Vegetarian Himachal Pradesh Thali

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39
Dish: Himachal Pradesh Thali

Day 2 of the marathon and today we are travelling to Himachal Pradesh all the way in Northern India. This is one of the states that I had bookmarked a lot of recipes and figured its better to feature them all in a thali. All the dishes are very simple to make and it took me a little over 1 hour to make them. My  husband was not too thrilled with this since the channa madra had yogurt and the nashpati ki subzi is on the sweet side. I should have thought about it, but well that was that. I on the other hand enjoyed all the dishes.

Dishes in the Thali:

• Babru (Urad dal stuffed Puri)
• Channa Madra (Chickpeas cooked in yogurt gravy)
• Nashpati ki Subzi (Spicy Pear Curry)
• Spicy Bhey (Spicy Lotus Stems)
• Meethe Chawal (Sweet Rice)
• Chawal (Plain Rice)

Babru: These are urad dal stuffed puris almost like bedmi poori, but the stuffing is not cooked. This makes the rolling of the puris quite difficult because the stuffing oozes out and my pooris ended up having funny shapes. But that didn't take away from the taste, they were soft and tasted great.

Recipe from Valli.
Ingredients:
Wholewheat flour - 2cups
All purpose flour - ½cup
Baking powder - ¼tsp
Salt - to taste

For the Stuffing:
Urad dal - ½cup

Method:

• For the Stuffing: Soak the dal overnight and grind it into a slightly coarse paste.
• For the outer layer: Combine wholewheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Add enough water and knead to a smooth pliable dough.
• Divide the dough into small equal size balls. Flatten the ball slightly and place 1tsp of the stuffing, pull the dough over the stuffing and cover it completely. 
• Dust liberally with flour and roll into small pooris. 
• Heat oil for deep frying; gently slide each poori and cook on both sides until golden in color. Remove onto a paper towel lined plate and serve hot.

Channa Madra: This was one of the most popular dishes made for the state of Himachal Pradesh. It is a yogurt based curry made with chickpeas.

Nashpati ki Subzi (Pear Curry): This is quite an unusal dish for me, since I rarely cook with fruits and making a curry with a fruit is very new to me. When I saw it on Vaishali's blog, I really wanted to try it to see how it tastes. I wasn't disappointed -- the curry is sweet, spicy and juicy.

Spicy Bhey: Lotus stems are of the new ingredients that I tried during the mega A-Z Indian states marathon and one that I really really liked. So when I saw it being made as a dry curry with spices, I knew I would be making it real soon.

Meethe Chawal: This is a delicious sweet rice that is very quick and easy to make.

Recipe from Vaishali's blog:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1cup

Sugar - 1cup (adjust as per taste)

Water - 2½cups

Ground cardamom - ½tsp

Almonds - 2tbsp

Saffron - a pinch

Method:

• Soak rice in cold water for at least 30 minutes. In a small bowl, add 2tbsp hot water to saffron and set aside.
• Heat 2tsp ghee in a pressure cooker. Drain the water from rice and add the soaked rice to ghee. Add ground cardamom, mix well. 
• Pour water and pressure cook for 1~2 whistles.
• Open the lid and once the pressure dissipates; add sugar and saffron mixture. Cook till the sugar is completely dissolved. Garnish with almonds and serve.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 40.