Indian Style Seven Layer Dip: Dabeli Dip

Quilting is something on my bucket list to learn for a very long time. The urge surfaced again when I saw Nupur's quilting posts and at the same time my best friend Ash also started learning and made a nice wall hanging. I decided that I will complete all the projects I have undertaken and then go learn quilting. But that changed recently very dramatically.

Here is a little background, I had gotten this nice Rajai from India but cotton filing started gathering and within a month the quilt turned into big blob of cotton and of course unusable!!! I started the restoration project by removing all the cotton, and separating both the sides carefully. I also bought nice batting from fabric store. And then started putting everything together in a hope that I will make a nice quilt and use it! But it turned out to be the most time consuming project I had undertaken in a while. On and off I was working on it for past few years but it was nowhere to close to finishing. Recently, I was given an ultimatum to finish it in next month or the complete blob was going to go in a recycling bin or trash bin!! So I had to take drastic measures to save it. I called Ash to ask her if her teacher can help me. To my pleasant surprise teacher said yes. I took off from office one day, and took everything to the teachers home with hope to get few pointers to complete it faster. The teacher not only helped me understand the problem but also suggested best solution to finish it quickly.

Teacher told me to use an old technique of quilt tying and gave me matching and contrasting threads to use. My teacher, Ash and I completed knotting the quilt in just couple of hours.  Teacher then showed me the mitered corners and making no fuss ending for the quilt and voila! My quilt was ready for use the very next day!

And the best part is, teacher is ready to show me few techniques if I want to make another quilt! Yay!! I am really looking forward to make another quilt with help of my teacher. Here is a pictures of quilt I restored -

Now lets move on to the recipe I am going to share with you today. The basic idea of the recipe came from D, a friend of mine. He makes dabeli filling in a layer and then makes it into 'Indian Sloppy Joe' with small dinner roles. I now make it in dip style and serve either with baguette slices or pita slices. It is becoming a very popular appetizer with all my friends.

Basic dabeli preparation is done exactly the same way I shared earlier  in Dabeli Sandwich recipe. It all in the presentation only with two small changes -

1. Potato Filling - Make it into thick gravy like consistency. 
2. Omit the bread slices instead get a French baguette thinly sliced

Here is how to arrange it into a dip by arranging the following layers evenly -

• Layer the potato filling in a shallow serving bowl
• Thin layer of tamarind chutney
• Thin layer of green chutney

• Finely diced onion
• Finely chopped cilantro
• Red/black grapes cut in quarters 

• Masala peanuts and thin sev just before serving to avoid making it soggy

Here is how it looks when served on individual baguette slices -

Tips -

1. You can prepare everything up to 24 hours in advance. 
2. You can even layer everything about 2-3 hours ahead just sprinkling masala peanuts and sev at the last moment
3. I usually make 2-3 smaller bowls than making one large bowl helps in serving and also leftovers can be used next day making the sandwiches.