A visit to the National Street Food Festival

What's cookin : You know your blog is reaching out to people, when instead of the greetings as "Hello, how you doing", people say "Hey, what's cooking today "... Feels good, not only because friends and others start sending you pictures of their cooked dishes, or asking suggestions to make a particular dish but talking about food makes my day :)) So now, the conversations have changed from Movies-to-watch to Restaurants or food places- to-visit!!! :))

One such recommendation from a friend and food blogger Maneesh Srivastava was the National Street Food Festival that was held for 3 days ( 20-22 December ) at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi. I was excited when i read about the festival, but a-midst the bookings of my canine clients ( my pet sitting job ), and house hunting ( we have to shift next month), i was not too sure if hubby dearest would want to wake up in the morning and travel all the way for food. But it so turned out that he too was as much excited to go as i was !!! So, on a winter chilly Sunday morning we left to experience a gastronomical experience... 

The entrance had a big queue for tickets ( it was reasonably priced at INR 30). We didn't pre-book the tickets on Internet, as we were not too sure if we would go...

The stadium hosts lot of events, concerts and sports including the latest 2010 Commonwealth Games. The stadium was constructed to host the 9th Asian Games in 1982. Named after the First Prime Minister of India, the stadium also hosts One day International Cricket Matches and Football matches.

The unidentified monument at the entrance...

After standing in the queue to take the food tickets ( this was relatively a shorter queue, as there were lot of ticket-stalls placed in all corners), we headed to see the stalls... Some of the food items were new to us, and some the same old stuff that was available outside the festival gate at every nook and corner... Because we wanted to try something new from around the nation, we headed to the stalls where the names of the dishes sounded alien...:))

As much as hubby wanted to try the non-vegetarian stuff, we first munched on the Veg Manda Pitha from Odissa. Its basically steamed rice flour covering with a sweet filling. Like we have steamed momos or steamed Modak ( in Maharashtra), Manda Pitha had filling of paneer, coconut and jaggery. Traditionally, they make it in Odissa for festivals and the filling is of Chenna ( curd cheese ). The Chakuli Pitha is like Uttapams (Rice based fried pancakes with onions, corriander leaves, salt etc...The main ingredients being mustard oil or ghee to fry )

Chakuli Pitha being cooked

Chakuli Pitha, Manda Pitha and Mutton Curry

Manda Pitha

Then we headed to the stall from Indore and hubby had the Green chicken with Pav. He says, it tasted nice. A smiling sweet lady was warming the Pav's on the tava and a young boy was taking care of the counter and serving Chicken. I asked her what Jarda meant, and she said it's a specialty sweet but she didn't make it that day and hence was cut from the board. I later did some R n D and found out that Jarda is like a halwa made from rice, sugar, khoya and dry fruits.

Meeting Friends....

With Maneesh Srivasta

Since Maneesh is from Bihar, he suggested we taste Litti Chokha ( i heard the name for first time and then understood that it is like baati...different places, different names..though the taste and texture varies a lot.) This Litti is a specialty snack in Bihar made of wheat and sattu (powdered gram, very good for health). The flours are mixed with spices such as ajwain, ginger, garlic, red pepper, mustard oil and salt and formed into balls and then roasted. They are then dipped in ghee or ghee is poured into the hole made in the ball. It tastes delicious as it is with any chutney, but it can also be eaten

with yogurt or aloo bharta or baingan bharta (known as chokha in Bihar). It is also served with Murgh Korma for the non vegetarians. In the festival, it was served along with curd and mustard chutney and Chokha (Chokha is little watery version of bharta as Maneesh mentioned they put lot of tomatoes ). It was super tasty and i loved this dish :)

Then hubby and Maneesh headed to the Mutton Biryani stall from Dharwad ( Karnataka ) and they also tasted the Mutton curry with Missi Roti. The Mutton Biryani, they found too sweet and the Missi Roti was not up to the mark...

I headed to the sweet section and "Lehsan di Kheer" caught my eye. I thought it's a new dish from Lucknow... and kheer made from garlic?? That's really new... I stood in the queue ( yes, there was a queue to have the kheer ) for almost 15 minutes. I did enquire about the specialty kheer, and the guys said this kheer is their invention and it is not found in any shop in Lucknow. Curious to try it out, i found out that there was no lehsun but only dry fruits in it ( mainly almonds). I wonder why they named it lehsun di kheer... The kheer was tasty, but the name was mis-leading.

We checked out some other stalls too but didn't try anything from here..

Being a true Mumbaiite, aloo vada caught my eye...I had to try this!!!! This one was a speciality from Gujrat ( the taste does vary from the mumbai vada pav) but it was super tasty... Loved it to the core....

And last, but not the least... we ended the food trip with a dessert... Delhi's roller ice cream!!! Roller ice cream is a famous street food. It is a huge slab of ice cream in the shape of a drum which is revolved with the hand-motor. Layers are scraped from it and served in a bowl. It was fun seeing this and the ice cream tasted heavenly....

It was nice to see a lot of crowd coming out of their homes and enjoying this food mania...Was a nice experience and wish we get many more such events in the future to enjoy cuisines from all over India at one place! Kudos to the team...

Standing alone amongst the crowd...

The men-at-work behind all this... Salute to them for their hard work...

The "Cookin in pajamas" team came out with happy faces and full tummies :))

Zapeeta Karela : Bharwan or Stuffed Bitter Gourd

Karela is one vegetable which not many people are fond of, just because it is bitter and doesn't have a pleasant taste of its own. But Karela has immense nutritional benefits. Karela is also known as Bitter gourd or Bitter melon. It surely prevents lot of diseases and people also have it in juice form for the health benefits it provides. Karela is actually a fruit, but is commonly used as a vegetable. Karela has very less number of calories and is rich in vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.
Karela helps in digestion and also plays a key role in preventing ageing and cancer. In Africa and some other parts, people eat karela to treat stomach problems. They eat them raw or also soak them in olive oil or honey and then eat. The best way to buy Karela is to look out for bright and dark green coloured ones. Young, fresh karelas are less bitter. They grow bitter as they mature. 

Fusion Dish : Karela should be eaten once a week or once in 15 days for all the health benefits mentioned above. The best way is to cook it in a way it doesn't taste so bitter. These days, we don't get too bitter karelas in market, but there is always a solution to make them less bitter. And this filling is surely going to make things just right for your taste buds :) I am uploading 2 versions here... One is the traditional dish that my mother cooks at home... and another is a fusion dish that i had read somewhere and tried it... Its a fusion dish and i am sure you will start loving karelas once u make this :

Ingredients :

Karelas - 3

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 medium ( chopped finely )

Salt - to taste

Green chillies - 2 ( chopped finely )

Oil - 4 tbsp ( preferred olive oil )

Olives - 10-12 Green or black of your choice( cut into halves )

Garlic - 2/3 ( chopped finely )

Ginger - 1 inch piece ( chopped finely )

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp ( crushed or powdered )

Corriander powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Recipe :

Cut the Karelas from between and remove all the seeds and pulp from inside.

Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp turmeric powder to this and let it remain for 15 minutes. This removes the bitterness from the Karelas and also they get marinated well.

After 15 minutes, wash the karelas thoroughly with water.

In a pan, add 3 tbsp of oil. Add onions and green chillies and fry for a minute. Add garlic and then saute it all for 3-4 minutes.

Now add the cumin seeds, corriander powder, garam masala, salt and ginger and saute for another minute. 

Now add the olives. Put off the gas and let the pan remain on the gas for a while. Let the mixture cool.

Now, add the mixture to the karelas with a spoon ( like a filling ) and try to close the opening of the karela as close as you can. 

Add 1 tbsp of oil to the same pan, and place karelas carefully. Cover with a lid. Turn the karelas in between, so they get cooked all over. You can even cook them in microwave mode ( on high ) for 5-6 minutes.

Serve this with hot parathas and daal :)

Another traditional version of making stuffed karelas, how my mother makes them is :

Ingredients :

Karela - 5

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Hing - a pinch

Corriander powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Amchoor powder - 1/2 tsp

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp ( we like it spicy, but adjust according to taste )

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp ( you can even use 1/2 tsp of powdered form )

Salt - to taste

Recipe :

Peel the skin of the Karelas and wash them well. 

Cut the Karelas from between, leaving the bottom part.Cut in such a way that the bottom should be joined. You can even cut it in two halves but this way the filling is stuffed better inside and doesn't fall out when cooking.

Take out the seeds and pulp and keep it aside. 

Now apply some salt on the karelas ( inside and outside ) and leave them aside for half an hour. Wash them under running water after half an hour, and squeeze all the water from it. This eliminates all the bitterness.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan. Add hing, cumin seeds. Once they splutter, add turmeric powder, corriander powder and fennel seeds to it. Saute for a minute and then add the pulp.
Saute for about 30 secs and then add the masalas - red chilli powder, amchoor powder and salt.
Let it cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Make sure you don't burn the masala.
Now, add this masala into the karela, like a filling.
Press the masala into karelas and tie the karelas with a thread ( cooking thread ), so the masala doesn't come out. You can even cook it without the thread, but adding thread makes sure that it is tied properly and the masala doesn't come out... This is how my mom always makes it :)))
Heat 3 tbsp of oil in the same pan and add the karelas. Cook covered for 5-6 minutes, then turn the karela and cook covered again for 4-5 minutes. Cook till all the sides are brown.
You can serve this with roti or paratha... Tastes awesome :)))
Don't forget to remove the thread before eating ( the picture above shows thread still tied )

Happy Cooking :))