Kothambari Vadi

When I first heard the name of this snack, I was asking my friend Priti to repeat 2-3 times to get it right... Its a Maharashtrian snack. The aroma of so much of coriander leaves is the key behind this snack. Quite simple to make... You can just drop in oil like pakodas or set it and cut it into shape and fry it. I have shown both in the pic below....

Ingredients:

Besan Flour -  1 Cup

Water - 1/2 Cup 

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves (chopped) - 3/4 cup

Oil - for frying

Hot to make:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and keep it aside for 5 mins.

2. If you  want set and give any shape, keep the mixture in microwave for 2 mins and it will set. Revert it and cut into desired shape.

3. Heat oil in kadai and fry the pakoda's until its well cooked and turns golden brown.

4. Serve it hot with mint chutney or tomato ketchup.....

Stuffed Chili Bajji

I saw some fresh bajji chili which tempted me to buy and make some... I wanted to have chili bajji (without any stuffing)... But when I made the first set and tasted it, realized that the chili is very spicy.... I had bought quite a lot of chili... So immediately made some stuffing and  removed the inside seeds so that it won't be that spicy. And it worked out.... Came out very tasty too.....

Ingredients:

Bajji Chili - 8-10 nos.
Besan flour - 1 Cup
Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Cooking soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Asafoedita - 1/4 tsp
Water - 3/4 cup
Oil - For frying

For Stuffing:

Potato (boiled and mashed) - 1 cup
Onion (finely chopped) - 1/2 cup

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Chili powder - 1/2 tsp (you can adjust according to your taste)

Chat masala - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Corriander leaves (finely chopped) - 2 tbsp

How to make:

1. First lets make the batter. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Now add water little by little to make to a smooth batter. Keep aside

2. In another bowl, mix all the stuffing ingredients. sprinkle little water so that all blends well.

3. Slit the chili and deseed it. Now stuff the filling inside all the chilies.

4. Heat oil in kadai and dip the chili in the batter and deep fry until the bajji is cooked well. Keep in mind to not over fry it... Serve it hot hot......

Mixture

Diwali is coming up....   Here is one snack to make for Diwali... Making mixture is little tedious/long process, since we have to make quite a few items separately and  mix everything... And that's why its called mixture... Don't get afraid with the process, because its easy though.....

For making mixture we need, oma podi, bhoondi also...  You can refer to Boondi recipe in blog.

For making Oma Podi...

Ingredients:

Besan flour - 1 Cup
Rice Flour - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Omam / Ajwain - 1 tbsp
Water - 1/4 cup
Butter - 2 tbsp
Oil - for frying

How to make:

1. Sieve the gram flour, rice flour, salt and chilli powder for even mixing.

2. Dry roast the omam in a pan and soak this for 15 minutes in 1/4 cup of water. Grind this in a mixer using the soaked water. Even if it is slight coarse also ok. Using the remaining soaked water extract the omam water by mashing the ground omam with your hands, filter it using a tea strainer.

3.Use this water to mix the flour. Make a sticky dough by adding 2 tblsp of soft butter or hot oil .

4. Use the small dotted hole kuzhal, for making omapodi and keep a portion of dough inside the kuzhal/presser and start pressing it into the hot oil by making circles.  Keep the oil in medium heat otherwise it will get burnt.

5. Fry both the sides for 2-3 mins and take out in a tissue so that excess oil is absorbed in tissue.


For making Mixture...

Ingredients:

Boondi - 2  Cups
Oma podi - 2 Cups
Pressed Rice (Aval) - 1 Cup
Peanut - 1/2 Cup
Fried Bengal gram (Pottu Kadalai) - 1/2 Cup
Almonds - 1/2 Cup
Cashewnut - 1/2 Cup
Curry leaves  - 1/2 Cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp (Optional)
Oil - 2 tbsp

How to make:

1. Dry roast the pressed rice(aval) in simmer for 5 mins and take in a big bowl. Add the boondi and oma podi to it.

2. In a kadai, add oil, add peanut, cashewnut, almonds, fried bengal gram curry leaves and roast in simmer for 4-5 mins. Now add the turmeric powder, salt, chili powder. Roast for another min and switch off. Add sugar and mix well.

3. Mix all these together and the mixture is ready...!!

Boondi

Boondi is one tasty snack which very tasty to smack on and on... Diwali is round the corner and I'm planning to make mixture. But to make mixture we need Boondi and oma podi also... Here is the recipe for boondi.. whether you make mixture or not, you can just make boondi and have it for all... 

Ingredients:

Besan flour - 1 Cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Oil - for frying

How to make:

1. While adding water to the besan , first add a small amount of water and make it into a thick paste. The amount of water depends upon the texture of besan.

2. Heat oil in a kadai for deep frying. when the oil becomes hot, just pour 2 tbsp of hot oil to the batter and mix well.

3. To check whether the  consistency is right for the batter, take a spoon and with the back of the spoon mix the batter well and just hold it on the top of the hot oil.  If this forms a nice round ball then the consistency if perfect, else it gives a tail you need to add little extra water. Add 1 tblsp and check again.

4.You need 2 perforated ladle for making this. The ladle with small holes to make boondi and another one to take out the boondis from oil. Pour a ladle of batter to the perforated ladle ,keeping the ladle on the top of the oil and  let the boondis falls into the oil.

5. Fry till the oil sound subsides. Then only we can get crispy boondis. Take out from oil and drain it in a kitchen towel. 

P.S. You can add some more chili powder and fried peanuts & curry leaves to the boondi. It adds to the taste... I have not done it bcos my son can't eat spicy snacks..... 

Boondhi Ladoo

Ladoo, almost every one's favorite sweet.... Next month Diwali is also coming... So thought of posting this yummy sweet  recipe which will be useful. But you need not wait for an occasion to make this sweet.... Quite easy to make.... Trust me....

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

Besan Flour - 2 Cups

Water - 1 1/4 Cup

Salt - 1 pinch

Cooking soda (baking soda) - 1/4 tsp

Roasted Cashew / Almonds - 1/2 Cup

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Oil - For frying

For Sugar Syrup

Sugar - 2 Cups

Water - 1 1/4 Cup

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Cloves - 8-10

How to make :

1. First we should make the sugar syrup to one string consistency and keep it ready. Add the cardamom powder and cloves to it.

2. Make a batter out of besan, salt, soda and water. Batter has to be in dosa batter consistency. If the consistency is not correct then the bhoondhi won't come in proper roundels.

3. Heat oil in a kadai. On medium heat, pour the batter through a perforated ladle from 1/2 feet high from oil. keep the flame on low medium only.....

4. Remove the bhoodhi's when it is 3/4 done. Don't let till cook fully, then it will turn crispy... Approx it takes 1-2 mins only to cook 3/4th... Remove it on a kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil and transfer them to the sugar syrup.

5. Make sure the sugar syrup is still warm. Add 1 tbsp of ghee and blend it well with a ladle. Then make round ladoo's...

 

 

Besan Ladoo (Microwave)

And now its time to celebrate as this is my 100th blog recipe.... So of course its a sweet..... Generally besan ladoo when made made on gas takes atleast 15-20 mins (making ladoo shape timing is not included)..... Now here its made so simple in just 5 mins...

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

Besan Flour - 1 Cup

Sugar (Powdered) - 3/4 Cup

Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
Ghee - 3-4 tbsp

Cashew nut (broken) - 3 tbsp

Almonds - for garnish

 

How to make:

 

1. In a micro wave bowl add the ghee and keep for 30 secs, so that the ghee melts.

 

2. Now add the besan flour and mix well. Make sure no lumps are formed. Keep in microwave for 2 mins in high.

 

3. Remove it and mix well again. Break out any lumps. Again keep it for a minute. Now you will start getting the nice aroma of besan cooked in ghee.

 

4. Again remove it and mix well. Add the cashew nuts and blend well. Keep in microwave again for 90 secs.

 

5. Remove it, add sugar and cardamom powder now and mix well. Allow it to cool for a while and while its warm, start making the ladoos and garnish with almonds...

Ribbon Pakoda

This is another snack item which is usually made during festival days... But you can make it just like to have it as tea time snack.... its quite easy to make....

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 2 Cups

Urad Flour - 1 tbsp
Besan Flour - 2 tbsp

Salt - 3/4 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Chilli powder- 1 tsp

Butter - 1 tbsp

Water - 1 Cup

Oil - for frying

How to make:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and, the butter to it and mix well.

2. Add water little by little make a soft dough. Stuff the dough in the murukku kuzhal with Ribbon (straight line) nob and press it over hot oil to make ribbon like pattern.

3. Fry in medium heat for 8-10 mins.Cook until both sides are well cooked. If the oil is very hot, it will turn brown faster.... So be cautious.

Palak Pakoda

Palak Pakoda is a great snack for evening time... Palak is good for health as well. Simple to make too...

Ingredients:

Palak (Cleaned and chopped) - 2 Cups
Besan Flour  - 1 Cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp (adjust according to your preference)
Ajwain - 1/2 tsp
Water - 1/2 Cup
Oil - for frying

How to make:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl by sprinkling water little by little.

2. Heat oil in a pan, drop the pakoda's in oil and fry in medium flame. Remove once its fully cooked and turns golden brown.


P.S. You can add some sliced onion also along with palak.

Parangika Aval Pakoda

Very little pumpkin was left in my fridge which won't e enough for kootu... So I was wondering how to use it.. I could have used it for sambhar. But then I wanted to do something different. So came up with this. My husband doesn't like pumpkin. But when I gave this, he ate and didn't even know that there was pumpkin in this.. Since the pumpkin was little only, I also added aval(rice flakes) to give a different twist. The taste was just awesome. I gave it to my neighbours also and asked them to guess the ingredient. None of them were able to guess the pumpkin or aval.

Ingredients:

 

Pumpkin (grated) - 1/2 Cup

Aval (Rice flakes) - 1/2 cup

Besan flour - 2 tbsp

Maida - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - 3/4 tsp

Sesame seeds (Till seeds) - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves (finely chopped) - 1 tbsp

Oil - for frying

 

How to make:

 

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl without adding water, since pumpkin has little moisture. Just sprinkle little water and mix well. Leave it aside for 5 mins. The rice flakes will become soft.

 

2. Heat oil in a kadai, and drop small small pakoda inside the hot oil. Fry and take it out once it turns golden brown.

Capsicum Bajji

Yday I felt like having Chilli bajji... But I didn't have that bajji chilli with me. but instead I had capsicum with me. Anyway I wanted to make something for evening snacks. So why not capsicum bajji. Trust me, it was awesome so much that I just felt, I had chilli bajji. Wow... its was really yummy.. Now I have decided that I will make this every week. :-)

 

 

Ingredients:

 

Capsicum (Cut into 1/2 strips) - 1 Cup

Besan flour - 1 Cup
Sooji (Rava) - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Asafoedita - 1/4 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
Oil - To fry

 

How to make:

 

1. Mix besan flour, rava, salt, chilli powder,  asafoedita in a bowl.

 

2. Make a smooth batter by adding water. The batter has to thick and just in dipping consistency.

 

3. In a kadai heat oil, dip the capsicum strips in the batter and fry till golden brown. Serve it with mint chutney or tomato

ketchup.

 

 

Aloo Bonda

Its been a long time since i ate the yummy Aloo Bonda... Made tasty, one can surely munch of 5-6 bonda's easily.... When i made i thought I'm making more and some will be left over... But within 10 mins after making, there was nothing left and people at home wished if there were some more.... Here is the recipe for you all.. Have a smacking evening...!!

 

 

Ingredients:

 

For the stuffing:

 

Potato(Boiled and roughly mashed) -  2 Cups

Onion (Sliced) - 1 Cup

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Green chilli (finely chopped) - 2 tsp

Ginger (finely chopped) - 1 tsp

Salt - 3/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Channa dhal - 1 tbsp

Asafoedita - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 3 tbsp

 

For the batter:

 

Besan flour - 1 Cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Asafoedita - 1/4 tsp

Water - 1/4 cup

 

Oil - for frying the bonda

 

How to make:

 

1. Lets make the stuffing first. In a pan, heat oil and add the mustard and channa dhal.

 

2. Once the mustard starts crackling, add the green chilli, ginger and curry leaves. Add the sliced onion and saute till the onion turns transparent.

 

3. Add the turmeric powder, salt, asafoedita & saute for 2 mins. Now add the potato & blend well.

 

4. Saute for 2-3 mins and keep aside. The stuffing will look like this once cooked. Once it cools down, make round balls. The stuffing is ready now.

 

5. In a large bowl, add the besan flour, salt, chilli powder, asafoedita and mix well. Add the water slowly to make a thick batter. Its should be in coating consistency.

6. In the frying pan, heat oil for frying. Dip the potato balls in the besan batter and drop it in the hot oil. Fry untill it turns golden brown.

 

7. Serve it hot with coconut chutney... Nangalam apdiye sapiduvum ;-) .................

 

Fatafat Sidedish

Here is a quick side dish recipe when you are in hurry or some guest arrived unexpected... This is very simple to make and takes hardly 10 mins. This goes very well Chappathi / Phulka or Puri.

 

Ingredients:

Onion (Finely Chopped) - 1/2 cup
Tomato (Finely Chopped) - 1/2 cup
Green Chilli - 2-3 nos.
Corriander leaves - few
Curry leaves - few
Besan flour - 1 1/2 tbsp
Water - 1 1/2 Cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 pinch
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli - 1 no.

How to make:

 

1. In a pan heat oil, add mustard, jeera. Once it crackles, add the red chilli, curry leaves. Now add the green chilli, onion and saute for 3 mins. Add the tomato and saute for 2 mins.

 

2. Add salt, turmeric powder and saute for 2 mins. Mix the besan flour in water without any lumps and add it to the pan. Let it boil and keep stirring it.

 

3. The gravy will thicken and garnish with corriander leaves.

 

Corn Pakoda

I was thinking what to make for evening snacks... When i opened my freezer, saw the Corn kernel which i had bought last week. So decided to make something with corn... Then a thought came as why not a pakoda with corn.... Wanted to make a diff kind of pakoda, so altered the usual pakoda recipe.... And it turned out good... very good infact...

Ingredients:

 

Corn Kernel - 1 Cup

Besan Flour - 2 tbsp

Rice Flour - 1 tbsp

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Corriander powder - 1 tsp

Green Chilli (Finely chopped) - 1 tsp (adjust as per your taste)

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Corriander leaves (Finely Chopped) - 2 tsbp

Oil - for frying

 

How to make:

 

1. Mix all the ingredients by sprinkling little water. Keep this aside for 15 mins.

.

2. Heat oil in a pan and drop the  mixture like pakodas and fry till golden brown.

 

3. Serve it hot with tomato ketchup

Mysorepak - Made Simple

Diwali is coming up next week.... So thought this recipe might be of help to you..... My mom use to make this mysorepak... Easy to make also... I tried for first time and the result is awesome...

Ingredients

Besan Flour - 1 Cup
Sugar - 1 Cup
Ghee - 1 Cup
Water - 1/2 Cup

 

How to make:

 

1. In a pan, add 1 tbsp of ghee and roast the besan flour in sim flame for 8-10 mins... The raw flavour has to go.... Make sure its in sim only, otherwise the flour will turn brown..... Sieve this flour so that no lumps are there.

 

2. Now add 60 % of the ghee to this flour and make a nice smooth batter.

 

3. In a thick pan (preferably non stick), add the sugar and water and bring it to 1 string consistency.

 

4. Once the sugar syrup reaches 1 string consistency add the ghee-batter mixture to it. Keep stirring it so that it doesn't stick to the pan.

 

5. Add the balance ghee little by little. Once the mixture comes without sticking to pan (usually takes about 8-10 mins), remove it to greased tray and using knife cut into pieces while its little hot. Once it cools completely u can' cut it. 

Spongy Dhokla

One of my favorite snack Dhokla.... Every time I go to Gangotree, this is a sure to order item... Though my hubby doesn't like this yellow spongy treat, he will definitely buy for me... Here in Qatar where will i find Dhokla at shop ? Its very hard to get most of the delicious Indian items/ snacks.... So thought why not try it out at home... But i didn't have the patience to grind the dough and ferment it overnight... So googled this instant Dhokla recipe... Tried at home and it was a real success... And here it is....

 

Ingredients:

1 cup of Besan flour (Channa dhal flour)
1/3 cup of sooji/rava
1/2 spn salt
3 spn sugar
1/2 spn citric acid
1 spn ginger chilli paste
1 spn Eno fruit salt
1 cup water

For Seasoning

Mustard - 1 tsp
Slit Green Chilli - 2-3
Corriader leaves (Cilantro) - 2-3 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp

How to make:

1. Mix all the ingredients except the ENO in a bowl... Mix nicely without any lumps. It should be in batter consistency.

2. Now add the eno fruit salt and add 1 spn of water.... The moment u add water, so much of froth will come. U will have to mix very fast now and blend the eno....

3. Grease a square or round vessel and pour this wet batter.

4. Now steam this for 10-15 mins.... Keep it in steam only after the water starts boiling....

5. Once its cooked, u can sprinkle the seasoning with mustard seeds, green chilli, and corriander leaves.... u can use little coconut also.... it will be very tasty. You can sprinkle some sugar water if you like it little sweet....

6. Now what, just serve it with mint chutney.... Enjoy the super spongy instant dhokla.