Sorakaya Garelu - Bottle gourd cutlets

I learnt this recipe from my dear friend Swathi...This's so easy to make and tastes so good...I made it for breakfast today...it took only 30min to prepare this from scratch..Here goes the recipe...

Ingredients:

Sorakaya/Lauki/Bottle gourd - 1 cup (grated)

Rice flour - 1 cup

Onion - 1 small (finely chopped)

Green chillies - 3 (finely chopped)

Grated ginger - 1 tsp

Chana dal - 1 tbsp (soak in hot boiling water for 5min)

Salt - to taste

Oil - 2 cups (to deep fry)

Procedure:

1. Heat the oil in a deep bottomed frying pan.

2. While the oil gets heated up, prepare the mix.

3. Take a mixing bowl, add rice flour, grated lauki, onion,green chillies, ginger, chana dal and salt.

4. Mix well to make a thick dough. DO NOT add water. Lauki itself has lots of water in it.

5. Make 10 lemon sized balls with the dough.

6. Reduce the flame to medium, wet your palms with oil and press the dough to the shape of a small pattie.

7. Carefully slide the patties into the pan.

8. Fry all the patties in batches on medium until the color turns golden brown.

9. Drain the excess oil with a tissue paper.

10. Serve hot with any chutney, they taste good on their own too.

I guess we can add grated carrot too for extra nutrition.

Microwave Puffed Rice Chat

This is similar to the Puffed Rice Upma (Maramaraalu Upma), just the Maramaraalu in this chat will be crispy where as in Upma they are made soft by soaking in water...I make this very often as an evening snack after I return from work..Can be made in a jiffy...

Ingredients:

Puffed Rice - 3 cups

Onion - 1/2 chopped finely

Green chillie - 1 chopped finely

Chana Dal - 1 tsp

Peanuts - 3 tsps

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Curry leaves - 5

Oil - 2 tsps

Salt - to taste

Method:

1. Take a microwave safe bowl. Add the oil and heat for 1 min on high.

2. Now add cumin, mustard seeds, chana dal, peanuts, curry leaves and microwave on MEDIUM for 2-3min.

3. Add the onions and Green chillies, Microwave on high for 2-3min. Onions start turning soft at this stage.

4. Add salt and puffed rice, Mix well and Serve.

You can spray lemon juice on top if you like

Note: Timings in the Microwave vary with its power specs.

This is my entry to Microwave Easy Cooking - Snacks Event hosted by Srivalli of Cooking4allseasons.

Soft Raisin Cookies for AFAM

Sunmaid raisins are my favourite snack pack for lunch whilst @ work....My foodie draw in my desk will be full of these packs always....So when I've seen Grapes as ingredients for AFAM event hosted by Swapna of Swad, Raisins first came into my mind....I had no other thought other than my alltime favourite raisin cookies...I normally buy them at stores, but now I thought I'ld bake them at home...

Then for the recipe Videojug came to my rescue...The original recipe here is for Rosemary-Raisin cookies...I've used honey in my recipe...The taste was so delicious...I made 16 cookies...and my hubby packed 12 of them to share with his colleagues...He ate 2 at home and poor me..:( was left with 2 cookies (that too shaped out ones)......takes only 20min to prepare and bake...and less than 2 min to gulp...:P

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 500gm

Raisins - 100gm
Honey - 2 tbsp

Butter - 200gm (cubed)

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 2 tbsp

Milk - 200ml

Procedure:

1. Soak the raisins in honey for 5min

2. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F

3. In a large bowl, add the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder and mix well.

4. Add the butter cubes and mix well.

5. Now add the raisins with honey and make the dough using the milk. Dough should be thick.

6. Roll out the dough into a circle of 1cm thickness and 30cm diameter.

7. Using a bottle cap or a cookie cutter, cut the large circle into small circles.

8. Grease a baking tray with little butter and place these small circles on it.

9. Bake for 5-8min. Cookies should be golden brown in color.

10. Serve with Tea

Note: The original recipe says the baking time is 15min. But my cookies were done in 6min.

So this's my entry to AFAM event hosted by Swapna of Swad

Crispy Chicken Nuggets with Tomato Soup

I missed a Barbeque party yesterday...It was arranged to celebrate our Company summer event...The venue was so far from our home and all sorts of games conducted there..'ve got no clue of them..like quad biking, Archery etc etc...and after the event there was a drink party at cardiff bay..none of these were of interest to me...So I decided to stay at home..The weather was not that good for a barbeque yesterday...So dark n gloomy...we haven't had much summer this year...and we felt very chilly all this week...looks like winter gave an early entry...hmmm

So I've got a long weekend this week...my hubby was working yesterday So I was all alone at home...whatelse other than food comes into my mind then? I wanted to make something very very hot..like a soup...I had loads of tomatoes in the fridge which were on the verge of getting soft and damaged...So my choice was tomato soup...

I make tomato soup in three different ways..One to accompany veg based fry items (Tomato soup with rasam powder), One to be served on its own (simple version with ground pepper) and the last one to accompany non-veg fried dishes (Soup with Masala spices)....I've recently come across a simple recipe for chicken nuggets on videojug...so decided to try them....

Though it was the first time I tried these nuggets, I was so happy that they tasted similar to the Mc Donalds nuggets which are one of my favourite snack items...The link to the video is here

Recipe for Tomato Soup:

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 8 (wash and cut into chunks)

Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Cinnamon stick - 1 inch broken into pieces

Cloves - 5

Pepper corns - 5

Elachi powder - 1 pinch

Salt as per taste

Ghee - 1tbsp (It tastes good only with Ghee and NOT oil)

Coriander - 2 stems

Method:

1. Boil the tomatoes in 500ml of water until soft and cool.

2. Blend the tomatoes into a puree

3. Take this puree in a pan and put it on the flame.

4. Add salt and let it come to boil.

5. In a small pan heat Ghee and toss the broken cinnamon sticks, cloves, pepper corns. Add the elachi powder and ginger garlic paste and rast for 3-4min.

6. Add this mix to the boiling soup and remove from heat.

7. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with rice and any fried item.

Recipe for Chicken Nuggets:

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts - 2 (slice off any bones, fat n skin)

All purpose flour - 2 tbsp

Eggs - 2

Bread crumbs - 2 tbsp

Salt - as per taste

Pepper - 2 tsp

Dried Basil - 2 tsp

Oil - 100ml

Method:

1. Clean and cut the chicken breasts into chunks.

2. Take these chunks into a blender and add the salt and spices (basil and pepper). Blend for a few sec until the chunks are roughly chopped.

3.Break the eggs into a bowl and beat.

4. Shape the chicken mix into small balls. Roll them in the flour

5. Dip into the egg mix.

6. Coat with bread crumbs finally.

7. Heat oil in a pan to medium hot and fry these nuggets on both sides until brown for abt 5min, turning them frequently so that they don't get burnt.

8. Serve hot.

These chicken nuggets are my favourite snacks and hence this is my entry to What's your Favourite Snack, WYF event hosted by Hima of SnackORama

Wheat Crackers/Biscuits whatever...

I love the sleek, round, flavoured crackers/savoury biscuits we see in the super markets...onion,garlic,chilli flavours and many more...I'm not sure how they are made..But I happened to see a pack labelled as baked wheat crackers...They tasted sooooooo good...I googled for a recipe and found a very similar one here


The Original version appeared to be very simple and the pictures were damn perfect..Please don't compare my pics with those..:(...I was on the phone with one of my friends in India and ended up with not so nice looking crackers..But I loved the taste...I slightly made some modifications according to the ingredient availability...fiber filled, low fat evening snack...Here goes the recipe..




Ingredients:

Wheat Flour - 1.5 cups
All purpose flour - 0.5 cup
Onion - 1 medium sized - chopped
Green chillies - 4 - chopped
Garlic - 2 pods - crushed
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp - adjust
Oil - 1 tsp

Procedure:

1. Take the chopped onions, green chillies, crushed garlic in a blender and grind to a paste without adding water.
2. Add the salt to this mixture and set aside for a few min.
3. Mix the wheat flour, all-purpose flour, cumin seeds and the onion/chilli/garlic paste and make a dough. Water released from onions is sufficient to prepare the dough. Do not add extra water.
4. Pat some oil on the dough and set aside for 30min
5. Make thin chapathi like circles with the dough using a rolling pin.
6. Cut these circles into desired shapes. I used the cap of a pickle bottle to cut.
7. Make dimples on the crackers using a fork.
8. Grease a baking sheet with oil and place these crackers on the sheet.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 250C
10. Bake for 8min in the oven and then turn the crackers to the other side.
11. Bake for another 5min.
12. Enjoy with your favourite beverage. I had them with ginger tea :D

Stuffed Green Chillies/Mirapakaya Bajji with heavenly Tulsi/Basil Tea

If I recollect the golden era of my college days in Vijayawada and try to post them, Mirapakaya Bajjis and Punugulu (Urad dal dumpings) must and shld be dedicated a seperate post... We were a group of 7 girls in our hostel...we used to call ourselves as 7 stars or Dhruvatharalu...kikiki....

Chandu - Bakki n Beauty
Swapna and Me - Gundoos and foodie buffs
Jyothi - Would be Gundoo n Calm
Anitha - Our Heroine
Basu - Monkey
Malathi - Silent n Strict..

Every evening we used to take turns (2 girls on each day)and go to the nearby snacks centre directly from the classes and buy all these stuff.....Mirchi bajji, egg bonda, punugulu and pappundalu (peanut balls)...the other 5 will be eagerly waiting in the hostel...we all then share our qunatities (obviously lion's share to the foodie buffs in the batch) and relish every bite of it, whilst gossipping about the lecturers, guys, movies what not? I wish we all could meet after 10 or more years at some place and share these precious moments again....Miss you all darlings...These bajjis are for you (naaluge chesaanu 7 members ki ela ani already doubt vachesindi kadaa...kikiki...share chesukundamle)

Ok coming to the present...as soon as Suman left to India I started roaming in the city centre...I bid him send off in the bus station and without returning to home I went to the city centre to do some bewaars (useless) shopping...I found the long green chillies (for stuffing) in Tesco....So I thought I'ld make these bajjis...The recipe is very simple...I followed our Hyderabadi girl Cinnamon's Recipe, except that I added sesame seeds and dessicated coconut for stuffing...avoided boiling of green chillies too...Mrs Lazy Bones...that's me...hehehehe..



Ingredients:

Besan/Gram Flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 2 tsp
Green chillies - 4 (make a slit length-wise and carefully remove the seeds, if you don't you'll have to enjoy the pleasure of burning your tongue :P)
Baking Soda - 1 pinch
Salt - to taste
Ajwain seeds - 1/2 tsp
Peanuts - 1 table spoon (dry roast them and grind to a smooth powder)
Sesame seeds - 1 table spoon (dry roast and grind to a smooth powder)
Dessicated coconut - 1 table spoon
Tamarind juice - 1 table spoon
Oil - for frying
Onion - 1 small - chopped finely
Lemon slices - 2

Procedure:

1. Mix the Gram flour, rice flour, ajwain seeds, salt and baking soda in a bowl using water to make a smooth batter. Should be of thick consistency
2. Mix the peanut powder, sesame seeds powder, dessicated coconut, salt with tamarind juice and make a thick paste.
3. Stuff the green chillies with this paste.
4. Heat Oil in a deep bottomed Pan and when the oil is piping hot, turn the flame to medium.
5. Dip this stuffed chillies in the flour batter and drop carefully in the Oil.
6. Fry them until golden brown and place on a tissue to absorb the excess oil.
7. Again make a slit length-wise on these bajjis and stuff the onion pieces and sprinkle some lemon juice.
8. Serve HOT

Tulsi/Basil Tea:

I learned to make this tea from my Aunt in Hyderabad..Very aromatic and tasty beverage.All you need to do is immerse a tea bag and few fresh basil leaves in boiling water and leave for a min. Remove the leaves n tea bag and add a few drops of lemon juice and honey. Mix well and enjoy it with your favourite evening snack.

Masala Vada...Left overs can be converted to a delicious curry

Masala Vada/Gaare...when you look at this name what do you think of? Well, before I tasted them, I used to imagine that they are normal Garelu with some masala paste added to them...But this recipe is like our Mysore Bonda with no Mysore in it...:D...It has no ingredients other than ginger to be called as Masala......then where did this name come from?????
I dunno....:(...Masala vada is a famous evening snack in Nellore, my hometown, which is very close to Tamilnadu...and this recipe has been adapted from TamilNadu cuisine(Source of info - Nellore VRC centre daggara mobile-canteen vala)...Just like the punugulu in Krishna Dt, Mirchi Bajji in Hyderabad, So is the Masala vada in Nellore...

Also from Sharmi's first post, I came to know its Tamil name - Parupu Vadai (Parupu is pappu I guess, since we make it with Chana dal pappu, it might have been named like that)..Sharmi, please if you happen to see this post let me know if I am wrong in interpreting its meaning...



Ok then..without much story telling I'll post the recipe..But haaa...I have one more thing to say...In Nellore you'll also find a recipe called Masala vadalu pulusu...these Masala vadalu cooked in tamarind sauce...My mom never made this, but I tasted it in many of my friends' houses...Left over masala vadalu can be used for this recipe...Ok now...end of introduction...

Ingredients:

Chana Dal - 2 cups (soak in hot water for 30min and drain)
Onion pieces - 1/2 cup
Green Chillies - 4 (chopped)
Ginger - 1 inch piece (chopped)
Curry leaves - 6-8
Salt - as per taste
Oil - to fry

Procedure:

1. Grind the Chana dal to a semi-ground textured paste (do not add water, if at all it is difficult to grind, add little water)
2. Now add the onion pieces, chopped green chillies, ginger pieces, curry leaves and salt and grind for just 2-4sec. Do not grind them for long.
3. Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadai. When oil is piping hot, reduce the flame to medium high
4. Make patties with the ground paste on your palm and drop them carefully in the oil.
5. Deep fry them and place on a tissue for the excess oil to be absorbed.

Serve hot/warm/cold however you like...crispy, tasty masala vadalu ready....:D.....you do not need any chutney with this...they taste well on their own...

The story doesn't end here. As I told you, the left overs can be used for a gravy curry...




Ingredients:

Masala vadalu - 6-8 (left overs)
Onion - 1 sliced
Tomato - 1 cut into chunks
Tamarind pulp - 1 table spoon
Water - 2 cups
Salt - as per taste
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

For tadka/popu,

Oil - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 5-8

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a wide pan, when the oil is hot add fenugreek, cumin and mustard seeds.
2. When the mustard seeds start to splutter add the curry leaves
3. Now add the onions and saute them till transperent
4. Add the turmeric powder and mix well
5. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2min.
6. Add the salt and Red chilli powder and mix well.
7. Now add the tamarind paste and water and stir well.
8. Cook on medium flame until the gravy/sauce starts to boil.
9. Then add the masala vadalu and simmer for 3-5min.
10. Switch off and close the pan with a lid. Let the masala vadalu soak well (30min) and absorb the tamarind flavour before serving.



Serve warm with hot steamed rice.

Protein Punch - Bean Burgers

I don't remember how I fell in love with North Indian recipes..But whenever we go to a restaurant, all others who accompany me 'll be looking at the South Indian dishes in the menu, but I always used to select some North Indian dish...Rajma (kidney beans) is one of my favourite ingredient...I used to make Rajma pulav during my stay in US...My roomies also loved Rajma so I used to cook it almost 2-3 times in a month...But after getting married I hardly cook Rajma...the reasons are obvious..My hubby has a bitter aversion towards any kind of beans/peas...Kidney beans, Chick peas (Gorbanzo beans), Butter beans, Lima beans...A big NO to all of them....

I purchased Rajma, Chick peas and Green peas last month...I somehow wanted to make him eat these...But the moment he observes me cooking any of these he'ld say that he's not hungry and he'll have just some curd rice...So I decided to cook them without his notice...Yesterday I came back home early and soaked all these together...This morning he was a lion as usual, while I made burgers out of these beans and served them for breakfast...He asked me what burgers are those, I replied him "Veggie Burgers"...He might have taken it fot granted that they were made out of potato/corn flour...the usual veggie burger stuff...He had a bite and then asked me what are these...I again repeated "Veggie Burgers, Veggie Burgers, Veggie Burgers"...He ate silently and after his breakfast asked me how I made them..I explained....He said he liked the taste, but that he cannot eat them very frequently (he thought I'ld use this trick every week now)and no more comments from his side...



I liked the taste a lot, no starchy ingredients, less oil, less fuss...We had them sandwiched with rotis and tomato sauce...They just look like normal veggie burgers, can be served within a burger bun as usual...




Ingredients:

Rajma (kidney beans) - 1 cup
Chick peas (Gorbanzo beans) - 1/2 cup
Green Peas - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 large - sliced
Green Chillies - 5 - chopped
Coriander - 3 to strips - cleaned and cut
Salt - as per taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Corn flour - 1 tbsp
Oil - To pan fry the burgers

Procedure:

1. Soak the kidney beans, chick peas, green peas together over night.
2. Pressure cook with water and salt. Let them cool. Drain all the water.
3. Take the onion slices, green chillies and coriander, turmeric powder into a blender and make a paste.
4. Now add these drained beans,peas and blend together.
5. Add cornflour to this mixture to make a thick paste.
6. Heat a pan and take a spoon full of this paste and spread like a burger pattie.
7. Add few drops around the pattie and roast for about 3-5min on each side. You can cook 2-4 patties at a time depending on the size of the pan. Take care that it's cooked well inside too.

Serve them with burger buns, salad and ketch up/mayo....can be served with chapatis too..my preference (as I love chapatis a lotttttt)....

Coco-Jag-wheat pancakes - Theepi atlu

I made wheat dosa with Jaggery and coconut last weekend. I dunno how to name it....It tasted good and was a very quick n easy recipe.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1-2 table spoons (grated) - adjust according to your taste

Coconut - 1 table spoon (grated)

Cardamon Pods - 2 (make fine powder frm the seeds)

Water

Oil - 1 tea spoon

Method:

Apart from the oil, mix all the above ingredients to a batter consistency. Heat Pan and pour one ladle full of batter on the pan. Spread it to 10-15cm diameter on the pan with the back of ladle. Add few drops of oil to the ends of the pancake/dosa. Once it gets heated turn over and heat the other side too. Serve warm.

Tripple Dhamaka with Sweetcorn

It's my turn now...I chose sweetcorn for today's cooking...I made a paste with sweetcorn, ginger, garlic and green chillies and made 3 different kinds of recipes...

Ingredients for the paste:

Sweetcorn - 750gm

Ginger - 3/4th inch piece

Garlic - 4 pods

Salt - 1 tea spoon

Green chillies - 3-4

Method:

Take all the above ingredients in a blender and grind it to a smooth paste. Do not add water. The paste looks like this.

Recipe 1 : Sweetcorn cutlets - Mokkajonna chitti garelu

Take a plastic sheet, wet your hands with little oil and make small lemon sized balls with the above paste and shape them into small cutlets. Heat Oil in a wok and when the oil is hot enough, turn to low flame and fry these cutlets until golden brown. Place on a tissue paper so that the excess oil gets absorbed. Serve hot with tomato sauce.

Recipe 2: Sweetcorn-onion fritters - Mokkajonna Ulli Pakodi

Slice one onion length-wise and mix the onion pieces in the above sweetcorn paste. Once the onion pieces are well coated with the paste fry them on medium flame in the oil. Serve hot with tea as a snack.

Recipe 3: Sweetcorn Roti - Mokkajonna chapathi

Mix the above paste with one tablespoon wheat flour and make the dough. Make lemon sized balls out of this dough and using a rolling pin, make the rotis. Heat the pan. Coat these rotis with few drops of oil and cook them on the pan until brown spots appear. These rotis have a subtle sweet taste because of the sweetcorn. They can be served on their own or accompained by any curry.

Here ends my sweetcorn saga...My next dhamaka ingredient would be green peas..hehehehe...I'll come up with those recipes in a few weeks time...

Pappu Chekkalu...grandma's recipe

My grandmother is from a place called diviseema in Krishna Dt. As far as I know people of the coastal Andhra are great food lovers and we are no exception to this. Granny used to make loads and loads of sweets and savoury snacks for us when we visited her during our summer holidays. Not only during the holidays, whenever a person from her village comes to our hometown Nellore, she sends two jute bags fully filled with these food items. Now even at the age of 80years, she tries to cook many of these items and send to her children n grandchildren. God knows where all the energy comes from...

I can never ever compete with her cooking skills, but I often try this recipe of pappu chekkalu at home. Surprisingly, they usually come out very well. This is the only recipe out of her list that I can make well. I do not make them in large scale. Just 10 or 20 is the max count.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 2 cups

Besan (split peas flour) - 1 table spoon

Chana dal - 1 table spoon (Soak in hot water for 10min and drain)

Onion - 1 small (cut into tiny pieces)

Green chillies - 5 (chopped)

Cumin seeds - 2 tea spoons

Ghee - 2 table spoons

Salt

Oil (for deep frying)

Method:

Except the oil (for deep frying) mix all the above ingredients and make a dough. Cover the dough with a wet kitchen towel and set aside for 30min. Take a plastic sheet rub oil into the hands. Make lemon sized balls out of the dough and flatten with the fingers as shown in the picture. Heat Oil in a deep frying pan. When the oil is piping hot fry these flattened pieces in batches until crisp/gold brown. After frying them place on a tissue paper to absorb the oil. These can be stored in an air tight container for 3-4 days.

Ghee, oil, deep fry..these words are alarming, but less alarming when compared to the junike fries and fast food ;).