Chana Daal with Lauki(Bottle Gourd) and Bell Pepper – who knew?

Chana Daal with Opo Squash and Bell Pepper

Lauki in Hindi, Bottle Gourd in English aka Opo Squash and Long Melon, this vegetable is a staple of Indian cooking and one that I absolutely hated growing up. Eggplants were also on the list of disliked vegetables but I love them both now. In fact, the only vegetable that I disliked as a I child that I continue to consider unfit for human consumption is Karela (Bitter Gourd). I love just about everything else. Funny how tastes change with age. But I digress.

I had bought a Lauki from an Indian store to make Sambar. These veggies tend to be on the massive side, so I had just used half of it. The other half was calling my name for dinner last week and I was ready to make the standard Lauki/Chana Daal but there was a Bell Pepper that had been whispering my name in the fridge as well. So for a lark, I decided to go to one of my favorite go-to Indian sites for ideas – Vahrehvah.com. Sure enough, there was a recipe for Chana Daal with Lauki and Capsicum (Bell Pepper) – link here. I made a variation of this that night along with Parathas. It turned out quite well, though you may want to go a little easier on the red chili than the recipe calls for.

Anyway, when dinner was served that night, my older daughter turned to me and said – “Daddy, where did you get the Parathas from?”. When I replied that I made them, I was greeted with an incredulous “Really? You know how to make Parathas?”. Jeez, I get no respect. Anyway, my variation is below (it is approximate since I was winging it). Enjoy.

INGREDIENTS (enough for 4)

1 cup Chana Daal (Split Pea) – soaked in water that just covers the daal for 2 hours or so. Longer is better

1/2 a medium sized Bottle Gourd – peeled and cubed into 1 inch pieces. The Bottle Gourd I stared out with was about a foot long.

Salt to taste

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 medium Onion sliced thin

4 cloves of garlic – minced

1.5  inch of Ginger – peeled and minced

1 tsp Coriander powder  (preferably fresh)

1/2 tsp Red chilli powder

1/4 ts Fennel seed powder

1 large Tomato chopped

1 Bell pepper, cut into cubes

1/4 tsp Garam masala powder

STEPS

1. Boil the soaked Daal, Bottle Gourd pieces and a little salt in some water (enough to cover them all but no more). Lower heat to medium and allow them to cook till the Daal is soft and the Bottle Gourd is cooked. Try and get as little water remaining as possible.
2. In a pan, heat the oil on Medium High, add cumin seeds. When they sputter, add the onion slices and a pinch of salt. Saute till the onions are translucent.
3. Add the Ginger, Garlic and cook till the raw smell is gone. Add the Coriander, Fennel and Red Chili powders.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook till pulpy. Add a little water (about 1/2 cup)
5. Add the cooked Daal and Bottle Gourd and the Bell Pepper.
6. Cook the mix for another 2-3 minutes.
7. Add the Garam Masala, mix well and serve with an Indian bread of your choice.

Daal Baati – a Rajasthani Classic (almost) mastered

Baatis – baked and ready to eat

Sometimes the obvious is staring you in the face but it takes a teacher to point you in the right direction. For me the problem was getting the Baatis right and the teacher was the Vah-re-Vah chef (fabulous website, great recipes). Baatis are a rustic bread from North India – specifically Rajasthan/UP/MP. They are a “quick bread” as they are very easy to put together and can be made over an open fire. For that reason and for their long shelf life, they found favor as a travel food in olden days. Traditionally eaten with Daal (a Lentil soup), they can also be had with some Ghee (clarified butter) and Gud (jaggery).

This was the picnic food of my childhood and on a recent trip to Rajasthan, India, I had the good fortune of  sampling Baatis from the source, and I was ready to try making them at home when I returned home to Dallas. Now whenever, I have tried to make Baatis in the past, I have failed miserably. The bread has turned out tough, inedible. So conscious of past failures I started looking for recipes. Two things became obvious to me very quickly.

1. Baatis need to be crumbly – you cannot let gluten form – so use less water and knead the dough minimally – Vahrevah chef reminded me of this.

2. The best Baatis are soft – Adding some baking soda and cornmeal helps – The Baati chef in Rajasthan taught me that.

Armed with this knowledge, I set out on my Baati quest. I decided to make some Daal to eat with it. While the Baatis turned out well, the Daal was a fail. Hence the reason for the title of this post. Without further ado, here is the Baati recipe

INGREDIENTS (for 5 Baatis)

1 cup whole wheat flour aka Aataa (Rant alert – BTW why do packets of whole wheat flour say “Atta” in Indian Stores? To the best of my knowledge the pronunciation is “aataa”. What language is “Atta”? Punjabi?)

1/2 cup semolina aka Rava

1 Tbsp Besan – Chickpea Flour

1 Tbsp Cornmeal

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

2 Tbsp Ghee (clarified butter)

1 tsp salt

Some water

STEPS

1. Mix all the ingredients.

2. With a little water make the dough. Use just enough enough water for the dough to form.

3. DO NOT work the dough too hard.

4. Make golf ball sized dough balls and flatten them.

5. Bake at 450F in a preheated oven for 15 mins. Then flip and bake for 5 mins more.

6. Crumble the baked Baati, top with Ghee and Daal and enjoy hot.

Crumbled Baati topped with Daal

The street comes to you – the Bhel Whisperer

Yadav-ji the Bhel Whisperer

As many of you know, India is a country of foodies. We love our food, and we want a lot of it – if we can afford it, given the poverty levels in India. You can see it in the potbellied multitudes milling around. The constant access to tasty food is on full display in Mumbai, the city that never sleeps. The long commutes, and even longer work hours, have resulted in a strong culture of street food that one can indulge in whenever one feels peckish.

Bhel Puri

Among the many street foods associated with Mumbai, the Bhel  and Pao Bhaji probably rule the roost. Bhel, for those of you who don’t know is like a tossed salad, made with puffed rice and chopped veggies including onion, boiled potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and green mango. It is then flavored with a combination of sweet and hot chutneys, lemon juice and topped with Sev (deep fried, strands of Chick Pea flour dough). Pao Bhaji, which literally means Bread and a Veggie Stew is exactly that. Pao, the quintessential Mumbai bread, similar to the square dinner rolls available in the US, is pan fried with butter and served with a spicy stew of potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, beans and basically any other vegetable that can be boiled and mashed.

Eating Bhel/Pao Bhaji is high on our eating priorities when we visit Mumbai. Usually, our family takes us out to a restaurant to indulge since our sensitive US tummies can no longer handle the hardcore Indian street food. This time though, our family surprised us, they had a Bhel maker come to my wife’s uncle’s house and prepare Bhel to our specification. The Bhel Whisperer – Yadav-ji, showed up with his wares and proceeded to set up in the kitchen. Yadav-ji, who is originally from Azamgarh in Northern India, not too far from where I grew up, underscored another distinguishing feature of Mumbai – it is the city of immigrants from all over India looking for opportunity. So, we had Mumbai street food, in a Gujarati household made by a UP immigrant, national integration indeed!

Attempt #5 – Veggie Shami Kabab/Indian Style Veggie Burger

Veggie Shami Kabab V5.0

I was recently asked to write an article for my alumni newsletter related to the comfort food we consumed in college. One of the key ingredients of a sandwich from those days was a meat patty, a Shami Kabab, to be precise, and that started my craving to have one.

For those of you who don’t know, a Shami Kabab is a deep fried or pan fried meat patty that is very popular in North India and Pakistan. Eaten with a mint chutney, chopped raw onion and lemon juice, it is the perfect snack to have with beer. The name Shami comes from Sham (which means Syria in Persian). Legend has it that these type of kababs were introduced to North India during Mughal times by Syrian immigrants.

Shami Kababs were my lifeline to half-decent food when I was in boarding school. The food at the school, like boarding schools the world over, was terrible. However, there was a mosque right across from our school that had a little tea shop that sold Shami kababs. That is where I headed to whenever the school food was just too much to take.

Since I don’t eat meat anymore, I do miss the kababs. But I have been trying over the years to create a veggie substitute. Here is the latest attempt and it is pretty good.

NOTE: You can use the kababs as veggie burgers. They taste really good with all the fixins’.

INGREDIENTS (for 5-6 kababs)

50g Dry chana dal (Yellow split peas) – soak them in water for about an hour. They will cook faster.

1 medium potato

Cooking oil

1/2 Medium onion finely chopped

1 Thai green chili

200g Morningstar Veggie Crumbles (or real minced meat)

1 tsp minced ginger

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 Tbsp Shan shami kabab mix (go easy on this stuff, it is STRONG)

½ tsp Garam masala

Salt to taste

1 Egg white

STEPS

1. Cook the chana dal and boil the potato.

2. Drain the water from the cooked dal.

3. Peel the potato and mash with the dal. Set aside.

2. Finely chop the onion and mix with garlic and ginger.

3. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a frying pan.

4. Add onion, garlic and ginger to hot oil till the onion start to brown.

5. Add veggie crumbles, and let it cook for 1-2 mins.

6. Add the potato/dal mix and mash everything together.

7. Add the green chili and spice powders and let it cook. If it is too liquidy, let the water evaporate. If it is too dry add some water.

8. Cook on low heat till the mixture looks well blended and the water has evaporated.  About 10 minutes. NOTE: If you are using real minced meat you will need to cook till the meat is completely cooked. The time will vary based on meat.

9. Let it cool and adjust the seasoning. Add the egg white for binding. Mash as though your life depended on it and make the mixture really homogenous.

10. Roll into balls and flatten into patties about 3 inches in diameter.

11. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a frying pan and pan fry on both sides. TIP: You can also deep-fry the kababs if you like.

Baigan Bharta aka the Indian version of Baba Ghanouj

Baigan Bharta

Sometimes I feel that Indian restaurants are in cahoots with the Oil and Gas lobby. They seem very supportive of Big Oil. A visit to an Indian restaurant ensures that you will be treated to many flavors of oil cooked with vegetables and meat. There is definitely flavor to be had in Indian food without necessarily having to drown it in oil, but I think restaurants and some of the traditional cooks seem to miss it.

Anyway, enough of my rant, on a recent trip to an Indian restaurant, we ordered some Baigan Bharta (Baigan is Hindi for Eggplant. Bharta literally means a mush.). It was tasty, but, as expected, throttled with oil. Which reminded me of the simple principle of cooking eggplant – if you fry it, it will suck up oil. A healthy way to cook eggplant is add it precooked to dishes. A couple of healthy ways are – boiling and roasting. So here is a healthier way to cook Baigan Bharta. It is really easy to make and tastes

INGREDIENTS (Enough as a side dish for 4)

1 large eggplant

1 Tbsp oil ( I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

1/4 Onion – diced

2 Cloves of garlic – minced

2 Medium tomatoes – diced

1/2 tsp Shredded ginger

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp Coriander powder

1/2 tsp Garam Masala

Salt to taste

STEPS

1. Boil the eggplant in enough water till it more than covers till for about 10 minutes or until the skin starts to shrivel (you will need to turn the heat off to see the shrivelling. The heat keeps the skin puffed up). TIP: You can even roast a whole eggplant on a grill, cover it in cling wrap and then peel its skin off. It has great flavor. In fact, way better than boiling but it needs more work.

2. Cool the eggplant and peel the skin off. Cut the eggplant in half and lose the large chunks of seeds. If you haven’t ccoked eggplant before, not to worry, it should be pretty obvious. Even if seeds remain, don’t worry, we’ll smother them with the gravy.

3. Cut up the flesh of the eggplant in bute sized chunks. Set aside.

4. Heat oil in a saucepan and saute the onion and garlic, till the onion starts to get translucent.

5. Add the tomatoes, ginger and the spices (don’t add salt yet) and let it cook on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes.

6. Add the reserved eggplant, cover and let everything cook on slow heat for about 15 minutes. If it is starting to dry add a little water.

7. Add salt to taste. Serve with a bread of your choice.

Tea, Chai, Cha but most definitely NOT Chai Tea Latte!

Gujarati Style Chai

NOTE: This is long overdue. A few friends have requested it. So, here goes.

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There is definitely something to be said about bringing foods and recipes from all over the world and making them accessible to us. It is one of the positive effects of globalization. Giving these recipes and foods inane, nonsensical names to make them more acceptable is one of the downsides to globalization. Chai Tea Latte is one such name.

The humble Chai, is a tea based drink that any person from the Indian subcontinent will know about. Though coffee (Kaapi) is more commonly drunk in South India, Chai is the drink of choice for most of Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. You drink it to relax, when you socialize and as a pick-me-up. Chai literally means Tea but also refers to the drink made with Tea leaves, milk and sugar. Now, while I did grow up drinking Chai, it was only after I met my wife, whose family is from Gujarat, that I realized that Gujaratis (people from the state of Gujarat)take Chai to completely different level. Their version of Chai (or Cha) in addition to the usual tea leaves, milk and sugar, uses a blend of spices that takes this drink into a completely different realm. Once you have had Gujarati Chai, you are spoiled for life. There is no turning back.

So, it is my pleasure to give to you (drumroll), my wife’s Chai recipe.

INGREDIENTS (for 1 cup)

3/4 cup water

1 tsp loose tea leaves (Assam Tea available at most Indian Stores is best).

NOTE: You can also use two tea bags of Lipton or Tetley Tea if you can’t find anything else. It is definitely a sub-optimal option.

Sugar to taste (I use about 1 heaped tsp)

1/4 tsp Chai Masala (My wife uses her homemade, secret-recipe masala, but you can get Chai Masala at an Indian grocery store)

1/4 cup milk

STEPS

1. Boil the water with the tea leaves, sugar and Chai Masala.

2. Bring to a rolling boil for a couple of minutes.

3. Add the milk and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and let it boil/bubble for a couple of minutes. Strain and serve.

NOTE: The color of the Chai should be kind of like Cafe au Lait, so if it is too dark, add more milk. Play around with proportions to get to a taste you like.

Attempt #4 at a veggie shami kabab

Veggie Shami Kababs – Attempt #4

As many of you know, I have been at this for a while. Ever since I quit eating meat, Shami Kababs are something I have sorely missed. For the uninitiated, Shami Kababs are an extremely popular appetizer in North India and Pakistan. They are typically made with beef or ground goat meat, bound with Chana Daal and spices. The belief is that Mughal invaders introduced this dish to the Indian palate and that these came over with Syrian cooks that the Mughals brought with them (the Sham in Shami, refers to Syria).

I had not attempted these in a while and then when my mother made the Chickpeas Veggie Patties recently, it rekindled a desire to try and make Veggie Shami Kababs again. The reason being that Veggies Patties, made with Chickpeas, had a taste profile that intersected quite heavily with the taste of Shami Kababs. To add the meaty texture I once again relied on the trusty Morningstar Meat Crumbles (Soy-based meat crumbles). I sauteed the meat crumbles in a little oil with some salt and red chili powder and then mixed them into the veggie patty mixture (see recipe here). I then pan fried the veggie patties with a little oil on both sides.

I am happy to report that this attempt was successful. The veggie kababs were flavorful and had a great texture. The best part was I didn’t need to use the dreaded Shami Kabab Masala, whose proportion I never seem to be able to get right.

I hope you try these with some leftover Cholle. They make a wonderful hors d’oeuvres and are very easy to make. Serve them with some green chutney and you will be in appetizer heaven.

Recycling leftovers – Chickpeas Veggie Patties

Cholle Veggie Patties

I hate waste especially as it relates to food. I am glad my wife feels the same way. In our house, the kids are expected to finish whatever is on their plate. Groceries are seldom thrown away unused and we try and figure out a way to consume anything we buy. Given that we live in Texas, restaurant portions can be, well, Texas-sized, so we bring leftovers home and consume them later.

I hadn’t consciously thought of this till recently. One morning last week, my mom, who is visiting from India, decided to recycle leftover Cholle for breakfast as patties. As I was teasing her for not letting anything go to waste, I started thinking about why is my mom the way she is. My parents, and my parents-in-laws grew up in an India of scarce resources. They were middle class (the classic definition, not the new political take on it) and had to manage with little. As a result, it was drilled into all of us from early childhood that waste is bad, frugality is good and one should consume what only what one needs. While this was never explicit, it is amazing how ingrained this belief system is in both my wife and I.

Anyway, my mother had cooked us some Cholle for a meal and there was quite a bit leftover. So she did what any good cook does. She improvised. She chopped some onion and green chili. Heated the Cholle and dried off the water to make them really thick. Then mashed the chickpeas with some bread slices (End slices. She was thinking reducing waste here as well). Added the onion, green chilies and fashioned patties out of the mix. This she pan fried and voila, she had veggie burgers. They tasted great. You can add potatoes, rice, grain, quinoa, all kinds of stuff to them if you like. You and your imagination can do whatever you like with these. Amazing stuff.

Taste from my childhood – My Mom’s Cabbage Kofta

Cabbage Kofta with Chapattis

This, most definitely, is a landmark post. This is post #100. What better way to celebrate it than to post one of my mom’s recipes.

My parents are visiting me from India right now. My mom is an excellent cook and my first cooking teacher. While growing up, we almost always had home cooked meals and me and my siblings could care less about my mom’s cooking, we wanted to eat out. It’s funny how things change, I can’t get enough of her cooking now. The Cabbage Kofta was a regular item on the dinner menu but one I hadn’t had in years. So when my mom made it the other night, I was reminded of how good it was. Though my mom uses a standard North Indian – Onion-Garlic-Ginger-Tomato gravy, a tomato based gravy like Paneer Makhani gravy (click here) should work too. Instead of Paneer, use Koftas instead.

The Indian culture has a history of absorbing foreign influences and putting an Indian twist on them. Koftas are a case in point. Koftas are a staple of Middle-Eastern cooking. Traditionally, they are spicy meatballs that are deep fried and then served with or without gravy. Kofta dishes in Indian cooking most likely evolved from dishes that would have come with invaders from the Middle East and Afghanistan. They were, over a period of time, adapted for the Indian palate by incorporating them with rich gravies. And given the prevalence of vegetarianism in India, there are any number of vegetarian Kofta dishes even though the origins are definitely meat based.

Anyway, enough commentary, here’s the recipe, enjoy.

INGREDIENTS (for 6 adults)

For the Koftas

Half a finely shredded cabbage

4 Tbsp Gram Flour (Besan) *

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp Garam Masala

Oil for deep frying

For the Gravy

1 Medium Onion

1 Medium Tomato

1 inch piece ginger

5-6 cloves of Garlic

1 Tbsp Cooking Oil

1/2 tsp Turmeric

1/2 tsp Red Chili powder

1 tsp Coriander powder

1 tsp Garam Masala

STEPS

1. Make Koftas first. Heat oil in a wok or kadhai or a deep saucepan.

2. Add the gramflour, Garam Masala and salt to the shredded cabbage. Shape the mixture into two inch long croquettes and squeeze hard till the water leaves the mixture. Deep fry them till they are dark brown (see picture below).

*Start with 2 Tbsp of Gram Flour, keep adding more till you can form firm croquettes with the shredded cabbage.

Cabbage Koftas being degreased

3. Set them on a paper towel to drain and soak the oil.

4. Next, make the gravy. Blend the onion, tomato, ginger and garlic in a blender.

5. Heat 1 Tbsp of cooking oil in a saucepan. Add the blended mixture from 4.

6. Add the turmeric, chili powder and coriander powder and cook till the mixture starts to brown.

7. Add some water to make a thick gravy.

8. Add salt to taste and the Garam Masala.

9. Add the premade Koftas, bring to a boil and serve with a bread of your choice or boiled rice.

A taste of Western India – Baby Eggplants and Potatoes stuffed with a Peanut Masala

Baby Eggplant and Potatoes with a Spicy Peanut Stuffing

On a recent visit to New Jersey, I visited with some old friends for dinner. Avanti, my friend’s wife, a great cook and originally from Maharashtra (in Western India) whipped up a feast in virtually no time. One of the highlights of the meal was a dry dish made with big chunks of potato and whole baby eggplants. I had had something similar before when my mother-in-law had cooked it. But as much as I love eggplants I had stayed away from this one, primarily because I was always unsure of how long to cook the darned thing since eggplants and potatoes take different times to cook. Anyway, not to worry, Avanti demystified the dish for me.

And so, when I returned to Dallas to find that I still had some baby eggplants left over from a previous visit to the Farmer’s Market, I had to try and make it. It was surprisingly easy and very tasty. Thanks for the recipe Avanti. Here it is.
INGREDIENTS (for 4 people)

4-6 baby eggplants – washed and a cross slit cut in them from the bottom almost to the top where the stem is.

1 large potato – peeled and diced into big chunky cubes (about an inch and a half to a side). Immerse in water for 20 minutes and then drain the water to lose some of the starch.

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 dry red chili

1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

1 Tbsp cooking oil

STEPS

1. Dry roast the dry roasted peanuts till they start to brown. Set aside to cool.

2. Dry roast the cumin, coriander and red chili. Set aside to cool.

3. Grind the peanuts and the other spices, add the turmeric and salt.

4. Stuff the ground masala made in step 3 into the slits in the eggplant and generously coat the potatoes with it.

5. Heat oil in a vessel with a tight fitting lid on medium heat and add the potatoes and eggplant. Stir a few times and cover.

6. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook covered till the potatoes and eggplants have softened. And you are done.

7. Serve with a bread of your choice.