Category: Snacks

At last the rains are here in Ahmedabad. I’ve waited so long for them. It’s delightful to open my window and smell the frangrant wet earth after a parched summer. Feel the rain bearing winds upon my face and skin. See the trees shining as if they are brand new, all dressed in vibrant chlorophll green. See peacocks dance their shimmery dance. See the trees, and the birds and the animals dance the dance of life.

I think to myself, this is the best time to start something new. So, dear friends, from now on with my blog posts, I will post a music video. What’s the connection between the food and the music video? Maybe some, maybe not. Just that I love cooking, music is close to my heart, and reading gives me a high. Do you see the connection now?

Potato stuffed chillies are a delicious tea time snack or can be had with an evening drink. These are made with the large, plump and chubby Bhavnagri or Pepsi chilly variety. These chillies aren’t necessarily spicy by themselves. It’s the stuffing or the filling with chilly powder and other spices which makes them masaledar and chatpata. Of course you can reduce the pungency if you wish by adjusting the spices in the potato filling. But it adds that extra zing.

Here is a lovely song to enjoy. This the original, you must know is sung by Louis Armstrong. I will post some of my favorite music, both Hindi and English, in my posts from time to time. I must agree wholeheartedly with Vikram Seth the author when he says, music to him is dearer than speech.

The recipe of Stuffed Green Chillies.

This fantastic bread inspired by and adapted from Samantha Seneviratne’s recipe is worth dying for! It’s healthy, not so much sugar or butter in it and tasty too, the freshly ground pepper gives it a luxurious, smoky flavor. Seneviratne has Sri Lankan roots and her baking recipes contain delicious spices grown in her homeland.

Make it for guests, they will love it, and eat it warm from the oven. Of course you can store it in the fridge, Ahmedabad summers don’t allow you to keep anything outside for too long, and eat it cold, it still tastes awesome.

The pepper flavor in it intensifies over a period of a day or two. And I put in a real pepper punch, 2 teaspoons instead of 1 1/2 like she said. Then I also used cranberries instead of tart cherries because I didn’t have them and used salted butter instead of unsalted. The bread came out fabulous.

So go ahead and enjoy the recipe.

When you travel to Kutch in the winters, the land is barren, after all you’re deep in the desert. It’s biting cold. The temperature goes down to 6 degrees and even lower. It’s called the White Rann of Kutch and the best time to see these desert sands is on a full moon night when they glisten under the moonlight. It’s also absolutely wonderful what technology can do. The place, which is arid and dry and scorching in the summers becomes a flourishing tourist spot in the winter months. I stayed in a tent, there are tents for every budget. You certainly can’t call them basic, there’s steaming hot water coming out of the bathroom taps when you want it.

The food is sumptuous and  everyone who attends the festival enjoys the food. There’s so much variety and the organisers keep everyone’s tummies full. There was toast and milk and cornflakes and fruit and fruit juice and tea and coffee, and poha and chole puri and upma and tiny uttapams and freshly made theplas and pickle, one day for breakfast.

Kutchi hospitality is renowned and so is the honesty of the locals. The locals are not well off and winter tourism is a boon for them. Our hosts exuded warmth and none of our belongings went missing, ever.

There is time to relax and rest and enjoy the winter sun if you wish to and enjoy at your own pace, or you can participate in adventure sports, go on a bus tour to see the sunrise and sunset over the desert, go see the palace of the Kutch royals, shop till you drop, and visit the art gallery in the Tent City. And there’s more…..

The Kutch Festival is held from Nov 15th to Jan 15th every year. You can book online. Just don’t forget to take your woolens along.

On a tour I took, the guide made us taste the original Kutchi Dabeli in Mandvi, which is known for its ship building besides. And the beautiful palace of the Kutch royals.

I’ve made it and here is the recipe. Try it at home. It tastes of love mainly, eaten freshly made.

Makes 8

Ingredients

3 tablespoons dabeli masala- store bought

3 tablespoons sweet date chutney plus 8 teaspoons more to spread on the buns

3 tablespoons oil

3 cups boiled, peeled and mashed potatoes

8 dabeli buns, any plain buns will also do.

8 teaspoons garlic chutney

2 medium onions, finely chopped

Some finely chopped fresh coriander

3/4 cup roughly crushed masala peanuts

3/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

3/4 cup fine sev

4 tablespoons butter

Method

1 In a small bowl add the dabeli masala to the sweet chutney and mix. Heat the oil on medium flame and pour this mix into the hot oil. Cook for a few seconds. Now add the peeled and mashed potatoes to the hot oil mix and give the masala and potatoes a good stir. Keep this potato filling aside.

2. Take a dabeli pav or a bun and cut horizontally in half. Spread some garlic chutney on the insides of each of the dabeli pav( bun) halves. Next, spread the sweet date chutney on each half bun. Spread a layer of the potato filling on to the bottom half (over the chutney). Sprinkle some coriander, some peanuts and some pomegranate, then top it off with some fine sev. Cover this half bun with the top half. Prepare the other dabeli buns the same way.

3. In a non stick pan put two blobs of butter and heat. Put 4 dabelis into the pan and cook till golden brown,  first the base and then overturturned. Remove from the pan and serve hot.

 

 

 

 

 

It is Diwali time. Diwali is only two days away. We deck up in our best clothes, cook delicious food and share it with family and friends. We go to each other’s homes bearing gifts of all kinds, sweet and savory, mithais, dry fruits, namkeen.

It’s always lovely to have family and friends over during the festive season. Our homes are lit up with diyas and pretty rangolis are drawn at the door. We fill up delicate bowls and plates of silver with sweetmeats, first serve them as an offering to God and then decorate the table with them for guests. Atithi Devo Bhava, or, the guest is God is a well known Indian saying. We do treat our guests like God.

This is also a time to reflect, to root out evil, and light up our selves with good, cleanse our souls of impurity, let our hearts and minds soak in the light of the incandescent diyas we light in our homes.

Lets share and care, give love and receive it in return, not take more than our due, and live a life of compassion, love and kindness.

Everyone is doing sweetmeat recipes so this Diwali, which is the first on my blog, I am sharing a savory recipe. Batata Vada. It means crisp potato balls dipped in a batter of gram flour, fried in oil with lots of garlic and green chilly-ginger paste as masala in the stuffing, eaten with a chutney of your liking.

Make it this way to delight yourself and your loved ones! Here is the recipe.

Batata Vada

Ingredients

For the Vada

2 tablespoons oil

500 gms boiled and mashed potatoes

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

8 to 10 cloves of garlic chopped finely or 4 sprigs of fresh garlic chopped finely till the ends.

1 tablespoon of chilly-ginger paste

A nice pinch of asafoetida

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

A sprig of curry leaves

Some finely chopped fresh coriander

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt to taste

For the batter or covering

1 1/2 cups gram flour

A pinch of asafoetida

1 tablespoon oil

A pinch of soda bicarb

Chilly powder to taste

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method

1 In a medium sized pan put the two tablespoons of oil on a medium flame. When hot put in the mustard seeds and let pop. Put in the finely chopped garlic and cook till a nice aroma wafts through. Add the green chilly-ginger paste and cook it for a minute. Now add the asafoetida, turmeric powder and stir for a few seconds. Add the  curry leaves, fresh coriander, lemon juice and salt and mix in the mashed potatoes. Stir the mixture well to blend in all the spices and herbs.

2 Make 10 to 12 balls from the potato mixture and keep aside.

3 Mix all the ingredients for the batter with a little water to make a batter of flowing consistency. Keep the batter a little thin to get a crisp and light outer cover for the vadas.

4 Heat the oil for frying in a deep bottomed pan. Dip the potato balls one at a time in the batter and drop gently in the hot oil. Fry till golden brown. Remove and serve hot with a chutney of your liking.

 

 

 

This is a true party snack. Those of us who have a defense background with our families in the armed forces will know it well. When dad was in the Air Force it was often served at parties with hard drinks for the officers and soft or hard drinks for the officers’ wives, which ever they preferred. We kids loved this dish too and so it became a family favorite.

We made it for the parties we gave at home, and we did have so many parties in the Air Force. We entertained a lot. Our dads worked hard flying sorties at odd times of the day and night, and the armed forces wives were true uncut diamonds, with tremendous inner strength. Many a times the commanding officer would instruct his squadron pilots to fly off in the middle of the night on a mission that the families weren’t to be told about, but that was life in the Air Force.

But these men and their ladies worked hard and played hard.  They were fearless and loved fiercely. The men touched the sky in glory, the ladies ran the homes, looked after the kids, sometimes all alone for long periods of time.

Armed Forces kids are tough cookies too. They’ve travelled with their parents to places all over the country, small towns and big, and sometimes to foreign lands as well. They change schools every two or three years with every new posting and make new friends all the time.

So while it’s a tough life, it’s also a life full of adventure, sharing and caring- the camaraderie of the armed forces people is well known, with loads of love.

This I believe is the way with the people in the armed forces all over the world, not just in India. However having seen the pain as well first hand, I truly believe, that the world should dismantle its armies at the earliest and we should learn to coexist peacefully. There is no winner in war. War only brings grief and strife.

Fried Peanuts With Onions

Makes  2 1/2 to 3 cups

Ingredients

3 tablespoons oil

200 gms or approx. 2 cups peanuts

1 finely chopped onion

2 finely chopped green chillies

salt to taste

Juice of 1 lemon

Some finely chopped fresh coriander

Method

1 Heat the oil on medium heat. Then lower the flame and lightly fry the peanuts. Do not let them burn. Take out from the pan and drain the peanuts of the oil on a paper napkin.

2 Put peanuts into a medium size bowl and add the onions, green chillies, salt and lemon juice and give the dish a good stir. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander.

Serve immediately.