Wake up and smell the masala

Now Auditioning for the Real Housewife of my house

2012-01-16T18:17:00.001-05:00

It took 3 graduate degrees, a CPA license, 2 high pressure careers at big 4 firms, student loans and a lot of anxiety to realize what I really wanted to be when I grew up, drum roll please: A housewife!!

Not like I want to join the Real Housewives of Atlanta or anything, no for that I'd need to be married to a baller or a rapper, have a shady past exotic dancing, wear crazy wigs that have names (!) and be BFF's with Andy Cohen. Nah, I just want to find a way to make a good, honest (well as honest as an accountant can get) living, without having to crunch numbers in a drab cubicle with lifeless co-workers for most of my life. So if anybody(read: my husband) is looking to hire a housewife, let me highlight the fabulousness that is my house wifely resume:

1)Ability to whip up fabulous meals and mix many many many mean drinks, esp when it involves numerous trips to the frozen aisle at Trader Joe's and the ready to eat sections at Alon's. I also have a fine nose and taste for good wine, and if allowed to study to be a sommelier- can guarantee fancier dinner party invitations in the future and possible income if career as sommelier takes off in an economy where people swear by 2 buck Chuck.

2)An intense passion for organizing and rearranging closets and even people's love lives. From mastering storage in cramped spaces and allowing my OCD to kick in when organizing piles of clothing, books and knick knacks to helping my friends find love and realize what true happiness is all about- I will bring an array of storage and love solutions to the table.

3)A knack for spending money-not just my own, other people's money too-on clothes, shoes, accessories, home furnishings, and state of the art kitchen appliances. I can make you over-who said clothes don't make the man? A nice suit or a well fitted pair of jeans on a man is what make him somewhat bearable to look at when he is fixated on that losing game. I can also makeover the most run down place and give drool worthy houses a run for their money-guaranteed, if only you open your wallet out to me.

4)An empathetic ear for listening to people's problems, issues and giving out advice (wanted or not!) I guarantee spending all my "housewifely" duty time dutifully listening to the husband, my friend's, his friends and all our relative's weight problems, job problems and in law problems and find words of wisdom, courage and strength for each individual issue. Note: I have a bachelor's degree in Psychology which also means- I can charge for all this time and call it "therapy" thereby contributing to household income.

5)Ability to sleep in every day,12-13 hours a day at a minimum and spend the remainder watching trashy TV and getting my nails done. As a housewife, I have the tremendous ability to rest recoup and get my beauty sleep on a daily basis to be a refreshed and rejuvenated housewife!

So what do you think, I have all the qualities to make it as a housewife type-or as the cool kids call it a "homemaker", or should I not quit my day job just yet? I continue to remain envious of all the women who stay home and "make their homes" why did I have to be lofty and ambitious when all I really want is to be lazy? I blame this lack of career direction completely on my parents, why ohh why did my parents not paint the pretty pictures of a life of sloth and fulfilment as a career option, I'd be sooo much fatter and happier today!

A taste of the Mediterranean

2010-07-25T21:22:00.005-04:00

I have suffered from acute blogger's block for the past 6 months, and every time I see or eat or experience something that makes me want to write, I am overcome by laziness minutes later, which explains the lack of action on this space...yet again!

I spent a few weeks in Turkey and Greece this summer, which proved to be a gastronomic delight. Hookah bars, freshly grilled corn on the cobb, spiced shwarma, baklava, apple tea, turkish delight and flaky pita were the highlights of Istanbul. A visit to a yogurt and feta cheese factory in Greece converted me into a yogurt and cheese snob and now I am scoffing and poo pooing at Greek salads in America and at Wisconsin Feta in particular-boo! The Greek isles boasted of the freshest vegetables, fabulous olives and the most potent Ouzo ever. Of course the gorgeous weather and beautiful serenity of Santorini, Mykonos and the ancient architecture of Athens didn't hurt either, neither did the fabulous shopping-especially now with the Euro at an all time low and a great exchange rate with the Turkish Lira:)

I'm determined to start posting regularly yet again, although this time around I'm not sure all my posts will be food related. I continue to be lethargic about cooking, however my take out, critiquing Sanjay's bland tofu stir fry's and restaurant review skills have shown remarkable improvement!

I'll leave you with a few foodie pictures of my trip!

At a small tea shop in Istanbul outside the Grand Bazaar, sipping on apple tea and a yogurt drink.

Taking a break at a Hookah bar in Istanbul after seeing the beautiful blue mosque. Smooth apple flavored hookah-good stuff!

After a full day of sightseeing and non stop shopping, we went to a restaurant below the Acropolis in Athens, great meal topped off with a pitcher of local red wine with no preservatives, we got 8 glasses of wine off the pitcher for under 6 bucks and it didn't come with a hangover!

Sweet and savory donuts, popular street food in Athens.

Corn on the cobb outside the Spice Bazzar, Istanbul. Delicious and sweet-but be sure to carry your floss!

At a store selling Turkish Delight and Hookahs, Spice market, Istanbul-you can tell how I excited I was to be there, the kind shop owners gave me generous samples of Turkish Delight, Baklava and Apple tea, I was happy to sample my way through lunch!

An assortment of fresh heady spices, Spice market, Istanbul

Shwarma and pita bread.

Doner Kebab,don't miss the poser!

Street food outside the Blue Mosque
My last Greek Salad in Greece pity it's a bad picture of a half eaten salad-yes I was being greedy! The taste of the juicy tomatoes, crunchy bell peppers, and tangy salty feta still lingers in my mind....ahh memories! Real Greek salad is not drenched in olive oil and dressing, its simplicity is what makes it taste so divine.
My friend Kelly-being the typical southern belle couldn't resist going to a Mc Donalds in Greece, she claimed to have had enough of "ethnic food", made me think of my grandma's visits to the US and her astonishment at the idea of a sandwich being a meal,no meal was complete without a helping of yogurt and rice. For Kelly, no meal was complete without some fries!

1 weekend 3 cooking videos

2010-02-20T22:48:00.002-05:00

That's what I did this Saturday. It was nice to be done with my first round of exams so I thought I'd make a few videos after the madness had subsided!
You can watch how I made:
Masala paneer
Aloo tikkis with paneer
Hara Bhara Kebabs

Desi tailgating snacks: hara bhara kebabs and empanada samosas

2010-02-07T11:16:00.032-05:00

Did you watch the Superbowl? or at least the commercials? I just about managed to catch the commercials looking up ever so guiltily from my tax books. I have 5 exams in the next couple of weeks and a lot of cramming and catching up to do so the next two weeks spell torture for me. You can imagine just how grueling it's going to be for me if I tell you I have open book exams-you can bet none of the answers will be found in the text! Yes, I will be stating the obvious if I say tax law defies logic but it is safe to say that the only things predictable in life are debt and taxes- so I'm hopefully doing right thing:)

I did make a couple of quick finger foods to munch on while I watched the commercials and pseudo studied-because what good is it watching the Superbowl without some good tailgating snacks? I made little hara bhara kebabs and empanada samosas. Hara Bhara kebabs are a standard appetizer fixture you'll find in most Indian restaurant menus. Hara Bhara literally translates into stuffed green kebabs. The kebabs are green because they are made with peas and spinach and so can be passed off as being a relatively healthy snack. They are one of the few non deep fried before dinner snacks that pair very well with wine and cocktails.The kebabs were my way of trying to get some greens into my diet-but the greens were also mashed with potatoes and spices and shallow fried-so when I say green and healthy you have to take it with a pinch of salt, because let's face it, who am I kidding?!

The faux samosas were pretty fabulous though-they're literally 2 biters and a perfect girly finger food that you can serve up when you're having your girlfriends over for a wine and cheesy chick flick night because 2 bites of spiced potatoes covered with fried dough is barely enough to leave you guilt ridden and worried about squeezing into your skinny jeans(If you eat too many of them though-I can't help you!). The other good thing about my faux samosas is that you don't have to worry about shaping the dough into a perfect cone and sealing it just right-which is great for creatively challenged folks like me! To make the samosas you just use a cookie cutter or some sharp round object to cut a circle out of the dough, put a little stuffing in the center and fold over the edges forming a semi circle and your samosa is rearing to go get fried-the samosas looked just like mini empanadas hence the name. If you're the kind of girl that uses your kitchen for extra shoe storage and there's no way you'll ever make a samosa from scratch then just buy some pie dough, roll it out into mini circles, stuff the spiced potatoes into it seal it and bake it-and voila you've got gorgeous samosas that you didn't have to spend all day laboring over- but let it just be your secret! Saunter into your next dinner party with perfectly blow dried hair and 5 inch heels holding a batch of these babies and let everyone think you're a total kitchen hottie!

Hara Bhara Kebabs (makes 12)

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes boiled, peeled and grated
1 cup of fresh spinach (I used baby spinach)
1/2 cup of peas (if you're using frozen peas, thaw them in the microwave and slightly mash them with a fork)
1/2 onion-finely minced
1 inch ginger-finely minced
2 green chillies-finely chopped
handful of cilantro-finely chopped
2 tsp chaat masala
salt to taste
1-2 tsps all purpose flour
2 tsp of oil

Hara Bhara kebabs, how to:

Bring a big pan of water to boil and when it starts boiling throw in the spinach leaves and let it wilt down for about 2 minutes. Drain the spinach leaves using a colander and pat them dry with a kitchen towel and chop them fairly fine when they cool down.
Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan and throw in the onion, ginger and green chillies. Cook it for 4-5 minutes until the onion starts turning brown.
Add the chopped spinach and peas to this and season it with a little bit of salt.
Cook this mixture down for a few minutes until it gets very dry. (there should be no water left in the spinach)
Add the spinach and peas mixture to the boiled grated potatoes. Add the flour to it too and season it with a little more salt if needed and add the chaat masala and the cilantro.
Kneed the potato pea spinach mixture into a smooth dough and divide it into 12 equal parts and form tiny kebabs out of them.

Heat a flat non skillet and place the kebabs on them. Drizzle a little oil around the sides of the kebabs and cook them for a couple of minutes on each side until they turn golden brown and crispy.

Empanada Samosas (makes 12)

Ingredients:

For the samosa shell:
Combine 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp sooji (fine semolina flour), 1/2 tsp ajwain (carrom seeds), 2 tsp oil and less than 1/4 cup of lukewarm water to form a firm dough. Cover it and set it aside till you make the filling.

For the samosa filling:

2 medium potatoes-boiled and roughly smashed
1 cup of peas (thawed-if you're using frozen peas)
1 inch ginger very finely chopped
1 skinny green chilli-very finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp amchoor(dried mango powder masala)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp of oil + more for frying

Samosa filling-how to:

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a large pan and thrown in the cumin seeds.
Once it crackles, add the ginger and the chillies and cook it for a minute.
Add the peas and cook it for a couple of minute smashing a few peas every now and then.
Add the smashed potatoes and combine it well. Season it with salt, amchur, garam masala and cayenne.
Cook it for 4-5 minutes and check for seasonings and adjust it as needed.
Take it off the heat and let it cool.

Assembling the samosas:

Pinch of little balls from the kneeded dough and roll it into a circle.
Use a cookie cutter and cut into a neat circle.
Put a teaspoon of filling into the center of the circle and fold it over to form a semi circle.

Crimp the edges with a fork.
Fry them up in batches in some hot oil until golden brown and gorgeous.

Hangover Helper-part deux: Anda (egg) Paratha

2010-02-01T23:11:00.002-05:00

Don't you hate it when you've had waaay too much to drink and way too much of a good time on a Saturday night only to wake up to a miserable hangover ? Luckily last weekend I was not the one in a drunken stupor, it was Sanjay kicking back drinks with his guy pals and me donning the role of the responsible driver. I let him indulge and do his thing for a change and I have to say it was pretty amusing being sober and watching him attempting to a do a jig-he has two left feet and his idea of dancing usually involves bopping his head so seeing him in action tearing up the dance floor was completely click and blackmail worthy! Walking 5 blocks at 4 am in 25 degree (Fahrenheit) weather wearing 4 inch heels in the wrong direction looking for my car on the other hand- so NOT funny! had I been as intoxicated as him, I might have not been so alive to the freezing temperatures and his annoyingly happy gestures!

I had a blissful night's (or should I say morning's) sleep but Sanjay on the other hand was grumpy as heck when we woke up this morning. I didn't sympathize with him as pay back for all the times when I've nursed a hangover and he's shot back with you need to space your drinks and get enough water before you hit the sack speech. I almost smiled smugly when I watched him moan and groan as he woke up, popping an advil as a reflex action even before he brushed his teeth. Our conversation this morning went like this:

Me (super chirpy): hon I made you coffee, get up
S (groans, moans): mumbles
Me (shouting): huh? what? I can't hear you- get up it's past noon!!
S: I want to sleep I feel like crap
Me: ohh come on-this is what you get for drinking like it's going out of fashion, get up now we'll have coffe and go to flying biscuit (our hangover haven) you'll feel better once you eat something
S: huh? what? I need advil, everything hurts babe
Me (jumping on the bed and taking the comforter off him) : GET UP NOW

Anyway after this he woke up and grumpily chugged his coffee threw on a sweatshirt and willingly came with me to Flying Biscuit where we gorged on fried green tomatoes, black bean cakes with eggs over easy and tomatillo salsa and biscuits with cran apple butter. The food really helped and he felt a whole lot better so much so that I felt the need to suggest mimosas-needless to say that idea got shot down very very quickly!

The rest of the day was a complete write off for him, he vegged out at on the couch watched sports took a nap and spent the entire day recovering, I suppose that's what happens when you're over 30 and you just can't party like you used to!

Towards the end of the day I felt sorry for him and made him what I consider fabulous hangover food: anda(egg) paratha. This, in my opinion is what desi hangover food should be, it has the requisite carbs, protein and greasiness to sop up all the excess liquor in your system and leave you feeling better.It's a layered paratha that you open the fold of when it's half cooked and throw a spiced egg into. It's almost like a stuffed egg paratha- making it does involve some amount of technique and timing but once you've mastered it, you'll find that it comes together in no time at all. Anda parathas are best eaten at road side dhabas in Delhi on cold winter nights after you've been out and about socializing and drinking up a storm. The first time I ate an anda paratha with my dad was in an inconspicuous neighborhood gali (lane) I was extremely enamored by the way the guy making it slit one of the layers of the paratha open and deftly threw in the egg mixture. I expected the egg to drip all over the place and make a mess on the tawa (griddle) but it was a neat package with no tell tale signs of what was in it.

I found this video online on how to make anda paratha the other day and the combination of the good natured sardar making it and my memories of devouring it on a cold winter evening with my dad convinced me that it would indeed be the perfect hangover antidote for Sanjay. This paratha did NOT disappoint-it's a cute portable snack that would be great on the go and make for a filling breakfast. Please do watch this video for specific instruction on how to make it, I followed his recipe more or less and was thrilled with the results.

Anda Paratha (makes 2-3)

Ingredients:

For the paratha dough:

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
enough warm water to make a dough
1/2 tsp ajwain (carrom seeds)
drizzle of oil
pinch of salt

For the egg stuffing:

3 beaten eggs
handful of chopped cilantro
2-3 skinny green chillies
1/4 of a finely minced red onion
salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Chaat masala to sprinkle over the top of the parathas
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour to help roll the parathas

Anda paratha, how to:

Make the paratha dough by combining the water salt and ajwain to the flour and kneed it till you get a smooth dough. Drizzle a little oil over the dough and let it rest covered for about 15 minutes.
Combine all the ingredients listed under egg stuffing and keep it aside.
Pinch off round balls from the rested dough, dust them with flour and roll them out to a large circle/roti-approximately 6 inches in diameter.
Brush the roti with some oil and dust a fine layer of flour all over it.
Fold the dough into half of a semi circle from one side and fold over the other side too.
Drizzle a little more oil over it and dust some more flour.
Flip the the sides of the roti so that you get something that looks like a square package.
Dust it with a little more flour and roll it out.
Transfer the paratha to a hot skillet and cook it for 40 seconds.
Use a pair of tongs to help you lift a layer of the paratha.
Throw a ladle full of the egg mixture into this layer pocket and close the layer.
Drizzle a little bit of oil over the paratha and flip it over and cook it till you've got a gorgeous gloden brown hue on both sides.
Sprinkle the top of the paratha with chaat masala and devour it hot.

Say cheese-desi style!

2010-01-23T18:55:00.010-05:00

If you had asked me 5 years ago what my life would look like at 26, I'd have probably said: I'd be living the fabulous single life in the big city with fun girl friends, working hard, partying harder and breaking hearts while doing it all in style - in a nut shell my life would be like "The Hills" but I'd have a much bigger vocabulary way more college degrees under my belt and definitely no triple D's (cough, Heidi Montag!) But look how cruel life is: I am married (of course to a wonderful man, but still married!), jobless (and to add to my woes, back in college - getting a Tax degree; I will say it is far better than my previous consulting job but it has none of the perks, read: fat paycheck), and no I am not even remotely fabulous - for the most part I am constantly harried and flustered, have godawful OCD and am anal beyond most people's comprehension - guess it's also why I have a natural affinity towards taxation! What I'm trying to say is that life doesn't always turn out the way you expect it to - I'd have never dreamed even in my wildest of dreams that I'd be the girl that actually made paneer at home - I used to be the girl that partied until last call so you can imagine just how far I've come! Anyways, I suppose all good things must come to end, i.e. dancing on table tops and such, and then you've got to go home, be responsible and make paneer and that is exactly what I did - well almost, the truth is that while I did spend my last birthday dancing on tables, my husband was the one that made the paneer. He is the official paneer maker, I gave him step by step instructions on how to make paneer once and boy can he comply or what?! I can easily guarantee that his is the best paneer I've eaten on this side of the Atlantic!
Most Indians love paneer and can't get enough of it in any form - I've come across very very few Desis who don't like this stuff and it's typically because they are lactose intolerant. The only problem with paneer is that unless you make it yourself at home, you're forced to buy this rubbery elasticy thing they sell in the grocery store in the name of paneer! It's hard, has a strange creamish color, full of preservatives and tastes nothing remotely like the soft melt in your mouth paneer made of real buffalo milk I'm used to eating back home. So unless you're willing to take the time to make your own paneer, I'd say go without it - because the store bought stuff is not palatable, unless you somehow try boiling it in warm salted water to salvage it - but still it barely tastes like the real deal, I'd much prefer eating plain tofu cardboard instead of North American Desi store paneer!
My husband does make paneer at home from time to time, but it can be time consuming and leave you with a lot of dishes to wash: the pan you boil your milk in, the colander, the bowl under the colander, the stinky cheese cloth and the heavy pan you'll use to press down your paneer - so due to extreme laziness we refrain from making paneer and I try to compensate by eating enough paneer to feed a few families every time I go to Delhi until I can't look at paneer till my next trip home!
The last time I went to Delhi I bought a very inconspicuous looking stainless steel circular container. It had small holes all over its surface and a removable bottom also filled with tiny holes. The kind sardarji uncle selling it to me guaranteed it to be an innovative paneer maker - " Absolute best paneer maker madam ji, phull guarantee ji, aap banake tho dekhiye ji" - I couldn't quite decipher it - Boil milk, separate it with some acid, strain the curds into the container and close the lid on it after placing something heavy on top - and lo and behold 15 minutes later you've got homemade paneer with none of the straining, cheese cloth or pressing under heavy cast iron pans! I was super skeptical until my husband used the little tiny "paneer maker" and omg the uncleji was right! We had phenomenal home made paneer with none of the straining, smelly cheesecloth, hanging on the tap to drip excess water drama, too bad I couldn't tell the uncle "vaah kya baat hai ji, aapki guarantee ek dum phirst class thi ji"!

The paneer maker was designed such that it sucked out all the excess water out of all the holes and resulted in perfectly creamy dreamy no muss no fuss paneer! Now I don't usually rave about gadgety things on this blog simply because I get my kicks in life buying designer bags and shoes but this I must say is a pretty cool gadget and all for less than a dollar-hello recessionista:)) Anyway, Sanjay made some masala paneer using this container and just added a handful of chopped cilantro, green chilies, ajwain (carrom seeds) and chaat masala to the paneer curds before he put the lid on the paneer maker and 15 minutes later, uber yummy melt in your mouth masala paneer - almost like the kind you'll find in a fairly decent paneer shop in Delhi - I say almost because we don't get buffalo milk here and that makes a huge difference. The paneer he made this time was super soft - sure he could have pressed it down with my heavy Le Cruset pot for a harder cheese, but I wanted something soft and spreadable this time around.
With masala paneer the options are numerous: cut it into thick wedges and slather over crackers - gives a whole new meaning to cheese and crackers, spread it over hot toast for a nice change from regular old cream cheese, stuff into mashed spiced potatoes for a filling stuffed aloo tikki snack, stuff into paranthas, crumble it up and make a bhurji out of it, cube it up and throw into a curry...are you seeing where this is going?! Anyway if you can't tell already I'm uber excited about this paneer maker and the masala paneer Sanjay churned out, so I'll just leave you with a few things we did with it.

Yaaay me and my blog are famous-shameless plug!

2010-01-23T12:51:00.007-05:00

My blog got a mention in "The hindu" newspaper and it's especially exciting in the light of the events that occurred this past Thursday-i.e the plagiarism scandal! The article was quite nice, but I can't help wondering why the newspaper wouldn't mention my name? Anyways, I will say "all izz well" to quote "3 idiots" and thank you Hindu and let you read the article.

Copyright Issues-Update

2010-01-21T09:01:00.020-05:00

The violator has deleted his blog and actually apologized to me via a comment he left. I quote directly from the comment he left me:

"please forgive me for my fault. i do accept i am a copy cat, wicked, moron and all that you said to me. i do accept all that.but i request you all to forgive me for my mistake. at times, we commit a mistake without knowing the effect it leaves on the others. i am really ashamed of what i did. thank you all for making me realize how big mistake i was committing. i do strongly hope that i will repeat the same. if i ever become a good blogger as ranjani then it would be solely because of my creativity and skills.i once again apologize from the deepest bottom of my heart for what i did. i have deleted my blog ... that's the best i could do.if you still feel the need of an attorney, i won't stop you. i should be penalized for the mistake i've committed.by the way .. i really love your blog ranjani and i'll continue reading it without ever thinking of copying your texts or pics.
peace
DJ"

DJ I appreciate you deleting your blog and accept your apology. I suggest you think long and hard about the ramifications of violating people's creative works in the future. We bloggers spend a lot of time and effort penning our thoughts,coming up with recipes and editing pictures to post and it is completely unacceptable when people blatantly steal posts that we have spent a long time working on. Most of the posts on my blog are personal experiences and events that I have retold. They are close to my heart and it is a complete breach of my privacy for you to steal them and pass them off as your own.
May I also recommend proof reading, spell checking and attempting to punctuate better in the future when you blog or leave comments? I assure you it will help you become a much better writer - just my 2 cents!

As you all know...

Rajnee contacted to me to let me know that all my blog posts and pictures are being copied, I am really mad at this moron! As if I don't have enough drama and madness in my life already- I now have to deal with copyright issues- seriously losers who copy like this need to get a life already.

Check this out-word for copying and stealing of all my pictures:

The stuff he copied from me:

http://budgetpakwaan.blogspot.com/2010/01/leher-soda-dj-style.html

http://budgetpakwaan.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

http://budgetpakwaan.blogspot.com/2009/12/aloo.html

http://budgetpakwaan.blogspot.com/2009/11/curd-rice.html

The identical posts I wrote:

http://wakeupandsmellthemasala.blogspot.com/2009/02/choley-seriespart-2-khatte-meethe.html-
He copied my masala soda post word for word at the bottom of the post and stole my drink picture

http://wakeupandsmellthemasala.blogspot.com/2008/10/lazy-in-rut-try-some-rasam.html-
He copied this post word for word and stole the picture of my potato curry

http://wakeupandsmellthemasala.blogspot.com/2008/07/spud-love-aloo-p aranthe-makkhan-maar-ke.html- he copied this one word for word along with the pictures I had taken

http://wakeupandsmellthemasala.blogspot.com/search/label/yogurt%20rice
- WORD FOR WORD COPY!

Any thoughts on how I can stop this quickly?

The recipe klepto:my uncle's South Indian Korma

2010-01-19T16:24:00.002-05:00

Readers of this blog have probably heard me ooing and aaing about my uncle's cooking-he's a great self taught cook and I pretty much learnt everything I know about food from him. There are a few recipes he makes which taste darn good but have a laundry list of ingredients and involve the use of a food processor-those are the kinds of recipes that I shy away from cooking and just eat at his place, works out well for me-tasty free food that involves no work or dish washing-what's not to love?!
One of those recipes is his korma-it's very yummy and flavorful and a great way to use up a lot of different vegetables. This korma uses a lot of the same spices found in most garam masalas and a few unusual ingredients like poppy seeds and fennel seeds-the vegetables are mixed with a ground masala paste made up of coconut and a number of spices and then simmered to get a rich gravy-the texture is silky and smooth and looks somewhat like a Thai green curry.
One day I found myself slacking off completely- studying federal taxation is an exhausting business, so I thought I'd do something a little more productive than watch TV or surf the web (cooking sounded like a good productive idea-anything to get away from writing research papers!) I had a hoard of vegetables in my crisper so I thought I'd make a big batch of my uncle's korma and freeze it so I could eat over the course of a month. I used cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, beans, peas, potatoes and half of a red bell pepper -but you can use any veggies that are in season that you like!This recipe is a little more elaborate than I like my recipes to be- but after I made it, I realized it wasn't time consuming at all-yet another lip smacking recipe that I've stolen from him and reproduced on this blog:)

My uncle's South Indian Korma

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of chopped vegetables- they should all be roughly the same size (I used carrots, beans, peas, cauliflower, potatoes, broccoli and red bell pepper-you could use any veggies you like, frozen veggies work too-they will shorten the cooking time drastically)
1 finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped tomato
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 garam masala
4 tsp -finely beaten yogurt
Salt to taste

To be ground into a fine smooth paste in a food processor with a little water:

1/4 red onion
3-4 garlic cloves
2 inches of fresh ginger
2 green chillies
1 dried red chili (optional)
2 heaped tsp coriander seeds
2 heaped tsp cumin seeds
2 heaped tsp poppy seeds
3 heaped tsp cashew nuts
2 cloves
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 Cinnamon stick
2 green cardamoms-use only the seeds
3 heaped tsp of grated coconut (frozen coconut works- that's what I used, alternately you could also use half a can of coconut milk-my uncle says it's fine!)
handful of cilantro

Korma, how to:

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a big pressure cooker and add the cumin seeds to it.
Once the cumin crackles, throw in the onions and cook it till it turns golden brown around the edges.
Add the tomatoes, red chili powder and turmeric to this and cook it till the tomatoes turn pulpy.
Add all the veggies to this mix and throw in the paste which was ground earlier.
Add about 1.5 cups of water and salt to this, give it a good mix and pressure cook it.
Once your pressure cooker hisses, turn it off and let it sit until the pressure subsides.
Open the lid, give the korma a good mix, add some yogurt and the garam masala and cook it for an additional 5-10 minutes.
Take it off the heat and serve it hot with parathas or rice.

Choley Series- Part 4, ending on a high note! Kala channa, sooji halwa and pooris

2010-01-16T10:21:00.005-05:00

With this last post I conclude my chhole series...it's been a fun series and one that's brought back lots of memories, great food and really got the creative juices flowing. I'm ending on a high note with one of my favorite Sunday brunch foods- sookhe kale channe (dry tiny black chickpeas) served with piping hot pooris (fried bread...what's not to love?!!) and sooji ka halwa (simple sweet made out of Sooji- cream of wheat). It's very classic, gurudwara, mandir type food and I've eaten loads of it at my house, other people's houses and in mandirs and such. It's also very popular on Kanchak, which is celebrated during the navratas, where they mark the end of the navratas by doing a pooja (Hindu prayer ceremony) for little girls and calling them Kachak Devis (goddesses). I remember when I was growing up, our neighbors would often call the young girls in the neighborhood during Kanchak and give us tiny tots some money, and then pack us off with poori chhole and halwa after doing a pooja and tying a religious thread (lal dhaga) on our hands-boy did we look forward to those days or what?!-good times!

All the food cooked during Navratas is "fasting food" or"satvik khana" that means no meat of any sort is consumed and no garlic or onions either-because garlic and onions are considered to be aphrodisiacs, but I'm not sure that stopped satvik khana connoisseurs from giving into lust-haha!! ...ok I know I digress...In recent times, I've noticed that even McDonald's in India has jumped on the Navrata bandwagon, introducing special vrat ke (fasting) burgers that were made specially for that time period and took into account all the diet restrictions that were placed. In my experience vrat ka khana (food eaten when fasting) is some of the best. The flavors are very pure and you can really the taste the vegetable in all its simplicity and not have it get overpowered or adulterated by pungent masalas.
Kala Channa are a little harder than regular Kabuli Channa (Garbanzo beans), so you can boil them longer that you'd boil regular channa after soaking them overnight so they end up softer. You could also boil/pressure cook them with a pinch of baking soda to ensure that smooth creamy center. Once boiled, there's very little cooking involved to create your kala channa masterpiece. Serve these with a side of beautifully puffed up pooris and piping hot sooji ka halwa for a traditional Indian Sunday brunch.

Vrat ke Sookhe Kale Channe- (serves 3-4)

Ingredients:

1 cup Kala channa (available in most Indian grocery stores/ Whole Foods) soaked overnight and pressure cooked/ boiled with some salt until soft. Remember to drain it and reserve a cup of the cooking liquid.
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
2 green chillies- slit in the middle
1/2 an inch of ginger(finely minced)
1.5 tsp roasted cumin powder (pan roast cumin seeds and grind them up in a spice grinder)
1.5 tsp coriander powder (pan roast coriander seeds and grind them up in a spice grinder)
1/2 tsp red chili powder/ cayenne pepper (or to taste)
Sendha Namak (Rock Salt)- to taste (traditionally you're not supposed to use salt when fasting, but rock salt was permitted- I just used plain old kosher salt!)
1/2 tsp amchur (dried mango powder to make it nice and tart!)
Ghee (clarified butter)/oil to cook (I used ghee since that's the traditional vrat rules....and the flavor pay off was amazing!!)

Kala Channa, how to:

In a heavy bottomed pan heat some ghee, and add the cumin and carrom seeds once you're ghee heats up.
Let the seeds crackle before adding the slit green chillies, and let it fry up for a quick minute.
Add the minced ginger and let it cook for a few seconds.
Add the cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder and some salt. Allow the spices to fry up for a quick minute before tumbling in the cooked channa.
Add a splash of the cooking liquid if the channa looks too dry and cover it and allow it to simmer for 10 minutes.
Open the lid add some amchur and cook it for an additional 5 minutes, take it off the heat and serve it warm.

Sooji Ka Halwa: (serves 4, but my husband will eat the whole thing by himself in one go!)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of sooji (semolina/ cream of wheat)
(a simple syrup made with combining 1.5 cups of water withe 1/3 cup of sugar. Just combine the sugar and water in a sauce pan until the water has absorbed all the sugar)
1/2 stick of butter
Cashew nuts (8-10 broken pieces)
Raisins (8)
1/2 tsp Crushed cardamom seeds
few strands of saffron soaked in 2 tbs of warm milk

Sooji ka halwa, how to:

Melt the butter in a larn pan, and add the sooji to it and keep it stirring until your sooji turns golden brown and the house smells like a mithai ki dukaan! (sweet shop) Make sure you don't proceed with the next step until you're sooji really does turn brownish (it might take up to 8 minutes, but believe me your hard work will pay off!)
Add the dried fruit and nuts to this and toast it for a few more minutes until the nuts change color and the raisins look a bit plumper.
Add the simple syrup to the roasted/ toasted sooji in a few batches to avoid spluttering and stir it rapidly to incorporate well.
Add the soaked saffron and the crushed cardamom powder to this and cook it for a few more minutes, stirring it rapidly to ensure it's clump free.
Take it off the heat, garnish it with a few more cashew nuts and dig in!

Fry up a few puris once your channa and halwa are cooked
And eat your puri, channa and halwa!!

Chhole series- Part 3, South Indian Channa Masala

2010-01-14T22:07:00.004-05:00

Remember how I started this chhole series back in March last year..?...well, life and other things got caught in the way and I couldn't resume the chhole posts, but I'm back where I left off...have 2 more chhole posts to finish before I'm done..so here goes!
I didn't know you could say South Indian and Channa Masala in the same breath...but apparently you can! I recently took my friend Amy to the Sarvana Bhavan (it is a fast food restaurant chain started in Southern India that has spread like wild fire all over the world serving up authentic South Indian vegetarian food and they now have a full service bar too.....how awesome is that? you can have your sambar idli with a martini!) in Atlanta and found myself desperately wanting to eat some poori chhole (though I normally have a masala dosa hangover before going there!) while I was a little iffy about what it would taste like being a joint that specialized in South Indian fare...I had no expectations, so I was thrilled when the chhole was very good!
This chhole was very different...the spices were not authentic chhole spices but Amy and I agreed that it tasted darn good! (Even though she turned a shade of beet root after a few bites of it, she kept eating it...! I was impressed:) Once we had devoured our food, I managed to convince the manager that we'd appreciate a look see behind the scenes of this chhole and a little eye lash batting later he agreed and took us around to the back kitchen and showed us how it was done. I was thrilled to see how the chhole was made and Amy seemed to be really taken in by the ginormous dosa pans and the dexterity of the cooks rolling out thin perfectly sized crispy dosas. While I have worked at a Tapas restaurant when I was in college and know the inner workings of a restaurant kitchen, it's not everyday that you get to go behind the scenes at an Indian restaurant, so I was totally psyched about the whole experience!
A little poking around later, I found out that the restaurant actually combined dried red chillies, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, whole spices used in making garam masala, curry leaves and grated coconut added some water and ground it up to a thick paste and called it a "masala paste". They then cooked this masala paste along with the boiled garbanzo beans till it got thick and served it along side pooris and bhaturas! The resultant taste and texture of this chhole is almost like a phenomenal South Indian korma/ avial but with garbanzo beans instead of veggies!
I tried recreating this different kind of channa masala and I really liked it! The flavors are completely unusual...but they work well together, check it out and let me know what you think. I played around with this recipe a bit to reduce the heat...because I found the chhole at the restaurant to be a tad hotter than I'm used to!

South Indian Channa Masala- (serves 2-3) - Adapted from Saravana Bhavan, Atlanta (Srikant)

Ingredients:

1 cup of cooked garbanzo beans (canned beans work!)
salt to taste
2 tsp oil to cook
handful of finely chopped cilantro
3 dried red chillies (they used quite a bit more at the restaurant!)
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 heaped tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp whole black pepper
2 cloves
2 cardamoms- use only the seeds
1 cinnamon stick
1 onion-finely chopped/grated
4-5 curry leaves
1/4 cup of grated coconut / 2 heaped tsp (frozen works- that's what I used)
1 tsp grated ginger
2.5 tsp minced garlic

Channa Masala how to:

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and fry up the red chillies, coriander seeds, pepper,cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and curry leaves.
Once the spices get a bit fried up (about 2 minutes), add the coconut and fry it for an additional minute until the coconut starts to turn a bit golden.
Remove the spices and finely grind them in a blender along with a few splashes of water to get a smooth paste.
Heat an additional tsp of oil in the pan and add the mustard seeds, a couple of curry leaves and the chopped onions.
Cook the onions until they start turning brown around the edges.
Add the minced ginger and garlic to this and cook it for an additional minute till the raw smell disappears.
Add the ground paste to the pan, season it with some salt and mix it well and cook it till it turns very thick- you could add a little water at this point.
Once you can see droplets of oil separating from the sides of your pan, add the garbanzo beans along with about 1/4 cup of the chhole's cooking liquid/veggie stock and let it cook for 15-25 minutes.
Add a little more cooking liquid/vegetable stock/water if you find the curry drying out or let it thicken up if you like yours to be on the thicker side.
Garnish it with lots of chopped red onion and cilantro.

Dig in: Serve the curry hot with any flat bread of your choice!

What's better than warm scrambled eggs on toast on a Saturday morning?!

2010-01-10T16:03:00.009-05:00

......Having the next day be a holiday too of course! This was my breakfast, just plain old scrambled eggs (egg bhurji)- done the Indian way with onions tomatoes, chillies and cilantro- a little heat goes a long way even in the a.m!

There's no recipe per say, just scramble your eggs like you would normally but first heat a bit of oil in a pan and throw in a handful of cumin seeds, followed by 1/2 finely minced onion. Once it turns translucent add 1 diced tomato a couple of chopped chillies, 2 tsp of ketchup some cayenne pepper, a pinch of turmeric, handful of chopped cilantro and cook it till the tomatoes are sort of pulpy. Tumble in 5 beaten eggs and stir vigorously till you end up with light fluffy bits of scrambled egg. Season it up with some salt and devour with hot toast and milky tea immediately.If that recipe sounded too complicated I made a video to show you how I make the perfect egg bhurji.

One blogger's recipe is another blogger's video!

2010-01-09T22:28:00.006-05:00

That's right, I made Nag's Bagara Baingan and it turned out so well that I thought I'd make a video out of it. Her recipe is pretty fool proof and I love how detailed it was-what a great way to eat eggplants, thanks for sharing Nags!
You can watch me making it here!

Cauliflower Manchurian..2nd time's a charm!

2010-01-08T10:27:00.022-05:00

I can't say I've been terribly experimental with the food I've cooked in the past year. I eat out frequently and am always checking out the burgeoning restaurant scene in Atlanta which seems to have had a growth spurt what with 3 of the Top Chef contestants this past season being from good old Atl I think the South is finally gaining some much deserved culinary respect! I am fairly adventurous with my food-however when it comes to actually cooking, I prefer doling out everyday Indian food for the simple reason that it's the only kind of food I don't have access to in the city. When Pavi asked me if I had a recipe for Cauliflower Machurian-a completely Indianized "Chinese" creation, I recalled the one time I tried making it. I had chanced upon some blog and felt the urge to try it out at a point in time when I could barely chop an onion- I went nuts with the sriracha hot sauce thinking if it ain't Indian it ain't hot-and boy was I wrong and stupid! The end result was a manchurian that had an angry red color due to the liberal amounts of sriracha I had used. Needless to say I could barely eat a bite of it before chasing it down with a gallon of water. Anyway I hadn't made this dish since then, but now that she requested it I thought I'd give it another shot. I looked up a few recipes online and did a YouTube search and then somehow mixed and matched a few different recipes to come up with this- and I have to say it does not disappoint. It's been ages since I've had cauliflower manchurian- the sole Indian Chinese place in Atlanta shut down and deservedly so...if you had dinner there your breath would be kicking of garlic past noon the next day..all the Listerine in the world wouldn't have able to save you! Anyway, I digress..on to the recipe!
I'll try to post a video of this soon.

Cauliflower Manchurian

Recipe: serves 2-3

Ingredients

Cauliflower-1/2 head cut into bite size florets
Oil to deep fry the cauliflower

For the batter:

1/4 cup of all purpose flour
3-4 tbsp corn starch
Enough water to make a batter that will coat the back of a spoon
1 tsp soy sauce (mine was low sodium)
1/2 tsp hot sauce (I used Sriracha, use any Asian hot sauce you like and as much as you can handle!)
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder (optional) I used it for the bright color it imparts
1/2 tsp or thereabouts of salt
2 tsp ginger garlic paste

For the Manchurian Sauce:

1/2 red onion-chunked into cubes
1/2 red bell pepper-chunked into cubes
1/2 green bellpepper-chunked into cubes
2 skinny green chilies very finely chopped
4 garlic cloves-finely minced
1 ts red pepper flakes
2-3 tsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp hot sauce (I used Sriracha-again you can add more or less based on your heat preference)
1 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp of cornstarch dissolved in a little water to make a paste
2 tsp oil
1 tsp black pepper
Handful of chopped spring onions to garnish

Cauliflower Manchurian- how to:

First make the Manchurian sauce so that you can drop the hot crispy cauliflower directly into the sauce and serve it up. You can make the sauce as thick/ thin as you'd like.
Heat the oil in a pan on high heat and add the garlic, chillies and red pepper flakes to it.
Let it flavor the oil for about 40 seconds and then add the cubed onions and bell peppers.
Season it with some salt and pepper and cook it for 2 minutes on high heat. Don't overcook the veggies- you want to retain their crispness.
Add the ketchup, hot sauce, soy sauce and vinegar to this in quick succession and stir fry it until the mixture gets very dry.
Add the cornstarch paste to it-make sure its completely lump free, add a splash more water to it in case it gets too dry.
Once the sauce it done take it off the heat and begin frying up the cauliflower.

Fried Cauliflower- how to:

Start by mixing together all the batter ingredients with enough water to make a smooth lump free batter that will coat the back of a spoon.
Heat enough oil in a small wok and dip the florets into the batter and fry it on medium heat for up to 5 minutes.
Drain the florets on some paper towels.
Heat the Manchurian sauce for a couple of minutes on high heat and throw in the cauliflower florets.
Toss the florets in this sauce making sure you coat it well.
Serve it hot garnished with some finely minced spring onions and fried rice.

The story so far...and moving forward: quarter life crisis for real!

2010-01-07T10:34:00.013-05:00

A very happy new year to all my non existent readers:)
This past year has been a crazy eventful year and I know I made sporadic appearances on this blog and had most of you wondering what the heck I was upto. Well if you're really curious and somewhat interested then read on:
2009 began with a bang, I rolled off my last project and found myself not billing my time-after about a month of conference calls and no pipeline activities to speak off my company went bankrupt and laid me off! I moped around for a month applied for a bunch of jobs and after no luck whatsoever, I decided to listen to my father!!(that's right my dad is always right-hallelujah!)I took the GMAT and applied to graduate school to get another masters degree-only this time I decided to do tax! why you ask? because Federal debt is on the rise and there's no other way the government can pay it off without hiking taxes-anyway I'll quit pitching it to you-long story short, there aren't enough tax accountants to go around and with the passage of time the IRS is only going to make things more convoluted than they already are and this time around I was determined to be indispensable-read: management consultants come and go:))
So in between me applying to graduate school and actually getting accepted I was down and out. It's very hard going from having a packed calendar and work commitments to having a crapload of time on your hands with nothing to do. To add to my misery I also got into an awful car wreck on the highway totaled my car (which was less than a year old) and had to buy a new one in a matter of a couple weeks because you are literally bekaar(useless) without a car in this city! At this point I did feel the world was conspiring against me and I was dead sure I wouldn't be able to get accepted into grad school either and was going to have to spend my life cooped up in my condo with nothing to do but laundry........
But the clouds cleared up, I went to India for a month to get away from everything and as soon as I landed I found that I had gotten accepted into grad school. I enjoyed basking in the Delhi heat and gorged on mangoes and lychees and lapped up all the attention my folks gave me. With a heavy heart I left to start school again. I decided to start school in the summer itself because I didn't want to waste anymore time-and boy that was a crazy idea because summer school lasts only 6 weeks and cram the same amount of information covered over 1 entire semester!
I suddenly found myself going from having not a thing to do to wishing I had more hours in the day so I could study more. I hadn't done accounting since my sophomore year as an undergraduate so the first semester was a huge struggle because I could barely keep my debits and credits straight and balance my books. Ofcourse the fact that I was determined to pledge for an national accounting honor society made the process that much worse because I had to keep my grades up! I somehow managed to ace my classes and fell in love with taxation in the process-(I know you're rolling your eyes at this point-but legally minimizing tax liability is a very cool thing!) I faced more anxiety,sleepless nights and craziness over the Fall semester-calculating grades to stay afloat, pulling all nighters with my study buddies, listening to recorded tax lectures on youtube and highlighting the crap out of all my textbooks till they just looked yellow with zero readability. I heaved a sigh of relief when I was done with my last exam last semester-I'd finally have time to breathe and sleep and catch up with my husband and friends and eat something besides Chipotle and frozen masala burgers!I enjoyed my vacation for precisely 1 week before the boredom set in and it was then that I realized that I was one of those people that constantly needed to be busy and occupied or I'd drive myself crazy and wind up depressed-my second "aha" moment! (my first one was realizing I spent too much money on shoes:)
Fast forward to now...
I know I bid adieu to this blog a few months ago, but the reality is that as lazy as I am, I have been randomly cooking here and there since we've had family and friends over the holiday season and done a fair bit of entertaining.While I'm not cooking anything extravagant to take pictures and blog about, I have been making youtube videos of my cooking because I find the whole process way more fun! I'm going to start jotting down all the recipes that have been featured on youtube since I get a lot of emails from people asking for exact measurements and the detailed recipe. Most of the recipes I've made so far are quick, easy and everyday Indian cooking , so the fact that they'll be easily accessible both on youtube and here should hopefully be helpful to my subscribers and readers.
If you're still interested, then watch this space for more recipes with videos to boot and if any of you food bloggers reading this would like your recipes to have their own videos, then please contact me, I'll be happy to make a video while I juggle all the other madness that I call my life!

Another Video!

2009-08-30T21:42:00.001-04:00

I find it a lot easier to make a video than to actually write up a post with a detailed recipe and take a picture of the final dish, so here's a video on how to make vegetable vermicelli upma.

Make your friends fry up the batata vadas- tastes SO much better:)

2009-08-07T17:29:00.010-04:00

For some weird reason I had been craving pakoras for the past few weeks with all the rain we had been having lately, not that I've denied myself fried snacks in the past or anything of that sort :), but I was determined to make some pakoras as soon as I was done with school this semester. As I had mentioned in earlier posts I haven't cooked in over 4 months so making pakoras was going to be my way of breaking that record. It was a Sunday evening and my husband and I had invited a few folks over after what seemed like ages. We had a bunch of snacky foods and lots of margaritas and wine to go with it, I made some guacamole (I'm obsessed with this stuff and seriously can't get enough of it- I kid you not, guacamole is my crack!!), bought Spinach Dip and zatziki to have with some crackers and pita bread and made teeny fussy cucumber sandwiches with chive cream cheese and cut the crusts off - yeah it's obvious I didn't cook, but I did make these pakoras/ bata vadas all the while wondering why weather.com predictions are always inaccurate.

In my head I imagined I'd be frying these babies up with my kitchen door open, taking in the cool air blowing my way after a severe down pour, but instead it didn't rain and it was typical sticky Hotlanta weather and I did in fact need to keep my kitchen door open when frying up the pakoras and have the exhaust on just so the house wouldn't stink up with the smell of oil.
You know how there's this immense satisfaction you get out of eating fried food when there's a slight nip in the air or in the cozy comfort of your home when it's pouring cats and dogs outside and you enjoy the weather while munching on your fried goodies and some piping hot masala chai...when you want to take long drives in the rain and listen to cheesy mushy Bollywood music because the rains always put you in such a romantic and sappy mood..well unfortunately for me the weather super sucked and I was robbed of my blissful daydream. I really didn't want to be sweating it out making batter fried food in icky sticky weather, so I assembled the pokora filling and made the batter and put a couple of my friends in charge of frying up the pakoras after I demo'd a few to them! I continued assembling some of the other food while they huffed and puffed over hot oil and it was cool since I always want my friends to be a part of the process when we're entertaining (I know you're saying..yeah right!! but it was hot so don't judge!!), good sports that they were they followed my instructions and fried them up in batches, all the while I was getting smart comments from another friend about how I was "ordering my line cook around" !!
The pakoras were very fabulous, perfectly crunchy on the outside with a well seasoned melt in your mouth creamy potato filling, but seriously who wants to sweat it out over a hot stove when it's 95 degrees outside and when you need to turn the AC off since you've got your kitchen door open?! Not me..for sure!
Save this pakora making session for when the weather's not such a bitch and you'll thank me! Better yet, get your friends to fry them up and you'll find they taste even better:)

Batata vadas/ stuffed pakoras- serves 4-6

For the potato filling:
3 large russet potatoes - boiled peeled and mashed
1 small red onion- finely chopped
4 skinny green chillies - finely chopped
1 hpd tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric
Juice of 1 lime
Handful of cilantro leaves- finely chopped
Salt to taste

For the pakora batter
1 heaped cup of besan/chickpea flour
1 tsp red chill powder/cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
Pinch of baking soda
Salt to tasteEnough water to make a thick batter that will coat the back of your spoon
Oil for frying
Pakora Filling how to:
In a hot skillet add 2 tsp of oil and the mustard seeds.
Once the mustard seeds pop add the onions and the green chillies and saute it for a few minutes.
Add the turmeric and the boiled mashed potatoes and season it with a little salt.
Take the skillet off the heat and add the cilantro and the lime.
Make sure the filling is well seasoned.
Allow the filling to cool slightly and then pinch off golf ball sized portions of the filling and make little balls out of them.Try to refrigerate the filling for at least an hour before frying before it ensures that the filling will stay together.

A few minutes before you're ready to start frying up your pakoras, combine all the ingredients needed for the batter and make a thick batter similar to the consistency of a pancake batter.
Heat the oil in your frying pan and dip the filling balls into the batter coating it completely before dropping it into the hot oil.
Make sure you rotate the pakoras while frying so it's evenly brown all over.
Drain the pakoras on some paper towels and serve them up hot.

Ps: If you have leftover pakora batter , just slice a few potatoes or onions and dip them into the batter and fry them up too, you could even use sliced bread if you're up for it.

Dig in: Pop these babies in your mouth when they are still hot, it's best eaten with a chutney of some sort, I served mine with hot sauce- since I was too lazy to make both pakoras and chutney!

You asked and I delivered....!

2009-08-06T23:13:00.003-04:00

Two new videos that is...! Check it out here and here!
Ps: The camera really does add 10 lbs, so be kind!

Remember me?

2009-08-04T20:48:00.009-04:00

I used to write a food blog, cook, throw fabulous dinner parties and post the occasional cooking demo, do I sound familiar? I've neglected this blog for quite a while now, and I am seriously beginning to think this is going to end up being another one of those things that I started out doing and lost steam half way through. The reality is that while I have been cooped up with school, I've also been majorly lazy about cooking anything, in fact I haven't cooked anything that couldn't be microwaved in under 3 minutes since March 2009! I've been surviving on unhealthy amounts of Chipotle, frozen taquitos from TJ's, spicy peanuts, ice cream and PB& J's...yeah go figure how much more junk I have in my trunk:)

Anyway I just finished my first semester- whew and I've got a couple of weeks of vacation before school starts back for the fall, so I thought I'd make an appearance here and attempt to revamp this blog to see if anyone was around to hear me. Notice I didn't say I'd cook!
As I had mentioned earlier, I've been surviving on a lot of PB & J's and PB, nutella and banana sandwiches, so this morning with a little extra time on hand and not a whole lot to do besides watch trash TV and surf the internet (which btw, is so awesome to do after spending the past 7 weeks buried under accounting books)I made a french toast PB,nutella, banana sandwich which was the most awesome thing I'd made since god knows when!
It's not rocket science: Slather a slice of bread with nutella and another with peanut butter, add sliced bananas and some toasted pecans and sandwich the two slices together.
Make a quick egg custard by whisking 2 eggs with a splash of milk, 3 tsp of sugar, pinch of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla extract.
Dip the sandwich into the egg custard on both sides for about 10 seconds each and plonk it on a hot slightly greased skillet and cook it on each side until it gets brown and delicious looking.
Serve it hot with a side of maple syrup and marvel in your ability to finally pseudo cook something after missing in action for over 4 months!

I hope to be back to cooking and posting soon unless the lazy gene takes over all over again- wish me luck!

My India trip food collage- Finally!!

2009-07-17T09:16:00.010-04:00

(Please click on the collage to enlarge it)

I know I'm only late by a month and a half, but here's my promised food collage.
Needless to say the biggest highlight of my India trip- was the food!
Most of the pictures taken are in and around Delhi, barring a few pictures taken in the open markets in Chennai. I did not take pictures at the restaurants I ate simply because the lighting sucked!

Starting at top left corner-
Lady measuring fruits with traditional weights in Chennai, I loved the see saw like banana stand too.

Spice vendor in Chennai- selling dried red chillies, whole cumin and black pepper among other things.

Jack fruit- very exotic eats:)It's very sweet and has a very unique texture, on the streets of Chenai

Paan Waala- a dying breed, Green Park Market, New Delhi

Open air market in Chennai, man selling whole spices and lentils - he was only too happy to smile for the camera!

Picture of yours truly devouring aloo chaat at UPSE, Delhi- a go to place for all chaat enthusiasts!

Gol Gappas at Bengali Sweets, South Extension, New Delhi- The heat, the cold spicy gol gappa water, the long lines queuing up to get a bite and the mouth watering belly burning stuff- Need I say more? Please note, the gol gappa dude is wearing plastic gloves now:))

Chhole Bhature at Bengali Sweets, South Extension, New Delhi- amazing stuff but will leave you drowsy all day!

Mangoes from a random fruit seller on the street- best thing about being in India in the summer!

Puri Aloo and Sooji ka halwa- classic Sunday morning B'fast at Haldi Ram, Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi

Fruits Galore- random fruit seller on a busy street corner in Delhi, the tiny melons were very juicy and sweet, very different from honey dew melons.

Lady selling coconuts in Chennai (not sure where)- she had parked herself outside of a store on a busy street. It was the perfect thirst quencher after the exhausting Chenai weather and all the shopping!

Pakoras and aloo tikkis being fried in a vat of oil (we'll pretend it was baked!), Evergreen sweets, Green Park, New Delhi

Jalebis getting fried up in 45 degree(centigrade)heat, Evergreen Sweets, Green Park, New Delhi

Fruit Seller selling Jamuns- very tart grape like fruit typically eating with a fruit masala made up of cumin, black pepper, and rock salt, fabulous stuff that will make you want to pucker up!

More aloo tikkis and aloo chaat getting fried up at UPSE, New Delhi- clearly I couldn't get enough of chaat!

More Mangoes- that was my primary food group while in India!

Samosas, kachoris and hot chai, UPSE, New Delhi

Vats of pav Bhaji being smashed up, the aroma filled the crowded market place - my mom and bro are in the background!

Exhausted

2009-07-07T22:12:00.002-04:00

I just peeped in to say I'm pooped! I didn't think I'd be back in school for another graduate degree.....and let me just say it is NOT for the faint hearted:( I forgot how much it sucks to do homework every day and have exams pop up like unexpected zits, on the bright side, it is a TON better than working in consulting and schmoozing for a living, now I might actually be able to provide tangible value in my next job, hahaha!!

Update

2009-06-24T12:59:00.003-04:00

It's been crazy hectic going back to school. It was not the smartest decision to go back to school this summer.Summer semesters last only 6 weeks and cram a LOT of information! if you're taking 4 classes...it's safe to assume you have NO life, which is why I've been MIA for so long.It's been over 3 months since I've peeped into my kitchen and I'm beginning to wonder if I've lost my cooking mojo forever. The good news is that my husband is blossoming into quite the chef, since I've been a huge control freak about letting him in (because he makes a huge mess every time he makes brownies out of box!)Anyway, I'm hoping for some inspiration and extra time, until then Chipotle's my home away from home!!

BACK

2009-06-04T18:23:00.004-04:00

I'm back after a much needed trip to India, I decompressed, pigged out, gave FabIndia and Anokhi phenomenal business and generally chilled out with my family. It was just what the doctor ordered. Ofcourse being in India was fabulous, the great food (both ghar ka khana and chaat- needless to say being a Delhi girl I'm a HUGE chatora) the people jam (after barely seeing my neighbors, it was such a treat to people watch!)the noise, the anticipation of a summer shower when the temperature hit 46 degrees, the madness of the IPL, the luscious mangoes and juicy lychees, catching up with family and friends and bitching about everyone and everything with my mom. My worries seem ludicrous now and I'm looking forward to starting a new chapter in my life...I'm headed back to school for my second Master's Degree next week...while it's not culinary school...it's still quite a change, baby steps I guess!
Feeling particularly inspired and inclined to experiment after being in Delhi for a month, so will start cooking and posting soon:)

2009-05-06T00:47:00.003-04:00

I am thoroughly enjoying my time in Delhi, it is so awesome to not worry about cooking, cleaning, getting laundry done and running random errands. A cup of tea is always just 2 minutes away and I don't have to lift a finger...dang I could get used to living like this all over again:)
I'd have never even entertained thoughts of cooking had I not left India...then again atleast I now have the basic skills to survive!!

2009-05-05T01:04:00.002-04:00

Things have been looking up lately, and I'm glad to report that happy days are here again! I'm in Delhi for a bit, gorging on mangoes, chaat and tons of maa ki dal and butter naans, you'll soon find a collage of all the food I've devoured on this trip so watch this space! Looking forward to meeting up with a few bloggers too, holler if anyone's in Delhi.