Another family dish called BHANAVALA (bha-nav-la)

Another classic dish from my grandma, executed to perfection by my mum. Have been relishing this from a very long time. A beautiful snack item. The dish has a marathi name and has been renamed to 'grandma's traditional vegetable pie'. This dish also can become non-vegetarian dish by adding some prawns (and gosh! it tastes mind-blowing). Want to try by adding bits of chicken pieces to the recipe next time around. As of now, it's a whole-some vegetarian snack!!!




  The dish was always prepared in round utensil with a hollow centre. This mould with open centre is used because it quickly cooks (as the steam can penetrate from the center as well as the sides).

Since, it is difficult to find such an utensil in most households, have decided to bake it in a oven. The taste did not change and also the cooking time drastically reduced from 90 - 120 minutes to about 45 to 50 minutes.

Grandma’s traditional vegetable pie

Before we start, do not get overwhelmed or anxious looking at the number of ingredients. It’s a very simple dish and does not need much preparations..

    

Sr.	Ingredients	Qty
1	Cabbage	100 gm
2	Onion	1
3	Tomato	1 (small)
4	Carrots	1 (small)
5	Green peas	½ cup
6	Ginger-garlic paste	1 tbpsn
7	Cumin powder	1 tbpsn
8	coriander powder	1 tbpsn
9	Red chili powder	1 tbpsn
10	Turmeric powder	1 tbpsn
11	Sugar	1 tbpsn
12	Salt	To taste
13	Coconut milk	½ cup
14	Besan (gram flour)	2 tbpsn
15	Chana dal	1 cup
16	Water	½ cup
17	Oil	½ cup
18	Salt	To taste

Method

1.    Soak the chana dal in water for 3 to 4 hours. Blend the dal in the mixer (consistency should be coarse; don’t blend it to give it a very smooth consistency). Keep aside

2.    Add ½ cup water to the coconut milk and keep aside

Assemble all ingredients together (you dont see coconut
milk, chana dal and besan in the picture; its somewhere
in the background)



4.    Mix all ingredients from sr. 1 to sr. 12 in a big flat vessel (till such time the spices are evenly distributed)



Grinded chanal dal added to the vegetable mixture



In goes the besan and coconut milk (with water)

5.    Add besan, the blended dal and coconut milk to the vegetable mixture and keep combing it till all the flavors are evenly distributed (do a taste check and feel free to add salt, sugar or more spices)

6.    Heat ½ cup oil and pour the hot oil in the vegetable mixture and give nice last mix

7.    Preheat the oven at 230 celsius and bake the dish at 230o for a good 45 minutes (it’s done when the top starts giving cracks and turns brown)

8. Ready to be served with some tangy ketchup

the served pie (oops!!where is the ketchup)

another pose (from a different
angle)

3.    Slice the cabbage, onion, tomato and carrots in small pieces (not very fine or thick)

Dimsums / dumplings / momos !!!

One of my favorite dishes from the oriental cuisine!! Actually, all the cuisines in the world have different kinds of dumplings or dimsums, but in different ways (like the Italians have the ravioli and tortellini). The oriental dimsums / momo’s are the most common and have been promoted well and hence we know them by these names. There is a sweet and a savory variety.

In Indian cuisines (and these could be relatable), we have the sweet gujia’s, karanji’s (kajjikayi in kananda and telegu) and ada (kerala) are the sweet varieties, whereas gujia’s (stuffed with peas), pitha (bihar, oriya) and our most popular samosa are the savory ones.

I have left one out from the list and that is our own maharastrian Modak (ganpati’s favorite) is a classic sweet delicacy and is mostly made during the month of ganpati’s arrival.

It was 6:30am on 25^th September and I was wide awake, especially surprising when this is a Sunday. I had decided that Sunday lunch will comprise of a dimsum and a dip. Since, I had got all the ingredients necessary from the market on Saturday evening, decided to prepare the stuffing that will go in the dimsum.

Chicken dimsums

dimsums in the steamer; layered on banana leaf

Ingredients             

Chicken mince	300 gm
Dumpling (wonton) sheets	10	Used spring roll sheets for the recipe
Coriander	2 tbspn	Finely chopped
Ginger	2 tbpsn	Finely chopped
Soya sauce	2 tbpsn
Pepper	To taste	Use coarse pepper
Salt	To taste

Method

1.    Finely slice the ginger and coriander

2.    Mix all the ingredients in a vessel and leave aside to rest (more the better)

3.    Take a little portion of the mixture and arrange on the sheets (I picked up spring roll sheets, which are readily available) and fold them nicely (the sheets were not soft and hence I just rolled them in a way it resembled a spring roll; the sheets were tearing off when I tried to give a shape)

4.    Steam the dimsums in a steamer for 3 to 4 minutes

1. I used bamboo steamer for this dish
2. Layered the bamboo steamer with banana leaves (so that the dimums don’t stick to the bottom and can easily be removed)
3. The steamer which went into a big vessel was covered with so much water, that it does not touch the base of the bamboo steamer ( I put star anise in the water (love the aroma of that spice), which gives a nice flavor to the food)
4. Arranged the dimsums on the leaves in the bamboo steamer and let it steam for 3 to 4 minutes with the lid on

5.    Ready to be served

I made a spring onion dip alongside to go with the dimsum. Used vinegar, sugar, spring onions, chillies and salt to create the syrupy dip.

Dimsum dip

spring onion dip, the vinaigrette

Ingredients             

White vinegar	½ cup
Sugar	½ cup
Spring onion	3 or 4 stems
Green chillies	3
Red chillies	3
Salt	To taste

Method

1.    Finely slice the ginger and coriander

2.    De-seed the chillies and cut in juliennes

3.    Finely chop the spring onions

4.    Put all the ingredients in a frying pan and let it simmer until it becomes syrupy

5.    Ready to be served alongside those steamed dimsums

Although, I was extremely happy with the taste of the dimsum, was way too disappointed on the shape. The shape was a disaster and could not fold or give a shape, as the sheets were tearing off. Am sure there should be some other sheets available in the market for making steamed dimsums – searching!!!

The vinaigrette was surprisingly tasty, went very well with the dimsum. The syrupy texture and the consistency was quite a delight.

Growing kitchen staff!!!

After some basic research to get some kitchen tools and equipments in Mumbai, encountered a site which details out some of the shops in Mumbai where you get them in plenty.

So, the day I had some official meetings in Worli (south Mumbai), decided to hunt for this store and make a visit to Crawford Market. I kept thinking that only one thing which could hamper me from actually visiting the store is the extremely-difficult-chances-of-parking in one of the most crowded Mumbai localities.

Guess, my wish was strong enough to get a parking within 10 minutes of reaching the place. And it is only good fortune that the store was less than 5 minutes away from the parked car.

Saria Stove Depot was not very difficult to find and the place just took me by complete surprise. I was mesmerized by the kitchen collection they have. Guess they are vendors to more than hundreds of dozen restaurant and caterers.

From various knives to crockery to baking tins to sizzler plates to every other tool that you could ever get to see at one place. My eyes were particularly eyeing some good knives, baking tins and sizzler plates, but decided against it.

My checklist had 2 main items – bamboo steamers (for making dimsum / dumpling) and mezzaluna (described in my earlier blog – new additions to my kitchen staff)



my very own bamboo steamer



I purchased a 7” bamboo steamer priced at Rs. 245 (on a website a 10” steamer was costing obscene Rs. 3,300; thank god for anushka that she helped me locate this store on the net).

I also, picked up a pepper mill. The graininess of crushed pepper is great for salads and marination. Cost Rs. 170.

I guess I am going to be regular at this store and have already planned for my next purchases -mezzaluna, some more knives, sizzler plates (starts from Rs. 190 (which includes iron plate & wooden plank) & weighing scale costing Rs. 450).

Saria Stove Depot, 26 Lohar Chawl, near Crawford Market, Tel: 022 2208 2314

Age-old family dish called ‘frittata’

Since childhood, I have devoured on a dish prepared by grandma (dad’s mum) called ‘andyachi bhaji’ (egg vegetable, in marathi). My mother tells me that she inherited this beautiful recipe from her, which has always been cooked in our house, even before I was born. It’s a very simple dish made with veggies and eggs. This is one of the dishes that I would like to call as ‘soul-food’.

Only, recently I figured out what my grandma and mum makes is called ‘frittata’ in other parts of the world. The only difference in the two is the use of the egg. Eggs are beaten well with other ingredients in frittata, whereas eggs are just poured (like half-fry) on our age-old house dish.

Frittata is Italy’s version of an open-face omelette, which does not have a standard recipe (the Spanish have their own version of omellete called tortilla de patatas (Spanish omellete)). There could be hundreds of variations of frittata and you can practically use hams, sausages, mushrooms, different veggies, meat, chicken, anything that can mix itself well with eggs.

I will be trying out a variation soon with mushrooms and sausages and the other one with mince meat and veggies. More on that later.

The way I would describe our version of frittata is simply delicious. It’s extremely simple and easy to make, but an excellent change to regular omelette that we make.

I had never watched it getting prepared. Yesterday, was in the kitchen to see mum make it with my camera, here it goes (with pictures)

Ingredients              

Eggs	3
Onions	2	Sliced finely in circles. We normally cut it quite fine, but fineness is not important
Potatoes	1 (big)
Capsicums	2
Tomatoes	2
Red chili powder		Haven’t put any measurement, because you can be free to use them depending on the spice and flavor
Turmeric powder
Cumin-coriander powder
Salt	To taste

Method

1.    Cut all the veggies in round slices

2.    Mix all the masala powder together and keep separately

3.    Apply the masala powder mixture and salt separately to all the different veggies

4.    Add some oil in a frying pan and let it simmer

5.    Start arranging the veggies with onions forming the bottom part **

6.    Then goes the potatoes, capsicum and tomatoes (in that order)

7.    Cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer for few minutes (for the quantity mentioned 8 to 10 minutes should be good – its time to go to the next step when the potato is properly cooked)

8.    Break eggs and pour them over the veggies, in such a way that no two yolks touch each other

9.    Sprinkle some salt and masala powder on the eggs 

10. Keep this on simmer (again with a lid) but not more than 2 minutes. The idea is to keep the yoke gooey. like it that way # 

cut with the individual portions with the yoke;
see the caramalised onion by the side

Note:

·         The potatoes have to be cooked (that would take the maximum time)

·         # The yokes have to be gooey, so when you cut the yoke while eating, the yellow liquid runs over the dish (I like it this way; but to each his own); suggest  to cook for more time if you don’t like the gooey yoke

·         ** Since the onions form the bottom layer, cooking it for 2 minutes before you start arranging the other veggies would help them caramelize (if you don’t like the sweetened brown onions, avoid this tip)

·         The thinner you cut your veggies, the faster will it cook – we normally slice the onions and potatoes fine and tomatoes and capsicum are slightly thicker

·         This dish is not very spicy; so you can put more spice as per your spice appetite / taste

·         This dish goes well with pao (bakery bread) or slice bread