For Foodies

Wishing all readers a Very Happy Diwali!! :) Diwali or Deepavali is a festival of lights.

Today is the first day of Diwali and is called narakachaturdashi. Today, we get up before sunrise, apply lots of oil on the body and then take a hot water bath also called abhyanga snan in marathi. After this we prepare “god phovu” or sweet poha and eat it along with all the crunchies and munchies :D.

The crunchies and munchies are more sensibly called “khaan” in Konkani and “Pharaal” in Marathi. These include the sweet and the non sweet dishes like laddu, chakli, shanakarpali, chiroti, etc.. These are the most interesting part of Diwali for a person like me who does not like to burst crackers. In the evening, we light diyas’ in front of the house and celebrate the festival of lights.

Here is a picture of what I prepared this year for Diwali. The recipes for all of these are coming up shortly. So keep watching this space! :)

Popularity: 14% [?]

Here comes everyones’ favorite… the lip smacking gobi manchurian!! :) In the recent past, this particular dish has made it to on the menu of every restaurant and street food. Its a very delicious appetizer to be enjoyed when hot!

I saw this recipe on ShowMe TheCurry.com and the way it was presented, I could not resist preparing it at home. A couple of ingredients like vinegar and spring onion were missing at home. I replaced vinegar with a dash of lime juice and added a few sprigs of cilantro for flavor and modified the batter for cauliflower.  The end result was awesome! The dish took an hour to prepare and few mins to finish. T loved it too! :)

Ingredients:
For the sauce:
1 tbsp Oil
2 small onions finely chopped
2 tsp garlic finely chopped
3-4 green chilies or to taste
2-3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp red chilli sauce
1-2 tsp vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ cup water
1 tsp corn starch
1-2 tbsp green onion or spring onion finely chopped

For the cauliflower florets:
½ cauliflower cut into bite size florets
5 tbsp all purpose flour (maida)
3 tbsp corn starch
Salt to taste
¼ tsp pepper or to taste
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
Water
Oil for deep frying

Method:

The sauce is prepared first and then the cauliflower to ensure crispness.

For the sauce, heat oil in a pan. Add the onion, green chilies and garlic. Fry the onions till they turn golden brown. At this point add the tomato ketchup and the red chili sauce. Saute for about 5-6 mins on medium flame. Add soya sauce, salt and vinegar ( I added lime juice in the end instead of vinegar). Mix well. Mix the corn starch in half a cup of water. Stir well and it to the onions. Bring to a boil and stir till the mixture thickens. Turn off the flame and keep aside.

 Now for the cauliflower florets, we need to prepare a batter. Mix the maida, corn starch, salt, pepper, red chili powder, ginger garlic paste with water to make a batter. The consistency should be such to coat the cauliflower evenly.

 Heat oil for deep frying. Dip the florets in the batter and add it to the oil. Fry on medium flame till the cauliflower turns golden brown.

Once all the florets are ready, reheat the sauce. As the sauce heats up, add the fried florets and mix well. Make sure the sauce coats all the florets evenly.

Garnish with green onions and serve HOT!!

Popularity: 100% [?]

Shahi jeera pulao is a mildly flavored rice which goes well with rich/creamy gravies like shahi paneer or kashmiri dum aloo or more such dishes. Easy to prepare, delicious to eat!

Ingredients:
2 cups basmati rice
1 tsp shahi jeera (black cumin or caraway seeds)
2 tsp sugar
3-4 green chillies
1 heaped tbsp chopped mint leaves
1 heaped tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1½ tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp oil 
Salt to taste
Fried onion (optional)

Method:
Pick, wash and soak the rice in 4 cups of water. 

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan. Add the shahi jeera and saute for half a minute. Add in the sugar. Keep stirring for the sugar to caramelize the shahi jeera and give out a nice brown color. At this point, let the onions go in. The onions will turn brown immediately. Not to worry as this happens because of the sugar added earlier :).

Saute till the onions are fried. Add the ginger garlic paste, green chillies and fry for a minute. Its time for the coriander and mint to go in. Fry for a minute.

 Now add the rice along with the water to the pan. Soaking the rice makes sure the rice cooks well and evenly so. While the rice is in the water, some of it is absorbed too.

Keep on high flame. Stir once or twice till the water comes to a boil. Once it begins to boil, do not stir as this can break the long grains of rice. Once 90% of the water is absorbed, turn the flame to sim. Cook covered for about 5-8 minutes.

Garnish with fried onion if you like. Serve hot with any curry or raitha!

Popularity: 52% [?]

This peanut chutney is prepared with curd. It goes very well with Sabudana Vada. The combination of the vada and this chutney is one of the tastiest I have eaten.

Ingredients:
½ cup Roasted Peanuts
3 green chillies
2 tbsp Coriander leaves
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 cup yogurt (curd)
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Method:
Grind the roasted peanuts to a coarse powder. Grind the green chillies, cumin seeds and coriander leaves to a paste.

In a bowl, mix the ground paste, the peanut powder, salt, sugar and curd. Mix well.

Serve with hot Sabudana Vada!! :)

Popularity: 21% [?]