Punjabi cuisine Archives - My Veg Fare

Dal Soup

Jayasri Ravi — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 19:42:23 +0000

"Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honour to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?" - Judith Martin (Miss Manners)

I would second what Judith says, don't you think so? Such a versatile dish any time of the day or any time of the year! I love it hot or cold so refreshing and so relishing. whenever I go to a restaurant I always order soup and I don't mind skipping the starters. For me, masala papad and soup is a delight, my kind of comfort food which I immensely enjoy.

This soup was inspired by a Punjabi restaurant which I had visited back when I was in India. This soup is so versatile that I make it often not just on cold gloomy days but when my family are down the weather and do not want to eat anything, as it's so soothing to the tummy. I make this often when I do not want to cook anything and just love a very plain hearty meal serve this some crusty bread. I would call this a meal in itself!!

This is very good during summers as well, as Moong dal/ Yellow split lentil/ Mung beans is known for its cooling properties. In India, people adopt Ayurveda in everyday life. According to Ayurveda Medicine, people have three Doshas, Each person has one of the three doshas in that way his body works they are Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Moong / Mung beans are used as split as I have used in this recipe or as a whole with the skin intact or you get them with the skin half attached with and are called chilka. You also get Mung flour which can be used in versatile ways.

According to Ayurveda, it is Tridoshic ( Vata, pitta and Kapha) it has all the three dosha qualities and is considered as Sattvic diet. Moong dal is said to be considered to have a cooling effect in your body when your body feels heated up. It is very easy to cook and can be eaten raw by soaking them for 2 hours and also can be used in salads. It's easy to cook and easy to digest. According to western perspective, it is said to be an alkaline food, it is high in protein content as well as dietary fiber is said to have low GI index and is considered to be good for diabetic patients.

In just one line what I can say is, it simply tastes good!!

Dal Soup

This soup is very simple and easy to make, use it as a weeknight dinner! Light and refreshing. The mild spicy and tangy taste makes you want for more.

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings 3

Ingredients

4 tbsp Moong dal
1 tbsp Red lentil (Masoor Dal)
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 green chilli
1/2 tsp salt (or as required)
1/4 tsp Jeera powder
1/2 tsp Ghee or OIl
2 tbsp Onion
1/4 tsp Garam Masala powder (optional)
3 cups water
1 Lemon

Serving

1/2 cup cooked Basmati Rice
2 tbsp chopped coriander to garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Wash and soak dal for few minutes. 2. Heat Ghee in a pan add chopped onions, garlic, ginger and slit green chillie. 3. Saute for few minutes, 4. Add the above said sauteed ingredients into a pressure cooker with the soaked Dal, jeera powder and Garam masala powder. 5. Add 2 cups of water and required amount of salt and pinch of hing.
6. In a low flame cook the Dal up to 3 to 4 whistles. switch off the stove. 7. Once the Pressure releases remove the slit green chilli, Blend the dal into a smooth puree. 8. pass it through a sieve so you get a very smooth consistency of the dal. 9. Add another cup of remaining water thin it down with the extra water you have, taste the soup and adjust the consistency and taste. 10. Boil the soup, switch off the stove. Slice the Lemon into thin round slices. Place a slice of lemon, add a tbsp of cooked rice. Pour the soup into the soup bowls.

Notes

Or you can just squeeze a tsp of lemon juice into each bowl add a tbsp of rice and pour the hot soup on top of it garnish with few coriander leaves, crushed black pepper and jeera then serve!! Serve it warm with papad or some crusty Garlic Bread.

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Missi Roti (Authentic Punjabi Cuisine) - Indian Flat Bread

Jayasri Ravi — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:46:00 +0000

Hi everybody hope you are doing well, I will not bother you with my moaning again, I know I have not still posted my T and T event :(, hope to do so in the coming week, I have been very busy with lots of things going on at home front, Next week will be last of the school term for the kids, so I might be more free, weather is lousy here raining from past 2 days, Had to clean the garden with weeds growing every where, cleaning up has given me lot of back ache and neck pain. Coming to the post, I have made this roti so many times, my sister had given me this recipe, but had never posted it at all, when I was doing this T and T from Deeba's blog, I stumbled upon this cake recipe which she had made from here, and this she made because of the Secret Recipe Club which she had joined, me curious as always, wrote to them as I fell in love with this Idea of this club, and I was asked to try out from this blog - the Novice House Wife, what a beautiful good looking blog with beautiful recipes, when I searching for the recipes, I felt very homely in her blog, loved the clicks too.., that's when I saw this Missi Roti, as she says its an authentic recipe, and I took it, had this thing in my mind that I need to post it, I decided to do this again and blog about it.

MISSI ROTI (Authentic Punjabi Cuisine)

As Shumaila says in her own words ‘’Missi roti, pronounced “Miss-ee Row-tee” is a staple in Punjabi homes and is basically roti prepared from besan or gram flour/chickpea flour. Served with a dollop of butter and accompanied with any Indian vegetable or lentil dish, missi rotis are an excellent way of sprucing up the proteins in your diet. Missi Roti can be served for breakfast with curd or pickle. Missi Roti is good for diabetics too because of gram flour added to it as an ingredient. Gram flour is said to keep insulin levels in check! Missi roti makes you very thirsty, so be prepared to drink a lot of water after eating it!’’

So that’s it now you know a lot about Missi Roti , she says it is traditionally it is made in tandoor but at home, as we do not have tandoor’s we can make it on the tawa(cast Iron Skillet). She writes about how her mom adores pomegranate seeds and it is the key ingredient for this rotis flavour. Luckily because of my Pomogranate seed event I have started buying them often and I always have them in stock, I did not miss it in using it in Missi Roti, as I have made earlier a couple of times, couple of things I missed out in this roti were Anardana seeds and chat masala, and the Gram flour kind of upset my tummy, when she wrote that you could change it as you want it, I didn’t mind at all. So, I made a few changes, when somebody tells me it is healthy I don’t mind trying it at all. As we all know health nuts like me that it is more nutritious than Naan which is made of plain flour and this one uses Gram flour and Wheat flour, it is high in protein and Iron, what else you need....

Here we go with the recipe then.......

I have changed a little bit as we are 5 people (2 Adults and 3 Teenagers!)

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups Gram flour/ Chickpea flour(Besan), sifted to remove any lumps
1 Cup of Jowar Flour

3 Cup Whole wheat flour

4 tbsp Fresh Coriander leaves ( about 4 to 5 Sprigs) finely chopped

5 Small Green Chillies, finely chopped

2 Medium sized onions

½ tsp Turmeric powder

1 tbsp Coriander seeds

½ tbsp Cumin seeds

½ tbsp Ajwain seeds

1 ½ tsp of Chat masala

2 tbsp of Anardana seeds

2 tbsp of Kasoori Methi dried

1 tbsp Chilli powder

Salt to taste

Water as Required ( I say as required, because of the Gram flour and Wheat flour might be used from different brands and the water might be less or more if I tell you the right amount, I used around 1 ½ cup, as my Gram flour isn’t like the one I get in India).

Ghee and Butter as required

Rice flour for dusting (she uses Wheat flour for dusting)

METHOD:

First of all In a pan Dry roast cumin, Ajjwain, Coriander seeds, until a nice aroma comes out of them, Using a pesle and mortar, coarsely grind the seeds well enough, crush it not very fine, shall I say fine coarse!

Take a Large bowl, add all the Ingredients except flour, butter and water.

Mix all the Ingredients to together, I left it for a few minutes as the Onions give out water, once mixed with salt,

Meanwhile I sieved both the flours together, then added them to it, and mixed them well together,

Make a whole in the middle and gradually add water, bringing in the mixture together just like a chappati dough, do not make it sticky or not too hard, let it pliable and smooth, so that you can roll it with a rolling pin.

Knead it well enough into a smooth dough, cover it with in a container or with a wet cloth to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile heat the Griddle/Tawa/Flat cast Iron skillet/ Hot Iron plate on a medium high heat.

Then roll them into small balls, Taking one small ball at a time flatten it with a rolling pin then if you think the dough is slightly sticking on to the pin, immediately dip the round ball into the rice flour, or dust the flattened dough with rice flour on both sides and start rolling them again into a nice round chappati.

Put this flattened rolled out dough circle on the hot skillet, cook for about few minutes on both the sides, when you can see, brown spots coming up and the dough turning into golden colour, flip it on both the sides to get it evenly cooked, apply butter/ghee on both the sides, until it is lovely golden brown in colour, that means it is done.

Serve it with butter/Ghee and with any Indian side dish, I made a Tomato Chutney it was fabulous.

Thanks Shumaila and Amanda for this wonderful event and loved it very much by everybody at home.
see you soon with an other recipe, do check what others have been doing.

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Green Bataki (Mustard Green leaves and Potato Gravy)

Jayasri Ravi — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:31:00 +0000

This is an other Punjabi dish I found in a book, I do not know the real recipe for this, I do not know if it is authentic, please forgive me if it isn't but it was quite nice and tasty recipe as it had potatoes in it :).

GREEN BATAKI

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE CURRY:
1 bunch of Mustard leaves (around 250 to 300 gms) (Recipe called for spinach)
1/4 Kg Potatoes (5 to 6 Medium sized)
3 to 4 pods of Garlic
2 small Onions (45 to 50 gms)
2 Small Tomatoes (45 to 50 gms)
3 to 4 Green chillies

Ground to Paste:
6 to 7 Cashew nuts
1 tsp Fennel seeds
1 tbsp Anardana seeds ( Recipe called for Magastari seeds)

METHOD:

First of all peel the Potatoes and cook them on a stove top with enough water until it is 3/4th done. (Actually the recipe calls for peeling and cutting and half cook the potatoes into Small cubes and deep fry them in Ghee until they are good), I did not deep fry but once it was nearly done I cut them into cubes and with a bit of more oil say around 4 to 5 tbsp of oil I roasted them nicely and kept it aside.
Then I cooked the Mustard Greens in 1 and 1/2 cups of water, drained the water into a bowl (do not throw away the water) and kept aside.
when the Greens were cooking I grounded everything in the Ground to paste heading to a smooth paste.
In a wok heat a tsp of oil add Green chillies and Onions saute then until they turn transparent then add Tomatoes and saute them again, until well cooked, allow them to cool.
Grind the spinach and the sauteed vegetables into a smooth puree and keep aside.
Next take a wok heat oil and cumin seeds, when they splutter add the Roasted potatoes then add the pureed Green paste and the Cashew paste to it with the reserved drained water and allow it to boil to this add Red chilli powder, Garam masala powder and salt as required with an other cup of oil as it starts thickening you can adjust by adding more water as needed to make it into a nice Gravy.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it with any roti, pulka or Nans.
I would like to send this to Pari's Flavours of Punjab event started by Nayana of simply food and to Anardana event hosted by me, started by Priya.

Hope she accepts my entry :)........

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Dhingri Mutter

Jayasri Ravi — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 22:36:00 +0000

Hi everybody, I am here an other post from an other Region of India, It is such a fun to taste different spices from different cuisines, Blogging has brought me more of this lovely interact with people, food and cuisines of the world. I was looking for a Punjabi recipe in my books and then I noticed that I had a few recipes of Punjabi recipes from my cutting (rather my sis had cut some magazine sheets out for me when I went last time to India after I started blogging my family write down recipes from magazines, books, friends, TV shows and pass it on to me when I visit them how very kind of them to do this for me) coming back to the recipe the name was very cute I thought I do not know what Dhingri means if anybody knows please enlighten me.
Well, anyway Dhingri Mutter with the parathas was very nice and tasty I do not know if it is authentic please write to me if I have missed out anything. Let's get back to the recipe then.
Oh! I forgot to tell you why I got interested about this recipe because it had Mushrooms, as we all know they are high in Folic acid and is good for women and my daughter loves it but other family members are not really have a Oh! yes feeling about it (including me 🙂 ). But, I try to include them now and then, and this one will definitely reappear in my kitchen as you can never ever guess it had Mushrooms in it!.

Here is how the recipe goes.....

DHINGRI MUTTER

INGREDIENTS:
250 gms of closed cup Mushrooms
1 cup of Green peas (I used frozen peas)
2 Onions
2 Tomatoes
1 Green chilli
7 to 8 sprigs of Coriander leaves
2 to 3 tsp of Oil
1 tsp of Chilli powder
1 tsp of Garam Masala powder
1 tbsp of Poppy Seeds
5 to 6 Cashew nuts
1 cup Fresh Yoghurt
3 to 4 Garlic cloves
1'' piece of Ginger

METHOD:
First of all wash the Mushrooms pat dry it, remove the stalks.
Meanwhile boil the mutter with a 1 and a 1/2 cup of water, do not throw away the water just keep them aside together.
Grind Onions, Tomatoes, Green chilli, Cloves, Ginger into a smooth paste.
Then Grind poppy seeds and Cashews into a smooth paste with little water. (to get a nice paste properly you can soak both these ingredients in hot water before you start this subzi which gives ample time to soak well).
Chop the Mushrooms into thin slices and chop the coriander leaves and get everything ready.
Take a wok heat oil, then add the Ground smooth paste and fry it until the raw smell disappears and oil starts to appear around the edges as in the third picture below then add the sliced Mushrooms and fry them until they becomes soft.

Then add all the Masala powders and give a fry for 2 minutes then add the cooked Peas with an extra 1/2 cup of water with the water already with peas. Mix well then add the smooth paste of Cashew and Poppy seeds and allow it boil with required amount of Salt. Do not leave the wok unattended as it may start thickening Once it starts boiling nicely for 5 minutes add the Fresh Curds mix well and leave it for another 2 minutes with continuous stir otherwise the curds may break, Garnish with chopped coriander leaves mix well and serve this lovely dish with chapatis, parathas or pulkas.
It was very and tasted beautiful.

I would love send this to Pari of food delicious who is hosting Flavours of Punjab started by Nayana of simply food.

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Punjabi Kadi Pakoras for Indian Cooking Challenge

Jayasri Ravi — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:56:00 +0000

Hi friends, Hope you are all doing well, I have been on and off from blogging, as usual, too many things to do and completely busy with life and health seems to play around too, seeping when ever I am not able to cope up with situations, with all this weather too is changing now and then as it pleases.
I did not make to the challenge up until yesterday 10 days of Navaratri I just didn't want to use onion or Garlic, not that I am too superstitious, I just try not to cook anything with onion or Garlic Or I will see to it I won't eat it, So, I decided to leave it until after the festival.
I have already missed two of ICC challenges, One because of the sun and the next one because I did not have the right utensil, this was the easiest, simplest, delicious recipe. Tell me who would not like it, the whole family was all for it, I have made Kadi many times with veggies, but not with pakoras, It is something like I sometimes I put the dal vadai's in Morekozhambu.
Thanks Simran for this delicious recipe and thanks valli for making us to do this, I would not have made this dish at all if not for the challenge, as Pakoras we would have eaten just like that 🙂 right ?.
Coming back to the recipe..
I made this recipe just noting down the Ingredients and the method.

PUNJABI KADI PAKORAS

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Chickpea flour
2 tbsp Rice flour (not in the recipe)
1/4 cup of Roasted Gram flour (not in the recipe)
2 Onions
1 to 1 and 1/2 tbsp of Red chilli powder
1 tsp of Ajwain seeds/carom seeds (not in the recipe)
salt as required
Oil for Frying

FOR THE KADI
3/4th Cup of Besan flour (chickpea flour)
4 Cups of water (extra water if needed)
3 cups of Yogurt
1 and 1/2 tbsp of Chilli powder
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp of Fenugreek seeds
1/2 tbsp of Cumin seeds
1 tsp of Ajwain seeds
1 Medium sized Onion
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Garam Masala powder
1 tsp Amchur powder
salt as required ( say around 1 and 1/2 tbsp)

METHOD:
I changed the recipe a little bit, I wanted the pakoras more crispier and I didn't want them to soften up too much when soaked in the kadi, so I could munch on it :)) wicked isn't it ?, well I thought kids would love it that way.
I usually do not add water to the pakoras as Onions give out water of their own which is usually sufficient to make lovely crispier pakoras.
The White Onions which I get here in UK really gives too much water.
Chop the onions add salt and leave it for few minutes say around 1/2 an hour.
Meanwhile Mix water and Besan flour together without any lumps and yogurt and mix well and start heating in a low flame. Do not forget to keep stirring occasionally, otherwise you might end up having a burnt bottom, as it starts to thicken.
Meanwhile chop the onion, Heat a Kadai/wok with a 1/2 tbsp of oil add Fenugreek seeds, Mustard seeds, (watch out that the fenugreek seeds change colour to golden brown do not allow it to turn black), Cumin seeds, Turmeric powder when a nice aroma comes out add the chopped onions and a few Curry leaves and saute until they become transparent, then here I changed the recipe a bit I added Chilli powder, Amchur powder, Garam Masala and powdered Ajwain powder and sauteed it a little bit, then added this to the Kadi.
Mixed well and allowed to cook for a few more minutes in a low flame.
Meanwhile take a wok pour oil for frying the pakoras,
Check out the oil by holding your palm on top of the wok (of course not too close) you can notice that their is a warmness that shows that oil is getting heated up give it one more minute and drop the batter to make pakoras another method to see if the oil is ready to be used put a drop of the batter into the oil after 10 to 15 minutes and when it pops up to the surface immediately then it is the right time to fry.
As we had already left the onions to marinate with salt, water would have oozed out now add the salt as required, chilli powder and Ajwain powder mix well then add the Chick pea flour, until it becomes a thick batter, then take a spoonful or use your hands and drop it in small portions (say the size of small lime) and fry them until they are golden brown in colour. Drain them out on a kitchen towel.
Put these pakoras into the Kadi which is on the stove in a low flame increase it to a medium flame and now you would have noticed that the kadi is getting thicker and allow it boil for a few more minutes then put off the stove and allow it to soak well.
I made it quite thick because as Simmi was saying that Punjabi Kadi 's are thicker version and the thinner version are the Gujarati Kadi's.
Well, It was a wonderful dish and we all loved it, I had nothing left in my container that night.

Thanks Srivalli of Spicingyourlife and Simran of Bombay Foodie for this wonderful declicious recipe.

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Lasaniya Batata (Garlic Flavoured potatoes in Yogurt gravy)

Jayasri Ravi — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:19:00 +0000

I have been posting recipes from other bloggers, this is my turn now, I got this recipe from my sister's book, even though she never cooks this as my BIL never allows Garlic inside the house. It's so funny when he asks me to make pulov, I love using Garlic in my pulav and he never allows me to use it, so I get satisfied using a ginger-garlic paste (which he doesn't know!).
I had copied this recipe when I went last time, but never bothered to try it out, when I called her for a gujarati recipe she reminded me of this. I had to tweak this recipe a little bit, I had some potatoes already boiled and peeled, I did not know what to do with it, so I squashed them added a bit of salt and I made small potato balls just like small New potatoes, and then used less Garlic than the recipe indicated.

LASANIYA BATATA

INGREDIENTS:
8 small Potatoes
4 to 5 Garlic cloves
1 tbsp of chilli powder
1 tsp of cumin powder
1 and 1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp Garam masala
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
few sprigs of coriander leaves
1/2 cup of Bengal Gram flour
1 and 1/2 cup of water
2 to 3 cups of yogurt
salt as required

METHOD:
Cook the potatoes peel the skin, (as I had already told you, I used the potatoes in a different way, as they were left over).
Take a wok heat 3 to 4 tbsp of oil and fry the potatoes into golden brown.
Meanwhile In a bowl take bengal gram flour using water make a paste to this add the other powders and keep it ready.
To this itself I added cumin seeds when it crackled I added chopped garlic, do not fry it too much just a little bit.
Then to this add the flour paste, do not make it too thick, let it be in thin consistency boil this, until the raw smell disappears, do not leave it unattended as it will start thickening and might get stuck to the bottom !!, stir it continuously for further 10 to 15 minutes then add the roasted potatoes and chopped coriander leaves, required quantity of salt and yogurt, mix well and keep stirring continuously for further 10 minutes, do not stop stirring otherwise yogurt and water split apart! It's just like making Morkuzhambu, If you are scared it is better to mix them well and leave it for 2 or 3 minutes and watch the edge of the curry you can see small bubbles popping up, then it's time to put off the stove, otherwise they split apart.
I simply gave an other tadka/seasoning with a tsp of mustard seeds, 1 Red chilli and a sprig of curry leaves.

I wanted to make Jagruti's Bajri Na Rotla to go with my Barwa Baingan, I couldn't locate my flour, I was quite disappointed, check out her blog on that, she has some lovely Gujrati recipes from her kitchen, and she calls them Kem cho series.
I am sending this to Flavours of Gujarat by simply food sensations.

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