Radish leaves roll

Radish leaves roll
2 cups radish leaves chopped
1 green chilli chopped
1 tsp garlic chopped
Salt to taste
1/2 pepper powder
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
1/2 cup cheese cut in to small cubes
12 samosa strips

Method
Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Take a pan and add oil. Add garlic, onion and green chilli sauté till the onions have changed its colour. Add the leaves, salt and pepper powder. Cook the leaves till the water has evaporated and the vegetable has become dry. Switch of the gas and add the cheese cubes. Take the samosa strips and add the vegetable and roll the strips. Add water at one end and stick the end. Repeat the process with other  samosa strips. Grease the baking tray and place the rolls. Spray the rolls with oil and bake it for 20 minutes at 160 degrees. Take the rolls and keep it for sometime before having it.

Classic Dhokla, Schezwan Vegetable Dhokla and Vattayappam with a twist

These 3 healthy quick snack recipes are a twist from classic recipes of India made from the same basic key ingredients... Lapsi and Suji.  Do try out at home....

Suji and Lapsi Batter
Ingredients
2 cups Lapsi ( broken wheat)
2 cups Suji
1 cups butter milk or more to make a thick batter
2 tsp soda bi carb or yeast or Eno

Method
Wash the Lapsi and soak it in water for 2 to 3 hours. Then throw the water in which the  Lapsi was soaked. Now put all the ingredients except for the salt and soda bi carb or yeast or Eno in the grinder and grind it into a fine paste. Take the batter out of the grinder and if required add more butter milk to get a thick consistently. Add soda bi carb or Eno or yeast as desire. If yeast is added then add the yeast in 1/4 cup of Luke warm water with 1 tsp sugar and keep it for 10 minutes for rising. Then add the yeast water to the batter. Let the batter stand for 30 minutes to an hour.

This batter is the base for the 3 following recipes. Divided the batter into 3 parts.

Classic Dhokla
Ingredients
1 part of the batter
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp chilli paste
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder
1 tsp oil
1 pinch of hing
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
5 to 6 curry leaves
4 tbsp water
1/2 tsp sugar
Coriander leaves chopped for garnishing

Method
Add ginger, salt and chilli paste to the batter. Grease the dhokla plates and fill 1/2 of the dhokla plates with the batter. Sprinkle chilli powder and roasted cumin powder and steam the dhoklas. Check the dhokla with the help of the tooth pick. If done the tooth pick will come out smoothly. Take the dhokla out of the steamer and cool it. Now take oil in a small vessel and add mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds starts to crackle add hing, curry leaves and sugar. Keep it for a minute and add water and let it bubble. Now add the tadka on the dhokla and garnish with coriander leaves. Cut it in to square or diamond shapes and serve it with green coriander chutney.

Schezwan Vegetable Dhokla
1 part of the batter
1 tsp oil
Salt to taste
1/2 pepper powder
1/2 tsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Schezwan sauce
1 onion sliced
1/2 small capsicum slice
1/2 tsp garlic crushed
1/4 cup cabbage sliced
1 tbsp carrot sliced
1/4 cup spring onion chopped
Coriander leaves and spring onions for garnishing

Method
Take the batter and add salt as required. Take a pan and add oil. Add crushed garlic and sauté for a minute. Add all the sliced vegetables. Add the soya and the Schezwan sauce. Sauté the vegetables for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chopped  spring onions the vegetables and keep it aside. Now grease the dhokla   plate and fill 1/4 of the plate with the batter. Half steam the batter. Once half steamed and the top of the batter has harden spread the vegetables on the batter. Now fill the rest of the plate with the rest of the batter and sprinkle pepper powder on top. Put the plate back into the steamer and steam the dhokla till done. Take it out from the steamer and garnish it with coriander leaves and chopped spring onions. Let the dhokla cool and then cut into shapes as desire.

Vattayappam with a twist
1 part of the batter
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
Sugar as per the sweetness required
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp broken kaju
1 tbsp raisins
1 mashed banana
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1 tbsp Saffron syrup
1 banana sliced for decoration
1/2 tsp ghee

Method
Take the batter and add all the ingredients except Saffron syrup and sliced banana. Mix the batter well. Now grease the plate with ghee and add the batter. Steam the batter till done. Take the plate out of the steamer. Cool the Vattayappam. Garnish it with Saffron syrup and sliced banana.

Sandwich Uttapa and Masala idlis....

Sandwich Uttapa and Masala idlis....
For Sandwich Uttapa
Ingredients
Dosa atta
1 onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
2 green chilies chopped
1 tbsp of coriander leaves chopped
Salt to taste
1 tbsp desiccated coconut
Ghee
Method
Mix all the above ingredients in the dosa atta, except for the ghee. Take the sandwich toaster and brush with ghee. Add the batter and close the lid... Cook the Uttapa till done.

Masala Idlis
Ingredients
2 cup Idli cut into small cubes
1 tbsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Chana Dal
1/4 tsp Urid dal
1 green chilli chopped
Few Curry leaves
2 tbsp  Mullapodi Chutney powder
1 tbsp Coconut chutney
1/2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp Desiccated Coconut
1 tbsp chopped Coriander leaves
Method
Take a pan. Add oil. Add mustard seeds, chana dal, Urid dal, curry leaves, chopped green chilli and sauté it for few minutes. Add Chopped Idli to the pan and sauté it for few minutes more.  Take a small bowl. Mix the coconut chutney , Mullapodi powder, lime juice and 3 tbsp water. Add the chutney mix to the idlis. Mix it well. Cook for few minutes till the water in the chutney dries up. Garnish it with desiccated coconut and chopped coriander leaves.

Gohona / Nakshi Bori

They are dried dumplings / wadi made in the design formed with Urid dal / split black gram  batter. Gohona or  Goyna means jewellery in Bengali. 

Purba Medinipur in West Bengal is very famous for making these bori. In 1930 one of the student from Shantiniketan presented the gohona bori to Rabindranath Tagore, he was so impressed by the art that he wrote a letter seeking permission to preserve the photographs of Gohona Bori at the Art Building of Shantiniketan. 

Source - Google 

This boris are made and send as a part of a trousseau during wedding, but now these boris are dying art and are available during handicraft exhibitions / fair or in govt. emporium.

  The state is trying its best to keep this art alive by training ladies from the villages. 

These are made during winter.  The urid dal is crushed and broken down, thereafter soaked and washed well with water. The skin is removed and then the dal is made into paste on a sil - bata and beaten / whisked very well with hand. Now a days the ready split  dal is soaked and grinder is used to make a paste and with the help of a beater, the batter is whisked. 

The batter is then added into a piece of cloth with nozzle, now piping bags are used. Various designs are created on a bed of poppy seeds. It’s dried under the sun. It’s fried and eaten with dal and rice or enjoy it by itself.

Ingredients
1 cup Urid dal soaked
Salt to taste
Poppy seeds to sprinkle on the plate

Method

Wash and soak the dal for 6 hours. Drain all water from the dal. Blend all the ingredients except poppy seeds in a mixie without any water. Make a very  fine paste. Take this paste in a big bowl. Start beating the batter vigorously. It should become very fluffy and when a drop of batter  placed on water it should float. Now to make designs pour the batter in a piping bag with writing nozzle. The designs should not be very thin as the sun will make them thinner and brittle. Take a steel plate. Sprinkle poppyseeds to cover the surface completely. Now comes the fun part, play with your creativity. Use toothpick to stop the batter coming out from the piping bag.
Once done dry them in sun for 3-4 hours and let them sit on the plate overnight. Next day if still moist again dry for 1-2 hours. Once dried keep them stored in airtight container. Fry them and serve it with dal and rice or have it just like

Rosh Bora

Rosh Bora
The festival of Makar Shankranti is also known as Pithey Parbon in Bengal. There are many types of Pithey made in Bengal. Another type of sweet made during Shankranti is Rosh Bora.
Ingredients
2 cups of whole white urad dal
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated ginger
Oil for frying
Notun gur or date jaggery according to the sweetness of the syrup wanted

Method
Soak the dal for an hour. Drain the water and grind into a fine paste. Mix in fennel seeds, salt and grated ginger with the paste. The consistency of the mixture should be thick. Whisk the batter in one direction till light and fluffy. Heat oil in a wok and when oil gets heated up then drop a tablespoon of the batter and fry till golden brown in color. Fry in batches. Once the boras are ready. Keep them on a absorbing paper to drain off the excess oil. While frying the boras, get the Gur syrup ready. Heat 2 cups water with 2 cups grated Notun gur. When the gur completely dissolves and forms 1 string consistency then switch of the flame. Soak the boras in the syrup for an hour. Boras will turn super moist after absorbing the syrup.