BENGALI STYLE CURRY PAKORA

 AFTER FEW ATTEMPTS, I GOT WHAT I DESIRED!

I am talking about the curry you see. It is not a Bengali Recipe, there is no harm cooking and having what is not authentically our's. I do try some that are not that much of a mismatch to our tastebuds. Because I did it for us, there is a hint of sugar in it. Today morning, I cooked a full Bengali menu to be delivered to a known family. Because they enjoyed having my food, I am in a good mood. It is not only about the money involved, satisfaction is when your client says they enjoyed the food sent. I did not go for my walk or swim and ate a plateful of rice.

In fact, the amount of rice is not that much, I added a boiled potato and dried lentils; that made the plate look bigger. Made flavourful with a tablespoon of ghee and a green chilli, such plates have always been my favourite.

The litchi season may be over, not tasting great anymore.

If I have used shredded coconut cooking for my client, I would keep a little to have with puffed rice sprinkling a little of brown sugar. I did not do intermittent fasting today, neither did any exercise, just wished to sit and relax after the food delivery. If I continue this, I may become an obese in no time. Tomorrow morning I must go out for a walk and then swim. Again I have to go out later in the day, I am planning a late lunch at the Saizeriya. It pains if I tie my hair, but I must tie when I am cooking for my client, forgot to wear the cap. Without Cristine's help, I    would not be done in time, she dressed the banana flowers required, also stuffed the pointed gourds. I would share the dishes in public.

LONELY SUNDAYS AIN'T PATHETIC, HOWEVER I DO NOT WANT THEM!

I could have gone out yesterday but I am a lazy self. Every Sunday we feel lethargic enough to go out somewhere. It feels at times we did not do much of outdoor activities with the son, he eventually have become home bound. We do not want him to be a party monger but he should have some solid, good friends around him. They should be close knit enough to be there for each other whenever required. He would be staying alone in a new city for the next two years. I may get panic attacks, what if he fall sick in the middle of the night? Each day, I read many a sad news, someone lost the partner, some the kids or a kid might have lost the young parents. I struggle to keep sane and end up eating the extra. My yesterday's lunch was heavy, I had my favourite mango+puffed rice at night. My today's lunch was heavy too, I am planning for two pieces of bread and omelette for dinner.

It is not easy to stay alone, eat meals alone. I keep telling the mother to complain less in life. She is pretty occupied which is good, neither the grandmother nor the mother ever complained of boredom or told they do not wish to live anymore. I love this. I wish to live longer together with the man, I want to witness the son's progress, roam around, travel far off. What I do not want in our lives are adventures; I have told the son this several times, not be a lone traveler ever or be too curious about the unknown, he has to live a normal life.

WHAT IS BENGALI STYLE CURRY PAKORA?

I have seen Kadhi Pakora and I have seen Mooru Curry, I wished to draw inspiration from the both, cook something similar with a Bengali touch. I have tried Kadhi Pakora earlier following a blogger friend's recipe. I tried foodaholic.biz's recipe of it in the google plus days. The family liked, even some of the friends. But in all these attempts, my curry was turning too thick. That flavour and taste of besan / gram flour I do not like. May be the pictures of mooru curry attracted me more, "doi er suruya" if I may call it. Fritters / Pakora I die for but it has to he hot and spicy. Keeping all these on my mind, I cooked this vegetarian, gluten-free yogurt & gram flour based fritter curry BENGALI STYLE CURRY PAKORA! I used a Bengali style tempering and one of our flavour burst dry roasted and ground spice powder. How lovely is that? Okay, the pakoras flattened because the batter got a bit watery, it proved good because it required less amount of oil to fry! I really enjoyed having the curry.

Few other curry recipes from my blog can be BENGALI PUMPKIN LEAVES MOONG BEAN LENTIL CURRY, VEGETABLES & CHICKEN LIGHT CURRY, CAT FISH BENGALI CURRY

INGREDIENTS :

YOGURT : 250 ML

GRAM FLOUR : 2 TBSP + 1 SMALL TEA CUP

SLICED ONION : A MEDIUM TEA CUP FULL

CHOPPED CORIANDER LEAVES : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP FULL

CHOPPED GREEN CHILLIES : 1 TSP

SLITTED GREEN CHILLIES

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 + 1/2 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

CUMIN SEEDS : 1/2 TSP + 1/4 tsp

CORIANDER SEEDS : 1/2 TSP

RED CHILLIES : 2 + 3

DRY MANGO POWDER : 1 TSP

GARAM MASHALA POWDER : 1/2 TSP

SUGAR : 1 TSP [YOU CAN SKIP]

BAYLEAF : 1

OIL : 4-5 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

I added together the cup of gram flour, washed and chopped coriander leaves and green chillies, salt, turmeric. I had beaten it well. I heated the oil, and fried both sides of the fritters well. I took them out.

While frying the fritters, I had beaten together 2 tbsp of gram flour, the yogurt, salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, 2-3 coffee mugs of water using a hand beater. 

After the fritters are done and taken out, I tempered the remaining oil with the cumin seeds, 2 halved dry red chillies and a bayleaf. I poured the spiced yogurt  mixture to the wok and gave a stir.

I cover cooke it at low heat. As it started to boil, I added the dry mango powder, the garam masala, slitted green chillies and let it boil more.

Meanwhile, I dry roasted the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and 2-3 dry red chillies for a minute and ground to a coarse powder.

After about 10-12 minutes of boiling, I added the fritters to the boiling curry and then the dry roasted ground spices. I had taken it down after 3-4 minutes of boiling.

It is to be had with steamed rice.

                          

BAEL FRUIT PARFAIT

 I TOLD YOU ALMOST NOTHING GOES TO THE WASTE BIN IN MY HOME!

Unless a food item rots, I try to give it a makeover and eat. On return from our travels, my handbag comes full with this and that served on the airplane, it is not possible to eat everything served on a long flight. Mostly comes the tiny chocolates, cheese squares, muffins. This time too they came, I had to use them because Cristine was not having them. Everything has an expiry. All about today's recipe share I am coming to later. I am gradually getting back to my normal schedule; that of early morning walks, then swim, shopping for the raw ingredients nearing the weekend, going out to nowhere, sit alone somewhere. Visiting some islands and parks alone are due. Actually, I enjoy more staying at home, eat home cooked food and watch something. I sincerely wish to do some online teaching, this is a life spent without the right connections. Lazy peoples' lives end doing nothing fruitful, planning great. I have to tell the son about the importance of networking. We know less about his contacts and friends. Homecoming after any tour is good, if only the home was near to our son's. We want the best of both the worlds in our lives, that cannot happen. 

IT WAS INDEED A FULFILLING TRIP THIS TIME!

We felt happy to see our child in a happier mood. He allowed us to click him, he clicked us, agreed to go here and there with us. We could feel that the son is in a relaxed mood. I was happy with the studio apartment we stayed in and the neighbourhood around. We were roaming the entire city mostly on foot, I loved it given the cool weather. For us, it was cold almost. I was sad unable to wear my tunics, they came back untouched. I happily cooked with few utensils, in less of space. Back home, my cooking spree did not stop. With Cristine's help, I kept cooking without calculating if we can finish all of the dishes in five days. I do not need to cook too much. Then one thing is that it is my passion, the other reason is that I am updating my blog. In an Airbnb kitchen, I was not giving my best shot; neither the son, nor the man ever complains. It is me who is not satisfied. Like yesterday, I mended the raw Jackfruit curry adding to it more of spices, we do not cook a light curry with it. I also added more of fried onions and chopped green chillies to the Hilsa Bharta. We had a fulfilling lunch, a Bengali meal yesterday.

At night, I made luchi; the Bengali puffed bread, had with the Gobi Butter Masala.

WHAT IS BAEL FRUIT PARFAIT?

Trust me, the idea was impromptu. Not in my wild dreams I thought of preparing a parfait with Bael fruit extract. I bought the fruit from a Bengali shop to have it's juice, a summer time ritual in the family. Here we get too good quality Bael Fruit / Wood Apple / Bengal Quince. They are too sweet with no hint of bitterness in them. Cristine was not having the muffins and cinnamon cake, we had yogurt and sweet grapes in stock. All of a sudden, the idea of a no-cook, sugar-free, vegetarian  BAEL FRUIT PARFAIT popped up in my head on a Saturday morning. Trust me, I loved having it. You may add sugar or honey but I did not require any. I am indeed fond of fruits-yogurt-oats kind of stuffs. I would have been happier if I could use granola instead of the oats but I do not store it fearing a spike in the blood sugar level. The cream parfaits I had been buying while touring cannot be eaten regular, such unhealthy it is. Parfaits should be done with yogurt and various combinations of fruits, now I recommend using Bael extract to it. Ayurveda goes gaga about it, since my childhood I have seen it works to ease constipation. However, medical science does not recommend it too often. If you are a diet watcher, this recipe is a keep. I want the son, brother, his wife to have this. The man, his sister do not crave for food, I wonder how! Take a look at my elaborate lunch, Cristine made my favourite vermicelli upma, my yogurt cake tasted good, mango is a love.

Few other Wood Apple recipes from my Blog are these; BAEL AAM CHILLED NECTAR, DUDH DIYE BAEL ER PANA, DOI BAEL ER KULFI, DAAB ER JOL DIYE BAEL ER SHORBOT, DOI DIYE BAEL ER PANA

INGREDIENTS :

BAEL FRUIT : 1 STANDARD SIZED

MUFFIN : 2-3

GRAPE : 7-8 [YOU CAN USE OTHER FRUITS, EVEN DRY FRUITS]

PLAIN YOGURT : 100 GM

OATS : 2 TBSP [YOU CAN USE GRANOLA]

I DID NOT USE SUGAR, YOU MAY IF YOU WANT

PROCEDURE :

Wash and break the Wood Apple fruit without damaging your kitchen floor. 

Take the extract in a bowl, add a little of water and do kneading like action. Thereafter, use a strainer to get a smooth, nectar like extract.

Beat the yogurt and chop the washed grapes. Cut the cakes into smaller cubes. You may or may not dry roast the oats, I did not.

Take a glass, not a tall one because a parfait is pretty filling. The first layer was of yogurt and then of the fruit extract. Thereafter, I added some oats, chopped grapes, cake cubes.

Then again I had put a layer of yogurt, Bael extract. Top it with the rest of the chopped grapes, cake cubes, oats.

Chill it in the refrigerator before having.

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.

 

FRESH MINT LITCHI FROZEN MANGO YOGURT

I felt either I share this frozen dessert recipe today or I shall wait for few more more months for a next year to come. Anyway, mango season got over in most of the countries. I am a bit of a selfish in this matter. We get mango more or less throughout the year in this island and when it is mango I hardly follow any advice with regards to seasonal eating. I have to buy if the price range & quality suit me, feed the family and eat it too. I do not look for the Bengali or the Indian variety either; before eating, I just see if they are fresh, ripe and sweet. I like frozen fresh fruit & yogurt combinations, may be more than ice-creams these days. Bottles of creams going into the ice-creams do not give me comfort. If I buy a frozen fruit yogurt for 2:50 Sing$, I also get to consume the unnecessary emulsifier, artificial colorant, preservatives. Moreover, a 100ml cup does not seem enough to me. Is not it easier to prepare them at home? This time, I made a gluten-free, sugar-free, frozen yogurt with ripe mango puree, honey, litchi pulp, fresh mint, plain yogurt; named the vegetarian delight FRESH MINT LITCHI FROZEN MANGO YOGURT. Leaving the freezing part, everything else takes half-an-hour to gather and get done.

There is a series of events this month revolving our lives; Eid, Rakhi Poornima, the National Day Celebration here in the island and the Independence Day Celebration there in India, Janmashtami too. I have everything recorded inside and would share friendly recipes that all of us can sit together and enjoy. Most of the D-Day shares will  be vegetarian cooked in my kitchen. In any celebration, no one's plate should remain empty, I have to put something on your plate. What I cannot do is a series of appropriate shares for a fortnight revolving around the occasion; I am not an organised person and extremely moody. I cannot guarantee what would be my next action. Anyway, I believe my food shares are decent and after a long, descriptive blog post about a non-vegetarian stuffed snack; I should go ahead with a easy going, extremely yum, vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free frozen dessert recipe FRESH MINT LITCHI FROZEN MANGO YOGURT.

It again started raining. This year it feels there is too much of rain as compared to what is natural. The associated strong wind also is causing damage to my greens. I am literally craving for longer period of sunshines. But such a cool, cloudy weather is good for long walks and I am planning to walk down to the old neighbourhood after finishing off with the blog post. I am planning to cut my hair short not wanting to colour my greys anymore. To get an even grey look, the hair has to get short; hair studios here told no amount of bleach can get me an artificial salt & pepper look. I may bob it shoulder length. Before that, some chapatis have to be done to pack the man's lunch box with chicken, his snack box will have a blushing red & yellow pear and homemade ladoo. For the son's breakfast, I may do a quick, chocolate mug cake in microwave. Cristine would make both their lunch; "porota, omelette, aloo bhaja". Mumma will have her lunch outside, it can be a Yong Tao Fong; she cannot be at home before 3-3:30 pm probably. Thereafter, I may start with a new novel after over a month. Our life course is as simple as this.

INGREDIENTS :

FRESH RIPE MANGO : 2 STANDARD SIZED
PLAIN YOGURT : 200-250 GM
HONEY : 4 TBSP
FRESH MINT LEAF : 10-12
FRESH LITCHI PULP : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP FULL

PROCEDURE :

Wash the mangoes well, discard the root ends and peel off the skins. Squeeze the pulp as much as possible. If there is space in the surrounding, add the seed to the soil.

Take the mango pulp and the washed mint leaves in a blender. 

Blend it at high for a minute to get a smooth puree.

Take the yogurt and honey in a bowl and beat well with a spoon or a hand beater.

Add the mango-fresh mint puree and beat again to incorporate everything well.

Pour the content on to a clean container. Peel off the skins of each of the litchi after washing. Take out the pulp and discard the seeds. Again, throw the seeds in the soil around.

Arrange the litchi pieces on top of the mango puree.

Cover it with a tight lid and freeze at least for 5-6 hours before serving.

KABULI CHOLAR BORA O DOI POROTA

This is never the right time for me to do a blog post, I am a morning person. The otherwise non-functional brain feels happy & fresh in the mornings. To feel free most of the days, I cook not in bulk but a variety on a Saturday. During this circuit breaker period, I am just cooking extra breads each day. Yes, our one meal is "ruti-porota-luchi" every day. We prefer a vegetarian puffed or flat bread meal over a vegetarian rice. For the majority of Bengalis, rice is associated with fish or meat. Tonight, we will have a vegetarian, rice meal. I am too tired to prepare "roti-prata", my Sunday after a Saturday has to be relaxing. Cristine shall fry the hyalencha / water cress er bora / fritter at night and we will have it with "mash kolai er dal and til bata diye kancha tomator torkari." On Thursday, I got in hand some green tomatoes which we rarely get here. If you follow my personal profile, you may see I had my lunch with Cristine made "porota in ghee, lau o aloor chokla boti and an omelette." I  did get Udon Bowl with Karage for Cristine and Bento Boxes for the men. 

 Though I cook a lot on a Saturday, the rest feel happy if they get outside food over the weekend. Now that Cristine is not getting a Sunday off, I get for her too. Why not? Be it the dough or shaping all the Garbanzo Bean  tikki / bora of this combo, vegetarian meal KABULI CHOLAR BORA O DOI POROTA; she helps me majorly. When she is gone, you will get the simplest of meals from me. After a porota meal, I had a bowl of watermelon which is not a sin given the climate here. That was more than an hour back and I am with "muri badam makha o cha" now. If this is not a suicidal tendency, what is?

The man too is having a "muri-chanachur-badam-peyaz-lanka" bowl today; recently again in fact. I think he is not willing to watch a movie or web series together with me this weekend. Since yesterday, he is watching political series. Now what is going on is concerning CIA & Syria I am not interested in. What more can I expect from a man who after the first proposal took me to watch a Hollywood political thriller in Light House; that too knowing me since age twelve. Yet, he changed a lot in the past two decades to accommodate me. I do not remember when I stopped expecting a bit of romanticism from him. As long as he or the monkey happily eats this vegetarian platter of KABULI CHOLAR BORA O DOI POROTA their lady cooked, I am happy. Look, how I turned a plate of falafel & pita to something I am comfortable in. What to do? I cannot ditto follow recipes. I do not plan them much in advance and never spend generously buying ingredients for a particular dish. Falafel uses parsley and I had coriander only. I learnt about this two main ingredients flat bread from a you-tube video. It used it for pizza base baking it in an oven. Long back, I prepared pizza base with it too, the video is there in the saved files but I am tired enough to find it from a collection I saved two years back. Had I been technically sound, I would have taken the Blog to a better position. It really is a handicapped kind of a feeling.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DOI POROTA / YOGURT FLAT BREAD

SELF RAISING FLOUR : 2 COFFEE MUG [YOU CAN USE PLAIN REFINED FLOUR OF SAME AMOUNT WITH 2 TSP BAKING POWDER & 1/3 TSP BAKING SODA]

PLAIN YOGURT : 150 GM OR AS REQUIRED FOR A SMOOTH DOUGH

SALT : 1/2 TSP

OIL : 2-3 TBSP + 1TSP FOR EACH FLAT BREAD


INGREDIENTS FOR THE  KABULI CHANAR BORA / GARBANZO BEANS TIKKI

GARBANZO BEAN / KABULI CHANA : 350-400GM
CHOPPED CORIANDER : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP
CHOPPED ONION : 1 SMALL TEA CUP
GARLIC CLOVE : 4-5 BIG OR 8-10 SMALL SIZED
GREEN CHILLI : 3-4
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1 TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 2TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 2TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1TSP
LEMON JUICE : 4-5 TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 100-150 ML [I DID NOT DEEP FRY IN A LOT OF OIL]


PROCEDURE :

Let us do the Garbanzo Beans Pakora now!

I had soaked the Kabuli Chana in water for about 8 hours. They expanded really well and I drained the water.

Cristine did all the peeling, cutting, washing job for me, as usual.

We will always do the blending job in batches, else the blender would stop working unable to take the load. We would leave some chopped onion & coriander to be added later!

Each time we will blend the content into a coarse paste, trying not to add water.

                            

We would make any shape & deep fry them in the hot oil, constantly adjusting the heat!

Reserve the fried tikkis on tissue papers before serving.

                           

Cristine looked after the frying part mostly while I was making the flatbreads / doi porotas. They had to be done simultaneously for a good tasting meal.

For this plain yogurt and self-raising flour porotas / flat breads, I took the flour, salt, 2 tbsp oil and the plain yogurt in a wide mouthed bowl.

We have to mix and rub the content for 2-3 minutes.

Cristine kneaded the dough for some 10-12 minutes to get a smooth dough. We can add more of yogurt if required but not water.

Thereafter, we have to keep it covered with a moist, clean piece of cloth for 15-20 minutes.

We will take it out and knead for 2-3 minutes.

We will tear of portions of a tennis size ball, smoothen between the two palms, roll out round or oval.

We will place it on a hot griddle / tawa, it will by itself form bubbles; we just have to adjust the heat from low to minimal.

After been turned over and cooked each in 1 tsp oil, both sides will look like below respectively.

We had a good meal, prepared a raita too!