Tag: Snacks

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Revdi: Another Favorite North Indian Snack

Some days back, I’d written about Petha, that ubiquituous Indian sweet that you eat without thinking.  Click here for a refresher.

Well, there’s another Indian sweet, more of a sweet snack really, called Revdi.  It’s like hard candy:  made of sugar, either white or brown into flat rounds that are covered with sesame seeds.  In the winter months, they are very popular, especially toward the end of winter at the holiday known as Lohri.  To bid farewell to the winter, bonfires are made, and popcorn and revdi are eaten while watching the bright flames. 

These are my memories of revdi, and the other day, I bought a box of the same for old times’ sake.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that nobody didn’t NOT like it!

This particular kind of revdi is made with gur or jaggery, a variation of brown sugar.  It is therefore called Gur Revdi.  Get some if you can, and make your own memories! 

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Palak Pakoras: The Snack That's Good For You!

Of course, they’re great when made from scratch, but what if you don’t have the time but are still craving some super-crispy Palak Pakoras?  Well, then what you’d want to do, is what I do:  pull out my a bag of the frozen stuff, lay them out onto a baking sheet, and pop them into the oven for 15 minutes.  Then, you turn off the oven from the bake-mode to the broil-mode so that the heat is only from the top in order to crisp them even more.  Watch them for about four minutes, then pull out and serve with chutneys and ketchup.  They’ll be as good as if you bought them at that dhaba down the road. 

Palak Pakoras, for the uninitiated, are deep-fried fritters made with spinach and gramflour. Spinach-anything is good for you, you know that!  The frozen kind are already fried, which is why baking/broiling works just fine.

Here’s what mine looked like yesterday!  Oh, and the perfect beverage for the perfect snack?  Why, chai, of course!

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Chaat-Paapdi: Sleight Of Hand (My Hand, That Is!)

Yeah, so, unless you have an Indian restaurant next door that serves terrific Chaat-Paapdi, or unless you don’t mind driving 40 minutes every other day, and of course, shelling out $5 for each plate of Chaat-Paapdi, you’ll be in a bad way waiting for that next trip to get some.  Unless, of course, you can make it yourself.  And make it well, that is.

Well, here’s how you “make it well”:  You get the best quality ingredients, and toss them together in the right sequence, and serve it up with panache!  Panache, I said!  And what might those ingredients be?  Well, here goes:
  • Boil/Microwave your yellow potatoes and dice when cooled a bit
  • Get your bag of Paapdis out, and in a nice wide bowl break up the paapdis to make a good layer to build on
  • Second layer is the bhel-puri-style namkeen.  I use the most delectable homemade kind that my mother makes with puffed rice, sev, peanuts, and stuff
  • Third layer is the onion or two finely chopped
  • Open a can of the finest chickpeas or garbanzo beans, aka, chole and spread those out
  • Finally, lay on the diced potatoes
Now, you’re ready to starting “building” your individual servings.  This is how I do it:
  • Scoop out a few big spoonfuls of this awesome mixture into a lovely quarter-plate or salad-plate
  • Take a spoonful of the Imli Chutney and the Green Chili Chutney and spread out over this goodness
  • Next pour on the thinned out and salted yougurt, aka, curds
  • Garnish with the tastiest Haldiram’s Sev that is super crunchy and super spicy
Serve with panache!  Oh, and love too, if you like!  Hope the pictures tell even better the story of the recipe that I’ve offered up here.

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Parippu Vada: Goes With Both Chai and Chianti

Well, if you are of South-Indian origin, you’ll recognize the name of this dish:  Parripu Vada.  If you’re not, but still simply of Indian origin (of any region), you’ll at least recognize the vada part of that.  So, what these are, are fried lentil fritters.  But these aren’t you’re ordinary vadas:  they’re crunchy and chewy and crispy and spicy.  Because they’re packed with all kinds of goodness:  the dal (chana or even arhar) is soaked overnight and processed with ginger, onion, kari patta, and green chillies.  Then, they’re fried until they pop up golden crisp like this. 

And then here’s the thing: you thought you needed to serve them only with tea or coffee?  Of course, you could do that, but then, if you’re in my house, you might very well find them paired with a glass of the finest Chianti. Like last evening.   I suppose the Italians might say Buon Appetito, but around these parts, we say Yeh Hui Na Baat!

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UppuMau, aka, Upma: The Food of the Gods

So, you take the humble cream-of-wheat or the farina flour, or sooji as it is called in several regional languages in India, and make what with it?  Well, you could do anything you want, of course, but if you wish to make something truly delectable and leave an indelible impression on the minds, hearts, and tongues of your loved ones, well then, you would make only one thing:  Upma.

Over the years, I have made this dish called upma many a time, and over the years, I do believe I have perfected it to the point that I have bestowed upon myself the title Queen of Upma.  Well, I made it for breakfast this morning, but this time, I did what I have never done before:  taken pictures of the making of it–step by step–in order to document visually the ingredients and methods that go into making this impossibly satisfying dish for any time of day, but most especially in the mornings. 

The word Upma, I was told a very long time ago, by my husband, is a derivative of two words:  Uppu (salt) and Mau (Flour/Batter).  Being married to a Tamilian has its benefits for sure:  you learn of the etymology of one of the most common and popular dishes that you always thought was a random word!  In fact, the correct pronunciation, I am told is not ‘upma‘ but ‘upmau’ where the ‘uppu’ is abbreviated to ‘up’ (as in ‘look’) and the ‘ma’ is elongated to ‘mau’.  I found a wiki entry on this, btw:  Upma (Tamil: உப்புமா), is a south Indian dish made of rava. The name is an amalgam of two words : “salt” and “flour. E.g., In Tamil, “uppu” (உப்பு) + “maa(vu)” (மா(வு)).

At any rate, see for yourself the slideshow below on my style of making upma.  Take one bite, and you too will say that it is indeed a food fit for the gods!  For your viewing, and hopefully, experimenting pleasure.

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Friday Night Onion Rings

So, have you made them ever?  Onion Rings, that is.  The quintessential finger-food that is oh-so-satisfying, grease and all, and made even more perfect on a Friday night when you can kick back and say, “It’s Friday night, and everything’s all right!”  Well, alright, maybe not EVERYthing, but you know what I mean.  See for yourself my idea of serving up Onion Rings, each one a work of art, not to mention the crispiest and tastiest bite ever!

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Political Action and Paczkis on Fat Tuesday

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So, how do you commemorate Fat Tuesday?  And what is Fat Tuesday anyway?  Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival, or Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the period of Lent– a period of 46 days before Easter.  Observed in the Catholic tradition, Lent is a time of physical sacrifice, a practice of self-deprivation in the giving up of things of comfort, especially physical comforts such as in the eating of meats, fats, sugars and such. 

And so, as the tradition goes, Fat Tuesday is the last day or last chance to fatten up before the almost-seven weeks of self-imposed deprivation.  So, what do you eat on such a day?  Well, you eat the most indulgent foods, of course.  And if you’re of Polish ancestry, you make and eat paczkis, pronounced poonch-ki.  These are buns stuffed with a variety of sweet and creamy fillings.  And if you happen to live in the Metro Detroit area, you know you will find an abundance of paczkis on this day, nay, on any of the days leading up to this day, that is. 

So today, I happened to attend a meeting at work that focused on the big budget cuts coming our way, thanks to a new state administration.  Not-so-great news on Fat Tuesday, of course, but what better way to take the edge off a miserable meeting agenda than a spread of traditional Polish Paczkis? 

See for yourself what I mean.  I chose one with a lemon filling.  The pizza, by the way, was the deepest-dish pizza you could ever find: layer upon layer of veggies and cheese was what my slice was all about.  And that salad was most refreshing!

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Unusual Subzis and Bagels with Poached Eggs

Okay, so you know all about Subzis, the Hindi word for vegetables cooked as a side-dish.  Subzis are ubiquitous to Indian cooking, and go with everything from rice and rotis, and are a staple food item on your plate, day in and day out.  And of course, there are certain combinations of vegetables that go together traditionally:  cauliflower (gobi) and potatoes, cauliflower and peas, spinach and potatoes, spinach and tomatoes and such.  Well, there’s traditional, and then there’s me.  Because, I think it’s quite alright to bring together two veggies that don’t traditionally go together:  cauliflower and spinach, for instance. 

Which is what I made for dinner last night.  Seasoned with onions, garlic, ginger, and a pinch of garam masala, I sauteed the spinach for a couple of minutes in an open pressure-cooker before I added the cauliflower florets and a half cup of water, and put the lid on the cooker to build up the steam for a total of ten minutes.  Turn off the stove, and let it stand for another ten minutes before you unlock the lid.  Do not stir the subzi because the florets are too tender and might get mashed.  Serve with parathas like I did, or rotis, if you wish!

The next morning, get creative if you wish, with serving the same subzi with two poached eggs and a toasted bagel.  What is that you say, you’ve never heard of that combo?  Well, that’s alright, because here’s what it all looks like. 

And like we say around here:  Yeh hui na baat!

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