Pani Puri – This is something that everyone in India, young or old, thoroughly enjoys! While pani puri (or gol gappa for North Indians) is ubiquitous in India sold by street vendors to five-star hotels, the best pani-puri needless to say is found on the street!

It consists of “puris”: made from semolia. The puris are made round like a ball, hollow and deep fried until crisp.

“Pani” literally means water. The puris are filled with some “masala” and then dipped in the “pani” and then consumed! The “pani” consists of mint. cilantro and green chillies.

A couple of weekends ago was Raksha bandhan, which we celebrated at my aunts’ house. Like most Indian festivals, we had a ceremony followed for lots and lots and lots of food! For starters, we had pani-puri and sev-puri (another snack).

The puri’s are usually available at any Indian grocery store.

Preperation time: 30 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients (for the stuffing)

• 2 medium boiled, peeled and mashed potatoes
• 1 cup chana (black chickpea) soaked and boiled (canned chickpeas can also be used)
• Finely chopped cilantro to sprinkle
• 1/2 tea spoon of roasted cumin powder
• 1/2 tea spoon of salt
• 1/2 tea spoon red chilly powder (optional)

Directions:

• Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl and keep it aside.

Ingredients (for the “pani”):

• 1 bunch of mint leaves
• 4-5 green chillies (adjust as per spice tolerance)
• 5-6 sticks of cilantro
• 1 thin slice of ginger
• 1/2 tea spoon black salt
• 1/2 tea spoon roasted cumin powder
• 1lemon juice
• 3 cups of water
• 1/2 tea spoon salt(adjust as required)
• 1 table spoon boondi’s (optional)

Directions

• Add mint leaves, green chillies, cilantro, ginger, lemon juice, salt and few sprinkles of water in a blender and blend it to a smooth paste.
• Put the paste in a large bowl and add the three cups of water, black salt, roasted cumin powder and stir well. Add salt and lemon as per your taste.

Consumption

To eat the pani puri, pour the “pani” in a largish bowl, then make a small opening in the puri and put some stuffing in it. Finally, dip the entire puri in the bowl with the “pani” until the liquid fills the “puri”. Open the mouth wide and consume!

Warning: Once you start, its hard to stop eating!

Sprouts are good for health since they are high in protein. They taste delicious with onion, tomatoes, black salt and and a hint of lemon. A few days ago Rahul was craving sprouts for breakfast and I made it for him. So let me share this recipe and I hope you will like it too. Its perfect for a protein packed breakfast that keeps you going during the day!

How to sprout Mung beans at home?

• Day 1:Soaking: Take one cup mung beans and soak them overnight. Make sure they are soaked in double the quantity of water as the beans.
• Day 2: In the morning remove the water and wash them 2-3 times. Put them back in the same container and loosely close the container as if we are letting them breathe. Shake the beans such that the ones at the bottom of the container are at the top. Spray few drops of water. Do not let the water dry out.
• Day 3: Check the beans, they have sprouted.

Time to cook!!

Preparation time : 10 mins (after the mung beans are sprouted!)

Serves:4-5 people

Ingredients:

• 1 tea spoon cumin seeds
• Spouted Mung beans
• Pinch of Turmeric Powder
• Pinch of Red chilly powder
• 1 table spoon coriander powder
• 1 tea spoon oil
• 1 cup onions (finely chopped)
• 1 green chilly (finely chopped)
• 1/2 cup tomatoes (finely chopped)
• Lemon juice as per taste
• Salt as per taste
• Pinch of Black Salt (optional)
• Pinch of sugar (optional)
• Cilantro to garnish (finely chopped)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add cumin seeds. Cook them until they diffuse their aroma.
2. Add turmeric powder, chili powder and quickly add the sprouts (make sure you do not burn the turmeric and chili powder).
3. Sprinkle a few drops of water and add coriander powder and close the lid and cook it up to 1 whistle.
4. Carefully remove the mix from the pressure cooker in a bowl and add onions, tomatoes, chillies, lemon juice, salt/black salt, sugar(optional) and garnish with cilantro and serve.

Note:

1) You can find ready sprouts in the grocery stores.

2) You can also sprinkle some thin sev and yogurt for a change.

Upma is made from Suji/Rava. This snack and lunch is prepared differently in various parts of India. In North India it is made spicy with a hint of lemon, whereas in the western part (Gujrat) it is prepared with sugar, salt and a hint of lemon. Not only does the taste differs, but also the style of cooking differs: Some add water to cook, while others add milk or yogurt.

Last week, we had some family come over to our place and I made Upma for brunch. This recipe is the traditional way of making Upma in Gujarat (my home state), however, the ingredients can vary based on your taste.

Preparation time:30 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup Suji/ Rava
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 3-4 curry leaves
• 1 green chilly
• ½ tea spoon mustard seeds
• 1 table spoon Urad daal
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1 table spoon oil/ghee (ghee is optional)
• 2-3 table spoon sugar (as per taste)
• 2-3 tea spoon salt (as per taste)
• 2-3 table spoons lemon juice (as per taste)
• 4 1/3 cup water
• Cilantro (finely chopped) to garnish
• 4-5 roasted cashew nuts to garnish

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and let them splutter.
2. Lower the flame to low-medium and add the curry leaves and Urad daal. Saute until the Urad daal turns light brown in color.
3. Turn the flame to medium and add the green chillies and onions and saute it till onions turn translucent.
4. Add the Rava/suji and saute it on a low-medium flame untill it turns light brown (approx 5-10 minutes)
5. Now increase the flames to high and then add water and keep stiring constantly for approximately 1-2 minutes. The Suji will become thick in consistency after adding water.
6. Add lemon juice, salt, peas and sugar to this mixture and close with a lid and let it all cook on medium-low flame for 5 minutes.
7. When the mixture comes to a desired consistency, garnish it with cilantro and cashew nuts.
8. Enjoy!

A lot of bakeries in India sell delicious bread and an assortment of pastries, with an Indian twist! Ever since I was a kid, my favorite has been the vegetable puff pastries that are now sold not only at bakeries but also at many fast food joint.

These puffs are filled with potatoes and peas, spiced and mashed and then baked inside pastry sheets. A couple of years ago, I found these pastry sheets at the grocery store and tried to make the vegetable puffs at home. They tasted delicious! However, after I discovered Masala burgers at Trader Joe’s, I figured making the mashed potatoes mix is such a waste of time. The masala burgers are vegetable cutlets in themselves, so I use them instead!

This receipe can be twisted a little bit if you taste buds crave for spices. You can always add ginger, garlic and green chilly paste to the stuffing and make is more spicy. Another option is to add mozarrella cheese. In this receipe, but I’ve not tried that yet.

It goes well with Indian Chai!

Preparation time: 30 mins
Serves: 2 People

Ingredients

• 2 Puff pastry sheets(room temperature)

• 1 Masala Burger (from Trader Joe’s)

• Water for brushing the edges to seal the pastries

Directions

1. If the pastries are frozen, bring them to room temperature.
2. Cook the Masala Burger in an oven until it is hot and ready to be eaten.
3. Cut the burger into half and place this half on the pastry sheet as shown in the picture above.
4. Seal the sheet by brushing some water over the edges.
5. Cook it in the oven at 375-400 F until the puff turns light brown.
6. Enjoy with tomato ketchup and hot chai!

Nan-Khatai is an Indian version of cookies, which originated from a very popular city in India, Surat. Surat has a sizable Parsi population. The concept of bakeries came into existence when the Dutch came to Surat in 1800’s. However, when the Dutch left India, they left the bakeries behind, which were of no use since the Indian staple diet that consisted of whole wheat roti instead of bread. The enterprising Parsi community, instead of letting these bakeries close down, took them over and came up with these cookies: Nan-Khatai. The Nan-Khatai of Surat is very famous, to this day. A visit to Surat would mean coming back with a load of these cookies!

These days, they are available everywhere in India, and with a lot of variations: flavors, mixed dry fruits, chocolate coating, butterscotch etc. They can be made sweet, or salty by adding cumin seeds and salt to them.

While all these variations are fun to try out, nothing beats the simple original version. And that is the recipe I am going to share with you. Its simple, easy and delicious, with not too many complications. Enjoy!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Baking time: 15 minutes

Total cookies: 7 cookies

Ingredients

• 2/3rd cup white flour (maida)
• 5 cloves of cardamom finely ground
• 1/4th teaspoon vanilla essence
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 5 tablespoons clarified butter (ghee)
• 2 teaspoon sooji/rava
• Few drops of milk to sprinkle

Directions:

1. Mix above ingredients in a bowl, sprinkle some milk and make them into a cookie shape.
2. Place an almond on each cookie and put all the cookies in the oven to cook for approximately 15 minutes at 375 degrees .
3. Enjoy once they are cooled down.

Note

1. I have portable small oven and so I bake these cookies at 375 degrees, so use the settings as per your oven requirements.
2. Make sure the ghee is in liquid form when you mix the ingredients in step 1.
3. Ghee is available at any local Indian grocery store.

Dhokla is very common for breakfast in India, especially in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Rahul and I both recount the numerous times we ate dhokla at our homes in India, and so today it’s definitely comfort food for us. I used to love to eat the rava dhokla that my aunt (she is the best at preparing or repairing of a recipes) used to make for us on weekends, for breakfast. I try to imitate her style, but she is the best, bar none.

Rava dhokla is very simple to make. It has a subtle flavor of yogurt and rava, hint of red chilli powder and ground black pepper. You can always add green chillies if you like spicy food and flavor. It is mostly consumed with coconut chutney or dahliya chutney.

The preperation is a two step process, first soaking the rava, and second steaming it. Since it was slightly gloomy today, we felt like eating something warm, spicy and comforting. Dhokla seemed like the perfect breakfast! Rahul loves rava dhokla with the daliya chutney. It was like a Saturday morning jackpot for him and we enjoyed every bit of it.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Rava
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup yogurt(fat free)
• 1/2 tea spoon oil
• 1 tea spoon Eno (to make the dhokla rise)
• Salt as per taste(approx 1/2 tea spoon)
• Pinch of red chilly powder
• Pinch of ground black pepper

Directions:

1. In a bowl mix the rava, yogurt and water, and set aside for soaking for 10-15 minutes.
2. In a deep pot boil water for steaming the dhokla’s.
3. Grease a 1/2 inch deep steel or aluminum plate for pouring in the mix.
4. Now add the oil, salt and eno and mix it well.
5. Pour the batter in the plate and sprinkle red chilly powder and ground black pepper.
6. Close the lid of the pot and let is cook for 15 minutes.
7. Once the dhokla is done take out the plate, spray oil on it and as it cools down cut them into square shapes.
8. Enjoy with the chutney.

Note:

1. If you are a first time maker of dhokla make sure that you arrange the plate in the pot little bit higher from water level so that water does not come over the plate. For this you can use a stand like thingy.
2. Before taking the dhokla out make sure its cooked properly. To check you can insert a knife in the steamed mix and if it turns out clear( the way we check for cakes), that means it’s properly cooked.
3. You can use baking soda if you do not have eno.

I started liking sandwiches after eating at a food stall in Baroda. This stall was near my Dad’s office, so whenever we visited him at work, we ate sandwiches! They were simply superb! That’s when I fell in love with this type of sandwich.

Being married to a husband who is a thorough Bombayite, I have to constantly keep up with his cravings for street food from Bombay – and sandwich is one of them! This type of sandwich is a staple on the streets of Bombay and you can find a sandwich-walla almost on almost every street corner in Bombay. It’s fairly simple: bread, sandwich chutney, veggies and ketchup (yes, people in Bombay LOVE ketchup with their sandwiches, but its optional, of course).

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 slices of fresh and soft sandwich bread
• 1 tablespoon Indian Sandwich Chutney
• Butter (as per taste/preference)
• Cheese (Any cheese that can be grated and eaten with bread, preferably Amul or Mozzarella)
• 2 thinly cut circular slices of onion
• 4-5 thinly cut circular slices of cucumber
• 2 thinly cut circular slices of beetroot
• 2 circular slices of tomatoes
• 3-4 circular thin slices of boiled potato
• Chaat masala or Sandwich masala (you can get these at any Indian store)

Directions

1. Take 1 slice of the bread and apply butter on one side and then arrange onions, cucumber, tomatoes, beetroot and potato on it.
2. Sprinkle a little bit of chat masala or sandwich masala on these toppings.
3. On the other slice of bread, apply the Indian Sandwich Chutney and put it over the vegetable layer to close the sandwich. (If you like your sandwich grilled, then put it in a Panini-maker)
4. Cut the sandwich into 4 pieces and grate some cheese on the top of it.
5. Serve with tomato ketchup and potato chips on the side.