Rajasthani Gatte Ki Sabzi

Gatte ki Sabzi is an authentic Rajathani dish and is an essential part of a Rajasthani Thali food. Well I belong to Jaipur (Rajasthan) and even though we had the authentic Punjabi dishes being cooked all the time, it was totally normal for us to eat Rajathani dishes as much as our Punjabi dishes. The one most popular dish was Panchmel Dal with Baati and another was this: Rajasthani gatte ki sabzi. Mom used to prepare this regularly and Rajasthani food was even served at weddings so it's all the more favorite.

Gatte is basically cylindrical rolls made of chickpea flour and boiled, cut and added to a wonderful yogurt-based flavorful curry. This can be savored with roti, paratha or even jeera rice (as my husband loves it).

Ingredients:

For gatte:

Chickpea flour (besan): 1/2 cup
Red chili powder: 1 tsp.
Carom seeds: 1 tsp.
Fennel seeds: 1 tsp.
Yogurt: 6 tsp.
Oil: 2 tsp.

For the curry:

Cooking oil: 2 tsp.
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp.
Asafoetida: a pinch
Onion (grated): 1 big/2 small
Garlic (chopped): 4 cloves
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp.
Red chili powder: 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Yogurt: 1 cup
Chickpea flour: 2 tsp.

1. Add besan in a bowl and mix all the dry spices: red chilli, carom seeds, fennel seeds. Add the yogurt and oil and mix well. 
   
2. Make a dough using a little water if required. Divide the dough into equal parts and roll them into cylindrical forms. 
   
3. Boil water on high heat and add the cylindrical rolls to the water. Let boil until they are floating to the top of the boiling water. Drain the water and remove the cylinders. Now the gattas are ready. Let them cool down. 
4. Now we prepare the curry: Heat oil and crackle the cumin seeds and add asafoetida. 
5. Add the grated onion and mix well. Let cook until the onion turns brown. 
   
6. Add the chopped garlic and mix well, let cook for a minute. 
   
7. Add turmeric powder and red chili powder. Mix well. 
   
8. Mix the chickpea flour with the yogurt nicely and add this mix to the masala. Mix very well and add two cups of water. Add salt and bring to a boil. 
    
   
9. The boiled cylindrical rolls (gattas) would be cooled by now; cut them into small rounds. 
   
   
   
   
10. Add these rounds to the boiling curry. Mix well and let cook for 5 minutes.  
    
11. Turn of the flame and serve hot with jeera rice or chappatis (flat bread). 

The gatte ki subzi is typically made with the yogurt based curry and no tomatoes are added. But you can also make tomato based curry. Follow the same steps till step 7. After that add puree of two tomatoes and mix well. Let cook it completely so it blends in the masala. After that follow same steps from step 8. Wonderful gatte ki subzi with tomato base is ready! You can even alternate between sometimes making yogurt base curry and sometimes with tomatoes as both give distinctively different flavors.

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Whole wheat banana chocolate muffins

If you have been following my posts, then you might have read my post about How I took a leap towards baking and the recipe of  one-minute chocolate cake. I had always wanted to bake but was always scared to, and finally took the leap on the leap day: 29th of February.

So after I did my first bake, One minute chocolate cake, I was obviously motivated to try my hands on more baking. And I had few over-ripe bananas which nobody was eating. So I decided to use them and bake some muffins using those. I had seen so many recipes left, right and center of cakes, cookies, muffins but they were so many I had no idea which one to follow. So I called up my sister who bakes the best of the goodies and she told me it's really easy and gave me this simple recipe for beginners like me which obviously turned out so yummy I couldn't believe myself that I have ACTUALLY baked something, and something so soft, moist and yummy.

I have been baking these every week ever since and these have turned out to be the perfect tea-time snack and also on-the go snack. They stay good for up to 2 weeks when refrigerated.

So here's the basic simple recipe for these muffins.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder: 2 tsp.
Baking soda: 1/2 tsp.
Over ripened bananas: 2
Egg: 1
Oil: 1/4 cup
Yogurt (beaten): 2 tsp.
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp.
Chocolate chips as per requirement

1. Pre-heat the oven at 200 C for about 20 minutes while you prepare the mix. 
2. Begin by sieving the whole wheat flour in a big mixing bowl. Sieve in cocoa powder and the baking soda. 
3. Mix everything slowly but really well so that there are no lumps remaining. Keep aside. 
4. In another big mixing bowl, add the sugar. Break the egg in the bowl and beat it well. Do not over mix. I used a hand whisk. 
5. Now add the well mashed bananas and again mix well. 
6. Add the oil, yogurt and vanilla essence. Mix everything slowly with the help of whisk. You can also use the electric mixer. 
7. Slowly begin to add the flour mix to this mix. Add a little at a time and keep on mixing but remember not to over mix. Just mix it until you see no lumps. The mix should be little flowy and not dense. 
8. Spray the muffin molds (I used paper molds) with very little oil. Fill in the mixture in all the molds up to half. 
9. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the forms filled with mixture. I have used small chopped pieces of dark baking chocolate. 
10. Bake for 30 minutes at 200 C. Then do the toothpick test. Insert a toothpick in the middle of the muffin, it should not have the batter stuck to it, it should come out clean with little crumbles. If not done, bake for a little more time until the toothpick comes out clean. 
11. Remove and serve warm with tea. Let cool completely and it can be stored for many days in the refrigerator in air tight container. Enjoy! 

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