Foul/Ful - Egyptian Fava Bean Dip

Foul/Ful, pronounced as Fool, is an ancient middle-eastern dish, which I fell head over heals in love with, after coming to Saudi Arabia. This dish is prepared from Fava Beans aka. Broad Beans. This is staple food in Egypt and is equally popular in Saudi Arabia along with Jordan, Syria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia etc. Prepared in various versions using lemon, garlic, sumac, cumin, green chillies, tomatoes, onion and olive oil, there are so many combinations of preparing this dish, some prefer it chunky I on otherhand, prefer it smooth and buttery. In Syria this dish is prepared using special Aleppo pepper and tahini (sesame seed paste).

There is this place in Riyadh which is very popular for its Afghani Foul, P mentioned it many times when I was just new in Riyadh, come next weekend and he brought this heavenly dish called foul (I know I used to get a kick out of it just hearing it, it made me think of something which would be very silly to eat) along with khubz (pita) and hummus for breakfast and I have to admit Foul rocked my world, it has such a lovely taste, texture and flavour that I just couldn't stop licking my plate clean after finishing.

It is said that foul is the dish of Pharoahs and I say Amen. Mentionable quantities of fava beans have been found in Egyptian Tombs. This beans are mentioned not only in Bible but also in other ancient texts, what more can be said about this beans?! Not to forget the lovely nutritional value they provide other than being food for Pharoahs.

So as I said some prefer chunky kinda foul but I prefer smooth and buttery texture which is the way it is prepared in that Riyadh's famous Afghani foul shop, so here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup medium sized Egyptian Fava Beans (dry, overnight soak in water along with 2 pinches of soda-bicarb)
6 tbs olive oil, I used extra virgin.
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin powder
3 cloves of garlic, grated
2 tbs tomato paste, you can used fresh tomatoes too, 2-3 medium sized and skin removed would suffice.
Salt to taste

For garnish:
2-3 tbs lemon juice
chopped onions, tomatoes and/or hard boiled egg chopped finely.
Olive oil.

Preparation:

Soak beans overnight in water along with 2 pinches of soda-bicarb, in the morning drain them and wash them with plain water. Pressure cook beans in plain water for upto 8-10 whistles, these beans are bigger than any other usual beans so it takes time for them to get well cooked. Remember we want a very well cooked bean, cooked to a point that its skin is a bit torn and bean itself is mushy.

Drain the beans and reserve the water, it shall be used in cooking later. Let the cooked beans cool off a bit and then start removing their skin, its very easy as we have cooked them to a mushy point, just one pinch and the bean shall pop out.

Using a blender, make a puree of the beans.

In a heavy bottom pan add 1 tbs olive oil and garlic and fry for 10 seconds on medium heat, add beans puree and all other ingredients mentioned above along with olive oil. It is important to add olive oil only after adding puree to the heated pan because we want the flavour of olive oil to stay intact. Add around 1 to 1 1/2 cups of water.
Let this simmer over a low heat for around 30-45 mins. The more this simmers, dish will have more intense flavours. Keep adjusting the consistency of this dish by adding a bit more water if you want as simmer vapourises water and beans puree does have tendency to thicken quite a bit. (I ended up adding 2 1/4 cups of water in all)

Turn off the heat and ladle it into a bowl, garnish it with dash of lemon juice, chopped onions, tomatoes or grated or chopped hard boiled egg.
Serve it with Pita or khubz.

I prefer my foul with a dash of olive oil, a dash of lemon juice and chopped onions on side.

Note:
Soaking beans in soda bicarb water is a must. But remember to cook the beans in plain water after thorough wash.

Enjoy.

Methi Na Thepla/Gujarati Dhebra/Fresh Fenugreek Leaves Flatbread

Dhebra is one of the most loved Gujarati tea time snacks/dishes. It is a type of paratha which has bitterness from fenugreek/methi leaves, sweetness from the sugar, sour taste that come out of curd and heat from the green chili paste. In addition to this, this paratha has the goodness of garlic & ginger, pearl millet and whole wheat flour, not to forget all the green leafy veggies going into it. It can't be healthier than this.
Gujarati's are well known for their handva, muthiya, dhokla and thepla/dhebra. Dhebra can serve different purposes like tea time snack to midnight snack and from travel food to picnic munchies. Dhebra are popular with kids to grown-ups alike.
I remember having dhebra in my school lunch box prepared by my mom, BTW she makes the most flavourful dhebra I've ever tasted. This is her recipe. So here's some recipe which just can't go wrong.

Makes 20-22, 6" diameter dhebra.
Ingredients:
3 cups firmly packed chopped fresh fenugreek/ methi leaves
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour/ chapati flour
1 1/2 cups pearl millet/ bajri flour
2 tbs of oil
3 pinches of hing/asofoetida.
2 tbs green chili, ginger & garlic paste
1 1/2 tbs sugar
3 tsp kashmiri red chili powder
2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste, usually requires 2 to 3 1/2 tsp of salt but it can be adjusted according to taste.
1/4th cup yoghurt (a little bit of sour yoghurt is best for this recipe)
Few mls of water for kneading the dough.

For cooking we shall require a few more tbs of oil for shallow frying. About 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour for dusting.

Method:
In a deep bowl all both flours and 2 tbs of oil, give it a nice rub till the oil is nicely incorporated in the flour.
Now add all the spices, ground paste, sugar and salt and give it a nice rub once again.
Add fenugreek/methi leaves and mix it well.
Now start to knead a semi soft to hard dough adding a tablespoon of yoghurt at a time, till you run out of 1/4th cup of yoghurt. Add water to knead dough after this, remember pearl millet doesn't need too much liquid to form a dough hence add few tbs of water at a time.
Dough should not be runny at all, you should be able to make ping-pong sized balls out of it.
Let this dough rest for 20-30 mins.

Now make ping pong sized balls out of the dough and roll out 1/4th cm thick paratha, using whole wheat flour for dusting. Heat tava/griddle/non stick pan (if planning to make oil free dhebra) and place rolled out dhebra/paratha on to it. After 30 seconds turn dhebra with spatula and let it cook on the bottom side. Apply 1/4th tsp of oil on the top surface and turn it to shallow fry, press your spatula and keep turning the paratha every 20 seconds till golden brown spots appear on them.
Repeat this with all the remaining dough balls.

Dhebra can be served with pickles,jam, coriander chutney, garlic chutney, spiced curd, sweet curd or any dal or curry of your choice. This paratha/dhebra goes very well with masala chai/tea.

Dough

Shallow fried with golden brown spots

Dhebra served with sweet & spicy lemon pickle

Garlic Paratha (Frozen and/or Ready To Eat)

As promised last week while posting Onion Paratha, I'm here with the recipe of Garlic Paratha, easy to make and divine food for garlic lovers like me and P. I have frozen this paratha because I plan to make them in a jiffy during weekend, as you know no one likes to work on weekends and I too need a break from cooking but we got to eat our meals, so I've prepared them in advance and frozen them so when the weekend comes all I need to do is remove them from freezer and let them thaw and then shallow fry them with minimum oil possible and enjoy.
If you don't plan to freeze them then just roll them into paratha and directly shallow fry, as simple as that.

Now, as to why I prefer this parathas on weekend?!! very simple, weekends makes you eat most of the junk food which you tend to avoid during the work days like movie time chips and dips or pizza's and pastas etc etc and the best thing is that these garlic parathas are a gastronomical boon to those digestively challenging foods. Garlic tends to calm our digestive system and not to mention the other cardiovascular, antibiotic, anticarcinogenic, antioxidant benefits, the list is quiet long to mention.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour/gehun ka atta
15 cloves of garlic crushed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika/kuti hui lal mirch
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp light corn oil/sunflower oil/canola oil.
About 1 cup luke warm water to knead the dough.



Method:
Take the flour add in all the ingredients and knead a soft, non sticky dough using just enough luke warm water. Cover the dough with moist kitchen towel and keep aside for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in 12 equal portions and roll it into a smooth ball. Roll out parathas and store it in a tin box placing plastic sheets in between the parathas, this way they won't stick to each other. Cover the tin and place it in freezer.

Now whenever you need Garlic Paratha, just remove them from the freezer and let them thaw and shallow fry them using little oil on both sides till you get light brown spots on paratha.

Enjoy them with curry or raita or dal of your choice. We enjoyed them with freshly made nimbu achaar/lemon pickle and carrot raita.

Tips:
These parathas can also be used as wraps for making vegetable wraps or egg rolls or any imaginative wraps you could think of. Just be innovative :)

Onion Paratha (Frozen and/or Ready to Eat)

The other day I was surfing the frozen food section at some supermarket and came across a huge stash of frozen onion paratha, garlic paratha, plain paratha etc etc, at first its fancy packing and mouth watering snaps made me pick one onion paratha packet but it was then that I turn the packet to read its ingredients, very next instance I found myself thinking, "this is the most unhealthiest paratha that I would every lay my hands on, I'm sure I can do much better than what these wholesale manufactures can provide us in the name of ready meals" and duely placed the packet back to its assigned frozen spot (Now come on, I won't be naming brands here :) .
After reaching home I duely grabbed few things to put my thoughts into action and the approaching weekend was the best reason to whip up some recipe and stack my fridge with ready to eat tasty things. So mixed, kneaded and rolled the parathas and stacked them one on top of the other seperated by thin sheets of polythene, closed the tin box and placed it in freezer, so all I had to do on weekend was to thaw the paratha for 20-30 mins or so and shallow fry them on a non-stick pan using as little oil as possible.

Ingredients:
2 large onions grated
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
2 tbs oil
1/2 cup to 1 cup warm water.

Mix onion, flour, salt, oil and knead a soft dough using required quantity of warm water (pour little water at a time and knead dough using hands instead of spatula or spoon, this way you shall know when the water is just enough). Cover the dough with moist kitchen towel and keep aside for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in 12 equal portions and roll it into a smooth ball. Roll out parathas and store it in a tin box placing plastic sheets in between the parathas, this way they won't stick to each other. Cover the tin and place it in freezer. Now whenever you need Onion Paratha, just remove them from the freezer and let them thaw and shallow fry them using little oil on both side of paratha.

The best thing about this paratha is it can be enjoyed with anything from raita to sabzi and from your favourite curry to aachar. I could just roll one and gobble it down plain itself. So have it frozen or have it fresh... its your pick.... anyways it was far far better than the store bought plastic flavoured sheets, which I luckily avoided. :)

For the next weekend, planning to make some frozen Garlic Paratha, will keep you posted.

Kanda Pauva/Kanda Pohe

Yet another breakfast recipe tempered with simple spices, kanda pauva (as called in Gujarati) or kanda pohe (as called in Marathi & Hindi) gives a very nice filling sensation and its easy on stomach too. Usually this dish is made for lazy sunday's breakfast at my in-laws place back in Baroda. This dish is soo easy its really hard to screw up. :)

Wash 2 cups Pohe/pauva/beaten or flattened rice flakes (easily available at Indian stores) in a seive and make sure to drain them immediately. Keep aside.

In a heavy bottom pan heat 2 tbs of vegetable oil, add
1/2 tsp rai/mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera/cumin seeds

when they crackle add
1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp hing/asafoetida
2 dry red chillies
3 slit green chillies
1 tbs grated ginger

saute for 20 seconds and add
1 large sliced onion
saute for 40 seconds and add in the set aside pauva/pohe
1 tsp haldi/turmeric powder
3 tsp sugar
juice of one medium sized lime
salt to taste
mix well. Sprinkle a little water and let pohe cook for about 2-3 more minutes on medium heat.
Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves and serve it along with a glass of juice of your choice or hot tea or coffee

Tips:
Use sev to garnish kanda pauva, this will add nice crunch to the dish.
You can also sprinkle daadham/pomegranate to have a nice tropical taste.
Squeeze lill more lime for that extra kick of sour taste and ofcourse a lill bit more Vitamin C won't harm you anyway. :)

Oatmeal Upma/Savoury Oatmeal Porridge

Upma is an Indian breakfast dish prepared using semolina, cooked along with vegetables and other spices, so today to make this savoury dish a bit more healthier I have prepared it using Quaker Rolled Oats instead of regular semolina. This humble porridge has many plus points like it a quick one pot meal which can be served for a very filling breakfast or lunch or dinner, has lots of veggies in it, is rich in fiber and other goodies, low in calories and above all its every doctor's favorite. :)

So I started by dry roasting 1 cup Quaker Rolled Oats/any other brand Oatmeal. Roasted for just 90 seconds or so till it looses its white tint, on medium flame and set it aside.

Then take 2 tbs of vegetable oil/any light oil, I used Sunflower oil, put that on medium heat and add in
1 tsp of Urad dal/Split black lentils
1 tsp Channa dal/Split chickpea lentils
1/2 tsp Rai/Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Jeera/Cumin seeds

Once they start to crackle add

1/4 tsp Hing/Asafoetida
1 sprig curry leaves
2 dry red chillies
1 tbs green chili-ginger paste
1 Cup of chopped veggies like onion, tomato, capsicum, green beans, carrots, zucchini etc (I just added 1 medium sized onion and 1 medium sized tomato)

let it simmer on low heat till the veggies are tender to touch, then add in

2 1/2 cups of water, let it come to a boil and then add in roasted oatmeal. Add in  
salt to taste and 3 tbs of yogurt/dahi.
You will notice that within 90 seconds the oats will start to absorb all water and will giveout nice fragrance. Mix well and let the porridge simmer for another 4-5 minutes.
Turn off the heat and garnish it with handful of  chopped coriander/cilantro. 
Serve warm along with tea or coffee.

Tips:
Me and P both prefer our porridge not too thick nor too thin so have added 2 1/2 cups of water for 1 cup of oats. Adjust the water according to your preference.