spoon

Sindhi Koki or Alu

15

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BM# 6 DAY 7

 

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I have sweet memories attached with the koki. One of my dearest friend "D" is Sindhi. During the exams time whenever we used to do group study at her home, her mother treated us with Kokis at the tea time. I have had lunch many times at her home and I am a big fan of the Sindhi cuisine.
Today is the last day of the blogging marathon started by srivalli. I had fun blogging with all the seasoned bloggers. Hats off to your enthusiasm to blog daily. I am passionate about cooking but for blogging more frequently, I was in  need of a catalyst like this marathon event.
As part of the last day of the blogging marathon we needed to prepare a recipe from our fellow marathon blogger. I am paired up with Vaishali and, I am glad that I have found another creative soul. Since many of my recipes for this blogging marathon have been wheat flour based I thought it would be a good idea to pick and prepare the Sindhi Roti - Koki and Alu on side from Vaishali’s blog.

 

KOKI

 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup wheat flour
  • 2tbsp oil / ghee
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 1 green chilly finely chopped
  • ¼ tsp. crushed anardana /pomegranate seeds  (optional)
  • 1/4th tea spoon turmeric powder  (optional)
  • Coriander leaves
  • Mint leaves
  • Salt to taste

Method

 

  • Take the flour in a bowl.
  • Make a well in the center.
  • Sprinkle salt and pepper.
  • Pour oil / ghee. Add remaining ingredients.
  • Mix well with hands till the flour resembles crumbs.
  • Adding little water knead into a stiff dough.

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  • Make two balls.
  • Roll into a thick chapatti.(do not use any flour for dusting)
  • Put criss cross lines with a knife.(make sure you don’t go deep to cut it off.)

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  • Roast on slow flame ,smearing it with ghee on both sides till nice and crisp and a golden color.

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  • Serve hot with Sindhi alu and curd or with a hot cup of tea.

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Note
  • - The criss cross is to ensure cooking deep inside as these are rolled thick.

 

 


 

 

 

 

Sindhi Alu

 

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Ingredients
  • 4-5 potatoes
  • 1/4  tsp.........turmeric powder
  • 1/2 tsp..........chilly powder
  • 1/4 tsp..........amchoor powder/sundried mango powder
  • 1/4 tsp..........dhaniya powder/corainder seeds powder
  • oil for shallow frying
  • salt to taste
Method

 

  • Heat oil.
  • Add potatoes .
  • Sprinkle salt.
  • Fry for a few minutes.
  • Cover and cook on slow flame till soft.
  • Remove the excess oil.
  • Sprinkle spices.
  • Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes.
  • Serve garnished with coriander leaves.

Have a look what my fellow Blogging Marathoner's are doing.

Papad ki sabji

13

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BM#6 Day 6

 

Papad is known as Papadum in english. Papad is  made from the various lentils. Papad recipes vary from region to region. I call it as a savior curry or 5 minutes curry. Whenever I come back home from a long trip and don't have any fresh vegetables in the home, and also bored of eating outside food and frozen food. This curry saves my day. I also like to make this curry when it is raining outside. Try it, its something different and easy to cook.

Ingredients

  • 5 papad (papadum)
  • 1/4 cup curd
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 tea spoon minced garlic
  • 1/2 tea spoon minced ginger
  • 1 green chilly
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon coriander powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon red chilly powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • pinch of hing (Asafoetida)
  • salt to taste(keep in mind,papad has already salt in it)
  • coriander(cilantro) for garnishing
  • 2 tablespoon oil.

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Method

  • Break the papad into small pieces.
  • Add all the spices except cumin seeds and asafetida in the curd. Beat them and make a paste.
  • Boil 2 cups of water.
  • Heat the oil in the pan. Add cumin seeds. Add asafetida , ginger, garlic and chilly. Fry it for a minute.
  • Add papad pieces. fry for 30 seconds.
  • Add curd paste. Fry for 1 minute.
  • Add warm water.Boil for 3-4 minute.

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  • Garnish with cilantro.
  • Serve hot with roti (wheat tortilla).

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Have a look what my fellow Blogging Marathoner's are doing.

Aakhi badia, kachri, gawar fali ki sabji

15

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BM#6 Day 5

 

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One of the distinctive features of the Rajasthani cuisine is the use of the dried beans, berries, vegetables and the sun-dried eatables made from lentils and whole grain.This curry is made from sun-dried badi (dried lentil dumplings), kachri (vegetable from the cucumber family grown especially in desert region) and  dried gawarfali(cluster beans). In Rajasthani language Akshya tritya is known as Aakha Teej, Akkha means whole in marwadi so on Akshay atritya, marwadi  people like to cook every thing whole like this sabji . Read more about rajasthani cusine here.

 

Ingredients

 

  • 1 cup whole badi / dried lentil dumplings
  • 2 cup dried gawar fali / cluster bean
  • 8-10 dried kachri (a vegetable from cucumber family)
  • 1/2 cup thick fresh beaten curd
  • 1 tea spoon cumin seeds
  • 1/4 + 1/4 tea spoon turmeric powder
  • 1 tea spoon chilli powder
  • 2 tea spoon dhania / coriander powder
  • 1 pinch of asafetida
  • 1 tablespoon crushed garlic
  • 1 handful chopped cilantro / coriander
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • salt to taste

 

Method

 

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  • Soak the dried gavar fali/cluster beans for 2 hrs.
  • In a pot take 4 cups water and let it boil.
  • Add gawar fali,1/4th tea spoon turmeric powder and let it boil for 10 minutes.
  • Add badia and kachri to the same boiling pot along with the kachri.
  • Boil till the badia, falia and kachri gets cooked, approx.10-15 minutes.
  • In a curd add salt, turmeric powder,red chilli powder,dhania powder and beat it.Keep aside.
  • Heat oil in a separate pan.Add cumin seeds,asafetida and crushed garlic.

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  • Add spices mixed beaten curd.
  • Cook till the curd leaves the oil.Approx.3-4 minutes.
  • Add boiled badi, kacheri and gawar falia.

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  • Let it cook with curd gravy for 5 minutes.
  • Serve hot with kheech (wheat/millet porridge) or bajra (millet) roti.
Note

You can use fresh cluster beans and kachri also in this recipes. If you are using fresh vegetables,boil badia only for 10 minutes rest the process is same.

Have another look at  kachri  photo here and here .

Have a look what my fellow Blogging Marathoner's are doing.

Gahun ka kheech

18

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BM#6 DAY 4

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Gahun ka kheech/wheat porridge is healthy and nutritious meal eaten by Rajasthani in North western India, also known as kheechda .It is often eaten during winter but it is also a festive dish to make on akshya tritya. Do not confuse Kheech with the dalia which is  a simple porridge made out of cracked wheat, which is cooked in milk or water .The kheech is made from hulled wheat,the husk removed wheat.
Nowadays you can enjoy the rajasthani delicacy in the Dhanis (rajasthani resorts) which are mushrooming in every city. Back home in the winter, we prepare this kheech once a week along with other types of kheech like bajri (millet) ka kheech and khaat (corn porridge).


Ingredients


  • 2 cups hulled broken wheat
  • 1 tablespoon whole moong dal (green gram lentil)
  • 1 tablespoon chana dal (split bengal gram lentil)
  • 1/4th teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 2 tablespoon ghee/clarified butter
  • 1 cup milk (optional)
  • salt to taste

Method


  • In a pressure cooker add ghee and slightly roast the wheat for 2 minutes.
  • Add the dals/lentil, turmeric powder,salt and 4-5 cups water.
  • Pressure cook it on low for 25-30 minutes.
    *Take one whistle on medium heat and then lower down the temperature to low/sim and let it cook for 25 minutes.
  • When the pressure of the pressure cooker cools down open the cooker.
  • Add milk or water and stir it with spatula for 3-4 minutes
  • Serve hot with a dollop of ghee on it.
  • You can eat it just like porridge or with kadhi, badiyon ki sabji(lentil dumpling curry) and if you have sweet tooth with jaggery or galvani (jaggery soup).
How to remove the husk of the wheat?

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  • Spread the whole wheat on a big tray.
  • Sprinkle the water over it.
  • Let it soak for 1/2 hour.
  • Then slightly crush it in the big mortar and a pastel or in food processor
  • Rub it between your hands and remove its outer layer.
  • Let it dry for sometime and then grind it coarsely like dalia / broken wheat.
Have a look what my fellow Blogging Marathoner's are doing.
Sending it to "Flavours of Rajasthan" event, guest hosted by Sonu, started by Nayna.




Moti Roti

17

Category: ,

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Moti roti/Jadi roti/Thick roti/ Pinched Roti- Call it by any name. It taste as heavenly like Dal Bati. If you are craving for Dal Bati and not in the mood of baking Bati, Make this Moti roti on the tava/griddle. This is so heavy and filling, quarter pie of the roti makes me full but just for the taste alone, I cannot resist myself to one pie. I always end up with a second serving which I top it with small pieces of jaggery.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 2 cups wheat flour
  • 1/4th cup gram flour(optional)
  • 2 tablespoon melted ghee (clarified butter)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ajwain (carom seeds)
  • salt to taste
  • water as required.

Method


  • Add ghee in the wheat flour. Mix it with fork.
  • Add salt and ajwain.
  • Now knead the flour with the water and make a stiff dough.
  • Knead till smooth and make a round 1 or 2 ball out of it.*
  • Roll it to make 1- 1.5 cm thick roti.
  • Place it on the hot griddle on low heat.
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  • When the color changes on the top and tiny bubbles appear, turn it over (approx. time 1 min).
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  • Now pinch the roti on upper side in a circular motion.
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  • Let the lower side get crisp. Once it get crisp use the mesh stand* to roast the pinched side over very low flame/coil/induction gas.
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  • Smear the roti with lots of ghee and serve with the dal of your choice.
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Note:


1-The griddle which I used was of 12 inch in diameter so I made 1 ball of whole dough.
2- If you don't have mesh to roast you can roast it on griddle.
3- Low flame or heat helps in making the roti crisp.
4- To enjoy it more, crumble the roti, mix with dal. Add 1 tablespoon ghee and eat with onion, garlic chutney, papad and pickle on the the side.

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5- This crisp roti you can pack along with you when you travel. the shelf life is more than a week.

Have a look what my fellow Blogging Marathoner's are doing.
Sending it to "Flavours of Rajasthan" event, guest hosted by Sonu, created by Nayna.


Dal-Bati

18

Category: ,


dal bati


BM#6 Day 2

The first things comes in your mind if you think about Rajasthani cuisine is dal bati Churma. Bati is just like the whole wheat flour dinner roll or  round bread. Traditional it was baked over the fire wood,coal and dried cow dungs. Nowadays people in  the North India mostly bake it on gas tandoor and at other places batis are baked in the oven. The  baked batis are dipped in the bowl of ghee and then served. Don’t think about calories when you are eating this Rajasthani delicacy else you will not enjoy the heavenly taste of it. A must seen dish in all the festivals, marriages, Marwari community picnics or if you have guest at home. There is  an another steamed version of baked bati known as Bafla, will share it recipe some other time.




Ingredients:



  • 4 cup wheat flour
  • 1/4th cup table spoon sooji/rava/semolina
  • 4 table spoon ghee
  • 4 table spoon fresh curd
  • 1/2tea spoon ajwain/carom seeds
  • 1/2 tea spoon salt
  • 1 tea spoon of baking soda (optional)
  • water as required
  • Ghee for dipping batis in it.

Method:

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  1. Mix all the ingredients and make a stiff dough.
  2. Keep it aside for 30 minutes.
  3. Make 8-10 round balls.
  4. Press gently in the center with thumb.
  5. Pre heat the oven on 350F.
  6. Keep the batis on the baking tray and bake the batis for 35-40 minutes.
  7. Turn bati after every 10 min.
  8. Dip the batis in the bowl of ghee.Let the bati soak the ghee.
  9. Serve Hot with dal, of your choice.

dal bati - Copy

10. Dal Bati also goes well with gatte ki sabji, lasan ki chutney, mirchi ka kuta and churma.

Panchmel Dal

Ingredient's


1 handful of toor dal (split pigeon peas lentil)
1 handful of yellow mung dal/mogar (split green gram lentil)
1 handful of chana dal (split Bengal gram lentil)
1 handful of masoor dal(split red lentils)
1 tbsp. urad dal (split black lentils)
1 tbsp. whole moong (whole green gram lentil)
5 green chillies
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 inch ginger
1/4th cup chopped cilantro/coriander
1 tsp. chilli powder
1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. jeera/cumin seeds
2 dry red chilli
2 cloves
a pinch of hing/asafetida
2 +1 tbsp. ghee
salt to taste
lemon juice as per taste


Method

1.In a pressure cooker, add all the dal,4 cups of water and 1/4th tea spoon turmeric powder and pressure cook it.Take approx. 4-5 whistle.

2. In a mortar and pastel crush green chilli, garlic and ginger together.

3.In a pan add 2 tbsp.ghee when it gets hot add cumin seeds, asafetida, clove and whole red chilli.

4. Add crushed chilli-Ginger- garlic. Sauté it for a minute till it gives you the nice aroma.
* At this stage add 1 chopped onion if you prefer it in your dal and sauté it.

5. Add salt, red chilli and garam masala.
*At this stage if you like tomato taste in your dal add 1 chopped tomato and sauté it.

6. Add this seasoning/ tadka to the cooked dal.

7.If needed add water according to the desired consistency to the dal.

8. Bring it to the boil. Boil it for 4-5 minutes.

9. Add lemon juice and garnish it with the cilantro.

10. Add 1 tablespoon ghee and serve hot with the bati.

Note- You can stuff bati with alu /potato masala to make masala bati.
You can stuff bati with satu/roasted chana powder to make Bihari Litti.

Have a look what my fellow Blogging Marathoner's are doing.
Sending it to "Flavours of Rajasthan" event, guest hosted by Sonu, started by Nayna.


Rajasthani Cuisine

5

Category:

Rajasthan is in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. It is located in the Thar Desert region. Rajasthan weather is typical hot & dry weather. In summer the temprature reaches up to 48 Celsius and in winter it drops to 0 Celsius. The scarcity of water and lack of fresh green vegetables farming has a significant impact on the rajasthani cuisine.

You can see the use of buttermilk and curd in the place of fresh tomato and tamarind for giving sourness in the gravies. The use of milk instead of water in gravies and also, the use of desi ghee(clarified butter)  in most of the recipes. Fresh beans(sangri) and berries(kair, gunda), mango pieces(amchur),  are dried for later use. The dried preparations like papad , badi and rabodi are made from lentils and whole grains as they could be conserved for long periods of time and proved themselves to be very useful in the early days when there was little produce in summers and transport was not so efficient. Use of bajra(millet), jawar(barley) , gram flour is prominent in the Rajasthani cuisine. Food that could last for several days and could be eaten without heating was preferred.

 

In my space here I will share several vegetarian Rajasthani delicacies with you which I have grown up eating. Thank you Dadisa (grandmom), nanisa and mummy for helping me learning all these recipes.
For the next seven days I am going to cook Rajasthani delicacy daily as I am taking part in blogging Marathon(BM) and I choose to blog under Seven Days of Regional Specials.

Churma ke ladoo

17

Category: , ,

"Blogging Marathon" BM#6 Day 1 
Churma ke ladoo / Sweet wheat flour balls  is a delicious wheat flour, desi ghee(clarified butter) sweet which just melts in your mouth.It is a festive sweet also. A Rajasthani will never make dal bati without churma. It is the default sweet with the dal bati. I have grown up seeing that whenever we have guests at home dal bati Churma is the fixed item on the menu. In Rajasthan it is a traditional custom to serve sweets in the beginning of the meal.


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Ingredients

  • 2 cup wheat flour
  • 1.5 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4th cup sooji/rava/semolina
  • 1 cup ghee
  • 1/4th cup mix of dry fruits and mishri (tiny sugar cubes)
  • 1/2 tea spoon cardamom powder
  • Ghee for frying

Method

  • In a big bowl mix wheat flour, sooji and 2 tablespoon full of ghee.
  • Knead well with the help of water and make a stiff dough.
  • Keep aside for half an hour and then make 8 balls from the dough.
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  • Press the ball in between your palm and fingers to give a fist shape.
  • In a frying pan, fry the fist shaped dough in ghee on a slow flame till it reaches the golden brown colour.
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  • Break the fried fists into the pieces and allow them to cool for 10-15 minutes.
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  • In a food processor grind the pieces into the powder(churma) of coarse texture.
  • Sift the powder through the sieve so that coarse powder is separated from the fine powder.
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  • Grind the coarse powder once again in the food processor and sift again.
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  • In a big frying pan add 1/2 cup ghee and the powder (churma) and roast it slightly for 5 min on simmering heat. This will give a nice roasted smell to the powder and it will increase the shelf life of churma also.
  • Add sugar, cardamom and the dry fruit mix to the powder.
  • Add 2 tablespoon ghee + 1 tablespoon ghee (if required) and bind the powder into the ladoo (round shape).
  • Once the ladoos are ready, store them in an air tight container.
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Note-


  1. Some people don't roast the fine powder(churma), they directly add the ghee and sugar to the powder and bind them into the ladoo. However, from my experience, the slight roasting gives a nice aroma and delicious taste to the ladoo.
  2. Some people like to make churma ladoo with the jaggery instead of sugar. For jaggery churma ladoo :
    • Take 2 cups powdered jaggery instead of sugar.
      In a pan add 1 tablespoon ghee, jaggery and 1 tablespoon of water and cook till jaggery dissolve.
    • Let it cool slightly.Add this dissolved jaggery to the powder and bind the ladoos.
Have a look what my fellow Blogging Marathoner's are doing.
Sending to "Flavours of Rajasthan" event, guest hosted by Sonu, event by Nayna.