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...

Chilli Beef

Original Recipe from bbcgoodfood

Ingredients

1. 350g thin-cut steak, very thinly sliced into strips
2. 3 tbsp cornflour
3. 2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
4. 100ml vegetable oil
5. 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
6. 2 red chilli, thinly sliced
7. 4 spring onions, sliced, green and white parts separated
8. 2 garlic cloves, crushed
9. 2 inch ginger, cut into matchsticks
10. 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
11. 1 tbsp soy sauce
12. 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
13. 2 tbsp tomato ketchup

Method

1. Make sure to remove all water from the beef.
2. Toss the cornflour, beef and five-spice together in a bowl and mix well.
3. Heat the oil in a wok until hot, then add the beef and fry until golden and crisp. 
4. Scoop out the beef and drain on kitchen paper. Pour away all but 1 tbsp oil.
5. Add the pepper, half the chilli, the white ends of the spring onions, garlic and ginger to the pan. 
6. Stir-fry for 3 mins to soften, but don’t let the garlic and ginger burn. 
7. Mix the vinegar, soy, chilli sauce and ketchup in a jug with 2 tbsp water, then pour over the veg. Bubble for 2 mins, then add the beef back to the pan and toss well to coat. 
8. Scatter the remaining chilli and green parts of the spring onion on top.
9. Serve the beef on noodles or rice.

Note: This is not very spicy. So you can add more chilli if you need.

Erachi Pathiri

This was inspired by Jincy. I had made it for Iftar on one of the last few days of Ramadan...

One of Jincy's colleague had got this to office and as she and her husband, Anaska, loved it she made it back home in her kitchen. And she got some for me to taste. It was yum yummy.

And I too tried to re-create it in my kitchen. As its rice power and not maida used, it felt good for the tummy right after breaking the fast....

I totally loved it! Ate two while I was making it :D. Hafizka and Nafih loved it too. Ayaan liked the chicken. The chicken filling I used was this...

I made it exactly like how I make a chicken curry, with less but thick gravy... with a touch of powdered dry mint leaves and pressure cooked potato cut into cubes.

For the chicken filling I used:

• Boneless chicken
• Big onions - 1
• Tomatoes - 1
• Green chilly - 1
• 3 to 4 Curry leaves chopped 
• Ginger-Garlic paste (make fresh with 4-5 cloves of garlic and an inch of ginger)
• Pressure cooked potatoes.. cut into small cubes (Optional)
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Chilly powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Pepper powder (Add if green chilly and chilly powder does not give u ur desired spicy level)
• Coriander leaves
• Fresh mint leaves or dry mint leaves powder
• Salt to taste

How to make:

• Heat oil in a pan add chopped onion... sautee until they start turning brown..
• Add ginger-garlic paste... cook until the raw smell of garlic goes
• Add tomatoes, green chilly, chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt, coriander powder and chopped curry leaves.
• Cook that until oil starts forming on the side... then add in the chicken... add pepper here if u want it more hot.
• Cook the chicken well...boneless cubes of chicken dont take much time to cook.
• Add cooked potato cubes.
• Add in the coriander leaves and mint leaves
• Switch off flame. The filling is ready.

Now the pathiri I made with:

• 2  cups roasted rice flour
• 2.5 cups water
• salt to taste

Take a deep bottom vessel. Add the water and salt. Let the water come to boil. Lower flame and add in the rice flour. Mix well and keep covered for a minute or 2 on that low flame. Do make sure it doesnt get burnt at the bottom.

Then comes the kneading. The dough will be hot so knead it with a spoon until it turns warm. Then knead with hand to make a really soft dough. 

Use a press to make round pathiris. 

Take a pathiri, put some of that chicken filling on top and then cover with another pathiri. 

Press the sides with a fork.

Now u can either steam it or cook it on the skillet.

I steamed all except 2 which i cooked on the skillet on hot flame. I liked it both ways. It took around 15 minutes to steam-cook it. The steamed ones look neat and tidy...

The below pic shows the one I cooked on skillet. I was checking something out on the computer and left that on the skillet a bit too long.

I didnt make these pathiris really thin coz then i'll have to deal with them breaking when i turn them over to cook the other side.

I've had this post in my drafts since I made it. I never really got the time to post it. Right after Eid I went for vacation to India and reached back just a little over 2 weeks ago. Took a little time getting settled and getting back into the mood for posting on blog...

Any way, here I am... back to cooking... and blogging :)