Capsicum & Tomato Dip with Tortilla chips

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a cookery demonstration at the club wherein three different dishes were prepared. We were all given a sample of the dishes for tasting.

I liked them all but this dish which I am sharing with you, is not only very easy to prepare, but also quite appealing, tasty and healthy too. Moreover, most of these ingredients used in this recipe are at hand in ones’ refrigerator.

Here, I have used the word “Dip” for this dish and accordingly I have used (Indian) chapattis to be made into tortilla chips. This is my version or shall I say the Indian version of tortilla chips. Tortilla is generally made from corn flour. But our chapattis made from wheat flour works really fine.

Ingredients:

Capsicum (Red or Green) - chopped	1 Medium
Tomatoes (chopped)	2 medium
Onion  (chopped)	1 medium
Thick Curds	½ cup
Salt	As per taste
Coriander leaves (chopped)	2tbsps
Seasoning ingredients
Oil	1 tsp
Mustard seeds	½ tsp
Split black gram (Udad Dal)	½ tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Green chillies (chopped)	1-2 (as per taste)

Method:

1. Keep all the chopped vegetables ready.
2. Heat oil (on a medium flame) in a pan and add mustard seeds, split black gram (udad dal) and when the mustard seeds starts spluttering, add curry leaves and green chilies.
3. Next add chopped onions and sauté them lightly till they are translucent (do not brown them).
   
4. Then add the chopped tomatoes and capsicum. Give it a good stir. Add salt and cover it for 3-4 minutes till the tomatoes and  capsicum have wilted but have not changed their colour. Switch off the gas and remove the lid off the pan and allow the contents to cool.
5. Once cooled, roughly pulse it in a blender or a food processor. Do not grind it to a paste.
6. Now place the roughly ground mixture in a bowl and add the curds. Mix well and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.
7. Serve with the tortilla chips made from chapattis.

Vegetables being stir fried

Chopped Ingredients

Tortilla chips made from chapattis

Dip with Tortilla Chips

How to make Tortilla Chips from Chapattis (Indian flat Bread)

• Make chapattis in the usual way. Take care to see that they do not puff-up.
• To avoid the chapattis from puffing up, prick them with a fork on the surface at random on the rolled out chapatti. Then fry it as usual (on both sides) on a hot tawa/griddle without using any oil or ghee till light brown spots appear.
• Once the required quantities of chapattis are made, smear the surface of each chapatti lightly with ghee or butter and pile them up one on top of the other and cut them into quarters. Now, cut each quarters into half again so that you get 8 triangular pieces from each chapatti.
• Now, spread all the pieces in a greased baking tray in such a way that the pieces smeared with ghee is facing upwards and bake it in the oven at 180 degrees centigrade for about 10 mins or till they are slightly browned.  Keep an eye on these so that they do not get burnt. You can flip them over after a few minutes.
• Allow it to cool completely. They will be nice and crisp.

                                                             OR

• You can even fry these without the oven by placing them on the non-stick frying pan.
• Heat the pan and smear it with a little ghee/butter. Once the pan is hot, lower the heat to a minimum and fry about 10-15 pieces depending upon the size of your pan. Overturn them when they are slightly browned on one side and repeat the same procedure on the other side too. The end result will be nice and crisp. Remove from the pan and allow it to cool completely.
•  Store them in an air-tight container - will last for few days.

Serves : 4

Note:

• This is best served as a starter or an appetizer.
• The “Dip” can also be served as a side dish and tastes good as a sandwich-spread too.
• Tortilla chips can be made from left-over chapattis too.

Poha (Rice Flakes) Cutlets

Poha/Povu or Rice flakes/Beaten Rice or Avalakki  (as it is known in different languages- Marathi, Konkani, English & Kannada respectively) is available in the market in two varieties – thin one and a thick one. To prepare the cutlets, you need the thin variety.

The thin variety gets soggy very quickly when soaked in water. So instead of soaking it in water directly, place the poha in a strainer (keep a bowl underneath the strainer to collect the water) and pour water over it with one hand and mix it with the other. This way you will reduce your work and get the desired result too.

This snack is easy to prepare and tasty too. It can be easily subsituted for potato cutlets (patties).
You may also be interested in another variation of cutlets made from left over rice,  here.

 Poha Cutlets with Tomato Ketchup

Ingredients:

Poha (Rice Flakes)	1 cup
Gram Flour (Besan)	3-4 tbsps
Onion (chopped)	1 medium
Green chilies (crushed)	2
Coriander leaves (chopped)	1 tbsp
Salt	As per taste
Turmeric powder	½ tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder	½ tsp
Sugar	A pinch
Oil	For shallow frying
Semolina (fine sooji)	2 tbsps

Method:

1. Wash poha in a strainer till it becomes soft (it takes a minute) and allow the water to drain.
2. Place the drained poha (rice flakes) in a bowl. Add the gram four, together with all the other ingredients (chopped onions, crushed green chilies, salt, turmeric powder, jeera powder and sugar) and knead it into dough.
3. Smear a little oil on your palms while kneading it to avoid the dough sticking to your palm and make small balls and flatten it to form cutlets.
4. Dredge each cutlet in semolina on both sides and keep aside.
5. Now heat a frying pan or skillet (preferable non-stick) and dribble oil on it. When the pan is hot, lower the flame and place the dredged cutlets onto the pan and shallow fry them on both the sides till golden brown. Switch off the gas.
6. Serve hot with tomato ketchup or any chutney of your choice.

 

1. Ingredients for Poha cutlets

3.  Poha cutlets ready for frying

2. Poha drained in a strainer

4.  Poha cutlets being shallow fried

                                                                                                                             

Preparation time : 30 mins

Cooking time      : about 10 mins

Makes: 6- 8 cutlets (depending upon the size and shape)

Note:

• Breadcrumbs can be used instead of semolina to dredge the cutlets in before shallow frying.
• These cutlets can also be deep fried.

Kiwi, Melon & Ginger Salad

Well, we all had our fill of sweets, lights, meeting family and friends and last but not the least the noise too (of firecrackers) this Diwali!  Now, it’s back to routine and I am sure most of you are trying to lose the excess calories gained by gulping those yummy sweets and savouries.

You can however, indulge in this refreshing dessert without having to worry about any weight gain! 

Ingredients:

Musk melon	1 (halved & seeded)
Kiwi Fruit	2 (peeled & sliced)
Ginger (tender) grated	½ inch piece
Ginger (extract juice)	½ inch piece
Apple juice	3-4 tbsps

Method:

Melon - cut into cubes

Kiwi - cut into slices

1. You can either cut the melon (after removing the skin) into cubes or you can scoop the flesh from the melon with a melon ball scoop and place them in a bowl.
2. In the same bowl, add the peeled and sliced kiwis and the grated ginger.
3. In another small bowl, mix the ginger extract/juice with the apple juice and pour this over the cut fruits (melon & kiwi).
4. Serve in individual serving bowls.

Serves: 4

Note:

• For the apple juice, I used Tropicana apple juice.
• This is a very colourful and refreshing dessert.