easy diwali mithai : kaddu ka kalakand or pumpkin kalakand recipe

My Diwali greetings to you all with this easy recipe of pumpkin kalakand. May you find more light, fight darkness successfully and lead others towards light too. Diwali brings that kind of vibes if we are open to it. And there is some mithai, some diyas and candles after a mandatory spring cleaning exercise. The woollies will be out soon and we will soon eat some chooda matar with the fresh tender green peas. Every banarasi starts dreaming of chooda matar breakfasts as soon as there is the first sign of winter.

I have been away for quite a long time, was traveling for the good part of it and then got caught up with pending work that had to be finished on priority. Thank you for writing back to me and let me know you all were missing my posts here. I shall try and write more regularly and bring the food we love. Will come back with storied from Mysore too.

I hope you would like this pumpkin kalakand. Kalakand is a soft cheesecake like dessert with granular solids of lightly curdled milk if I have to describe it, but the good thing is that kalakand can be made with many shortcut methods with very minute difference in the resulting taste and texture. Since the milk is reduced first and curdled lightly in the traditional method of making kalakand the texture is richer with the traditional method. But then we make the recipes suitable for a modern lifestyle, to be able to cook them in lesser time, make them healthier etc etc. and try and replicate the original.

This short cut kalakand recipe that also includes some good fiber and carotenes is very close to the texture of original kalakand with added taste of ripe pumpkin and a hint of nutmeg. I had made an apple kalakand (in microwave) last year and many of my friends and readers had made that at home within a couple of days. And I remember how I kept getting requests regarding how the recipe can be adjusted to stove top method and if one could replace the milk powder with something else.

In the last year I have made that apple kalakand several times both in microwave and a heavy bottomed pan and recently I taught that recipe to the volunteer Chefs at ISKON Mysore as well. Even they wanted an alternate recipe of such an easy and tasty mithai so I decided to work on another kalakand recipe that is fairly easy and takes a little more time than the apple kalakand.

Using grated pumpkin was on my mind for some time and I had to do it. I did two trials and found that precooking the grated pumpkin works better. I microwaved a cup of grated pumpkin for 2 minutes before using it for kalakand and used freshly made paneer for it. Minimal sugar to sweeten it as always.

Total time that this recipe takes would be around 30 minutes of grating pumpkin, making paneer (chhena) and cooking again and about an hour of refrigeration to set the kalakand properly.

ingredients
(for 16 regular sized kalakand)

grated pumpkin (use the orange fleshed ripe pumpkin) 1 cup packed
whole milk (6%) 1 kilo
fresh cream 3 tbsp
lime juice 2 tbsp diluted with 2 tbsp water
nutmeg powder 1 pinch
sugar to taste. I used 4 tbsp
chopped pistachios to garnish (or any other nuts)

procedure

Microwave the grated pumpkin for 2 minutes or cook them till they get limp and soft but not mushy. Keep side.

Heat the milk in a large pot till a thin film of fat starts forming on top. Wait till the point where the milk is just about to boil. Add the lime juice 1 tsp at a time at this point and keep stirring the milk. Stop adding the lime juice as soon as you see curdled milk and clear whey.

Line a strainer with muslin and keep it over another pot to collect whey. Pour the milk into the strainer and let the whey separate (the whey can be used to knead bread dough). Collect the milk solids and crumble it using a potato masher nicely.

Now place this crumbled paneer (or chhena) into a pan along with the half cooked grated pumpkin and sugar and cook for about 5 minutes on medium flame. It would release some water and start drying up. Add the fresh cream and nutmeg powder together and cook till it is all dry but moist.

Empty the contents on a greased tray or plate and flatten the mixture using a flat knife. Make the edges smooth and shape it so you can cut uniform pieces. Or just use a suitable square dish to spread the mix. Sprinkle chopped nuts and press them so they stick well.

Refrigerate this plate for an hour or so. Cut pieces and serve as required. This kalakand stays well in the fridge for 4 days easily. Keep it in an airtight container lined with butter paper.

The texture of this kalakand is crumbly as it should be but it binds well and doesn't break into your hands. If it breaks while lifting it means it needs some more cooking so cook it again and let it dry a bit more and let it set again.

You can add any spices of your choice to this kalakand as pumpkin takes spices really well in desserts. You would be surprised at how well it works with this kalakand. A mild hint of nutmeg and a deep rich taste of pumpkin with taste and texture of a regular kalakand. That's how this pumpkin kalakand tastes.

Make this diwali healthier with home made mithai I must add. We never buy any mithai during festivals as there is a lot of spurious stuff added to them during season of high demand.

Ever wonder how much milk production do we do in the country not to disrupt regular milk supply and still convert the world into a big mithai shop during festivals?

banarasi kachori aur subzi : ras wale alu, palak paneer, kale chane aur kaddu ki subzi, alu baingan palak ki subzi

Someone asked me about the difference between a poori and kachori and I realised how diverse a kachori can be while answering. How much the kachori has evolved to be a sassy cousin of poori. While poori remained the plain jane, kachori took on to different fashions with different seasons and became matar ki kachori, daal ki kachori, hing kachori, alu ki kachori blah blah blah blah , most of them stuffed kachoris, some of them are softer inside and crisp outside while others are so crisp and dry that they keep well for days.

This banarasi kachori is more of a plain version of a pretentious kachori but packs the same punch when it comes to taste. All spices and the stuffing material is mixed in the dough itself and the kachori are often double fried to ensure a crisp crumbling kind of poori. These are the ones that stay puffed even when cold if you don't crush them. I have shared a recipe of banarasi kachoris here, with ras wale alu and a pumpkin subzi. Sharing a few more subzis again to go with the famous banarasi kachoris.

Banarasi kachori recipe..

The kachori is made with a mix of coarse whole wheat flour and urad daal flour (skinned black bean flour), the dough is made using water that is infused with cumin, hing and ajwain. Just mix a cup of coarsely milled wheat flour with 1/3 cup of urad daal flour or 1/2 cup of soaked urad daal paste, add salt to taste and a tbsp of ghee and rub everything well. Boil 2 cups of water, add a tsp each or cumin and ajwain to it and let it simmer for a minute. Add a pinch of hing, dissolve and let the water cool down. Use this water to knead a firm dough. Use this dough to roll out pooris and fry them all in hot ghee or oil. Hot crisp banarasi kachoris are ready.

Add a bit of red chilly powder or black pepper powder and a little lime juice if you are planning to eat these kachoris without subzi, yes the slightly spiced up kachoris go well with our milky tea.

I served it here with ras wale aloo and a simple palak paneer. This palak paneer used to be more regular when Mithi was younger. It was her favourite subzi, very lightly spiced and creamy in texture.

This version of palak paneer is easier, simpler to cook and less spicy than another version with more rustic spicing. That recipe will be shared some other time.

Palak paneer recipe..

To cook this simple palak paneer, you just have to choose tender spinach leaves with stems or mature spinach leaves only (mature fibrous stems to be discarded) so the resulting spinach puree is creamy and flavourful. Steam about 500 gm spinach either in microwave or in a pan with 2-3 tbsp of water at low flame and take off heat as soon as the leaves get limp and soft. Cool down and puree in the blender, without using any water. Now heat 1 tbsp ghee in a pan, add cumin seeds and wait till they splutter, and then dump the spinach puree in it. Add a pinch of nutmeg powder, 1 tsp black pepper powder and salt to taste and stir and cook the spinach puree till it starts bubbling and puffing. Add 200 gm paneer cubes to the bubbling spinach mix and simmer for about 5 minutes. Adjust consistency by adding a little water. Add 2-3 tbsp fresh cream to finish and serve hot.

The yellow coloured chutney seen in the above thali is the amla chutney I make every season and we love it with almost every meal.

Another very popular subzi with kachoris is the chane aur kaddu ki subzi. It is a simple black chickpeas and pumpkin curry that goes very well with crisp hot kachoris. We use mature orange coloured pumpkin for this subzi and the slightly sweet pumpkin balances well with kale chane lightly spiced up.

Kale chane aur kaddu ki subzi recipe..

Soak 3/4 cup of black chickpeas overnight.

Peel the hard skin of mature pumpkin and cube the flesh in 2 cm dimensions. It should be about 400 gm cubed pumpkin.

Make a coarse paste of ginger, green chilly, whole dry red chilly and some garlic. About 1 tbsp or more ginger, chillies to taste and 2 cloves of garlic to be used.

Heat 1 tbsp of mustard oil in a pressure cooker pan and add a pinch of hing, about 10 grains of fenugreek seeds, 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds nd 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, all together in one go. Let them all splutter and get aromatic, taking care not to burn them.

Add the ginger garlic chilly paste and a tsp of turmeric powder to the hot oil and let the mixture get fried. Take about 15 seconds on medium heat.

Now add the soaked and drained kale chane and mix well. Add salt to taste and the cubed pumpkin, about a cup of water and pressure cook the subzi for about 5 minutes after the first whistle. Cool down, mash the subzi a little, add amchoor powder to taste and serve immediately.
Chopped spinach can be added to the same subzi just before pressure cooking it. It makes the subzi more mushy and yummy.

We enjoyed this kachori subzi meal with a bowl of grated mooli salad on the side. The mooli salad is just grated while radish, some grated ginger, some finely chopped green chillies, salt and lime juice to balance. One of the most frequent winter salad with any meal.

Another very popular subzi to go with the kachoris is this alu baingan aur palak ki subzi, a mushy curry cooked with new baby potatoes, black round brinjal and spinach. The subzi is called alu-bhanta-saag in local dialect and is a much revered subzi for pooris during pooja etc. I often cook this curry with the green aubergines that is growing in the garden right now, but the round ones are perfect for this.

You can make the subzi a bit dry or make it a little coated consistency type.

Recipe of the alu baingan palak ki subzi..

Wash and clean 200 gm baby potatoes and quarter them.

Chop a small round brinjal in cubes. It should be about 200 gm.

Clean, wash and chop 300 gm spinach leaves and keep aside.

Mince or coarsely grind a tbsp of ginger, 4 cloves of garlic and 2 dry red chilies.

Heat 1 tbsp mustard oil in a deep iron or cast iron pan (kadhai) and tip in 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds, 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds and a generous pinch of hing. Add the coarse paste of ginger etc and the potatoes immediately as the spices turn aromatic. Cook for a couple of minutes and then add a tsp of turmeric powder and the cubed brinjal. Toss and mix, let everything get coated well.

Add the chopped spinach, mix well, add 1/2 a cup of water and cook covered for about 20 minutes or so. Lightly mash the subzi after everything is cooked through. Serve immediately. Though the subzi keeps well in the fridge and can be served after reheating too.

Here I cooked the alu bhanta saag using the round purple brinjals and some Amritsari vadi, the perfect taste of this curry. Yes, you can add about a tbsp of crushed Amritsari vadi along with ginger, garlic and red chilies and let it fry till fragrant and proceed to add other ingredients. This addition makes this curry irresistible.

But alu baingan palak can be made without the badiyan or vadi as well. 

A long post finally, I hope you find it useful when planning meals for the family. Such foods from the hinterland become exotic in urban life, but we do make  away to keep enjoying them frequently.

apple and pumpkin spiced cake..

 I had never intended to share any baking on this blog of mine as the purpose of Banras Ka Khana is to revive all the desi traditional recipes . Time to time i am tempted to write about the odd cake or brownie the way i like them . There are millions of cake recipes on the internet and there are blogs and websites dedicated to baking . I always look up to these blogs and websites when i want to make the best chocolate cake or an angel cake . I don't wish to post those recipes here but whenever i make something unusual and am pleased by the results , i feel like sharing it here.

This cake was one such baking experiment i found worth sharing here. Just look at the different colors of fruity goodness in the slices...

ingredients...

maida ( APF ) 500 gm
eggs 6 nos.
vegetable oil 200 ml
sugar 150 gm
pumpkin grated 2 cups
apples grated or cut in small pieces 3 cups
apple sauce 1 cup
baking powder 3 tsp
baking soda 1/2 tsp
nutmeg powder 1 tsp
cinnamon powder 1tsp
dry ginger powder 2 tsp
salt 1/2 tsp


Procedure...

Mix the dry ingredients and keep aside after sieving them all together to aerate the mixture..

Pour oil a large mixing bowl , add sugar and then the eggs . Whip the mixture well till everything is homogenized . Add the applesauce and mix lightly . The applesauce i used was quite thick and i spooned it into the batter so some chunks of applesauce are there in the baked cake.

 Add the grated pumpkin and apple , mix well and then add the flour mixture and fold in lightly . Do not whip after mixing the flour mixture.

Pour the batter in greased and dusted tins and bake in preheated oven . 180 degree C for 45 minutes .

Check with the help of a skewer and cook a bit more if needed.



Cool down the cake and enjoy . The cake keeps well in the fridge and ages well too. The spices make this cake very special by the passing days ...if it lasts ...

This cake accompanied many of our teas and coffee...

I had made some muffins with the same batter in my ceramic teacups ...

And those muffins were gobbled down for breakfasts ... They were refrigerated after covering them with foil and it was easy to remove the foil and just microwave them for 30 seconds for a hearty breakfast...The husband loves sweet treats for breakfast...

I like something handy to serve... something rich , moist and sweet .

Rich sweet breakfast is not always a bad idea ... my glass of milk is hot while the husband likes it lukewarm ... but sometimes we like similar things too :)

Olan made with pumpkin | the Kerala Olan suited to our taste | pumpkin curry with coconut milk

I was never sure if I would like Olan made with pumpkin but since I love all the curries and stews made with coconut milk, I knew it was close to my comfort zone. I was still apprehensive whether others in the family will appreciate the taste.

I love yellow-orange fleshed ripe pumpkin, so whenever I used to see those olan recipes on some blogs, it was like a visual treat always. This recipe by Gauri looked really light and flavourful and I decided to cook Olan with a firm ripe orange flesh pumpkin.

I used coconut milk from a tetra pack and I am sure freshly squeezed coconut milk can make a lot of difference to the dish. But I think as the recipe is so easy to put together, any beginner in the kitchen would feel elated to concoct a beautiful looking curry with ease, especially if canned coconut milk is used.

Fresh coconut milk should not become an issue with this recipe at least. So go ahead and make it with canned coconut milk.

ingredients...
(2 servings)
coconut milk 1/2 cup
pumpkin cubed 2 cups
water 4 cups
spring onions 2-3 nos.( only the lower halves )
curry patta 3-4 springs ( i refrained myself from using a lot of these and saved the olan )
green chillies slit length wise 2-3 nos.
green coriander leaves with stems , chopped finely 2 tbsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
coconut oil or vegetable oil 1 tsp
salt to taste

procedure...

Boil the pumpkin with water and salt to taste till the pumpkin is mushy.

Heat oil in a pan and throw in the cumin seeds, wait till they splutter and add the green chillies and curry patta. Stir for a while as the green chillies and curry patta start twisting and getting aromatic.

Add the roughly chopped spring onions and coriander leaves. Both these ingredients are my own addition to this curry and I found them really good in the curry. You may wish to exclude them and the curry will be great that way too. The spring onions have to be cooked just till they get shiny and soft, not pink or brown.

Pour this mixture of stir fried ingredients to the boiling pumpkin and stir to mix.

Add the coconut milk and allow another boil before turning the heat off.

Such a simple curry for a side dish. I am getting new ideas with these flavors and you will see me coming up with some more on this. We had the olan with our regular dal roti meal. Here you see a maah chhole palak daal (urad chana daal cooked with spinach), muli ka saag and the olan with chapatis.

I was apprehensive if my mom would like it as she does not like any watery curries. She is always suspicious of my curries tasting 'healthy', that kind of mother :-)

But she just loved it when I served the leftover olan with a matar paneer, raita and bhujia kind of lunch.

One very impressive aspect of this recipe is that the pumpkin is cooked in water first, just like making a soup and then a tempering is thrown in to make it very flavorful.

As healthy as it can be, this technique is not followed in any of the curries in the North, as much as I know. Not for vegetables at least, lentils are always boiled first and then the masala tempering is added and cooked again.

I have never tasted an authentic olan so the recipe may result in a different flavor than the southern homes but I loved the curry with these flavors to start with and may be in future when I come across a purist recipe I might give that a try.

Do you have a link of a purists olan ?? I will be more than happy to get a few links of yummy olan made with just the pumpkin. Come on share it with me here.

khade masale wala kaddu ...pumpkin curry tempered with whole spices...

Here i am with another vegetarian recipe , a Banaras special again . There can be nothing more Banarasi than a poori - kaddu ki subzi platter ... Jalebi is missing here but that has been a long forgotten promise i made to someone. I will come back to the spirals of jalebi as soon as i come out of the concentric spirals called life...

Back to the kaddu ki subzi . There are many kaddu or pumpking subzi recipes on this blog and this one is another mushy gooyi warmth to dunk your crisp poori in , sans onion garlic this time .

ingredients...
 For two generous helpings

Kaddu ( pumpkin ) 250 gm

 ripe yellow fleshed pumpkin is more suited for this subzi , the hard skin removed
whole red chillies 5 nos. or according to the heat level you want
cinnamon stick 1 inch long
green cardamom 1 no.
black cardamom 1 small pod
cloves 2-3
star anise 4-5 petals
black pepper corns 1 tsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
asafoetida a pinch
turmeric powder 1 tsp
salt to taste
mustard oil 2 tsp

procedure...

Chop the pumpkin in batons or cubes after peeling the hard skin.

Crush the green and black cardamoms just so it remains within the skin and yet the seeds are crushed.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker , add asafoetida and as soon as the asafoetida fluffs up add all the other whole spices . Wait till the whole spices are popping , dunk in the pumpkin pieces salt and turmeric powder . Toss to mix properly.

Add half a cup of water , cover and cook under pressure for 2 minutes. If using a regular pan it needs to be covered and cooked for about 10 minutes till soft and mushy.

A little amchoor powder can be added if so desired . I do not add any souring agent with whole spices here , but it is optional . Also i used a lot of dried red chillies but did not break them open , it adds a nice earthy flavor to the curry when the chillies are browned in the oil and there is not much heat as the seeds are not exposed to the cooking liquids. If you need a hotter curry you can break open the chillies in your bowl and mix.

Tastes heavenly with hot and crisp pooris , usually a sunday brunch at our place . I like this subzi with chapatis too and it makes a nice low fat meal with any flat bread.

After a piece of Banaras in this platter i will tell you about the uttar pradesh festival going on in Dilli Haat these days . We enjoyed the food of Banaras and Lucknow in the open air stalls there and it was a great experience . The authentic UP taste of chaats and the non veg kormas and kebaabs is so different from anything available here , even in the old lanes of purani Dilli .

Kashi Chaat bhandar from Banaras has put up a stall there and we enjoyed the golgappe and tamatar ki chaat . I have promised someone this tamatar ki chaat for a long time and i intend to come with that in my next post and i hope i do not procrastinate this time .... I find a lot of contentment when friends and readers have that kind of faith to try my recipes and tell me how it became a family favorite ....that gives me the drive to start again with my pots n pans and the camera ... you know what ..i do this part very enthusiastically , that is cooking has been my interest for a long time ......but when it comes to posting , i am a little neck withdrawn turtle...

imli wala kaddu | pumpkin stir fry with tamarind extract

Pumpkin is full of good fiber and antioxidants, good for health vitamins, minerals, especially beta-carotinoids and Vit.C, magnesium. The pumpkin seeds have zinc, as good as almonds in fact..

In India it is used in curries and desserts, both raw and ripe fruits are used to make curries but you'l get the raw pumpkin easily in markets, with creamy white flesh as well as yellow to orange flesh. Yellow and orange ones should be preferred to cook as they have more carotene content.

Some fat should always be used to cook pumpkin as the pigments are fat soluble and can be absorbed easily by the digestive system.

Pumpkin is good for wt. loss too as it has less calorie for more food and is reported to lessen fat absorbtion by the body from other food sources too (so it's good to have lots of kaddu ki sabzi with puri as the fat from puri will not be absorbed completely. You get my point.

Here I have used raw pumpkin which has fresh green skin and a deep yellow flesh, so no need to remove the skin and you get the carotenes too.

Recipe is simple and can be made with a southern touch if you add curry patta in it (which is good for wt. loss too) addition of tamarind extract adds to the antioxidant content. Deliciuous food that is superbly healthy too.

recipe is simple and needs a few ingredients..

cubed pumpkin with skin 400 gm.
mustard oil 1 tsp
asafoetida a pinch
rai (small mustard seeds) and methi (fenugreek) 1/2 tsp each
ginger and garlic crushed or made into a coarse paste 1/2 tbsp each (optional)
red chilly powder 1 tsp or a little more ( or 2 whole red chillies for tempering)
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
2 tbsp thick water extract from a marble sized ball of tamarind
salt to taste
5-6 springs of curry patta (if using)

to proceed ..

Heat oil in a kadhai and tip in the asafoetida and the rai and methi seeds.

Throw in the whole red chillies if using and curry patta (I did not use here) and ginger garlic paste, as soon as the rai crackles. After a few seconds add the pumpkin cubes too. Toss and mix.

Throw in the salt and turmeric powder and red chilly powder (if not using whole red chillies) and keep tossing and mixing.

Lower the flame and cover, cook covered till the pumpkin is soft but not mashed.

Pour in the tamarind water and cook covered for another couple of minutes.

Serve hot with puris or chapatis. This imli wala kaddu will become a favourite I assure you. I have served it to people who hated pumpkin and they started loving this gorgeous vegetable after that.

You can sprinkle some mint leaves or chaat masala over the subzi if you wish. Some bhuna jeera powder also makes it wonderfully flavourful if you want a chaat like concoction.

Tamarind does wonders to pumpkin trust me.

ras wala kaddu

kaddu ki ras wali sabzi, rasedaar kaddu, vrat wala kaddu or pumpkin curry .......whatever you call this kaddu ki sabzi , it is so tasty that you'll end up eating the sabzi like a soup........i made it with plain puris and did not count how many helpings we took of the sabzi...........

i have posted a few more versions of kaddu ki sabzi earlier as i like the this veggie very much..........it is easier to cook, healthy as it is packed with loads of Vit.A and fiber and the most important fact is that it can be made in minimal amounts of oil........with puris it is an ideal combination traditionally too......the recipe is simple and the taste comes from clever use of few common ingredients..........read on the recipe............

ingredients

pumpkin ( with green skin and yellow flesh) cubed 400 gm
potatoes cubed with skin 200 gm
dry ginger(sonth) 1 inch piece
dry whole red chillie 5-6 nos.
( the use of dry ginger powder and red chilly powder is convenient but the taste in this curry comes from freshly ground ingredients)
turmeric powder 1 tsp
salt to taste
amchoor or dry mango powder 2 tsp
asafoetida a pinch
rai seeds or mustard seeds 1 tsp
mustard oil 1 tsp

procedure

heat the oil in a pressure cooker , throw in the asafoetida and the rai seeds and let the splutter.............add the cubed veggies and salt n turmeric powders at once and toss to let them all mixed up n cook for a while.......add the grind sonth and red chilly together in spice grinder n add to the cooker.....toss well and add about a liter of water , place the lid and cook till one whistle and it's done........just add the amchoor powder when you open the pressure cooker, mix well to get the veggies a bit mashed up and serve hot with puris.

missed taking pictures of puris with it as they disappeared as soon as they came out of the kadai.........the combination of these two can't let you wait.....for anything.......



it is better to make this sabzi ahead of time as it tastes better after about an hour of getting cooked....there is a lot of water in this sabzi and veggie pieces seem to be submerged in the 'ras'.......but believe me you will fall short of 'ras' this time.....just try....

banarasi kachori n subzi

There are many versions of banarasi kachori as well as the subzi, I am writing some of them here, the ones I like and keep making often. The one thing I keep in mind while making any such fried dish is that it should absorb less amount of oil and if a kachori is high on oil, the subzi should be very light but spicy to minimise the oil/ghee content of the whole meal. Even the kachoriwalas of banaras seem to follow this at least about the subzi, they make it so light and always put some black gram, paneer or palak (spinach) etc to make it as healthy as it can be.

kachori recipe 1
ingredients
whole wheat flour [atta] 1 cup
cumin seeds and ajwain 1 tsp each
salt a pinch
sunflower oil or ghee for frying
some oil or ghee for shortening (optional)

procedure
Boil the jeera and ajwain in 1 cup of water and the salt to make strong infusion of the masala.

Rub in 1 tbsp of ghee into the atta as shortening, this makes the kachoris more crisp and soft, but I like it without the shortening, it is a bit hard and crisp kachori then.

Now add the infusion into the atta and knead a hard but pliable dough, make small balls out of it, roll like puris and fry in hot oil or ghee. Serve hot with the subzi.


ras wale aloo ki subzi

ingredients
boiled and peeled potatoes 3
coriander, cumin , black pepper powder and turmeric powder 1 tsp each
amchoor 2 tsp
hing [asafoetida] 1 pinch
small rai seeds 1 tsp
red chilly powder 1 tsp or more
ginger paste 1 tsp
salt to taste
1 tsp mustard oil

preparation

Heat the oil in a pan and put in the hing and rai and let it splutter. Meanwhile add 2 tbsp water to the powder masalas and make a paste, adding in the ginger paste too. Add this paste in the pan n stir for a while, till oil comes on top, now break the potatoes with hands and put in the pan, smash them with the back of the ladle and mix thoroughly while stirring everything.

Add salt and around 1 cup of water or more if thin gravy is required, give it a boil and the subzi is ready to serve. The subzi may be garnished with chopped coriander leaves.


banarasi kachori dal wali

Generally kachori is a stuffed puri and the stuffing may be a spicy masala mix of mung dal or urad dal, but in banaras the morning breakfast available in street stalls consists of this flavoured masala puri, which they call kachori. The masala, flavours and even the dal is often mixed with the dough itself to make puris, so here even the dal wali kachori is not a stuffed puri.

But the good news is that it is easier to make at home and can be less oily.......

ingredients

whole wheat flour [atta] 2 cups
urad dal soaked overnight and ground to a paste 1 cup
suji 1 cup
ajwain seeds 2 tsp
red chilly powder 1 tsp or more
salt to taste
desi ghee 3 tbsp
refined oil or desi ghee for deep frying

procedure

Rub in the ghee into atta n suji mixture, add all the other ingredients and knead a soft dough, adding more water if necessary.

Divide into marble sized balls, roll out puris and deep fry in hot oil.

Serve with the choice of subzi. These kachoris are soft and flavorful and go well with a light subzi like that of sitaphal[kaddu] and aalu......which I am posting next.........



kaddu aur aalu ki subzi [aalu kumra]

This is a very light but flavorful subzi and can be made in various ways depending on whether the kaddu is raw or mature, which may be light yellow to deep orange in color, if the kaddu is deep orange in color it gives a sweet taste to the subzi and can be made sweet n sour by adding a little more amchoor powder.

Here the subzi is made using the light yellow coloured baby pumpkin.

ingredients

kaddu (pumpkin) cubed with skin 2 cups
potatoes peeled and cubed 1 cup or less
ginger paste 1 tbsp
hing a pinch
jeera 1 tsp
banarasi rai 1 tsp
methi seeds 15-20
saunf or fennel seeds 15-20
amchoor powder 2 tsp or as desired
turmeric powder 1 tsp
salt to taste
red chilly powder
mustard oil 1 tsp
water 1/2 cup
coriander or mint leaves, a handful

procedure

Heat oil in a pan and put in all the masalas and let them splutter. Then quickly add in the vegetables and stir for a while. Add salt, red chilly powder and water and cook covered on a medium heat till done.

In the last add the amchoor and mash the subzi a little. Optionally 2 tbsp of finely chopped mint leaves can be added to make it more aromatic, or a bit of chopped coriander leaves.

Here I have used mint leave during cooking and for garnish too, it makes the sabzi more aromatic and prevents flatulence also, considering it will be consumed with puris. The subzi can be enjoyed without these herbs too.

This alu kumde ki subzi makes a very light combination with crispy fried kachoris..