Merapakaya bajji (Chilli fritters)

                                            

Mirapakaya bajji (Chilli bajji) 

My mom is an expert in making these mirapakaya bajji. They just melt in the mouth. Yummmmm. It is really an art to make these bajjis with green chillis, stuffed and dipped in the gram flour batter and deep fry them. Most important thing in making this recipe is preparing the right consitency of the batter.

This is one of the famous street food in South India especially Andhra Pradesh. To do this fritters always choose large chillies like anaheim variety with less heat scale (2-3) as they are easier to stuff when compared to the smaller ones and mild in taste. These bajjis are often served as accompaniment to a main meal in South India, but they are delicious as an appetizer too.

Ingredients:

Green chillies (large) with thick skin - 10
Gram Flour (Basin) - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 1/2 cup (Gives the extra crispiness)
Salt
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Oil to fry

For the filling
Roasted chickpea powder - 2 tblsp (You can also substitute this with basin flour)
Sesame seeds (Till seeds) - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds powder - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Gring all the dry ingredients and make into fine powder and add lemon juice with a dash of salt.

Roasted chickpea, cumin seeds and Till see

Method:

Make a neat slit down one side of each chilli keeping the stem intact and remove the seeds. Stuff the chillies with the above mentioned filling as shown

Stuffed green chilli

Combine the gram flour and rice flour with salt and baking soda and add enough water to make into batter which is much similar to cake or dosa batter

Bajji Batter

Now first dip each green chilli into batter fully, slide the side opposite of slit side onto edge of vessel, so that side of green chilli has no batter covering it and will be in direct contact with the hot oil.

                               Fry them till golden

 

Mirapakaya bajji (chilli fritters)

Ghee / Clarified butter (Neyyi)

Ghee is a Sanskrit word for a clarified butter used primarily in Indian cuisine. Because the preparation of ghee involves heat, it has a distinctive toasted nutty flavour. Unlike other butter-based products, ghee can be stored without refrigeration for months. As long as ghee is stored in air-tight containers, it does not spoil easily.

The butter available in stores consists of 80% butterfat, 18% water and 2 % protein solids. When the butter is cooked, the water it contains will boil off and the protein solids separate from the butterfat.

Unsalted butter makes the best ghee. It is easy to make at home and it is much more economical. Unlike butter ghee does not require refrigeration. So you can even prepare this in large batches depending on the consumption, especially in the families with kids. One thing is for sure that no cooking oil can match ghee for its pleasant taste and ease of digestion.

Method:

Cut the unsalted butter into large chunks and melt it over a moderate heat in a heavy bottomed pan and cook slowly.

Unsalted Butter

Stir occasionally until the butter melts completely to ensure that it does not brown. Bring the melted butter to boil. Slowly the butter becomes frothy.

At this point reduce the heat to very low. Do not stir further and simmer until the solids have settled on the bottom. Just before removing from the fire, drop a piece of beetle leaf which spreads the nice aroma. You can also substitute beetle leaf with few fenugreek seeds. I have used fenugreek seeds (Methi seeds / Menthulu).

Turn off the heat and filter the ghee into a clean dry container and allow it cool completely without closing the lid.

Fresh Ghee

Solids at the bottom

Solids looks like this

No need to throw the sediments. You can mix this with atta flour while making rotis.

Enjoy the delightful, slightly nutty flavoured ghee which is perfect to prepare Indian sweets. Not only that you can add this to spicy chutneys.

Solidified ghee

Chicken fry with curry leaves

                                                       Chicken fry with Curry leaves

This is one of my son's favourate chicken recipe as it has got mild flavours.

Ingredients:

Chicken - boneless - 250 gms
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tblsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
yougurt - 1 tblsp
Curry leaves - fist full
Oil - 2 tblsp
Salt

Method:

Marinate the chicken pieces with ginger garlic paste, turmeric, chilli powder and yougurt for about 1 hour

Marinated chicken

Heat oil in a pan and when it is hot enough, add fist full of curry leaves. Allow the curry leaves to splitter for 1 minute or so and then add the marinated chicken to it.

Stir the chicken for a minute and cover the pan with lid for 5 minutes.

Remove the lid, add salt and allow the water to evoparate completely and fry until the chicken turns into golden colour.

Raja Rani Puppets

Raja Rani enjoying the early morning sun rays

Cheesy Bullets

 

Bullet chilli filled with Cheese

This is a fiery hot chilli recipe. Those who suffers from acidity please keep away from this variety as Bullet chilli are one of the hottest chilli variety and use any other mild varieties like banana pepper or any other variety with dense skin and are good for stuffing.

Ingredients:

Bullet Chilli - 10

Grated cheese - 2 tblsp

Salt - 1 pinch

Amchur Powder - 1/2 tsp (Dry Mango powder)

Method:

Select few nice fleshy chilli and make a slit lenght wise with out disturbing the stem and deseed.

In a bowl mix grated cheese with salt and amchur and stuff the chilli

 

            Grated cheese with salt and amchur (Dry Mango powder)

                        Chilli stuffed with cheese mixture

Now spread the chillies in a baking tray and drizzle few drops of oil and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cheese turns into golden colour.

You can serve this with roti or curd rice.

Egg Dosa

Egg Dosa

Follow the same procedure for Dosa Batter and Errakaram as I have explained in Masala Dosa recipe.

Method:

Heat the pan and when it is hot enough, spread the dosa batter and immediately break an egg and spread it accross using spatula or fork as shown below

Dosa with egg spread

Drizzle some oil.  When it gets fried turn to other side and allow the egg to cook for a minute. Now turn the dosa back and apply Errakaram and serve hot.

Egg Dosa with Errakaram

Ulli Pesarattu (Green gram dosa with Onion)

Ulli Pesarattu

Ingredients

Whole green gram (Pesalu) - 1 cup
Rice - 2 tblsp
Ginger - 1 inch
Onion - 1 cut into small pieces
Green chilli - 2 cut into small pieces

Method:

Soak green gram and rice for 3-4 hours and grind into paste along with salt and ginger.

Green gram, rice and ginger

Heat a deep pan and add one tsp of oil. When the oil is hot add chopped onion and green chili and fry for 2 minutes using a dash of salt until translucent. Those who like raw onion, no need to fry.

Heat a tawa (Griddle), when it hot pour a laddle full of batter and spread it in circular motion. Sprinkle some oil and fry until it turns to gold colour. Flip to other side until it gets cooked. Turn it back and sprinkle the onion chili mixture.

Gongura Pullakura / Sorrel curry

This is one of my favorite tangy recipes. I always prefer to eat this with biryani or any other spicy rice. This is one of the best combinations for biryani. Not only that, this literally tastes more on the next day.

Ingredients:

Gongura leaves / Sorrel – 2 cups
Tomato – 1 Medium size cut into big pieces
Onion – 1 cut into big pieces
Tamarind – ½ lemon size
Green chillies – 8
Rock salt – 1 tsp

For tempering:
Garlic cloves – 3
Mustard +Cumin – 1 tsp
Chana daal – 1 tsp
Red chilli – 2

Fresh and tender home grown sorrel leaves

Method:

Heat a kadai / deep pan with one spoon of oil. When the oil becomes hot add gongura (Sorrel) leaves, onion, tomato, green chilies. Stir every thing and close the lid for 1 minute. Now add ¼ cup of water and close the lid. Stir occasionally until every thing is cooked and the water is evaporated completely. Remove it from the fire. Add rock salt and mash every thing into paste using pappuguthi (Wooden pastle). You can even use stone pestle or any similar thing. If you don’t have any thing, you can give a sturdy whisk with wooden spoon. Rock salt will enhance the taste. Not only that, it will make easy to mash the things due to its rocky nature.

For tempering:

Pound the garlic cloves (This will reveal the extra aroma which is not the case when you cut them into pieces)

Heat another small kadai(Pan) with 1 tblsp of oil. Add mustard + Cumin, when they start sizzling, add red chilli, chana daal and garlic and fry for 1 min.

Seasoning for Gongura pullakoora

Add the seasoning to the mashed gongura mixture. A nice treat for biryani or plain rice.

Gongura pullakoora

Masala Dosa

Masala Dosa

I still remember those olden days where my mom used to prepare the batter using Stone mortar (Rubbu roolu). Due to the heavy work involved in the preparation of dosa, and the size of the family (3 of our paternal uncles (babais) used to live with us) we used to get the feast once in a month only. Thanks for the technology and the evolution of many kitchen gadgets which makes women's life happy.

Bottom line – No matter how good the technology is, the taste of the batter prepared using the latest mixer grinders is no where close to the one prepared using old style Stone mortar.

Coming back from nostalgia, lets peep into the preparation of spicy masala dosa. To accomplish this you need to have Erra karam (Onion chutney), Aalu koora (Potato curry), pappula podi (Roasted channa dal powder)

For Dosa Batter

1 Cup – Urad dal

4 cups – Rice

Fistfull of cooked rice (Though optional, helps in quick fermentation)

Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp (gives dosa rich gold colour)

Soak all the above for about 6 hours and grind into smooth paste. Ferment it for 8 – 12 hours.

What I normally do is I will soak every thing first thing in the morning before I rush to work. When I come back I will grind it and leave it for fermentation until next day morning. You can refrigerate the batter once it is fermented. Do not leave outside for long if you are living in hot countries like India or even during summer in cooler places like US, UK.

For Chickpea powder

Roasted chickpea - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Grind roasted channa with cumin seeds and salt into reasonably fine powder and keep it ready for masala dosa.

For Erra karam (Onion chutney)

Onion and Red Chilli

Onions Medium – 2 ( I prefer Indian Onion as this tastes better)

Dry Red Chillies 4– 5 (As per your taste) – You can also substitute this with chilli powder, obviously the taste differs.

Tamarind paste – ¼ tsp or Tamarind 1 inch (Optional, but this will help to reduce the raw flavour)

Salt

Grind all the ingredients coarsely. To achieve this you need to switch the power on for less than a minute. Turn off, stirr the contents and start again. Need to repeat this until you get it done coarsely.

Errakaram

For Potato curry

Potatoes Medium – 4 -5
Onion Medium – 2 Cut length wise
Green chilli – 4-5 grind into paste
Tomato – 1 chopped
Oil – 3 tbsp

For tampering - Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, channa dal, Curry leaves, turmeric.

Boiled and mashed potato, onion, tomato, chillies

Method: Boil the potatoes, peel and roughly mash into small chunks and keep it aside

Heat a pan with oil. When the oil is hot, fry chana dal along with mustard, cumin and curry leaves. Then add onion, Chilli paste and salt and sauté until the onion looks tender. Add the chopped tomato and fry until the tomato becomes mushy. Finally add turmeric and mashed potato and sprinkle bit of water and cover with lid for 2 minutes. Stir once again and remove from the fire.

Ready to go for masala dosa

To prepare dosa, take full laddle of batter and spread it in circular motion over the hot pan. Drizzle some oil.When it is done flip into otherside and cook for 1 minute. Flip the dosa back and apply errakarm, sprinkle some chickpea powder and drizzle ghee (Clarified butter). Now place the potato masala in the centre and wrap the dosa.

Vuggani / Puffed Rice upma / Borugula upma

                                                 Vuggani with Mirapakaya bajji

Though this is a famous Karnataka recipe, people at rayalaseema, do prepare this a lot. I heard from my hubby that when he was doing his engineering in Karnataka, the restaurants used to serve this recipe as breakfast, lunch and even dinner as well.

Few people do call this as Buggani. We, at our mom’s family simply call it as borugulupma and at athamma’s family Borugula Thiragavatha

Let’s peep into the method of preparing the delicate recipe.

Mind you there are 2 varieties of puffed rice (as far as I know). One prepared from raw rice. Another variety is made from boiled rice. We call them as Vuppu Borugulu.

We need to soak the puffed rice made from raw rice for less time and where as boiled rice for bit more time.

Ingredients

Puffed rice (Murmur) - 1 big bowl (about 200 grams)
Bombay Onion Medium size - 2
Green chillies - 8
Turmeric - ½ tsp
Mustard - ½ tsp
Curry leaves – Hand full
Fresh Lemon juice - 2 tbsp (adjust as per your taste)
Oil - 3 tbsp

Finely chopped coriander – 2 tbsp
Salt as per your taste

For coconut powder
Dry coconut (Cut into thin strips) - Hand full or 3 tbsp
Roasted Chana dal - 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Soak the puffed rice in big bowl of water for about 5-10 min (until they are soft) depending on the variety as I explained above.

2. Take the soaked puffed rice into both the palms and squeeze the water completely and keep it aside.

                                                    Soaked and squeezed puffed rice

3. Cut the chillies length wise. If they are too long you can even cut them into half. Cut the onions also length wise and make sure onion slices should be thin.

4. Heat a pan and add 3 tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot enough add green chilli first and fry until you get a nice chilli flavour (for about 1-2 mins)

5. Add Onion, salt, Mustard and curry leaves and fry until the onion turns translucent. At the end add turmeric and fry for 1 min or so.

6. I always prefer to add salt along with onions. 2 reasons. a) The onion will get good taste. B) Onion will get fried quickly.

7. Now add the puffed rice to the tampering

8. Add lemon juice and mix gently.

9. Ground the dry coconut and roasted channa dal with pinch of salt.

10. Sprinkle the coconut + chanadal powder and the chopped coriander and mix all together gently and remove from the fire.

The best combination with this vuggani is mirapakai bajji

Nature

Jasmine from our garden

Accidentally I found a snail coming out

Almond and Raisin Semolina Halawa

Semilona halava is one of the most popular desserts served at Hare Krishna (Iskan) temples. Good roasting gives good quality halava.

Semolina, Butter, Sugar, Almond flakes, Raisins

Ingredients:
1 cup coarse semolina
2 cups water
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup Almonds finely chopped
1 cup Sugar (can also substitute this with Jaggery)
6 tablespoons butter

Method:

Combine water, sugar Almond flakes and raisins in a saucepan.
Place over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar

Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid
Meanwhile melt the butter in another pan over low heat.

Add the semolina and stir fry the grains slowly and rhythmically until they darken without scorching and becomes aromatic.

Pour the hot syrup into the semolina, stirring steadily over the low heat until the grains absorb the liquid, start to form a pudding consistency, and pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cover the pan with a lid and cook over the low heat for 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and allow the halava to steam for another 5 min.

 Neivedyam for Srikrishna

Almond and Raisin Semolina Halawa