Dahi Bhallas, an all-time favorite

Cool,refreshing & wholesome

Dahi Bhallas with different garnishes

There are some “items” that are beyond season and time. Which is why they are called all time favourites. One such item is  the Dahi Bhalla or Dahi Wada. It comes with the advantage of being an all-India item. Every state in the country has a marginally varying version of a lovely bhalla, dunked in whisked yoghurt, seasoned and garnished, to be eaten before, during or after  lunch or dinner.

At a glance it seems a bit tedious, and easier to eat at the favourite chaat shop in the neighbourhood. But believe you me, it is very, very easy. I learnt this from an aunty who left me when she was close to 98. “I always make mine out of moong dal, Darling, though they are excellent  even when you use urad dal” she told me. I always wondered how she managed that at that age. One day I learnt that she would instruct the cook, keep an eye on her, get dozens of them made, and tuck them away in the fridge, to be brought out till  they ran out of them…and it was time to make the next batch.

For Punjabi style home made bhallas, you need the following:

Urad dal—1 cup

Pepper corns-half a teaspoon

Salt to taste

Jeera-  half a teaspoon

Hing/Asofeatida- a pinch

Oil –enough to deep fry them

Soak the urad dal  in warm water for  one hour, and grind, along with all the other ingredients save oil,  till  the batter is fluffy and cottonlike,.Sprinkle or drizzle water—meaning don’t put all the water you  will need to grind the dal , at one go.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, till it gets to a smoking point. Then bring the flame down to the slowest, and with  your hand make  small balls of the batter, and float in the hot oil, taking care not to let one stick with the other. 

Make , in one batch, only that number that can conveniently play around in that frying pan—it should not be crowded with bhallas! Turn gently, till they are deep golden colour all round, and drain oil, and keep them in a wide-mouthed bowl, to cool.

Make bhallas with all the batter, and cool.

Bhallas, yoghurt, and two varieties of chutneys

Tamrind chutney

To make Dahi Bhallas , you need

Fresh, thick yoghurt— one cup for two bhallas

Salt to taste

Roasted jeera-1 teaspoon

Red chilli flakes—Half a teaspoon

Green chutney

Sweet and sour tamrind chutney

Sprouts/slivers of ginger/chopped coriander

Crispies (readymade)

Heat some water in a pan, and put the wadas /bhallas in the hot water. Gently press with your  hand to take off the oil and water, and place the soft bhallas, 2 each in a small cup or bowl. Whip the yoghurt till it is smooth, add the salt to taste. 

Pour enough yoghurt to cover the wadas. Add a bit of red  chilly powder,  a bit of roasted jeera—whole or crushed--, a little green chutney, a little tamrind chutney,  on top. Now garnish with sprouts/coriander/crispies.

Sprouts, roasted jeera, chutneys and spices on Dahi Bhalla

It can conveniently be refrigerated in individual portions.

Equally, the bhallas can be made in a large bowl, and placed on the table.

PS: Take care when adding salt, for you are adding a little of it to the bhallas/wadas, and a little to the yoghurt.

The extra wadas/bhallas can be stored in an airtight container , and stored in a fridge. When you plan to make the bhallas, immerse them in hot water and proceed as described above.

Enjoy this cool and refreshing, filling and tasty item.

Sooji Upma with Five Treasures

Add a dash of color and goodness of vegetables to your breakfast

Five Treasure Rawa Upma

Sunday morning, and time to decide  what to make for breakfast. Something that is filling –have a pile of household work to do after that first meal. And if it is not tasty and piping hot on a rainy morning, why are we thinking of something other than two slices of bread?

Rawa Upma

My heart and thoughts were in Chennai where Mom must be tossing up something nice and  missing us. 

I was mentally in Bengalooru too, where I’ve had lovely “Khara Bath”. And lo..I’d decided on what to make.  A five treasure upma, with “Bansi Rawa”—that  slightly larger variety of semolina/sooji.

Five colors that add crunch,taste and flavor

The “treasures” I had handy were nicely cut lobia—a variety of beans that is not the usual French beans—corn, strangely grown in India and sold as “American Sweet corn” by vendors on the roadside in Chandni Chowk, sharp and fiery looking red chillies  whose bark seems worse than bite, the can’t-do-without onions, and the colourful Ooty carrots.

In less than 12 minutes the breakfast was ready, and we were ready to hog!

Roasted Sooji or Rawa

Ingredients

Semolina/sooji/rawa—1 cup

Your own variety of treasure—totalling about 3 cups

Water-3 cups

Salt to taste

Curry leaves-a few

Vegetable oil-3 teaspoons

Ghee/clarified butter-2 teaspoons

Chopped green coriander- a tablespoon full

South Indian Tempering – One table spoon full

Traditional  South Indian tempering/seasoning

Procedure:

Dry roast the sooji, till you can take in a lovely aroma, and the tiny grainy things in the pan turn golden in colour. Take out in a plate.

In the pan, add the oil, and place on the gas. When it turns hot, add the onions, sauté  for a minute. 

Now add the other treasures , processed such that they don’t take more than two minutes to cook as you sauté. Add the salt, and stir.

Five treasures and shoji simmering away

Now add three cups of water, and when it boils, add the ghee. Reduce the gas flame, and gradually add the roasted rawa , holding the plate on one hand, and stirring the ingredients in the pan, with the other. When the rawa has been blended with the water and vegetables, place a lid on the pan, and cook in lowest flame, for about five minutes.

Open the lid, and check. By now the water would have all been absorbed, the rawa cooked , and the vegetables forming a nice colourful ring on top.

You can empty this in any tableware of your choice, and garnish  with coriander and South Indian tempering, and serve.

But I prefer to throw in the coriander and the  South Indian tempering –which can conveniently be  kept ready  to be used in two or three items over the next two or three days--,  onto the Upmaand mix it all nicely, and make individual plates.

Upma with green chutney

To do this, grease any small bowl/cup/muffin mould, and pack it with upma, tight. Quickly invert it onto a plate when it is still hot, garnish as you fancy. Many do it with fried cashew nuts, but  for the calorie –conscious, a dash of green or red, is perfect. Serve with any chutney, or gooey pickle

Seasoning or Tempering for South Indian dishes

Readymade "tadka" for Sambar, Rasam etc

South India Tempering

Tempering or seasoning is part of any south Indian dish, be it sambar, rasam or chutney or salad or even raita. For that matter even puma! And most often, it  it is the same ingredients that are used to make this. Whenever there is a “difference”, it is largely in the oil that is used.

It makes sense to make a decent quantity of this, and keep handy.

When I had just started cooking, I used to buy the ready-made seasoning that the famed Ambika Appalam Store in Madras(now Chennai) used to sell. It was so, so convenient, and I was too much of a beginner to realize that I could have made that at home, and stocked it !

Here is how it is made:

Dry Red Chillies- a dozen, cut into pieces

Mustard seeds—Four tablespoons full

Urad dal- Eight tablespoons full

Aseoefiatida-  two pinches

Curry leaves—a large bunch, washed and dried

Methi seeds(optional)—one teaspoon

Vegetable oil/ghee/coconut oil- two teaspoons

Heat a frying pan, and add the oil/ghee.  Add the red chillies and mustard seeds. When the mustard begins to splutter, add the urad,methi  and the asoefiatida.When the dal turns golden, add the curry leaves. Turn them nicely, so that every grain and every leaf is glistening with oil. Switch off, cool, and store in an airtight container.

To temper rasam, ghee is used. But this can always be added on top of the rasam.

Coconut oil is used for “more kozhambu”, “avial” , and other coconut based dishes.

PS: As I live in an apartment and don't have the luxury of a "curry patta" tree nearby, I get a big bunch and dry them in the shade, take off the leaves and store them in a jar on the kitchen shelf, just like we store oregano and Italian herbs--only the leaves are whole in this case

PPS: I don't feel shy of just using this to garnish any North Indian dal, which is made of dehusked lentils.

"Kachri", made of Brinjals

A delicious, not too common and simple fare

Kachri Baingan Ki /Brinjal grilled and spiced

The big round brinjal/aubergine/eggplant is roasted whole and made into “Bharta” in north India, of which there are variations to be found in the Middle East cuisine too.

In the south, the roasted brinjal goes into what is called a “thogayal”—call it a sort of bharta.

The best part about this variety of bringal is that there is never a “season” for it—it is available round the year. And it is available  in almost every nook and corner of the world.

These brinjals are  very commonly sliced, dipped in a batter and deep fried to make “bhajjis” or “bhajias”, a popular snack/starter

Brinjal slices, coated with spices,being roasted

There is one nice dish that my mother in law used to make with slices of this big fat thing. She called it “kachri”, and it is something I’ve not eaten anywhere save my husband’s relatives. Perhaps it is not all that common or popular.But extremely tasty, it is.  This  “kachri” however ,is not a snack but a side dish to go with roti. Along with a dal, it makes a simple, nice lunch.

The doubting  Thomas need only check with my friends who “oohed and aaahed” at the sight of it, asked for receipe, and also told me to bring it in my lunch box again.

Onion rings being sautéed

Here goes the receipe:

Ingredients

1.Big,round  brinjal-1, cut into half inch slices, and rested in water

2.Blend the following dry ingredients in a small bowl:

Salt-to taste

Turmeric powder- One level teaspoon

Red chilli powder-Half teaspoon

Aamchur or dry mango powder-Half teaspoon

Asoefiatide-a pinch

3.Onion-1 big one, cut into rings

4.One large tomato, as many slices as there are of brinjal.

5.Vegetable oil 4 level teaspoons

6.Dry fenugreek leaves crushed(kasoori methi) – one teaspoon

Tomato slices being sautéed

Method

In  a  large , flat, heavy bottomed pan, drizzle two teaspoons of oil, and keep on gas burner.

Meanwhile, drain the brinjal slices, and with a knife or fork, slash across diagonally, forming diamonds, but without cutting the slices.

 Do this on both sides. This is in lieu of  pricking with the fork, and gives a grilled look to the brinjal  slices.

 Sprinkle the mixture of dry ingredients on one side of  each slice, and place them in the frying pan, with the plain side down. Put a lid, and after one minute, reduce the flame, and keep it that way, for about three minutes.

Take off the lid, and flip the brinjal slices over carefully, and let them cook on slow flame for another three minutes. Switch off the gas.

Kachris being "dressed up"!

Take the “kachris” out  of the pan, and arrange them on a plate.

In the same pan, drizzle a spoon of oil, and toss the onion rings. Add a pinch of salt and sauté them well, for about two or three minutes. Take care they don’t turn brown.

Arrange some rings on each of the “kachri”.

In the same pan, drizzle a spoon of oil, add salt, and  gently place the tomato slices taking care that they don’t lose shape. A minute later, flip them over, and switch off the gas.

Sprinkle some dry fenugreek leaf powder on top for that lovely flavor

Arrange a slice of tomato on each “kachri”, and garnish the tomatoes with  the fragrant, crushed kasoori methi. The humble brinjal slice looks truly “gourmet”, and very inviting. It dresses up the plate which has a roti and some dal, for lunch or dinner.

Enjoy !

PS: One can get as original and experimental while making “kachris”,  to the point of personalizing it. The trick in assembling one’s own group of dry ingredients—eg salt,pepper,oregano, or may be just garam masala, or just rub a clove of garlic.

And one can add a ring of bright green peppers, or yellow bell peppers for that matter.

Elevates the appeal to a simple meal

PPS:

If the Kachri looks ooh-la-la ooh-la-la, it is thanks to Photoshop that has enabled me to blur the background-- the humble brinjal dish remains virginal and untouched.

And  tips on how to do this came from Edible Garden  a blog I look at pretty regularly, to get a hang of Blogsphere. Those who want to dress/undress their pictures similarly, kindly click

http://www.cookingandme.com/2009/03/food-photography-basics-using-photoshop.html