At home, try these delicacies

Amid the lockdown and scare of coronavirus all around, this Navratri is a time when we should all join hands in prayer, stay at home and make the best use of time by trying these recipes, which are not only easy to make but also easy to digest.

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Sabudana wada skewers

Ingredients

250 gm potato, boiled

750 gm sabudana, soaked

5 gm crushed raw peanuts

1 ltr refined oil

100 gm cumin seeds

20 gm green chillies, chopped

6 skewers

5 gm red chilli powder

Sendha salt to taste

Method

Soak the sabudana overnight, strain and pat dry in the morning. Crush the soaked sabudana after adding sendha salt, cumin seeds, crushed raw peanut and chopped green chill ies.

Add boiled potatoes to this mix and skewer onto wooden sticks. Deep fry the sago skewers on low flame till they turn crispy or golden in colour.

Serve the Sabudana wada skewers hot and fresh with some tangy tomato home-made chutney for the best results.

Rajasthani dahi pittod

Ingredients:

100 gm Bengal gram flour (besan)

100 ml fresh butter milk

3 gm sendha salt

1 litre oil

2 gm red chilli powder

5 gm fresh homemade yoghurt

1 gm cumin seeds

5 gm coriander powder

2 gm turmeric powder

5gm green chilli paste

50 gm tomato, chopped

2 gm green coriander, chopped

A pinch of asafoetida

Method

To prepare Pittod:

Take Bengal gram flour (besan), butter milk, turmeric, sendha salt, green chilli paste and red chilli powder and mix it well in a deep bowl. Now heat some oil in a non-stick pan or a heavy bottom pan and add a pinch of asafoetida as well as cumin seeds to it. Let it crackle for a few seconds and then add besan mixture to the oil. Keep cooking and stirring this mixture on high flame until it starts to boil. Reduce the flame and cook for another 12-14 minutes. Keep stirring it at regular intervals to avoid any lumps until completely cooked. Now spread the batter on greased plates in a thick layer. Once it cools down and sets, cut it into rectangles and deep fry or shallow fry them till golden brown and crisp. Keep these aside.

For the gravy:

Mix yoghurt with besan and keep aside. Add oil in a pan; then add chopped tomatoes, red chilli and turmeric powder to it. Add the yoghurt and besan mix; keep stirring it on a low flame.

Add fried pittod to this gravy and simmer on low flame.

Finish the dish by topping it with some freshly chopped green coriander and serve hot.

– By Executive Chef Japvir Singh Vohra at J W Marriott, Chandigarh

Khatte meethe kaddu kebab

Ingredients

250 gm red pumpkin (peeled and thinly sliced)

2 medium potatoes boiled

20 gm raisins, soaked

½ cup sabudana, soaked and drained

3 green chillies, finely chopped

1 tsp ginger chopped

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon crushed black pepper

1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves. Chopped

2 tsp anardana powder

Rock salt to taste

Refined oil for frying

Method

Heat oil in a pan and fry the slices of pumpkin until its golden brown in colour and keep it aside on an absorbent paper to drain the excess oil. Take the boiled potatoes and pumpkin in a mixing bowl; mash it up.

Add chopped ginger, green chillies, cumin seeds, anardana powder, pepper, rock salt, raisins and fresh coriander to the mashed mixture of pumpkin and potatoes. Mix everything well and combine the mixture into dough.

Divide the dough into 7-8 equal portions and roll each portion between the palms and flatten to make a kebab. Now coat the kebab from both sides evenly with soaked sabudana. Arrange all the kebabs on a plate and refrigerate for 10 minutes (if you have time) so that the patties hold the shape well and do not crumble while deep frying.

Again heat the oil and fry the kebab till golden brown in colour; garnish and serve hot with green apple chutney.

Beetroot aloo halwa

Ingredients

4 pieces beetroot, grated

2 pieces potatoes, grated

2 cup milk

50 gm malai mawa

20 gm cashewnut, chopped

20 gm almond, slivered

20 gm raisins, soaked

4 tbsp desi ghee

80 gm sugar

¼ tsp cardamom powder

Method

Take a large heavy-bottomed kadhai and put it on gas burner on moderate flame; heat desi ghee, add grated beetroot and grated potato, keep stirring it all the time and cook it for 8-10 minutes. In the meantime, boil the milk on the second burner and add it in to the beetroot mix, stir it well. Cover and boil for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cook this mixture until milk evaporates completely. Add sugar and mix well. After cooking for 5 minutes, ghee separates from halwa.

Add 30 gm mawa and 15 gm of each dry nuts. Now flavour it with cardamom powder. Mix well and cook it for further 5 minutes.

Serve the delicious halwa in a bowl and garnish it with remaining mawa as well as with dry nuts.

– By Chef Sharad Nautiyal

– Compiled by Sheetal