Onion Zhunka

Zhunka-Bhakri is a staple meal in Maharashtra. Zhunka is traditionally made with drumsticks, but the simpler version is using green onions. Here is the recipe

Ingredients:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
A bunch of green onions(7-8) along with the greens roughly chopped
1 green chili chopped
1/4 cup besan roasted until golden brown
1 tsp jaggery
Salt to taste

Method:
Take a tbsp of oil in a pan, add mustard seeds when the oil is hot. When the mustard seeds sputter add jeera, ginger garlic paste, chili. Saute it for a minute and add onions let it cook through completely, covered. Add besan, salt, jaggery and mix well. Cover and cook for another 5 mins on low flame.
Jhunka is usually served with bhakris but chapatis go well too.

Egg Pulao

Ingredients:

Usually I use garam masala or pulao masala but I ran out of both so I made do with whatever I had. I didnt follow any specific recipe but just went on a whim. It turned out super good! This recipe is a keeper.

21/2 cups of basmati rice soaked in water for about 30 mins
1 egg
5 eggs boiled and cubed
1 Large onion chopped into thin long slices
1 cup of diced carrots, beans, and green peas
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/8th cup tomato paste
2 tbsp cumin powder
2 tbsp coriander powder
2 bay leaves
1 inch piece of cinnamon
5 cloves
2 tbsp Chili powder or as per taste
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Cook rice in rice cooker with cloves,salt for taste and 2/1/2 cups of water. Cooking cloves with rice gives a nice aroma.
2. Heat oil in a pan, saute bay leaves and cinnamon.
3. Add onion and saute is until it becomes translucent.
4. Add ginger garlic paste and remaining spices, saute again for a few mins
5. Break the egg directly into the pan and stir it well so that the egg disintegrates and starts cooking.
6. Add tomato puree and the vegetables, sprinkle some salt. Add water if desired for the vegetables to cook. Make sure you dont make it too runny.. otherwise the pulao will turn out soggy.
7. Once the vegetables are cooked through add the boiled eggs and stir, turn off the heat and transfer the cooked rice form the rice cooker into the vegetable pan and give it a quick mix. Avoid over mixing otherwise the rice will break and you will end-up with a mushy pulao

Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve.

Rava Dosa

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rava
1/2 cup rice flour
1/8 cup maida
1 tsp cumin
1 green chili finely chopped
4 tbsp finely chopped onion
Salt to taste


Method:

Mix all the ingredients together and make a runny batter(buttermilk consistency). Set aside for 10mins before making dosas.

Batter consistency and tava temperature play an important part in the final outcome. For Rava dosas batter should be runny like buttermilk and tava temperature should be high, so leave the gas on a setting close to high.(somewhere between high and medium-high)

Wait until the tava gets hot, spread a few drops of oil on it and rub it all around the tava using the cut top end of a onion that you usually would discard. Take a ladle of batter and spread it on the tava in a circular motion. If you see it accumulating on one side then tilt tava slightly in the other direction so that the excess batter spreads on other side of the tava. Wait until you start seeing a change in the texture, you will also see the corner of the dosa turning golden brown, this means its time to flip it over and cook the other side.

I served it with potato sabzi and coconut chutney, like masala dosa :)

Egg Puffs

I remember having puffs in India from street side hawkers, my brother introduced it to me on one of our school holidays when we had nothing else to do but read story books and enjoy the sinful but yummy stuff that these hawkers had to offer. We would combine our pocket money and get egg puffs or samosas or chaat and enjoy it as a afternoon snack.

Its very easy to make, but requires a little planning because of the 40min thawing time that the store bought puff dough takes. I used pepperidge farm's puff pastry sheets and can vouch for it, homemade puffs is now a breeze. I found it in Vons but any other grocery chains close to you would carry them I suppose.

Ingredients:
4 Boiled and cubed eggs
1/2 onion cut into thin long slices
2 tsp tomato sauce
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric (optional)
2 tbsp garam masala powder
Salt and more chili powder as per taste

Method:
Heat oil in a saucepan and saute the onions, followed by rest of the spices. Add eggs and salt. Turn of the heat and let it rest for a bit.

Take the pastry sheets thawed at room temperature for 40 mins, cut 1 sheet into 4 equal squares, using a pin roller flatten each of them a bit to chapati thickness. Then put the egg stuffing in the center of each square and fold them to cover all the stuffing. Bake in oven at 375 for about 40 mins or until they turn golden brown.

Ragi Idli

I first tried these Idlis using a ready-made pack of Ragi Idli mix. It turned out so good that I wanted to try making it from scratch. It wasnt really difficult the recipe is just like our normal idlis except you subsitute rice with Ragi. The Udad daal-Ragi combo is so healthy and filling, I am thinking of making it more often.

Ingredients:

1 cup udad daal and 1 tsp Methi soaked together in water for 2 hours
2 cups ragi flour
For seasoning:
1 tbs Jeera, 3 Red chilies broken into smaller pieces, 1 tsp channa dal and oil.

Method:

1. Grind daal to a smooth consistency and add water only to help with the grinding process.
2. Add the ragi flour to the ground daal
3. Heat oil in a small pan and roast the seasoning ingredients, pour this on top of the batter
4. Add salt to the batter, mix well and leave it to ferment overnight
5. Once its fermented steam them and serve it with chutney of your choice.

Samosa

Summer is over and its starting to get cloudy/foggy with occasional drizzles. What could be better than watching it rain by the windowsill enjoying fresh hot samosas. That's what set the mood to try it out at home. I picked the recipe from Manjula's kitchen and I am very thankful to her for sharing it with us.

Ingredients for stuffing:
3 boiled potatoes cubed
2 green chilies
1/2 cup green peas
1 tsp cumin
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp coriander powder
salt

Ingredients for the shell:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp semolina (rava)
About 1/2 cup water
2 tbsp oil
salt

Method for the outer shell:
Mix all the ingredients for the shell and knead to make a smooth dough(stiff like chapathi dough so you can roll them). The more you knead the crunchier the shell gets, so knead away :) Leave the dough covered with a wet kitchen towel for about 20 mins.

Method for the stuffing:
Heat a little oil in a pan and cumin followed by chilis, all the spices and then the peas. Let the peas cook through and then add potatoes and salt.Mix well and leave covered for 5 mins and turn off the heat.

Assemble the samosa:
Make round balls of the dough and then roll them into a circle, cut the circle into half using a knife. Place the stuffing in one semi circle then fold it into a triangle. Seal all the sides using little water. Deep fry them so that they are golden brown.

Serve with green chutney.

Veggie Sandwich

I wanted to post this a long time back but whenever I make these sandwiches they disappear before I can reach for my camera. Today was my lucky day, I was back with my camera before they were gone:)

If you want to be creative this is the recipe for you.. the choice of vegetables is immense, really, sky is the limit. I throw in whatever vegetables are in my fridge. Some of my favorites are shredded carrots, slices of beets, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, avocados, olives, lettuce, and more. It takes roughly about 5 mins to put together and you have a meal ready! Its a personal favorite on days when I am back from work tired and in no mood to cook anything elaborate.

Ingredients:
2 tsp Mint-Cilantro chutney or Coconut Chutney
2 tbsp Shredded cheese any kind will do (I prefer Mozzarella)
1 tsp Butter
Veggies of your choice either sliced or julienned. This time I had:
2 slices each of - tomato, avocado, boiled potato
Julienned- Onion and Bell Pepper
Salt and Pepper as per taste

Method:
1. Spread butter on one side of both the slices and on medium heat let them become a golden brown. Repeat on the other side.
2. Spread chutney on one side of both the slices
3. Take one slice, with chutney side up add shredded cheese and then assemble all the veggies on it.
4. Put a dash of salt and pepper
5. Place the other slice on top.

Go for it :)