Pani Poori

I made this with my mom-in-law when I had gone for vacation to India the year before last. It turned out pretty good :) When u have somebody to cook with you, cooking gets more interesting and fun.

I had these pics with me since then. I thought I'd make it myself coming back to Dubai, but I never got to it. So here I am posting the recipe with the old pics :)

The pooris... they turned out really good. Crispy, nice :)

For making the poori you'll need:

• 1 cup semolina (rava or sooji)
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• a pinch of salt
• warm water for mixing
• oil

How to make:

• Mix semolina and salt. Then add some warm water.. just enough water to make it a bit grainy...not a paste. So that wud be just 3-4 tbsp of warm water.
• Now mix in the all purpose flour to make into a tight dough. Maida is added to absorb the moisture. If the dough is soft add a little more maida to tighten it.
• Kneed the dough for some 5 minutes. Add a few drops of oil and kneed again.
• Then let it rest for 15-20 minutes.

• After you have let it rest for 20 minutes, roll the dough very thin to make round pooris. The thinner the better. My mom-in-law did this part, rolling it real thin. If its thin you'll get delicate crispy balls on frying and is much tastier than thick ones.
• Use round cutter to get nice shapes... or u could use cap of bottle or anything small and round.
• Fry them in a deep bottom vessel with hot oil.
• Thats it. Quite easy... :)

Here is the pani.
What I did was mix the following:

• 1.5 cup water
• 3/4 cup of tamarind pulp (made this by soaking tamarind in water and sqeezing all the pulp out)
• salt to taste
• pepper powder 
• chilli powder

Make  paste with the below ingredients and add to the pani

• 1 or 2 green chillies
• a few coriander leaves
• a few mint leaves
• Tamarind(if needed)

What you have to note here is check before adding chilli powder and pepper... add if u really need it or it'd be a bit tooo spicy to ur taste. Same thing with salt and tamarind... check taste as u mix ingredients into the pani. Add chat masala if u have.. 

For the stuffing we made some fried potato cubes, some chole and finely chopped onions. Here you can add more items like a paste of chilli+yogurt+tamarind.. or chopped tomatoes.. whatever u want! :)

Its just sooooo yummy and filling!! :)

Chana Masala

As I'm pregnant, I want to make healthy choices with food. Less of sugar and more of veggies.
And as I'm going to be eating a lot anyway, why not make it all healthy? Plus, developing likes to healthy food now might make it easier for me during the last few months(I am a big biryani fan. I love, love, loooove all kinds of biryanis). Not that we can predict anything with pregnancy :) .. This is my second baby and I'm all happy and excited! My last went into a c-section coz baby was weighty. So this time I want to try keeping a check on it...

I've opted out of our usual rice for lunch and dinner and turned to chappatis and brown bread.
To go with it I made some chana masala.

This is just me putting all the spices and ingredients I like. It might not be the authentic chana masala recipe :)
But it was yummy enough so I give u a 'go-ahead' to try my recipe without fear of having to throw it in the trash :P

What all you'll need:

• 1.5 cups chickpeas (soaked over night in water, then pressure cooked with a little turmeric and salt)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium sized tomato, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp chana masala powder(I use Shan chana masala)
• 2 green chillies 
• a handful coriander leaves, chopped
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (I like to add a lot more)
• Salt to taste

How to make:

• Heat oil in a frying pan. Add the chopped onions. Stir and cook until it start turning slightly brown
• Add tomatoes and green chillies. Stir and add in chilli powder, turmeric powder, chana masala powder and salt.
• Let it cook for at least 2-3 minutes and then add in the cooked chick peas. Mix and lower flame and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. 
• Add water if needed, dont let it burn. Switch off flame when u get thick gravy. 
• Add lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves.
• Enjoy! :)  

It's a great snack to have with tea. I had it with chappati & low fat yogurt for dinner.

Cauliflower Manchurian

This I made a few weeks back.
I wanted to make some new veggie cuisine for dinner and I had seen this recipe the vahchef had put up once. It is an Indo-Chinese recipe. As I had all the ingredients thought I'd give it a try.

It was ok. A bit sweet for my taste. I think it wud have been the chilly sauce I used. But it was a nice change from my normal cauliflower fry, kurma or curry. My son liked it. But then he likes all my cookings :)
Do give it a try...

Here's what all you'll need:

• Cauliflower florets (put it in hot water with salt to kill any germs in it) - 1 cup or 1 and 1/2 
• Maida - 1/2 cup
• Corn flour - 1/4 cup
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Soya sauce - 1 tsp

Make a batter with all of the above(except cauliflower) and coat the cauliflower with it.

• Oil for frying

Heat oil in a pan. When oil is hot deep fry the batter coated florets until they turn crispy. Keep aside

For making the sauce:

• Ginger, finely chopped - 1/2 tsp 
• Garlic, finely chopped - 1/2 tsp
• Green chillies, finely chopped - 1/2 tsp
• 1/2 a finely chopped onion
• Capsicum - 1 small
• Peppercorn crushed - 1/2 tsp
• Soya sauce - 1/2 tsp
• vinegar - 1 tbsp
• a pinch of sugar
• chilly paste - 1 tsp (I used chilly sauce coz I havent been able to get a good chilly paste as yet :(.. It makes a big difference.)
• Coriander leaves for garnishing- a few or add more if u want (my husband loves coriander leaves)
• Spring onions, finely chopped - 1 tbsp

Heat oil in a pan. Add ginger, garlic, green chillies, onion and sautee until raw garlic smell leaves.
Lower flame. Add capsicum, salt, peppercorn, sugar, vinegar, chilly paste, soya sauce. Mix well.
Give a minute or two and then add the fried cauliflowers into the sauce. Mix. Switch off flame.
Garnish with coriander leave and spring onions. Serve hot :)

We had it with Daal curry and Ghee rice...