Chatpati Mathris

Exam Season is here and with it comes the need for late night snacking with hot cups of tea and coffee! Chatpati Mathris are the perfect savory snack for tea time, breakfast on the go or late night exam preparation. This is how you can make them.

Ingredients
1 cup wheat flour 
3/4 cup Maida
2 tblspn Ghee

For the filling
3/4 cup besan/gram flour
1/2 tspn red chilli powder
1/2 tspn ground ajwain
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method

Mix wheat flour, maida, ghee and salt to taste in a bowl and knead with warm water into a chapati like dough. Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a smaller bowl with just 1 tspn of oil and keep aside. Make small balls of the dough. Flatten each ball on your palm with fingers and place quarter tspn of the filling in the center. Close from all sides and gently roll with rolling pin to about 3  inch diameter size. Roll all mathris similarly. Heat Oil in a kadhai. When hot gently put in mathris 3-4 at a time and fry on low to medium flame till evenly golden brown. Drain out the excess oil and place on a tissue. allow to cool and store in an air-tight container. Serve with tea, pickle, yogurt or dip as convenient.

Tasty and Cooling Raita !!

Summer will soon be upon us and time to look for cool and light dishes that are easy on the stomach and ready in minutes. Dahi or yogurt is highly recommended in different forms : plain, lassi, a variety of raitas, dahi wada, dahi papdi chaat etc. A nutritious and tasty raita that is not very common is the cabbage and carrot raita!

Ingredients

1/2 cup of grated cabbage

1/2 cup grated carrot

2 cups yogurt

Salt and red chilli powder to taste

1 tblspn Oil

1/4 tspn mustard seeds

few curry leaves

Method

Blend the yogurt in a bowl. Add grated vegetables, salt and chilli powder. Mix well.

Heat oil in a small kadhai. When hot add mustard seeds and curry leaves and allow to splutter. Mix hot oil with the dahi and serve chilled.

Dal Khichdi - Mouthwatering and Healthy !!

Ingredients:

1 cup Rice (preferably Basmati)
1/4 cup yellow moong dal or mixture of moong and tur daal
1 cup very finely chopped vegetables (carrot, beans, cauliflower, green peas, potato, dudhi etc)
(You can take any vegetables of your choice)
1 onion finely chopped
1/2 inch piece ginger finely chopped
1-2 green chillies finely chopped
1 medium sized tomato finely chopped
few coriander leaves finely chopped
3-4 table spoons of pure ghee/oil
1/2 tspn jeera seeds
1 tspn coriander powder
1/4 tspn turmeric
Salt to taste

Method

Soak rice and dal in a bowl of water for 20-30 mins. Heat ghee/oil in a pressure cooker. when hot, add jeera seeds and let them crackle. Add ginger, green chilli, onion and saute for a couple of minutes on low flame. When translucent add chopped vegetables. Mix well and add dhania and turmeric and chopped tomato and stir for a couple of minutes. Drain out water from rice and dal and add to the vegetables. Add Salt and 3 to 4 cups of water and pressure cook for 10 minutes after first whistle. Turn off flame. Open cooker when cool and blend with a hand blender to a thick puree like consistency. Serve hot garnished with chopped coriander leaves and accompanied with bowl of dahi/yogurt, roasted papad and pickle.

Moong Dal and Cabbage salad

Most of us like to have a salad with our meals , but most often end up serving a fresh vegetable salad with the regular vegetables like carrot, cucumber, onion , beetroot, tomato etc The fresh green salad is  easy to make , but gets monotonous and we look for refreshing ideas for a change,

I recently had a Moong dal salad which was tasty and very healthy. Here's how you can make it.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup moong dal  soaked in a bowl of water for 1 to 2 hours

1/2 cup finely grated cabbage

2 tbsps grated coconut

1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled & finely chopped

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp oil

 1 to 2 tsps lemon juice, and a few finely chopped coriander leaves ( optional) 

Procedure:

Drain out the water from the Moong dal and put in a bowl. Add cabbage, coconut, ginger and mix well. In a fodni kadai , heat oil . When hot, add mustard seeds  and allow to splutter. Turn off flame and pour oil with mustard seeds  on the dal mixture. Stir well and add lemon juice  if you would like to. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Baked Bean Mexican Starter

Had an absolutely yummy and great looking starter a friend's place over the weekend and just have to share it with all because it is ohh so simple to make, healthy and a great appetizer. 

Looks best when served in a small transparent goblet accompanied with a small spoon. Can also be served in a taco shell or pani puri.

Ingredients 
Baked Beans
Finely chopped bell peppers
Finely chopped ice berg lettuce
Grated cheese
Few nachos/tacos

Method
At the base of the goblet or puri, put a layer of baked beans, over it a layer of chopped bell peppers and over that a layer of chopped lettuce.
Next liberally add grated cheese and top it up with finely crushed tacos/nachos to give it that fresh and crunchy texture.
You can also mix up all the ingredients and serve it as a bruschetta topping.

Delicious and Healthy Bread Upma

I recently tried out a Bread Upma that took just 5 minutes to make.. was yummy and a perfect breakfast  when you have yesterdays bread left over. This is how I made it.

  

Quick and Yummy Bread Upma

Ingredients:

4 to 6 slices of previous day's or fresh bread.

2 cups salted  lassi or buttermilk

1 medium sized onion finely cut into vertical slices

2 green chillies finely chopped

1/2 piece ginger ground finely

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

8 to 10 curry leaves
pinch of turmeric/haldi

1 to 3 tbsps oil

salt to taste

A few coriander leaves fine chopped.

Method

Heat oil in a kadai. Lower flame and add mustard seeds, chillies, curry leaves and ginger. Allow seeds to splutter. Then add chopped onion and saute till translucent. 

In a wide bowl pour the lassi/buttermilk, add haldi to it and mix well 

Soak each slice of the bread in the buttermilk and quickly squeeze out the excess and keep aside. Add all the soaked slices to the cooked onion mixture. 

Stir well and add  a pinch of  salt to taste. Cover kadai and steam for a minute. 

Turn off flame. Serve hot, garnished with chopped coriander leaves. 

TilGul Ghya ... !!!

Today is Makar Sankranti , a festival celebrated almost  across the  country on the same day every year, with different names like Lohri in Punjab , Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Uttarayan in Gujurat and Rajasthan. It is the day when the sun begins it's movement  away from the tropic of Capricorn and signifies that we should turn away from the darkness of delusion in our lives  and begin to enjoy a new life of brightness and joy.    Each Festival in India has a distinctive type of celebration with  food that  is specially made on that day of the year. Just as Modaks are an integral part of Ganesh  Chaturthi, Bhang and Ghevar a must at Holi, Til ( sesame) ladoos and other sweets  made of sesame seeds like Gajak and Revaris  are made ,  eaten  and served as prasad on Makar Snkranti!

The cool weather on this day  makes eating these delicacies fun !

Hope you are all having your fill of til ladoos and other goodies!