Paneer-Potato Stuffed Banana Peppers (Stuffed Bajji Molagai)

Madras weather has been pleasant these few weeks and the city metamorphoses into a butterfly, with music, dance and drama lovers donning on their festival finery for the December 'season'. The sabha's also cater to the non-'season' participants.....literally. The hubs of art and culture are redolent with mellifluous notes and tantalizing aromas.

One such aroma that assailed me, as I buzzed past an auditorium, was that of molaga bajji (batter fried banana peppers). Spurred by a hedonistic urge, I picked up some of the peppers and headed home, only to be confronted by a dilemma. I don't like deep frying. It's not the calories, I don't like left over oil.

I remembered reading about cheese stuffed jalapenos and re-found them on Divya Vikram's Dil Se. I used paneer/cottage cheese and potato for the stuffing. 

Ingredients:

Banana Peppers/ Bajji Molagai - I used 4 (and got 8 'bajjis')

Paneer - 200gms (1 packet)

Potato - 1 medium sized, boiled

Salt - to taste

Mozzarella cheese - a little bit

Corriander leaves/ Cilantro - a little bit

Cooking oil - 1 tbsp

Pre-heat oven to 190C

Liquidize boiled potato and paneer with some salt to get a thick homogeneous paste.

Slit the peppers lengthwise and de-seed carefully. Wash hands immediately and apply a bit of oil. 

Banana Peppers - deseeded

Lightly oil the peppers and stuff the hollows with the paneer-potato paste, top with Mozzarella and cilantro.

Stuffed Peppers

Pop it into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and wait till it is ready to be handled. Serve with ketchup or eat it as it is. 

Ready, steady, Bite!

It was delicious. I have some of the potato paneer paste waiting for some peppers....and will probably make it again very soon!

Red Bean (Rajma) and Sesame Dip or Rajma made Hummus style

I have surfed food blogs for a while and hoped to participate in some of the events, whose round-ups I'd come across once-in-a-while and did wonder how it comes about. And then... I serendipitously stumbled upon Priya of Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes, who is hosting My Legume Love Affair - #30 (MLLA #30), an event originally conceived by Susan of The Well- Seasoned Cook. So here goes my second blog and my first entry into food blog events! I also wish to thank Priya for listing out a whole series of events and their deadlines on her page.

I've always been partial to pulses, beans, lentils....members of the leguminosae family. Its a rare day when I don't use them in my daily ritual of creating food for my family. I have many favourites when it comes to how I like them cooked and I think this would be true of many of you.

Hummus bi tahini is my all time favourite dip where 'Hummus' refers to chickpeas and 'tahini' is simply sesame seed paste. It goes with bread, chappati, chips and is perfect all by itself. I used to have an almost endless supply of tahini paste from the gulf, till my parents returned for good and created a need for making tahini from scratch. I think that may have been one of  the first recipes I searched for on the net. 

The last couple of weeks have been hectic and amidst the hurry-burry, I had an urge to make rajma curry (for my entry into MLLA). The rajma (red bean) was soaked and cooked and just didn't have the will to go through with the curry. I let it rest and began thinking afresh. I spotted my jar of sesame seeds (ellu/ til) and thought.....'why not????'

So here goes Rajma bi Tahini: (not sure what rajma is in Arabic)

Ingredients:

Rajma - 250gms

Sesame seeds (white)- 50 gms

Garlic - 3-4 cloves

Lemon juice - 1 1/2 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Olive oil - 4 tbsp 

Soak the rajma in warm to hot water overnight, preferably in a hot pack. Pressure cook for 6 to 7 whistles, allow the cooker to cool before opening. The Rajma should be soft and crushable to paste with a spoon.

Lightly roast the sesame seeds till they appear golden and set them aside on a plate to cool. Once the seeds have cooled to room temperature, load them in a dry grinder and pulverize. As the seeds get crushed they release their oil and become a cohesive mass, not 'powdery'. You mar have to keep scraping the sides of the mixie jar till you get a smooth textured paste. Add the olive oil and run the mixie and your tahini paste is ready.

Tahini paste

In the wet grinder jar, add the cooked, cooled rajma, tahini paste, garlic, salt, lemon juice and blend to smoothness. Add some water if required.

Transfer to a serving dish and garnish. I used some whole cooked rajma for garnish and left out the olive oil. I refrigerated the rajma bi tahini and served it for dinner with lightly toasted bread and carrot-cucumber-onion salad. The dip was creamy and tasted good. The Mr. gave it full marks but more importantly my daughter kept asking for more and she's all of 16 months.

I hope I have all in order before rushing this to Priya and Susan for MLLA #30.

Vazhaipoo Vadai - Banana Flower Fritters

Now that I'm here....where I didn't expect to be...I'm excited.

I love cooking, and look for interesting things to dish up and making everyday food interesting..... And so began my saga of raking food blogs to enliven and sustain various ventures in my kitchen.

My debut contribution will be banana flower fritters.

I've never had banana flowers in any form. I've bypassed the 'stuff' in markets and vegetable stalls, not because I chose to ignore it but because it never fell withing the radar of material I'd use. So why the change of heart?

We have plantain trees in our backyard and I'm attached to them since they seem to thrive with minimum fuss. The saplings were a gift and were planted when I was preparing to introduce my daughter to our world. I've been watching my DD and the trees grow and was thrilled when when I noticed that one of them was going to fruit. 

I watched and watched and watched. Green plantain leaves slowly unfurled to reveal a large burgundy coloured flower. The flower began to shed its petals (?) to reveal the fruit in miniature. My well meaning gardener, who wasn't aware that I would want a picture of the flower with its fruit on the tree for my soon-to-be-blog, brought me the flower and beamed with pride at having got the flower at the 'right' time. 

I proceeded to make the fritters. Why the fritters? Well having never had the flower, I felt it would be most easily appreciated in this form.

Ingredients:

Vazhaipoo (Banana flower) - 1 medium size

Kadalai paruppu or Channa dal - 1/2 cup

Ulutham paruppu or Urad dal - 1/2 cup

Payatham paruppu or yellow Mung dal - 1/4 cup

Red chillies - 3 to 4 (more or less as you like it)

Salt -  1 1/4 tsp (vary according to taste)

Curry leaves - 8 to 10 leaves 

Buttermilk - 1 cup

Asafoetida - a generous pinch

Oil for deep frying.

Wash and then soak the dals in warm water.

Peel the burgundy petals to reveal the florets, which are red/pink initially and become white as to remove layer upon layer. And when you can peel no more, you will find the heart, which is also edible. The outer 4 to 5 layers of florets need some more attention. A long stalk with a flat white bulb at the tip and a 'plasticky' sheath need to be removed - these parts are inedible. As you keep peeling the flower, the burgundy petals become pale and then white and the florets become more tender. The tender florets can be used as they are. Chop the florets. Wash thoroughly in water and transfer to a bowl of buttermilk diluted in two cups of water.

The florets

The dals should have just soaked, grind with red chillies, curry leaves and salt. Try not to add any water and keep the batter coarse but cohesive.

Drain the buttermilk and squeeze the banana florets to remove excess fluid. Mix into batter and add the asafoetida.

Batter - ready to use

Heat oil in a wok. Drop a pea sized bit of batter, if it rises immediately, its hot enough to fry the fritters.

Take a lemon sized ball and flatten it slightly on the palm of your hand and gently slide it into the wok. Turn the fritters to fry evenly on both sides. When the fritters are a nice golden brown, remove with a slotted spoon and collect in a dish lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil. Continue till you've used up all the batter.

Eat the vadai when its hot to appreciate it. I got 18 vadais, which kept disappearing as I made them. The fritters were delicious by themselves and if I were to choose an accompaniment I'd make a spicy tomato chutney/ dip.

There was one flip side to this endeavour, I couldn't appreciate the flavour of the flower (if it has any). I'm all set to making other dishes with this erstwhile neglected element in my kitchen as my trees bear fruit.