Udhi vada / Minapa garelu / Black gram fritters

This is another variety which is served as a tiffin in Southern part of India. Can be eaten as a snack as it is or with Sambar , chutney or even with rasam. You can prepare the vada by either making it on your palm itself or can use any leaf like beetle or banana leaf. As I don’t have any leaves and my palm is not big enough to hold the vada, I prepared them on a piece of plastic sheet. Most important thing is always keep a bowl of water next to you whilst preparing the urad daal vada to wet your fingures and avoid the stickyness of the batter.

Ingredients;
Urad daal – 1 ½ cup
Rice flour / ground rice – 2 tbsp
Onion chopped – 2 tbsp
Corriander chopped – 2 tbsp
Pepper corns – 1 tsp

Method:

Soak the urad daal for about 4 hours.

Drain the water and grind it into smooth paste. If necessary add 1 or 2 spoons of water, but try to avoid it. The batter should be stiff enough to form the vada shape.

Vada batter and water

Take the batter into a bowl and mix it with rice flour. Leave the batter in fridge for 30 minutes. Remove it from the fridge and allow it come to room temperature.

In the mean time heat a kadai / pan with enough oil to deep fry the vada.

Always test whether the oil is hot enough or not by dropping a small amount of batter into the oil. If the batter floats immediately, then the heat is perfect. If it settles down at the bottom or floats after a while, then heat the oil for some more time.

Wet your hands. Take small amounts of batter, place it on the piece of plastic sheet or any leaf. Just press it slightly, to make it flat and make a whole in the centre using your index finger.

Slightly wet your fingers and slowly transfer the batter onto your fingers and slip it into the oil. Repeat the same for the rest. Do 4-5 vadas at a time as per your convenience.

Serve them with Sambar and/or chutney.

Udhi vada / Minepa gaarelu with Coconut chutney and Sambar

Happy Deepavali / Diwali

Diwali, the festival of lights, eliminates the darkness and illuminates everyone's heart. The festive season propels me towards adding these little extras to my home which transforms the home into happy and cheerful living.

Hope you like them.
This is another terracota pot, that I have painted and decorated with some kundans.

A light filled corner

Another joyful corner at my home

For a change the fire place has been covered with a gift wrap that is reflecting due to the diyas

Aaloo baaji / Potato fritters

This is another variety of fritters with potato. I treat them as mild fritters as we don't use much chili in this. Just to make this bit interesting, I have included spicy onion mixture as filling.

Ingredients:
Potato – 1 large
Besan / gram flour – 3/4th cup
Rice flour – ¼ cup
Salt
Baking powder – 1/8th tsp
Oil for deep fry
For the filling:
2 Medium Onion – Chopped finely
Salt – a large pinch
Chili powder – ¼ tsp
Cumin powder – a large pinch
Coriander powder – a large pinch
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Method:
Chop the potato into thin slices, roughly about ¼ cm thick. Place them in a bowl of water to which ½ tsp of salt is added.

Place the pan with oil on medium high flame. By the time, oil gets heated up, we can prepare the batter.
Combine both the flours and sieve into a large mixing bowl.
Now add the baking powder, salt and water.
Mix the batter well. The consistency should be like beaten thick yoghurt. The batter should not be too thick as the batter will not cooked properly, or not too thin as it absorbs more oil.
Drain the potatoes and keep them aside.
When the oil is hot enough, take each slice of the potato and dip it in the batter and slowly slip in into the hot oil.

 Repeat the same with 4 to 6 slices. If the oil has become too hot, reduce the flame and wait for 4-5 minutes and then drop the potato slices dipped in the batter. Otherwise the fritters get burnt outside and not cooked inside.

Always fry any fritters under medium to medium high flame.
Turn them in between and remove them into a paper towel.
Allow them to cool just enough to handle them.

Slice each potato bhaji with knife or any sharp spatula. Place the onion mixture and serve immediately.

Lamp / Diya decoration

Getting ready for Diwali. I found some terracota diyas at a local Indian store.

Thought to give a bit of touch with paints. I want to give 2 contrast colours, but I don't have many colours. Thought of black colour.....

with a touch of silver paint.... and the result is.....

Another one...with copper and silver combination

Amaranth leaves curry / Thotakoora vepudu

Amaranth leaves, also called as chinese spinach. There are lots of varieties that can be prepared using these greeny leaves. One among them is a stir fry with a touch of spicy peanut powder.

Ingredients:
2  large bunches of fresh amaranth leaves - picked and chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
Garlic cloves, crushed - 3- 4
Tturmeric pwd - 1 pinch
Roasted peanuts - 2 tbsp
Chili powder - 1 tsp
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

For popu/tadka/seasoning:
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp split gram dal
1 dry red chillis de-seeded
1 spring curry leaves

Method:

Heat oil, add the mustard seeds and once they splutter, add the cumin seeds, split gram dal, red chillis, curry leaves and saute for half a minute. 

Add the onions and saute till the onions turn transparent. Add salt and turmeric pwd and saute further for a minute.

Add the washed and chopped amaranth leaves and saute for a minute. Cover the pan with lid and cook for about 15 mts or till done.

In the mean time, grind the roasted peanuts, 1 garlic clove, salt and chili into coarse powder. 

Finally add the roasted peanut powder and mix every thing. Turn off  the heat and serve with hot rice.

Pesara punugulu / Moong daal fritters

These fritters are prepared by the whole green gram. They will be light in texture. Adding the pepper powder will give that extra spicy taste.

Pesara punugulu

Ingredients:
Whole moong daal / Green gram – 1 cup
Cumin – 1 tsp
Ground Pepper – ½ tsp
Curry leaves
Salt
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Wash and soak the moong daal for 4 hours. Drain and grind it into smooth paste. Just add little water if required.

Moon daal batter

Add Cumin, ground pepper, curry leaves and salt to the batter.

Heat the oil in a pan. When it is hot enough, take small amounts of batter and drop it into the oil. You can also use spoon to do this.

Serve them warm with raw onion.

Warm fritters with onion

Tip: Mix the chopped onion with pinch of salt, chat masala and a dash of lemon juice.

Kaaram senagapappu / Spicy chana daal

A simple snack, that can be eaten as it is or can be mixed with other savoury items. Very few ingredients required.

Kaaram Senagapappu

Ingredients:
Chana daal / Senagapappu – 2 cups
Chili powder – 1 tsp
Salt as per the taste
Oil – to fry the chana daal

Method:
Soak the chana daal for about 2-3 hours
Drain the water and spread them on kitchen towel or any thing which absorbs the moisture. I followed my mom’s method., dad’s lungi….

Chana daal drained on lungi

Wait until they become moisture free and fry them in 3-4 batches.

If you are doing them in large quantities, best / easy way to fry them is, place them in a stainless steel colander and place the colander into the oil pan.
Drain them into kitchen towels and allow them to cool down to room temperature and then sprinkle the salt and chili powder mixture.

NB: If you add salt when it is hot, salt will melt and making the chana daal soggy.

Hotel Dosa

Yes, this is one of the restaurant recipes prepared at home. One of my friends has shared this recipe with me. The secret of the recipe lies in adding sugar just before making dosa, which keeps the dosa crispy and also for longer time. Not only that, this will give a nice colour to dosa.

Dosa with Sambar and peanut chutney

Ingredients:
Urad daal - 1/2 cup
Raw Rice - 2 cups
Parboiled rice - 1 cup
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Soak all the above mentioned ingredients for 6 hours and grind into smooth batter. Leave the batter to ferment, preferably over night as we do for the normal idly, dosa batter.

Just before making dosa add 1 tsp of sugar to the batter and beat well to melt the sugar. Add sufficient salt for taste, mix every thing.

When the dosa tava is hot enough, sprinkle some water and wipe it with a piece of cotton cloth or kitchen towel and spread the batter over the pan as thin as possible.

Sprinkle the oil over the top. No need to flip the dosa as this is thin enough to get cooked on both the sides. Just allow to cook dosa until it becomes crispy.

Now on top of tava itself, cut the dosa starting from the centre to one end, and roll it to make it like crown.

Serve it with sambar, chutney of your choice.

 
Note: By sprinkling some water and wiping them will remove the greesy bits and keep the tava clean which enables us to make the crispy dosa.

Oats Porridge with Almonds and Dates

This is an another healthy breakfast with a combination of oats, alomnds and dates with lots of fibre, iron and other vitamins and minerals. No artificial sweetners. A Highland hero for centuries, oats are the healthy, slow energy-release cereal that gets digested easily for any one. You can use any variety, either rolled or crushed, still have all the nutrients. Powdered one is used to make instant porridge. I like the traditional, thick, whole oat flakes.

Oats porridge with dates and almonds

Ingredients:
½ cup oatmeal
8 – 10 pitted dates
1 Large pinch cinnamon pwd
1 tbsp raisins (optional)
5-6 almonds soaked overnight
1 cup water
1 cup Milk

Oats, Pitted dates, Almonds and milk

Method:

Bring water to a boil, add oats and cook till the oats are half done. Add milk, pitted dates and cinnamon powder and cook until they are completely done.

Add chopped almonds and raisins and turn off heat and serve warm.

Dates not only gives nice taste but also loads of health benefits.

Coconut burfi

This sweet can be prepared when you have lots of fresh coconut. Normally, we will end up with lots of coconut during festive seasons. By giving the touch of lemon colour, the sweet looks more elegant.

Coconut burfi

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh grated coconut

1½ cups of sugar

1/2 cup water

Food colour (optional)

Method:

In a big sturdy vessel take water and sugar. Keep the heat on medium-low allowing the sugar to melt completely to prepare the sugar syrup. Cook it until the sugar syrup reaches one string consistency. To test this, take a little bit of sugar into the spoon. Allow it to cool a little bit. Now dip your index figure into the syrup and press it against the thumb. Now when you separate the figures, the sugar syrup should form like a thread.

Sugar syrup which has reached single thread consistency

Add the grated coconut and cardamom powder to the sugar syrup along with the food colour. Keep the heat on medium and cook by stirring frequently.

 In 10 to 15 minutes, the mixture will be reduced and becomes thick and comes away easily from the sides of pan. Immediately pour this mixture into the greased tray. Level it evenly with a spatula, and cut into squares when it is luke warm.

I have used baking sheet instead of greasing the tray.

Coconut burfi, ready to cut

You can store this sweet for up to 10 days.

Chewy coconut burfi, ready to serve