Amritsari Kulche Chole

Flavourful, spicy chole from Amritsar served with buttery soft  aloo kulcha.

Ingredients:
For chole:

• 2 cups white chickpeas soaked overnight
• Salt to taste
• 2 tea bags
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp dry mango powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp carom seeds
• A pinch of asafoetida
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1-2 chopped green chillies
• 1 onions (paste)
• 2 tomatoes (pureed)
• 2 tomatoes (roughly sliced)
• 2 medium sized  boiled potatoes
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 3-4 tbsp oil

Dry spice mix:

• 11/2 tsp cumin seeds
•  5-6 cloves
• 10-15 black pepper corns
• 1 no. mace
• 2 black cardamom 
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 dry red chillies

For garnishing:

• Chopped coriander leaves
• Choppoed green chillies( optional)

Directions:

• Dry roast the spices mentioned under dry spice and grind to a fine powder and keep aside.
• Peel potatoes and cut them into big chunks and deep fry till crispy, keep aside.
• Boil chickpeas in a pressure cooker with 3 cups of water put tea bags and salt, cook till tender. Discard tea bags after opening the pressure cooker. Save the water for later use. keep aside.
• In a wok heat oil, add asafoetida, carom seeds and bay leaves, saute it for few seconds then add onion paste and cook till it changes the colour to light brown, next add tomato puree and cook till oil separates.
• Add boiled chickpeas, chilli powder, ground spices, dry mango powder, half of the reserved water, mix well and cook for 5-7 minutes.
• Put tomato slices and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add fried potato chunks, sprinkle lemon juice and stir well.
• Garnish with coriander leaves, ginger juliennes and some chopped green chilli.
• Serve hot.

(I prefer the texture of chole little dry, but you can increase the amount of water in the gravy)

Aloo Kulcha
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup curd
• water as required

For stuffing:

• 2 boiled potatoes:
• 2 chopped green chillies
• Some chopped coriander leaves
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp Dry mango powder
• 1 tsp chaat masala
• Red chilli powder to taste

For topping:

• Chopped coriander leaves
• Nigella seeds

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar and whisk well. Make a well in the center, add oil, curd and water and knead into a soft pliable dough.
• Cover the dough with a wet muslin cloth, and keep it aside for 2 hours.
• Mix together all the ingredients mentioned under stuffing and divide into 4 equal portions.
• Take an orange sized ball from the dough and roll into a roti. Place one portion of the stuffing in the centre of the roti.
•  Bring together all the sides in the centre and seal tightly and roll into a medium thick roti on a clean surface dusted with flour
• Top it with some chopped coriander leaves and nigella seeds.
• Apply some water on the top of the kulcha and put it on a tawa from the wet side so it sticks to the tawa.
• Cook on medium flame, when the kulcha starts to puff on the top turn the tawa upside down and cook kulcha on direct flame from the top side.
• When cooked put a dollop of butter and serve hot.

Soya chaap stuffed potatoes

I'm  back to my kitchen after a small  fun filled vacation and to start with I decided to make these quick and easy baked potatoes stuffed with soya chaap enriched with proteins for my potato lover son :P, It turned out quite appetizing and my family loved it :) I had shared one more version of baked potatoes sometime back and they were a big hit :)

Ingredients:

• 6-7 medium sized potatoes
• 150 gms frozen soya chaap
• 100 gms crumbled cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup hung curd
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Few mint leaves to garnish
• 1-2 tbsp herbed garlic butter

Preparation time:15-20 minutes + 2 hours
Cooking time: 45-50 minutes
Yields: 6-7 servings
Kitchen equipments required: scooper, mixing bowls and spoons, kitchen knife, cutting/chopping board, saucepan

Directions:

• Wash potatoes and pat dry, cut thin slices from both the ends of each potato.
• Boil potatoes in a saucepan for 10-12 minutes till they are partially cooked.
• Scoop out the centre to make a cavity in each potato keeping the base intact.( keep aside the trimmings for later use)
• Thaw soya chaap and chop finely.
• In a mixing bowl add hung curd, ginger garlic paste, dry powdered spices, lemon juice and give them a good mix.
• Add chopped soya chaap, crumbled cheese, mashed potato trimmings to the marinade, keep in ion for at least 2 hours.
• Fill the potato cavity with the marinated soya chaap mixture.
• Brush the outside of potatoes with garlic herbed butter.
• Pre heat the oven for 10 minutes at 200 degree C.
• Arrange the stuffed potatoes in a baking tray and bake for 35-40 minutes or till crisp.
• Garnish with mint leaves and serve with your favourite dip or sauce.
  

Layered Aam panna and Kala khatta granita

For those, who were the 90's kids this would be a breeze of nostalgic summer afternoons, Remember chuski or gola sold by thella wala? It used to take hours sometimes to convince mom to let us have those colourful snow sticks painted in vibrant sweet syrups and dripping all over us. The taste is still in my memories and hence today, played with the ingredients and some favourite flavours of childhood to prepare a layered Aam panna and kala khatta Granita.

Aam panna granita:
Ingredients:

• 3-4 Raw mangoes 
• 2-3 tsp roasted cumin powder
• 2 tsp black salt 
• Back pepper powder to taste
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup Sugar or to taste
• 15-20 crushed mint leaves
• 2 cups water

Kitchen equipments required: pressure cooker, sauce pan, mixing spoons, cling wrap, 2 deep baking dish and a fork
Yields: 5 servings.

Directions:

• Wash mangoes and pressure cook till 2-3 whistles.
• Remove the peel and take out the pulp
• In a saucepan add water, mango pulp and cook along with sugar and spices for 5-6 minutes.
• Add mint leaves and switch off the flame.
• Let the mixture cool. (This is the basic aam panna recipe)

For Granita:

• Pour aam panna into a deep baking pan. Freeze for 1-2 hours, scrap the icy edges with a fork and bring them to the centre, cover the pan with a cling wrap and return to the freezer.
• Repeat the process 3-4 times after every 30 minutes or until it is completely scrapped.
• Scrap granita once again before the final serving.

For the kala khatta layer I have used 2 packs of ready to drink Paper Boat Jamun kala khatta juice.
(For kala khatta Granita follow the same procedure as we did for aam panna granita)

Assembling:

• Take a serving glass, jar ( or a disposible cup if you want to enjoy it as a chuski). Spoon a layer of aam panna granita and then kala khatta granita, repeat twice and put the serving jars or glass in freezer for an hour.
• Garnish with some fresh mint leaves.
• Serve chilled.