khasta kachori

Khasta kachori

Khasta kachori is a flakey puri that is stuffed with lentils and spices. This is a crispy snack that is made of white flour, moong dal and slowly deep fried. Not for the faint hearted as a lot of fat goes into the making of this. The word Khasta means crisp and flakey. Whilst this is a time consuming exercise, it is well worth the effort as it makes for a delicious snack to be served at tea time.

 

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tea spoon salt
4 table spoon ghee
1/2 cup water or as needed

Combine white flour with ghee and salt, and make soft dough .Cover the dough and keep on the side.

For the filling
1/2 cup moong daal( without skin)
Soak the daal 4 to 5 hrs.wash and drain all the water. Grind the daal, make coarse mixture.

1 table spoon oil ( for tempering)
1/4 tea spoon mustard seeds
1/2 tea spoon ginger paste
1/4 tea spoon turmeric powder
1 tea spoon chili powder
1 tea spoon fennel powder

In a non stick pot ,heat the oil add mustard seeds when it stars to crackle add daal and mix.  add salt and turmeric powder cook on a low heat. Cover the pot with the lid adding little water on the lid.let the daal cook,and all the moisture evaporates. Turn the heat off   let it cool, add chili powder, sugar and citric acid. Mix well. Divide daal into equal parts Make small round balls and keep on the side.

For the puris, divide the dough in to equal parts , roll the puri and place the daal ball in the centre of the puri , pull the sides together and make a ball. Flatten with your palm ( or can roll with pin making sure the mixture does not come out) and deep fry on  a low heat till golden brown.

 

Stuffing

1 medium size boiled potato.Cut in to small cubes.

1/2 cup boiled moong

Tamarind chatni

green chatni

sev

1 cup yogurt

salt to taste

Beat yogurt with salt and make it nice and smooth.

Make little hole on the puri and fill with moong potatoes,green chatni ,tamarind chatni ,yogut and top with sev. Enjoy!!

 

WHITE PARATHAS

WHITE PARATHAS

 

 

 

Now this is my speciality.  Ask anyone in the family what Sandhya cooks best and the white paratha will be top of the list.  When it comes to paratha, we like the light but crispy.  The dough is made with  a lot of butter and then shallow fried with yet more butter on a very low heat is what give it an almost puff pastry like texture.

Seriously calorie ridden, these are not for the faint hearted and also not something I would recommend you eat on a daily basis at breakfast.  Having said this, I think these lush paratha are heavenly and you really will be missing out if you dont have a go at making them and then devouring them.

For the dough you will need:

1 cup white fl

1/2 tea sp salt

4 tab sp butter

water

In a spacious bowl mix the flour, butter and salt .  Add some room temperature water to bind into a stiff yet pliable dough.  Knead well and cover and keep aside while you prepare the slurry / paste.

PASTE

1 tab sp butter

1 tab sp rice fl

1 tab sp corn fl

Ghee for frying.

mix together make nice smooth paste.

Divide the dough in to four .Roll round paratha  apply the above paste and slice in to four pieces (cut bottom side all the way and fold in to triangle over lapping each fold.Roll in triangle shape and fry in shallow pan on medium heat.

Makes 4 parathas

Enchilada

Enchilada

 

Souse for anchilada

1 can tomato souse 15 ounce

1/4 tea spoon garlic paste

1/2 pack taco seasoning mix ( hot)

1 cup water

1/2 tea spoon chili powder

Mix all the above ingredients in a pot and keep on a medium heat for about  10 min.

keep on the side.

 

For the filling

1 can refried  beans

1/2 pack taco seasoning mix

1/4 tea spoon chili powder

2 tab spoon water

Mix the refried beans and cook on medium heat for about 5 min.

For the toppings!

1/2 cup chopped bell pepper

1/4 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup chees.

Spread a spoon full of refried beans on tortillas , sprinkle finely chopped onions, finely chopped bell peppars and grated chees.Roll the tortillas tightly and keep on the side.Pour little prepared souse in the backing dish and place the rolled tortillas. Pour the remaining souse over the tortillas and sprinkle finely chopped onions, bell peppers and chees on top and place in the preheated oven at 350  for approx. 5 min.

 

Enjoy!!

CHANA BATETA

CHANABATETA

              Request from my niece.

I was recently chatting to our niece Minelle who lives in London.  We were discussing our times in Dar-es-Salaam when she used to visit us during her school holidays.  Minu, loved being at our home in Dar.  She has always adored and idolised Manu, my husband; he is her inspiration and a father figure to her.  Likewise, with me, she shares a unique bond where our friendship overtakes the aunt/nice relationship.  Minu and I have always got on extremely well and enjoy a good old laugh; we also both share a passion for cooking and whilst I continue to share my recipes on my blog, Minu now runs a successful cake business in London. She maintains that I played an active role in encouraging her to cook and that is quite true as I used to indulge her culinary whims and let her try out new recipes in our Jikoni whenever she felt like cooking. As we were chatting away, Minu mentioned the Sundays in our Jikoni in Dar-es-Salaam.  Our Sundays were fabulously relaxing, we would wake up late, have breakfast and then head off to the beach or a resort.  Our Sunday menu for lunch was always the famous Channa Bateta. If you happened to visit us on a Sunday, you would always be invited to indulge in a bowl or two of Channa Bateta.  In fact all our friends knew of our Sunday Lunch menu. Sometimes we had the hot spicy tangy version of Channa bateta with some Chevdo and occasionally a more basic version with just salt, chilli powder and lemon juice.  We would add some potato chips (crisps) to this and devour it while it was still piping hot.

Minu has asked that I share with everyone, the recipes for Channa Bateta that she and the rest of the family love and so here it is.( type 1 )

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 cup whole gram

3 medium size potatoes

1 tea spoon salt

Boil the gram and potatoes in a  pressure cooker add salt in the grams.

Temparing

2 table spoon oil

1/2 tea spoon mustard seeds

few  curry leaves

2 table spoon crushed tomatoes

1 table spoon tomato paste

1 tea spoon garlic paste

1 1/2 tea spoon salt

2 tea spoon chili paste

1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder

2 table spoon fresh methi  (fenugreek)

1 tea spoon gram flour

2 cups water.

2 table spoon malimaw (lime juice)

Ina pan,heat the oil.Add mustard seeds and curry leaves. cover the pot with a lid,as soon as  the seeds pops add crushed tomatoes  stir , add all the above ingredients except lime juice and mix well .let it cook until the oil oozes out .add water ,then add boil potatoes (cut into  small cubes) and boiled gram. Let it cook for about 10 minutes or until the gravy thickens . lastly add lime juice and turn the heat off. Serve chana bateta with chevro or potato crisps.

 

 

 

 

KATLU

KATLU

Ingredients

3 cups wheat flour

2 1/4 cups jaggery

2 1/2 cup ghee melted. or as needed. ( clarified butter)

1 tea spoon cinnamon powder

1 tea spoon clove  powder

2 tab spoon black peppar

3 table spoon sunth ( dry ginger powder)

1 tab spoon fenugreek powder (methi)

1/2 cup gund (crushed)

3 table spoon gretted coconut

1 tea spoon turmeric powder

1 cup crushed almonds and pistacious

2 tab spoon batrisu ( herbpowder) optional.

Method

In a heavy bottom pan or non stick pan add ghee once ghee is melted add the wheat flour and stir the mixture on a medium heat until golden brown. When its cooked add the crushed gund and mix well for 30 sec and add all the above ingredients except jaggerey.mix all together for about a minute,and turn the heat off.Add the gretted  jaggery mix until its blended well .Make sure you don’t have any lumps.Pour in a greased tray and spread the mixture evenly and dab  with spatula. Let it set for about 30 min and cut into desired shape.

Note : You can get the batrisu from any Indian grocery shop. Batrisu is a blend of 32 kinds of herbs .