Bengali Ghugni(Yellow pea curry)

I haven’t been on the blogging scene for quite some time, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking or eating new stuff, sole reason of my absence was too much travel and then I got caught in the whirlwind of work. Travelling is terrific for the sensory as well as olfactory nerves (nose for the uninitiated!), but a week out of home and I was salivating for the known tastes. Indeed the recipe is a dear friend-Swati’s request, and the dish is Bangali ghooghi/ghugni (Bengali matar curry-sounds like a cross between Punjab and West Bengal!!) and though I’m not sure, but I think the ‘Bengali garam masala( five spice blend) may have been put on Earth for the sole purpose of rendering a terrific eastern aroma to this ghooghni... Yummmmm!


Bengali Ghugni

"Puritans" enjoy the ghooghni loaded with kheema (minced and fried red meat ) and greased with ghee. Only if their arteries could speak, they would have loved this Low cal Bengali vegetarian concoction!

What I used:

1 cup soaked and boiled peas
2tsp vegetable oil (this dish tastes better when the base mixture is sautéed in ghee, but then…)
1 potato(boiled and cubed)
2 onions (chopped fine)
1 tomato (de-skinned and chopped fine)
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp ginger paste
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1 dry chilli
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp bengali garam masala powder
2 tbsp coconut scrapings
½ tsp black salt
green chillies
Salt to taste

How I did it:

Like the popular chole recipe, you need to soak dry peas overnight in water, pressure cook with a teaspoon of salt. Do not overboil. Heat oil in a pan, and add a bayleaf, cumin, and cinnamon. Sauté till it splutters.

Add the chopped onions and stir fry till light brown. Add tomato, ginger paste, green chillies. Stirring briskly for a minute. Now add turmeric powder, and salt. Lastly add the boiled dry peas, potatoes and grated fresh coconut and let it all boil for 5-10 minutes on low heat, or till the consistency is thick with flavours flowing into each other and ingredients well cooked. Sprinkle garam masala powder on top, stir and remove from heat.
Sprinkle lemon juice and Serve piping hot.

Serving suggestion: white rice /phulkas or just have it as a tea time snack with fried alu bhujias on top.

Calories per serving : 125(without the fried bhujias on top)
Vegetarian Mangshor Ghugni

Oh! What a contradiction, but yes a low calorie and healthier version of the trans fat loaded mangshor ghugni is here: so if you are the longing for the same pujor diner Mangshor Ghugni aar Luuchi, then here’s what you can do:

Keep the Ghughni recipe same as above, and to the above ingredients add 1 cup soaked, drained and refried soya granules. While you are adding the boiled peas to the masala paste add them as well. You can avoid the coconut here and top it with lime juice and shredded coriander leaves.

Add a huge dollop of hot ghee on top (if you must!)


Bengali garam masala

This is something my mother prepares in large batches and couriers to me. On pestering her for the recipe, she shared hers here:

Ingredients:

3 tblsp Black Pepper corns

1 tblsp whole Cloves (Lavang)

2-3 Cinnamon (Dalchini)

20 green bruised Cardamom pods (choti Elaichi)
6-7 brown bruised Cardamom pods (Badi Elaichi)

1 tbsp Shahi Cumin Seed (Jeera)

1tsp Jafran

How my mom does it:
Dry roast all ingredients in a dry pan and heat over a very low fire, shaking the pan time to time.When a beautiful fragrance stars enveloping your room, know its done. Allow to cool slightly, then grind finely in an electric grinder. Or grind using a mortar and pestle and fine sieve afterwards. Store it in an airtight container.

Pea and Spinach Rotis or Popeye Rotis

Taking forward the Roti week which I have embarked upon, I present Spinach Rotis--a basic staple which becomes attractive due to its colourful mirrored self, uhm a welcome change for most, from dieters to kids who find it alluringly delicious, it’s a bonus as well—as it scores high on the satiety factor, is low in calories, nutrients dense and wholesome meal—, that’s true, this sort of change is nice, refreshing, nutritious, but then how exactly did I arrive at this vegetable Roti thing: it’s interesting… as a kid I hated spinach and it was pre Popeye times so my mother couldn’t even lure me with muscle dreams, but having a ‘u must clean your plate mom!’ my Spinach eating was a de-rigueur. Spinach and pea soups and vegetable stews were the main event. Between slurps of soup, on a wintry night the four of us would watch TV and think of the main course, hurrying through the flavoured watery soup, we would all build up a mountain of discards in an outsized family bowl. We'd always create a rumpus over those vegetable chunks (Eat them? toss on each others plate? Or re-toss them into something else?) a dilemma which my mother had to endure on most of these nippy nights when we had excess of leftovers on our family bowl. She then introduced the vegetable filled Rotis, everyday sweating over some new filling, some new twist, and some new drama. And that's how ma created excitement before the dinner was announced. These unfussy and relaxed dinners always left me with a light stomach and uplifted mood, which is why I still make these stuffed rotis and buy spinach bunches almost every week…nostalgia, what else.

Now if you don’t have readily available leftover stew or vegetables, and are awed by the near mythical properties of the humble Spinach, fret no more, you can still whip up a quick stuffing and make delicious Rotis. Variations are abound , all you need is have things readily available in your shelf like some fresh or frozen peas, tamarind, coconut for an Indian touch and mushrooms, beans and parsley for a western flavour. Just keep one thing in mind, that its best to cook the spinach right after you buy them –storing it makes its limp and lame…quite unappetizing to start with!

Ingredients:
1) ½ cup dried spinach (if making from a soup)/2 cups fresh spinach
2) ½ cup cook, boiled, mashed pea/1 cup fresh peas
3) 1 tsp tamarind paste
4) 1/2 tsp gur/jaggery
5) salt to taste

For the seasoning
6) 1 tsp oil
7) 1 sprig karipatta/sweet neem
8) 1 t mustard seeds
9) 1 pinch of asafetida
10) 1 tsp shredded ginger
11) 2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
12) ¼ cup coconut
13)2-3 slit green/ red chilies

For the rotis
2 cups all purpose flour
1cup curd
Salt to taste

How I did it:
Cook the peas, till they are soft but not overdone, and dry the paste and add all the other masalas, namely from 1-5.
For the tempering, heat the oil, add mustard seeds and let it splutter, now add karipatta, green chilies, ginger, garlic, a pinch of asafetida and coconut. Dont let it brown too much
To the above mixture add spinach and peas. Spinach should be done quickly, but take some time to mix all of them into a homogeneous mixture. Lightly grind it in the mixer if you think its too grainy to be stuffed.
This mixture can be had on its own with steaming rice and some ghee.

For the rotis
Knead flour at knight with curds and salt, and cover with a wet cloth. Leave overnight. Refrigerate for an hour before rolling it out.
Stuff a spoonful of the above mixture and roll it on a flat rolling board. Take care so that the stuffing does not spill out. Fry or roast it one by one on hot pan.
Serve with sauce or chutney.
Tastes heavenly

Variations
Try using the taco shells and stuffing this mixture, and stir frying them. Have it with sour cream dip, Its yum!

Dal Bhara Porota (Dal Stuffed Parathas)

Dal Bhara Porota (Dal Stuffed Parathas)

Today is a dark and gloomy day, the moment I entered office I felt damp coldness all over, it almost felt like I’m living in a cave for awhile. All I could think of was my Tiffin, I was looking for that comfortable and familiar aroma of home food.My Didu, my mother and all my aunts would make their own garam masala and add it to their recipes in specified proportions, and that would make all the difference to even the basic of meals. Everyday in my Tiffin I would find all kinds of food to match my mood and my ma’s budget. ... today I tried that similar trick. I tried a quick, easy, cheap and delicious meal, the perfect antidote for a depressive day like this, and I wanted to savour it before sharing with anyone... I realize, though, that I bartered quick meals with comfort food or maybe I’m not that big a foodie as I though I am. For today my comfort food lying quietly in my tiffin is -- stuffed chapattis, which I plan to team it up with hot coffee. Somehow, the dal and roti in all its avatars is comfort food for me…for bongs its usually dal –bhat aar alu bhate which works like magic, but talk of breakfast and you ought to have a quick fix version --so this is it for me, and the best part is, I make it with all the leftover dal with some dried condiments and herbs added.

The thought of comfort food was swirling in my mind since yesterday, after I finished about two stories from the book Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, where most of the stories revolve round the subtle nuances or relationships but as the story evolves, you can feel a faint mention of bong aromas, sometimes in the form of luchis , sometimes is alu bhaja or cutlets, their abhorrence towards anything English claiming its bland or more as an attempt to clutch on to the bong cultural remnants in faraway land. The protagonists of the stories carry a whiff of the Bong pride which seems to stand upright even in the in mad Howrah station rush. The stories touch the chord somewhere; I think it would for all Bengalis as it does to me.

Getting back to where I started, I would like to share this comfort breakfast recipe made from leftover Dal (or any cooked vegetable you might fancy).

Dal Stuffed Porotas

Ingredients

11/2 cups leftover Dal (assuming its salted and seasoned with whatever you fancy)
2 cups Flour
1cup Milk (to knead the flour)
½ tsp Garam Masala
2-3 sprigs fresh coriander/mint /parsley
1tsp Ajwain
1 pinch Amchur powder
Salt to taste

What i did:Knead the four as you would do for roti, with milk and water and salt to desire. Make it soft and pliable. To turn the Dal into a dough filing, by drying the Dal in slow fire, adding salt and chillies to taste, add coriander and garam masala and ajwain in the end. The filling should be dry enough to stuff inside the roti dough.

Now pluck small balls from the roti dough and fill it lemon sized Dal stuffing, and roll out neatly so that the filing does not spill out.

Now roast the rotis on a flat pan. Turn once done.its tastier if you add some ghee and fry , like you would do ti a paratha, but its just as good without it.

Eat it with aam chatni or pickle, top it with butter. I used Amul.It rocks!

PS : For Kids, you can roll it up with some aam chatni in the centre, and its acts as a wholesome snack, with carbohydrates, proteins, and goodness of a fruit trapped inside.

Sondesh

Sondesh

This weekend I was off with my colleagues at a wildlife resort for 2 days , shouted screamed and yelled and did everything what calls for, but then I would intermittently retire to my room, do some reading and be back, ready for action …off late I have realized, that I need my better half by my side to complement the moody blues I have, the need to be alone and then with people in a cyclic order …sometimes I miss the lonely comfort of my single room apartment, where even the morning light has to put in a lot of effort to streak in, while I would lie in bed thinking the best way to take on the day via daydreams, those dreams have given way to the realities, not harsh but soft and gooey as a hot fudge with occasional ‘nuts’ thrown in for crunch and twist—do we call them ‘relatives’?:)

On my way back home, I spent about six hours in a bus, even though I was rendered motionless due to paucity of space, arbit thoughts kept dancing around my head all throughout…sometimes it took the shape of wire drawing on the back of paper napkins and at others I aimlessly kept flirting with ideas in my mind

Life was moving on wheels.

Today is Monday morning. Now at my office desk with rest of the people whirling past in a pleasantly fast pace, catching up with the days work, I can easily put aside the ‘dancing thoughts’, but I have an idea, its pleasant to watch the sudden burst of inspiration bubble, gathering the burst boils and culminating them once again, just like unused milk or scraps of cheese…which often makes way to something nice, hurried, but nonetheless savoured to bits.

That particular bit of food is what hubby made yesterday. Its sondesh. Fond memories of my childhood came flooding back at that first bite. Hubby has a way about him. The first thing I did after being back from my trip was to taste his labour of love. We had dinner post that. We watched ‘Friends’. Jut two days away from him—one look into his eyes it’ was hard to look away;) Eating the sondesh, watching friends, I thought how can I just have roller coaster days , may be my love to being completely alone has slowly made me hanker to be with him…two of us comprises ‘alone’ , thinking if its again possible to bookmark the moment. I know I cant, but I can indeed put the recipe of my hubby’s classic creation here—for all the bong husbands or husbands who have bong wives…to rekindle the romance….believe you it works like oysters for the bong belly:)

Sondesh

Tangy Cabbage Salad (bong style)

One of my Bangalore summer favourites are the gingery, mustardy heady scents that brings to mind the aromas wafting from my mothers kitchen…theres a sweet pungency to the smell quite distinctive of bong cuisine…jumping out to you, say from a tightly closed box of heeng which could never be too tight not to allow any of its sharp smell to slip by, mixing heavily with a tumbler full of freshly grounded mustard and green chillies, some fried bori (dried lentil dumplings), finally blending with the monsoony smell of the freshly washed greens, some for the salad and some for the food.

Before I continue being nostalgic about my younger days, I should add that: salad is not a part of a regular bong kitchen-as I have never seen any paraphernalia associated with it in my granny’s kitchen-- ringed onions and cucumber or either one of these two would classify as a salad!! Salad is a concept drilled in me by my mom –a crusade she started to combat the lifestyle diseases my father was battling, and needless to say the battle is won. I agree that there is no foolproof way to safeguard your life, but prevention is the key .As far as the ‘prevention process’ is concerned, the first one was of course drilling the concept of healthy eating in my ‘battle hardened baba’s mind’ and the second one was to come up with new healthy salad infuses with strong bong intonations to the dinner table everyday. Her seasonings would sometimes be bong, and through her bong touchups I think she unknowingly introduced a new genre of bong cuisine-The healhy side of a bong belly-The Bong salad(s)

Here is the recipe from my mother’s Bong Salad recipe chest or you can say Diet bong food collection, what i call my mother’s Apollo stunt

PS (Apollo is a chain of health centre promoting healthy heart friendly food)

Tangy Cabbage salad (Mom’s special)

Ingredient:
1) 2-3 tbsp orange juice concentrate
2) ½ cup julienned mint leaves/parsley /coriander
3) 2 crispy sweet apples (grated)
4) ½ cup cabbage (chopped fine)
5) Rock salt(to taste)
6) ½ cup toasted, crisp and crushed –muri (rice crispies)
7) Toasted and crushed dried red chillies(to taste)
8) Toasted and crushed peanuts, a handful
9) 2 tsp lemon juice (preferabley gandharaj lebu)

Toss 1-4 ingredients and add lime and refrigerate. Just before serving add the rock salt, crushed peanuts and crushed muri …the mint in the salad makes it summary, so if you are trying it out when its not soo hot—then parsley/coriander will do a neat job.

You can have this meal on its own on in conjunction with your lunch or even as a mid meal snack. Muri is a traditional bong snack item, this salad just retails that part of it , making it more healthier and low calorie for the weight watchers.

Calories per serving-80 calories

If having as a standalone meal, compliment it with a tall glass of salted and spicy buttermilk/sweet lassi, to make turn it into a nutritionally balanced meal in itself

Quick Bong food

Some days are just so busy, when you can’t care less for the healthy antioxidants in the food or the calories or even the masala proportions, and invariably these are the days which have to follow the Murphy’s Law to the T, talk of chaos aaaaargh!! Like yesterday, I was running late for work when I realised that the maid didn’t turn up, the electricity went out and whatever we had as a leftover is on verge of rotting…or so I was told. With age I think the nostrils flare-up at the sight of anything more than a day old, and I happen to be staying put with such two pairs of noses. Ah well! so life took a downward swing early in the morning and I needed to perk it up for my own sanity, what can be better than ‘Aromas from the east’ …Bong comfort food for the bong at heart all I needed to ensure, is that it better be super quick with an option of zanning it up with red chillies for those with red hot defiant tongues, and I’m ready to start—I better or else I miss my Monday morning meeting!!!

A couple of things before I start my quick cooking expedition is to make a mental note of inventory and list if things to prepare. So yesterday, I thought of making musurer dal(red lentils curry), Alu deem bhate (mashed potatoes with eggs) and Moon bean salad. Before I began scouting for rest of the masalas , I quickly used a pressure pan in which I put 1 cup Musurer Dal(red lentils) for softening with a pinch of salt and turmeric and two potatoes and eggs along with it for boiling. Remember only 2-3 whistles in a cooker/pressure pan, as you run the risk of mixing the egg shells with the Dal if you are not careful. For novice cooks, boiling the eggs separately is advisable.

Musurer dal(red lentils curry)

This is a Bengali quick boil Dal, especially a blessing for those frenzy days. All you need to do is

Ingredients:

1)1 cup Musurer dal/ red lentils
2) Salt to taste
3) Turmeric I tsp
4)2 green chillies
5) Ghee (clarified butter) optional
6) Coriander for garnishing
7)1 tsp cumin seeds

How I did It

As I said earlier, put 1 cup Dal with 3 cups water along with salt and turmeric in the pressure cooker, and you should be done in 2-3 whistles. Open the pan once the steam runs out and churn the Dal. Bengalis like it a little watery.

There are two options of having it, heat ghee(as much as you think you should ) I put 1 tsp for a cup of Dal serving three people, and once the you start seeing the flames splutter cumin seeds and green chillies, once they are fried , mix it with the pressure cooked and churned Dal. You will hear a hiss.

Option 2 calls for leaving the Dal as is, adding ghee and slit green chilly on top.(No cumin.) Depending on you likeability.

Alu deem bhate (mashed potatoes with eggs)
Here the pre boiled potatoes and eggs which I you put along with Musurer Dal for boiling in the cooker come in handy.

Ingredients:

1)3 boiled potatoes
2)3 boiled eggs
3) Green chillies to taste
3) 1/2cup milk
4) Mustard oil 2 tsp or any pickle oil 2 tsp
5) Coriander/parsley/chives (all or one depending on availability chopped fine)
6) Onion half (chopped fine)
7) 1 tsp cumin seeds (roast and ground)

How I did It

Mash all the above as finely as possible, use a food processor for larger quantities and lace it with mustard oil in the last leg of mashing up procedure! You are done.


Whole Green Moong salad

Now I had the soaked green Moong in the refrigerator, so no sweat. For this one needs to plan in advance as it’s quick to make but takes a long time to soak and soften. Overnight is a good time period, you can get a nice salad in the morning. As it goes, we use this little salad with our cocktail nights to hurried lunch cooking days like today. You also have the option of turning it into a western classing by stuffing the salad in tacos or go as desi as possible with zeera and lal mirch tadka(cumin and red chilly seasoning). What I did was:

Ingredients:
1) 2-21/2 cups of soaked green gram/moong beans/dal
2) 1tsp zeera/cumin seeds
3)1 finely chopped onion
3)1tsp finely chopped green chillies
4)1 pinch of heeng/Asafoetida
5) 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
6)Salt to taste
7) 1 tsp any vegetable oil

For the garnish

Finely chopped cucumber and coriander
Fresh coconut or chat masala (depending on what you like and what is available easily at home)
Lime Juice ~ 2-3 tsp

How I did it:

In a pan put the oil, once it’s hot add the zeera, ginger, heeng/Asafoetida, onion, green chilly. Once they start spluttering and onion is a little done then you can add the moong beans. If you feel its sticking to the pan because of less oil, add a little water and cover and cook. Check intermittently and stir. It will be done in 5-7 minutes.

Ps: The time taken to soften the moong will vary based on the time you have soaked the moong, the amount of water. Keep adding water till its soft for yoyr satisfaction. Continue this till the green gram/moong is soft (as you like it)and little damp with no visible water.

Garnish with coriander, chat masala, lime juice, chopped cucumber.

Enjoy it with Alu deem bhate (mashed potatoes with eggs) and Musurer dal(red lentil curry) and steaming hot rice. Perfect summer lunch for a bong belly:)

Diet Cocktails

Diet Cocktails

a moment of truth: I confess that i have been trying to diet unsuccessfully for quite a bit , sometimes during the week i succeed and when th eweekend comes and we go out, all the resolve goes out of the window with the first drink. All that follows is the french fries and chips and glucamole dipped tacos. Ahem, Well I thought, why not carry the resolve onto the weekend with some diet friendly drinks...the recipe courtesy goes to my dear friend Liz and fellow cocktail drinkers, and i realise that finding the ingrediets is quite a task in India(for eg Baja Bob's martini Mixes and Minute maid light juices ), but in the following series i will indeed add more to the cocktails page on home made exotic infusions, serve them up in your party and get busy receiving the calls for recipe from next day on...for now you can have a rollicking time slugging all the cocktails without blowing your diet up and damaging your waistline.

Cran-Orange Vodka Chiller Recipe

What you need:

1 1/2 cups orange juice
2 1/4 cups light cranberry juice cocktail (or light cran-raspberry juice cocktail)
1 shot Vodka
Preparation:
1. Pour the orange juice into an ice cube tray and freeze until solid (at least two hours). Meanwhile, chill cranberry juice cocktail in the refrigerator.
2. Pour about 3/4 cup of the cranberry juice cocktail into a clear glass, then add about five ice cubes.
3. Add Vodka
4. Repeat with remaining cranberry juice and ice cubes.

Do as directed and serve in a Martini glass. Drink up!

Cocktails:
3 servings

Calories down:
Per serving: 135 calories
Baja Bob's Pina Colada Mix
What you need
1)1 Baja bob’s Pina colada mix
2) ice cubes
3) 1 shot rum
4)1/2 tsp pineapple concentrate

Shake all the above in a cocktail mixer, and serve in a tall glass with a pineapple wedge.

Cocktail serving
1 serve

Calories down
Per serving:100 calories only(low fat , low carb)


Slim Aqua Martini
3/4th cup Minute Maid Light Mango Tropical
½ cup Baja Bob's Blue Raspberry Martini Mix
1 shot vodka

Shake all the above in a cocktail mixer, and serve in a Martini glass with a wedge of any tropical fruit, or stick a cubed mango to the stirrer.

Cocktail serving
1 serve

Calories down
Per serving:80 calories only (low fat , low carb)



Sparkling Tini!
300ml diet 7-Up Plus soda
1/4th cup Sugar-Free Raspberry Torani Syrup
1 shot vodka
Lots of crushed ice

Shake all the above in a cocktail mixer and pour over crushed ice. Serve with fresh floating raspberries on top!

Calories down
Per serving: 80 calories only (low fat , low carb)

Shake with ice. Pour into a cute martini glass. Drink up!

Malai Lassi

Today is the first day of my cooking-blogging days ahead and I’m really excited, so much so that I really don’t know where to start, since I’ve ventured into sharing my experiences with food at large , I’ll begin the journey from home, where I grew up. Being from Lucknow – the city of Nawabs and, born to a mom who has treated her recipes as my siblings, I have a close connection with food…going back to my Lucknow days, I have to begin my culinary journey with Chowk(the epicenter of food@Lucknow).

The Chowk

Throughout northern India, the Chowk is the focal point of activity. The main markets are invariably sited around it, and every city has a little clock tower which marks its centre. Lucknow is no different; the Chowk is the birthplace of chaos, it is here that chaos originates, spirals, and proliferates through narrow arterial lanes and by-lanes till it reaches the newer quarters of the city, where its traditional character is diluted by the affluence of the city’s newer inhabitants.

Let me start my food voyage of discovery from the gate leading into its boisterous innards, “The Bada Darwaza” or big gate. The time should be almost four P.M—I blend into the chartreuse and ochre streets like a ghost, entirely ignored. Bumped into—sworn at for being an impediment to a rickshaw pullers progress—spat on accidentally, nevertheless completely invisible. Perplexed at the untruth of my existence, I stare into a barber’s mirror. My reflection lost amid the sea of faces. Reassured that I have my place reserved for me among the multitude I stand in line for a chilled glass of thick malai lassi, reassured that I am somewhere among them, I laugh and dance in front of the mirror and still wait patiently. To the others I still don’t exist. I enslave a few reflections in my camera; I shall post them here for you all to examine and interrogate them as to why our existences have ceased to matter in front of food.

Now my saying all this does not mean that chowk is a place for hungry scavangers and mild mannered like us will be spat upon, but this emphasizes the significance food holds for hungry growly stomachs at the end of a working day for labour class people. And IF food standard is anywhere to go by, Chowk food is lip smacking and simply delicious. For a vegetarian like me, the non-veg smell is a turnoff, and I wouldn’t be in Chowk if it weren’t for the pull off delicatessen sweets.

Malai Fruit Lassi

1 cup full fat curd/greek yogurt
1 cup medium ripe and sweet mango(preferably pureed) or any sweet tropical fruit
1/2 cup crushed ice
sugar to taste
rock salt 1 pinch
1/2 roasted and crushed cumin seeds



In a mixer put all the above ingredients and mix at medium speed for 3 mins or till sufficiently frothy .

Saffron Lassi(saffron yogurt shake)

Instead of fruit and cumin seeds,to the above list of ingredients add saffron to 1/4 cup warm water and soak for an hour, mix all the above. Pour in a tall broad rimmed glass, decorate glass with a mixture of salt and sugar (powdered ) and dip the glass rim, like the way you would for Margarita. Add a slice of lime and fresh garden mint.It will give a perfect nawabi aroma as well as a heady saffron twinge to flavour and taste.


Diet lassi(diet yogurt shake)

In the above list of ingredients replace full fat curd with skim milk curd/yogurt and take a low calorie fruit like peach or papaya.Mix it and flavour with pomegranate for a perfect burst of colour.


Chandni Chowk wali lassi(The ubiquitous Punjabi lassi served in Chandni
Chowk-Delhi)

Go to chandni chowk and you cant miss the lassi in the parathe wali gali, for the price and flavour its like ambrosia!!
All you need to do is take the following1 cup full fat curd/Greek yogurt
1 cup medium ripe and sweet mango(preferably pureed) or any sweet tropical fruit
1/2 cup crushed ice
sugar to taste
rock salt 1 pinch
1/2 roasted and crushed cumin seeds

And mix as for the malai wali lassi, as the topmost garnish add a huge spoonful of Cold Rabri(which is thick sweetened milk almost like a thick paper bundle) .yommm.