Bharwaan bhindi / Indian style Stuffed Okra

When I used to study in Chennai, erstwhile Madras at St.John's School, Mandaveli, I had a classmate, Renuka. Her family used to own the famous Bombay Sweet House in Luz. She used to bring Chappathy to school everyday and her accompaniment were usually a single vegetable dry dish. If it was Lady's Finger, I used to eat so much of her lunch that she would hardly have anything left. It is a sweet memory, but a sad one as I have not been able to recreate that dish even after 30 + years.

Today, i stumbled upon Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe of Bharwan bhindi and when I tried the same at home, the taste took me back several decades. Ofcourse, Renuka was Jain and there used to be no Onion in her tiffin-box; but I followed Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe.

Ingredients:
Lady's finger - 250 gms
Onion - 1 large
Green chilly - 1
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Chilly powder - 2 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Aamchoor powder / Dry mango powder - 1 tbsp

Method:
Wash and dry the lady's finger.
Cut into 2 inch pieces.
Mix all the powders together.
Slit (not split) the Lady's finger and place some of the mixed powder inside it.

Cut the onion length wise and slit the green chilly.

Heat the oil in a thick bottomed vessel.
Add the onion and green chilly. Fry until they turn transparent.

Add the stuffed lady's finger and give a stir. Cover and cook on low flame for 5 minutes.

Open lid and continue frying till the onion browns and lady's finger gets nearly crispy.

Serve hot with chappathy.

Instant Jalebi

My Jalebi

Store bought jalebi

Ok, My jalebi does not look as perfect and beautiful as the ones from the store....But in my favor, these 'Halwai' have years of experience. Come on, it was my first try. And they tasted excellent.

It is very easy to make and recipe is straight forward.

Ingredients:

Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup

Rice flour - 1 tbsp

Food colour - 1 pinch

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Curd - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Lemon juice to taste

Oil / ghee for deep frying.

Method:
Heat the sugar with 1 cup water.

Make a sugar syrup which is quite thick (nearly 1 string). 

And add lemon juice to add flavor and zing.

You can some colour to this too.

Mix the maida, rice flour, baking powder and food colour.

Add the curd and make a batter.

Add water if necessary.

The batter should be of drop consistency and have no lumps.

Heat the oil in a flat pan , 1 inch thick.

Fill the Batter into a squeezy bottle with a slightly thicker spout.

Now is the part where you try to make swirls in the oil...

Fry both sides and soak in the sugar syrup for 30 seconds.

And it is ready!!

Taste the first batch and if the sour is not enough add more lemon juice to the sugar syrup.

I will post some better pictures when I have mastered the art of Jalebi making. Till then You too try out this recipe and send me some of your pictures.

Kadhi Pakoda

A thick Curd gravy with crispy onion fritters.

Basically Bhajia in kadhi.

The recipe of the Kadhi has been shared before on this site. I will share my version of the onion pakode here. At home we prefer to not boil the pakode in the gravy as it becomes soggy. We just add it to the gravy at serving time, one pakode at a time as kids and hubby like it crisp. So that part of boiling the pakode or not is completely your prerogative.

Ingredients:
Onion - 2 large , chopped into thin long slices
Besan / chickpea flour - 2 tbsp (+ some more, if necessary)
Salt
Chilly - 1
Coriander leaf - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Kadhi ingredients

Method:
Mix the onion, chilly, coriander leaf well with the salt, turmeric powder and besan.
Keep aside for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add a little more besan if you feel it has become very watery and is not coating the onion enough.
Deep fry in small batches as lumps till golden brown.

Make the kadhi and keep aside.
Either boil the pakode in the gravy for 1 minute just before serving, or serve both separate.
Serve with jeera pulav or plain white rice or Khichdi.

Matri / Indian Salt Crackers

A lovely crisp tea time snack.
Matris are basically punjabi in origin but have now permeated every state of India. And because of that there are so many flavors available in the market. While pepper and ajwain (ayamodakam) are the classic flavors, you can choose the flavor your family wants. Example : jeera, red chilly, methi, til. I hear even Garlic matri is in the market. So basically the flavoring is all yours.

This recipe was given to me by Mrs.Shefali Arvind.

Ingredients: (for around 40 matris)
Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
Oil / ghee - 2 heaped tbsp
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Mix together the maida, salt and pepper.
Add the oil / ghee and mix well, so that it resembles bread crumbs.
Now knead a tight dough with just enough water.
Keep covered for half an hour.
Divide dough into 4 portions and roll out each portion thinly.
Use a mould to cut out shapes.
Prick with a fork to prevent it from puffing up.
Deep fry in medium hot oil till golden brown.
Cool and store in air tight containers.

Pictorial:

Moong Dal Halwa

My North Indian friends always rave about their mother's moong dal halwa and during holi they seem to miss it quite a bit.
And when I did have it at a restaurant, I was blown away.
Every recipe I looked at had the moong dal / green gram dal soaking for 3 hours, then grinding it into a fine paste and then cooking in ghee for nearly 30 minutes while stirring constantly.
Too much work.
Then I came across a recipe which just used moong dal powder and the whole process from start to end finished in 30 minutes. The taste was awesome and my guests loved it too.

Ingredients:
Moong Dal - 1 cup
Ghee / Clarified butter - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 2
Almond slivers - 2 tbsp

Method:
Dry roast the moong dal in heavy bottomed vessel, till the colour slightly changes.
Then cool it and powder. The powder will be slighly coarse.
Now heat this powder with all the ghee in the same heavy bottomed vessel and cook on low flame till the mixture starts turning dark and looks puffy / fluffy.
Now add inthe rest of the ingredients in a go and mix well.
The halwa will start leaving the sides of the vessel.
Transfer to a buttered plate and allow to cool.

Pictorial:

Look at the colour difference of the fried and non fried dal

Moong dal powder and ghee

Stage 1 of frying the dal powder and ghee

The dal looks puffy after more frying

After all the other ingredients have been added and stirred in

Moong dal Halwa is ready

Paneer Makhani

Paneer Makhani is YUM!
Rich buttery tomato gravy with chunks of paneer and capsicum.
Fantabulous!!

If you have the base ready, then the curry gets ready in a jiffy.
This is Makhani curry, the amount of butter used HAS to be high!

Ingredients:
Makhani gravy - 1 cup
Butter - 75 gms
Milk - 1/3 cup
Onion - 2 medium
Capsicum / bell pepper - 1/2 large
Paneer - 100 gms
Kasuri methi - 1 tsp / healthy pinch
Salt to taste
Jeera - 1 tsp

Method:
Cut the onion, capsicum and paneer into slightly big cubes. Keep aside.
Heat the butter in a thick bottomed pan and add the onion.
Reduce flame and once the onion starts becoming translucent, make a well in the middle and add the jeera in.

Next add the cubed paneer. Fry for 1 minute and add the capsicum.

Increase flame and fry for 1 minute.
Now add the tomato gravy, followed by the kasuri methi, milk and salt.

Cook covered on low flame for 5 minutes.
Serve hot with chapathy or nan.