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.

Semiya Upma

Living in a foreign country, most people refer to breakfast as being toast, cereal and orange juice. I had a traditional Indian mum and a hard core Andhra husband (I think mentioned this already!). This means that my breakfasts was far from the typical Aussie breakfast. When people ask me what I had for breakfast I struggle to answer. This is because I don't know how to explain what idli, dosas, attukulu, uggani (and the list goes on) even on weekdays. So when I came across Nandita's Breakfast blogging I thought this was good opportunity to explain my typical breakfast.

Due to demanding time constraints on weekday morning, my mum used to try and do breakfast that will only take 20 minutes from start to finish. One of these breakfasts was upma (can loosely to be considered a semolina porridge). And I used to hate it. She was either forced to make an alternative (well really give me the leftovers) or I resorted to 2 minute noodles. Now that I have my own place and I am doing the cooking, we have upma about once a week. And I eat it. But my standard upma stories later.

Semiya upma is a good alternative to me as I like it and it is quick. Semiya is a rice vermicelli that is more like thin spagheti rather than the thin chinese vermicelli. It is quick fix in the morning and good start to the day.

Semiya Upma

Ingredients
2 cups Semiya - you find this in all indian grocery stores
1 medium onion - sliced
1 cup mixed vegetables - I use frozen, you can use fresh but note the time will drastically increase!
2 green chillies - finely chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp pulao masala - MTR brand is good
a few curry leaves
1/4 tsp hing
salt to taste

Method

1. Toast the semiya until golden brown.
2. In a little oil, splutter the mustard seeds. Add cumin, curry leaves and hing.
3. Set the flame to a high - medium. Add the onion and chillies. Fry until onion is golden brown.
4. Add vegetables and fry until almost tender.
5. Add masala powder, salt and the semiya.
6. Mix for a few seconds and boiling water to just cover the whole mix.
7. Reduce the flame to a medium low.
8. Cook until semiya is cooked. Will take about 3 to 5 minutes.

I guess this my first submission to Nandita's Breakfast blogging.
Just realised it has been moved to Pavani's Cook's Hideout so I guess it'll be there!

Wheat Noodle Salad

Boy! What a week. As soon as I have started blogging, I have become so busy! Work is busy and home is busy! But I still have managed to cook and more importantly take photos. However it is not until Sunday night that I have managed to find some time to write up all that I have cooked.

If there is one vegetable that me and my husband would regard as our favourite (do people have favourite vegetables?) then it would have to be RED CAPSICUM. I don't know if it is the bright red colour or the sweet yet subtly hot flavour but we love it. It is also a very versatile vegetable. I can make Indian dishes and Western.

The best way to have red capsicum is roasted. And there are heaps of dishes you can make with roasted peppers. I am sure if Indira's JFI has peppers I will have no problems contributing (only prob would be picking which dish is best). Our latest favourite dish at the moment is Wheat Noodle Salad.

There is a Vegan collegue of mine, Albie, that gave me the recipe (he sourced it from somewhere). Him being the vegan and I the vegetarian we usually stick together at work lunches and order the same thing. The first time I had this dish was at his place in an all vegan barbeque. Usually when I go to a BBQ, I usually stick to salad due to fears of cross contamination but both me and Krishna were in heaven when we didn't have to ask 'Is this dish vegetarian?'

I hope that you all enjoy it as much as we have.

Wheat Noodle Salad

Ingredients
3 Red Capsicums
250g Dried Wheat Noodles
350g Snake Beans (any green bean will do. I usually use string beans if I have them or frozen string beans.) - steamed and chopped into bite sized pieces
1 small red onion - sliced
2 tbsp Toasted Seasame Seeds
1/2 cup parsley or coriander - coarsely chopped

Dressing Ingredients
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 peanut oil (I usually use a few table spoons rather than this. I guess use as much as it suits you)
1 tsp seasame oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar (you can find this in chinese grocery stores)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar

Method

1. Roast the capsicums. To do this I just cut deseed the capsicums, quarter them and spray a bit of oil on them and put them in the grill.
2. Grill until they are black.
3. Take them out of the grill while they are still hot and put in a plastic bag or in a bowl and cling wrap it. This is to sweat them a bit.
4. Once they are cool (or well sweated) peel the skin off and cut into strips.
5. Add all ingredients for the dressing in a jar and shake well.
6. Meanwhile cook the noodles according the packet.
7. Gently toss all ingredients with the dressing.

.