Bhel Puri

I had a very relaxing weekend this time. No parties, no outings, no shopping..we just sat at home and as I was relaxed I tried some new stuff. Saturday I made Aloo Baingan and Sunday for breakfast we had paddu and in the evening we had some chats!!! Bhel puri. Wanted to try this recipe from a very long time but had not got the mood to prepare. Yesterday I was so relaxed that I prepared so many things even though I had decided to just lay down and take rest ;).

On Saturday we went out to a dam which is close to our place with Harish. The dam is built on Talapoosa river. We just stayed there for a couple of hours. While coming back we stopped at a scenic place for a moment where my husband and Harish did some photography stuff.

Coming to Bhel puri, I just love the junk foods like masala puri, bhel, pani puri, gol gappa and too many to mention. Almost every week I ate them in Bangalore. I love when they are very spicy. After coming here I missed them more than anything on this earth. The first time I happened to eat Bhel puri in US was when I went to Birmingham for a musical concert.

Pratap had just come from Australia, the very next day there was this concert in Birmingham. The musician is very renowned in India and so we just wanted to hear the live performance. As Pratap was very tired, Harish also agreed to come and Harsha also joined us later. I still remember we left in the afternoon and it was a bit cloudy. It started raining when we were half way through. In Birmingham, first we went to a shopping mall did some window shopping and finally had some coffee and refreshments at Star Bucks and set out to the Birmingham temple where the music programme was going to be held. We sat there and the Kacheri started. For an hour or so it was interesting and then all of us started feeling sleepy. Finally we got up to leave. On the other part of the temple Bhajans were going on. We sat there for a while and went to an Indian restaurant. I was thrilled to see it but as soon as we went in it was stinking. We guessed it might be the lamb smell:-P. We ordered Bhel puri there. The taste was really very good. From that day even I wanted to prepare Bhel at home. In Bangalore, this was the only thing I made most of the times which my parents also loved and so I wanted this to be my 25th post. It is very simple. All we need is:

2 tomatoes
1/2 onion(I prefer very less onion, you can put may be 1 full)
1 carrot
1/2 cucumber
5 green chilies finely cut(You can adjust to your taste)
salt
chili powder 1/2 tea spoon
2 tea spoon oil
Mint chutney(I had prepared this already with fresh pudina leaves)
Lemon juice 3 tea spoons
coriander leaves finely cut,
Sev(optional)
Puffed rice

Finely chop tomatoes, onion. Peel the skin of cucumber and finely cut them. Grate the carrot.

Add all of them, salt, green chilies and mint chutney to your taste and mix well.

Add puffed rice, howmuch ever you want and mix.
Add oil,chili powder, lemon juice and coriander leaves.
Serve it to plate and them add sev.

This will serve for 3-4 people.