Rajsthani Khasta Kachori

I have been craving for khasta kachori for long time. I remembered the days when I used to reach railway station and there was this shop outside it. They used to sell all sorts of street food.

Me and my friends used to enjoy occasional khasta kachori treats. They had real big size kachori which I could hardly finish. The taste is still lingering in my memory with hot and sweet chutney and little yogurt and sev on top. It was just what you want after finishing hard day at college.

I decided to give it a go at home. This was my first attempt at khasta kachori and it turned out pretty well. It was as khashta as I had expected. It is also very easy to make.

Makes about 10 to 12 kachori
Ingredients:
Plain flour: 1 cup
Oil: 2 table spoon
Salt to taste
Chilled water: 1/4 cup

For filling:
Yellow mung dal: 1/4 cup
Fennel seed powder: 1tbs
Coriander seed powder: 1tbs
Dry mango powder: 1/2 tbs
Chili flakes: 1tbs (take more if you like hot)
Ginger powder: 1/2 tbs
Asafoetida: pinch
Garam masala: 1/2 tbs
Salt to taste
Oil: 2 tbs
Water: 2-3 tbs

Oil to fry

Preparation:
Mix plain flour with oil and salt and add water slowly to make dough. Keep aside for 15-20minutes.

Crush yellow mung dal into coarse powder. Somewhat like medium semolina or idli rava. Add fennel seed powder, coriander seed powder, chili flakes, dry mango powder, ginger powder, asafoetida, garam masala and salt and mix well.

Add oil and mix well.

Dry roast for 3-4 minutes on low-medium flame and allow flavours to come out. Notice the color change.

Add 1tbs of water at a time and mix well. Mixture should be slightly moist. Set aside for 5minutes.

Knead the plain flour dough for 2-3 minutes and divide it into 10-12 equal parts.

Take one dough ball and using hand make small round shaped patty such a way sides are thinner than the center.

Keep it in your palm and place the mung dal filling roughly 1 tea spoon. Gently cover the sides and repeat the same for all balls.

Let the ball dry for 3-4 minutes.

We will press the kachori using our palm. This is to avoid uneven surface or breaking of kachori. Place the filled ball on flat surface.
Using end of your end of the palm press it to make small round flat kachori just as shown in the picture.
Heat the oil on slow flame. To fry the kachori we will be using medium hot oil. To test the temperature, add a small piece of dough in the oil. If the dough piece comes up straight away oil is too hot and if dough ball seats at the bottom of the pan, oil is not hot enough. The right temperature is when dough piece comes up floating slowly on the surface.

Add one kachori at a time and allow it to fluff up. Leave it in the oil for 3-4 minutes and turn the sides. Cook like this until each side is golden brown. Fry the number of kachoris that will fit nicely in your frying pan.

My pan takes up to 3 kachoris.
You can enjoy it as it is with any chutney of your taste. Suggestion: imali chutney.
Or you can spice it up bit more by making a hole in the middle of kachori and fill it up with boiled channa/ sprounted mung, yogurt (salted/sweetened), imali chutney, coriander chutney, sev, chaat masala.
This is also called as raj kachori short form of Rajsthani khasta kachori.

Upma original recipe

This is original upma recipe. There are lots of versions of upma. Little modification will bring you new dish every time. Semolina is great multipurpose ingredient which makes dishes wonderful and tasty. Try this recipe and you will come back for more.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
Medium semolina: 1/2 cup : Boiled water: 1.5 or 2 cups
Green chili:2-3 as per your taste
Ginger paste: 1/2 table spoon
Salt to taste
Cashew nuts: 5-6
White split urad dal: 1/2 table spoon
Mustard seeds: 1 tea spoon
Curry leaves: handful
Sugar: 1 tea spoon
Lime juice
Oil: 2 table spoon
Ghee/Clarified butter: 1 table spoon
Coriander: for garnish

Preparation:
Wash and cut green chili into small pieces. Cut cashew nuts into half and further cut them into two. Make 4 pieces of whole cashew nuts.

Get all the ingredients ready and heat the pan.

Add oil to pan and once its hot, add urad dal. Let it cook for 30seconds and add mustard seeds. Let it splutter and add green chili, ginger paste and curry leaves. Slow the flame and allow it to cook for 1 minute without getting burnt.

Add Cashew nuts and roast it until brown. Now add semolina. Roast semolina for 5-7 minutes until it starts to turn pinkish.
Add sugar, salt to taste and slowly add water and cook for further 2-3 minutes by continuous stirring. Add ghee, this will really enhance the taste of upma. Add lime juice just about 1/2 table spoon. Adjust the salt, sugar and lime juice as per your taste. Add more water if you like your upma more soft and stir.
Garnish with coriander and serve hot. Many people eat upma with plain yogurt or coriander chutney.

Rava Idli

Rava idlis makes great breakfast or light evening snack. I simply love it. You can add vegetables to make it even more interesting.

Here is the original rava idli recipe for you. I hope you like it :).

Makes: 12 idalis
Ingredients:
Semolina/ Rava: 2 cups
Curry leaves: handful
Yellow channa dal: 2 table spn
Plain yogurt: 1/2 cup
Mustard seeds: 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Cashew nuts: 7-8
Coriander: finely chopped
Sugar: pinch or two
Oil: 2-3 table spoon
Eno: 1 table spoon

Preparation:
In a large pan, add oil and let it heat. Add channa dal, mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add curry leaves, cashew nuts and let it turn golden brown.
Add rava and salt to taste and stir until rava is slightly pink. This will take about 5-8 minutes on low to medium flame.

Take the mixture and allow it to cool off. Add plain yogurt and little bit oil. Add pinch of sugar, chopped coriander and mix well. Add little bit of water if required to reduce the consistency.
Heat the idli cooker with enough water in it. Let the water heat up. In the mean time apply oil on the idli mould. Add eno and stir well. Add the batter into idli mould.
Once the water is boiling, steam it for 12-15 minutes on medium flame. Once cooked, insert a knife to check idlis are cooked. If the knife comes out clean it means idlis are cooked.
Let the cooker steam off before opening. Be careful steam can be really hot.
Use a knife to take the idlis out.
Serve hot with nice coconut chutney.

Onion upma

There are various upma recipes. This one is my all time favorite. This one is very similar to the one I ate for breakfast in a restaurant in Belgaum on my way to Goa.

Also one very good udipi restaurant makes awesome upma, which is very close to this recipe.

Try it for breakfast. It is not only fast but also tasty.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
Medium semolina/Rava: 1 cup
Boiling water: 2-3 cups
Green chili:2-3
Ginger crushed: 1 table spoon
White split urad dal: 1 table spn
Mustard seeds: 1 table spn
Curry leaves: handful
Chopped coriander for garnish
Onion: 1 medium
Oil: 2 table spoon
Clarified butter: 1 table spn
Lime juice: 2-3 table spn
Sugar: 1/2 table spn

Preparation:
Fine chop green chili and grate ginger. Peel and fine chop onions.

Heat the pan and add oil. Once the oil is hot add urad dal. Let dal turn slight color and add mustard seeds. Once seeds start to splutter add curry leaves followed by chili and ginger.

After few seconds add onions and stir until onions are soft.
Turn the heat to medium low. Add semolina.

We will roast semolina nicely for 5-8 minutes. Semolina should start to turn pink and get roasted well.
In the mean time boil 2-3 cups of water.

Keep stirring semolina until it changes color. Add salt to taste and sugar. Slowly add water and keep mixing semolina.
Per one cup of semolina add 2 or 3 cups of water. 3 cups will make upma soft and moist and 2 cups will make it soft and firm. It is personal choice what texture of upma would you like to eat. Adjust the water accordingly. If semolina is fine, you will require less water and if it is medium you will require more water. Try to judge your upma and adjust the water.

Add ghee/clarified butter and lime juice. Added ghee will enhance the flavour of upma.

Turn the heat little up and mix continuously until semolina gets cooked. Water will cook semolina, you will notice each molecule has increased in size.
Garnish with coriander and turn the heat off.
Serve onion upma while its hot.

Pav bhaji

Pav bhaji is heart of Mumbai. If you have lived in Mumbai and never eaten this mouth watering dish then your stay is wasted.

Many chef's in different cities across the world try to recreate this dish but the authentic taste which you can find in Mumbai you can not find any where else.

This recipe is next best to the Mumbai resturant pav bhaji. Nothing beats few famous street vendor's pav bhaji.

Few hot spots to eat yummy pav bhaji in Mumbai are as follows.
Maruti pav bhaji: very hot and black in color but taste can beat any five star chef's pav bhaji. This guy operates in Vile parle west near Bajaj road corner off Dada bhai road. 5-10mins walk from Vile parle station.

Amar juice center: medium hot and red in color. This guy again mainly has take away service or you can eat on your car boot. This is near Irla, vile parle west.

Sardar pav bhaji: Heard a lot about sardar pav bhaji. Never had chance to go and eat. He is near Bombay central. Last time I had a chance to peek in.

Shiv Sagar pav bhaji: This is again amazingly tasty. They have lot of branches but my favorite is Juhu branch.

Bhagvati pav bhaji: This guy operates until 5am. So all the night lovers come to him for tasty food and but of course pav bhaji. He was a street vendor but now has few restaurants. Original one is in Irani wadi, Kandivali west.

Next best is home made pav bhaji which I am going to show you in a minute.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
Onions: 2 medium, 1 small for garnish
Tomato: 4 large
Tomato: 1 tin chopped tomato (this will enhance the color)
Potato: 1 large, 2 medium
Green peas: 1 cup

Tofu Pav Bhaji Dosa

This is when things to more interesting in my kitchen. I am determined to add more protein to my food and even more determined to find various ways to include grated tofu in my dishes.

When any one asks me what is my favourite dish, I will say pav bhaji dosa. Yes, simple yummy pav bhaji is spread over dosa is my favourite dish :). I remember eating this in Shiv sagar, Mumbai. I miss this soooo much in London.

So one fine day when I had pav bhaji and dosa batter I decided to add little tofu on it and it was just great.

You can be more creative can also add freshly grated coconut along with tofu or even better cheese :).

Click for dosa batter recipe.

Click for pav bhaji recipe.

Ingredients:
Dosa batter:
Pav bhaji
Tofu: handful grated
Preparation:
Heat the pan to spread dosa. Let the smoke come out from the surface of the pan.

Punjabi samosa

It is a treat to have Punjabi samosa ready made but I just don't get satisfying samosa in London. So here I go with my Punjabi samosa recipe.

If the weather gets rainy and you just want to pump up your mood go for Punjabi samosa and masala tea :). You sure will forget the rain.

Try it and you will love it.

Ingredients:

Samosa filling:
Potato: 3 large (On an average one large potato will make about 3-4 samosa depending on size)
Green peas: 1 cup
Mint leaves: handful
Coriander seeds: 1 table spoon
Cumin seeds: 2 tea spoon
Mustard seeds: 1 tea spoon
Ginger chili paste: 1-2 table spoon
Pomegranate seed powder: 1 tea spoon
Dry mango powder: 1-2 table spoon
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder: 1-2 tea spoon
Garam masala powder: 1 tea spoon
Oil: 1 table spoon

Samosa Coating:
I prefer to add little bit of wheat flour in my coating but it is entirely up to you.
Plain flour/maida: 2 cups
Wheat flour: 1/2 cup
Clarified cold butter/ unmelted ghee: 3 large spoon
Lime juice: 1 table spoon
Sugar: 1 tea spoon
[Note: lime juice, sugar and ghee combination will make the coating crispy]
Salt to taste
Ajwaeen/ carom seeds: 3 tea spoon (optional)
Oil: 1 table spoon
Water

Oil to fry samosa

Preparation:

Samosa filling:
Wash and boil potato. Peel the skin off and mesh them.
Clean and wash mint leaves and fine chop them.

Heat pan and add one table spoon of oil. Let the oil heat up. Add coriander seeds and wait till they start to change color.
Add cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Once they splutter add ginger chili paste and add turmeric. Stir for a minute.
Add this mixture to meshed potatoes. If you are using frozen peas, warm it up a bit and drain off excess water. Add this to potato.
Add rest of the ingredients like mint, salt to taste, dry mango powder, garam masala, pomegranate seed powder. Pomegranate seeds is known for its sourness and so is dry mango powder. Add little bit at a time and taste to alter the spices.
Mix well.
Take a little taste and alter the spices as per need. Mix well. Set aside for 20 minutes to absorb all the flavours.

Take small balls as it will be easier to fill them up in samosa coating.

Samosa Coating:
It is very important to get the quantity of filling and quantity of coating right. Else you will end up with left overs of either filling or coating.

In either case, just don't worry make parathas of coating or make yummy toast sandwich of the filling :).

I always make the filling in advance and depending on how many balls I get I will take flour.

Mix plain flour and wheat flour in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle and add ghee, lime juice and sugar.

Using hand mix it thoroughly with the flour.
Once that is done. Add little bit of water at a time mixing it into the flour. Idea is to make medium hard dough. So do not rush in with lots of water.

Keep mixing and take your sweet time. Once all flour start getting into solid state stop adding any more water.
Add table spoon of oil and massage the dough this time apply your force.Until you get smooth texture keep doing so.


Cover the dough with moist (not too wet) cloth for 20 minutes.
Remove it from the cloth and do massage for 2-3 minutes. Apply little oil if required. Because the dough is hard you might required to apply more force. This is the most challenging part in making best samosa. If you coating is soggy after frying you will not enjoy the taste. So give it your best.
Divide dough into small balls and its ready for filling.

Folding samosa:
Take one ball and press it. Roll it in oval shape just shown in the photo.
Cut it along the longer side.
Apply slight water on the cut edges. Water layer helps coating to join properly and avoids chance of splitting open in the oil. Fold it in a cone shape.
Add samosa filling ball and press it down.
Apply slight water again on one of the open edge from inside and joint it together. Water on flour makes a good sealing agent.
Samosa's are ready.
Repeat the same for rest of the samosa. Keep them covered to avoid drying.
Heat the oil when 4-6 samosa's are ready to be fried. Add a little bit of dough in the heating oil when you think oil is ready to fry. The dough should come up on the surface in no time that's when oil is ready.

We are going to fry samosa on low to medium flame. This will allow coating to get fried nicely. Otherwise it will remain row from inside.
Once samosa is starts to turn brownish red, take them out. Keep them on absorbent tissue before serving.
Serve with sweet tamarind chutney or tomato sauce.