Mixed vegetables and Ciabatta bread Bhajias

This is a quick snack to make if you have some friends round and can also be served as a starter when entertaining guests.  I love having this after a busy day shopping.  So easy to fry these up and have them with a cup of masala chai.

Ingredients (serves 4): 

3 small plain Ciabatta rolls
1 medium Onion - grated
1 small potato - grated
Half a capsicum chopped into small pieces
2 or 3 Chopped green chillies (depends on your taste)
small bunch of chopped coriander
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of Ajwain or ajma seeds (Ajowan caraway, carom seeds)
2 teaspoons of whole coriander seeds
1 cup of chickpea flour (chana flour)

½ teaspoon of soda bi carbonate 

Sunflower oil to fry the bhajias

Method:

1.   Grate and chop the vegetables ready to add to the Ciabatta bread (FYI: Ciabatta is Italian bread with yeast.  It tastes best when it is hot from the oven.)

 2.  Soak the ciabatta rolls in warm water for 15 minutes or until they feel soft.

3.  Once soft - transfer the rolls into a sieve.  Using your hands break up the rolls until they resemble a mashed dough.  Lightly press the dough to remove as much water as you can.

4.   Add all the spices, vegetables and the ciabatta mixture in a mixing bowl.

5. Add the chick pea flour to the mixture.

6.  Add the soda bi carbonate to 3-4 tablespoons of warm water and add it to the bhajia mixture.  Mix  well and do not make the mixture too runny.  Tip:  If it gets runny - add a bit more chick pea flour.

 7.  Using a tablespoon, drop the bhajia into hot oil and fry until crisp and golden brown.

8.  Serve hot with any of your favourite dips.

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Khasta kachori - Friday Night's treat

 

Friday evenings for me mean some spicy and  easy to eat dinner.  Last night we had khasta kachori.   We didn't have any sev noodles so I used some chevdo,  I had made earlier in the week,  as a topping for my kachoris.

The kachoris are really easy to make and make a wholesome meal with all the toppings of chopped onions, chopped chillies, green chutney and tamarind chutney.  Do checkout my recipe for khasta kachori and pop in later today for a brunch of  hot jalebis.

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Stir Fried Rice (vagharela bhat) - my midnight snack

Happy New year to all my readers. I hope that you had a great Christmas and New Year break and are enjoying the half price Sales at this time of the year. I am really interested in finding out how many of you went actually left your house to go Christmas shopping and go to the Sales this year?   I have been so busy this year that I ended up doing most of my Christmas shopping and Sale shopping online   I found that buying goods online was a lot cheaper than buying it in the Stores.  In fact some of the Department stores were offering extra discount and free Postage for buying their stuff online and I was completely hooked.

Being a food blogger, I am always looking at eBay for cheap props and kitchen appliances. This got me thinking whether other countries also sold stuff on eBay. That’s when I stumbled upon  http://www.cuponation.in and https://www.cuponation.in/ebay-india-coupons .  Apart from being a massive big marketplace - eBay India had a lot more discounts and coupons than the UK eBay site. They had some great looking and reasonable priced kitchen appliances that I would love to buy for my niece who lives in India but not sure if they would be delivering to all parts of India. I would be interested to find out if any of you have ever used this website from outside India?

I bet you have all guessed that not much blogging got done whilst I was busy shopping online!! I was lucky that my sons were home for Christmas and they took on the challenge of cooking for us by using my blog for the recipes. I was quite impressed by some of the stuff they cooked!!

I made this quick and easy stir fried rice for us all when we were all hungry one midnight after playing Monopoly!! I don't usually approve of midnight snacks but my boys were home and I was happy to do anything for them!!  I decided  to cook something light and quick for the midnight snack.  I made this quick and easy stir fried rice which we had with plain Greek Yogurt.

Ingredients for 4-6 servings:

4 cups cooked plain basmati rice

1 medium potato 

1/2 cup peas (I used frozen peas)

1 onion sliced finely (I used red onion)

1 fresh carrot 

1-2 green chillies for garnishing (optional)

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

Method:

1.  You need to make sure you have cooked the rice.  This recipe would  also work with left over rice.  

2.  Chop your onions finely.

3.  Dice the potatoes and carrots into very small cubes.

4.   Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds to the oil. 

5.  Once the cumin seeds get brown, add the onions and allow them to soften.

6.  Add the potatoes, carrots and peas.

7.  Add the salt and turmeric powder to the vegetables.  Stir well and allow the vegetables to cook for 5-7 minutes or until the potatoes soften.   When using frozen peas, you do not need to add any water to the vegetables.  Fresh peas may need some water.

8.  Now add the plain cooked rice to the vegetables and mix in by stirring gently.

9.  Cover the mixture and cook for 2-3 minutes on a low heat. 

10.  The rice is ready to serve with love. For special occasions, you can garnish it with cashews and peanuts.

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Satpadi poori (seven layered pooris)

Memories of these pooris were awakened by Anila when she emailed me to ask if I had the recipe.   I haven’t made these layered puris before but thought that they should be quite simple to make them following any recipe.  Looking on the web – all the recipes I came across were for sweet chirotes. One recipe came close but they made the pooris using one chappati which they rolled up after pasting it with ghee and rice flour.   I wasn’t too keen on making such small puris so went ahead with this recipe from memory. The puris turned out perfect and fluffy. If any of you have the original recipe – do email it to me as I am keen to follow the authentic recipe.  Anila – do make these and let me know if they are similar to the ones your mum used to make.

Ingredients for 30 pooris depending on the size.

2 cups of self raising flour

½ tsp salt

1 tbs sesame seeds

¼ cup Olive oil

¼ cup olive oil for using between layers

¼ cup plain flour to use for dusting

1 litre sunflower oil for frying

Method

1.     Sieve the self raising.  Add the salt, sesame seeds and olive oil to the flour.  Mix the dough using some warm water.  The dough should not be too tough.  Cover this for 20 minutes and allow it to rest.

2.     Divide the dough into 14 balls the size of golf balls

3.     Roll out one ball into a round chappati.  

4. Spread Olive oil on the rolled out chappati and dust some flour on it.

5.     Cover with the second chappati on which you spread with some oil and dust with flour….

6.     Continue doing this until you have made and layered  7 chappatis.

7.     Turn the chappati inwards from one edge like you would a swiss role and make a roll.

8.     Cut the roll into small circles.

9.     Take each circle and roll out like a poori.

10.     Once all the pooris are rolled out, heat the oil in a wok and deep fry them until golden brown.

11.  Enjoy the puris with a nice cup of tea.

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Farari Chevdo/Chewdo (Hign Energy Potato Crisps and Nuts Mixture)

There are lots of Indian dry snacks available in most supermarkets these days.  Snacks such as Bombay Mix, Gujarat mix etc... Most of them have a variation of nuts and crisps as a base.   Chevdo/chewdo is a Gujarati snack made usually during celebrations such as Diwali.  There are lots of variations of chevdo/chewdo.  One of my favourites is the Kenya chevdo has it's own unique taste. 


Farari Chevdo/chewdo is mainly eaten(by hindus)  during the days and months of fasting.  On the days  Hindus fast, there is a list of foods that they are “allowed” to eat. The list - often referred to as farari food - includes all the fruits and nuts, milk and milk products including yogurt. It also includes potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, tapiaco, ragigara flour etc…. In fact, the sumptuous delicacies you can eat in place of everyday food makes you feel that you are having a feast because of the variety you can make.


I like to make this Chevdo/chewdo for the fasting months but also all the year round as it has so many high energy nuts in it. It makes a nice snack to serve with drink too.


I have listed the ingredients I used.  You can adjust them to your own taste and add more nuts or even raisins if you like them.  I have also suggested some cheat ingredients - there is nothing wrong in accepting a bit of help at time!! The cheat ingredients will have salt in them so I suggest that you add no more salt to the chevdo if you are planning to adding these readycooked products to the chevdo/chewdo.


Ingredients ( this will make about a kilo of chevdo/chewdo)


Preparation required (about 30 minutes).
Cooking time 60 minutes.


6 Medium sized new potatoes (I used locally grown Charlotte potatoes)
1 cup peanuts
½ cup almond
½ cup cashews


The following cheat ingredients are optional:
1 large bag of ready cooked crisps( I used Kettle hand cooked crisps)
1 small bag ready chip sticks (I used a supermarket's own brand)
1 small bag of ready fried jumbo peanuts (I used a supermarket's own brand)
1 small bag of ready fried cashews. (I used a supermarket's own brand)


1-2 teaspoons ground sugar or sugar substitute such as Splenda/canderal etc... 
2 teaspoons cloves and cinnamon powder (I ground it fresh using 1 part cloves to 2 parts cinnamon)
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
4-5 small sticks of cinnamon
5-6  cloves
3-4 chopped green chillies ( you can use more or less)
5-6 curry leaves (limdo)
2 tablespoons oil for tempering
1 litre oil for frying. 

Method:

1. Peel and wash the potatoes.  Grate them and soak them in cold water for as long as you can.  if possible soak them overnight or at least  but a minimum of 30 minutes. In my opinion the best potatoes to use for making crisps are new potatoes as they do not have too much starch.  


2.  Wash the grated potatoes two more times with cold water and then drain them using a colander and spread them on a clean dish cloth.  Washing the grated potatoes removes the starch and the crisps won't go dark when frying them. 

3.  Heat the oil in a wok or karai.  


4.  To check if it's hot, drop a potato chip in the oil.  If it rises quickly, then the oil is ready. 


5.   Pat the grated potatoes with the dishcloth and then drop a handful of the potatoes in the oil.  Reduce the heat and allow them to cook.  The potato crisps will float to the top when cooked.  Allow them to cook until crispy. Once cooked, keep them in a dry bowl. I find it easier to cook a few crisps at a time in a metal sieve.  

6.   Once cooked, keep them in a dry bowl. 

7.  Next fry the peanuts, cashews and almonds.  These cook very fast so don't leave for too long in the hot oil. Again- I fry them in the sieve so that it's easy to take them out quickly.  In fact, they don't taste too bad if undercooked so just put them in the oil, turn once and remove them.  

7.   Now mix all the ingredients together. All the crisps and nuts you have fried together with the half  ready made crisps and nuts.  If you feel it needs more nuts or crisps - add more.  This is all a matter of personal taste.

8. Now add spices to the mixture.  My suggestion is to use the spices you enjoy.   I didn't add any salt but added 1 teaspoon of white pepper,  2 teaspoons of the clove and cinnamon powder plus 1 tablespoon of sugar substitute.  Taste the chevdo/chewdo and adjust it to how you like it. 

9.   Finally temper the chevdo (vaghar as the Gujarati's like to call it). 


10. Take 2 tablespoons of oil and heat it in a saucepan.  Add the cinnamon and cloves to the hot oil.  Once the cloves pop, add the green chillies and curry leaves and allow them to cook for just a minute.  Switch off the heat and spread this on to the chevdo mix.  

 11.  Mix well and store it in an airtight cupboard.  This should be fine for a couple of weeks.

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Bateta Pawa (Potatoes and flaked rice snack)

Bateta Pawa is a typical  dish served in Gujarat India for  breakfast.  This is a great dish to make as a snack but also works a treat if you have unexpected guests.  This one was made with potatoes, flaked rice and nuts.    I have never seen this in a restaurant menu but I wouldn't be surprised if they served this dish in some Gujarati restaurants in India or UK.

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 medium potatoes washed and chopped in very small cubes

1 medium red onion chopped in small cubes

1 cups of pawa ( flaked rice)

2 small green chillies (chopped finely) (reduce to half or one if you are not keen on hot food.

1 cup of a mixture of cashew nuts, almonds and peanuts

1 teaspoon salt

half  teasppon  turmeric

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds or cumin seeds

a few curry leaves,  coriander and chilly powder for garnishing (Optional)

Method:

1.  Heat the oil in a saucepan and add mustard seeds to it.  Add the curry leaves if you have some.

2.  Once the popping stops, add the nuts  and stir them in the oil.

3.  Allow the nuts to be coated with the oil and cook for a minute or two.  The fried nuts will taste great. 

4.  Now add the onions and green chillies. 

4.  Add the salt, turmeric and sugar.

5.  Cook the onions for a couple of minutes.

6.  Now add the diced potatoes. 

5.  Mix well, spinkle a couple of teaspoons of water and allow this to cook on a low heat for 5 to 7 minutes or until the potatoes feel fairly soft but not overcooked.

6.  In the meantime, wash the flaked rice in cold water and drain them in a sieve.

7.  Once the potatoes feel soft, add the flaked rice to the mixture.  

8. Add the lemon juice, stir well and allow to cook gently for 5 to7 minutes.  Taste and add more salt or lemon if desired.

9. Once cooked add the coriander and using a fork, fluff up the bateta pawa.

10. Remove into a serving dish. Sprinkle some chilly powder (or pepper) on top of the bateta pawa and serve hot with yoghurt.

11.  You can add sweet corn to this dish and make bateta makai pawa too

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