Methi and Leftover dal ki missi poori with aaloo

Ok, I give in. This whole week, I said to myself I wudn't fry, and be on this 'healthy' salad diet. And what do you know? There's an event, more like an invitation to a party to encourage us to fry pooris and to have it with the ever tempting aaloo sabzi...grrrr

So yesterday I said, what the heck...I might as well make it :) which made hubby the happiest person on the planet. Anita, this whole week you are shining on my blog :), you sure are good at tempting others to cook. With blogging about food like this, for sure we will never loose our tyres....

Since its raining poori aalo in the blogosphere and everyone was making pooris with plain aata, I thought I should make my dal methi poori. Using leftover dal? u ask; yup, I say.

I have two aaloo bhaji recipes here, one which I've always had in my parents house with poori, kachori, etc and the second one is a southie version, my mallu friend taught me. Each is in its own league. I made the second one yesterday which was devoured before I could take any pics :S

I usually make these pooris whenever there is any kind of leftover dal, and my hubby always encourages me to make excess dal so that I make his dal pooris!! For the pooris I made yesterday I had lots of dal palak (mung dal split with spinach and onion tomato tadka) left from the previous day. The dal should be a mushy mushy consistency. Offcourse these methi pooris can be made on the tava with lesser oil too, but Anita said F R I E D, so we fried, :p.

Image : The dry ingredients before kneading with the dal

For the methi missi poori you need:
-1 cup aata (any brown bread flour)
-1 cup besan (chana flour)
-2 tbsp dried kasuri methi
-1 tsp dry dhania powder (optional)
-some leftover dal

what to do
1. In a bowl throw in the aata, besan and methi. Optionally add a tsp of dry dhania powder. Use the leftover dal to knead the dough (dont use any water). If you run out of the dal, use milk to combine the rest of the flour. Make a fairly stiff dough. Even if they dont rise while frying, they will be moist because of the besan and dal. No chance of getting any cluries (cardboard like poories)!!

2. Take enough dough to make a 10cm round which is 1/4cm in thickness (it should not be too thin, else you run the danger of them becoming cluries; it should not be too thick, else you run the danger of them not getting cooked through).

3. Deep fry them, in hot oil until they are pink in colour. Alternately toast them on a tava like missi roti, painting with a little bit of oil on both sides.

4. Find any bhaji to eat with and devour quickly. Also you can have them just like that rolled with mango or lemon pickle. Its excellent tiffin and picnic food. (Makes 12 small pooris)

Aaloo bhaji 1 (northie version)- has more gravy
what you need
- 3-4 boiled potatoes finely chopped
- 1 tomato finely chopped
- 1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
- 1 tsp methade (whole fenugreek seeds)
- 3 tsp oil (any vegetable oil)
- salt and chilli powder to taste
- 3/4 tsp haldi (tumeric)
- handful of finely chopped green coriander

what you need to do
1. Heat the oil in a deep pan. When hot, throw in the jeera and methade. When they change a few shades darker (which takes a few seconds), put in the tomato and saute briefly. Add three of the chopped boiled potatoes and add 3 cups water.

2. Whilst it starts coming to the boil, mash the one potato that was not added. Add salt, chilli powder, and tumeric. Dont think the tumeric is too much, we need a deep yellow colour. When it comes to a strong boil add the mashed potato and simmer for 10 minutes. Garnish with coriander and serve with poori or kachori.

Aaloo bhaji 2 (southie version) - is a semi dry consistency
what you need
- 3-4 boiled potatoes coarsely chopped
- 1 onion coarsely chopped
- 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
- 4-5 green chillies split
- 1 tsp rai (mustard seeds)
- 1 tsp urad dal
- 3 tsp oil (any vegetable oil)
- salt and chilli powder to taste
- 1/4 tsp haldi (tumeric)
- 4-5 sprigs of mint

what you need to do1.
1. Heat the oil in a deep pan. When hot, throw in the mustard seeds and urad dal. When the mustard seeds starts to splutter(which takes a few seconds) add the urad dal and ginger and green chillies; saute until they change a few shades darker (which again takes a few more seconds) or when you hear people in the adjacent room coughing. Put in the onions and saute for some more time, until the onions become translucent. Add the chopped boiled potatoes and add 1 and a 1/2 cups water.

2. While it starts coming to the boil, add salt, chilli powder, tumeric and mint. Here we need a light yellow colour and I promise you the mint is the king in this dish. When it comes to a strong boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve with poori.

Anita's Zafrani Zamudod for Independence day

As a country India is now 60 years old, and as much as Aug 15 makes one feel all fuzzy and patriotic, and as much as the Indian economy has reached new heights, I feel as a country it has a long way to go. I know I might create outcry amongst some readers but lets face the fact that only looking at the positives and self praise in vanity never improves any country.

Yes, we have an amazing culinary cuisine and so much variety in amongst each state and tribe. Yes, we have an old rich heritage and culture in our attire. Yes, we have a myriad of languages, the dialect changing every 100kms they say; yes, we have timeless age old monuments and a beautiful natural landscape. It is said that when Alexander the great came to invade India and upon seeing the land he said "Firdozba wrozba zaminast, aminastu aminastu aminastu", which means, If there is a heaven on earth, it is here, here, here ..

Of all the problems India faces, lets look at the simple but mammoth task (or more the attitude) of keeping the Indian environment, countryside, landscape and monuments clean and pollution free. I remember one of our ex-president (the honourable APJ Abdul Kalam's) many speeches in which he has said many times that the same Indians when travelling abroad, follow all rules to keep the foreign lands clean, but then why can't those same indians and indians in india keep their environment clean...

to site a few examples that I have seen with my own two eyes and can remember rite now...

- the horrible habit of men (and horridly women) of spitting any and everywhere (especially after having pan) especially to my dismay on walls of monuments. For God's sake the saliva produced in our mouths needs to be swallowed to aid our digestion. (And if its phlegm that these people are trying to get rid, they better get medication for throat irritation.)

- while travelling in an bicycle rickshaw, I have seen so many times, a lot of women when they sweep their houses, they leave the heap of grit 5m from their house, because it seems after that, its not their problem, what happens to the rubbish?

- the first time I went on a tour of the holy places, vrindavan, mathura and govardhan parbat, I found milk sellers offering milk for the deities and prasadam near open sewage drains with millions of flies around, and nobody cared. Sellers were selling, devotees were buying milk for Krishna, and others drinking. I know I left the place disgusted and sad, that we couldnt even offer the Gods some clean milk. We easily forgot that cleanliness is next to godliness.

- As a child, whenever we went on long journeys in buses, people would peel bananas and eat chips and throw the peels and packets out of the windows to my shock and horror. Worst, they would stare at me for 'collecting' my rubbish with me (to throw away later).

- The first time (after marriage), I told my husband's cousins that I wanted to see chowpati beach and the gateway of India, and they told me its quite polluted. Hey its a beach, and the gateway is a monument, suerly it wasnt that bad. But sadly it was, there was litter around the monument, and all over the beach beyond normal litter (you know what I mean). It was so sad.

There are so many of these petty incidences i cant even remember. If I could sit an think of them, they would fill up several posts. And we so easily forget that its these little things that add up and make the country look so filthy. Ive always complained to my parents, aunts and uncles about this, and I always get told that because the country has such a large population, that this is inevitable. But my argument is, the more people we have the more hands we have to clean up... I dont know if we will ever see a cleaner India, a cleaner countryside, with the current trend. If they were clean, we wouldnt have all these bollywood movies going abroad to shoot, as if we dont have great locations to shoot in India. As India celebrates 60 long years of independence, lets all create awareness that we need to clean up the country and bring down the pollution levels. This is my message to all this year. (Which makes me think its late for Meeta's Earth food theme for her monthly mingle, oh well, see the lovely round up here)


Coming to the recipe... I made this weekend and in honour of independence day. When I saw this at A Mad Tea Party. i was like wow, I just have to try this. Even though the milk didnt zamufy (set) completely after keeping it for 8 hours and the zamudod was watery (maybe the weather was too cold), the taste was heveanly. Next time I will add more curds so that the yoghurt is set all the way through... check out the recipe here. I enjoyed making this so much, that my mum and I made a whole batch of extra fresh plain yogurt too, which led to the temptation of making shrikhand, hmm one temptation leading to another (watch out for it in one of the future posts).

Express Sukhi dal with phulka and salad

How many times do we want a quick meal because we are so hungry, or because we are out of time? A lot of times I have a hungry hubby calling me that he's on his way home and ravenous. Amd most times no take away order satisfies the belly like a yummy homemade meal.

The express event in which we need to cook a full nutritious meal within 30 minutes conceived by mallugirl of Malabar Spices is a superb idea. I told her it would be a great resource; to pool in express ideas that'll come to our rescue when we are in such an edaciously vulnerble state!

I love this sukhi dal, even if its made in 45 minutes too! Its that yummy. You can use urad split as opposed to moong that I've used here. This dal is also used to stuff samosas and its equally yummy with any roti or phulka.

Timing myself and serving a meal for two, here goes:

What I need:
- dough for roti (am not counting dough making for the roti, alhough I know some superwomen who can squeeze that in too!): combine warm water with brown bread flour (atta) to make a soft dough. This dough can be refridgerated for later use too, like i am using dough from the fridge here.
- 2 cups moong split (yellow moong dal without skin - moong dhuli)
- 8-10 shallots (can use 2 large size onions and a tsp of sugar when sauteeing them)
- 2-3 tsp ghee/oil (any vegetable oil) for the tempering
- 2 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
- 3 tsp ginger powder (saunth)
- 2 tsp dry dhania powder (coriander seeds powder)
- a pinch of garam masala
- a handful of freshly chopped dhania (green coriander leaves)
- 1/2 tsp haldi (tumeric)
- salt to taste
- lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
- optional salad ingredients (such as a cucumber, half a head of lettuce, a tomato, and a small green pepper)
- green chillies (optional)

What you need to do (timed):

(0 - 5 min)
1. Wash the dal in three rounds of water. Put the dal with double the amount of water (for this recipe 4 cups), haldi and salt on a high flame. Peel the required number of leaves from the lettuce head, wash them under running water and leave them to drip (I hate watery salad leaves). Peel the shallots, and gather your spices.

(5 - 10 mins)
2. Chop the shallots (not too finely, about 3/4cm cubes) and give the dal a stir. On another burner, put a kadai(wok) on medium flame, and put in the ghee, when the ghee becomes hot (takes a few seconds). Add the jeera seeds and saute briefly, when the jeera changes a few shades darker add the ginger powder and shallots and saute.

Chop the green coriander leaves and keep aside. When my chopping board is empty of the onions and the coriander leaves I start chopping whatever I can fathom and combine as a salad from the fridge. Chop an english cucumber into half and then into slices in between stirring the dal and swaying the onions. The dal should be coming to a boil by now.

(10 - 15 mins)
3. After chopping/slicing the cucumber, start chopping the green pepper (keep emptying your chopping board into a bowl). When the dal come to a strong (rolling) boil, cover the pan and reduce the gas to a medium low. Chop a tomato and throw that into the salad bowl tool.

Keep moving the onions, we need to caramalize them, not saute them to a mash. They should retain a crunchyness. Add the dhania powder, and garam masala to the onions and stir. Give the dal a stir after 3-4 minutes.

(15 - 20 mins)
4. Take the onions off from the flame, let cool and put the tava(flat griddle) on the stove. Make enough balls from the dough for the number of phulkas u need. Roll each dough into a 15cm round and put on the tava. When it changes colour (thats maybe 30 sec) turn and cook the other side for about a minute (in between you should be rolling another dough ball). Throw the phulka on an open flame (and simultaneously the next rolled dough circle onto the tava), keep turning the phulka on the open flame until it rises to the fullest. Take it off from the flame (optionally dab the phulka with a tiny bit of ghee) and pile it up in a roti box. Keep the phulka process going and check and stir the dal, if the dal seems too dry, add another 1/2 cup of water. Cover and let it simmer further.

(20 - 25 mins)
5. Keep working on the phulkas. I made 6 phulkas for a hungry husband and a hungry me. If you are done with the phulkas, tear up the salad leaves into bite size. Now if the salad is too naked for you, you might as well dress it the way you want. Sometimes we just sprinkle salt and pepper on it; and other times I shake some salt, black pepper, lime juice and a tsp of olive oil in a small bottle and dribble over it, its your choice really. Stir the dal and check if the dal is cooked (slighltly cool a few granules of the dal and press between two fingers). We want the dal to be cooked thouroughly just before it reaches the state where it can be mashed up, dal al dente?!

(25 - 30 mins)
6. Cook the dal for another couple of minutes if needed. Sprinkle the sauted onions, chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice onto the dal and combine. Serve the dal with a phulka and a big serving of salad into two plates. And then dig in this healthy quick meal offcourse!

Some changes and equations

I just want to announce some changes...

Fusion Food is now Soul Food

Dumela = Rachna

Rachna = Rachna

Therefore, Rachna is Rachna, and Dumela is going to fall off soon as it was causing confusion and people were thinking I am two people... and since for the first time ever, someone told me they like the name Rachna, Dumela is out.... (some letters have even fallen off already, and by the end of the week, the rest wud surely have disappeared...), I decided to change the title too, hope there's no confusion there.........catch ya all later... *