Batata Vada

A Yummilicious Healthy Treat...

Indianized Lemonade

You will fall in love with this spiced up lemonade... Perfect to beat the heat!

Burrito Inspired Open Sandwich

A Fusion Sandwich perfect for evening snack...

Chicken Biryani

Every Indians Favorite...

Shrikhand - Indianized Greek Yogurt

Something sweet for your sweet tooth!!!

Smart People :)

Showing posts with label Bollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bollywood. Show all posts

Friday, July 22, 2011

Bread Pakora


Shruti Kakkar: "Kya pata, aaj frendship kar raha hai, kal I love you bol dega." (Who knows, you are making me friend today, tomorrow you will tell me "I Love You".
    
Bittu Sharma: "Nahi yaar, BREAD PAKORE ki kasam, aisa kuch nahi hoga." (No, this won't happen, I swear by Bread Pakora!)

The above dialogues are from Band, Baaja, Barat movie... One of my all time favorite movie!! It was not till I watched this movie that I realized how much Bread Pakoras are famous in Delhi, India's Capital. I always thought that this was the snack that my buaji (Dad's sister) invented and is only eaten in our family.. oh Gosh, how childish I was am :).




I later on met couple of my friends from Delhi and asked them about bread pakoras and found out that this is one of the local street snacks just like Pani-puri & Dhoklas of Gujarat and Vada-Paus of Mumbai. Buaji used to make this snack for us every now and then and it was our all time favorite dish. I actually learned this from her. I would like to dedicate this post to my Buaji who has always been there for me us, in our good and bad times; for fulfilling all of our random demands of food, such as home-made samosas, dhoklas, handwa, Dahi-bade, noodles, chana-chatpati, and much more. She is a great person to be with and is an excellent cook as well. If I can only be half of how she is, I would feel my life to be fulfilled!!!!

Bread Pakoras are very easy to make and can be served as a tea-time snack or guest serving. Bread Pakoras are famous as an Iftar item in our household. I am sending this recipe to Iftar Moments event hosted by Sister Ayeesha of Taste of Pearl City and to What's everyone Having for Iftar event hosted by Sister Roha of Hyderabadi Cuisine Recipes.



Ingredients:
  1. Two medium potatoes - peeled, cubed, and boiled.
  2. A bunch of fresh coriander leaves
  3. Two-three green chilies - finely chopped.
  4. 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
  5. One tblsp lemon juice
  6. Salt per taste
  7. For tempering - half tblsp cumin seeds, half tblsp mustard seeds, and two tblsp oil.
  8. For Batter - Half cup chickpea flour, 1/2 tblsp red chili powder, 1/2 tblsp dhaniya powder, a pinch of turmeric powder, salt per taste, and Half cup warm water.
  9. Six breads - cut diagonally
  10. Oil for deep frying.

Process:
  1. Mash boiled potatoes, add in coriander leaves, lemon juice, green chilies, salt and turmeric powder. Mix well, add a little bit of water (only if needed).
  2. Heat oil for tempering, add in cumin and mustard seeds, let it splutter, then sprinkle over potato mixture and mix well. Keep aside.
  3. The potato mixture should look like this filing that I had previously made for Aloo Paratha.
  4. Mix all ingredients for batter - make sure there are no lumps of chickpea flour and the batter should be more towards the thicker side. Adjust water quantity as needed.
  5. Spread some potato mixture on the one of the diagonally cut bread, place the second bread on top and press tightly. Repeat the process for rest of the breads.
  6. Heat oil for frying.
  7. Dip the potato filled breads into the batter and deep fry till golden brown. Repeat for the rest of the sandwiches.
  8. Serve hot with some tomato ketchup.

Do give these a try, you will start swearing by Bread Pakoras!!! Bread Pakore ki Kasam Yaar!!! :)

ENJOY!!!

Reposted this recipe at http://desizayeka.blogspot.com/2012/07/ramadan-collections.html

Submitting to the following events (see further details at the link above):
Joy from Fasting to Feasting - V


Ramadan Friendly Recipes

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Bollywood & Indian Culture



 This post has nothing to do with food. This post is about one thing that I am really proud of "Indian Culture" or "Bhartiya Sabhyata". When I came to States I was/am very proud to say that I am ORIGINALLY from India. The minute I say that, people would pound me with questions about our food, culture and BOLLYWOOD. I would always get to hear things like "Oh.. I love samosas!!"; "I love bollywood movies with all those songs, dance and colors!!!"; "Oh.. I love the dress you are wearing... what is it called"; "Oh I love spicy food!!" and much more... .this would make me feel so GOOD!! 

However now, at times, I am ashamed of my own country. Last night I watched the newest release of Bollywood, Badmash Company, starring Shahid Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. Within the first half an hour of the movie, there is a scene where Anushka and Shahid have a coffee and Shahid tries to pay the bill... Anushka stops him saying this, "F off yaar, don't give this shit of I am girl and all that..." I was so shocked. At this point I could only imagine how this dialogue has impacted the minds of millions of the teenage girls in India who ended up thinking that "Oh saying the F word and S word is so 'cool' and a nice way to impress boys"... I am very heart broken on how Bollywood is representing Indian Culture - or let me rephrase it to say "how not" representing Indian Culture...

It's hard to sit and watch a film with the whole family where the actresses now a days are at their best in doing skin show and there are so many intimate scenes that are not even required but are in the movie just to attract public. There were times when the Director wants to show a kissing scene in the movie, they would show two flowers close to together or rain or birds flying freely... This was understood by audience as to what was going on... now there is literally a whole kissing scene in the movie making everyone of us (me, mom and SIL) so embarrassed if my Dad or brother or hubby is around...

It really hurts to say that majority of the Indian population is now getting westernized but not in a good way... they are picking everything that's bad about Western side of the world. If you do want to get westernized then increase awareness of people about environment, different cultures, be more open-minded, improve gov't systems; not by saying F & S word, or showing skin, or promoting sex through media...

NOTE:  These are just my views and you do not have to fully agree with them. This post is not target the particular movie mentioned above. This post is not referring to or targeted towards a group of media, people, or gov't in specific. These are just my views in general of what I have known or seen about Bollywood and My Culture.

Do let me know what you think about Bollywood and Indian Culture - how it's good or bad and your views in general. Please be generous in leaving your comments. Thanks!!!!

Photo credit: Badmash Company: Google Images; Indian Culture: Angelfire.com via google images.

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