Gujarati Dal Vada/Moongdal Wada/Gujarati na Daal Vada

If you love deep fried beauties for your evening snacks, you should definitely give a try to this gluten free vadas. Actually Gujarati na Daal vada are quite a famous street food as they are sold by street vendors. Though this dal vada is known very much as tea time snacks during monsoon days, this dal vada got its origin from Ahmedabad where these crispy fritters are easily available in tea shops and many public stations. Gujarati dal vada is prominently prepared with either split yellow moongdals or else split green moongdals, yes this vada is completely prepared with just moongdal. However if you look for dal vada in other parts of India, most of the dal vadas calls for channa dal which is not needed for dishing out this crispy moongdal loaded Gujarati vadas.

Methi Na Gota/Gujarati Methi Pakoda/Methi Pakora

Somehow i felt like blogging is taking a back seat, professional life is quite hectic now. With just three months to end an Academic year, so many things are happening in my profession. Nothing to do with, late month i couldnt able to participate in an event which is quite close to my heart. Yes am talking about the Shhh Cooking Secretly, a monthly event started by me, which is now hosted by Mayuri Patel. Last month's theme was Goan cuisine which is one among my favourite. Obviously i was looking for the annoucement of this month's theme and joined immediately as we are landing to Gujarat. Gujarati cuisine is definitely an another Indian cuisine which is quite popular around the world. Their dhoklas and khandvis have their own place in most of the North Indian Thalis. Their way of cooking foods are seriously very simple with gluten friendly ingredients as much as vegan as well. Gujarati cuisine is one of the oldest cuisine with unique cooking style, different pickles, farsans and chutneys with are highly nutritional.

Farsi Puri - Gujarat Special

Gujarat is a state in North west coast of India and it know locally as Jewel of the west. This states shares its border with Rajasthan in north, Maharashtra in south, Madhya Pradesh in east and Arabian Sea is west. Whenever we talk about Gujarat, obviously we will talk about Mahatma Gandhi,the father of nation. But tody we are going to talk about their cuisine and their foods. Yes after Goan cuisine, today we are landing to Gujarat. As we know Gujarati foods are primarily vegetarian, its one of the healthiest cuisine in India. A typical Gujarati thali consists of roti or bakri prepared with wheat flour or millet flour,served along with dal or kadhi, rice and side dishes called sabzi. Pickles or chhundas are serves as condiments.Butter milk is considered as a must have in their daily menu and their dishes are distinctivey sweet,salty and spicy at the same time.

Gujarati cuisine have many popular dishes and the list is very much big. Ghevar,basundi,malpua are famous desserts and some their snacks like Mathris, chorafali,ghooghra are well known everywhere. Khaman Dhokla, Khandvi, Handva,Kachori, daal dhokli, Dhokla, fafda,Ganthia,khakhra are most of their evening snacks, these dishes are eaten all over India and they are carried by Gujarati community towards the Southern part of India.Coming to today's recipe this Farsi poori or puri are deep fried crunchy pooris you can munch with a cup of tea for your snacks. These addictive pooris are prepared with simple ingredients and if you can have these crispy pooris you want stop urself just with one. They stay prefect for a week in room temperature, if they are conserved properly.This crispy flat breads are kid's favourite, i loved mine with my cup of coffee.Sending to my own event Healthy Diet-Cooking with Wholegrains guest hosted by Nupur.

Gujarati Dapka Kadhi~~IC Challenge

For some personnal reason, i couldnt able to participate in our last month's Indian cooking Challenge, but this time i dont want to miss this and today's post is my 39th post for Indian cooking challenge.Do you know what is the main motto of this challenge??, this challenge is a monthly challenge where the members of this group cooks different dishes from different regions of India.Been born and brought up in South India, its truly an immense chance for me to try and taste the foods cooked in other parts of India. Today's post is from Gujarat region and this recipe is called as Dapka Kadhi, gujaratis makes different kadhis and its quite a staple food for them. Kadhis sounds almost like the younger sister of our South Indian Mor Kuzhambu which is basically prepared with sour curd and a spice paste. But Kadhi is quite easier and simple to prepare when compared to our mor kuzhambu.

Srivalli challenged this dapka kadhi for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge and this dish is suggested by Vaishali.Thanks to both, seriously i loved this fingerlicking nutritious kadhi and relished it with a bowl of rice. With simple ingredients and quick cooking process, this kadhi makes a wonderful pair even with rotis.If you are planning to make kadhis, i'll definitely suggest you to give a try to this quick dapka kadhi.I followed the original as per letter but i couldnt resist to add some turmeric powder, coz for me kadhis looks mild yellow in colour.Sending to  Rafeeda's Mission Explore Foods: Lentils event by Sheelu and Pallavi.

Recipe Source: Tarla Dalal
For Dapkas:
1cup Yellow moongdal
1tbsp Oil
1tsp Ginger-green chilly paste
1/2tsp Sugar
A pinch Baking soda
Salt

For Kadhi:
2cups Curd
3tbsp Gram flour
1tsp Ginger-chilly paste
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
Few curry leaves
1tbsp Sugar
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Cumin seeds
2nos Dry red chillies
Few coriander leaves (chopped)
Ghee for tempering

Soak the yellow moongdal in water for 2hours.

Drain the water completely and grind it as smooth paste, transfer the paste to a bowl and add the ginger-chilly paste,sugar,baking soda,salt,oil and mix well.

Combine the curd,gram flour and add 2cup of water,whisk well to avoid the lumps.

Add the ginger-chilly paste,turmeric powder,sugar and salt,mix well and cook in medium flame.

Once the mixture starts boiling, make small balls from the moongdal aka dapka batter and drop them gently to the boiling kadhi.

Cook in simmer until the dapkas starts floating on the top.

Heat the ghee for tempering, let splutters the mustard seeds,add the cumin seeds, dry red chillies,curry leaves and fry until they turns brown.

Add this tempering immediately to the dapka kadhi, finally add the chopped coriander leaves and put off the stove.

Serve hot with rice,rotis.

Notes:
While adding the dapkas, first add one dapka to check whether the batter consistency is correct, if the dapka doesnt float the batter is too thin.

Add some gramfloour to the dapka batter and try again.

Else you can make small balls from dapka batter and cook them in microwave oven for few seconds and then add it to the kadhi.

Khandvi - Gujarati Farsan~~ SN Challenge

Khandvi is a simple,quick and fantastic snacks from Gujarat, i really love this snacks and i have already tried them at home for an another challenge.Khandvi goes for easy ingredients and you can prepare this snacks in a jiffy if you have all the ingredients in your hands. Just mix, the gram flour with curd and salt,sugar,cook in simmer until they gets well cooked and turn as thick mass, spread it over a greased surface,cut as strips and roll it, later temper it with some spices,your khandvi the famous Gujarati snacks is ready to enjoy. Heard that this khandvis have their important place in a Gujarathi thali and its a must.

If you are following my blog, you will definitely know about the wonderful South vs North challenge, an event started by Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook. The motto of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team.Very interesting event na, obviously even we are born and brought up in India, seriously we have loads of interesting foods to learn and taste. This event will definitely pull us to discover many interesting dishes been eaten quite usually in other parts of our country. So every first of the month, i'll be always thrilled to check my mails  and this morning, i was surprised to see two more beautiful dishes challenged by two members of this event, for the Southern team Hetal Acharya of Gujarati Zaika challenged us with this fabulous khandvis,while Shama challenged the Northern team with my favourite karupatti aapam.Thanks Hetal for challenging the southern team with this delicious khandvis, i loved it very much.

1cup Gram flour
1/2cup Sour curd
1+1/2cup Water
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Sugar
Salt

For tempering:
1tbsp Oil
1tsp Mustard seeds
1tsp Sesame seeds
1tsp Asafoetida powder
10nos Curryleaves
1no Green chilly
1no Dry kashmiri red chilli
2tbsp Grated coconut
2tbsp Coriander (chopped)

Mix together the gram flour,curd,turmeric powder,sugar,salt and whisk together to make a smooth batter and without any lump.

Transfer this mixture to a non stick pan and cook in medium heat , stir continously.

Cook for 10minutes or until the batter turns thick, meanwhile grease a baking sheet or a plate and keep aside.

Spread a spoon of this mixture to the greased sheet,wait for few seconds and try to roll it, if you are able to roll,remove the cooking mixture from the heat.

Pour immediately the mixture to the greased surface and with the back of a spoon,spread it thinly.

Allow it to dry for 5 minutes.Cut it as strips,roll each strip into spirals.

Meanwhile heat the oil for tempering, add the mustard seeds,sesame seeds, once the seeds starts crackling, add the asafoetida,curryleaves, chopped green chilly,dry red chilly and fry until they get fried.

Sprinkle the tempered spices over the khandvi rolls and garnish with coriander and coconut.

Enjoy with a cup of tea.

Palak Dhokla

Khaman dhokla is quite a famous Gujarati dish,this dhokla is prepared usually with gram flour and can be eaten for breakfast,as main dish , as side dish and also as snacks. I love this yummy spongy dhoklas with green chutney,usually i make this dhokla with gram flour,curd along with few spices. But this time for a change, as a healthy treat i went for making dhoklas with spinach puree. This palak dhokla came out extremely delicious, very light with wonderful spongy texture, obviously its a low caloric steamed food can be enjoyed anytime of the day.I served this healthy green dhoklas for our breakfast with spicy chutney, we simply enjoyed it thoroughly.

This week its our fourth week of blogging marathon, this week i choosed low fat breakfast as theme,obviously i'll be posting for the next two days healthy and delicious low fat breakfast.This healthy palak dhokla goes for low fat yoghurt and a teaspoon of oil for tempering, an excellent light food to kick start a day.

1cup Gram flour /Besan
1/2cup Low fat curd
1/2cup Spinach puree
1/2tsp Green chilly paste
1/2tsp Sugar
1tbsp Lemon juice
Salt
1tsp Eno fruit salt
1tsp Oil
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1tsp Sesame seeds
Coriander leaves (chopped)

Mix the spinach puree,curd,chilly paste,sugar,lemon juice,salt together in a bowl.

Now add the gram flour and whisk everything well, keep aside for an hour.

Pour this batter in a greased vessel and place gently into the pressure cooker.Close the cooker and cook in high flame..

Steam cook this batter until the steam comes and put the flame in simmer, cook again for 10minutes.

Remove the lid and insert a toothpick to check whether they get cooked well.

Meanwhile heat a pan with oil, fry the sesame seeds, mustard seeds and pour over the cooked dhoklas.

Cut them as cubes and serve along with chopped coriander leaves..

Enjoy this dhoklas warm with spicy green chutney.

Cholafali ~~IC Challenge

I have missed last two month's Indian Cooking Challenge, coz July i was in India and in August i wasnt able to make the challenge coz of my health condition, finally everything came to order also this time i dont want miss this incredible crispy cholafali, a wonderful diwali savoury from Gujarati..Since Diwali is around the corner, its quite interesting to try out this crispy beauties for this month's challenge..Srivalli shared two versions of Cholafali, one from Latha Akka's cholafali and next one is from Preeti's cholofali..Finally i choosed Lata akka's version,the recipe goes for Mathia flour  used for making papads which is quite a hard task for us to get here but she told to replace this flour by a combination of urad dal flour and moongdal flour, i prepared myself the uraddal flour and moongdal flour at home,coz i wasnt able to go to Indian groceries,but those homemade flours suits prefectly for making this crispies..Thanks to Srivalli  for choosing this yummy crispy different savoury from Gujarat, quite a new dish for me..

2cups Gram flour
1cup Urad dal flour
1cup Moongdal flour
2tbsp Ghee
1/8tsp Baking soda
Salt
Oil for pounding the dough and rolling
Oil for deepfrying
Chilly powder + black salt as per need to sprinkle

Sieve the flours and baking soda,mix well..heat a pan and roast the salt for few minutes, add it to the flours,add the ghee and mix well..knead as a stiff dough with enough water and keep aside for few minutes..

Divide the dough as small portions and beat the dough with a pestle in a clean surface by adding few drops of oil until the dough turns elastic..roll the dough as thin discs by greasing the disc with oil,dont dust with flour..Cut as long strips and drop gently in hot oil and fry them..these deep fried cholafali have to be puffed and crispy..

Meanwhile mix the black salt and chilly powder in a bowl,sprinkle over the fried cholafali and enjoy..

Khandvi~~IC Challenge

Our this month's Indian Cooking Challenge goes for Khandvi, a simple but yet a delicious snacks from Gujarat, khandvi was in my to do list since a long,but somehow i wasnt able to make these yummy snacks..Finally i was really happy when Srivalli choosed Khandvi for this month's challenge, i tried out already twice and everytime we enjoyed a lot especially my daughter she loved it a lot..Thanks to Srivalli for choosing this delicious Gujarati snack...Eventhough Srivalli have given two recipes for khandvi,i choosed Lataji's Khandvi which was shared by her friend..



1/3cup Gramflour
1/3cup Sour curd
1cup Water
1tsp Sugar
1tsp Ginger garlic paste
1/2tsp Green chilli paste
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
3tbsp Oil +1tsp Oil for tempering
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1tbsp Sesame seeds
2tbsp Grated coconut
2tbsp Chopped coriander leaves

Grease a flat plate well and keep aside, in a bowl take the gram flour,salt,ginger garlic paste,chilli paste,beaten curd,water and mix well..Turn as thin batter, now add the sugar, asafoetida powder, turmeric powder to the thin batter..

Heat 3tbsp of oil in a thick bottom pan, pour the batter, stir continously until its turns as a semi liquid batter which will get off from the bottom of the pan..transfer immediately to the greased plate, spread the batter to a thin sheet..Once gets cool, cut as strips using knife..Roll each strip into spirals..In an another pan, heat the oil,splutter the mustard and sesame seeds, pour over the rolled khandvis, serve now with grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves..

Dudhi Chana Nu Shaak (Bottlegourd and Bengal Gram Curry)

I have bookmarked this dudhi chana nu shaak at Parita's Space...i have completely forgotten to try out but while going through few days back, i saw this dudhi chana nu shaak, since its a Gujarati speciality i wanted to try them during the weekend also wanted to send them to Nayna's event,we enjoyed this curry with rotis for our dinner..This curry is quite an easy side dish which get ready in less minutes since i prepared the whole cooking process in pressure cooker as Parita did..Thanks to Parita for sharing this easy breezy curry, its such a simple curry which goes terribly awesome as side dish along with rotis..Sending to Nayna's Flavours of Gujarat and to Priya's Bookmarked Recipes..



2cups Bottlegourd (chopped)
3/4cup Channadal
2tsp Oil
1tsp Cumin seeds
1tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
1tsp Red chilly powder
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Coriander powder
1tspCumin powder
1tsp Sugar
Salt
1cup Water

Heat oil in a cooker and fry the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida powder and turmeric powder, add the chopped bottlegourd pieces, saute for few seconds and add salt, sugar, red chilly powder, cumin powder and coriander powder, saute everything for few minutes..add the washed channa dal and water to the veggies..mix everything well and pressure cook for 5 whistles..

Enjoy this curry with rotis or rice..

Gujarati Tuvar Dal

I love simple dals often and its one of my comforting food, this time i wanted to change my usual way of making dals and went for this simple, mildly sweet tuvar dal which tastes awesome with rice topped with ghee or either with pulkas or rotis..This tuvar dal goes for easy preparation and jaggery added finally in this dal change the taste of this dal completely...I loved this dal and am gonna prepare them often as everyone at home loved this slightly sweet dal..Sending this dal to Nayna's Flavours of Gujarat & to Susan's MLLA#27..



1cup Toor dal
1no Tomato (chopped)
1tsp Mustard seeds, cumin seeds
1tbsp Ginger (finely chopped)
2nos Green chillies (slit opened)
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Lemon juice
Jaggery (as per need)
Few curry leaves
1tbsp Coriander leaves (chopped)
Oil
Salt

Soak the toor dal in 3cups of water for an hour, add the turmeric powder,chopped ginger,chopped tomatoes, salt and 1tsp of oil to the soaked dals and cook them in pressure cooker or in vessel until they get well cooked, mash them completely..Heat enough oil, let splutters the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida powder, add this tempered spices to the cooked dal and cook them in simmer, immediately add the jaggery, curry leaves, cook for few minutes..finally add the lemon juice,chopped coriander leaves and put off the stove..

Enjoy with rotis or rice..

Khaman Dhokla

Most of us would have definitely know about this spongy steam cooked besan cakes named as Khaman Dhoklas from Gujarat, dunno somehow i missed making this spongy dhoklas and i really had an opportunity to try them sterday for sending to Nayna's Flavours of Gujarat...Few months back, this khaman dhokla was one of the challenge for Indian cooking challenge, i have missed that challenge coz of some reasons, fortunately i followed making this dhoklas with the same procedure as given for Indian Cooking Challenge and they turned out truly very spongy and yummy..Traditionally this dhoklas are made by grinding channadal along with spices and fermented, later this fermented batter will be steam cooked and cut into medium sized cubes finally garnished with grated coconut  and coriander leaves with tempered mustard seeds and sesame seeds..This instant version of khaman dhokla is completely very easy to make and will get ready in less minutes compared to the traditional one..Sending to Only Event-Low Oil/Low Calorie guest hosted by Priya, event by Pari..



1cup Gram flour
1/2cup Curd
1/2cup Water
1/2tsp Baking soda
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1/2tsp Green chilly paste
1/4tsp Lemon juice
1packet Eno Salt
1tsp Sugar
Salt
1/4tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Sesame seeds
2tbsp Grated coconut
1tbsp Coriander leaves (chopped)

Mix the curd and water together, gradually add the gram flour and turn them as like idli batter..add the baking soda, give a stir..Heat a pressure cooker with enough water, place a plate..now add the lemon juice, salt, green chilly paste,sugar,eno salt and turmeric powder, mix well...Pour this batter in a greased vessel and place gently into the pressure cooker..close the cooker and cook in high flame..

Steam cook this batter until the steam comes and put the flame in simmer, cook again for 10minutes..Remove the lid and insert a toothpick to check whether they get cooked well..Meanwhile heat a pan with oil, fry the sesame seeds, mustard seeds and pour over the cooked dhoklas..cut them as cubes and serve along with grated coconuts and chopped coriander leaves..

Enjoy this dhoklas warm with spicy green chutney..