Gobi (Cauliflower) 65

Gobi (Cauliflower) 65 is a popular street food in South India. I've read various interesting stories on the reason for the addition of the number 65 to the dish, but am not sure if any of them is true. Most street vendors add red food color to achieve the bright red color that the dish is associated with and serve it hot in paper plates or newspaper squares.



What you need:
Cauliflower - 1 small , separated into medium sized florets
Oil - for deep frying

For the batter:
Corn flour - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/3 cup
Rice flour - 1/3 cup
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Tandoori masala - 1 tsp
Kashmiri chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander
Curry leaves
Salt
Water

For tempering:
Oil - 1 tbsp
Green chillies - 2 or 3, slit lengthwise into two
Curry leaves - a handful

Take the cauliflower in a large pan. Pour boiling water over it. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and a pinch of salt, cover and let it stand for 5 minutes. Drain off all the water and keep aside.

Mix all the ingredients for the batter into a smooth, slightly thick batter. Add in the cauliflower florets and mix well to coat all the florets with the batter evenly.

Heat oil for deep frying in a pan. Add the florets, a few at a time and fry until reddish brown. Remove on to a kitchen towel. When all the florets have been fried, fry them again in hot oil in batches, to give them an additional crispiness. Set aside.

Heat the oil for tempering. Add slit green chillies and curry leaves to it and saute over a low flame until the chillies just start to brown. Add in the fried cauliflower and mix well.
Serve with ketchup or a little bit of chaat masala sprinkled on top.

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Air fryer aloo tikki and aloo tikki chaat

The newest toy in my kitchen is an air fryer. I dithered over the purchase for a long time, and finally, last month, decided that I should it buy one. The husband and I have been experimenting with various dishes that we would normally use a lot of oil for,  and so far, all the experiments have been successful. Today's aloo tikki is made with minimal oil in the air fryer and it turned out nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside - just the way a good tikki should be.
Once the tikkis are made, they are topped with green chutney, spiced curd, sweet tamarind chutney, chopped onions and sev. This makes for a great starter or snack.

What you need:

For the tikki:
Potato - 4, boiled, peeled and mashed well
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 12/ tsp
Amchur powder - 1/2 tsp
Chaat masala - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Corn flour - 1.5 tbsp.

Mix all the ingredients to a smooth dough. Oil your hands well and roll out small golf ball sized pieces of dough and flatten them into tikkis. Brush some oil on both sides of each tikki.
Preheat air fryer to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes.
Place the tikkis in a single layer in the air fryer basket. Cook at 360 degrees for 12 minutes (6 minutes on each side).
If you do not have an air fryer, you can shallow fry the tikkis in a pan, adding about a teaspoon of oil around the tikkis and cooking them until they are well browned on both sides.

For the green chutney:
Cilantro - a small bunch
Green chilli - 2
Juice of half a lemon
Salt
Grind all the ingredients to a smooth paste along with a quarter cup of water.

For the spiced curd mixture:
Yogurt/curd - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Whisk all the ingredients together till smooth.

To assemble:
Place two tikkis on a plate. Top with generous helpings of curd, green chutney, tamarind chutney, finely chopped onion and sev.
Serve immediately.

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Kanda Poha - a traditional Maharashtrian breakfast dish

One of the things I miss the most from my days of living in Mumbai is the street food. From vada paos to pani puris to idlis and dosas, everything was available on the streets and I used to absolutely love it. I was a frequent traveler on the infamous 'Mumbai local' while I lived there. The morning scene outside my destination station was always the same. A few local women with large steel dabbas would set up shop outside the station. Hot idlis with chutney and sambar, vada pao and kanda poha would be ladled out of these steel dabbas into paper plates. The taste of the poha that they used to serve is something that still lingers on in my mind. Though I make poha often, I feel that the one sold on the streets was so much better.

What you need:
Poha/aval/rice flakes - 1 cup, heaped
Oil - 1 tbsp.
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Onion - 1 medium, chopped fine
Green chilli - 2, minced
Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped (optional)
Ginger - a small piece, julienned
Peanuts - a handful
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Juice of half a lemon
Coriander - finely chopped, for garnishing
Sugar - a little (optional)
Sev - a handful (optional)

Take the poha in a colander. Run cold water over it and wash it well. Let the water drain out completely. Wash and drain again. Let it stand for five minutes.

In a pan, heat some oil. Add the mustard seeds and urad dal. When the mustard seeds pop, add green chilli, ginger and garlic. Fry well. Mix in and roast the peanuts.  Add onions and saute over a low flame until translucent. Add turmeric powder and the drained poha along with salt. Mix well. Stir in the lemon juice. Sprinkle some sugar(less than 1/4 teaspoon) over this if you would like. I feel that the sugar really adds to the taste of the final dish and that is how it is served in Maharashtra. Garnish with chopped coriander and a handful of sev.
Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee or tea.

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