Thursday, October 26, 2006

Chicky Chicky!

After the day of eating rich foods and heavy meals, the next day we weren't too keen on a big breakfast. Since I had some Turkish bread I thought I would make a simple hummus and chickpea salad. Short and sweet but high in calcium!

Hummus

Ingredients
1 can chickpeas or 400g chickpeas soaked overnight and cooked
1 or 2 garlic cloves- minced finely.
1 lemon- juiced.
1 tbsp tahini- this is seasame butter (like peanut butter but made with seasames).
1 tsp salt- adjust as required
1 tsp pepper- freshly ground

Method
  1. In a mortar add the garlic and salt and crush until the mix is sort of glossy
  2. Add lemon juice to the this mix.
  3. Now add a teaspoon of tahini and mix well. Reapeat this until it is difficult to move your spoon in this mixture. It is really important that you mix well after adding the tahini otherwise it will come out bitter.
  4. Grind the chickpeas a little. Grind them until you have the texture you require. Add the tahini mix to the chickpeas.
  5. Mix it all up and add pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings. If it tastes bitter add a bit of lemon juice.

Chickpea Salad

Ingredients
1 can chickpeas or 400g chickpeas soaked overnight and cooked
1 carrot- finely chopped.
1 cucumber- finely chopped.
2 or 3 lettuce leaves- ripped into small bits.
1 lemon- juiced.
1 tsp salt- adjust as required
1 tsp pepper- freshly ground

Method
  1. This is the easiest recipe. MIX AND SERVE. :)

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Monday, October 23, 2006

Deepavali Shubhakankshalu (Happy Diwali!)

Happy Deepavali (Belated) to all of you! Hope all of you have a properous and happy year!

Of course Deepavali is not the same without the sweets. So here I am writing up my two cents on my version of Kheer.

This is a pretty simple recipe and I hope it makes it to round two of JFI - Diwali Treats hosted by Vee at Past, Present and Me.

Kheer

Ingredients
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup sugar
1 litre milk
a few cashews- chopped.
a few sultanas
1 tbsp ghee

Method
  1. Bring the milk to a boil. Add sugar and then reduce to a simmer.
  2. Add the rice to the milk. Let it simmer for about 45 mins to an hour until the mixture thickens.
  3. Meanwhile, heat the ghee in a small fry pan. Add the cashews and when slightly brown, add the sultanas.
  4. Add this to the chopped nuts and sultanas to the Kheer. Voila! There you have Kheer!

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Saturday, October 14, 2006

Kanpur Chapathi

I know what you are thinking. It is just like all the other adventures I embark upon. After the inital 'honeymoon' phase of about a week, and the excitment dies down, another hobby of mine gets put onto the shelf of unfinished projects. I guess food blogging isn't really a project, but an ongoing hobby, I thought I would stick to it for more than I have.

Don't get me wrong, when ever I have time I will read all the other blogs but writing mine is bit of a pain. As I don't have access to this blog at work, my options are limited to writing all of this from home. And I have to admit I am a big couch potato. Thus I usually just come home and sit in front of the TV. However now that I have a laptop I am doing this whilst sitting in front of the TV.

But I'll admit to the real reason that I have continued to write these blogs. Actually there is two. It is a brilliant way to index all the recipes that I have and like. Currently I have a big folder that I have just printed off recipes for various sources and stored them in. This is good as I can also search for recipes I like.

But the more important reason is that even though I have written only a few posts, I am getting apprieciation from people that I know and people that I don't know. Friends are using the recipes I put up and strangers (well my new 'friends' from the blogging world' are giving me encourgement. People like Saffron Hut thought my choice of blog name was good! :)

Anyway the real purpose of this blog, Kanpur Chapathi. The point where my mum wants me to make a dish as she thinks I can make it better or doesn't know how to make it, is the point that I truly believe that I have mastered the skill of cooking (well not mastered but aleast I can say I can now cook!) This is one dish that my mum loves.

I came across this for the first time when I went to India. I had visited many of my husband's family (for the first time) and we visited one my husband's cousin's who made this for me. And I just ate as many as I could with no hesitation (in Telugu there is a saying, "siggu ley kunda"). I soon found out that even my mother in law can make this. So when she came over to visit, it was the first thing I asked her to make.

So back to the actual dish. It is a quite a simple dish if you think about. It is a bit fiddly but worth it. And as a bonus you don't really have to make a curry to go along with it.

Kanpur Chapathi

Ingredients
2 cups Wholemeal flour (Atta)
1 cup fresh fenugreek leaves- chopped.
1 cup fresh or frozen coconut
1 1/2 cups onions - finely chopped. When I mean finely I mean finely as you won't be able to roll it out the chapathi if it is not finely.
salt
chilli powder
oil

Method
  1. Mix the atta as would for normal chapathi. This means add a bit of salt and enough water to make a firm dough.
  2. Mix salt, chilli powder and oil into a smooth paste.
  3. Mix the onions, fenugreek leaves and coconut in a bowl.
  4. Roll out two lumps (about the size of lemon) of the dough into a puri size (this is probably about the size of a CD)
  5. Spread the salt, chilli paste onto the two puris.
  6. Put a little bit of the fenugreek leaves, coconut and onions mixture onto one of the puris.
  7. Now take the other puri and put it on top of the filled puri and seal it. This part is a bit tricky but with a little practice it ain't too bad.
  8. Now roll it out and toast it on a pan over a low heat on both sides.

    And after making this, it was sooooo inviting that I forgot to take a photo of the finished product!
  9. When eating it, you can split it and put some lemon juice. It is sort of up to you. I like it with though.

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