Tag: Beetroot

Grilled Sindhi Dal Sandwich

main meal
The dal sandwich

Grilled Sindhi Dal Sandwich

This Sindhi Speciality, usually sold in carts in Ulhasnagar area, is a grilled vegetable sandwich using raw vegetables and boiled potatoes…Boiled moong dal is usually poured over it and garnished with chutneys, and some sev. A complete meal on its own, and very low on oil usage.  There are many variations for the filling, but I prefer incorporating raw vegs along with boiled potatoes.Do try it out.

A sandwich, when we were children, meant either chutney with sliced tomatoes or a boiled potato toaster, which I loved. My mother would put lots of chillie, onion, kotmir and some dry masalas in boiled mashed potato, make a sandwich and toast it using a stove top hand held toaster, not forgetting the liberal use oil used to make it crisp. We happily ate those along with tomato sauce. Never once asking… where is the protein in this meal?😁😁

Ingredients and method for dal
1 cup of yellow moong dal
( soaked for 4 hours, and boiled with 1 tbsp of crushed garlic and salt)
Boil till soft and mushy, don’t mash it up too much, leave a little bite to it.
Adjust consistency. We want it easily pourable. Not too thin nor thick
Keep aside.
Ingredients  for Sandwich
6 slices of bread
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
1/2 cup shredded raw beetroot
1/2 cup finely sliced green paprika( capsicum)
Tomato slices
2 boiled  potatoes.. peeled and sliced.
Some chaat masala.

Mix cabbage, carrot, beetroot and paprika.
Onto a bread slice place tomato slices and top with the raw shredded vegetables, lastly place boiled potato slices , sprinkle chaat masala and cover with another slice of bread.
Grill the sandwich with oil or butter applied.
I grilled on a stove top with a heavy cover, brushing oil to get it crisp.

Other ingredients
Green chutney
Khatti meethi tamarind chutney
Chaat masala, red chilli powder
And some sev and corriander leaves.

Assembling
Cut a grilled sandwich into half
Place on a plate
Pour HOT dal on it.
Top with green chutney, tamarind chutney, dry masala and sev.
Enyoy your wholesome meal

* make it at serving time. Eat immediately.

Chine roast chicken

snacks

As the name suggests, this is a recipe having slight chinese origins, with a touch of indonesia in the form of chillie sambal. A very simple recipe to make and of course eat😊. It looks very pretty when served . Serve this roast chicken as a starter.

This recipe has been with me for years, and we make it ever so often. The original recipe calls for pork, but we prefer the chicken version. Pls use tender chicken fillets or boneless chicken thigh. The process calls for boiling the chicken with some spices. Very simple to put together. I would like to mention that vegetarians can use thick slabs of tofu or paneer.

Ingredients

250 gms boneless chicken fillet

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper powder

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp sweet soya sauce( kecap manis) or honey

1 small beetroot peeled and sliced

( to impart the red colour )

6 red chillies

4 pods of garlic

4 cloves

1 inch pc of cinnamon

Lime juice and red chillie sauce.

Method

In a pan, add 3/4 cup of water, and add chicken, salt, pepper, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, soya sauce, oyster sauce, sweet soya sauce, vinegar, sesame oil , beetroot, garlic pods and whole chillies.

Bring to a boil and simmer till the water evaporates .

At this point if you feel the colour of the chicken is a bit pale, as that depends on the beetroot. You can add a few drops of red colour.

Discard the cloves cinnamon, and beetroot.

Remove the chillies and garlic, grind coarsely in a pestle and mortar. Add little chillie sauce and juice of one lime….this is your sambal dip.( I have used kaffir limes for a lovely fragrance.)

Finally, roast the chicken on a open flame to caramalize it…just few mins is enough.

I have used a steel mesh with a piece of foil and a few drops of oil.

To serve, cut the chicken , into slices at a slant to show the red and white contrast…

Enjoy with the spicy sambal dip.

Beetroot Halwa

dessert

Awesome rainy weather calls for food which is rich, sweet and hot. Watching the rains pitter pattering from the comfort of our home gives all of us a warm comfortable feeling, of course childhood days of running around in the rains, deliberately jumping into puddles of rain water just for the fun of it are treasured and fun filled memories.

Foods which are energy giving are of course preferred during winters and monsoons, which brings us to the recipe I will be sharing today with you, beetroot halwa. This dish was never cooked at home maybe because mummy normally stuck to sindhi cuisine, of which she was master chef. But beetroot was definitely served in the form of salad, be it the simple garden salad which consisted of boiled beet cut into circles, topped with grated carrot, sliced red onion and dressed with salt, pepper and a squirt of lime juice and garnished with freshly cut corriander leaves, or in a boiled vegetable salad tossed with homemade mayonnaise, to which it imparted a lovely pink colour. Those were the basic salads which were served at home while we were kids, simplicity being the norm in the good old days. The other form of beetroot which I personally love to this day , is the beetroot cutlet served at the Priya restaurant , main street.. Pune. No visit to Pune is complete without me eating this wholesome cutlet, still served exactly the same way it was served in the early seventies, deep fried crispy goodness enclosing a soft sticky beetroot mixture, slightly sweet, topped with shredded lettuce leaves, and sweet tomato sauce and spicy green chutney, the balance of flavours is amazing.This amazing root is full of vitamins and is a super healthy vegetable, advised by doctors to consume on a regular basis,

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especially for those who are anemic Back to the recipe of beetroot halwa, I came across this simple recipe while browsing the net , changed it to my liking, made it and loved it. It is unbelievably simple to make. Best had chilled, and in small servings. Do try this delicious recipe .

Beetroot Halwa

Ingredients

250 gms peeled and grated beetroot

1 cup milk

2 tbsps ghee

3 tbsps sugar or to taste

2 tbsps condensed milk

1/4 cup of coarsely chopped nuts( cashew nuts, almonds and some pistas)

extra nuts finely chopped for garnish

1 tsp poppy seeds for garnish

1/2 tsp cardamon powder

Method

1.. Heat one tbsp of ghee in a non stick pan and add grated beetroot.

2.. Saute till moisture starts evaporating and ghee separates from the beet.

3.. Add the milk and cook on a medium flame till it reduces and thickens.

4.. Add sugar at this point and the condensed milk, stir frequently till the liquid reduces totally, and the halwa starts leaving the sides of the pan..

5.. In a separate pan, heat one tbsp of ghee and add the coarsely chopped nuts and saute till light golden brown. Add the nuts along with the ghee to the halwa. mix well and add the cardamon powder.

6.. Halwa ready to be served .

7.. Dust with the finely chopped nuts and poppy seeds.