Indian Recipe Pudla

India – a Multicultural Nation

Most Indian restaurants in Melbourne serve North Indian Food.

India is a very vast country, with 19 major languages and over 250 dialects.

With the language the culture also varies, although most of them practice one religion Hinduism.

With the culture, the food habits are also developed on the basis of the locally grown food variety.

So if you look around in India, from North to South and East to West, you will find thousands of different kinds of food being cooked in the millions of homes.

Many of them are such delicacies that eating those will give you unlimited pleasure.

Unfortunately you will never find any of those in a restaurant in Melbourne.

It will be our endeavor to present to you recipes of some of those popular delicious items most of which are very easy to cook at home.

Pudla – Chickpea flour pancake

Pudla – a chickpeas flour pancake – is the simplest and the quickest BBQ item that will please everybody from children to old age.

This is very favourite with Gujarati house wife. Specially in an evening when she is very tired and worn out from the day’s chores and don’t feel like cooking anything, but still she must cook something to fill the hungry, empty stomachs of the family members. Chikpea flour, also called Besan, is always on hand in her pantry. She will then decide to make Pudlas. And you bet, no member of the family will say ‘no’ to it ! Pudlas can be cooked with minimum ingredients and very quickly. They are good as main meal light meal in the evening as chickpeas are eay to digest. At many dinner parties, they served as a ‘starter’ or ‘entrée’ also.

In Australia, sometimes around 1978-79, on a hot summer Sunday, we had invited a few friends for lunch. We declared it a ‘Vegetarian BBQ’ day. We had just purchased a portable gas BBQ and were eager to use it. We decided to serve hot ‘Pudlas’ as a starter. As the guests came one after another, they were all served these hot pudlas. Many non-Gujarati and Australian friends had never tasted this item before. Even after three decades, whenever they meet me, they fondly remember this BBQ.

Ingredients:

Chickpea flour – 1 cup - also known as ‘Besan’ in Indian grocery stores.

Water - 3/4 cup

Plain yogurt - 2 teaspoon

Oil

Spices:

Chili powder – 10gm

Asafetida – 5gm

Salt – to taste

Coriander leaves – a few

Preparation:

Mix chickpea flour in two-third amount of water, mix yogurt and prepare a liquidy batter.

Add asafetida, chili powder, one tea spoon oil and salt and stir well.

When stirring, always stir in one direction only. This will make the batter soft and frothy.

Leave it for 15 to 30 minutes to allow the flour to sock thoroughly.

Add coriander leaves and mix, just before cooking.

Cooking Method:

Put a flat plate or a shallow fry pan on stove and first let it be heated.

Spread a teaspoon of oil and then wipe it off with a damp cloth. This is to prepare the surface such that the pudlas don’t stick to the surface.

Keep the plate or pan at constant medium temperature, throughout the cooking.

With a ladle pour some batter in the centre of the pan and spread it to make about 15cm to 20cm round cake, thin like a chapati.

After it is firm, (in a few seconds only) turn it over.

Spread half a teaspoon of oil over it and again turn it over.

Spread some oil on the other side now and turn it over.

Take it out.

Serving:

Serve with yogurt and red garlic chutney. Sauce or Chutney of any kind may also be used as accompaniment. Cream cheese dip may be used as accompaniment if you like it.

Eat them Hot:

Pudlas taste best if eaten hot straight from the stove. So they are a very good treat at a BBQ party to surprise and entertain everybody.

NB: Pudlas taste better when cooked with oil. However, if you want to avoid oil, you can cook them on nonstick pan without oil.

Variation:

If you want the pudlas thick, make the batter thicker. But in that case add half a teaspoon of soda-bi-carb or eno just before cooking. You may mix one or two eggs also as an alternative.

Note: 1) Chikpea is non-fattening and if Olive or Canola oil is used, there is no colestorel in Pudla.

2) If you wish to know more recipes of such delicacies, which you will never find in a restaurant, please leave your message in the comment box with your email address.

For Red Garlic Chutney please visit:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Indian-recipe-Garlic-Chutney

Please also try Mung Beans Pudla, another healthy dish for barbeque:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Indian-Recipe-Mungbean-Pudla