One Hand in The Honey Pot

You have questions on how to create traditional Gujarati food for your sweetheart (or yourself)? Join my blog while I stumble through attempts of learning just the very thing you're confused about.

[handinthehoneypot]

Dhoklas: The Delectably Steamed Fluffies of the Eastern World

The outside world is bathed in dark blue hues. The pavement is drenched, but the greenery greedily soaks in the rain, accepting it as one of its own. And yet you sit in your dark, chilly shelter, wishing there was something to warm you up from the pouring of the sky. What do you eat? Dhoklas.

Dhoklas are a steamed Gujarati dish that can be made for snack or for dinner. In order to create this dish, though, you need to have an indian dhokla/idli/khamand set, like this. An Indian Steamer Cooker usually has 3-5 components: a pot to put the water in, a lid with holes to let the steam through, a pan in which your food mix goes, and a lid. The fifth item is the pan that has circular hollows in order to create idli, another steamed Indian dish. These sets are made of metal, and are definitely worth the investment. If you ever want to impress someone with how knowledgeable you are on indian cuisine, get yourself one of these and use it. You won’t regret it.

Ingredients: 

- 2 c. sooji, or semolina

-2 1/4 c. stirred dai (plain yogurt)

-a bunch of cilantro

-2 jalapeños, minced

-4 garlic cloves, minced

-salt

-1/2 tsp. cooking soda

-1 tsp. ajmo (ajwain/carom seeds)

-canola oil

-1 tsp. mustard seeds

-1 tsp. sesame seeds

-marchu (chili powder)

Directions:

1. Add water about halfway in pan, turn on stove.

2. Squeeze half lime into the water and leave inside; this prevents the bottom of the pot from blackening. Place the This helps from the bottom of the pan blackening. Place the holed in the pan, effectively covering the lime and water. 

3. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients sooji, ajmo, salt, and cooking soda together. 

3. In a small pot, heat 4 tbsp. canola oil on high. When the oil is warm enough, add the mustard seeds and sesame seeds (you know the oil is ready if you put a seed in and it pops). Lower the temperature. Cover until the popping dwindles, and pick up to swish the pot around. Add the minced jalapeños and garlic cloves. Cover and let simmer for 2 or so minutes. Once this is ready, add the stirred yogurt and the spice mix in the the dry ingredients. Mix well.

4. Add yogurt if too thick. It needs to be the consistency of what is pictured above.

5 .(optional) Add cilantro for some crispness and color. Let sit for 5 minutes

6. Oil the thali, or pan that you’ll put the dhokla mix in. Drizzle a lit oil onto the pan and spread with a napkin. This is so the dhoklas don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

7. Pour the mix into the pan. Make sure to make the first thali thin by only using about one spoonful so it doesn’t cover all the pan. This will allow you to test the steamer and the mix, so if there is an ingredient missing that you taste in the first batch, you can add it in the mix for the rest of the batches.

7. Your steamer will be ready when the bubbles and water rise from the bottom of the pot; since this lessens as it evaporates, add more water when needed.

8. Before placing the pan in the steamer, add some chili powder on top for a little kick. It contrasts nicely with the mild taste, and brings more color.

9. Each thali takes about 15-20 minutes. You can know if it’s done by a) the toothpick test (poke it with a toothpick and if it comes out clean then the food is done) or b) touch it and see if it’s still sticky. Pop the pan out and cut in diamond shapes, like the sacarparas. Repeat steps 6-9 with the rest of the thalis.

Enjoy this spicy/sometimes soury (depending on how sour the yogurt is) dish by dipping into ketchup, olive oil, or a yogurt-based soup. These fluffy, soft pieces are especially good for those that have toothaches, have recently tightened their braces, or the like. To make it even softer, dip it in a yogurt-based soup, like khadi. There should be a recipe of that soon enough, if you all are interested.

Now who could be depressed when this is on your plate?!?!

-A

[handinthehoneypot]

Nighttime Nibbles: Spicy Sacarparas

When night falls, I oftentimes (read: daily) find myself in a dilemma. My stomach whines and grumbles for food, and though every health-buff through the world says that we should probably eat something light such as, oh, cucumbers, god forbid, it doesn't help me at all. Nope. Nu-uh. Nada. Dainty food doesn’t fill me up at night. I’m an Indian by heart, which means I need some sort of grain-based food. It doesn’t mean I want something extremely heavy, though, either. That’s where the deliciousness of sacarpara come in.

Sacarparas are a light, but crunchy snack item that can be found floating around in any Gujarati’s house. It’s one of those things that you mindlessly munch with at the 4 o’ clock daze, or, like me, at the exact time that you need to sleep but your stomach won’t let you. It’s a fried snack with the base being whole wheat flour, and it. is. the best!

Since there are a lot more steps than the Kothmi-Marcha ni Chutney, I took the liberty of taking pictures of the whole process for those of you who have never even popped your head in the Indian-snacks world.

Ingredients:

- 100% fine ground whole wheat flour (I used Aashirvaad Atta)

-1 tbsp. salt

-heaping 1/2 tsp. herder, or turmeric powder

-1/2 tbsp. chili powder

-1/4 tsp. ajwain (carom seeds, or in Gujarati: ajmo)

-1/2 tbsp. sesame seeds

-5 tbsp. canola oil

-3/4 c. water

Directions

1. Put the flour, salt, turmeric powder, chili powder, ajwain, and sesame seeds in a medium or large-sized bowl. Mix with canola oil until the oil is evenly distributed and the mixture is a light yellow-ish color.

2. Gradually add the water and mix until it features a soft, but not mushy, dough. Pound with your fists to smooth it out. Remember, it needs to be rollable. Let sit for 10 minutes. 

3. Form palm-sized patties from the dough by rolling and pushing them between your hands. With a rolling pin, evenly roll the dough into a circle. The thinner you make the dough, the crunchier the snack will be. Try not to get any folds in yours as this picture shows, but if you do, just pat it down with your fingers. I just liked the aesthetic and composition of this picture, which is why I chose to share it.

4. Place a couple of glugs of canola oil in a deep dish frying pan, and turn on high. While you’re waiting for the oil to heat, you can roll all of your dough into circles.

5. Once the oil is almost  ready for frying (put a piece of dough in; if it rises up quickly then it’s ready), cut the rolled dough into diamond shapes. Then place one circle’s worth of diamonds in the frying pan for your first batch.

6. Flip and stir continuously until it’s a light golden-brown/red-orange color.

7. Obviously they’ll be a little oily, but place them on paper towels to soak the excess oil.

8. Admire these melt-in-your-mouth, crunchy beauties you’ve just made. Let them be devoured by your mouth, along with a raging sea of milk. You are now n% more Indian than you used to be. 

Enjoy, my darlings!

P.S. Try dipping them in raw honey. The flavor that explodes in your mouth can only be likened to if Ella Fitzgerald became an angel and had a karaoke night in your mouth. It is heavenly.

-A

[handinthehoneypot]

The Grass is Always Greener If It’s Actually Cilantro

Kothmi Marcha Ni Chutney

The Grass is Always Greener If It’s Actually Cilantro

It’s summertime. Your retinas are burning from the intense brightness of the blazing sun, and everything you wear has this sticky, I-got-tired-by-running-up-the-stairs quality. You wistfully dream of popsicles and ice cream, until you realize that you’ve had them for two weeks straight and will probably barf if you eat another one. So what, out of all the things that the Gujarati world could offer, could possibly cure these problems?

I’ll tell you what: Kothmi-Marcha ni Chutney. Though a chutney may sound like a foreign, exotic food that could only possibly be created by mysterious people in the kitchens of Indian restaurants, they’re actually very easy to make. All you do is prep a few ingredients and shove them into a blender. Dead serious.

You don’t believe me? Trust me on this one. Even the name is simple. Kothmi-Marcha directly translates to Cilantro-Pepper, which are the two most prominent ingredients in the chutney. Still don’t trust me? Here. Read the recipe and decide for yourself.

 Kothmi-Marcha Ni Chutney

Ingredients:

-       ½ bunch cilantro,

-       1-2 medium-sized jalapeños

-       2-3 cloves chopped garlic

-       2-3 tbsp. coconut shreddings (preferably unsweetened)

-       Roughly 1/3 c. yogurt

-       Shredded ginger (meh, a few inches)

-       2 tbsp. gor (jaggery), smashed into small pieces (or 2-3 spoons of sugar)

-       Salt to taste

-       Squirt of lemon juice if desired

Directions:

1.    Roughly chop cilantro into smaller pieces, focusing on the base of the cilantro and not just the leaves.

2.    Chop the jalapeño(s) into circular pieces

3.    Add the yogurt and cilantro in the blender; blend until the color has turned a vibrant green. Then add the jalapeños.

4.    Add the coconut shreddings, garlic, ginger, jaggery, and salt one-by-one and blend on liquefy.

5.    Adjust salt levels and add lemon juice if desired; blend to preferred smoothness

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The thing to remember about Indian recipes is that they are never taught to others by being precisely measured; everything is eyeballed and adjusted to taste. Hence the reason I have such vague measurements of ingredients. It takes a while to get used to cooking food without being exact, but trust me, you’ll get there. You might need to make 1-2 batches of this recipe to get it right for you, but soon enough you’ll find out for yourself how high of a spice level you can have, or if you want more texture, or if you prefer a sweeter edge. Naturally you’ll start to adjust measurements to fit your needs (I’m still working on all of this as I tell you all).

Though this chutney doesn’t necessarily have a super complex flavor, it’s still energizing. The cilantro is the reason for the bright, refreshing flavor, while the jalapeños lend themselves to a spicy bite. The coconut shavings are used to create a soft texture, and the yogurt is added in order to make it seem like you’re actually eating something substantial instead of just flavored water. The jaggery is there to balance the spicy flavor that arises while just using jalapeños. These ingredients together create a chutney that can simultaneously cool and revitalize you no matter what you eat with it (some people might believe it’s only good for dipping samosas, but this can be used for any substantial grain-based food: flautas, burritos, even quesadillas. Heck, if you want to be even crazier, you could use it as a flatbread pizza base)!

 I hope this helps you beat your summer-haze, darling.

Cheers for green things!

-A