Crispy sweet sour Alu wadi

This alu wadi is a typical snack made in Marathi homes. (Alu: Colacasia or edible Arum leaves; Patra in Gujarati). It is fried, crispy and much more tasty than the ones you find in food stores or restaurants these days.

Given below are the steps to make this delicious snack.

What you need is some alu leaves that are meant for making wadi. These you can get from the market. Wash and pat them dry.

The bowl to the left in the first picture. contains Besan ie chana daal flour, salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder. Half a teaspoon of turmeric is enough for three tablespoons of besan. The remaining ingredients are according to taste.

The second bowl contains Tamarind Sweet chutney. Jaggery is used in substantial quantity rather than sugar for the sweetness.  The Besan is mixed with this liquid chutney to form a stiff batter which will stick on as shown in the picture.

 

The above leaf bundle is pressure cooked. One whistle is usually enough. It can also be steamed. 

 The above wedges are deep fried.

 

Enjoy! 

Kothimbir Vadi - Coriander wedges

One of my favorite greens and an integral part of an Indian kitchen, Kothimbir (dhania or coriander) is packed with vitamin C and has many health benefits. It is mostly used as a garnish, added to chutneys, salads and dips.

When the green is available in plenty it can be cooked along with flours and spices to create a delicious savory side dish- Kothimbir vadi.  
Goes well with curd rice or livens up a meal of plain daal and roti.

Ingredients:

One bunch fresh coriander

Jowar flour 2 tbsp estimated

Chana dal flour 4 tbsp estimated

Rice flour 2 tbsp estimated

3-4 tblsp oil

½ tsp turmeric

¾ tsp chilli powder

One tsp sesame seeds

Fresh lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Steps:  

First wash and chop coriander. Add to it: juice of half a lemon, a tsp of sugar, turmeric, chili powder, sesame seeds, 1 tbsp oil, and salt to taste. Mix well and keep aside for 15 minutes. This helps the coriander let out its juice.

Now start by adding the various flours to the coriander mixture spoon by spoon. Usually we add the flour in the ratio of 1 Jowar flour: 2 Chana dal: 1 Rice flour. As you add the flour, keep mixing. Continue the addition till you get a thick, stiff dough. Do NOT add any water.

Take a dish or shallow vessel that you can keep in a steamer. Apply a little oil to your hand, make a smooth ball of the dough, and pat it into a dish with an edge. The patted dough should be approx 1- 2 cms deep. Steam it for about 10 minutes. Let cool. Cut into small wedges.

Add a little oil to a shallow flat pan. When it is heated, add some mustard seeds, a pinch of asafoetida and turmeric. Place the wedges on the pan and shallow fry on low to medium flame till crispy and brown.  

Note:

1. The proportion of ingredients in this dish is not hard and fast. A lot depends on the amount of juice secreted by the coriander. Again, how much of any spice to put depends on your personal taste and preferences.

2. If you do not have enough of any one flour you can add a little more of the other. But atleast some chana dal flour is required to give the wedges their taste and texture. If you prefer you can add Bajra flour too. Remember that Bajra is somewhat bitter in taste.  After making the dough you might still have some flour left over. That is perfectly ok.

3. Instead of lemon juice you can add tamarind pulp, and add gur instead of sugar.

Metkut – a rice accompaniment

Rice, a staple food in most Indian homes, is easy to cook and nutritious in the bargain. In its plain vanilla form, it is usually eaten mixed with daal, curries, gravies, curds or buttermilk. But there are times when you are in a hurry to have a hot cooked snack and either don’t have any time for elaborate preparations or don’t have the raw materials at home. In which case Metkut Bhaat can be a life saver.

In Marathi households the clever but harried home-maker often keeps a stock of Metkut at hand. Made of daals and rice, this subtly flavored sunlight yellow powder can be stored, and lasts for months. Mixed with it, rice tastes yummy, and is one of my favorite comfort foods, especially on cold winter mornings. Kids love it too, and tuck into it with gusto!  

(Pronunciation: Metkut- 1^st ‘t’ soft as in Taiwan; 2^nd t as in tea; Bhaat- ‘a’ as in ravioli; ‘t’ soft as in Taiwan)

Let us see how it is made.

Ingredients:

1 cup chana dal

½ cup urad dal

½ cup rice

1 tsp saunth (dried ginger powder)

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

¼ tsp asafoetida

Method

Roast chana dal on a low flame. When it begins to redden, add urad dal. When that takes on a beige color, add rice. Continue the gentle roasting till the mix is crisp to taste and can be crunched easily between your teeth. Just before turning off the flame, add haldi and stir the mixture a few times. Let the mix cool.

Put the roasted mix and the remaining spices in a grinder. Grind till fine-sooji or rice-flour texture is obtained. While grinding, ensure that the mix does not form lumps due to any steam generated. Pour the resulting powder into a large plate or newspaper and let cool. Store in an airtight container. Stays good for 6 months to a year. However it is better to consume it in a few months as the spices may lose their flavor after that.

How to eat Metkut bhaat

• Take a bowl of hot well cooked rice which is sticky and where a little liquid still remains. Add a few spoonfuls of metkut to it.
• Add a dollop of ghee and salt to taste.
• Mix the rice and metkut well with your fingers, the way you would with dal or curds.
• Attack!

 You can add a dash of lime pickles to the above if so inclined.

 Note:

-Some people add fenugreek seeds, fennel powder or other spices to it too. On the whole less spices is better in this case.  

-You do get this stuff in stores in Maharashtra, but it just does not have the same taste as the one made at home as per the above recipe. 

Ukadiche Modak

In Maharashtra, Ganesh festival is synonymous with ukadiche modak. Sweet steamed dumplings of rice flour, coconut and gur, the modak (plural is also modak, without an 's')  are a tasty combination of the ingredients available in plenty in the Konkan coast where they originated.

 
To make modak

For case:

2 cups rice flour

2.5 cups water

Salt to taste

  

For filling:

3 cups scraped fresh coconut

1.5 cups chopped or broken Jaggery (Gur)

(Brown sugar can be used as a substitute if Gur is not available)

First prepare the filling. In a thick bottomed pan, put in the coconut and the gur. Keep stirring on a medium flame till all the gur melts, the coconut turns golden and the mixture begins to look ‘integrated’.

 For the cases: In a thick bottomed pan, heat water with a little salt and a tablespoon of oil. Once it begins to boil, add the flour and stir vigorously with a flat spoon for a minute or so till there are no lumps left. Cover with lid and steam twice. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. The end result should be a cooked dough of soft, pliable consistency.

Let the dough cool a bit. Apply a little oil or butter to the hand and take a small portion of the dough, the size of a table-tennis ball. With your hands roll the dough into a smooth ball.         

Then keep the dough ball on your left palm and begin to mold it into a cup shape with your right hand, using thumb and fingers.

                            

Once the cup is formed fill it with a spoonful of the coconut filling.

 Tamp down the filling and pull the dough from all sides over it to close the modak.  



 





Once you have about 5- 10 such pieces ready, steam them for about 10 minutes.

You can use a steamer available for such purposes, or create one by heating a little water in a wok and placing a sieve with the modak in it once the water boils.
Cover with a lid while steaming.
 
Lo, your modak are ready! Serve them warm with thick ghee.

Shankarpalé or Salty Flour Crisps

Shankarpalé or Shankarpali, is a traditional Indian Diwali snack. Usually these are sweet, crisp, small squares made using wheat flour and jaggery. These days however most people prefer something salty or savory to sweet. So here's a recipe for salty shankarpalé

Ingredients:

1 cup maida (or refined wheat flour)

2 tblsp vanaspati (hydrogenated vegetable oil)

1 tsp cumin seed powder

salt to taste

oil to deep fry

cold water for dough

Melt the vanaspati. Add the maida, salt, cumin powder and mix thoroughly. Add water just enough to form medium stiff dough. You should be able to roll the dough easily on the board without needing any extra flour for rolling.  

Make the dough into small balls and roll out on the board till it is very thin. (upto 3 mm thickness). Use a cutter and cut into small bite-sized squares. Deep fry in hot oil till golden brown. Store in an airtight container to keep the crispness.

Sometimes I go in for a cheese version.

Replace the vanaspati with half a cup of grated processed cheese. Do not melt the cheese however. Just add it and mix in the dough. Also add a tsp of ground pepper or chilli powder to add more spice. Tastes fantastic!

Note: Instead of melting the vanaspati, beating it or whipping it gives the dough a lighter texture. The shankarpalé more are inclined to puff when fried. 

nutty about coconut

Coconut is an integral part of Indian cuisine, festivals and religious occasions.

The fresh coconut is broken into two halves, the sweet water drunk immediately. Then the white flesh is scraped. Almost every Indian home has a coconut desiccating instrument. Fresh, desiccated coconut stored in deep freeze can stay good for a week or more.

   

Celebrate this festive season with a quick sweet preparation.

 

Creamy Coconut Squares

 

Ingredients:

1 cup desiccated coconut  

1/2 cup sugar

½ cup milk powder

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon chana dal flour (besan)

1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)

 

Preparation

In a wok (kadai) mix all above ingredients vigorously together with a spoon.

Place the wok on low heat. Spread the ghee from the sides of the wok evenly. Cook the mixture, stirring all the time till it thickens. Remove from heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

Grease a plate with a little ghee. Spoon the mixture onto the plate and flatten it evenly.

Cut into squares, garnish with sliced almonds and serve.

These squares can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days.  

 

 

Note: Milk is added for moistening the mixture. In case you use condensed milk instead of milk powder, you may need to reduce the proportion of sugar and milk.

The tastefully dressed vegetable

India has a large vegetarian population. Vegetables and pulses therefore form a substantial part of the diet. Somewhere in the glorious past, motivated chefs of maharajas and mothers with finicky kids worked on making these dishes simple to cook, yet tasty and palatable.

Enter the Indian version of dressing – better known as tadka, phodani or baghaar.

 (I call it as 'dressing' for want of a better equivalent word in English.)

The base for this dressing is oil, extracted from various seeds.  

How to use it?

 - the dressing is first made and then the veggies or soaked pulses are dunked in and stir fried.

- the vegetables are cooked to the extent required. The dressing is then poured over them.

  (Salt, and sometimes sugar, chilli powder are added to the vegetables while cooking.)

It is used to flavor cooked vegetables, pulses as well as raw salads and yogurt based dips.  

Let us see how it is prepared. 

Heat a little oil in a small wok or thick bottomed pan. Once the oil is really hot, add ½ tsp whole mustard seeds. These will splutter. That shows they are cooked. Switch off the heat. Add ½ tsp of turmeric ( haldi) and a ¼ tsp of asafoetida (hing). The mixture sizzles and emits an aroma that hints of food delight ahead.

Your basic Indian dressing is ready.

The dressing can be varied with addition and deletion of certain spices depending on which dish is to be flavored.

Garlic slices added to it and lightly fried do wonders for leafy vegetables.

Thinly sliced green / red chillies fried in this dressing lend a subtly different flavor and a crispy texture.  

Other additives can be chilly powder, fenugreek seeds, cumin, crushed pepper, cloves,  cinnamon and the like.  

This dressing can also be prepared with ghee or clarified butter. It takes on a distinctive flavor and taste, and hence is used only in certain kinds of dishes. In Maharashtra, a dressing of ghee and cumin seeds is used to flavor fasting food.

© Alaka

3 varieties of Indian unleavened bread

My first memory of cooking - i.e. real cooking - is of helping my mom with the chapatis. 

 

 

To make these, whole-wheat dough is kneaded with water to a stiffish but pliable consistency. A touch of oil added in the final knead imparts a smoothness to the dough. Small chunks are pulled off it and rolled between the palms to make small balls. These balls are rolled on a board, usually wooden, with a rolling pin. The result aimed for, is a flat, thin 'bread' of a perfectly circular shape.  

 

 

A simple roll out will give you what is known as a phulka. This can be first lightly toasted on a metal griddle and later roasted on direct flame.  

 

 

In the chapati version, the dough ball is rolled out slightly, then some oil or ghee and a little flour applied to it. This is folded twice to give a triangular shape which is again rolled out into a large flat round. This is only roasted on the griddle.  

 

 

The puri (or Pooree for pronounciation) is the richer cousin of the quotidienne chapati. By richer, I mean it drinks in a lot more of fat. The dough is kneaded in a similar fashion as for chapati or roti.  Smaller balls are made than for chapatti. These are then rolled out into small rounds and deep fried in oil or ghee.

 

The sight and fragrance of a stack of golden, perfectly puffed Puries is truly appetizing.  Eat  them with Indian desserts like Shrikhand or Basundi and you attain Foodie Nirvana!

 

 

The puffing of the puri or the roti depends on how well the dough is kneaded, the proportion of water used in it, the amount of oil applied in the rolling process.

 

 

Phew! Hats off to the Indian housewife who is successful in consistently delivering   freshly-baked phulkas, chapattis, rotis, seven days a week.

 

 

Note:

Each piece is to be roasted individually on the griddle / flame.

 

Sprinkle flour on the board to avoid the dough sticking to the board or the rolling pin.

 

All the above are made from dough that is freshly kneaded. No fermenting agents like yeast   are used.

 

 

© Alaka