Sev and Tomato Shaak / Spicy Chickpea Noodles in a Tomato Sauce

This is my old time favourite, the tangy taste of the tomatoes with the spicy taste of the sev is delicious. Real comfort food. I always thought that my mother made up this recipe, I now realise it is actually a Gujarati recipe. We also make sev with spring onions and sev with young mooli or radishes - leaves and all, recipe to come. The sev we used was homemade, recipe soon.

Ingredients
1 lb tomatoes; blanched, peeled and liquidised
1 cups sev
1 tspn mustard seeds
1/2 tspn cumin seeds
4-5 curry leaves
1 hot chilli (as many as you can handle)
1 onion; chopped fine
1/2 tspn tumeric
2 tspn coriander and cumin powders
2 cloves garlic; minced
1 inch ginger; grated
1 tbspn oil

Method
Heat the oil, add the cumin and mustard seeds, curry leaves and green chilli, fry for a few minutes.
Add the onion, cook until transluscent.
Add about 2 tablespoons of the tomatoes, cumin and coriander powders, garlic and ginger paste, and cook for 5 minutes.
















Add the rest of the tomatoes, bring to boil, simmer for 5 minutes, add the sev, cook for few more minutes and serve with chapattis.

This is my entry for JFI

hosted by RP

Mother's Day Menu

Everyone came round for lunch today.

Starters: Spicy Vegetable Gughra and Chicken Gughra
Ghos Pilau, Chana bateta
Pickles: Lime with Chili and Ginger
Carrot with gur, Gunda and Keri
Dessert: Pineapple Cake

recipes to follow

Bateta Champ / Potato Chops ; Mash Potato Stuffed with Spicy Chicken

Bateta champ is one of those dishes which is only cooked on special days or Sundays. We have not made them for ages, I wanted to make it for JFI potato, but did not have the time. We are planning to make them for Husein's majlis on Friday week. This was a trial run - successful even if I say so myself.
Ingredients
Mash Potato
2 lb of potatoes
salt to taste

Filling:
2 lb minced chicken breast
1 bunch spring onions
4 cloves garlic (minced)
1 inch ginger (minced)
2 to 3 finely chopped green chillies
½ cup chopped coriander leaves
salt to taste
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 table spoon Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
1 tblspn of tomato puree

For frying
oil
2 eggs (beaten)
breadcrumbs

Method

Mashd Potatoes
Boil the potatoes in their skins, peel the skins and roughly mash the potatoes, so that it is a chunky mix, not smooth.

.

Filling
Dry cook the minced chicken with garlic, ginger, chillies and salt, until all the water evaporates, break the lumps if they form. Add Worcestershire sauce and tomato puree, mix, and cook until the chiken is done, remove from heat, let it cool
Add garam masala, onions and coriander, mix well

Take 2 tbspn of mash potato, make 2 saucer shapped patties, place the chicken filling on one patty and cover with the other, seal the edges, shape into a smooth flying saucer-like shape. Repeat until all the potato and filling are used up. Makes 20

Dip the potato chops in beaten egg, and then breadcrumb and place on a tray, repeat until all are done.
Deep fry or bake in oven, at 200 C for 20 minutes or until brown.
enjoy!

Flat Apple Cake

Ingredients
2 Eggs
1 1/3 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 tablespoon of anise liqueur OR vanilla extract OR lemon juice. If using lemon, you can also grate the lemon and add this to the mixture.

Topping
Few apples cut lenghtwise and sprinkled with cinnamon
Few raisins (optional)
Few crushed walnuts (optional)
OR be creative and add anything you like such as pears, cranberries, blueberries, dried fruit etc..

Method

Beat the eggs and sugar (if you find the cake too sweet, you can decrease the amount of sugar)

Add the oil and milk

Add the flour and baking powder

Add the liqueur (or vanilla extract or lemon juice)

Use a pizza tray. Line the tray with parchment paper and then spread the mixture on to the tray.

Sprinkle with crushed walnuts and raisins. Using a spatula, push the walnuts and raisins into the mixture.

In a bowl, cut a few apples lengthwise and sprinkle with cinnamon

Place the apples on the mixture (see picture)

Bake at 350F or 180C for 30 minutes. Ensure bottom of cake is brown before removing from oven. May require up to 40 minutes.

Cut into squares and enjoy.

Til Sankri / Sesame Brittle

Ingredients
12 oz gur or soft brown suger
12 oz toasted sesame seeds (baked in a medium hot oven for 15 mins)
2 tablespoon oil
1 14 inch square tray (lightly oiled)

Method
Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the gur or brown suger, keep stiring until brown, add the sesame seeds, mix as quickly as posible



Place on the tray, flatten using a rolling pin, cutin 25 pieces while it is still warm.
Enjoy

Shaheen and Mohsin's Majlis Sufro

Ladu
Bhajia
Lamb Biryani - recipe to follow
Trifle

Flowers arranged by Muni, Pari and Saju

Cookies with Dates and Almonds

Ingredients
4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup of toasted almonds chopped to small pieces
375 grams of dates without the pits cut into very small pieces
1 cup of shortening (butter or a substitute will work, I used Crisco shortening)
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
¾ of hot water (tap water is fine)
Little milk

Method…
In a large bowl
Mix the flour, baking soda and baking power.
Add the dates and with your hands, use the flour mixture to separate the dates. I used a mixer and the dates did not separate well. I recommend you use your hands.
Add the chopped almonds
Add the shortening and mix well. You can use a mixer at this point.

In another bowl…
Beat the 3 eggs
Add the sugar
Add the vanilla extract
Add the hot water

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Add a little milk. Place the dough in small bite size portions on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F or 180 C for 15 minutes or until nice golden brown. Let cool and enjoy. If you store the cookies in a container they will remain soft. If you don’t they will become hard and crunchy. Either way, they are tasty.