In terms of cooking, this has been a quest like no other. The quest, an obsession even, for the perfect chhole recipe. Over the years, I have tried numerous recipes for making chhole. It was the first recipe I would look up in cook books and blogs. Some worked, some didn't. Then I came across this recipe and I thought that my quest had come to an end.

Until I tasted my friend M's chhole. The best that I had ever had.

And while I do have a couple of 'friends' who blatantly proclaim that recipes are not for sharing, I am fortunate to have many more like M who don't just share the recipes but also the specific brands they use and the small tips that make all the difference to the ultimate taste.

Take a look, looks absolutely lip-smacking doesn't it?

Pre-preparation:

1. Masala paste

Green cardamoms: 6
Black cardamom: 1
Cloves: 4
Cinnamon: 1" stick
Black pepper: 10
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Coriander seeds: 2 tsps
Garlic: 10 cloves
Ginger: 1.5" piece
Green chilli: 1

Lightly toast all the above except ginger, garlic and green chillies for 2 mins on a very low flame. The objective here is to not roast but simply warm the dry spices. Then grind all the ingedients to a smooth paste, using some water as required. This masala paste can be kept in the refrigerator for about 10 days.

2. Bouquet garni:

black cardamoms: 2
green cardamoms: 4
cinnamon: 1" stick
cloves: 8 nos
tea bag: 1, optional (I don't use one as I don't like my chhole to be black, I much prefer the vibrant orange)

Put all of the above into a small square cheesecloth or a net and secure with a kitchen twine.

Making the chhole:

Onions: 2, finely chopped
Bay leaf: 1
Tomato paste: 2.5 tbsps OR Tomato puree: 5 tbsps (brand - Leggo's or Heinz)
Masala paste: 2 tbsps
Chickpeas/garbanzo beans: 3/4 cup
Salt to taste
Chicken curry powder (MDH brand) OR Chhole masala (Everest brand): 1 tsp



for garnishing:

cumin seeds: 2 tsps, roasted and powdered
onion: 1 small, finely chopped
corainder leaves: 2 tbsps, chopped


Method:

Soak the chickpeas in plenty of water overnight or for about 8-10 hours. Drain and wash thoroughly.

Add 1.5 cups of water, slip in the bouquet garni and pressure cook for atleast 5-6 whistles. If you don't use a pressure cooker (really?), you could also cook them in a slow cooker or boil them in a thick bottomed vessel till soft.

Heat oil in a wok and add in the bay leaf. Let it sizzle for half a minute and then toss in the chopped onions alongwith a pinch of salt; fry till the onions turn limp.

Now add 2 tbsps of the masala paste and fry till the raw smell disappears, about 5 minutes. If the masala paste starts to stick to the pan, sprinkle a few drops of water.

Next put in the tomato paste, salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder. Stir fry till the oil separates from the mixture.

Then add in the cooked chickpeas (discard the bouquet garni) and the chicken curry masala and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and let the chickpeas simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally and adjusting the amount of water as per your preference. It might seem way too long but trust me on this - the longer you cook chhole, better the taste. In fact, I transfer everything into my crockpot and let it simmer away for about 3 hours.

Just before serving, stir in the roasted cumin seed powder and garnish with some finely chopped onions and coriander leaves.

Puris, bhaturas, rotis or rice....enjoy them with just about anything!

Sharing this with Priya who is hosting MLLA # 30, event started by Susan.

I was never fond of sweet potatoes growing up. Though I was never a fussy eater, there were certain things that I had a mental block for. Sweet potatoes fell in that category. Somehow, I didn't like "sweet" and "potatoes" together.


My fascination with sweet potatoes started a couple of years ago when I had them at a barbeque. Just a blob of butter, a dash of pepper and a sprinkle of salt on the perfectly roasted tuber. It was deliciously sweet and had that 'melt in the mouth' texture and between a few mouthfuls, I was hooked to the sweet potato.


Soon, as if to make up for all the years I scorned them, I was using sweet potatoes wherever I could. Combining them with potatoes. OR replacing potatoes with sweet potatoes.

Aloo chaat is something I make very often. It serves as the perfect snack in the evenings, especially on week ends when we like to nibble on something that is not too high in calories but is very satiating.

Replacing sweet potatoes in the chaat works perfectly: their naturally sweet taste is in fact nicely balanced with the tanginess of the chaat ; adding in chickpeas gives an added protein boost.

Sweet Potato and Chickpeas Chaat


Sweet potatoes: 2
Chickpeas: 1/2 cup




Coriander leaves: 2 tbsps
Chopped green chillies

Onion: 1, cut into cubes



Dry spice powders: Chaat masala: 3.5 tsps, Roasted cumin seed powder: 1.5 tsps

Black salt: to taste
Sugar: 1 tsp



Juice of half a lemon



Oil: 1 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp






Method:




Soak the chickpeas in water for 6-8 hrs. Then, cook them till they are soft and cooked; about 3 whistles in the pressure cooker should be enough to cook them. Once cooked, drain the water and let them cool.


Cut the sweet potato into cubes and steam them till cooked but still firm.



In a bowl, combine the sweet potatoes, the chick peas and the onion, sprinkle the dry spice powders, salt and sugar and toss well so that the spice powders coat the sweet potato cubes and the chickpeas. Squeeze in the lemon juice and add the chopped green chillies and the coriander leaves and mix again.



Heat the oil , add the cumin seeds and when the splutter, pour over the chaat.



Serve topped with a dollop of sweetened yogurt.





Sending this to Lisa's No Croutons Required and MLLA - 21 hosted this time at Mirch Masala, event started by Susan.

Sometime around the time when I was about 9 years, I had this major desire to visit all the forts in Maharashtra, my home state. The inspiration for this came from the history lessons at school where we were learning about Shivaji Maharaj, the valiant 17th century leader who successfully fought the Moghuls and established the Maratha empire.


Shivaji Maharaj is someone who is very popular Maharashtra, for that matter, all over India. In Bombay, his name is all pervasive - you land in an airport re-named after him, you travel on roads that bear his name and take trains out of the city from a railway station again, re-named after him. However, his legacy - the forts that he captured or built - is unfortunately in ruins. Crumbling walls, ugly graffiti, trash; the political parties who re-name public buildings in his memory don't see the need to allocate any funds or resources for the restoration of his true legacy - the forts - to the original glory.


Notwithstanding their poor state, the forts we saw (yes, my parents indulged me my fancy) - Raigad, Pratapgad, Panhalgad and Murud Janjira - are nothing short of spectacular. However, there was this one fort which was very much in our neck of woods, so to speak, but our trips there were forever jinxed.



So, by the time I actually went to Sinhagad, my interest in it as a historical place was long gone. I was in colloge then and Sinhagad to me was more a picnic spot, a place that was very easily accessible and yet far away from the buzz of the city.


In the cold Pune winter, groups of us friends from college would set off on our two wheelers, almost on the spur of the moment, singing tuneless songs, hair flying in the air, munching on hara chana (green chanas). Sinhagad in winters used to be beautiful - if you set off early enough, on some days, the fog would hang low and envelop the fort. Our fingers would be numb from the cold air and hot cups of masala chai and onion bhajis were just the perfect way to beat the chill! A short stroll around the fort, munching on some cucumber slices sprinkled with salt and we'd be hungry again (!), eager to devour the spicy chicken curry and of course, the very famous pithale bhakri.


Come to think of it, there is nothing special about the pithale in Sinhagad per se. I think my mom makes better pithale. However, I have never quite re-captured the magic of eating pithale bhakri as it was at Sinhagad - sitting on straw mats and cracking useless jokes with friends, digging in from each other's plates and eating till our guts would spill out!









Ingredients:


Bengal gram flour (Besan) : 3/4 cup

Buttermilk : 2.5 cups
Water: 1/2 cup


Onion: 1 large, finely chopped
Garlic: 2 cloves, finely minced

Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar: 1 tsp
Oil


Coriander leaves: 2 tbsps, chopped
Ghee: 1 tbsp, optional


for the tempering:

Cinnamon: 1" stick
Cloves: 4 nos
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves: 8-10
Dried red chillies: 2, broken into a few pieces
Green chillies: 2, chopped
Asafoetida (hing): 1/4 tsp



Method:


Make a paste of the besan and buttermilk, ensuring that no lumps remain and leave it for about 30 minutes. The idea is to bring the buttermilk to room temperature before cooking.


Heat oil in a thick bottom pan or a kadhai and add the ingredients listed under tempering - in that order. Wait for each ingredient to splutter/change colour before adding in the next one.


Then add the gralic and the onions and saute till the onions turn translucent. Add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and sugar and mix them well.


Lower the heat and add the besan-buttermilk mixture, stirring as you pour it in.


Pithale requires constant stirring, so pull up your sleeves and get stirring! As it cooks, the pithale thickens and bubbles like molten lava - so be careful! The only way to know if the pithale is done is to taste it - if the flour still tastes raw, stir for some more time. Normally, it takes about 15 minutes for the besan to cook.


Add the coriander leaves and the ghee, if using and mix them in.


The ideal combination is to serve them with bhakris - a kind of flat bread made with bajra or ragi or rice flours. I cannot make bhakris and so I have pithale with phulkas/rotis.





Notes:


Pithale can made thicker or thinner as per your wish. I like mine thinner, if you want a thicker pithale, use only 2 cups of buttermilk.


My pithale is quite spicy, adjust and reduce the chillies and the chilli powder to your taste. However, spicier the pithale, the better it tastes.

A slightly drier version of pithale is called jhunka; it is made by adding water instead of buttermilk. Check out this lovely post for some more reminiscences of Pune and the way to make jhunka.

If there is anything I dislike more than cooking....

Oops....did I just say "dislike cooking"? Now, that is quite a sacrilege for a food blogger, isn't it?

Well, truth be told, there are days when making the "roz ka khana" does bore me to no end! Yes, there are days when I do dislike cooking.

But, if there is anything that I dislike more than cooking, it is planning and deciding what to make. Believe me, there are days when I am at an absolute loss over what to make. I go over what I have in the fridge and in the pantry and still draw an absolute blank over what to make. Of course, the husband is very helpful on days like these. "Make anything," he says. "Just make something tasty." Yeah, right!!

So when great food - food that I absolutely love - appears almost magically on my plate without me having to plan the menu and cook it , where do you think I would be?

In a restaurant? Good guess and quite close, but no.

Great food without even having to ask for it - that is possible in only one place in the world: my mom's kitchen.

Now, I can go on and on about what a fabulous cook my mom is. But I won't. Because it is something that every person knows - that nothing quite measures up to mom's cooking.

However, there is this one thing I will say about my mom's cooking: that she sometimes follows very different ways of cooking.

Take this particular lobia curry, for instance. Counter-intuitive. That is what I call her way of making lobia. After all, isn't it common practice to sauté/fry the onions FIRST?

No need, says the mater. She puts the onions right at the end in this particular lobia curry. And it tastes absolutely awesome. In fact, it is the only way I eat lobia.

Ingredients:

Lal lobia or red cow peas* : 1/2 cup, soaked at least 6-8 hrs

Whole garam masala: Cloves: 4 nos, Black Cardamom: 1 large, Bay leaf: 1
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp

Tomato: 1 large, chopped
Ginger and garlic paste: 1 tsp each
Green chilli: 2, chopped
Onions: 1 large, grated
Garam masala powder: 1/2 tsp

Coriander leaves, chopped: 2 tbsps

Oil
Salt

Method:

Pressure cook the lobia with the whole garam masala, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and some salt. Discard the black cardamom and the bay leaf after the lobia is cooked.

Heat oil, add the garlic paste followed by the ginger paste. Then, add the tomatoes and cook till they get soft and mushy.

Add the cooked lobia and the chopped green chillies. Add some water, half the coriander leaves and the grated onions. Bring to a boil and then let it simmer for at least 15 minutes on a medium high flame. Top up the water as needed and stir occasionally. Finally, add the garam masala powder, a dash of sugar and the remaining coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rotis/rice with some yoghurt on the side. I must say it again, tastes awesome!

* I have used red lobia, but you could use black eyed peas or even rajma and follow the same method. It works.

For years, dosa to me only meant sada dosa, paper dosa, mysore dosa and rava dosa. The ones that are available in every Udipi restaurant. The ones that my mom made.
Till I got married, that is. Which is when I realised that there were many other types of dosas that I hadn't even heard of.

Adai quickly went on to become my favourite. For starters, it is a very non - fussy dosa: it doesn't involve a very long soaking period or any elaborate grinding. And most importantly, it is a very wholesome dosa - a lovely combination of carbs and protein.

But I fell in love with adai because of its versatility. Very easy to make and filling, it can be served as lunch or dinner or breakfast or even as an in between meals snack. To me, it is the perfect meal answer for those times when I don't feel like cooking up an elaborate meal and yet want something wholesome made at home.

Characters are the backbone of any book.

There are books where, as you turn the pages, you form a mental picture of the characters in the story; every page you read adds to that picture.

And then, there are books where the protagonists and the situations seem so real that you don't need to form any mental picture - right from the first page of the book, you feel as if you know them or that you've met them before.

The Space between Us by Thrity Umrigar falls in the second category. The novel revolves around the two main characters in the story, Sera Dubash and her domestic help, Bhima who has worked in the Dubash household for more than 20 years. And over the passage of so many years, the two women have been witness to each other's travails and triumphs in life's ups and downs.

The novel opens to a time where Sera is a widowed upper middle class Parsi woman living with her pregnant daughter and son - in - law. Even as Sera leads now leads a contented life, the memories of emotional and domestic abuse at the hands of her mother-in-law and husband occasionally cloud her happiness.


Bhima, on the other hand, lives in a slum with her orphaned grand-daughter Maya. She is a precocious girl and Bhima's hopes for a better future out of the slums are all pinned on Maya's education which Sera has financed.

However, Maya gets pregnant out of a wedlock and to make matters worse, refuses to divulge the name of the father. Bhima has faced many a difficult situations in her life, but has always managed to overcome those situations in her fight for survival.

How will she fight this crushing blow? And what role will Sera, who has never hesitated in coming to Bhima's help, play?

Admittedly, it is a plot that, at times, sounds very predictable. However, Thrity Umrigar is a very engaging story teller. The plot flits effortlessly between the present lives of Sera and Bhima and their reminisces of the days gone by. It is this narrative and the finely crafted characters and the nuances of their very complex relationship that made The Space Between Us a very compelling read for me.

Let's come to food part, shall we? So, we have Sera shedding tears over onions that she has to chop for making omelets, Bhima tucking into batata wadas at the market, Sera and Bhima's families accidentally meeting at Chowpaty where they've gone for having some bhelpuri, a very cholesterol laden meal at a bethrotal etc.

But, that was not enough for me.....problem was, I had already blogged about bhelpuri and batata wada. No, actually the problem was that I had already decided that I was going to make Dhansak before I had even read the book. After all, the book had Parsi characters in it, there just had to be Dhansak!

But all I got was this:

"Threw it with such force, Sera, it bounced off the table and into Feroz's dhansak".

That would do for me!!

Vegetable Dhansak

(adapted from Saffron Trail and EuphoRhea).

Ingredients:

Lentils - 3/4 cup (I use 1/4 cup each of Tur, Masoor and Moong)
Pumpkin/Squash - 1 1/2 cups
Eggplant - 1 cup
Fresh methi leaves - 1 1/4 cup, loosely packed
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Hing - a pinch

Onion - 1 cup, sliced
Tomato - 1 1/2 cup, chopped
Ginger and Garlic paste - 2 tsps each
Dhansak Masala - 2-3 tbsps
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Coriander seed powder - 3/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 12-15 (mine were very small)
Tamarind juice - as per the tartness you desire; I used 1/4 cup of very dilute tamarind juice
or
Amchur powder - 1/4 tsp

Ghee - 2 tbsps (don't substitute with oil/butter, ghee gives it an amazing flavour)

optional:

chicken/mutton - 250 gms
potatoes - 1/2 cup

Method:

(this makes enough for about 4-6 people, so adjust your quantities accordingly)

Pressure cook the lentils and the vegetables with tumeric and hing. Once cooked, you may puree this in a blender - I don't. Firstly, I like my dhansak chunky. Moreover, as you stir and cook the dhansak, the vegetables do tend to get mashed.

(If using chicken/mutton, marinate it with some ginger - garlic paste and red chilli powder. Pressure cook alongwith the lentils. Set aside if pureeing the dals, then add the meat back.

And though I love my meats, believe me vegetarian dhansak tastes as good as the non -veg version. In fact, I don't add any meat any more to my dhansak).

Heat ghee and stir fry the ginger garlic paste till fragrant. Add the sliced onions and fry for a further 3-4 mins.

Next, add in the tomatoes and saute till soft and mushy, mashing the tomatoes with the back of the spoon as you stir.

Add in all the dry masalas and the curry leaves, followed by the pressure cooked lentils and the tamarind juice.

Simmer for about 15 mins.

Easy isn't it?!!


Serve it with rotis or pulao; I served it with this Berry Pulao.



Oh and here's what the other members of the book club made:
Dee made the very Parsi Akuri , Curry Leaf made Akuri with Tofu and Simran headed to Chowpatty to enjoy a plate of Bhelpuri!!

Next month, we are reading Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran. Join us, won't you?? To join the book club, just drop a line to Simran, her e-mail is: bombayfoodie(at)gmail(dot)com

Palampur is a small hilly town located in Himachal Pradesh, India. The lush tea gardens, tall pine trees and the majestic Dhauladhar mountains make a picture perfect setting. We stayed in a lovely hotel; the tourist season had yet to begin and we were one of just two couples in the hotel. As a result, we were told that instead of the regular a la carte menu, meals would need to be ordered a few hours in advance.


It is not a place where we wanted to just put our feet up, look at the scenery and relax - the lure of the mountains was such. One day, we went off for a small trek in the mountains very early in the morning and it was only as we were coming down that it dawned upon us that we hadn't informed the hotel what we would have for lunch. Tired as we were, we resigned ourselves to walking to town to have some lunch.


Imagine our delight, therefore, when we returned to the hotel and realised that a delicious lunch of piping hot rajma chawal was waiting for us!

Though rajma has rarely been made in our respective homes, both Terradaze and I absolutely love rajma chawal. When it comes to comfort food, this is what we really crave. Here's how we love our rajma..hope you like it too!

Rajma Masala

Ingredients:


Rajma - 4 fistfuls, soaked 6-8 hours
Onion - 1, grated
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp each
Whole garam masala: Cinnamon - 1"stick; Star anise, Black cardamom - 1 each; Cloves - 6;
Bay leaf - 1

Tomatoes - 2, ground to a puree
Yogurt - 2 tbsps
Dry masalas: Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp, Rajma Masala - 1 1/2 tsp, Amchur powder - 1/2 tsp,
Coriander seed powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Sugar - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves, chopped - 1 tbsp



Method:


Pressure cook the rajma alongwith the grated onions, ginger garlic paste, some salt and the whole garam masala till soft and properly cooked. It normally takes me about 6 whistles on low fire. Once cooked, discard the whole garam masala. Also, mash a tbsp of the cooked rajma, this will make the gravy thick.


Heat oil in a wok and add the tomato puree. Cook till the puree turns completely dry and oil separates. Next, mix all the dry masalas with the yogurt and add it to the tomato puree; stir till the masala turns bright red and oil separates.


Strain and add the cooked rajma (reserve the water) and stir for about 5 minutes. Add the reserved water and another 1/2 cup of plain water and bring to a fierce boil on high flame. Then turn the flame down and simmer till it reaches your desired consistency. Add the coriander leaves, sugar (adjust the seasoning and the masalas as per your taste, if needed) and simmer for about 10 mins on very low flame.


Turn off the heat and let the curry stand for about 15 - 20 mins before serving with steaming hot rice.


This is off to WYF: Side Dish hosted by Easy Crafts.

Method:


1. Pressure cook the dals with turmeric and hing until soft. Once cooked, mash and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a kadhai. Add the garlic and let it fry till the garlic starts to brown at the edges.
3. Now add the mustard seeds and the cumin seeds and let them splutter. Next, put in the dried red chillies.
4. Now add the onion and the ginger and saute till the onion turns pink.
5. Add the mashed dals with some water and give it a good stir.
6. Next, add the tomato and all the remaining dry masalas and let the dal boil till the tomato is thoroughly cooked.
7. Lower the heat, add 1 tbsp of the coriander and let the dal simmer for about 30 mins (yes that long...the key to a delicious dal is the length of time you let the dal simmer). Stir occasionally and keep adding water to get a consistency that you like.
8. Garnish with the remaining coriander and serve!!

* I do this if I am entertaining - Just before serving, heat 1 tsp ghee, add 1/2 tsp cumin seeds and let them splutter, then add 1 dried red chilli. Pour on top of the dal (don't stir - let your guests do that) and garnish with coriander. The aroma of ghee tadka...well, you know that aroma too, I am sure!!

I have used many different recipes to make chhole but they always failed to hit that "right spot", so to speak. Then, I came across this recipe - believe me, this by far is the easiest and the tastiest way to make chhole.

Of course, there are a few minor changes I have made to the recipe to suit our taste......