Lazy saturday & Bread Pizza

For a while I have been thinking to do a daily post of simply what we ate in whole day. NaBloPoMo is a good opportunity for that. Yesterday was Karwachauth. It's a Indian festival where married woman keep fast for their husbands long life. It's hard for me to understand the connection between woman's fast and husbands long life but this is one of festivals so wide and popular that most woman in my opinion do not care about the connection. Anyways, after a long day of fast it was bit lazy  start to Saturday. P was out before even I got up. So gave  A breakfast of cereal and R some grated banana with milk. When P came back I quickly fixed this bread pizza.  I love my toaster oven.  It is so handy.

Bread Pizza can have many variations. Here I diced some Red and green bell pepper, onion, tomato. Mixed them and added some red pepper flakes and salt. Brushed the bread slice with some jarred marinara, topped it with vegetable mixture and sprinkled some grated cheese. Baked in my toaster oven for 10 minutes  at 400C and broiled in last 2 minutes.

As for cheese I like Kraft shredded mozzarella with Philadelphia cream cheese . Easy to melt and creamy this cheese is very handy to fix something for my picky toddler. Back in India my mother in law makes it with paneer and my husband loves that version. She mixes crumbled paneer with all the veggies and add it on top of buttered slices of bread before baking them.

So after this , lunch got little late. I just made some rice to go along with leftover Chhole from previous night. As for dinner  again there were some subji's from earlier in week. So I made hot chapatis to go along with them. So this day was for most part  no major cooking day which I really liked. R had some khichdi in afternoon and  roasted semolina with milk in dinner.

Daal ki poori.

It was sunday and I really wanted to cook something that will fit for breakfast as well as lunch..right a brunch.My husband tries to stay away from fried stuff but once in a while he dosent mind indulging. So here I got a chance to make these delicious Kachoris. These kachoris part of traditional snacks in Northern India are more like stuffed poori unlike khasta kachori .Henceforth they are much lighter then khasta kachori.In Northern Indian state of UP(Uttar Pradesh) we can easily enjoy these kachoris freshly made at street side vendors daily in the morning as a breakfast item(surely will be a heavy breakfast for me).They are served with a spicy aloo ki subji.Though they are good enough to be eaten alone they can be complemented with coriander chutney also.

Here goes the recipe:

For Dough:

All-Purpose flour/Maida (2 Cups)

Refind Oil/Vegetable Shortening (1/4 Cup)

Ajwain(1 tsp)

Salt (1 tsp)

For Filling:

Urad dal (1 cup)(Skin removed,soaked for 2 hrs)

Green Chillies (1, Small)

Ginger (1 inch piece)

Spices:

Chilli Powder (1/2 Tsp)

Amchoor Powder (1 Tsp)

Salt (To Taste)

Garam Masala (1/4 tsp)

Heeng (pinch)

Zeera (1/2 tsp)

Fennel seeds(1 tsp ,crushed)

Oil(1 1/2 Tbsp)

Corinader(Finely chopped)

Method:
1. Start by making the dough or the crust for the kachori. Mix all the dry ingredients so that flour has the crumbly consistency.

2. Now knead a firm dough using little water.Knead it well for few minutes.
3. Keep the dough aside, covered with a plastic wrap or a wet cloth for about 15-20 mins.

For filling:

1. Strain water out of soaked dal.Add green chili and ginger to it and grind this mixture .Try to use minimal water adding little as needed. We dont want to grind it to paste.Keep it little coarse.

2. Now heat oil in heavy bottom pan. When oil is hot add heeng and then Zeera.When Zeera starts crackling add grinded dal.

3. Stir the dal. Add salt,red chili powder,amchoor,garam masala,crushed fennel seeds.Mix these well with dal and let it cook for about 5-10 mins with constant stirring till dal is cooked.

4. Add coriander and let it cool.

How to proceed :

1.Roll each part of the dough into the circle of 50 mm (2") diameter.Keep one part of the filling mixture in the centre of the rolled dough circle.Cover the filling mixture with the dough by slowly stretching it over the filling mixture.Close the ends tightly by pinching them together and if necessary, remove the excess dough.Roll each part into a circle of 62 mm. (2½") diameter. Also make sure that the filling does not spill out.Deep fry in a hot oil over a slow flame till they puff up and turns golden brown on both sides.

2. Serve hot with Coriander Chutney/ Aloo ki subji.

Recipe of Aloo Subji coming soon!