Noodle Burrito | Noodle Frankie

Noodle Frankie is extremely popular in my college. A thin tortilla stuffed with red hot noodles and other spices and rolled like a Burrito makes it an absolute delight to munch on during breaks. Bit by the nostalgia bug, (I graduated in March) I decided to recreate the same roll at home. And I believe I almost succeeded. A bit of tailoring the recipe here and there would give me the perfect homemade Noodle Burrito I've been looking for. What you see here is the perfect Noodle Frankie recipe (I hope so!).

Bhel Puri - Mumbai Street Food

Every street, every beach and every hotel will have Bhel Puri (pronounced as Bhél Pooree) on their menu. It is impossible to come to Mumbai and leave without noticing this very popular snack. :) Bhel Puri is a mixture of Puffed Rice and other veggies & spices in a tangy tamarind sauce. It is also called Jhaal Muri in Kolkatta (meaning - Hot puffed rice) and Churumuri in Bangalore.

Dabeli | Indian Sloppy Joe

Dabeli is traditionally sold on the streets of Gujarat and Mumbai. It is made with a sweet and spicy potato mixture which is filled into a small burger bun and then topped with onion, pomegranate, fresh garlic chutney and sév. Pomegranate gives the additional juicy tart-like taste to the Dabeli. (in fact, I would go to the extent of saying - if you can't find pomegranates, don't eat dabeli! :D)

Nylon Sev

Hello everybody!!
Remember we talked about Nylon SEV in the Ragda Patties post? They are beautiful, lime-yellow savory which are used as topping in every Chaat dish possible! They're basically fried very thin noodles made of gram flour. You need a special machine to make Sev. It is called as the Sev-Press. In chennai, "Oma-Podi" looks similar to Sev & the machine used for it can be used to make Sev too. Anyways, making Sev is a time consuming process. Hence, you can buy it of Amazon. Check out the link to your left. While it does not exactly taste like the nylon SHello everybody!! Remember we talked about Nylon SEV in the Ragda Patties post? They are beautiful, lime-yellow savory which are used as topping in every Chaat dish possible! They're basically fried very thin noodles made of gram flour. You need aev we get in Mumbai, it IS an excellent substitute! :-)

If you are planning on making the sev at home, then you'll need the SEV-MAKER or the noodle maker. I found this cheap one on Amazon. (look below) Even though the holes are huge, I'm sure they'll taste great. Here's the recipe you have to follow to make the SEV :-

Ingredients:
Besan/ Gram Flour/ Chickpea Flour - 1 cup
Hing/Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Haldi/Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Hot Oil - 2 tablespoons
Oil for deep-fryingSalt to taste

  

Method:

1. Mix flour, Salt, Hot Oil, Asafoetida, turmeric with very little water (around 3 to 4 tbsps) to prepare a stiff dough.

2. Get the Sev-Pressing machine or the noodle maker. Choose the one with very tiny holes. 

3. Fill the dough into the utensil and press out strands to form a mesh directly in hot Oil.

4.  Deep fry on low flame and remove on tissue paper.

5. Let it cool, crush it and store in airtight containers

Ragda Puri (& Dahi Puri)

Heyo People!
Now that I've posted about Ragda Patties, what to do with the leftover Ragda stew? Simple! Make Ragda Puris! :-D :-D They are another famous Chaat dish that taste absolutely delicious! And they are ridiculously easy to make! I'm writing the recipe for Dahi Puri too because they're almost similar.

What you'll need - 
Puris - 8 pieces (you can use how many ever you want to make!) J
Chopped Onions - 1 small cup
Boiled & Mashed Potato - 1 medium sized
Ragda - 1 cup
Green Chutney - 2 tablespoons
Sweet Chutney - 2 tablespoons
Chaat Powder - as per taste
Coriander / Parsley (finely chopped)- 2 tablespoons
Curds (or Dahi) - 1 cup
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Nylon Sev

Method
For Ragda Puri
1. Arrange 8 puris on a plate. With your thumb, gently press the centre of the Puri to get a hole in the middle.
2. Fill in the puris with a little bit of mashed potato & chopped onion

3. Boil the ragda with a little water to make it into pouring consistency. Then fill the puris with Ragda all over.

 

4. Mix some water with 2 tablespoons of the Mint-Coriander chutney. Again, pour them into all the Puris

  

5. Similarly, mix water with Dates-Tamarind chutney & pour them all over the puris

 

6. Sprinkle some Chaat Powder all over the puris.
7. Fill the Puris with Nylon Sev or simply plain Sev.

8. Squeeze some lemon on top of it & decorate with some Coriander / Parsley leaves.

 

For DAHI PURI

- All the above steps remain the same. 

- Instead of pouring Ragda, mix curds with some salt & chaat powder and pour them all over the Puris

- Decorate with Sev.

 

Enjoy! J

Puri / Puchka

Hello folks! 


I continue with my Chaat-making journey. Today, I’m going to talk about the PURI used in Paani Puri (also known as Gol Gappa), Dahi Puri, Ragda Puri et al. If you’re in India, then you’ll have absolutely NO problem finding these Puris in the market. You can find it in almost any general store. However, if you have no access to these Puris, then fret not. We can absolutely make them at home! To be honest, it is a labour intensive process. So if you can get them from out, then please do so! :-D


Here’s what you’ll need -
All purpose flour / Maida – 1 cup
Semolina / Rawa – 2 cups
Rice flour – ½ cup
Black gram flour/ Urad dal atta – 2 tablespoons (optional)
1 tbsp oil or gheeSalt – 1 tablespoon (or to taste)
Water - for kneading
Oil for deep frying


How to proceed - 
1. Combine all the mentioned ingredients (except oil for deep frying), adding water slowly and make a dough. Leave aside covered with damp cloth for 30-40 minutes. (important!)
2. Knead the dough again. Pinch off some dough and make very small balls. Roll out small thin round shaped disks (like Rotis), using the rim of a container to cut out the round shape.
Alternative:- rolling the dough into smalls balls can be time consuming & boring! So what I did was to separate the dough into 4 or 5 big portions. Rolled it out into large round shaped disk. And then I took a very small bottle cap & just cut of small round disks like these - 

3. Heat enough oil for deep frying. It should be on medium high (the oil should not be very hot) Once it is hot, slide few disks into the hot oil and using the back of the ladle, press in the center and along the edges and you will find that it will puff up.
4. Flip over and fry the other side till light golden brown. Don’t fry too much as it will turn too dark. Remove on to absorbent paper.

5. Cool and store in an air tight container and use when required.


These Puris are crispy & can be used for Gol Gappa (Pani Puri), Ragda Puri, Dahi Puri etc. If you have the time, energy & the interest, then do try to make them at home! :-)

Ragda PATTIES

FINALLY! J J J
After covering all the basics of Mumbai Fast foods, (Green Chutney, Sweet Chutney, Ragda, Chaat Masala) I'm finally going to post about one of my favorite fast foods - the Ragda Patties! Insanely easy yet amazingly tasty! What more can you ask for? Having a party? Make Patties. Bored of the usual foods? Make Patties. Have any leftovers? Make patties! J
A Patty is a flattened, usually round shaped serving of vegetables or meat. Of course, since I'm a vegetarian, I'll be showing you how to make Vegetable Patties only! ;-)


Ragda Patties is damn easy! I had already posted about how to make Ragda. If you haven't read that, be sure to read it because Patties taste best with Ragda. Of course, you can have them without it too! You can have them with sauce or any other dipping!

FOR THE PATTIES
Ingredients
Boiled Potatoes - 2-3 medium sized
Bread Slices - 2
Semolina / Rawa - (A palm-full) around 2-3 tablespoons
Any other cooked vegetables - 1 cup (I skipped & made only potato patty)
Green Chilli - 3-4 (chopped)
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 teaspoons
Turmeric (Haldi) powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - 1 tablespoon (or as per taste)
Red chilli powder - 2 teaspoons
Finely chopped Coriander leaves - 1 small cup
Basil/ Mint etc - 1/2 cup (optional)
Cornflour - 1 tablespoon (to be added only if the mixture isn't too thick)
Oil - to shallow fry


Method
1. Mash the potatoes in a bowl. (if you're using other vegetables, you can add them too. Make sure you don't add veggies that tend to leave a lot of water - like tomatoes, cucumbers etc.)

2. Grind the Bread slices to get bread crumbs. If not, tear the bread in very small pieces.

3. Add the bread crumbs, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, green chillies, salt, red chilli powder, Semolina (rawa), coriander, mint, basil leaves to the vegetables.

4. Mix them & knead them with your hand. Do not smash them to much.
5. If you find the mixture to not be thick, add the cornflour.
6. Make small balls of the mixture.

7. Place one ball in a hand & gently press it with the other to form a diskette. If the sides of the round disk leaves cracks, join them with your fingers.

8. Heat around 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a pan. Place 2-3 patties on the pan & let it cook for about a minute on medium flame.

9. Gently turn the patties so that the other side can get cooked too.

10. Leave the patties on the stove for about 5 minutes each side again on low flame so that they get nice and crispy on both sides.

  

11. Remove & place them on a tissue paper to absorb excess oil
12. Enjoy with Ragda, sauce, mint chutney, sweet chutney or any dipping of your choice! J
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To assemble the Ragda & Patties:-
1. Place 1 or 2 patties on a plate.
2. Mix some already prepared Mint-Coriander chutney with some water. Pour it all over the patties.

3. Now mix the Sweet tamarind dates chutney with water to make it into pouring consistency. Pour it all over the patties.

4. Sprinkle some Chaat Powder all over the patties.
5. If the Ragda has thickened, mix it with water & boil it. (Ragda patties taste the best when ragda is boiling hot!)
6. Pour enough ragda all over the patties. A lot of the stew can flow all over the plate too.

7. Add some chopped onions all over the mixture.

8. Now add some chopped coriander leaves.

9. Squeeze a tiny piece of Lemon on top of it.
10. You can enjoy it this way, or add some Nylon Sev (if you can't find this, then normal Sev. You can make this at home too. Will post about it later on) on top of it & have it! :-)

Your comments are welcome! :-) :-)