Heart of the matter

People are increasingly watching their oil intake in their quest to live more healthy lives. But that doesn’t mean they need to eat boring food while others binge on desserts and hors d’oeuvres. Before World Heart Day, we bring you two recipes of dishes prepared using canola oil.

Pakachi Puri

Ingredients 150 gm flour 75 gm semolina 1 tbsp canola oil, warmed + for frying 2 tbsp sour yogurt 200 gm sugar 60 ml water tsp green cardamom powder gm saffron strands 15 gm pistachio, chopped Salt to taste

Method In a steel bowl, mix the flour, semolina, warm oil, salt and yogurt and make into firm dough. Add little water, if at all required. Cover and rest for 45 minutes. Divide into lemon-sized balls and roll into puris of 3 inch diameter. Melt sugar and water and cook to a two-string consistency sugar syrup. Add saffron strands and cardamom powder and infuse. Keep at room temperature. Heat oil in a kadhai. Fry the puri and drain well on absorbent kitchen paper towels. Add to the syrup and let it imbibe for 3-4 minutes. Remove and transfer on a plate. Garnish with pistachio stands and serve warm.

Aari palak

Ingredients 1 kg spinach 10 gm rawa (semolina) 120 gm canola oil 10 gm salt 50 gm roasted chana powder 2 gm yellow chilli powder 3 gm green cardamom powder 20 gm pomegranate seeds (fresh) 50 gm hung curd 5 gm mint leaves 2 nos green chillies chopped 5 gm coriander leaves

method Clean and chop the spinach leaves on a clean chopping board. Boil the water in a deep vessel to blanch the spinach. Keep the spinach on an ice bath to retain the green colour. Squeeze the spinach and then paste. Take a clean frying pan and heat the oil. Put semolina to slightly roast, add spinach paste to cook on slow fire until excess moisture is removed. Cool the mixture and keep aside. Add chana flour, yellow chilli powder, chopped green chillies, cardamom powder and salt in a bowl. For stuffing, in a clean sanitized bowl put hung curd, chopped green chillies, fresh pomegranate seeds, chopped coriander and mint leaves Divide the spinach mixture into small portion balls (30gms each), put stuffing in the centre of the spinach mixture. Close the sides, flatten it with help of your palm and shape it into patties. Shallow fry patties in Canola oil Serve hot with a chutney of your choice.

The writer is a celebrated chef, who is also one of the judges on Masterchef India