Showing posts with label raw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raw. Show all posts
Friday, April 4, 2014
Raw banana plantain kababs
Vazhakka or plantain is one of my favourite vegetables. There are at least three favourite ways I make this in true Tambrahm style. One is a roast, where it is sliced thinly and slow roasted until it turns crispy. The other way to make it is to cube it, cook it and saute it with whole red chillies, udad dal, mustard seeds and curry leaves with a garnish of coconut. The third one is a vazhakka podimaas. All three taste yummy with rasam-rice or mor kozhambu and rice.
Since there are three yummy ways to make this vegetable, I rarely end up making anything else. This time I picked up the plantains with the sole idea of making kababs so they dont end up in one of my favourite curries. I did a quick google search for plantain kababs and the one that appealed most was from Vah Chef Sanjay Thumma. Mine is an adaptation of that recipe.
Kababs are best served with roomali rotis, which are not that difficult to make at home provided you have a tough aluminium/ cast iron kadai that you can turn upside down on the flame and cook the roti on the upturned kadai. Please dont try this with your expensive teflon coated non-stick kadai.
Also, there is no need to indulge in the dramatics of the chef in the Punjabi restaurants of the 80s and 90s where they would throw a roomali roti in the air in open buffet counters to grab the interest of the diners.
For the dough, I use a mix of 3 parts atta and 1 part maida, salt and water, rest it for 30 minutes and then roll them out into big sized rotis as thin as i possibly can. I cook this on the upturned kadai kept over a big flame for a few seconds until golden spots appear and repeat on the other side. Fold into quarters and keep in airtight casserole until ready to eat.
You can serve this with sliced onions soaked in vinegar for some 30 minutes. I shredded a radish, carrot and sliced a small bunch of rocket leaves-dressed it with lemon juice, salt, pepper and tiny pinch of sugar. It tastes better if you cover this bowl and leave it in the fridge for sometime.
Recipe for Raw Banana Kababs
Makes 16-20 1" kababs
Ingredients
2 raw bananas
1 potato
1 medium carrot
3 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
1/4 cup grated paneer / tofu
handful of finely chopped coriander
1 heaped tsp amchoor powder
1-1.5 tsp salt
Dry roast till fragrant:
1 tsp caraway seeds (shahjeera) or cumin seeds
1 tsp aniseed (saunf)
1 tsp coriander seeds
5-6 whole black peppers
4 cloves
2 green cardamoms
Once cooled, grind to fine powder in spice grinder
Directions:
Halve the raw bananas. Place 1 L water to boil and put the halved bananas. Boil for around 10 minutes, until bananas are tender. Remove from water. Cool, peel and grate.
Pressure cook potato, peel and grate.
Peel carrot and grate.
Add the grated raw banana, potato, carrot along with all the other ingredients included freshly ground spice powder and 1-1.5 tsp salt to the mix and knead until all ingredients are well mixed to make a smooth dough.
Roll into small lemon sized balls and flatted on palm to make 1" sized patties. Place on hot greased tava and cook on medium flame until golden brown. Flip and cook on other sized for 5-7 minutes until golden, adding some oil around the sides, if required.
Serve with roomali roti, salad and chutneys.
I served it with a simple shredded radish-carrot-rocket salad seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper & lemon juice and spicy green chutney.
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Since there are three yummy ways to make this vegetable, I rarely end up making anything else. This time I picked up the plantains with the sole idea of making kababs so they dont end up in one of my favourite curries. I did a quick google search for plantain kababs and the one that appealed most was from Vah Chef Sanjay Thumma. Mine is an adaptation of that recipe.
Kababs are best served with roomali rotis, which are not that difficult to make at home provided you have a tough aluminium/ cast iron kadai that you can turn upside down on the flame and cook the roti on the upturned kadai. Please dont try this with your expensive teflon coated non-stick kadai.
Also, there is no need to indulge in the dramatics of the chef in the Punjabi restaurants of the 80s and 90s where they would throw a roomali roti in the air in open buffet counters to grab the interest of the diners.
 |
| Roomali Roti |
For the dough, I use a mix of 3 parts atta and 1 part maida, salt and water, rest it for 30 minutes and then roll them out into big sized rotis as thin as i possibly can. I cook this on the upturned kadai kept over a big flame for a few seconds until golden spots appear and repeat on the other side. Fold into quarters and keep in airtight casserole until ready to eat.
 |
| Carrot-Radish-Rocket Salad |
You can serve this with sliced onions soaked in vinegar for some 30 minutes. I shredded a radish, carrot and sliced a small bunch of rocket leaves-dressed it with lemon juice, salt, pepper and tiny pinch of sugar. It tastes better if you cover this bowl and leave it in the fridge for sometime.
 |
| Dinner is served |
Recipe for Raw Banana Kababs
Makes 16-20 1" kababs
Ingredients
2 raw bananas
1 potato
1 medium carrot
3 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
1/4 cup grated paneer / tofu
handful of finely chopped coriander
1 heaped tsp amchoor powder
1-1.5 tsp salt
Dry roast till fragrant:
1 tsp caraway seeds (shahjeera) or cumin seeds
1 tsp aniseed (saunf)
1 tsp coriander seeds
5-6 whole black peppers
4 cloves
2 green cardamoms
Once cooled, grind to fine powder in spice grinder
Directions:
Halve the raw bananas. Place 1 L water to boil and put the halved bananas. Boil for around 10 minutes, until bananas are tender. Remove from water. Cool, peel and grate.
Pressure cook potato, peel and grate.
Peel carrot and grate.
Add the grated raw banana, potato, carrot along with all the other ingredients included freshly ground spice powder and 1-1.5 tsp salt to the mix and knead until all ingredients are well mixed to make a smooth dough.
Roll into small lemon sized balls and flatted on palm to make 1" sized patties. Place on hot greased tava and cook on medium flame until golden brown. Flip and cook on other sized for 5-7 minutes until golden, adding some oil around the sides, if required.
Serve with roomali roti, salad and chutneys.
I served it with a simple shredded radish-carrot-rocket salad seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper & lemon juice and spicy green chutney.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Minty Raw Mangoey Ragda Patties
[If you would like to connect with me on Facebook then please join the Saffron Trail page by clicking on the badge in the right column here. I post recipes which dont feature on the blog for lack of pictures, my toddlers favourite food recipes and lots of food related banter.]
Ragda patties is a very very popular street snack in Mumbai and many other parts of Northern India. Its chunky, spicy, tangy, sweet all at once and in short mouthwateringly irresistible like all other chats!
It is easy to assume that Street Food = Junk Food = Unhealthy Food.
However when the premise of a street food like Ragda Patties is a balanced meal made of Potatoes (Carbs) and Dried peas (Protein and Fibre) and tomato-onion salad (fibre and vitamins) one can make it even healthier at home !
What makes this unhealthy outside is the deep frying of the patties in god-knows-what oil and the number of times the oil is brought to high temperature to fry different batches in a day or over several days. This procedure of reheating oil several times, produces trans-fats. Eating food containing transfats is one of the biggest cardiac risks.
At home, I prepared these golden patties on a non stick tava with just 2 teaspoons of olive oil, in total (Honest!!) and I added grated tofu to the potato mix to make it richer in protein content. Tofu haters of the world - this one is for you. You wouldnt even know that there was tofu in it thanks to the fresh flavours of mint, raw mango, ginger, garlic and green chillies that went into it.
This is how a street food with a notorious unhealthy tag attached to it can turn extremely healthy and even wear the crown of health food.
Heres the recipe for you. This makes a hearty dinner for two or three.
Potato-Tofu Patties with Ragda
Ingredients
For Ragda
150 grams roughly 3/4 cup dried green or white peas - soak overnight in plenty of water
Salt
1 tbsp Coriander powder
1 tsp amchoor powder or 1 tsp tamarind puree
For Potato-Tofu Patties
3 Medium potatoes
1/4 cup finely grated firm tofu
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Salt to taste
Pinch of turmeric powder
Masala for both Ragda and Patties
Grind together to a coarse paste
3 green chillies
1/2 cup washed and picked mint leaves
handful of raw mango pieces
1 inch ginger
3 cloves of garlic
Toppings
1 large onion finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
Green chutney
Tamarind chutney ( I use Kitchens of India brand)
Fresh coriander
chat masala
Directions
Preparation :
Pressure cook potatoes for 5 minutes. Cool, peel and keep aside.
Drain the soaked peas. Wash well and pressure cook for 7 minutes with 3 cups of water. The skins will come off during this process and some of the peas may get mushy. Dont worry about this, use the entire lot for the recipe.
In a large bowl, mash the potatoes along with other Patties ingredients and half the ground masala. If the dough is not firm enough to make patties, then add some more bread crumbs to adjust. Divide into 6-8 balls. Flatten on the palm to make patties of around half inch thickness.
Heat a non-stick tava (skillet). Brush with olive oil and place all the patties (or in batches if your tava does not accomadate all) On a medium flame, crisp each side for around 5 minutes, till golden brown. Use some oil around the sides to help crisp up.
For the ragda (gravy), place the pressure cooked peas in a saucepan with the remaining ground masala and coriander powder, amchoor powder, salt. Bring this to a simmer. Check for salt and adjust.
To assemble a plate -
Cut 2-3 patties into quarters. Place in a deep dish.
Pour 2-3 ladles of ragda over this.
Top with chopped onions, tomatoes, coriander and your choice of chutneys. Sprinkle chat masala and serve.
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