Misal pav - SNC challenge

SNC challenge

Divya Pramil of You too can cook Indian Food is the brain behind SNC challenge - recipe exchange where two teams challenge each other with their authentic recipes. The teams get a month’s time to prepare the recipe and post on their spaces. This is the 3rd event of the series and December month's challenge is posted by  Meena from random ramblings  (Northern team) and yours truly ( South team). 

It is nearly the end of the month, I know. But this time of the year I am usually busy with friends and more so at work too. Appologies for the late entry Meena  and Divya. But I made it :-)

Misal pav is mumbai street food, which is a bit spicy and full of flavour. For those of u who follow my blog probably know by now how much I luv street food. I had only praises when I tried and posted Bhel puri. Misal pav is one such flavour packed soul filling food that u guys ought to try, if u haven't already. The original recipe asked for white peas. I couldn't get hold of it,hence the use of chick peas.

Thanks Meena ji for such a kidilam (superb in malayalam slang :-D ) recipe.

This is how I did it.

Ingredients

1- White peas / Chick peas - 200 grams ( pre-cooked from a can)

2 - Big onion - 2
Tomato paste - 1 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Ginger paste - 1tsp
Green chillies - 1
Coconut - 1/4 cup, dessicated (pre-soaked)

3 - Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Dry mango powder / Amchoor powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste

4 - Oil - 5 tsp

5 -Mixed farsan / Sev / Mixture - I used chin-chin mixture - to taste (lots and lots in my opinion :-) )
Pav buns - as required - I used ciabatta rolls - shop bought.
Big onions - 1, finely chopped
Coriander leaves - as required, chopped

Method

- Make a paste of (2) and keep aside

- Heat a pan and add 3 tsp of oil. Splutter cumin seeds and add the ground paste, stirring well.

- Add rest of (3) and mix well on low flame.

- Add water from the can and cook till gravy thickens.

- Add the cooked peas and stir well.

- Garnish with (5) and serve with pav / rolls

Yummmmm!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls - Quick and easy Christmas gift idea

Its Christmas again. Yeah!!!

It is the most wonderful time of the year. I luv everything about it, right from the lent leading up to it, decorating the christmas tree with baubles, decorations and lots and lots of lights, all the gift making and wrapping, the special midnight mass at church and the delicious food I get to make for my family and friends.

We also had a Christmas Party at work where we all brought food and I was asked to make - no surprises there - my prawn biriyani. I had never made it for so many people, so was a bit worried. I used my biriyani chembu to prepare it and avoided the microwave coz of the quantities I had to prepare. It turned out superb. My hubby wanted me to bring back left overs and he was disappointed  :-) I chuckled inside.


This time as gifts for work colleagues I decided to make these quick and easy chocolate balls with peanut centre and some Rugelach.




























My dear friend P introduced me to a 'Lakeland' and OMG it was a paradise for cooks. Things u dream about, its all there. I went there to get my gift packaging, but left a bag much bigger than expected, full of goodies.

My friends at work thoroughly enjoyed all the yummy gifts and their family were after the recipes soon.

Here is how I made them.

Ingredients

1 - Peanut butter - 400g
     Butter , softened - 3/4 cup
     Brown sugar - 3/4 cup - preferably with granules for that bite
     Icing sugar - 3 1/4 cup

2 - Chocolate chips, melted - 200g, I used dark chocolate.

Method

- Mix (1) together. Roll into 1 inch balls (not any larger) and leave in refrigerator to cool and firm.

- Melt (2). The easiest way is to microwave them. Heat at full power for 10 seconds at a time, mixing with a spoon after each 10 seconds.

- Dip the balls into the melted chocolate. Leave to set the chocolate coated ball onto wax paper and cool.

- Keep in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them!

Rugelach: Jewish rolled cookie

I had many reasons to research Jewish traditions, the first reason being my favourite character - Ross - in my all-time-favourite US sit-com 'F-R-I-E-N-D-S'. The first thing I ever knew was Hanukkah (Chanukkah). Who can forget the ' Holiday Armadillo' :D. I was so addicted to 'Friends' that my dear hubby brought me their series for Christmas a few years back. Recently I found myself amidst colleagues (bosses :-) ) celebrating holidays like Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Time for more research! This time my search revolved around Jewish food and my eyes swiftly landed on Rugelach -  a Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin.

Rugelach is a crescent-shaped pastry which probably shares a common viennese origin as the French croissant. There is a custom of eating foods fried or baked in oil  for Hanukkah, to commemorate the miracle of a small flask of oil keeping the flame in the Temple alight for eight days. Traditional foods include potato pancakes (soon to feature in kuks kitchen), known as latkesin Yiddish, especially among Ashkenazi families. Sephardi, Polish and Israeli families eat jam-filled doughnuts. Despite the fact that Rugelach is not fried in oil, they are traditional on Hanukkah.

My dear D luved these the most amongst the various christmas gifts I prepared to take to work. But my favourite was chocolate and peanut butter balls of sin - recipe to follow.

Here is how I made it.

Source: The Jewish Daily
Makes 32 cookies

Ingredients:

1 - Cold cream cheese - 113 g, cut into 4 pieces
     Cold unsalted butter - 113g (8 tbsp) cut into 4 pieces

     Plain flour - 1 cup
     Salt - 1/4 tsp

2 - Seedless raspberry jam - 2/3 cup
     Sugar - 2 tbsp
     Ground cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
     Chopped pecans ( or any other nuts) - 1/4 cup

     Plump, moist dried currants - 1/4 cup
     Mini chocolate chips - 2/3 cup

3 - Egg - 1 large 

     Cold water  - 1 tsp 

     Sugar - 2 tbsp

Preparation:

- Let the cream cheese and butter rest on the work top for 10 minutes — you want them to be slightly softened but still cool.

- Put the flour and salt in a food processor, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine 6 to 10 times. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds — don’t work it so long that it forms a ball on the blade.

- Turn the dough out, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each half into a disk, wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 1 day.

On the day:

- Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

- Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or do this in a microwave oven, until it liquefies. 

- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

- Line two baking sheets/ trays with baking sheet or silicone mats. (Silicone baking mats are great for rugelach.)

- Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it is too firm to roll easily, either leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin.

- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 11- to 12-inch circle. Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar. Scatter over half of the nuts, half of the currants and half of the chopped chocolate. Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and gently press the filling into the dough, then remove the paper and save it for the next batch.

- Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles. (The easiest way to do this is to cut the dough into quarters, then to cut each quarter into 4 triangles.) Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each cookie becomes a little crescent. Arrange the roll-ups on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate. Repeat with the second packet of dough, and refrigerate the cookies for at least 30 minutes before baking.

- Stir the egg and water together, and brush a bit of this glaze over each rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with the sugar.


- Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

Tips:

- Served traditionally with tea, but great with coffee too. 

- Wrapped airtight, the cookie dough can be frozen for up to 1 month.

- I rolled out the dough in to flat disks and then put them in the fridge as I get a bit jittery rolling out short pastry. 

- The uncooked cookies can be covered and refrigerated overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; don’t defrost before baking, just add a couple of extra minutes to the baking time.

- The cookies can be kept covered at room temperature for up to 3 days or wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months.

Fish curry: Trivandrum style: featuring drumsticks

Being born and brought up in the capital city, I have a few favourites from trivandrum. This particualr recipe became close to my heart during my pre-degree days when my dear friend S used to bring in this fish curry made by her umma. I didn't know the recipe then, but made sure I knew it later on.

Inaugurating my new meen chatty ( earthen pot) :-)

Ingredients

1 - Fish – 1/2 kg, cut into medium pieces

2 -  Grated coconut – 1 1/2 cup
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder – 1 tbsp
Coriander powder – 2 tsp
Shallots – 5
Tamarind paste - 1 tsp

3 -  Fenugreek powder – 1/4 tsp

4 -  Green chilies – 2, slit
Drumstick – 1, cut into 2.5 inch long pieces and slit in half
Curry leaves – 1 sprig

5 - Coconut oil – 2 tsp

7 - Salt – To taste

8 - water - 2 cups

Method

-  Grind (2) adding enough water.

-  In a pan, add the fish pieces, ground coconut mixture, (3), (4), salt and water. Mix well and cover with a lid.

- Bring to a boil and let it boil for a few minutes.

- Now simmer and cook until done. This would take as long as 10 minutes, but would depend on the type of fish.

- During the cooking process  make sure not to mix the fish pieces too much to avoid mushing them. To mix gentle swirl ur pan from side to side every 2-3 minutes.

- Add 2 tsp coconut oil and a few curry leaves as garnish.

- Serve hot with plain rice and yogurt.

Mushroom n peas pilav: Quick and easy.

Preparation time : 10 mins
Cooking time : 30 mins
Serves 2

Ingredients

1 - Basmati rice - 1/2 cup

2 - Mushrooms - 3/4 cup
Peas - 1/2 cup


3 - Bay leaf - 1
Cardamom - 2
Shahi jeera - 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon - 2 inch stick
Cloves - 2


4- Onion - 1 medium thinly sliced
Green chillies - 1 or 2, slit
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

5 - Biriyani masala - 2 tsp
Mint sauce - 1/4 tsp

6 - Coconut milk - 1/2 cup
Water - 3/4 cup

7 - Ghee - 2 tsp

Method

- Sprinkle some plain flour on the mushrooms and peel of the skin using a knife. Cut them into cubes.

- In a deep pan add ghee and splutter (3).

- Add onions and green chilies, fry till golden.

- Add ginger garlic paste and sauté to get their raw smell off.

- Add mush rooms and peas together with salt and saute to cook them. This doesn't take more than 3 minutes.

- Mix in the biriyani masala and keep aside.

- In a large microwavable bowl add rice and (6) followed by the prepared veg masala.

- Cook at full power for 20 minutes or till all the liquid is absorbed.

- Fluff up using a fork to separate grains.

- Serve hot with raita and poppadoms.

- Garnish with coriander leaves if u wish

SNC challenge: Uzhunnu vada : Methu vada : Urad dal savoury doughnuts

SNC challenge

Divya Pramil of You too can cook Indian Food is the brain behind SNC challenge - recipe exchange where two teams challenge each other with their authentic recipes. The teams get a month’s time to prepare the recipe and post on their spaces. This is the 3rd event of the series and December month's challenge is posted by  Meena from random ramblings  (Northern team) and yours truly ( South team). 

Thank u so much for this opportunity my dear. I am proud to be the challenger :-) 

Divya's enthusiasm is one to be mentioned here in. The challenge, although called south vs north indian challenge, the members reside all over the world, making it quite an international challenge in its own rights. To bring in and co-ordinate these many girls under one roof is one big task in itself, let alone hosting a google group and facebook group. She is a big help and does a brilliant job with the challenge. Great going girl. Hats off to u. 

Now, let me do the honours.

I, sherin, on behalf of all the south team members, challenge the north team members of SNC to prepare, photograph and post uzhunnu vada a.k.a urad dal vada a.k.a methu vada

Preparation time: overnight soak + 10 minutes

Cooking time    : 15 minutes

Yield                 : 8 pieces 

Ingredients:

Urad dal / Uzhunnu parippu (with no skin) - 1 cup
Green chillies - 1 finely chopped or less according to your fiery threshold.
Curry leaves - 1 tbsp finely chopped
Onion - half of one or Shallots - 10 finely chopped
Pepper - 1 tsp crushed
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Water - as required

Method:

- Soak urad dal over night.

- Drain water completely and then add drop by drop while grinding as required. I used about 1/4 cup.

- Now grind it to a smooth paste adding water every now and then. The batter should be very thick.

- Once the batter is ready, add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and keep aside.

- Heat oil in a kadai, enough to dunk the vadas.

- Take a square sheet of aluminium foil (milma cover or banans leaf for those fortunate ones) greased with a drop of oil. Wet ur right hand, then make a small ball out of the batter and pat it on the foil. Now make a hole in the middle and carefully transfer it to the kadai.

- Deep fry the vada in medium flame, flip over to the second side once the sides turn light brown. When golden brown on both sides, take them out with a slotted spoon and drain on tissue

- The end result is a delicious uzhunnu vada which is crispy on the outside and soft and spongy in the middle.

Best served with coconut chutney and sambar.

Variations

- Chaat style thayir vada / yogurt vada: Dunk your vadas in yogurt and temper with mustard seeds and  dried red chilli spluttered in vegetable oil. You can add some boiled chick peas / sev to the yogurt mix too for an added bite. Serve cold with a sprinkling of red chilli powder or chaat masala.

- Sweet urad daal vadas : Make vadas with only the urad daal and serve with sugar, banana cubes and a drizzle of ghee, like a sweet salad.

- If having trouble with shaping your vadas, you can always use a dessert spoon to spoon out balls of batter in to oil. The end result would be small balls of deep fried dough. These are traditionally used to make thayir / yogurt vada.

- You can also add a tsp tiny cubes of ginger and a tsp of crushed cumin seeds for that kick, to the batter.

- If you feel your vadas are not soft enough to your liking, try adding a pinch of baking soda to the batter.

Tips

- Soak the urad dal for a good 6 - 7 hours. Overnight soaking is the best.

- Add as much less water as is possible adding very little water only to aid the grinding process. A runny batter will absorb more oil and result in heavy vadas.

- Rice flour or semolina comes to the rescue if ur batter gets too runny. This is a problem especially if using blenders u get in the west, instead of the traditional grinder. Fortunately I didnot have to use any flour this time. I have had to in the past though. :P

- While grinding, add water in batches during the grinding process. This incorporates more air in the batter.

- Stir and scrape the batter from the sides of the grinder from time to time whilst grinding.

- Keep the batter for 30 min or 45 min at room temperature for a softer vada.

- Wet ur hands every now and then whilst making balls to avoid sticky hands.

On popular demand: How to store and reheat vadas 

- Vadas stay fresh at room temperature for about an hour after which they start going soggy (esp in humid parts of the world).

- They keep well in the fridge for up to  days.

- Re-heating vadas 1: I place them in batches on a wire rack in the oven ( or convection setting in a combi-microwave oven) at 180 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

- Re-heating vadas 2: Although I prefer traditional oven, microwave method is also not that bad. The texture changes ever so slightly, but it would still be yummy.

- Re-heating vadas 3: Never ever steam ur vadas as they turn to a mushy mess. Re-frying in oil is an option, but think about it. Do u want an oil drunk vada injecting fat straight to arteries in ur heart. May be not, rite? :-)


Let me know if u have any more queries  dearies.