of coriander that sabziwalnis in Haat Bazaar back home would throw in gratis with your weekly purchase are costing fifteen bucks!!! I am not having coriander and there is no sign of mint. Methi saag is a thing of the past and finally I got some palak. It cost me twenty rupees for a bunch that look like a really pathetic bangali babu who had thoroughly beaten up by a gang of dhood shood peene wala Haryanvi Jats. I bought it home and retrieved precisely twelve intact leaves from two bunches. Oh how I miss the Haat Bazaar back home....the haggling, the bargaining, the crowds and yes the squelchy feeling below your feet in monsoons.

THE STICK SOUP

There was this moringa/drumstick/sajana tree in one of my aunt’s house just on the edge of her terraced ginger fields. The feathery crown with long stick like pods waving in the breeze captured my childish imagination and I immediately named it the stick tree. My ayah told me that the flowers of this tree were eaten and were so delicious. “Even better than chicken” these words really impressed me as after living in our vegetarian household my ayah was always ravenous for meat. Plus moringa flowers never found their way to our kitchen and everything out of reach was automatically deemed to be very delicious.I longed for quite some time to eat the better than chicken moringa flowers. Anyway it was after almost 20 years I actually got to eat it in faraway Delhi. A colleague shared it out of her lunch box and disappointed me. Not that the preparation was bad but I guess my expectations based on childhood imagination was too much for reality.
Later on I discovered a whole lot of dishes using moringa. They serve a tangy tomato and moringa curry in Andhra Bhawan in Delhi which has climbed into my favorites’ list comfortably. Moringa leaves fried in ghee with a little salt are absolutely heavenly. I even ate moringa rice which however couldn’t impress my taste buds much. In my staid house moringa was used in the occasional sambhar and more frequently a jhol (soup) however we all enjoyed this simple preparation and the thoroughly chewed piles of moringa bore testimony to our satisfaction. This dish though stupefying simple to prepare is just the thing when you want to eat something light.
INGREDIENTS
5 drumstick/moringa/sajana fruits cut into 2” bits
1 potato peeled and cut lengthwise into quarters
1 onion sliced
1 tomato finely chopped
1” ginger ground into a paste
½ tsp of mustard seeds
½ tsp of turmeric powder
¾ tsp salt
4 cups water
1 tsp oil
LET’S DO IT
Heat the oil and sputter the mustard seeds
Add the onions and ginger paste and fry till onions turn translucent
Add the potatoes, drumsticks and salt and cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
Add the turmeric powder and tomatoes and cook on the low flame for 5 minutes
Add the water, turn up the heat and bring to a boil.

PICKLED DRUMSTICKS

This isn't a standard pickle recipe, I just ended up buying a lot of drumsticks (moringa/sajan phali/sajana) than I could eat from a particularly bedraggled old lady with no teeth and wearing an old dirty torn frock. My neighbours were away and the bai was on leave so all I could think of doing with the drumsticks was pickle them as I couldn't distribute them. Its not a standard pickle recipe as I have warned you earlier, I have put everything and anything I could lay my hands on, thankfully the pickle turned out ok.

INGREDIENTS

1o drumsticks washed and cut to 2" bits

4 tbs Turmeric

4 tbs salt

4 tbs coriander seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

2 tbs fenugreek seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

1 tbs mustard seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

5 tbs red chilly powder (I used a mixture of chilly powder and chilly flakes 3:1)

1 cup oil

juice of 4 lemons

1 tsp mustard seeds (whole and unroasted)

LETS DO IT
 

Mix all the spice powders and salt with the cut drumsticks

Heat the oil and sputter the mustard seeds and add to the drumsticks.

Mix well and add the lemon juice.

Fill in a glass jar and keep in the sun for about a fortnight.

CORN FLOWERS

Much before multiplexes and flavored popcorn costing more than a decent meal in any normal eatery invaded our lives, corn flowers were a staple item on our evening tiffin (belka ko khaja)menu. Before you get me wrong corn flowers are not flowers of the corn plant. Makkai ko phool or Maize flowers were what we called the corn that was popped in a wire contraption over a blazing fire in my grandmother’s place. True enough they looked like snow white flowers as my grandmother popped them and piled them up on a round bamboo tray (Nanglo). All the maize was from our fields, some were consumed fresh (boiled, fried, as rotis, roasted), some ground to a flour and some to grits and rest stored. The stored maize would hang in rows in the loft above the hearth smoked to a lovely golden colour. We were invariably given the job of shelling the corn which gave ample opportunities for corn shelling competitions.
On ordinary days we dipped them in doodh-pani which was milk, water and lots of sugar - a unique recipe concocted by my grandmother to get us children drink the milk. I should not forget to mention that while we happily gulped the doodh-pani , we wouldn’t touch the doodh. Id rather say we were a milkman’s delight since adulterated milk was what we favored. But there were days when a lot of fresh buttermilk would be churned and a radish and cheese dip (Mula ra Churpi ko achar) would be made. If there is a contest for the best way of eating popcorn then this will win hands down. Its been ages since I sat in a circle eating home popped corn flowers with fresh buttermilk and churpi and moola ko achar, catching up on family gossip. Oh! I would give anything in the world for such a moment. But I guess for the time being I have to be satisfied with the inanely expensive boxes of insipid thermocole bits served in the name of popcorn served at the food counters of multiplexes.

DEONARAYAN, DHARMENDRA AND DALMOTH

I am going to talk about the good old days once again when one rupee was a luxury. I mean you could get so much from the wayside shops on the way to school. 50 paisa worth aloo thukpa was enough for two, churan was just five annas a piece (the round ones), suntala mithai, kalo mithai, peppermint drops were all five annas a piece and not to forget the huge khochi (newspaper cones) of piro channa, mattar and dalmoth. I specially remember dalmoth as you really dont get dalmoth anywhere else specially in newspaper cones. It used to be spicy, tangy and really smelly as it used to be salted with rock salt - birey noon or padhey noon(fart salt) as some called it and it did smell like someone around had a bad digestive system.The best ones were those that made you sick later - which were full of chilly powder and rather red. After eating the dalmoth licking the hands carefully, finger by finger was another ritual in itself.

Deonarayan bhaiyya, the grocer near our house sold the dalmoth. His stock was kept in a big tin and he carefully measured out 50 paise/one rupee worth portions in newspaper cones while we would coerce him to add some more. And the most fascinating thing were the faces of film stars stuck on his tins probably from some old magazines - Smita Patil, Mithun, Raj babbar, Sree Devi, Jaya Prada, Jeetendra etc. Films being restricted in my house the photographs were an added attraction, in fact I came to know many of the film stars from my visits to this shop with a lot of help from Deonarayan bhaiyya himself. The last time I visited home I saw that his shop has transformed into something different. Gone were the bright blue wooden walls and the shutters hammered out of old tins and painted a deep green, in its place was a concrete structure painted a staid colour with a glass and steel STD booth added near it. I didn't have to go in to find out if the tins were still having posters of film stars were still around. Deonarayan bhaiyya's shop had changed and I guess after a few years it will inch its way to become one of those unfriendly self service shopping places where you walk around with a trolley and be serviced by a bored attendant at the cash counter.

Here is my recipe for dalmoth, it isn't as good as the original but then you don't fall sick with this.

INGREDIENTS

250 grams split chana dal

100 grams peanuts

2 cups oil

2 tsp powdered rock salt

1/2 tsp pepper powder

1/2 tsp roasted cumin(jeera) powder

1/2 tsp chilly powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

LETS DO IT

Soak the chana dal in water for 2 hours.

Drain the water and spread the dal to dry in shade for a day.

Heat oil in a kadai and fry the peanuts and keep aside.

Fry the soaked and dried dal in the oil on a low flame till it turns crisp and golden.

In the last batch of dal you fry add the turmeric powder just before removing from flame.

Mix all the powders, peanuts and salt in the fried dal and mix well.

Let the mixture cool before packing it in an airtight container.

CARAMELISED SWEET POTATOES

On my way back from work there is a place where a bunch of village women sit with small piles of vegetables from their garden. the vegetables are home-grown, fresh and organic. I make it a point to buy them every alternate day. Last week I bought sweet potatoes worth Rs 10 which was quite a big pile. I was boiling and eating them rather uninterstingly until my neighbour gave me this recipe. Its fattening but truly divine.

INGREDIENTS

Sweet potatoes about 5

1 tbs clarified butter(Khareyko ghiu/ghee)

1 tbs sugar

LETS DO IT

Finely slice the sweet potatoes into roundels

Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the sweet potatoes

When the sweet potatoes are half cooked add the sugar

let the sugar caramelise and stir so that all the sweet potatoes are coated evenly with the caramelised sugar.

This tastes great by it self and is a unique topping idea for ice cream.

DUSTY PLATFORMS, TICKETLESS TRAVEL AND GHUGNI TO DIE FOR

There is this railway station in South Bengal called Naihatti where we used to board the train for Kolkatta (then Calcutta). I never saw the ticket counter of this station, for buying a ticket would amount to social boycott in the ladies hostel. It was one of the traditions in the university that the girls always travelled ticket less. So during the few months spent in the university I experienced ticket less train journeys whenever we went to Kolkatta. Looking back I think it was a survival strategy since going to Kolkatta took 3 hours and we got just 10 hours leave from the hostel to go to Kolkatta and back and see a movie, shop and eat. 6 hours went in the journey, 3 hours for a movie and just 1 hour for shopping and eating.....the time was too less. Boys never had to bother about not getting back to the hostel in time so didn't think the long ticket queues were a waste of time. Anyway all I remember about Naihatti is dashing to the platform from the bus stand and gobbling a plate of ghugni before boarding the train. I had eaten ghugni all my life since it was one of the things my mother invariably prepared on all occasions but nothing had prepared me for this stuff. It was hot, spicy, tangy and dusty and priced amazingly (just Rs 2/plate!!).

Ghugni is a eastern cousin of choley. Its a thick yellow curry made with dried peas/matar or chickpeas/Kabuli chana and is very versatile can be eaten with rice, bread , moori(puffed rice), chanachur you name it or simply by itself also.

Coming to Naihatti's special tangy, spicy and dusty ghugni- the ghugniwala would add a liberal dose of chanchur, raw onions, coriander leaves, chopped green chillies and top it all with a slurpy tamarind sweet chutney and a sliver of fresh coconut and and and a train would go whooosh!!! coating the entire mixture with a fine layer of dust. I bet the dust did the magic since I tried making the stuff at home many times but it never tastes as good.

SPICY PRAWN PICKLE

I never knew such a pickle existed till we were gifted a bottle. It looked lovely - fiery red and hot. Since I am a vegetarian I guessed the ingredients pretty much by sniffing the bottle and poking around with a fork. This is my version of a prawn pickle and though I never taste it everyone who eats this says it’s good. Plus no preservatives here like the commercial pickles since salt, spices, turmeric and lemon juice does the preserving.
STATUTORY WARNING: This can get hotter than dallay pickle.
INGREDIENTS
1 kg large prawns
100 grams garlic
100 gms ginger
2tbs each cumin/jeera, coriander/dhania, fenugreek/methi seeds (dry roasted)
1tbs mustard seeds
3 tbs turmeric powder
5tbs Red chili powder (Everest tikha lal is good)
1/2 tsp asafoetida (hing)
Juice of 4 lemons
Oil 250 ml
LET’S DO IT
Clean and de-vein the prawns and wash thoroughly in running water.
Heat oil and deep fry the prawns till they turn pink. Keep the remaining oil.
Grind separately the ginger and garlic to coarse pastes
Grind the dry roasted spices to a coarse powder
Heat the remaining oil and sputter the mustard seeds.
Add the ginger and garlic pastes and fry till it turns golden
Add the ground spices, turmeric and chilly powder and salt and mix well
Turn off the flame and add the juice of 4 lemons to the fried masala mixture.
Add the masala mixture to the prawns and mix well.
Cool before storing in a airtight jar.
This pickle keeps for a week and best eaten with hot white rice.

TIL PALKI

I am bored of having Palki/Palak as the same old palak paneer, palak pakodas, palak soup or the green bits in dal. Egged on by the exploits of Popeye after eating spinach and tales of Rapunzel's enviable tresses (remember her mother ate it when she was pregnant) i dutifully shovelled in all the above stuff for years. It is another matter that much later i came to know that Palak and spinach are not the same while spinach is Spinacea olearacea, palak is Chenopodium album. Palak is actually a close cousin of the beetroot. However however the good news is palak contains way way much iron than Popeye's silly Little can of spinach.

Here is a way to add variety to the way you have your plateful of iron. I use a lot of til(sesame seeds ) in this which is an important ingredient in nepali cusine so shall I call this a newly invented nepali dish?

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch palak/palki saag

4 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)

4 tbs roasted white sesame seeds( seto til)

1 tbs oil

salt to taste

LETS DO IT

Remove the root portion of the palak and wash the leaves thoroughly in running water.

Boil water and blanch the leaves for 5 minutes.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the chopped garlic. Add the Palak once the garlic starts browning. Add salt and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add the sesame seeds and toss well.

Since very little cooking is involved and the leaves are whole you get much more fiber and vitamins from palak this way.

LARKS AND STICKJAWS

Much before I got acquainted with Shelly and his odes or with bird watching, Larks featured big in my life. Larks was the name of the store just below my grandmother's house. In fact they were and still are my grandmother's tenants. It was also the one of the most elite stores in town back then. The only place which kept tinned sardines, yellow blocks of cheddar cheese, chocolates, cocoa powder, condensed milk , packets of dried mushrooms, cocktail tinned fruits, China grass etc. It may not be a big deal now but to find all these things some twenty odds years ago my town was a big deal. And yes there were those stick jaws wrapped in butter paper invitingly looking out at us greedy mortals from the glass jars. They stuck when you chewed them so I guess the name. Moreover one would amuse me for at least 20 minutes - a great feat considering I could give the Amazonian Piranhas a run for their fame when it came to finishing off sweets. I had all but forgotten stick jaws till I had a sweet reunion at Elora's in Dehradun, only now they were dressed in cellophane paper. I happily stick jawed (how else do you describe eating them) and carried a bagful to Delhi only to find that they had all melted. They were not really worth eating since the molten ones didn't stick your jaws. Now this accounts for finding the stick jaws only in the hilly towns. And Larks is now a pale shadow of itself with the ubiquitous orange kurkure packets looming large in its shelves as it desperately tries to measure up to the more fancy shops in town.

CRUNCHY BASELLA

It was "hatred at first taste" if there is something like that. Known as Pui saag in Bengali, I encountered it for first time in the hostel mess as a ugly, gluey congealed mass which smelled like something that had been in the mud at the bottom of a pond( a dirty pond). By and by my love for the vegetable grew and I actually looked forward to eating it since it provided a welcome respite from the ubiquitous aloo.

Basella alba also known as Malabar/Chinese/Asian/Ceylon/ buffalo spinach, Valchi bhaji is one of the most nutritious greens high in vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron and calcium. The mucilage is a rich source of soluble fibre, which remove toxins from the body.

The following recipe is my own invention. It can be made in a jiffy and is crunchy and fresh and gets rid of the gluey quality of basella leaves.

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch of fresh Basella leaves (Pui saag)
50 grams Peanuts
4 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
1 dry red chilli (Sukkha Khorsani)
red chilly powder 1 tsp
Oil 2 tbs
salt to taste
Lets do it
Separate the basella leaves from the stem. Wash well and keep aside.
Add salt to half a pan of water and bring to a boil. Add to the basella leaves and blanch for 10 minutes and drain the water.
Meanwhile roast the groundnuts. Remove the skin and grind coarsely.
Heat oil in a pan add the dry chilly and chopped garlic and fry till brown.
Add the blanched leaves and salt and stir fry for five minutes.
Add the coarsely crushed groundnuts and red chilly powder, mix well and remove from fire.
Serve with rice or rotis. I even have it with maggie noodles.

GUNDRUK FOR THE HOMESICK SOUL

One of the most vivid memories of the winters in Kalimpong is of rows and rows of wilting leaves of Rayo saag, radish and cauliflower drying on plastic sheets spread on the hedge. The backyard would be cluttered with an old chlorophyll stained okhli and tins with their tops weighed down with stones, the sharp acid smell of fermenting gundruk assailing the senses. Though not as famous as the other fermented leaf-tea, almost every house in the hills dutifully makes gundruk during the dry winter months to be used all round the year. Gundruk essentially consists leaves of Brassica family (mustard, Rayoo saag, cauliflower, radish) subject to lactic acid fermentation and sun dried to form a brownish acidic dried product. Not beautiful to look at but heavenly if you have a taste for it. Its is primarily drunk as a spicy soup but even the thought of fresh fermented gundruk spiced up with chillies and mustard oil will produce a deluge of saliva enough to qualify as the great flood itself.

Here's the recipe to a gundruk ko jhol (gundruk soup) any homesick nepali would happily do anything for.

INGREDIENTS

50grams Gundruk

2 green chillies (slit longitudinally)

1 onion finely sliced

3 cloves garlic (coarsely crushed)

1' ginger (crushed)

1 ripe tomato (finely chopped)

1 tps turmeric powder

salt to taste

2 tbs mustard oil

water ( the jhol comes out thick and nice if you used water in which rice has been washed, the second wash and rice should preferably be the indigenous Darjeeling rice locally called Dhikiko chamal or maseeno chamal or busty ko chamal)

1 tsp ghee (Khareyko ghiu/Clarified butter)

LETS DO IT

Steep the gundruk in a little water (just enough to wet it)

Heat oil. Add garlic and onions and fry till translucent and add the ginger and gundruk (after draining the water) and fry till onions turn brown.

Add chilies, turmeric powder, salt and tomatoes and fry til the tomatoes get cooked.

Add the water and bring to a boil.

Add the ghee in the end.

Hot or cold Gundruk tastes heavenly with rice.

[As I write this I suddenly remembered that Gundruk was partly responsible for my grandfather going bankrupt. A highly impractical man never meant for earning money he would carry on various types of business to keep his family fed and fund his studies as well. He floated a Gundruk company for exporting Gundruk to the Gorkha armies in various parts of the world. Well to cut a long story short it led to his bankruptcy and a childhood full of difficulties for my father and a childhood full of the difficulties he faced and "how lucky you all are" type stories for us. Anyway why hold it against Gundruk]

Finger licking, plate licking, puniu licking, kadai licking...only way to describe aloo thukpa

This is a typical street food from Darjeeling. Ask anyone from Darjeeling and she/he will soon be raving about a stall selling aloo thukpa nearby. It is basically boiled noodles flavoured with raw mustard oil and potatoes in red slurpy hot gravy and sold in newspaper squares or bauhinia leaf plates (the gravy sodden newspaper/leaf plate is invariably licked by the consumer). Many a times the gravy is too red with food colour replete with carcinogenic properties and the dishes selling them are uncovered and who gives it a thought. Ask all those who remain aloo thukpa fans even after repeated bouts of jaundice, diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid etc. Here I have tried to recreate the magic of aloo thukpa sold near my house in a kitchen thousands of kilometers from home.

INGREDIENTS
2 large Potatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic (coarsely crushed)
3 tbs red chilly powder
1 tbs Turmeric powder
3 tbs wheat flour
Salt to taste
2 cups Water
3tbs mustard oil
Boiled noodles – 1 small packet
LET’S DO IT
Boil the potatoes, skin and cut each into eight pieces
Heat oil in a pan and add the crushed garlic.
Add turmeric powder, salt and wheat flour when the garlic turns golden and fry.
Mix the chilly powder in water and add it
Put in the boiled potatoes, cover and simmer for five minutes.
Take off from flame and keep covered for 10 minutes.
Add 1 tbs raw mustard oil to the noodles and toss well.
Serve the aloo with the noodles. Be sure to drench the noodles with the gravy.

METHI PARATHAS- HEALTHY, EASY AND TASTY

I make these a lot. The great thing about this is that if you use oil and not water for making the dough it can be stored for days in the freezer. Saves a lot of time when guests come. (remember if you use oil to bind the dough then don't use any oil while cooking)
INGREDIENTS
1 bunch methi saag (fenugreek leaves)
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1” ginger ground to paste
1 tbs turmeric powder
1tbs Jwano/ajwain seeds (Carom seeds)
2 green chillies finely chopped
Four cups atta (whole wheat flour)
Water
Salt to taste
LETS DO IT
Wash the methi saag, remove the root and the hard stem portion and finely chop the leaves
Heat 4 tbs oil and sputter the ajwain seeds , add the chopped garlic and ginger paste
Add the finely chopped onions and fry till translucent.
Add the chopped methi saag ,chopped green chillies , turmeric and salt.
Cook till ¾ done
Add the saag to the atta and make a soft dough adding required amount of water
Make small balls with the dough. Rub some oil on the hands and shape the dough balls into rotis
Cook on a hot tava adding some oil till cooked
Serve hot with pickle/achar and curd/dahi.

THIS ONE IS FOR VIR SANGHVI

Last night I was watching a matter of taste by Vir Sanghvi on Discovery travel and living....the segment was the evolution of Indian Chinese cuisine..well I guess this would then qualify as the Darjeeling edition of Indian Chinese cuisine... very पिरो chilly mushrooms.

INGREDIENTS

200gms fresh button mushrooms

1 medium sized capsicum/bell pepper(cut into large pieces)

1 large onion (cut into large pieces)

4 cloves garlic (crushed)

1 tomato (finely chopped)

2 tbs red chilly powder

1/2 cup cornflour

2tbs soy sauce

1 cup Oil

salt to taste

Finely chopped coriander leaves/spring onions

LETS DO IT

Wash the Mushrooms, pat them dry and toss them in cornflour and keep aside

Heat oil and deep fry the cornflour coated mushrooms till half done.

Heat 1 tsp oil in another pan and add the crushed garlic. Once the garlic turns brown add the onions and tomatoes and fry till onions become translucent. Add the salt and chilly powder and stir.

Add the bell peppers and the mushrooms .

Make a paste with 2 tbs cornflour and soy sauce. Add and stir well.

Add 1 cup water and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Put off the flame and keep covered on the stove for 10 minutes.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves/spring onions before serving.