I thought life will be bit easier as soon as summer vacation of my kid will begin, but no luck as such ! With scorching heat outside and not many amusements inside home, my kid is as bored as myself. For how much time could one remain occupied with indoor games and Idiot box ? So now though i am not worried about what to pack for his lunch and drop and pick up from his school, i am constantly pondering over how to keep him fruitfully occupied.Any ideas(except sending him for any summer classes)??
Well now coming to today’s recipe, this Aani ji bhaji is a typical Sindhi style dish, made from the fried Tikkis of gram flour, softened in the onion and tomato base. A very popular dish, this is a favourite of many Sindhis and the fact that it requires the ingredients that are generally available in our kitchens, it is a saving grace when there aren’t much veggies lying in our refrigerator
Ingredients
For making Aanis(tikkis)
- Gram Flour (besan or chickpea flour)2 Cups (medium size)
- Khuskhus(poppy seeds) 2 tsp
- Green chillies 3 (finely chopped and crushed or paste )
- Crushed dry pomegranate seeds(anardana) 6-7
- A pinch of Soda bi carb(Meethi soda)
- Coriander leaves(finely chopped)
- Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
- Cumin powder 1/4 tsp (optional…. you can also use cumin seeds)
- Oil 2 tsp and bit more
- Salt as per taste
- Very small amount of water to knead a stiff dough
For onion base:
- Onions 3 large ones (sliced are preferred but you can chop it too)
- Tomatoes 2 small ones
- Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
- Coriander powder 1 heaped tsp
- Garam masala powder 1/4 tsp
- Green chillies 2 or more
- Ginger about an inch piece
Method:
- Mix Gram flour, salt, khuskhus, green chillies, Meethi Soda, Oil, turmeric powder(optional), cumin powder( again optional) and adding very little quantity of water at a time, knead a hard but manageable dough.Make a roll of it
- Now grease little, a flat surface like a back of Thali or clean kitchen platform or chakla(rolling board) and place the roll and tap a little to flatten the roll.
- Now cut the roll into pieces as shown
- Meanwhile keep some water for boiling in a pan and when it reaches boiling point, immerse the tikkis in water. Do not worry, this is a normal procedure
- Let the tikkis boil for about 1-2 minutes, remove the tikkis from water and let it dry a bit at room temperature
- In a frying pan,deep fry the tikkis till light golden brown and bit hard.Let these rest on a tissue paper to drain out excess oil
- In a kadai(or use the same frying pan) take 1tbsp of oil and add sliced(or chopped) onions and saute them till pink in colour
- Add chopped tomatoes , green chillies, ginger(crushed) and salt and cover the pan with lid and put the flame on medium heat
- Do keep checking and mixing it frequently.Then add all the dry masalas and mix properly
- Let it cook on low flame for few more minutes with the covered lid. Sprinkle some water if the mixture tends to stick to the bottom of the pan
- When the tomatoes are properly cooked, add the fried tikkis and mix carefully so as not to crumble these
- Add few spoons of water if required and let it further cook on low flame, for about 8-10 minutes, till tikkis absorb the flavor of onion and spices.
- Garnish it with chopped fresh coriander leaves and serve with Rotis or phulkas
Besan based tikkis sounds new….looks delicious!
This is something like the Rajasthani gatte. Feel like picking one up from that plate Alka!
thanks for such a Wonderful dish . But can We make the gravy more in liquid form and can We omit the boiling part and fry instead ?
Wow,My Goodness,this much wonderful dish…feast to eyes..really yummy Alka..havent heard of this before..worth to check..Great clicks too
(Reg kid,what i usually do is writing letters between,playing some meaningful game and again ask to write something about nature or talk etc..what more Alka,,we all are helpless at times..)
Wow…this looks so good! I have nver heard of it but it looks fantastic! And the steps make it look so easy.
It is of great taste and only variation is when compare to same made with Auor Rass(Mustard gravy) rather than onions bu being honest it is really nice will never forget when made by Amma and eaten by me a bellyful,Alka ,Bless you for rekindling the memories through your efforts of cullinary skills.
Dish looks tasty and healthy too. I made a Gatte ki curry once, similar to this, love it.
Kids, mine are older, so they play Videos games and yak yak with each other!
You could provide him Origami or chemistry set etc, something interesting to do manually. Boys are not usually interested in reading much.
hi alka,
have been following your blog quite a while and have found it immensely useful. The koki’s and methi rotis turned out very good. Have the same question as shivali, what if we just fry the tikis instead of boiling them first? Does it take away from the flavour?
i boil the tikkis. they r more lighter to eat then the fried ones. i make them round. i boil water enought to place all the tikkis. i put them one by one in the boiling water. they take between 10-15 minutes to boil. i then remove them from the water. i use the water in the gravy later on, as hardly any water is left. they taste yummy n light too.
The curry looks really yummy Alka, beautiful photos. And yes, perfect for the day we run out of veggies
OMG, those tikkis look awesome and curry adds so much to the tikkis I was bowled by the seeing the dish… About the summer yup you cant let him out nor can you keep him occupied all day with activities at home… Why dont you try and have some day outs at his frenz place that ways he will have company and so will you… you can try some websites for activities – http://www.familyandfun.com... If things work let me know I shall post a few more websites for activites… All the best…
The curry looks so yummy and healthy..This is new to me..Bookmarked.
“Aani” in Sindhi means eggs of fish (pallo) and normally non-Sindhis do not eat these eggs. In those days fish seller would give it away free but today they know that Sindhis make a recipe out of this and they charge pretty good money (its about rs. 100 per kg.). Where there are no Sindhis these bunch of eggs are thrown away.These eggs are not available throughout the year but only in season. Each egg looks 100%like poppy seed.
Originally in Sindh, Sindhis made the above recipe with fish eggs and not poppy seeds (khus khus). Hence the name “aani ji tikki”. Now vegetarians came to know that this recipe tastes good and they found that khus khus looks like aani and they substituted “aani” with khus khus.
Frankly speaking veg aani tastes better than fish aani, unless you get very good eggs.
I will tell more about this recipe to Alka as I think this is not the original recipe of Sindh ( I may be wrong)
mmmm,…droolin here..u can send him for summer camp,..i am sure there must be somethin for his age,.;-)
I also thought that the aani must have the fish roe (fish eggs). And pallo is in season in summer around May in Sindhu Nadi (that is what sindhis call river Indus). Do get the original recipe for aani and share it with us Alka.
As for keeping your little son occupied well, you can play scrabble, to increase his word power and if he finds it boring, arrange a costume party for his friends (iparty.com has some party themes you can look at to hold an interesting but not too expensive a party).
In the US kids have overnight staying in friends/classmates houses during weekends or holidays, I don’t know if such a thing is feasible in the subcontinent, you might like to explore this idea…
For grown ups I would suggest learn a language. You may want to buy a cd for teaching Sindhi (that is if he doesn’t know how to read and write it already, its a good way to keep in touch with your roots
).
take care and thanks for such a wonderful effort to promote Sindhi food.
Surrayya
Karachi , Sindh.
Your recipes are so new !! This one looks very complicated to me, but the way you have done it shows the great grasp you have over it:D garam garam roti se maaza aa jayega!
my 2 kids have company of one another..so it helps a bit. But for me summer vacation comes, & I am running around with them with extracurriculars!! next week swimming starts for one…
we kind a schedule the day.. .like get up, read or something to do with studies… then they go out & play till it’s not too hot. somedays I set the small play pool outside & a water hose & that keeps them very very busy…
learning games. … word board games with my little one & monopoly, scrabble with DD1, some idiot box to give myself some time.. evening park/bike/walk.. play outdoors.. some more studies or coloring …
there are some cool sites on the web.. free learning games.. math, geography where they get to click on all continents/countries/state & learn. My dd1 loves playing that & learns at the same time.. if u need some links email, me i’ll send them to u.
hi
can u pls tell me where ican go to see how to make onion (basar ) achar
my mil used to make dhodi acar too but then iwas too youg to learn from her & she have passed on also carrots (gargar ) pickle too if u can forward me the receipes i do appreciate it thanks
sharmila malkani
from usa fl
hi can u tell me where i can see achar receips like mango achar onion carrot dodi achar as i love to make achar & love to eat it too tks
sharmila
yum!..:)
bhaji looks yummy… I am waiting for the warm weather here…. had enough of winter…. although spring is here, it is still very cold.. obviously not as cold as it was few weeks ago, but it is still cold….
Sounds good…looks very nice
Wow Alka… Wonderful clicks!! They speak for themselves!
Dish is sooo new and yum!
Oh wow awesome recipe…..Looks droolworthy…That tomato carving makes it more appetizing…
Fantastic post, Alka! Never heard of this dish and i am so eager to try it out.
besan ka bhaji is simply delicious!
besan tikki looks delicious Alka. THis is new to me. Thanks for sharing
Alka, I just want to eat everything I ever see on your blog, and those besan tikkis are absolutely speaking to me right now! How delicious!
Thank you for introducing me to this dish. This is totally new to me and mouthwatering!
Looks so pretty. I love anything with besan and we make something along this line called ‘Guli’ (made of besan) and then a coconut based. This look beautiful.
sounds a lot like ghatte ki sabji! Looks lovely!
Typical sindhi recipe, brings back the good old days. One of my favorites.
Hi Alka, I have shared an award with you in my blog.. Pls accept it
Very instructive and easy to understand even for someone who has never made this dish before.
I just love this and I would more often eat the fried tikki’s. yumm now I will make this soon need to eat it now
Aani ji bhaji is a reminder of what I have missed for many years. I am looking for another dish nade with besan, where thick besan dough is rolled in long cylindrical shape and cut into one inch long pieces. Anyone can post a recipe and the exact name of the dish, it will be much appreciated