Mirchi Bajji / long bell pepper fritters / மிளகாய் பஜ்ஜி

 

Simple spicy winter comfort food. I wont forget to pack this whenever we go for swimming / beach.

 

Ingredients:

1. Mirchi  / long bell pepper - 10 nos
2. Gram flour / Besan flour / Chickpea flour - 1 cup
3. Rice flour - 6 tbs (optional) Rice flour gives a crispy coating
4. Chilli powder - 2 tbs
5. Food color (orange) - 1/2 tbs (optional)
6. Hing /Asafoetida & baking powder - 2 pinch each
7. Salt to taste
8. Cooking oil for deep frying

 Method: 

• Wash the bell peppers & cut them lengthwise into 2 equal halfs. Remove the seeds and keep it aside. If u r planning to taste the seeds too (it will be spicy), dont remove the stem portion and make few small slits with a sharp knife on every bell pepper. Otherwise mirchi ll pop while frying.
• Prepare a smooth batter with ingredients 2 to 7 by slowly adding water.
• Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.
• Dip the bell peppers one by one into the batter and gently drop from the sides of the pan for deep frying. Cook in medium flame, else the fritters ll get darken quick and the stuff inside may not be cooked. Once the bajji turns golden brown, serve hot with tomato ketch-up / fresh coconut chutney.

Chilli chicken

Sorry for a long gap.
Chilli chicken - yummy chicken recipe of south india. Goes well with rasam rice, curd rice.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken meat (boneless is prefered) - 1/2 kg
2. Fresh lemon juice - 4 tbs
3. Oil for deep frying

For marination:

1. Turmeric powder - pinch
2. Ginger garlic paste - 1 1/2 tbs
3. Chilli powder - 2 tbs
4. Garam masala - 1 tbs
5.Maida / all purpose flour - 5 tbs
6. Thick curd - 4 tbs
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil - 1 tbs
9. Mint coriander paste - 1/2 tbs

For garnishing

1. Big brown onion - 1 (sliced into circles)
2. Chopped mint and coriander leaves
3. Lemon juice - 1/2 tbs

Method:

1. Wash well and cut the chicken meat into equal cubes. Press the chicken meat with hand and squeeze out the excess water. Immediately add fresh lemon juice to chicken and mix well so that lemon juice sticks around the chicken pieces. Keep this aside for 5 mins. Adding lemon juice makes the meat tender so that the marination penetrates well into the chicken.
2. Add together and mix well the ingredients mentioned below for marination. If the mix looks watery (becoz of loose curd) add one more tbs of maida. Now marinate the chicken in this mix for atleast 3 hours.
3. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying and drop the chicken pieces. Fry well in medium flame till the chicken is coated with a crispy layer. Store the fried chicken on a tissue paper to remove excess oil. Fry the remaining chicken in batches.
4. When the chicken is hot sprinkle the lemon juice and garnish with onion and coriander leaves.
Serve hot!!!

Paruppu soup / Chettinad dal soup / Indian lentil stew

Famous soup recipe of karaikudi. Can be eaten as conventional soups by adding salt & pepper. Can be served for hot steamed rice also. In case of serving with rice, any spicy side dish could be the best combination. Healthy recipe and a good appetizer.


Ingredients:

1. Ghee - 1 1/2 tbs
2. Cooking oil - 2 tbs
3. Bay leaves - 1
4. Cinnamon stick - 2 small
5. Mustard seeds + urad daal (white lentil) - 1 tbs
6. Jeera / Cumin seeds - 1/2tbs
7. Curry leaves - 5 nos
8. Turmeric powder - pinch
9. Big brown onion - 1/2 sliced
10. Tomato - 1 sliced
11. Splited green chilies - 3 nos
12. Tuvar daal / red gram - 1 handful
13. Moong daal / splited pigeon peas - 1 handful
14. Cilantro / coriander leaves - 1/2 handful (need not chop)
15. Salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash the daal (lentil) & Soak in water for 20 mins.
2. Heat oil + ghee in a pressure cooker and add the ingredient nos from 3 to 8 together and wait till mustard seeds pops.
3. Add chopped onion + green chilies and cook till onion is trasparent. Now add tomato & saute for a min. The tomato need not get smashed.
4. Strain water completely from daal and add it into the pressure cooker. Saute well the daal in medium flame for 7 - 9 min. Stir consiously for every 2 mins. Now add the cilantro.
5. Add 3 1/2 cups of water + salt. The soup should be very watery before cooking. After the daal gets cooked, the soup will come to a eatable consistency.
6. Close the cooker lid with whistle and cook in medium flame for excatly 10 mins. The cooker need not whistle. Switch off the stove and remove from fire.
7. Open the cooker lid after the pressure goes off and sprinkle some more cilantro leaves and boil in medium flame for 2 mins.
Thats it. Delicious soup ready. Serve hot.

Bread vadai / Spicy bread fry

What to do with excess leftover bread ??? Here comes a delicious masal vadai recipe.
An indian recipe using excess bread.

Ingredients:

1. Bread slices
2. Splited chick peas - roughly 1 handful (for 1 loaf of bread 2 handful of splited peas)
3. Big brown onion - 1 finely chopped
4. Green chilli - 4 nos (finely chopped)
5. Cumin seeds / Jeera - 1 tbs
6. Curry leaves - 5 nos finely chopped
7. Hot water - 3 cups
8. Salt to taste
9. Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Soak the spilted peas in water for 45 mins.
2. Dip a bread slice into the hot water for 2 seconds (should not be more than 2 seconds) and slightly wring it, keep it aside. Similarly dip & wring all the bread slices.
3. Drain water completely from soaked splited peas and coarsely grind in a blender / mixie. Add it to the wringed bread slices.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients to the bread and mix well. Make into a soft dough.
5. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Make small balls out of the bread dough, flatten it and frying it. Flip the vadai till it is coated with a brown color in all the sides.
6. Store the fried vadai on a tissue paper to remove excess oil and serve hot with ketchup or chutney.

Chicken 65

Chicken 65 mmmm :P mouth watering deep fried spicy chicken recipe of south india. All the NV peoples of india must have tried this dish once in their life time. Well it carries lot and lots of stories.... some say the dish is prepared from 65 days old chicken.... some say 65 no of days marinating... some say year of invention of this recipe is 1965... in olden days the recipe was made with 65 different spices, this is one another story... and the final story is, the dish was prepared first in a millitary canteen where the recipe number is 65.. uff.
Delicious dish of south india, easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

For marinating

1. Chicken meat (white meat or red meat or with bones or bonesless) - 1/2 kg
2. Red chili powder - 2 1/2 tbs
3. Lemon juice - 5 tbs
4. Salt to taste
5. Thick Curd / yogurt - 5 tbs
6. Cooking oil - 1 tbs
7. All purpose flour (to observe the excess water from chicken and yogurt)/ maida - 4 tbs

For seasoning

1. Cooking oil - 1 tbs
2. Cumin seeds / jeera - 1/2 tbs
3. Saunf - 1/2 tbs
4. Mustard seeds + urad daal (white lentil) - 1/2 tbs
5. Big brown Onion - 1/2 finely chopped
6. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbs
7. Chopped cilantro - one handful
8. Salt to taste

For frying

1. Cooking oil for deep frying chicken

Method:

1. Cut the chicken into cubes and wash & strain the water completely. Squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken pieces, mix well and keep it aside. After 1 min add all other ingredients mentioned below for marinating and mix well. Marinate the chicken for 2-3 hours.
2. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying and fry the marinated chicken in batches. Store the fried chicken on a tissue paper to remove the excess oil.
3. Heat oil in a pan for seasoning, and add all the ingredients mentioned below for seasoning one by one at 30 sec interval (for ginger - garlic paste saute for 1 min extra). Add the fried chicken to this seasoning and stir for a minute.
4. Serve hot with biriyani / curd rice. Can be served as a snack also.