Stuffed Veggie Masala Buns

In spite of all the worry about the weather and delays, we had a good time with Niki while she was here. She was keen to try her cooking and baking skills on us, while I did all the cleaning up.

This was one of the buns she wanted to try and they turned out perfect. We baked just six buns and had them for breakfast.

The original recipe was copied from the bag that I purchased protein rich bread flour. Ng Ming Huat in Johore Bahru was the shop that would sell anything and everything related to baking. Their bread flours used to be truly flavourful and fresh. The bags will have one recipe that will work well if you follow the instructions.

I am posting this as Niki keeps reminding me to put this up for her to bake in her dorm. So here you go Niki and Nisha, who will be also trying to bake these.

Ingredients:

For the buns:

325 grams protein enriched bread flour ( We used a mix of wheat flour, all purpose flour and powdered oats, no specific proportion)

150 ml of milk and water put together

30 grams butter

15 grams vegetable shortening (We used Dalda)

3 table spoons sugar (The actual recipe was for sweet filling and had used 60 grams of sugar. Being a spiced stuffing we used less)

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon yoghurt

1/2 tablespoon dried active yeast

For the stuffing:

2 medium size potatoes ( peeled, boiled and coarsely mashed)

1/2 an onion ( chopped)

2 green chillis finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder

Salt as required

1 tablespoon oil

Cooking the stuffing:

Heat oil in a pan. Add the onions and green chillis and saute' for few minutes until the onions are translucent.

Add the potatoes, salt and the garam masala and cook until almost dry.

Remove from the fire and keep aside.

For the Buns:

Seive the flour, salt and sugar together, reserving 1 teaspoon sugar to proof the yeast.

In a bowl, add the sugar to the yeast and sprinkle some flour over it. Warm the milk and water just enough to allow the yeast to rise. Add 1/4 of this to the yeast. Cover and leave aside for 15 minutes allowing the yeast to rise.

Mix 1 teaspoon of the shortening and 1 tablespoon of milk in a bowl and keep aside for brushing on top of the buns just before baking.

In a large bowl mix together the yeast, flour, sugar, butter, shortening, yoghurt and salt. Adding milk knead to a soft dough.

Cover and allow to proof; this takes about an hour to an hour and a quarter.

After the dough has almost doubled in size, punch down on a dry board using little flour.

Divide into six portions. Divide the filling into six portions.

Roll the dough in small flat discs, keep the filling in and roll into balls.

Repeat with all the buns. Place all of them on a greased tray.

At this point, preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade.

By the time the oven has attained optimum temperature the buns may have increased in size.

Brush the milk+shortening mix on top of the buns and bake them for 17 minutes to 20 minutes until brown on top.

These buns will be slightly heavy because of the filling. Also as we are adding different flours, they will not be very soft as those made with allpurpose flour alone. The crust might be a bit hard but the insides would be soft.

You may fill the buns with sweetened coconut. In such a case, the buns have to be made sweet and increase the quantity of sugar added to the dough.

Also the vegetables can be combined to make a healthier version. You may enrich them with partly cooked bean sprouts.

I am sending this to Srivalli's Kids' delight- Wholesome Breakfast Event

Thaliga kuzhambu

Just before leaving for Mangalore to start a new home, our first home, I indulged myself with loads of Anjali home gadgets, Yera glassware and all kinds of clutter too. Though I knew Raja would not eat much other than potatoes, carrots, beans and the likes, I went ahead and purchased a set of cookbooks in two volumes (this was before my sister bought for me the Meenakshi ammal books). I have used them off and on but not as much as my other favourite books. These two also have very traditional South Indian recipes and one of them is today's recipe.

I had never ventured to make it until recently as all of the vegetables listed in the book for this recipe have been on my husband's never-will-I-eat these list. Then when amma gave me her notebook to copy the recipes down, I found one of my cousins had given amma a recipe with the same name. Then I decided that I am making it and if Raja is not eating too, I am!

I had pumpkin and drumsticks, but had not purchased brinjals in a while and the ash gourd is not available in this country. The recipe states you might make with a mix of the four or even with just one or two. I had some big cucumbers and substituted them for the ash gourd. I loved the kuzhambu, should be a kootu rather. And, Raja had it too picking at the vegetables. So I had a double serving of the vegetables while both relished the kuzhambu. Though the book lists only these vegetables, I think most other vegetables will be suitable too.

Recipe source: SamaiyarKalai by Ku. Pa. Sethu Ammal (book 2)

Ash gourd, red pumpkin, brinjals and drumsticks cut in big chunks 1 cup

Tamarind a ball the size of a big lime

Dry red chillis 6 ( adjust as required spice)

Coriander seeds 3 teaspoons

Channa dhal 3 teaspoons

Urad dhal 3 teaspoons

Fresh coconut 2 tablespoons ( you may use store bought dessicated coconut)

Green chillis 2

Mustard seeds 3/4ths of a teaspoon

Turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon

Curry leaves few sprigs

Oil 3 table spoons

Salt to taste

Wash the vegetables and steam them adding the turmeric powder until soft. Place the tamarind in a small bowl alongside the cooking vegetables and allow to soften. Add the salt half way through the steaming and at that point remove the bowl with the tamarind.

Retain 1 teaspoon each of the urad and channa dhal for tempering. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a pan and roast the red chillis, coriander seeds and the remaining dhals until they are golden.

Roast the coconut until lightly brown and very aromatic.

Grind the roasted ingredients along with the softened tamarind to a very fine paste.

Add more water to this paste and mix the steamed vegetables to the paste.

Heat the rest of the oil in a heavy pan. Add the mustard seeds and allow to crackle. Add the retained dhals and curry leaves. Saute' for few minutes before adding the vegetables and the paste. Bring to a boil and simmer for just about few more minutes before switching the heat off.

Enjoy with hot steamed rice.

Maavilakku for Thai Velli

It is a tradition in some Hindu families to light what is called the Maavilakku on Fridays of particular months of the Hindu calender or during the celebrations at the local Maariamman temples. People who follow this ritual of lighting the maavilakku, do it either in the shrines in the temples or in their homes. This may be observed if someone has offered to do this for a particular cause also.

Today being such an auspicious Friday of the Tamil month of Thai, I have observed this tradition at home.

There are certain general principles as ordained by the elders of each family when you follow the traditions. There will be slight variations in the method of preparation or in the observance of rituals.

Ingredients for the Maavu (dough) in which the wick is lighted:

Raw rice 1 litre

Jaggery 600 grams

Other Ingredients:

Ghee 100 grams for lighting the lamp

Wash the rice and soak for about an hour. Drain thoroughly. Pound it to a powder.

Take the rice powder in a bowl and add to it the powdered jaggery mixing them to blend by hand. It will form a thick, stiff lump. This is the basic maavu for the maavilakku.

If you are lighting this in the altar in your home, clean the prayer area and draw a small rangoli pattern. You may use some of the same flour before mixing in the jaggery or draw the rangoli with prepared rice paste.

Take the prepared dough in a flat dish. Make a dent in the centre (I light two lamps, hence divided the dough in two lumps) Place the wick in and pour the ghee in the dent.

Place some sandalwood paste and saffron on the four sides. Place a few flowers too.

Chanting prayers light the lamp. Allow it to burn until all ghee is used up.

Offer coconut, betel leaves and arecanuts along with fruits. You may also prepare any kheer and offer.

If you are doing this in a temple, follow the same procedure and after lighting the lamp, the priest might take it to the inner sanctum for offering. Later you may distribute some of the dough to the other devotees present there and bring back the rest for the family.

All religious festivals were intended to reinforce the joy of sharing. Whether there is a science to follow these procedures or not, we might just do it for such small pleasures.

By the Book and Karuvepillai Kuzhambu

Few days ago when we posted the Moong dhal Halwa for the Indian cooking challenge, I chanced to read Jayashree's blog posts. This one By the book attracted me so much that I asked her if I can pick it up and continue the thread. She accepted and therefore I am showing you my MOST THUMBED YET VERY TREASURED Cookbook.

Apart from my mother's recipe cum Kolam note book shown above, Samaiththu (p)Paar by S. Meenakshi ammal is my most used book. All the three volumes come with numerous home cooked recipes that work very nearly to my tastes. I was first introduced to this author by my cousin's wife. She lived then in Coimbatore and naturally I visited them when the hostel I was living in starved me of good food. During the first year of my marriage, I lived with my parents-in-law and my husband was away in Mangalore. This manni of mine took it upon herself to invite me for every small religious festivals for lunch and such. She used to fulfill the 'duties' to the newly wedded daughter of the home. She was given these books by her mother and showed me how useful they were.

In 1988, my sister purchased three sets of all the three volumes for me, herself and our other sister. As it is my habit to pen notes below the recipes once I have tried them, this book is full of blue penned notes. Now the books are so old that the paper has become brittle, yet I am not willing to discard and purchase a new set. I shall probably buy the english version that might help Niki later.

This is my Bible in terms of cooking. If you want traditional Tamil Brahmin cooking every recipe is in the book. I have shown you the current day condition of the book. My pictures may tell you more than words.

Jayashree has not started this as an event, but would love if any of you will want to show your books to us. She had suggested that if I were to tag anyone, or anyone willingly takes this up, to please leave a comment on her post here. Same goes with me, please drop a comment thread on this post with the URL of your post, just for fun reading. There are no conditions. So go ahead and do it if you love a book. Just as a beginning I would love some of my friends to take this up. Hence I am tagging them. The rest of you are very welcome too.

I would love Priya, Indhu, Jayasri, Sailaja and Shanthi to start rolling this on.

Now to the recipe for karuveppilai kuzhambu...from the above book naturally.

Two fists full of curry leaves

3 numbers dry red chillies

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

A lime size ball of tamarind

Salt to taste

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon asafoetida

4 tablespoons Sesame seeds oil

For tempering:

1 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Soak the tamarind in water and extract a thick pulp.

Dry roast the red chillis and peppercorns.

Grind the roasted chillis and pepper along with salt and the curry leaves to a fine paste.

Mix this to the extracted tamarind pulp. Add the turmeric powder and the asafoetida.

Heat Sesame seeds oil in a heavy bottom rounded pan. Add the above pulp and some water to it.

Bring to a boil and simmer for about 12 minutes-15 minutes until the raw taste subsides and the gravy thickens. Oil will float over the cooked gravy.

Switch off the fire.

In a different pan add the mustard seeds to hot oil and allow them to crackle. Transfer this tempering to the kuzhambu.

The kuzhambu works fine with hot rice or arisi upma, kozhukkattai etc.

This kuzhambu can stay well for about four to five days even without refridgeration.

Looking forward to see you showing us the most beloved books...on a different note it can be any book for that matter...I have read and re-read many that way :)

Kona vadai -Gobi Patti's special recipe

When Chegodis were to be made for last month's Indian Cooking Challenge, I looked for pictures that would help me make them. I landed in Sailu's blogpost. They looked familiar and I thought they were kodubale, the famous Karnataka snack. The recipe was quite different. Pondering on kodubale, I wanted to post my maternal grand mother's version. I think she just mixed up the name a bit....coining the kona vadai. The recipe is certainly unique though. My mother claims it was between Gobi Patti and the lady who comes over to help while big time cooking needs to be done, that this snack evolved. I simply love these and am sure all of you might enjoy this variation.

A very fond memory related to this snack goes thus. My cousin in Chennai desired me to make this for her when she was near term pregnant. We had just celebrated her Valaikappu and Seemantham. So there was enough time, I thought. On a weekend with Niki rolling them out with me, I made and packed a box for her. I took them to my aunt and we virtually put her on the transport to go and deliver this. My cousin was delivered of her son that very night two weeks before term :) Ten years on, I still recall fondly this whenever I roll the rings out.

As children growing up in India in the 70s, we went to our grandparents every holiday. The Gobichettipalayam house will be bustling with activity during vacations. If vengaya sambhar was to be cooked all children were bade to peel shallots. If konavadai or uppu cheedais were made we were to roll them. We have been given a small quantity of murukku maavu and a patch on the white dhothi to try making kai murukkus...though they never got to be fried.

Now to the recipe;

Ingredients:

2 cups rice flour ( though freshly pounded will be optimum, store bought works fine too)

1 cup semolina

1 cup all purpose flour (maida)

1/2 of a big coconut (scrape, or use dessicated coconut)

2" piece of ginger

6 pieces green chillis (adjust according to spice requirement)

Salt

2 table spoons hot oil/ 2 level tablespoons butter

Oil for deep frying

Method of preparation:

Seive the flours and semolina together.

Grind to a fine paste the chillis, ginger, coconut and salt.

Add the paste, fat (oil or butter) to the flour mix. Mix well to make pliable dough adding very little water only if required.

The semolina and the all purpose flour will give the dough elasticity. Pinch small balls and roll in thin ropes. Bring together the ends of the ropes and seal.

Take a small portion of the dough at a time. Keep the rest covered. Exposure to air will dry the dough and the rings may crack.

Heat oil and when oil has reached optimum heat, drop the prepared rings in and deep fry them until crisp and brown.

Roll out the entire dough and deep fry in small batches.

Enjoy the crisp kona vadais. They will make an excellent evening snack or during travel.

Moong dhal Halwa for Indian Cooking Challenge

The best thing about blogging food, for me, is the fact that I am learning to prepare dishes I have been overlooking many years on. When someone presents a recipe and a tempting picture to go with, I end up writing the recipe down and trying that soon. Though I have not given it a thought to take pictures, I have tried to mail the person to thank for the recipe, most times.
That way, enrolling myself as a member of Srivalli's Indian Cooking Challenge has opened newer avenues. The sole purpose of this is to try traditional Indian recipes as handed down by our elders, without giving in to shortcuts.
This month, we were challenged with the task of making Moong dhal halwa. While searching for ideas during the festival season, I came across this very popular Indian sweet dish. The recipe seemed very simple, but I was warned that the stirring part should be consistent and also the cooking takes long while the fat content high.

But Srivalli detailed two recipes given lovingly by fellow blogger Simran's mother, which worked out very well as you may see in the pictures. Of course you had to cook quite long and the cooking dhal needed to be attended to with care. But the end product would fill your kitchens with such an aroma that you would swell with pride!
Now I give below both the recipes. The picture that has a darker tinge is with that of Khova and the other is plain. The recipe can be made to suit vegans with ghee substitue too.
Recipe 1 (with khova):

Soaking time: long enough for dhal to be soft to grind
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes to an hour.
Ingredients:
Split moong dhal 1 cup
Sugar 3/4 th of a cup to 1 cup if preferred sweet
Ghee 1/2 cup
Khova 1/2 a cup
Garnish with powdered cardamom and roasted cashew nuts
Method:
Soak moong dhal after washing. Drain the water and grind as finely as possible adding water sparingly.
Heat the ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel, preferably a thick kadai or a non-stick pan.
Add the dhal paste and on low heat keep stirring until the dhal cooks to a brown mass expelling the ghee and flavoursome. This is the longest process during the cooking of this dish.
Add the khova and sugar to this mass. Cook until the sugar melts and all the ingredients blend in a shining mass.
This part will comeby fairly quickly since the dhal has been cooked well.
Remove from fire and transfer to a clean bowl. Garnish with the prepared cashews.
I roasted the dhal slightly prior to soaking to overcome the raw flavour that existed when I tried the first time.
You may try the recipe in any quantity keeping the proportion of ingredients the same as given above.
Verdict:
I tried making the sweet dish for the first time and dared to serve it to my dinner guests. They were all praise for it. That made the workload worth taking. Thank you Srivalli for thinking of this unusual dish and Thank you Simran for giving us the recipe from your mother.
Recipe 2:

Soaking, preparation and cooking times: same as above.
Ingredients:
Split Moong Dhal 1 cup
Sugar 3/4ths of a cup to 1 cup as preferred
Ghee 1/2 cup
Water 1/2 cup ( optionally water can be replaced by same volume of milk. This gave the dish an extra richness, like that of adding khova)
For Garnish:
Cashew nuts and raisins fried in a bit of fat.
Method:
Wash and soak the moong dhal few hours to overnight as might be convenient.
Drain the water and grind to a fine paste with very little added water.
Reserve some ghee and heat the rest of the ghee until hot. Add the dhal paste and stirring continuosly cook on very low heat. The dhal will cook giving away aromatic flavour. Try to break lumps if formed. Keep cooking even after the added ghee starts surfacing. Add more ghee intermittently to the cooking mass.
Meanwhile add the water (or milk if used) to the sugar and bring to a boil. Dissolve sugar well. Remove from fire and add to the cooking dhal gradually, breaking the lumps that might form during the process.
Blend them well and cook until ghee surfaces and halwa does not stick to the pan's sides.
Even at this stage the halwa is bound to be semi-solid to a rarer consistency. Switch off the fire.
As the mass cools it might get the correct texture. Garnish with the prepared nuts and raisins mixture.
Serve hot.
This halwa can be prepared in larger quantities and refridgerated. While serving add some milk and microwave to the correct consistency and serve.
While trying this dish out, I referred to all possible recipe sites that shot up with this dish. I quote Tarla Dalal here,

"A classic recipe relished throughout Rajastan. This calorie laden halwa is often prepared during the winter months as it is supposed to keep the body warm and protect it from bitter winter cold. It is considered auspicious to prepare this for Holi and Diwali and even features on wedding menus.

It takes a long time and lot of patience to saute' the dhal and prepare this halwa and it will require a little more of ghee too. You can make a larger quantity of this and store it refridgerated for several weeks. Just add a little milk to the halwa before reheating."

I totally agree to the above! But you will certainly come out flying colours after this endurance test. So go ahead and try this halwa.

Paruppu poli

Have you ever disliked any particular food just because it had a silly colour, it oozed oil and any such trivial reason? Well, I have.

Thinking back, I have disliked many reasonably nice dishes just because they were not the colour of my choice and other excuses that have no logic. However, I have refused to taste many often made dishes.

Puran Poli was one such dish. Until I was about ten years of age, this is the one sweet dish prepared during most of the religious occasions. The sight of the outer dough prepared and dripping with oil to make it elastic was such a put off for me. That too with the amount of turmeric added to it used to be a repulsive sight to me. ( Well, I was a snob then, you see). Later how I relished parattas made in wayside shops, I dare not think about.

After refusing to taste even a bit of this and getting away with it, once around my mid-teens I had this from a temple. Needless to say I never turned it down ever since, but by then my mother switched to trying simpler dishes for all the not so elaborate religious functions.

Then I was hooked on to making them. I enjoyed how pliable the dough was to play with your palms and with just the oil you had added to the dough the entire sweet dish was done. Only if you desired so, you added ghee to relish it further. Otherwise it is purely suitable for vegans too.

I started following a protocol after my marriage to try making all that I learnt on different occasions.This used to be my choice sweet for Chandramana Ugadi.

This year I had skipped making sweet for that festival with all my personal effects sitting in the shipment bound to Ghana. So I went ahead and made it yesterday for Bhogi, distributed to my household staff and two very close family friends who are not able to celebrate this year. We enjoyed them and done with the lot by today.

I follow the recipe given in S.Meenakshi Ammal cookbook Samaiththu paar. I go by volume of ingredients and it always works out perfect. I use my stainless steel coffee tumbler measure of 180ml as a standard measure. For the recipe below I could make 27 polis.

Ingredients:

For the filling:

Channa dhal 2 cups

Freshly scrapped coconut 2 cups (loosely packed)

Powdered jaggery 2 cups heaped and another 1/2 of a cup

Powdered cardamom 2 teaspoons

For the outer coating:

All purpose flour 3 cups

Turmeric powder a pinch

Salt 1/4 teaspoon

Water 3/4ths of a cup to 1 cup for making a pliable dough

Sesame seeds oil 1/3 of the cup ( any cooking oil should be fine. I recommend sesame seeds oil.)

If you are shallow frying on a non-stick tawa, this oil is sufficient. If not few drops of oil will be required to help lifting the poli off the tawa.

Method:

It is easier to prepare the outer dough first and to allow it to rest for long.

Seive the salt, turmeric powder and the flour together. Add two teaspoons of oil and rub it in.

Add water gradually and mix the dough to be soft and pliable.

Add the oil in small portions and knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Do not use all of the oil in one go. You may use the kneading hooks with the electric mixer and achieve the consistency easily.

Allow the dought o rest for 1/2 an hour. Again knead for a few minutes and pour the rest of the oil. Cover and allow to rest. The resting time can be anywhere between four hours to overnight.

Now proceed to prepare the filling.

Wash the channa dhal and soak in clean water for an hour. Drain and pressure cook with little water until soft. The dhal should be whole but mashable when pinched between fingers.

Drain the excess water. Allow to cool and pulse in small quantities in a mixer. This helps the dhal to become powder and easy to mix with the coconut and jaggery mix. Keep aside.

Dissolve jaggery in a pan and remove scum by straining. Bring to a boil and allow to become a sticky syrup. ( Boil for about 7 minutes). Add the coconut and mix well until well blended and a bit dry. Take this off the fire and add the powdered dhal and the cardamom powder. Mix thoroughly.

The filling is now ready.

If the outer dough has not been prepared earlier, you may refridgerate this.

Divide the filling in equal portions and shape in balls. The very plaint outer dough also can be divided in equal number of portions as the filling. The dough will be oozing oil. This oil can be used to grease the banana leaf or plastic sheet on which you will shape the polis.

These are patted and flattened by our palms. If you desire to make rolling them with the pin, you may reduce the quantity of oil added to the dough and use flour for dusting and rolling.

Place the sheet or leaf on top of a board. Grease the surface.

Take one portion of the dough and flatten it into a disc.

Place in the centre a ball of the filling. Pull at the sides of the dough to cover completely the filling.

Greasing your palms lightly pat the ball in a disc. Take care not to allow the coating to tear. Similarly the dough should not be allowed to move away to the circumference. This may sound tricky but practice maketh perfect.

Keep three or four such dics ready before placing the tawa on the fire. Heat the tawa and carefully peel off the prepred poli on the hot tawa.

Cook well on both sides. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Proceed thus with the entire dough and filling. Place the cooked polis apart until very cool. Placing them one on top of another might result in the polis sticking to each other and tearing at the upper surface.

Serve with small amout of ghee over them. Though they acn be relished just as they have been cooked, adding ghee makes them even better.

Hope you all had a great Pongal (I am posting this late.)

Shall post pongal recipes soon.

This paruppu poli is off to be featured in Susan - The Well Seasoned Cook's MLLA being hosted @ EC's Simple Indian Food running the 19th Edition this January.

Aloo Gobi Methi Tuk

I know, I know...I disappeared without warning! Whew the last few days of the year that went by had been eventful as far as I can say. Niki was to fly home the day after her finals of the semester.

We were all set and the heavens decided to send terrible amount of snow to New York that they had to close Kennedy for a while. My smart daughter, not wanting to be stranded in an unknown city, refused to board her flight in Kansas. She lost precious number of her holidays trying to jump on to the immediate available seat on the only one Airline that flies to this country direct.

I had to make few trips to the local Emirates office to reschedule our bookings to India made earlier in line with her visit.

Finally I did make a truly flying visit to Chennai and after a short but very happy time home, came back. Niki stayed here until the 10th. Between us we cooked and baked and did all sorts of things. The house seems a bit vacant and I decided to put aside the lethargy and ennui I was giving myself in to. So, here I am, with all of you wonderful people sharing my woes and joys.

Did you all enjoy the holidays? Any New Year resolutions? Me...??? I never keep up, so best not to make any resolutions. However, I hope to look after my blog with not much neglect and to keep writing to all of you. If that sounds like a resolution, may I correct you...it is a promise I make to myself.

Coming to the recipe of today, one of my favourite Tarla Dalal recipes. I love the vegetables that go into this dish. While in Bahrain, we had asmall vegetable patch next to my kitchen. Through the winter months, under the tending care of the gardeners I used to grow cauliflowers, cabbages, methi, green chillies, carrots, radishes and tomatoes in that 6 yard square patch. Right from September to March of the next year this small garden will yield its fullest. And between April and July we grew okras and brinjals.

With so much fresh produce, I thoroughly enjoyed making many dishes that included these veggies.

Today's recipe combines nicely methi leaves and cauliflower combined with potatoes to make a very relishable side dish. It is a dry curry with not much of spice.

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes peeled and cut in wedges

1&1/2 cups cauliflower florets cut slightly big

1 cup fenugreek (methi) leaves separated

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/4 teaspoon asafoetida

1&1/2 teaspoon ginger and green chilli paste

2 teaspoons chaat masala

1 tablespoon oil

Salt to taste

Other ingredients:

Few tablespoons oil to saute' the cauliflower and potatoes

Method:

(As per the original recipe, the potatoes and cauliflower need to be deep fried. I saute' them in a wide non-stick pan until they are well roasted.)

Microwave cook potatoes for 3 minutes. They shall be cooked, yet hard.

Place cauliflower florets in boiling water to which salt is added and allow to stand for few minutes until they are boiled.

Clean methi leaves and saute' them in some oil until they are crisp. Keep aside.

In a wide non-stick pan heat oil and add the cumin seeds. Allow them to splutter and add the ginger-chilli paste. Saute' for two- three minutes. Add more oil and drop the potatoes and cauliflower. Add the salt and cook on slow fire roasting them wella s they cook.

When they are crisp and well roasted, add the already crisp methi leaves and the chaat masala. Mix well and take off the fire.

Serve hot as a dry side dish with any meal.