DABELI, Dabeli Masala and a Comix!

Dabeli and Dabeli Masala are my entries to MBP, which is guest hosted by Supriya of "Monsoon spice" this month with a theme of "Street Food".
Coffee of "The Spice Cafe" blog is the founder and creator of "Monthly blog patroling". Idea of this event is to patrol the blogs for dishes which suits the monthly theme and cook from other blogs to appreciate their recipes. Thanks Supriya and Coffee, enjoy the Dabelis!:)


Chaat or Street food:
As much as we enjoy and appreciate our traditional Indian homecooked food, Indians are also great lovers of Street carts filled with great crunchy munchies which spring up every corner of the cities as soon as Sun goes down or even before or permanently settled in little shacks by the roadside all day and any day.
My favorite "food group" is always been Chaat or "lip smacking tangy, spicy street cart food" as it exactly means. So far, I have recreated most of the Street cart foods at home although I have blogged very few. This time I wanted to make a chaat I haven't tasted before and choose one from a blog I haven't cooked from so far!
Dabeli is one chaat I have not tasted either on the street or at home since I always thought it probably taste like Pav Bhaji which I make at home often, so why bother making the same, until the magic of MBP stepped in and left me no choice but to try. Boy, did I get lucky or what! :D
I know many of you have blogged Dabeli, I chose to make Rricha Nimisha's Dabeli version and made Dabeli Masala from Trupti's blog. It tasted like Heaven, will be making more soon using proper Pavs or rolls as it should be made but this middle Eastern bread I used was great for making Dabeli too! :)

Dabeli Masala:
Click on the links to see both the original recipes and their photos. Enjoy!

I chose to make Dabeli Masala from Trupti of "Recipecenterforall" blog since Rricha's recipe for Dabeli didn't use any. I didn't want to make too much of Dabeli masala at first because I thought it might taste just like Pav Bhaji masala which I already have but NO!
This masala is totally different from Pav Bhaji masala and was fragrant, easy and very tasty and very different added to Dabeli Potato masala!
Thank you for posting this wonderful recipe Trupti. I will be making more of this next time! :)

Dabeli:
I chose Dabeli (spicy crunchy masala stuffed and pressed together inside the bread rolls or Pavs) recipe from Rricha Nimish's blog. You can see her Dabelis with Pav here.
I didn't have the regular dinner roll or Pav to make this but I did bake some Middle eastern/Lebanese bread called "Khoubiz" last weekend, similar to Italian Focaccia, used it to make Dabeli toasted thick wedges sliced across. Dabeli tasted divine with this bread too!:)


To make Dabeli, you need to get all these together too:
I used to readymade bottled Mint and cilantro chutney and tangy Tamarind sauce or Delhi Chaat sauce, salted and peppered Beer peanuts, Sev or Bhujia, chopped sweet onions or red onion, Potato masala mashed with Dabeli masala, chopped green onions and Cilantro with a slice of Lemon. Some Pomegranate seeds too as the original recipe says. Traditionally, Dabelis are stuffed in Pavs or square bread rolls.

Ready for you! Help yourself!!:)

Enjoy!!

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Here is a fun event if you are looking for some laughs!!
Lakshmi G of "Taste Of Mysore" has come up with theme of "creating a comic strip" which involves Brinjal/Eggplants this month. Idea is to create a comic using a Comix or any other similar website and post it in your blogs. She will do the round up which will be hilarious to read! Thanks LG, have fun and can't wait to see the round up!:))

Well..Brinjal? What a great theme I thought, my favorite veggie! I didn't know where to go for making comic strip but LG immediately linked the site and also e mailed me all the info for making one, which set me rolling.
Although my kids don't mind eating Eggplant dishes once in a while since I don't get to buy Indian Brinjals in other seasons unless of course I drive 20+ miles to a Indian store to get them. I LOVE Brinjals though, could eat Eggplant dishes almost everyday!:)
Every Summer, I make sure to plant a few without a fail and by August, we will be harvesting loads of Eggplants and cook almost 3 days a week since Eggplants don't freeze well. That's when my kids' gets very antsy and want to get rid of all the Brinjal plants as soon as possible. When we clean up our veggie patch in the Fall, they really do a happy dance!! Hahaha!!

Saga of Eggplant:
These comic strips are not transferable from the website to blogs or anywhere except to any e mail addresses. I had to take a photo of my laptop screen to post here! :P
You can see the "comix"strip I created more clearly here.

Here is how it goes at dinner time around 6.30pm during the Eggplant bounty season! :D

Mom (that's me, yelling from the kitchen): Hey kids, dinner's is ready!! Come downstairs, NOW!!!

T girl: OH MAN!!! Sigh...!!!

T Boy: (iPod in his ears, can't hear a thing but follows his sister downstairs like a lamb or a kid (baby Goat!:D))

T Girl: What's for dinner mom? Hope it's Spaghetti and meatballs!!

T Boy: (Got his fingers crossed, iPod is out of his ears, curious to know!)

Mom cautiously says: Eggplant Ennegayi, Rice rotti and raita!! Homegrown Eggplants too!

T and T: (together, alarmed and frustrated) KILL THE EGGPLANTS!! KILL! KILL!! KILL!!! (cursing Under their breath...&#@&#@)

MOM: (secretly delighted and laughing to herself but not showing it outside) HeeHeeHee! Hahahaha!

Latest news:
This year's Eggplants are growing very well in my veggie patch right now to my joy and to kids' frustration!!Son wanted to burn the little plants already!!! ;D

Have a great weekend, see you all next week!:)

(Psst! A very special surprise is planned for Trisha at her high school today at 10am in the auditorium and it's a well kept secret betn parents, Principal and staff! I will be there today and will tell you all about it next week! I will catch up with all of you in the afternoon when I come back home!)
I am back and catching up now!!:))