Dal Makhani - Blog Hop Wednesdays

Its the third week of blog hopping for me and its been an ever so pleasing experience.To decide on a recipe to re-create from a fellow blogger,is really fun.This time I have decided to make Dal Makhani.
The Dal in this dish comprises of a mixture of rajma/red kidney beans, urad dal/Black lentils, and chick peas/chana or chana dal.

This time I have a versatile blogger Vatsala of Show and Tell as my partner and I loved going through her array of recipes.Since I had been planning on making Dal(Lentils) makhani (buttery/creamy), I jumped at the opportunity.I have followed this recipe from Vatsala and also this version which I had tried the first time I ever made this dish 3 years ago in Bangalore.

Here's how i made it :


Rajma (red kidney beans) 1/3 cup,
Black lentils(urad dal with skin which is black in color) 1cup
Black/white chick peas(kala chana) 1/3 cup(optional)
Green chillies 1 or 2
Ginger 1 inch piece grated
Garlic 3 pods grated
Salt to taste

To prepare the tadka

Ghee/Butter 1-2 tablespoons

Cumin seeds 1 tsp

Garlic pods 2 crushed

Asoefetida/hing 1/4 tsp

Tomato puree of 2 medium tomatoes

To finish the dish

Cream 2 tablespoons(or less)

Garam masala powder 1 tsp

Chilli powder 1tsp

• Soak the dals over night and pressure them with the ginger,garlic and green chillies with salt to taste. 
• When the cooker cools, open it and crush the lentils with a heavy ladle.
• Heat the ghee/butter in a pan, add the cumin seeds and garlic, allow garlic to change color slightly, add the asoefetida, now add the tomato puree and fry until the raw smell goes away.
• Add the cooked and smashed lentils.
• Let the lentils absorb the tomato puree and add enough salt to taste.
• Add a tablespoon of cream and mix well.Add enough water to reach the consistency you require.

• Turn off the heat, sprinkle garam masala powder and chilli powder on top and serve with a dollop of cream(optional).
• Serve hot with chapatis or steamed rice.

BHW is powered by Radhika @tickling palates.

and to MLLA @ Briciole and The well seasoned cook

Dal Makhani - Blog Hop Wednesdays

Its the third week of blog hopping for me and its been an ever so pleasing experience.To decide on a recipe to re-create from a fellow blogger,is really fun.This time I have decided to make Dal Makhani.
The Dal in this dish comprises of a mixture of rajma/red kidney beans, urad dal/Black lentils, and chick peas/chana or chana dal.

Fried Rice crispies : Black and White Wednesday

I love sending pictures to Susan for the BWW event.There are a number of beautiful,speechless pictures that scream out a million messages.

I make small batches of these murukkus because my lil one will finish off only these in her snack box.Officially, also festival goodies too.Since Christmas is almost here,I'm making them more often now.

Sending these to BWW @ The well seasoned cook

Fried Rice crispies : Black and White Wednesday

I love sending pictures to Susan for the BWW event.There are a number of beautiful,speechless pictures that scream out a million messages.

I make small batches of these murukkus because my lil one will finish off only these in her snack box.Officially, also festival goodies too.Since Christmas is almost here,I'm making them more often now.

Sending these to BWW @ The well seasoned cook

Pav Bhaaji

What an accomplishment, I made pav bhaaji from scratch!I had the craving to have pav bhaaji and wanted to run to a hotel and have a mouth full, because of the fowl weather we weren;t able to go out later in the evenings.So I somehow managed to mellow down my cravings for a few days.And meanwhile kept hunting for recipes.

Pav Bhaaji is a very popular street food in Mumbai.I first tasted it when i moved to Mumbai for further studies and fell in love with the street food...vada paav, ragda patties,pav bhaaji to name a few.At home in Mumbai, we buy fresh pavs from the local baker,I would have never thought of baking it at home until my recent obsession with bread making.Pav/laadi paav means a slab of bread rolls, and bhaaji means a vegetarian side dish.So pav bhaaji is one great finger licking combination of bread and tangy vegetable gravy.

To make the pav:
Flour 2 cups(1 cup all purpose flour + 1 cup wheat flour)
Sugar 2 tsp
Baking soda 1/2 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
Yeast 1 tsp
Warm water 1 -1.5 cups
Butter/Oil 3 tablespoons(or lesser)
For brushing: Warm Milk 2 tablespoons and Melted Butter 1 tablespoon

• In a mixing bowl, add the flours, sugar,salt and yeast and baking soda.Add the warm water and knead into a smooth dough.
• Add the oil little by little and knead until the oil disappears into the dough.
• You can stop kneading when the dough springs back when you push it with your finger.Apply oil generously on the dough and cover with cling film and set it aside in a oven.The dough will take about 1 hour to double in size.
• Once the dough has risen well(doubled), dust a counter top, put the dough on the counter and roll into a rectangle, now cut into rectangular buns and place in a buttered baking tray.Again cover these cut buns and allow to raise again for an hour or so.(since i used wheat flour it didn't raise much after this point, but the pavs were soft).
• Preheat the oven to 250C and just before pushing the tray to bake, brush milk on the bun tops.
• Bake for 25 minutes until the tops are crusty and bottoms are lightly beginning to brown or tap to see if hollow.At this point take the pavs out and brush melted butter and keep it in the hot oven turning off the power.
• Hot pavs are ready to be eaten with bhaaji or just tea.

To make the Bhaaji
Onions 1 large/2medium size chopped finely
Tomatoes 1 large/ 2 medium chopped finely
Ginger garlic paste 1 tablespoon
Boiled Vegetables 2 cups(Potatoes 2 large,Cauliflower florets 1/2 cup,Beans 5-6,Carrots 1 small-chopped,Capsicum 1 small-diced,Peas a handfull)
Pav Bhaaji Masala 2 tablespoons(Everest brand)
Lime juice 1 tablespoon or more
Chopped Cilantro a handful
Oil/Butter 2 tablespoons

• Heat oil in a pan, add onions fry until soft and transparent.Add the ginger garlic paste next, now add the tomatoes.
• Add the mashed vegetables into the onion tomato gravy.
• Add the pav bhaji masala and salt to taste.
• Once the vegetables cook well in the masalas, turn off the stove and add chopped cilantro and lime juice.

• To serve, cut the pav in half lengthwise apply butter or ghee and roast the inner sides on a pan, and serve hot with the bhaaji.Top the bhaaji with chopped onions and lime wedges, a dollop of butter (indulgence!)

Linking this to Winter Carnival @ Tickling tastebuds, Bake Fest @ Zesty Palette and Christmas Delicacy @ Erivum Puliyum

Pav Bhaaji

What an accomplishment, I made pav bhaaji from scratch!I had the craving to have pav bhaaji and wanted to run to a hotel and have a mouth full, because of the fowl weather we weren;t able to go out later in the evenings.So I somehow managed to mellow down my cravings for a few days.And meanwhile kept hunting for recipes.

Dal Fry And a quick snack!

When the mood to make dinner is lost, it has to be this easy to make dal fry.I fall back on it quite too often I must say.And when you do make dal fry, make it a point to try this snack!

The easiest weekday lunch (packed off in DH's lunch box) would peas pulav, dal fry and raita.

You need

Masoor dal/Orange lentils 2 cups
Cilantro chopped a handful
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Salt to taste

To make the tempering
Oil/Ghee 1 tablespoon (or more)
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Red Chillies 1 (optional)
Curry leaves 2 sprigs
Onions 1 medium sliced finely
Garlic pods 3
Asoefetida/hing a pinch
Tomato 2 medium chopped

• Masoor dal cooks real fast, needn't be pressure cooked.Just cover and cook with sufficient water, it should be soft in about less than 30 minutes.
• Heat oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds, curry leaves, hing powder, red chillies, onions and let fry well until onions are soft.
• Add the garlic and tomato and let the tomato mash well.
• Once thats done, add the turmeric and chilli powders and salt, let the oil leave the sides of the pan, now add the cooked dal.
• Let it simmer well for about 10 minutes,

• Garnish with cilantro.

If you have the small puris(pani puri ones), make a small hole with your thumb on the top of the puri and fill it with the dal fry and chaat masala (and add yogurt and onions too).Pop into your mouth!!yum!Makes an easy  quick yummy chaat snack!

Linking this Legume Affair @ Briciole and Susan @the wellseasonedcook

Dal Fry And a quick snack!

When the mood to make dinner is lost, it has to be this easy to make dal fry.I fall back on it quite too often I must say.And when you do make dal fry, make it a point to try this snack!

Ma'amouls : Black & White Wednesday

Beautiful cookies baked golden on the top and rich dates filling....

Beautiful, easy and yummy cookies.Not to forget healthy.Don't forget to check the recipe here to see how easy it is to bake.

These are my entry toSusan's BWW .

Ma'amouls : Black & White Wednesday

Beautiful cookies baked golden on the top and rich dates filling....

Ma'amoul - Stuffed date cookies

I've been eating these stuffed beauties for a long time now, not home made ones though.Recently I got anxious to make it at home.When i started searching the internet, i found innumerable recipes and with an array of interesting fillings.These are pretty popular in the Gulf.

Ma'amoul are small shortbread pastries filled with dates, pistachios, or other dried fruits.Read more about them here.

My DH acclaimed they were as good as the shop ones.I have generously followed the recipe from here

Here's how i made it.

For the Filling:

• Dates paste 2 tablespoons (pitted dates about 15 to 20)
• Sugar coated ginger candy 5 6 pieces ( or dry ginger powder 1/4 tsp) (optional) 
• Water 2 tablespoons
• Salt a pinch
• 
  
• For the Cookie Dough:

Flour  2 cups (= 1 cup wheat flour + 1 cup All purpose flour)

• Baking powder 1 tsp
• Confectioner's sugar 1 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons for dusting (powdered sugar)
• Salt a pinch 
• Butter 1/2 cup
• Vegetable oil 2 tablespoons
• Milk (boiled and cooled) 1/4 cup

To make the filling:

• Puree the dates and ginger candy with 2 tablespoons of water.Add a pinch of salt and blitz to a smooth paste.Leave it aside.

the beautiful filling...

To make the cookie dough:

• In a bowl, sift both the flours and add the salt,baking powder, butter and oil and mix well to a crumbly mix.Add the oil and bring knead well to bring into a nice smooth dough.
• Add the milk and make a smooth dough.
• Cover with cling film and refrigerate for an hour.
• Now divide into small lemon sized balls (makes about 20 cookies)

 To make the cookies :

• Preheat the oven at 250C.
• Take a ball of dough and roll into a circle the size of your palm(almost). Place about a teaspoon of the filling.
• Repeat above step for the rest of the dough.OR if like me make some plain short bread cookies in any shapes you like of the plain cookie dough too.And sprinkle with powdered sugar.

make them in any shape you want

• Place the cookies about a few cms apart from each other (they do expand a bit).
• Bake these cookies at 220C until the tops are whitish and the bottoms are lightly brown for about 22-25 minutes.

• Cool for 10 minutes and they are ready to go...beautiful Ma'amoul cookies!!

Tips:

• The original recipe doesn't call to refrigerate the cookie dough, but i refrigerated it for an hour because of some work i couldn't avoid, and realised it was much easier to handle the dough once cool.
• Don't get worked up(like me) on stuffing a huge lot into each cookie, the maximum you can place would be much less than a teaspoon.

Linking this to 


Bake fest @ Zesty Palette

Christmas Delicacy @ Erivum Puliyum

Winter carnival @ Tickling tastebuds

Global Food fest @ Sizzling tastebuds

Bake with your heart @ A girl's Diary


Thursday Potluck @Show and tell