Raw Mango Spicy Jam (Kairichi Tikau Chutney)

Twist in the taste ....... You would feel in your mouth tangy, hot and sweet taste at a time. This is one type of chutney that you can store in refrigerator for a month.

Ingredients:

• Raw mango- 1 med (½ cup)
• Jaggery, grated- ½ cup
• Sugar- approx. 2 tbsp to ¼ cup (depends upon sourness of mango, do not add at a time....taste and add) 
• Red chilli powder- 1 tsp
• Roasted cumin powder- ½ tsp
• Salt- to taste

Method:

• Wash and boil raw mango. Let it cooled. 
• Peel raw mango and remove the seed. You will get approx ½ cup of pulp. 
• Combine raw mango pulp, jaggery, chilli powder, cumin powder and salt in the non-stick pan.
• Cook on low heat. Stir it continuously without burning. The mixture becomes thick and shiny.
• Taste and add sugar. Mix well and cook for a minute.
• Jam is ready. Allow it to cool. Store in clean and dry glass container. You may refrigerate it.
• Serve with paratha, chapati or bread.

Note:
I used organic/ natural  jaggery (without chemical), it has dark brown color. This jaggery is very healthy. That's why the colour of jam is brownish red. But you may use ordinary jaggery or full quantity of sugar instead of this. You will get shiny orange red coloured jam. 

Jayfal Murabba (Nutmeg Fruit Murabba/Jam)

Did you hear about this before? In our "Konkan", we are made pickle from nutmeg fruits traditionally because the fruits are sour. So my MLA thought, why not murabba? and she made this murabba/jam. This is absolutely delicious.

Introduction: 

Nutmeg/Jayfal Tree and Fruit -

You can see here, Nutmeg fruits (whitish coloured), Jaypatri or Mace (Red coloured) and Jayfal or Nutmeg. This fruits arrive in monsoon. 

These are nutmeg seeds. Actual nutmeg is inside the seeds. 

Ingredients:

• Nutmeg fruits- 6 
• Sugar- approx 500 gm (Use sugar as equal to nutmeg fruit hash.) 
• Cloves- 4 to 5 

Method:

• Clean, cut and remove the inner seed. 
• Grate outer fleshy/whitish part of nutmeg. 
• Combine this nutmeg grate/hash, sugar and cloves in the heavy bottom vessel. 
• Cook this mixture for approx. half an hour on low-med heat. Sugar syrup will become thick. Stir it continuously without burning. 
• Allow it to cool completely. Store in clean and dry glass container. You may refrigerate it. 
• Serve with chapati or bread. 

जायफळाचा मुरंबा 

आमच्याकडे चौल-अलिबाग व मुरुड भागात खूप जायफळ पिकतात. हि जायफळाची फळे चवीला खूप आंबट असतात. त्यामुळे आमच्याकडे त्याचे लोणचे करण्याची पद्धत आहे. एकदा माझ्या सासूबाईंनी विचार केला की मुरंबा पण बनवून पाहावा. लगोलग कृती करण्यात आली आणि सादर करत आहे हि जायफळे वापरून बनवलेला मुरंबा......आंबट-गोड चवीचा मुरंबा मस्त लागतो आणि जायफळाचा वासही येतो. या मुरंब्याला सुंदर लालसर रंग येतो.
जायफळाची फळे मधोमध  कापून घेतली असता त्यातून बी निघते. बी वरील लाल आवरण म्हणजे जायपत्री. बीचे काळे कडक आवरण फोडले असता त्यातून जायफळ निघते. हि जी पांढरट फळे दिसत आहेत त्यापासूनच मुरंबा आणि लोणचे बनवतात. पावसाळ्यात हि फळे येऊन लागतात.

साहित्य:

• जायफळाची फळे  - ६
• साखर- अंदाजे ५०० ग्रॅम (जेवढा कीस, तेवढीच साखर घ्यावी)  
• लवंगा- ५

कृती:

• जायफळ धुवून आणि कोरडी करून घ्यावीत. मध्ये चीर देऊन त्यातील आतील बी व जायपत्री काढावी. बाहेरील फळाचा भाग किसून घ्यावा.
• एका जाड बुडाच्या किंव्हा नॉन-स्टिक भांड्यात जायफळाचा कीस, साखर आणि लवंगा एकत्र करून मध्यम आचेवर शिजवावे.
• सतत ढवळावे अन्यथा करपण्याची शक्यता असते. थोड्या वेळाने साखर वितळू लागेल. साधारण अर्ध्या तासाने पाक घट्ट होऊ लागेल.
• गॅस बंद करून मुरंबा थंड होऊ द्यावा. काचेच्या कोरड्या व स्वच्छ बरणीत मुरंबा भरावा.
• चपाती किंव्हा ब्रेड बरोबर छान लागतो.

Khamang Kakdi (Maharashtrian Style Cucumber Salad)

This is simple and tasty salad, I luv it's aroma, texture and of course taste. Some people called it ......."Kakadichi Koshimbir".

हि पाककृती वाचा मराठीतून ……. इथे क्लिक करा.  


Ingredients:

• Green cucumber- 2 
• Green Chilies, finely chopped- 2
• Lemon juice- ½ lemon 
• Fresh coconut, scrapped- 2 tbsp (optional)
• Peanuts crush- 2 tbsp
• Fresh coriander, finely chopped- a handful 
• Sugar- ½ tsp or to taste
• Salt to taste
• Clarified butter (Shudh ghee)- 1 tsp
• Asafoetida (Hing)- ¼ tsp
• Cumin seeds- ½ tsp

Method:

• Wash cucumber and peel. Cut out both ends. (Taste a little piece of cucumber because some cucumbers are bitter.)
• Chop finely and rub little salt. Keep aside for 2 minutes. 
• Squeeze cucumber and discard excess water.
• Combine this squeezed cucumber,  peanut crush, chilli, coriander, fresh coconut, sugar, lemon juice and little salt (add salt carefully because we have already rubbed salt to cucumber). Mix well.
• Heat ghee in a tadka pan or small pan. Add cumin seeds, hing and switch off gas. Do not burn cumin seeds.
• Pour this mixture to cucumber. Mix again.
• Serve in any meal as side dish.

You can eat for fasting/vrat/upavas, just avoid to use hing and coriander leaves.  

Karmat (Instant and Easy Mango Pickle)

Karamat is just like instant pickle. When raw mango are arriving. Then we just find to chance to eat them.

Ingredients:

• Raw mango- 1 small size
• Homemade mix masala or chilli powder- to taste
• Salt- to taste
• Sugar- 1 to 2 pinch
• Oil- 1 tsp or as required

Method: 

• Wash and cut raw mango into small pieces. 
• Add salt, chilli powder or homemade masala, sugar and oil.
• Mix well……………its ready to eat. 
• Use as pickle in a meal. Do not store like pickle, just do and eat.

In our childhood, we used to pick raw mangoes from tree. We used to eat with chilli masala and salt. I have no word, how we were enjoying this.

Penne Arrabiata With Vegetables (Pasta in Arrabiata/Tomato Sauce)

Kids love this yummy pasta. Fresh vegetables and savory tomato sauce makes a very colorful and delicious pasta dish. 

ही पाककृती वाचा मराठीतून… इथे क्लिक करा.  

Ingredients:

• Penne pasta or any pasta- 1 package (250 gm)
• Arrabiata/Tomato sauce- 2 to 2 ½ cup (For tomato sauce recipe, plz click here.) 
• Carrot, small cubed- ¼ cup
• Broccoli florets - ½ cup
• Capsicum, cubed- ½ cup
• Baby corns, quartered - ¼ cup (or Sweet corn kernels, boiled- ¼ cup)
• Fresh basil leaves, finely chopped -  1 tbsp (optional)
• Processed cheese or Parmesan cheese, grated- ¼ cup 
• Olive oil- as required
• Salt and pepper- to taste 

Method:

• Cook/boil pasta as given direction on package. Do not overcook. 
• Wash and cut all vegetables. 
• Saute all vegetables one by one in little olive oil with salt and pepper. keep aside.
• Boil tomato sauce, add all sauted veggies and cooked pasta.
• Mix well and toss.
• Switch of the gas. Add some cheese, mix well again. 
• Garnish with remaining grated cheese and basil leaves.
• Serve hot.

Notes: 

• You can make pasta without vegetables. Serve with garlic bread.
• Use available vegetables, you may replace any.
• You may use sliced black olives uoto 5 (Actually I cut and kept aside and forgot to use in the pasta :) )
• You may use fried or roasted chicken pieces instead of vegetables, your chicken pasta is ready. 

Homemade Arrabiata/Tomato Sauce For Pasta

Arrabiata/Tomato pasta sauce easily available in the market. But the taste of a fresh, homemade sauce is divine and this is quite cheaper than readymade sauce. You can make it quickly and can store in the deep freezer for 1 month.

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes - 6 medium sized
• Onion - 1 large sized
• Garlic - 10 cloves
• Mix herbs- 1 tsp
• Black Pepper, crushed- 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder- ½ tsp (optional)
• Chilli flakes - 1 tsp
• Tomato ketchup - 2 tsp
• Olive Oil or butter- 3 tbsp
• Salt - to taste
• Water- 1 cup

Method:

• Boil water and add the tomatoes. Cook for 2-3 mins till you see the outer skin breaking. 
• Let them cooled down and peel the tomatos. 
• Cut tomatoes and blend without water, keep aside this puree.
• Heat oil in the pan, add onion,garlic and fry till translucent. 
• Add chilli powder and salt. Saute for few seconds.
• Then add the tomato puree and saute for a minute.
• Now add 1 cup of water and mix herbs, black pepper powder, chilli flakes and tomato ketchup. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes till boiled. Stir in between.
• Switch off the gas, your pasta sauce is ready.
• Make pasta with this or cool down and store in a clean airtight container for further use. 

Notes:

• You can use readymade tomato puree. 
• This given quantity of sauce requires for 200 gram pasta.
• If your sauce is ready, then just toss the cooked pasta, add grated cheese and vegetables and enjoy your pasta.
• This tomato sauce can be used as Pizza Sauce. Do it some thicker.

Recipes from this sauce:

1. Penne Arrabiata / Tomato Pasta With Vegetables

Sweet Potato and Carrot Cutlet

This cutlet tastes really awesome and different. Usually we use potato for cutlet, sweet potato gives sweet twist in taste. They are perrrrrrfect..... crisp outside and soft inside.

हि पाककृती वाचा मराठीतून……. इथे क्लिक करा.   

Ingredients:

• Sweet potato, mashed - 1 large sized (1½ cup)
• Carrot, grated - 2 (1 cup)
• Green chilly- 2 or to taste
• Cumin seeds- ½ tsp
• Garam masala - ½ tsp
• Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
• Corn flour- 2 tsp
• Fresh coriander leaves, chopped- a handful
• Salt to taste
• Fine Semolina (Barik Rawa/ suji) for rolling- as required
• Oil for frying- as required

Method:

• Wash with rubbing sweet potato.
• Boil in pressure cooker. Do not overcook. 
• Peel their skin and mash roughly. 
• Steam or microwave carrot for 2-3 min. Squeeze after if necessary. 
• Crush chilli along with cumin seeds coarsely.  
• Combine sweet potato mash, carrot,  chilli crush, turmeric, garam masala, coriander leaves and salt. Mix well.
• Add corn flour and knead. Make small sized balls.
• Roll in rawa and shape as you like.
• Shallow fry these cutlets in a non-stick pan till golden brown.
• Serve hot with tomato ketchup or any type of chutney. 

Note:

You may use potato instead of sweet potato if they are not available. 

This recipe is inspired by Tasty Appetite 

Coconut Chutney For Fasting

This simple chutney is served with fasting snacks. It goes well with varicha bhat (samake chawal). 

Ingredients:

• Fresh scraped or grated coconut- ½ cup 
• Green chillies - 2 to 3  (as per your taste)
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Sugar- ½ tsp
• Salt to taste
• Lemon juice- half lemon 
• Water- as required

Use fresh ingredients, do not use frozen.

Method:

Grind all ingredients together. 

Serve with fasting snacks like sabudana vada, vrat ki kachori etc. 


If you like thin consistency, use more water and grind into smooth paste.

Sabudana Vada

Sabudana Vada is one of the tastiest snacks and useful for those who are fasting. Sabudana vada is also popular street food.

हि पाककृती मराठीतून वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा.  

Ingredients:

• Sabudana (Sago) - 1 cup
• Water- ½ cup (for soaking)
• Potato, boiled and mashed - 3 med sized
• Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 2 tsp
• Peanuts, roasted and peeled - ½ cup
• Red chilli powder- 1½ tsp or green chilli, crushed- 2 to 3
• Sugar - ½ tsp
• Salt - to taste

Method:
Rinse sago well with water. Soak sago overnight or for atleast 3-4 hrs with ½ cup water. Dont add more water, it will become mushy.
After soaking, you can see the sago absorbed the water well and just press it with your fingers it will be soft. Every sago kernels should be separated, should not be stick each other.

Grind or crush peanuts coarsely. Combine sago, peanut crush, mashed potato, jeera, red chilli powder, sugar and salt. Mix the mixture well.

Make small sized ball, press on the palms and shape them into vadas. Make all the vadas same way.

Heat oil in a wok/kadhai. Deep fry them till golden brown and crispy. Fry them on medium flame.

Serve with yogurt and fasting chutney or tamarind-date chutney.  

 Notes:

• You may use green chillies instead of red chilli powder. Chop finely or crush with cumin seeds coarsely and add this in the sago mixture.
• You can add 2 tsp of sago or samo (varai) or rajgeera flour while mixing if the mixture is too sticky. 
• If you are not fasting, then you may add rice flour instead of above mentioned flours, sabudana vada is become more crispy. 
• If you are not fasting then you can add coriander leaves also.

Dalia (Broken Wheat) Salad

Many times I read about Couscous Salad and I want to do this. But Couscous is not available easily in India. So I decided to use broken wheat (dalia) instead of Couscous. Daliya is easily available as well as very healthy.

Ingredients:

• Broken wheat(Dalia/ Lapashi rawa)- ¼ cup
• Vegetable stock or water- ½ cup
• Black raisins- 8
• Walnut chunks, roasted - 1 tbsp
• Green bell pepper/ capsicum- 2 tbsp
• Yellow bell pepper- ¼ cup
• Red bell pepper- ¼ cup
• Sweet corn kernels, boiled- ¼ cup
• Cucumber, peeled and cubed- ½ cup
• Olive oil- 1 tsp
• Lemon juice- 2 tsp
• Fresh coriander leaves, chopped- 1 tbsp
• Chilli flakes- ½ tsp
• Salt and pepper- to taste
• Lettuce leaves- as required

Method:

• Roast Dalia in a non-stick pan till turns slightly reddish.
• Bring to boil stock or water in an another pan.
• Pour hot stock or water over hot dalia. Cover and cook for 5 to 8 minutes or till cooked. (or microwave for 3 min.), let it cool.
• Mix all above ingredients with dalia in a large bowl.
• Garnish it with lettuce leaves before serving.

Tip: You may add your choice vegetables, fruits and dry-fruits.

Chicken Kadhai

Chicken kadhai is made by many different ways. I follow this recipe which I like and feel convenient .....try it. 

 हि पाककृती वाचा मराठीतून ……  क्लिक करा.  

Ingredients:

• Chicken- 500 gm
• Onion,  finely chopped- 1 cup (2 med.)
• Tomato,  finely chopped- ¼ cup (1 med)
• Black cardamom (masala velachi)- 2
• Black peppercorns- 5
• Cinnamon stick- 1 inch
• Cumin seeds-  ½ tsp
• Bay leaves- 4 to 5
• Cloves- 2
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Garam masala - 1 tsp (which is without chilli powder, try to use Punjabi garam masala)
• Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)- 1 tsp
• Green chilli- 2
• Oil- 4 to 5 tbsp
• Fresh coriander, finely chopped- handful

For marinating-

• Curd- ½ cup
• Ginger garlic paste- 3 tsp
• Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
• Hing- ½ tsp
• Red chilli powder- 2 to 3 tsp
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Wash and cut chicken into med. size chunks.
• Marinate chicken for 2 to 3 hours. You may refrigerate it.
• Heat oil in a wok/kadhai and add black cardamom, black peppercorns, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, bay leaves, cloves and fry for few seconds.
• Add finely chopped onion. Saute till turns golden brown. 
• Add tomato and whole green chilies. Saute till they become soft.
• Add marinated chicken and saute on med-high flame till you see oil coming out.
• Add garam masala, coriander powder and mix well. No need to add extra water.
• Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes on low heat or till chicken cooked. Stir in between. Meanwhile add kasuri methi. (Just crush kasuri methi on palm and then add.) 
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with chapati or brad or tandoori roti or jeera rice.

Desi Pasta

Ingredients:

• Spiral pasta, cooked- 200gm
• Garlic, finely chopped - 1 tbsp
• Onion- 1 cup (cut into 1 inch cubs)
• Capsicum- 1 cup (cut into ½ inch cubs)
• Carrot, small cubed and blanched- ½ cup
• Green peas, boiled- ½ cup
• Olive oil or veg oil- 3 tbsp
• Readymade pasta masala or Magi magic masala- 2 tsp or to taste  (I bought this pasta masala from Crawford Market.  This masala tastes some like curry powder.)
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Cook pasta as direction. Keep aside.
• Heat oil in large non-stick pan. Add garlic, all veggies and little salt. Sauté over medium heat and stir fry for a minute. 
• Add cooked pasta, pasta masala and salt. Mix well and toss for few minutes. 
• Serve hot.

Green Peas & Fresh Wet Cashew Nuts Curry (Matar-Olya Kajuchi Bhaji)

Fresh/ tender cashew nuts arrive in Summer, mostly in March in India. This curry is very famous in our Kokan belt. These wet nuts have fabulous and creamy taste....just melt in your mouth. These goes well with anything. Here we tried with green peas and it's awesome.

हि पाककृती वाचा  मराठीतून.......  इथे क्लिक करा.  

Ingredients:

• Fresh wet cashew nuts (ole kaju), peeled- 1 cup
• Fresh green peas (matar)- 1 cup
• Potato- 1 med size
• Onion, finely chopped - 1 cup
• Tomato, chopped- ½ cup
• Ginger garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
• Asafetida (Hing)- ¼ tsp
• Malwani masala or home made mix masala – 3 tsp or as per taste
• Garam masala powder-1 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Veg. oil- 3 to 4 tbsp
• Fresh coriander, finely chopped- ¼ cup

Method:

• Peel and wash cashew nuts properly. Apply some oil on palms, their peels are itchy. 
  
• Peel potato and cut into 1 inch pieces. 
• Heat oil in a large pan or kadai (wok). Add onion & sauté till it turn golden brown. 
• Add hing, turmeric powder, malwani masala & sauté for few seconds. 
• Add ginger-garlic paste. Sauté for a minute. 
• Add green peas, cashew nuts, potato & some water. Cover & cook for 5-6 minutes on low heat. 
• Add tomato, salt, garam masala & some water. Mix well & cook for 3-4 minutes on low heat. 
• Add some water & adjust consistency as per personal choice but remember it’s thick curry. Continue to simmer this curry for 3 to 4 minutes or until cashew nuts & potato cooked. 
• Garnish with coriander. Serve hot with chapati or in a meal as side.

Note:

• You may use (1 tsp of chilli powder + 2 tsp of garam masala) instead of (malwani masala and garam masala).
• If matar are frozen, add sometime later to avoid overcook.
• If cashews are big, they takes more time to cook. Cook proparly, uncooked cashews tastes bad.
• You can store peeled cashew in freezer for 8-10 days, but for better result not more than that.
• You may add some coconut paste for thickness. But I don't use this for this curry.

Takachi Kadhi (Maharashtrian Style Kadhi)

Takachi Kadhi is quite easy recipe and tastes simply delicious. I can eat kadhi-bhat everyday..... I am crazy for kadhi.

Ingredients:

• Fresh buttermilk- 2 cups 
• Bengal gram flour (besan)- 1 tbsp 
• Pure ghee or oil- 1 tbsp (I preffer to use ghee, it tastes awesome and authentic.) 
• Ginger paste or finely grated- 1 tsp 
• Garlic paste or crushed- 1 tsp (optional) 
• Green chillies, chopped- 2 to 3 
• Curry leaves- 1 string 
• Turmeric powder- ½ tsp 
• Asafoetida (Hing)- ¼ tsp 
• Mustard seeds- ½ tsp 
• Cumin seeds- ½ tsp or Cumin powder- ½ tsp 
• Sugar- 1 tsp or to taste 
• Salt to taste 
• Fresh coriander, finely chopped- 2 tbsp 

Method:
Crush chilli and cumin seeds coarsely.

Heat ghee in a wok. Add mustard seed. When the splattering starts, add curry leaves, chili-cumin crush, hing, turmeric powder, ginger paste and garlic paste. Saute for few seconds on low heat.

  

Combine besan and little buttermilk in a bowl and whisk together till become smooth paste.
Mix this beasan paste with buttermilk. Add Buttermilk in a wok.
Add chopped coriander, salt and sugar and start stirring on low-med heat.

Do not boil much more, it becomes curdle or splits up.
Switch off the gas when you see bubbles on sides of wok.
Serve hot with rice or khichadi.

Tips and variations:

• Do not use readymade ginger-garlic paste, use homemade. 
• If chilli are hot or you don't like spicy kadhi, just cut chillies and use. 
• You can use cumin powder instead of cumin crush. 
• You can omit garlic. 
• My mom's Konkani recipe is little different. Grind 2 tbsp of fresh grated coconut along with ginger, garlic, chilli, cumin seeds. Heat ghee in a wok. Add mustard seed. When the splattering starts, add curry leaves, hing, turmeric powder and this coconut paste. Saute for few seconds on low heat. Rest of recipe is same. Besan is optional. 
• If buttermilk is not available, Combine 1 cup of sour curd and 1 to 1½ cup of water, bit together. 
• My mother in law use fenugreek seeds (methi dana) with other ingredients in tempering. This is also quite good. 

Khoya Roti (Khavyachi Poli)

Hot Khoya roti with ghee tastes awesome...... It just melt in your mouth. Sometimes I make this roti substitute to Puran poli, it is easy and quick than puran poli. We can use leftover khoya pedha or burfi for it. 

हि  पाककृती वाचा मराठीतून… इथे क्लिक करा.  



Ingredients: 

• Rice flour or all purpose flour- as required (for rolling)
• Pure ghee- as required (for frying)
• Milk- as required (for serving)

For dough:

• Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
• All Purpose Flour (maida) -½ cup
• Fine semolina (barik rava)- 2 tbsp
• Oil (mohan)- ¼ cup
• Salt- ¼ tsp or to taste
• Water- approx. ¾ cup to 1 cup

For Filling:

• Khoya (khava)- 200 gm (1 cup)
• Powdered sugar- ¾ cup to 1 cup 
• Poppy Seeds (Khas Khas) - 1 tbsp
• Cardamom powder or nutmeg powder- 1 tsp
• Whole wheat flour- ¼ cup
• Pure ghee- 1 tsp
• Milk- 1 tsp (if necessary)

Method:

• Mix wheat flour, semolina, all purpose flour and salt together. Heat the oil till very hot and add to the flour. 
• Knead a dough adding enough water. The dough should be a little tougher than the regular roti dough.
• Keep covered for 2 hours.
• Roast the poppy seeds till slightly change color and grind or crush coarsely. 
• Roast wheat flour with 1 tsp of ghee in a pan, roast till it turns pinkish in color and releases an appetizing smell. Transfer it to another bowl.
• Dry roast khoya (khava) in a pan and saute it on a low-medium flame. Keep stirring till it becomes a little soft and  it gets pinkish color.
• Let it little bit cool. when khoya will become lukewarm, start kneading to avoid lumps.
• Add sugar, roasted flour, cardamom powder and poppy seed crush to it. Mix well. If you fill that filling is too dry, just wet your hands with milk and knead again. Make sure that no any lump in it.
• Make lemon size balls of khoya mixture.
• Make lemon size balls of dough.  
• Grease your palms with some ghee, put dough ball.  Make a small pit in the middle and make shape like katori. Stuff it with the khoya mixture. Close and seal well like stuff paratha or puran poli. 
• Lightly roll out the rotis using some rice flour. Make sure the mixture does not come out.
• Heat non-stick tawa on medium heat. Roast on both sides till they turn light brown. Drizzle ghee while roasting.
• Serve with milk. Pour ghee on the roti.

Tip:
If you have some leftover pedha or burfi. You can make khoya roti from this. Combine and mix pedha, very little milk and some powdered sugar in the food processor. You will get filling. The rest of recipe is same.

Sadh Varan / Goda Varan (Maharastrian Plain Dal )

For most Maharashtrians, varan-bhaat is the comfort food. This "Varan" is very very simple, authentic and popular dal recipe of Maharashtra.

Our Indian meal is not one dish meal. There are spicy curry, pan-fry vegetables, chutney, pickle, pakoda etc. many items in our meal dish. So we can’t eat all spicy and tangy items at a time. Roti and rice are main item in our meal. Plain rice can’t eat without dal. This dal is non-spicy, so we match this with other spicy dishes. Hence this 'Sadh Varan' is also known as 'God Varan'.

The dal is served in the naivedyam or bhog we offer to the God along with the other veggies dishes & sweets. This is satvik dal with no onion and garlic added to it.

You can have the dal with rice. It goes well with some clarified butter (ghee) on top and piece of lemon. Some times I like varan-bhat with simple potato bhaji. This is one delicious and simple and you must try it. It is all-time comfort food.

Many babies are fed this with rice who can't bear chilies. This forms the protein component of the meal.

This is how a Varan is made in the Maharastrian homes, depending on which part of Maharashtra this is made the only variation would be adding sweetness to it or not.

Type #1 (Moong Dal)

I prefer to make this type of varan. Reason is....Moong dal is healthy and you may be face some times acidity from tuvar dal.

Ingredients:

• Split & skinned green gram (moong dal) - ½ cup 
• Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp 
• Cumin seeds- ½ tsp (optional)
• Asafetida (hing)- ½ tsp 
• Salt to taste 

Method:

• Wash the dal with water. Soak in water for 30 min to 1 hr. (top up with water just to cover the dal enough) 
• Put in a small pressure cooker or cooker-separator. Add turmeric powder and cumin seeds if you are using. 
• Close the lid and keep on heat. Allow 3-4 whistles to cook dal till mushy. Let it cool. 
• Open lid and beat up the dal while still hot to crumble it. I use a traditional Ravi to do it. Add hing and bit it well. 
• Add salt & ½ to ¾ cup water (consistency depends upon your choice) to the dal and boil. 
• Serve hot with rice. 

Type # 2 (Tuvar Dal)

This dal is more tasty than moong dal. This type of dal is mainly made in Maharashtrian houses and in functions also.

Ingredients:

• Split pigeon peas (tuvar dal) - ½ cup 
• Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp 
• Asafetida (hing)- ½ tsp 
• Jaggery (gul)- a pinch or ¼ tsp
• Oil-1 tsp 
• Salt to taste 

Method:

• Wash the dal with water. Soak in water for 1 hr minimum. (top up with water just to cover the dal enough) 
• Put in a small pressure cooker or cooker-separator. Add turmeric powder and oil. 
• Close the lid and keep on heat. Allow 3-4 whistles to cook dal till mushy. Let it cool. 
• Open lid and beat up the dal while still hot to crumble it. I use a traditional Ravi to do it. Add hing and bit it well. 
• Add salt , jaggary & ½ to ¾ cup water (consistency depends upon your choice) to the dal and boil. 
• Serve hot with rice.