Parippu Vada and a lazy Sunday evening!!

A lazy Sunday evening in the winter, some hot Parippu Vada(Lentil fritters - thats the best name I could give to our good old snack from South India), a cup of hot black coffee and a nice book to read!! That would be just perfect for an evening like that.

After I clicked this I suddenly started wondering, how in the whole world did I get hold of this combination of parippu vada and kattan kapi(black coffee) as no one at my home has this habit and surprisingly I do not drink coffee/tea at any given point of time except for when having parippu vada. Like people who dip milk bikis biscuit in a piping cup of tea, I dip yummy vada in a hot cup of black coffee!! So for all who haven't had this till date, make sure you try it the next time you eat parippu vada.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup - Chana Dal (Split Bengal gram) some people use Toor dal also
  
• 1 small - Onion, finely chopped
• 3-4 - Green Chillies, finely chopped
• 1" piece - Ginger, finely chopped
• 1 sprig - Curry Leaves, finely chopped
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying
  

Method:

• Soak the chana dal (lentil) for at 2-3 hours.
  
• Strain it until the water drains off completely. Coarsely grind the lentil in a mixie. The consistency should be such that some lentils are left whole, some broken and some tiny pieces. Do not add a drop of water at any stage.
  
• Add rest all of the ingredients except oil and mix well. Check and adjust the salt content.
  
• Heat the oil in a kadhai.
• Take around 2 tbsp of the lentil mixture and make a ball out of it and then place it in the center of your palm and press it to flatten them using the other palm. The size of the vadas would be same as the center of your palm. The vadas would be at its best if you get it thin. Thicker vadas take longer to cook in the inside.
  
• When the oil is hot, gently slide the vadas into the oil and cook on medium flame till both the sides are dark golden brown. Flip when required.
  
• Remove from oil and place on kitchen napkins to drain the excess oil.
• Serve immediately with hot tea or black coffee.

Note:
Once the mixture is prepared, do not keep it for long. The ingredients in the mixture like salt and onion starts to leave water, thus making it moist and which makes it difficult to mould.

This recipe is going to participate in the "Lentils Mela"

And now its award time!! Yippeeeeeee

Hema and Varsha have passed on the Emerald Award!! Thanks a lot for considering me as a good friend of yours!!



Varsha has passed on these two awards to me again. Thanks a lot Varsha. But I am still wondering whats the purpose of my blog? ...... And I guess finally I've arrived on an answer - to virtually feed the whole world and to pass on a smile all around!

To share my happiness I would like to pass the awards on to some of my new found friends and some well deserving bloggers - Ann, Swapna, Vibaas, Soma, Nags, Mahimaa, Viki, Malluspice, Mathew, Hema and Superchef.

Easy Doughnuts

I never knew doughnuts were so easy to make until the day I saw this site and made up my mind to make it the very moment forgetting the calorie and fat content in it.

It was around 5:30 in the evening today when I started the prep, thinking that I can finish off by the time my hubby is back from work. But to my surprise I finished of my work, cleaned up the place, washed the dishes, took pictures, formatted them and now posting it at 6:30 p.m. It was that easy and just too good. Off late I haven't had such good doughnuts. It just melted away in the mouth.

I was so apprehensive about making them because I am not too good with confectionery and baking, thus ended up taking just half the quantity of ingredients. I also considered the fact that 18 doughnuts(according to the author of the recipe on allrecipes.com) would be too much for 2 of us to eat, even if it turns out to be good. I got 8 doughnuts out of this quantity. So my recipes goes like this. I also followed couple of comments mentioned by some reviewers which made the process easier.


Ingredients:

• 1.5 tbsp - Yoghurt
• 1/4 cup -Powdered sugar
• 1-2 tbsp - Butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 of an Egg
• 3 drops - Vanilla essence
• 3/4 cup - All purpose flour
• A pinch - Baking soda
• A pinch - Salt
• Oil for deep frying
• Some flour for dusting the marble
• Some sugar powder for dusting

Method:

• Cream butter and sugar in a bowl till smooth
• Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix well
• Sift the baking soda, salt and flour and keep aside
• Stir in the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture alternating it with yogurt.
• Mix and kneed well until you form a soft dough out of it.
• Clean the kitchen marble and dust it with some flour and roll the dough on to the surface in 1/3 inch thickness.
• Cut the dough using a doughnut cutter and let it stand for 10 minutes. As I did not have a doughnut cutter I used a small bowl with a sharp edge and bottle cap to get the shape. The dough which is cut from the center was collected and rolled again and cut.
• After 10 minutes, heat enough oil in a wok type utensil and fry them till golden brown on medium low flame. It wouldnot take more than a minute to fry them. Strain onto kitchen paper towels and when still warm roll them on a pile of sugar powder and dust them well. Serve immediately.

My doughnuts have become cold and hubby has still not come home. :( Guess its his bad luck!!

Aloo Poha

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - Poha / Rice flakes / Avil (thicker ones are the best)
• 1 tbsp - Oil
• 1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 2-3 - green chillies, chopped
• 1 - Onion, chopped
• 1 tsp - Turmeric powder
• 1 - Potato, diced
• 1 pinch - Sugar
• Salt to taste
• Some Coriander leaves, chopped
• 2-3 - Lemon wedges

Method:

• Put the poha into a large strainer and dip into a bowl of cold clean water. Let it remain for a minutes and take it out. Gently squeeze the water off and spread it onto a plate. This process has to be done very carefully and you should not soak it for too long as the flakes will become mushy.
• Heat a pan with oil and splutter mustard and cumin seeds. Saute in the onion and chillies. Add turmeric and potatoes and cook covered for few minutes.
• Add the soaked and drained poha, sugar and salt into the pan and mix well. If you notice that the flakes are getting dry, turn off the gas and sprinkle some water and cover it for 10 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves, onion and lemon juice.

Note: You can add any vegetable like french beans, carrot, cauliflower, green peas etc (depending upon your taste and availability) which would make it more interesting and nutritious.

Unniappam

Unniappam(when translated into English should be called baby pancakes, i guess) makes me a lot nostalgic and takes me back to my childhood days. And Iam sure the same happens to a lot more malayalis around!! Its one snack which every kid loves to eat(at least of my generation).

One day I was wondering whether the new age moms make unniappams for their kids these days or not?? The thought of unniappam being forgotten and becoming a part of history provoked me to carry a unniappam chatti (a special utensil which is used to make unniappams) to my Hyderabad home. The attempt to learn this wonderful snack and probably make it for my kids in future allured me a lot and I ended up making it with numerous calls to my mom!! And more than me it was her who wanted me to learn how to make unniappams(for sake of her future grandchildren) that she even bought and kept a non stick unniappam chatti for me this Onam!! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup – Raw Rice, soaked for 3-4 hours
• 1 cup – Jaggery, grated
• 2 Tbsp – Semolina or sooji
• 1 big – Ripe banana
• ¼ cup – Grated coconut or small pieces of coconut(Thenga kottu)
• 1 Tbsp – Ghee
• 1 Tsp – Sesame seeds, washed and drained
• Refined Oil / Ghee to fry

Method:

• Grind the soaked rice into a fine paste by adding just enough water. Blend the rice batter along with the grated jaggery. Empty the batter into a bowl, add the sooji and mashed banana and mix well. The more you mix it, the lighter it becomes and when fried it becomes more softer. Check whether its sweet enough. If not add more jaggery. Let it stand for 2-3 hours or till you see bubbles forming on top of the batter.
• Once you see the bubbles forming in the batter roast the grated/chopped coconut till golden brown. Empty the fried coconut and washed sesame seeds into the batter and mix well.
• Heat the unniappam chatti, the utensil used to make unniappam. Fill the holes with oil. Just fill only 3/4th of the hole. When oil is hot take a ladle full of batter and pour into the holes. Fry on medium heat till its golden brown. Slowly turn the unniappams and let the other side also cook. Once done remove it on to a kitchen towel to drain the excess oil.
• Repeat the process for the rest of the batter.
  

Note : This quantity of batter gave me around 20+ unniappams. Infact I lost count coz I couldnot resist and started eating them immediately. Do not store it for too many days as it tend to become harder when days pass by and chances of it going stale are high as banana is added.

Crispy Chicken & Cheese rolls

Ingredients:

• Half inch chicken cubes
• Lemon juice
• 1 egg
• Pepper
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves
• Cheese cubes
• Bread crumbs
• Oil to fry

Method:

• Marinate chicken cubes in lemon juice, egg, pepper, salt and coriander leaves mixture for half an hour
• Pierce it on to a satay stick/toothpick alternately with cheese cubes
• Dip it in the batter and roll it in bread crumbs and deep fry it
• Serve with mayo and tomato ketchup
  

Kozhakatta or Rice balls with jaggery and coconut filling

The memories of this snack goes back to my childhood days as this used to be one among those dishes which mom used to prepare for me and my bro when we used to return from school at 4 in the evening. The one thing which I enjoyed the most about it was the way I used to eat it. My first lessons of using fork and knife were practised on the hot, steaming kozhakattas.
I also remember our maid who was a christian used to make kozhakattas for their festival and used to bring for us. Her kozhakattas had a distinct flavor of fire and smoke as they used to use the verag aduppu(mud stove which is lit using wood)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup - Rice Flour
• Water
• Salt to taste
• 200 gms - Jaggery
• 200 gms - Grated Coconut
• 1 - Cardamom or Ellachi

Method:

• Boil some water in a bowl.
• In a separate bowl put the flour and salt and mix well. Now pour some boiled water and bind the flour by gently kneading it(Dont try kneading with your hands. You pour hot water. So you can first stir with a spoon and when cooled down use your hands). Knead till the dough doesnot stick to the bowl.
• In a kadhai, pour 1 cup of water and add the jaggery. Let it melt and boil. When it starts thickening, add the grated coconut and ellachi powder and mix well and stir till the water is gone from the mixture.
• Make small balls and press to flatten it into small circle and fill the jaggery-coconut mixture and close it. Perfect the ball again.
• Cook these rice flour balls on a steamer for around 10-15 minutes on medium heat.
• Serve either hot for cold.

Note: If you wish to make rice flour at home, please follow this. Wash and soak rice and spread it on clean cloth to dry. Once 90% water is dried up, grind the rice without adding water. It should not be coarse nor like maida, somehere in between. Heat a kadhai and saute this rice powder for 2 minutes on low heat. Keep stirring. This rice powder can be used for making most of the kerala delicacies like Appam, Idiyappam, Ada, Pathiri etc.