Friday, February 15, 2008

The delights of blogging: Funke/Waffole

From the day I became a blogger I have seen so many different varieties of foods from all over the globe. I have even tried out a few and loved them. But for a few weeks now I have been Googling away on the Internet like never before for something not global but very close to home. The reason behind it is this very interesting project that I am doing with a group of friends. The project is to create an attractive display of Maharashtrian Culinary Delights (in pictures of course) for our local library. Everyday as we are prepare for this I realise what a vast variety of Maharashtrian recipes there is to choose from and it is mind boggling having to choose which ones will go up on the display and which ones won't. And this is the case inspite of the fact that we are dealing with only one state of India. God knows we would probably have gone crazy had it been a project about Indian Cuisine in general. Now Maharashtra being a large state (as the name itself denotes) boasts of a cuisine so varied that some of the dishes that are commonly cooked in the north of the state are not even heard of in the south and vice versa of course. I must say this project has provided the perfect opportunity for us to explore the delightful cuisine of our own state.

Just a couple of days back while I was on one such culinary journey on the net I discovered this fabulous and very very simple recipe from Khandesh. Khandesh is an area to the north of Maharashtra and Khandeshi cuisine is particularly known for it's earthy and spicy flavours. I read the original recipe on Aarti's Corner and it was the simplicity of the recipe that really appealed to me. I made just a couple of changes. Firstly I reduced the number of chillies so my son would not make a fuss , secondly I mixed in the sesame seeds along with all the other ingredients in the dough and I also added a bit of sugar .


You need:


1 cup Toor Daal


2 onions finely chopped


1/3 cup coriander, finely chopped


1 inch ginger minced( or use a tblspn of store bought bottled minced ginger)


3 cloves garlic minced


2 green chillies minced


4-5 tsp sesame seeds


1 -2 tsp lemon juice


1/2 tspn sugar


salt to taste


Method:


1) Soak Toor Daal for 1-2 hrs


2) Drain all water and coarsely grind it


3) Mix all the remaining ingredients and knead together


4) Make small dumplings of any shape you like


5) Put these dumplings in a steamer/cooker and steam it for 15-20 mins .


The healthy version of this dish is the steamed one . But if you are in an indulgent mood like I was you can fry the dumplings. Eitherway they are irresistable.



If any of you have any typically Maharashtrian recipes that could be used for my project ,do mail me your suggestions . I would be more than happy to research them.


10 comments:

vimmi said...

Wow that looks yummy. For typical maharashtrian food u can try sabudana vadas, khichdi, misal, aamti. Do visit mumbai-masala.com.It has a great variety of maharashtrian recipes

Anonymous said...

Looks Delicious and beautiful presentation.I am sure your library is going to benefit from your artistic skills, good luck with the project.

Aparna Rao

Mythreyee said...

What a lovely recipe. Looks fantastic and the display is just stunningly beautiful and tempting.

bee said...

lovely. maharashtrian recipes would alos include mumbai street food like pav bhaji and bhel puri and parsi specialties like dhansak, won't they?

and i would definitely recommend a couple fo recipes with val (hyacinth bean). it's a very maharashtrian ingredient. like valache birde and dalimbay bhat (theya re on nupur's blog, i think). plus there ought o be one recipe with tirphal, 'cos it's special to this region.

Linda said...

What a lovely presentation, and the recipe sounds delicious! :)

Shubhangi said...

your blog looks very colorful and exciting....I havent yet been thru all of it but this recipe is so different and nutritious...I've never seen turichi daal used for making dumplings !!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I loved the presentation..
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TestingSalesforce said...

Hi Anu

So nice recipes you have created. I would like to add yours to my blog. Just linked to it. Whenever you are free,just visit my blog.
Thanks
Anu

Dori said...

I love that dish, it makes such a nice picture...the food looks delicious, too!

Spice-is-nice said...

Hi!ure blog looks great ! for maharashtrian food, ucan try vatli dal tht is made forGanpati visarjan.What can be more maharashtrian?!!