KUNUKKU (SPICY LENTIL FRITTERS)

Back home 2 weeks back after a short stay away from home, am completely relaxed now.  With back to back trips at short intervals, I was feeling homesick and my mind was wavering with restless thoughts.  Home is not just a place and it is a feeling which couldn't be described in words.  On the day of my return, mom prepared her specialty dish Kunukku for me.  It's a deep friend snack made with ground rice and lentil mixture along with redchillies and salt.  The preparation is same as that of Adai but the batter has to be ground in thicker texture.  You can vary the recipe by adding finely chopped mixed vegetables such as carrot/ cabbage or just add onions which enhances the flavor and taste.  I forgot to take  step by step picture as I was busy chit chatting with family. 

Ingredients:

Idly rice - 1 cup

Toor dhal - 4 tsp

Bengal gram - 4 tsp

Urad dhal - 2 tsp

Asafoetida powder - a pinch

Red chillies - 6

Salt - to taste

Onions - finely chipped (Optional)

Curry/coriander  leaves - finely chopped

Oil for deep frying

Preparation:

1. Soak rice and dhal separately for 3 hours and  grind to a slightly coarse paste adding salt, red chillies, and asafoetida powder.

2. Add finely chopped onions if needed, in a kadai, heat oil, drop in small spoons of batter and deep fry until golden brown. 

Tasty snack is ready to be served.  There is no side dish required for this dish and can be taken as a starter/appetizer.

VEGETABLE BONDA - A LIP SMACKING SNACK FOR WEEKEND

As I lay on bed on the early morning hours of a weekend, I couldn't allow my mind to calm down due to multifarious reasons.   So I thought I could divert myself to blogging.

Last few weeks, DH and myself were fully on thoughts to move out Jr. H to a new school and were doing lot of background research on it.  Getting admission on schools isn't easy here and especially for the higher classes.  Finally after much effort, after repeated trips, we got an admission in an upcoming new school with good reviews and admitted him there.  Jr. H had two rounds of interaction before he was admitted.  Now a lot of follow up activities needs to be taken care such as school uniforms, transport, books etc.,  Jr. H is in mixed reaction now; he feels sad for leaving his old friends and at the same time he is quite excited to join the new environment.  I am kind of slightly concerned about the settling process in the new environment.  He need to unlearn and learn many new things to accommodate the new environment, get some good friends, get some recognition among teachers and many more things following to that.  Let's see how it goes.  As a first step at home, I make him feel  comfort from a parent end and provide him as much as support.

Jumping on quickly about today's post, Vegetable Bonda, this is a popular lip smacking tea time South Indian snack made with different variations - can be stuffed with just potatoes or with mixed vegetables.  Every mother is brilliant to sneak in veggies on kids favorite dish and I'm no different in it.  I made this mixed vegetable bonda on a casual evening on a weekend and in no time the bonda's were finished by DH and Jr. H.  

Ingredients:

Mixed vegetables (Beets, carrots, Beans, Green peas) - 2 cups

Boiled potato - 2

Onion - 2

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Tempering items:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Green chilly - 3

Curry leaves - few

For the batter:

Besan/ bengal gram flour - 1/2 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Cooking soda (soda bi carb)- a pinch
Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Pressure cook potatoes and mash it slightly.  Meanwhile cut the vegetables into tiny cubes, throw in some green peas, and pressure for 3 whistles with salt and little water and mash it as well.

2.  Heat a pan, add oil, and throw in the tempering items one by one.  When the mustard seeds sizzles, throw in urad dhal and curry leaves, and later add the mashed boiled veggies and potato.   Add red chilly powder, required salt (if necessary) and saute for few minutes and switch off the flame.  After it cools down, make a even sized round balls and keep it ready (see picture below). 

3.  Finally the preparation of the batter by mixing besan, rice flour, red chilly powder with a pinch of cooking soda.  Add water and make a slightly thick batter. Heat oil in pan, dip the vegetables balls in the batter and make sure it is well coated on all sides, and gently drop the balls in hot oil and fry the bondas until they turn golden brown. Repeat the same with remaining vegetable balls. 

 

Yummulicious vegetable bondas are ready to be 

served to your loved ones.

RIBBON PAKODA

Ribbon pakoda is one of spicy and crispy snack made from rice and bengal gram flour.  This popular snack is very easy to prepare and can be made in just half an hour.  I usually prepare this snack on weekends at times and store in large container and give this to Jr.H as school snack.  This is one of my signature dish and has never failed me on taste and crispiness.  Many of my colleagues had given me accolades after tasting this and would ask for recipe. 

The main secret of crispiness lies with dough; it had to be prepared in smaller quantities.  I mix all the ingredients and take a little portion and prepare the dough.  Also care must be given to prepare the dough at right proportion.  If the dough is dry the pakodas would be hard and if it is too moisten the stripes would not be continuous and would be breaking in bits.  The recipe that am going to share is a foolproof method and would never disappoint you.

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 2 cups

Bengal gram flour - 1 cup

Butter - 1 tsp

Red chilly powder - 1 to 1.5 tsp

Salt - to taste

Garlic paste - 1-2 tsp

Oil - for frying

Preparation:

1.  Sieve the rice and bengal gram flour separately to get rid of any tiny grains.  (I usually grind raw rice in bulk quantity in the rice flour mill as I am living in India but you can also use store brought rice flour for this).

2.  Grind the peeled garlic pods with 1/4 cup of water in a mixer and keep aside.

3.  Add in all the ingredients (rice flour, bengal gram flour, butter, chilly powder, salt) without water.  Filter the garlic mixture so that only the essence gets filtered in leaving out the pulp.  Mix well without any lumps.

4.  Take small quantity of mixture and knead well adding water.  

5.  Fill the nada pakoda press with prepared dough with ribbon pakoda disc into it. Once the dough is over, prepare the next batch of dough as above while the pakoda is frying in oil.

6. Heat oil and when the oil is hot, press the dough in hot oil in circular way to form a singular layer.  Don't layer too much, one layer gives out crispy and even cooking. When the bubble ceases, flip the pakoda and cook again until the sizzing of the oil ceases. 

7. Drain it in paper towel and store it in air tight container.

The pakodas become more crispier after it had cooled down completely.

Enjoy the pakoda as evening snack with a cup of tea - a perfect partner for each other on a breezy evening.

Sweet Kozhukattai/Modak (with coconut-jaggery stuffing)

As I have already mentioned, here's the sweet version of kozhukattai.  I made this on Vinayagar chaturthi and everything got finished before clicking the final pictures and I was waiting for the chance to make it during Navrathri.  I prepared this on Navrathri Friday and Jr. H was very tempted to grab his part as soon as the clicking is done!!  He kept on running into kitchen asking when would I complete the preparation, such a foodie just like me :-)....

Ingredients:

Coconut - 1 cup

Jaggery - 3/4

Elachi powder - 2-3

For the outer layer of the kozhukattai, please refer Enthaligai-Kozhuttai outer layer.

Preparation:

1. In a kadai, heat jaggery with little water, once the jaggery is melted, add the coconut scraping and elachi powder.  The consistency of the filling should be such that it is enough to make balls. 

2. Make small cups out from the outer layer, fill it with coconut-jaggery stuffing, seal it and make it in a modak shape as shown in the picture.

3. Steam cook in idly plates for 10 minutes.  When it is done, allow it to cool for 2 minutes else it will break the kozhukkattais.   

4. The kozhukkattais will be shiny when it is done which would be tempting to eat.

MINI MASALA VADAI (TEA KADAI STYLE) - LENTIL FRITTERS

One specialty about India is we can find lot of roadside tea stalls where they would serve hot tea and some spicy snacks; especially when I have travelled to hill stations like Ooty, Kodaikanal, etc i have felt that roadside shops serves the best tea than several star-rated restaurants.  The aroma produced by masala vadais fills in air and would make your salivary glands work all at a time.  To me, even thinking about that would make me go hungry.

Ingredients:

Channal dhal - 3/4 cup

Toor dhal - 1/4 cup

Urad dhal - 4 tsp

Onion - 2-3

Red chillies - 6

Green chillies - 3

Curry leaves - few

Salt - As needed

Asafoetida powder - a pinch

Oil - As needed

Preparation:

1. Wash and soak all the dhal together for an hour (Toor dhal, Channa dhal and urad dhal).

2. Drain the water separately and take a 2 tsp of soaked dhal in a bowl.

3.  Grind the remaining dhal along with red chillies, salt, and asafoetida powder.  The ground mixture should be on coarse texture.  Add this to the bowl.

                    

 

4.  Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, and curry leaves.  Mix well.

                  

5. Take a lemon-sized batter on the center of your left palm  and press with right palm.  This would flatten the sides of the batter and the center would be little thicker.

                  

6. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel, gently drop it in hot oil and add few more vadais to the hot oil.  The flame should be on the low or low to medium side.

7.  When the color changes and flip and cook on the other side.  

8. Flip on both sides until it turns golden brown and crispy.

AUTHENTIC IYENGAR THAYIR VADAI - INDIAN LENTIL DONUT DIPPED IN PLAIN YOGURT SAUCE

Ahh, it's quite difficult to name a traditional dish relating to an International cuisine :-).  I have quite a few nonIndian friends who gives private comments to my every post asking about Indian cuisine.  I am equally excited and thrilled to narrate about the ingredients and methodology about Indian cooking and I would love to do that.  Vadai is a deep fried donut-shaped snack prepared from a soaked and ground white lentil (ural dhal).   They are crispier on outside and soft on inside.  This can be used as a snack or as a side dish for the main course.  

I hail from a traditional South Indian Brahmin family and thayir vadai is one of the mandatory item served in the plate on any ceremony among my household.   There are zillion different methods to make these vadas but I am going to share the authentic way of preparing thayir vadai which is followed among my family household.

Ingredients:

Urad dhal (white lentil) - 1.5 cup

Green chillies - 3

Curd (plain yogurt) - 2 cups

Salt - To taste

To grind:

Coconut - 4 tsp

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Green chillies - 2 or 3

To temper:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves -few

Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp

To garnish:

Bhoondi - As needed 

Coriander leaves 

Preparation:

1.  Soak urad dhal for 1 hour and grind smoothly with green chillies and salt in the food processor.  This is the careful step in getting softer vadas.  The batter should be in the texture of butter.  If you grind the batter in grinder, you would get a butter-like texture and large volume.  For elaborate steps on making soft vadas, refer the following link - medhu-vada

 

2.  Keep a bowl of water in a vessel.  Wet your hands and take the medium ball sized batter and place it on a plastic sheet.  Pat the batter slightly and make a hole in the center.

3. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat oil.  Once the oil is hot, drop the vada carefully and keep the flame in medium.  Add 2-3 more vadas to the oil.

 

4. Flip it over after 2-3 minutes and fry it until golden brown.  Do it for the rest of the remaining batter.

 

 

5. Meanwhile, grind coconut, green chillies, ginger together. 

6. Whisk the curd/plain yogurt in a hand beater and add salt and ground mixture to it.  Temper it with mustard seeds, curry leaves, and asofoetida.

 

7.  Immerse the fried vadas to the curd mixture.  

 

8. Garnish with boondi (I used Haldiram boondi mixture which I got from store) and coriander leaves.  You can also add grated carrots but as the guests were waiting at the dining table, I didn't do it.

Note:

The softness of the vadas entirely depends on how well the batter is ground.  So it is important to give attention during grinding the batter to a butter like texture.