Tag: vegetarian
Batata Vada
After living in Sweden for 2 months now, I have started craving typical Indian fried snacks! Batata Vada is one of them, which forms an integral part of the most famous street food of Mumbai called as Vada paav.
People have written so much about this food item, so much so, it’s called the “Indian burger“. The vada is considered to be similar to the meat patty found in any standard burger. Difference is – this one is vegetarian and made up of only potatoes (batata)! Yes, potatoes and garlic are key ingredients. Clearly, if you have phobia for either of it, this one’s not for you.
I wouldn’t eat Batata vada as often as I would have eaten Samosa back in Mumbai. Nevertheless, its one of the easiest recipe and a tasty snack!
Ingredients
For covering
5 tbsps Besan or Gram flour
2 tbsps rice flour
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Water to make batter
1 tbsp coarsely cut coriander leaves
For stuffing
3 medium sized boiled potatoes
4 finely cut green chilies
4 cloves of garlic into finely cut pieces
1/2 inch piece of garlic cut into fine pieces
2 tbsp coarsely cut coriander leaves
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp asafoetida
1 tsp mustard seeds
Oil for frying
Salt to taste
Method
First mash boiled potatoes. Mix garlic, ginger, chilies and salt in it. Add 2 tbsps of oil in frying pan. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds. Wait for the seeds to crackle. Add asafoetida, turmeric powder in it. Add mashed potatoes and fry for few minutes. Add coriander, cumin powder and coriander leaves.Keep the mixture aside to cool down for five -ten minutes. Prepare batter in the mean time. Mix gram flour, rice flour,salt, red chili powder, coriander leaves, turmeric powder and water.
Make small balls of potato mixture. Drop these balls in the batter, check that the potato balls are thoroughly covered with batter. Now drop them in oil for deep frying. Remove the vada when they turn golden brown color.
Verdict
They taste yummy! I have prepared this for the first time and I was delighted with the taste. Yay! They taste good even with a simple tomato sauce. 🙂
Vegetarian Samosa
I was surprised when I had seen vegetarian samosa in a Italian salad shop called Le Appétit in Copenhagen, Denmark. Samosa’s are commonly found in any part of India. It’s a cheap snack found in road-side, sea-side food stalls, hotels and restaurants. It’s a tasty snack eaten with tea or coffee in office canteen too.
Samosa’s are eaten when stuffed in pav (Indian bread) teamed with a spicy red chutney or Green chillies. Samosa’s can also be eaten with cholle, which will be called as Samosa chat.
I made Samosa from scratch for Sunday breakfast. I had left-over choole from Saturday night dinner. Today I will describe how to make a basic vegetarian Samosa.
Ingredients
For stuffing
Boiled four medium sized potatoes
Boiled green peas – 1cup
Oil
Jeera
Grated ginger – 1/2inch
Finely chopped Green chillies – 2
Garam masala 1 tbsp
Jeera (cumin) powder 1tbsp
Coriander seeds powder 1 tbsp
Amchoor powder 1/2 tsp
Salt
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Red chilli powder 1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds 1tsp
Coriander seeds- 1tsp coarsely crushed
For cover
All purpose white flour 200gm
Water
Ghee (butter)
Salt
I started with preparing the stuffing for samosa. Take some oil in a pan. Add jeera, coriander seeds in it. After the seeds look dark, add green chillies and ginger. This should be followed by smashed boiled potatoes and peas. Cook then for few minutes. Add salt, cumin powder, coriander seeds powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, amchoor powder and red chilli powder successively while constantly stirring the potatoes.
Knead the mixture of flour, salt and ghee with water into soft yet firm dough. Now make small balls of the dough and roll then in to circles. Cut these circles in to semi circles and then join them along the diameter to form a coffee. Fill then with the stuffing. Ensure to leave some space for folding and sealing them at the base. I used water to seal the edges, dough should be thick enough to hold the stuffing.
Now shallow fry them in oil till they are uniformly golden brown in colour. It can be eaten with any chutney or tomato sauce.
I served them with chhole (chick pea preparation). Garnish them with coriander leaves and onion.
Appearance
Satisfactory. It looked well cooked and the deals did not open while frying to create a mess.
Taste
It tastes awesome!! Specially with the chhole preparation. I will soon upload the chhole recipe.
Verdict
A really good Sunday breakfast!!
Restaurant experience: Kobe Sizzlers
Restaurant Name: Kobes Sizzlers
Place: Kormangala, Bangalore, Karnataka
I had never been to a place before which specializes only in sizzlers. This was an interesting experience. Boiled, slightly charred vegetables and a patty with French fries were the common contents. Ordering french fries instead of mashed potatoes was a good decision.
I ordered Vegetarian Satellite with rice! This is vegetarian sizzler with mushroom sauce, fresh cream and cheese. It looked good but the white sauce and rice combination was not at all flavourful infact quite bland. Can you see the big white piece of melted cheese? I bet you would be tempted.
Nevertheless, the vegetarian sizzler ordered by my husband was very tasty. He ordered Vegetarian Sizzler with schezwan sauce and noodles! It was spicy and tasty!
Though, it was a heavy meal we were tempted to order sizzling brownie with vanilla ice cream. Yummy 🙂
Verdict:
Service was good, yet brownie could have arrived earlier on the table. Also, brownies are not supposed to be served so sizzling hot that almost half the chocolate gets burnt! Don’t order Vegetarian Satellite and definitely not with rice.
