It’s been 70 degrees here this week; really loving the warm weather! Last weekend I gave my first Cooking Party Cooking Class; inspired by my friend Bruce who wanted to give a dear friend of his a special birthday present. Instead of going out for dinner I gave him and six of his friends a private cooking class at his house. Bruce choose Indian Street Food as the theme and the menu consisted of traditional Indian street fare. Before we started cooking I gave them a quick tutorial on what Yogic Cooking is and how they can incorporate it into their lives….and then the cooking fun began!
Our menu consisted of:
Bhel- We started off with the bhel, a light and tasty dish of puffed rice, mung beans, black garbanzo’s and potatoes that are tossed with cilantro and tamarind chutney.
Pani Puri- We followed that by a delicious treat of mini puffed puri’s (bread), that are stuffed with mung beans, black garbanzos and potatoes and then dipped is a minty, spicy water.
Chaat Samosas- Then we had Chaat samosas….YUM! These are traditional samosas, topped with Chana Masala, cilantro chutney & tamarind chutney. This group was especially talented…they folded 40 samosas in about 20 minutes– I was impressed!
Falooda- And lastly, we finished the evening of savory, spicy and hot treats with a traditional milk float. It’s milk that’s flavored with rose essence, has a scoop of vanilla ice cream and is topped with soaked basil seeds….it’s one of my favorites–and absolutely perfect to drink on a hot summer’s day.
The key to all of these tasty dishes is largely about having really great chutney. Once you have a jar of chutney in the fridge, you can use it throughout the week on sandwiches, to flavor a rice dish, use as a dipping sauce for an appetizer, etc, etc. Basically, there’s a 101 ways you can use them to spice up everyday cooking. Below are my recipe’s for traditional Lilli (green, spicy cilantro) Chutney and the Amli (sweet tamarind) Chutney.
ENJOY!
xo,Kajal
p.s. THANK BRUCE!
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- Prepping
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- Prepping…hmmm
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- Pani Puri…what a treat!
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- Lots of fresh goodness!
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- SAMOSAS!
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- So much yumminess…
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- Chaat Samosa…
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- The cooking crew was awesome!
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- Choppin’ it up…
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- Sorting mung beans…labor intensive, but worth it.
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- What a feast!
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- They were awesme samosa makers.
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- Black Garbanzo’s and Mung…
- 10-12 dates
- 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
- ¾ teaspoon chilli pwd
- ½ teaspoon dhana-jeeru (cumin-coriander powder)
- 1 ½ cups water or to desired consistency
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- Directions
- Soak dates in 2 cups hot water for 20-30 minutes.
- Place in blender soaked dates, 1 cup of cooled date water, tamarind paste, chilli powder, dhana-jeeru and salt. Blend until completely smooth. Add more cooled date water until desired consistency is reached. Refrigerate until use.
Gluten Free: Yes!
Yogic Cooking: Pitta and Kapha body types should eat it in moderation.
- 2 cups cilantro, packed
- 1-2 jalapenos (to taste), washed and de-stemmed
- 1 tbsps lemon juice
- ½ cup water
- ½ teaspoon toasted cumin powder
- ¼- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Add more or less water depending on the consistency desired. Refrigerate until use.
Gluten Free: Yes!
Yogic Cooking: The Cilantro Chutney is great for all body types. Pitta people might want to replace the jalapeno with ginger. As for the Tamarind Chutney, Pitta and Kapha body types should eat it in moderation.
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If you’re interested in hosting your own COOKING PARTY…just contact me!
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