MBP @ Coffee's with Finger Food!

I bet you all, there are going to be a lot of entries for MBP a culinary event started by our very own Rooma! The theme for this month was Finger Food, which instantly made me think of ALL the street food in India.... The chaat stalls where one stands by the roadside and eats Pani Puri , bhel, a bhutta (corn on the cob, Mumbai ishtyle!!!), Wada Pav.... God, I need a break here.... I'm drooling all over this keyboard! 'scuse me.....

I'm back... one thing that we Indians really enjoy is eating our food with our fingers, not that we do not use spoons and forks, oh yes! we do, when we go to fancy restaurants! but there is something so very satisfying about eating the way we do, with our fingers! In fact eating with your fingers is a cultural experience (for those visiting India). And those who frown upon this practice for hygine.. well, this is one chance you get to wash your hands thoroughlybefore you eat! so there!
Now, moving on to my entry for MBP... yes, I wanted to make the 'Alu Samosa' that we eat so often... But I had to kinda delay that a bit, this weekend we are entertaining a small group of friends and I want to make samosas then, and having these deep fried goodies twice in the same week would have been a bit too much!
So hunting across blogs got me to here...and my search ended! I was waiting to try out puff pastry for a while and here was this chance of doing just that!


The only variation I made was I skipped the Peas.... I am not a fan of peas... un-hunh! I served these with Maggi Hot and Sweet sauce! Yummy and perfect for an evening snack!!

Thank you Rooma for hosting this wonderful event & Priya, for the recipe!!

D is for -Dadpe pohe

This is yet another snack from Maharashtra! A simple and spicy tea time snack, just when you want something that is spicy and tangy! Ummm!!
My Mother used to make this snack for us... in fact sometimes it was almost a substitute for 'sukha bhel' !
This snack needs little time to prepare and consists of items which are normally available at home.
I would like to make this as my entry for Nupur's Invitation for the A-Z of Indian Veges.
at One Hot Stove.... Hey Nupur, this will qualify, won't it?

You need :

2 cups Thin Poha
2-3 tbsp. Roasted Peanuts (or raw peanuts that can be fried in oil)
1 big Onion
1- 2 Tomato
1 Lemon (Juice)
Sugar to taste
1 Green chilly ( + / - to taste)
Salt to taste
2 tbsp. Oil
1/2 tsp. each Mustard + Cumin seeds
Pinch asafetida
1/4 spn. Turmeric
Few Curry leaves
Dry Red Chilly
Cilantro to garnish


For the Tadka:
Heat oil. Fry the raw peanuts to a golden crispy brown. Add the mustard seeds, after they sputter add cumin seeds, add asafetida.
Add the dry red chili and curry and turmeric powder.
Let this tadka cool a little.
Finely chop the Onions, Tomato and Cilantro.
Mix together the Poha, onion, tomato and green chili.
Add the salt and sugar.
Add the Tadka to the poha. Add lemon juice. Mix thoroughly.
Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve immediately.
This snack does not need any water as the onion and tomato help in making the poha soft. However, keeping it for long only makes it soggy.

You can also add green peas, carrots to give it additional nutrition. Alternately, adding grated raw mango can be substituted for lemon juice.

Life is rum, that way......

No, this post has nothing remotely close to Rum in it... sorry about that! I was merely referring to the expression one uses.... Life is rum.... you know the kind of expression Bertie Wooster uses when he is puzzled about certain circumstances.... he plunks a few bars on his piano and says, to Jeeves, " you know Jeeves, Life is rum.." to which the inimitable Jeeves only says, "Indeed Sir"

Now what has all this to do with the post, you say? Well, that's just what I found myself saying this afternoon... of course, there was no Jeeves, just M and I, whiling away our time...
So after the usual 'tucking in the corners', 'setting things straight', I pottered into the kitchen, much like Lord Emsworth (Of Blandings Castle) absentmindedly pottered around his home...
with nothing much on my mind. After a peaceful moment (I knew it was too good to last!) I (fretfully) mentioned to M - that I was COMPLETELY out of stock in the kitchen.
M, slowly, raised his eyebrows ( I should have sensed it then.... ) and said(not asked) "Nothing?!" "NO" I said.. someone once told me I had a stupid habit of putting both my feet in my mouth on occasions .... this is was one of those moments... So M got up and strode in to the kitchen, unlike my pottering in .. and started poking around and soon had things removed from all drawers by the bushel...... leaving me, well, digging my toes in the carpet and looking sheepish....
I had no idea, I had ALL those things in ALL those corners!! And in Ziploc bags! Well, well... what can I say? Genius is sometimes absent-minded!! Oh, I could see M's lips curl up, but he said not a word, just stuck up those lists on the fridge where I can see them all the time! (The yellow post-it is for items to be consumed on priority, and till such time, not a peep into any grocery store....) As for me ... I went on to making do with the ziploc bag and it's contents... instead of going off and buying all colourful vegetables... fruit.... some other grocery stuff... oh well, as I said earlier, Life is rum!
Now, this is a slightly coarser variety of farina I have used. The colour is a warm nutty brown and lends a nice flavour to the upma. Of course, I needed a little more water than the usual to cook this.....


1 cup Farina (rava/ sooji.. in this case, coarse cracked wheat farina)
1 med. size onion
2 green chilies chopped
1/2 tsp. each Urad daal & Chana daal
1/4 spn. Cumin seeds
A few curry leaves
~2 spn.oil
2 1/4 cup water (1/4 cup more, if u like your upma a bit moist)
Salt to taste
1 1/2 spn sugar
Juice of 2 lemons *(small size)
1/2 spn. ghee (optional)
Cilantro to garnish

Heat 1 spn. oil in a kadhai, add the farina to it and roast it for a while till it changes colour (be careful now, the colour of this type of farina is already brown, so don't go ahead and make it dark!).
Remove when done and set aside.
In the same kadhai, heat 1 spn. oil, add the urad and chana daal, when it turns a nice golden brown, add the cumin seeds, chopped chilies, curry leaves and onion.
Cook till the onion is tender.
Add the water, lemon juice, salt and sugarand bring to a boil.
Add the roasted farina.
Cover and cook till the water is absorbed and the farina is cooked and soft.
Add a dab of ghee, mix and simmer and cook another 2-3 mins.
Garnish with cilantro and serve hot.

* You can substitute buttermilk for the lemon juice, whisk half a cup of plain yogurt (slightly sour) with water.