Appey (Marathi) / Paniyaram (Tamil) / Ableskiver/Ebleskiver (Dutch)

Appey (Marathi) / Paniyaram (Tamil) / Æbleskiver (Dutch) / "OhMyGod! ThisIsSoooGood" (Deewanese) :)) This dish is wonderful! And I know I'm going to make it again! This dish is the savory version, but it can be made sweet too (like a donut!) The inside is a spongy texture (think of dhokla, idli, handvo) and the outside is crispy (as shown in the picture). It's cooked on the stove in a special pan called an Aebleskiver pan.

The beauty of this recipe is when it is cooked, you do not need any oil! Well, it could be due to my Aebleskiver pan - which is non-stick! :)

• ½ kala channa (or any lentil, soaked overnight)
• 1 cup soji (semolina)
• ¼ rice flour
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1 medium tomato
• 3 cloves garlic
• ¼-½ piece of ginger
• 1-2 serano chillies
• ½ red onion
• 10 springs of coriander leaves
• Salt - to taste
• A big pinch of turmeric
• 3 tsp lemon juice (I used fresh, but if you use bottled, then add just 2 tsps then taste. You don't want the batter to be too sour)
• ½  cup sour cream
• ½ cup yogurt
• ½ tsp soda bicarbonate
• 1 ½ tsp eno

1. The day before you wish to make these, soak the kala channa. If you're using a split lentil, then you can soak these on the same day for 4 hours.
2. In a bowl, add the soji, rice flour and corn flour
3. After soaking the kala channa (or lentils) drain them, wash them, then puree them into a paste. Add to the flour mix
4. Grind the garlic, ginger and tomato. Add to the flour mix
5. Chop the onion finely, and add to the flour mix.
6. Chop the coriander finely (and you got it -) add to the flour mix
7. Add in the salt, turmeric, lemon juice, sour cream and yogurt to the flour mix and mix well. You may need to add a little water if the batter is too thick. The batter should be the consistency of cake batter (not runny, but not too thick)
8. Heat the Aebleskiver pan.
9. While it is heating, add in the soda bicarbonate and eno to the mix and blend in well.
10. Put one tbsp of the mix in the center hole of the pan. After a minute, the batter will have puffed up, and you should be able to flip it over using two toothpicks or skewers.
11. Cook on the other side for a minute too. (Test the Appey by piercing the center with a toothpick, and if it comes out clean, the Appey is cooked.)
12. Fill all the Aebleskiver pan holes with the batter, and continue cooking these. One you have the hang of this, you won't have to check each one. You'll also need to flip them over quite quickly since they'll all be cooking at the same time, and you wouldn't want these to burn1
13. Enjoy these hot! (I must have ate 20 or so while I was making these!)

You can even make these with leftover dosa/idli/dhokla batter and just add finely chopped vegetables.  OR a sweet version with Nutella in the center! YUMMY!  Watch this space! :))

Oh! Oh! Oh! And in Thailand, the sweet version of these is called kanom krok - and I'm so looking forward to making these too!

Apple Cheddar Bread

Today is Sunday. I know Rads like cheese, and bread. I was sleeping at 6am in the morning, if not later, and was woken up at 2:30pm by a phone call... So, my original recipe for today (Cheesey Jalapeno Bread) won't be completed until the wee hours of Monday morning (due to allowing the bread to rise, etc.,) and cooking is therapeutic... So I decided to make this recipe which I came across. I love cheese, and I love apples, and I did have 2 Granny Smith apples. The original recipe calls for 2 large eggs, and I used Ener-G egg replacer. Writing this up now, I think I should have used applesauce instead! Well, next time! :))

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• 2 Ener-G eggs, (or 2 large eggs, room temperature fork beaten)
• 2 cups Granny Smith (or any sharp) apples, unpeeled,  finely shredded
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 
2. Coat a 9” loaf pan with cooking spray. (Or, you can insert parchment paper overlapping over the long sides of the pan)
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until creamy
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and Ener-G egg replacer powder into the mixture, and mix in well
5. Add in the Ener-G water for the 2 eggs, blend, then add the grated apple and cheese
6. The dough will be quite sticky - so spread evenly into the pan
7. Bake until risen and a wooden skewer comes out of the center clean, about 45-60 minutes. 
8. Cool to room temperature (about 30 minutes) before slicing.

This is sooooo yummy! My apartment smells sooooo delicious too! It was still warm when I sliced it, and then I just had to eat it! A little butter or sour cream on it, tastes sooooo good!

Avocado Chaat with Pomegranetes & Mango Drizzle

I had Avocado Chaat when I went to Monsoon Masala a while back (at that time, they were only serving this on a weekend, and it's not on the menu. Things may have changed since!) The chaat had avocado, potatos, onions, chaat masala and mango-tamarind chutney.  Then, a couple of months back, I had Avocado Jhalmuri at Sakoon. This one had avocado, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, sev (chick pea fried vermicelli) was tossed in a mint-tamarind chutney.

So, as usual, I wanted to make this, and made it with a twist using pomegranates and mango puree. You purchase the mango puree form an Indian grocery store.

• 3 medium sized russet/idaho potatoes , boiled and cubed (approx ¾ inch cubes)
• 3 small avocados, ripe but still firm, cubed
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 1 small pomegranate 
• ¼ cup mango puree (you and purchase this from an Indian grocery store)
• 1 tbsp tamarind chutney (you and purchase this from an Indian grocery store)
• 1 cup bhel puri mix (you and purchase this from an Indian grocery store)
• Chaat masala to taste
• Cumin powder to taste
• 10 sprigs of chopped coriander leaves

1. Mix the potatoes, avocados, onions, pomegrante seeds and chopped coriander leaves
2. Mix the mango puree, tamarind chutney, chaat masala and cumin powder in a separate bowl (the taste should be strong as it will be mixed fruit+veggie mix)
3. Add the wet mix to the fruit+veggie mix and mix well. Taste, and more of any of the these items according to taste
4. When ready to eat, add the bhel puri mix, and enjoy!  I like to layer my mixture with a think layer of the bhel puri mix!

Enjoy the avocado chaat. In the summer when fresh mangos are available, I think I'll add that too. Sweet succulent mango - hmmmm.... :))

Matoki Fritters

Growing up, my Mother used to make a delicious "Matoki nu shaak." Matoki for anyone from Africa, will recognize this vegetable as a completely green, unripe banana from the plantain family. It is so green and raw, that you cannot even peel it like a regular ripe banana. Eww, I hear you cry! That was you wasn't it? Well, let's put it this way, a Matoki does not taste like a banana or smell like a banana. Think of a potato with a creamy, wholesome and slightly nutty taste.  So, anyway, as I was saying, my Mother used to make a scrumptious curry out of it. Once, when I tried to make it, it turned out a little mushy... So I mushed it out completely, added some ground peanuts, formed patties out of these and grilled these on a frying pan. Voila! A new and tasty dish!

And I think I'm also getting better at remembering how much I put of what into the recipe, when there is no recipe to follow!

• 7 Matokis (green bananas, plantains)
• 1 large red onion, finely diced
• 3 plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 can white garbanzo beans, drained and washed
• 4 cloves garlic - minced
• 1 inch stem of ginger - minced
• 4 green birds-eye chilles - minced
• 2 cups of ground peanuts (If you have a peanut allergy, then use breadcrumbs. But the nuts really bring out the taste in this recipe!)
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• Lemon juice (I used one whole fresh lemon)
• Handful of Corriander leaves, minced finely
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tsp Salt - according to taste
• 1 tsp Garam masala - according to taste
• 1 tbsp of oil
• A pinch of turmeric powder
• A little cornflour or semolina flour - used to coat the patty

1. Peel the matokis, and slice into ½ inch pieces. Add these into a pan of water with a little salt and tumeric and allow to boil, until the Matoki pieces are a little soft. (When you peel Matokis, your hands do become very sticky, so I just put a little bit of cooking oil on my hands. Works a treat!) 
2. In a pan, heat the oil, when hot, temper the Cumin seeds, and add the minced ginger, garlic and chopped onions. 
3. Once the onions are half cooked, add the minced green chillies and the tomatoes. And then let everything just cook into a mush 
4. Add the salt, and garam masala to this mixture 
5. Meanwhile, the matokis are probably cooked through. Check, and if they are, drain, and allow to cool. 
6. Crush the garbanzo beans so that these too are mushed up, and there are no whole beans left. (A bean split into half is okay, but make sure that there aren't too many of these) and add to the mixture cooking. 
7. When the matokis have cooled, crush these and add to the mixture. 
8. Just mix everything well, and it should look heavy and like a thick paste 
9. Add peanut powder and fresh lemon juice and cilantro. (And wow! The aroma is just heavenly now! I can just eat this out of the bowl!) 
10. The texture not should be like a very soft dough. If not, then you can add more peanut powder, or even breadcrumbs
11. While the mixture cools, heat he oven to 400F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper
12. With the cool mixture, take an ice cream scoop size ball, roll it in the semolina, then flatten into a patty, and place on the baking sheet. Repeat... :)
13. Bake in the oven for 20 mins, flip over then bake for another 20 mins. The outside should crisp up, whilst the inside is still soft.

Okay, so I didn't have enough peanuts... What to do? I had hazelnuts! And so I put a cupful in the food processor, created a near-breadcrumb like grind, and then added these as well!

I did use an ice cream scoop to get the same sized patties each time, and with about ingredients, I made 15 patties each about 3 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick.  These freeze well. Just put a piece of greaseproof paper in between each patty, wrap the cylinder pile in foil, and then put in a zip lock bag for extra protection from freezer-burn! :))

Home Made Potato Chips (99.999% Fat-Free!) - Coming Soon!

Cheese-Crisps - Coming Soon!

Cheesy-Masala Bread Swirls - Coming Soon!

Roasted Cauliflower Steaks!

Having become a fan of the Aarti Paarti blog / YouTube channel, I surfing through their recipes, I came across the following: Roasted Cauliflower Steaks. AND I had a cauliflower from the local farmers market. Could I become any healthier? :) The dish is extremely simple to make. My twist was that I just seasoned the Cauliflower with salt, pepper, cumin and garam masala. The original recipe has amchur (dried mango powder) and I was so hungry, that I didn't have the patience to try and find my amchur! Oh, and I didn't have greek yogurt, just standard low-fat yogurt in which I added a little microplaned ginger. Now although the twisted raita was edible, I did find it a little runny, so I would recommend you use full-fat/strained or greek yogurt. And the ginger - nah! It was a nice try! LOL

1 medium cauliflower head, stripped of leaves and stalk chopped off
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp garam masala
salt and pepper to taste (I prefer rock salt and freshly grated pepper)
½ cup low fat greek yoghurt
zest from one lime
splash extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
2. Slice cauliflower down the middle, or either side of the middle so that you have 1-inch steaks. (If any break in florets, then that is okay too, you can use them as well.)
3. Mix the olive oil, cumin, garam masala and salt and pepper
4. Rub the oil mixture all over the cauliflowers
5. Place the cauliflower on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes then carefully flip over abd bake for another 5 minutes. The cauliflower should be a little crisp around the edges, and slightly brown.
6. While the cauliflower is being roasted, in a small bowl, combine yogurt with lime zest, season with salt and pepper and squeeze of lime (as much as you like), according to taste. And if you are Gujarati, you will also add just a teensy-weensy bit of sugar into your raita! :)
7. Serve the Cauliflower with the yogurt. It is best eaten hot. (But not that hot that you burn yourself!)

Kothimbir Vadi and Koshimbir

1This is a simple and delicious snack for warm weather. I wanted to cook something different, so started Googling. One of my friends from Mumbai was going to come and visit me, and although I she said not to cook anything, I just wanted to! Since she hailed from Maharashtra, I decided to Google for Maharashtrian foods.

Kothimbir Vadi is a similar to Dhokla. It is steamed but made with chick-pea flour and coriander/cilantro. And most of the spices are the same as what is used in Dhokla. Koshimbir is a raita with ground peanuts.

Kothimbir Vadi
1 cup chick-pea flour
¼ cup wheat flour and semolina
1 tbsp rice flour
¾ tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp green chilli paste

½ tsp ajwain seeds

½ tsp citric acid

1 fresh lemon, juiced (about 1-1 ½ tbsp)
Pinch of hing/asafoetida

2 cups packed chopped coriander/cilantro. (User the lead and soft stems, but not the hard stems)
1 ¼ tspn eno

1. Mix everything together except the eno
2. Add water to your steamer pot and heat on medium (you should have enough water to boil/steam for 30 minutes).
3. Spray/coat the pans/trays with a little oil
4. Add the Eno to the batter you are going to steam, whisk quickly and pour into trays. 
5. Steam on medium heat for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from steamer and allow to cool
7. Score a knife around the edge and cut like a cake (I cut mine into 8 triangular pieces)
8. This part is optional, but you can toast these on both sides with just a teeny-weeny smidgen of oil.
9. Serve with Koshimbir (recipe follows)

Koshimbir Raita

¼ grated cucumber
¼ grated tomato
¼ grated onion
½ cup yogurt
½ salt
½ sugar
½ cumin
2 tbsp peanut powder
A few sprigs of chopped coriander leaves

1. Grate the cucumber, just a little salt and leave for 5 mins
2. Squeeze the water out from the grated cucumber
3. Mix all the above ingredients together

Enjoy!  

Timings did not work out, and my friend was unable to come! :(

I did take a very photo of my Kothimbir Vadi and Koshimbir. The photo is not that great, but the dish certainly was! In fact, next time I go to a barbeque I'm going to make the Koshimbir raita! I could eat it by the bowl!

Hmmm... I want some more Koshimbir! :)

Below are two more photos. The one on the left is the Kothimbir Vadi straight out of the steamer, and the one on the right is the Kothimbir Vadi toasted.

  

Dhokla

"Tum Gujarati log kitne cute hote ho! Par tum logo ka khana khatar naak kyon hota hai? Dhokla! Fafda! Handva! Thepla! Khakhra! Aise laga hai kae jaise missiles hai!" 

-- Pia (Kareena Kapoor) from the movie "3 Idiots"

I love the movie "3 Idiots". I also love Dhoklas (or as some Gujarati's pronounce, "dhokras"). And I love th above dialog. Moreover, I love making dhoklas and feeding friends!

My Mother is a fantastic cook! In fact, my Mother is a very talented woman, and credit goes to her for my all that I have learned.  However, being the person I am, I do tend to add a little twist to recipes. Or as I call it - I Dipafy them! :)

I describe dhoklas as "steamed semolina savory cakes". Don't they look yummy! I will try and upload a clearer photo when I make them next time.

The recipe follows. The recipe is also precise. If you follow it as it is, it will taste delicious. However, adjust the spices and seasoning according to your taste.  For the record, I had friends over, and for the record, Prashant said "These are better than my Moms!" Now that is one great compliment!

I serve these with a tamarind chutney (will one day post it up). However, traditionally, dhoklas are served with a "Lili chutney" -- where "Lili" simply means Green, and the green comes from the fresh coriander (cilantro). So, you could also call it cilantro chutney!

The only special equipment I have is a idli steamer which has 4 round dhokla trays (7 ¾ diameter x 1" high). If you don't have one, you just need to to have a vessel in which you can steam what looks like brownie pans in.

For the Batter

3 cups semolina

¼ cup chick-pea (garbanzo bean) flour (also known as besan or gram flour)

3 tbsp oil

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp citric acid

½ tsp sugar

1 ¾ tbsp salt

¾ tsp ginger paste

1 tsp green chilli paste

¾ cup sour cream (or yogurt) -- the sour cream is my twist! My Mother's recipe uses yogurt.

2 cups water

2 ½ tsp Eno

Red chilli powder for sprinkling

Oil for spraying/coating the pans/trays

For the Vaghar/Tarka (tempering)

4 tbsp oil

1 dry red chilli (if these are small, add a few)

2 tsp black mustard seeds

1 ½ tsp cumin

Pinch of hing/asafoetida

Chopped coriander for garnishing

1. Mix semolina, chick-pea flour and oil together
2. Add water to your steamer pot and heat on medium (you should have enough water to boil/steam for 30 minutes).
3. Spray/coat the pans/trays with a little oil
4. Add all the remaining ingredients except the Eno and red chilli powder (The above recipe goes into my steamer of 4 trays at the same time, If you think you will need to split the batter into two or 3 times to get it into your Idli trays, then split the batter up now).
5. Add the Eno to the batter you are going to steam, whisk quickly and pour into trays. Sprinkle a little red chilli powder. If you are only using ½ the batter, add only 1 ¼ tsps of Eno - adjust accordingly.
6. Steam on medium heat for 30 minutes.
7. Be careful when taking the lid off the steamer! We don't want any scalds!
8. Take the dhoklas out of the steamer and let the pans/trays cool for 10 mins. 
9. Score a knife around the edge and cut the dhokla whille still in the tray.
10. To make the vaghar/tarka (tempering), heat the oil in a pan
11. Add a few mustard seeds, and when these pop, add the hing/asafoetida, red chilli, remaining mustard seeds and cumin. Everything will start popping, so cover your pot, and take it off the heat.
12. Drizzle the oil over the dhoklas with the rai and jeeru mixture. You just want to make sure that the dhokla is covered and not wet. The oil helps because the dhokla is very dry! If there is any oil left, you can throw it away, but try and get all the rai and jeeru on the pieces.
13. Garnish with the corriander on top, then move the pieces into another container.

If you've used your Idli container and need to steam another batch of batter, then you can do the vaghar/tarka at the end. Just take these round dhoklas out on a plate and let them wait for the remaining batches to be steamed!

Enjoy!