Vegetable or Seafood Tempura

Another tea time snack or a starter for your meal.

Tempura's are a lot like Indian Pakora's or bhajiyas. while the batter might differ in different cusines, the concept itsimilar....
Fried dumplings, tempuras or pakora's the basics are the same..

Ingredients:
   - 1 egg
   - 1 cup ice water
   - 1 cup all purpose flour
   - Vegetable oil to deep fry
   - Assorted vegetables cut into batons and/or seafood like shrimp or
   prawns
Method: Beat an egg in a bowl. Add ice water in the bowl. Be sure to use very cold
water. Add sifted flour in the bowl and mix lightly. Be careful not to over
mix the batter.

Heat oil in a wok. Lightly dip the vegetables/seafood in the batter and deep
fry immediately till crisp. Drain on kitchen towel. Serve hot with salt or a
light dipping sauce.

Moong Dal Wada

A perfect accompaniment with you hot cup of tea.
Ingredients:

300 gms Moong Dal and 2 tbsp Udad dal, soaked for 3 hours
Ginger Green chili paste, as per preference
Salt
A pinch of Turmeric
Oil for frying

Method:

Drain out all water from the dal. Grind in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Make a thick batter. Add water teaspoon at a time only if required. Remove in a bowl and beat well to incorporate air.

Heat oil in a pan. Drop small bite sized dumplings by hand or a small spoon and deep fry till golden and crisp. Remove and drain on paper. Serve hot with green chillies and thin strips of onion and green chutney.

Silken Tofu

  Tea Snacks... Silken Tofu to go with Chinese Tea.  

Ingredients
1 block Silken tofu
Mix of plain flour and cornflour in the ratio of 1:1
Oil to fry
Sichuan Pepper & Salt
Spring onion leaves
Method:Drain tofu and wash well. Cut into cubes and coat with flour. Meanwhile heat oil in a pan. Deep fry till golden brown. Remove and drain on paper.
Sprinkle with pepper and salt.Garnish with spring onion leaves. Can serve with chilli or any other oriental dipping sauce sauce.

TURKISH TEA (CAY) WITH ICLI KOFTE

Going with our theme of Tea/Chai from last week here a Turkish snack to go with it. You can also use this as a starter for your meal, or to have with a drink.

Ingredients

   - 700 grams minced meat
   - salt to taste
   - 300 grams fine bulgur (cracked wheat)
   - pepper
   - 1 egg 50 grams crushed walnuts
   - 1 teaspoon cumin
   - 20 grams pine nuts
   - 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
   - 20 grams currants
   - 1 bunch parsley
   - 3 onions
   - 20 grams margarine
   - 220 grams vegetable oil

Method

Boil bulgur in plenty of water until soft. Drain and set aside. Melt margarine and lightly brown chopped onions and pine nuts. Add 350 grams of meat and saute until juices evaporate. Remove from heat. Add pepper, salt, cumin, crushed walnuts, currants and chopped parsley. Mix. In a large bowl, combine the remainder of meat with the bulgur. Add cayenne pepper and egg.

Mix and knead well. Take a large walnut sized piece of mixture and roll into a ball. With index finger, make a hole and push the inside, making a large cavity. Stuff the cavity with the meat mixture,press hole with fingers to close. Lightly press meatball in palm of hand to shape like an egg. Repeat procedure, making as many meatballs as possible. Add meatballs to salted boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Remove and drain on absorbent paper. Heat oil in frying pan and lightly fry meatballs until golden brown. Drain and serve.
 

Chai - Indian Masala Tea



Masala Trails - Chai



A recipe for Chai from Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal's soon to be released food memoir on Mumbai "My Mumbai Cookbook"

Moti Mummy's house blend for Chai masala

We usually make a batch of chai masala and store it in an airtight jar to last a couple of months. It makes brewing that cup of tea whenever required, that much faster, convenient on rainy days, when the craving strikes more often. This mix is good for relieving the aches and pains of colds, coughs, flu and fevers.

Ingredients

200 g Saunth (Dried Ginger)

200 g cardamom

100 g Black pepper

50 g Clove

50 g Cinnamon

2 pcs Nutmeg

8 Bay leaves

Method

Dry all the ingredients in the sun or in a low temp oven for 2 hours to ensure no moisture is left. Grind each spice individually in a dry grinder or coffee grinder. Strain out larger pieces with a fine sieve and grind again. Combine all the powdered spices and mix well. Transfer to an airtight jar to store. 

Munshaw House Chai

On days when life gets a little difficult to handle and I want a c of comfort, I go back to the way masalla chai was made in my mother's house, reliving each time that special day when my mother taught me how to make tea.

Serves 4, Time: 10 mins

2 cs/320ml water

2 cs /320ml milk

½ inch/5g piece fresh ginger coarsely pounded

1 – 2 leaves lemongrass cut into segments

10 – 12 mint leaves

4 /2g cardamom pods pounded

4 tsp/20g sugar (optional and to taste)

¼ tsp Chai masala (or to taste)

4 tsp tea leaves

Method

Combine water and milk in a saucepan deep enough to prevent boiling over. Add, lemongrass, mint, sugar, chai masala cardamom and ginger and bring to a boil. Lower the flame, and add tea leaves. Be careful, because when the tea leaves go in the concoction tends to rise and can overflow. Raise flame and allow to boil. When tea boils, it will begin to rise, lower flame and it will settle. Raise flame and allow to rise, the lower and leave on simmer. When the tea rises again, take saucepan off the flame, once it settles return to flame. When it rises again, switch of flame, strain into cups and serve.