Roma's Space

Lauki Channa Dal

Lauki is a bland vegetable that tastes best with channa dal. In most parts of North India this dal is made thick in consistency and eaten with rotis. This can afterwards be eaten with rice as well. So when you dont want to prepare two separate dishes this is the way to go.

Ingredients :

• 3/4 cup channa dal
• 1 cup lauki (peeled and cut into cubes)
• Few red chilly flakes broken into half
• Pinch of haldi powder
• Pinch of hing
• 1 teaspoon rai (Big)
• 1 teaspoon jeera
• 1 lemon

Procedure :

1. Soak channa dal for an hour.
2. Pressure cook lauki cubes with tomatoes and channa dal giving it about 4 whistles.
3. Heat oil. Add rai, jeera, haldi, hing, red chillies and onions. Fry well. Now add the dal and fry again.
4. Squeeze in the juice of a fresh lime, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with roti or rice.

Variation :

Instead of using lemon to give the tang in this dal you can try cooking the dal with kokum.

Toor Moong Combo

This dal serves as a welcome change to the usual dal we make at home. The green moong dal combined with the heat of ginger and pepper corns gives toor dal a twist in taste.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 cup toor dal
• 1/2 cup moong dal (whole, green one)
• 2 tomatoes
• One onion
• Green chilly (optional)
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper corns
• 3-4 cloves
• A small piece of ginger
• Pinch of haldi powder
• Pinch of Hing

Procedure :

1. Wash the dals and mix them in a pressure cooker. Add salt, turmeric powder and tomatoes with some water and pressure cook till its done. You will need give it 3-4 whistles approx
2. Make a paste of black pepper corns – ginger- cloves in mortar pestle.
3. Heat oil. Add jeera seeds, hing, onions, ginger paste, fry well. If you like more fire, add green chillies.
4. Fry the dal in this tadka. Give it a boil, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.

Please NOTE :

1. You need to give 3-4 whistles to the dal combination since green Moong dal takes longer than toor dal to cook. In this case, toor may get a bit mashed but its important that moong is done completely. Alternately, you can soak moong for a few hours and then cook the combination with fewer whistles.

Choch O Chill O !

This drink is for all you chocoholics who want to beat the heat this summer, in style! Enjoy your Coffee on the rocks (rocks here refers to ice cubes please )

Ingredients :

• 3/4 Glass milk
• 1 tablespoon fresh cream
• 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup
• 1 teaspoon coffee powder
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Procedure :

1. Blend milk, cream, sugar, chocolate syrup and coffee powder in a mixie jar. Now taste the mixture and add more sugar if required.
2. Pour chocolate sauce along the inner sides of a tall glass, leave some sauce at the bottom too. Place a generous amount of ice cubes inside the glass. Pour the drink into your chocolate laden glass and serve.

Please NOTE :

1. The milk and cream should both be chilled to get a good blend else the milk can make the cream split.
2. Serve the drink immediately after blending it. If it reaches room temperature it will make the ice cubes melt quickly making your drink dilute.
3. Since most of the space is taken up by ice cubes the drink you make with one glass measurement can actually serve two.
4. I used Bru instant coffee, Amul fresh cream and Hersheys chocolate syrup in this drink and was satisfied with the result.

Chole Tikki Chaat

A Tikki is nothing but a flattened cutlet made out of alu. Its to be eaten with Chole masala, Pudina and Tamarind chutney. In the picture you can see the set of suggested garnishes that go with Chole Tikki.

The overall time and effort to make this dish is actually quite high. Also, unlike other chaats its very heavy, so one day you can make this dish and give dinner a miss.

Ingredients :

For the tikki

• 3 potatoes
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1 teaspoon Jeera powder
• finely chopped green chillies
• finely chopped coriander leaves
• A small piece of ginger

For the Garnish

• Chole Masala
• Pudina chutney
• Tamarind chutney
• Curd (optional)
• Finely chopped onions
• Finely chopped coriander leaves
• Om podi or Fine Sev

Procedure :

For the tikki

1. Boil potatoes and peas. Mash and let them cool.
2. Add jeera powder, salt, grated ginger, green chillies, coriander leaves and mix well.
3. Make small flat cakes with wet hands and shallow fry on a hot tawa.

Serving

1. Place alu tikki on the serving plate. Add 2 tablespoons of chole masala on it.
2. Now garnish with curds (optional), pudina chutney, tamarind chutney, finely chopped onions, coriander leaves and finally sev mixture.

Please NOTE :

1. Salt in the tikki should be added carefully as chutneys and Chole masala already contain salt. The alu tikki usually contains a lot of masalas. However, in this dish we are coupling it with chole masala which is already full of spices, so we keep the tikki simple.
2. The order of garnishing needs to be followed correctly. For instance, if we put the curds or chutney on top of the sev, the sev can become soggy.

Paani Puri

With every single paani puri you can experience an explosion of flavors in your mouth. Freshly made minty water is something people like to drink like a mocktail. Its not only tasty but also helps in overall digestion just like jal jeera.

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Pudina leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon Black salt
• 1/2 teaspoon White salt
• Pinch of sugar
• Pinch of red chilly powder
• 1 teaspoon roasted jeera powder
• 1 lemon sized ball of tamarind
• 10 puris
• 1 aloo
• Handful chole (or whole green moong dal)

Procedure :

For the masala

1. Boil potatoes and cut into tiny cubes.
2. Soak channa (or moong dal) overnight. Boil them till they are soft.
3. Dry roast jeera seeds. Once brown, grind in a mortar pestle.
4. Mix channa and potatoes with some roasted jeera powder, salt and chaat masala (optional)

For the paani

1. Soak tamarind in some water and let it swell.
2. Wash pudina leaves well and puree it in a mixie jar.
3. Once puree is ready, strain it and add roasted jeera powder, black salt, white salt, red chilly powder, sugar and tamarind water.
4. Now add some plain water and taste the mix. You might need to add more salt or chilly depending on the final taste.

Serving :

1. Make a hole on the face of the puri. Fill it with the aloo masala made earlier and serve with Pudina Chutney, Tamarind chutney and paani.
2. When you are ready to eat, take the puri add both chutneys in desired quantities and dip it in the paani.