Senagapappu vada / Chana daal vada

Usually the vada process is bit lengthy, but this chanadaal vada is bit quick as we just need to soak the daal for just 1 hour and the texture is not sticky when compared to urad daal, so it is easy to blend it. The flavour is irresistible.

Ingredients:

Chana daal - 1 cup

Salt

Ginger & Green Chilli paste - 1 tbsp

Onion - 1 chopped into small pieces

Chopped Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp

Method:

Soak the chana dal for not more than 80 minutes. Drain and blend coarsely.

Transfer the mixture into a bowl, add the green chillies, ginger, onion, coriander and salt and mix well.

Divide the mixture into equal portions and shape each portion into 1/2" thick small round flat balls.

Heat the oil in a kadhai and deep fry them till crisp and golden colour.

Serve hot with chutney

Pappu Chekkalu / Nippattu

These fritters are made up of rice flour and roasted chick pea flour. Adding the chana dal and peanuts will not only enhance the crunchiness, but also enhances the flavour. A nice companion during a cold day.

Ingredients:

2 cups, rice flour
1/4 cup, Roasted chick pea flour (Pappula podi)
1/4 cup, finely chopped fresh curry leaves
2 tablespoons each- soaked chana dal and roasted peanuts
Salt as per the taste


Method:
Take the flours into a large bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. 
Parallel to this, heat the oil in a wok.
Add few table spoons of warm oil to the flour and add just enough water to make a firm dough.
Tear out small portion of dough and place it on a wax / plastic paper. Flatten it a bit and using your fingers, spread out the nippattu in a circle until it is about 2 to 3 inches in diameter.

Slip these discs gently into the hot oil and deep fry to pale gold. 

Remove to paper-covered tray. Make all the fritters in the same way. It is quick if you do them in batches.

Paalak pakoda / Spinach fritters

Another way of eating spinach is in the form of fritters. A nice treat for a dull autumn.

Serves for 4 members

Ingredients:
Onion – 2 large (Chopped length wise into thin strips)
Spinach leaves – 1 bunch or 1 pack chopped into thin strips
Basin / Gram flour – ¼ cup
Rice Flour – ¼ cup
Salt
Green chili paste – 1 tsp
Ginger – grated – 1 tsp
Oil to deep fry

Method:

To deep fry the pakodas, heat a pan with oil on medium heat.

Whilst the oil is getting hot, mix the chopped onion and spinach with salt, green chili, ginger, curry

leaves, gram flour and rice flours thoroughly.

Now add about 3-4 tbsp of warm oil into the onion mixture.

Mix the ingredients well, so that they resemble crumbs.

Now sprinkle enough water and mix everything thoroughly. It should be sticky like bread dough and

not watery.

Increase the flame and when the oil is hot enough, take hand full of onion mixture and drop them

into oil slowly by breaking the batter into small bite size pieces. This is the quick way. If you can’t do

it quick enough, then just pick small amounts of batter and drop into the oil slowly.

Occasionally turn the pakodas, so that they get cooked equally on all the sides.

Drain them on to a paper towel and serve them warm with Coffee or Tea

Bindi pakoda / Okra fry

A famous side dish at Andhra mess. I have tasted this for the first time at a mess in Hyderabad. Thinly sliced vegetables, coated with equal amounts of gram flour and rice flour mixture and deep fried until crisp. You can even make this using ivy gourd.

Okra fry

Ingredients:
Okra / Bindi – 250 gms
Basin/ Gram flour – ¼ cup
Rice flour – ¼ cup
Onion (small) - 1
Green chilli – 4 to 5
Curry leaves – hand full
Salt
Oil to deep fry

Method:

Heat a pan with oil to deep fry the okra mixture. Keep it in medium flame.

In the mean time cut the okra, onion and chilli into 2 inch thin strips.

Except oil, mix all the other ingredients to the okra mixture.

Sprinkle enough water just to bind the ingredients together.

Increase the flame to heat the oil. Once it is hot enough, take small amounts of okra mixture and slowly slide them into the hot oil.

Fry them until they become crunchy.

You can serve this as a side dish.

Okra baked in oven

As I do not want to intake more oil, I have baked the same okra mixture in oven just by adding 2 tbsp of oil to the mixture.


Note: If you are not quick enough and can’t manage to cut all the vegetables on time, do not heat the pan in the beginning.

Potlakaya bajji / Snake gourd fritters

This is my all time favourite bhaji. Especially the shape of the fritters. I call them as Golden rings. The snake gourd brings the unique taste to the fritters. Topping them with chat masala will add further taste.

Ingredients:

Potlakaya / snake gourd – 1 about 1 1/2 feet long

Besan / gram flour – 3/4^th cup

Rice flour – ¼ cup

Salt

Chili powder – ½ tsp

Baking powder – 1/8^th tsp

Oil for deep fry

Snake gourd

Method:

Cut the snake gourd into ¼ inch thin round slices, and remove the centre bit.

Place the pan with oil on medium high flame. By the time, oil becomes hot, we can prepare the batter.

Combine both the flours and sieve into a large mixing bowl. Now add the baking powder, salt, chili powder 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.

When the oil is hot enough, take each slice and dip it in the batter and slowly slip in into the hot oil. Repeat the same with 4 to 6 slices.

Make sure that the centre part should be empty and it should resemble like a ring.

Turn them in between and remove them into a paper towel. Sprinkle some chili powder and chat masala and serve them warm with a hot tea or coffee.

Long shot.....

Note: Always fry these fritters under medium to medium high flame. As a result, the vegetable inside the batter will also get cooked well.

Potato and Sago tikkis

This is a simple snack, easy to prepare. Kids will like them as they taste more or less like finger chips as the main ingredient is potato. Same as the fries,  you must eat them when they are warm. Unlike the other fritters like bhajis or vadas, these doesn't taste nice when they become stale

Ingredients:

Sago seeds - 1 cup

Potato - 2 medium

Green chili - 2-3 finely chopped

Curry leaves - Freshly chopped - 2-3 tbsp

Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Grated potato, soaked sago, green chilli and curry leaves

Method:

Soak the sago pearls / Sabodhana, in enough water to cover it, for about two hours. Drain off excess water. 

Just before making the tikkis, grate the potato and remove the excess water.

Mix together sabudana, grated potato, green chillies, curry leaves, lemon juice, rice flour and salt. Mix thoroughly. Divide into sixteen lemon sized balls, flatten between palms of your hands. 

Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep fry vadas in hot oil till golden brown. 

Drain on absorbent paper and Serve hot.

Note - For variation, you can also add chopped coriander instead of curry leaves. You can also add coarsely ground roasted peanuts. 

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

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.

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.

Onion and Potato bhaji

This is another version of bhajis which is a combination of onion that gives the crunchiness to the pakodas and the potato that gives the nice mouth filling taste. And also nice and deep colour to the pakodas.

Onion Potato bhaji

Ingredients:
Onion – 2 large, Chopped length wise
Potato – 1 small, Grated
Green chili – Chopped into small pieces
Curry leaves – Hand full
Coriander – chopped – 2 tbsp
Basin / Gram flour – ¼ cup
Rice flour – 1 tbsp (heaped)
Salt
Baking Soda – 2 big pinches
Oil

Method:

Heat a pan with oil to deep fry.
In the mean time, mix all the ingredients expect oil, by adding sufficient water. The batter should resemble like cake batter or idly batter.

Grated potato and chopped onion in basin batter

When the oil is hot enough, pick small amounts of batter and slip into the oil slowly. Occasionally turn the pakodas, so that they get cooked equally on all the sides. Drain them on to a paper towel and serve them warm.

Note - Greated potato and the chopped onion should be of same size, other wise one will get over cooked and the other will be undercooked.

Punugulu, Fritters made with dosa batter

These fritters are prepared with leftover idli or dosa batter. I normally prepare them when the batter is not  enough for the whole family or at least not enough for kids.This recipe is quick and easy to prepare. Unlike the other fritter,s where normally we use the basin / Rice flours with added salt and chilli powder, these punugulu are bit smaller in size and enriched with extra spices like pepper, cumin and coriander seeds grounded into coarse powders along with onion, green chillies and curry leaves.

Punugulu

Ingredients:
Idly / Dosa batter – 1 cup
Maida / Plain flour – 2-4 tbsp
Cumin – 1 tsp
Coriander seeds – ½ tsp
Pepper – ½ tsp
Green chili finely chopped – 1 tsp
Curry leaves
Onion – 1 finely chopped
Salt
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan. Simultaneously coarsely ground the pepper, cumin and coriander seeds and add to the batter along with plain flour, chopped green chili, onion and curry leaves. Adjust adding the plain flour depending on the consistency of the batter which you are using. At the end, the whole mixture should resemble the onion bhaji / cake batter consistency. When the oil is hot enough drop the mixture little by little and deep fry them. Usually the professional chefs use just one fingure to pick and drop the batter into the oil.

Punugulu with hot beverage

Serve them hot. They are light on the stomach unlike the other  fritters which are prepared using basin.

Cabbage Pakoda / Fritters

Few people don’t eat onion either due to the religious reasons or due to their body tendency or during any medication. Cabbage is nice replacer for onions due to its layered texture. I have added carom seeds in this recipe for two reasons. One, the carom seeds / vaamu are good for digestion and two, they have the unique flavor which overrides the cabbage smell.

Cabbage pakoda in the bed of cabbage leaves

Ingredients:

Cabbage, shredded – 1 cup
Carom seeds / Vaamu – 1 tsp
Basin / Gram flour – 3 tbsp (Heaped)
Rice Flour – 3 tbsp (Heaped)
Salt
Green chili – 2 slit them and chop into 1 inch size
Oil to deep fry
Water – 3 – 4 tbsp

Method:

Heat a pan with oil .Whilst the oil is heating, mix the chopped onion with salt, green chili, Carom seeds, gram flour and rice flours thoroughly. Now add about 3-4 tbsp of warm oil into the cabbage mixture.Mix the ingredients well, so that they resemble crumbs.Now sprinkle 3 – 4 tbsp of water and mix every thing thoroughly. (If necessary add bit more ).

Cabbage Pakoda mixture

When the oil is hot enough, pick small amounts of mixture and slip into the oil slowly.Occasionally turn the pakodas, so that they get cooked equally on all the sides.Drain them on to a paper towel and serve them warm.

 Cabbage pakoda

Gatti Pakoda / Crispy Fritters

The name itself explains that the fritters are fully crispy. Simple trick is we just need to add Basin/ Gram flour and Rice flour in 1:1 ratio, bit of warm oil and very little water to get the fritters crispier.

 Gatti pakoda / Onion fritters

Ingredients:

Onion – 2 large
Curry leaves – Hand full
Basin / Gram flour – 3 tbsp (Heaped)
Rice Flour – 3 tbsp (Heaped)
Salt
Green chili – 2 slit them and chop
Oil to deep fry
Water – 3 – 4 tbsp

Method:

To deep fry the pakodas, heat a pan with oil on medium heat.

Whilst the oil is heating, chop Onion into thin strips. (Time Management). Mix the chopped onion with salt, green chili, Curry leaves, gram flour and rice flours thoroughly.

Now add about 3-4 tbsp of warm oil into the onion mixture.

Mix the ingredients well, so that they resemble crumbs.

Now sprinkle 3 – 4 tbsp of water and mix every thing thoroughly. (If necessary add bit more but do not make the batter loose).

Ready to fry

Increase the flame and when the oil is hot enough, take hand full of onion mixture and drop them into oil slowly by breaking the batter into small bite size pieces. This is the quick way. If you can’t do it quick enough then just pick small amounts of batter and drop into the oil slowly.

Occasionally turn the pakodas, so that they get cooked equally on all the sides.

Drain them on to a paper towel and serve them warm with Coffee or Tea. It is a great feeling, eating spicy pakodas and sipping the hot beverage.

Note: I have mentioned the measurements for about 2 - 3 servings. You can increase the quantities in the same ratio to make more.

Alasanda vada / Bobbarlu / Blackeye Pea itters

 Alasanda vada / Blackeye pea fritters

These are the famous vadas prepared at Rayalaseema especially during Sankranthi festival. In  Raayalaseema they are usually served with chicken curry. They are eaten dunked in Chicken gravy. You can also eat them with vegetable gravy curries like potato kurma or Mushroom curry. You can also eat with rasam.

Ingredients:
Split black-eye peas - 2 cups
Green Chillies - 6-8
Onion - 1 large - Chopped into small pieces
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Salt
Corriander - Chopped
Oil - to deep fry

 Blach eye split peas

Soak 2 cups of black-eyed peas (Alasandalu) in water for overnight. They will get doubled after few hours, so choose a big vessel for soaking. In the morning, drain the water and pat the peas to get dry using a cotton cloth.

Grind the blackeye peas, ginger, and green chillies into coarse batter in a food processor or mixer without adding water. Remove the batter to a vessel and just before preparing the vadas add salt and onion pieces. If you add salt and onion in the begining itself, then the batter will become watery and absorbs more oil. The batter must be solid enough to hold the vada shape. You can use your hands or small cotton cloth or even plastic bag to make vadas. 

I normal prepare them using plastic bag. Take small amount of batter in a ball shape, put that ball on the plastic bag and flatten it lightly using your fingers and make a hole in the middle. Take into the hand and drop gently into hot oil from the side of kadai / pan.

In batches, deep fry them in hot oil, turning them until they are golden-brown on both sides. Takes approximately 5 to 10 minutes, each batch.

Serve them hot with  chicken curry or any veg curry.

Alasanda vada with chicken gravy