Jihva for Love

I never stepped into kitchen at my Mom’s place for the purpose of cooking. Neither did my mom ever force me for that. Instead Mom always thought and told me that if I can learn these programming stuffs , become an engineer, and handle my job such easily then cooking will not be a hard thing for me any day to learn. She taught me that cooking is an art and I can learn to make any variety of dishes just by knowing some basic things and then cook it according to my taste and style.

Not only that, Dad is a foodie too and he keeps on sharing his experience with cooking many times. Even when I was not active in kitchen I was keen on those tips of dad. And I remember many times I observed Mom on how she cooks while chit chatting with her specially in the evening times when I normally get back from job after a long tired day .... Before that when I was studying in schools and college I think I never gave it a slightest attention on how these cooking things are done and which dish needs what ingredients... ahhh.... those carefree days... :D.

I remember sometimes when Mom was out of town for some reason, and if sisters are also not around then dad used to cook everything except roti and I used to make that only . A much pampered child I was. They did and still doing everything to make me feel more comfortable and secure.

I think both Mom and Dad together made me what I am with cooking today. Well, truly till date I never made a complete meal just by myself for them , but I want to tell them that – “ Your little Pooja has grown up now and is little bit known for her cooking among some good friends around and you are the reason of this credit given to me : ). I remember you every time I cook anything special , and I am always proud to say that just like all other things of life I learn t cooking also from both of you : ) . “While from Mom I learn how to cook healthy, with minimum possible use of oil, dad taught me which taste goes perfect with other taste of food. Little things in cooking makes big differences in the final taste of any dish.
Here is a tasty dish, which is my favorite - specially when having some unexpected guest and if I want to cook something really soon. For that purpose I used ready made Goya’s chickpeas. Otherwise I always prefer to soak it over night and then boil it along with a pinch of edible soda. This takes less than 1 hours to prepare meal for 4 people and it indeed is a very tasty dish.


Ingredients :
For chhole –
1 cup soaked chickpeas
1 cup finally chopped tomatoes
½ cup chopped onion
½ inch cinnamon stick cut in to tiny pieces
4-5 black pepper
Chhole masala ( I use Everest brand – and just love it too much for the flavor it gives to this dish ).
1-2 tsp oil.
½ tsp turmeric powder .
Salt to taste .
2 tsp lime juice.
Fresh Coriander leaves to garnish

For Bhature –
1 cup of wheat flour
½ cup sour curd
Little oil to knead dough
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry bhature.

Chhole Bhature - Recipe :
Boil the chickpeas adding a pinch of edible soda. Mean while knead dough for bhature. Take wheat flour(same which we use to make roti) add salt to it , mix well and add curd to it. Mix it well with dough and then add water enough to make a smooth dough for it . finally add little oil and knead it so that dough will not be sticky. Keep it aside , cover it fully with any vessel to a damp cloth for half an hour. Mean while take out boiled chick peas , mash ¼ of it roughly. Adding messed chickpeas will make little thick and nice gravy for chhole.

In a kadai or Pan heat 1-2 tsp oil, when hot add cinnamon stick and black pepper to it ,when it leaves a nice aroma add chopped onion to it , cook it till golden brown and the and chopped tomatoes to it. Cook it on medium heat till it turns to nice gravy like consistency . Add turmeric powder , chhole masala and salt to it , next add boiled and messed chickpeas to it and mix well together .If there is not enough liquid for gravy , add little water to it .( If tomatoes are not much juicy this might happen.) Let it cook on slow heat for 3-4 minutes stirring occasionally . Finally when extra water evaporates turn off the heat add lime juice to it .

For bhature, make small lemon sized balls of the bhature dough and roll it into big round puri of around 4-5 inch diameter. Heat oil in a Deep bottomed pan and deep fry bhature on medium heat till golden on both sides.
Adding curd to knead the dough for bhature makes soft and fluffy bhature which is little different in taste than normal puris – perfect bhature should be like that.

Serve hot with some sliced onion and lime on side.
Takes less time than any regular meal and makes a wonderful dish to enjoy .

Mom and Dad - I hope this is something that will make you feel proud about me for yet another reason :).

As all of you might be knowing by now this goes straight to lovely Jigyasa and Pratibha as my entry for "Jhiva for Love " - what a lovely title is this :) .

P.S.:
Next Jihva for Ingredients is going to be hosted on My Creative Ideas and I feel proud to say that I have an opportunity of combine VoW with JFI for the month of May . I will announce theme for "VoW-JFI" on 3rd May .
By tomorrow evening I hope to present the awards to the winners for "VoW-Bitter Gourd " for the two categories for which we had a Tie.
If you haven't voted yet , cast your vote in the poll widget on top of the side bar in left side here.