A Quick Red Masala Puffed Rice.

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Each person comes in your life with a purpose! Some come to get their work done, and very few people come and serve without much expectation. I am always blessed to have people from second category. And I am grateful about it. You all might be surprised about this! Today's post or recipe is from a person like that who served us for 14 years with so much love, affection and care. I am talking about an old lady who stayed with mom when mom became alone after my father's death. She wanted someone to be with her as I was living in UAE and my brother was in Maharashtra. Then this lady Neelamma entered our life. She was from a good family, and had lost her husband during the same period.  She never wanted to be a burden on her sons. She was looking for a house where she will be safe and can earn money by taking care of the house. God listened the prayer from both and the wish was fulfilled. We used to call her "Ajjiri". when she came to our house she was around 50 years old. And she served us till she was 64. But! her tobacco chewing habit turned her into a cancer patient and she passed away just two years back. 

WE all really miss you ajjiri. Especially my younger daughter. Ajjiri loved her more than her own kids. It was in her hand that Phalguni was brought up. As she was under treatment, we could not meet her regularly in her last days. Though mom and me visited her but we were scared to take Phalguni. When doctor told she does not have more days, we took phalguni to meet her and I will never forget the way she loved her, hugged her and blessed her. And very third day she left this life. My daughter always miss her and cry a lot now also.

Now, coming to the recipe, 

This was Ajjiri's favorite snack which tasted heaven. I tried many times to make the way she did, but always failed. Whenever we used to feel hungry in the evenings, we used to tell her, ajjiri please make kemp churmuri(red kurmura). Now also my family tells me to make ajjiri churmuri, the name is changed now.  

I know it's a very simple dish, but could not stop sharing this recipe with you all as I felt I should show my gratitude to her. 

I took this recipe(sounds silly, to write down in a diary to save so easy one) over the phone from Abu Dhabi, when I wanted to make it. Though after returning to India, I learnt directly from her, but could never make many dishes the way she prepared. She was whole in charge of the kitchen. Many years I entered kitchen only during lunch time and dinner time and enjoy all the food. 

Ingredients :

Crispy Puffed rice(kurmura) - 3 cups  per head

Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped  

Fresh coriander - 1 tbsp, cleaned and finely chopped

Red chilly powder - 1 tbsp+1tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Granulated sugar - 1 tsp

Lime juice - 1 tsp(optional, but tastes good)

Salt to taste.

Method: 

Take all the ingredients excep puffed rice in a long vessel or even a wide big plate(Ajjiri always used Paraath, a very wide plate with sides.)

Mix well and add puffed rice. Puffed rice should be crispy. 

Mix well again with your hands or spatula. Ajjiri used her hands and I always felt her hand added more taste and love to the dish.

Serve it immediately topped with sev, some more onion and tomato(Again this is optional) 

This is part of July Week 1, Cooking from Cookbook Challenge Group.

Keep Smiling, 

Hubli style GIRMITT (masala puffed rice)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita
 Hi All,
Perfect weather for perfect dish of Hubli. Actually, this dish is perfect for any weather, any time. Some recipes hold a long story and history. Some recipes tell the whole tale about that particular place.
Hey, I really don't know the history of this dish and how it is connected with my Hubli-dharwad city. But we Hubli-dharwadians love this always.
Let me introduce my favourite snack -GIRMITT. (MASALA ONION PUFFED RICE).

If you enter our Hubli city, every corner you will get GIRMITT shops in the evenings.
According to my survey, I have three places where you get the best girmitt. First place goes to the "Hiremath's", whose shop is at Durgad Bail, the second place is near Unkal, the third is the shop at Manjunath Nagar, Gokul road.
The girmitt prepared near Manjunath Nagar  has the raw tomato chutney in it and tastes totally different from other.
Today, I am sharing the tamarind gravy recipe.
Let's start  making this yummy GIRMITT.

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:
Fresh and crispy PUFFED RICE(kurmura, churumari which is our North Karnataka word) - 3 cups per serve, cleaned.
Powdered sugar- 1tbsp
Powdered roasted gram dal(puthani pudi)- 2 tbsp
Onion- 1 medium, finely chopped
Ripe red Tomato -1 medium, deseeded and finely cubed
Fresh coriander - 1 tbsp, finely chopped,
Sev(mixture) -1 tbsp, optional, I do not add as I feel it spoils the main taste.
Three long green chillies - pricked with a fork and shallow fried with dash of oil and salted.

Ingredients for the gravy :
Onion - 1 big or 2 medium, finely chopped
Curry leaves 10-15(optional), cleaned and chopped
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 TSP
Cumin seeds - 1/2 TSP
Red chilli powder 1 tbsp or more if you want it spicier
Green chilli- 1 finely chopped, (drop this if you like it less spicy)
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder- 2 TSP, don't add less as this alters the taste
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp (if the tamarind is very strong then take l/2 tbsp. Though My tamarind is strong or more tangy, I use full 1tbsp as I like the tangy taste)
Jaggery - 1 tsp powdered
Roasted gram dal powder (Dalia powder)- 1tbsp
Water -1/8 cup

Method:
Heat oil in a pan or kadai.
Add mustard seeds once hot. Allow it to splutter.
Add jeera or cumin seeds and curry leaves.
Now add onions(and green chilli) and saute it.
Cook it till the onion changes to light brown color. Now add salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder. Mix well.
Add the tamarind paste and jaggery powder and 1/8 cup of water
Mix well. Cover and cook it on a slow flame till the oil starts leaving the sides of the pan.
Off the heat and keep the gravy to cool.
Gravy should neither be very thick nor watery.
Now everything is ready to serve.
Keep all the ingredients in hand.
Remeber the gravy should not be hot. It makes the girmitt soggy.


JUST before serving,
Take a round deep vessel to mix. It's easy to mix the girmitt well.
I love this process as the sound creates nice music to hear.
Put 2tbsp of gravy in the vessel.
Add 2 cups of puffed rice. Mix it slowly for 10 seconds. Now add 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar, 1/2 tbsp gram dal powder, 1 tbsp onion, 1 tbsp tomato. Mix it fast and quick.
Transfer it to the serving plate and garnish it with another half tbsp of onion, tomato and fresh coriander(and the sev if you want). Top it with fried green chilli and serve it immediately as it becomes soggy if delayed.

Adjust the spice according to your taste.
It tastes best if gravy is fresh. I don't like to make it a day before or even few hours before.
Hope you all will make this and let me know the taste.


Keep smiling,

Girmitt (Puffed rice with onion masala)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

One of regular food in North Karnataka. It is a street food available at any time in small tea stalls. (another taste of Girmitt.)

Easy to make and it does not need any cooking. Great filler if you are very hungry and no patience to cook. Only to take care is do not drink water immediately after you eat it.(thats what our granny's tell, do not know the proper reason!! but they say if you drink water you will have upset stomach. 

I have posted the recipe with cooking in my previous entries. Lets try this one without cooking.

All you need is,

Puffed rice - 1big bowl 

for masala 

Onion - 1 big,  chopped into small cubes

Red Chilly powder - 1 tbsp

Fresh coriander - handful, cleaned and chopped

Lime juice - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves - 6 to 8, cleaned and chopped

Salt to taste

Oil - 1 tsp 

Dalia powder - 1 tbsp(optional)

Sugar - 1 tsp

Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl. Then add the puffed rice and mix well just before you eat otherwise it will become soft and you will not enjoy the taste. 

                  Sending this to PJ's 

The 'no cook' event

Keep Smiling,

Can any one guess what is it?

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Can any one guess what it looks like(I think it is easy to guess!!), But what dish is this???

It is Alu pakoda(Potato fritter), which my mother prepared today evening. And when I took one pakoda to check the taste, this one came in my hand!! 

Recipe for pakoda in few days!

Keep smiling,

Kurmura masala, Onion bhaji and Tea( (ಚುರುಮರಿ ವಗ್ಗರಣಿ, ಉಳ್ಳಾಗಡ್ಡಿ ಭಜಿ, ಚಹಾ)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

One of the famous street food of North Karnataka, specially from Dharwad and Hubli. It is famous street side food available all the 12 months of the year, and it is more in demand during rainy season, even though its all time favorite of Dharwadians. Even in the houses,  it is a very common evening snack. One more snack prepared with this is Mirchi (spicy chilly pakodas), Here I could not prepare mirchi as I did not get proper long and thick green chilly.

Dharawad means, Pedha and churmari, mirchi and bhaji. We love to have it often(even after knowing the bad effects of Kurmura, we cannot help!!) But, I have reduced it to the extent. I do not allow my children to have kurumara.

Coming to the recipe for Kurmura masala

Kurmura :  4 cups

(It makes for 3 to 4 people)

Oil - 1/4 cup

Mustard seeds - 2 tsp

Jeera - 2 tsp

Curry leaves - 2 lines

Pea nut -  15 to 20

Dalia dal - less than 1/4 cup

Dry red chilly - 4 to 6 (optional, as they do not add in stalls)

Chilly powder - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Sugar - 1 tsp

Haldi - 1 tsp

Dalia powder - 2 tbsp

To make masala

Heat oil in kadai, add mustard seeds, jeera.  Now add pea nuts. When they are fried, add curry leaves, red dry chilly. Fry for 10 seconds. Off the heat. Add salt, haldi and chilly powder. Mix properly and keep aside for 5 minutes or till cold. Add dalia powder to this. Then add kurmura and sugar. Mix properly. Adjust the seasoning, kurmura masala is ready.

When serving, you can add raw onion chopped, fresh coriander, and thick sev.

Coming to Onion bhaji or pakora,

Onion - 4 to 6 big, cut into very thin long slices.(Very important)

Gram flour - 4 to 5 tbsp to sprinkle on onions to cover them

Curry leaves - 1 line chopped finely

Green chilly 2 to 3 chopped finely

Red chilly powder - 1 tbsp

salt to taste

Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp crushed

Ajwain - 1/4 tsp crushed

Haldi - pinch

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Hot oil - 1 tbsp

Oil to fry the pakoras

Mix all the ingradients in a bowl with NO Water at all. Keep aside for half an hour. After some time, the onions are covered with gram flour. If you feel it is not enough, sprinkle some more gram flour to onions and keep for some more time. Then fry the pakoras in hot oil, by taking little onion and dropping it in oil. repeat for rest onion mix.

Pakoras are also ready.

Now for the tea, it is more famous as KT, and always one cup is shared by two.( people order by saying, bring 1 by 2 KT)

Water - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 4 tbsp

Tea powder - 1 tbsp

Mix all together and boil at least for 8 to 10 minutes, till the tea becomes thick. (I know it is not good to boil the tea for more than 3 minutes altogether! but helpless, when we get that unique taste in the mouth!!!) Some times it is ok to spoil our self!!

So here comes all together Dharwad famous street food.

Keep smiling,

Puffed Rice masala(ಚುರುಮರಿ ಸುಸಲಾ )

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

In North Karnataka, Puffed rice or kurmura is very common. One can find it in every one's house. Now also, people with big jute bag come home to sell it. Every week they come shouting "churumarieeeeee", and we will be waiting with the big tin.

It is prepared in many ways and served with evening tea. It is always ready snack in any season. It accompanies many side snacks and sweets. I call it Apathbandhava (as it saves me when I have unexpected guests in the evening). In North Karnataka, we make a dish called Girmitt from this, and it is very famous. You will get it on the road side tea stalls with hot fried Mirchi( Green chilly bhaji). But be careful, if you are eating on the road side, as it is not good for health.

Here is the recipe,

(In Kannada,we call it as Churumari susala(ಚುರುಮರಿ ಸುಸಲಾ )).

Puffed rice(Kurmura) - 1 big bowl

Onion - 1 big chopped

Curry leaves - 1 line

Green chilly - 2 to 3 chopped

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1tsp

Peanut - 10 to 15(optional)

Oil - 1/4 cup or less if you are health conscious

Lime juice - 1 tbsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Haldi - a pinch

Dalia (coarse) powder(roasted split Channa) - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Fresh coriander chopped - handful

Soak the puffed rice in water for few minutes. Remove it by squeezing the water and transfer in to a plate.

Heat the oil in kadai, add mustard seeds, when they start popping, add jeera and peanuts. When peanuts are little brown add curry leaves, onion and green chilly. Cook it till onion is brown. Off the heat. Add Salt, haldi and sugar. Finally add dalia powder and mix it properly. Wait till it is warm and add soaked puffed rice. Garnish with fresh coriander.

Puffed rice masala is ready to serve with banana, onion pakora, murukku(Chakli), or any dry sweet.

A perfect evening snack with a hot cup of tea.

Keep smiling,