Regional special

Feb 18 saw us cook regional dishes including a Dutch dessert! Specifically we had dishes from Punjab, MP & Gujarat with the dessert being videshi.

For the first time the meeting was held without the 'Food Club' coordinator Prakash & his wife Vandana as their kid was not well. The meeting strength was, otherwise, full.

Menu for this meet was:

• Handvo
• Amritsari Daal
• Shahi Gobi
• Kwark

Ashwini started the proceedings with preparing Kwark. The dessert had to be kept in refrigerator before we could enjoy it. Aditya was next with Amritsari Dal. The boiled urad dal was brought by him and hence he cooked and garnished it. According to him, the dal is very popular in Punjab in parts near Amristar and is to be enjoyed along with parathas. As a substitute of the regular parathas, we had the quick parathas. Well, we postponed eating of dal after preparation of Handvo by Dhwani.

Handvo as the starters were really tasty and already occupied bit of space in the human tumbler. Next to follow were the flowers or Gobis already fried and were waiting to be garnished with masala. This was prepared by myself. Once they were baked, every body enjoyed along with amristari dal and the parathas.

In the mean time, Ashwini's Kwark had gone fluffy. She garnished with fruits which made it look tempting. We had a small but enjoyable cake or Kwark cutting ceremony honoured by Dhwani. She was going to celebrate her birthday the next day. After we were full, there was normal len-den ki baat chaired by our treasurer Ashwini. Then we discussed about the next meeting which is going to be 'HOLI SPECIAL' and would be held in TCS office so that the neighbourhood is not being disturbed by holi shor gul.

The planning of this special meeting is in process and hope it gets finalized soon. We wish Aditya, Pooja and Palak a very enjoyable and safe trip to India. We hope to see them after two months.

Asiatic Vegetable Bami

Bami is either in form of noodles or rice noodles. They can be prepared in number of ways. Here, is being explained, a classic and simple way of preparing bami.

Ingredients:
Noodles 1 packet: Any brand
Onions
Finely Cut Vegetables: Capasicum, Cabbage, Spring Onion
[Tip: Different kind of ready made finely cut vegetables ae available in the market like Italian, Chinese or Indonesian Roerbak mix]
Butter or Refined Oil
Blackpepper: according to taste
Salt: according to taste
Noodles Masala: Variety of thenm available but the most preferred one is "Honig's Mix Voor Bami Speciaal - Aziatisch"
Sauces: according to personal taste

Method:
1. Cut onions length wise
2. Boil noodles
3. Heat oil/ butter in a pan or kadai.
4. Add onions after oil had become hot.
5. Add capsicum after two minutes
6. Add remaining vegetables afetr two minutes and stir them
7. Add noodles and stir
8. Add salt and black pepper
9. Add Sauces and stir
10. The noodles are ready after two minutes

Please note that the noddles should not be overcooked else they would get meshed up.

Cheese Onion Toast

Cheese and onions are an excellent combination. Imagine a crispy toast topped with melted cheese on fried onions. Yummy, isn't it. This dish is a treat for cheese lovers. An excellent breakfast item or an evening snack.





Ingredients
2 slices soft white bread
1 medium onion
2 cheese slices or some grated cheese
Little oil for fying onions




Method

[1] Dice the onions and fry them till light brown

[2] Lightly toast the bread slices in a toaster

[3] Spread the onions on top of the slices





[4] Sprinkle some grated cheese on top of the onions




[5] Keep in pre-heated oven (225 degree centigrade) till cheese is melted and is slightly brown on the top (5~7 minutes)

[6] Enjoy with a cup of hot tea.




Variation
Use cheese slizces instead of grated cheese. You can also add some finely chopped green paprika along with the onions. The parika need not be fried like the onions


Gotchas

• Keep a close eye of the toast to avoid it burning.
• Handle the oven carefully.

Veg Stir-fried rice

This is Chinese style stir-fried rice. A delight for the vegetarians and a change for the non-vegetarians (See variations). Its extremely easy to prepare and is a complete meal in itself because of all the vegetables that go along with it. It has a disticnt chinese taste because of the soya sauce and MSG. Here are the ingredients that you would be needing for this dish.


Ingredients

500 gms (total) of the following vegetables:

• Red Onions
• Bean sprouts (optional)
• Carrots
• Pointed Cabbage or Spitskool (Can use regular cabbage if spitskool is unavailable)
• Broccoli
• French beans
• Capsicum (Shimla mirch)
• Button mushrooms

Cut the vegetables as shown in this photo

500 gms Full boiled rice (Non glutinuous)


Ajinomoto (MSG - Mono Sodium Glutamate) to taste
Salt to taste
3 tbsp soya sauce
1tsp black pepper powder
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp Oil



Method

Note: All cooking on high flame only.

[1] Heat the oil in a wok and add ginger garlic paste.

[2] After 5 seconds add the onions and fry for 10 seconds

[3] Add carrots, beans, broccoli and fry for 20 seconds


[4] Add the remaining vegetables, add 1 1/2 tbsp soya sauce and fry for 20 seconds

[5] Now add the rice, sprinkle salt & MSG and then mix well with the veges.


[6] Once mixed, add the remaining soya sauce, mix well for 30 seconds and serve hot.

[7] Enjoy Veg stir-fried rice.



Variations

• Break an egg in the beginning and scramble it
• Put boiled chicken shreds as one of the additions to rice
• Increase or decrease vegetables as according to your liking
• Have the rice with a little tomato ketchup
  

Gotchas

• Not recommended to put vegetables not mentioned in this recipe like peas, cauliflower, etc. This makes the taste more Indian than Chinese.
• Pay attention to the amount of salt you add as Ajinomoto as well as soya sauce are themselves salty.
• Add vegetables in the order mentioned as the most dense veges go in first (and hence are cooked for a relatively longer period of time)
  
• All cooking is done on high flame.
• Ginger garlic paste sputters in hot oil. Take care.
• Do not overcook as then the crunch of the vegetables will go off.
  

Bread Upma

Here is an interesting snack that one can make with some leftover bread. Its not necessary that the bread that you use be leftover :) So here's an upma without sooji.

Ingredients

6-8 Slices of bread
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp tomato puree
1/2 medium firm tomato diced
2 tbsp Oil
1 medium onion diced
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp paprika powder (or kashmiri mirch)
Red chilli powder to taste
Green chillies to taste
Salt to taste
Few Coriander leaves for garnishing


Preparation

All cooking for this recipe needs to be done on a high flame

[1] Slightly wet the bread slices under tap water and tear them apart as shown below.


[2] Dice Onions and Tomato.


[3] Heat oil in a wok and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds tend to crackle, add the diced onions and saute till onions turn brown.

[4] Now add the turmeric powder the tomato puree. Mix well.

[5] Add the wet torn bread slices, sprinkle chilli powder, salt and paprika powder and mix well.

[6] Cover this with the pan cover for 20 seconds. Remove cover. Mix well and again cover for 20 seconds.

[7] Uncover and add green chillies & diced tomatoes. Mix well and let it roast for 20 seconds.

[8] Remove from flame and garnish with coriander leaves.



[9] Enjoy bread upma.



Variations

• Leave out the diced tomatoes
• Add jeera (carom) instead of mustard seeds
• Add curry leaves
• Minus the paprika powder if the dish is too red for you
• Use leftover bread sides (if you made some bread rolls or sandwiches) instead of the whole slice.

Gotchas

• Do not wet the bread too much, neither keep the bread completely dry
• Do not cover while cooking for periods more than what is mentioned in the recipe. This would make the bread soggy and sticky
• Do not cover once the diced tomatoes are added as this would cook them and make them mushy.

Curd Rice

This recipe of curd rice with grapes, oranges, pomegranate and onions makes it look colourful and enhance the taste.

Ingredients :

• Rice -2 cups cooked
• Plain -Yoghurt 4 cups
• Milk -1/2 cup
• Mustard seeds -1/2 tsp
• Seedless Grapes 1/2 cup
• Pomegranate- 1/2 cut
• Tinned Orange pieces -1/2 cup
• Red Onion-1 small chopped
• Few Curry leaves
• Chana dal/Urad dal-2tsps
• Oil or ghee-1 tbsp
• Asafoetida-1 pinch
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves for garnishing
• Green chillies -2
  

Preparation:

1. Cool the cooked rice.
2. Add yoghurt,milk into rice. Mix well. If it's not sufficient then you can put some more yoghurt depending on your liking. Add salt.
3. Chop grapes and the orange into fine pieces .Remove the seeds from pomegranate. Chop the onion finely.Mix all of these to the curd rice mixture.
4. Heat 1 tsp oil/ghee in a pan and put mustard seeds , green chilies (cut into small pieces),curry leaves ,asafoetida and the chana/urad dal.When the seeds pop, remove from heat and add them to the above curd-rice mix.
5. Garnish with green coriander leaves.
6. Put in the referigerator to chill for about an hour.
   

Gotchas:

If you leave the dish for 2-3 hours then the rice might soak all the yoghurt and it becomes dry. So you can put some more yogurt or milk.

Murukku

Let me begin with a story as to how we were introduced to murukku. It so happened that once we received a plate of snacks from our neighbours who recently visited their home town in South India. In that was a fried white colored chakli style namkeen. On giving it a try both me and Vandana instantly liked it very much. At a couple of other home visits we asked our neighbours to get packets of murukku for us since it is not commonly available in the North.

A few weeks back we visited one of our other friends whose parents were visiting them. At tea we were again sered Murukku. I was delighted to know that they were made at home! I asked auntyji about the recipe and she assured me it was pretty simple. The last bit was to have the machine used to make murukku. She was more than happy to share that with us. So here I was all set to try this recipe. The machine is shown below.



Background

Murukku is a South Indian snack more commonly known in other parts of India as Chakli. I must admit that although the physical shape of Chakli and murukku is supposed to be the same, they are made of different materials. Chakli is made of gram and rice flour while Murukku is made of urad dal and rice flour.

Murukku

Murukku is made in 2 varieties - Murukku & Kai Murukku. Kai Murukku is made by hand while and has a twisted chakli shape while murukku is made with a press machine as mentioned earlier. Both taste delicious. Murukku does not have a strict recipe and canbe varied based on what taste you prefer.

Ingredients

Non-glutinous Rice flour 1/2 kg
Dhuli Urad Dal 70-80 gms
Butter or Ghee 50-60 gms
Jeera or Ajwain seeds 1 1/2 tsp (Any one type Based on your preference)
Salt to taste
Red Chilli powder (Optional)
Very little water to knead the dough
Oil for frying

Method

[1] Soak Dal for 15-30 minutes. This reduces boiling time later.

[2] Put the Dal with very little water (Just enough to boil it) in a pressure cooker and boil it till done

[3] Grind Dal in a mixie or mixer



[4] Now put this Dal paste in a kneading tray and mix all the ingredients (Salt, Jeera/Ajwain,Chilli powder, Butter and Rice flour) slowly. Rice flour requires very little water to form a dough. However a few splashes or water may be required in the kneading process. The dough should neither be very soft nor very hard. The below picture should give a feel of how it should be. See the finger impressions. I did not press very hard to get this.


[5] Heat oil at high flame. All frying for murukku happens are high flame only!

[6] Fill the murukku machine with some dough and press it over the hot oil in the kadhai.

[7] Let murukku fry till it stops bubbling. Turn once.


[8] Remove on a newspaper to absorb extra oil. After cooling store in an air tight container

[9] Enjoy murukku



Variations
As mentioned, you can put some of your favourite masalas in the dough for added taste but this is experimental. Murukku on its own tastes divine. Also if you are diet conscious, you can skip adding the butter or ghee. This will only make your murukku a bit hard.

Gotchas

• Most important things in this recipe that can easily go wrong are:

• Ratio of Urad Dal to Rice flour
• Dough consistency

Pay special attention to those. If your dough is a bit hard (Too much pressure to get the murukku out of the machine), spash some water and make the dough softer. If your dough is too soft (Murukku turns out to be bubbly after frying - See picture), then add some rice flour to make the dough a bit firmer.

• Murukku has to be extremely crisp. Always store murukku in an air tight container or else they may go soggy.
• If you are using salted butter, reduce the amount of salt you add to the dough.
  
• Lastly, be extremely careful while frying. The oil may sputter sometimes if dough consistency is not OK.