SPICY MATAR CHAAT (CHAAT MADE OF PEAS)

Delhi is famous for its foods and flavors but the real flavor comes from the chaats, savory snacks.  There is so much variety in this category.  There is papri chaat, potato chaat, kachalu(taro root) chaat, sweet potato chaat and matar chaat. There is no end to this list.

 The word Chaat is used for a group of hot, spicy and tangy, vegetarian snacks from north India. The Hindi word ‘chaatna’ means 'to lick'. Chaat dishes are so delicious that they make you smack your lips and lick the plate clean. Chaat is a comfort food often sold by street vendors... You can see people standing all around a Chaat cart, eating and licking their plates.  When you find many people around a chaat vendor or shop, it is a certificate that his chaat is simply scrumptious.  It’s a kind of celebration in congregation.

So I have decided to explore this area of Delhi street foods over next few times. Today we are going to get into matar chaat.  This is a delicious yet easy snack to make, using dry peas, or 'matar.  These peas are creamy and light greenish in color, almost like chickpea. They are available in the lentil section of any grocery store.

Ingredients: 

2 cups of dry peas, salt to taste, ½ tsp red chili powder, 1 tsp cumin seeds roasted and coarsely ground, 1 tsp chaat masala, 1 tsp of tamarind pulp

Ingredients for garnishing:

1 onion peeled and finely chopped, 1 medium potato boiled and cut into small cubes, 2 green chilies finely chopped(optional), ¼ cup  chopped fresh coriander leaves, 3 tbsp green chutney made of mint and coriander leaves, 3 tbsp sweet chutney made of tamarind or dry mango powder. (For the recipe of green chutney and sweet chutney see my blog Papri Chaat of May 7, 2012)

Method:

Wash and soak peas overnight. Place in a pressure cooker with four cups of water. Once pressure is made, cook for 5 minutes on the full flame. If you don’t want to boil in the pressure cooker, boil the peas in a covered pan until they turn soft. Once cooker cools off, check that peas are soft enough. If too much water is there, drain it.  Now mix tamarind pulp in ¼ cup of hot water, stir it well and add it to dry peas. Add chaat masala, chili powder, salt, cumin powder to the peas. Just before serving add chopped onion and potato and green chilies. Sprinkle fresh coriander leaves on the top.

Serve green chutney and sweet chutney in separate bowls so that your guests can help themselves as per their need.  Some people like more tangy taste so they prefer just green chutney but others might have little sweet tooth so they might be opting for sweet and sour tamarind or dry mango powder chutney. Personally I like to mix both in my chaat for a magical taste.

EGGLESS SUGAR COOKIES WITH ROYAL ICING

This Diwali I wanted to make cookies along with my usual batch of traditional sweets (mithai).  In most Hindu households nothing non vegetarian is eaten on the Diwali day, so I decided to make these cookies without any eggs for the guests and the family.  As I wanted to decorate these cookies with the royal icing, I had to stick to no egg royal icing also. 
I must say the end result was very satisfactory as everyone had two or three of these cookies in one go.  I wanted to make these cookies without any white flour so I used multi grain flour instead.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

½  cup sugar, ½  cup butter on a room temperature,  2 tbsp milk,  1 tbsp vanilla extract,  1 cup multi grain flour,  1 ½  tsp baking powder, 1 pinch salt,  3 tbsp flour,  2 tbsp sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).  In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and milk, and mix. 

In a separate bowl, combine the one cup of flour with the salt and baking powder.  Now mix the wet and dry ingredients to make a dough.  This dough will be slightly sticky.  Once mixed, add about 3 tablespoons of flour, until the dough becomes smooth.  Now pour two tablespoons of sugar on a flat tray.  

Form the dough into 12 equal-sized balls, and flatten until approximately 1/2 inch thick. Cut your favorite shapes with a cookie cutter and roll one side into the sugar to coat.  Place these on a baking sheet with sugar coated side up.   Bake for eight to ten minutes, until bottom is golden brown.  Let these cookies cool off for 4 to 5 hours and then you can decorate them with royal icing.

Egg-less Royal Icing 

Royal icing is a baker's staple for decorating cookies and cakes, and most recipes call for egg whites or meringue powder. However, with a little variation I decorated these cookies with an egg-free royal icing.

 

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups confectioner's sugar, 4 tsp milk, 1 ½ tsp light corn syrup, ½ tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Measure the sugar and pour it into a clean glass bowl.  Add milk, and stir it until the lumps of sugar are all gone.  Stir in corn syrup; if you want a thinner consistency, add another tsp of syrup.  Stir in the vanilla extract.  Now add color as per your choice or the design you want to make. Creativity has no limits.

Once icing on the cookies dries up, you may keep them in an airtight container. Enjoy as a  dessert or with a cup of coffee.

BESAN LADDOO

Besan(chickpea flour) laddoo is a very popular Indian sweet generally made during the festival season. It is very easy and less time consuming unlike other sweets.

I associate this dessert with my mother and grand mother's mouth watering laddoos.  They made it so perfect that I did not even like the store bought laddoos.  My grandmother often made these laddoos with lots of crushed almonds during the winter time. When I asked her why did she make them only during the winter, her reply amazed me.  She said we are more susceptible to cold during the winter months so if you eat just one laddoo a day, cold won't come near you. 

So this Diwali, I made the besan laddoos for the family.  My recipe is quite simple.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups besan( chickpea flour), 3 tbsp sooji (semolina), 5 tbsp of ghee or clarifying butter, little less than 2 cups of powered sugar, 20 - 25 almonds,1/2 tsp cardamom powder.

Method:

Pan roast besan and sooji on a low to medium heat, depending on your stove.. Sooji takes less time to roast and besan takes 8 to 10 minutes on a slow flame.  So it would be better to roast both of them in different pans.

Once roasted, mix both in the same pan. In the meanwhile crush almonds in your grinder or mixer. Add these almonds to the mix.

On a slow flame add ghee to the mix.  Once ghee melts, mix it very well with the flours and almonds. Sprinkle cardamom powder and stir it again.

Turn off the stove and add sugar. Mix it very well. Let it cool off for a couple of minutes and take a small portion at a time and make balls.  Set them in a plate.

When these besan laddoos cool off completely, you can store them in an airtight container. They can be preserved for good month or so.

Enjoy these mouth watering laddoos and have lots of fun on Diwali. I wish you all good health and good fortune.

EGGLESS HOME MADE RAVIOLI

Last month I had bought a hand cranked pasta machine and was too excited to make pasta of multigrain flour.  Since fusilli, spaghetti, fettuccine, lasagna pasta are available easily, I wanted to make ravioli at home with some spicy filling.  I did not want to use eggs in making the dough due to health reasons.  This kind of pasta was quite popular during the World War II when eggs were scarce.

I made pasta dough with semolina and multigrain flour.  Semolina adds body to the dough whether you use all purpose white flour or wheat flour along with it.  In fact use of semolina works well if you are making shaped pasta or pasta with some stuffing, like ravioli.
I served this pasta with Alfredo and fresh tomato sauce which was loved by my family.

 

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Ingredients for dough:
1 cup semolina, 1 cup multi grain flour, ¼ tsp salt, ¾ cup of water, 1 tsp olive oil

Method:
Combine all the ingredients and make elastic but little sticky dough.  Leave it covered for 15 to 20 minutes on a room temperature.  Now dust your work area with flour and knead the dough again for 3 minutes.   Now pasta can be rolled with a pin or it can be shaped into flat sheet with the machine. It should not be more than 2 cm thick. Spread the flat dough sheet on a cutting board. Put a spoonful of filling on this sheet with an inch apart.  You may put filling even closer depending on the size of the ravioli you want. With the basting brush spread some olive oil on the edges.  Cover the ravioli with another section of dough sheet. Seal the ravioli on the edges. Cut into squares with the ravioli cutter, starting in the center of the sheet and working outward.  Now gently remove the ravioli. Place the ravioli in a large dish sprinkled with flour.  If you want to freeze some of it use parchment or wax paper between the layers in an airtight container.  Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Chill in refrigerator until ready to cook.

To cook, simply drop in boiling water with salt and a ½ tsp of oil.  Fresh ravioli is cooked in 3 to 4 minutes.  Once water is drained, put the boiled ravioli in a flat dish.  Warm up a tsp of olive oil in a pan, put ¼ tsp of oregano in the oil and pour this on the warm ravioli. In the meanwhile keep Alfredo and fresh tomato sauce ready.  Serve in the plate by pouring Alfredo sauce on the top of ravioli and tomato sauce on the side of the plate.  Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese and fresh black pepper. Bon appetit.

For Cheese filling:

 
Make your filling ready before you roll out pasta sheets to make ravioli.

Ingredients:
1 liter milk, 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar, 1 onion diced finely, 1 small green pepper cut into small pieces, ¼ tsp lemon pepper, ¼ tsp cumin seeds, and salt to taste.

Method:
Boil milk in a big pan. When it starts boiling, add lemon juice or vinegar to curdle the milk. Turn off the flame. When it cools off, pass through this curdled milk through a cheese cloth to let all whey drain out.  Hang it on a kitchen sink tap for two hours. Once water drains out, mash the cheese in a bowl between your fingers.
Take a skillet, warm a tsp of oil, put cumin seeds, diced onion, green pepper and saute for two minutes.  Add salt, lemon pepper and the then mashed cheese. Mix everything well and turn off the flame.  Let it cool off completely.  Your filling for the ravioli is ready. 
You may use vegetables like spinach, mushrooms and even butternut squash as a filling.

For Alfredo and Fresh Tomato Sauce:
Make these sauces ready when your ravioli is cooked as freshness of the sauce is the key 

ingredient.

 Alfredo sauce Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter, ½ cup cream, ¼ cup milk, ½ cup grated white cheddar cheese, 1/8 tsp black pepper.
Method:

Warm up butter, add cream, milk and cheddar cheese.  Stir it for a few seconds, add black pepper and pour over the freshly cooked ravioli just before serving.

Tomato sauce Ingredients:

3 medium size tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic chopped, 1 medium onion cut into small pieces, ¼ tsp garlic salt, ½ tsp dry basil, ½ tsp chives, ¼ tsp sugar, 2 tsp olive oil

Method:
In a skillet sauté onion, garlic till they become tender. Let this mix cool off.  Put this with chopped tomatoes in a food processor and pulse it for a minute. Pout this mix in the same skillet over medium flame.  When it starts to boil, add garlic salt, basil, chives and sugar and mix well. Pour this fresh tomato sauce on the side of the ravioli in the same plate.

SWEET AND SPICY LEMON JAM

In August our lemon tree in the front yard is laden with juicy, shiny yellow lemons.  This year I did not want to make Lemonade or digestive lemon pickle.  I decided to make either lemon chutney or lemon jam.  As we all know that lemon juice, rind and zest are used in a variety of ways.  Every part of lemon has a nutritional value.  For example lemon has no saturated fat, has a few calories and packed with vitamin C and essential minerals.  Lemon juice, rind and zest are used in variety of ways in cooking and baking all over the world.  I used the whole lemon to make this spicy and sweet jam.

This chutney or jam can be eaten with your food to spice up.  You can even use as a spread on crackers or toast.  It is better to eat this jam or chutney after three or four days otherwise it might taste bitter as skin of the lemons is boiled as well. The lemony taste of this jam along with the spices gives it a tingling kick on the palate.

This recipe is very simple but you will be satisfied with the end result and guests will be impressed by your culinary skills?  It is less time consuming than usual pickle making.

Ingredients:

18 small and medium lemons with thin skin, 2 ½ cups of sugar, 2 tsp of salt,  ½  tsp roasted and powdered fenugreek seeds, ½  tsp brown mustard seeds powdered, 1/8 tsp asafetida, ¼  tsp dry ginger powder

Method:

Extract juice of 6 lemons and keep it aside.  Cut 12 lemons into small pieces and take out the pits.  Put all the cut pieces into a pressure cooker and cook it for either three whistles or five to seven minutes till the skin is very tender.  When it cools off, open the pressure cooker put these boiled pieces in the food processor and pulse it for 30 seconds.  Now pour all this mix and lemon juice in a pan.  You might have small pieces of lemon in it which is okay.  Cook it on a medium flame.  Add salt and spices. Mix well. Let a boil come then add sugar. After two boils, let it simmer till it begins to thicken. Take a spoonful, cool it and taste it to check sugar and salt.  If you are a connoisseur of sweets, you might need more sugar. So adjust sugar or salt as per your taste. When it cools off completely, bottle the jam and refrigerate it.

TIRAMISU WITHOUT RAW EGGS AND ALCOHOL

Tiramisu, meaning "pick me up or lift me up" is a coffee flavored popular Italian dessert.  It is made of ladyfinger cookies dipped in coffee and layered with whipped mixture of egg yolks , egg whites,sugar, mascarpone cheese flavored with cocoa.  It's origin is often disputed between different regions of Italy.

Most accounts of the origin of Tiramisu date its invention to the 1960s in the region of Veneto, Italy, at the restaurant "Le Beccherie".  Most of the cook books mentioned Tiramisu  recipe somewhere in early 80s.

With the time, countless variations of Tiramisu have come up. Some cooks use other cakes or sweet, yeasted breads, such as panettone, in place of ladyfingers.  Other cheese mixtures are used as well, some containing raw eggs, and others containing no eggs at all. Marsala wine can be added to the recipe, but other liquors are frequently substituted for it in both the coffee and the cheese mixture, including dark rum, Madeira, port, brandy or Irish Cream.  Some chefs don't use coffee or cocoa, instead they have worked with raspberries, strawberries, peach rum and even root beer.

Many people don't try this decadent dessert just because it has raw eggs which pose a health hazard in case not refrigerated properly.   My sis in law and  I have tried to create Tiramisu without eggs and  liquor.  Here is the recipe of vegetarian Tiramisu or Tiramisu without eggs or  alcohol.

Ingredients:

Half pint(250 grams)heavy whipping cream, 8 oz(250 grams)mascarpone cheese at room temperature, 4 tsp instant coffee, 6 tsp sugar,  4 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 2 dozen lady finger cookies, 2 1/2 tbsp of powdered sugar.


Method:

Take a cup of water, put instant coffee and 6 tsp of sugar and boil till sugar dissolves. Add two tsp of vanilla extract to it.  When it cools off, dip ladyfinger cookies one by one and lay them in 8x8 inches dish. (As seen in the picture).

Beat mascarpone cheese with 1 tbsp of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.  Mascarpone cheese has natural sweetness so if you prefer less sweet , you may reduce the quantity of sugar in it.  You can spread this cheese mix on the top of the coffee dipped ladyfinger cookies in the pie plate.(see in the picture).  Sprinkle some cocoa powder on it.

Beat whipping cream with 1 1/2 tbsp of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Spread this cream mixture on the top of cheese spread in the pie plate.(see the picture).  Now dust it with some cocoa powder.  Put in the refrigerator for ten minutes.

Repeat the same process again.  Lay another layer of coffee dipped ladyfinger cookies, then mascarpone cheese layer and then cream layer, followed by cocoa powder sprinkled on.

Chill for at least 2 hours and then serve.  For the best results make Tiramisu at least 24 hours before serving.

SPINACH DIP WITH VEGETABLES

Dips are commonly used for finger foods, appetizers and other foods which can be held easily in the hand.  Thick dips based on sour cream, cream cheese, Greek yogurt or hung yogurt, mayonnaise or even beans are a staple of American hors d'oeuvres spread.  Dips are used to enhance the flavor of the foods such as pita bread, corn chips, crackers and cut up raw vegetables.  Unlike other sauces which are applied on the food, dips are typically for dipping the food into them.

If your family is not a big connoisseurs of raw vegetables or salads, you can make this spinach dip with some cut vegetables and they won't be able to resist eating them.
Spinach dip has many condiments and spices other than spinach.  For convenience frozen spinach can be used but fresh spinach certainly enhances the taste.

INGREDIENTS:

1 box (10 ounces) frozen spinach chopped, thawed, well drained or one bunch of fresh spinach washed, steamed and chopped very fine,  1 container (16 ounces) sour cream or Greek yogurt, 1 (8oz) pack of cream cheese on room temperature, 1 can (8 ounces) water chestnuts washed under running water and chopped into very small pieces,  1 packet onion soup mix, fresh vegetables to be eaten with the dip, salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 tsp of chives.

METHOD:

Mix together Greek yogurt, cream cheese, onion soup mix, spinach and water chestnuts.  Add spices,  Chill 30 minutes or until just before serving.
Serve with cubed bread and vegetables like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber and bell peppers.