Vegetable Club Sandwich

Here is a simple club sandwich I made using Nupur's recipe from One Hot Stove.


Club Sandwiches are amazingly delicious sandwiches sold on almost any street corner of India! I still remember eating it frequently at a sandwich place close to home. Usually the sandwich came covered with loads of shredded cheese!! Somehow it never tasted the same when I tried making it at home.. maybe coz I was not that generous with cheese? ;)

When I used Nupur's recipe, it came very close to the real thing!! She has step-by-step recipe with pictures on her site. I am just repeating the recipe here for reference with small variations. Thanks a lot Nupur for an excellent recipe!

Ingredients
Green chutney (grind together 1 bunch coriander leaves with few mint leaves, 3-4 green chillis and some salt using as little water as possible. Add lime juice to taste)
3 bread slices with brown edges removed
Sliced vegetables (boiled potato, tomato, cucumber)
Shredded cheese
Softened butter
Chaat masala
Salt and Pepper

Method
1. On the lowest slice, spread some butter and then chutney.
2. Layer the potato slices and sprinkle chaat masala on top.
3. Top it with second slice.
4. Spread chutney on the second slice and layer cucumber and tomato slices.
5. Sprinkle salt and pepper and then put the shredded cheese (as much as you want!)
6. Top this with buttered third slice.
7. Slice the Sandwich diagonally and you're done!

Serve with lettuce leaves and ketchup!

I am submitting this to Sandwich Mela being hosted by Anupama at Food-n-More . Thanks Anupama for hosting this event!! I am looking forward to the roundup!

Update: Also submitting this entry to Zlamushka's Tried and Tasted event for month of June which features Nupur's One Hot Stove

Moth bean / Matki salad

When I heard about this month's MBP theme, I was thrilled! I love to eat salads in various forms. In fact, when I was in bay area "Sweet Tomatoes" and "Fresh Choice" were one of my favorite restaurants where you get a variety of salads and that too "All you can eat"! When it comes to making salad at home though, I am not very creative. Its the usual slice the cucumber, onion and tomatoes, sprinkle some salt pepper and nimbu and you're done. So naturally, I am thrilled and looking forward to the roundup of MBP-Soups n Salad for more creative ideas!

My contribution to MBP Soups n Salad which is hosted by Raaga this month is a moth bean / matki salad which I made using the recipe from Neelam's Recipe Factory with a little variation


I used only matki for my salad and put onion and tomatoes instead of cucumber and celery. Here's how I made it.

Ingredients
1 cup moth beans / matki
1 small onion - finely chopped
1 green chilli - finely chopped
1 small tomato - finely chopped
salt to taste
1/2 tsp chilli pwd
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chaat masala
little black pepper pwd
lime juice
fresh coriander leaves

Method
1. Wash and soak the moth beans overnight in water.
2. Next morning, drain the water and wrap the beans in a wet cloth. Put it in a seive and let it sprout.
3. Once sprouted, cook the beans in cooker with very little water and only salt and turmeric for 5 mins. (Let the steam out .. don't wait for pressure to go down on its own.. we don't want to cook it too much!)
4. Now add onion, green chilli and tomatoes.
5. Add the masalas - red chilli powder, black pepper and chaat masala
6. Mix it all together and then add lime juice
7. Garnish with Coriander leaves. I also added some bikaneri bhujiya.

Result : An amazing, nutritional salad, which could even go as a snack on its own!

MBP is the brainchild of Coffee from The Spice Cafe

Now this month's CLICK theme is beans n lentils. Even though it does not compare with some of the photos I have seen out there, I would like to submit my photo to the CLICK event hosted by Jai and Bee at Jugalbandi. So here it goes! my first entry to CLICK.

Gatte ki sabji

I got introduced to Rajasthani food at a very early age of 6. Our upstairs neighbors in Delhi were from Rajasthan and from them I got to taste some spiciest home-cooked Rajasthani food ever. Once we moved to Pune, we lost touch with them and rajasthani food. But recently several rajasthani restaurants and speciality outdoor "villages" like "Chokhi Dhani" and "Sanskriti" have come up around Pune getting us closer to the taste of Rajasthan once again. Now, no trip of ours to Pune is complete without a visit to Sanskriti! And in our last trip to India, we took some extra days off and visited the real Rajasthan!! Starting from Jaipur, we made it via a long train journey to Jaisalmer where we got to taste some real authentic jaisalmeri food straight from the kitchen of an 80 yr old lady!

We avoided touristy places and visited as many "local" restaurants as possible. Daal-bati-churma, Ker Sangri, jaisalmeri chane, Gatte, kadhi, bajre ki roti.. you name it.. we had it all :) Even now as I write this, my mouth starts watering! Take a look at a thali we had there. We visited Jodhpur, Udaipur, Ranakpur and Mt. Abu as well after that. And the only place where the food came close to that thali in Jaisalmer was the Gujarati food we had in the dharamshala of Ranakpur.

One dish I liked the most was Gatte ki Sabji. I have tried making it at home before with varying results ;) . Now, with the deadline for RCI Rajasthan coming close, I made it again.. this time with excellent results!


Here's how I made it..

Ingredients
For Gattas:
1.5 cup besan
1/2 cup fresh methi leaves chopped
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
2-3 tsp oil

For curry:
1 onion chopped fine
2 tomatoes pureed
2-3 green chillis chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
oil for tempering
little milk

Method

Gattas:
1. Mix besan with chilli pwd, garam masala, salt and 1 tsp oil.
2. Knead it well adding little water as necessary.
3. Now divide the dough in 3 equal portions and roll them into cylinders like this

4. Boil some water in a big bowl.
5. Once the water is boiling, put the above cylinders in it and boil them for 15-20 minutes (They will start floating on the top)
6. Take the cylinders out (save the water for later) and cool for sometime
7. Cut them in 1/2 inch pieces.
8. Now heat some oil in a non-stick pan and roast the gattas on both sides

These crunchy gattas could be eaten as is. But we're making a sabji here!

Curry:
1. Heat some oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, put the cumin seeds in it.
2. Once the cumin seeds are roasted, add chopped onions and fry them till they become transparent.
3. Add the tomato puree and green chillies next and roast till oil separates
4. Add the masalas now and some of the water used for boiling gattas.
5. Boil the gravy for 5-10 minutes. Add some milk to make it creamy.
6. Now add the gattas to the gravy and boil for some more time

Gatte ki sabji is ready! Serve with hot parathas


This is my first entry for an RCI event!! I am submitting it to RCI: Rajasthan hosted by Padmaja