Dal Pitha

 Well...it happened again...I was watching some "shorts" on Youtube and I spent a whole 1-2 minutes watching someone cook something and boom...I keep getting more and more of those. Well...one of those videos was for a recipe from Jharkhand...a state in India and it looked interesting. I didn't even know what it was called.

I made it...relatively not too difficult to make and it was pretty delicious. So here is the recipe and also before I write it...I needed to know what it is called and it is called

Dal Pitha (Wheat dumplings stuffed with Bengal gram)

Dal Pitha

Dal pitha with Mint chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup yellow chana dal (bengal gram) soaked over night or atleast 4 hrs
2. 1 inch ginger, 1-2 green chillies, 1/2 teaspoon salt
3. 1 cup wheat floor
4. 1 tablespoon oil + 2 teaspoons oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin seeds, sesame seeds
7. 8-10 curry leaves
8. 2 dried chiilies (use these if you do not want to use green chillies in the dal...if you eat less spice)

Grind the soaked chana dal along with Ginger, green chillies if using...use no more than 1 tablespoon water. Add salt and mix well and set aside.

Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons oil in the wheat floor and mix well. Add water little by little and mix a dough and knead for a minute. Set aside for 10 minutes. Dive the dough into 4 parts and divide the dal mixture also into 4 parts.

Make a disk of about 5-6 inches diameter with the 1/4 part of dough . Spread 1/4 dal mixture on half of the "disk and flip the other half and press with fingers to close the dumpling.Repeat to make 4 of these dumplings.

Heat 2 inches water in a wide pan until it starts to boil. Add the stuffed dumplings and boil for 7-9 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Cur each into 5-6 pieces.

In a pan heat 1 tablespoon oil and add the mustard seeds and cover and fry until they start poppoing. Add therest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Add the dumpling pieces and fry for 3-5 minutes on medium high flame until they crisp up. Enjoy with ketchup or mint chutney

Poha tikki

 This is one of those tea time snacks which is super delicious and easy to make. The original recipe is here

Poha Tikki (Shallow fried cakes made of flattened rice)

Ingredients:

1. 1.5 cups of Flattend Rice/Chiwda/Poha 
2. 2 Wheat or white Bread slices
3. 2 tablespoons Rice flour/Corn flour 
4. 1 green  chilli finely chopped
5. 1/4 cup Finely Chopped Onion 
6. 1/2 teaspoon each of Ginger Garlic paste ,Red Chilli flakes cumin powder, coriander powder
7. 1 teaspoon each of Chaat masala,Salt
8. Handful of Fine Chopped Coriander 
9. 2-3 tablespoons of plain yogurt
10. oil for shallow frying

Wash the poha under running water and st it up for drying/draining in a colander for 5 minutes. Cut the crust off of the bread and dip it in a bowl of water and squeeze off the water. Shred it into small pieces and mix all the ingredients together. On an oiled plate flatter the mixture into 1/2 inch thick piece. Let rest in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.

Cut it into desired shapes like squares, cubes or diamonds.

Heat a non stick griddle and add some oil to it. Fry the pieces of poha cake 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown. Enjoy with ketchup and mint chutney

Nimki

In the olden India there used to be sweet stalls...these are like small mom and pop bakeries which sold savory snacks and sweets. In the evening, during the tea time you could go and get hot snacks and all day long there will be other savory snacks which are great any time. Nimki, nammak para or I don't know the other million names this snack has, but these used to be my family's favorite.

So when my dear brother was visiting I found a recipe for this and made them. They were so delicious and so easy to make.
I will definitely be making them more often

Nimki (Salty snacks)

Nimki (Namak Para)

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups all purpose flour
2. 1/2 cup oil
3. 1 teaspoon salt (or less)
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of kalongi (onions seeds), ajwain
5. oil for deep frying

Add the salt and the seeds to the flour and mix well. Add the oil and mix so that that oil and flour
get incorporated  well together. Add water little by little until the dough comes together. Cover and set aside
for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in  a pan.
Roll the dough about 1/3 inch thick and cut it into cubes.
When the oil is hot, add some nimki to the oil and reduce the heat to medium and fry them until they become golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and enjoy