A to Z of Marathi Food: Round-Up

We have finished our alphabetical Marathi journey, and it was so much fun! For those who joined me late, there is a section called "A to Z of Marathi Food" conveniently placed in the drop-down "Recipe Index" in the right margin of the blog, so that any letter can be looked up easily.

Vital Stats:
1. Time it took to cover the alphabet: 6 months (11th September 2005 to 11th March 2006).
2. Most popular recipe: Egg Rassa
3. Number of dishes made: 33

Why did I do this series? I have a deep love for regional food. The kind of food that you cannot buy in a generic restaurant. The kind which requires an invitation into someone's home, where it is made by loving hands and served with pride. I always wanted to represent Marathi food on One Hot Stove and while thinking about this on a long subway ride (the "6" train downtown if you must know), two quintissentially Marathi dishes that came to my mind were "amti" and "zunka". Hey, wait, that's an A and a Z! How fun would it be to make a dish from every letter of the alphabet? I pulled out a used envelope and a pencil from my purse and scratched out all the letters and started jotting down possible recipes to make. To my surprise, it was very easy to fill up most of the alphabets (save I, J, O, X, Y...you know I had to "cheat" on these). But would anyone be interested? I tentatively wrote the "A" post and was startled by the interest shown by many readers...and the rest just followed on its own.


Why did I choose the recipes that I did? I am a home cook, with the task of making everyday meals. By this criterion, I chose recipes that were easy, tasty and nutritious. Which means that I did not make many sweets (like ladoos and pedhas), fried foods (of which there are dozens) and elaborate preparations (like bakarwadi and puran-poli), choosing instead to make simpler preparations that are ideal for everyday meals. Some of these dishes are unique to Marathi cuisine while others are popular in different parts of India in one version or another. It was amazing to discover this "unity in diversity"!

Is this the end of Marathi food on "One Hot Stove"? Absolutely not! I am not going to do another series on Marathi food (not just yet, anyway), but will continue to try many new Marathi recipes and share them with you.

The Complete Marathi Menu

Dals and Curries
1. Amti (Marathi-style Dal)
2. Chavli Amti (Black-eyed Peas)
3. Egg Rassa (Egg Curry)
4. Moogambat (Sprouted Mung Bean Curry)
5. Pithale (Chickpea Flour Curry)
6. Solkadi
7. Usal

Rice
1. Dalimbay Bhaat (Sprouted Beans Pilaf)
2. Vaangi Bhaat (Eggplant Pilaf)
3. Waran-Bhaat
4. Dahi Bhaat (Yogurt Rice)

Vegetables
1. Bhendi Fry (Fried Okra)
2. Bharli Vaangi (Stuffed Baby Eggplants)
3. Fanas Bhaji (Green Jackfruit Stir-fry)
4. Ratala Kees (Grated Sweet Potato)
5. Cabbage Zunka
6. Eggplant Kaap (Eggplant Slices)
7. Kothimbir Vadi (Savory Cilantro Cake)

Condiments
1. Hiravi Chutney (Green Chutney)
2. Lasun Chutney (Garlic Chutney)
3. Koshimbir (Vegetable-Yogurt Salad)

Snacks
1. Chivda (Flattened Rice)
2. Farazbi Patties (Green Bean Patties)
3. Jaali Chips (Potato Chips)
4. Onion bhajjis (Onion Fritters)
5. Bhadang (Puffed Rice)

One-dish meals
1. Misal
2. Thalipeeth (Multi-Grain Pancake)

Sweets
1. Gharge (Fried Pumpkin Bread)
2. Imperial Cocktail (Ice-cream Sundae)
3. Naaral Wadi (Coconut Fudge)
4. Sheera (Semolina Pudding)

Beverages
1. Panha (Mango Drink)

Popular Marathi dishes made outside of this series:
1. Sabudana (Sago) Khichdi
2. Batata Vada (Stuffed Potato Fritters)
3. Dodka Bhaji (Ridge Gourd Curry)
4. Shevaya Kheer (Semolina Pudding)
5. Bharli Mirchi (Stuffed Peppers)
6. Vaalache Bhirde (Hyacinth Bean Curry)
7. Paratlele Batate (Pan-fried Potatoes)
8. Kolhapuri Bakarwadi
9. Microwave Sabudana Khichdi


Typical Maharashtrian dishes tried and loved (from fellow bloggers):
1. Masale Bhaat from Ashwini

2. Microwave Besan Ladoo from Tee

3. Microwave Besan Ladoo from Nandita


More Maharashtrian Recipes from the Bloggers: Regional Cuisine event
Part I
Part II
Part III

Suggestions for Marathi Menus:

1. Humble Fare
Cabbage Zunka
Garlic Chutney
Plain steamed rice
Yogurt
Sliced onion

2. Luxurious Sunday Lunch
Farazbi patties
Egg rassa
Jeera rice
Koshimbir
Sheera

3. Tea Party
Masala chai
Onion bhajji
Bhadang
Naaral wadi

4. Home-style Weekday Dinner
Amti
Plain steamed rice
Bhendi fry
Koshimbir

5. Marathi-style Chaat Party
Misal
Chivda (garnished with raw onion, cilantro and lemon juice)
Panha

6. Light Dinner
Thalipeeth
Hiravi Chutney
Plain yogurt

7. Home-Alone Meal
Pithale
Plain steamed rice
Mango pickle


What next?
A few weeks ago, I was invited to my friend SR's home for dinner. SR lovingly prepared a complete vegetarian Bengali feast...Clockwise from bottom right, you can see (a) Cauliflower curry (b) Cholaar dal (chana dal) (c) posto'r bora (poppy seed-potato patties) (d) Tomato chutney (e) Dhokaar daalnaa (chana dal squares in tomato gravy) (f) steamed rice. All the flavors were so wonderful and exotic, I was left licking my fingers and relishing every morsel.

This dinner really brought it home to me...I love regional Indian food and want to study it more closely. SR and I are from one country, but we find each other's cuisines so novel. After exploring my own regional cuisine, I am ready to spread my wings and explore the whole country. So my next series is going to be a journey through all of India, stopping in every region and talking about its food and culture, learning some new recipes and tasting some new flavors. I want to make a little map where we can track our journey as we go along, down the west coast and up the east, then into the interior. Would you like to come along on this all-India foodie trek?

Finally, the announcement...
(Raise your hand if you skipped everything above and scrolled down to this bit) :) :)
Life in the next several weeks is going to get busy for me...I am about to take a ride on the matrimony pony. Yes, V and I are getting married on the 12th of April in India. We are both also reaching career milestones: V will defend his doctoral thesis and earn his PhD in two weeks, and I am in the final months of my own doctoral research.
In light of this whirlwind of events, One Hot Stove will be quiet for several weeks. I am going on a blogging hiatus till the end of April or so. I will be back with lots of foodie pictures from my India trip. If I get time, I'll stop by with some short posts for sure! Ciao!

Z is for ZUNKA

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

Z is for Zunka.

In this final (sob!) letter of this series, we come to the final letter of the alphabet, the letter "Z". This can mean only one thing as far as Marathi food is concerned: a humble and simple dish called zunka. Zunka is a close cousin of "pithale", the dish that we made for the "P" of Marathi food. It is simply a thicker form of pithale, and is also made with just a handful of simple ingredients. The traditional partner of zunka is bhakri, a thick flatbread made with whole grains such as jowar and bajra (these grains are not part of the Western diet, which is a pity, since they are very nutritious). Zunka and Bhakri form the backbone of the rural Marathi diet. It is (a) hearty (b) balanced in terms of "good" carbs and proteins and (c) efficient and portable; the thick zunka can be tucked within a bhakri very conveniently.

In most Marathi homes, rural or not, zunka has an important place as a meal that can be put together from a very lean pantry. If vegetables are on hand, they can be used in the zunka too. In fact, this is a characteristic of Marathi cooking: vegetables are sauteed in some simple spices, then some chickpea flour is stirred into the dish to give it more body, more flavor and add a lot of nutrition (chickpea flour is rich in protein). A small amount of veggies can be used to make enough zunka to feed a family. The cabbage zunka recipe below illustrates this, and also this Marathi Mirchi Bhaji posted by Kay. [Edited to add: Different terminology is used for these preparations: if the dish contains more chickpea flour in proportion to the vegetables then it would be called "zunka", if there are more vegetables, and only a couple of tablespoons of flour, then it would be called "pith-perlele bhaji" which literally translates as "vegetable with flour sowed into it"...thanks to Garam Masala for reminding me to add this note.]
I never have tried making bhakri (shame on me!) but deccanheffalump presents a beautiful Jowar Bhakri recipe
for those who would like to try making it.


Cabbage Zunka

(Serves 3-4, Prep time: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
1 cup cabbage, shredded
1 small onion, chopped
2 spring onions, cut into fine slices
1 cup chickpea flour (besan)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
Method:
1. Heat oil, then temper with mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
2. Saute the onions, then add turmeric, chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder, salt and sugar and stir for a few seconds.
3. Stir in the cabbage and half of the spring onions.
4. Cover the vegetables and cook for 5-7 minutes till cabbage is tender.
5. Stir in the chickpea flour and saute gently on medium heat. The flour will absorb the veggie juices and cook. Do not add any extra water!
6. Cover and cook on low heat for 4-5 minutes.
7. Garnish with the remaining spring onions.

Zunka is very versatile; it tastes great with rotis or any flatbread, or with rice and yogurt. The spring onions add a wonderful fresh flavor to the dish.

We are not done with this series just yet! I'll be back on Saturday with a special looonnnggg post containing:
a) some parting words about this series; maybe some speculation on what recipe garnered the most interest...
b) a round-up of all the Marathi recipes that we have made...
c) what series I am planning to do next...
d) and an announcement.
Stay tuned!

Y is for YOGURT-RICE

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

Y is for Yogurt Rice.

Moving rapidly to the end of our series, we come to another letter that is quite challenging: the letter "Y". The most important (and, ahem, only) Y food I can think of is Yogurt (called Dahi in Marathi). India loves its dairy foods. From plain old milk and yogurt to rich ghee (clarified butter), dairy products find use in most Indian recipes. Yogurt is especially popular...the lower lactose content of yogurt makes it easier to digest than milk. Almost every household in India will have a little bowl devoted to making home-made yogurt, you just mix some warm milk with starter culture and set it overnight. Those little lactobacilli work their metabolic magic, and in several hours, you have thick, tangy yogurt all ready to be eaten.

The essence of yogurt is its versatility...in addition to being eaten plain, yogurt is used to make an astonishing variety of popular foods. Here is what a theoretical all-yogurt lunch could consist of:
a) Drink: Mattha that I mentioned before, a cool-yet-flavorful drink that is the perfect aperitif.
b) Main course: Dahi Bhaat (Yogurt Rice), which we shall make today.
c) Snack: Dahi Vada, here is my recipe. A delicious chaat perfect for hot summer afternoons.
d) Salad: Koshimbir which we made already for the "K" of Marathi food. Yogurt is the perfect no-fuss dressing for a simple salad.
e) Dessert: Shrikhand, a delicious dessert consisting of flavored thickened yogurt.
f) Candy: Shrikhand Goli...you can buy these tiny candies for a fraction of a rupee in corner stores, I loved them as a kid.
Other states of India have many famous yogurt dishes in their repertoire: such as the sweet yogurt or mishti doi of West Bengal, the okra-in-yogurt-sauce or dahi bhindi of North India and the Gujarati kadhi or sweet yogurt-based curry. I am sure you could all add to this list!

In the US, yogurt seems to be more of a sweet food. Flavored sweetened yogurts are very popular, as are yogurt smoothies, and in Indian restaurants, the ubiquitous mango lassi. In this context, an entree of rice mixed with spiced yogurt would seem downright bizarre. But yogurt-rice is very popular in all of Southern India, including Maharashtra. Plain steamed rice is cooled and then mixed with beaten yogurt tempered with some spices. It is a dish that is eaten cold, perfect during the dog days of summer. It is also a dish that is popular as a packed lunch for picnics and journeys, although I personally happen to think that prepared yogurt-rice tends to dry out and not taste as good as the freshly-made kind. As with any traditional dish, the recipe for yogurt-rice has dozens of variations and this is my own favorite recipe.

One special "spice" that goes into my version of yogurt-rice is fried stuffed chillies. These can be made at home (under the blazing summer sun) or store-bought. A mixture of wonderful spices and yogurt (again!) is stuffed into chillies which have been marked with a slit or holes to allow the spice mixture to seep through. The chillies are dried to a crisp under the sun and stored away. These chillies can be fried at any time to serve as a little side-dish or can be used to flavor yogurt-rice. Here are some of these little beauties...the ones on the right I found in a local store, sold as "Swad Dahi Chillies" and the fat one on the left was bought in India.


Dahi Bhaat (Yogurt Rice)


Ingredients:
2 cups cooked cooled rice
1 and 1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
For tempering:
2 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
5-6 curry leaves
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
salt to taste
For garnish
3-4 stuffed chillies (dahi chillies)
oil for frying chillies
2 tbsp minced cilantro for garnish
Method:
1. Heat some oil and deep-fry the chillies (a few seconds in hot oil is enough to do this). Drain them and set aside.
2. Remove most of the oil from the pan, leaving only 2 tsp behind. Heat this oil and add all the tempering ingredients. Saute briefly till they are aromatic and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whip together the milk and yogurt to form a smooth paste. Stir in the tempering and crushed fried chillies.
4. Stir in the rice gently. Garnish with cilantro and serve right away.

Notes:
1. I like serving this rice with some Indian-style stir-fried vegetable for a complete meal.
2. If the yogurt you have on hand is too tangy, add a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the flavor.


We shall meet in two days for the letter "Z". I have known for months what I will be making for this letter...would you like to hazard a guess?

X is for Xtra-Refreshing PANHA

This article is part of a special series called "The A-Z of Marathi food". India is the land of diversity. Each of the 28 states in India has a unique cuisine but the Indian food served in restaurants represents only a tiny fraction of our culinary heritage. I come from the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Capital: Bombay (Mumbai). Population: 96 million (only 11 countries in the world have a population higher than Maharashtra). Language: Marathi. Traditional Marathi food is earthy and humble, diverse and very tasty. It also remains relatively unknown to non-marathis. Its time to change that. I invite you to join me on an alphabetical culinary tour of my state. We will go through the letters A to Z and make a dish with each letter to show-case Marathi cuisine.

X is for Xtra refreshing PANHA.

After a bit of a break, we arrive at another wild-card letter: the mysterious "X". These wild card letters give me a chance to come back to some beloved foods that I somehow missed out on during our journey. This time, while wondering what food to make for "X", I thought about all the foods I made from A to W. We have tried many rice dishes, vegetables and dals, even a condiment or two. One category that is conspicuous by its absence is beverages. We cannot do a whole series on Marathi food without touching on this important class of "not-quite-food foods"!

Most of India has three seasons: hot, hotter and hottest; a constant intake of water and beverages is required to keep your cool in this kind of weather. At the height of summer, the mercury is off the charts, vapor rises off the boiling streets and people are overcome with fatigue and lethargy. A cool drink at this time is just the thing one needs. The most popular beverage is, somewhat counter-intuitively, drunk piping hot: chaha or chai, strong black tea with milk and sugar. Among the cold beverages, the most popular are syrups of various fruits, collectively called sarbat. The easiest one to make is limbu sarbat, by mixing some sugar and salt into lemon juice and diluting it with ice-cold water. Yes, unlike in the US, Indian lemonade always contains a hefty pinch of salt, I think this is to replace the electrolytes that the body loses due to constant sweating. Other popular "sarbats" are made with the kokum fruit and mango pulp. Generally, store-bought bottles of the syrup are stocked in the home, so that a drink can be mixed up at a moment's notice.

Milk-based drinks are also very popular, including simple milk-shakes made by blending fruit pulp with some milk and sugar (mango and chikoo are my personal favorites), and cold coffee made with instant coffee. A wonderful savory drink is called mattha, made by blending yogurt with ginger, salt, coriander powder and cumin seeds. Another favorite milk-based drink is called masala dudh or masala milk, made by adding a mixture of ground nuts and spices into milk, and this can be enjoyed hot or cold.

If you happen to be outside, a delicious drink that is often available for a few rupees is oosacha ras or fresh sugarcane juice. Much of Maharashtra is coastal, which means that coconuts are available a-plenty...street corners and beaches are homes to vendors selling naaral pani or tender coconut water.

For today's letter, I chose my favorite Marathi beverage: panha, a drink made with raw mangoes. As the seasons inch towards the height of summer, around early April, the mango starts making its appearance in the bhaji mandai or vegetable market. If one is lucky, there will be a tree in your backyard so you never have to buy these. Raw mangoes are prized for many seasonal delights, both sweet and savory. Panha is made by cooking chopped raw mangoes with some jaggery (sugar can also be used). The cooked pulp is mashed, seasoned with some salt and cardamom powder and mixed with ice-cold water to make a delicious and refreshing drink. Traditionally, panha is served at many afternoon events during the summer months, the heat during that time makes the thought of hot tea pretty much unbearable! On these occasions, panha is paired with a savory snack called vatali dal, made by grinding together soaked chana dal and grated raw mangoes with some chillies and salt. This dal-panha combo is just a fantastic treat and somehow makes even the harsh summer months worth looking forward to!

PANHA

(makes 2-3 glasses)

Ingredients:
1 raw mango, peeled and chopped (discard seed)
1/4 cup jaggery (unrefined cane sugar)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Method:
1. In a saucepan, combine chopped raw mango, jaggery, salt and 1/2 cup water. It does not matter if the jaggery is a large chunk, it will dissolve on boiling. Boil the mixture and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the mango is soft and falling apart and the jaggery has fully dissolved.
2. Using a blender or food processor, grind the mango mixture to a fine pulp.
3. Strain the pulp to remove any fibers and chunky pieces. Stir in the cardamom powder.
4. Dilute the pulp with chilled water to make the panha. Enjoy!

This quantity of jaggery makes a fairly tart panha (which is how I like it). Do taste the pulp to adjust the sweetness to your taste. It may also vary depending on the tartness of the mango. If you own a pressure cooker, mangoes can be cooked whole in the pressure cooker, then peeled and pulped and mixed with melted jaggery.

We shall meet very soon for the "Y" of Marathi food. Any ideas for this one?