Puran Poli

Though I never used to have a sweet tooth ( which I have develped recently, thanks to my husband's love for sweets), I had always loved this puran poli that my masi used to make for us whenever she visited us in Hyderabad. Even though I couldnt eat more than one cos of its sweetness, but it was one of my favourite. My last meal before Bubbly was born was also puran poli but bubbly doesnt like it much.

Anyway, untill recently it looked too complicated for me to even try cooking it, but I have now learnt to make it otherwise it would mean never to have it again.

You will need:

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup standard flour ( maida )

pinch of salt

for filling:

1 cup chana dal

1 cup jaggery

1/2 tsp cardomom pwdr.

method:

soak chana daal for an hour and then pressure cook it with little water. Add Jaggery in it and stir it untill most of the water is soaked. add cardomom powder and let it cool.

Mix wheat flour, standard flour and salt and kneed a very soft dough with water and keep aside for 1/2 an hour.

make small balls of dough and pat them to flatten them a little and put equal quantity of chana daal mixture on it and close the sides. Roll it out but it should be slightly thick. you can make it as thin as you like but personally I like it if its a bit thickish.

Put it on a hot tawa and cook it on both sides till golden and apply ghee generously.

You can eat it hot off the stove with some achar.

stuffed capsicum

Yesterday I went to this Indian grocery shop and they had these lovely small capsicums ( not the usual big ones ) and I remembered how my mum used to make stuffed curry from them. I tried it and it turned out really good and Bunty who doesnt like capsicum at all, gobbled it up.

I used
6 small capsicums and took the stem out.

Boiled two medium sized potatoes, mashed them and added 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 1/4 tsp garam masala, 1/2 lemon juice, salt to taste, coriander powder and kept aside.
then stuffed this mixture in the capsicums.

Heat a pan, add 1 tbsp cooking oil, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1/4 tsp salt. Once they splutter, add the above prepared capsicums, cover it and let it cook on medium heat.

Turn them over from time to time so that they get cooked from all sides. cook untill the skin changes colour and looks soft. take it out in a serving dish and I served it with roti and daal for dinner.

steaming hot daal

Its no-fat, high in protien, the garlic and turmeric are both good for your cold - Just what you need on a cold night. My daughter loves drinking it as it is or with toasted bread. Here's how I make it.

pressure cook 1 cup - toor dal ( yellow lentils).

add 3 cups warm water, one chopped tomato, one slit green chillies ( you can increase or reduce it as per your taste), crushed 1 or 2 cloves garlic, handful of chopped coriander leaves, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, salt to taste and let it boil till the tomatoes are soft.

Heat a small pan, add 1 tsp jeera ( cumin seeds ) and 1/2 tsp rai ( mustard seeds) and a pinch of hing ( asaefotida ), stifry for 1/2 min or untill the cumin starts spluttering and then add this to the boiling daal.

now you can eat it the way we did with roti and curry or just with some toasted bread.

or the way my son likes it - take a cereal bowl, pour daal in it and break one roti in small pieces, add a dollop of ghee and eat.

This daal can be used as a basic recipe. Since its a must have for us for dinner, I do lots of variations to it so as not to make it boring. Depending on whatever is there, sometimes I add finely chopped spinach to it, when you are boiling it or onions or grated carrots etc etc...and serve it with a curry and roti or hot steaming rice.

tricolour sandwiches

This morning I looked into the fridge for some filling for sandwiches for the 2 B's lunchbox and this is what I made - lovely tri coloured sandwiches and they both loved them.

1 cup -chopped fresh spinach
1/2 cup - grated carrots ( squeeze the juice out and I used that juice in the dough to make rotis for my lunch.)
1/2 cup - crumbled paneer ( used frozen paneer ). I sometimes use grated vegetarian cheese instead of paneer.
4 slices brown bread ( I used white here as the dairy next door had run out of wheatmeal bread )

Butter one side of a bread slice. sprinkle all the above ingredients one by one. Butter another slice and put on top. cut the sandwich in half, i normally cut it into two or four triangles. and the 2 B's absolutely love the crunchy sandwich.

glad vwrap them and crunchy, healthy sandwiches are ready for the lunch box.