Bikaneri Parantha

Bikaneri paratha / Bikaner purotta

Ingredients:

·        Maida (All purpose flour): 500 gm

·        Edible oil: 200 gm

·        Red chili powder: 1 tsp

·        Coriander powder (Malli podi / Dhaniya powder): 1 tsp.

·        Split chick peas (Kadalai paruppu / Chana dal: 250 gm

·        Garam masala powder: 1 tsp.

·        Salt: 1 tsp

Method of preparation:

·        Soak chana dal for about six hours.

·        Cook in a pressure cooker with a glassful of water.

·        Wait for 1 whistle.

·        Remove from flame.

·        Drain water and grind to paste. 

·        Take maida, add salt and 2 tbsp of oil.

·        Mix well.

·        Add water and prepare dough.

·        The dough will be soft.

·        Make balls.

·        Heat two tbsp of oil in a wok (Iruppuchchatti / Vaanali / kadai).

·        Add the dal paste and fry for about four minutes.

·        Add masala powder.

·        After cooling, stuff this paste into all maida balls.

·        Press these balls one by one with the help of rolling pin (chakla and belan), chapatti press or poori kattai into papad like thin disks. Make soft paranthas on hot plate (Dosai kal / tawa).  

Serve with Aloo Dum Masala, Raita and Chutney.

What is chakla belan?

Chakla - belan is a combination of a wooden or marble platform and a wooden or metallic rolling pin, used for rolling doughs in the preparation of puri (poori), chapatti, papad, samosa, etc.

Bread Pakora

Bread Pakoda / Bread Pakkoda / Bread Bajji

Ingredients:

·        Gram flour (Kadalai maavu / besan): 1 cup

·        Bread slices: 8

·        Asafetida (Perungayam / hing): ¼ tsp

·        Baking powder: ¼ tsp

·        Thymol seeds (Omam/ajwain/ajowan/Trachyspermum copticum): ½ tsp

·        Potatoes: 2

·        Ginger: ½ inch piece

·        Garlic: 2 pods

·        Edible oil: 1 cup

·        Garam masala powder: ¼ tsp

·        Turmeric powder: ½ tsp

·        Mustard: ½ tsp

·        Onion: 1

·        Red chili powder: ½ tsp

·        Salt to taste

Method of preparation:

·        Grind the ginger and garlic together into a paste.

·        Chop the onion.

·        Mix the gram flour, thymol seeds (ajwain), asafetida, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

·        Add water gradually and mix well to obtain a smooth and thick batter.

·        Boil, peel and mash the potatoes.

·        Heat two tsp of oil in a frying pan.

·        Add mustard seeds.

·        When the mustard seeds start spluttering, add chopped onion and fry till the onions turn brown.

·        Add ginger-garlic paste and fry for a while.

·        Add turmeric powder, red chili powder and salt.

·        Mix and fry for a very short time.

·        Add the mashed potatoes and garam masala powder, mix and fry for a minute.

·        Remove this filling for bread pakora from flame and transfer it to a bowl.

·        Cut each bread slice diagonally, to get triangle pieces.

·        Make a sandwich by spreading the filling between two triangular bread pieces.

·        Repeat this for all bread pieces.

·        Heat oil in a deep frying pan.

·        Dip the above prepared sandwiches one after the other in the batter and put in hot oil.

·        Deep fry on medium heat.

·        Remove from oil and place them on a plate covered by a blotting paper (Paper to remove excessive oil).

Serve hot with tomato sauce, green chili chutney, or pickle.

Dal Fry

Ingredients:

• Split pigeon pea (Thuvaram paruppu/Arhar dal/Toor dal/Toovar Dal): 1 cup
• Onions (chopped): ¾ cup
• Edible oil: 3 tbsp
• Garlic (chopped): 1 tsp
• Turmeric Powder: ½ tsp
• Ginger (chopped): 1 tsp
• Green Chilies (chopped): 1 tsp
• Cumin Seeds: ½ tsp
• Tomatoes (chopped): 1 cup
• Chili Powder: 1 tsp
• Coriander Leaves (chopped): 3 tsp
• Salt to taste

Method of preparation:

·        Wash the dal and soak in three cups of water for about 30 minutes.

·        Pressure cook the dal in water as it is.

·        Heat oil in a frying pan.

·        Add ginger, garlic, onion, green chilies and cumin seeds.

·        Fry on a medium flame stirring occasionally for about four minutes.

·        Add tomatoes, chili powder, turmeric powder, and salt.

·        Fry again on a high flame for about three minutes.

·        After frying transfer the content into the cooked dal and stir.

·        Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and server hot.

Mutton Pickle

Ingredients:

Boneless mutton: 1 kg

For masala:

·        Coriander powder: 6 tsp

·        Ginger paste: 2 tsp

·        Garlic paste: 2 tsp

·        Turmeric powder: 1 tsp

·        Fennel (sombu / saunf): 2 tsp

·        Red chili powder: 1.5 tsp

·        Black pepper powder: 1.5 tsp

·        Edible oil: as required

To roast and powder:

·        Cinnamon stick (Pattai / Dalchini): 3

·        Cloves: 8

·        Star Anise (Annasippoo / Anasipu / Anasphal / Badian): 2

Ingredients for seasoning:

·        Curry leaves: 3 sprigs

·        Vinegar: 1 cup

·        Red chili: 8 nos

·        Asafetida (Perungayam / Hing): ½ tsp

·        Salt to taste

    

Method of preparation:

·        Cut the mutton into small pieces.

·        Heat some edible oil in a skillet on medium flame.

·        Add Cinnamon stick, Cloves, Star Anise and fry for about two minutes.

·        Take the spices out of oil and dry them on a blotting paper.

·        Grind them into powder.

·        Heat about half a cup of edible oil in a heavy bottom large skillet on medium flame.

·        Add ginger paste and garlic paste and fry till light brown.

·        Add red chili powder, black pepper powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and fennel seeds.

·        Fry for about a minute on low heat.

·        Add mutton pieces and stir well with the spices.

·        Add a little water and salt to taste.

·        Continue cooking on low heat until the meat is very well cooked.

·        Add a cup of oil and fry meat till light brown.

·        Heat about half cup of oil in a pan.

·        Add curry leaves, red chili, and asafetida, powder of star anise, clove and cinnamon.

·        Fry for about a minute.

·        Transfer all to the mutton, stir, and fry for some time.

·        Add vinegar and cook for two minutes.

·        Remove from flame.

·        Allow it to cool of its own.

·        Store the pickle in a dry container for a day and thereafter keep the container in refrigerator so as to consume and enjoy its taste from the third day onwards.

Paneer

Indian Cheese, Cottage Cheese, paneer, or panir gives a rich and creamy flavour when used in cooking.

Ingredients:

·        Full cream milk: 1 Litre

·        Lemon juice: 1tblsp

Method of preparation:

·        Boil the milk and add the lemon juice.

·        Continue boiling till the milk curdles completely.

·        Filter with the help of a muslin cloth.

·        Add water generously and continue filtering to remove the sour taste.

·        Wrap the muslin cloth and squeeze so as to get paneer.

·        Place this wrapped paneer on a stainer and place any heavy weight on top of it so as to drain the left over traces of water and to obtain firm paneer.

·        Wait for about an hour or more and take out the paneer from the cloth.

·        Cut into pieces according to your requirement.

Paneer is used in dishes like Mattar paneer, Saag paneer or Palak paneer, Shahi paneer, Shahi tukda, Paneer tikka, Kadai paneer, Chili Paneer, Paneer pakora or Paneer fritters, Rasmalai, Rasgulla, Paneer Capsicum, etc.

Food Quotations

Quotations  on Food

·        Facts are to the mind what food is to the body. -- Edmund Burke

·        Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture. -- Mark Kurlansky

·        Food is an important part of a balanced diet. -- Fran Lebowitz

·        Food is our common ground, a universal experience. -- James Beard

·        Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war? -- George C. Lichtenberg

·        Food should be enjoyed rather than endured. -- Steve Hamilton

·        God comes to the hungry in the form of food.   --Mahatma Gandhi

·        God gives all birds their food but does not drop it into their nests. -- Danish Proverb

·        Good food ends with good talk. --Geoffrey Neighbor

·        I no longer prepare food or drink with more than one ingredient. -- Cyra McFadden

·        If food is poetry, is not poetry also food? -- Joyce Carol Oates

·        If junk food is the devil, then a sweet orange is as scripture. -- Audrey Foris

·        If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. -- J. R. R. Tolkien

·        If we're not willing to settle for junk living, we certainly shouldn't settle for junk food. -- Sally Edwards

·        In terms of fast food and deep understanding of the culture of fast food, I'm your man. -- Bill Gates

·        Laughter is brightest where food is best.   -- Irish Proverb

·        Never order food in excess of your body weight. -- Erma Bombeck

·        Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly. -- M. F. K. Fisher

·        There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.  -- Mahatma Gandhi

·        There is no love sincerer than the love of food.  --   George Bernard Shaw

·        There is nothing to which men, while they have food and drink, cannot reconcile themselves.  -- George Santayana

·        They are all but stomachs, and we all but food; they eat us hungrily, and when they are full, they belch us. -- William Shakespeare

·        Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. -- Alice May Brock

·        What is food to one, is to others bitter poison. -- Lucretius