Vegetable Chop

Winter evening calls for indulging in some deep fried steaming hot snacks with tea or coffee.  Snacks like samosa, pakoda, bhajia are all time favorite. But during this time of the year when winter offers us so many colorful vegetables, a particular street snack that I miss a lot is Vegetable chop.  It’s a popular street snack in Odisha and Bengal and we lovingly call it Veg Chop. It is not commonly seen in Delhi NCR, so I thought why not I should give a try. I thought of trying a new recipe and obviously it means it will be shared with you all. When I took step by step photos of the method and was juggling between camera and cooking, I was not sure of the final result. But both (me and the man in the house) of us were super happy with the look and taste of the veg chop, crunchy & crispy outside and hot & spicy inside.    

Ingredients Required 

1- Cauliflower, Capsicum, French Beans (Finely chopped) -1/2 cup each

2- Carrot, Beet Root (Finely chopped / grated) - 1/2 cup each

3- Coconut  (Finely chopped) - 1/4 cup

4- Peas - 1/2 cup

5- Peanuts - 1/2 cup

6- Coriander Leaves (Finely chopped) -1/4 th cup 

7- Boiled and Smashed Potato-2 medium sized

8- Ginger, Garlic and Onion Paste- 2 tbsp

9- Green Chilies  (Finely chopped) - 1 or 2 (According to Taste)

10- Salt (According to Taste)

11- Turmeric Powder- 1/2 tsp

12- Red Chili Powder (According to Taste)

13- Curry Powder or Coriander and Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

14- Bread Crumbs- 2 cups 

15- All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup
16- Black cumin seeds (kala jeera)- 1/2 tsp
17- Garam Masala Powder-1/2 tsp

18- Refined Sunflower Oil - For deep frying

Step-1, 2, 3

Heat a pan, add one tsp of oil and first fry the grated beet root, till it is cooked. Take it out. (I prefer frying the beet root separately and adding it at the last. By doing this we can identify the other vegetables, while eating. Or else the beet root color will dominate over all the other vegetables. If you want can cook all the vegetables together.)

In the same pan add around 2 tsp of oil, add chopped green chilies and black cumin seeds. Then add ginger-garlic-onion paste and fry it till oil separates from the masala.  

Step-4, 5, 6

Add turmeric powder, curry powder, salt, chili powder and fry for some time. Add the coconut and peanuts, followed by all the vegetables (cauliflower, beans, capsicum, carrot, peas). Now cover the pan with lid and cook the vegetables on low heat for around 10 minutes. 

Step-7, 8, 9

Once the vegetables are cooked add the smashed potatoes and curry powder. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the fried beet root. Then mix in the garam masala powder and chopped coriander leaves. Allow this mixture to come into room temperature, so that we can do the next step.

Step-10, 11, 12

Make small balls of this mixture. I made oval shaped balls, so that I can get the vegetable chop in traditional shape of it. Then make a thick batter using flour and water. There should be no lumps in this batter. 

Step-13, 14, 15

Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Now carefully dip the balls in the batter, roll it in bread crumbs and then fry it in oil till golden brown. 

Once done serve it with your favorite chutney or ketchup. At my place it is loved with fried green chilies, some roundels of onion, a slice of lemon and tomato ketchup. 

DIY: A Bell for Your Garden

Hello friends....

Have a look, what I have made few days back!!

I think you all know about my DIY passion as well as best out of waste craze. I have made bells using some small clay pots, which are used to serve tea in some local tea stalls. Those which are famous as chai ke kulhad. I have made these on the request of a friend of mine, who is not at all a DIY kind of person. She wanted me to make some bells for her balcony garden. With her permission I have taken few pics of the final product as well as the steps of DIY for you all. So without wasting much time, let's move to it's tutorial. 

Items Required

1- Fine Sand-1 cup

2- Cement-1/2 cup (I had white cement, so I used it. Normal cement can also be used.)

3- Sand Paper

4- Plastic Thread

5- Aluminium Wire /Binding Wire (can get it from any hardware shop)

6- Wire Cutter

7- Small Ghungroos - 8 to 10

8- Acrylic Paint

9- Paint Brush

10- Small Clay pot (Kulhad)

11- Small Ring (I used rings of broken key chains)

Step-1

First by using a piece of sand paper make the surface of the Kulhad as smooth as possible and make a hole on the base by using any sharp object or a nail or using drilling machine. With help of wire cutter cut few pieces of wires of around 3 cm length. Then fold the wires as the image below. Now mix sand, cement and water. Don't make a very watery paste. It should be thick like the cement mixture used in construction of house. 

Step-2

Now make small balls of this cement mixture. Insert the hooks made of wire when the cement is wet. Don't disturb the balls and leave it for one complete day to dry properly. 

When I made this, had no idea about exactly what quantity of the mixture is required, so I used 2 cups of sand and 1 cup of cement. First I made the round ones, but had some more cement mixture left. Then I made different shapes, that I'll use in some other DIY. For this project I have used only the round ones. 

(You can directly make the cement balls by using your hands or can wear gloves while making these, as cement can make your hand very dry and rough. I feel my beautiful gang of ladies will not like to take any risk *smile*. If you are not getting gloves then, can at least cover your hands with polythene bags or else after making the balls immediately wash your hand with hand wash and apply sufficient moisturizer.)

Step-3

After 24 hours the balls are ready. To give it a smooth texture I made a mixture of cement and water (1:3 ratio) and applied a coat of that. Left it to dry for 10 minutes. After this applied a coat of white acrylic paint as a primer coat. 

Step-4

After applying the primer coat, paint it in your desired color combination. 

Step-5

Now using the plastic thread, tie all the small balls and some ghungroos. I used six balls in each bell as per the demand of my friend. 

Step-6

After tying the last ball, keep a gap (less than the length of the Kulhad) and then tie a piece of small stick or a button on the thread. If we will not do this one top ball will completely go inside the kulhad and can't be seen from outside. Then pass the thread through the hole and tie a ring tightly at the end, as shown in the following picture.

Then the bells are ready and this is how it looks... 

I took few pics of these in my living room...and then they are packed and went to their original destination. 

Now I am excited to see how these will look at my friend's balcony garden....

Have asked her to share few pics of her balcony, so that I can share with you all. 

I hope you will find this tutorial useful and let me know if you have made anything like this earlier. 

I have also made an urli using this method before 2-3 years, have a look... *smile*