Kashmiri Curried Apple

Curried Apple?  That too from India? Sounds little weird, right? I felt weird and wondered too when I read Pat's India-Food & Cooking. He explained 200 Indian foods in his book covering almost all major states in India. I was little interested to know unknown factors of our Indian spices and the story behind few famous known curries. I have also tried few unknown Indian recipes from the book in my kitchen. One among them is Kashmiri curried apple.



As there are no picture given for this recipe in the book, I couldn't imagine about how the final outcome would look like.  But the uniqueness of the curry pulled me and made me to try.  I tried with few granny smith apples which were sitting in my fridge after I made the apple pickles. I followed his instructions and posted them with picture here. The curry tasted like eating sweet pumpkin with cinnamon and cardamom flavor. If anyone of you familiar with this curry give your views about it.



Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 3

Ingredients:



Ghee/Butter - 1 tablespoon

Cooking Apple/Tart Apple - 2 nos, peeled, cored and cubed

Onion - 1/2 cup, chopped

Tamarind  - 1 small gooseberry size

Green cardamoms - 3 nos

Cinnamon sticks - 1 inch

Black salt - 1 teaspoon or to taste

Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon or to taste

Turmeric - 1/8 teaspoon

Ground ginger - 1/4 teaspoon

Oil - 2 teaspoon

Boiled water - 1/4 cup



Method:



1) Heat oil in a wok and caramelize onions. Once it is done transfer to a plate. Allow it to cool and make a paste of it. Keep it aside.

 

2) In the same pan, heat ghee/butter. Add apples followed by red chilli powder, turmeric and ground ginger. Stir fry for 2 minutes.

 

3) Add cardamoms, cinnamon, onion paste(as said in step 1), salt and mixwell.

4) Mix and squeeze the juice from tamarind using boiling water and add to the wok. Mix again.

5) Cover the wok and cook apples for about 5 minutes. Makesure to maintain the firmness of the apples.

6) Crush the cumin seeds in between you palms and sprinkle on the cooked apples.

7) Serve hot.

Sending this recipe to Akila's Dish Name Starts with K Event.

Oma Podi / Sphagetti Sev

Diwali brings with itself a lot of joy and brings families together. There is an atmosphere of happy celebrations in every household. Gifts and sweets are exchanged. When I was young, I would help my Grandmother and  Mother in making sweets and savories for Diwali. Oma podi is a savory that is made for Diwali. It is a very easy snack and can be made in very limited time.

Ingredients:

(This makes 4-5 omapodi's)
Gram Flour / Besan - 2 cups
Rice Flour - About 1 tbsp
Salt - To taste
Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp (Optional)
Asafoetida / Hing - To taste - a few pinches
Ajwain - 1 Tsp
Jeera - 1 Tsp
Water - To make the dough
Oil - To deep fry the sev

Method:

• Sift the gram flour to remove any lumps in it.

• Combine all the other ingredients and mix well.

• Add water little by little and make it into a stiff dough.

• Use the Sev maker/ Sev press and select the cutter with many holes in it.

• Fill the dough in the sev press and close it.

• Heat a kadai or a wok and add oil in it. 
• Press down and rotate the sev press or press down the sev press (depending on the model of the sev press you have) in a circular motion. 

• Make 2 at a time and fry it till the sizzling of the oil stops. Drain it on a paper towel and set it aside. 

• Once cooled, store it in an airtight container and it will stay good for a week to 10 days.

Notes:

• You can double the quantity to make more of the dough.
• Make sure that the oil is hot before you drop in the sev's.
• You car crush and eat the sev with other snacks such as bhel puri or sev puri.

Instant Microwave Doodh Peda

Wishing everyone a very Happy and a Bright Diwali.. Due to lack of time to prepare elaborate sweets, I tried making this instant Doodh Peda that was taught to me by a friend. The recipe is very simple and requires just 3 ingredients. All the ingredients are available easily at any supermarket. Surprise your relatives and guests by serving them this instant and traditional delicacy.

Ingredients:

Milk Powder - 21/2 cups
Condensed milk - 1 14oz can (sweetened)
Unsalted butter - 1 stick

Method:

• Sift the milk powder and set it aside.

• Melt one stick of butter in a microwave safe glass bowl.

• Once the butter has melted, add the milk powder and condensed milk and mix well.

• Microwave it for 4 minutes. After every minute remove the bowl and mix the contents well.

• After 4 minutes, the mixture would have thickened and now let the mixture cool for 10 minutes.

• Take a spoon or a mini ice-cream scoop. Scoop out a small portion of the mixture and roll it out into a ball and flatten it.

• You can stick an almond, cashew, pistachios or any dry fruit you like in the center of the Peda.

• Enjoy your Diwali delicacy.

Happy Diwali to all.

• You can shape the Pedas in any form you like.
• Else you can pour the mixture on a greased tray and cut it in diamonds or squares.
• You can also remove the entire mixture and flatten it out about 1/2 an inch thich and cut it using a cookie cutter for getting the desired shapes.
• You can use edible silver foils, cake decoration materials to decorate the Pedas. You can get creative and decorate it the way you like.
• Every microwave has a different power setting. Some may meed 3 minutes and other many need 5 minutes. Ensure that you remove the mixture every minute and mix it well so that it does not burn the milk solids.