This dish is usually made with potatoes. We are going to use sweet potatoes instead which add a bit more color and sweetness to the dish. This is delicious by itself as a snack or with chapati. Sweet potatos are a great source of antioxidants, iron, copper, manganese and vitamin A.
Ingredients
2 cup chopped sweet potatos 2 tea spoon cumin 2 pinch asafoetida 2 vertically split green chillies 2 tablespoon peanut powder/chutney 1 tablespoon oil
1 tsp red chilli powder (not required if you use ground peanut chutney) salt per taste
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Method
Heat oil in a pan and when hot add cumin/jeera, green chillies and asafoetida and let the jeera crackle and brown a bit. Add chopped potatos and shake the pan to coat it with oil and continue stir-shake frying on high heat.
Continue frying till sides of potatos get brown and the edges are crispy as well as th epotatos are cooked. Season with salt.
Remove from heat. Add peanut powder, red chilli powder (or peanut chutney which is nothing but a mixture of the same). Add chopped cilantro and mix.
Variations
You can add some chopped spring onions to give the dish some volume and crunch.
This is a delicious variation of the regular sheera using alfonso mango pulp. Mango Sheera or Mango kesari makes for a delicious dessert and can be served warm or cold depending on your preference.
Ingredients
1 cup coarse sooji
2 cup milk
1 cups alfonso mango pulp
1 cup sugar
2 tea spoon ghee / unsalted butter for roasting sooji
2 tea spoon ghee to add at the end
2 tea spoon chopped nuts of your choice (cashews, almonds, walnuts) (optional)
Few strands of saffron
Method
Microwave couple of table spoon of milk till warm and add in the saffron strands to let them soak.
In a vessel place milk for heating with a tablespoon of water added to the milk. If you are using nuts you cann add them here to boil if you dont like them too hard. I added a few candied walnuts today because i had them on hand.
While the milk heats, in a different pan heat ghee slightly and on medium heat lightly roast sooji till it gets a faint pink color. I like to use a egg beater for making sheera. It helps so much in avoiding formation of lumps and because of its wireframe structure, stirring the thickening sheera also takes very little effort. Over roasting sooji till it browns will prevent the sooji from cooking and coming together with mango pulp.
When the milk is hot and almost close to boiling, add the milk to the pan with roasting sooji. This will immediately start cooking and evaporating really fast. So lower the heat and as you whip the mixture with egg beater add the mango pulp, stirring continuously.
Cook for a bit and add sugar, cardamom powder and soaked saffron milk.
Cook on low for a little while stirring with egg beater. When cooked, add some ghee and stir. Adding ghee at the end after cooking is over will keep the sheera soft and bring a rich flavor without using relatively huge amounts of ghee.
Variations
You can add some chopped mangos or pineapples to top the sheera.
I learnt this from a very good friend. This is different from the maharashtrian garlic chutney which is made with crushed garlic, ground peanut and coconut. This is a great side for rice, chapati, khichadi and has a very bold and strong garlic flavor. This becomes a treat for garlic lovers.
Ingredients
16 big peeled garlic pods 5 tablespoons ground peanut powder / chutney. 1 tablespoon oil
1 tsp red chilli powder (not required if you use ground peanut chutney) salt per taste
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Method
Chop Garlic pods into fairly large pieces. The strong flavor of this chutney comes from chewin large pieces of garlic.
Heat oil in a pan till its hot enough to fry garlic and brown it. Add garlic pieces and sautee them till they are browned on all sides. They will get crispy when cooled down.
Add peanut powder, salt, red chilli powder (or peanut chutney which is nothing but a mixture of the same). Turn off the heat and add chopped cilantro and mix. Serve as a side.
Variations
You can add some chopped spring onions to garlic after it has browned to increase the volume of the chutney.
I never really liked the pancakes served at numerous diners. The were light, fluffy, soft and pretty much needed to be soaked with syrup to taste like anything. Then i tried these dutch pancakes and decided that if am going to have pancakes then i am going to have these ones. These pancakes are not light and fluffy but are very custardy and dense, they are not thick and soft but are infact thin and crispy on the edges. The apples make are a good fruity addition and cinnamon just goes great with the apples.
Ingredients
(Makes 1 large pancake)
Half cup milk
1 egg or equivalent egg beaters
1/2 cup all purpose flour (I would like to try this with wheat flour someday!)
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 table spoons sugar (This helps to make our pancakes be crispy)
pinch of salt.
1 Apple
Non Stick cooking spray
Light Pancake Syrup
Cinnamon Grinder / Powder
Powdered Sugar to sprinkle (You can use a mixture of cinnamon sugar instead)
Method
Warm the milk in microwave. Stir in sugar, pinch of salt and vanilla essence. Whip the egg and slowly add to the milk whipping continuously. Add the flour and whip to make a pourable thick batter.
Slice apple into thin slices as shown.Heat a round pan with slightly tall edges on medium heat and when hot spray some non stick cooking oil. Add apple slices and light fry each side for couple of minutes.
Do not overcook the apples, cook enough just for them to change their color and caramalize a bit. Set Aside onto a plate.
Heat same pan on medium heat and check hotness by sprinkling little water on it to see if it sizzles. Spray oil when pan is hot and then lift the pan up and pour some batter and do a round swirling motion to let the batter move around and coat the complete pan. Add the rest of the batter at the centre. And swirl pan around to get an even spread not too thick. Place the pan back and continue heating on medium without disturbing the pancake.
As the pancake cooks, the top will start going dry and might puff up from trapped air. Loosen the pancake from sides and keep pressing down on the pancake as it cooks when it starts to swell up with trapped steam. This is to make sure the pancake is golden brown evenly and crispy.
Check the underside of the pancake and if it crispy and brown, spray just a bit of oil on the top side and flip the pancake.
On the side you just flipped up, lay the apple slices like pizza toppings. Cook on slightly lower heat because the drier side gets crispier faster. Cook till pancake is crispy and slide onto the plate.
Add Pancake syrup in an outward spiral starting from the centre. Grind Cinnamon all over the pancake and using a collander sprinkle powdered sugar.
Cut into individual portions using a pizza cutter and serve.
Variations
You can try wheat flour with a pinch of baking powder. Different toppings can also be tried like bananas.
For the longest time i struggled with being able to make non sticky bhindi / bhendi / okra. Finally i was able to accomplish a non sticky preparation and the trick was to do the basics and be patient and cook it slowly over oil. It was almost like zen and the art of making bhendi. I love to make it with Maharashtrian style where we add coarse ground peanuts at the end to give the dish a crunch. It goes great with chapati.
Ingredients
2 cup bhendi chopped into roundels or half inch pieces split vertically
2 Green Chillies split vertically into halves
1 tea spoon mustard seeds
1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder
1 red onion chopped 1 tea spoon red chilli powder 4 curry leaves (optional)
Coarse ground peanut powder / peanut chutney (optional) salt per taste 1 tea spoon sugar 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 table spoon oil for cooking
Method
Heat oil in a large flat pan. Make sure the oil is hot and the heat is on high. Add mustard seeds so they crackle and add curry leaves and green chillies followed by red onions and turmeric powder and sautee for two minutes.
Next prepare to add bhindi and this should be done with the oil pretty hot. Add the bhindi and mix gently to let bhindi get some initial heat from the oil. Once its mixed nicely, you need to reduce the heat down to low and spread out the bhindi in the pan.
The next step is the most important, where you let the bhindi cook slowly, on very low heat in the oil without being disturbed. This is the key where you dont want to stir the bhindi at all. Because of low heat, and the oil it wont stick to the pan either. If you need to mix after every ten minutes, do it very gently. After about 30 minutes, the bhindi will be cooked enough to have soaked the oil and then let go of it, to start getting slightly crispy on the edges even at such low heat. This is the time to finish the bhendi by adding the rest of the ingredients and then giving it a minimum required mixing. Add Chilli powder, peanut powder, salt, sugar and chopped cilantro. Mix gently.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with chapati.
Variations
You can skip the peanut powder and onions and make a very simple bhindi with just namak and mirchi. The beauty of this dish is in its simple ingredients.
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