Chole (Kabuli Chana/ Pindi Chana)

Chole are mainly liked by Punjabis from North India. You can find this in every Indian restaurant with the name just "Chole". Chole is one of the most popular dish in Indian restaurants world wide. This punjabi sabzi is generally eaten along with bhature or puri. A diet conscious mind can have this with parothas. Chole are called as Garbanzo beans or Kabuli Chana or Pindi chana as well in different languages.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup chickpeas (Garbanzo beans / kabuli chana / pindi chana)

For Puree:
2 small Onion
1 Medium size Tomato
2-3 Garlic cloves
A small Ginger piece
2 tsp shredded Dry Coconut

For Masala:
2 Cloves
1 Whole Pepper
1/2" Cinnamon Stick
2 tsp Sesame seeds (til)

Red Chili powder to taste
2 tsp Chole Masala (If not available, add Garam Masala )
Salt as per taste
Oil, Mustard seeds, Cumin Seeds, Asafoetida (hing) for seasoning
Chopped fresh Coriander for garnishing

Method:

1. Soak Chana overnight and pressure cook till done.

2. Make puree of all the ingredients listed and keep aside.

3. Grind all the ingredients under "masala" and make a fine powder, keep aside.

4. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, when they splutter add cumin seeds, asafoetida, hing and quickly add the puree. Saute for 3 minutes.

5. Now add the masala powder, salt, red chili powder, chana masala as per taste and saute till oil separates out.

6. Add boiled chickpeas and water as per requirement. Cook till all things blend. Mash some chikpeas and add to the gravy. This gives better consistency.

7. Garnish with coriander before serving.

Tips:

• Garnish with chopped onion before serving.
• You can also add potato to them.
• Mash some chickpeas and add to the gravy. This gives better consistency.

Coriander (Kothimbir / Dhaniya) Vadi

Coriander is generally used for garnishing. But there are many other recipes of coriander where it is used as a main ingredient. Everybody loves using coriander in cooking and I am sure this recipe will be liked by all.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Gram flour (besan)
2 tsp Rice flour
1 bunch of Coriander
1 tsp Red Chili powder
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp Soda
Salt to taste
2 tsp Oil

For seasoning:
1 tbsp White sesame seeds (til)
Shredded coconut
Oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida (hing), curry leaves

Method:

1. Take out the coriander leaves, wash and chop.

2. In a bowl take the chopped coriander leaves. Add both the floors, chili powder, turmeric powder, soda, oil, sugar and salt. Add little (if required) water and make a thick batter. The amount of flour depends on the quantity of coriander.

3. Grease a deep platter and spread the strips of this batter. Steam for about 15 minutes in a steamer. Remove and cool.

4. Cut into small pieces.

5. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, asafoetida, cumins seeds, curry leaves, sesame seeds, coconut and then add these pieces. Mix well.

Tips:

Serve this as a side dish.

An Award and a funny Poem ... :)

I received a versatile blogger award from 2 of my blogger friends of: Priya Mitharwal and Suja Sugathan.
Both these ladies are as new to the blogging world as me. But the way they are flourishing is commendable. The only reason for this is truly the recipes on their blogs. Do visit them :)
Priya has been a good friend of mine. She is always excited about all the food events going around. You will find her entries in all the events :).  Suja has various yummy South Indian dishes. Besides this speciality she also cooks many other varieties. Thanks to both of you for sharing an award.

To accept this award I have to thank the persons who awarded it, share seven things about myself and pass it to fifteen blogger friend.

Many Thanks to Priya and Suja

Seven Things about myself.....

I have posted these things before as well...I will copy some from them :)

1. I love to learn, experience, eat and know new things each day.

2. I love chitchatting with my dear ones and bugging them :)

3. I love to dance (non-classical :)

4. Fresca is my favorite soft drink.

5. I am a chocolate addict.

6. I love giving suggestions and free advice. :)

7. I like writing poems. You can find some of them here at my other blog. I am posting the one which I wrote long back even before getting into this cooking world :)

Cookery

I decided to cook

That too with no book

Headed towards the kitchen

A mission was to begin

Played in a sea of permutation

But none promised to be perfect combination

It seemed laughed all of they

To a stranger who went grey

Chilies, garlic, mint, ginger

Made my mind for a lady finger

She yelled mummy and daddy

Life was ending for sticky lady!!!

Didn't fell the need of water

As she had enough within her

Tossed and turned into a pan

She was ready within no span

To rest on the case

Cooking is an interesting mess

Its surly not about the lucks

Once you understand the whole crux... :)

Hope You all liked it :)...

Now passing this award to Lizy, Yummy O Yummy, Hari Chandana, SpicyTasty, Smita, Racahna (Sizzle NSpice), Valarmathi, Pavithra, BeenaShylesh,Nitha, Hamaree Rasoi,Creative Saga,PanchPakwan, Sayantani, Suhaina

Tomato Omelet.... Yummy !!!

This one is again a Mama's recipe and one of my favorites. Thing I like about such recipes is that they require very little preparation time. Once the batter is done we are free to do other work and then we can make omelets when we want to eat. Also don't forget to make nariyal chutney with this. Omelets just taste perfect when accompanied with this chutney.

Other thing which I would like to share is about tomatoes. Whatever we eat is divided into 3 kinds of substances. Alkaline, Acidic and Neutral. Alkaline are good for body and help to maintain the required balance so that all the functioning in the body is going on properly. Most of the green veggies are alkaline. That's why green juices are recommended :). Well I had read some of the book and found out that tomatoes are mentioned in first 7 most alkaline foods. Here is a site that lists the alkaline foods and I found this quote by Dr. Young as well:

'Your health depends on the balance of an alkaline environment, created by eating foods such as tomatoes, avocados and green vegetables...striking the optimum 80/20 balance and regulating your body's acid/alkaline chemistry through simple changes in diet can result in weight loss, increased stamina and strength,a stronger immune system and a greater sense of wellbeing.'

I really feel such little changes make a huge difference in ones lifestyle, health and behavior. Tomato is the ingredient always present in every one's fridge and liked by all. Just eating it raw is always good. But if one gets bored we always have tons of recipes were we can use it and this one is one of them :)

Ingredients:

Serves 4

2 1/2 bowl Besan Flour
1/2 bowl Rice Flour
2 Medium size finely chopped Tomatoes
1 small finely chopped Onion
1 tsp Ginger paste
1 tsp Garlic paste
1 tsp Green chili paste
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1/2 tbsp chopped Coriander
Salt as per taste
Oil

Method:

• With the help of water, mix all the above ingredients,except oil, in a bowl, adjust the chili paste and salt and make a batter not too much thick and not too much watery, medium consistency. 
• Heat a non-stick pan and spread above batter into thin omelets (the way we do it for crepes or dosas).
• Put some oil from the sides. Turn the omelet when it can be easily done (also check if its not sticking to the pan). Cook other side and serve with tomato ketchup or coconut chutney (nariyal ki chutey).

Tips:

• Some people add little amount of thick Semolina (sooji/rava) into the batter.
• One can eat this omelet along with bread.
• Rice flour makes them a little crisp.
• Chop the tomatoes and onions real fine, this will make it easy to spread omelet and have them real thin and crisp.
• Don't forget to make nariyal ki chutney. This as per my opinion is a must have besides tomato ketchup with these omelet :). I will post my version of nariyal chutney sometime :)

Quick and Easy Masala Pav

Last week while doing the grocery I bought the Bun pack and planned to make Pav Bhaji in some days. But on the day when I wanted to make it, I found out that the peas in my freezer were out of stock :( and now I had to figure out how can I use these pav. I remembered the other thing which I can make is Kacchi Dabeli but we just had Aloo paratha last night and didn't want to eat aloo again. Then I remembered this Masala Pav. I used to eat this in India. Very spicy and mouthwatering food. Different restaurants and people have different recipes. The main ingredients in here are the onion, tomatoes and Pav Bhaji masala. I googled few recipes  and then made some variations and came up with this one. It was very easy to make this one. Everybody at home liked this recipe and I am happy to have one more entry in my recipe book :)

Ingredients:

Makes 10 - 12

12 bread Buns (Pavs)
1 cup chopped Tomato
1 cup chopped Onion
3/4 cup chopped Capsicum (Green Pepper)
1-2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder (haldi)
1 tsp Cumin + Coriander powder (dhaniyajeera)
1 tsp red chili powder
1 1/2 tsp Pav Bhaji Masala 1 tsp butter
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
Chopped Coriander for garnishing

For Puree:

1/2 cup Tomato puree
2-3 Garlic cloves

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan and then add chopped Onion. Saute for a while and add chopped garlic and capsicum. Saute till onion turns soft.

2. Now add chopped tomato, mix and saute again. Add tomato + garlic puree, turmeric powder, red chili powder, dhaniyajeera powder and pav bhaji masala. Mix well and let it cook for a while. Keep sauteing.

3. Now add salt to taste, adjust the masalas as per your taste, mix and the masala is ready. (You can also add aamchoor (dried mango) powder).

4. Heat another pan. Slice a pav into 2 horizontally and apply little butter on outer faces of each side. Take some masala in this heated pan, saute a little and immediately put this masala on the lower piece of the bun. Cover this with the upper piece and then cook this pav on both the sides till it turns little brown. While doing this lid the pan.

5. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot. (just put the pav on the chopped coriander and it will stick to the pav)

Tips:

You can prepare and set aside the masala ahead of the time and use it whenever you want to actually serve.