Chirote

This was a sweet snack recipe which i collected from my friend long ago. She got it from a recipe book. Easy to make. I made some changes to it to give it a good flavour.

Ingredients :-

Maida - 1 tea cup
Salt     - 1 pinch
Sugar - 1 1/2  tbsp
Cardamom - 3 - 4 nos.
Ghee -  1 1/2 tsp
Corn flour - 2 tsp
ghee for frying
Liquid edible Food colours of your choice



Procedure :

• Mix Maida & salt and sieve. Adding water little by litte, knead the dough
• Mix ghee & cornflour to a smooth paste. If you feel the ghee is not sufficient add few more drops to get the consistency.
• Divide the dough into equal portions as per the colours you are going to use. keeping one part plain.

• Mix each of the liquid  food colour to each part of dough and mix & knead well

• Flatten each coloured ball & plain one on a dusted board with rolling pin like a chapathi.
• Applly cornflour paste on the plain one, place a coloured one on top and apply cornflour paste on it. Do like this for all the coloured chapathis.

• Apply the paste on top chapathi and roll them together into a cylinderical shape.
• cut 1/2" thick slices, flatten them with rolling pin into thin puris.

• Heat ghee and fry them in low flame till crispy, turning the sides.
• Place on an absorbent sheet.

 

• Powder sugar along with cardamom.
• In a plate, arrange the colourful chirotes, sprinkle powdered flavoured sugar lavishly & serve.

 

Adai Dosai

Adai, the lentil dosa is crispy, yummy & healthy one. The rice & lentils along with chilli & pepper is soaked together. A nice flavourful dosa variety. Easy to prepare & delicious to eat.

The texture varies as some grind it to nice paste and some leave it look little coarse. So you can try the one which you taste the best.




  Ingredients :- 

1. Boiled Rice - 2 tea cups
2. Tuvar Dhal + Gram Dhal + Urad dhal - 1/2 tea cup (together)
3. Groundnut - 2 tbsp (optional)
4. Peppercorn - 1 tsp
5. Red Chilli - 6 nos. (or as per taste)
6. Salt to taste
7. Curry leaves
8. Hing Powder - 1/4 tsp
9. Methi seeds - 1 tsp

Procedure :-

• Soak rice, groundnut & dhals together for 2 hrs. 
• Grind it little coarse along with curry leaves, peppercorn, redchilli, salt and hing powder. Mix well
• You can ferment the batter for 6 hours & use or just let it stand for 30 min and go ahead preparing the adai dosai.
• Heat a Tawa, pour a laddle of batter and spread it like dosai. 
• When one side is done, flip and cook the other side too. 

 

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Accompaniment : Adai tastes best with the traditional Butter & Jaggery. Some makes avial and have adai avial.You can have chutney too as a side dish.

Bubble - the Ray

A new member to my 'Ami' Family. "Bubble" - the ray. Isn't the ray cute. Its Happily swims & settles in the sea bed.

Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji - a quintessential street food delicacy of the Mumbai City, was invented to feed the mill workers. The food that is custom made so that it is easy to prepare, affordable  & nutritious too as it has got all vegetables. An excellent dish to satisfy the hunger quickly.

Its raining here heavily as monsoon has started. Thought of having hot Bhaji and Pav. So made it for dinner of the day.

Recipe Video is in "Mira's Akshaya Patram"

For the Bombay Pav Bhaji, same method, except that finely chopped green capsicum is fried and added to the Bhaji.

(Serves 5 to 6 people)

Ingredients :

1. Pav bread - 10 to 12  pieces
2. Onion - 2 nos. (Big) (Finely chopped. Reserve some for garnishing )
3. Coriander Leaves - chopped 3 tbsp
4. Potato - 6 Nos. (medium)
5. Tomato - 1 No. (Big)
6. Carrot - 1 small (optional)
7. Green Peas - 1/4 cup (optional)
8. Beetroot - 1/4 (For natural color) - Optional
9. Ginger - 1" piece - Grated
10. Garlic - 3 cloves (Big). If small, take 6-8 cloves - Grated
11. Wedges of 1 Lemon
12. salt to taste
13. Pav baji masala - 1/4 tsp (or as required as per flavour preference)
14. Red Chilli Powder as per taste (use Deggi mirch / Tika lal  powder for rich color)
15. Oil - 1 tbsp
16. butter - 5 tbsp for the gravy and reserve some butter for roasting the pav bread.
17. Water as needed.

 Procedure :- 

• Boil, Peel & mash Potatoes.  If you are adding carrots and green peas, Beetroot, then boil them together.

• Grind the Beetroot in a mixer. Mash the potatoes, carrots and green peas. 

•  Chop onions finely. Keep some for garnishing (say 1/2 cup)

• Puree the Tomato or Grate it. This will make the tomato color flavour, color and taste get infused into the gravy.

•  Finely chop coriander leaves. Reserve some for garnishing.

•  Grate ginger and garlic (or you can even grind to paste) or crush nicely with a pestle (i do it sometimes).

•  Heat oil and butter in a pan (mixing oil with butter will prevent butter getting burnt smell). Keep the flame in Medium and add the chopped onions and saute till golden brown.

• Add the ginger garlic paste and stir fry till the raw smell goes or when it turns golden in color. 

• Add grated / pureed tomato and cook till oil separates. The tomato will get a nice light orange color. Add the Turmeric Powder, Pav Bhaji Masala, Red Chilli Powder and mix well.

• Add boiled & mashed veggies (Potato, carrot, green peas) and required water little by little, stirring in between to check the consistency. Bring it to boil. Since Potato has starch, you may have add some more water. so keep checking the consistency.

• Cook for 4 minutes in low flame or till the mixture becomes semi solid.  Bhaji is Ready!

Preparing the Pav :-

There are 2 different methods of pav making. One the ordinary method. The other, we will be adding little masala while roasting the pav. This I learnt from a street food vendor here. It taste different and good.

• First Method : Heat a tawa, apply some butter and place the pav bread on it. You can have soft as well as crispy pavs. For soft pavs, just place both sides on the greased tawa only for a minute. For crispy pavs, just reduce the flame and cook both sides for a little long time, till it turns kadak (crisp).
• Second Method :- Melt little butter, add chopped coriander leaves, a pinch of pav bhaji masala and a pinch of deggi mirch powder, mix well. Pour little of this mix on the hot tawa and place the pav buns. You can roast them on low flame to make them more crispy.

Serving Suggestion : 

Place the hot pavs on a plate. Pour the bhaji on the side. sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and finely chopped raw onions over it. Place a lemon wedge on the side which can be squeezed over the baji while eating as per the taste preference. 

Variation : Can add finely chopped, boiled and mashed Capsicum, Beet root.  If you add beetroot, it will get a rich pinkish red color as seen in the photo below

Enjoy!!!