Mixed Bhajias (Fried pokoras)

Today is the start of my busy Easter break.  My son is home from Uni and he and his friends have been doing the rounds of spending time at each other's homes.  8 of them are spending Good Friday and Saturday morning with us so it will be a busy time for me BUT fun too as I am keen to cook some new dishes and see whether they enjoy them.  I find that it's always more fun cooking when you have a people visiting.   For that reason, I spent most of evening tidying up and shopping.  I wasn't in the mood for eating a full Indian meal after all that hard work so decide to make a mixture of bhajias.

I made my favourite maru bhajias and Onion bhajias.

I also make some fenugreek bhajias and rice and onion bhajias for which recipes will follow soon.

I served these hot and spicy bhajias with a tamarind sauce and finished the meal with a slice my almond barfi and a hot cup of chai.

Tomorrow's starter is butternut squash soup served with hot French bread  For the main course I will be serving cannelloni with roast potatoes, green beans and a rocket salad.  To finish the meal we have New York Cheese cake  - so watch this space for all the recipes. (Not to mention the Graze box of crisps and pop corn that gets eaten during the night!!)

Have a great Easter Break and enjoy your Easter eggs.

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Crispy Potato Bhajia often referred to as Maru's Bhajia

These crispy bhajias are also called Maru na Bhajia (meaning Maru’s bhajia). Maru is the name of a restaurant in Nairobi and they make these crispy potato bhajias and East African's all over the World  still  talk about them.  My recipe makes bhajias similar to Maru Bhajias.


Ingredients for 2 servings:

5-6 Medium white potatoes
1 cup chick pea flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chilly powder (optional)
1 teaspoon ajwain (Carom seeds)
1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of soda bicarbonate
Very small bunch of finely chopped coriander
1 teaspoon of a mixture of minced green chillies and ginger (optional)

Method:

1. Peel and slice the potatoes. My potato grater has 2 sizes and I chose the thicker slices.

2. Wash and soak the potato slices in salted water for 15 minutes.

3. Mix the salt, pepper, (chilly powder) ajwain and turmeric with the chick pea flour.

4. Sprinkle this mixture thinly on a tray.

5. Sprinkle some coriander, chillies and ginger mixture thinly on the chick pea flour.

6. Drain the potatoes and layer them on top of the chickpea flour and spices..

7. Sprinkle the chick pea flour mixture on top of the potato slices topped by the coriander, chilly and ginger.

8. Repeat this until all the potatoes have been used up.

9. Keep this mixture to marinate for 30 minutes.

10. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the mixture now and using your hands, mix the potatoes well until they all get thinly covered with the flour and spices mixture. Do not add any water to this mixture.  The salt and washed potatoes will create some moisture to enable you to cover all the potatoes with the spicy chickpea flour.

11. Heat some oil in a wok and fry these potatoes. Keep the heat high for the oil.  Check that it's reached the temperature for putting a couple of drops of the potato mixture.  If it rises quickly to the top, your oil is ready.  Now lower the heat and fry the bhajias at medium heat to allow them to cook well and crispy. You may need to adjust the heat occasionally to ensure the bhajias cook well and crispy.

12. Enjoy them with any chutney or dip.

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Wraps - A healthy and quick snack idea

Sandwiches and Wraps seem to have become the norm for quick snacks all over the world but more so in the UK. I have never been a fan of sandwiches especially if they are bland or cold. In fact, I hate them so much that I would rather starve then buy ready made sandwiches.  I like to warm my sandwiches either in a sandwich toaster or a panini maker.   Last week, I didn't have access to either of these. So how did I cope? Here's how I russelled some tasty and hot wraps for lunch:


Ingredients to serve lunch for 3 people:

3 cups of a mixture of frozen vegetables. ( I used peppers, sweetcorn, peas, carrots and broccoli)
1 medium sized potato
1 medium sized Onion
2 fresh green chillies
small piece of fresh ginger
very small bunch coriander
half a teaspoon salt
half a teaspoon of turmeric powder
1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the wraps:

6-8  wraps
2 tablespoons of oil ( I used spray sunflower oil as the healthy option)

Method:

1.   Wash and cut the potatoes and  onions into tiny cubes and add them to the frozen vegetables.

2.   Finely chop the green chillies and grate the ginger and add to the vegetables.

3.  Add all the spices like salt, turmeric to the to the vegetables. As I am trying to be healthy, I do not do any tempering to the mixture.  If you like, you can heat  2 tablespoons of oil, add mustard seeds to the oil and then add the vegetables to the oil. However you won't miss the oil as you are adding all the lovely spices and flavours to the vegetables.   Mix well and cook them in the microwave for 5 minutes.  Stir and cook again for 5 minutes. 

4.  The vegetables should be cooked by now.  Add the coriander and lemon to the vegetables and stir.

5.  The mixture should be fairly dry. 

6.   Warm the wraps on a hot griddle for about 20 seconds on each side.

7.  Spray some oil on one side of the wrap and turn it over.

8.  Add the vegetable mixture to the wraps, roll them and lay them side by side in a greased baking tray. Warming the wraps makes it easier to roll the wraps.

9.  Damp a tea towel and cover the wraps in baking dish.

10. Cook this in the oven for 10 -12 minutes at 190 Degrees Centigrade. By covering them with a damp tea towel, the wraps stay lovely and soft. If you like crispy wraps, you can grill them for a minute or two after you remove them from the oven.

11.  Cut the wraps into two or three pieces and serve them with any dip.  You can serve them with a salad or crisps as well. 

It's lovely to eat these hot and spicy sandwiches at any snack time.

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BUTTERY PAPRIKA POPCORN

With the long weekend and half term break, everyone will be enjoying the lovely weather and watching television in between.  Whenever I am watching  a good movie, I like to have popcorn.  I still make pocorn the way we used to make it years ago in Kenya -using popping corn. No popcorn machines or microwave pop corn for me.


Ingredients for 4 servings:

2 tablespoon cooking oil
75 grams of popping corn
15 grams of butter - at room temperature
salt and pepper to taste ( butter will also have salt or I tend to leave out the salt)
half a teaspoon of paprika (optional)

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a fairly large saucepan. I used one with a see through lid so I could see the corn popping.
2. Add the popcorn, stir so that the corn is covered in oil. Put the lid on the saucepan.
3. Keep the heat at high and wait for the corn to pop. It usually takes 4 or 5 minutes. Wait for all the corn to pop. Don't open the lid.
4. Once the popping slows down, switch off the heat.  Wait for a minute to ensure no more corn will pop!

5.     If the butter is not room temperature, slightly warm the butter - 10 seconds in the microwave should do the trick.
6.    Add the butter, pepper and paprika to the corn.
7.    Shake the popcorn and it's ready to eat,

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