Dal Lucknowi/Lucknowi Dal/Awadhi Dal

I was looking for a different dal dish for this week's blogging marathon. You might have noticed that am running this week's blogging marathon with Dazzling dals as theme. After a delectable Dhaba style dal fry, my post for this week's theme goes for an another interesting, easy breezy and definitely a comforting dal dish from Awadh cuisine. Google master took me to Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's Site where i crossed this delicious dal. This dal calls for easy ingredients with usual cooking process, but the interesting addition in this dal is Milk. Yes you heard it rite, milk is used in this dal dish. Adding milk in a dal is completely new for a South Indian like me. Even i was bit skeptical about this addition, but trust me i was completely wrong.

Bedmi Poori & Aloo ki Sabzi - A Uttar Pradesh Special

Bedmi Poori, if you have already visited North India, you would have surely heard about this Uttar Pradesh special deep fried kachori like puri. Actually this deep fried urad dal stuffed pooris are quite famous in most of cities like Delhi, Agra,Mathura. This pooris are favourite street food too, when served with aloo ki sabzi aka potato curry, you can see heaven in front of your eyes. Both bedmi poori and aloo ki sabzi makes an excellent pair. Bedmi poori is prepared with a stuffing which goes for urad dal, this is the highlight of this poori. When i was searching for a famous North Indian poori i crossed this bedmi pooris, actually they do exists in two versions, some makes this poori by stuffing the cooked urad dal mixture while some add the spiced urad dal mixture directly to the flour and make as pooris. But i sticked with the first method, i found that stuffng makes this pooris more interesting than adding them directly to the flour and make dough out of it.

Flaky Coriander Mathiri/Khasta Dhaniya Mathiri

Mathiri is one of most famous North Indian snacks, i always want to make at home. There are two varieties of Mathiris,one is the thin,flat and very crunchy mathiris prepared by rolling the dough as thin disc which is later shaped with a cookie cutter, the next one is the thick,spicy and flaky ones. Mathiris are in my to do list since a long, but i couldnt make them earlier for some reason. But today i got an opportunity to make this thick,spicy,flaky mathiris for a cook challenge, yes this mathiris are this month's challenge for the Southern team of the  South vs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil. This month's host for the Northern team is me and i have challenged our opposite team with my native's special Munthiri Pakodas/Cashew Pakodas while Nupur of Uk Rasoi challenged us with this thick flaky Mathiris as the theme for this month is Evening Snacks, yes we have themes from last month and seriously am enjoying this themed challenges, so that we can cook from each category as some foods are very unknown for both teams na.

Shir Sewain - Uttar Pradesh Special

Uttar Pradesh known as UP is a state in North India with Lucknow as capital and Kanpur as the commercial capital. This states shares it border with Rajasthan,Haryana,Delhi, Uttarakhand,Bihar and Jharkhand.Uttar Pradesh cuisine is famous for it royal dishes. While Nawabs ruling this regions, the royal slow cooking generally used for rice and meat cooking with sealed containers for retaining flavors and juices calle Dum pukht got introduced in this Cuisine.A typical vegetarian meal of Uttar Pradesh consists of roti,rice,dal,sabji, raita and papad. On festive occations, usually tava,the flat pans for making roti is considered as not auspicious and they eat friedfoods. A typical festive thali goes for Puri,Kachauri,Sabji,pulav,papad,raita and desserts.The cuisine of Uttar Pradesh is just as diverse as its geography. Ranging from simple every day fare to rich, elaborate banquets, the cuisine of Uttar Pradesh has absorbed and adapted a variety of cuisines to create  wonderful dishes..  Each city offers a different but equally inviting cuisine for the gourmet.Awadhi and Mughlai cuisine are the two prominent cuisine of this state.

Delectable delicacies like chaat, samosa and pakora, that top the most popular street food charts in all of India, are native to this state.Awadhi cuisine spread consists of elaborate dishes like kebabs, kormas, biryani, kaliya, nahari-kulchas, zarda, sheermal, roomali rotis, and warqi parathas. The richness of Awadh cuisine lies not only in the variety of cuisine but also in the ingredients used like mutton, paneer, and rich spices including cardamom and saffron.While Mughalai is strongly influenced by Persian cuisine of Iran and also have strong similarities with Kashmiri and Punjabi cuisine.ew famous dishes from this cuisiner are Bedvin this Indian flat bread known to have originated in Uttar Pradesh definitely satify your tastebuds. Paired with potato curry or chana (chole) its makes for a happy combination. Crisp and fluffy, the puris are made with whole wheat flour and urad dal while Keema dum ,kheema kebabs,mutton kofta comes from this cuisine, a prefect feast for non vegetarians. Arhar ki dal, a everyday simple classic food with dal a comforting food served with rice. Every household have their own version of this dal.Shir sewain belongs to this rich cuisine which goes for roasted vermicelli, this shir sewain is nothing but a delicious vermicelli kheer tastes fabulous as dessert after having heavy foods.

Mawa Gujiya

Mawa Gujiya is a very popular and common North Indian sweet prepared during festive season. Gujiya are also known as Puli Pitha, Karjikai,Kadubu, Somas or even as Indian Empanadas. Eventhough they look almost the same as half moon like shape, they are made with different stuffings. Mawa Gujiya goes for khoya stuffing,the famous milk solids usually prepared by slow cooking full fat milk in a pan for hours which involves constant stirring. If you dont have much patience to prepare khoya in the traditional way, you can easily get them from stores.

Coming to Gujiyas,this Indian empanadas is prepared with a maida dough, stuffed later by mawa stuffing.These deep fried beauties are quite addictive and the stuffing is just simply out of the world. When conserved in an airtightened jar, gujiyas can stay prefect for many days in room temperature. But trust me, these gujiyas are very much delicious and addictive to store them for a long time. After making a fingerlicking Malai Kofta Curry, this month's challenge for  South vs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil is landing towards Uttar Pradesh, Santosh Bangar the host of this month from Northern team challenged us Mawa Gujiya for this month's challenge.If you want to be a part of this challenge, dont forget to join us, just send a mail to the Divya and get ready to face the challenge every month.

Litti Chokha ~~SN Challenge

Litti Chokha is a traditional snack and a main course dish often eaten in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand region of India. But this the first time am trying my hands in making this fantastic dish. This dish is simply awesome and highly filling that you can have it for breakfast, lunch and for dinner. Actually Litti sounds almost like Rajasthani Baati but Litti is completely different dish in terms of taste,texture and prearation,its goes for stuffing with roasted gram flour with few spices.The stuffing makes the difference and the stuffing of the Litti is called Pitthi. Litti is served along with grilleded eggplants or mashed potatoes called Chokha.Chokha is a kind of accompaniment to enjoy thoroughly with Littis, today chokha is with just potatoes, eventhough some peoples may add both eggplants and potatoes in their chokha.

You may wonder why am posting this Litti Chokha today, coz Nupur of Uk Rasoi challenged the Southern team of  South vs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil with this fantastic combo while i challenged Northern team with popular Mangalorean snack Goli Baje. Honestly i always want to make some Litti at home but somehow i kept myself away from this incredible dish coz of the sattu, but Nupur helped us by giving the tips to prepare sattu at home and for me sattu sounds exactly like a dry roasted gram flour, then i pinged Nupur regarding sattu, she said to go with roasted gram flour. Thanks Nupur for giving me this much liberty to go for a simple roasted gram flour than the traditional one. However i'll be making Sattu at home coz am planning to make kachori with this sattu. Coming to this Litti Chokha, am gonna have this Litti Chokha for my dinner tonite and trust me the flavour of ghee coated Litti and delicious Chokha makes me hungry already. Atleast once,you guys have to make this oven cooked Litti eventhough the traditional one is boiled and shallowfried later.Loved this challenge and learned an another beautiful traditional dish today through this challenge.