Modakachi Amti (Stuffed dumpling curry)

This is a family recipe passed down for several generations. My aunt used to make it whenever we visited them in Mumbai. Her apartment was in a nice neighborhood, very close to Shivaji Park. The Gypsy restaurant, which was one of our favorite places to eat in Dadar and a great place to catch celebrity sightings, was just steps away. Visits to my aunt's place meant delicious food made by her, watching Bollywood movies in the afternoon and enjoying tea - morning and evening - on their charming balcony overlooking a surprisingly quiet street. Not to mention walking over to the kulfi vendor for some amazing late night pistachio and malai kulfi.

I always wanted to learn to make this recipe and finally got a chance to make it together with my aunt! The end result was as delicious as I remember it from decades ago.

First you make the dough for the modak (dumplings) and keep it aside for an hour. Meanwhile you make the filling for the modak. Part of the filling would be ground to a fine paste that would form the base of the curry.

To start with, make the dough out of whole wheat flour and besan (chickpea flour) and set aside.

 Combine dry, roasted and shredded coconut and sesame seeds to make the filling.

Add spices, cilantro and lemon juice to the filling mixture.

Put on your favorite music (this step takes time) and make small modak from the dough and filling.

    

Ta-da!

Serves 4-5. Makes about 25 modak.

You will need

For the dough:

whole wheat flour              1 1/2 cups
chickpea flour AKA besan 3/4 cup
oil                                      2 tbsp

turmeric                            1 tsp

red chilli powder              1 tsp

salt                                    2 tsp

For the filling:

dried shredded coconut    1 1/2 cups
sesame seeds                  3/4 cup

cilantro                             1 cup

lemon juice                       2 tbsp

Spices to taste:

red chilli powder, salt, sugar, asafetida (hing), black masala, cumin powder, turmeric

For the curry:

Jaggery and amsool or tamarind to taste.

Method:

1. Dry roast the coconut on a pan and set aside to cool.
2. Combine all the ingredients for the dough. Combine everything while adding just enough water to form a firm dough. Set aside for an hour at least
3. Pulse grind the sesame seeds just until they are a bit broken but NOT ground to a powder.
4. Combine the roasted coconut, roughly ground sesame seeds and all the spices for the filling. At this point you could store this mixture in the fridge and use within a week. Great way to make-ahead a part of this recipe.
5. Add the cilantro and lemon juice to the filling mixture.
6. Set aside about 3/4 cup of the mixture to make the curry base.
7. Make small balls of the dough. Take a ball, make a flat disc out of it with your fingers such that the outer edge is thin. Put a teaspoon of the filling in the center. Pinch the dough 6-7 times on the side and bring the edges together to form a modak. Refer to the picture above. Repeat for the rest of the dough balls.
8. Take the filling mixture set aside in step 6, grind it to a fine paste in your blender. 
9. Add 2 cups water to the above paste and bring it to a simmer in a pot. Add all the modak to this curry. Adjust salt and spice levels. Add some jaggery and amsool or tamarind for sourness.
10. Let the modak cook for about 10 mins. They are done when firm.
11. Serve hot with rice or chapatis.

Chicken Hariyali Curry

This recipe was recommended by Shraddha, a close friend of mine. We were neighbors when we were growing up and used to spend hours talking about school and boys and the world, when we were not playing badminton or dabdaispais (I feel like this must be the first attempt of someone spelling this word on the internet). Like most kids, we used to engage in things like writing cryptographic messages, having silly "passwords" and one thing that at the time seemed particularly appealing in its audacity... we used to throw and exchange food from our windows. Doing that successfully without a single adult noticing what we were upto used to give us a rush I suppose? I have no idea.

Fast forward to 2019 and we are still bonding over food but in a far more meaningful way. We both love cooking and baking and love trying out new things and pushing our limits. Last month we made garam masala from scratch (not together as we live on different continents). Last weekend I attempted a chicken curry recipe that Shraddha has been raving about. We had it with warm garlic naan and it was very tasty.

Based on this recipe from the Hindu.

You will need

For the marinade

yogurt                           2 tbsp
garam masala               1/2 tsp
red chilly powder         1/2 tsp
garlic, crushed              2-3 cloves
salt to taste                       

For the curry
chicken breast               1/2 lbs
onion, chopped             1 cup
cilantro                          half a bunch
mint                               4-5 springs (~20 leaves)
green chillies                 2
dry red chillies               2
full fat yogurt                1/2 cup
garam masala                1-2 tsp
salt to taste 



Method

1. Chop the chicken. Mix the ingredients for the marinade, add the chicken to it. Make sure all the pieces are coated well with the marinade. Marinate for at least a few hours. I did it for 24 hours and the chicken really soaked in all the flavors.
2. In an electric blender, blend together the cilantro, mint, green chillies and dry red chillies. Set aside.
3. In a heated sauté pan, fry the chopped onion until it just starts browning.
4. Add the marinated chicken and sauté until it is mostly cooked.
5. Add the cilantro paste and let it cook for about 5-10 mins. Keep stirring occasionally.
6. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the hot gravy to the yogurt and mix well to temper it. Add the yogurt to the pan on low flame, mix well.
7. Add salt to your taste.

Serve with rice, naan or roti.

Chana Dal Wade AKA Chattambade

You will need
chana dal 1 cup
dry red chillies 2-3
jeera (cumin seeds) 1 tsp
curry leaves 1-2
hing (asafoetida) 1/4 tsp
freshly grated ginger 2 tsp
salt to taste

Prep
1. Wash the chana dal and soak it so that it is fully submerged for 2 hours.
Then drain the water completely.
2. Grind the chana dal together with all the other ingredients until the mixture forms a coarse paste. Add water if needed, but be careful as too much water can make it harder to form patties.
        This happened sooner than I expected and I ended up with a paste finer than I would have liked.
        The bite from dal gives great texture.

Method
1. Make flat-ish patties out of the ground mixture.
2. Heat oil in a shallow pan and place 4-5 patties in the hot oil.
Cover the pan and let it cook for about 3 mins. Then turn the patties over and fry them on the other side for 2-3 mins or until browned.
Serve with ketchup or other dip of your choice.

Hearty Veggie Soup

I like soup for dinner on foggy cold week nights – like this week. And hearty vegetable soups can especially be comforting on busy weeknights.  My mom made all sorts of soups when I was growing up and I have grown to love them.

I liked this soup because it took me only 30 minutes to make it from start to finish, the recipe consisted of cooking veggies by steaming them - a healthier way to eat them, and plus it made an awesome leftover.

Here goes the recipe –

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots cut into cubes
• 2 ripe tomatoes cut into cubes
• 1 onion cut into cubes
• 1 medium sized potato, peeled, cut into cubes
• 1 tsp butter
• Salt, pepper, red chili powder, sugar per taste
• 1/4^th cup 1% fat milk (optional)
• Cilantro, minced

Direction:

Pressure cook all veggies till tender. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can also cook all the veggies in a pan by adding water till they’re just covered. Puree cooked veggies. Heat butter in a stockpot and add pureed veggies. Add milk, salt, pepper, red chili powder, sugar per taste. Mix well. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot.

A and I like our soup with toasted bread with light ghee spread. I added red chilli powder as a garnish for some extra heat.

I am going to try this recipe with ghee instead of butter. Ghee doesn’t burn as fast as butter as it has a higher smoke point than butter.