Chaat - Bollywood style!

Bollywood ...

Crazy hindi movies ... guy and gal running around trees ... melodrama with moms and moms-in-law ... crazy villain dude coming after defenseless heroine ... hero flexing his skimpy muscles as he pounces on the villain and his cronies and beats them to pulp ... guy and gal dancing on a train ... the plots go on and on ... and on! :)

The most popular question ever encountered about desi movies:

"So, are all Bollywood movies musicals?"

No! Atleast, I think not :) I mean, bollywood movies have oodles of songs, and folks break out into dance at every opportunity ... but they aren't "musicals", just doesn't seem right to brand them such ... guess they're just insanity-filled movies with tons of music? Does that even make any sense? :)

Anyway, Meeta set off ripples of excitement when she picked Bollywood Cooking as the theme for the current edition of Monthly Mingle. Who doesn't want to think of crazy indian movies and delicious food at the same time?

So, what food could be quintessential Bollywood? Chaat is the first thing that came to mind! "Chaat" literally means "to taste or to lick", so how about some chatpata chaat to honour Bollywood? And what food epitomizes Bombay more than Pav Bhaji? It is probably only rivaled by Vada Pav - and after eating that on the streets of Bombay, there is no way in hell I'm attempting to replicate it. Some things are best preserved in memory, and vada pav is one such thing ... until I can troll those dusty Bombay streets for some'o'that vada love!

So ... what is Pav Bhaji? Simply put, a motley assortment of veggies mashed together on a flat tava and cooked up with tomato puree, some spices, a wonk of butter? Throw in some pan-fried bread, sliced up onions, slivers of lime ... and you're in heaven!

****

According to Wikipedia:

The origin of this dish is traced to the heyday of the textile mills in Mumbai. The mill workers used to have a short break for lunch. A full lunch which was not rushed probably needed more time than what was available. A light lunch was also preferred given that physical work followed immediately. A vendor understood this and came up with this dish using items or parts of them available on the menu. The role of Indian bread or rice was taken up by pav and the curries that usually go with Indian bread or rice were amalgamated into just one spicy concoction-the ‘bhaji’. Thus was born– the celebrated pav-bhaji!

Initally, it remained as the food of the mill-workers. The dish was then patronized extensively by the upcoming Mumbai underworld. This resulted in the dish finding its way into restaurants and spreading over Central Mumbai and other areas. The pav bhaji was made famous by the various roles played by Bollywood heroes as pav bhaji vendors, notable amongst them being the one played by Sanjay Dutt in the movie Vaastav.

Ooo ... an obvious Bollywood connection! I couldn't ask for more than that :)

****

Anyway, PB recipes are a dime a dozen - often guarded jealously to protect the "secret" ingredients. But then again, it is one of the most flexible chaat recipes - most random assortments of veggies usually do the trick. Obviously, the flat tava on the open fire adds the ultimate flavour ... along with the flitting flies and the street smells!

Chatpata Pav Bhaji
Bollywood ishtyle! :)

Servings: 4

1 small vidalia onion - finely chopped
5 cloves garlic - minced
1" ginger - minced
3 green chillies - sliced long
2 cups frozen peas
2 carrots - chopped
2 medium yukon gold potatoes - chopped
1 red bell pepper - chopped
1 tomato - chopped fine
5-6 T San Marzano tomato puree
2 T pav bhaji masala
1 t sumac powder
1 t red chilli powder
3 T lime juice
2 T butter
salt to taste

Garnish

Slices of limes
Thin rings of red onions
Cilantro

Steam the veggies (potatoes, carrots, peas and bell peppers) till well-cooked (Alternatively, you can throw them into a pressure cooker)
In the meantime, heat 1 T of butter in a shallow wok and saute the onions till they start to brown.
Throw in the ginger, garlic and green chillies and saute some more.
Add 3 T of the tomato puree and cook for a couple more minutes.
Add the sumac powder and red chilli powder along with the chopped tomatoes and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Once the veggies are cooked, add them to the wok and stir.
Mash the vegetables with a potato masher or a hand blender.
Add the pav bhaji masala and remaining tomato puree and cook covered for 2-3 minutes.
Add 1 T butter and stir for a few more minutes.

Seriously, the longer the veggies simmer together, the better the flavours blend. And if you can get your hands on a giant flat tava, go for it! :)

Season with salt and take off the stove.
Stir in the lime juice after a couple of minutes.

We served the bhaji with slices of lightly buttered herbed bread browned over open fire.

****

Notes:

* We just happened to have our homemade pav bhaji masala on hand, I'll remember to post the recipe for it later this week.
* Most PB recipes call for cauliflower, but we skipped it this time around. And we didn't really miss it.
* San Marzano tomato puree honestly kicks ass - the ultimate plum tomato flavour, if you can get your hands on it, don't settle for anything else!

****

Opinion?

Mmm ... *so* close to the real thing. I closed my eyes and I could see Junior Dutt-saheb dishing out plates of PB on Juhu beach (I have no idea if he really did that in the movie!) :)


Off this goes to Meeta for MM. This is *so* not a glamorous or elegant dish by any means, but it seems so evocative of the sights, sounds and smells of Bollywood. Besides, I can't imagine this hunk ever declining a plate of Pav Bhaji!




P.S.: I finally get to pay homage to the very first song in my running mix :)

Green = good, Green+Tofu = better!

Eat your spinach, you no good infink. Eat it. EAT IT. Eat it.
- Poopdeck Pappy

Saag Paneer has always been a household favourite - aromatic and flavourful greens cooked up with toasted, crunchy cheese bits. Saag and Palak are used interchangeably so often, more so because there is no exact equivalent for those greens in the U.S. For the most part, palak is just spinach and saag is a combination of spinach and mustard greens. But most folks I know often use a variety of greens when making saag - the more flavourful and diverse the greens, the merrier, right? :)

In line with the recent push for healthy, high-protein and high-fibre recipes, I embarked on a variation of this popular greens dish from North India. I had a bunch of collard greens as well as some spinach and microgreens - this olio of leaves could definitely make for interesting saag, right? Also, in an effort to cut back on the fat, I decided to try this out with tofu instead of paneer. That was a big sacrifice - there are few things as delicious as fresh homemade paneer - the subtle residual lemon smell blending with the pungency of the curds ... *so* good!

Anyway, the idea was the toast the tofu bits till they turned out crispy - that was the closest I could think of as a paneer alternative. Also, I went with a blend of cashews and almonds to enhance the creaminess of the palak instead of just cashews - it seemed like this would enhance the diverse palak flavours.

Saag Tofu
High Protein Vegan Bliss

Servings: 4

1 bunch of collard greens
1/2 bunch of spinach
2 handfuls of microgreens (arugula, baby endive, baby chard, mizuna, tatsoi, sorrel, etc)
1 medium sized tomato
1/2 red onion
1/2 block of tofu (160 gms)
4 cloves of garlic
1" ginger
3-4 green chillies
1 t cumin seeds
1/4 cup cashews+almonds
1 T coriander-cumin powder
1 t turmeric powder
1 t red chilli powder (cayenne would work)
1/2" stick of cinnamon
2 cloves
1 cardamon pod
1 T sesame oil

Lightly roast the cinnamon, cloves and cardamon before grinding them along with the cashews and almonds into a fine masala.
Grind the ginger and garlic into a thick paste.
Blanch the tomato in hot water, peel and puree.
Blanch the spinach and microgreens in hot water for 2-3 minutes before grinding to a fine paste.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and roast the cumin seeds.
Once they brown, add the onions and green chillies.
Saute for a few minutes till the onions turn brown.
Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute a bit more.
Now add the red chilli powder, turmeric and coriander-cumin powder and stir for a minute.
Throw in the tomato puree along with the collard greens.
Simmer covered for 6-7 minutes till greens are cooked.
Cool before pureeing this mixture - you could leave it somewhat coarse or make it into a smooth paste.
Add the spinach-microgreens puree along with the masala (spices+nuts mixture) and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Season with salt.

Dice the tofu, lightly douse with oil spray and toast or broil till the pieces get crispy and brown on the edges.
Add the tofu to the saag and cook on low for a couple more minutes.

Season with cilantro or even a dollop of malai or creme fraiche.

Serve over seasoned rice (jeera rice is a great option) or with rotis.



Any good?

This was great! For some reason, it felt much lighter than regular saag, but totally flavourful. And the mix of greens was awesome ... got to love those collards! :) The only thing I would change going forward is to make the dish a little thicker. I got carried away with adding water when I was trying to puree the greens - sometimes patience is a noble virtue!

***

Similar greens recipes

Sailu's Food - Palak Paneer
Mahanandi - Palak Paneer
Nupur's Spinach recipes

***

Off this goes to Ulrike from Kuchenlatein for WHB (Kalyn's brainchild).

And the beet obsession continues ...

Over the last several weeks, I've been feeling a lot of beet love - like this time and this and several more that I didn't write about - Maybe this blog should really be Cooking from Beet to Z? :)

Well, January hasn't had a beet post yet, and this simple daal recipe was so light and flavourful that we just have to talk about it! I was originally hoping to concoct a marinated beets + moong sprouts salad, but on a cold winter night, the craving was for something warm and heartier. Seriously, it feels like January has been one giant wet blanket, cloudy and rainy all the time, I'm totally ready for a sunbreak!

In this recipe, we went with a simple stir fry of red onions, beets, some yellow squash and cherry tomatoes finally topped off with cooked masoor daal. The seasoning was really simple too - cumin and a dash of fenugreek. But the best part of it was the generous squeeze of Meyer lemon juice at the end - this totally livened up the dish and imparted this sweet-sour flavour that went really well with the dominant beet tastes.

Beet Daal
With a generous dash of citrus love!

Servings: 2

1 cup of masoor daal
1/2 red onion - sliced long
2 beets - peeled and julienned
1/2 yellow squash - sliced long
4-5 cherry tomatoes
3-4 thai green chillies - sliced long
1 t cumin seeds
1 t sesame oil
1/2 t fenugreek seeds - freshly roasted and ground
kosher salt
juice of 1 Meyer lemon

Cook the masoor daal on the stove or in a pressure cooker till done (I typically use 1.5 cups of water for a cup of masoor daal)

Heat the oil in a wok and roast the cumin seeds till brown.
Add the onions and green chillies and saute till the onions start to brown.
Throw in the beets and squash and saute for 4-5 minutes.
Now add the tomatoes along with the fenugreek and cook covered on low for another 2-3 minutes.
Season with salt and saute for another 30 seconds.

Stir in the lemon juice just before serving.


Good?
We loved it! Simple flavours that made for a delicious daal!

Machli ka Salan and much more!

Last week, we were hankering for a desi cookout - well, that's pretty normal except this time we decided to try out a fish recipe.

Being relatively new to eating fish, I often end up going for simple flavors that easily showcase the fish - marinades followed by grilling or broiling. But this time, we wanted obvious desi flavors, so we attempted this salan recipe from Art of Indian Cuisine by Rocky Mohan. BTW, I'm digging this book more by the recipe - it distinctly lacks cooking times, but makes up for it by showcasing really flavorful and often different dishes.

Once we picked our fish recipe, the next step was finding the right sides - after a little deliberation, we decided to skip rice and went with Aloo Kurma and collard green rotis - another greens fix :)

Madison Market has become a pretty good destination for reliable fish - the folks behind the counter totally know what they're talking about and are pretty amiable about picking the right size of fillets - especially since I'm not a fan of thick slabs of fish that don't cook through easily. The recipe just called for white fish, we we went with true cod. And we ended up skipping the mint that the recipe asked for and just used dry spices along with ginger and garlic for the marinade.

Machli ka Salan
Fish Fillet Treats

Servings: 3

1 lb true cod fillets

Marinade:
1 T red chilli powder
4-5 garlic cloves
1" ginger
1 t turmeric powder
1 T coriander powder (freshly roasted and ground works best)

1 T butter
1 large white onion - finely chopped
salt to taste

Rub the fish fillets with the marinade and set aside for 45-50 minutes.
Heat the clarified butter in a large frying pan and add the chopped onions.
Sauté until light brown in colour.
Add the marinated fish fillets.
Reduce the heat and add 1/2 a cup of warm water and salt.
Simmer, stirring carefully, taking care the fish pieces do not break.
Cook until the fish is tender and the gravy is thick.

What did we think?
Perfect. Seriously. One of the best fish dishes we've ever made.

Alu Kurma
Yay! Potatoes!

Serves: 3-4

1 lb fingerling potatoes - sliced into chunks
1 cup of thick yogurt

Masala:
Dry roast and grind to a paste with a little water

2 T almond - blanched, peeled and sliced
1 T grated coconut
1 T poppy seeds
1 T coriander seeds
1 T red chilli powder

1 T olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped onions
1 t grated ginger
3 cloves garlic - smashed
Salt to taste

Whisk the yogurt with the roasted spice paste and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok, saute the onions+ginger+garlic till golden brown.
Add the potatoes and saute for 3-4 minutes.
Add 2-3 T of water, stir and cook covered for 4-6 minutes.
Add the yogurt mixture and salt and stir.
Cook for 5 minutes and add 3/4 cup of warm water.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook the potatoes are tender and the gravy is thick.

At this point, we ended up tossing the potatoes+gravy into a baking pan and baking it covered for about 15 minutes at 300 F.

What did we think?
Daria thought it tasted perfect, but we think the poppy seeds was a bit much - we'll probably scale back on that next time, but otherwise, the potatoes were perfectly cooked and absorbed the masala flavours really well.

Collard Greens Rotis
Go Grrreeeennnnnn :)

Servings: many many rotis

3 cups of whole wheat flour
6-7 leaves of collard greens - cleaned and shredded into small pieces
1 t salt
1 T cayenne powder
1 t cumin seeds
1/2 cup warm milk
warm water for kneading
1 T sesame oil

Cook the collard greens in about 1 cup of water till softened - this took about 5 minutes.
Knead the dough with the greens, salt, spices and milk, adding water as needed.
Once well mixed, add the oil and knead for another 5-7 minutes.
Cover the dough with a wet towel for about 20 minutes before rolling out rotis.

These were *good*! Think we'll make parathas with them next time around and maybe just stuff them with a spiced collard mix, that sounds a lot more exciting :)

Wine Pairings:
All french - a Chateauneuf du Pape (which was fabulous, thanks Daria!), a Gigondas that was quite yummy and one more that I've forgotten the name of!



The meal was fabulous, but the pictures were subpar. Oh well!

Root vegetable kurma

Beetroots. *drool*.

Every once in a while, I dream of frolicking in this endless vegetable garden. And my garden is teeming with beets - those fabulous crimson nether parts :)

Red beets, sugar beets, chiogga beets, they all taste fabulous - earthy, sweet, succulent, flavorful, pungent, I could go on, huh? Apparently, there are the globe-shaped varietals that we regularly encounter, and then there are the cylindrical ones that I haven't seen yet - these carrot-shaped beets are apparently more common in intensive vegetable plots.

Beet Etymology Trivia:

* Maybe from an imagined resemblance to the greek letter beta - this sounds like a serious stretch of imagination!
* Maybe from the Celtic word "bett" meaning red - a little more plausible, I guess.

Parsnips. *drool*.

My dream garden is also teeming with parsnips - easily one of my favorite vegetable smells.

They make for fabulous soups, taste divine when roasted. the options are endless! And the nutrition value is a total bonus - it is replete with potassium and dietary fibre. I'm definitely planting some of these next year.

Random Parsnip Trivia:

* Considered to be an aphrodisiac by the Romans - more reason to eat them, Yay!
* In Ireland, it was used for making beer and wine


So, what could be better than a dish that combines beet and beet greens and parsnips?! Wooooo!! This was another quick recipe that exploded with earthy flavours, meant to be made
again and again.

Root Vegetable Kurma
Beets, Parnips, Onions ... Yum!

Servings: 2

1 yellow onion - sliced long
1 red beet - julienned
2 medium chiogga beets - julienned
2 small parsnips - julienned
a handful of chopped beet greens
7-8 curry leaves
1 large vine tomato - chopped
1 T grated ginger
4 cloves garlic - smashed
4 green chillies - sliced long
1 T sesame oil
salt

Masala:
1/2" stick cinnamon
2 cloves
1 cardamom pod
1 t turmeric
1 T grated coconut
1 t khuskhus

Dry roast all the masala ingredients and grind to a coarse powder.
Heat the oil in a wok and saute the onions and curry leaves till they start to brown.
Add the ginger, garlic and green chillies and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Now toss in the beets and parsnips and cook covered on low for 5-6 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and beet greens along with the ground masala and salt and stir.
Simmer covered for 7-8 minutes.

Serve with rotis - we ended up making rolls stuffed with the kurma - worked really well :)

Ole for Chole!

Hmm ... lots of craving for desi flavors lately - I blame it on the festival season! :) Actually, the main reason we ended up making a simple chole a few nights ago was because we were hoping to make do with the stuff living in the pantry. We finally ended up making a quick trip to Madison Market when I put the kibosh on making naans - which we eventually regretted since the Indian Life naans we bought were totally lame - but that's another story! :)

Anyway, we poked around the shelves and found several cans of garbanzo ... Yay! Chole for dinner. I love, love Chole, best when the chickpeas have been steeped in the juices and spices for a few hours. Hmm ... seemed like we weren't going to achieve that level of food bliss, but we could get close! We started off poking around Indira's recipe, but I finally decided I wanted more flavor - especially the ginger-garlic-green chilli explosion. So, we went with our own version of it, actually Pupp cooked most of it, I just was liberal with the free advice! :)

Chole

Servings: 2

1 can garbanzo beans
2 medium roma tomatoes - finely chopped
1 vidalia onion
3 cloves garlic
1" ginger
1 green chilly
1 t turmeric
1 t cayenne pepper
1 T sesame oil
1 t cumin seeds
1 t curry powder (ya, we took the easy way out :))
2 T lemon juice
a handful of chopped cilantro

Mince the onions, garlic, ginger and green chilli in a food processor to get a coarse paste.
Heat the oil in a work and add the cumins seeds. Once roasted, add the onions, etc paste. Keep stirring this till the onions smell cooked and have started browning.
Add the chopped tomatoes and saute for about 6-7 minutes.
Grind about 1/4 of the garbanzo beans and set aside. Toss the remaining garbanzo along with the turmeric, curry powder, cayenne and salt into the wok and cook covered for about 10 minutes.
Now add the ground garbanzo along with about 1/2 cup of water. Simmer covered for another 15 minutes with constant stirring. Mix in the lemon juice and garnish with cilantro.

We were really hoping to get the flavors to soak in with the extra simmering - I'm thinking a great alternative would be to cook this mixture in a crockpot for about an hour or maybe even bake it? Has anyone done that?

Ok, so now to the sub-par part of the meal - the naans! I knew I should've just made them myself!!! Instead we got the small Indian Life naans - these were really not good enough! I'm thinking I need to fry some yummy bhature to compensate for this the next time around! :)

Oh, and we actually had a pretty good wine pairing here - a Heron Syrah 2003 - the motley of spicy flavors worked surprisingly well! :)

Rajmah Anardhana ... sort of! :)

Every once in a while, I get a craving for a different kind of lentils - not the usual tuar dhal with some veggies. So, I poked around my books until I found this recipe for rajmah (who wouldn't love that?!) flavored with pomegranate seeds. Rock! I got all excited about this! Wait ... no rajmah - canned or raw! And I don't feel like running to the store. Hmm ... how about white kidney beans instead? A lot softer, but it might work. And it did! The next time around, I might go a little easier on the masala, seems like the red beans absorb a lot more of the spices than the cannellini beans.


The original recipe that I based off of (someday, I'll try to follow a recipe all the way instead of improvising along the way :)) is from Art of Indian Cuisine - I bought this book at Landmark last year.

Rajmah Anardhana
(my morphed version!)

2 C of cannellini beans
1T butter
1 onion - minced
2t ginger paste
2t garlic paste
1/2 C tomato puree
1t turmeric

2T pomegranate seeds

For the masala
===========
2t dhania seeds
3 red chillies
2t jeera seeds
4 cloves
1" cinnamon
rock salt

Dry roast and grind the spices for the masala.

How to:
======
Cook the beans (if using raw beans) in about 6 cups of water till tender, mash some of the beans against the side of the pan
Heat the butter and add the onions, ginger and garlic. I massively cut down on the butter needed, so this step took quite a while!
Add the tomato puree and cook for another minute
Throw in the masala and turmeric along with the salt and cook for 2-3 minutes
Add the beans to this and bring to a boil - takes about 5-7 minutes

Dry roast and grind the pomegranate seeds to a fine powder before adding it to the beans. Garnish with a ton of cilantro :)

I felt the craving for salad, indian style, to go with this. So, I chopped up a bunch of veggies and drizzled them with lemon-ginger juice. It made for a much prettier picture than most other dishes! :)