Spinach Dhokla ~ Healthy & Savory Steamed Indian Cake

Having a good homemade breakfast made with fresh ingredients is a key to achieve healthy body. Before I used to rely on cereals and white breads smothered with nutella for my quick breakfasts but now no more of that junk to start my day. Instead I prefer healthy breakfast with does take some time and effort to prepare,  but my body is loving this change. I am mostly full till lunch so no more mid morning binge eating, my digestive system is back on track, I feel energetic and the most important thing...I am loosing weight :) 

Including green vegetables in the breakfast is the best way to add fiber in the diet. And weekly three to four times I include greens in some form or the other... green chutney...or a simple stir fry with rotis is the easiest way to sneak some greens into the body. But occasionally I make this Spinach Dhokla for a change. Dhoklas being steamed are very healthy and light on the stomach. And as gram flour ( besan ) is the main ingredient it makes a wonderful gluten free option as well. Have it with a spicy coconut chutney to kick start the day. 

Ingredients:

Gram Flour (Besan) - 1 Cup

Spinach Puree - 1 Cup

Curd - 1/4 Cup ( Well Beaten )

Water - 1/4 Cup or Less

Ginger - 1 Inch Piece

Green Chillies - 2 or 3

Oil - 2 Tbsp

Lemon Juice - 1 Tbsp

Sugar - 1 Tbsp

Salt - To Taste

Fruit Salt - 1 Tsp

For Tempering:

Oil - 2 Tbsp

Mustard - 1 Tsp

Sesame Seeds - 2 Tsp

Curry Leaves - 2 Sprigs ( Optional )

Asafoetida - A Generous Pinch

Water - 3 Tbsp

Procedure :

• Make puree of spinach by blanching the leaves along with stalks and grind it fine in a mixer along with ginger and green chilies . Puree should be around 1 cup. I used a medium sized spinach bunch. Do not throw away the stalks as they add more fiber.
• In a wide bowl take gram flour and add spinach puree, curd and oil. Mix well. Add water according to requirement. The batter should be of dropping consistency, neither too thin nor too thick.
• Now add in salt, sugar and lemon juice and mix well so that there are no lumps in the batter.
• Let the batter sit for around 15 minutes. Meanwhile grease a steamer plate and keep ready. 
• I steam the batter in my rice cooker. But any kind of steamer will work fine. Even a pressure cooker without putting whistle can be used.
• Now add fruit salt ( Eno ) in the batter and mix well once without much beating. Immediately pour the batter in the greased plate and keep it for steaming. 
• Steam on high in the steamer for around 15-20 minutes, check by inserting a knife in the middle of the cake. If the knife comes out clean the dhokla is ready...else steam further for 5 minutes.
• Take out the plate from the steamer and let it cool for 10 minutes before inverting the dhokla onto another plate.
• Prepare tempering by heating oil in a frying pan. Add asafoetida and mustard, once mustard starts crackling add in sesame seeds and curry leaves. Take out pan from the fire and carefully add water in the tempering. The oil will start spluttering so being careful is important. Adding water is necessary as it helps in keeping the dhokla soft and moist.
• Spread this tempering on top of the dhokla and cut the dhokla into square pieces.

Chole Bhature

Chole bhature is among one of the most popular street foods in India. This combination of spicy chick peas with fried bread known as bhatura is a must feature in most of the Indian restaurants every where. Chole bhature also remains as one of the deeply relished food in college campuses. Bhatura as big as the size of the plate served with a bowl full of spicy chole accompanied with cut onions and tangy mango pickle is sure to brighten up some faces during hungry hours in the college canteen.

Usually chole is made with lots of spices including whole spices but my mother makes this in a very simple way creating a magical platter which we used to polish off in no time. I remember my mom making fluffy bhatura one by one and my brother eating so many of them and becoming a target of my constant nagging, and did I enjoy nagging him...yes yes...I can be a mean sister at times, and that too being an elder one I am supposed to have some privileges..isn't it?

Recipe Source: Mom

Ingredients:

For the Bhaturas:

All Purpose Flour (Maida)- 2 1/2 Cup

Semolina- 2 tbsp

Yoghurt- 3 tbsp

Oil- 2 tbsp

Instant Dry yeast- 1/4 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

Sugar- 1 1/2 tsp

Luke warm water- To knead the dough

Oil- For deep frying

Little maida for dusting

Procedure:

Take APF, semolina, salt, sugar and yeast in a wide bowl. Add in oil and yoghurt and mix thoroughly. Make a soft dough using luke warm water and set aside covering the dough with a damp cloth for 4 to 6 hours.

After the dough has risen punch it back and take lemon sized balls out of the dough and roll it using maida according to the desired size. Deep fry in hot oil till they puff up. Drain on an absorbent paper.

Ingredients:

For Chole-

Chick Peas- 1 1/2 Cups( Soaked overnight)

Onions- 2 Large

Ginger- 1 Inch piece

Garlic- 3 Cloves

Tomatoes- 3 Large

Mustard- 1/2 tsp

Cumin- 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder- 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder- 1 tsp or more according to the spiciness required

Salt- To Taste

Chole Masala- 2 tsp( I used catch brand)

Oil- 4 tbsp

Procedure:

• In a pressure cooker add the soaked and washed chickpeas along with enough water and little salt and pressure cooks for 5-6 whistle or till the chickpeas gets cooked but not mashed.
• After the cooker has cooled drain the chick peas and take out around 1/2 cup of the cooked chick peas and grind it in the mixie and keep it aside along with remaining chick peas. I grind some chick peas to make the gravy thicker but this it optional.
• Grind onions, ginger and garlic together and keep aside.
• Grind the tomatoes and keep that aside too.
• In a kadhai heat oil and mustard and cumin seeds. Once they start spluttering add in onion paste and cook till the paste turns brown in colour.
• Add in the tomato paste along with turmeric, red chilli powder, salt and chole masala and cook by stirring in between till the oil starts separating and there is no longer raw smell of the masalas.
• Add in the cooked chick peas and the ground chickpeas along with some water and cook in medium heat along with stirring in between till everything is combined nicely.
• Keep boiling the chole for another 5-6 minutes and switch off the gas. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve this chole along with fluffy bhatura combined with some onions and khatti meethi dates and tamarind chutney.

Linking this delicious platter to Priya and Aipi's Bookmarked Recipes- Every Tuesday Event

MLLA# 35 hosted by Smitha of Kannada Cuisine brainchild event of Susan

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop co hosted by Kankana

Update: Sending this to Srivalli's Breakfast Mela

Pav Bhaji

A party favourite and a popular street food Pav Bhaji makes a delicious evening meal. This is very popular in Mumbai and the pav bhaji stalls caters to thousands of hungry tummy's on daily basis. Ever been to juhu beach ?

Pav bhaji can be made with any vegetables available. My mother makes this with only cabbage and potato, but I like to include as many veggies as possible.

Ingredients:

Pav buns - 12
Potatoes - 2 big
Capsicum - 1 big
Cabbage - 1 cup
Cauliflower - 1/2 cup
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Tomatoes - 3 big
Onions- 2 big
Ginger, garlic paste- 1tsp
Coriander leaves - 2 tblsp
Pav bhaji masala - 2 tblsp
Salt, Red chilli powder - to taste
Lemon - 1/2
Oil - 2 tblsp
Butter - 2 tblsp and extra to toast the pavs

Procedure:

• Peel the skin of the potatoes and cut in small cubes, chop cabbage and cauliflower.


• Pressure cook the potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, green peas along with some salt and turmeric powder for 4-5 whistles.


• Chop the onions, tomatoes and capsicum finely.


• Heat oil and add the onions, saute till it gets translucent, then add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell is gone.


• Add the tomatoes and capsicum. Fry for sometime till soft.


• Add pavbhaji masala , salt and red chilli powder. Mix everthing nicely. Add 2-3 tbsps of water.


• Keep mashing with a masher in between so that everything gets mushy and mixture starts leaving oil.


• Then add the pressure cooked vegetables and keep on mixing and mashing.


• Adjust seasoning according to your taste buds. Mix in 2 tbsp of butter and switch off gas and add lemon juice.


• In a flat tava put butter and toast the pav buns. The pavs can also be toasted by adding little salt and pavbhaji masala in the butter.
  

Enjoy pav bhaji hot with some chopped onions. Perfect food for cold evenings.

Spiral Cone Chaat

Last time i went to this wonderful home decorating store and saw those cream horn cones and picked them. It came in a package of 4 cones. How beautifuly these stores arrange their goodies and we fall in their trap leaving our poor husbands worried about their credit cards.
Initially i wanted to bake some puff pastry cones and stuff them with some fruits and cream but that was not what was suppose to happen...
I saw this recipe in masterchef india and thats how these chaat cones were created.
The chutneys and the cones can be made in advance.

For the cones-

Maida : 1 Cup ( I got 6 cones)

Ghee : 1 Tblsp

Salt to taste

Oil to fry the cones

Warm the ghee and add to maida. Put the salt and knead with water to make a semi stiff dough. Divide the dough in 3 parts. Take one part of the dough and with the help of little maida roll it thin like roti, don't use lot of maida for dusting. After rolling cut thin long strips. Then take the cream horns and start rolling each strip like a coil , after one strip is rolled seal it with water and then take another strip and start rolling from where the previous strip ended ... keep rolling as many strips as required till the entire horn is covered , seal the edges of the strips with water so that the cones doesn't open up when frying.

Heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry in medium heat till golden brown. Drain and keep on absorbent paper. Repeat with the remaining 2 parts of dough.

After the cones cool little , gently pull out the cream horns so that the cones don't break. This process has to be done very patiently else you will end up with broken cones. One of mine broke so i mixed that with the chaat filling.

For the date and tamarind chutney ( खजूर और इमली की चटनी) :

Dates : About 12-13 dates deseeded and chopped

Tamarind pulp : 1/2 cup

Sugar or jaggery : 1/2 cup ( I used sugar)

Chilli powder, Black salt, Roasted cumin seeds powder, Dry ginger powder, Black pepper powder : According to your taste buds

In a kadhai add the tamarind pulp and 1/2 cup water and let it boil then add the chopped dates, sugar or jaggery and the spices. Let the mixture boil till it thickens then strain the mixture to get the chutney.

For the green chutney ( हरी धनिया और पुदीने की चटनी ) :

Coriander leaves : 1 bunch

Mint leaves : 1bunch

Green chillies : 2 -3 ( Can add more according to your taste)

Ginger : Small piece

Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Grind all of the above together into a smooth paste adding little water.

For the chat filling :

Boiled and mashed potatoes

Boiled chick peas

Boiled sweet corn( I used frozen)

Chopped onions

Chopped tomatoes

Chaat masala

Chaat can be made in many ways , so you are free to choose your filling and their quantities.

Mix all the ingredients.

Assembling:

Take a cone put some tamarind chutney first then fill the prepared filling, top with whipped curd, both the chutneys, sev and garnish with chopped coriander and mint leaves and serve. This should be consumed immediately else it will turn soggy.