Indian-Style Eggplant Dish (Eggplant Sabzi)

Eggplant is prepared in many ways. It has many names, such as Brinjal, Baingan, Ringna and Waange. Eggplant comes in many varieties, shapes, sizes, and colors. Here I am going to describe how to prepare Japanese eggplant in an Indian style.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• 2 Japanese eggplants (about 10 inches long, 1 inch diameter).
• 1 medium size red tomato
  
• 2 tsp Rajah Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida powder (hing)
• 2 tsp subrus (haldi-dhania-mirch concoction)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• Chopped coriander leaves for garnish
  

Directions:

1. Dice eggplant into 1/2 inch thick discs.
   
2. Dice tomato into medium size pieces (about 18).
   
3. In a 2 quart pan, add oil. Heat on medium heat.
4. Add mustard seeds. When they begin to make noise, turn off the heat.
5. Add cumin followed by fenugreek, asafoetida, and subrus.
   
6. Add eggplant and toss so as to cover all pieces with oil and spices. Add 2-3 tbsp water. Put on medium heat with cover for 10 minutes.
7. Add tomato pieces and Rajah Garam Masala. Mix well. Cover and simmer for another 7 minutes.
8. Add coriander just before serving.

It can be made as a mixed vegetable by adding complementary vegetables such as potato, carrot, peas, or spinach.

Aloo Paratha

Aloo paratha is one variety of Indian flat bread that is quite popular. It is invariably included in most Indian restaurant menus. The recipe below is slightly modified from the traditional aloo paratha recipe.


Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 2 large potatoes (2 inch diameter, 4-5 inch long Russet potatoes)
  
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 3 tbsp chopped cilantro
  
• 4 tsp subrus
• 1 tsp hing (asafoetida)
• 2 tsp aamchur
• Salt to taste
• 2 cup chopped raw spinach
• 4 cups wheat flour for dough
  
• 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 4 tbsp oil
• Oil to shallow fry or Pam Original No Stick Cooking Spray
  

Directions:

1. Boil or microwave potatoes to cook them.
2. Peel the potatoes, then mash them.
   
3. Add ginger paste, cilantro, hing, subrus, aamchur and salt.
4. Mix well. Make 8 balls of potato stuffing
   
5. Mix spinach, flour, oil and salt to taste. Make a dough soft to touch but not sticky. Make 8 balls.
6. Making the paratha ball: In left hand take a dough ball and with right hand thumb and fingers start making a bowl. Put potato stuffing ball on top. At this stage both hands work: the right one pushes the potato ball gently downwards and then the left thumb and fingers gradually cover it by dough. At the end, it looks like a big ball of dough. Pat it and make a patty.
   
7. Using rolling pin on a clean surface covered with dry flour, make a circle of about 8 inches diameter. This is a raw paratha.
   
8. Frying paratha: If afraid of lifting paratha without breaking by hand, use aluminium foil. Put on non stick gridle at medium hot temperature. Flip it when color darkens. Put some oil and cover whole surface. One can use brush. Alternatively use Pam Original No Stick Cooking Spray. Again flip and cover the surface with oil. In a few minutes, paratha starts showing bumps and developes few brown patches on the bottom surface. Flip the paratha over and cook it until both sides show brown patches.
9. Put on cooling rack. After cooling briefly, the paratha is ready to serve.

I usually serve it with plain yogurt and mango pickle. Instead of potato stuffing, one can use grated paneer, grated cauliflower, grated raddish/mulee or any other combination to create your own variety of paratha. The only consideration is that the stuffing and dough should have similar dryness and soft texture. You may serve paratha as a full meal and dessert of pie or cake.

If you are interested in seeing high quality images of many Indian dishes, some of which are described on this blog, I strongly recommend browsing Cooking with My Indian Mother-in-Law: Mastering the Art of Authentic Home Cooking

Nankatai

Nankatai is an Indian style butter biscuit. In winter, we were to enjoy it with hot pakoda or hot samosa. The shortbread cookies Lorna Doone from Nabisco remind me of Nankatai.

Ingredients (For approximately 48 pieces)

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Cream Of Wheat
• 1 and 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp mixed spices
• 4-5 cardamom pods
• 12 almonds or 24 pisachio
  

Directions

1. Mix sugar and powdered cardamom. Add butter and beat until smooth.
2. Mix flour and cream of wheat. Add this to butter sugar mix gradually and make a soft dough.
   
3. Make small round balls and press them to make thick circle. At the center of each press 1/4 th almond or 1/2 pistachio. Bake on cookie sheet at 350 degree Fahrenheit for 20 minutes or until turns light brown.

The crumbs of Nankatai can be used to make a base for cheese cake.
Looking for more vegetarian dessert ideas? Check out BabyCakes!

Gulab Jamun

Gulab jamun is a common Indian dessert, made of milk powder, flour, and using rosewater flavoring. The word gulab means rose.

Ingredients (Serves 4 to 8) :
For balls (Jamun)

• 4 cups milk powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda (not baking powder)
• 2 cups yogurt (Vary according to the firmness of yogurt to get soft dough)
• Vegetable shortening or ghee for frying

For Syrup

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cups water
• For flavor (a) Rose water 1/4 cup, OR (b) Cardamom powder 1/4 tsp and 1/8 tsp saffron

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix the milk powder, flour, and baking soda.
2. In a cup, beat yogurt to make it uniform.
3. Add yogurt gradually to the mix and make a dough that should be soft to touch.
4. Make 1/2 inch diameter balls (use ghee on palm to reduce dough sticking).
   
5. In a frying pan with ghee on medium heat, deep fry 4-5 balls at a time till they turn brown. Put balls in strainer to get out the excess ghee.
   
6. In a pan, mix sugar and water. Heat until sugar dissolves completely and mixture starts boiling. Turn off heat.
   
7. Float the balls in syrup and cover them completely with the syrup.

Several variations are possible. While making the jamun balls, one can put at the center a variety of ingredients such as saffron, nutmeg, cardamom, sugar cube, or pistachios. Or, you can try the jamun-within-jamun approach: mix a small portion of dough with powdered spices of your liking and place this at the center of a larger jamun ball.


Related Posts:

• Halwa
• Eggless Cake Recipe
• Shortbread

ChocoFrost Chocolate Cake Frosting

Want something besides vanilla frosting for your cake? Try this chocolate flavored frosting from Denise (1986).

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 tbsp milk
• 1 cup instant powder milk
• For Spicy Flavoring, use 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves, or 1 tbsp grated orange rind, or cut milk powder to 2/3 cup and add 1/3 cup chocolate powder.

Directions

1. Mix butter, honey, vanilla in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Add powdered milk, flavoring and milk gradually while mixing well and keeping the preparation light and fluffy.

This amount of icing should cover a 10" diameter cake. Adjust proportionately for different sized cakes.

Puri

Puri is a deep fried Indian flat bread preparation made of wheat often served on special occassions. Various curries or desserts such as kheer, Srikhand, or Aamrus often accompany puri. Halwa and sabji go well with puris also.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 4 cups of wheat flour
• 1/2 cup besan flour (Gram or Soya flour: optional)
  
• 2 tablespoons oil (increase amount for fragile crisp puris)
• Salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons sugar (for crisp puris)
  
• Oil or ghee to fry
  

Directions:

1. Mix all dry ingredients.
   
2. Work in oil and knead dough to firm consistency.
3. Divide dough in to 24 parts and make balls. Apply some oil to keep balls from sticking to each other.
4. Using a rolling pin, flatten each ball to about 4" circle (puri). Use a drop of oil if needed.
   
5. Heat the oil in a frying pan. After the oil is heated, fry each puri as follows:
6. Details of frying: As soon as each puri is dipped in hot oil, it should be covered with oil. When it comes to the surface, it should swell up; if not, help it by gently pressing with a spatula (zaara) in the oil. Once sufficiently puffed, turn it over and fry till lower side becomes light brown.
7. Remove from the pan, and put it in a big sieve to drain excess oil.
8. After 5 minutes, put it in a plate with absorbent paper at the bottom.
   

The left over puris can be stacked like Pringles and wrapped in foil.

Puran Poli

Puran poli is a flat bread dish popular in central India, particularly Maharashtra and Karnataka. It is similar to paratha with sweet stuffing of jaggery and gram daal.

Ingredients (Serves 2):
For dough

• 4 cups whole wheat flour
  
• 4 tbsp oil
• Wheat or rice flour for rolling poli
  

For Puran

• 2 cups Chana-daal
• 2 cups Jaggery
• 2 tbsp Nutmeg fine fresh powder
• 6 pod seeds of cardamom, freshly ground
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp oil
  
• Salt (optional)
  

Directions:

For making dough:

1. Depending upon the quality of wheat, the amount of water needed will change, so add water gradually while kneading. The final consistency of the dough should be soft, like a cheese spread.
2. In a bowl, put oil. Add a little more water, and knead dough to make it glutenous. Cover with extra oil and set aside for an hour.
3. Make 1 inch diameter balls.
   

For making puran:

1. In a 2-1/2-Quart saucepan, wash Chana-daal 2 to 3 times, and add 2 cups of water, turmeric, oil.
2. Start cooking on medium heat.
3. Remove the foam that forms and keep cooking on medium heat. Add 2 cups of water if want to make "Katachi Aamti" when daal is completely cooked. To check, put one grain in spoon and press with finger tip. Cooked daal will be crushed and feel soft. Note: Steps 1 and 2 are combined if a pressure cooker is used.
   
4. Remove excess water and add jaggery. Mix well and while stirring intermittently cook till mixture becomes moist but solid.
5. Make a smooth paste using food processor or crush it and pass through sieve. Add nutmeg and cardamom. Mix well.
   
6. Make 1 inch diameter balls.

For making Puran Poli:

1. Start heating 10 inch non stick griddle (tawa) on medium heat.
   
2. Take a ball of dough. Using your index fingers and thumbs, make a bowl with a small opening out of the ball.
3. Put the ball of puran in it and slowly cover the puran ball with dough without breaking it. Make a nice ball and press gently. Note: Depending upon the quality of wheat and the stretching capacity of dough, experts put almost double the quantity of puran. For very soft poli, add excess puran; for increased stiffness, reduce the amount of puran.
   
4. Use dry flour to cover the ball. Sprinkle some dry flour on the clean, dry surface (use smooth cutting board or Chakalota) and roll the ball in to about 6-8 inches diameter poli.
   
5. To remove it from surface without breaking, use an aluminium foil square bigger than the roti and flip the roti on the square supported by one spread out palm.
6. Immediately flip it onto pre-heated griddle.
7. When color starts to change and roti becomes little firm, flip using spatula. Brush both sides with oil and cook until both sides develop reddish-brown patches.
   
8. Remove from the fire and put on cake rack for 5 minutes to cool.
9. Serve with ghee and milk.

Puran poli will stay fresh for 2 to 3 days. This dish can also be modified by adding khoya or coconut. Coconut milk can be substituted for plain milk. Areas such as Ratnagiri may opt for coconut milk, whereas dairy producing areas like Gujrat are more likely to use milk.