Recipe of the day

iwanttogoback

lonelyaztec
thankyou for sharing your food obsessions with us
seriously, thanks for the info, it now looks relatively easy. will have to make another trip to the asian grocer (no specific indian grocer here, but lots of asian groceries which stock stuff from all over asia), and that is no great hardship at all.
many thanks my well fed friend

lonelyaztec

Hi machadinha,

Ohm podi is mixture / Sev without any spicy flavour.

Have you had Lehar namkeen or Haldiram's Bhujia or Sev.
http://www.eastwestbazaar.com/haldir...jia-p-767.html

check www.haldiram.com

Check picture of Bhujia. If you have had Bhel puri / Sev Puri etc, you will recognise this. This is nothing but the topping that you will find on chat food items.

http://www.haldiram.com/products/Namkeens/Main.htm
Click link Bhujia on list on left side, you can see the image.

You should find Haldirams Sev and Bhujia is any Indian grocery shop. Haldirams exports a lot of their products.

Haldirams also has a ready made Bhel Puri.

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Aztec

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machadinha

Great stuff Aztec, all's clear. I have a feeling IWTGB is gonna beat me to it but let's see...

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lonelyaztec

Ingredients
1. 1 / 2 Kg Brinjals ( nice round ones )
2. Ground nuts ( fried ) - 150 gms
3. Onions - 2 large
3. Green Chillies - 2 Large
4. Tamarind - 5 gms
5. Chilli Powder
6. Salt to taste
7. Mustard, jeera and curry leaves for seasoning

Procedure to Make Stuffing Masala

1. Make a paste in mixie with the roasted ground nuts, chopped onions, chillies, tamarind, chillipowder and salt.
2. Add sufficient quantity of water to ensure that the paste is not too thick
3. The paste has to be really soft, without any large particles.

Procedure to make the actual dish ( Stuffed Brinjal )

1. The brinjal has to be cut in a certain way. Insitions have to be made in the bottom part of the brinjal with a knife, and the insition has to run right to the bottom, upto 80 % of the brinjal is cut. The balance 20 % has to be left uncut. Make one more insition, horizontally, so that the 2 cuts look like a plus sign. These cuts are just to ensure the masala filling goes deep into the brinjal.

2. Stuff the filling, into the brinjals through the cut portion.

3. Place a pan on the stove. The pan has to be large enough , to hold all the brinjals

4. Pour 3 spoons of oil, and wait till it gets heated

5. Add mustard, jeera, ginger garlic paste, curry leaves to the hot oil, and leave for 2 secs.

6. Add all the brinjals that are filled in with the masala

7. The extra masala that is there, that to be emptied into the pan, over the brinjals.

8. Cook brinjal and masala for about 10 mins

9. The masala tends to stick to the pan, and hence keep adding one of two spoons of oil from time to time ( this is a very oily dish )

10. Check if there is sufficient amount of salt and chilli powder, if you need more of it, please add to taste

11. In about 15 minutes, the brinjals must be cooked, and hence remove pan from the stove.

The delicious stuffed baingan curry / brinjal curry is ready to serve.

Note : This curry goes really well with Chicken and Mutton biriyans. This dish is similar to Baingan Bartha. Try it and check it out for your self.

Attached Thumbnails

 

etin

lonelyaztec, can u pls clarify. I couldnt get it right. Thanks a lot.

lonelyaztec

Hi Etin,

I understand that my explanation of the 'cut' is very confusing.

I am providing 2 pics...
1. pic of brinjal
2. pic of brinjal with cut, as i have indicated.
3. Make 2 cuts, both vertical to the length of brinjal, but in opposite direction. But, do not cut the brinjal completely.

I hope the pics that i have done with clear ur doubt.

Attached Thumbnails

   

etin

Wow... Those pictorial explanation are great... thanx a lot Aztec.

iwanttogoback

gargi
the following recipe is taken from madhur jaffrey's 'flavours of india'.
will give imperial and metric measurements cos i think that there are still countries where they suffer through imperial madness

400gm/14oz cornmeal flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tspn salt
about425ml/14 1/2 fl oz plus 1 tblspn warm water (just bearable to the touch)
1 1/2 tblspn ghee or melted unsalted butter
2-3 tspn unsalted butter per bread, to put on top

mix cornmeal and salt in a large bowl.
gradually add as much of the water as you need to give it the texture of playdough.
knead for 10 minutes or until pliable.
divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and form into balls.
flatten the balls into patties and cover.
put a cast iron frying pan or tava over high heat. allow it to get really hot.

take one patty and dip in extra flour. roll the edges in flour as if the patty were a wheel.
put patty down on floured surface. press down with palm repeatedly, turning patty around - this flattens and thins it. use your other hand to keep the edges from breaking up. dip in flour again if necessary.

when disc is about 16cm/6 1/2 inches slap on hot pan or tava. leave for 1 minute then turn and cook for 40 seconds on second side. turn and cook again for 30 seconds. now use a bunched up cloth to press the bread down in different spots.

turn the bread again and cook for another 30 seconds, pressing again with the cloth.

turn again and cook for another 30 seconds. it should now be attractively browned and cooked through. if not, turn one last time.

take off heat, pinch in a few places and put a generous dollop of butter on it.

keep in a covered dish as you make them and eat while hot with lots of butter.

hope this is what you are looking for.

good eating

lonelyaztec

I want to go back & Gargi,

Ready made rotis are available. You should find them in all departmental stores in India, and in Indian gorcery stores outside India.

Making roti is cumbersone actually, but, i am not discouraging you.

machadinha

A note on roti (and yes I've found them notoriously difficult to get right, although the basic recipe is really simple): a crucial last step (or so I've found) is to briefly heat up the finished roti over an open fire on both sides, using a pair of "large kitchen tweezers" (what the hell do you call those in English?), or something like two spoons for lack of one. Your kitchen gas stove will do for lack of an open woodstove. This will cause the roti to puff up & take on its characteristic shape and texture. Maybe IWTGB's cloth-pressing business mentioned above works to the same effect, never tried.

iwanttogoback

excellent description mach - we usually call them tongs.

the cloth squeezing business is supposed to do the same thing. i haven't actually made them, and i probably won't, bread products are not my thing. but gargi wanted to make them and i happened to have the recipe.

and we have even bigger tweezers, perhaps you might call them giant, for our barbecues.

machadinha

Ooff thanks! That's the ones yeh

Give it a try on a lost Sunday afternoon sometime, it's fun really. Just don't invite the neighborhood and expect the dough to turn out as rotis & they just might.

iwanttogoback

just cooked these for my dinner - excellent.

450gm/1 lb potatoes
1 1/4 tsp salt
t tsp black peppercorns
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
2.5cm/1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
5-6 fresh hot green chillies, finely chopped (i actually used a lot less!)
5 tblspn oil
50gm/2oz peas - fresh, or thawed if frozen
50gm/2oz grated carrot
50gm/2oz pumpkin, peeled, cut into 1cm/1/2 inch dice
50gm/2oz cauliflour, broken into very small florets
1/2 tsp sugar
plain flour

boil potatoes with some of the salt and mash well when cooked.
grind peppercorns and fennel seeds finely.
put ginger, chilli and peppercorn and fennel mix into container of electric blender. add 100ml/3 1/2 fl oz water and blend to a paste.

heat 1 tblsp of oil over medium heat. add spice mix, vegetables, remaining salt and sugar. stir and fry until vegetables are cooked. it may help to cover and allow to steam as well. add water if necessary to prevent sticking.

mix the pototo and vegetable mix and mix well.
make into balls of a size to suit. press between hands to form patties and coat in flour.

heat the remaining oil and fry the patties until golden brown and crisp.


HELP: can someone recommend a chutney, pickle, sauce to eat with these?
i used tomato ketchup and that was fine, but i would like to try something else.

aztec: have all but two ingredients necessary for bhel puri - tomorrow!!

machadinha

Hmm. In the unlikely case you hadn't thought of it I recommend getting a dozen or more of Patak's excellent pastes if available and use them as the occasion calls for. Deep-fried bity bits are commonly served with curry sauce (a kind of ketchup) here but I agree something more sophisticated might be in order.

cyberhippie

A kind of spicey and sour chickpea sauce and a bit of yoghurt goes well with this as well as some tomato ketchup!!