Diwali Faral - Fried Poha Chivda

There are many who like the dry roasted chivda variety. And then there are some like my dear hubby who like the fried poha variety. And he likes it so much that he invented an altogether different way of eating chivda so he can have chivda in every meal. Chapati chivda!

:-D

Ingredients

• 500 g beaten rice flakes (Jada poha)
• Dry coconut (sukka khobra)
• 1 cup peanuts
• 3 green chillies
• 8 to 10 curry leaves
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida (hing)
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4th tsp citric acid crystals
• A whole lot of oil

1. Soak the dry coconut in water for an hour. It becomes soft. You can now use your peeler to make very thin slices of the coconut. Then spread them out under a fan on kitchen towels to dry them again.
2. Soak the groundnuts in a water with a little salt. Once soaked, remove them on kitchen towels and dry them again under fan for an hour or two.
3. Heat the oil and fry the poha. It spreads around in the oil if you add it directly. By the time you remove the poha it becomes brown. The best way is to use a frying vessel or a spoon, into which you add a handful of poha and dip it into the oil and remove it in five seconds. Drain on kitchen towels spread out on a newspaper. Fry all the poha in this manner.
4. Remove all extra oil to keep only 1/2 cup oil in the wok. Add the curry leaves to the oil and fry them till they turn crisp. Remove them and spread them on the poha.
5. Chop the chillies and fry them till the edges turn a little brown. Add to the poha.
6. Fry the coconut slices till they turn slightly brown. Add to the poha.
7. Fry the peanuts till they look evenly browned. Add to the poha.
8. Turn off the heat under the oil and add the asafoetida and turmeric.
9. Pour this on top of the poha.
10. Add the salt according to taste.
11. Grind together the sugar and citric acid and add to the poha.
12. Do not mix vigorously. Instead just add the whole mixture to a plastic bag and shuffle it a few times. 
13. Keep it in the plastic bag and keep the plastic bag in an airtight container to store it.

Happy Cooking!

Diwali Faral - Chakli

Now comes the part  where you actually  make the chakalis. I have read in many places that chaklis don't often turn out well. Sometimes they are too hard, or they turn soft the next day, or they fall apart in the oil while frying. Needless to say that I was very very VERY apprehensive.

Think about it, it was about 2 and half kilos of various ingredients I was using. Think about the wastage if they turned out horribly wrong. What if the taste wasn't right? I was praying to God, and crossing my fingers all the time I was making the recipe. I decided  to stick to one recipe and follow everything by the word.

They turned out quite well. They didn't break. I made them day before yesterday and I am posting the recipe today, so I can safely say that they didn't go soft. They are still very crisp. So just follow my recipe in toto and there shouldn't be any reason for the chakalis to go wrong.

Ingredients

• 2 cups chakli bhajani (the previous post has the recipe for that or you can buy it from the market)
• 2 cups water
• 3 tsp oil (not more than that)
• salt to taste
• 5 tsp red chilli powder (or more if you want it spicier)
• 3 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tsp chaat masala

1. Boil the water in a vessel. Add the oil and the spices to the water itself.
2. Once it has begun boiling, add the bhajni flour to the water and remove from heat.
3. Stir vigorously till all the water has been incorporated by the flour.
4. Allow the mixture to cool till you can handle it well.
5. Knead well into a firm dough. Do not add any more water or oil. It has to be a firm dough. Taste a little at this point to be sure of the seasoning. Keep the salt a little less than you would like, for once it gets fried it tastes saltier than it tasted in the dough stage.
6. Put the dough in a chakli maker. Use the star attachment for making the chaklis.
7. Grease a plastic sheet with a little oil.
8. Squeeze a length of the dough through the chakli maker onto the greased plastic sheet, and roll with a light touch in the shape of a jalebi.
9. Deep fry them in oil over low heat. Keep the heat as low as possible. When you first dip your raw chakli into the oil it will bubble up furiously. When the bubbles have slowed down considerably and the color of the chakli changes to slightly golden brown, remove them from the oil with a perforated spoon.
10. Drain the chaklis on kitchen towels.
11. Cool them completely. Only then place them in an airtight container. 

Happy C@@king! (okay, that is not caaking, those are meant to be o's in the shape of chaklis :-(  )

Diwali Faral - Chakli (Bhajani)

Whew! It was difficult to make this chakali. I had decided when I started this blogs that I won't be taking shortcuts. I need to know the very basics of everything. Hats off! To all the women of yore who would do this regularly. They didn't have electric grinders either. They would grind all their grain on the stone grinders and must have had to spend considerable time just sweating over it! Gawd!

Yet, I loved the whole process. It gave me immense satisfaction to say the least, especially when my husband and my daughter ate my chaklis with gusto. I am however going to post this recipe in two parts. Here I am only going to outline the recipe for bhajni. If you are going for the  store bought bhajni then just go for the next post.

You do not have to go to the lengths I did. Just go and get bhajani peeth (Bhajani Flour) from any of your local shop. I am sure they will stock this now that Diwali is coming close. If you are as adventurous as I am, and prepared to face swollen hands the next day, by all means, go right ahead. Follow my recipe.

Ingredients

• 500 g rice 
• 250 g  split chickpeas (chana dal)
• 250 g split black gram (urad dal)
• 250 g sago (sabudana)
• 200 g split green gram (moong dal)
• 100 g split yellow lentils (toor dal)
• 30 g coriander seeds (dhania seeds)
• 30 g cumin seeds (jeera)
• 3 tbsp sesame seeds (til)

The grains drying in the sun in my window

1.  Wash all the grains separately to remove the fine powder coating on them. Dry them individually under the sun if possible. If not you can dry them under ceiling fans as well. Dry them completely.
2. Dry roast the grains separately. Keep them separate. Put the coriander seeds and cumin seeds and sesame seeds on any of the hot grain, so they get just warmed. You don't have to roast them.
3. If you have an electric grinder (gharghanti), then first grind the split chickpeas. Then grind the sago. Then grind everything else in any order.
4. If you have to go to your flour mill, then you can combine all ingredients except sago and chana dal, and ask for them to be ground first. 
5. Do not, under any circumstance, attempt to powder them in your blender. You will not get a fine enough flour for the chakalis.

The various grains required. Also the caption next to the grains Live, Work, Play is my husband's idea.

 Happy Cooking!

Diwali Faral - Besan Ladoo

Diwali equals besan ladoo for me. I love these, and only these laddus. The credit for this recipe goes to my mom. I called her up and asked her how to do it right before I made them. She, after all, makes the best besan laddoos in the whole world.

So THANKS MOM!!!

:D She always complains that I never give her due credit!

What many people seem to think since I started this blog is that I am some sort of a master chef. Guys, you couldn't be more wrong! I am no chef! These recipes I have posted because most of them have been made by me for the very very first time. I have been lucky so far that they turned out not bad. Follow the steps I have told you and you can make it just as easily as I did. Promise!

I just follow what the masterchefs say in their books, or in their recipes. That's all.

In this case, I just followed what my mom said to the T and got really really good laddoos.

Ingredients

• 500 g gram flour (besan)
• 250 g clarified butter (cow ghee)
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 200 g powdered sugar
• nuts or raisins to garnish (optional)

1. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan
2. Add all the gram flour to it. Keep the heat to low.
3. Stir it well. 
4. Keep stirring.
5. Yup, more stirring.
6. I know you are tired, but that's what you gotta do, stir stir stir your boat...!
7. Have about forty five minutes elapsed? Hmm...
8. Your house will be fragrant with gram flour flavored air freshener! Haha :-P
9. The color of the gram flour will have changed color somewhat.
10. Now is the time to add the cardamom powder.
11. Add the sugar and stir some more. Okay not forty-five minutes this time, just a few minutes till it all amalgamates.
12. Cool the mixture for ten minutes.
13. Now apply a little ghee to your hands and start rolling little balls out of the mixture. If the fall flat, don't worry, just let them cool down completely and roll them again. And again, if they still fall somewhat flat. (Like mine did!) 
14. Eventually they will learn to hold  their shape.

And they will look like theeeeeeeeeees

Happy Cooking!

Diwali Faral - Bakarwadi

I had never in my wildest imaginations ever thought that I'd make bakarwadis. These crispy and savory spring rolls are a specialty of Chitale's. Others make it  well too, but Chitale are the masters of bakarwadi. I have always loved these lovely Indian spring rolls, but I thought that making them would be completely out of my ability.

And then I made them. On a whim. I thought, what the hell! What's the most that could go wrong? That they will turn out bad, and nobody will want to eat them. Fear of failure should never be a criterion for not trying something new. That's what my husband tells me all the time. Never fear failure.

So I let go of my inhibitions, and decided to find some good recipes on the net. The best one I found was on the blogspot called chakali. There are some things that I omitted and some things that I added.

I also bought chitale's bakarwadi and incorporated whatever ingredients were listed (and some more of course!)

The only problem was having to fry them in the sweltering heat. I had to close the window because one  crow was audacious enough to dip into my fried bakarwadis and sample one of them. Ugh!

Try it.. Really! Do not be afraid of failure..

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour (maida)
• 3 tbsp gram flour (besan)
• 1/2 tsp carom seeds (ajwain / owa)
• salt to taste
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp oil
• water

for the filling

• 1/2 cup gram flour (besan)
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds (saunf)
• 1 tsp sesame seeds (til)
• 1/2 tsp poppy seeds (khus khus)
• 3 tbsp grated dry coconut (sukka khobra)
• 2 tsp cumin powder (jeera powder)
• 3 tsp coriander powder (dhana powder)
• 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder (sunth powder)
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 pinch hing (asafoetida)
• 3 tsp powdered sugar
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp oil
• a little water

1. First make the dough. Mix the plain flour and gram flour with carom seeds and salt. Make a heap of the flours and make a deep well in the center. Add hot oil in the center and mix it all up. Now add water slowly to make a firm dough.
2. Next, heat a wok and dry roast the fennel seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds and dry coconut together for two to three minutes. Grind to a course mixture.
3. Dry roast  the gram flour till you get a distinct aroma. Now add cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, sunth powder, hing, and the above mixture. Add 2 tsp of oil to the mixture, salt and sugar and bring it off the heat.
4. Now add the sugar to the mixture and cool it for some time.
5. Make five balls of the dough and roll each ball into a thin chapati. Spread some of the above mixture on to the chapati.
6. Roll the chapati starting from one edge. Roll it completely into a tight roll. If the roll is loose, the filling will come out during  frying.
7. Apply a little water to the other edge of the dough and seal it shut. Seal the two ends shut. Press the roll a little so it becomes a little flat and ovoid in shape rather than round.
8. Cut the roll into one inch pieces.
9. Heat the oil for deep frying, and fry the bakarwadis on low heat. You have to fry on low heat for about five to ten minutes, till they are nice and golden brown.
10. Drain them on kitchen towels.
11. Keep away from crows and other similarly audacious birds!
12. Store them in an airtight container.

 Happy Cooking!