Valakkai bajji

INGREDIENTS:

Raw banana-1 sliced using a mandolin
Besan- 1 cup
Rice Flour- 1/4 cup
Asafoetida- To taste
Orange food color- Optional
Salt-To taste
Red chilli powder- To taste, around 1 tsp
Hot oil- 1 tsp
Baking soda- 1/8 tsp or a pinch

PROCEDURE:

• Slice raw banana using a mandolin
• Mix the bajji batter with all ingredients with water and bring it to a dripping consistency where the batter flows a little but not too watery. Hot oil brings crispiness to the bajjis.
• Dip the raw banana slices in the batter and put in hot oil. Always use medium flame to fry, this will ensure uniform cooking.
• Drain excess oil in paper towels and serve hot with chutney of your choice. 
• Eat with hot chai or coffee and you are in heaven. Perfect weekend or Friday evening snack to enjoy.
• If you have excess batter, you can use bread, onions, potato to make bajjis.
• Tip: Besan flour to rice flour is 1:4 ratio.

Agra ki Kachodi with Aaloo ki Subji

Karnataka express used to chug into Agra Cantt. at about 7:50AM. A quick cycle rickshaw ride later, there I was, in my Nani's Koti (Bunglow), savoring Garama Garam Kachodi, aaloo ki subji and Jalebi for breakfast while my Nani lovingly piled more on my plate. Sinful? yes, but absolutely delicious.

Here I am now, In Denver, on the other side of the globe from Agra and those hevenly Kachodi's. The only thing that keeps me going? I can make them now! And no, its not that hard.

In this post, the recipe of the standard, no frills Kachodi with Aaloo ki Subji. This is what you'll see most people eat in Uttar Pradesh. The stuffing is with urad daal. The subji is very spicy, and has more green chillies in it then potato. It is not served with chutney. Just kachodi & subji. Enjoy kachodi the Agra way!

Servings: 10 Kachodi's
Dough:
Maida (All purpose flour) - 1cup
Oil for kneading - 3tbsp
Salt - 1tsp
Water - 1/3 cup

Stuffing:
Washed urad daal - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - To taste
Red chilli powder - 1tsp
Dhaniya powder - 1tsp
Amchoor powder - 1tsp
Ginger powder - 1tsp (or 1tbsp grated ginger)
Fennel powder - 1.5tsp
Hing - pinch

Prep Work:
1. To begin, soak the urad daal for a couple of hours.

2. Mix salt into the flour. Rub salt into the flour. At this stage if you try to bind the flour with your fist and then release your fist, the flour should retain shape. Note: More the oil rubbed into the flour, lesser the water needed to knead it, more flaky the kachodis will be. The same holds true for Samosa's. Now start adding water into this slowly, while stirring & mixing with your hand the whole time. In a few minutes you'll have a soft dough. cover it with a wet cloth and keep it aside.

3. Once the urad daal is soaked enough, grind it to a very coarse paste. Now, heat one Tbsp oil in a pan, and add all the dry masalas and ginger (powder or fresh) to it. Then add the daal and salt. Roast it for sometime. If its too dry, sprinkle some water. Make sure to roast it until the daal does not taste raw anymore.

Now for Making the kachodi:

Take a small ball of dough. (Size of a ball for poori's). Flatten it slightly. Fill 1 tbsp of stuffing in it and close it like you would close a parantha. Keep it aside for a few minutes while the dough relaxes a bit. Stuff all the balls you have. Then one by one, flatten them either with a rolling pin or by hand. Make sure to not put too much pressure on it, or else, the dal may make holes in the dough and then you'll have oil filling up in your kachdi's when you fry them.

Now comes frying:

A few things to remember: First, with both kachodi's and samosa's, the oil should NOT be too hot. I usually fry it at 4 or so. If you put the kachodi in the oil, it should not start coming up and bubbling and hizzing as soon as you put it in. Second, keep the oil on low heat until the very end. Once they look done (should not be soft), then turn the heat to high and brown them.

So start adding kachodi's to the oil. Don't pile them on top of each other. And then sit and wait patiently until they get done. You'll see them puff up around the 2 min mark. Turn them over and continue frying.

Once they look done (cooked , but not brown), turn up the heat. Fry them till they are brown.
Thats it!
Now, the alloo ki sabji is really simple. Boil potatoes. Heat ghee/oil in a pan, add hing, jeera, grated ginger, as many green chillies (finely chopped) as you can tolerate. Then some red chilli powder, dhaniya powder, Amchoor (dry mango powder).
Add one finely chopped tomato (this is optional. They dont really add this, but I like it). Roast for a minute or so, Add about 2 cups of water and the boiled potatoes (slightly mashed).
Boil for 2-3 minutes. Then add a good amount of garam - masala. Garnish with cilantro and done!
Amazing amazing kachodi aur aloo ki sabji tayyaaar!

No fry Batata vadas/Mysore Bondas

Potatoes - Boiled and mashed(5-6 or as per requirements)
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
green chillies - chopped fine - 3-4 or to taste
ginger, grated fine - 1-2 tsp or to taste
asafoetida - a few pinches
cilantro (coriander) leaves, chopped - for garnish
garlic minced (optional)
salt - to taste
turmeric powder - 1/2 a tsp
lime juice of 1 lime
oil - 1 -2 tsp

Besan (chana dal flour) - about a cup
salt
turmeric powder

Sputter mustard seeds in oil and add asafoetida, garlic, chillies and ginger in that order. When chillies are fried enough, add the mashed potatoes, salt and turmeric powder and stir well. Remove from fire and add chopped cilantro and lime juice and mix.

Make a very thick paste of besan, with water in the consistency of idli batter or thick yogurt so that it sticks to the potato balls. Add turmeric powder and salt and keep aside.

Heat an appam/paniyaram pan and add a little oil to every appam mould in the pan. If you have a nonstick like mine (or a seasoned cast iron pan), no oil is required. When the potatoes have cooled down enough for handling comfort, make small balls of the potato bhaaji (curry) and dip in besan batter and place them on the moulds of the pan. Once the batter does not stick to the pan and has brown spots, turn over and cook again. Depending on oil used and shape of the bondas/vadas they may not be brown all over but will still be cooked and taste good.

Serve with chutney of choice (green and sweet chutney or coconut chutney) or with pav as vada pav with green, sweet and dry garlic chutney.

pav and bhaji from scratch

While the original author and I call this pav and it did go well with bhaji, if you are searching for an authentic pav recipe, this is not it. The recipe is based off of this wonderful whole wheat bread recipe.
The bread is like French bread (crisp crust with a very soft non crumbly inside). The recipe asks for bread flour and whole wheat flour (the kind available in the US). I had neither and the bread still turned out great with my substitutions. The bread is very heavy and 1-2 large pavs will suffice for most people.
So here goes my first experience with the yeasty bread beasties.

Serves 6
Kneading time: 30 min
1st rise: 2 hours to even overnight
2nd rise: 30 minutes - 2 hours
baking time :10 - 15 minutes

3 cups atta (Indian whole wheat flour)
1.5 cups cake flour/all purpose flour
3 tblsp melted butter
2.5 cups milk ( I used skim milk)
2-2.5 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp sugar
6 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp butter for brushing

Warm the milk and set aside. Add salt to a large mixing bowl followed by the flour and melted butter. In a small bowl (say a half cup measure bowl or similar) add the sugar, yeast and a few tbsp of milk, mix and blend with the dough. Now while adding the rest of the milk little by little, make a dough similar in consistency to roti dough (a dough which comes together nicely without sticking). If you feel like you need more liquid, either more milk or water would work. Since the dough uses milk, it might feel a little sticky but carpel-tunnel inducing kneading should get you a good dough without the addition of more flour or milk than stated. A man's hands in this final stage of kneading will work wonders while breaking less sweat. (This is my way of saying thanks to G !)


Close the bowl with a plate/lid/wrap and leave in a warm place (an oven with the lights on) for atleast 2 hours or till it doubles in volume. Now for the second stage of preparing the bread rounds I followed the original recipe exactly.

Divide the dough into 12 equal parts. Make a ball of 1 portion of the dough, flick a drop of water onto the surface of the dough and ball it up some more before placing on a greased pan. Repeat for other portions and place them an inch apart. I was not sure what a floured tea towel was - so just use a clean towel to cover the pan and place it back in the oven/warm place for the second rise.

Give it a couple hours (or until they double in volume), remove the towel and bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes. Stick a toothpick and if it comes out clean, the bread is done. Remove from oven, and brush with butter. I used a butter knife which worked very well and place back in the oven for 5 minutes at 375 F. Place in a cooling rack (or colander).


Notes:
1. Add milk little by little. Adding a lot of milk at once makes the dough hard to knead.
2. The exact duration you let the dough rise does not seem to matter. In fact the more the better.
3. Using a baking sheet may have given better results than my almost burnt(= very brown but tasty) bread base.
4. This bread is very heavy. If you make 12 with this amount of dough, 1 bread is equal to 1 cup of rice in weight watcher points.
5. I left the dough overnight for 1 batch (picture 1) and a couple of hours for another (picture 3). I did like the overnight batch better but the shorter rise batch was tasty as well.
6. 2 tsp salt makes a slightly bland bread while 3 tsp makes a slightly salty bread - bread which G says has character.
7. Naan made from leftover dough comes out soft and tasty. (except that it stills smells like bread :-()

While my quest for authentic pav continues, this recipe would sure make a reappearance in my kitchen.
Happy baking !

Bhaji:

Of course I tried the blog-world famous Bombay style Bhaji recipe from here. While I liked it, I am unable to say that this is the best bhaji ever. Before I go critiquing the recipe I should add that I did not follow the proportions exactly but I did stick to the ingredients mentioned. Also made my own pav bhaji masala spice blend.

Notes on Bhaji making:
1. I like my bhaji as smooth as possible. In this regard, I did not care for the bell peppers as they are impossible to mash up completely. In the end, I guess they added a nice dimension.
2. I missed the onions :-( .. Specifically the onion tomato mixed flavor.
3. Next time I try this recipe I would stick to the proportions mentioned and see if it yields better results. Mine had more potatoes I think. (7 potatoes for a medium head and 1 frozen packet of cauliflower, 2 bell peppers)

It bothers me that even cookbooks take the liberty of saying 'Add Pav Bhaji masala powder available in stores', as if Everest and MDH have patented the blend. So in my quest for a home-made blend, I found this one recipe - pav bhaji masala powder. This serves the purpose quite well.