Maharashtrian Thali

In a really good Maharashtrian meal, the arrangement of the items on the thali is of immense importance. Below is the picture of typical Traditional Maharashtrian thali. It is a dinner prepared as a feast for lord Ganesha. This meal is elegantly presented on a rangoli(design around the plate) made of lentils, rice wheat, beans etc. this picture is taken form a book named "The cooking of India".

take a close look


The Thali consists of salt, wedge of lime, a fresh chutney, achar (pickle), a raita (vegetables or fruits in spiced yogurt), rice wafers and pakoras. Maharashtrians are particularly proud of their astonishing range and diversity of chutneys, achars, brine pickles and koshimbirs.
Another vital point of maharashtrian etiquette is arrangement of rice. the rice should never be in the middle of the thali. It should never be the haphazard mountain of rice. It should be placed to one side of the thali. Above the rice is thoordal puree. Next is one dry vegetable and one curry. In even the fanciest maharashtrian meal there will still be only two vegetable dishes on the right-hand side of the thali.The vegetables are never overcooked and the spices are always mild.


Now here is my Thali. I did not have a big thali to put every thing in one so separated the curries.. I made a very simple thali and the menu goes like this. From the right clock wise kakadichi koshimbirs(cucumber in yogurt), Ghadichipoli(Rotis), rice, Simla mirchi / bhopli mirchi chi peeth perun bhaaji (bell peppers subzi), batatyachibhaaji(potato subzi), besan laddus (chickpea flour laddu).

On the left hand thali clock wise is Aamati, Amrakhand, tomatoche saar(tomato soup) and green coriander chutney.

The best part about making all this is, I made some of the dishes from my fellow blogger friends who have made this for the RCI. so it was alittle easy for me.

Besan Laddus

Ingredients

2cups besan flour (gram flour)
11/4cup powdered sugar
3-4tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
crushed cardamom powder
raisins (fried separately in ghee)

Preparation

in a deep bottomed pan, roast the besan flour on a medium low heat until the raw smell leaves and the flour gets a slightly dark color than usual. Remember don't roast it till it burns. To this add the cardamom and sugar and fold in well. Finally add ghee to this and fold it gently. You can see all the sugar and besan melting and coming together. The flour becomes moist enough so that when you make laddu the flour will hold together. If it dosen't you can add a little more ghee. Add the ghee fried raisins too. Remove the mixture from heat and pour it into a plate. when it slightly cools down and the heat is bearable by your hands you can make laddus and enjoy.


Simla mirchi / bhopli mirchi chi peeth perun bhaaji (bell peppers subzi)

4 medium sized green bell peppers / capsicums, (or take 2 bigger ones)
3/4 cup chick pea flour / gram flour (besan)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt
sugar (optional) to taste
cilantro/coriander leaves
1/2 tsp asafoetida
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp oil

Preparation

In a pan add oil and mustard seeds to splutter. Also add asafoetida and bell peppers. Saute well so that the moisture in the peppers evaporate. Now add gram flour and cook for sometime. don't add salt. If you do so, the water content in the peppers make the flour sloppy. bell peppers need not cook for long. once the flour gets crispy, add salt, sugar, turmeric and cilantro. Mix well and remove from flame. Its that simple.


Aamati

Ingredients

1/2 cup toor dal
1 medium sized onion
1 tomato
3 green chilies
2 teaspoon Maharashtrian goda masala or garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 small piece jaggery or 1 teaspoon sugar
coriander leaves
salt to taste


Preparation

Pressure cook dal till soft. Remove from the cooker and mash it.

Chop onions into vertical thin pieces. Chop tomato and chilies. Else give vertical slits to the chilies instead of chopping them. Heat 2 teaspoon oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. As they splutter, add asafoetida, turmeric powder and onion pieces and chilies. Fry for sometime or till the onion turns light brown. Add chopped tomato pieces and fry again till tomato pieces turn soft. Add mashed dal and 1 cup water. Stir.
Cook on high heat and when bubbles rise up on the top, turn the heat to medium. Add salt, jaggery and goda masala. Mix well and simmer.

Remove Aamati from the heat and decorate with coriander leaves. Serve with plain rice, pulao, or chapatis.

Green coriander chutney

Ingredients

1 bunch of fresh cilantro
3-4 green chillies
1 tomato (optional)
salt
sugar or jaggery
cumin

Preparation

Grind all the ingredients by adding very little water. It is a simple chutney.

The Bell pepper subzi , Aamti and chutney are prepared by referring here

Ghadichipoli

This Recipe is made from the lovely blog Bhaatukli. My friend Tee explains how to make these polis so very beautifully. She also has many other interesting Maharashtrian recipes.

kakadichi koshimbir, Tomatoche Saar, batatyachi bhaaji, Amrakhand are made from another beautiful blog Aartis Corner . She is an expert in Maharashtrian cuisine.

Kakadichi koshimbirs
Tomatoche saar
Batatyachi bhaaji


Amrakhand

So since I cooked some simple recipes from co-bloggers this thali goes to coffee's Going Lite:)
This below picture is taken from the same book. It is Chowpati beach, Mumbai in the 1960's.

If you take a closer look you can see how the shop vendors are dressed.
This picture shows how turmeric is made in the local market in Mumbai
Spice Market
The making of jelabis

This is my contribution to the lovely Nupur's RCI event.

Dal-Cauliflower Chutney

I know that the name sounds a little weird. I too felt the same when I first came across this recipe in a book. But the picture tempted me to try out the recipe and believe me, it was very tasty. Moong dal (Yellow mung beans) has a odd smell when cooked, and also the smell of cauliflower after it is cooked is not so inviting. Thinking about combining these two?? I thought it would either get into the fridge for decades and then land into the trash can or may be directly.
But then I took a chance, it came out so well that I wanted to share it with you guys.


Ingredients

2cups cauliflower (washed and cut into florets)
1cup moong dal
1tsp turmeric
1 tomato (optional)
chopped cilantro

For tempering

1/4 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp cumin
4 green chillies
Asafoetida
curry leaves

Preparation

combine Dal-cauliflower, turmeric and pressure cook it for two whistles. Add very less water to cook it. Water should be just sufficient to cook the dal well. Cauliflower gets cooked very fast.
Using a steel ladle slightly mix and mash the cauliflower and dal so as to get a thick puree like consistency.
In a frying pan add 2-3 tsp oil and temper with mustard, cumin, curry leaves, asafoetida, green chillies slit length wise and finely chopped tomatoes. When the tomatoes get cooked, add the dal-cauliflower mix and fold in well. Don't forget to add salt and cilantro. Enjoy it with Dosa, Idlies or rotis.

Potato Masala Sandwich and Mixed Fruit Custard

This weekend we had a lavish breakfast with some spicy potato-peas stuffing into the bread. I also prepared a custard with some berries and other fresh fruits. This one is for my beautiful friend Trupti's event WBB.



Ingredients for the potato masala.

3-4 boiled potatoes
2cup chopped onions
1cup fresh or frozen peas
1tbsp finely grated ginger
1/2 tsp garam masala (found in Indian Grocery store)
1/2 tsp tavafry masala (found in Indian grocery store)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1tsp cumin seeds
oil
Salt
fresh chopped cilantro

Preparation

In a frying pan, add about 2-3tbsp oil and to it add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add ginger and onions. Fry well. Add potato and peas to this and fold them all together. Add all the other masala ingredients including salt and cook for about 10 minutes until the flavors blend in.
The Potato masala is ready for the sandwich.



Making Sandwich

4-6 slices of wheat bread. White bread lovers can use white bread. Spread butter to one side of the bread and top it with the masala and cover it with another bread. Now this goes in to the toaster until crisp on the outside. Depends on how crispy you want it to be. Yummy sandwich can be enjoyed with tomato ketchup and cuppa tea.


Fruit Custard

Ingredients

1cup raspberries
1cup grapes
1 cup sliced bananas
1cup chopped apples
1/2 cup strawberries
1tsp crushed green cardamom
dash of Saffron
2tbsp of custard powder
2 cups of milk
2-3 tbsp sugar
whipped cream for topping



Preparing the custard

Warm the milk and add custard powder and sugar to it. Do not add custard powder to hot milk as it will form lumps. While the milk starts heating up in 2-3 minutes the custard powder should be added. Also Add crushed cardamom to this and keep stirring in medium-low heat. keep stirring slowly till the custard get a semi thick liquid consistency.
See the picture.


let it cool. Add saffron to this and stir well. now add all the fruits and decorate as you wish. If you want to let it stay in the fridge, that will be great. You can serve chilled topping it with whipped cream.