Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Foooooooooooooooooooooood

I miss having a 'proper' Christmas. I've been missing the Christmas of my childhood. The weather should be cold, but with a couple of hours of bright, wintery sun that hurts your eyes. You should need to wrap up warm against the biting wind - a padded coat and matching hat, scarf and gloves. You should need the fire on to keep the drafts at bay. You should have an oven, stuffed full of yummy food...

You should not be sat wearing shorts and vest as you type, sipping on iced water. You should not be in a country where having an oven in your kitchen is virtually unheard of. You should not be in a country where people decorate just 3 or 4 days before Christmas day. You should not be in a country where most people don't celebrate Christmas!

So I didn't have anything that faintly resembled a 'normal' Christmas (although I do have some very cute decorations). I did have a good Christmas though, even though I was longing for roast spuds and parsnips, yorkie puds and sprouts! Therefore I looked up a lot of food that I fancied whilst I ate some nice veggie pasta the I made (without an oven!)

So today's post is a bunch of good-looking food to tempt you with links to the recipes - coz I can take no credit at all for any of this food! Most of the credit goes to everyone's favourite Jamie Oliver. I love Nigella's food too, but couldn't find most of the recipes I was looking for on her website. So here it is - my Christmas food wishlist:




Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Channa Masala - Comfort food for hard times

Well, the NOC certificate from the police to aid my application for a visa extension never happened because my landlord decided to be extremely unhelpful and refused to co-operate..."I've given you everything I need to, I don't have to do anything else." Ggggrrrrr, some people just make life more difficult!

On top of that, I need to go to Delhi to sort out my visa (long and complicated story here) which is easier said than done, as all the trains are fully booked, with waitlists of at least 40. I think paying an agent a small fee may help. Don't think I'll get to see much whilst I'm there - it'll be all business and paying large "fees" for fast processing so I can get there and back quickly.

It's still cool in Mumbai. Breezy, perfect kite flying weather (I can see one out of my window right now). So at 3pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I'm sat here in my standard shorts and vest, but the fan's switched off. In a few hours when the sun sets, I'll have to change into my t-shirt and joggers. Most of the northern hemisphere seems to be going through a cold spell right now... so I'm a little worried about the trip to Delhi, as it's cold there and I really don't have suitable clothes for cold weather anymore.

I am looking forward to some good food whilst I'm there though, and now that I'm on holiday for a couple of weeks I'm looking forward to hunting down and trying out some new recipes. One that I've made a few times recently is Channa Masala, and it's come out pretty good each time. Channa masala is made from chickpeas and is quite filling - the only problem is you have to plan ahead if you're using dried channa, coz they need to be soaked for at least 8 hours. And I'd also suggest using a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time. If you're using tinned chickpeas, then it's a quick dish to make.


Channa Masala:

1 cup kabuli channa (dried chickpeas)
4 cups water
1 black cardamom
1 bay leaf
1 inch stick cinammon
1 teabag
salt to taste
1 tablespoon oil
pinch hing
3-4 tomatoes, skinned and pureed
2 teaspoons channa (chole) masala powder
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon chaat masala
1/4 teaspoon amchoor (dried mango) powder

1. Soak the channa overnight in plenty of water
2. Put the channa in the pressure cooker with 4 cups water, cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, teabag and salt. Mix well.
3. Cook for three whistles, then reduce heat and continue to cook for a further 15 to 20 minutes, then turn off heat and let pressure go down.
4. Once cooled, separate channa and cooking water - don't discard the water.
5. Heat oil on a medium heat and add tomatoes. Cook until oil separates.
6. Add channa masala, chaat masala, chilli and amchoor powders. Cook through for a minute or two.
7. Add channa and mix well.
8. Add water a little at a time.
9. Cover and cook, mixing occasionally, until thickened.

Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with chappati or rice and sliced onions.

Let's hope I get to enjoy some of my time off over the next few weeks - keeping my fingers crossed! I can't believe it's nearly Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone :D

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Misal Madness

Last Sunday I predicted calamity for this upcoming week and I was right! I've been doing crazy long shifts at work; been given half an hour's notice that we're rolling out the training material 2 days early; I've been informed that before I can apply for my visa extension this year I need to get a special document from the police called an NOC (haven't got yet, but do have form to fill in triplicate, which is written in Marathi); and the list goes on...

But it's not all been crazy... the weather is beautiful and cool (27 degrees Celsius - and I think this is cool? I think I'm finally acclimatizing to the heat of Mumbai!). There's definitely a nip in the air, a cool breeze, though it's still quite warm in the sun... makes me think of an early autumn day!

Yesterday I received my first two Christmas cards (cards don't really happen in Mumbai) and it prompted me to start decorating for Christmas. Unfortunately I can't find some of the Christmas stuff - misplaced when we moved earlier in the year. I'll find the rest of the stuff when I go on leave. In the meantime, I have my mini tree with tinsel, lights, silver bows and ornaments and stripy candy canes. I've also hung some red ribbon for my cards and I made a few other decorations from cards and wedding invites (which can be quite ornate in India).

And on our long walk this morning, Coco met another chocolate Lab called Bruno - they got along really well which it not surprising coz Labs are the friendliest dogs of all time.

Amongst all the chaos this week I can't really remember what I've had to eat, except for Thursday night when I had some lovely Dal Dhokli (a Gujarati dish which I'll have to learn to make) so I'll tell you about the lovely Misal Pav I made a few weeks back.


Misal is a Marathi (Maharastian) dish which is fantastic street food. It's a spicy mix of sprouted pulses, tomato, onion, potato and farsan, served with pav (bread rolls) and it's yummy! I was surprised that mine came out so well, but that's thanks to the fantastic recipe I followed - Tarla Dalal's Misal recipe from her book "Mumbai's Roadside Snacks".



In the instructions for plating up it refers to a 'potato mixture' but doesn't give the link. Well this mysterious potato mixture is just an Aloo Bhaji.

Aloo Bhaji:

1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon rai (mustard seeds)
A few curry leaves
2 green chillies, sliced and deseeded
2 medium onions, finely sliced
3-4 potatoes, peeled, chopped and boiled
1/4 teaspoon haldi (turmeric)
salt to taste
handful of chopped coriander leaves

1. Heat the oil over a low heat, add rai
2. When seeds crackle add the curry leaves, chillies and onion. Saute until translucent.
3. Add aloo, haldi, salt and coriander. Mix well and heat for a few minutes more.

Enjoy with Misal or as a sandwich filling or eat with spoon!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Crazy, hectic life? Veggie Burger is the best medicine

So the last two weeks were crazy hectic (challenging workshop that made my brain hurt, creating training material, re-creating material, travelling to Pune and back in one day meaning a 20 hour working day, award ceremony etc)...and I think that the next two will be as well (rolling out the training material, training several hundred people, trying to sort out my visa by talking to nice, helpful government officials etc).

I've been sooooooo tired once I get home after 11 or 12 hours in the office that I've been cooking simple easy food like green or yellow moong dal. And when I haven't had the energy to cook simple stuff, I've had yummy takeaway - chinese and pizza. Last Sunday and Monday were quite creative cooking days though. I made veggie burgers on Sunday and really impressed myself with Misal Pav on Monday.

Today I'll concentrate on the Veggie Burgers and save the Misal Pav for another day (coz who knows when I'll get creative with food again - certainly not before I go on leave at Christmas).

So last Sunday I looked up loads of recipes for veggie burgers - from Nigella and Jamie to Sanjeev Kapoor and none really seemed to fit what I was looking for. So I understood the basics and got tips from a lot of different sources and made up my own recipe. I'm just sorry I didn't take any photos! So here goes...

Claire's Veggie Burgers

1/2 cup of channa dal, washed and soaked for half hour
1 tablespoon oil
3 onions, finely chopped
1 capsicum, finely chopped
2 carrots, grated
handful of mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon dhaniya (coriander) powder
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin) powder
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
2 large potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
flour
oil for cooking

1. Cook the channa dal until soft, leave to cool then mash
2. Heat the oil and cook the onion and capsicum until onion is translucent
3. Add the garlic and ginger pastes and the carrots and mushrooms, continue to cook until soft
4. Stir in the dhaniya, jeera and chilli powders and cook the veggie mixture for a few more minutes until mixture is quite dry
5. Mix the mashed potatoes, mashed channa dal and the cooked veggie mixture. It should be quite dry, or the burgers will break apart when cooked. If it's not dry enough you can add a little flour.
6. Leave the mix to cool. Beat the egg and put some flour on a plate to coat the burgers.
7. Just before ready to shape and form burgers, add the salt and pepper and mix in really well.
8. Form the burgers, then take each one and dip in the beated egg and then coat with flour.
9. Pop the burgers on a heated frying pan, griddle or tawa. Pour a little oil around the edge of the burgers so they don't stick.
10. Cook for around 4 minutes each side, until golden crust formed on each side.

Eat - I popped mine in a burger bun with tomato and a slice of cheese, but you should eat yours the way you like them!


I hope that I get time to try out some more new recipes in the coming days... I guess I'll have to look up some 'quick and easy' recipes!