Light and Tasty Starter

Over the weekend I was invited to a dinner get-together at my uncle's home where the whole family met. My uncle is known for his lavish and warm hospitality which ensured that there was an array of interesting starters followed by a large, sumptious, buffet dinner. While I liked all the snacks, I found one particular starter tasty, easy-to-make and light on the stomach. I am sharing it, so you can try it when you are entertaining guests at home and are thinking of what to serve.

Take a packet of Britannia Cream Cracker biscuits. Cut each biscuit into four quarters. Cut cheese slices into similar sized quarters and place one on each biscuit quarter. Top with couple of drops of honey and a small sprig of Dil over the cheese.


Serve on a platter with drinks.

Pep up your food with Papads

Most Indian meals also include Papads either as part of the meal or as something to wrap up the meal with. Papads are also served as starters with alchoholic and non-alchoholic beverages. What makes Papad so popular is that they are light, tasty crisp and versatile. There is a mind boggling variety of papads available today in various sizes, flavours and tastes. Right from the tiny bite-size cocktail papads to the large, spicy almost plate-size Rajasthani & Amritsari papads and several others like South Indian Appalams to the Sindhi Moong Dal papads. Papads when served with drinks or food can be roasted or fried and served by themselves or with toppings of finely chopped onion tomato, green chillie and coriander or sprinkled with dry spices like chillie powder and chat maasala. Papads also taste great when dipped in chutni, pickle or dip. People in different parts of the country have their own special way of relishing papads. South Indians love their curd rice with pickle and papad, while Sindhi's love papads with khichadi and dahi. In the olden most Sindhi homes had a dabba full of roasted papads from which the family would pick up papads even to go with a glass of water. In some parts of the country, papad is also used as key ingredients in vegetable curry. I have also heard of people making bhel out of crushed, roasted papad.

So this weekend, let your creative juices flow and in the cool weather make your own variation with papad and enjoy!!

Masala Koki

We finally seem to be experiencing cool weather in Mumbai with evenings and early morning being very pleasant. With the weekend approaching, I share a recipe of Masala Koki, which is a great Sindhi Breakfast option. The recipe suggest having it with curd and papad, but it also goes very well with egg bhurji and boiled/fried eggs.

Weekend is the time to relax and indulge, so go ahead add a few calories once in a while and enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1 medium sized onion finely chopped
• 2 green chillies finely chopped
• Small bunch of coriander leaves finely chopped
• ¾ cup pure ghee
• Salt & pepper to taste

Heat ½ cup ghee and add to flour. Mix in onion, green chillies, coriander leaves, salt & pepper and knead it into soft dough with some water. Divide dough into 6 portions. Heat tawa/griddle and reduce flame, flatten each portion into a round thick chapatti ¼ inch thick and cook on tawa over slow flame moving gradually. When both side are evenly covered with brown spots fry each side with ½ tsp. pure ghee till crisp and golden brown. Serve hot with curds and papad.

Healthy and oil-free carrot pickle

Fresh, juicy red carrots have started coming into the market over the last few days and one realises that cooler days are here. Carrots are a versatile vegetable and can be used interesting in salads, soups, main courses, pickles and desserts. I am sharing today a very quick and easy recipe for a water based, oil free carrot pickle that is healthy, tasty and goes with all dishes. Here’s what you do:

Ingredients:

3 to 4 long, fresh carrots
8 to 10 flakes of fresh or dry garlic peeled and slit into halves
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ red chilli powder
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt

Method:

Scrape the peel of the carrots and cut into 1 cm thick slices. Put in a casserole with 2 cups of water and boil for a 5 minutes on a low flame till carrots are cooked, but not over-soft (there should be about 1 cup of water still in the carrots. Allow to cool. When absolutely cool, add chilli powder, turmeric, salt and garlic. Partially grind the mustard seeds and add to the carrots. Empty out the carrots with the water and spices into a glass jar with a tight lid and keep in the sun for a few hours.

The pickle will be ready on within 36 hours and can be had with any dish. The water can be drunk as a tasty add on to the meal. You can also make very tasty pakodas by soaking bread slices in this carrot water, covering them with a gram-flour batter and deep fried. This pickle needs to be consumed in 3-4 days as with each passing day, it will become more sour. It taste best when finished in 3 – 4 days and preserved in the fridge. Over the next couple of days, the carrots and water.