Crisp Indianised Hash Brown AND Bhel

Crisp Indianised Hash Brown 

I had prepared this couple of weeks back but got the chance to post now.. The item was amazingly crispy and tasty :) Yet a quick prepartions :)

Ingredients

2 Potatoes

1 Green Chilli

1/4 Cup Cucumber Pickles

A pinch of Black Pepper Powder

Salt to taste

Ghee

Method

• Grate the potatoes and wash them with lots of water to remove all starch.
• Drain all the water from the grated potatoes and let them dry on a paper towel
• Mix the grated potatoes with finely chopped green chillies, picled cucumbers, black pepper powder and salt.
• Heat the tawa and spread ghee to coat it.
• Spread the potato mixture on the tawa to form a thin layer
• Cook on medium flame on both sides till the colour turns to brown

Notes

I used the medium sized grater for this so that the pototo pieces arent too thin/thick. Thicker version will not give as much crisp as this one did.

The green chillies gave it nice firy - spicy touch

Bhel

Bhel being one of my favourite snacks we end up preparing it often. I also prefer it during outings :) Preparing it at some nice picnic spot is the best, easiest and tastiest food :)

Ingredients

6 Cup Churmura

2 Cup All in One Mixture

1 Cup Shev

1 Cup Boondi

1 Cup Navaratna Mix

1.5 Cup Tamarind

2 Cup Jaggery

2 Green Chillies

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder

4-5 Dates

2 Onions

2 Tomatoes

1/2 Cup Corriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Method

• Soak the tamarind and dates in water for an hour or so
• Grind the mixture with jaggery, red chilli powder, green chilli, jeera powder and salt
• Strain the mixture and keep it aside
• In a big pan mix churmura(puffed rice), navaratna mix, all in one, shev, finely chopped onion, tomatoes and corriander leaves. Mix well
• Add the tamarind mixture prepared earlier and Mix well
• Garnish with boondi and serve immediately

Notes

Garnish it with Raw Mango pieces during mango season. It would be more fun :)

Its good idea to make the bhel in batches so that it doesnt become soggy while serving it. 

I normally prefer to keep some tamarind mixture aside instead of mixing the full quantity. That helps giving the personal touch :) The taste depends on what one likes.

Very good item for picnics and parties. You can keep everything ready and mix all of the items just before eating

Set Dosa And Khatkhate

Set Dosa

My love for set dosa started the very first day i ate it in bangalore. I just love this fluffy thick dosa served in set of three medium sized ones. Finally I did some research for recipe. Most of them were using soda which i didnt want to use. Also found out that they use poha in it. So adapted those ingredients to the my dosa recipe. Outcome was awesome :) Infact I made it like 2 weeks back and before I could click photos, they were over :) And already been asked for repeat. So this week I prepared it again and first thing I did was click the snap :)

Ingredients

2 Cup Rice

1 Cup Idly Rawa

3/4 Cup Udid Daal

1 Cup Poha

1 Spoon Methi Seeds

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Soak Rice, Idly rawa, udid daal and methi seeds seperately in the morning.
• In the evening soak poha for an hour
• Grind the rice to fine paste.
• Mix udid daal and Methi seeds and grind it to fine paste.
• Grind the idly rawa to form fine paste
• Grind Poha as well to the paste.
• Mix all these pastes really well and keep in warm place overnight
• Next day morning, add salt and water enough to make free flowing consistency. Mix well.
• Heat tawa on low-medium flame.
• Sprinkle few drops of oil and pour a cup of batter.
• When the one side is one, sprinkle couple of drops on top of the dosa and flip it to cook the other side.
• When the other side too turns light brown, take it out and serve.

Notes
This dosa is normally served with mixed vegetable, but i dont like it at all so instead i served it with peanut-curd chutney without using optional items. It went well.

Khatkhate
I loved this dish a lot since my childhood. Probably then I didn't realise it was the healthiest dish that I loved :D Just like the name says it uses almost everything that's in your fridge :)


Ingredients
1 Cup Beans
1/2 Cup Mutter
2 Drum Sticks
2 Corn Cobs
1 Potato
1 Sweet Potato
1 Raw Banana
1.5 Spoon Tamarind
1/4 Cup Jaggery
1/2 Cup Coconut
1/4 Spoon Corriander Seeds
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
A pinch of Asafoetida
2 Spoon Ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• In a half cup of water add the tamarind and keep aside.
• In a pan, add beans and 4 cups of water and cook over high flame for 5 minutes
• Cut each corn cob into 3 pieces and add the corn cob pieces and another 2 cups of water, Cook for another 5 minutes
• Add drum sticks - cut into pieces, potato cubes, raw banana pieces, pieces of sweet potato and another 2 cups of water. Cook till they are almost done
• Mean time grate coconut, tamarind (with its water that was it soaked in) and corriander seeds adding half cup of water.
• Add it and mutters to the almost done vegetables.
• Add turmeric powder, jaggery, red chilli powder and salt and simmer it.
• In another small pan, add ghee and let the mustard splutter in it.
• Add asafoetida and mix the tadaka with the vegetable.

Notes
You can optionally add 1 cup of pumpkin pieces too, but I couldn't as it wasn't available in the store here.

Dabeli Style Aalu Paratha

The day I got dabeli masala from India, i had been meaning to try something like this.. I thought it might be nice change to normal aalu paratha or aalu sabji. Finally today when i had no other vegetable at home i decided to try this one.. Came out really well.

Ingredients

10 Spoon Wheat Flour

1 Potato

1/2 Spoon Kachhi Dabeli Masala

1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Tamarind

1 Spoon Peanut Powder

1/2 Spoon Raisins

Handful of Corriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Mix in wheat flour, salt and a spoon of oil.
• Mix water and knead dough for paratha. Keep aside
• Pressure cook the potato and let it cool down
• Soak tamarind in 2 spoon of water.
• Grate the potato and mix it with dabeli masala, red chilli powder, peanut powder, tamarind water and salt to taste
• Add in chopped corriander leaves and raisins.
• Make 5 balls out of wheat dough and 5 balls from the potato mixture.
• Make a cup shape from wheat ball and stuff in potato ball. Close the wheat cover completely.
• Roll the parathas and cook on tawa til well done on both sides.

Notes

Make sure to cook potatoes really well so that they are soft and can be mashed to the paste.

Fish Tawa Fry

Since the time we started bringing Tilapia fillets, I have always grilled them. I am fish lover and its been a while since i had fish curry. Since i am trying to not eat too much coconut, I didnt want to make our traditional fish curry so I came up with this one. Turned out awesome. Reminded me of my favourite fish curry from Nandini restaurant in Bangalore that i use to have frequently around 10 years back.

Ingredients

500gm Fish

1 Big Onion

2 Tomatoes

1 Spoon Tamarind

1/2 Spoon Black Pepper

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder

1/4 Spoon Garam Masala

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

4-5 Garlic cloves

1 Spoon Ginger

Coriander Leaves

Method

• Marinate the fish with 1/4 Spoon Red Chili Powder, Coriander Powder and Salt.
• In mixie, add tamarind, onion and black pepper leaving 6-7 aside. Grind to fine paste. Keep aside.
• Heat oil in tawa and add in fish pieces. Let them cook for a minute.
• Flip the fishes and cook for another minute. Take out of the tawa and keep aside.
• In same oil add in onion paste and saute it till the raw smell from it goes away and you can only smell pepper in it.
• In mean time grind tomatoes, garlic, ginger in mixer and make paste.
• Add tomato paste, jeera powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, remaining black pepper and salt to onion and cook for 5 minutes with constant stirring.
• Add in fish and lightly mix everything together. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Sprinkle finely chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Notes

I used cleaned boneless Tilapia fillets each cut into four pieces but you can use any fish in any form but boneless has its own fun :)