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Kuneh Ja Beeh|Steamed Lotus stem Chaat

Alka Keswani — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:32:28 +0000

Apart from the quintessential Papad, pickle, Kadhi and Saibhaji, Sindhis are well known for their love for the lotus stem and they are the most avid eaters of this slightly nutty, mildly sweet, crunchy stem. Their insatiable appetite for Beeh is the reason that lotus stems are particularly found in markets in and around Sindhi populated areas. Beeh (Lotus stem), dhodhee/Pabhora (lotus seeds) and Lohr (corm) are the parts of Lotus plant that Sindhis eat with great relish. While our Beeh paalak is bit similar to Kashmiri Nadru paalak (Paalak nadir) and our gravy based beeh curries are similar to Punjabi curries, Sindhis use lotus stem in many unique ways too. For example; Beeh is added in potato tikkis or is stuffed, batter-coated and fried to make signature Beeh tikki (pakora). Beeh jyun kachryun i.e sun-dried lotus stems are very popular in our cuisine and the flash fried Kachryun can turn the humble dal chaawal into a satiating meal. Lotus stem is also pickled in a typical Sindhi pickle base of chili powder and vinegar. Suanhjro Ain beeh (drumstick flowers with lotus stem) and Suandhro beeh (dried tender drumsticks with lotus stem) are some lesser known but delicious and highly nutritious recipes of Sindhi cuisine. The fresh seeds of lotus pods are snacked upon (raw) while the corm of lotus, known as Lohr is boiled, peeled, pepped up with salt and freshly ground black pepper powder and is served with tangy mint coriander chutney. Lohr or Lotus corm The most traditional way of cooking lotus stem is in a clay pot, till soft and starchy, served with a dash of spicy mint coriander chutney. This chaat, known as Kuneh ja beeh (Kunoh means the clay or earthen pot ), the pride of Sindhi cuisine, is now almost a lost recipe. The lotus stem is cleaned thoroughly, cut in pieces, salted and steamed (not boiled) in an inverted clay pot, for hours, till the stem is soft and stringy. Kuneh Ja Beeh The above mentioned method of cooking ensures a great texture and the clay pot enhances the earthy flavors of beeh. Since this method requires cooking for long hours, I tried a different way to steam lotus stem, which is explained in the recipe section. If you have a better way to do this, please do share your method in the comments section 🙂 This is one of the most famous chaat from pre partition era and I remember eating this few decades ago. Around Diwali, a person carrying a huge matka containing lotus stem and a small steel container filled with chutney, along with the pouches filled with various spices like rock salt, black pepper powder and red chilli powder along with amchoor powder that would fit in the neck of the clay pot, used to move around streets. Halting wherever he got some customers, he used to pull out the snugly fitted container and spice pouches from the pot and would pick out some perfectly cooked kuneh ja beeh, plonk on a piece of newspaper, on which he would sprinkle the spices like the magical pixie dust, in varying proportions, as per the customer’s demand. Few spoons of spicy green chutney would provide the required kick and a very nutritious chaat would warm our souls on those early winter days. Print Kuneh Ja Beeh|Steamed Lotus stem Chaat Rating 5.0 from 1 reviews Steamed lotus stem served with green chutney Ingredients Lotus stem 250 gm Salt For garnish Rock salt (powdered) a pinch or so Amchoor powder Black pepper powder Red chili powder Mint coriander chutney Method Clean lotus stem and cut into 2 inch long pieces. Place the pieces in an airtight steel box that can easily be put inside pressure cooker. Add salt to the lotus stem and cover it with a cling film. Place the lid of the container and immerse it in pressure cooker that is filled with water till ¾ of its capacity. Close the lid of pressure cooker and cook the Beeh till really soft and stringy. It took 30 whistles of pressure cooker (or around 40 minutes or so of cooking under pressure on low flame) for the Beeh to cook to perfection. Ideally it should be more stringy but I was running out of the time so couldn't let it cook for more time. Take the Beeh out from the container and add rock salt, some salt, pepper, chilli powder and toss it well. Put the spiced up bhee in the hot clay pot, cover it with a lid and place the pot on a hot griddle. Cook on low flame for 5-10 minutes to let the clay infuse some earthiness in the lotus stem. You can keep pouring some water on griddle to ensure that the lotus stem stays moist and does not stick to the bottom of clay pot. Skip this whole process (cooking in clay pot) if you wish so. Serve hot with a sprinkle of amchoor powder and a dash of spicy green mint coriander chutney. 3.5.3251

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A Healthy Alu Tikki Chaat

Alka Keswani — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:53:42 +0000

Talking about a Mom’s worries, unanimously each of us would confess it to be feeding our kids just the right food. Healthy food options aren’t hard to find, thanks to blooming internet resources, cookbooks, Cookery shows etc. To cook those healthy recipes too isn’t a big problem but the toughest challenge is to feed the picky eaters. You sneaked in the lettuce leaf in their not-so-healthy burger and the smart pants just removed the lettuce and happily hogged the burger….plan failed 🙂 You put raisins in the cutlets , and the tiny tot without caring for table manners, spat it out from the mouth….Argh !!!! Next time you try to act more smart and chop the raisins, add to the cutlets and watch the kid eating a morsel..one bite, two bites..three bites..so far so good…..fourth bite and that chopped raisin hit the palate…..alarmed, the kid scrutinize the cutlet, finds two or three tiny pieces of raisins hidden in some corners of cutlet, accuses you of cheating, refuses to eat further…plan B failed !!!! You make his/her favorite garlic bread just because you want to get that vegetable soup down his/her throat. What happens?? Reluctantly few spoonfuls of soup are taken and rest of the tummy is filled up by garlic bread. The rest of soup sits in the bowl, mocking at you…and yeah not to forget that the dinner is given a miss. Double loss !!!! The tug of war continues..and so does the failure of many attempts….adding potatoes to a bottle gourd curry, and the lad end up eating just potatoes.The sneaked slices of carrots are picked out from vegetable sandwiches, the carrot paratha packed in a lunchbox comes back like an unstamped postal Envelope, the mixed vegetable subzi is simply refused to be honored by the young gentleman unless he catches some glimpses of paneer or potato.The cauliflower and potato subzi packed in the lunchbox, returns back, half eaten.. the leftover remaining half obviously being cauliflower. But then if kids are smart, mothers ought to be smarter..raise you hands if you agree 😉 So to win in this battle (Not to be a winner, but to make your kids eat healthy), some fool proof plans need to be sketched out.And one such attempt was to make my kid eat sprouts. He simply can’t stand a bowl of sprout salad. Though Usal (A curry made using sprouts) is fairly accepted by my kid, obviously I can’t rely on just that one option.Variety is the spice of life…isn’t it? So here comes, the healthy Alu tikki chaat with some sprouts , carrots , peas and french beans sneaked in potato tikki and topped with some beaten curd, khajur imli chutney and garnished with chaat masala and nylon sev….Yummmm ! The basic recipe of the tikki is highly inspired by Sia’s Stuffed Alu Tikki , with some modifications like, along with peas, I used parboiled sprouts, carrots, french beans and also I chose to mash everything together so that it becomes hard for the kid to leave out any stuffing 😛 Print A Healthy Alu Tikki Chaat Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 1 hour Serves: 3-4 A healthy Chaat made from boiled sprouts and potatoes, some veggies and spices, topped with flavored tangy yogurt dip. Ingredients Potatoes 4 Mixed sprouts or any sprouted lentils ½ cup Carrot 1 French beans 2 Peas, a handful Cumin seeds 1 tsp Ginger garlic paste 1tsp Green chillies 1-2 (Or as many preferred) Bread crumbs ¾ cup (Or grind 4 slices of bread and add) Salt as per taste Asafoetida (hing) a generous pinch Dried Mango powder (Amchoor ) ¼ tsp Oil to cook mixture 1tbsp Oil to shallow fry Tikkis Method Boil, peel and mash potatoes Boil the sprouts, chop the carrots and beans and boil them along with shelled peas it tender. Heat a pan, add 1 tbsp of oil, heat it, add Hing and cumin seeds. As the seeds change colour to darkish brown, add ginger garlic paste, Chopped green chillies and saute well. Add bread crumbs, mashed sprouts and vegetables and mix properly. Now add boiled potatoes and salt and cook for few minutes.Keep mixing to avoid the mixture from sticking at the bottom of the pan. Put off the gas and add Amchoor powder, some chopped fresh coriander leaves and mix again. You can lemon juice instead of Amchoor powder. Now let the mixture cool down a bit and divide it into 5 to 6 portions. Grease your palms with some oil and take each portion of the mixture and flatten it to make a Tikki (flat disk). Repeat the procedure for rest of mixture. Now shallow fry each tikki , in some oil, flipping it both sides so as to cook the tikkis till nicely browned. Arrange each tikki on a serving plate, top it with some beaten curd to which some salt is added, some green chutney, imli khajur chutney, a dash of chaat masala powder, coriander leaves and handful of nylon sev or any other farsan. Serve right away . #version# 2.2.1

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Guilty pleasures~Bread Chaat

Alka Keswani — Thu, 20 May 2010 09:10:27 +0000

No, I wont talk about the fire barfing Sun, neither about the “Laila” , the spoiler cyclone that is scaring the hell out of the people of Andhra. I wont talk about the global warming that is responsible for the unbearable temperature shifts, melting icebergs, Ash spewing volcanoes…no..no such talks today…I am too paranoid of heat to even talk about it. So lets talk about some cool stuff … Swimming pools, water parks, Beaches, Summer coolers, Ice creams, Fresh fruit juices, curd….curd? Oh yeah, the humble curd…churn it to make sweet lassi, or spicy Chaach(buttermilk), eat it with pulav(one pot meal..ideal for summers), or simply with rice or Khichdee, make some light curries with it, make a vegetable or boondi raita and enjoy with paratha, Dodo or Koki, or simply add some sugar to a bowl of curd and relish….I bet, it won’t disappoint you in any of it’s avatars . At home, I always try to stock some surplus of curd , and most of the time we are able to exhaust the stock. But some times we do have some leftover curd, threatening to get soured if not consumed soon. At such times (specially if its evening time when I finally get to notice the poor curd crying for the attention) I give in to my cravings for a chaat and indulge in Bread chaat… ummmm delicious ! I wonder why guilty pleasures are so heavenly ? Print Guilty pleasures~Bread Chaat Rating 5.0 from 1 reviews Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins Serves: 2 The delicious Appetizer made from fried bread slices, topped with spiced yogurt and tangy chutney Ingredients Bread slices (white/ brown/fresh/stale) 3 Curd 1 cup(or approximately 16 tsp) Potato 1, boiled , peeled and chopped finely Salted boondi, soaked and squeezed, 1 tiny cup Khajur imli Chutney 12 tsp (You can just mix some tamarind juice with sugar or melted jaggery when in hurry) Salt as per taste Chaat masala as per liking Black pepper powder for garnishing Red chilly powder for garnishing Coriander leaves for garnishing Method Boil, cool, peel and chop a potato. Soak and later squeeze salted boondi Sprinkle some salt, red chilly powder,chaat masala if you like. Whisk the curd and add some water if needed to make a smooth flowing consistency of curd. Add salt. Cut each bread slice into four, and deep fry/shallow fry/bake till crisp golden brown (PS:I am unsure how the baked version will taste, since I am yet to try that one. Anyone who knows how it tastes, kindly enlighten me ! ) Drain on kitchen towel to get rid of excess oil (takes away some of your guilt too 😉 ). Let it cool down to room temperature. If not using right away (What??? you can wait to eat it ?? Admiring your patience..really ! ) store it in airtight containers. For serving, arrange the bread pieces on a plate, pour some imli khajur chutney , some potato and boondi, some generous spoons of whisked curd(use less curd if you like to bite on crispy bread, and add more if you like to relish some soft bread dunked in curd...make a choice ! ). Garnish with pepper powders and chaat masala and some fresh coriander leaves.You can also use some thin Sev (Nylon sev). Relish immediately, you don't want those nagging thoughts of calories, weight, deep fried taboo stuff to spoil the show..so hurry up, gobble it down before any revolting thoughts strike your mind...Enjoy ! 2.2.1

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Chaat or Salad ?

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:09:52 +0000

From past few months, I have been feeling this terrible urge of attaining some super power to uproot all the maddening bad, prevailing around.I can feel a transition within me from being a happy go lucky girl to a nagging, yelling, irked person, conferring eternal damnation to at least 20 people per day (in my thoughts of course). Little things start bothering me and I see red at drop of the hat.When I discuss this with my friends and well wishers, everyone suggests the same thing…”you can’t change the world and there is no sense in fretting and fuming, so just calm yourself and better practice some Meditation.” I agree yoga does helps me considerably to cool down, but is it always possible to remain cool or rather is it always necessary to be as cool as cucumber? Still I took the suggestions of my friends and practiced some deep breathing exercise every time I was cornered . Grocery man, weighing 953 gm of sugar instead of 1000 gm in front of my eyes…I deep breathed and remain silent Ricksha walla (driver of three wheeler public transport) demanded 7 INR instead of official 5 INR rate…I obliged Telephone connection went boooooohooooo….I remained silent Internet connection didn’t got restored despite of hundreds of calls to the pathetic customer care guys and to even- more -pathetic local service providers….I kept quiet. Ethernet card was destroyed due to lightning, TV tuner card went kaput..I didn’t moaned. Just because we reside at wrong side of metro city, we go without current for 8 hours a day, while the metro which is just 25 kms (distance between two railway stations) from our place enjoy uninterrupted power supply….I bear this with silence. Dirty politics in offices, bribe greedy officials in government institutions and policeman demanding free rides in public transport vehicles, female infanticide, people throwing infants and even embryos in garbage bins (whatever their personal excuses be) while garbage stinking in fronts of homes, potholes on roads, that are shoddily filled when some MLA is expected, only to go crap within few days and working class idiotically paying their taxes (coz they are deducted at source) while businessman cleverly escapes from the clutches of Honorable finance minister who can hike the rates of petrol when globally crude oil rates shoots to 110$ /barrel, but forgets to dive back , when the rates slide down to as low as 70 $/bbl There is more stupidity on TV, with every absurd news served to us as BREAKING NEWS, Reality Shows with not so real tears and stories, vulgar stuff aired in the name of Modernism and morons hogging up the limelight, while serious issues concerning to common man are not voiced even for the heck of Genuine news.All served to us between ADVERTISEMENTS.If you watch TV for say 30 minutes, you end up seeing advertisements for 18 minutes and actual stuff for 12 minutes or even less..I don’t do anything to change that……So I keep my cool and stop watching TV instead, but…. …..how far can a sensible person stay deaf, dumb and blind to such apathy ?? Should we always turn our eyes from all this ILL and just call ourselves cool ? I agree ranting wont change anything, but is it possible for a pulsating heart to ignore all this and keep silent with few pranayams? Wont we be as good as dead then? I know even when I wrote all this, nothing is gonna change..not even 0.5% …but should we just seal our lips and ears and eyes and lay dead ? Well after boiling so much of my blood over these issues, I definitely need some energy to go on.When I was a kid, my Mother used to say that pulses and vegetables gives us energy and make us strong.So now let me have some SUPER MOLECULES or proteins as they are generally called and what better source than Kaalachana. I am confused to categorize this simple but power packed dish.I can call it salad since it is a food mixture consisting of boiled and raw stuff,with a tangy dressing, but then I also remember this as one of our favorite chaat sold outside our school gate! So call it whatever you want..but do include this in your diet . Print Chaat or Salad ? Healthy Legume salad recipe Ingredients Kaala chana(black chickpeas) Tomato 1 Onion 1 salt and pepper to taste Tamarind chutney or lemon juice 1-2 tsp Boiled potato Coriander leaves to garnish Method Pick the chana,rinse properly many times with water ,and soak them for about 5-6 hours Later boil it with salty water till cooked.If un-soaked or not soaked for enough time,you might need to boil it for more time, otherwise it is almost done in 2-3 whistles in a pressure cooker.Again that depends upon the quality of chana.So keep experimenting When done, lay them in serving bowl or plate,top it up with dash of salt, pepper powder,chaat masala powder(optional), red chilly powder(optional),2 spn (more or less ....depends upon your taste) tamarind water(just soak a ping ball size of tamarind in half cup of water for 10 minutes,mash it and squeeze it properly.Discard the pulp,and use the tamarind water) Add chopped onion,tomato,boiled potato,or veggies of your choice.Garnish it with coriander leaves 2.2.1 This simple salad is going for: Sra’s My Legume Love Affair Which is the brainchild of Susan Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy-Fight Diabetes contest Divya of Dilse for Diet Food Event

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