Sekelo mogo

Skelo mogo

sekelo mogo without the kolsa

As we all really love mogo in our household I often experiment with different recipes and cooking methods, just to ensure that we get a lot of different dishes from this humble root. From sekelo mogo to curried, broiled, boiled, it all works for us, we simply love mogo. but sekelo mogo remains a favourite.  Now everyone knows that sekelo mogo is best when it imparts the smoky barbecue flavour but I don’t always have the time to get the barbi going so I have tried a few different method to sekwa (roast)the mogo and am sharing my recipe with you all.

As I said, we love mogo in all its forms and recently, I was inspired to recreate a mogo snack that our friend from Dar Mrs  Bhanu masi Patani used to make.  This lady was a fabulous cook, a touch of magic in her culinary expertise.  Mogo would be roasted then finely chopped.  It would then be mixed with various other ingredients to make a truly more..ish dish.  My recipe below tells you how to make this

Cut the mogo from the center in to 2 equal parts. ( as can see in the  pic) put in the ziplog bag and microwave for 2 minutes ,take  out from the bag and place the mogo in the toaster oven for about 30 minutes or until its done.

      2 pieces finely chopped mogo 1 tea spoon salt 1 1/2 tea spoon chili powder 1 table spoon lime joice hand full chopped cilantro hand full roasted pea nuts. Mix all together and enjoy.

Daal

 

 

 

 

Daal,bhat,shak,rotli.

The above dishes feature in our weekly menu.  In fact this khati/meethi dal is probably made at least once a week in many gujarati homes.  We are very partial to it as it is tangy, sweet, spicy and nutritious at the same time. Made with boiled, liquidised toor dal this dal is best served piping hot with a bowl of rice.  A lot of the spices used in this dal have healing properties, and it packs some protein as well. In our home we usually have this for lunch.  We love how the dal combines well with rice (plain boiled), rotli and most curries.  Manu adores dal bhat and for us this is a fuss free, meal partaken with a couple of spoonfuls of home made dahi, papad and a small side salad.  They say, a well made dal makes for a great day and it is so true.  The fragrant aroma of this dal, whilst it bubbles away on the stove fills the home and almost embraces you. Indulge in this piping hot dal is and get a hug in a bowl.

In this post I am sharing my recipe for the above mentioned dal and a simple cauliflower sabji. This sabji or shak takes a bit of prep time but it is well worth using only fresh cauliflower and NOT the frozen stuff.  I say this because the florets need to be properly trimmed, the thick stalks (which can also be used) must be chopped into small pieces to enable the vegetable to cook evenly and absorb the spices. If this chopping process is not followed through you will find that the stalks won’t cook and the florets will turn to mush. More importantly, this curry does not entail adding water to create a sauce, the method of cooking this is by placing a plate of water over the simmering pot of cauliflower and let the veg cook in the drops of condensation as the pot simmers away.

Rotli – this pretty much accompanies most curries in our house.  Made from wholewheat flower (ground medium to fine) these thinly rolled out flatbreads are best served warm however, these taste delish at room temperature during tea time with pickles and tea.

Here is how all of the above is made and I do hope that you will enjoy this comforting, warm spicy meal.

 

 

 

2 cups cauliflower florets

1 medium tomato ( finely chopped)

1 tea sp salt

3/4 tea sp turmeric powder

1 1/4 tea sp chili powder

1 tea sp dhana jeeru

TEMPERING

5 tab sp oil

1/2 tea sp mustard seeds

1/2 tea sp cumin seeds

pinch asafetida

Heat the oil in a sauce pan ,once heated add the mustard seed, cumin seeds and asafetida. when they start to crackle add the cauliflower florets and soute well. Add the above spices let it cook for 2 to 3  minutes while stirring occasionally. Once done turn off the heat.

 

 

Daal

1 cup tuwer daal

2 1 /2 cups water

 

Temparing

2 table spoons ghee

1 table spoon oil

1 stick cinnamon

3 cloves

1/2 tea spoon cumin seeds

1/2 tea spoon mustard seeds

1/4 tea spoon fenugreek seeds

pinch asafetida

Few curry leaves

2 tomatoes finely chopped

 

2 tea spoons sugar

1 tea spoon lemon juice

 

 

 

Wash the lentils and drain. Add 2 1/2 cups water and pressure cook 3 whistle. Once done, blend  daal until totally liquidized. In a sauce pan  add ghee and oil once heated add the above ingredients, When it stars to crackle add grated tomatoes stir for couple minutes add the spices  salt,chili powder turmeric powder  ,when the oil  stars to  ooze out add the  liquidized daal and bring to boil.Add sugar and lemon juice then let it simmer gently for about 15 min . If its too thick can add litter water. Garnish with cilantro. Enjoy!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEKELA JUGU

                                                                                                                                SEKELA JUGU & SEKELA JUGU MAWE

 

those of our friends who have lived in Tanzania will all I am sure have succumbed to the roadside sekela karanga or sekela jugu and jugumawe  Karanga or Jugu are the swahili names for peanuts and sekela simply means roasted in Gujarati

Most people would  buy these to take into the cinema, or eat with the sekelo mogo and a fizzy pop.  I recall the school kids buying bottles of pop during break and then pouring the karanga into the drink.

These karanga are a speciality of the street vendors and they are served warm and mostly in a paper cone. The locals heat up some sand, yes, you read it right, sand as it grains of sand! This sand is heated to scorching point and then the karanga which have been soaking in salted water are immersed in this hot sand and roasted. There is an art to roasting the jugu this way without burning them and only the most skilled vendors can do this properly.  Looking back at those days, perhaps the sand method sounds unhygienic but that sand used to get pretty hot if you ever caught your finger in the roasting karai.  Eating from a newspaper cone again doesn’t feel great any longer but that is how things were back then.  Of course, Manu would not touch those karanga from the vendors, we Vithlani’s are a particular bunch and so guess who had to roast these at home?

Full marks then to those who thought “Sandhya”.  Indeed, I had to devise a method of karanga roasting without the sand and in a matter of minutes   Manu and the boys enjoy these with a cold beer or two.  Here is how you could get a taste of the TZ karanga in your own Jikoni.

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Jugu

2 cups peanuts

2 cups water

4 tea spoons salt

Boil the water in a sauce  pan, add salt.As soon as the water starts to boil add the peanuts.Let it boil to 2 minutes,turn off the heat and cover the pot.Let that rest for about 5 minutes.Drain all the  water , Place in a  microwavable plate   for 3 minutes ,take the plate out and mix the peanuts and place back in microwave for 3 min again. Repeat again for one minute. Let it cool and Enjoy!!

 

 

 

Khichdi & Rotla

Khichdi & Rotla

 

 

 

When we have had several weekends of celebrations and we have eaten a lot of rich calorie laden spicy foods Manu and I crave a quite night in with a simple meal of Khichdi, Kadhi, rotla.

Khichdi is basically a mixture of rice and moong dal, boiled until very soft, almost a thick porridge like consistency. Khadhi is stirred yoghurt, brought to a boil with the addition of salt, chillies, ginger,  turmeric, sugar and tempered with a bit of oil/ghee, curry leaves, mustard seeds, fenugreek etc. Served during cold evenings this warm fragrant soup if you can call it that is very relaxing. The beauty of the kadhi is that it can be served with rice, khichdi, as part of a celebratory meal especially with peas pullao and shrikhand or puran puri.

Then there are rotla – yummmmmmmyyy! A bread made from Millet flour. This particular variety is not too heavy on the stomach and can be eaten warm or cold (room temperature). Sometimes, if you have rotlo left over, this can be shredded into bite size pieces and temper it with the usual spices and stirred yoghurt or just have it with chaash. We love our rotla and its combination of the above khichdi almost always reminds us of Virpur where this meal is served every single day. Sometimes I make a shak to accompany the khichdi kadhi rotla, sometimes I make ringda no orro a spiced baked eggplant dish however, this is not always the case.

The above served with just slices of onion and tomato is a fabulous meal that will warm up even a cold lonesome soul.

I am sharing my recipe for the above foods with you folks and I hope that you can experience the simplicity of this hearty meal.

 

 

2cups millet flour
3/4 cup water

Knead the dough by adding little water at a time,and make a soft dough.Take small portion of a dough and make a small ball, flatten the daugh using your palms.Dust the patlo ( board) with dry flour and gently roll with rolling pin and form round circle.Lift the rotlo gently ,place on preheated  flat pan.Cook on medium heat for about 30 seconds and flip rotlo with a spatula ,let it cook for about a minute or until cooked. flip again and getly press with hand towel, rotlo will puffed up. Take it out and set on the plate and spread the ghee evenly.

PS this makes 4 Rotla

 

 

KHICHDI

 

3/4 cup rice

1/2 cup moong daal ( with skin)

2 1/2 cups water

1 3/4 tea spoons  salt

1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder

1 table spoon ghee.

Wash rice and dal then put these into a pressure cooker, measure the water and pour it onto the rice n dal. Now add salt turmeric and ghee. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook kichdi on high heat to three whistles.