Bread Rolls

One of my guilty pleasures in life is ordering tomato soup, in restaurants, for the fried croutons that come with it ( no healthy baked ones for me, that would totally ruin my tomato soup experience ! ). This dish totally tops that pleasure any day. Can you say a giant, stuffed and fried crouton ? Well this is what this dish tastes like. Heaven !!!!!!!

What makes this bread roll recipe better than the rest is the tangy soaking water. Generally all the recipes call for soaking the bread slice in plain water, I have even seen a recipe call for soaking it in milk. However, in this recipe lime juice and cayenne/ lal mirchi powder is added to the soaking water elevating this recipe to the next level. Also you can cut of the crust from your bread or not, this all depends on your personal preference . In my personal opinion, I think that the bread slice without the crust stays enclosed much better than the bread slice with the crust on.


I have adapted this recipe from Sindhi Rasoi. You must check out her blog, she has some really cool recipes.

Mithe Shakkarpara ( Sweet, Crispy, Fried Pastry Dough )

This was something my mother used to make a lot when we were very young. I remember she would always have one of the plastic jars on her countertop filled with these treats. We would snack on this anytime we felt peckish. Today I am continuing that tradition, wanting to share it with my family.

These sweet, crispy fried dough treats go great with a hot cup of tea. If you roll these a little on the thicker side you will get a nice crunchy-on-the-outside-and-soft-on-the-inside shakkarpara, if however you are not into soft and chewy, just roll these a little thinner and then they will be crispy all over.

 

Rawa Idli

These steamed, savory semolina cakes are a popular breakfast, lunch or even an evening snack item amongst South Indians. These are very easy to make and do not require any lengthy prior preparation. You can whip this up within 1/2 an hour preparation and about 20 - 30 minutes of cooking time. I sometimes even add one large grated carrot to this batter for added nutrition.

Try this recipe out for a quick nutritious breakfast or brunch. All you'll need is an idli mold/stand.

Subzi Pakora Chaat

Tempura-like-batter-coated fried vegetables called pakoras layered with hot, sweet, salty and sour chutneys is another popular snack food in India.

This is another great recipe from  660 Curries cookbook, I adapted it a little to my style. You can serve this as an appetizer, or a snack. Just be prepared to make this a lot as this will be the most requested dish at your home.

 This is so simple to make once you have all the chutneys in place. I put off making this dish for the longest time thinking that it would not taste that special. After all pakoras are quite common in our household. However, the other day when I was making some onion pakora, I decided to go all out and make the Sabzi Pakora Chaat. It turned out to be such a hit with both my husband and my son. My son even came for seconds !

This dish does have a couple of chutneys, which are easily available in any Indian grocery store, or you can make them at home. Once the chutneys are in place this dish comes together rather quickly and disappears twice as fast. Do not be intimidated by the number of steps in the recipe, it is fairly easy to make. So once you fry enough of the pakoras , assemble them and pour the chutneys on them and serve. These taste best when hot or warm.

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.

Dabeli

Another tasty Indian snack food. Dabeli comes from the Gujarat region and can easily be termed as another version of an Indian burger. It is a Spiced Potatoes and Pomegranate Sandwich in Raghavan Iyer's words.

This spicy potato mixture enclosed between a burger bun, smeared with a sweet and tart tamarind chutney and a spicy hot garlic chutney and garnished with pomegranate arils and spicy peanuts is a combination of different flavors and textures to form an extremely delicious and addictive snack. The crunchiness of the spicy peanuts, the unexpected burst of sweet and tart pomegranate juice and the heat from the chutneys will leave you wanting for more. I have adapted this recipe from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer.

This is another weekend dish that does not take long to prepare at all. As they were showing a marathon of House Hunters International on HGTV, one of my favorite shows ever. I quickly assembled these and the sat in front of the TV to see all the people buying beautiful homes across the world. It feels wonderful to live vicariously through the buyers pretending that I am buying a pied-a-terre in Paris, or a countryside home near the Alps or a cottage in the English countryside or maybe even a vacation home in the Caribbean. I love this show.

Gol Gappa aka Pani Puri

What are you all having this weekend? We are having a Gol Gappa aka Pani puri fest. And you are all invited...

Mention Gol Gappa in India and you will be hard pressed to find someone who says ' I don't like it '. It is loved by all: young and old. We all love it in our home, even my 5 year old loves it.

In India the best way to have it is at a street vendor's cart. They are famous for making these and serving multiple customers at the same time. Once you place your order, you and your party huddle around the cart or wherever else you get space and the vendor can reach you with his hand. He hands you a small plate and asks your preference, whether you like it a little sweet, tart or full blown spicy hot. Everybody has their own request and be sure that he will remember it. Once all the requests are heard he starts puncturing the puris and stuffing them with your requested stuffing - mine being always potato and channa - and dipping them in big ceramic vats containing the different 'panis' (water). Then he rapidly places it in your plate and repeats the procedure till he has served the rest of your party and then it is your turn again. He is so fast that you do not have to wait at all, in fact sometimes you are still finishing the first and he has served the next, then you hear everyone asking him to slow down. The fun of having it at the street vendor's cart adds to the taste and excitement of eating pani puris.

At home you can adopt that style and serve everyone, as for me I do not have that patience to watch everyone eat while I just serve. So I place individual bowls of pani next to the 10-15 stuffed puris in a plate per person . Thus everyone can fill their own puris with pani and stuff them in their mouths. The way to eat it is to place the whole thing in your mouth in one go, no hesitation or else you have have a wet crumbly mess in your hands. Just pop them in your mouth and the puri bursts and your whole mouth is flooded with the pani. It is an amazing sensation, try it and see, you will love it. Just be sure to make the puris just small enough so that they will fit right in your mouths.

For those of you who want to enjoy these savoury snacks without going through the hassle of rolling 60-80 small puris, you can get ready made pani puris at your local Indian grocery store. I decided to make mine as the ones that I get here have a very stale smell to them. I, however, used ready-made pani.

Avocado Salad with a twist

(Another Kiddie-Snack)

My son loves Avocados. In the middle he went through this unbelievable avocado phase where all he wanted was avocados for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So in addition to layering fresh avocado slices between tortillas and cheese or making grilled cheese and avocado sandwiches I came up with this guacamole like salad for him. He loved it and would tell me in the morning before going to preschool that "mommy make abocado salad for me when I get home".

Now the avocados, tomatoes, onions, lime juice and cilantro tasted just fine, but it lacked something texturally, something crunchy like the tortilla chips. As there was none at home I had to improvise and that is when I spotted a big box (Costco size) of Cheez-It ( mini cheese crackers) on the top of my fridge. All I can say is that it was a match made in kiddie-heaven (and adult heaven too ! ). Sprinkle some of the Cheez-it over your salad and have a fork ready at your side and you are good to go. If making for an adult you can also add  minced green chilies.

Spinach Quesadilla - with an Indian twist

My son is a picky eater and in my quest to feed him healthy foods I am always at a loss as to what to make to tempt his taste buds that is both nutritious and tasty.

My sweet sis-in-law Shilpa gave me this recipe, she uses a different filling but the same concept. This recipe has been a winner in our family and both my son and my niece loves it. Not to mention that the adults love it too, and what's not to love the whole wheat rotis give them fibre, the spinach gives iron and the cheese gives protein and fat ( you can use low fat cheese too). You can also put some black beans in it about 1/4 cup cooked black beans or red kidney beans (rajmah), but I did not have any on hand today.

If you want to make the rotis please do follow the steps in my Aloo Paratha recipe, but omit the step for the filling. Just roll out the plain dough into an 8-10 inch diameter circle and lightly toast both sides.






Spinach Quesadilla