Mung beans, Plain rice and Triangle parathas

Today has been a busy day with lots of housework plus cooking the Indian snacks - chora fari and farsi puri.  So dinner today was whole mung bean curry, rice and triangle parathas with garlic.  (I realise that I have never posted a recipe for plain rice!).

This is one meal the whole family enjoys and I don't have to worry about making something different for a fussy member of the family. We had it with lots of yoghurt and for afters - we had good old fashioned vanilla ice cream.  Now time to relax and catch up with friends.

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Lentil Bhajia or Vati Dal na Bhajia

Vati dal na bhajia are a kind of fritters made from ground lentils and spices. These bhajias are a popular street food in India where these are deep fried and served hot on the roadside with a sweet and sour type of tangy chutney made from tamarind.

Ingredients to make about 20 bhajias :

2 cups of Chickpea Dall (Chana dall)

1/2 cup of dry potato mash (available in most supermarkets. SMASH is a popular brand in UK but any brand is fine)

1 medium onion (I used red onions to give the bhajias a bit of colour)

3-4 green chillies blended finely (as per taste)

small piece of ginger (I used one teaspoon of blended ginger)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder

2 pinches of soda bicarbonate (don't use more)

1 teaspoon ajwain ((also known as carom seeds)

2 teaspoons of whole coriander

1 tablespoon of sesame seeds

small bunch of fresh coriander

Oil for frying (I used sunflower oil)

(Note:  Ingredients such as ajwain, coriander and sesame seeds make the bhajias tasty but don't worry if you haven't got them - the bhajias will still taste fine as long as the basic ingredients are used.)

Method:

1.  Clean, wash and soak the chana dall in plenty of  cold water overnight.
2.  On the next day - Drain the dall in a colander and wash it again in lots of cold water. 

3.  Grind the dall to a coarse mixture in a blender.  I used the sharp chopping blade and didnot add any water to blend the dall.  If you do need to add water to blend the dall - you will have to add either Chick pea flour or potato mash to help bind the mixture.

4. The mixture should look fairly dry. I have tried to take a picture of a spoonful of the mixture to give you an idea of how dry my mixture was:

5.  Transfer the blended mixture to a mixing bowl.

6.  Grate the Onions and add them to the mixture.

7.  Add the finely blended green chillies and ginger to the mixture.  

8.  Add the salt, turmeric, ajwain, whole coriander, sesame seeds, chopped fresh coriander to the mixture.  

 9. Mix all the ingredients and you will find that at this stage the mixture doesn't bind well. Some recipes suggest adding chick pea flour to bind the mixture.  I have always preferred to used potato mash. You can experiment and decide which taste you prefer.

10. Add the potato mash. I needed a little less than half a cup so go with your instincts. I added the potato mash, soda bicarbonate and then mixed it well and covered it for 5 minutes. The potato mash helps to soak up any moisture and also binds the mixture.

11.   Heat the oil in a wok.
12.  Whilst the oil is heating, and divide the mixture into small flat balls.  I managed to get 20. Arrange these flat balls on a greased plate.

13. Once the oil is hot, take 6 balls at a time and deep fry them until they are golden brown and crisp. Lower the heat slightly and keep cooking the bhajias,  turning them often  during the frying so that they cook well and you don't get an uncooked centre.   The bhajias will expand slightly as the recipe has soda bicarbonate.

14.   Drain the bhajias on a kitchen  paper and serve with chutney and a hot cup of masala chai.

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Kachori : Pastry covered - lentil and peas filled savoury snack

Fried Kachoris........

Hot and spicy kachoris are one of my favourite snacks. Kachoris can be made with lots of different fillings but I usually make them with mung dall. This time, I decided to make them with a variety of mung dalls and added some frozen peas to give the mixture a bit of moisture. Lots of recipes ask for the lentils to be boiled and the excess water strained out or some ask for the lentils to be soaked and ground in a food mixture. I like to see what lentils I am eating and I also feel that by straining out the water, you are throwing away some of the goodness in the lentils – hence my style of cooking is shown below. . You can make kachoris using peas on their own too but I added the frozen peas to my lentils so that I would have to use less water to cook my lentils.

Ingredients : This will make 25 to 30 kachoris depending on the size of kachoris you make.

1 cup of dehusked split mung beans
1 cup of a mixture of whole mung beans and split but husked mung beans
Half cup of frozen peas
1 onion
Fresh green coriander
A tablespoon of mixed garlic and ginger paste
1.5 litres cooking oil:  you will need some for the lentil mixture, some for the dough and some for frying.
3 cups of plain flour for making the kachori's outer covering

Spices:

2 teaspoons of  cumin
2 or 3 sticks of cinnamon
3 or 4 cloves
Salt to taste 1 to 2 teaspoons
1 tablespoon chilly powder or pepper if you like mild food.
2 to 3 green chillies – depends on how hot you like your food!
1 -2 teaspoons sugar (optional) – I like my kachoris to have a sweet and sour type of taste.
1 -2 tablespoons lemon juice – again adjust this after tasting the kachori mixture.
1-2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and cloves mixture (optional)

dehusked and split mung dall

A mixture of whole mung and husked split mung dall

Method

1. Wash the various mung dalls and allow to soak whilst you organise theingredients for tempering.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil and add in the dry cumin, cloves and cinnamon

3. Strain the lentils and add them to the oil - I usually use a long slotted spoon to gently add the lentils to the hot oil. Whilst straining the dall, don’t worry if it’s not too dry as this will give some moisture to cook the lentil mixture.

4. Add the salt, sugar, chilly powder, ginger and garlic paste.

5. Stir and allow to cook gently for 5 to 6 minutes.

6. Add in the frozen peas and allow to cook for further 5 minutes.

7. As I didn’t want to add water to my mixture, I transferred my kachori mixture to the microwave for 10 minutes, checked it, stirred it and cooked it for a further 10 minutes.The lentils need to be cooked completely so do add some water if you feel it needs it. 

Add frozen peas to the mung dalls

.

8. Once the mixture is cooked, add the lemon juice to it, add the ground cinnamon and cloves mixture to it.

9. Cook it for a couple of minutes and transfer it to a big mixing bowl.

TIP: If for some reason, the lentils are cooked and you have added too much water - allow the water to evaporate.  You can add a couple of tablespoon's of potato mash to soak up the extra moisture.10. Taste the mixture and make adjustments.

11. Cut the coriander finely and add to the mixture together with finely chopped onions.Mix well.

12. Spread the mixture to enable it to cool.

13. In the meantime, prepare the dough

14. Sieve the dough and add in 4 tablespoons of oil and 1 teaspoon of salt. Adding the bit of extra oil to the dough helps to make the outer pastry crisp but nice and flaky too.

15. Using warm water, prepare the dough. The dough should not be too firm.

16. Cover and allow the dough to rest.

dough made with plain flour, salt and cooking oil

Divide the cooked mixture into small balls

17. Now back to the kachori filling-  Divide the filling into small balls

18.  Now take a small amount of dough and roll it out in a small circle.

Roll out dough in a small circle

19. Put the kachori filling in the middle of the circle.

20. Picking the edge of the circle, try and join all the edges together to form a ball. I tend to go round the circle joining up small bits of the outer circle.

try and wrap the cooked mixture in the rolled out circle

21. The ball should be sealed from all sides or the mixture will leak out when frying.

kachoris - ready to fry

22. Fry the kachoris in hot oil. Add the kachoris to hot oil, then turn the heat down and allow them to cook slowly until nice and golden brown.

23. Enjoy them with hot chutney, ketchup, a cup of tea or a nice cold coke….the choice is yours….

24.  These kachoris can be par fried and frozen too.

Fried Kachori's ready to eat.

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Mung Bean Curry

Mung beans are  full of protein.  They can be cooked in several ways.   They can be soaked and sprouted to be used in a curry or a salad. You can split them to use in a curry or khichedi or even kachoris. The mung bean curry  I made is simple and nice to be served with rice, chappatis or porathas.

Ingredients (for 3-4 servings):

Half a cup of whole mug beans
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
2 or 3 cloves
1 or 2 small dry red chillies (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chilly powder
2 green chillies sliced through the middle ( if you like hot food!)
1 teaspoon crushed ginger
3-4 cloves of garlic chopped into small chunks or crushed if you don't like chunks of garlic
1 tablespoon sugar or jaggery
1 tablespoon lemon juice ( can use more if you like sweet and sour taste)
tomatoes - preferably half a can of crushed tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes can be used but would need to be softened a bit before adding.
1 tablespoon tomato puri
a few curry leaves and a small bunch of coriandar

Method

1. Wash and mug and if possible allow them to soak for a couple of hours.

2.  Add a litre of water to the mug and boil them until they soften and split - I used a pressure cooker and cooked them for 40 minutes on a medium heat. Some people like their mug runny and can add more water.  I prefer mine to be thick so don't add too much water to them whilst cooking them.  Also, it's always easier to add water to the mug as it is cooking so start off with just a litre of water.

Whilst the mug is cooking, prepare the spices etc:

3.   Blend the tomatoes in a bowl.

4.   Add the tomato puri, salt, turmeric, chilly powder, sugar, lemon juice, the green chillies, crushed ginger, crushed garlic and curry leaves to the tomatoes and mix well.

5.   Once the mung beans have cooked - prepare the seasoning.

6.   Pour the oil in a saucepan and let it warm.

7.  Add in the cinnamon, cloves, the dry red chillies and mustard seeds to the oil.

8.  The mustard seeds and cloves will pop so keep the saucepan covered.

9.  Add the tomato mixture with all the spices to the oil and stir well.  Cook for 3-4 minutes.

10. Now add the cooked mung beans to the tomato mixture and allow it to cook for 10 minutes.  At this stage, you can either cook it further to reduce the water - or add water to the mung - depending on how you like your mung.

11.  Sprinkle coriandar and serve the mung beans hot with rice or chappatis or porathas.

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