Chaat ki Masti ......Just yummy and Tangy.

Dahi Puri Chaat

Ingredients

• 12 Puris / Puchka / Golgappa
• ½ cup cold, plain thick Curd / Yogurt
• ½ teaspoon Black Salt (or use regular salt)
• 1 teaspoon Chaat Masala powder
• ½ teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
• ¼ cup cooked & mashed Potatoes (mix ¼ teaspoon of salt with the potatoes)
• ¼ cup finely chopped Onions
• ¼ cup finely chopped tomatoes
• ¼ cup Green Chutney (Mint Coriander Chutney)
• ¼ cup Sweet Chutney (Tamarind Dates Chutney)
• ½ cup SEV (Fried Chickpea noodles)
• ¼ cup finely chopped Coriander Leaves

Note - usually, store bought Chaat powder has salt content. So adjust salt in yogurt accordingly)

Instructions

1. To yogurt, add Chaat powder, red chilli powder and black salt. Mix well to form smooth mixture.
2. Arrange 6 Puris on each plate. Make small holes in the middle of the Puris using your index finger. (Be gentle & don't break the Puri)
3. Fill each puri with mashed potatoes, onions and tomatoes.
4. Add about a teaspoon of the green and sweet chutneys on top of the fillings (the amounts can vary depending on how sweet / spicy you want it to be)
5. Generously pour 1-2 tablespoon of the spiced yogurt into each poori
6. Fill each puri with the Sev
7. Garnish with onions and chopped coriander leaves.
8. Serve immediately

Sabudana Khichdi

Its a very much typical Maharashtrian Fasting food, why only fasting we can have it in lunch, breakfast or with a cup of tea at evening... eat it any time it always taste yum. Sabudana (sago) khichdi everyone has there own recipe's someone won't eat jeera at the time of fasting, someone eats red chilli powder not green chilli's and many more.. but this is a very typical style of making your fasting so yummy. So just scroll down and find your sabudana khichdi's recipe :)

serves 3-4

Ingredients

• 2 cup sago (tapioca),
• 3 medium potatoes,
• 4 green chilies (adjust as per your liking),
• 2 tsp lemon juice (optional),
• 1 small piece ginger (optional),
• 1/2 cup peanut powder,
• 2-3 tsp sugar,
• salt to taste,
• 1 tbsp clarified ghee/oil,
• 2 tsp cumin seeds,
• coconut and coriander leaves for garnishing.

Method

1. Wash thoroughly and soak sabudana in water. Drain and set aside for half hour to one hour. (Or soak it overnight with water just upto the level of sabudana).
2. Once soaked properly, sabudana absorbs water and plump. Add peanut powder, salt, sugar and lemon juice to the sabudana and mix.
3. Cut green chilies into small pieces and grate ginger. Peel and dice potatoes.
4. Heat oil or ghee in a nonstick kadai/pan.
5. Let cumin seeds sizzle in the heated ghee; add potato pieces and chilies.
6. When potatoes turn tender, add sabudana and stir. Else if using boiled potatoes, sauté them quickly in the ghee before adding the sabudana to it.
7. Cook uncovered for sometime and keep mixing to keep sago from sticking to the bottom.
8. Khichdi is done when the sabudana no more tastes raw. Remove and garnish with coconut and coriander leaves. Serve hot with yogurt.

Tips and Variations:

1) The key to a good khichdi is to keep tossing it until the sabudana is completely cooked.

2) Substitute grated potatoes for the diced ones.

3) Add chopped coriander leaves to the ghee before adding the soaked sabudana for enhanced flavor.

4) Try adding chopped cucumber to the khichdi.

Puran Poli

Puran Poli Puran Poli is a traditional & popular Maharashtrian dish made on occasion of "Gudi Padwa" the beginning of the new year as per the Hindu calendar.

Ingredients:
1 cup Chana Dal
1 cup Jaggery, grated or crushed
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Wheat Flour
7 to 8 tbsp Oil 
1 tsp Cardamom Powder
Rice flour

Method:
1) Wash Chana Dal thoroughly. In the pressure cooker, add 2 and 1/2 cup water (for 1 cup dal) and washed Chana Dal. Switch off gas after 4-5 whistles. Let the pressure cooker cool down.

2) After 25 minutes open the pressure cooker, strain the cooked Chana dal and reserve the water. This water can be used to make 'Katachi Amati'. Remove water completely from dal. Then add this dal into a deep pan. Add jaggery in it and let this mixture cook over medium heat. Jaggery will melt and mixture becomes thin in consistency. keep stirring over medium heat until mixture becomes thick. Add cardamom powder and mix. Don't let the mixture stick to the bottom of pan.

3) Once mixture become thick, remove the pan from heat. Put it through Puran Maker (puran yantra) to get fine quality stuffing.

4) Sift all purpose flour and wheat flour together. Add 5 to 6 tbsp Oil and mix well. Now add water little by little and make smooth consistency dough. Knead the dough until the it becomes very elastic. Put this dough into a bowl and cover it with lid. Let it rest for a couple of hours

5) Make 1 and 1/2 inch balls of the stuffing. Also make 1/2 inch balls of the dough. Grease your fingertips and spread one dough ball gently to a small round disc. put one stuffing ball on it. spread the dough gently over the stuffing with fingers and cover the stuffing. Use dry rice flour to roll the Roti. Heat the tawa, place rolled roti in the center and roast both sides over medium heat.

These rotis stay fresh for approximately 4-8 days at room temperature.
Serve hot with Ghee. Cold puranpoli tastes good with cold milk.

Til gul ghya .....gode gode bola.....

Makara Sankranti is a Hindu festival celebrated in almost all parts of India. Makar Sankranti marks the transition of the Sun into the zodiac sign of Makara rashi (Capricorn) on its celestial path. According to the Hindi calendar Makar Sankranti is festival celebrated for new year for Hindus and  is a major harvest festival celebrated in various parts of India. However, it is celebrated with distinct names and rituals in different parts of the country.

Makara Sankranti: Chhattisgarh, Goa, Odisha, Haryana, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra,

·         Pongal: Tamil Nadu

·         Uttarayan: Gujarat

·         Maghi: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab

·         Lohri: Punjab (Lohri is celebrated a day before Makar Sankranti)

·         Bhogali Bihu: Assam

·         Shishur Saenkraat: Kashmir Valley

·         Khichdi: Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar

·         Makara Sankramana:

In Maharashtra this period is called as sankraman kal. On the Sankranti day sweets are prepared from Til (sesame) and Gul (jaggery) which again warms your body. Its an occasion to visit near and dear ones and distribute tilgul saying "Tilgul ghya, god god bola" that means "Take a tilgul and talk sweet as it". The under-lying thought in the exchange of tilguls is to forget the past ill-feelings and hostilities and resolve to speak sweetly and remain friends.

In this 'sankraman kal' you have to do 'Daan' so, this is a special day for the women in Maharashtra when married women are invited for a get-together called ‘Haldi-Kumkum’ and given gifts of any utensil or any useful items. This is the only day when black colour is auspicious. So married woman wears black sarees and for infants also Maharashtrian people purchase a black dress.

So here is my recipe for Sankrant….

Ingredients:

½ kg While Sesame
½ kg Jaggery (Chikkicha Gool)
1 cup Roasted Peanuts coarse powder
½ cup grated and roasted Dry Coconut
½ cup Chana dal roasted
1 tsp Cardamom Powder
1 to 2 tbsp Pure Ghee
2/3 drop Rose Essence

Method:

1) Roast ½ kg sesame till golden brown
2) Keep ready roasted coarse peanuts, grated and roasted Dry Coconut.
3) In other pan, melt Chikki Gool. After some time, it will start boiling. The jaggery should be at the “soft-ball” stage. That means that when you drop a bit of it into cold water to cool it down, it will form a soft ball. If you remove the ball from water, it will flatten like a pancake after a few moments in your hand. Sesame Laddus are made using the jaggery in softball stage.
4) Add roasted Sesame, coarse peanuts, roasted dry coconut, Chana Dal , rose essence and cardamom powder and mix well.
5) Grease hands with little Ghee as we are going to make laddus while the mixture is hot. Therefore, because of ghee, hot mixture will not stick to hands.
6) Make 1 inch round shaped laddus while mixture is hot. If it gets cold, it won’t form the round shape as the jaggery will become hard. So, while making laddus if mixture becomes cold, put it again on high heat so that jaggery will melt and you can make laddus from that remaining mixture.

Note:
1) To make laddus rich in flavour, add unsalted cashew pieces or any other dry fruits.

Homemade Shrikhand .....just yummyyyyyyy.

Shrikhand

INGREDIENTS

1 kg yogurt
few saffron threads
1 tbsp. warm milk
1/2 kg  superfine sugar
1 1/2tsp. green cardamom seeds, crushed
Dry fruits , chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

• Cut 3 layers of cheesecloth into a 12" x 24" square. 
• Put yogurt in middle of cheesecloth, bring up ends, and tie with kitchen twine. 
• Tie cheesecloth-bound yogurt to the handle of a wooden spoon; set wooden spoon over a bowl. Chill yogurt and let drain overnight to a thicker consistency. 
• Combine saffron and milk and let steep for 30 minutes. Put drained yogurt into a bowl; stir in saffron mixture and sugar. 
• Divide shrikhand between  small bowls and garnish with cardamom and pistachios.

Controlling Anger

Anger is an emotion that can destroy us if we don not take care to control it. People experience varying degrees of anger. Some of us are “short tempered,” which means that we get angry at the flimsiest of excuses and show irritation and disgust. Display and expression of emotions sometimes results in disastrous consequences, which may result in such people ending on the other side of the law. Some people are good at controlling their emotions and do not show their annoyance and displeasure. Instead they try to reason out with themselves or with others and try to arrive at constructive solutions to problems that were the cause of their displeasure or annoyance.

Anger can cause serious consequences like separation of wedded couples, rebellion by children, suicides by the affected people and so on. Violence resulting from anger can take devastating forms. You must have heard of “road rage” due to which drivers sometimes cause accidents that result in death.

Controlling anger is more easily said than done. Meditation, Relaxation and the like are some of the methods advocated to control anger. These aids allow us to keep our minds free and relaxed and make us concentrate on the better things of life.

Let me share a simple thought with you. Whenever you are provoked why don’t you just close your eyes for a short time and think of how you should react before actually doing so? Think of what made the other person say what provokes you. After all he or she also has a reason. Unless, of course, he or she is trying to deliberately provoke you because of dislike or jealousy. In such cases also showing a temper would be doing what the person wants you to do. Deny him or her the pleasure and smile at him and then say the right thing under the circumstances.

There are many examples that we can emulate though we can not be like them. Gandhiji said that if you are slapped, don’t show your anger, but show the other cheek. This is a bit unrealistic in today’s world, but the lesson we should draw is that no constructive result is possible by stoking the fire. We should try to douse the fire. 

Dal Pakwan

My first trial for Dal Pakwan...just superb with sweet n tangy tamarind chutney and crispy Pakwan. My family loved it .... 

Dal Pakwan is an authentic breakfast delicacy in Sindhi homes. Crisp flavored puries known as Pakwan served with spicy dal topped with chutney.

Recipe will serve 4

Ingredients

1 cup chana dal (Bengal gram)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 turmeric (haldi)
1 tablespoon ginger finely chopped
1 green chili chopped
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon mango powder (amchoor)

Seasoning:

2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
6-7 curry leaves

Pakwan (Crisp Puries known as Pakwan):

1 cup all purpose flour (maida/plain flour)
1/4 cup semolina (sooji)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
2 tablespoon oil
Approx. 1/3 cup of water
Oil to fry
Also need tamarind chutney for serving

Method:

Cooking Dal:

• Wash and soak chana dal for at least 2 hours in 3 cups of water.
• Drain the water and in pressure cooker add dal, 2-1/2 cups of water, salt, turmeric, green chili, and ginger, close the cooker and cook over medium high heat.
• As the pressure cooker starts steaming turn the heat down to medium and cook for about 4 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and wait until steam has stopped before opening the pressure cooker.
• Dal should be soft well-cooked but not mushy. Add black pepper, mango powder and garam masala, mix it well. Dal should be thick in consistency.

Seasoning:

• Heat the oil in a saucepan. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if seed cracks right away oil is ready.
• Add cumin seeds, after seeds crack add curry leaves stir for few seconds and pour over dal mix it well and set aside. Curry leaves splatter be careful.

Pakwan:

• Crisp Puries known as Pakwan: Mix flour, sooji, salt, cumin seeds, and oil. Add enough water to make firm dough. Knead the dough well. Set the dough aside and let it sit for at least 15 minutes or longer.
• Divide the dough in 10 equal parts, Roll the dough into about 5-inch diameter. If the dough is sticking to the rolling pin or rolling surface, put couple of drops of oil on the rolling pin and a couple of drops of oil on the surface.
• Prick the rolled dough all over with a fork. This will limit puries from puffing and make them crisp.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. The frying pan should have at about 1 inch of oil. To check if the oil is ready, put a small piece of dough in the oil. The dough should sizzle and come up slowly.
• Fry 2-3 puries at time until both sides are a light golden-brown. Transfer puries over paper towel, it will absorb the extra oil.
• After the puries cool to room temperature they should be crisp. Puries can be stored in airtight container for 1 month.