Forever delicious Chutneys

There are virtually limitless number of chutneys that can be made from almost any combination of vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices. Chutneys are usually grouped into either sweet or hot forms, both forms usually contain various spices but differ by their main flavours. I am sharing my version of some of them.

1. Coriander / Cilantro Chutney

Coriander chutney can be served with any dish. Its a flavory chutney with simple ingredients.

Ingredients :

1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro or coriander

2-3 chopped green chillies, adjust according to taste

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4th cup peanuts

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

salt to taste

For tempering

1 teaspoon oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon urad dal

Curry leaves

1/4 teaspoon asafoetida

Dry Roast the peanuts and finely crush them. Put Cilantro, chillies, ginger and process to a smooth paste. Add some water if required. Now add crushed peanuts and salt. Process to combine. Transfer to a bowl.

Place a small saute pan over medium heat and add oil. When small bubbles appear at the bottom of the pan, add mustard seeds. When they begin to sputter, add urad dal and saute until its lightly browned. Add asafoetida and curry leaves, and immediately pour the tempering over the chutney. Stir well and serve.

2. Mint and Coriander / Cilantro Chutney

Use the ingredients of the coriander/ cilantro chutney. Add 1/2 cup of mint leaves and 1 teaspoon of amchur powder. In mango season you can substitute lemon juice and amchur with raw mango slices.

3. Imli Ki Chutney / Tamarind Chutney 

This is a quick and easy version of tamarind chutney. 

Ingredients

1 cup Tamarind pulp

1 cup Jaggery

1 tsp Cumin powder  

Salt to taste

1 tsp black salt

1 tsp red chili powder

Add jaggery to the tamarind pulp. Mix well. Let the jaggery dissolve in the pulp. Add some water to get the desired consistency. Once the jaggery is dissolved well, add cummin powder, black salt and chili powder. Mix well. Taste it and add salt as per taste. Mix well and the chutney is ready to use. :)

In case you do not get tamarind pulp do not worry. Take some tamarind in a bowl and add 3/4th cup of luke warm water. Set them aside for half an hour. Now mash the tamarind removing seeds if any. Strain to remove any residue or seeds. Your tamarind pulp is ready. :)

4. Dates and Tamarind Chutney

This is really a flavourfull chutney, with less efforts.

Ingredients 

1 cup pitted dates

1/4th cup deseeded tamarind

1 large size tomato

1 tsp Cumin powder  

Salt to taste

1 tsp black salt

1 tsp red chili powder

In a pressure cooker, cook dates, tamarind and tomato upto two whistles and then turn off the heat. Allow it to cool. Remove the tomato skin. Make a smooth paste of dates, tamarind and tomatoes. Strain the paste using a strainer. Add cumin powder, black salt and chili powder. Add salt to taste.  Mix well and serve. Enjoy this khatti meethi chutney. :)

5. Chili Garlic Chutney 

This chutney is my dad's favorite. The best part of this is that it lasts long. No water is used. 

Ingredients

10-12 cloves of garlic

2 teaspoon Red chili powder

1 tablespoon grated Dried coconut

Lemon juice

salt to taste.

Put garlic, grated coconut, red chili powder, salt and lemon juice in a mixer. Add lemon juice enough to combine the chutney. If you do not wish to store the chutney for long, you can add some water.

6. Papaya Chutney

This chutney is made from Raw Papaya. Its an all time favourite Gujarati snack served as a side dish with Fafda.

Ingredients 

Grated Green Papaya - 1 cup

Salt to taste

Mustard seeds - 1/4th tsp

Lemon juice - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4th tsp

Chopped Green chilis- 1 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/8th tsp

Curry leaves

Red chili – ½

Grate the green papaya after removing its skin and seeds. Add salt to taste and 1 tsp lemon juice and keep it aside for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes squeeze out water from the grated papaya.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When they start crackling, add asafoetida, red chili and curry leaves. Add green chilis, turmeric powder and the grated papaya. Mix well.  Add remaining 1 tsp of lemon juice, if required. Serve with fafda.

Spicy Vegetarian Pizza

Home made Pizza

From a kid to an adult, every one loves Pizza. A dish of Italian origin, which has now made its place in almost every country of the world. Me and my husband are also pizza lovers. But the high calories and fat content used to make us feel guilty after eating. So then i was inspired to make this less calories pizza at home. This recipe is very less time consuming too. So hope you guys enjoy this world famous mouth watering dish. :)

For making Pizza you need to prepare three (3) things; Pizza dough, Pizza sauce and the most interesting - your choice of toppings. You get Pizza dough or ready made base very easily in the market. But making them at home is not only healthy but at the same time you can add your favorite herbs in the bread.

For Pizza Dough

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour or maida

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon olive oil or any other oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup of luke warm water

1 teaspoon of active dry yeast

salt to taste

Add sugar and yeast into luke warm water and let it sit for 5 mins or until the yeast is dissolved. Meanwhile in another bigger bowl mix both flours, olive oil and salt. You may add finely chopped fresh herbs of your choice. Add the dissolved yeast mixture. Knead the dough well adding some extra water, if needed. Knead into a soft dough. It would be little bit sticky, reason being the whole wheat flour. you can sprinkle some all purpose flour to remove the stickiness. Now take the dough in another bowl and drizzle some olive oil on it and turn the dough around so that its lightly coated with oil. now cover the bowl and place it in a warm place. I normally put the bowl in my oven and switch on the oven light. The light is sufficient to give warmness to the dough. Allow it to stay for almost an hour or until it has doubled. Once it is doubled, take the dough out, punch it down and place that back again in the bowl covered and let it rest. Let the dough rest until it gets doubled again. It will almost take another 45 mins to 1 hour.  Meanwhile, you can prepare your Pizza Sauce and toppings.

For Pizza Sauce

There are variety of Pizza sauces available in the market. You may use them or even a basic tomato sauce gives a great flavour. I like my sauce to be little bit chunky.

Ingredients

1 cup tomato puree strained
1 chopped tomato
1 chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup multi coloured bell peppers
chopped green chillis to taste
fresh chopped basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
Salt to taste

Heat oil in a pan. Add minced garlic and chillis. Saute for a minute. Add onions, bell peppers. Mix them well. Add chopped tomatoes and tomato puree. Add salt and basil. Allow the sauce to cook. Donot overcook the sauce. Its going to be cooked again in the oven. Just cook to get desired consistency of the sauce. Add oregano. Turn off the heat and allow the sauce to cool.

I have added chillis to add some spice. Indians love spices and being an indian how can i ignore that :)

For Pizza Toppings

Use the toppings of your choice. I have used tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and fresh corn kernels. You can add mushrooms, baby corns & olives also. Mozzarella cheese is must.

The three processes have been completed. Now comes the final task. Once the dough has risen for the second time. Take the dough out. Punch and form a soft ball. Preheat your oven at 400 F.

On a clean surface roll the soft ball with enough dusting. Form a thin disk from the same. The thickness of the base should be less if you like a crunchy base. Coat some oil spray on the Pizza baking dish and dust some flour on it. Now shift base on on the baking dish. I like my edges to be little bit more crunchier. You can press the edges as i have done. This will make the edge crisp. Now brush olive oil on the base.  This will stop the sauce from soaking your bread base. Now spread the Pizza Sauce on it. Now arrange your toppings and generously spread grated mozzarella cheese on top.

Now put the baking tray in the pre-heated oven and cook for around 25 minutes. Do keep a check on your Pizza as baking time may differ based on the oven used.

Enjoy you Fresh Home Made Pizza :)

Dabeli or Double Roti

Dabeli or Double Roti

Dabeli or Double Roti is a famous street food originally from Kutch region of Gujarat. Its a mouth watering dish and has plenty of flavors in it. All ages of people enjoy having Dabeli. Today i am sharing a total home made simplified yet very tasty dabeli.

Ingredients

Potatoes Boiled & mashed - 3 big

Green Chilli & Coriander Paste - 1 Tbsp

Ginger Paste - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Red chili powder 

Garam Masala

Dhania jeera Powder - 1 tsp

Amchur Powder - 1 tsp

Oil - 3 tsp

Pav or buns

To Serve 

Onions Chopped

Date & Tamarind Chutney

Chili & Garlic Chutney

Coriander Chutney

Fresh chopped coriander leaves

Butter

Masala Peanuts

Nylon Sev

Pomegranate Pearls

Cheese

Heat oil in a pan. Add chili- ginger paste and saute for a minute. Add mashed potatoes. Add salt, lemon juice, sugar, red chili powder, Garam masala, dhania jeera powder. Mix everything well. Turn off the gas. Now add amchur powder, and 2 tsp each of tamarind and garlic chutney. Add some of the masala peanuts, pomegranate pearls. Give it a good mix. 

Slit the buns horizontally without cutting through. Toast the buns upside down on a hot tava using butter. This makes pavs really soft and tasty. Spread red chilli-garlic chutney, coriander chutney and sweet date and tamarind chutney on both sides of the pav. You can increase the amount of chutney as per your taste. I love coriander and tamarind chutney so i use them more. Then top the mixture with chopped onion, pomegranate pearls, masala peanuts, nylon sev and fresh green coriander leaves. Its optional, but i also love to top it with grated cheese. You can use mozzarella or processed cheese. Close the both sides of the pav. Place the stuffed pavs on a hot tava. Press slightly and toast on both sides, with a little butter if you wish. (If you are calorie conscious you can avoid using butter again. Its optional.) Serve hot.

Following are some tips for dabeli recipe 

For tastier dabeli, you can use fresh dabeli masala in place of Garam Masala. For making dabeli masala dry roast 2 dried red chilies, 1 tsp whole green corriander seeds, 3-4 cloves, 1 tsp jeera,3-4  pepper corns, 1 bay leaf and 1/2 cinnamon stick. Dry roast all the ingredients and make a fine paste.) 

If you don't get masala peanuts,then don't worry. Dry roast the raw peanuts till they are light brown. Allow them to cool. Remove their skin and break into halves. Heat a pan with one tsp of oil. Once the oil is hot add peanuts,1 tsp red chili powder, 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder and 1 tsp of chat masala. mix them well and cook for a minute. Now allow them to cool and set aside for later use.