amaranth flour dosa and beans and potato stew | fasting or feasting, vrat ka khana...

Amaranth is a pseudo grain and is allowed during fasting days of navratri. The grains can be used whole to make porridge with milk or coconut milk, the popped amaranth can be used to make parfait, can be used as breakfast cereal and laddu can be made if you follow this method. The amaranth flour is quite versatile and you can make rotis, cheela or dosa using it. Incidentally, it is the most protein rich grain you can find, so start using it for your everyday meals as well.

Amaranth or Rajgira is also called as Ramdana in UP. Ramdane ke laddu is a popular fasting food in Banaras although it is not seen easily these days. I feel most of the amaranth is being marketed through high end grocery stores and health food stores now. Hoping that this will be a positive sign for the farmers and they would start cultivating more amaranth and less of wheat may be.

Although I am not fasting but the easy availability of all fasting flours during this times is a boon. I stock the fasting grains, seeds and flours for the next six months during each navratri (there are 2 navratri seasons each year), the flours go into the refrigerator during summer times, but winters allow them to be stored at room temperature.

I have been using amaranth flour a lot to make cakes, brownies and cookies as well, but those are the things I do occasionally. Our daily meals are simple and frugal most of the times. Here is one frugal meal that can be a good navratri fasting meal as well.

Amaranth flour dosa and green beans and potato stewed with coconut milk. It is actually a multigrain kind of dosa as I used sama rice, buckwheat as well as amaranth flour.

ingredients for the dosa:

amaranth flour 1/2 cup
sama (barnyard millet) flour 1/4 cup
buckwheat flour 1/4 cup
sour yogurt or cultured buttermilk 1 cup or a bit more
salt and pepper to taste
soda bi carb 1/4 tsp (if making the dosa instantly)
ghee as required to make dosas (thin crepes) on a suitable flat griddle

procedure for the dosa:

Mix everything together and let it stand for at least 3-4 hours before making the dosas. If you are making them instantly, add the soda bi carb and proceed to make dosas.

On the dosa griddle (I use my roti tawa mostly, use a nonstick pan if making dosa for the first time), smear a little ghee and heat it. Sprinkle water to cool down the griddle a bit and ladle about 1/4 cup of dosa batter to it and spread it in circular strokes making a thin crepe. Drizzle a little ghee and let the crepe brown on one side, flip to the other side and cook for a few seconds. Serve hot with the stew.

Repeat the process to make more dosas. You can make them thinner or thick as you like or as convenient.

Green beans and potato stewed in coconut milk

ingredients for the stew

green beans (French beans) 250 gm
one large potato about 150 gm
finely chopped ginger 1 tsp
broken dry red chillies as per taste
curry patta 12 springs
fenugreek seeds 1/4 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
thick coconut milk 300 ml
sesame oil 1 tbsp
salt and white pepper powder to taste

procedure:

Using new potatoes will be good for this recipe. wash and clean the potato nicely, retain the skin and chop it into small cubes. String the beans and chop them all in 1 cm pieces, holding them all together over chopping board.

Heat the oil in a pan and tip in the fenugreek seeds and broken red chillies, followed by the curry patta and cubed potatoes. Add salt, pepper and turmeric powder and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the chopped beans and toss to mix everything well. Add the ginger and 1/2 cup of water, cover the pan and cook on low heat till cooked.

Add the coconut milk and simmer for a couple of minutes. Serve hot with dosa, appams and plain boiled rice as desired.

the best apple pie in the land of kachori and lavanglata | at the Pizzeria Vatika Cafe

Apple pie in Banaras? I say yes. And that is the best apple pie I have ever had. A perfect cookie like crust that crumbles as you take a bite. The flavors are subtle and yet temp you to take another bite and then some more. This happens when you are not even fond of desserts. Yes I do get sated with this dessert in just 3-4 bites but I see my folks digging into the pie with utmost concentration. My brother could not have it enough using a spoon and had it with his hands and then attacked on his wife's plate and my niece finished a whole slice of pie even when she had announced she can't eat any more. This pie makes cozy family memories. We had it at Pizzeria Vatika Cafe at Assi ghat, Varanasi last week and I am still stuck somewhere in the folds of that apple pie.

Wait, I will tell you more. This apple pie is egg less and Mr. Gopal Krishna Shukla, the owner of this al fresco pizzeria by the Ganga ghat, tell passionately about how he found the perfect recipe of this apple pie. He learned almost everything form the visiting foreigners he says and one of them demonstrated this perfect recipe of apple pie when he felt someone is insulting an apple pie in the land of kachoris. Yes it happened like that and guess who is smiling all the way with an subtly aromatic apple pie? The people of Banaras have the privilege of walking to the ghat and dig into it any day.

I got a whole pie packed for myself when we returned and it is still being reheated in the oven and relished by the folks. Here is how the crust becomes even more rich when reheated at home.

At the pizzeria, you can get the pie drizzled with chocolate sauce

Or topped with vanilla ice cream, with or without chocolate sauce.

This apple pie uses Himachal and Kashmir apples for our own country and you wont feel any lack of apple goodness. The apples are sliced perfectly and layered nicely inside the pie. The sugar is light so the pie doesn't become runny in the center. Those who like it sweeter can ask for an ice cream topping.

Mr Gopal Krishna Shukla is a passionate man behind this popular pizzeria. The few things I liked about his way of running this pizzeria is, using local fresh produce and not depending on imports. He has innovated a lot and makes his own mozzarella cheese. As local as it can get.

Pizzeria serves many variants of ravioli, gnochhi and other types of pasta as well, all vegetarian stuff as non veg is not allowed around the temples and ghats. You also get Indian thali and more Indian stuff there too. Good coffee, tea and more beverages to choose from. They have an extensive menu.

You see more foreigners than Indians in this pizzeria almost any time you go, the service is slow sometimes and you experience some bugs and flies here and there, you have to bear all this in an al fresco cafe by the ghat where all sorts of life activities go on incessantly.

And it is not just the apple pie that will make you visit pizzeria repeatedly, their pizzas are great too. Baked in a wood fired oven, thin crust pizzas are made using fresh ingredients and their 'pizzeria special pizza' is actually a vegetable and pineapple loaded treat.

Read more about their pizzas here, this time I tried the aubergine and spinach pizza as well and loved it to the core. The pizza margherita, the onion and mushroom pizza and the pizzeria special were all great.

We ordered a lasagna (vegetarian) and a cream sauce pasta as well and we all liked the pasta. Rich and creamy cheesy pasta which can not not be turned down. The only grudge in the pasta was the large chunks of carrots, I wish they were chopped finely to not give a sweet bite in this perfectly cheesy pasta. I would probably do away with carrots and even green capsicums for these flavors, mushrooms and cauliflowers worked really well. I am all for local fresh produce being used in such fare.

The lasagna was insipid for most of us. The layers of aubergine between pasta sheets were not as appealing as I would have liked. I also feel pizzeria needs to jazz up the plating and service a little bit. 

I know Banaras is a city with a collective laid back attitude and everyone gets attuned to it sooner or later. I remember our initial days in the city when we relocated from Chandigarh. We hated the city first and then slowly became a part of it. More on spiritual level than otherwise I must add. 

What I wanted to convey is, a good eatery reflects a lot about the food philosophy that is followed by the people behind it. I know Pizzeria makes great efforts to churn out great food to it's patrons, a little bit of attention to detailing will makes it shine brighter.