Bread Upma

I haven't even heard of bread upma until the day I made it. My hubby suddenly had a craving for it, and told me about this dish that used to be very popular in Tamil Nadu during his childhood. Before chaats from north India became popular and invaded the snack scene in south India, these were a regular item in most tea shops. Nowadays, you can never find this in a restaurant menu. So he asked me to look it up and make it for him. I went through a few bread upma recipes online and mostly followed Preethi's.

Ingredients:

Bread - 6 to 8 slices
Ghee - as required
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Green chilli - 1, chopped
Ginger - 1/2 inch, minced (optional)
Tomato - 2, chopped
Vegetables of choice - like crumbled potato, green peas, carrots, beans, chana (garbanzo), chopped and cooked. You can also add cooked ground meat.
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana Dal - 1/2 tsp
Cashewnuts - handful, broken
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Tomato puree or water - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves - minced (or coriander chutney) - to taste
Lemon juice - to garnish

Method:

Toast bread pieces on a skillet with ghee. (You can skip toasting the bread, but I felt this step made the dish really tasty!) Cube them into bite size pieces. In a wok, heat ghee and splutter mustard seeds. Add chana dal, urad dal and cashewnuts. Stir well so that they fry evenly. When they brown, add onions, ginger and green chilli. Fry till onions turn translucent with salt. Then add tomatoes and fry till they mush up. Then add cooked vegetables and combine. Add turmeric powder, asafoetida, red chilli powder and garam masala. Sprinkle some water or add tomato puree and cook for a few minutes. Finally add the cubed bread pieces and combine well. Garnish with cilantro chutney and squeeze a bit of lemon juice. Serve hot.

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Chickpea feta burger

I wouldn't call it a veggie burger because it contains eggs. It is a delicious and healthy option on a hot summer day. I served this with a nice dill tahini sauce.

Ingredients for chickpea feta burger:

200 grams chick peas soaked and boiled with salt
100 grams feta cheese crumbled
2 eggs
1 grated carrot
6 red pearl onions
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp oil

Ingredients for dill tahini sauce:

1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup dill minced
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic
1tsp lemon juice
Dash of salt

To assemble:

Hamburger buns
Baby spinach leaves
Tomato slices
Iceberg lettuce leaves

Method fpr sauce:

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

Method for burgers:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook pearl onions and garlic for 2 minutes or until soft. Transfer to a food processor. Add chickpeas, carrots feta and eggs and process until combined. Transfer to a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add the bread crumbs and mix until combined. Divide mixture into golf ball portions. Shape each portion into a patty.

heat the remaining oil on a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook the patties for 4 minutes each side or until brown and cooked through.
Toast the hamburger buns for 2 minutes each side or until lightly toasted.
Divide half the bun cut side up among serving plates. Spread with a little tahini sauce. Top with a lettuce, spinach, tomato and chickpea patty and other half of bun.

Assembled Burgers:

Dill Tahini Sauce:

Burger mix:

Grilling the burgers:

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Hummus (Hummous)

Hummus or pronounced as Hummous in the Middle East, is a ground chickpea, tahini dip that goes great with almost anything! As a child, my dad would bring home Arabian Barbecued chicken or Chicken Broast on days we decide to eat takeout. In Riyadh, Chicken broast was a popular local fast food. A popular fast food joint was Maccoys, where the queues are sometimes so long, it goes far out of the store. Hummus is always a free accompaniment with any item on the grill.
After I left Saudi Arabia, I missed hummous so much that I started making my own. It comes close to what I used to get there, but I guess it will never match upto the magic of food back in Riyadh.
This is more of a taste and go recipe. You keep tasting it as you're grinding the ingredients and add whatever you feel the hummous needs more of.
If you're wondering what tahini is, it's a paste of ground white sesame seeds. I used to make my own tahini as well while I was in India, but you can find them easily in most grocery stores in the US.

Ingredients:

Chickpeas - 1 cup, soaked overnight in water (about 8 hours)
Tahini - 2-4 tbsp
Garlic - 1 large clove, minced fine
Lemon juice - from half a lemon
Water - 3 cups (for boiling chickpeas)
Extra virgin Olive Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Paprika - a pinch (optional)

Method:

Boil chickpeas with enough water in a pressure cooker, for about 6 whistles. Drain and store some of the remaining water. In a mixer, add the boiled chickpeas, tahini sauce, garlic, 1/4 cup drained water, salt and lemon juice. Grind till it becomes a coarse paste. Add olive oil and grind a bit more. Don't make it too fine like peanut butter, its good to have a few chunks of chickpeas for texture.

Store in a bowl. Sprinkle with smoked paprika and drizzle more extra virgin olive oil.

Hummous can be used as a dip for carrots, cucumber sticks, or pita chips, tortillas and crackers. Or as I said, you can eat it with fried or grilled chicken. Falafels and hummus are a killer combination! Smear it on toast or shawarma sandwich. Serve with accompaniments such as olives, pickled radishes, turnips, cucumbers, feta cheese. The choices are endless!

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Samosa Chaat

My previous post was about Punjabi Samosas. In this one, I'm using the same samosas to make a flavorful Indian snack called Samosa Chaat.

Serving Size: For one plate

Ingredients:

For samosa chaat:
Samosas - 1 or 2
Chana masala - 2 tbsp (recipe below)
Green chutney - 1 tbsp (use coriander chutney/mint chutney/ Coriander-mint chutney)
Date and Tamarind chutney (Sweet chutney)- 1 tbsp
Plain yoghurt - 2 tbsp, whisked with a pinch of salt
Red Onion - chopped, 1 tbsp
Tomato - chopped, 1 tbsp
Cilantro - chopped, a pinch
Chaat masala - a pinch
Black salt - a pinch (optional)
Red chilli powder - a pinch
Fine sev - 1 tbsp

For chana masala:
White chickpeas/garbanzo beans - 1 cup, soaked overnight
Oil - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Red onion - 1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
Garlic clove - 1
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
Green chilli - 1 or 2
Tomato - 1, chopped or Tomato paste - 1/4 cup
Amchur (dry mango powder) / Anardana powder (dry pomegranate seeds) - a pinch
Chole masala or garam masala - 1 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste

Method:

Chana Masala:
This recipe is different from the one I posted earlier. So you could use that one minus the coconut milk, or this one.
Boil the soaked chickpeas in a pressure cooker for about 6 whistles. Drain and keep aside.
Grind garlic, ginger, green chilli and half of the chopped onions into a paste.
Heat oil in a deep pot. Add cumin seeds, asafoetida, red chilli powder, turmeric and temper for 10 seconds. Add the rest of the chopped onions and sauté till it becomes translucent. Then add the ground paste and fry for another 4-5 minutes. Add tomato paste or chopped tomatoes. Sauté till tomatoes are mashed or sauce is boiling. Add cooked chickpeas, amchur/anardana powder, chole masala/garam masala and salt to taste. Add 1/2 a cup of water, cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Samosa Chaat:
Place samosas on a plate and break them a little.

Pour a ladle of the chana masala over it.

Add chopped onions and tomatoes over it. Drizzle yoghurt over it. Drizzle a bit of green chutney and sweet chutney (date and tamarind chutney). Sprinkle a pinch of chaat masala and a pinch of red chilli powder. Also sprinkle black salt, if using.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and fine sev. Yum!

Inspired from Chakali.

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Falafel Sandwich

Saudi Arabian Falafel Sandwich

A lot of different ingredients go into Falafel sandwiches.
But I try to keep it as close to the ones I've had in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the popular shawarma shops such as Yamal Asham, Mama Nourra and Maccoys.

Ingredients:

Khubz (Arabic Bread/Pita)
Falafels
Garlic Sauce or Garlic Tahini Sauce
French Fries
Lebanese pickled cucumber/carrot/radish
Chopped tomato
Parsley

Method:

Spread Garlic Sauce or Garlic Tahini Sauce on the Khubz.
Sprinkle parsley, chopped pickled veggies and tomatoes.
Place falafels. I crumbled mine as it was easier to roll into a sandwich but usually they are placed whole.
Add french fries. I made my own french fries by peeling potatoes and chopping them in my food processor with the french fries blade, fried and sprinkled salt.
Wrap and serve.

You can also add iceberg lettuce in them.

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Falafel

On some days I miss the food I grew up with in the middle east. Falafels are one of them.
The first time I tried making these, it was a total disaster. I was inexperienced and decided to cook the chickpeas first before making the ground mixture and frying them. The result: As soon as the falafel hits oil, it just kept disentegrating into the oil and whatever is left is not cooked. God what a nightmare. Almost a year later, I tried this again by referring another blog. It was successful, but a bit dry. But definitely tasty. The vegetable and sauces I used to wrap them in my own grilled Khubz helped to cut down the dryness. I've been finding it impossible to find flat leaf parsley in Bangalore so on my trip back from Riyadh, I got a bunch of parsley which costs less than a Saudi Riyal! Its magical flavour is what gives falafels and many other middle eastern foods a unique taste.
Credit: Homemade-recipes blog

Ingredients:

For Falafels:
500 gms dried chick peas (kabuli chana)
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped (cilantro)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1 teaspoon ground red chili pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons plain flour or gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon ground dried coriander
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 teaspoons baking powder

Note: When I made the mix using the above ingredients, I did find that it was still a bit difficult to make firm balls, so I added about 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs into the mix. Also I did not use paprika, used extra red chilli powder instead. I did not use the bicarbonate of soda because I did not have it with me. Will use next time to see if it has a difference. I also used only 2 tsp of baking powder. Maybe it will be more airy and lighter (less dense).

For Deep Frying
Vegetable oil

Method:

• Soak chickpeas in water for 24 hours, then drain well.
• Mix together the chick peas, chopped parsley, coriander/cilantro, crushed garlic and chopped onions 
• Grind in a food processor.
• Add all remaining falafel ingredients and process again.
• Allow to rest for 30 minutes.
• Knead the falafel mix.
• Form spoonfuls of the falafel mixture into balls and flatten slightly. Flattening ensures the insides are cooked.

• Heat oil in deep pan over high heat, then fry till browned and cooked through.

 

Serve with Garlic Sauce or Garlic Tahini Sauce or Hummus.



Or make a Falafel Sandwich



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Koottu curry - Chick peas and mixed vegetables

The Kairali sisters' e-book contains two types of koottu curry - one spicy version and the other sweet version. I actually liked ingredients from both and kind of combined it into my own version. I loved it the way it turned out. I intended to add chena(yam) into this as per the recipe, but I realized that I ran out of it by using it in the other dishes. So I replaced it with Chembu(taro) and it still tasted divine!

Ingredients:

· 1 cup Black Chickpeas, soaked in water for at least 3 hours
· ½ cup Plantain(Pachakkaya) cut into chickpea sized pieces
· ½ cup Elephant Yam(Chena)/Chembu(Taro) cut into cut into chickpea sized pieces
· 1 medium Carrot, cubed
· ½ cup grated Coconut
· 4-5 pearl Onions, skinned
· ½ tsp Turmeric powder
· 2 tsp red Chilly powder
· ¼ cup Sarkara/Jaggery
· Few Curry leaves
· Few dry Coconut chunks(Thenga kothu)
· 1 tbsp Coconut oil
· ½ tspMustard seeds
· ½ tsp Cumin seeds
· Salt as required
· 2 dried red chillies
· ½ tsp black pepper or pepper powder
· 1 tbsp Oil

Method:

1. Cook the Chickpeas with Water and Salt until soft (Use a pressure cooker to
cook fast, or soak in boiling water for at-least 8 hours).
2. In a thick bottomed vessel, cook the Plantain and Yam/Taro, Carrots with enough Water to
just cover the Vegetables.
3. Add Turmeric powder and Salt.
4. Keep the vessel covered to prevent drying out.
5. When the vegetables are soft add the cooked Chickpeas, along with some of the
Water used to cook Chickpeas.
6. Adjust Salt, ¾ tsp Turmeric powder, 2 tsp Chilly powder and ¼ cup of Jaggery.
6. In another pan slightly fry the grated Coconut, cumin, black Pepper with the pearl Onions.
Coarse grind this mixture and add to the cooked Chickpeas.
7. Mix well and let the Water evaporate. Splutter the Mustard seeds in Coconut Oil
and then add the dried Chillies and dry Coconut chunks (Thenga Kothu).
8. Pour this over the prepared Koottu curry.

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Chana Masala

This recipe was given to me by a colleague at work on our way back home in the cab while wondering what to do with my leftover soaked chickpeas (from the hommous and falafel I made the other day).
Its very simple to prepare and oh so tasty!

Ingredients:

Chana/chickpeas - 1 cup soaked in water overnight for 10-12 hrs.
Onion - 1 medium / Shallots - 5 or 6
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Tomato - 1 large
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Water - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp chopped
Lime juice - from half a lime
Coconut milk - 2 tbsp (optional)
Salt
Oil - 1 tbsp

For tempering:
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Oil - 1 tsp

Method:

In a pressure cooking vessel, heat oil and add chopped onions. Saute till its turning golden. Add ginger garlic paste and chopped tomatoes. Fry till the oil starts to separate. Add the powders and fry till the raw smell goes. Add salt and chickpeas. Combine well for about 2 minutes. Add water till the same level of the chickpeas and pressure cook to about 5 or 6 whistles. Cool and open. Add coriander leaves and lime juice. Mix well. If you think that the gravy is not thick enough, add coconut milk and mix well.
In a pan, heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add curry leaves and fry. Add this tempering to the chana masala and mix well. Serve with chappathis or buttered bread toast.

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