Cooking at Shalini's

Sunday was too much fun. My co-worker Shalini invited me to her home to cook and eat. When I arrived, she made dosa(or dosai) for breakfast.



Then, we strolled around neighborhood with her children and we picked up some more ingredients for lunch.



Shalini decided that we should make Gojju. Gojju, I was told, is a curry dish with a variety of vegetables and shaved coconut. This one we made has a base of tomatoes and potatoes.



GOJJU
Ingredients
4 spices - (mustard seed, urad dahl, channa dahl, jeera)
3 med. chili peppers - chopped
6 med. tomatoes - chopped
2 med. onions - chopped
2 med. potatoes – chopped
3/4 glass of water
a handful of peas
a handful of fresh curry leaves - crushed
a handful of coriander – chopped
1/3 a coconut – ground (about ½ cup of coconut. This is actual coconut, not coconut milk)
2 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp jaggrey (this is a pre-processed form of sugar)
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
a lot of oil

Method
* Heat Oil
* Add 4 spices and fry till mustard seeds stop popping
* Add chili, onions, curry leaves, ghee and cook till soft (about 5 mins)
* Add tomatoes, potatoes, peas, coriander and water
* Add jaggrey, salt, coconut
* Let it cook for 30 mins or until potatoes are soft. Add more water if needed.


Shalini's grinding coconut to be added to the Gojju dish.

Apparently, it is quite usual for families to make fresh chapati everyday. The chapati here is mixed with methi leaves, which supposedly adds flavour and is healthier.

CHAPATI
(serves 4 people)
Ingredients
Methi leaves – chopped
2 cups wheat flour
1 ½ tsp salt
2-5 tsp oil
½ sp sugar
1-5 cups water

Method
* Mix flour and salt
* Drizzle oil and sugar and mix with hand
* Add methi leaves and 1 glass of water and knead dough in sections
* Add oil and water as needed (unless you are a health freak, according to Shalini, then you can leave out the extra oil)
* Knead a lot to make your chapatti fluffy
* Keep aside for 10 mins, covered
* Form small balls (slightly bigger than a golf ball), flour and roll and flour and roll until it resembles a disk
* Put rolled-out dough on a flat pan. Drizzle oil and flatten on both sides.
* Chapati will be ready to eat when the color turns caramel brown. Yumm…


Chopped methi leaves with wheat flour.


Knead chapati dough.


Make golf-size balls from dough and flour it before rolling.


Rolling out dough.


Shalini's husband showing how to roll-out chapati dough.


These are spices that Shalini and her husband would use for the foundation of almost every dish. (L-R: Urad Dahl, Jeera, Mustard Seeds, Channa Dalh)

Shalini's husband showing the gojju dish.

And here's my first self-made chapati. *grin*

More photos taken at Shalini's here. Thank you Shalini and family for your generous hospitality!