Dish 3 (thanks to Sunanda ) Soya Nuggets recipe

I have started eating the soya nuggets after having aversion for them for decades. Sharing the recipe of my sister for these nuggets – verbatim

1. Soak soya nuggets and put it in warm/cold water for 15 minutes or

2. Wait till the soya becomes a bit soft to pour out water from the vessel

3. The size of the nuggets will increase, so put them in a broad vessel

4. Once soaked , continue the process of putting in fresh water and taking water out for 2-3 times, this avoids the smell which normally any soya food has.Then drain the water out of nuggets as way we do for dahi vada.

5. Cut tomatoes, onions in small size.Keep aside black masala..

6. In a vessel add oil, let it heat up.

7. Add onions in the hot oil and then let them  get brown color, put tomatoes in same vessek and sautee it till it becomes soft.

8. Put turmeric,hing powder,chilly powder in it.

9. Add the drained soya nuggets in the vessel.Mix it up in the pan. and then put the lid on pan for some time.after sometime , check for if soya nuggets feel prepared,If soya has not become soft , put warm water.

10. Add the black masala to this and let it simmer for 30 odd seconds.

PS – Same recipe can be used for black chana + soya combine too.

PS – If want a full non veg taste, prepare the wet and dry masala like we make for non veg and use it for seasoning…

Dish 2(morally supported) – Pasta with chaat masala add on :)

Finally Jyoti gave in to my whims and made pasta with zing of chaat masala.  Chaat masala abhorred by many  has the habit making the blandest of the dishes into savoury items. The dish recipe was picked from  website. And the corruption of the dish was carried out with my full support and push(no nudge would have worked).

Now the dish came out at the very best with rightly cooked veggies (not too soft) and not too crunchy.

Dish one, Jhaalmuri

Tick 1 – Jhalmuri with kolkata spunkiness done !

I longed for the spicy, zany taste of Jhalmuri and almost got there this evening. The guidance came from Masalamagic. I did not use the potatoes because boiling them takes time . For non Bengalis/Oriyans Jhalmuri is spicier version of Bhel with very apt use of mustard oil. It also lacks the tamarind/jaggery taste thus making it truly unique and addictive.  There are versions of it which use Haldiram mixture/peanuts , but the best taste is taking fresh ingredients and using home roasted peanuts.

Only tip – Add the finely cucumber only at the time of serving.  I was not sure of the coconut getting added to it but in hindsight it should be good idea.

Notice how muri is same as churmure in marathi, mur mure in Hindi?

Kolhapuri misal at Prarthana

“कोल्हापुरी मिसळ – Misal” was introduced to me near kolhapur Bus stand as dish which sort of represents Kolhapur. In those days I was not amicable to other fav of Kolhapur – tambda/pandhra rassa.  I enjoyed misal back again from Kedarling(Jotiba).

Over years across Pune/Mumbai I have tried to find the right Misal taste, Prarthana is the closest to the ideal. Contrary to expectations, it is not hot(chilly) but is made of generous helping of usal(sprouted beans), kat, farsan, kanda, kothimbir, lal tavang.  Hotstove has a great recipe.

In Pune side, they also add pohe, some people have added potato chips/churmure etc. Anyway talking about this presentation from prarthana in Kolhapur. It comes with two while slices fresh of white bread(nope no options of brown bread) . A pot of kat(sort of sambhar) and misal. It has the addition of nicely cut onions, kothimbir etc and lemon. The dish costs only 18 odd rs and leaves you with lingering taste.

Food – the beginings

I believe in working on core strength, from the birth I have done full justice to temptation of eating food. From the most benign with guava with salt and chilli (raw mango, sugarcane juice – recently one of the “high end restaturant” I tried 50 Rs sugarcane juice – which must be the record fleecing of any kind – thanks to Kanua) to the complete course meals. Unfortunately I was deprived of the joy of preparing and serving the stuff to others through growing years.

Mom always believed I was qualified for cleaning vessels or at the most cleaning the rice, pealing the cover of peanuts, cutting the “shankar pale“/”karanji“/”mixing the chivda“, or at  best rolling the laddus(besan, ravae).

Anyway coming to present times , I was blessed to have friends like Ram, Keshav who were urbanized version of maharaj of ancient times. Ram’s gojjus, tovve, upma,  Keshava’s dosai, idli,  sambhar, rasam are stuff of dreams. Prakash Anna’s paneer dishes, dosai(s) with chutney/potato filling, italian fares and suahasini’s Bengali style vegetables/rice/daal – something I have not had success of emulating to her quality levels. 

One thing I learnt was that, it is labor of love, one needs to like and love cooking as an art form to do justice. I was complete nubee with all these gaints around and part of it rubbed on me and I have been giving fair shot at trying the items.  I can not forget Krishkp’s pongal/avial – it was literally like god serving you the food. I am not exaggerating about the quality level here.

Imagine seattle in winter with drizzling rain and friend suggests let us cookup bhajjis , we have done that many of the times with various right accompaniements.  So this post is for all the foodies and the host in them who takes the pain to cookup those delightful foods. BTW check out PBS’s food series.

Belgaum Kunda recipe

1. Take a can of Milkmaid

2. Bring it to slow boil with little addition of water/milk(2 cups) and now wait for evaporation of water. (time spent – 15-45 mins)

3. Serve it hot  or coldify it using friendly blast of refrigeration.

You can add “other” additions but the taste of this dish is merciful without effect of dry fruits.

“Woodlands – Udupi” serves soup with south indian full meal

Gasp – In the recent trip I found that udupi’s old woodland dishes out soup, north indian subzi and pulav in full south Indian meal !!! What the world has come to?

In the home of the udupi food, one of the supposedly good restaurant serves up a mish mash which is how bad it was . Pretty pathetic affair, TD should have listened to me and managed with tindi in Mitra samaj (it is just next to the Krishna temple). Alas I had to suffer throug the food and live through to tell the tale.

The lunch  next day at Mangalore Woodland was better than Udupi food. We also bumped into small bonda/bhajji specialist nearby venkat swamy temple. Those bonda/Bhajjis were just awesome.

Pabbas adventure led by TD for icecream did not live upto its name as it was under construction .