Gujarati Food Recipe

Taste the hottest samosa with SurfIndia. Samosa is deep fried triangle pastry filled with spicy potatoes or other vegetables

Samosa stands high on the Indian menu. It is popular all over India as evening snacks. Next time make crispy samosas by your own with SurfIndia

Method

• For Dough
  1. Make well in the flour.
  2. Add oil, salt and little water. Mix well till crumbly.
  3. Add more water little by little, kneading into soft pliable dough.
  4. Cover with moist cloth, keep aside for 15-20 minutes.
  5. Beat dough on work surface and knead again. Re-cover.

• For Filling
  1. Heat 3 tbsp. oil, add ginger, green chilli, garlic, coriander seeds.
  2. Stir fry for a minute, add onion, saute till light brown.
  3. Add coriander, lemon, turmeric, salt, red chilli, garam masala.
  4. Stir fry for 2 minutes, add potatoes. Stir further 2 minutes.
  5. Cool. Keep aside.

• To Proceed
  1. Make a thin 5" diam. round with some dough.
  2. Cut into two halves. Run a moist finger along diameter.
  3. Join and press together to make a cone.
  4. Place a tbsp. of filling in the cone and seal third side as above.
  5. Make five to six. Put in hot oil, deep fry on low to medium till light brown.
  6. Do not fry on high, or the samosas will turn out oily and soggy.
  7. Drain on rack or kitchen paper.
  8. Serve hot with green and tamarind chutneys (refer chutneys), or tomato sauce.

Method

1. Boil dal and the peanuts in a pressure cooker till soft. Keep aside.
2. 2eat 1 tbsp ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds, garlic, asafoetida and finally, the boiled dal. Add cocum, turmeric powder, chilli powder, sugar and curry leaves. Boil and add salt to taste.
3. To make the dhokli, mix the flour, salt, turmeric, chilli powder, asafoetida and a little oil and make a stiff dough with water. Knead well and roll out into 10 cm discs.
4. Cut the discs into diamonds or squares with a knife and drop them into the boiling dal mixture. When all the dhokli pieces are put in, boil the dal for a further 15 minutes on a low fire.
5. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Known to sooth many a soul. Moms usually make this for a comfort  meal. This simple mixture of lentils and rice which has a wonderful hue of yellow because of the turmeric is healthy and hearty. It can be served with Indian pickles, Plain yogurt or Ghee. Sometimes it is also eaten with a little bit of whole milk mixed into the khichadi, when eating. Make it on a cold winter's day, Enjoy.

How to make Khichadi:

• 1 1/2 cups Basmati rice, washed, soaked in water for 1/2 hour and drained
• 1/2 cup yellow Moong daal, washed, soaked in water for 1/2 hour and drained
• Soak the Moong daal and rice ahead time and then get all the other ingredients together.
• 5 teaspoons butter or oil
• 1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
• 2 to 3 Whole Cloves 
• 6 peppercorns
• 1/4 th teaspoon Black pepper powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2  teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 cups boiling or hot water

Garnish 

1 teaspoon of ghee
Fresh coriander leaves 

In a large saucepan, melt the butter or oil over moderate heat. When the foam subsides for the butter, add the cloves,  peppercorns, black pepper powder and bay leaf add the onion and fry, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes.  Continue sautéing, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent but not brown.

Add the rice, moong daal, salt and turmeric. Stir and toss the mixture gently. Reduce the heat to moderately low and stir gently for a minute.

Pour in the boiling water and stir once. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the rice and Moong daal are cooked and tender and all the water has been absorbed. Remove the pan from the heat. 

Many people like to cook this in a pressure cooker or a rice cooker. 

Serve at once. Garnish with 1 teaspoon of ghee and some fresh coriander leaves.

Method

1. Cook chana dal in a pressure cooker till it turns soft. Drain out excess water until the dal is absolutely becomes dry.
2. Add jaggery and cook further and then mash into a soft paste.
3. Add cardamom powder, saffron, and freshly grated nutmeg powder and mix well. Form 20 balls of equal size and put it aside.
4. Mix refined flour, oil, water and turmeric powder. Make very soft, sticky dough. Knead very well. Use oil to knead. Divide into 20 equal portions.
5. With greased palms, take one portion of dough and flatten it into a disc of the size of the palm. Place a ball of "chana jaggery" paste in the centre and fold the disc from all sides to cover the paste completely.
6. On a well-floured board, better over a sheet of clean transparent plastic wrap, gently roll out each poli to a 6 inches disc. This can get tricky as the paste does try to slide out. Use a little flour if that happens. Roll.
7. Roast each poli on a hot, dry girdle. Do not use oil or ghee. Roast both sides well. Smear with ghee on both sides when done. Serve warm with clarified butter or a bowl of milk.

One of the finest green vegetables belonging to the Mustard family, Cabbage juices are known to also work as natural remedies. A regular weekly habit of eating Cabbage prevents cancerous ailments.  Rich with Vitamin C, Cabbage soup is helpful to heart patients. As a cooked vegetable, Cabbage makes a low calorie meal. The peas are rich in carbo-hydrates.  Thus these two ingredients make up an excellent recipe. 

An important note: Cabbage produces gas in the body. To neutralize this, it is ideal to also add scraped raw Ginger while cooking.

Method  

Wash and shred cabbage. Heat oil in a pan and put mustard. When mustard starts springing, add cabbage, salt, haldi, chili powder and frozen peas. Cook on medium heat for 12 minutes or till the cabbage gets tender.

Lobhiya (Lobiya) is a spicy curried soup made of black-eyes cowpeas popular in Punjab.

We will pre-soak the beans but not use pressure cooker. The spices are same as for Rajmah.

Ingredients:

Pre-soak and pre-cook

• Lobhiya (Dried black-eyed cowpeas) 2 cups
• Water for soaking: 6 cups

Precook

Water: 3 cups

Masala

• Cooking Oil:  ¼ Cup
• Onions Chopped Coarse: 2 cups

Use Yellow onions and chop them about ½ to ¾" Dice

• Salt: ¾  teaspoon
• Cayenne pepper ground: ½ teaspoon or to taste
• Minced Garlic: ¼ cup
• Fresh Ginger chopped: 1 Inch
• Rajmah Spice Mix: 3 Tablespoons
• Tomatoes Chopped: 3 Cups
• Amchoor (Dried Mango powder): ½ teaspoon

Garnish

• Cilantro Chopped
• Fresh Serrano Chopped

Method

Pre-soak

Bring water to a boil. Add Lobhiya. Let it cook for 5 minutes and shut off the heat. Let rest for 4 hours or overnight at room temperature. After pre-soak is done, drain and rinse beans.

Pre-cook

Add pre-soaked beans, and water. Let it come to a boil. Do not cover. Cook till beans are soft. It will take about 20 minutes after the water had come to a boil

Masala

• Heat cooking oil in a a separate pan.
• Add onions, salt and cayenne. Fry till water is gone and onions are turning brown. about 5 minutes
• Add Garlic and ginger. Cook two minutes.
• Add Rajmah Spice mix. Fry about 1 minute
• Transfer to Lobhiya pot
• Add Tomatoes, Amchoor and Bay leaf to the beans.
• Bring it to a boil.
• Turn down heat. Simmer for 10 minutes
• Garnish the dish.

Method

1. Fry the onions until golden brown, add the tomatoes, garlic, ginger and chillis, cook for about 10 minutes until it is blended together.
2. Add the tumeric, coriander and cumin powders, stir and cook for about 3 minutes.
3. Add the the dal (add a tblspn of water if neccesary), and cook for about 20 minutes
4. Add the diced dudhi, stir and cook for a furhter 10 minutes Garnish with Coriander, serve with chapatis.

There are some vegetables that never make it to our favourites' list. Most gourds, especially the bitter gourd for obvious reasons. But this recipe is very easy to make and is liked by many;even those who do not like the bitterness in karela (bitter gourd). Try it out and I hope you really like it. In this version, tamarind is used, instead of green mangoes, to help to reduce some of the bitterness.

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Method

1. Scrape the rough skin off the karelas gently. Top and tail and slice into 1/2-1 cm. thick slices.
2. Take all the karelas and apply some salt and haldi to these pieces and leave it for about 1/2 an hour.
3. Then wash the karelas and drain out the water completely.
4. In the pan, heat the oil add mustard seeds (rai) and cumin seeds (jeera). When they start to crackle.
5. Add pinch of asafoetida (hing), curry leaves, ginger, green chilli, turmeric powder and chilli powder in the oil and add the tamarind pulp and water to it. By stirring continously add corainder powder (dhania), salt to the mixture.
6. When all the water is evaporated and oil begins to separate. Add karela pieces to the mixture and if needed add little water to cook the karelas. Cook it until the karela are soft and tender.
7. Garnish with corainder leaves and serve hot with roti or paratha.

Quick to make and good to eat is the perfect caption for Palak Ki Subzi! This is a tasty vegetable dish and it is full of good nutrients too. Palak Ki Subzi takes just about 10 minutes to make!

Preparation

1. Chop off the stems on the spinach close to the roots and throw roots away. Wash the spinach very well under running water till absolutely clean.
2. Drain fully (use a salad spinner if necessary) and then chop coarsely. Keep aside.
3. Heat the oil in a deep pan on a medium flame. When hot, add the cumin seeds and cook till they stop spluttering. Now add the dry red chilli and allow to cook for 30 seconds or till darker.
4. Add the finely chopped garlic and fry till it starts to turn a pale golden color. Now add the onions and fry till soft.
5. Add the spinach and mix well. Cook uncovered till the spinach wilts slightly.
6. Add all the spices and salt to taste. Stir well to mix all ingredients. Cook for another 3-4 minutes and turn fire off.
7. Serve hot with a lentil dish like Masala Daal and Chapatis (for a vegetarian meal) or Dahi Gosht (lamb in yoghurt sauce) and Chapatis (for a non-vegetarian meal).

Preparation Time : 5 minutes
Cooking Time : 5 minutes
Serves / Makes : 4

Method  

Wash and boil kachhe kele to one whistle. When cool, cut them in rounds with the peel. In a kadhai, heat ghee and add jeera and hing. Add kachhe kele and all other masalas. Cook in open for 3-4 minutes.

User Comments & Tips

To boil kele, add enough water, as you would do to boil potatoes. Check if they are boiledproperly by pricking with fork. If it comes out clean, they have boiled right.

How to make basundi

1. Boil the milk in a kadai.
2. Keep stirring constantly and reduce it till it becomes thick and the quantity of the milk is approximately half a litre. remove from the flame and keep aside.
3. D the lemon juice to the milk and stir the mixture so that it becomes granular in consistency.
4. Return to a medium flame.
5. Add the sugar and cook for another 10 minutes. stir the mixture occasionally.remove from the fire.
6. Transfer to a bowl and add the cardamoms and the nuts.mix thoroughly.
7. Serve hot or cold.