Shankarpali / Tukdi / Namakpare

Savoury crackers called as Shankarpali/Shankarpalya in Marathi and Konkani. Also known as Tukdi in Konkani. My Dear Mom's easy recipe for Diwali Faraal or Diwali Khaan.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour/Maida - 1 cup

Semolina/Rava/Sooji - 1/4 cup

Cayenne Pepper/Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Salt

Oil

How to prepare Shankarpali:

In a mixing bowl, add all purpose flour, semolina, cayenne pepper, sugar and salt. Mix all the ingredients well. Add water little by little and knead into a firm dough. I used about 1/2 cup water. Add 1/2 tsp oil and knead well again.
Divide the dough into 4 round balls depending on how big your rolling board is. Roll each one very thin dusting some flour. Use a Shankarpali or Karanji cutter (see the second picture) and cut it into diamond shape pieces. (I got this cutter in the baking section here in US.) You can use a pizza cutter or a knife too.

Deep fry these diamonds in batches in hot oil, until golden brown and crisp. Do not overcrowd the kadhai/frying pan.
Store the Savoury Shankarapali in an air tight container after cooling.

Indian Dal / Lentils

Lentils, known as Dal are a staple in an Indian diet, especially vegetarian. For me, dal is comfort food. 5 different dal varieties - Toor, Moong, Chana, Masoor and Urad are commonly used in Indian sweet and savory delicacies. You can cook dal with just one kind or a mix of two or more. I generally cook dal with 1:1 Toor and Moong dals. But then, we like Panchmel or Panchratna Dal too, which is made of all five. Most dal recipes have Toor dal as the primary ingredient. It is also known as Toovar or Arhar dal or Split Pigeon Peas . Some of our family favorite dal recipes are Dalitoy (Konkani Dal) Tadka Dal Among all lentils, moong dal and masoor dal take lesser time to cook. Moong dal is also known as Split Green Gram or Split Mung Bean . Moong dal is also used in making sweet dishes like Mung Dal Kheer Mung Dal Puranpoli Chana dal is also known as Split Bengal Gram or Split Chickpeas . Chana Dal takes a little more time to cook as compared to toor dal....

Naval Kol Bhaji / Kohlrabi Stir-fry

Green Kohlrabi called as Navalkol in Marathi and Navilkosu in Kannada, belongs to the cabbage family. My Mom used to make this stir fry very often. Just like cabbage, this vegetable in available in two colors - green and purple. I was quite hesitant about the purple one, as I haven't seen that back in India. Anyway, I picked the green bulbs and Navalkohl Bhaji with Chana Dal was part of our healthy vegetarian meal today.

Surti Val Papdi Bhaji

My Mom used to make Val Papdi Bhaji in a simple way with few ingredients. This is the first time I gave it a try here in my US kitchen. This stir fry does require little more oil, as no water is added for cooking. Dal Rice tastes great with this sauteed Papdi. I tried this Bhaji once with frozen Surti Papdi and I was not happy with the result. I prefer fresh Papdi for this recipe, which I can only find in the local Indian store. I am not sure if Val Papdi is called as Navy Bean or Fava Bean in English.

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