Garlic Chutney

This is one chutney that is found in almost all homes in India. Some form or other of garlic chutney.

This is the way I make it.

Ingredients:

1 cup groundnuts
½ cup dry coconut
½ cup puthane/roasted grams
2 pods garlic
1 tsp Jeera
2 tblspn Chilli powder (adjust as per taste)
Salt

Method:
Dry roast the coconut and groundnuts separately. Grind all the ingredients together.

Kachori

As a kid I have stayed in Nagpur, the Orange City for 7 years. Summers in Nagpur are very hot and being away from my grand parents, uncles, aunts we used to be waiting to get back to Dharwad, our home town, to Ajji & Ajoba and of course mangoes.
The journey from Nagpur was by train, with a changeover at Miraj and it used to take 2 full days. If we i.e. my brother, my sister and I were traveling with Amma alone she was voted out…… it had to be Kachori at Shegaon or Wardha. The way we used to salivate at the thought of kochories!!
I was always on a lookout for these kachories.
When we brought our food processor it came with a cookbook by Lalita Ahmed and this was one of the first recipe’s I tried out.
in the present recipe I have made some changes but basically it is her recipe.

Ingredients:
450 g wheat flour
½ tsp salt
2 tblspn oil
Water
1 cup urid dal soaked for 2 hours
1-2 green chillies
1tblspn oil
Pinch of asafoetida
1 tsp jeera seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp sauf (optional)
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp chat masala
½ tsp amchur powder
Oil for deep frying

1. Mix the flour, salt and water to make soft dough. Cover and keep aside.
2. Grind urid dal green chillies with ½ a cup of water coarsely.
3. Dry roast jeera seeds, coriander seeds, sauf gently for ½ a minute.
4. Cool and dry grind till fine.
5. Heat 1tblspn oil, add hing and dal paste fry for a minute.
6. Add the ground spice mixture, red chilli powder, seasonings, stir to mix and fry till all the moisture is gone and the mixture becomes light brown. Switch off the gas and add chat masala and amchur mix well. Let the whole thing cool completely.
7. Take a small ball of the dough and roll out to a small circle place 1 tsp of the filling in the centre. Encircle the filling pulling the edges of the dough to the centre. Dredge in flour and roll out to small circle. Make a few kachories and keep aside. Pour enough oil in a wok or a kadhai to deep fry the kachories one at a time.
8. Drain and serve hot with tamarind chutney.

Egg Curry

Something I enjoy is egg curry but my kids and hubby dear don’t so egg curry is hardly made. I made it the other day as my better (?) half was not coming for lunch and the kids I had made dal to have with rice and some salad. The kids were having their meal when I had gone for my bath imagine my surprise and pleasure when they had quietly finished half the curry. So this recipe has to be preserved and here goes.

Ingredients:
6 boiled eggs
½ tsp jeera
2 tsp Oil
3 onions finely chopped
1 tblspn garlic paste
½ tblspn ginger
2 tomatoes
7-8 cashew nuts
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp jeera powder
½ tsp haldi
2 tblspn chilli powder (adjust to taste)
1 tblspn Kasuri methi
3 tblspn curds beaten
Salt as per taste
½ tblspn Sugar
Coriander
Cream (beaten)

Method:
1) Being the shortcut cook that I am, I generally grind my onions to a paste, but today I chopped them so now I fry them, after making a phodni/bhagar or vagarni as it is called in Kannada, of oil and jeera.
2) When the onions are a bit soft add ginger and garlic pastes and sauté till the onions turn transparent.
3) Puree the tomatoes and cashew nuts.
4) Add to the onion mixture and stir in all the powders and fry till the mixture becomes dry.
5) Now add 2 cups of water, kasuri methi. When the mix starts to boil lower the flame and add the curds, salt, sugar mix well. Add the boiled eggs cut in half lengthwise.
6) Serve garnished with coriander and cream.

Mixed Vegetable

I have picked up dudhi or bottle gourd and every one is quite reluctant to eat it. The other day I made tahlipeeth out of it (it tasted great). Today this was my experiment on my unsuspecting victims. The vegetable smell good I will get the review from my critics in the afternoon. Though I have used the vegetable that I had a lot of others like mushrooms, corn kernels will taste good.


1 onion chopped fine
1 tomato
4 cloves garlic crushed
1 cup grated dudhi
1-2 florets cauliflower chopped in to small florets
1 capsicum chopped fine
½ tblspn oil
½ tblspn schzwan sauce
2 tblspn tomato sauce
Salt
Cheese for garnishing

Heat oil, add garlic. When the garlic becomes brown add onion fry till translucent.
Add tomato, mix, cover and cook till pulpy. Add the dudhi and cauliflower cook under cover for about 2 minutes. Add the capsicum, sauces and salt. Garnish and serve with chapatti. This can also be used as a filling for toast sandwiches or pizza.