Vada Pav (Indian Burger)

Wow it has been 3 months that i have posted any recipe ..well for 6 weeks i was travelling to India .. where i had great culinary experience as me and my husband were travelling for the first time there after marriage. We were booked for first 2 weeks for either dinners or lunches or sometimes both. Shall write in detail about it in another post. I am writing this recipe immediately after trying it for Kiran, who had asked for it, when she saw its photo on my Fb.

Yesterday, Ruchi, (my only friend here in the city, returned from India. Her family lives at Pune in Maharshtra in western part of India, From where this dish comes from) had come over to meet me after work and had brought the red chili chutney for me, which i had asked her to bring only for Vada Pav. You cannot cannot make the authentic Vada Pav without it. So, we decided to make the Vada pav for dinner.

Vada Pav is one of my favourite street food from Maharashtra. Though, I had first tasted it in Singapore. These were sold at Jade(Indian film cinema), Shaw towers and there used to be limited quantity of them before each show. So, just for vada pav, we sometimes used to go there an hour in advance.

For Vada Pav, you require Pav (bun).. which is rectangular in shape, but we don't get it here so i made using round buns! Then, Green Dhaniya Chutney and of course as I mentioned above the Red Chili chutney. Well, in the market there are different type of red chili chutneys available..dried or semi dried, with roasted and crushed peanut or just chili with garlic and other spices. I used the one which Ruchi got for me was with crushed Peanut one. Recipe for all is as follows:

For Pav: Get ready made from your nearest bakery.

For vada: Makes 7

Ingredients:

Vada filling

3 medium Potatoes (Boiled)
3-4 Garlic cloves
1/2 inch piece of ginger
1 tsp mustard seeds
4-5 curry leaves (chopped)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp asofoetida (heeng)
2-3 green chilies
Salt to taste.

Covering:
2 tbsp Besan
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp oil
Pinch of baking soda

Oil for fry

Method:

1. Make the past of garlic, ginger and green chilies in your mortar or food processor.
2. Peel and mash the potatoes
3. Add the above ginger,chili, garlic paste and salt. Mix it well.
4. In the pan, heat up a little oil and mustard seeds, when they splutter add curry leaves, heeng, turmeric powder. Mix.
5. Add the potato mixture. Combine the mixture with spices really well. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
6. After the above mixture is cooled, divide it in 8 portion and make balls. if the mixture is sticky which means you have over boiled the potatoes. don't worry just add little oil in tour hands so that the mixture doesn't stick to your and.

For the covering:
1. in a bowl, mix besan, turmeric powder, salt.
2. Add enough water to make thick batter not the watery consistency.

Frying:

Vadas are deep fried. So heat enough oil in the frying pan.
when oil is hot. dip the balls in the batter and fry them until they are golden brown on high heat. (you can more than one ball in the pan depending on the size of the pan at one go.)


For Green Chutney

100gms green coriander leaves and stacks (washed properly)
2 green chilies
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried mango powder
1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder
1/2 garam masala
1 tbsp curd
Salt to taste

Method:
Churn all the above ingredients in a food processor and its ready.

Ingredients
Red Chili Chutney

Since i used the one from the packed which Ruchi had got me from Pune. Here is the recipe from Tarla Dalal.

Ingredients
1/3 cup garlic (lehsun) cloves, peeled
1/4 cup grated dry coconut (kopra)
2 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp oil
salt to taste

Method
Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the garlic and coconut for 2 to 3 minutes over a medium flame.
Cool, combine all the ingredients in a blender and grind till it is a smooth paste.
Use as required.

I shall try this soon. :)

Variation:
Use roasted and peeled peanuts, grinding them with red chillies,salt,garlic clove(small),olive oil and chat masala to a fine paste using a blender.

For serving:

1. slice the Pav from middle upto 3/4. don't divide them into 2.
2. Brush the Pavs with butter and toast them on flat pan (tava).
3. spread the green chutney top inner layer and the red one on lower layer.
4. Place the Vada in the Pav and serve with green chili or tamarind sauce. (optional)

Quick and yet Tasty Biryani

Well, I know the Quick and Biryani never match! As traditionally Biryani is slowly cooked over charcoal pit. No doubt about the taste that comes out. But these days we don't have luxury of time and yet we want to eat the tasty food. Definitely. One option is to go out and there are couple good restaurants in almost every city where you can get good Biryani. Unfortunately here, we don't get good indian food or it has been dutchised! (like indianised).. which is quite bland as per Indian standard.

As i mentioned in one of my previous blog that i am veg. and cook non-veg. for my hubby. I gave a shot to this recipe of Boneless Chicken Biryani found at sanjeev kapoor.com. with minor variation in ingredients and cooking time as proportionate to my requirements.

Ingredients:

300 Gms of Boneless chicken (Chicken Breasts)

1 cup Basmati Rice (soak them for at least 30 mins)

3 tbsp Desi Ghee (Clarified Butter) or Vegetable Oil

1 " Cinnamon Stick

1 Bay leaf

3-4 Cloves

2 green Cardamom

1 Black Cardamom

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1 Onion(medium), sliced

2 Green Chilies, Slit

1 Tomato, Chopped

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/2 tsp Coriander Powder

1/2 tsp Amchur( dried Mango Powder)

1/2 tsp Cumin Powder

Salt to taste

1/2 tbsp Ginger paste

1/2 tbsp Garlic paste

1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder

1/2 cup Yogurt thick ( i used Greek yogurt)

2 Onion (medium), sliced and fried brown

A few Mint Leaves, washed and torn

A few Coriander leaves, Washed and torn

1/2 tsp Garam Masala

1/3 cup Milk

A few drops of Rose Water

1/2 Tbsp Raisins

Method:

1. Boil the rice (3/4 cooked) and set aside.

2. Cut the chicken into 1" pieces

3. Heat the 2 Tbsp Ghee/oil in a deep pan. Add whole spices (Cumin, Cinnamon, Cardamoms, Cloves and Bay Leaves) and saute for a minute.

4. Add Sliced Onion and saute until transparent

5. Add green chilies and chicken cubes and saute

6. Add turmeric, Amchur, coriander and cumin powder, tomatoes, ginger n garlic paste, Salt and mix.

7. Add Red Chilli Powder and Yogurt . Mix well and let it cook for a while.

8. Spread half of the fried Onions followed by half of the bowled Rice on the above mixture.

9 Spread another layer with rest of fried Onion, half of the Mint and Coriander Leaves.

10. Add the remaining boiled Rice followed by remaning mint and coriander leaves.

11. Sprinkle Garam Masala, Rose water, Milk,Raisins and 1 tbsp of desi ghee.

12. Cover the pan and let the biryani cook for about 10 minutes on low heat.

13. with in time you would see little smoke filled with aroma come out of lid, which means the Biryani is ready!

14. Mix it well...

I serve it with Raita, which i make by gently whipping the yogurt, add Rock salt, raita powder and roasted cumin powder.

Last Sunday, when our dutch friend had come then also i had prepared Biryani. Since they can't take spices so I had put a pinch of red chilli, coriander and cumin powder instead of 1 tsp and didn't slit the green chilies. And instead of Raita, served only yogurt to balance the spice. Well the aroma of whole spices, rose water, ghee, mint and coriander leaves fills you completely. The way non smoker are passive smoker when somebody smokes in front of them, likewise being veg. with the aroma i also become a 'passive eater'!

RaThi ke dhabe waali chutney!!!

let me introduce to Mr. Rathi. He had a small little dhaba in the parking lot of my office in gurgaon. The speciality were the parathas with different fillings. Though my fav. paratha filling is Gobhi (cauliflower) but i always loved the Aloo Parathas there. which he used to serve with a chutney ( which i had never tasted before) and curd. Curd coz compliment the chutney as it was quite Hot due to green chillis as one of the main ingredient in that!

Once i had gone to have my dinner there as i was suppose to work till late. And the dhaba had only one burner! which was causing hell lot of delay in preparing the parathas....and i could see big fully filled kadai on burner ... then i got to know .. m not getting any parathas for dinner now .. well, i just ordered tea which he had just prepared before placing the kadai on burner... while haaving tea he told me how to pepare that chutney @ home!!!

so it is here with some little variation ....

Onions - as much u can
green Chillies- much u want (chop them but not very finely, 3/4 cm piece)
e.g . if u r taking 4 onions then take 6-7 small green chillies, this is what i take, if u want less hot chutney then reduce the no. of chillies)
Galic - 6-7 flakes (chop them finely)
salt to taste
dried corriander - 3/4 table spoon,
dried mango powder - 1 tsp
turmeric - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 table spoon.

Heat a pan put oil, Saute the garlic first, put turmeric, dry corriender powder and dry mango powder. Then add the chopped onions and chillies and mix them well .... add salt to taste and mix it again ... and cook the chutney on medium heat till the oil seperates.

The chutney is ready! don't forget to serve curd also with it! atleast u'll never forget to do that if u would forget once! :)

Enjoy!