Tomato Onion Bonda

As expected I am back on a Wednesday for the Blog Hop of course. This time however I nearly missed the train.

We are slowly coming out of the Holiday mood and settling in the school routine. Although we had everything arranged and ready for the start of school, I am still running around arranging for things as & when the necessity pops up. So nowadays it is just chatting with other mums about the school, while dropping the kids & picking them up and making sure that S gets into regular routine everyday so that she will be fine when the school starts full day for her. As this takes up all my time & mind space, I am wondering what it will be like, once I get back to work in another fortnight!

As usual I left it for the last minute without realising that there was some work to be done in the kitchen during this week and so I ended up being one day late for this post. But as the well used saying goes ‘Better late than never’!

For this week’s Blog Hop I was paired with Priya of Now Serving. She has a very interesting mix of recipes on her blog but this one immediately caught my attention because first of all I had never used chopped Tomatoes in a Bonda or anything fried for that matter and the combination of onion & tomato is a personal favourite. The other reason was that it was very simple and quick to make.

Tomato Onion Bonda

 

Ingredients

• 1 Onion, chopped
• 2 Tomatoes, chopped
• A handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped
• Salt
• 1 Tsp Chilli Powder
• a pinch of Hing (Asafoetida)
• About 3/4 cup Rice Flour (Adjust as required)
• Oil for frying

 

Method: Combine the chopped onion, tomatoes & coriander leaves in a bowl. Add the salt, chilli powder & Hing and mix well, mashing with the back of the spoon.

Once the mixture lets out water, add the rice flour and mix without adding any water if possible. Although the original recipe says that no water is to be added, I had to add a few drops to enable me to shape them into balls.

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Once the oil is hot, drop the balls in it and fry on medium flame till they start to turn brown and turn crisp.

Drain and serve hot with Ketchup & Green Chutney.

My Notes: This reminded me of the Akki Rotti that we used to make at home (specially at my friend N’s place). as expected the combination of onion & tomato was delicious. The Bondas were totally crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. We need to make sure to fry them on a medium flame so that they are cooked well on the inside. A very quick & easy recipe for those evening snack cravings and also when unexpected guests drop in!

A Sweet Punch thats Savoury – Golden Onion Quiche

To be very honest, I am not a Quiche person at all. The main reason being that I dont eat eggs, not in their usual form at least. I only tolerate them in cakes, muffins, cookies etc. Apart from that I am not at all comfortable with eggs, mainly because of the smell. That may explain why I am buying Vanilla essence every other week. I add it to recipes that dont call for it but have eggs in it, just to neutralise the smell.

Having said that, I have always wanted to try making a quiche because it requires some skills to get the pastry right & also to get the filling set to the right consistency. Its always good to challenge yourself even though you know you are not even going to touch the final product, right? But again, this is not my first attempt and the reason this blog hasn't heard about my earlier attempt is that it was a miserable failure to say the least. I think I went wrong at the basic – the pastry and then went on to mess up the filling as well. So the end result was a patchy & cracked pastry case with a runny, curdled and horrible looking filling. That put me off Quiche even more.

But since I had decided to try my best to complete all the Sweet Punch challenges, I had to give this one a go, if only to see if I had it in me to get it right. And I did get it right and was very pleased with the result. So much so that I could not resist eating a slice, although my original plan was only to feed GM :)

The recipe was quite straight forward and simple. I used red & green peppers along with Onions for the filling and also reduced the quantity of eggs to 2 for the filling. Apart from this, I also blind baked my pastry before filling it & baking it again. It was my opinion the last time I made quiche, that I failed because the pastry wasn't cooked properly so this time I decided to cook it before putting the filling. For more details please read the below recipe.

Golden Onion Quiche

Ingredients

For the pastry

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/4 tsp Baking powder
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 100 gm Butter, chilled (I used salted and skipped the salt in the recipe)
• Cold water as reqd ( approx 1-2 tblsp)

For the filling

• 1 tblsp Olive oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1/2 each of green & red pepper, diced
• 100 gm Cheddar Cheese
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• salt & pepper

Method: Pre heat the oven to 200 deg C. Have 8/9 “ round tin ready.

Sieve the flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add the chilled butter and mix/ rub to get a breadcrumb consistency. I did this using a fork and rubbing the butter into the flour. This works really well because you avoid touching the butter which in turn ensures that the butter stays chilled.

Now add the egg and bring together the dough using as little water as possible.

Flour the work surface and roll out the dough to a thickness of approx 1 inch and enough for the tin.

Now line the tin with the rolled out dough such that it fills it completely and also covers the edges. Press lightly at the corners and secure.

Now to blind bake, cover the surface with baking paper or foil. Place some baking beans or any beans or even raw rice. This is done so that the pastry doesn't rise & puff up and is baked evenly.

 

Red Kidney Beans for blind baking                 All baked & ready for the filling now

Slide this into the pre heated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until it starts to turn light brown. Once done, remove from oven, take off the beans and the baking paper. Let it cool for 2-3 minutes before proceeding with the filling.

While the pastry is being baked, heat the oil in a pan for the filling. Once hot, sauté the onions till they turn golden brown and then add in the diced peppers. Cook for another 3-4 minutes and turn off the heat.

Transfer this into a bowl and add the milk, cheese, egg and season with salt and pepper.

When the pastry is ready, fill this mixture into the pastry up to the brim and then bake in the oven again for 20-25 minutes or until set, firm and golden on the top.

Enjoy warm.

My Notes: I did have a little bit of the filling left although I made a small quiche in a mini pan as well. So the quantity of milk can be reduced to 3/4 of a cup, I think.

As mentioned earlier the end result was superb. Will I make it again? Definitely! Will I start eating Quiches more frequently? Maybe. I would like to try some more flavour combinations before I have a definite answer for the last question. I have to find something which might mask the strong smell/taste of the eggs. Any suggestions?

Kanda Bhaji (Onion Pakoras/Fritters)

It was raining heavily in India (Bombay & Pune) when I started to write this post. As regards to London, its always raining or rather drizzling throughout the year. Much has been said about the British weather and believe me its not enough. You have to really experience it to know the seriousness. The only certain part is the cold. It will be definitely cold in Nov-Dec-Jan-Feb. For the other months you never know. For the first timer, specially from Bombay it may seem that it is cold throughout the year but there is supposed to be a 'Summer' here too, July & August are the official Summer months.

One of my friends, who has recently shifted to London from India keeps asking me when the weather is going to be nice enough and I keep telling her that it already is very good (temp around 20 deg, cloudy most of the times, windy, sunny & clear once in a while)! A few more days and the cold will start setting in.

Anyway, coming back to the post, whenever it is raining, we crave for something fried. Of course we cant have fried things every time it rains in London, that would sometimes mean 5 days in a week! But we do indulge ourselves sometimes. On one such occasion, we made the very famous Kanda Bhaji (Onion Pakoras/Fritters).

Makes about 12-14 small Bhajis

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized onion, very thinly sliced
• Approx 5-6 tblsp Besan (Chickpea flour)
• 1-2 tsps red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp Haldi (Turmeric powder)
• Salt
• Oil for Frying

Method:

The onion slices should be as thin as possible. separate the slices by hand to get single strands.

Add the besan, red chili powder, haldi and salt & make a batter by adding a little water. Adjust the quantity of besan as you prepare the mix. The batter should barely coat the onion slices. The onion slices should be partially visible once the batter is ready.

It shouldn't happen that the batter is heavy & the slices are only visible here & there, the main item should be the onion slices. The batter should be such that it just holds the slices together.

Heat oil in a kadai. Once heated drop small lumps of the prepared batter and fry till crisp.

Serve with Ketchup or chutney. Can be served as starters or as an accompaniment to a simple Rice meal or had as an evening snack with Tea. Ideal to have when it is raining :)