Microwave Gor Papdi with Badam and a very Happy Holi to All (Indian Sweet Dish with Almonds)

This year, our  Holi celebrations are going to be done on a very low key by just going to the temple to pray, as we feel that we shouldn't be celebrating in a big way whilst our friends in Japan are going through a tough time.  Since childhood,  Japan has always held a special place in our  hearts.  My husband and I have had several holidays in Japan and have wonderful memories of our time there. Our prayers are with the people of Japan.

Making Gor Papdi in the microwave was very much an experiment but the results were amazingly good.  A fantastic sweet made in a matter of minutes.

Gor papdi is a very popular dish in most Gujarati households.  For some reason, it's always made and served as a snack during the winter months but I have never known it served as a sweet dish when you invite guests. To make it a bit richer, I decided to add some almonds to the recipe.  When my kids were young, I remember my parents always telling me to give almonds to them as it helps improve their brain power!! Not sure if it's true but I thought adding the almonds to gor papdi and giving it to my son during exam time may help him with his revision.

Ingredients:

2 cups of wheat flour (you can use chappati flour)
1.5 cup of ghee (clarified butter)
1 cup of Jaggery (Often referred to as Gor)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of dry ginger (oprional)
1 cup ground almonds ( I ground mine coarsly as we like the taste of almonds)

Method:

1.  Mix the wheat flour and one cup of ghee in a microwave proof dish

2.  Cook this for 2 minutes at a time for 4 times (total 8 minutes) .  After each 2 minutes, remove the dish and stir the mixture.

3.  The mixture will start to have a lovely scent and  go golden brown.  It should remain moist.  If it looks dry, please add a tablespoon of ghee before warming it again.

4.  After the 8 minutes, add the almonds, jaggery, ginger powder and sesame to the mixture, stir and add one tablespoon of ghee to the mixture.

5.  Cook this for 1 minute intervals, stir and cook 3 times.

6.   Grease a thali and spread the mixture.  Using a flat bottomed spoon, pat the mixture down.  Using a sharp knife, cut out the diamond shapes but allow the mixture to cool before removing the Gor papdi pieces.

7.  Remove the Gor Papdi and enjoy it.  Any left over slices can be stored in an airtight container.

Have a very Happy Holi.

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Hot and Spicy Tortilla Sandwiches

Ready made Tortilla wraps are now readily available in most grocery stores. They are so versatile and can be used to make wraps, enchilladas, pizzas or these hot and spicy Tortilla sandwiches. I suppose some people could call them enchiladas with a difference. I love making these as a quick snack at lunchtime.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

4 tortillas
4 teaspoons of coriander chutney (recipe is here)
4-6 teaspoons of salsa or tamato sauce
1/2 cup of sweet corn
1 large pepper sliced finely
1 medium onion sliced finely
1 medium tomato
grated cheddar cheese
grated mozarella cheese
1 teaspoon of oregano

Method:

1. Take one tortilla and spread it with tomato and green chutney.

2.  Spread the toppings on the tortilla - sweet corn, peppers, onion and tomato.

3.  Top this with cheddar and mozarella cheese  and sprinkle some oregano on top of the cheese. 

4.  Cover this with a tortilla and cook it in the oven for 5 minutes at 150 degrees. You can cook it in a frying pan but it's quite fiddly.  Cooking it in the oven gives you a chance to prepare your second tortilla sandwich. 

5.  Serve the tortilla sandwich hot with some Mexican crisps like Doritos or similar.

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Sev Puri (Poori) : An Indian Savoury Snack

There are some great snacks that Indians love making.  These are served up in most Indian restaurants as starters. If you visit any Indian homes, they usually manage to serve you some snacks put together using various ingredients they have in their cupboards like sev, crisps, potatoes, chickpeas and chutneys. One such dish is the bhel puri or sev puri or dahi sev poori.

Some time ago I bought some ready made puris to make pani puris. However, when I opened the packaged puris -  they smelled stale and I couldn’t bring myself to use them. I was really disappointed as I was looking forward to trying out either pani puris or sev puri. I finally managed to get some time to make some puris and try out the sev puri chaat. This dish is fun to make and the dish - often called a chaat - can be eaten with quite a few toppings depending on what you have in your cupboard.  This dish is crispy and spicy with a hint of sweet and sour taste.

To make about 50 puris (serve 5-6 people):

¾ cup of fine semolina. ( if your semolina is coarse – just grind it in a coffee grinder)
¼ cup of plain white flour
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 litre oil for deep frying

For the toppings:

4-5 potatoes
2 cups of chick peas
2 cups of yoghurt
1 medium onion
1 medium tomato
1 large heaped tamarind concentrate
Bunch of coriander
4-6 cloves of garlic
Small bunch of mint
5-6 green chillies
1 tablespoon of jaggery
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of fine sev
Chaat masala (optional) ( I am not too keen on the taste so prefer to use my own spices)

Method:


To prepare the puri:

1. Mix the semolina and plain flour; add the salt and make the dough by adding warm water to the dough. Knead the dough until it feels glutinous. The dough should be fairly hard. Cover this for 30 minutes.

To prepare all the toppings:

1. Boil the potatoes whole with the skin on. Remove skin, and dice the potatoes in small cubes and transfer to a serving bowl.

2. Boil the chick peas (these should have been soaked the day before). You can also use canned chick peas which are come ready boiled. If using a can, wash and re boil the chick peas and transfer to a serving bowl..

3. Transfer plain yoghurt to a serving bowl – sprinkle some cumin powder, salt on the yoghurt.

4. Chop the onion and tomato finely and transfer to a serving bowl.  Add a couple of chopped green chillies to this salad.

5. Add one and half cup of water to the tamarind sauce. Add salt, 2-3 green chillies, garlic, jaggery, mint and coriander to this and blend it all. Heat this mixture until it boils, allow it to cool, sieve and transfer to a serving bowl. ( You can also use any ready made tamarind sauce like Maggies!)

6. You will need some sev to sprinkle on the chaat. Sev is available ready made in lots of Indian shops and take aways. To make the sev at home, the recipe is here.  It's nice to use fine sev but I used the one which I had made and it tasted great.

Now make the puris:

1. Knead the dough again. You can either use small amount of the dough to roll out one or two big chappatis and cut them out into small puris using a biscuit cutter OR:

2. Divide the dough into 50 small dough balls and roll each out to the diameter of an inch and a half.

3. Both ways are fine.  I prefer to make them individually.

4. Heat the oil, cook a couple of puris at a time.

5. Gently tap each puri with a skimmer or a slotted spoon and this will make them rise. Turn over the puri, cook second side and transfer all puris to a serving dish.

Now you can start serving your sev puri chaat - often called sev and dahi puri chaat.

There are two ways to serve this:

1. Take two or three puris in a plate, add some potatoes and chick peas to it.

2. Add the Onion and tomato to this.

3. Top it up with the tamarind sauce.

4. Now add yoghurt to it and sprinkle some chilly powder to this.  (can also use Chaat masala if you like it).

5. Sprinkle some sev to this.

6. Now enjoy the Sev puri chaat by popping it whole in your mouth!.

Second way to serve this is as follows:

1. Break up three or four puris in a plate.

2. Add the Onion and tomato to this.

3. Top it up with the tamarind sauce.

4. Now add yoghurt to it and sprinkle some chilly powder or Chaat masala to this .

5. Sprinkle some sev to this mixture

6. Now enjoy the Sev puri chaat.

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Stylish and Lovely blog Awards

I got these 2 lovely awards from PJ  of Seduce Your tastebuds which asks me to share some information about me.   Information about me is here .  Thank you very much PJ.  I am truly honoured and touched.   It's these Awards that make me carry on blogging!

I share these Awards with all my blogger friends.

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Stuffed Bhajias: Steamed, grilled , stuffed and fried potato and garlic bhajias!

These bhajias are a favourite of my hubby!!  He had once told me that he had eaten such bhajias in a restaurant in Africa .  I couldn't find a recipe for them anywhere so between us we improvised and this recipe was created!!   Now it has become a tradition for us to make these bhajias during the cold winter days when we are not going out.

Ingredients for enough bhajias for 3-4 people

10-12 new baby potatoes

For the batter to dip the potatoes:

2 cups of chick pea flour (often called gram flour or besan)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon of Ajwain
small bunch of  fresh coriander cut finely (can use coriander powder too)
Pinch of soda bi carbonate

For the stuffing:

5-6 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon chillypowder
½ teaspoon of cumin powder
1 teaspoon lemon juice

For the Deep Frying:

1 litre of cooking oil ( I always use sunflower oil)

Method:

A . Prepare the potatoes as below: 

1. Steam the baby potatoes with the skin on. I suggest steaming rather than boiling as you do not want the potatoes to over cook and break.

2. Once cooked, allow to cool and peel the skin from the potatoes.

3. Lightly oil the potatoes and either grill them until lightly brown or cook them in the oven at 150 degrees for 10-12 minutes. This will ensure that your potatoes do not break for the next step.

4. Once browned, allow the potatoes to cool and prepare the stuffing.

B:  Prepare the stuffing:

1. Peel and blend the garlic using a pestle and mortar or a grinder.

2. Add salt and 1 teaspoon of lemon to the garlic to make the blending easier.

3. Remove the blended mixture to a mixing bowl and add the chilly powder and cumin powder to it

4. This mixture should resemble a firm paste. Add more chilly powder if it looks runny.

Tip: Be inventive with your stuffing. You can add dessicated coconut or ground peanuts, sesame seeds to your stuffing if you like.

Now prepare the potatoes:

1. Cut the potatoes across - but only half way  on one side; turn to the opposite side and cut the potato across half way again as shown in my pictures below.

2. Fill them with the stuffing.

C: Prepare the chick pea flour batter to dip your potatoes in:

1. Add half a cup of water to the Chick pea flour

2. Add the salt, ajwain, fresh coriander and soda bi carbonate and stir well.

3. The mixture should be fairly thick as shown in my picture.

4.  Allow this to rest whilst you heat the oil.

D:  To finish making the bhajias:

1. To check if the oil is hot, drop a small drop of batter into the oil. If the oil is ready, the batter will rise to the top.

2. Turn the heat slightly low now.

3. Take one potato at a time ; using a spoon, dip it in the chick pea flour mixture and transfer it to the oil.

4. Allow it to cook one side and turn.

5. Once they look golden brown, they are cooked and ready to serve with a tamarind sauce.  Wouldn't advice you to visit friends after eating this garlicky dish!!

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Penne Pasta bake

This is a very healthy and easy to make recipe – perfect for dinner or lunch.   What I like about this recipe is that you don’t even need to add any oil to it.

Ingredients to serve 4 people

6 cups of Penne or Fusilli Pasta
6 cups of Passata ( you can use tinned tomatoes but will need more as the sauce will not be as thick as Passata)
7-8 cloves of fresh garlic
1 onion
1 teaspoon salt for the pasta sauce and one for the pasta.
Pepper to taste
2-3 cups of grated cheddar and mozarella cheese
1 teaspoon of oregano

Method:

1. Blend the passata, onions and garlic and heat the sauce.

2. Add the salt and pepper.

3. Once heated, let it simmer gently.

4. This basic sauce can be made ahead and frozen too to use anytime you cook pasta or spaghetti.  If you like hot and spicy pasta, you can add fresh green chillies to the sauce.   You can also add some vegetables to the sauce if you wish to. 

5. Whilst the sauce is heating up, boil 1-2 litres of water with a teaspoon of salt. You need enough water to enable you to cover the pasta and allow it to boil.

6. Once boiled, add the pasta to the water.

7. Once the pasta has cooked, add it to the sauce and transfer to an oven proof dish.

8. Sprinkle with cheese and oregano.

9. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and cook in the middle of the oven at 150 degrees for 20 minutes.

10. Serve pasta with fresh salad.

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