Masaledar bharwan baingan/ Spicy Stuffed Eggplants

Eggplants in my home is always about hubs.The little one and I like it too but with hubs its like nothing I can explain in a few words. Guess the only way he wouldn't eat them is raw. To go on a little more, he loves all different kinds of them, the italian, chinese, indian, purple, green, white and most likely any other kinds that he and I haven't even seen yet. His most favorite kind however are these baby eggplants just the way I make them *smirk*. You do have to give him some credit though, the eggplant is no doubt a very versatile vegetable. Fry them, saute them, bake them or even mash them and they always come out a winner.
I make them many different ways and this way is one of the most frequent as this one is my favorite eggplant preparation too. The eggplants are thoroughly soaked in spices and yet retain their beautiful petite shape making them very presentable for when you are entertaining. The kick of the spices and tang from the lemon juice and amchur along with the creamy texture of the nicely cooked eggplant make them ideally suited to be eated either with parathas or with rice and some daa. And yes, remember to leave the stems on to make them extra fun to eat.

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Masale wali Palak Puri/Spicy Puffed Spinach Bread

ndian food is never complete without the wonderful breads which are of vast and varied variety. Some of the ever popular ones are Naan, Paratha, Tandoori roti and of course the fluffy deep fried Puris.

We Indians have a special place in our heart for these cuties. Who doesn't love fried bread- sinful, but worth every little bite :) Weekend breakfasts, indulgent evening snack, lunch, dinner, picnics and lunch boxes, festivals and special occasions from birthdays to weddings, train journeys, famous street foods- all consist of one common thing - Puris.

Here's a confession- I am a puriholic. It has been my favorite bread since I was very little. These days I am not much into deep frying. In fact I try to avoid it at all cost but when it comes to puris I sometimes do go weak in my knees and indulges once every so often. For me, I don't even need a side - just some Indian pickle and I am all set.
This puri recipe here is how traditional puris are made in India but with a little twist. It is the same old puri but packed with the goodness of Spinach. This again is my mom's recipe as many others that you will find on USMasala. Serve with any kind of curry and creamy yogurt  srikhand or halwa or even some homemade pickle for am amazing breakfast or brunch.

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Gulkand-Pista Kulfi/Rose petal jam Indian ice-cream

s the mercury climbs and the sun becomes more relentless, it is beginning to remind me of summers in India. The carefree school days, long summer holidays, visiting grandpa's place- I am sure each one of us must have some fond memories of summer like these. Summer also reminds us of our favorite food ice-cream :).The popular variation of which in India is called Kulfi. I have some fond memories of those summer evenings. I remember whenever we used to go out to eat chaat and panipuri (which was very often) we had to have kulfi otherwise the whole outing used to be incomplete. 

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Thandai/Spicy Nutty Almond Milk

oli is this Thursday. This Festival of Colors is undoubtedly one of the most fun filled of all the festivals in India. The celebration of the advent of spring, this festival is tied to a lot of religious significance as are all the other festivals in India and also signifies the triumph of good over evil. Huge bonfires are burnt on the eve of Holi to commemorate this spirit.

As with any festivities, there are loads of fond memories with Holi as well. For those not aware, the tradition might seem a little odd but here is how it was done - and boy was it fun. The morning of the festival, you would wake up and go out on the streets armed with all your washable paints, colors and gulal. Any person you find young or old, whether you know them or not, you make sure you get them painted beyond recognition. Of course you get the brunt of it too, so much so you would not recognize if you saw yourself in the mirror... no kidding. While you did all that, you would sneak an occasional peek in the house and pick a taste of all the goodies mom was busy cooking up. I remember how my mom and aunts used to cook up a storm and how all of us children would huddle up in the kitchen and be curious and all excited, waiting for the treat. The sweet aroma of festivity, sounds of laughter, the deep frying, chit-chat, gossip.

On this occasion it is customary to drink thandai - a cold refreshing beverage made with milk that is infused with almond and few exotic spices often traditionally mixed with ground hemp paste or bhaang. Bhaang  is prepared with ground leaves and flowers buds of the cannabis plant which works like a relaxant and gives a intoxicating kick :) You guessed it, as kids, we weren't allowed. This  version here is of-course the non-intoxicating version and perfect for the upcoming hot summers and not to mention very nutritious as well.

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Meetha Gulkand Paan/ Betel leaf mouth freshener with rose petal jam

 

Dear friends- The holiday season is around the corner and the holiday fever is catching up in my household as well. Just wanted to let you know that I will be taking a little time off during the holiday (a well deserved one as hubs tells me :). Will surely see you in a little bit.

Happy Holidays

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hewing the Betel leaf or Paan, as it is called in Hindi, loaded with fragrant and flavorful fruit, herb and spice mixes, is the ubiquitous mouth freshener in the Indian sub-continent. If you think chewing gum is the most common form of freshening up your mouth, think again. Now I am no historian but the tradition of chewing the leaf has existed in the culture since the beginning of recorded history and is very much prevalent still in the modern age. To give you an idea, I do not think there is any public street in India where within five minutes you could not walk up to a little stall right on the side of the street selling this delight. This post would be incomplete without giving you a little description of that ever-present 'paan-dukaan'. A little makeshift stall made of plywood, roofing sheets and any other material nailed together to make a box like structure and propped up on four wooden legs, sometimes as small as five by five feet with a person barely managing to sit inside with a small counter in front of him. You walk up and ask him or her for the kind of flavoring you want and lo and behold within a matter of seconds he is ready with your instant gratification. In some places you pay as little as five rupees (a dime, no kidding) for a serving and walk away.

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Parval/Patal Dopyaza

arval or Patal, as it is sometimes also referred to as, is a common green vegetable that most if not all folks from India are familiar with. I looked around on the web and there seems to be a lot of confusion on its english name so I would rather not mention any here. It is especially common in northern and eastern part of the country and definitely well loved in the region in India where I come from. Growing up parval used to be abundant during the summers. So much so that it almost became a staple for those couple of months. It would either be aloo-parval with rice for lunch or parval bhunjiya with roti for dinner or even sauteed stuffed parval as a side, it would show up in some shape or form with every meal. You got tired of eating it eventually but you still liked it.
Coming to the US, I was pretty disappointed that folks here did not even know what parval was let alone eat it or even sell it. I would occasionally find the frozen kind in the freezer, tried a few times, but was even more disappointed. For someone trying parval for the first time, I would strongly advise not trying the frozen ones, not even close. We had to go without the fresh ones for a few years until we started seeing it in little containers in Indian grocery stores, tucked away in a corner as if it were an orphan vegetable that no one desired. The first time I laid my eyes on the little box in the corner seemed like a distant dream. I picked one up and held it close to my eyes turning it in different directions until my senses told me I was in fact looking at a fresh parval (aah the things you take for granted). The excitement however was short lived as almost immediately my sight fell on the little handwritten price tag that read $6.99/lb. "You gotta be kidding me", I thought and with a heavy heart put the one I had in my hand back in the basket and passed it by. Yes, I did turn around.
Since then I do buy a couple of pounds every now and then and handle it like gold. Hubs and I both enjoy it with rice or roti while chatting through our meal on everything I just wrote above.

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Chandrakala/Stuffed Sweet Festive Pastries

ere is another recipe from me that gives me an intense sense of nostalgia.

The start of 'navaratra' marks the beginning of the festive season in India. Navaratra culminates in Dussehera after which comes the much awaited Diwali with Dhanteras and Chhath between and immediately after. These followed by Christmas and of course the welcome of the new year. Festivities in India are associated with pomp and fervor, family, dressing in your finest, prayers and worship, time off from school, carnivals, guests and of course food, lots of food. How is that for nostalgia!

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Pyaz Ke Pakode Wali Kadhi/ Onion fritters in spicy yogurt curry sauce

ou can cross the seven seas and eat the food served by the best chefs from the most celebrated lands but I believe my foodie friends will agree that there is nothing like a bowl of that most loved comfort food that you can snuggle up in the comfort of your home and feed your soul with.
You may think the above is too strong a sentiment for a bowl of kadhi, but that is how I feel about it. Comfort food doesn't have to be complex or even exotic, you cannot explain it. Just the aroma of a hot bowl of simmering kadhi gives me a strange sense of comfort. It always elevates my mood, pulls me out of the clutches of a bad day and reminds me of home, mom and good times spent with family. Give me a choice between the bestest dessert in the world and a bowl of hot kadhi trust me I will always choose the latter. That is how much I like it, you get the idea. Kadhi is classically paired with plain rice or 'chawal' and is especially pure bliss on a cold rainy day.

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Sabudana Kheer/Tapioca Pudding with Saffron and Nuts

ndia is the land of festivities. Believe it or not but national and regional festivals together would probably go into three figures. What's more is that these vary widely in the way they are celebrated from one region to another. Some are quiet and solemn including prayers and worship, some an expression of love and affection and most are attributed to deities and celebrated with quite the pomp and fervor.

Many of the regional festivals often are the quiet and solemn kind (but still elaborate nonetheless) and they are often associated with fasting. Fasting is a way of worship where you eliminate certain food groups from your diet for the period of the fast or sometimes, depending on how resilient you are and the method the particular festival dictates, not eat or drink at all.

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Mung Dal Paneer Samosa/Lentil and Paneer Stuffed Pastries

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amosa or Singhada (as we call them where I come from) always makes me nostalgic. I remember buying and treating on hot samosa from school and college canteen (which to me still is the best I have eaten till date) almost every other day. For the time when I was enjoying these crispy goodies - atleast for sometime - it would help me forget the dread of science and math classes! When at home, I remember when guests would visit during evening tea, serving samosa with tea was almost a given. My brother (a well known samosa fanatic) would keep waiting and dropping hints on what a great idea it would be to get some hot samosas. Papa, pretending to catch the hint, would hand him a ten rupee note. He would run over to the halwai shop at the corner of the street and get a dozen fresh out of the fryer for everyone ~ ahh! Can you believe samosas were 75 paise each back then!

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Aam Panna/Green Mango and Mint drink

hopping in air-conditioned malls is the modern trend. If you have ever shopped old-school on the streets in India in the scorching heat of summer you would know that it gives the saying 'shop till you drop' a whole new meaning. Just when you have shuttled around twenty odd stores and looked through scores of dresses and hundreds of accessories and are about to 'drop' from the heat and exhaustion but still want to go to the store around the corner - who knows maybe they have the perfect accessory to go with the dress you just bought - you feel a serious craving for this drink. You crave for a glassful of Aam Panna to give you that much needed relief and recharge yourself. You start looking around for the nearest push-cart vendor or stall that is making them fresh and yes you are bound to find it around every street corner.

This drink basically comes from the streets of northern India and is popular because of its cooling properties. A nice and refreshing drink made of raw unripe mangoes which gives it a tangy flavor and  the refreshing mint that gives a cool fresh taste. Freshly roasted cumin for a smoky taste, the black salt adds the flavor which cannot be substituted by anything else. Complete with the right amount of sugar makes it a perfect thirst quencher.

Back home where I come from it is always made with roasted charred mangoes. Some people also boil the mangoes. It does work both ways, but the charring process gives it a nice smoky touch. Mom would make a big jug full of this Aam Panna during the months of late April and May when raw mangoes were found in markets in abundance.

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Imarti

ave you ever wondered what the royalty of yesteryears ate. Especially in India where the land has seen its fair share of kings and queens of over the last couple of thousand years. If you think what they ate had to be rich, tricky to make, used expensive ingredients and extremely delicious, you are absolutely right.
The Imarti is one such sweet dish. It originated as a dessert for the royals in the ornate state of Rajasthan. Legend has it that this delectable sweet dish was created as a gift by the Rajput kings for the Moghuls during the Moghul invasion of India over four hundred years ago. The dish is now ever popular all over the country although in some parts of the country it is known as Jangri. It is almost as popular as its even more popular cousin the Jalebi. So much so that every sweet shop around the corner of every street that makes jalebi will most certainly also have imarti.
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Gajar Halwa/Carrot Pudding

his delicious and classic Indian dessert is a huge favorite with dear hubs. The warm aroma of the sweet succulent carrots cooking in the milk with saffron, cardamom, all slowly cooking and simmering in pure homemade ghee fills my house with a wonderful pleasing and festive aroma that always draw him to the kitchen... always.

We Indians love our spices as well as sweets. Any celebration or happy occasion for that matter is definitely accompanied with sweets. There is a mushrooming of mithai shops and  local halwais on every nook and corner wherever you go and there is usually such a variety of sweets that it is difficult to decide what you want to eat. Each part of India has its own sweet specialties and varieties so you can imagine how vast and expansive the world of Indian sweets can get.

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Lal Chana Ghugni aur Tikona Paratha/Black Chickpea Curry and Paratha

 was craving to have something that is closer to home and to the heart... and when you talk about close to home you often think of simple things that mom made that you enjoyed growing up. This dish is one of my comfort foods. Every time I make it, the sound of the sizzling spice and the aroma reminds me of home, of my childhood… lal chana ghugni used to be a staple back home – I love the flavor these special spices bring when cooked in Mustard oil. If you are not aware, traditionally most of the recipes from my native cuisine  use mustard oil for cooking ~ in my opinion the flavor that mustard oil imparts can not be replaced with any other substitute. This recipe is a plain, simple comfort food ghugni with poori or parantha reminds me of the frequent weekend breakfasts during our childhood days. The side dish used to be yogurt, pickle and gud (palm jaggery).

Every recipe from home comes with a satchel full of memories ~ while growing up and having mom to cook for me, I never really paid attention to how comforting and delicious some humble ghugni might taste and smell. It was just a part of everyday, which of course I didn't make much of in those days. After all that was mom and this is what she always made, right? ... aah... the things we take for granted...  Many years later, I love the smell intensely because I miss it so much and no matter how good I make it, it never comes close to the taste of mom's ghugni.

Paratha is a general term of a flatbread cooked in a pan with some oil. They come in various shapes and sizes varying from one region of India to another. Sometimes they are round, sometimes stuffed, even layered but for me parathas always have been these triangle ones, the ones that I picture in my head when I hear 'paratha'.

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Dahi Gujiya/Stuffed lentil dumplings with yogurt and chutneys

elieve it or not, up until very recently I was totally clueless when it came to that room in the house called the kitchen. My metamorphosis began almost half a decade ago with me meeting the man of my dreams. Before that in the kitchen I used to be as clueless as a  camel at the north pole. The only experience I had, boiled down to (literally) making the occasional hot tea for everyone. Anyway, when I got serious about getting married and settling down, mom realized cooking could be a skill I might need and took the challenge to show me how. Daily she would take the time to walk me through what she was cooking that day for lunch or dinner and would occasionally make me write the recipe down in my little notebook. I gradually built a liking for the art which very quickly grew into a passion. I was amazed to find that a skill that is so often taken for granted required such dexterity. As I grew into it, I developed a new found respect for my mom who would make three square meals for us every calendar day of the year and alter her menu on demand depending on our mood swings (yes bro and I both were picky eaters).
Yes I still have that little recipe notebook. This is one of the recipes from one of the now yellowing pages. This is one of mom's specialities that she was often requested by friends and neighbors to make and re-make.
This dish is a twist on the classic Dahi-Vada, the only difference being the dumplings are stuffed with a nut mixture and is shaped like a half moon rather than the traditional round vadas. It is kind of street food that borders on the exotic. The fried lentil dumplings give it an amazing texture and topped with the spiced up yogurt  with the tangy sweet tamarind chutney makes for an amazing flavor profile that is totally addictive.
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Onion Pakora/Bhajji

old and rainy days… perfect for pakodas or bhajjis (fritters) is what people say. For me each and every day is perfect for some hot crispy pakodas. I am notorious in my family for my love of these fritters. Most people like them hot and crispy, I on the other hand would even eat them ice-cold right out of the refrigerator lol  :D They are easy to make, taste awesome and did I mention they are deep fried which is the best part - what more you want. But like most other things in life the irony is that hubby is not a big fan so I don't make it very often (but whenever I do he says they are the best he has had). Also I know they are not always considered the best things to eat for health reasons because they are deep fried but it is okay to indulge sometimes. When you feel like it, just make yourself some garma-garam pakoras... sit back with your favorite chutneys, a cuppa tea or coffee on the side if you want and enjoy the the crunchy savory goodness of these beauties... and yes, the sound of rain most definitely makes it a whole another experience... seems almost like nirvana!

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Chhena Payesh - USMasala hits 200 !

ES!!! I am writing my 200th post!!! At the risk of sounding cheesy I can not help but say - I cannot believe it. It almost feels like I started only a couple of days ago and only yesterday I was congratulating myself for my 50th. What amazes me even more is that I have been blogging only for just about ten short months. Do your math, with about 20 posts a month, I believe I can safely conclude about myself 'I love to cook'.
Over and above all, I am totally and completely amazed at the response USMasala gets from my readers. You make me feel all warm and fuzzy with all your encouragement, so a big Thank You to you all. My stats tell me how immensely loved my site is. It is very humbling and makes me more passionate about what I love doing. It has been out and out an joy-ride. It is such a great feeling to touch someone's life in anyway - help in a certain way - someone somewhere in some part of the world, an unknown stranger who suddenly becomes a very familiar name and face.
I'm not kidding when I say that food blogging has changed my life in ways I never imagined. The most important thing is it has taught me is that you follow your passion and the everything else will follows. Another big thing is to admire the simplest things in life- a food-photo that comes out well, an experiment that succeeds, a thoughtful comment left on a post. The creativity, thinking, writing, history, everything.

Hubby deserves a special mention. Between tasting my dishes, taking awesome pictures and being my 24 x 7 technical support, he is the one who keeps the show going :) Thanking him would actually diminish the value that he adds to my efforts.

To all my readers - Thank you for being a part of my life and letting me and USMasala be a tiny part of your lives. Love you all!

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Gujiya - Holi hai!

ujiya is a traditional indian sweet dish made typically during the festival of Holi. The sweet delicious filling inside the crunchy flaky pastry covering tastes out of this world and makes you want to grab some again and again. Gujias slightly vary from region to region. In the Northern parts of India, the filling is made with sweetened khoya and dry fruits and nuts while in South Western States, it consists of shredded coconut, nuts and jaggery or sugar. I of course like this the way my mom makes them.

Where I come from, we call it Pedukiya. These are made in most households during the festivities of Holi like it was in ours. They always take me back in time to those days when on the morning of the festival, you would wake up and go out on the streets armed with all your paints, colors and gulal. Any person you find young or old, whether you know them or not, you make sure you get them painted beyond recognition. Of course you get the brunt of it too so much so you would not recognize if you saw yourself in the mirror... lol. While you did all that, you would sneak an occasional peak in the house and pick a taste of all the goodies mom was busy cooking up. I remember how my mother and aunts used to make it and how all of us children would huddle up in the kitchen and be curious and all excited, waiting for the treat. The sweet aroma of festivity, sounds of laughter, the deep frying, chit-chat, gossip... I miss them all... here in my kitchen when alone I cook something like this there is not someone always to taste as it comes hot off the frying pan, the chit-chat... but the aroma of cooking the warmth of festivity makes me feel at home again. I have the sweetest and the most caring man in the whole world who is my sous chef my taster my food critic, my everything. With him and my our little bundle of joy everyday feels like a festival and keep me going!

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Papdi Chaat from scratch with Tamarind and Date Chutney

his again is a story related to me coming to the US after getting married.

Ask anyone who has grown up or lived in India for a while (especially the female kind :) and they will swear by the taste of this roadside delicacy and will have a story or two to tell you with a twinkle in their eye (while their taste buds start to tingle). And my dear friends, that is no exaggeration.

During my college days, I got my fix of chaat atleast once every week. I took it for granted as it was available everywhere. When I got married and was preparing to come to the US with hubby, he gave me this shocker (among a few others). Very calmly he announced that I should get my fix of as much chaat as possible as I would not find it in the US. I was taken aback but underestimated the truth in his statement, after all there were Indian restaurants in the US and they sold chaat... I was gonna be okay. Never had I been so wrong. I found the so called chaat here to be not even close to being worthy of being called chaat. It simply was some papdi with boiled potatoes and a chutney that tasted like tomato ketchup :o

Anyway, long-story-short, I decided to make my own. Here goes the recipe. If you really want your chaat to taste awesome, pay special attention to the chutney recipe.

Chaat is a generic name for a plate of savoury, spicy, tangy snack, typically served at road-side stalls or carts in India. Originally a street food, now it can be found in high end restauarants too. There are dozens varieties of chaat like pani puri or phuchkas, dahi bhalla, sev puri etc. All these are made with almost the same ingredients (with a different base), main one being the tamarind dates chutney. It is a thick tangy, spicy, sweet and sour sauce made out of tamarind pulp, dates and jaggery. Papdis are deep-fried pastry roundels that add the crunch to the chaat.

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Kathal ke Kofte/Jackfruit kofta curry

I speak to my mom in India quite often. We talk about a lot of things. The other day she happened to mention that Jackfruit was back in season in India. This time of the year they have the small raw ones that are really good for curry (aah my mouth waters just as I think about the it). I cannot find fresh jackfruit anywhere in stores here but they carry the canned ones in the local oriental markets. While I was talking to her, I got reminded that I had a few cans sitting in my pantry and I'd made up my mind I would make these koftas. If you remember my kathal spree from a few moons ago, I'd gotten a whole ten pounder from a local farmer except I had to drive a couple of hundred miles to get it. Believe it or not I tried calling the guy but it appears that they are not in season yet here in the states. I keep a few cans handy as I like to make different things with jackfruit and they come in handy. And handy they came indeed as I succumbed to my kathal craving.

Kofta (as they are usually referred to in the South Asian Subcontinent) have a heavy presence over various cuisines. The concept of the kofta (or kufteh, köfte, keftes, kufta, ćufta…) is that a ground form of particular ingredients are spiced (according to what herbs and spices are predominantly available in that country) and rolled into a certain shape. Kofta can be fried, steamed, grilled or baked according to what ingredients you added to the mix. Koftas are traditionally made of minced meat however it is not uncommon to find koftas made of paneer, bottle gourd, mashed potatoes etc.

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