Indian Snacks, Dips and Recipes
INDIAN VEGETABLE PAKORAS
Ingredients
Vegetables of your choice or
1 sm. cauliflower
1 potato
1 sm. onion
Several fresh spinach leaves
1 lb. pea flour
1 tsp. powdered red pepper
1 tsp. powdered cumin seed
Salt
Oil
Directions
Cut all vegetables into small pieces. Mix the pea flour with one cup of water, and add the vegetables. Add red pepper, cumin seed, and season with salt to taste. Heat oil and drop vegetable mixture by tablespoons into hot oil. Deep fry at low heat, until brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Serve hot or cold. Serves 8.
Learn how to make Pakora, an Indian appetizer in this free video cooking lesson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7qFj9tQkU
Easy Indian Food Recipes : Stuffing for Indian Potato Tortilla
TORTILLA OF POTATO AND ONION
Ingredients
1/2 lb. red skin potatoes, cooked but firm, sliced
1 med. onion, peeled & sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
3 tbsp. olive oil
6 eggs
Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Instructions
Heat a 10" skillet and saute potatoes, onions and garlic in the oil. Beat eggs with salt and pepper and pour over hot vegetables. Using a wooden spatula, raise the edge of the omelet so that the uncooked top can slow under the omelet. Cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Place a plate over the top of the pan and invert both plate and pan so that the omelet comes out upside down. Slide it back into the hot pan to cook the second side. Cook for about 2 more minutes.
Learn how to make stuffing for Indian potato tortilla in this free video cooking lesson.
YouTube - Easy Indian Food Recipes : Stuffing for Indian Potato Tortilla
Easy Indian Food Recipes : How to Fry Pakora Indian Appetizer
PAKORA
Ingredients
1 onion
1 1/2 cups yellow lentils
1 1/2 cups water
1 egg
2-3 green chilli (optional)
Directions
Pour some lentils into a bowl of water and soak for an hour. After, cut the onions into thin slices and place in a clean bowl. after you do thatNext, drain the water from the lentils, and add to the onions. Pour in 3/4 cup of water and stir; then add the egg.
If you want to add chilli, cut the chilli into tiny pieces.
When you need them, pour a spoonful of the mixture into the frying pan.
Learn how to fry an Indian appetizer in this free video cooking lesson.
YouTube - Easy Indian Food Recipes : How to Fry Pakora Indian Appetizer
Mohammad Bhai's Special Chai Recipe
Mohammad Bhai's Special Chai Recipe
CHAI TEA WITH EQUAL 56% calorie reduction from traditional recipe.
1/2 cup hot strongly brewed Constant Comment tea (tea with orange and sweet spices)
1/2 cup very warm fat-free or 2% milk*
1 tablespoon Equal® Spoonful**
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Combine all ingredients in beverage mug until blended.Makes 1 serving.
* Note: To warm milk in a microwave, place in glass measuring cup and heat on HIGH for 30 to 40 seconds.
** May substitute 1-1/2 packets Equal® sweetener.
YouTube - Mohammad Bhai's Special Chai Recipe
Another video recipe for making Indian tea
YouTube - Cooking with Heather
Miss Ginsu Makes Fresh Paneer
Miss Ginsu Makes Fresh Paneer
Paneer
(Indian fresh cheese)
Yield: about 1 1/2 cups
INGREDIENTS
Milk1 quart
Lemon juice1 Tbsp
METHOD
Basic Steps: Curdle → Strain → Press & Form
- Bring milk just to boil, then remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice and let set 10 minutes. This separates the curds and whey.
- Strain through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer and squeeze out the excess whey. Flatten into a square shape about 1/2" thick in the cheesecloth. Place between 2 plates, and weigh the top plate down with something heavy like canned goods.
- Chill for 1 up to 8 hours to allow excess whey to be squeezed out. Remove from cheesecloth and cut into squares to use in recipes.
YouTube - Miss Ginsu Makes Fresh Paneer
Everyday Indian Menu: Chapatis
Everyday Indian Menu: Chapatis
Ingredients :
3 cups Fine wholemeal flour or roti flour
1 1/2 teaspoon Salt or to taste
1 tablespoon Ghee or oil, optional
1 cup Lukewarm water
Method :
- Put flour in mixing bowl, reserving about half cup for rolling chapatis.
- Mix salt through the flour in the bowl, then rub in ghee or oil, if used.
- Add water all at once and mix to a firm but not stiff dough.
- Knead dough for at least 10 minutes (the more it is kneaded, the lighter the bread will be).
- Form dough into a ball, cover with clear plastic wrap and stand for 1 hour or longer (if left overnight, the chapatis will be very light and tender).
- Shape dough into balls about the size of a large walnut.
- Roll out each one on a lightly floured board (using reserved flour) to a circular shape as thin as a French crepe.
- After rolling out chapatis, heat a griddle plate or heavy-based frying pan until very hot, and cook the chapatis, starting with those that were rolled first.
- Put chapati on griddle and leave for about 1 minute.
- Turn and cook other side a further minute, pressing lightly around the edges of the chapati with a folded tea towel or an egg slice.
- This encourages bubble to form and make the chapatis light.
- As each one is cooked, wrap in a clean tea towel until all are read.
- Serve immediately with butter, dry curries or vegetable dishes.
Note : In India, the chapatis are cooked on the tawa or griddle and are held for a moment or two right over the fire. This makes them puff up like ballons.
YouTube - mindbites: Carla's Everyday Indian Menu: Chapatis
How to Make Tandoori Naan
How to Make Tandoori Naan
NAAN BREAD RECIPE
Ingredients for Indian naan recipe:
4 cups White Flour (Maida)
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Milk
1 tbsp Sugar
1 Egg
4 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Nigella seeds (Kalunji)
How To Make Naan:- Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and make a well in the middle.
- Mix the sugar, milk, eggs 2tbsp of oil in a bowl.
- Pour this into the center of the flour and knead adding water if necessary to form soft dough.
- Add the remaining oil, knead again, then cover with damp cloth and allow the dough to stand for 15 minutes. Knead the dough again and cover and leave for 2-3 hours.
- About half an before the naan are required, turn on the oven to maximum heat.
- Divide the dough into 8 balls and allow rest for 3-4 minutes.
- Sprinkle a baking sheet with nigella seeds and put it in the oven to heat while the dough is resting.
- Shape each ball of dough with the palms to make an oval shape.
- Bake the indian bread naan until puffed up and golden brown. Serve hot.
YouTube - Fabulous Flats presents: How to Make Tandoori Naan
Cooking Afghani Bread
Video of how it is made in 3rd world countries
YouTube - Cooking Afghani Bread
Onion Pakora or Pakodi Recipe
How to make Onion Pakora or Pakodi
Ingredients:
Onions - 2 big
Channa Dhal - 1 Cup
Green Chillies - 2 ( cut into small pieces)
Curry leaves - 2 reems
Coriander leaves - A few chopped
Baking Soda - A pinch
Salt - to Taste
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Chat masala powdwer - 1/2 tsp ( for extra flavour)
Enough Water
Oil for deep frying
Procedure:
1. Cut the onions length wise and place them in mixing bowl
2. Add the rest of the ingredients with water to make the batter thick enough to slip into the heated oil. Do not add excess water, or else the Pakoras will drink up most of the oil.
3. Now drop small amounts of the mixed batter into the oil for deep frying.
Once the pakoras turn dark yellow or orange color strain them from oil onto a plate with issue paper to drain all the excess oil.
Arrange the Pakoras on a serving plate and choice of sauces ranging from Mint, Tamarind, plum, cherry or even a simple ketchup.
YouTube - Onion Pakoda
Masala Stuffed Bhindi Recipe
How to make Masala Stuffed Bhindi
Ingredients
250gm Lady's fingers slit
Stuffing
100gms onions finely chopped
3/4 tsp red chilli powder
3/4 tsp coriander/dhaniya powder
1tsp aniseed/saunf powder
1/4 tsp haldi/turmeric
1tsp drymango/amchur powder
1tsp oil
salt to taste
seasoning/tadka
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1tbsp oil
Method
1. Make the stuffing by mixing all ingredients under stuffing. Keep some stuffing masala aside.
2. Stuff the remaining masala in the slit lady's fingers using a small spoon.
3. Heat oil for tadka and season it with Jeera/cumin seeds.
4. Now gently drop the stuffed bhindi in the oil, let it cook for some time without covering the pan.
5. Keep stirring gently from time to time and when they are slightly brown add the remaining masala and mix well.
6. Cook the bhindi along with masala just until the masala leaves the oil.
7. Serve hot with chapathi/roti/rice.
YouTube - Masala Stuffed Bhindi
Potato Filled Samosas Recipe
How to make Potato Filled Samosas
Samosa Recipe
Fried, Potato-Filled Dough Pockets
To make the samosa filling, heat in a skillet:
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
pinch of hing
1/2 teaspoon cumin/mustard/sesame seed mixture
When the seeds pop, add:
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), chopped
Saut? until the onion becomes translucent, then add:
1/2 Tablespoon amchur (mango) powder, or 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin/coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch hot red pepper powder
Saut? a few minutes, then add:
3 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled, and cut into very small pieces
1/4 cup frozen peas (opt.)
Mix well and saut? just until heated through, them remove from heat and set aside.
To make the samosa dough, mix in a bowl:
2 cups white flour
2 1/2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons rice flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
Add water gradually (about 1/4 cups) until the dough holds together, and knead well. Roll into a ball and cover with a moist cloth. Let rest about 20 minutes.
To assemble the samosas, break off 1 1/2"-2" pieces of the dough, and roll out into 6"-8" diameter circles. Cut each circle in half. Fold each half-circle in thirds to make a pie-wedge shape. Seal the point by pressing or pinching. Pick up the dough, and seal the outside edge by pinching to form a cone. Fill the cone two-thirds with potato mixture. Moisten the lip of the cone with a little milk or water, and pinch to seal. Press the samosa between your palms to remove air pockets. Flute the top edge and cover with a moist cloth until ready to fry.
To cook samosa, deep fry until browned, turning twice; drain. Serve with Tamarind-Date Chutney.
YouTube - Potato Filled Samosas
Homemade Pita Bread Recipe
How to make Homemade Pita Bread
Flat Breads
Flat breads can be made in dozens of different ways. They can be made from grains other than wheat, such as corn in corn tortillas. They can be made with no leavening, such as matzo or flour tortillas, with chemical leavening (baking soda or baking powder) such as pancakes or crepes, or with yeast, such as naan or pita bread. They can also be made from a starter. And they can be baked (pitas), fried (fry bread), grilled (zebra bread), and, I would imagine even steamed (I'm drawing a blank... anyone?). Flat breads of some sort exist in just about every culture on the globe.
Anyone who grew up in a household where flat breads are an essential part of every meal knows will attest that they are a hundred times better when baked fresh than when bought from the store wrapped in plastic and already two or three days old.
I wasn't brought up in such a house, actually, but a year or two ago I started going to a local Lebanese restaurant solely for the fresh pita bread that they baked. After draining my wallet by eating lunch there every day for a week, I realized pita bread must be pretty simple to make at home. So I tried it and was extremely pleased with the results. I still visit the Lebanese restaurant for their pitas every few weeks, but I've cut back and saved myself a ton of money.
About The Ingredients
There are only 6 ingredients in this recipe for pita bread, and you even have quite a bit of flexibility in choosing which of those to include. I'll go through the ingredients one-by-one:
- Flour - I like to use one cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of all purpose unbleached flour. It gives the pitas a heartier flavor than using all white flour. You can use any combination of the wheat flours you have around the house, from 100% white flour to 100% whole wheat flour. You could probably even use flour made from other grains, though I'd suggest trying it with wheat flour the first time before getting too crazy.
- Salt - Salt is necessary to retard the yeast (slow it down) and to flavor the bread. Without salt bread is pretty... blah. I used kosher salt for this, but any type of salt you have in the house will work just fine.
- Water - Plain old tap water, assuming your water is drinkable. If not, bottled or distilled water. Something close to room temperature (warmer than 50 degrees fahrenheit, cooler than 100 degrees) works best.
- Sugar - A touch of sugar or honey provides a little more food for the yeast and will make the bread brown faster when it caramelizes. It also can add a touch of sweetness to the dough. You can safely omit it from the recipe and it will turn out fine, or add more if you like it sweeter.
- Yeast- I use instant yeast, which is also know as Rapid Rise or Bread Machine yeast. Instant yeast is a little more potent than active dry yeast and can be mixed directly in with your dry ingredients and will have no problem waking up when the water is added. Active dry yeast works just as well as instant yeast, but requires being activated in a little bit of warm water before being added to the rest of the ingredients. If you are using active dry yeast, read the instructions on the package to figure out how to activate the yeast before adding it to this recipe and reduce the amount of water you add later in the recipe by the amount of water you proof the yeast in (i.e., if you activate the yeast in a half a cup of water only add 3/4 to 1 cup later).
- Oil - Oil or fats soften the bread and keep it fresher longer. Olive oil is the most traditional oil to use in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking, but if you do not have any you can use whatever you have in the house. And, in the worst case, you can even omit it.
- Pita Bread
Makes 8 pitas3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening
If you are using active dry yeast, follow the instructions on the packet to active it (see the note on yeast above). Otherwise, mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water (I had to add an extra 1/4 cup).
Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes (or until your hands get tired). If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes.
(The purpose of kneading is to thoroughly combine the ingredients and to break down the flour so that the dough will become stretchy and elastic and rise well in the oven. A simple hand kneading technique is to firmly press down on the dough with the palm of your hand, fold the dough in half toward you like you are closing an envelope, rotate the dough 90 degrees and then repeat these steps, but whatever technique you are comfortable using should work.)
When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. I use canola spray oil, but you can also just pour a teaspoon of oil into the bowl and rub it around with your fingers. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.
When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it'll be easier to shape.
While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.
After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.
If you have a spray bottle in the kitchen, spray a light mist of water onto your baking surface and close the oven for 30 seconds. Supposedly this step reduces the blistering on the outside of your pitas. I've skipped it many times in the past and still been pleased with my breads, so if you don't have a bottle handy it isn't a big deal.
Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn't necessary (in the batch pictured here I removed them at 3 minutes).
That's it. They should keep pretty well, but we almost always eat them as soon as they come out of the oven.
YouTube - Homemade Pita Bread
How to make chapati bread
This is a well known kind of fried rounded and crispy two layred thin chapati bread which remains soft at the same time (which is its main characterisitic!). Very delicious to eat. Pakistani cuisine and delicacy.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3/4 cup hot water or as needed
DIRECTIONS
- In a large bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and salt. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the olive oil and enough water to make a soft dough that is elastic but not sticky. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is smooth. Divide into 10 parts, or less if you want bigger breads. Roll each piece into a ball. Let rest for a few minutes.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat until hot, and grease lightly. On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out the balls of dough until very thin like a tortilla. When the pan starts smoking, put a chapati on it. Cook until the underside has brown spots, about 30 seconds, then flip and cook on the other side. Continue with remaining dough.
YouTube - How to Make A Nice Crispy-Soft Poory?
