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.

Modhakam - Ganesha chadhurthi special

Ganesha chadhurthi - Birthday of Lord Vinayaka.

Modhakam - Considered to be the favourite dish of Lord Ganesha. Hope kids will like this dish very much...

Ingredients:

1. Rice flour - 1 cup

2. Channa dal / Kadala paruppu - 1/2 cup

3. Finely chopped fresh coconut - 1/2 cup

4. Grated Jaggery - 1/2 cup

5. Ghee - 1/2 tbs

6. Salt - as required

7. Cardomom powder - pinch

Method:

1. Wash & soak the channa dal in water for 30 mins and half cook it in 1 cup of water. Drain water completely & Use this drained water for making the dough later. Grind the half cooked channa with a pinch of cardamom powder & keep this aside.

2. Heat 1/2 tbs ghee in a pan and saute the chopped coconut in it.

3. Now add all the ingredients together and make a soft dough out of it. Use the water drained from channa for making the dough.

4. Make small balls from the dough and cook in steam (idly maker) for 10 mins. Serve hot.

Rava paniyaram / Semolina deep fried sweet bread

Its Gokulastami today - Birthday of lord krishna.

This is a sweet recipe. Maximum cooking time is 30 mins. Can be served as a snack. I used to prepare this recipe for Gokulastami.

Ingredients:

1. Semolina / Rava - 1 cup

2. Maida / All purpose flour - 1/2 cup

3. Baking soda - pinch

4. Jaggery - 3/4 cup (can use powdered sugar also)

5. Cardamom powder - pinch

6. Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Soak all the ingredients with 1 cup water for 20 mins (there should be no excess water after soaking).

2. Beat well the soaked ingredients into a thick batter shown below.

3. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Scoop up the batter and pour into the oil one by one. Fry till all sides are golden brown. Serve hot :P

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!!!

Ribbon pakoda

South indian snack recipe in the shape of ribbon. Crispy and medium spicy. This dish very famous in my hometown karaikudi. Quick and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

1. Rice flour - 1 cup
2. Kadalai mavu / Gram flour / Besan flour - 1/2 cup
3. Perungayam / Hing /Asafoetida - 2 pinch
4. Butter - 1/2 tbs
5. Red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tbs (adjust as per ur choice)
6. Salt to taste
7. Cooking oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Add all the ingredients together except oil and make a soft dough out of it by sprinkling water.
2. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Take a small ball of dough and sqeeze it using a idiyappam press (use ribbon pakoda mould instead of idiyappam mould) into the oil for deep frying. Flip and cook the pokada for 2 mins on each side (the cooking time is totally 4 mins only). Remove from oil and store on a tissue paper to remove excess oil sticking to it.
3. Complete the remaining dough in the same way in batches.
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.

Crispy ulundu vadai / Urad daal vada / Crispy indian donuts

Vadai is a most popular & healthy snack recipe of south india. Usually served with breakfast (Idli / pongal / Dosa). Coconut chutney or sambhar could be a prefect combination for this recipe. Can be served with yogurt and spices, then it is called dahi vada. Perfect winter comfort food and simple to prepare.

Ingredients:

1. Ulundhu / Urad daal (whole white lentil) - 1 cup

2. Big brown onion - 3/4 finely chopped

3. Green chili - 3 nos finely chopped

4. Cilantro / coriander leaves - 1/2 handful finely chopped

5. Asafeotida / hing - pinch

6. Salt to taste

7. Curry leaves - 6 nos finely chopped

Method:

1. Wash and soak the urad daal for 3 hours (1 - 1 1/2 hours is also enough). Wash the soaked urad daal and strain water completely. Grind the urad daal with salt & hing into a tight batter. Add 2 tbs of water for ease of grinding. Do not add water more than that.

2. To the batter add onion, green chili, cilantro and mix well.

3. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Drop small balls of batter into the oil. Stir with a slotted laddle so that the batter ball will be coated with golden brown color in all the sides. Intially while dropping the ball the oil bubbles, cook till it settles. Once the bubble settles, take out the vada with a slotted laddle. Store the vada on a tissue paper for few seconds to strain the oil. Serve hot with chutney or ketch up or sambhar.

Tip:- Make the batter into donut shapes instead of balls. That is the traditional way. I am bit lazy... so made into balls... :P

Cabbage pakora / Indian vegetable crisp

Cabbage Pakora / Indian vegatable crisp is deep fried vegetables dipped in gram flour. Most versatile snack recipe of india, can be combined with anything meat or vegetable. Can be served as an appetizer also.
A perfect winter comfort food. Mmmm its very cold outside naa... Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1. Gram flour / Besan flour / Chickpea flour - 1 cup or 250 grams
2. Red chili powder - 1/2 tbs
3. Salt to taste (or 3 pinch)
4. Hing / asafoetida - pinch
5. Cilantro / coriander leaves - 1/2 handful (washed and chopped)
6. Big brown onion - 1 roughly chopped
7. Cabbage - 1/4 roughly chopped (choose ur choice of vegetables mushroom, cauliflower, spinach, chicken, paneer etc.,)
8. Green chili - 2 nos chopped (optional)
9. Cooking oil for deep frying

Method (cooking time is hardly 30 mins)

1. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.
2. In a big vessel mix all the ingredients by sprinkling water slowly. The batter should be very tight. The batter need not cover the vegetables, sticking around the vegetables is enough. 3. Sprinkle the mixture into the oil from a little height. The oil bubbles initially, wait till it settles. Flip with a slotted ladle and wait till the bubbling settles. Strain the oil and remove from fire. Store the pakora on a tissue paper and serve hot.