VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA

I WOULD WANT TO TAKE A LOT OF PRIDE IN TODAY'S  RECIPE SHARE IN THE BLOG!

The urge to prepare a "dahi vada" platter occured last week. I was there at the East Coast for some work. Still on the bus, I could see a renowned fast food Indian joint, my destination was after 2-3 stoppages. I thought on my way back I would walk to have their chaat. I do not visit that side regular, I eat my first meal late, also the eatery was on my bus route. As planned, I walked to the eatery and ordered a plate of "papdi dahi bhalla". I have no complain about the taste and quality of the food, neither the ambience. But I am not the kind who would want to pay 13$ for one piece of vada / lentil fritter, six pieces of papdi / fried snack, some yogurt, 7-8 pomegranate kernels. Kailash Parbat gives a way big platter including roasted mirchi / fat chillies at that price. Shiv Sagar's 6$ plate houses two "Vadas", may be less decorative. Near the sea it is expensive they say, whilst the son was in school we thought of renting a flat that side. Then, I must stay near the Desi market area. Hence, we prefer always the North-East line, my choice to be precise. Anyway, after paying 13$ for a minuscule amount of "doi bora", I landed into this vegan & gluten-free "doi bora" platter. What is there not to take pride in it?

YESTERDAY WAS A BETTER SUNDAY THAN THE ONE BEFORE!

The man was back from the tour by the Saturday afternoon, we had a late lunch together with fried Hilsa fish. And the leisurely Sundays we spend together watching various stuffs on the OTT Platforms and pestering the son to talk to us. When he travels, a Sunday gets too lonely. But your work comes first because it fills our stomach. What puts me in tension is that he drives 5-6 hours each side alone and through a highway. Who knows if you can feel or not what tension means for a fear monger who suffers from anxiety disorder since the 90's. Whatever goes on my mind, I do not fail to cook well, feed others well, eat well. Last night, I cooked a noodle bowl for the two of us, I had some leftover broccoli, yellow chilli, green beans, used them. The man as usual refused any amount of vegetables in his noodles except for potato, onion, garlic and eggs. Our mother never considered potato as an important vegetable with nutrients, I unconsciously think that way though I love potato, unlike her. 

I forgot to click yesterday's lunch plate but how I loved homemade yogurt with the pomegranate kernels, any choice of fresh fruit with plain yogurt works for me. Then, I can have them as a post meal treat, not as a main meal. Today, it is Dol Purnima / Holi celebrations, the quickest thing I could cook for my God Family is that Whole Wheat Halwa. It is about a month that I am offering fruits to my God Family once in a day, in the other two meals they have brown or palm sugar. I stopped offering snacks thinking we do not eat salty snacks waking up in the morning. Who will eat biscuits every day or sugar crystals?

I used a lot of ghee and roasted the wheat flour, yet I believe I fail to make it as good as a North Indian Home. I love the Halwa varieties.

WHAT IS VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA?

It is that plate whose idea popped up from a sense of dissatisfaction and that it resulted into what I exactly wanted. In fact, I did not expect the Soy Pudding to taste this close to a plain yogurt, I purposefully bought a low sugar, plain flavoured one. I visited the FairpriceXtra to get a vegan yogurt, they stock Cocobella's and Reglan's coconut yogurt. They are pricey and I was skeptical about how a coconut yogurt may taste, at least I have tasted and like a soy pudding that is too light on your stomach. Then oven cooking some oats vadai adding some spices and soaked beaten rice was a cake walk given Cristine helped dressing the pomegranate. How I enjoyed assembling and having a plateful of this VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA !

I also had the fritters separately with my hot cuppa, thats how my men would prefer it. In fact, I have arranged the platter like this because my men wouldn't want a yogurt based chaat bowl. I believe this plate would suit the Iftar & Easter table too, next Monday, I can get the oats-banana cake for you.

INGREDIENTS :

OATS : 1 COFFEE MUG

BEATEN RICE : 4-5 TBSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2 TSP

CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/4 TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP

DRY MANGO POWDER : 1/2 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

CRUSHED CUMIN SEED : 1/2 TSP

BAKING SODA : 1/4 TSP [IT DID NOT FUNCTION MUCH]

SOY PUDDING : 300 GM [YOU CAN USE VEGAN YOGURT]

DATES TAMARIND SAUCE / CHUTNEY : AS REQUIRED TO GARNISH

CORIANDER LEAVES & GREEN CHILLI SAUCE / CHUTNEY : AS REQUIRED TO GARNISH

GINGER EXTRACT : 1 TBSP

POMEGRANATE KERNEL : 2 TBSP

GRAM FLOUR POTATO FRIED NOODLE  : 1 TBSP [AUTHENTICALLY THE BOMBAY SEV VARIETY IS USED, I BOUGHT ALOO BHUJIA]

OIL : 3-4 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Powder the oats. Soak the beaten rice in water for sometime, strain and add to the oatmeal. Also add 2 tsp oil, all of the powdered & whole spices, salt to it.

Mix them together very well, knead actually and them shape into patty.

Grease an oven proof plate with a little of oil and arrange the patties on it.

Place the low height wired stool inside the oven and on it the plate full of the uncooked patties.

I combo cooked, grill+microwave at C-02, 15 minutes one side and 5 minutes the other side.

Once they cooled a bit, I brushed oil on them.

To the lightly sweet, natural flavoured Soy pudding, I added a bit of salt and ginger extract, beaten well to get a near taste of our kind of plain yogurt. We must keep it for chilling in the refrigerator.

For the Dates-Tamarind Chutney, follow my this recipe BHAJA MOSHOLA DATES TAMARIND CHUTNEY Else I follow the late Tarla Dalal's recipe of it too. You can use store bought.

For the green chutney, you can paste together some washed coriander leaves, boiled and strained green chillies, salt or follow this blogpost of mine MINT CORIANDER CHUTNEY!

I always would buy the gram flour noodles, making them at home is a complex method, I never had been fond of them, also they are enemy to your weight loss journey. Authentically, they use Bombay style gram flour noodles for a chaat dish, I used Aloo Bhujia.

I would not apologise for the fact that the fritters are not fluffy, I have given you too tasty a snack so that you can forget making a chaat plate and just have them hot with less of guilt. Omit using the baking soda if you want.