Ghugni (Bengali Street food with Dried Peas)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 7: G for Ghugni
Today I have a very popular street food from Bengal, called Ghugni. It is also quite popular in Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa too. I've made the Jharkhand version for one of the earlier mega marathons. There it is served with dhuska or a lentil based flatbread.

Bengali version is almost similar to that of Jharkhand except it's made with white peas instead of black chickpeas. Read Sandeepa's post to learn more about Ghugni and how it is an integral part of Bengali food. It is like Chole to the North Indians.

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Carrot Raita (Carrot Yogurt Dip)

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Dishes using Root Vegetables

Dish: Carrot Raita

We are starting a new week of Blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Dishes made with Root Vegetables'. Valli wanted us to pick 3 root vegetables from this list and cook 3 dishes for the week.

My first dish is with the most popular root vegetable, Carrot. It is widely used in many cuisines, especially in the preparation of salads. I always have carrots in my fridge and I add them to rice dishes, curries and even make chutney with it. The sweetness in carrots makes them perfect to use in sweet dishes as well, like carrot halwa or burfi or ice cream.

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Pan Seared Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Almonds

Here's a quick and easy side dish made with Brussels Sprouts for your holiday meals. Brussels sprouts have quite a bad rap because they tend to be pungent and mealy when cooked improperly. But this pan seared brussels sprouts recipe is so tasty that even my 3 year old couldn't stop eating them.

Pan searing brussels sprouts until toasty is a quick alternative to roasting them in the oven. Topping with crispy panko breadcrumbs and almonds nicely balance both the taste and texture of the dish.

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Shaam Savera (Spinach-Paneer balls in Tomato sauce)

Blogging Marathon# 57: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Side Dishes for Rice/ Roti

Dish: Shaam Savera

I have a rich and decadent restaurant style curry today. It is called 'Shaam-Savera' aka Spinach-paneer koftas in tomato sauce. I ate it once in an Indian restaurant and absolutely loved the dish. I have been looking for the recipe and an opportunity to make it ever since.

We had my mom and sister's family come over for my son's birthday last month and I made this curry along with yesterday's post Aloo-Gobhi, Mughlai parathas and Jeera rice for dinner. It was a restaurant style meal without going to the restaurant :-)

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Muvva Vankaya Kura (Baby Eggplant Curry)

I'm always looking for new eggplant recipes and when I find a new recipe, I try to make as soon as I can :-) This muvva vankaya (muvva=pearl vankaya=eggplant) curry recipe is from a Telugu cooking show that I duly noted down in my recipe diary. Valli already made the same dish few months back.

We rarely get really small baby eggplants here, so it took me a while to get to this recipe. But luckily my mom found some beautiful baby eggplants at the Indian grocery a month back and I made this curry right away (so it has been sitting in the drafts for  while :-)).

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Duchess Potatoes

Duchess Potatoes is a classic French dish where flavored mashed potatoes are piped in cute shapes and baked until golden and crisp. In my opinion it is a 5-Star version of good old mashed potatoes :-)
This dish has been on my to-make list for a few years now. I saw them for the first time in a Vegetarian Times magazine and loved how cute they looked and I was sure my potato loving husband would love these. But it took me so many years to actually make them that too when my husband was traveling :-)

All that this dish requires is boil and mashed potatoes which are then combined with sour cream, butter, some chives and egg yolks. Then the mixture is put into a piping bag with a star or round tip and then piped & baked till golden. My Duchess potatoes didn't get that pretty swirl shape -- not sure why -- but they tasted great. The outside firms up after baking, but the inside is light and airy.

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Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Onions (Thanksgiving Side dish Recipe)

We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving and this weekend I have some traditional Thanksgiving sides but a little jazzed up and a little out of the ordinary. First up is everyone's favorite mashed potatoes.
All the mashed potatoes I have eaten were way too buttery and bland. So I stayed away from making them myself at home. But when I saw this spiced up mashed potatoes with caramelized onions and flavored with cumin and cayenne, it caught my attention immediately.

I made it and my potato loving family loved it. Even my picky eater son loved it a lot and gave me 2 thumbs up. So if you are looking for a slightly different mashed potatoes and like spicy food for this Thanksgiving, then do try this recipe.

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Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes (Thanksgiving Recipe)

Here's another super simple, yer super tasty Thanksgiving recipe with Sweet Potatoes. Sweet potatoes are cooked in a blend of maple syrup and apple cider vinegar. As the potatoes cook this sugar & vinegar thicken into a light glaze making the potatoes glisten. 

Using pure maple syrup and good quality apple cider vinegar is crucial for this dish. The only time consuming part in this dish is peeling and dicing the sweet potatoes -- after that the dish is cooked entirely in the oven.

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Roasted Green Bean Bundles (Thanksgiving Side dish)

Continuing with the Thanksgiving recipes, here's an interesting roasted green beans recipe. Traditionally green bean casserole is made for Thanksgiving or during the holiday season, but I'm not a big fan of creamy mushrooms, so this individual bundles of seasoned, roasted green beans sounded like a perfect alternate.

This dish needs a little bit of prep work. Beans need to be blanched, drained and tossed with dressing. Then they are formed into bundles and roasted. So the best thing to do is to blanch and keep the beans ready the day before and then they can tossed with dressing and roasted just before the dinner starts.

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Cilantro Lime Quinoa

Blogging Marathon# 46: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Lemon/ Lime Recipes
Dish: Cilantro-Lime Quinoa

We are starting another week of Blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Lemon/ Lime recipes'. Adding lemon juice to any dish brings out the flavor and makes it taste refreshing.
I wanted to make Cilantro-Lime rice for today, but used quinoa instead of rice and made this cilantro-lime quinoa. This is a light and fresh tasting dish that is a great alternate to plain quinoa. Lime and fresh herbs make this dish a perfect complement to heavier stews and fried foods, and it's super simple to put together, too, a great plus when there are other dishes cooking on the stovetop.

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Punjabi Kadhi Pakora

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: North Indian Side dishes
Dish: Punjabi Kadhi Pakora

For the second day of BM# 45 under 'North Indian side dishes', I made Punjabi Kadhi Pakora. Kadhi is the North Indian version of South Indian Majjiga pulusu (in Telugu) or Mor kuzhambu (in Tamil). The flavors are slightly different, but essentially it is a buttermilk based dish that is thickened with besan/ chickpea flour or ground chana/ chickpeas.

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Pepper Besan Curry (Capsicum Chickpea flour dry curry)

Blogging Marathon# 31: Week 3/ Day 3
Theme: Main Course
Dish: Pepper Besan Curry (Capsicum besan dry curry)

There are days where all you need is a simple curry that takes no time to put together. Today's recipe fits the bill because in this dish all the ingredients are mixed together first and then cooked until done -- no fuss, no mess. 

This is a very simple dry curry made with bell peppers and besan. I used a combination of different colored peppers, but just green peppers will also taste great here.

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Dapka Kadhi (Gujarati Kadhi with Moong dal Dumplings)

It has been quite some time that I made anything for Indian Cooking Challenge. When I see Valli's email announcing the dish of the month, I get excited and plan on making it, but some time between the announcement and the actual date of posting I either completely forget about it or don't find the time to make it.

Anyway I didn't want to miss this month's challenge because kadhi is one of my favorite dishes, But I don't make it often because my husband doesn't eat milk/ yogurt based dishes and so I avoid making them when he's around. Lucky for me, he's been travelling and I went ahead and made this yummy kadhi with moong dal dumplings.

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Coconut Milk Kadhi

This recipe is from Indian super chef Sanjeev Kapoor's cooking show "Khana Khazana". This kadhi uses coconut milk instead of yogurt or buttermilk. Since my husband does not eat any yogurt based products, I wanted to try this for him. The dish turned out delicious and my DH liked it too.

Ingredients (makes about 4-5 servings):
Coconut milk - 2 cups (I used canned Lite Coconut milk)
Besan (chickpea flour) - 2 tbsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Mixed Vegetables (Potato, carrot, cauliflower, red pumpkin, broad beans etc) - 1 cup

For Tadka:
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Red Chilies - 4
Curry leaves - 6

Method:

• Whisk in besan, turmeric and salt in coconut milk and keep aside. Make sure there are no lumps.
• Microwave or boil the veggies till tender.
  
• Heat 2 tsp oil in a saucepan, add the tadka ingredients and after the seeds splutter add the veggies and cook for 5 minutes.
• Slowly add the coconut milk mixture. On slow flame, simmer the kadhi for about 5 minutes or until the mixture does not smell raw anymore.
  

Serve with steamed rice.

Nethi Beerakaya Pachadi-Silk Squash Chutney

I have never cooked with Nethi beerakaya aka Silk Squash before. Nethi beerakaya bajji (fritters) are very famous in Andhra. I bought 2 squashes from the Indian store and made pachadi with one and bajji with the other.

To make the bajjis, cut the veggie into thin circles. Dip them into bajji/ pakora batter (besan+chili powder+cumin powder+salt+water to make a thin batter) and deep fry till golden brown. Serve hot sprinkled with chaat masala along with ketchup. We gobbled down our bajjis before I could take the pictures, so all I have here is raw silk squash pieces.

Here’s the recipe for pachadi.

Ingredients:
Nethi Beerakaya – 1 medium, chopped (no need to peel, just rinse thoroughly)
Tomato – 2 medium, chopped
Tamarind pulp – 1-2 tsp
Chana dal – 1tbsp
Ural dal – 1 tbsp
Jeera – 1 tsp
Red chilies – 4
Salt to taste

Method:

• Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan; add dals, jeera, red chilies and sauté till lightly browned. Remove and keep aside.
  
• In the same pan, add chopped beerakaya pieces, tomato, cover and cook till tender. Remove from heat.
  
• Once cool enough to handle, grind the dals first to a powder, then add the veggies, tamarind pulp, salt and blend to a smooth paste.
  

I like mine a little chunky, so I didn’t blend it all the way through. Tastes great with rice/ idlis/ dosas or on sandwiches.

Here's another interesting nethi beerakaya recipe from Indira’s blog.