Thursday, September 30, 2010

Appe


Appe or Appam is a South Indian dish. It also requires a special type of pan somewhat similar to idlis. But the only difference is Appes are not steamed but fried in this pan as shown below. It has small around an inch deep rounds to fill the appe batter. I got this from my recent visit to India. Its a non-stick pan, hence requires less oil. Appe needs a little of pre planning but its best part is that it doesn't require any fermentation. It can be done right away after grinding the soaked dals.
Ingredients -
1) 1 cup urad dal
2) 2 cups rice
3) 1/4 cup chana dal
4) 5-6 green chilles
5) 1 tspn cumin seeds
6) 6-7 curry leaves
7) 1 inch ginger
8) Salt to taste
9) And Oil
Method -
1) Soak the dals seperately overnight or atleast for 6-8 hours.
2) Grind all the dals seperately with very little water if required.
3) With the urad dal, also grind the green chillies, cumin seeds, curry leaves and ginger.
4) Mix all the grinded dals in a large bowl. Mix well. Add salt as per taste. Mix well. The batter should not be very thin.
5) Heat the appe patra/appe skillet and add little oil in all the rounds of the skillet.
6) Pour a spoonful of batter. Do not cover the pan. After a couple of minutes flip the appes and cook them from the other side.
7) They are ready. Serve hot with any type of chutney. I served them with tomato chutney.
They are very easy and quick. If you have guests coming in the evening, you can soak the dals in the morning and grind them when you want to make them.

Friday, September 24, 2010

A Sneak Peak Into My Kitchen

I warmly and heartily welcome you all into my kitchen. Nupur from OneHotStove is hosting this event where everyone has to reveal their own kitchens. A very fun event where there is no cooking involved inspite we get to see everyone's place from where all the delicious and yummy food is cooked and served. I am also on my way to reveal my kitchen to everybody. I have always loved OneHotStove which is my strong inspiration to start a food blog of my own. I truly love her recipes and reading them is such a pleasure.
We moved to this apartment just a couple of months back. So this is very newly organized. I like to keep my kitchen clutter free and to have an easy access to all the mostly needed utensils and appliances. It is larger than my old kitchen and I also like the black and maroon combination. The pantry is like a different room altogether with lots of space than my older kitchen. So, here it is -

As seen from the entrance of the kitchen -




On the rightmost side of the cooking stove is the refrigerator. On the right counter you can see dabbas for tea and sugar, Oil bottle and ghee container. This counter is not used. On the left side is the rack from the microwave(I have seen it in this apartment only) which i use to keep hot pots or pressure cooker right from the stove.


There is a corner shelf where i have kept the masala dabba or spice box in the middle rack with hing/asafoetida and jeera/cumin seeds. The upper rack is used for salt and chapati flour and oil used for rolling chapatis. The chapati dabba is kept at the bottom of the shelf.
Next to that is the onion-potato basket followed by the knife set. And then the food processor and toaster. This counter top is used the most for cutting, chopping, grinding as the food processor is here.

All the crockery is in the overhead cabinets. Utensils and pots in the lower cabinets.
The counter top next to the sink is kept empty.

And lastly that's the pantry -

That's my kitchen. I would love to see yours too. Come, participate in this link party!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Chakolya/Phal Varan/Daal Dhokli

Helloooooooo everybody out there. Yes, yes...I know this space has been stagnant for quite some time now. But I have been super busy these couple of months. We visited India almost after 3.5 years. I was very excited about the trip and spent most of my time in shopping for family and friends. We had a great time at home except for the heat. It was unbearable and we had to spend our days sitting in coolers and air conditioners. The main attraction of the trip were "Mangoes", to be specific "Hapoos Amba". We had missed that so much in U.S all these years and that was a perfect season to consume them. I don't remember a single day spent without eating "Amba" or "Aamras".

Anyways, so back to this post. After returning from India I was engaged in setting up our new apartment. So, now you know, these last few months were full of packing, unpacking, moving and repacking. But now that I have settled completely I am back to the blogging world which I have missed so closely.

I am back with this one pot dish which is called Chakolya or Phal Varan in Marathi. It is also popularly known as Daal Dhokli in Gujrati. It's one of my favourites when hubby does not have to take lunch. Ofcourse, its far better than making Maggie. This dish has to be eaten hot, right from the stove. It's basically small dumplings of atta or dough cooked in dal/varan/lentil soup. To make this you would need the following -

For the dhokli
1) 1/2 cup wheat flour
2) 1/2 tspn turmeric and chilli powder each
3) salt to taste
4) Oil and Water

For the Dal
1) 1 cup cooked toovar dal
2) 1/2 tspn mustard seeds, cumind seeds each
3) a pinch of asafoetida
4) 1/2 tspn turmeric powder
5) 1 tspn red chilli powder or according to taste. (I used kolhapuri masala)
6) 3-4 curry leaves
7) 1 tspn ginger/garlic paste
8) 1 small onion chopped
9) Oil for tempering
10) Salt to taste
11) 3 cups Water

Method -
1) Knead together all the ingredients for the dough and keep it aside covered for some time.
2) During this time make the dal. Heat oil in a kadhai and do the tempering. Add the mustard seeds. Once they crackle add the cumin seeds.
3) Add asafoetida and turmeric powder. Stir and add in the curry leaves.
4) Now add onions and saute for few minutes.
5) Add ginger/garlic paste and saute for some more time.
6) Now add the cooked dal and water and mix well.
7) Add salt and red chilli powder/Kolhapuri Masala and bring it to a boil.
8) Till the dal is boiling take a fairly large ball of dough. Larger than chapati/roti ball and roll it like chapati.
9) Now with a knife cut the rolled dough ball horizontally and vertically making small square shaped pieces.
10) Add these pieces or dumpling in the boiling dal. Cover it and let it cook for sometime.
You will notice that the dumplings become larger than their original size after they are cooked.
Your daal dhokli is ready. Take out in a bowl and serve. To make it more flavourful add 1 tspn of ghee and Enjoy!!!

This dish is so heartfilling and tasty. You can make the dal as your taste. You can add any other masala to it but make sure it is on a liquidy side because the dhokli/dumplings are enlarged once they are cooked.
Now, sit back and Enjoy this steaming hot dish.