Papad methi shaak

The first time I heard of papad methi sabzee (sabzee is called shaak in Gujju) was at my in-laws place! I was not very thrilled about even tasting the dish! After a lot of reluctance I did taste it a bit, and dint like the taste at all. Papads are meant to be roasted and fried, and not meant for making sabzees! But, well after a while I really started enjoying the taste. The taste grows on you, especially if you enjoy methi then you definitely cannot resist this dish. And what more this dish needs minimal effort

Effort: 30 mins

Serves: 2 persons

Ingredients:
* 6 papads
* 2 tbsps fenugreek seeds
* 1/2 cup jaggery
* 2 tsps dhania jeera powder
* 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
* pinch of turmeric and salt as per taste
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh methi or you could also use kasuri methi instead
* 2-1/2 cups of water

For tempering:
* Oil
* mustard seeds

- Break the papad into small pieces


- Boil 2 tablespoons of methi (fenugreek) seeds in a cooker - 3 whistles on high flame and 1 whistle on low flame is sufficient. If you plan to boil in microwave, then cook for roughly 15-20 minutes



- Let the boiled seeds cool down. Wash thoroughly with water, so that the bitter taste is reduced
- Heat oil, and add mustard seeds.
- Once the seeds start spluttering, add methi seeds stir for a few seconds, and immediately add 1 cup of water
- Add dhania jeera powder, red chilli powder and turmeric powder along with jaggery and salt
- Add one more cup of water, and let it boil well
- Add fresh methi and papad, stir well. At this point if you find the taste very bitter, then you can add some more jaggery
- Cook till papads become soft
- Serve hot with rotis or rice

Batata Vada

Gujju cuisine would be the best way to start blogging in India, in order to impress the saasu-maa ;-) I have learnt quite a few traditional Gujju dishes from here, which are supposedly very oily but she does manage to use as less oil as possible!

Batata vada is very well known in Maharashtra as well as Gujrat, I would say more so in Maharashtra. But, I am posting this recipe under Gujju cuisine because these batata vadas are made by my MIL in Gujju style - yes they have a sweetish tinge, but they taste amazing!

Ingredients:

For the vada:

* 4-5 potatoes
* 1 medium onion roughly chopped
* 3-4 green chillies finely chopped
* 1 lemon
* 2 spoons chopped coriander
* salt as per taste
* 1 spoon sugar

For tempering:

* 1 spoon oil
* 1/2 spoon mustard seeds
* 1/2 spoon urad daal

For the mix:

* 1 cup besan
* Salt as per taste
* 1 spoon red chilli powder
* 1/2 spoon turmeric powder
* 1.5 cups water
* Oil for frying

Effort: 45 mins
Makes: 10-12 vadas

- Boil the potatoes (take care that they are not over cooked), allow to cool, peel skin and set aside
- While the potatoes are being boiled, mix the paste for outer coating of vadas - sieve the besan, add red chilli powder, salt and turmeric powder. Add water gradually and mix throughly using your hand so that the consistency is even. Set aside.

- For the tempering, heat oil, add mustard seeds and once they start spluttering, add the urad daal. Let it cook for a few seconds
- Add the tempering to the boiled potatoes, add onions, lemon juice, sugar, chopper corainder, green chillies and salt. Mash properly and make small balls and set aside

- Heat oil in a kadai. Dip each vada in the besan mix such the mix is well coated on the vada, and fry. Keep the vadas on a tissue paper to drain out the excess oil.
- Enjoy the hot vadas with the green chutney

After a long sabbatical...

It has been a long time, since I have been blogging. I had thought that settling down in Blore would be fairly easy and a quick thing - what with all the estate agents available for hunting a place and most of the items to be bought would be available in more than 10 different stores located 100 meters from each other. Well, it was an experience, which I hope I would not have to face ever again. Firstly to start with Blore, I am thoroughly disappointed to see the infrastructure of this city! It is in a very pathetic shape, and this is supposedly the Indian Silicon valley. Blore needs to change dramatically before things go out of control. The government, the IT biggies and perhaps even some of us, should really do some thing in this regard. The traffic is unmanageable, most of the people on the road have no value for their own life, nor do they value others lives! In our own office parking lot, people drive their vehicles at the speed of 50kmph, whereas there are huge hoardings in the parking lot showing the speed limit as 15kmph. And then there are those security and traffic policemen standing there "trying" to regulate the traffic! I must say that at least the first few months have been thoroughly disappointing in Blore in terms of the traffic and infrastructure. But, then on the positive side, I am now close to my family! Moreover, the feeling of being in India, amongst your people (although you crib and curse every other minute!) is really nice. All in all I have had a good time so far, minus the settling down period. Even with all the infrastructure and other problems, there is a sense of belonging in India. It feels nice to be here amongst your own people :-)

Having said that, I am now back to my blogging with a bang! The vegetables in Bangalore taste much better than Finland :) And there is such a wide range of sabzees and dishes that I can try out! Hopefully I will be able to post recipes on a regular basis from now on.....

So, hopefully from now on I will be able to post recipes regularly on my blog. One good thing about Bangalore is the food - the palak dosa at ShivSagar's, the south indian lunch buffet at SouthIndies, the sizzlers at IndiJoe's, the Kerala cuisine at Malgudi and the list continues....it has been a true gourmand affair for me!

Moi Moi Finland :-(

Finland has been my second home, and I must say that since the day we made our decision to leave Finland, I have been feeling quite sad. There are a lot of things I will miss about Finland - the lovely lakes, the pullas, Finnish coffee, Tampere and most important the friends I have made in Tampere, and of course I will definitely miss hearing the multiple "Thank you"s and "Kiitos" during the day ;-) We are moving back to India - home sweet home! But, I hope that it won't be a rude shock for us, both work-wise and socially. I think the latter part should be OK after a few months of settling down, after all we have grown up and spent so many years in India.

Anyway, because of this move, I will not be regular with my posts for a few weeks. I have been making some Finnish recipes, so I will start posting those, whenever possible.

Coming back to what I love about Finland - the beautiful summer! After 3-4 months of cold winter with barely 2-3 hours of sunlight, the lovely summer is a welcome change! In Tampere, which is situated in southern Finland, there is sunlight for roughly 19 hours during summer. But, if you go further north to places like Kuusamo, Kilpisjarvi, you will get to see the midnight sun ;-) So, for the travel freaks, do visit Finland during summer. You can rent a summer cottage, and have a ball of a time! This summer we had been to Nordkapp (North Cape), we drove a total of 3000 odd kms, and what a drive it was! We were at the northernmost point in Europe on mid-summer day. It was an awesome trip! All those who stay in Scandic countries should make a road trip to Nordkapp, preferrably on a bike ;-) We took the less adventurous option of going by car. Norway is extremely beautiful, truly a paradise on earth. And then there are places like Kilpisjarvi, Muonio in Finland which are worth a visit during summer as well as winter. During the same summer, we had been to Kuusamo, with my brother and bhabhi. Kuusamo is very close to the Russian border and is very famous for both summer and winter sports.

Midnight Sun
One of the thousand lakes in Finland
Rapids in Kuusamo
Finnish Summer cottage
Sauna room
Driving in Finland during summer
Camping at Helvetinjarvi


Rovaniemi is another famous place in Finland. For those who do not know, Rovaniemi is the offical residence of Santa Claus, and it is a must-see place during winter time especially for kids. And the reindeer safari is definitely a must-do. There is also the husky dog safari, but unfortunately we could not take that. And then of course there is skiing, I tried to risk my life once by directly trying downhill skiing after a short course, but gravity did play a strong role in pulling me down in weird directions, so haven't tried skiing at all after that one experience!

Reindeer Safari in Rovaniemi
Our reindeer - Petteri
Tavi - the leader

And that's not all, there are so many other places even around Tampere that are superb - Pori for instance is a great place to spend a few days of summer. Pori has a really big (natural) sand beach, and it is the perfect place to stay for a few days. There are also a lot of camping places around Tampere, just drive out over the weekend during summer and have fun! And yes, the vast strawberry fields....

Autumn in Tampere
Beach at Pori
Frozen lake
Kilpisjarvi

I can go on and on about my love for Finland, but I think I will do that later in some other category of blogging, if I miss Finland too much in India :D But these are some of the things about Finland which I will definitely miss:
- Rye bread :-)
- Saunas (yeah yeah the sauna culture is catching up in India too, but nothing like the Finnish sauna!)
- Jenkki gum
- Frozen lakes
- Finnish coffee and pullas
- Peace and solitude especially when you go out for a quiet evening walk :-)
- Quality of life
- And last, but not the least, the Finns. By far, the most polite and non-judgemental people I have ever come across.

Cabbage Kofta curry

The symmetric pakodas and the above pic is courtesy Smita, my s-i-l, an amazing cook!

I had recently made cabbage kofta curry for our friends' parents. Our friends are from Kerala, so initially I was quite skeptical about making North Indian food for the parents, but luckily both aunty and uncle like North Indian food. BTW, I find it very intriguing that the moment we meet any Indian elderly couple, we address them as Indians do, whereas any "firang", no matter how old he or she is, is always addressed by his / her first name :-) I would love to address some elderly Finnish person as uncle / aunty some time, just to see his reaction ;-)) Anyway, coming back to my cabbage kofta curry recipe, this is one of those dishes which look very rich and are perfect for a party, and also do not need too many special ingredients, unlike other kofta curries. So, enjoy this dish for the next party that you plan!

Ingredients:
For koftas:
* 1 cup shredded cabbage
* 4-5 tsps besan (chana flour)
* 2 tsps rice flour
* Fresh grated ginger - 1 inch piece
* 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
* 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
* 1/4 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
* 2 green chillies finely chopped
* salt as per taste
* 2 tsps finely chopped coriander
* Oil for frying

For garam masala:
* 1 cardamom
* 2-3 cloves
* 1 small piece of cinnamon
* 1 tsp poppy seeds
* 1/4 tsp sesame seeds

For the gravy:
* 2 onions
* 2-3 tomatoes - pureed
* 2-3 tbsps cream
* 1/2 cup coriander
* 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
* salt as per taste
* few drops of honey

Effort: 45 mins

Serves: 6 persons

- Mix all the ingredients for koftas, make sure that the cabbage is predominant than the chana flour mix. Make small balls or pakodas, and deep fry in oil

- On a pan, roast all the spices for garam masala. Roast till you can smell the fragrance of the spices. Let it cool. Grind the spices to a fine powder in a grinder
- Heat a few spoons of oil, fry the finely chopped onions. Fry till the onions are golden brown, add coriander and fry for sometime. Let is cool. Grind the onion mix to a fine paste in a grinder
- Make tomato puree. Make a small cross cut on each of the tomatoes, immerse the tomatoes in boiling water
- Let the tomatoes cool, remove skin and grind to a fine paste
- Heat a small amount of butter in a pan, add the onions paste, fry for a minute, add garam masala, red chilli powder and salt. Add tomato puree, cook till oil separates from the gravy. The gravy should be slightly thick
- Add cream, and cook for 2-3 minutes on low heat


- For serving, place the koftas on a serving plate, pour the gravy on top of the kotas. Garnish with cream, mint leaves (optional) and coriander leaves