Chillar Wich!!!!! HAHHHHHAHHHHA!!!!

Picture this:  Saturday morning....my son's class just got rescheduled, my daughter is still recouping, so she did not have to go to class so did not have to get ready!!  Feels luxurious to have sooooo much free time on hand!  Or...you will typically see me getting everyone ready, their bags ready,whipping up waffles or pancakes or eggs with per-programmed recipes and on auto mode.  

                                                  Scurry hurry scurry!!!  You get it!!!!  I am suspecting, it is the same scenario at your home too!!   

                                                  But....today, I don't have to hurry anywhere, scurry anywhere, so I decide to sleep in and enjoy those freebie minutes!!!  My hubby thinks otherwise!!!  Nooo.....don't get naughty yet!!  He wants to smell the coffee!!!  Everyday I get to drink his....and for once he wants to be "served"!!!  

                See...I am blessed with a great hubby who also plays the role of a perfect kapee maker to the "T"!!!!!  Kapee aka coffee aka cafe latte is my primal need first thing in the morning and I look forward to everyday morning when I get it delivered to my hands or  woken up some-days with...."Good Morning...your coffee mam"!  some days....."kapee kapee"...resonating the hustle bustle voices form the Indian railways!!!  Or some days, it is his turn to demand and he will, in his tam bram lingo....will demand "chuda chuda pongal, idlee, vadai, and coffee!!!"   Meaning piping hot south Indian breakfast and coffee like back home in India (I am guessing from an era which is now long forgotten ...hahahha!!).  

                                  Do you think I comply, as much as I love to cook???!!!   Hahahahhaha!!  Nooooo!!!  And today was no different, was woken to the perfect cuppa....but with his yearning look of wanting to eat something with it!!!  Now....I drag myself out and comply a bit....after all it is only decent enough to  return his favor, when he tirelessly makes me his yummy coffee every morning!!!!

                                                                  He wants my "egg-cup"!  That is another breakfast that is a big favorite around my house.  It is a soft eggy souffle that is whipped in a matter of couple minutes!!  Shall save that for another blog!   Now, I do not have any eggs, but my brain is working in super fast mode and as recipes come cramming inside, one stands out!!!  I do not need eggs, this is for you my vegetarian friends.....it is an egg less omelet....at least that is how I treat this!  OK!!  I am not going to keep you in the blind,  I am making CHILLA, a crepe made from chick pea flour/besan from the north east region of Southern India....Andhra Pradesh!  Here is my twist...of course (!) I had to make it my own....Chilla crepes in a sandwich leading to the most delicious Chillarwich!!!!!!!!!!!  Howzzat for a great breakfast???!!!   !  What a lovely ingenious idea!!!  Sometimes, I do surprise myself!! 

              So, with a huge smile on my face I march down and open my pantry and refrigerator and take out these......

1 cup Chickpea flour, 3 Tbsp scallions, chopped, 1 Serrano pepper, chopped, 2 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped

 You embellish this above fragrant Chilla base a little more with the following......

Add 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper powder, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 2 tbsp coconut powder, and 1/2-3/4 cup room temp water.

Mix all of the above and whisk the batter to a smooth, light consistency like so.......

the batter should resemble a thin pancake batter! 

 Now....onto the pan!  

Heat the pan to medium -medium high heat.

Brush it evenly with 1/2 tsp canola oil.  

Add 3 tbsp of the batter, swivel the pan around to coat the batter evenly.

As soon as the bubbles appear on the crepe and the sides start curling inwards, flip the crepe.

Let it cook on the other side till it gets a few brown beauty spots on the back as well.

Take it off the pan and stack it up on a platter. 

Now...how do these yummy, rustic chillas get transformed into chillarwich???!!!!!   Like so......

I used some of the classic sandwich fillers used in my household.... some mint and coriander chutney, some cheese, some tomato ketchup and of course good old butter!

This is how a chillarwich is constructed!

Toast the bread, butter both the toasts, Apply green chutney on one and Tomato ketchup on the other.  Place half a chilla folded, on the green toast, top it with your choice of cheese, close it with the tomato toast.  Press down and slice it on a diagonal.  Love the layers inside!!!  Spicy and Yummmmm!

Your Chillarwich is ready!!!!!  You can enjoy it with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast; with a bloody mary (spiked or un-spiked) for brunch; or with a bowl of tomato soup for lunch!  Either way...it is going to be a happy camper in your tummy!!

Enjoyyyyyyyy!!!!! 

Dimple Pakodiyans!!! Noodle Pakodiiiiiis!!!!!

Pakodiiiiiiiiiis!!!!  Yummmmooooo!!!!   

whatever might have been the reason for me to pull this together when I had just 30 minutes to spare!!!!!       This is for my little princess!!!    My sweet little daughter is sick :(  Really sick!!!  Just got back from the doctor, who proclaimed that she was alright but with an ear infection!!   

Alas!!!  She was soooooo crestfallen!!!  She is one person in my family, actually one of the four (!) who has a robust appetite, loves, simply loves "good" food!!  I have a secret feeling that she hates falling sick as she is refrained from eating normal yummy food!   Now who wouldn't??!!!   So, I decided to treat her!  I was taking her to my friend R's house, for a dance session,  No people!!!  I am not going to have her dance!!!  LOL!!!  She is just going to sit out!  But, thought shall treat her to something before I took her!!  

The kids wanted Maggi!!!    Now, this one dish without me having to do anything, except boil a pot of water actually a cup of water per pack....gets 100 points....Bingo...everytime!!   

                                            I am sure my mother felt that way too when I was growing up!!!  Oh boy!!  Has Maggi been around really that long??!!!  I remember, when it first came out, it was Rs.2.00 per pack and was a rage!!!  My mother  always an enthusiastic shopper, would try all products that would get launched!!  And my dearest dad had a huge part in it!!  He used to work in a food research institute and they would get samples from all of the food industry to try their product, do shelf life studies, analyze, to find nutritive value and so on!!  Well...though he was a biochemist, he had a ton of friends who would pass on these products to him....and he would bring them home for us to try, even before it hit the market!!!  

                                               Now who doesn't like trying and devouring yummy food for free??!!!  hahahhah!!!  That was us!!  Mom would tirelessly try out different things out of the prepackaged products.....these yummy pakodis are the result of one such pursuits in her food experimentation of ready to eat foods!! 

                Here is my reproduction of the same to my family and you!!!  But how did this get its name??!!  you wonder??!!!  well!  Let us make the pakodis and talk about that while munching on them with tea shall we??!!!!  

Here goes it........

You will need....

A.  The Filler Mix:  1/4 yellow onion, minced; 1 Serrano pepper minced; 3 tbsp cilantro, chopped; 1 small carrot, peeled and grated; 

B.  The Star of the Pakoda filling:

1 packet of Maggi prepared with the Maggi bouillon,  according to the package

C.  Base Mix --  1 cup Chick pea flour/Besan; 3/4 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper powder; a scant 5 oz of room temperature water.

Add all the ingredients of the base into a bowl and whisk the mixture until nice and airy for about a minute or so!

Now... add the filler ingredients, and the star ingredient - the prepped noodles into the base mixture and mix well.  The mixture should be very chunky!!!  Like so.....

  

Meanwhile, heat a pan with canola oil.  Add a droplet of the pakodi batter.  If it floats up and sizzles, then the oil is ready for you!!  If the droplet burns, then it is too hot!  Move the pan away from the heat immediately and wait for couple minutes for the oil to cool down.  If the droplet sinks -- your oil needs to come up to temp.    That was frying 101 for you!!!

Use a tablespoon of the batter, drop it into the hot oil.  Do not overcrowd the pan.  My pan could easily fit 4-5 of these yummy morsels. 

 

Let it turn golden brown, and flip the pakodis and let them brown up on the other side also.  

Drain the pakodis on a platter lined with paper towel to drain off excess oil from those golden morsels!! 

Serve them with a chutney of your choice.  I went with the theme and served my pakodis with Maggi hot and sweet sauce!!   And......my daughter loved them....she gave me her signature thumbs up sign.....get well sooooooon sweetie!!!  Miss your little snippets of your day in your sing song voice around the house!!!

 Now, armed with a cup of Chai and a plate of Pakodis, would like to reflect the conversation that I had with Jay when I came up with the name for these .... at the dance...we were discussing Dimple Kapadia,...a famous actress from Bollywood, and munching on one of these, and somehow with the twist in the syllables the name was coined!!!!  Haahahhahahhaha!!!  Some girl friend humor!

Enjoyyyyyyyyy!!!!