Cook's Hideout: Vegetarian Himachal Pradesh Thali

May 25, 2014

Vegetarian Himachal Pradesh Thali

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39
Dish: Himachal Pradesh Thali
Day 2 of the marathon and today we are travelling to Himachal Pradesh all the way in Northern India. This is one of the states that I had bookmarked a lot of recipes and figured its better to feature them all in a thali. All the dishes are very simple to make and it took me a little over 1 hour to make them. My  husband was not too thrilled with this since the channa madra had yogurt and the nashpati ki subzi is on the sweet side. I should have thought about it, but well that was that. I on the other hand enjoyed all the dishes.
Vegetarian Himachal Pradesh Thali

Dishes in the Thali:
Babru: These are urad dal stuffed puris almost like bedmi poori, but the stuffing is not cooked. This makes the rolling of the puris quite difficult because the stuffing oozes out and my pooris ended up having funny shapes. But that didn't take away from the taste, they were soft and tasted great.

Recipe from Valli.
Ingredients:
Wholewheat flour - 2cups
All purpose flour - ½cup
Baking powder - ¼tsp
Salt - to taste

For the Stuffing:
Urad dal - ½cup

Method:
  • For the Stuffing: Soak the dal overnight and grind it into a slightly coarse paste.
  • For the outer layer: Combine wholewheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Add enough water and knead to a smooth pliable dough.
  • Divide the dough into small equal size balls. Flatten the ball slightly and place 1tsp of the stuffing, pull the dough over the stuffing and cover it completely. 
  • Dust liberally with flour and roll into small pooris. 
  • Heat oil for deep frying; gently slide each poori and cook on both sides until golden in color. Remove onto a paper towel lined plate and serve hot.
Channa Madra: This was one of the most popular dishes made for the state of Himachal Pradesh. It is a yogurt based curry made with chickpeas.
Channa Madra

Nashpati ki Subzi (Pear Curry): This is quite an unusal dish for me, since I rarely cook with fruits and making a curry with a fruit is very new to me. When I saw it on Vaishali's blog, I really wanted to try it to see how it tastes. I wasn't disappointed -- the curry is sweet, spicy and juicy.
Pear Curry

Spicy Bhey: Lotus stems are of the new ingredients that I tried during the mega A-Z Indian states marathon and one that I really really liked. So when I saw it being made as a dry curry with spices, I knew I would be making it real soon.
Spicy Bhey

Meethe Chawal: This is a delicious sweet rice that is very quick and easy to make.
Meethe Chawal
Recipe from Vaishali's blog:
Ingredients:
Rice - 1cup
Sugar - 1cup (adjust as per taste)
Water - 2½cups
Ground cardamom - ½tsp
Almonds - 2tbsp
Saffron - a pinch

Method:
  • Soak rice in cold water for at least 30 minutes. In a small bowl, add 2tbsp hot water to saffron and set aside.
  • Heat 2tsp ghee in a pressure cooker. Drain the water from rice and add the soaked rice to ghee. Add ground cardamom, mix well. 
  • Pour water and pressure cook for 1~2 whistles.
  • Open the lid and once the pressure dissipates; add sugar and saffron mixture. Cook till the sugar is completely dissolved. Garnish with almonds and serve.
Vegetarian Himachal Pradesh Thali
Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 40.
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7 comments:

  1. What a lovely platter! I tried channa madra but that didn't go too well in my house. All your sides have turned out perfect.

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  2. wow!! Pavani hats off man!!..what a awesome thali..the spread looks so good and I am glad you liked the dishes from my blog..I feel if some one cooks from your blog and appreciates ..then your recipe is a success recipe!..Thanks and once again ..wow!!

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  3. Wow, nice thali.. I made madra for BM and I felt it was some what similar to kadhi. The first day we thought it was not spicy enough and the second day I spiced it up. I liked it after adding more spices and finished it all.

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  4. That's fantastic thali Pavani..esp when we all struggled and finally came about good recipes, we feel so happy!..I loved the babru and madra..so nicely done...

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  5. Wow ! Lovely thali...all dishes looks tasty !

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  6. Another yummy thali. Now that sweet rice and babru caught my attention.

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  7. Lovely spread, Pavani. The urad dal stuffed puris sound new and interesting.

    ReplyDelete

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