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Sunday, September 29, 2013

Chickpea Kofta with Yogurt-Corriander Dip

Posting a recipe after a long gap. This recipe is from a Turkish recipe book gifted to me by friends at work. An easy to make healthy snack, Chickpea Koftas are extremely delicate and they will just melt in your mouth. It was total hit with the family.



Ingredients:
Kofta -
Chickpea - 250 gms canned (these are already cooked) or soaked overnight and pressure cooked.
Extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbsp
Red onion - 1 medium sized, finely chopped
Cumin seeds - 1 ½ tsp, coarsely crushed
Coriander seeds - 1 ½ tsp, coarsely crushed
Paprika/Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Lemon zest - from 1 whole medium sized lemon
Coriander Leaves - handful, chopped
Chickpea flour - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder
Salt to taste
Little water to avoid kofta mixture from drying
Oil for shallow frying the koftas'
 
Dip -
Yogurt - 1 cup
Coriander - 1/4 cup, chopped
Lemon - 1/2
Garlic - 2 cloves, minced
 
Method:
Grind chickpea into a paste in a food processor. Add chopped onion, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, paprika, lemon zest, coriander leaves, chickpea flour olive oil. Sprinkle freshly crushed pepper powder and adjust seasoning. Mix to incorporate all the ingredients. Sprinkle water if the mixture is dry. The mixture needs to be sufficiently moist to hold the kofta shape. Now make koftas out of the mixture. This should fetch you around 15 koftas.
 
Heat oil in a flat pan, and shallow fry the koftas on both side until golden brown. Handle the kofta with care, since they are quite delicate.
 
For the dip, mix together all the ingredients. Enjoy these lovely koftas' and don't forget to leave in your comments on what worked and what didn't.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Pav Bhaji - Indian Street Food

I have lived in Mumbai for almost 23 years of my life and like any other Mumbaikar am a total sucker for Vada Pav, Misal Pav, Ussal Pav, Dhabeli, and Pav Bhaji. I have had tried several recipes for making pav (bread, also known as laadi paav) bhaji (healthy vegetable mash with aromatic spices), but none of them have come this close to match the flavours and aroma of a busy Mumbai street "Pav Bhaji Thelawala" (hawker selling Pav Bhaji on a cart, typically outside railway stations, parks or right on the beach). I have done some improvisation here to make the recipe as authentic and flavourful as possible. Hope you like the recipe as much as I loved cooking.
Ingredients:
Tomato - 800 gms, chopped
Coriander leaves - ½ cup, chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Kashmiri chilly powder - 2 ½ tsp
Green chilly - 4-5, roughly chopped
Potato - 300 gms, boiled, peeled and roughly mashed
Green peas - ½ cup, if frozen, thaw. If dried peas, soak overnight to re-hydrate
Capsicum - 2 medium sized, de-seeded and roughly cut
Cauliflower - 200 gms, grated
Kasuri methi (Dried fenugreek leaves) - 1 tbsp, crushed on palm of your hands
Pav bhaji masala - 1 tbsp
Butter - 175 gms
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Asafoetida powder (Hing) - ¼ tsp
Onion - 1 large, chopped
Lemon juice - from 1 medium sized
Salt to taste
Lemon for garnishing
Water for cooking vegetable
Laadi pav
Butter for toasting pav

Method:
Heat a large pan, throw in tomatoes, potato, green peas, capsicum, green chillies and cauliflower. Add 1 tsp of kashmiri chilly powder, 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, ¼ of the butter. Add little water to cook the veggies on a medium heat. With the help of a masher, keep mashing the vegetables. You can add some water if the mixture gets too dry.
Once the vegetables in the mash are almost unrecognizable, add ½ tbsp of pav bhaji masala, salt to taste and ½ of the chopped coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly, continue to mash them. Once the mixture is totally mashed, lower the heat.
Heat the remaining butter in a pan, lower the flame, add ¾ of the chopped onion, 1 ½ tsp of kashmiri chilly powder, 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste, ½ tbsp of pav bhaji masala, kasuri methi, asafoetida, ¾ of the remaining chopped coriander leaves, lemon juice. Though I have avoided adding color, you can add red food color to the mixture (bhaji on the street shops add color to get the definitive red bhaji). Saute for few seconds and then add this mixture to the vegetable mash. Cook the mash for a minute or two and we are done.
Now, lets assemble. Slit open the batch of 4-5 paav from the middle, in a hot pan, add a butter, pinch of pav bhaji masala, sprinkle a little coriander leaves. Place the pav over the butter mixture and toast them lightly on both sides.
Garnish bhaji with remaining chopped onion and coriander, serve with the toasted buttery pav and a wedge of lemon.
Enjoy the mouthwatering pav bhaji. Please leave your comments, they inspire me to carry on.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Khandvi - Gujarati Snack

For quite sometime I have been thinking of trying Gujarati snacks Dhokla and Khandvi. Here I present you with the very popular and traditional snack, Khandvi. Tasty and takes very less time to make.

Ingredients:
Gram flour (besan) - ½ cup
Green chilly - 2
Ginger - ½ inch
Turmeric - ½ tsp
Curd - ½ cup
Water - 1 ½ cup
Salt to taste

For the tempering:
Asafoetida - a pinch
Curry leaves - 1 stalk
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Coriander leaves - ¼ cup
Grated coconut - ¼ cup

Method:
Thoroughly blend curd and water together with a whisk. To this add turmeric and salt. Grind ginger and chilly into a nice paste. In a bowl take gram flour add the the curd-water-turmeric mixture and ginger-chilly paste.
Grease back of Mix thoroughly, use a whisk if you would like, make sure there are no lumps formed. Heat a pan, pour the mixture into it, cook on a medium flame. Keep stirring continuously. While it cooks, lightly grease back of 2-3 plates with oil. When the gram flour thickens (still creamy, make sure its not hard, say about 7 mins of cooking).
Quickly with the help of a flat spoon, spread the hot mixture on the greased plates, covering the entire back, make the layer as thin as possible (back of the plate should not be visible). Spread rest of the plates as well before the mixture cools. Let the layer cool down for some time.
With the help of a knife cut the layer length wise in strips of around 1 inch width. Gently lift one edge of the the cut strip with the knife and then roll the entire strip to form a 1 inch wide cylinder (refer the photograph above).
For tempering, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add asafoetida, curry leaves. Arrange the khandvi on a plate, pour the tempered oil over the khandvi. Garnish with grated coconut and coriander leaves.