Chunda

There are times when you try so hard that you lose yourself! (Ahm... Ahm...I'm in a philosophical mood today). So, people who just want to check the recipe, please scroll down :) Those who have some time at hand, join me in for a talk! :)

I see so much struggle everywhere - the constant need to prove you are the best, at times, even stepping on others! Can't we all just smile at the fact that we all are born as individuals and we all are unique. We each have our own space and place in this world (of course, hard work and talent matters!). Past one week i did a lot of social media (just checking other people's posts or pages on Facebook and Instagram), and at times i would feel sad/get depressed. There is so much of hatred, pulling other people down attitude and jealousy amongst people that it started affecting me. And i wonder why such posts get highlighted and the one's who are doing their work with genuinity always lies in the bottom. Why can't we all work together towards a better living?

Love this quote!

I always feel, competition is good, but it should be healthy. In old good days, or even now when you visit any wholesale market, you will always find similar product-selling shops in one lane. Like for example, there are lanes of spice market, or lanes of stationery shops or lanes of medical shops. Why, then do they not feel competition when two adjoining shops are selling similar items. Why do the owners sit and have a cup of chai together discussing about life and business? Guess, the elders know- that each has their own!!!

My granny always used to tell us, "Appreciate each person for what they are and what they are doing". I have followed that and always wished well for others. At times, i have been cheated or even taken for granted, but those are life-lessons learnt. That wont stop me from wishing well for others!

Well, on days like these when i feel black and white or grey, i want to add some colours to this post! So i decided to write about "Chunda". It's the very last month of getting nice fresh raw mangoes!! Last week i got some to make more of chunda, so it lasts us till the next summer. The earlier one i had made was just of 1/4 kg mangoes (For trial, it's always best to make in small quantities). It turned out so delicious that it was finished in a jiffy!!!

There is "Saakharamba" (sweet mango pickle) that my mom used to make often, but this one here is a little of this and a little of that! You will get flavours of spice, sour and sweet. I have made this the traditional way by keeping the mixture in a glass jar and in sunlight. There is a quick stove top method too, but since i had time at hand, and usually the sun God favours us a lot in Delhi, i thought why not make it the "old-style" way?!!

Chunda is basically a Gujrati pickle and is called as Chundo in the local language. It tastes best with Theplas (you can check the recipe of Methi thepla here ). The same way masala thepla or ajwaiin thepla can be made to have with Chunda. Chunda tastes best even with poori-sabzi, daal-chawal or just with a simple chapati.

Ingredients:

Raw mangoes - 1/4 kg

Sugar - Around 2 cups (Add less or more depending on the taste. Adding more of it, will give it a sweeter taste removing all the sourness of the raw mango. But i like it a little sour, so 2 cups was perfect. If you want, you can later on mix powdered sugar if you find it too sour)

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Cloves - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Cinnamon - 1 inch stick (optional)

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp (I roasted the cumin seeds and crushed them in a mortar and pestle)

Recipe:

Wash the mangoes and pat them dry.

Peel the skin and grate them. Add in the salt and turmeric powder and keep it aside for about 3-4 hours.

You will see that the mangoes have left some water. Now add in the sugar little by little till the sugar is dissolved.

Place this mixture in a glass jar or steel vessel and cover it tight with a muslin cloth and keep in the sun everyday for about 7-8 days. You will see that the sugar melts completely and starts to thicken. At the end of the day, bring the vessel inside, stir it with a spoon and store it covered in a cool, dry place. The next day follow the same procedure.

Now, add in the red chilli powder, cloves, cinnamon, salt and the cumin powder. Stir it all well and place in the sun again for a day or two so that the flavours get mixed properly. You can eat it immediately but it tastes best when the flavours are blended in well.

Cinnamon and cloves addition is totally optional, but it does help enhance the taste and aroma too. You can also add it to the mango-sugar mixture instead of adding it later on.

Chunda lasts for about a year if the mangoes chosen are absolutely raw and fresh. Don't buy mangoes that have become little ripe or have yellowish pulp.

Also make sure the glass jar you store it in is dry and sterlized.

Chunda is ready :)) Comes to the rescue when you are bored of doing elaborate cooking :) Just spread it on a bread and eat or make a plain paratha and serve with this chunda :)

Wishing you all a great colourful week ahead. Much smiles :)

Happy Cooking :)

Lemon pickle (Sweet)

Hello everyone! Here i am back to my writing :) Yes, my last post was almost 15 days back and i have been feeling guilty about it for quite a while, but giving it a thought, all bloggers have gone through this phase, isn't it? Where we wanted to write but couldn't find time, got busy with something else, some other commitment or priority took our interest or sometimes just too lazy to pen down things! I have seen some dedicated blogger friends who post almost everyday and salute to them. But for me, blogging is all about "me-time", about finding peace, about getting relaxed, refreshed and rejuvenated! Yes, that's exactly what this blog means to me. I don't want to get into a compulsive mode that i have to write posts! This is no competition, no race, no ego but just my space :)) And thank you to each one of you who read it regularly and appreciate my efforts.

So, in my post of The chaat trail in Old Delhi, I had mentioned about my mother-in-law teaching me some "Dadi ke nuske" :)) This easy pickle is one i learnt from her. A friend once told me that in old days, all the elder ladies of the home (those days, there were joint families) would get furious if the young bahus (daughter-in-law's) of the home made a good pickle or chutney. And why??? Because that was their "department"... Haha, yes! "Elders only department" wherein the expertise would only be centered to the dadi's and nani's (Grannies) or sasu-maa's (Mother-in-law's). Hence, we know a lot of recipes are lost. Some are carried forward with daughters trying it out seeing their mothers do it, but a lot of them are lost due to the ego's of humans :(

Well, so before some more recipes are lost in history, it's best to pen them down in a blog for generations ahead to remember :) I always thought making pickle was tedious and tough. But i learnt that it's all about the basics:

1. Using vinegar/salt/sugar/lemon juice or oil is the best form to preserve a pickle.

2. Always use a clean sterlized and dry bottle to store the pickle.

3. Pickle stays best in glass or ceramic containers.

4. No drop of water should touch the pickle whatsoever, so while taking out the pickle, always make sure the spoon is dry.

5. The most important - a pickle tastes best when you add the ingredients on your judgement and not by measuring cups :))

The last point we will learn with time, but for the time being, all we got to know if use good quality ingredients with the basics of red chilli powder, salt, turmeric, and oil and your pickle is ready! Unless you are making a specialty pickle or a sweet pickle like this one :

While choosing lemons, take ones which have a thinner skin. If you buy thick skinned lemons, then blanch the whole lemons, pat them dry and then use. 

Ingredients:

Lemons - 1/2 kg

Salt - to taste ( about 1/4 cup )

Turmeric powder - 1 tbsp

Sugar - 1/2 kg

Red chilli powder - 1-2 tbsp

Cumin powder (jeera) - 1 tsp

Recipe:

Wash the lemons and pat them dry or keep in sun for about an hour or so. Now cut each lemon in about 8 pieces equally. Remove seeds.

Add salt, cumin powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder to the lemons and cover and keep overnight. ( You can keep this for more number of days but since my mother-in-law was here only for a week, we kept it overnight. Keeping for more number of days would surely enhance the taste, but this, my friends, is as yummy as it looks )

Add about a cup of water to sugar and make a one-string consistency sugar syrup. 

When the syrup cools down, add the marinated lemons to it and mix well.

Fill the pickle in a dry clean sterlized glass container and close the lid tight.

The pickle tastes best when eaten after a week or so, but the real taste comes after about 3-4 months. These pictures seen here are for 2 month old pickle.

Make sure you periodically stir the pickle well with a dry spoon. This pickle should not be kept in sun, but can be made in traditional way by adding sugar to the marinated lemons, stirring/mixing it everyday till the sugar melts.

Either ways, the taste would be different, so it's worth a try :)

I simply love making chutneys and pickles, for the very fact that i have to worry less to make breakfast recipes for hubby's tiffin. A plain paratha with pickle makes him happy :)

More pickle recipes coming soon :)

Happy Cooking :)

Bharwan Lal Mirch Achaar

Last week was one busy week! Not busy because of tedious work, but because of some fun times! :) I can say so, since my work is absolute fun - Pet sitting! But apart from that, it was a long weekend - The festival weekend and as some of you who follow my blog must have seen, i didn't post any Holi special. I was even too late to catch up with some of my friend's messages and wishes and posts which i did yesterday. We didn't have any plans to celebrate Holi, since we were just two of us, not too pally with neighbors except the "hi-hellos" and moreover had my pet-sitting bookings. 

Over the morning cup of coffee, me and hubby were just discussing about how Holi was played back home when we were kids. The preparations would start 2 days earlier with purchasing colours, pichkari, making balloons of coloured water, mom oiling hair and skin so the colours are easier to remove and playing in mud-water!!! We used to pull people out of their homes and colour them! And mom always used to make lip smacking Puran polis and Kataachi amti. Memories!!!

Then came a surprise!!! The bell rang and neighbours came with some gulaal and an immediate plan was made for a lunch-party!!! Sometimes we connect instantly with some people, and that's exactly what happened. The celebration extended to dinner and also to the weekend!!! So there was dahi wada, puran poli, kataachi amti, Khandeshi chicken, Mutter paneer, Mutton curry, Tandoori chicken and Chole Bhature!!!

All this cookin done in pajamas, and no photographs taken??!! There are reasons for it:

1. We were just 2 females to make all of this menu. So, by the time everything always got ready, we were too hungry to click photographs.

2. We were so enjoying the chit-chats and sharing the "About-me" with each other, that the thought of clicking a photograph didn't cross my mind at all.

3. The most important : Sometimes, it's best just to eat and enjoy the dish than style and photograph it. Don't you all agree? ( I am going to write a different post elaborating on this point soon)

So, i shall make all the stuff again and post pictures and recipes :)

Coming back to the post. As i have mentioned before about my love for Chutneys & Pickles , who would know it more than hubby dearest. So one fine day he comes home with 3 big red chillies and says, "See what i got, make something with it". This is his common trait. He would see some ingredient or vegetable or product and would get it home just to try something new. Not that i have to complain, infact i love it. Helps increase my knowledge about food stuff. So, while i was scratching my brains on how I should use the chillies, i received a whats- app image from a friend of her Green chilli pickle!!! Voila!!!! I knew what i had to do!!

This is one easy recipe and makes absolutely droolworthy pickle. I didn't have peeli sarson (yellow mustard seeds) with me, so i used the regular black mustard seeds.

Ingredients:

Big red chillies - 3

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Dry ginger powder (sonth) - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 2 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsp

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Vinegar/lemon juice - 2 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Mustard oil - 1 tbsp

Recipe:

Wash the red chillies and pat them dry.

Let them dry well under the fan or in sun for 1-2 hours.

Remove the stems and slit lengthwise one side vertically keeping the other side intact.

Put turmeric and little salt on the chillies and coat them well (also from inside).

Put it aside for about half an hour.

Now, dry roast the fennel seeds, mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds till they become brown and leave fragrance.

Grind them to a powder in a mixer grinder along with sugar.

Add asafoetida, chilli powder and dry ginger powder to this mixture.

Add the lemon juice or vinegar, oil and salt.

Mix it all well and fill the mixture inside the chillies.

Put the chillies in a dry sterlised glass bottle, cover with a thin muslin cloth and let it be in the sun for 4-5 days.

If you don't want to keep it in the sun, then you can add hot Mustard oil on top, cover the jar tightly and keep it aside at room temperature for a day or two.

Bharwan pickle is ready :)

Happy Cooking! :)

Gazaraacha loncha aka Gajar ka achaar aka carrot pickle

Pickles synonym "Mouth-watering", isn't it? I love making chutneys and pickles, it adds a zing even to a simple meal of daal-chawal. Last year when my mother had visited, she had stacked some Slurpee mix vegetable pickle and green chilli pickle for us. When i visit my mother-in-law, she always packs me a jar of pickle of lemon or mango. All homemade - Can it get better? When we had gone for a vacation to Kasauli ( Experiences at Kasauli ), i had picked up some local chutneys to carry back home. So to say, chutneys and pickles have always been a part of my kitchen. 

At times, some instant, quick and easy ones take shape in the kitchen too. My favourite being the "Danyachi chutney" meaning a chutney made literally in less than a minute with peanut powder. This is my all time favourite and have learnt it from my mother. Peanut powder, red chilli powder, salt, curd and water. Mix it all and eat it with parathas, dosas, or just apply it on a slice of bread. Yummy is the word!! 

Now, back to the recipe. Since it's the season that we get red, juicy and fresh carrots, i thought of making an instant carrot pickle. Recently, a bottle of mustard oil has made way in my kitchen (I honestly want to say, i had never used mustard oil till date but now, am loving it so much that almost all chutneys and pickles i am making recently are with the same). Yes, it does have a strong aroma, but its best used in this season and i have kind-of developed a taste for it.

Ingredients:

Carrots - 1/4 kg (Cut them in thin strips)

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp + a pinch

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp (or according to taste)

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - to taste

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Dry ginger powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Ginger - 1/2 inch grated

Mustard seeds - 3/4 tsp (Actually you can add 1/2 tsp, mine was a little extra i guess)

Garlic - 3-4 cloves crushed

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp ( Dry roast them and crush them to a powder in a mortar and pestle)

Green chillies - 2-3 (or as required) Slit from between.

Curry leaves - a few

Oil (I used mustard oil, but you can use normal oil) - 3 tbsp

Vinegar - 1 tsp

Recipe:

Add 1/4 tsp asafoetida, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, dry ginger powder and fenugreek powder to the carrot strips and mix well. 

Set aside for about 15 minutes.

Heat oil in a kadhai, add mustard seeds and a pinch of asafoetida. When the seeds crackle, add curry leaves, crushed garlic, grated ginger and green chillies.

Saute for a minute and then add the marinated carrot.

Saute till everything mixes well.

Remove the kadhai from fire, add vinegar and mix well. Let it cool.

You can add more hot oil from top if needed.

Store in refrigerator in air tight container. Lasts up to a week.

Instant carrot pickle is ready :))

Happy cooking :)