Crunchy Bunches of Goodness!

Breakfast cereal has been a regular on our shopping cart for as long as I can remember. It is hard to beat the convenience in the morning. Then there came a light bulb moment in life, when I started reading ingredient labels, and started seeing my regular cereals for what they really are. Honey bunches of oats, should really be called "High Fructose corn syrup clusters with a sprinkling of Oats". Honey nut cheerios, is really  "GMO sugar, artificial nut flavor, oats with GMO corn". And to think all the marketing dollars behind cheerios has earned it a reputation of being part of a heart healthy diet! There are good brands of cereal out there, you just need to read the labels Ensure sugar or corn are not on the ingredient list. But, really folks, cereal or granola is one of those things that once you start making at home, you will wonder why you ever bothered with the store bought kind. Once you have a basic recipe down, you can vary it based on seasonal ingredients or your personal whims.

This recipe is inspired from "Ultimate Nutty Granola" from a superlative book called Oh She Glows by Angela Liddon. I have modified it for my family's tastes and preferences. For the original recipe (which is an addictive snack), do refer to the above book, which is an incredible collection of go-to recipes!

Crunchy Bunches of Goodness Cereal

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 45 mins

Makes about 6 cups of cereal

Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup other mixed raw nuts (I used cashews and hazelnuts)

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup raw buckwheat groats (easily found in health food stores, or just use more rolled oats)

1/2 cup mixed dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, goji berries, apricots etc)

3/4 cup raw seeds (mix of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup melted coconut oil

Method

- Preheat oven to 275F

- Grind 1/2 cup of almonds into a coarse almond meal. Add to a bowl.

- Add remaining almonds, walnuts and other nuts to a food processor and pulse until chopped. I used a spice grinder to process the nuts in small batches. Add them to your mixing bowl.

- Add oats, buckwheat groats, dried fruit and seeds. And in the salt and combine.

- Add the maple syrup and coconut oil and stir the mixture well.

- Spread this mixture on a large cookie sheet and press down so everything sticks together.

- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 mins. Rotate the pan and bake for another 20-25 mins.

- Take it out of the oven and allow it to cool completely (atleast 1 hr) before breaking up into clusters!

You could mix it up by adding cinnamon or vanilla extract. As other superfoods make their rounds into your pantry, you can add chia seeds, ground flax seeds or cacao nibs. Please take the time to share your variations with me. 

It is time to take control of breakfast. Thank you General Mills and Post. We won't be needing your services anymore. 

The whole scoop on Chyawanprash

Some advertising slogans are so powerful, their message just sticks with you even after years. One such instance is a very popular Chyawanprash ad with the punchline - 'Saath Saal ke Bhoodhe ya Saath Saal Ke Javan (60 year old aged man or a 60 year old youth?' The ad classically pitts the energy levels of  a seasoned senior citizen against a young sedentary office worker. The old man climbs several flights of stairs and even helps the poor next gen make it to the the top. The secret of his energy .... was Chyawanprash, the ancient Indian Ayurvedic jam.  Ayurveda in its infinite ancient wisdom has developed a recipe for rejuvenating the body and rendering it ageless. If you like me are curious about the origins of chyawanprash, you have reached the right place on the internet. It has all the elements of Bollywood movie. Chyawan was an aging Rishi, said to be touching his nineties. At this ripe old age, he was presented with an opportunity to marry a young princess and carry his blood line forward. He consulted with two Ayurvedic Vaids, who developed a recipe for longevity and rejuvenation. Chyawan rishi got his youthful vitality back and went on to father his children. It was 10,000 years ago that Chyawanprash is first said to be made and today, several pharma companies stake their claim on the recipe. 

Amla (amalaki in Sanskrit, gooseberry in english) is the key ingredient in Chyawanprash. This herb is the jewel of Ayurveda, considered one of the most powerful rejuvenating ingredients that supports a healthy digestive system and ensures coronary health. It is one of the ingredients in Triphala which is a very important tonic in Ayurveda. Even modern medicine identifies Amla for its high antioxidant levels notably vitamin C which is crucial for immunity. In addition to amla, Chyawanprash contains two classic ayurvedic ingredients - ghee and sugar which are believed to carry the medicinal properties through the cell boundary.

What's concerning to me is that most commercial Chyawanprash recipes are over 50% sugar. The refined kind of cane sugar. Now, I am sure when Chyawanprash was first made, sugar in the modern form did not exist. Amla has a very complex taste, I don't think there would be a word in the english language to explain it. It is quite sour at first bite, then it tastes cool, and then a certain astringent taste in the back of your palate. If you drink a glass of water after biting into amla you get a wonderful cooling sensation all over your mouth. So, a fair amount of sugar gets added to make the amla palatable. There is no reason why you can't make Chyawanprash with the likes of jaggery and honey. Just how sweet you want it to be should be up to you. 

Then there are all the herbs that go into Chyawanprash. I don't think there is a record of what the Ashwin brothers used to make the first concoction. But Dabur and Himalaya have their secret recipes and their high profile marketing claims the benefits from 100s of herbs. While I am sure that the herbs are quite beneficial, I can't fathom the complex interactions of the bouquet of herbs. If you are interested in learning about some of the herbs that go into Chyawanprash, I encourage you to watch this video. 

As you can see Amla is still the star of Chyawanprash, and the herbs just play a supporting role. Amla is cooked in a soup of herbs, then strained out and cooked. So for my first batch of Chyawanprash, I decided to use spices and herbs commonly found in an Indian kitchen and are known to have anti-inflammatory properties - like cinnamon, black pepper, cloves and fennel.  I just don't know enough about the other herbs - where they are grown, how they are sourced, how to prepare them and what effect they have on our system. Until I enlighten myself, here is my 'vanilla' chyawanprash recipe.

A note about buying fresh Amla - you should be able to find these in well stocked Indian grocery stores in major North American cities in the winter months. Amla season in India starts in winter and extends into spring (March/April). Incidentally, my maternal grandmothers house in India housed a gooseberry tree. How visionary of my ancestors to invest in the family's future health and vitality. Unfortunately, in the name of urbanization, that tree (among others) in that flourishing backyard was cut down, to make way for a sprawling community. Even the least blemished amla fruit from the grocery store today, doesn't match up to the fresh taste of the fruit from my grandmothers tree. Lament!

Ingredients:

20-25 fresh amla

1/2 cup ghee

1 cup jaggery

3 tablespoons non-pasteurized honey (or to taste)

1/2 black pepper corns

2 inch stick of cinnamon

1 tsp roasted fennel seeds

4-5 cloves

Preparation:

1. Wash and clean the amla and steam it in a pressure cooker. Allow it to come to full steam and cook under pressure for 4-5 minutes. You can use another device to steam the amla, but note that cooking time will be longer. 

2. Let the amla cool to room temperature. The amla should fall apart on touching. Take out the seed from the amla and place the pulp into a blender. Blend it till all the fibers are incorporated. I have seen some recipes that call for running the pulp through a fine mesh to discard the stem and flesh. But that seems unnecessary, running everything through a high speed blender gave a very smooth texture. 

3. Now take a heavy bottomed pan, heat 1/2 cup of ghee. Add the amla puree to the ghee. On low heat, fry the amla for 6-7 minutes stirring often until the water evaporates and the mixture comes together and stops sticking to the pan/spoon.

4. Grind the pepper corns, cinnamon, fennel seeds and cloves into a fine powder. Add this to the amla.Turn off the heat and add the grated jaggery to the pan. Use the heat of the pan to melt and combine the jaggery. Let this mixture cool down.

5. Taste for sweetness and flavor. At this point the chyawanprash is more sour than sweet. You can add honey to your taste when the mixture is completely cooled. I prefer to use non pasteurized honey which preserves the natural enzymes, so it should not be heated after this. I added about 3 table spoons of honey and got to my desired sweetness. 

Transfer to a jar and enjoy a spoonful each day!

Verdict - The chyawanprash is more brown in color due to the use of jaggery and also due to the absence of all the herbs that give the deep dark color to commercial counterparts.  But, it has all the complex amla flavor. My two year old didn't fall in love with the taste, but toddlers don't fall in love at first bite. I will be trying every trick in the parenting book to get him to eat a half a teaspoon a day.

Anyone reading this, willing to point me towards resources to learn more about the herbs that can be cooked into chyawanprash, feel free to share your knowledge and get in touch using the comments below!

Banana Blueberry Kamut Muffins

Once upon a time, not too long ago, wheat was a staple grain in our diets. Depending on which part of the world you were in rice was a close contender as mankind's favorite grain. But we will tackle rice in another post. For better or for worse, the wheat crop has taken a battering all in the name of increasing production to feed the explosive human population. The poor humble wheat has apparently been hybridized by crossing it with different strains, crossing with non wheat plants and exposed to chemical rays to induce mutations. So, the latest nutrition studies report that wheat is no longer a complex carbohydrate, it has been reduced to the likes of simple sugars like *gasp* glucose. As if that wasn't bad enough, our food chain has been inundated with refined wheat also known as all purpose flour. To make us feel better about our choices, they are now marketing all purpose wheat as 'enriched'. Really?  Ever since, the controversial wheat belly book came out the gluten free food market has exploded in North America. Now, I personally know of individuals who have severe sensitivity to gluten - the wheat protein - and for them simple pleasures like bread and pasta can mean severe discomfort and questionable nutrition availability of food consumed and as a result poor immune system. For them gluten is poison. Then there are others who don't have any medical symptoms of gluten sensitivity, but they can feel a difference in their energy levels and well being once gluten is eliminated. What I find extremely disturbing are the gluten free products that sit on supermarket shelves like wolves in sheep's clothing. More than half the gluten free products are stuffed with all kinds of highly processed starches (potato starch, tapioca starch, corn starch to name a few) and many binders or edible gums. So we may be replacing one evil with another by going gluten free the wrong way.

Should we all be saying no to wheat? We should definitely be shunning the refined and 'enriched' varieties of wheat.  Apparently a lot of us already are. So way to go, us :) The worldwide sales of bread has dropped so much that even the French government is reportedly concerned about losing a sacred tradition. The good news is that there are so many other nutrition packed whole grain options available outside the realm of wheat. To me, adding a variety of grains to our diets seems to be the key. And, the world around us seems to be cycling back to making everything from scratch and at home. The pressure is on the businesses to churn out more food with real ingredients. I predict that sometime in the near future, we will see a supermarket brand of bread with 5 simple ingredients - 'non enriched' real whole flour, water, yeast, salt and sugar. So, to anyone reading this post with earnest, the take-away should be that we should make a variety of grains as part of our daily diets. Look beyond wheat and you will find a whole new set of options!

During a trip to the farmers market a few weekends ago, I discovered Kamut. It is a an ancient strain of wheat historically originating in Persia. It is currently cultivated mostly in the USA and western Canada as the growers need to adhere to strict 'brand' guidelines. It has a higher protein and fat content than traditional dwarf wheat. So, the grain naturally yields a better crumb to baked goods. Kamut is an excellent choice of grain to put in your morning muffin. I have tried many different combinations and have locked in the recipe below for Blueberry, banana kamut muffins. I do use a large number of eggs... I do so, because I want to get more of the good nutrition from eggs into my 19 month old. You could get away with using only 1 egg in the recipe. I have had success with the eggless version using a chia egg, read on below.

Blueberry Banana Kamut Muffins
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins (+ cooling time)
Makes: 6 muffins

Ingredients
1 ripe banana
2 eggs ( or 1 chia egg - 1 tbsp ground chia seeds soaked in 1/4 cup warm water for 10 minutes)
1/2 cup kamut flour (preferably coarsely ground flour)
1/4 cup oat flour (1/4 cup oats ground in a spice grinder)
2 tbsp almond flour (handful of raw almonds ground in a spice grinder)
a pinch of cardamom powder
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup yogurt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup frozen wild blueberries

Blueberry Banana Kamut Muffins

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

In a large bowl, mash the banana till smooth. Crack open the eggs (or chia egg) and whisk together. Add kamut flour, oat flour, almond flour, cardamom, maple syrup, yogurt and baking soda and mix with a large spoon till combined. Last, fold in the blueberries gently so that it doesn't bleed into the batter.

Line a muffin tin with good quality parchment baking cups or use a silicone muffin pan. Scoop out about 1/2 cup batter into each prepared  muffin mold and place in the oven for 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Notes:
1. Please do make sure to use good quality baking cups. Or grease the cups as a precaution before putting the batter in. I once baked a batch which ended up sticking completely to the paper. Such a waste of good ingredients
2. You can substitute finely chopped apples for the blueberries and use cinnamon instead of cardamom for yummy apple-cinnamon muffins

And Oh my, I used kamut flour to make chappatis (the Indian flatbread), and I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the fantastic results. It must be the higher fat content that made the chappatis stay soft long after they came out of of the stove. If you are one of those who struggle to make soft chappatis on an induction stove you got to give kamut a try.

If you don't get kamut where you live... well... you can try using regular whole wheat flour. But I highly recommend going out of your way to source kamut for this recipe. You won't regret it!

Pass the mush, Baby!

Hello, Blogger! Can you believe this is my first post since I became a mommy? Ever since that day, the days seem to be have dragged on while the weeks and months have blurred past. We quickly got accustomed to the night wakings and weaved our lives to fit between the unrelenting feeding schedules. And how we (or maybe it was just me :) ) obsessed about everything! Every thing was an issue. And every issue quickly got escalated to crisis status. Every crisis deserved a google search. And every search yielded several opinions on a solution. Then there were the brainstorming sessions. For a long time, we were looking for a solution to transfer a sleeping baby from arms to crib without waking. Some solutions that were considered were preheating the crib, cross hand hold to have minimum body contact when holding the baby. We tiptoed in our own house to avoid waking our sleeping 'little terror' .

For a few days now my little terror has been terrorizing his wonderful daycare teachers. I miss him crawling around and gnawing at my toes. But this separation gives me some time to chart out a game plan before I go all corporate in a few weeks. I am always on the lookout for foods that pack a one-two punch of nutrition and flavor. My LO is not a very picky eater, but even at his age, he knows what he wants. I can't get him to eat beets or carrots no matter how cleverly I disguise them. Also, as Yoda might say, the curiosity is strong in this one. He wants to eat whatever we are eating no matter what. This means mom and dad also get to watch what they eat. Practice what we preach, in short.

For breakfast, I have been giving LO Ragi porridge or cereal. Ragi is the Indian (Hindi) name for finger millet. This is a very traditional Indian baby food that should really fit into grown up meals as well. It is chock full of nutrients especially calcium and the highly sought after mineral, iron. You can buy ragi powder from ethic Indian stores, dissolve them in cold water and boil them to make the porridge, but this yields a grainy  cereal which may be less palatable and more importantly too aggressive for the newly acquired set of infant gut bacteria. The elders advice you to soak the ragi for a few days, allow it to germinate and sprout, then dry in the sun and powder it. Now use it for making the porridge. With my two wonderfully black thumbs, I managed to make two moldy batches of ragi seeds, before somewhat admitting defeat. Until a good friend suggested another way of soaking and grinding the seeds for a happy middle ground.

For those not familiar with ragi or finger millet, it looks like dark brown mustard seeds and soaking them helps improve the bio availability of the nutrients.

To make the porridge, you need to soak about 3 table spoons of the millet seeds in ample water overnight. Do this after tucking your LO into bed. Actually more soaking time, upto 24 hours, is also said to be beneficial, because the seeds are then in the stage of near germination.

In the morning, drain the soaked seeds and place in a blender

Add 1/2 a cup of water to the blender and blend till the seeds are well pulverized

Pour the blended mixture into a fine cheese cloth or jelly strainer or nut milk bag and squeeze out the milk.

Add the milk to a saucepan and bring it to a boil on medium heat. Be sure to stire often otherwise, the mixture will get lumpy as it thickens.

Once it reaches a consistency your baby likes, turn off the stove and serve as is or with any toppings.

At this point your ragi porridge is a blank canvas to add different flavorings. Here are some of my little dumplings favorite toppings
- jaggery (unrefined Indian sugar, with molasses intact)
- stewed and pureed prunes
- stewed and pureed dates and goji berries
- salt, powdered cumin and a touch of yogurt

I have been giving this porridge or kanji to my LO since he was 7 months old. As he gets older and his digestion gets mature, I will transition to using store bought ragi powder.

I would love to learn about traditional baby foods in other cultures, so please share your recipes in the comments.

Almond Nankhatai: Indian shortbread cookies

Every cook needs to have that tried and tested recipe to fallback on during dire times.I have a cookie recipe that has come in handy during several emergencies. Say I need to impress the in-laws in a flash, or cook a last minute dish for a potluck, bring that a-ha cookie to a bake sale or fedex a mothers day gift that wont spoil in transit? Out pops the recipe of this unassuming cookie, all battered and bruised from the elements in my kitchen. I am talking of course of, Almond Nankhatai. No egg, Indian shortbread style cookie with the flavours of almonds and cardamom. Each cookie is feather light, crumbly and melts readily in the mouth. Ofcourse thats because of all the butter that goes into it. But hey, you don't have to eat them all. This recipe is meant for sharing.

You can customize the master recipe by replacing some of the almonds with other nut powders, adding a tad bit extra cardamom or saffron to please you palate. Roll our the dough and use a cookie cutter to shape the cookies any which way you please. Or just shape them into the traditional rounds and flatten them slightly between your palms. What ever you do, make sure all your cookies are evenly sized. And time them closely, since cooktime will vary based on the shape.

Almond Nankhatai (Indian Shortbread Cookies)
3 cups all purpose flour 1 cup sugar Pinch of salt 4 tablespoons ground almonds ½ lb or 2 sticks of butter 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp freshly powdered cardamom	Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Use your hands to bring everything together into a ball
	Shape your cookies anyway you want. I simply take about 2 tablespoons of dough, roll it into a round and lightly flatten in my palms.
	Bake at 350 degree F for 15 – 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Note that the cookies will still be soft to the touch when they are hot/warm out of the oven.

The Chappati Heartache

How do normal people react to reading their own past work ? Everytime I re-read something I have written, I cringe a little bit. To me, my work always seems juvinile, with plenty of room for improvement. Recently, I stumbled upon a piece that was published about 7 years ago on Sulekha. This was back when postings on that site had to be edited and approved by a reviewing team. I titled the article 'The chappati heartache' and it was meant to be a sarcastic yet useful guide for the kitchen self-starter to make their own chappatis/rotis from scratch. I have come a long way in my kitchen experiences since then, yet many of my feelings about making rotis have not changed. I still enjoy the whole process and more so enjoy complaining about it. As I read this article, I had an instant urge to edit my own work. But the older and wiser me decided that any changes would just ruin the innocence and the sheer geekiness that shines so proudly from it. So here, for your reading pleasure and for my records, I present to you the unedited 'Chappati Heartache' -- an account of my culinary frustrations more than 7 years ago.

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The Chappati Heartache
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The soul of Indian food is composed of rotis. These complex carbohydrates form the staple food of a billion people worldwide. They are delicious to eat and highly nourishing for the body (proteins and fiber). So naturally, they are a delightful pain to make. The procedure is messy, time consuming, exhausting and at the end of it all, you are just glad there is something to eat! I would attribute getting consistent (good) chappati results over and over again to a stroke of pure luck. At every attempt at chappati making, you get closer to getting better. Which only means that you will never be perfect, just like an infinite series only promises to converge at infinity. Are you willing to wait till eternity to eat perfect chappatis made by you?

If you don't believe me, allow me to exemplify my theory with -- myself! I am your average girl next door, have been away from home for several years, eating copious amounts of rice and pasta during those years and close to being sick of rice and any form of beans. I greatly enjoy (and sorely miss) my mother's cooking. I have been trying to make chappatis for a while now but the art of chappati-making completely eludes me! Sure, every once in a while, I have the blessing to enjoy my own handmade steamy, puffy, soft, melt-in-my-mouth chappatis, but the sheer amount of times I have had to eat thick, hard, chewy chappatis just ruins the pleasure. It's like my chappatis are forever jinxed by a cosmic conspiracy. How else would you explain that in say, x number of times I have made chappatis, 10x! uniquely different things have gone wrong? Now, do I see some heads nodding in agreement? Haven't we all been there, ladies (and um... the real gentlemen)? Hence the chappati heartache -- consistency is the key in chappati making, but the lock is unfortunately password protected.

Don't get me wrong. I love the entire cooking process, but failure frustrates me. Repeated failure prompts me to write about it. It is my belief that cooking results directly indicate the mood and frustration level of the chef. I have noticed that if I am frustrated about something (other than cooking), my chappatis come out great. This I believe is because, frustration is good for the dough-making process, you have all the motivation to beat the crap out of it and the dough comes out soft and smooth. Ironically, if I am frustrated about how my chappatis are turning out, their quality just goes downhill from there.

For the benefit of the naive beginners and the entertainment of the (self-proclaimed) chappati experts, allow me to explain the nuances of the fine art of chappati-making. It is hoped that in spite of some not-so-subtle sarcastic (frustrated) statements, this will be considered a useful guide.

The chappati making process has 4 main steps:

Kneading the dough
Making small balls of the dough
Rolling out chappatis
Roasting the chappatis

It is difficult to judge which one of the above steps is the most idiot proof, because like I mentioned, I have goofed up every step of the way, and still discovering new goofs and mutations of old ones.

Step 1: Kneading the dough

This process is a little messy. Beginners, please remember to clip your nails and wash hands with soap and water! Use a nice broad mouthed vessel for this process, one that would have room for various violent arm movements.

Start with some atta (wheat flour) in the vessel, and add salt to it.

Then add 1 teaspoon of oil and rub into the mixture.

Now gradually add water, rub into the mixture. Continue adding water until the mixture looks like dry scrambled eggs.

Now sprinkle about a fistful (?) of water and combine into a single dough structure.

Knead and knead, till your knuckles give out, and your carpal tunneled wrists are permanently hanging at right angles to your arm.

Wash hands and cover and keep dough aside for at least 10 minutes.

Tips on kneading dough

Start making the dough when you are frustrated. Imagine the dough as the object of your frustration and vent it out. Start at the end of the long school/ workday for the ideal frustration level.

Salt is an important and easy-to-forget ingredient!

Keep in mind, the physics theories of relativity and the uncertainty principle.

Why? If you made nearly perfect dough today, measured the amount of ingredients with astronomical precision and the next day mixed up the exact astronomical amount to make the dough, the result will almost always never be perfect. According to my research, this is due to the fact that your experiments can be affected by the plethora of factors, your sense of measurement, instruments used, number of experimental trials, temperature, humidity, sweat level of the palms, magnitude and direction of the force vectors applied to the dough, quality of the mill that ground the flour, entropy of the atmosphere, pollen count etc., to name a few. In the big picture, all this boils down to the following factors: the speed of light, the speed of kneading relative to the speed of light, the orientation of the earth, its rotational speed and the resulting centripetal force and the gravitational pull of other celestial objects to name a few of them. That is how physics becomes involved. As you will soon realize, it is difficult for an uninformed mind to keep all these factors in mind. For a more detailed guide for this step, please refer to another guide that will be written after the completion of research: “No Two Dough Balls Are The Same – Why?”

Rare second chance opportunity, If dough turns out too dry/hard, try adding water and knead extra hard to incorporate in the dough.

If dough turns out too soft/sticky, You have messed up. You can try adding more dry flour and knead till you pass out, but I doubt if the situation is recoverable.

A word of confidence: Whatever the end doughy result is, try to continue with the following steps, because after all, you can always eat thick, ugly chappatis.

Step 2: Making balls from the dough

1. Break the dough into 'ping-pong size' balls, smooth, no cracks or gradations on the surface. Opinions vary among the chappati gurus, some say 'marble sized', some say 'lemon sized' and some others say 'small melon' sized. My short stint of experience seems to suggest that 1.45” would be more or less the precise diameter.

This sounds a little too easy but believe you me, if you mess up here this could jeopardize the next steps.

Step 3: Rolling out chappatis

Keep dry flour handy for dusting purposes (a little more if your dough is on the sticky side)

Take each ball from the previous step, flatten on the rolling board, apply flour and roll with the rolling pin. In the beginning, the rolling process would seem more like flattening. But this is a delicate process; one has got to respect the chappati.

Roll out into rounds of about 6-7 inches in diameter. And that's it!

Tips, Tricks and Strategies for rolling

You have to talk to the chappati, sometimes curse at it. Show who the boss is. At the same time, be gentle. Just like teaching a kid how to tie his/her shoelaces (except for the cursing part).

The trick is to roll such that the chappati rotates with your motions, so that it is even throughout.

A neat little trick that my mom once taught me: Once the chappatis are about 1 inch in diameter, roll with even pressure (not measurements again), trying to roll out the edges to prevent overworking the center.

If you worry too much about the shape, it will never come out round.

Remember that you cannot get the round shape by tricky rolling pin movements in the end. That is why step 2 is so important; you have to make the balls such that if you flatten it, it is a perfect round. Now rotate it and roll evenly to try and maintain that as far as possible.

Step 4: Roasting the chappati

Preheat the tawa/griddle.

Wait till small bubbles are formed and the surface facing the tawa has small brown spots.

Use a paper towel or clean kitchen cloth and apply pressure on the chappati to cook it from within.

Remove and apply ghee to the surface that has just left the tawa. As a wise man once said, “It is very important to realize that in the real world, everything has a right side and a wrong side.” Truer words have never been spoken.

If you followed all the above steps 100% correctly, there is about 50% probability that the chappati will puff up nicely. Tips and Tricks for roasting

Keep your eyes peeled at the chappatis; they love to burn.

When in doubt, turn the chappati over to check for doneness. If it is not done, flip it back. Defense is the best strategy you can use here.

Keep the flame on 'high' while cooking the chappatis. This is supposed to prevent them from becoming hard on cooling.

Now that the process is outlined, do you feel you are up to it yet? Here is the final twister that adds slight complications – multiplexing.

Yes, you are expected to perform the rolling, toasting and greasing processes in a parallel, pipelined fashion for optimum time and fuel efficiency. By the time you lovingly roll out the chappati at hand into a semi-circle with Australia on top, the one on the tawa has turned to coal and the ones piled up waiting to be greased have turned to stone.

As with most things in life, one should start with this adventure simple and add the multiplexing to give themselves a challenge along the way. Unfortunately, such people are considered lowly novices among the chappati elites.

I can almost see those chappati experts rolling their eyes saying, well, Rome wasn't built in a day! My answer to them would be, of course that makes sense, Romans were so preoccupied with making pizza dough that they procrastinated building Rome!

They say perseverance pays and practice makes perfect (or nearly perfect in this case). In the meantime, misery loves company, so I am sharing my whines and complaints. Then again, a new day will come and I will go through the process once more, and maybe one day I will be close to getting better at it. Remember, he who says he is perfect, lies. She, who says she is perfect, usually lies.

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Spicy Granola aka Bhel Puri

You know, we Indians may not be born sophisticated like the French, or have a sexy accent like the Spanish or Italians, or be as athletic as the Chinese or Americans, but dammit, we can eat really spicy food! We would put spice on our morning cereal if it didn't curdle the milk! Occasionally you get the rare Indian with a sweet tooth, but by golly we love our steaming stack of spicy aloo parathas. Our dosas aren't the same with out being smeared with spicy gunpowder masala. And, no experience with Indian food is complete without getting a taste of our Chaat.

Chaat is the blanket name given to all kinds of heavenly street food in India and quite aptly, the word 'chaat' literally means 'to lick' in Hindi. While 'chaat' stalls are easy to spot in any busy marketplace or street corner, the best 'feast for the eyes' experience comes from eating from a

chaat vendor at the beach. There are several dishes that make the chaat category chief among them are:

• The tiny, round, puffy, crisp semolina puris that are stuffed with warm boiled potatoes and silky legumes, then filled with a cold, minty, spicy and tangy, green liquid. Once filled with the liquid you move really quickly and put the puri as a whole into a wide open mouth. As your teeth sink into it, there is a gush of warm meeting the cold. The crisp meeting the soft. The spicy and tangy meeting a very satisfied palate. A complete balanced meal if you asked me! This is called the Pani Puri -- and undoubtedly my favorite in the chaat family. One day, I will tell you more about the experience if you have never had the good fortune of enjoying this at an Indian street corner.
• Then there is the Pav bhaji. A spicy medley of vegetables - potatoes, cauliflower, green peppers etc, simmered in a tomato based sauce with a special blend of spices. This is served with a slab of butter melting on top with a side of pillows of soft bread rolls toasted slightly on a hot griddle. Here is a picture of a the street side chef cooking up a batch of Pav Bhaji, taken during a recent trip to Mumbai.
• Next, there is the Ragda Pattice. A layered dish of crisp potato cutlets, with a generous helping of spicy chickpea/white pigeon pea curry (similar your usual chana masala from the neighborhood Indian restaurant), topped with condiments such as spicy mint and tangy tamarind chutneys, chopped raw onions and crispy fried chickpea flour noodles. The aroma of the cutlets frying up on the extra large griddle is not easily resisted. Neither can you miss the metallic din of the stainless spatula used to flip and cook the Pattice or cutlet on the cast iron griddle the size of Texas.
• Vada Pavs are to Mumbai what Hot Dogs are to New York City. The original veggie burger, simply dressed in fresh out the frying pan warmth. A spicy mixture of mashed potatoes with onions, garlic and spices are formed to round balls. They are then dipped in a thick chick pea batter and fried to crispy goodness to form the vada. Then, the softest imaginable dinner rolls called Pav are split and slathered with a red chili garlic powder. The beloved vada is held between two halves of the Pav. The whole snack is only palm sized, and is devoured in only a few bites but packs a devastating punch in flavor. No need for any other fancy toppings, or dipping sauces, this is the on the go snack for the city that truly never sleeps. Just watching the efficient supply chain management of one of the vada pav vendors can easily form a case study lesson for business schools. Not Kidding!
• The most popular and easily portable snack among the masses is undoubtedly the bhel puri. You could think of it as the Indian trail mix. It is a mixture of churmura or puffed rice, sev or crispy fried noodles, papdi or flat fried chick pea disks and mungfalli or peanuts, roasted together with seasonings and spices. Just before serving, this is folded in with mint and tamarind chutneys, minced vegetables onions, tomatoes, boiled potatoes green chili (yes, ofcourse it counts as a vegetable!).

The bhel puri man is by extension, the most portable snack man in India. He carries a tall wicker stool on top of which he transports all the ingredients. He will settle himself at different strategic spots depending on the time of the day. During lean periods, he will mince onions, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, green chilis, coriander leaves into the finest confetti you can imagine using a tiny paring knife. All the knife skills prized by the modern culinary world are shattered as you watch this man at work [without using a cutting board]. Then when a customer approaches him, he portions out a serving of the dry bhel puri mix into a little container. Then the adds the onions, tomato, chili, coriander and the spices. At this point, he will let you interject if you want to customize your serving with extra spice or additional crunch or another shot of chutney. He will give this mixture a squeeze of lemon, then mix it with great pomp and show attracting passer-bys. Then he forms a rectangular piece of newspaper into a cone and fills it with the bhel puri and hands it over to you. You then walk away, munching in happiness.

If you don't live in India, you can still replicate the Bhel puri as close as possible, with the ingredients available in ethnic stores. Here is a link to a basic traditional recipe video for bhel puri. Now, not to defy tradition, but I don't always shop at ethnic stores or sometimes I am unhappy with the products they carry, and occasionally I get bitten by the healthy eating bug. So I make this healthier version of bhel puri, which can be made from ingredients available at your regular North American grocery stores.

For the Bhel Puri Mix:

Bhel Puri Mix
2 tsps vegetable oil 1/8 tsp mustard seeds A few sprigs of curry leaves A dash of asafetida 4 green chilis, minced	Heat the oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, once they pop, add the remaining ingredients and fry for a 30 secs or so.
2 cups Kashi 7 Grain Puffed cereal 1 cup baked salted pita chips, broken up ¼ cup roasted peanuts	Add the puffed cereal, peanuts and the pita chips and roast till the mixture is crispy

Once cooled, store this mixture in a airtight container. Just snack as is or make into bhel puri.

For the Bhel Puri:

Bhel Puri
1 cup of bhel mix ½ onion, minced ½ tomato, minced 1 small cucumber, minced 1 ear of corn, separated and roasted A generous handful of coriander, minced finely 1 tbsp of mint, green chili chutney 1 tsp lemon juice	Toss together all the ingredients on the left!

Thats it. A healthier, unorthodox way of enjoying Bhel Puri. Not the same as the street side counterpart, but a close nostalgic fusion.

Of course during my rather long discourse on chaat, I have not included other chaat items like Frankie rolls, chole bhatura, snow cones, and beverages like chai, sugar cane juice and many others that I will remember with extreme, inexplicable guilt once this post is published.

Potato of Color: Ratala Kees

Sweet potatoes are quite a misunderstood species of vegetable. Life is tough for a vegetable of color, especially when it is distantly related the world's most popular 'vegetable'. The 'sweet' in the name made me approach it cautiously, but I am glad that years ago, I gave this tuber a shot on my dinner table. The mild sweetness of the complex sugars melds beautifully in any spicy preparation. The orange hue is an eye pleaser, quite literally and figuratively. That beta-carotene will keep your eyesight sharp even in inevitable old-age. Like any misunderstood human being, the sweet potato has a tough exterior that is hard to penetrate. Just the sheer number of times I have cut open my fingers with my knife skills trying to create beautiful, even bite size chunks of the sweet p' ought to have scarred me for life. But, with the correct tool anything is possible. For me, cutting raw sweet potatoes without a mandolin slicer or a box grater is equivalent to a kitchen blood bath. Fortunately, using those very tools automatically cuts down on cooking time drastically. Baking, boiling, the sweet potato before using in a recipe works quite well too. If you thought the potato was ubiquitous, let me introduce you to his sweeter cousin. He can do anything the potato can do -- only better. Bake it, broil it, braise it, steam it, saute it, mash it, or fry it if you must. Whatever you do be sure to season well with salt and a touch of chili spice. Let the complex carbs keep you going and going... even when you don't feel like it.

Try this super-simple preparation; Ratala Kees (Grated Sweet Potato) regional to the Indian state of Maharashtra, and chronicled at Nupur's steaming hot stove. This is exactly the sort of stuff that you will not find at Indian restaurants. The recipe is pretty much verbatim from aforementioned source, replicated only for my records.

Ratala Kees (Grated Sweet Potato Curry)

1 tbsp oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 5-6 fresh curry leaves 2-3 (or more) dried red chilies	Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. When hot add the cumin seeds, curry leaves and dried red chilies. Cook for about 30 seconds.
2 sweet potatoes, washed, peeled and coarsely grated salt to taste (about 1/2 tspns) 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper powder (optional)	Add the sweet potato, salt and cayenne pepper. Mix well, and cover and cook for 4-5 mins till tender.
2 tbsp crushed, roasted peanuts	Add the peanuts and combine well.
1 tbsp lemon juice 2tbsp chopped cilantro	Turn off the heat, combine lemon juice and top off with cilantro

Make this a complete everyday Indian meal, paired with some rotis and a cup of yogurt on the side.

How to quit whining: Trader Joe's Masala Burgers

The first few weeks after a move to a different city can dampen your style. You have to learn the ways of your new home and navigate the new lifestyle. One of things that slowed me down since my latest move was finding things on my list at the grocery store. The aisles were arranged in a manner completely counter intuitive to me. Tofu was is in the meat section, sometimes in the diary aisle and sometimes in the produce aisle. None of the stores have quite the variety and novel items as Trader Joes.

We often grossly underestimate just how much we value something until we don’t have it anymore. My pantry misses the TJs vegetarian pasta sauces, rennet free cheeses, real fruit juices, granola bars and breakfast cereal. My soul and saliva glands miss the 'Vegetarian Masala Burgers’. These frozen patties made from real vegetables can debunk any veggie burger stereotype you may have.

After 6 months of moaning and complaining about non-exciting grocery shopping and tasteless burgers, I decided to take matters on my own hands and decided to quit whining. You see, to quit whining, you need to suck it up and find an alternative. I decided to recreate the flavors of the burger in my own home based on memory. One look at this recipe and I felt greater confidence that I could bring the TJ magic into my kitchen. What the burger needed was mealy potatoes mashed with lots of vegetables and some smoky Indian spices and herbs.

Vegetable Masala Burgers

4 large potatoes, boiled, peeled and grated 1 green poblano pepper, grated 2 ears of fresh corn, with the kernels grated 1 carrot grated A handful of peas Big generous handful of chopped coriander leaves	Mash the vegetables together in a large mixing bowl
1 tbsp freshly ground coriander seeds 1 tbsp finely chopped green chilies 1 tsp red chili powder 2 tsp dry mango powder Salt to taste	Stir in the spices and incorporate completely into the potato vegetable mixture. Form into patties, you should get about 5 medium sized patties
a few tbsps oil to fry	Heat oil in a griddle and cook the patties about 4 mins on each side until brown
1 onion sliced 1 bell pepper sliced	In the same griddle, drop the onions and bell pepper and brown them till slightly tender.
Burger buns Sriracha hot sauce (rooster sauce)	Assemble the burger by squirting on some hot sauce on one side of a bun, place the cooked patty on it. Top it off with some browned onions and peppers and cover with the second bun. Open wide and stuff your face.

This burger is going to feature on my dinner table quite often. I still miss my TJs, and stock up on their merchandise at every available opportunity. Meanwhile, I will try to do a little less of whining and perhaps the occasional wining. But I won't promise anything.

Stuff it, if you can: Tofu Stuffed Bell Peppers

She was wandering the aisles of the grocery store, loosing all track of time. So many pretty little treats were loaded up her cart and she barely managed to peek through the top of her pile. She walked through the produce shelves picking up this and that; then did a screeching double take as she passed these adorable baby peppers in bright pastel red, yellow and orange. "Come home little beauties in to my kitchen. I'll stuff you up with flavors and have you smitten", she said to them. She hurried home passing all the slow-coaches on the highway, donned her apron and gathered her ingredients.

She crumbled some firm tofu into bits and set them to brown. In another pan she dropped sliced onions, chick pea flour and crushed roasted peanuts with spices and seasonings. In a few minutes, the tofu was thrown into this with some

tomato paste to bring the stuffing together. Then she happily stuffed each of her tiny peppers with this mixture setting them on a cookie sheet (trimming off the bottom of each pepper so it stands on its own). When the oven was preheated to 400 she popped them in and skipped off to stir other mischief in the house. Some of the stuffing mixture remained in the pan, so she poured some stock in to it and let it come to a boil. She made a slurry of chickpea flour with water and

thickened her quick pan sauce in no time at all.

When the timer (15 minutes) reminded her of her peppers in the oven, she took her mind off the sauce. She poked the peppers to check for doneness and pulled them out of the steam room

(oven) dropped them into the hot tub (sauce). She rang the bell for dinner and the family(husband) came bounding to the table. She served the little stuffed babies (peppers) with some hot fresh naan.

Tofu Stuffed Bell Peppers

2 tsp vegetable oil ½ block extra firm tofu crumbled	Heat oil in a heavy pan and add the tofu. Allow it to brown about 7 mins. Check on it once or twice
2 tsp veg oil 1 onion sliced ½ cup crushed roasted peanuts 2 tbsp chickpea flour 2 tbsp tomato paste	Heat oil in another pan, and fry the onions till soft. Add the chick pea flour and peanuts and cook till the raw smell of the flour is lost. Add the tomato paste and a splash of water to combine
1 tsp dry mango powder 1 tsp red chili powder ½ tsp sugar 1 tbsp cumin and coriander powder Salt to taste	Add the spices and seasonings, stir to combine. Mix in the browned tofu into this pot.
6 small peppers in assorted colors	Trim the bottoms of the peppers, cut of the top and remove the seeds. Stuff the peppers with prepared mixture till filled to the top. Bake for 15 minutes in a 400 deg F oven
Remaining stuffing ½ cup vegetable stock (or water) Salt to taste 1 tsp chick pea flour dissolved in ¼ cup water	Add the stock to the remaining stuffing in the same pan and bring to boil. Add salt or adjust seasonings to taste. Add the chick pea flour slurry to thicken sauce. Get the peppers out of the oven, add to the saucepan let it soak in the sauce before plating.

Whats that smell?

How many times have you heard that we eat with all five of our senses? Olfaction, or the keen human sense of smell learns of an imminent treat even before the eye or tongue get a ‘whiff’ of any sensory stimulus. Ever had the 3 o’clock feeling when you pass by your office kitchen as the butter from just-popped corn disperses from the microwave? Or walked past a boulangerie or bakery and developed a healthy appetite? Or had a sweet heady high feeling from just smelling good coffee? Lingering food smells are always dreamy unless of course your cuisine of choice is Indian; In that case it is a wardrobe and hair nightmare.

The trouble is that Indian food smells extremely inviting when it is fresh and hot and oh so delicious. There have been many days in my years of apartment living when I felt instantly homesick having woken up to the smell of ‘khichdi’ or ‘paratha’ or ‘rasam’ from the kitchens of my many Indian neighbors, dispersing through the long carpet lined corridors in the building. That same night as I would return home, I would be instantly nauseated by the weakened, yet prominent elements of the same morning smells in the corridors. Like the smell of cooked basmati rice. Or cooked lentils. It is never the freshly ground spices you smell at this time long after the food has been cooked and perhaps even eaten. Those volatile pleasant odors just disperse into thin air. What you smell are the persistent remains of background ingredients that penetrate through everything. You skin, your clothes, your hair. No amount of perfume or cologne in the world can help you. The only solution is a nice long soak in the bath, good amount of scrubbing and some rinsing with scalding hot water. Lather, rinse, and then repeat. Do that for yourself then for your entire closet.

Now it is my personal belief that the smell is mainly due to the type of oil used and type of degeneration it goes through at the temperatures it is heated to. Olive oil can stink up a whole neighborhood if heated high enough to make a proper Indian ‘tadka’. You need a good heat friendly vegetable oil or sunflower oil for that. Even then there is a chance you will be walking around smelling like ‘dal’ depending tadka ingredients and how long you let them brown. About 65% of all Indian food calls for frying in hot oil – and invariably the oil gets beaten and battered at high temperatures and the aromas of the oil fumes just envelope and eventually overpower your natural scent.

So, am I saying avoid Indian food? No, absolutely not. The best thing you can do to your palate is to experience the flavors of Indian cuisine. Ask any Indian worth his/her dhoti/dupatta – they will tell you that when it comes to combating the strong, complex aromas of Indian cooking, prevention is better than cure. I assure that like my husband, there are many of them out there have tried to study the wind patterns in their poorly ventilated North American kitchens. Many a ‘gadgets’ have been invented to direct the air from the kitchen out through the closest windows. We used to have a dedicated fan near the kitchen that had to be turned on high speed and angled just right to sweep the cooking air out through the back door. This was in addition to a loud vacuum inducing exhaust over the stove. I no longer mind that the exhaust drowns the sound of the TV or music playing in the background.

Allow me to offer some wisdom on dampening the possible effects of Indian cooking on your home atmospheric air. Before entering the kitchen to begin prepping for cooking, be sure to close all other doors to all rooms in the house, including closet doors. Make sure you are not wearing your ‘going out’ clothes, because you are going to have to put everything you are wearing for wash as soon as the cooking is done. Put away any odor sensitive items such as blankets, sweaters, coats etc behind closed doors. Open up windows on two opposing walls if available, to induce some healthy cross ventilation in the kitchen and attached living areas. You want to leave the air only one place to go – out the open windows. Remember warm air rises like a cloud. So a cold breeze from a fan or AC vent near the heat source can greatly improve circulation. A good quality over-the-stove exhaust is absolutely essential – be sure it is on before your stove turns on. Proceed to enjoying the cooking process at your leisurely pace now. Keep the exhaust fan going for atleast 30 minutes after the cooking is done. With these precautions alone you can minimize damage area. Don’t wait too long before cleaning up the kitchen after all the cooking. Store your leftovers in airtight containers in the coolest part of your refrigerator (top shelf closest to the freezer). Now you may light up some fragrant candles or oils until you get your house back.

Say you forgot to take some of the precautionary measures and your house now smells like last night’s dinner. Allow me to impress upon you the fact that I told you so. But I will also offer some possible solutions. Close all the windows, and turn up the heat in your house to a level above the outside ambient temperature. I know you will get sweaty, but don’t be impatient. Now turn the heat off and open all doors and windows for about 15 minutes. The warmer inside air will escape out while you welcome the cooler fresher air in.

So while the popular stereotype about the exotic Indian food staying with you long after coming in contact with it may have some truth – hope by now I have helped you lose some of your fear of trying out the cuisine for yourself. As for the other myths and stereotypes like imaginary ingredients, namely ‘curry powder’, well, that’s a whole another topic for another day.

Think Pink: Beetroot Roti

Have you seen 'Chopped' on food network? I absolutely love the show. The creators of 'Chopped' go out of the way to select the most outrageous food combinations -- quail eggs, fish and dried cherries for instance, and have chefs compete against each other by cooking up the best possible appetizer/entree/dessert dish using the chosen ingredients.

As I opened my refrigerator door looking for some sort of dinner inspiration, I found the beetroot stashed behind the bag of apples with half a squash tucked in between. If I was at my creative best perhaps I could have used all three ingredients. I picked out the beets and squash.

I don't like to cook with beets that much. They make too much of a mess and stain everything on their path. If they were not so good for you and taste so darn good -- I would never bother with them. So, whenever I have to prepare beets, I prefer to cook and eat from the same apparatus. Tonight I grated the beets and squash into a giant bowl, mixed up seasonings (chili powder, ginger + garlic paste and vegetable bouillon cube) and whole wheat flour, made a dough out of it. Then took lumps of the dough between two large gallon sized freezer baggies and flattened then into flat discs using my palm . Then transferred the disks to a hot griddle and cooked them till done on both sides. Ate them with some sriracha hot sauce. Dinner accomplished yet again.

The sweet from the beetroot and spice from the chili powder made for a very interesting combination. The pink hue looked bright and pleasant on my white dinner plates.

Chaat it up! Restaurant Review

You can take a woman out of India but you will never get India out of her. If you are like me -- you would give up several days of food in return for fresh street made Chaat food on demand, in the middle of the city cacophony. I was up in Oh Canada a few days back -- and some parts around Toronto are as Indian as Chandni Chowk. Actually Chandni Chowk with four times the space and half as many people :-D What better place to look for authentic chaat on the other side of the globe? A simple google search for "best chaat Toronto area" yielded an article from the Toronto Star which recomeneded -- Dhaba (King West, Toronto), Brars (Brampton) and Mirch Masala (Brampton). The first two finds were quickly vetoed because they served Chaat as appetizers! How tacky and high society! Give and take respect, people! Mirch Masala in Brampton, Ontario was touted to be the place to get together with friends over a fun meal. One look at the menu sampler on the article and I was sold. Pani Puri. Bhel Puri. Papdi Chaat. Whats not to like?

We drove into Bramdesh, as the localites lovingly refer to Brampton -- and into this hidden jewel somewhere outside of town

Mirch Masala
8917 The Gore Rd,
Brampton, ON

We pulled into the sprawling strip mall aptly titled Jaipur Gore Mall, lined with Indian businesses -- a Hindu temple, a Hindu Montessori school, Subzi Mandi cash and carry, Chilli Szhezuan Indian Chinese restaurant etc. Snug n the middle was 'Mirch Masala' standing out with its bright yellow sign and the attractive posters boasting of the sheer variety in the menu. "21 Paratha varieties", "51 eggless cake flavors", "100 % Vegetarian". We walk in -- and we are the only ones there! Maybe we were the only chaat crazy ones on a late Sunday afternoon. Well -- no time is better for chaat than right now if anyone cared for my humble opinion.

On glance at the menu and you know you are out for a smogarsboard. Why can't you have yourself a Pani Puri, a Bhel Puri, Dahi Puri, Aaloo tiki chaat and Papdi chaat when you have it all for less than CAD 5.00 a piece? Once you are down with the light stuff, head over to the 11 different varieties of vegetarian burgers. Are you reading this McDonalds? Now that is what I call a happy meal. Try a 'samosa'wich burger -- a burger packed with samosa pieces and spicy chickpea curry, topped with onion, tomato and lettuce. Add chilies to your burger, kick back your shoes and sink in. Samosa does not fancy you today? No problem, try a Indian curry burger or a Bollywood burger or a Greek Burger. Make it a combo and add Masala fries and a soda.

Ok, you really wanted to go to Brars but your chaat crazy wife guilted you into coming to Mirch Masala? Don't worry, you will not be missing out on anything. Have a Paneer Tikka platter - includes grilled paneer tikka, with grilled peppers, tomatoes and onions. With a side of chickpea curry, butter nan and rice for CAD 8.99.

And end the meal with hot gulab jamuns. Wash it all off with a fresh lime soda or masala chai.
Sriracha hot sauce flows free as the Niagara Falls. Goodbye bland food!

Next time you are in the area, stop by at Mirch Masala and enjoy a quick meal. The menu is sure to please all kinds of taste buds. If any locals are reading this -- please enlighten me -- why wasn't the place swarming with people, a place like this deserves dedicated patronage :) Is there a better chaat place I should try?