Veg Frankie ( Mumbai Roadside Recipes )

Ingredients

For The Rotis

1/2 cup plain flour (maida)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (gehun ka atta)
1 tsp oil
salt to taste
1/4 tsp oil for kneading
butter for cooking

For The Stuffing1 1/2 tbsp oil or butter
1 tsp ginger-garlic (adrak-lehsun) paste
1 3/4 cups boiled , peeled and mashed potatoes
3/4 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp chaat masala (optional)
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander (dhania)
salt to taste

(makes Approx 1/3 Cup)1 1/2 tsp dried mango powder (amchur)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
1/3 cup of water

Other Ingredients4 tsp butter for cooking
1 cup finely chopped onions
4 tsp frankie masala (readily available in the market) or chaat masala

For Servingtomato sauce

Method 
For the rotis

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and knead into a soft and pliable dough using enough water. Cover the dough with a wet muslin cloth and keep aside for 10 minutes.
2. Cover the dough with a wet muslin cloth and keep aside for 10 minutes.
3. Knead again using ¼ tsp of oil till it is smooth and elastic.
4. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll out each into approx. 200 mm. (8") diameter thin circle.
5. Heat a tava (griddle) and cook each roti lightly on a medium flame and keep aside.

For the stuffing

1. Heat the oil/butter in a kadhai, add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté on a medium flame for a few seconds.
2. Add the potatoes, chilli powder, garam masala, chaat masala, coriander and salt, mix well and sauté on a medium flame for another minute. Keep aside.

How to proceed

1. Heat ½ tsp butter on a tava (griddle), place ¼ th of the stuffing and cook on a medium flame till both sides turn light brown in colour. Keep aside.
2. Place a roti on the tava (griddle) and cook on a medium flame using ½ tsp butter till both sides turn light brown in colour.
3. Place the stuffing on one end of the roti, spread it lightly and remove from the tava.
4. Place it on a clean, dry surface and top with ¼ cup of onions, sprinkle 1½ tsp of masala water and ½ tsp of chaat masala evenly over it and roll it up tightly.
5. Fold the edges at one end and wrap in an aluminium foil/tissue paper and serve immediately with tomato sauce.
6. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make 3 more frankies.

Variation:

1. Cheese frankie: sprinkle 1/3 cup of grated cooking cheese over the stuffing (at step no. 4 in the above recipe) and proceed as per the recipe.
2. Schezuan frankie: simply smear 1½ tbsp of schezuan sauce, page… evenly on the roti (at step no. 3) and proceed as per the recipe.
3. Paneer frankie: for the stuffing, replace ¾ cup of potatoes with ¾ cup of chopped paneer and proceed as per the recipe.
4. Jain frankie: replace potatoes with equal quantities of raw banana for the stuffing and replace onions with equal quantities of cabbage in the recipe given above. You can add grated cheese over the stuffing to make it more flavourful.

DAHI BHALLA

Ingredients:-

for vadas:

• ½ cup urad dal or 125 grams
• 4 tbsp moong dal
• 1.25 to 1.5 cups water for soaking
• 6 to 7 tbsp water for grinding or add as required
• ½ tsp cumin seeds/jeera
• a generous pinch of asafoetida/hing
• salt as required
• oil for frying
• enough water for soaking the dals

other ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh curd or curd made from 500 ml milk
• ⅓ cup pomegranate arils
• ⅓ cup sweet chutney
• ⅓ cup green chutney
• 20 to 25 papdis
• ½ cup cooked chana or white chickpeas or ¼ cup chana, pressure cooked till done
• 1 large potato, boiled, peeled and chopped
• chaat masala as required
• roasted cumin powder as required
• red chili powder as required
• black salt as required
• 2.5 cups water for soaking vadas

for green chutney:

• 1 cup coriander leaves
• 1 or 2 green chilies
• ½ inch ginger/adrak, chopped
• ½ tsp lemon or lime juice
• salt as required
• 1 to 2 tsp water for grinding chutney

for sweet tamarind chutney:

• ½ cup seedless tamarind, tightly packed
• 1 and ¾ cups water
• ½ tsp ginger powder
• a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
• ½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
• ¼ tsp red chili powder (lal mirch powder)
• 7 to 8 tbsp jaggery or as required - adjust as per your taste (gur)
• rock salt or black salt or regular salt as required
• 1 tsp oil

METHOD:-

preparing the saunth or sweet tamarind chutney:

1. soak tamarind in water overnight or for 4-5 hours in a small bowl or pan.
2. with your hands, squeeze the pulp from the tamarind in the same bowl or pan.
3. strain the pulp and keep aside.
4. heat oil in a small pan.
5. lower the flame & add cumin seeds and let them crackle.
6. add ginger powder, red chili powder, asafoetida.
7. stir and add the strained tamarind pulp
8. cook for 2-3 mins.
9. add the jaggery and salt and cook for 4-5 mins more.
10. the mixture would thicken.
11. let the saunth chutney mixture cool.
12. when cooled, store the saunth chutney in an air-tight dry jar or container.

preparing the green chutney:

1. grind all the ingredients mentioned under the green chutney list with little water.
2. remove and keep aside in a small bowl.

soaking & preparing batter:

1. rinse ½ cup urad dal and 4 tbsp moong dal in water a couple of times. then soak both the lentils overnight or for at least 4-5 hours.
2. drain them very well. add the lentils to a grinder jar along with ½ tsp cumin seeds and a generous pinch of asafoetida. you can also add 1 tsp of roughly chopped ginger if you want.
3. add water in parts and grind all the ingredients to a smooth fluffy batter. on touching the batter, it should not feel grainy. i added 6 to 7 tbsp water. depending on the quality of lentils and the capacity-volume of grinder, you can add less or more water. don't add too much water as then the vadas become too crispy and soak a lot of oil.
4. take the ground batter in a bowl and add salt.
5. stir the batter briskly for a couple of minutes. this brisk stirring makes the batter more light and fluffy.
6. the test to a correct consistency of this batter is the floating test. take some water in a small bowl. add 1 tsp of a batter in the water. the batter should float. if it does not float, this means the consistency is thin. add some sooji or rice flour to the batter to thicken it.

frying vadas and soaking them in water:

1. heat a kadai or pan with oil for deep frying.
2. when the oil becomes medium hot, add a small amount of batter in the oil. it should come steadily and quickly on the surface. this means it is the right temperature to fry. too cold oil will make the vadas soggy with oil and too high will brown them faster from outside, leaving the center uncooked.
3. add spoonfuls of the batter in the oil.
4. add according to the capacity of the pan or kadai.
5. when they become pale golden, then turn them.
6. fry the vadas till they become golden and crisp.
7. turn them a couple of times for even frying.
8. fry till golden and crisp. remove with a slotted spoon.
9. drain on paper towels. fry all the vadas in the same way.
10. once all the vadas are done with frying, then take 2.5 cups water in a wide bowl or pan.
11. and add the vadas to the water.
12. soak them for 20 to 25 minutes.
13. take each vada and flatten and press between your palms to remove excess water. do this with all the vadas.

assembling and serving dahi bhalla:

1. take 2 cups fresh chilled curd in a bowl and beat it till smooth.
2. now gently place these vadas in the curd.
3. gently mix if you have used medium sized bowl, like how i have used. now you can keep the vadas with the curd in the fridge and assemble when you want to serve. or use them right away as the curd is chilled.
4. gather and assemble all your other ingredients like - boiled potato cubes, boiled white chickpeas, green chutney, tamarind chutney, pomegranate arils and the spice powders.
5. to make individual portions of dahi bhalla, place 4 to 5 papdis in a plate.
6. place 2 to 3 dahi vadas in a plate. add more curd or dahi if required.
7. top up with some boiled potatoes and chickpeas.
8. now add the green chutney, sweet tamarind chutney as required
9. sprinkle red chili powder, roasted cumin powder, chaat masala and black salt as per taste.
10. serve dahi bhalla immediately garnished with some chopped coriander leaves. you can also garnish with fine sev.

notes

to veganize, use cashew curd.
the recipe can be halved. 
you can add finely chopped onions as a topping, if you want.

KACHHI DABELI

INGREDIENTS:-

for the dabeli masala:

1 red chili
1 tsp coriander seeds or coriander powder
½ inch stick of cinnamon/dal chini
2-3 cloves/lavang
½ tsp cumin/jeera

for the red garlic chutney

1-2 red chilies - soaked in warm water for 30-40 minutes
½ cup garlic/lahsun, chopped
½ tbsp lemon juice
salt to taste

for the potato filling

3 medium sized potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tsp dabeli masala
a pinch of asafoetida/hing
½ tsp cumin/jeera
2 tbsp tamarind dates chutney
¼ cup grated coconut
¼ cup pomegranate seeds/anar
¼ cup chopped coriander leaves/cilantro
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp water - optional
salt

for serving

4-5 buns or pav sliced and lightly roasted in some butter or oil
½ cup roasted peanuts
½ cup chopped coriander leaves/cilantro
½ cup nylon sev
½ cup pomegranate seeds/anar
garlic chutney as required
sweet tamarind dates chutney as required

Method:-

preparing the dabeli masala powder

1. dry roast the red chili, cumin, cloves, cinnamon and coriander seeds.
2. add all the ingredients in a dry grinder.
3. grind to a fine powder.
4. keep aside.
5. 
   

preparing the red garlic chutney:

1. in a wet grinder or blender, grind the soaked red chilies, garlic, lemon juice and salt to a smooth paste.
2. add water if required. keep aside.
3. 
   

preparing the potato stuffing:

1. boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker or microwave oven.
2. peel and mash them and keep aside.
3. in a pan or kadai, heat oil. add cumin.
4. then add chopped onion and fry the onions till they become soft.
5. add asafoetida/hing and fry for a minute on a low flame.
6. add the sweet tamarind dates chutney to the onions and mix well.
7. add the mashed potatoes and again mix well.
8. add the dabeli masala powder to the mashed potatoes. mix well and add salt.
9. cook for 2-3 minutes stirring the mixture.
10. if the mixture looks a little dry then add 1 or 2 tbsp of water.
11. when done, spread the potato filling on a plate.
12. sprinkle some grated coconut on the potato filling.
13. add some chopped coriander on top.
14. now add pomegranate seeds or grapes or both.
15. keep the potato stuffing aside.

serving the dabeli:

1. assemble all the ingredients mentioned under serving in one place.
2. apply the sweet chutney on one slice of the bun and the red garlic chutney on the other side.
3. take a slice of the potato filling and put it on top of one of the slices of bread.
4. add some chopped onion and coriander leaves
5. top it up with some roasted peanuts and pomegranate seeds.
6. sprinkle some dabeli masala also. lastly top it with sev.
7. cover with the other slice of bread.
8. prepare the remaining dabeli pav in the same way and serve dabeli warm.

NOTES

1: instead of the red garlic chutney you can also use mint coriander chutney. 

2: dabeli masala powder is easily available in the indian metros. so you could use ready dabeli masala. 

3:other variation is to add pav bhaji masala instead of dabeli masala. the dabeli will still taste good. 

4: lastly to add more spice, add spiced or masala peanuts instead of plain peanuts.