Pithla- A chick pea flour curry

This is the simplest version of pithla. A pudding like curry made with chickpea flour seasoned with garlic. It is perfect for a quick dinner. And it is the ultimate comfort food when paired with white rice and ghee. This is the version that I like which has a pudding like soft texture and is a little fluid and can be easily mixed with rice. 

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil

1/8 mustard seeds/rai

1/8 cumin seeds/ jeera

Pinch of asafetida powder

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder 

1 cup chick pea flour 

4 cups water 

4 large garlic cloves, finely diced

1 onion, finely chopped

1-2 green chilies, slit in the middle or finely diced, to taste 

Salt, to taste

1/4 tsp sugar  

Method 

Mix the chickpea flour, salt, sugar and turmeric powder. Then slowly add the water and mix it together to create a slurry. Make sure that it doesn't have any lumps. 

Heat oil. To it add the mustard and cumin seeds . Once the seeds begin to crackle add the garlic and chillies and cook them for a minute and then add the onions. Cook them till transparent. Then add the chick pea slurry in. Stir well and let it come to a boil. It tends to splatter, so use a splatter screen or a pan that is deep enough to catch the splatter. Let it boil for a couple of minutes and start to thicken. Keep stirring it frequently, so that it doesn't stick to the bottom. Cook it till it has a pudding consistency. Turn off heat. Serve hot with white rice or jowar bhakri.

Tips

Stir the slurry before you pour it in as the flour tends to settle. You can add spice like garam masala or gods masala to flavor it further, though I prefer it without any additional spices. You can also cook it till it is dry and serve is like a sabji.

Gulkand Sheera/Halwa - Rose flavored cream of wheat pudding

Sheera or halwa made with rava/semolina/cream of wheat is possibly the most popular sweet dish in India. Every household makes it and it is made as dessert of even as a breakfast dish. It is made as a sweet to celebrate special occasions. And many a times when someone shares good news, this is made on the spur of the moment to celebrate the news. You can add pineapple or another fruit to it to flavor it. If you want to make it rich, substitute half of the water with whole milk and increase the amount of clarified butter/ghee. Then add roasted slivered almonds and cashews to it to transform it into the most decadent dessert ever. You can find the orange colored version of it in many Indian restaurant buffets and it is called "kesari". Kesari is the color that you get when you add "kesar" aka saffron to the dish. In restaurants it is usually a food color that is added, but at home you can add a pinch of saffron to give it a royal feel. A versatile dessert called by many different names and everyone has a favorite version.

This time around,  I decided to give it a twist and make it rose flavored by adding a home made rose preserve that I made using the roses from my garden. The dessert had a lovely fragrance and a delicate rose flavor.

Ingredients 
1 cup rava/semolina/cream of wheat
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp of sugar
1/3 cup ghee
2 tbsp gulkand
2 cups water
2 tsp rose water
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
2 tbsp raisins
Rose petals for decoration

Method 
I am giving three different methods of cooking this.

Method 1
Roast the semolina/rava/cream of wheat till fragrant on medium heat in a dry pan. It should be lightly browned and at this point it will have a nutty roasted fragrance. In a deep saucepan, mix together the water, sugar. Cover and let it come to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, add the roasted semolina into the water and stir well. And after a minute, turn off the heat. Cover the saucepan for 15 mins with a well fitting lid, letting it cook in the heat of the water. Then open the lid, add the ghee, cardamom powder, gulkand, raisins and mix them all in thoroughly and cover for 5 more minutes.  Once it is luke warm, stir in the rose water.

Method 2
Heat butter or ghee in a pan. Once hot, add the semolina/rava/cream of wheat and roast it till light brown and when you can smell the nutty flavor. Keep aside. Then mix together the water and sugar in a deep saucepan and let it come to a boil. Once it starts boiling, add the roasted semolina/rava/cream of wheat and stir well, let it cook for a minute and turn off the heat. Cover with a lid and let it cook in the heat for 15 minutes. Then open the lid, and add the cardamom powder, raisins, gulkand and mix them in thoroughly and cover it for another 5 minutes. Once luke warm, stir in the rose water.

Method 3
Heat butter or ghee in a deep pan. Once hot, add the semolina/rava/cream of wheat and roast it till light brown and when you can smell the nutty flavor. At the same time, heat the water, and bring it to a boil. Once the rava is roasted, pour the water onto the rava and mix it well. It will splatter a lot and this is the messiest of the three methods. Turn the heat to a low when pouring the water to minimize the splatter. Then stir it and cover it and let it cook on low heat for a few minutes till it fluffs up, stirring nad covering a couple of times. Then once it is cooked and fluffy, add the sugar and mix. It will dissolve and make the resultant mixture a little fluid. Keep cooking it till you get a drier texture. Then as it finished cooking add the cardamom powder, raisins, gulkand and mix them in thoroughly. Take it off the heat and cover it for 5 minutes and let it rest. Once luke warm, stir in the rose water.

The resultant sheera/pudding does not have an overpowering rose taste but a mild fragrant  rose flavor. You can serve this warm or at room temperature.

Here are the recipes to make ghee at home and gulkand at home using your garden roses.
Ghee/Clarified Butter
Gulkand/Rose Preserve

Tips
You can decrease or increase the amount of gulkand based on your taste Keep stirring the semolina/rava/cream of wheat  when roasting it, so that it doesn't burn. Once it starts to brown, reduce the heat a little else it is easy to burn it. You can buy the rose preserve, also called gulkand in the local store that sells Indian/Asian foods. You can also make it at home (see the link above). You may also find rose jam which you can also use. If you are unable to find the gulkand, substitute it with the same amount of sugar. And increase the rose water to 4 tsps.

Samosa Wraps

This recipe came about when I was trying to decide what to cook for dinner one weekday and all I could think of was eating samosas. Deep fried samosas; cooking them on a busy weekday evening in less than an hour's time seemed impossible. And I would have still had to cook something more to make it a balanced complete meal. Instead I decided to add lentil flour to whole wheat flour and make  rotis which would be a nutritious wrap cover. To make sure that it was well balanced with vegetables and a complete meal, I used cabbage and carrot for the stuffing which were the vegetables I was planning to use up that week. And then I roasted these on a flat pan/tava with about a teaspoon of oil per wrap. What could have been a regular roti sabji meal was now transformed into a delicious and exotic fare which the kids enjoyed thoroughly. It turned out so well, that I get requests to make it often.

Ingredients

1/2 cup urad  dal flour

1/2 cup chick pea flour/besan

1/2 cup green mung dal flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt 

1 tbsp oil

water (1to 2 cups) to knead a dough that is soft to roll out the chapatis

1 napa cabbage head, shredded or finely sliced

1 carrot, grated

1 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tsp tava fry masala

1/2 tsp garam masala

Salt to taste

Chili powder, optional, to taste 

1 tbsp oil

Oil to pan fry the samosas 

Method

Combine all the flours in a bowl and mix them. Mix the tbsp of oil and salt in and then add a little water at a time to knead the dough. It should not be too stiff. Cover and let it rest for 20 mins, if you have the time. If it is sticky, add a little more wheat flour.

Now, take a fistful of dough, and roll it out into a thin round roti/chapati/poli. And then roast each chapati till it is partially cooked, a couple of minutes on each side. Since it is going to be cooked again, make sure to not cook them through completely. Stack these up and keep aside. 

In a flat and large saucepan, heat up the remaining tbsp of oil and add garlic and onion to it when hot. Stir fry them till the onion is transparent and then add the carrot and napa cabbage. Let it cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the tava fry masala, garam masala and salt (and chili powder if using). Mix well and let it cook till the cabbage is cooked through. The water should evaporate as it cooks. If there is any water left after cooking, drain it.

Heat up a flat saucepan or tava on which you can pan fry the samosas. Now cut each partially cooked chapati into a semi circle. Roll it up into a cone and then add the napa cabbage and carrot stuffing into the cone. Since the chapati is partially cooked, you will not be able to seal the cone opening. Spread a couple of tsps of oil onto the pan surface. Now place the stuffed chapati cone onto the pan with the open side face down, so that the open side gets cooked first. Now let this cook on medium heat till the chapati is cooked well and starts to crisp up. Then flip it over and cook the other side till crisp. You can cook a few samosa cones at a time. Be careful when flipping it over to make sure that the stuffing doesn't fall out and add oil as needed while pan frying them.  Serve warm with ketchup.

This can be a main meal for a weekday dinner as it is a wholesome, healthy and tasty meal.

Tips

Since the dough has a lot of lentil flour, the resultant dough maybe a little sticky. You can use some wheat flour or oil to reduce the stickiness.

Napa cabbage has a lot more water content than regular cabbage and hence a large open pan will provide enough surface area for the quick evaporation of the water that is released from the cabbage. If you stuff uncooked chapatis you will be able to seal it properly, however since the cabbage will retain some water, the result may end up being soggy and uncooked. Hence the chapati is partially cooked to reduce the moisture content. 

Place the cooked ones on a wire rack if possible as you cook the entire batch. This will help keep the samosa crisp till it is served. You can use the same recipe with a variety of vegetables. If you cannot find tava fry masala, add 1/4 tsp of fennel powder or 1/2 tsp of fennel seeds and 1/4 tsp of aamchur instead and increase the quantity of the garam masala to 1 tsp.

Vegetable Croquettes

This is a delicious recipe which is full of nutritious and delicious vegetables, has chickpea flour and bread crumbs and can make for a complete meal on a busy weekday. These are cooked in an appe pan also known as an abelskiver pan to keep them nutritious without impacting taste or texture. You can also deep fry them.

Ingredients

1/2 small cauliflower
3 potatoes, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
1/2 inch ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
15 green beans
1 green chili (can increase to make it spicy)
2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp haldi
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp dhania powder
Salt to taste
2 cups panko bread crumbs/ regular bread crumbs 
1/2 cup besan flour
Rava/semolina and bread crumbs to coat the croquettes
Oil

Method
Chop all the vegetables (except onion, ginger and garlic) and put them in a pressure cooker vessel. Pressure cook for 2-3 whistles till the vegetables are mushy and completely cooked. Drain any water released from the vegetables and mash the vegetables. Then add the seasonings - salt, chili, ginger, garlic, onion, garam masala. Mix it wee. Then add the bread crumbs and besan. Taste and adjust salt and if you want to make it spicy you can add chili powder or more green chilies. Mix all of these ingredients well. The resultant mixture shouldn't be sticky but should come together like a dough. Spread bread crumbs or rava on a plate. I made some flat patties that were coated in breadcrumbs and rolled the ball shaped croquettes in rava. Rava can withstand the heat from the cast iron appe pan better than the breadcrumbs and the outer crust doesn't burn or char while the inner part of the croquette ball is cooked. 

Heat the appe pan and add a little oil to each appe mold. Place the croquette balls in the appe and roast them evenly by turning them throughout the process on medium heat. Add a few drops of oil as necessary when rotating the balls. 

Cut croquette to show how a completely cooked croquette looks from the inside

You can also flatten them into patties and roast them on a pan. To cook the flat patties, I added a couple of teaspoons of oil to a pan and roasted them well on both sides, till the bread crumb coated crust was golden brown. 

You can also deep fry these croquettes on medium heat.

Tips

You can steam cook or boil the vegetables till cooked to a soft texture where they can be mashed.