Ragda Patties with a twist!

I have spoken about my love for Mumbai and its food in my previous post. Ragda patties is one such dish that I first tasted in my house in Mangalore when my pacchi visited us. It was during one of her visits during our vacations that she made this speically for us. Until then we did not know about this wonderful dish. Once I tasted it..I was hooked on to it. The procedure too was very simple. Though I had eaten it many times at roadside vendors, I had never attempted to prepare it at home until I came here. Since we have a week long off here due to the Chinese New year (Spring festival) I get a lot of time to cook and enjoy with the company of my hubby. It was on one such day that I made this. I did not have dried yellow peas so I used Chickpeas, hence the twist in the tale :D  I followed the recipe that I remembered how my aunt prepared some 13 years ago ;) and the taste was wonderful :D

Here is what's needed:

For Ragda

1 cup Chickpea (Soaked overnight and pressure cooked until soft)

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp roasted Cumin and Coriander powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp Oil

Procedure:

1) Heat Oil in a pan and add in jeera. When it starts spluttering pour the cooked chickpeas, spice  powder and salt to taste. 

2) Mash few chickpeas to make the gravy thicker. Add water to bring the curry to pouring consistency. Give a rolling boil and switch off. 

P.S: If you like your ragda to be spicy you can add chilli powder.

For Patties:

3-4 boiled Potatoes

1/2 - 1 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp Chat masala

finely chopped coriander leaves 

salt to taste

Oil

Breadcrumbs (optional)

Procedure:

1) Mash Potatoes and mix well all the ingredients given for Patties except oil and breadcrumbs.

2) Heat a tava. Make small balls of the patties mixture. Roll them into breadcrumbs slightly and flatten them. Place the patties on tava and shallow fry until done.

I did not have breadcrumbs in hand so directly shallow fried the patties on tava with little oil.

Sweet Chutney/Tamarind Chutney:

 I just soaked equal parts of tamarind and jaggery together in little water for 1/2 an hour. Squeezed the tamarind out. Added salt and chilli powder to taste. We do not get dates here so skipped it :)

To Serve:

Place 2 patties on a plate. Pour a ladle full of ragda. Top up with little tamarind chutney, finely chopped onion & corinader leaves. Sprinkle some sev on top and serve immediately.

Sending this Yellow dish over to Harini who is hosting FIC Yellow. 

Also sending this over to Srivalli who is hosting My Legume Love Affair - Seventh Helping

which is the brain child of Susan of The Well - Seasoned Cook. Finally this goes to JFI-Chickpea hosted at Sometime foodie the brain child of Indira of Mahanandi.

Nutritious Black Channa Pulao

Pulao's are one pot dishes that come to rescue when one is not very keen to cook elaborate meal yet want something delicious and tasty. I am always on the look out for easy to make rice dishes as we both love rice items. Hubby dear had gifted me few cookbooks long time back. But then since I was working I would make those which I knew very well and was confident of the results. Very occasionally I would try new recipes from cookbooks. 

After coming here the scenario changed. I founda  lot of time for myself and also to pursue my hobbies. Though I miss being at work it with friends I am loving this role of being a homemaker too, where there are no deadlines!! 

Coming back to this dish I have made it from Nita Mehta's "Different ways with Chawal". There are lot of recipes in this book but I was particularly drawn towards this nutritious pulao. I have always had channa with coconut based gravies or as a side dish like this. When I told amma that I am making this for dinner even she was skeptical and replied pulao with only channa!! I prepared a backup plan of maggi if it turns out a disaster! But I was quite pleased with the result and hubby too gave a thumbs up. Unexpectedly we did have a guest at home for lunch and even the guest loved it. I did not make any major changes to the recipe so jotting down here her recipe. 

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Rice - soaked for 1 hour

2 tbsp Oil

3/4 tsp Jeera (Cumin seeds)

1 Onion sliced

1/2 tsp Ginger paste - 1/2 tsp Garlic paste (I used 1 tsp Ginger garlic paste)

1/2 -1 tsp Garam masala powder

1/2 tsp Red Chilli powder

1/2 tsp Kitchen King masala (my addition,hence optional)

Salt to taste

2 tsp Lemon juice

a few coriander leaves with stalk

Soak together:

1/2 cup black Channa

1  Cinnamon

2-3 Cloves

2 cups Water

1/2 tsp salt (I skipped adding salt as I was told by amma that Channa does not cook well if salt is added at the first stage)

Procedure:

1) Soak Channa's overnight with all the ingredients given under "Soak together" and pressure cook to give 1 whistle, Keep on low flame for 20 mins. Reserve stock.

2) Strain Channa's. Measure stock and add enough water to make it upto 2 cups (double the volume of the rice).

3) Heat Oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add Jeera. When it turns golden add the sliced Onion, Stir fry till they turn transparent.

4) Add Ginger Garlic paste and fry for a min. 

5) Add in cooked Channa, Lemon juice, salt, Garam masala, Kitchen King masala (if using), red Chilli powder. Fry for 2 minutes. Add Rice. Mix. Add coriander leaves.

6) Add the measured stock and water mixture. Boil.

7) Cover with towel napkin and then with a well fitting lid. cook on low flame until done.

8) Fluff with fork to let the steam escape so that rice grains do not stick to each other. Serve hot with raita!

I am sending away this Pulao over to Srivalli who is hosting Rice mela.

Broccoli Stir-Fry

I had never tasted Broccoli before I came here. With the advent of Supermarkets though it was available in my home town, I was skeptical to cook with it. I was not sure how to cook it or how it would even taste. When we visited a local resturant here I noticed I did not have much options for vegetarians.. it was stir fried veggies with a bowl of rice.. that's all. And the options of veggies that I had was grated Potato, blanced Spinach and Egg Plant ( Since those were the only veggie names that we knew in chinese ;) )

We had once been to a place called Ningbo. The original attraction to this place was that we wanted to go over the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the longest sea- crossing bridge. We decided to stay overnight in Ningbo and see the places around. We reached there and started with our sightseeing. At lunch time we entered a nice local restaurant. We also had one of my hubby's friend with us who is a pure veggie like me. The staff were not fluent with English so it was difficult for us to communicate with them and even the menu was in Chinese. Later a lady who seemed to be a manager came over and asked us to look at all the dishes. In this place they had a display of all the food that they cook and we have to make our choice and then they would take an order and make fresh batch of food. My hubby and his friend went over and ordered the food. They showed the veggies and told them that we eat this or that (Poiniting to the veggies) and also asked them not to include egg,meat,fish,Chicken. The lady took our order and within few minutes our order was being served. One after the other the dishes appeared on our table. Seven side dishes and a big hot bowl of noodles and three small bowls of rice. It so happened that the lady misunderstood when my hubby and his friend had explained to her the options of veggies that we eat and she thought that we wanted to have all those. She asked the staff to prepare Individual dishes out of those veggies! Though the food was tasty we had lot of leftovers!

That was the first time I ever tried out Broccoli and did I say I loved it. Now it has been one of the regular dishes that we order everytime we go out. I prefer it over the Cauliflower!! This recipe was given by my Cousin sister, Archanakka. I only made  a change to her recipe by adding garlic too. Almost all the chinese resturants here add garlic juice to Broccoli stri fry and I love its taste.

Here is what's needed:

1 medium Broccoli cut into florets and cleaned

2-3 garlic cloves minced

Salt and Pepper powder to taste

Olive oil 

Procedure:

1) Heat Olive oil and add Garlic. Saute it for 30secs. 

2) Add Broccoli and stir fry for 5 minutes or until crisp tender. Add salt and pepper to taste and Serve hot.

Broccoli's nutrients include vitamin C, vitamin A (mostly as beta-carotene), folic acid, calcium, and fiber. Broccoli is an important calcium source for those who don't consume dairy products. For more info on Broccoli click here.

I am sending this diet food over to Divya's Diet Food Event. Thank you Divya for this wonderful event. 
 

VijayaDashmi Special - Rava Payasam

As a child,festivals were the time we loved the most. Holiday from school.. special food at home and outing at evenings to temple.. We really looked forward to it. During Navrathri we usually have Ayudha Pooja at home and also "Nave javche" which means eating from new harvest.

Ayudha Pooja is performed at my mom's place every year. The previous day all the vehicles would get washed and polished neatly and get decorated with a flower garland for Pooja. The priest would come early in the morning at around 5:30 or 6 AM to perform the Pooja. Every vehicle would have a tilak of Kumkum.After performing Arati to all the vehicles he would touch a coconut to all the tyres of the vehicles and then hit it to the ground and chant mantras to ward off any forthcoming accidents or problems. A lemon and a piece of Ashgourd would be kept in front of each tyre of the vehicle and after the Pooja the vehicle would be started to pass of by these crushing them. It was fun to watch my dad,uncle (now my hubby too!!!) and brother's to take the vehicle over those as sometimes the vehicle would not just go over it if the piece was too big or the lemon would just roll away without getting Crushed!! 

In one of the nine days of Navrathri we would have "Navie javche" at our place. We usually had it on Vijaydashmi. New harvest is brought from Paddy fields or from temple. Along with few vegetables it is kept in front off Tulsi and a pooja is done. The paddy is wrapped in a mango leaf and tied to Rice containers, Rice cooking vessel,Tulsi etc. This is done to celebrate the new harvest. We usually make a sweet out of rice and different traditional items for lunch. 

We celebrated "VijayaDashami" and "Nave javche" yesterday. We did a small pooja at home and I made a few traditional items and Rava Payasam for nivedyam. I did not make Rice Payasam as I did not have turmeric leaves which give a nice aroma to the Payasam.

Rava Payasam is a simple dessert to make and eat too (You do not have to bite into it,except for cashews!) :) I personally prefer Jaggery+Coconut milk based Payasams than the milk ones and its healthy too.

Here is what's needed:

1/2 Cup Wheat Rava /Semolina

1/2 - 3/4 cup grated jaggery(adjust as per taste)

10-12 cashews halved & boiled

1 cup thick Coconut milk

1 -1.5 cup Water or thin Coconut milk

1/2 tsp Cardamom powder

Procedure:

1)Dry roast Rava/Semolina until fragrant.

2)Add boiled cashews and thin coconut milk/water to rava and cook until done. Add water if necessary.

3)Add grated Jaggery and stir until jaggery dissolves completely. Add Coconut milk and bring it to a boil it over a moderate heat. Add Cardamom powder and mix well. Take off the flame and serve hot!

The colour of the Payasam depends on the colour of Jaggery. Mine was light brown hence this colour.

I am sending this over to Sunshine mom's - TongueTicklers who is hosting Food in colours event and the choice of her colour is "Brown".

I am also sending this over to Srivalli who is hosting JFI - Nov 08

Update: I am also sending this over to Vaishali who is hosting Sweet Vegan Event. Thanks Vaishali for this wonderful event. Thank you Sunshinemom for reminding me to send this over to Vaishali.

Valval making its way to the Curry Mela

When Srivalli announced the Curry Mela I was mentally making a list of curries that I would make to participate in the mela. But due to other commitments my list got limited only to my thoughts and I was not able to post anything. Everytime I would end up making simple saaru or daalithoy and some stir fried side dish. Finally I decided to make something that would make its way to Curry Mela and thus last night I made Valval. I have already blogged about this. To view the recipe click here. I am making a seperate post to send this Srivalli's Curry Mela. Thank you Srivalli for hosting this wonderful mela. BTW Srivalli has also made a list of Food blogs in her Blog. Do check out her blog to find all the wonderful bloggers at one place. Thank You Srivalli for making it easier for us to search food blogs based on specialized cuisine.