MoMos with Yagya Aunty

After Alma my Iranian neighbour left the apartment in moved Prashanti. Nepali, just out of college and into her first job, she makes for yet another wonderful neighbour. True to her name she is calmness personified. Meeting her and her friends and family, all the Nepali women seem to me to be very charming and delicate. Along came the parents a-visiting and before long Yagya aunty and Ganesh uncle were performing poojas at our place! We were so blessed to have them around for Ganesha Chathurthi as well as for Deepavali. How often do you have people of the same faith move next door? In a place like DC!! Ever since of course, my eating habits have been pampered by aunty's cooking. Momos with tangy accompaniments are delivered hot-hot almost daily at my doorstep. After a long work day, this is welcome respite with Mint Tea.



Yagya aunty with Sandhya after a hard day's labour! Cooking Aloo and Tomato Achaar, Making Momos and Sel....




The single most important aspect of Momo making.
Wet the circular wrapper with water all around the edges, fill with filling.
Hold Momo in your left palm.
Join the fag end of the right side by wetting the edges, put your left thumb between the layers and with your right thumb and index finger create frills on one side, stick the inside edges.
Close the Momo.
Let the sides droop a bit, like a basket so that the Momo can sit in the steamer.
Steam in steamer for 5 to 10 mins. Remove, Cool, Serve.




Not just food, there was great entertainment too! We played Dumb Charades with other cousins who had come by to say bye to aunty-uncle who leave soon. Here the talented girls sing 'Dream Dream Dream...Dreeeeeeam'





Pouring Red Hot Chutney over Piping Hot Momos is one of the greatest blessings of life....




This is how they should look when they are done, a bit shiny and translucent. Common, make a few and impress your friends now!



Prashanti is making all the right poses in the kitchen with the steamer, picking on Momos to see if they are done.




As for the Aloo Achaar, it has Til/Sesame paste with Lemon juice and Timul - a fragrant black Pepper found ONLY in Nepal and in the Schezhuan province of China.



The Tomato chutney is hot and tangy more so because of the special kind of souring agent - a Lemon ie Lapsi - is used, that is found ONLY in Nepal.



The grated Choyote is mixed with grated Cheese/Paneer, Onions, Garlic, Ginger, Salt and Oil but you could substitute with grated Cabbage and grated Carrots too.



The Choyote filling has some water in it, it is alright to fill the Momo with that, don't be afraid of making it wet!




The Hong-Kong wrapper from the Korean market is thinner, the Shanghai one is thicker, it is generally found in the freezer section next to ready-made Momos.



Ingredients: Salt, Oil, grated Ginger, grated Garlic, grated Cheese/Paneer, grated Choyote, grated Onion

Sorakaya Masala/ Bottle gourd curry

If you are someone who thinks Bottle gourd is a boring vegetable with no special taste or recipe for it, then here is a recipe that might change your mind after all. I learned this recipe from my sister-in-law (thodikodalu) who originally learned it from our mother-in-law and I found it to bevery tasty and most importantly: quick and easy! Here is how it's made:

Ingredients:

1 Bottle gourd/Sorakaya

1 medium sized onion

5 green chillies (depending on the chillies you use, mine are very spicy)

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Ginger garlic paste

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

Salt

Red chilli powder (if necessary)

Corriander Powder

Curry Leaves

Cilantro

1 cup Milk

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wide pan and add cumin seeds and green chillies to start with. After half a minute, add the chopped onions.

2. As the onions are cooking, add the ginger garlic paste and curry leaves.

3. Cook the onions till they turn lightly brown and add the peeled and chopped bottle guard.

4. Now add salt and cover the pan with a lid to allow the vegetable to cook.

5. As the bottle gourd starts to soften (partly) add the milk, corriander powder and any other masala powder you wish to use. Again close the lid and let the vegetable boil/cook in milk.

6.Stir occasionally with the lid closed until the vegetable is fully cooked (it should be soft when you try to cut it).

7. You may add red chilli powder at any time if you need it be more spicy or to add some color to the dish.

8. When finished, add the cilantro to garnish and serve it with roti or rice.

Ash-e joe with AH

The fun part about being in DC is that your neighbours are from various parts of the world and with a little neighbourly effort they turn into great friends and family members. Alma and her family moved in next door about two years ago and was I delirious...that year I was into Iran and here we had Iranians next door! After a visit to Tehran and Esfahan, where the food is mostly non-vegetarian I realized the value of Ash. Ash, the soups, are of various kinds and here is the one that is traditionally fed to young babies as their first whole meal and kind of remains forever after for most Iraninans, the best comfort food. I can totally see why! All that nutrition and goodness, especially in Winter months. This, Alma made for us in their newly bought, elegant home. She says she is now into Indian food after meeting me and her favourite item is Dosas with Coconut Chutney :)



Stirring the pot



Kashk or Whey is used as a garnish as well as in the soup, the Iranian species is a little sour



The Greens. They are available in dried form in all Iranian stores. Yekta and Sam's Market on Rockville Pike



The Lentils.



The Bean mix - mostly Garbanzo and Kidney and White, pearled Barley (Joe/Jo/Jow)



Fry some Onions and add to the mixture as well as some cooked Rice (not shown in photo)



Garnish with dried, fried Mint and Kashk, if you have them some fried Onions too




Detailed Recipe Here:
http://musicalchef.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/ash-e-joe/

Baklava with Indira Konduri

It has been a tradition for the past few years that Indira, Shobana and I make Diwali sweets together. Usually we settle on two sweets and two 'hots'. We have to find a weekday that suits everyone and work in a terrible frenzy to get back to our daily grind for the next work-day but it is totally worth it. This year we tried to do something different, Laddoos and Jangris are a trifle boring, no? So when Indira suggested that we could try her newly learnt recipe for Baklava, we voted YES!

Bottoms Up! for the process!



Pour sugar and honey syrup (with orange zest and cardamom) over the baked Baklava, let it cool, serve!
(For Syrup - water to sugar ratio is 1:11/2)



Let the Baklava bake till the top is browned



Pre-cut this pastry, afterwards it might refuse to listen! Decorate with cloves



Once you add filling cover again with sheets of phyllo, butter up again



You will need walnut/almond/pistachio nut mixture with powdered sugar for filling




That is the phyllo tray, butter, walnut mixture, not very complicated don't you think?




Lay the dough sheets in your buttered aluminium tray, butter them up too, each sheet should be buttered separately




This is your phyllo dough (Athens brand) and the recipe
De-frost overnite in the refrigerator, thaw the next day an hour before making your Baklava.

Detailed Recipe Here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Baklava-352471

Billala Pulusu/Stew with Besan cakes

Ingredients for the Billalu/Besan Cakes:

1 cup Besan/Gram flour

1 cup water

1/4 onion finely chopped

Little oil

Green chillies

Curry leaves

Turmeric

Salt

Red chilli powder

Ingredients for the Stew/Pulusu:

1 tbsp Oil

1 onion chopped

Green chillies

Garlic

Ginger

Lemon sized tamarind (soaked in water)

Fenugreek Powder/Menthula podi

Cumin Powder

Corriander Powder

Dry Coconut Powder

Cilantro (for garnishing)

Procedure:

1. Heat very little oil in a pan and add green chillies, corriander leaves and onions.

2. As the onions are cooking, add 1 cup of water. Soon after, add turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder accordingly.

3. As the water start to fully boil, add 1 cup of besan

and mix it well.

4. Turn off the heat and let the besan mixture cool down.

5. When the besan mixture cools down, pat it down on a greasy plate and cut the besan into cake like pieces as shown below. Make sure the pieces are hard and comp

ressed.

6. On the other hand, heat oil in a vessel and add, green chillies, corriander leaves, ginger, garlic and onions, mostly in that order.

7. When the onions are cooked, add the water from the soaked tamarind. Add more water to this mixture based on how sour you like your stew to be.

8. Add all the remaining powders into this liquid: Fenugreek powder, Corriander powder, Cumin powder and Dry coconut powder. [The powders are also meant to thicken the stew slightly so add them based on the thickness you like] If you still find the stew to be very watery, then add some more besan to the mixture.

9. Finally, add the besan cakes slowly to the boiling stew and allow for the stew to boil for a few minutes.

10. Add corriander leaves to garnish and serve with hot with rice.

I learned this recipe from my mother-in-law as I loved it when I 1st had it in Warangal. Im sure a lot of you know how to make a stew in your own way. This is one of the ways I have learned it and it works well with the Besan cakes.