Misal

I hardly know of someone who doesn't like chat, but when it comes to Maharashtrian Misal, you either love it or hate it! I never really ate very spicy food when I was in India, but after I cam to US 9 yrs ago, the lack of flavor in the American food kind of pushed me into boosting my spice levels. May be it was pure nostalgia, but today I can't have less than spicy food all the times. Even my 3 year old eats our level of spicy food! Well back on track, it was useless to expect to stumble across an authentic misal in the Indian restaurants here, so I figured it would be easier for me to try it at home. Some research here & there, and I found this replica of the authentic thingy on Nupur's blog, http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2006/01/u-is-for-usalmisal.html. It turns out amazing & I always deep freeze the extra masala for future use. So the credit purely goes to Nupur for yet another amazingly easy recipe. If at all it matters, I acknowledge she rocks!!

Dabeli

Well who doesn't like street side junk food? I haven't seen anyone till date who has no liking for bhel, dabeli, pani-puri etc. There was a time when I was living off of this junk food & it was my staple diet. Indian junk food was the most important thing that I kept missing in the US until a few years ago when I took upon the job to create them myselves. Long international phone calls, reading cook-books helped me try these recipes on my own. Well, today I can say with confidence that these recipes are really not difficult & if we master the art of making chutneys, we can easily create the chaat we loved back home. Here I blog one of my all time favorites; Dabeli. I use home made chutneys, but if you want to, store bought chutneys should turn out fine as well.

Ingredients

3 medium size potatoes

1 tbsp jeera

1 tbsp red chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric

2 tbsp dabeli masala

2 tbsp oil

1/2 cup date tamarind chutney

1/4 cup mint coriander chutney

1/4 cup luke warm water

roasted peanuts, chopped onions, coriander & thin sev to garnish

Bread/Pavs

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add jeera & pinch of hing after the jeera seeds flutter. Add turmeric & chilli powder. Let this simmer for a few seconds & add the mashed/boiled potatoes. Let this mixture cook for 3-4 mins & add the warm water. Dabeli mixture has to be a little soft, not too wattery though!.

2. Add dabeli masala, salt, some sugar to the mix. After 2-3 mins add the date chutney & let the mixture cool. Dabeli masala, sugar etc can be varied as per personal preference.

3. Heat some pavs on a pan with butter & stuff the dabeli mix in the pavs. Garnish with mint chutney on the pav, date chutney if needed, roasted peanuts, onions, cilantro etc as shown the picture. Enjoy your dabeli!

पाव भाजी- पिंकी के रसोई से

Damn it's so cool that I can write my recipe blogs in हिन्दी now!! और हमे ये बहुत पसंद आ रहा है!!! Moving forward, I don't think I have ever come across somebody who does not like Pav Bhaji, its real handy & brings that much needed variety to a vegetarian's plate! I have heard of several places in Nagpur which serve awesome Pav Bhaji but never really tried it myself since we always cooked it at our home which was very close to being restaurant style. I think this is also a very good way of getting your vegetable intake if you don't like all the vegetables by themselves. The recipe in this post is contributed by Pinky & sounds eqaully yummy. I just don't use beans like she has, but I know people who do. So here is the recipe to a delicious Pav Bhaji & Pulav.

Pav Bhaji Ingredients:
Pav Bhaji Masala 2 tbl sp, Red Chiili Powder, Turmeric, Cummin powder, Coriander powder, Potato 1 Cup (Boiled and mashed), French Beans 1 Cup (Boiled), Carrots 1 Cup (Boiled), Green Peas 1 Cup (Boiled), Capsicum 1 Cup (Boiled), Onions 3 Cups (Finely Chopped), Tomatoes 3 Cups (Finely Chopped), Cabbage 1 cup (Finely chopped), Ginger 2 tsp (Finely Chopped), Garlic 2 tsp (Finely Chopped), Coriander leaves, Salted Butter to taste, Lemon to taste, Salt to taste,Water, Pavs

Method:

1. Heat butter / oil in pan and add garlic and ginger.Fry until garlic turns slightly brown.
   Add onions and fry until transparent. Add the tomates, capsicum, cabbage and fry for 2 minutes.
2. Add turmeric, red chiili powder, cummin powder, coriander powder and fry for 2 minutes. Add Pav Bhaji Masala, Add all the vegetables, Salt and some water. Mash the vegetables properly and bring to Boil. Remove from flame. Garnish with Coriander , finely chopped onions and Butter.
3. Slit pavs horizontally leaving one edge attached. Apply butter (as desired) and roast open on a griddle till hot and soft with the surface crisp on both sides.

Veg Pulav Ingredients:
Basmati Rice, Finely chopped Mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, cabbage, beans), Finely chopped onions, Finely chopped tomatoes, Ginger garlic paste, Red Chilli powder, Cummin powder, garam masala powder, Hing, Coriander powder, Salt to taste, Bay leaves, Black pepper seeds, cloves, Cummin seeds, Coriander leaves
Method:
Heat oil in a vessel and add bay leaves, cummin seeds, black pepper seeds and cloves.
Add ginger garlic paste and fry for two minutes.
Add finely chopped onions and fry till they turn brown. Add cabbage and fry for two minutes.
Add all the spices and then add mixed vegetables and tomatoes. Fry for 3-4 minutes.
Add Basmati rice, salt, mix well and add water (double the quantity of basmati rice).
Allow it to boil (do not close the lid).
Simmer and close the lid only when little water remains. Let it cook for another 5 mins.
Garnish with coriander leaves.

Peanut Chaat by VCD

- Pressure cook peanuts in the pressure cooker (1 whistle). Put salt in the water before you
pressure cook.
- Drain the peanuts & keep them aside. Possibly cook the peanuts a couple of hours ahead of
time.
- Chop onions, green chillies, tomatoes and cilantro finely.
- Add some salt chaat masala, cumin/coriander powder, lemon juice & salt if needed to the
peanuts. Mix all the ingredients properly.
- Add the onions, cilantro, green chillies, tomatoes to the peanut mixtures now.Your peanut
chaat is ready! It can be garnished with sev/boondi & some date/tamarind chutney