Stuffed Aloo Tikki ( Stuffed Potato Croquette )

Potatoes are my first love. I had never had Aloo Tikkis stuffed before, so when I saw this recipe in 660 Curries, I knew I had to try it out. I was not disappointed at all. Theses turned out quite delicious and the surprise crunch from the sprouted moong adds a nice texture to the dish.

This dish need for some pre-preparation, two day before you make this dish soak some whole moong dal overnight and then drain the water next morning and leave it covered on your counter top for another 24 hrs. It would have sprouted by then and would be ready for this dish. Alternately, you can also buy some ready-made moong sprouts from your Asian grocery store.

Veggie Puffs or Vegetable Puffs

Hot, crisp buttery puffs stuffed with your choice of vegetables and baked is a favorite teatime snack at our home.

These puffs are widely available in bakery shops in India. The first time I came across them was in Bangalore, India. They used an onion, tomato and carrot filling and some other shops used a potato filling. I have adapted this recipe by adding some paneer too.

Once baked these should be eaten while still warm, as they would taste their best then. These can also be had at room temperature.

Boiled Groundnuts or Boiled Peanuts

A family favorite at our home. I love the way the family gets together around the table and laugh and chat while shelling and eating the peanuts.

Remember to use raw peanuts. These peanuts taste good only when it is boiled properly and it has the right amount of salt. Initially I would eyeball both the amount of salt and the boiling times. And the results would sometimes be great, while other times the salt was not enough or the peanuts were still not fully cooked. So nowadays I follow this recipe for perfectly seasoned boiled peanuts.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Who does not love a good Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. In our home, my son is a very big fan of this healthy snack. So I make my own peanut butter, that way it is fresh, and not loaded with preservatives and other ingredients I have never even heard of.

I make a little at a time and store it in a clean glass container in my fridge. You can also make it in large quantities but make sure to use it up soon as the shelf life of this is less compared to the store brands. I also use a fruit-juice-sweetened-no-sugar-added jam and whole wheat bread to make these sandwiches. Maybe next time I will try to make my own jam and whole wheat loaf too !!

If you use salted peanuts, do not add any additional salt. You can also use honey roasted peanuts, in that case skip the honey. Some recipes called for some peanut oil to be added , however I skipped that as peanuts do have peanut oil in them.

Spicy Honey Roasted Peanuts

Recently while cleaning out my pantry, I found two plastic boxes filled with peanuts. Suddenly all kinds of peanuts recipes started running through my mind. I could make peanut soup, peanut cupcakes, peanuts brittle, peanut chikkis the possibilities seemed endless.

The decision to make Spicy Honey Roasted Peanuts was made by my husband. He loves these kind of peanuts to snack on and thought it would be great if we could make some at home. So I adapted this recipe from allrecipes.com. The results were amazing, these taste just as good as the store bought ones. Next time I will vary it a bit and make Spicy Masala Peanuts.

Chivda

This tasty snack is quite famous in India. You will find this as a staple in nearly every house. Whenever we went to visit relatives or friends or even attended marriages, this would always be one of the snacks served.

In marriages they would make huge quantities of this and pack them along with some ladoos in small packets to give as small favors to to all the relatives and friends attending the marriage.

I remember my grandmother would call over a pandit ( there are two kinds of pandits, one who conducts prayers and one who cooks food. In this case I mean the latter one ) during festival season to make all kinds of sweets and savoury snacks. He would set up some firewood in the backyard and a make shift kitchen and fry up all the various dishes under the watchful eye of my grandma and aunts.

My Auntie Dolly would have the pandit fry up some sun dried onions to add to this chivda, taking the taste of the chivda to another level. I phoned Dolly Auntie to ask her about this recipe and she said I was to dry sliced onions under the hot sun till all the moisture is evaporated and then store in an air tight container. When I want to add it to the chivda, I should just fry a cupful of it in hot oil and mix it in the prepared chivda. Since it is getting cold here, drying it under the hot sun is out, I thought about drying it in the hot oven. However, the lowest temp on my oven is 170 degrees F and that is too hot as I need about 100 degrees F. So I made my chivda without the onion part. Come summer I will make it her way. She is another great cook in our family and her recipes are always delicious.

I got this recipe from my mom. The addition of raisins provide a nice contrast in taste. One can eat this chivda as is or dress it up with some fresh chopped onions, tomatoes and cilantro. Mix these in the chivda and maybe a squirt of some lemon juice and enjoy it as a tasty snack.

Aloo Paratha

It's raining potatoes.......fried potatoes and boiled potatoes , they taste good anyway you slice them. My grandfather still teases me about my love for them.

Now my son loves it too. His favorite being Aloo Paratha which he lovingly calls 'Alew Pratha'. This is a versatile dish and can be had as a breakfast item or lunch item. My son will even  have it for a snack.

When I am pressed for time and want to make it for him, I peel and roughly dice one potato and place it in a microwave safe dish, pour sufficient water to submerge the potatoes and microwave this on high for 5-6 minutes. Voila ! the potatoes are ready. Just drain it and add some salt and a little red chili powder and chopped cilantro. Mash it all up and the filling is ready for two aloo parathas.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on parathas, stating that paratha comes from the word 'parat' and 'atta', which means layers of flour cooked. It is mainly a punjabi dish but now it is popular all over India. Another tidbit of information I got from there is that when Indian immigrants moved to other parts of the world, they adapted the paratha to their new regional flavors and thus in Malaysia and Mauritius it is called 'farata', in Singapore it is 'roti canai' or 'roti prata', in Myanmar is is called as 'palata', in Trinidad and Tobago it is called as 'buss up shot' or 'boss up shot' or 'buss up shut', named after the method of striking the hot roti  thus breaking it up into smaller pieces. It would be interesting to find out more about the different parathas adapted by other countries.

Samosas

The perfect samosa cover has evaded me for a long time now, but no more thanks to this special book called  660 Curries. This book has been the answer to many of my food related questions. Raghavan Iyer, the author, has done a wonderful job of compiling such a wide range of recipes, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. His section on various indian chaat recipes alone, which he calls in this book 'appetizer curries', is totally worth buying this book.

Some of the best samosas I have ever tasted came from near the Hanuman Mandir/temple near my granny's house. The Samosa-wala ( person who sells samosas) had his little samosa shack just next to the entrance of the mandir. This spot was frequented a lot by college students, especially during exam time, as they got to do two things in one place -  pray to god to help them pass and eat yummy samosas.

Later on, in our college under a big tree near the gates, one bai / lady use to come carrying a huge cloth-lined basket over her head containing hot delicious samosas. In India there are usually round concrete platforms built around the base of huge trees for the public to sit and rest under the shade. So she would sit on this platform along with her samosa filled basket. The cloth helped keep them warm and soaked up the moisture thus preventing the samosas from getting soggy. She was always surrounded by students, drawn in by the tantalising aroma emanating from her basket. Having samosa at the end of college day was our way to unwind, relax and enjoy this special comfort food while venting our day's frustrations. I wonder if she is still there today under the tree selling those yummy samosas to another batch of students who when they leave college will carry a few special memories, one amongst them will be of our Samosa Bai and her magic samosas

I am so glad to have found this recipe so as to replicate those delightful samosas. These samosa turned out as scrumptious as I remembered them. The addition of ginger and garlic to the filling makes it even more tasty. The cover is very crispy and would fall apart in your mouth into flakes. A little word of caution - these are rich in calories but do not deny yourself the pleasure of having one some, just have them in moderation.

Please do note that my stove is electric; Electric stoves do not get as hot as the gas stoves, so please do adjust your tempertures accordingly.


Samosas