Gatta Sabzi
Couple of months back I traveled to my native India.During travelling ,I pretty much keep it to myself ,no small talks whatsoever. Though while waiting at Heathrow for our common connecting flight enroute,I couldn’t help but ask the lady sitting next to me ,obvious icebreaker question,”So where in India you are headed to? ” Turned out that she was fellow Texan. Yee Haw !!!
All of a sudden, I was bizarrely comfortable carrying out the conversation with her, as if I found some common thread of ‘familiarity’ to plow through the ‘strangeness’(is that a word?) in a foreign land. I learnt that she visits India regularly for her jewelry business. Her place of interest is none other than renowned pink city, ‘Jaipur’. City of enchanting Palaces in a desert state of Rajasthan. Growing up, I wondered, how can someone enjoy the desert? I mean what is there to enjoy? Lack of greenery would drive me to insanity, I thought back then.
My aunt calls Rajasthan her home.I get to enjoy the beauty of this place through her lens and salivate looking at the food she tastes.She prepared the state favorite dish ,”Gatta Sabzi” and shared the recipe with me.It has taken me a longgggg time to post this but here it is finally. Really,I didn’t even know what ‘gatta’ is until now?
Ingredients
3/4 cup Chickpea flour *
1/8 tsp red chilli powder,
1/8 tsp black pepper powder
pinch of oregano
pinch Fennel crushed (optional)
Salt to taste
Yogurt
- Knead flour adding yogurt into a nice smooth dough.
- Oil your palms,so the dough doesn’t stick to your hand.Roll the dough into small cylinder about 1/2 inch thick,6 inch long,it just depends. You can play around with the size.
- In a pot ,bring water to boil,enough to submerge these rolled out dough.
- Cook the rolled out dough for about 10-15 minutes.
- Take it out from the water.Slice it into small discs. (aka “gatta”)
Gravy
1 Onion chopped
2-3 medium tomatoes chopped
Oil
1/8 tsp of Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Coriander powder
1 whole red chili
1 clove of garlic crushed
Pinch of grated ginger
Spicy chili powder to your taste
Salt to taste
- In a pan,heat oil.Add cumin seeds and red while chili,broken into pieces to the hot oil.
- Add chopped onion.Saute it until it is translucent.
- Add chopped tomatoes.
- Add rest of the spices(turmeric,coriander,ginger,garlic,chili powder).
- Add water if need to.Add ‘gattas’/discs.Cook until gravy is thickened.
- Garnish it with fresh dill leaves
Enjoy as a side dish with chapati/Rice.
