Crunchy evening snack

I dont make deep fried snacks often and my first kiddo was asking me for Karthigai vadai one evening. It was quite late in the evening, so i didnt want to make it. But, since my kids rarely ask for something, i made this, as this is quick to put together. They both loved it.  My cousin Aruna used to make this. She used to make this with wheat flour. I added besan (chick pea flour) for some extra protein. I dont know if it really matters when it comes to deep fried snacks, but i try :)


Ingredients :

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Besan / Chickpea flour - 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Hing
Turmeric powder (optional)
Curry leaves (optional)

Method :

Mix all the ingredients well. Add water little by little and keep kneading till you get a pliable dough.
Divide them into small  pieces and roll them into rotis. Now poke them with fork so they dont puff up when you deep fry. Cut them into small pieces and deep fry.

Curry leaves and/or chopped methi leaves/spinach can be added to the dough.

Healthy Masala Peanuts (Microwave)

This recipe is adapted from Mallika Badrinath's microwave recipes book. My husband and my mil both love this. As it is low fat and rich in protein, i make it often as evening snack.




Roasted unsalted peanuts - 1 cup

Besan / Chickpea flour - 4 spoons

Redchilli powder - 1 spoon

Salt to taste

Hing - a pinch

Oil - 2 spoons

Water - few spoons

In a ceramic bowl, heat a spoon of oil in microwave for a minute. Add the roasted peanuts and heat it again for a minute or two. Make sure it is not burnt. Add besan, redchilli powder, salt, hing, another spoon of oil and mix well. Sprinkle some water to make sure the peanuts are coated well with this besan mix. Heat them in microwave till they are crispy. Heat in small intervals to cook them uniformly. Stir occasionally. Enjoy with a hot cup of tea :)

Low Fat Banana Bread

I am not a big fan of banana, but i like it if it is given in the form of Banana nut bread :) Another good thing about this is, it is a quick bread - no yeast, no waiting. Perfect for people like me! :)

I adapted this recipe from Joyofbaking. I reduced the sugar and oil and it was still perfect. A little bit of guilt free eating there!







Ingredients :
Ripe bananas - 2
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Low fat Yogurt - 1/2 c
Canola oil - 1/4C (Original 1/2 C)
Sugar - 1/2 C (Original 3/4 C)
Egg - 1 (Sorry didnt find a good eggless recipe!)
Flour - 1.5 C (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Salt - a pinch



Method :

1. Mash banana with fork and mix baking soda and Yogurt to it.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk oil, sugar and egg.

3. Combine 2 with 1.

4. Add flour, Baking powder, Salt and mix well. Transfer the mix to a bread loaf pan and bake it at 350F for 45-55 minutes.


You can add walnuts to it. Mine has a handful of chopped walnuts in it.

Karthigai Vadai

My mil makes this vada for Karthigai (Festival of lights) every year. I was at my inlaws during the first Karthigai and i saw my mil and her sisters make this vada. It is a delicious combination of Medhu vada and Daal vada :-) When she was here last time i made it with her help and it was quite easy to make. So, i decided to follow the family tradition and do it from this Karthigai and it came out very well. My husband and my boys loved it and i hope you like it too :)

Ingredients



Urad daal 1.5 cups

Channa daal 0.5 cup

Red chillies 6

Hing 1 small spoon

Curry leaves - a handful

Green chillies - 3 (optional)

Salt to taste

Cilantro - a handful (optional)



Method :



Soak 1/2 cup of urad daal and 1/2 cup of channa daal together in water for 1 hour. Remove the water and let the daal dry in a clean, dry cloth or paper towel. Now, soak the 1 cup urad daal for 1 or 2 hours. Grind the urad daal with redchillies and little water. If you are going to add green chillies later, reduce the redchillies. 3 or 4 should do. Grindt to the consistency of medu vada batter. To this batter, add salt and add the dried daal mix, chopped green chillies, curry leaves and cilantro and mix well.

Take a pan and heat oil for deep frying. Shape the batter into vadas and deep fry till golden brown. The addition of the daal mix makes it very delicious. Perfect with hot tea on a cold rainy day :)

Onion Methi Pakora

I saw this in t.v. The chef said it was chennai style pakoras, so i had to try that immediately :) I modified the original recipe with whatever ingredients i had with me at that time. It was good and i never tried the original recipe after that. The original recipe had a mashed potato and cilantro in it. I substituted cilantro with methi leaves as i love the slight bitterness it gives and i skipped potato.


Ingredients :

Onion - 1 large
Methi - 1 small bunch
Turmeric powder - 1/2 spoon
Hing - 1/2 spoon
Red chilly powder - 1 spoon
Besan -1/2 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Ghee - 1 spoon
Oil to deep fry

Method :

Finely chop onions and methi leaves. Mix salt, chilli powder and hing and set it aside for few minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil for deepfrying. When it is ready, add the besan and rice flour to the onion methi mix. Add the ghee and sprinkle the water and mix them well. I used little water (about 1/4 cup only) and the mix was just damp and crumbly. Now drop small pieces of the mix into oil and fry till they are golden brown. It was really too good :)

Enjoy with a cup of tea on a rainy day!

Kunukku - Fritters with Adai batter

I made this when i had some guests for dinner. It was very good and fairly easy. Frying part was time consuming and boring as with any other deep fried stuff :))

Ingredients :

Rice - 1 cup
Channa daal - 1/2 cup
Toor Daal - 1/2 cup
Red chillies - 10
Hing - 1/2 spoon
Salt to taste

Method :

Wash and soak rice, channa daal and toor daal for couple of hours. Add redchillies, hing, salt and grind with very little water. Pat them into small discs and deep fry in oil till they are golden brown. The oil should be between medium and medium high. If it is too high, the inside of the vadas will remain uncooked.

Everyone loved it,especially my first son and my husband.

Note : You can add chopped onions and cilantro if you want. I didn't add onions as i made these on a saturday. Also, you dont have to shape them like vadas, you can just drop the batter with spoon. Taste is what matters, right? :-)

Mani Kozhakkatai / Ammini Kozhakkatai

Lot of people call this Ammani kozhakkatai and i find that name funny, so i will stick to what we call it at home. Mani means beads and they kinda looks like beads and my grandpa's nickname was mani, so i like it this way :-) This is my favorite snack and it's healthy too.

My grandma and mom used to make it with remaining dough after making Modakams and Uppu Kozhakkatai for Vinayaka Chaturthi. It was my favorite so i used to ask my grandma to make it frequently for us as evening snack and i used to help her in rolling those mani kozhakkatais. When i shared my memory with my first son, he got all excited and said he wants to roll it too and he helped me with it. With that, we also invited some trouble. My little one wanted to join the fun and as we were rolling the kozhakkatais, he was busy squashing them and making them flat. We still managed to make a decent no. of kozhakkatais and both my boys loved it. I have decided to make it often as evening snacks for them.

For the dough :
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt - as required
Red chilli powder - 1 spoon (optional)
Oil - 1 spoon
To grind :
Urad daal - 1/2 cup
Green chillies - 3
Hing - a pinch
For the seasoning :
Mustard seeds, hing, urad daal and curry leaves.

Method :

Dough :
Boil water. Reduce the heat and add the rice flour, salt and oil and stir till you get the dough like consistency. Remove from heat, cover and let it cool. Apply oil to your hands, add the redchilli powder and knead well. Now roll the dough into small balls. Steam them in Idly cooker or Pressure cooker without the weight for 7-10 minutes.
For Mani kozhakkatais,
Soak urad daal for about an hour. Grind it into thick paste with greenchillies and hing.
Place this paste in idli plates and steam for 10 minutes. Once it cools, crumble it.
Heat little oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing. Once the mustard seeds pop, add a spoon of urad daal and fry till golden brown and add the crumbled urad daal mix and salt and saute for couple of minutes or till well cooked. I like it when they are brown and have the roasted look and cook till i get that. Add the mani kozhakkatais and mix well and cook for another minute or two. This was an instant hit with my kids.

Sending this to Srivalli's Kid's Delight

Navarathri Wishes and Sundal Recipes

Happy Navarathri to y'all. I am so surprised that i'm posting this on time ;-)
Ok ok let me tell you the truth...these recipes were in my draft since last navarathri!! :-O
Better late than never..

Navarathri always brings some good memories. My dad's house they did not have golu so my mom followed that and did not keep Golu till my niece was born :-) For those who do not know what a Golu is, check this link. This 3D Golu is something new. Usually it is just 2D. My mil keeps Golu every year, so i follow that tradition and keep a teeny tiny Golu here. I dont have any golu dolls here and i just use the ones i have and set up a small golu.


My childhood friend R lived across our house and they celebrated Navarathri in a grand way. She used to wear Pattu pavadai everyday and her mom dressed her li'l sister as Krishna, Radha etc., everyday. I came home one day and threw a huge fit that we should have golu at our house too and i want to wear Pattu pavadai (Full skirt in pure silk) everyday too. My mom and grandma were surprised because i never liked pavadais. The next year they setup Golu at our house too and i was quite happy and satisfied and didn't care to ask after that. We never continued that tradition though due to one reason or the other.At our house, we celebrated Saraswathy pooja in a grand way. I always got some new outfit for Saraswathy pooja and my mom would decorate a arisi padi like a woman. She had nose and ears made out of wax and she would attach it every year to the padi and draw eyes with kajal and draw lips (not sure if she used lipstick or kumkum) and then fill the padi with rice and keep coconut on top of it like head and decorate it with chutti. I loved watching that. She had earrings attached to the wax ears and would put some necklace or chain too. It was a pretty sight. She used to invite all our relatives and neighbours for tambulam. It is a tradition in tamilnadu, to ask the guests to sing during navarathri. It can be an enjoyable experience or a torture depending on who sings ;-) My brother always stayed out of it... Me and my cousin V (who is a great singer) always made the best out of it..If it was good, we enjoyed it and if it was bad, it was no torture for us..we both would run to the next room and giggle to our hearts' content, much to the annoyance of my mom and grandma :D But, what we hated was, every house we visited they would make sure to take revenge on us and asked us to sing too. I was not as good at singing as my cousin,but i did pretty good when i sang with him. So, i hope no one ran inside and laughed at us :-) My cousin used to hate me for this for years because i always used to force him to go with me as i was scared to sing alone :) You can check out how talented he is here

Along with these things, navarathri always meant sundal. Sundal is a healthy snack for kids, rich in protein and very filling.I make it quite often at home. Here are three sundals and all sundals are made pretty much the same way except one that is sweet and i cannot stand it and i have never made it.. :-)

Here are some recipes with slight variations :
Quick fix Sundal :
If i forget to soak for sundal the previous night channa daal or peanuts come to my rescue. I prepare both sundals the same way.

Ingredients :
Channa daal or Peanuts - 1 cup
Green chillies - 3 or 4
Salt
Mustard seeds,
Urad daal, Curry leaves and Hing for seasoning

Method : Soak channa daal or peanuts for 1 hour. Boil it in water till it is cooked but not mushy. (Add salt in water for Peanuts)Drain the water. In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds. Add urad daal, hing and curry leaves and fry till the daal is golden brown. Add the cooked channa or Peanuts and add salt as required and saute for couple of minutes.

Thenga Manga Pattani Sundal or Marina Beach Sundal:

I love peas sundal, the Marina beach style - with coconut and raw mango pieces.
Ingredients :
Peas - 1 cup
Green chillies - 3 or 4
SaltRaw mango pieces - as required
Grated coconut - 4 spoons.
Mustard seeds, Urad daal, Curry leaves and Hing for seasoning

Method : Soak the peas overnight. Add a spoon of salt in water and boil the peas in water till it is cooked but not mushy. Drain the water. In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds. Add urad daal, hing and curry leaves and fry till the daal is golden brown. Add the cooked Peas and add salt as required and saute for couple of minutes. Add grated coconut and raw mango pieces and mix well and saute for another minute.

(Channa) Chickpeas Sundal - Method 1 :

Method 1 is same method as above. Substitute Peas with Channa, but you can pressure cook the channa in salted water.Rest is the same. You can add some grated coconut. It is optional.

Chickpeas Sundal - Method 2 :

Ingredients : Chickpeas - 1 cup

Green chillies - 3 or 4

Salt

Curry powder - 2 spoons

Mustard seeds,

Urad daal,

Curry leaves and Hing for seasoning

Method : Soak the chickpeas overnight. Add a spoon of salt in water and pressure cook the chickpeas. Drain the water. In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds. Add urad daal, hing and curry leaves and fry till the daal is golden brown. Add the cooked chickpeas and add salt as required and saute for couple of minutes. Add 2 spoons of curry powder and saute till the raw smell disappears. This is very spicy and yum and my favorite version :)

Salsa Verde / Green Salsa

I had this first at a local mexican restaurent when i went for a team lunch. Till then, i didn't even know such a thing existed :-) I like this better than the regular salsa.

When i searched in the internet for this i saw different recipes with different methods - cooked, uncooked, pureed, chopped and also with different list of ingredients. As usual, i picked the one with lesser number of ingredients and i did not want to go with the uncooked version. After all the salmonella scare, i dont feel comfortable to eat anything uncooked :) I didn't note down the recipe (lazy me!) and i didn't follow the recipe exactly, so ended up with a watery salsa. I sauteed the tomatillos instead of roasting or boiling and i think that's the reason why i ended up with a watery salsa.

Ingredients :

Tomatillos - 6
Onion - 2 (chopped)
Cilantro - 1 small bunch
lemon juice - 1 spoon or as required
Salt
Serrano peppers - 2 or more



Method :

Boil the tomatillos for 10 minutes. Let it cool. Chop them and pulse them in a processor along with the chopped onions, peppers and cilantro. Add salt and lemon juice (you can skip lemon juice if the tomatillos are very sour).
Tastes great with tortilla chips or the healthier, baked pita chips (seen in picture). Here is a picture of tomatillos, if you are not familiar with it.

I am sending this to Vaishali's IAVW : Mexican
I am also sending this to Sanghi's Fall In Luv : Tomato

Strawberry Milkshake and MW Chivda with cereal

Strawberry Milkshake :

I made it the way my husband makes it, by adding whipping cream. It really makes a big difference. Milkshake tastes very creamy and yummy and we all love it. When i started typing this my son Ashu came and asked me to mention that it's yummier than the strawberry lassi :-)



Ingredients

Strawberries - 10
Milk - 1.5 cups
Whipping cream - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 2 spoons
Honey - 1 spoon

This is the first time i am using honey in a milk shake so i started with a small quantity and it was good. I am thinking of using just honey the next time i make it. The strawberries weren't too sweet, so i used 2 spoons of sugar.

Chop the strawberries and blend it with little milk. Add honey, sugar, whipping cream and rest of the milk and blend it well. Serve chilled.

Just for the picture, i topped it with some whipped cream and by the time i got to taking pictures, it started spreading and created a wierd texture on top of the milkshake :(

I am sending this to FIC Pink hosted by Priya. FIC event was originally started by Harini.

Microwave Chivda with cereal:


Here's another entry for Priya...This time a savory snack that's healthy too .

This is similar to the MW Chivda. Instead of sending the old recipe, i made some changes to it and am sending this for Priya's MEC : Savory Snacks, originally started by Srivalli.

Ingredients :

Rice flakes (Thin) - 1 cup
Green chillies - 3
Corn flakes - 1/2 cup
Blanched almonds - 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon
Oil - 2 spoons
Red chilli powder - a pinch
Salt to taste

Method :

1. Spread the blanched almonds in a microwave safe plate.
2. Sprinkle a pinch of red chilli powder and some salt.
3. Sprinkle few drops of oil and mix well and spread it again
4. Microwave for 3 minutes - Stirring in between every minute.
5. Let it cool.
6. Take a microwave safe bowl, add 2 spoons of oil, finely chopped chillies, a pinch of turmeric powder and cumin seeds.
7. Microwave for 45 seconds, stir and repeat for another 45 seconds to 1 min. By now, the chillies should look fried.
8. Add the rice flakes (poha) and salt and mix well. Microwave for 3 minutes, stirring in between every minute.
9. Add the cereal - i used honey bunches of oats since i didn't have cornflakes. It had mild sweet taste, but was good. Microwave it for 2 minutes, stirring once in between.
10. Remove and add the roasted spicy almonds and mix well.

Enjoy with a hot cuppa chai :D

I am also sending the chivda to :

1. JZ's Let's go nuts with Almonds

2. PJ's Tasty bytes for toddlers

Entry for Click n Kids favorites with Dates and Almonds

Let me start with my entry for Click, an event that makes me put in some effort to take nice photographs :D
I love this simple wooden salad bowl and thought of taking a pic with it. You can find the cabbage salad recipe here.

Next comes a healthy sweet treat for the kids. Actually i ate most of it while preparing it and that's another story :-)

Dates and Almond Sweet
Ingredients :
Dates - 10
Almonds - 1/2 cup
Milk - just enough to soak the dates and almonds
Marie biscuits - 7 (If you don't find Marie, you can substitue with Nila wafers)

Method :
Dry grind the marie biscuits first. Soak the dates and almonds for an hour. Grind them (with milk) into a paste. Add the biscuit powder and mix well. Roll them into small balls and refrigerate for 2 hours (if you have any left by the time you are done making it:-)). I had only 6 biscuits, so they kinda look little sticky. There was no compromise in the taste though.

Note : I needed more than 6 biscuits for this as the consistency of the dates almond paste was little loose. While adding the biscuit powder, pls. add little by little till you get a pliable dough.

Dates and Almonds Milkshake

Another almond recipe - with one less ingredient from the above. This is a healthy drink with no sugar added. Tastes sweet and delicious.

Ingredients :
Pitted Dates : 8 - 10
Blanched Almonds : 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 cups

Method :
Soak dates and almonds in milk (enough to cover them), for 1 hour. Blend it into a smooth paste in a blender. Add the rest of milk and stir it. Add honey if required. Add some chopped almonds and saffron (optional) and enjoy the milkshake. If you want it to be sweeter, you can add some honey or increase the dates.

I am sending both Almonds and dates sweet and almonds and dates milkshake to
1. JZ's Let's go nuts with Almonds
2. PJ's Tasty bytes for toddlers

Quick n easy Bread Pongal

I made this on my son's request. He saw this in a t.v show and wanted it. He loved it and more than him my toddler kept asking me for more :) I used the Sara Lee blueberry bread and since it is already sweet, i didn't use much sugar and i used just a spoon of ghee. So, it isn't as bad as any other junk food.

Ingredients :

Bread slices - 3

Sugar - 1 spoon (increase if using regular bread)

Milk - 1/2 cup (increase if the bread is dry)

saffron a pinch

Ghee one spoon

Raisins and cashews - a handful

Method :

Crumble the bread slices. In a non stick pan, add few drops of ghee and saute the bread pieces for 2 minutes. Add milk, saffron and sugar and saute till the milk is evaporated and the bread is kind of mushy. Heat the rest of the ghee and add the raisins and cashew and fry till the cashews are golden brown and add it to the bread pongal and mix well.

Since i made it for my kids, i am sending this to Alka's Just For You and Preety's Cooking For Kids which was originally started by Sharmi from N e i v e d y a m.

I am also sending this to Varsha's RFRU

I am also sending Bread Pizza for Cooking For Kids.

Chickpea Patties

When i saw Yasmeen's Chickpea corn vada, i got tempted and wanted to make something similar at home. I had boiled chickpeas in my freezer. Instead of making(baking) chickpea corn vada, i shallow fried them and made them similar to my Aloo tikki. It was an instant hit at home. With all the protein in it, i was too happy that my kids liked it :)



Ingredients :
Boiled chickpeas - 2 cups
Potato - 1 (big)
Bread slices - 3
Redchilli powder - 1 spoon
Garam masala - 1/2 spoon
Salt to taste
Hing - a pinch
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Cilantro - 1/2 bunch, finely chopped

Method :

Mash the boiled chickpeas and potatos. Add crumbled bread, salt, chilli powder, masala, hing and turmeric powder and mash them well. Add the cilantro and mix them well and roll into equal sized balls. Make patties and shallow fry in a non stick pan.

Tastes good with Maggi tomato chilli sauce. My kids loved it with bread. They had it like sandwich. I didn't have the patience to keep them between the bread slices and eat. I kept gobbling 'em up, while cooking ;-) I used only 3,4 drops of oil per side of each patty. They looked little dry but they were not dry when tasted. They were really good.

I am sending this also to Sunshinemom's FIC: Yellow, Srivalli's MLLA, an event started by Susan and also to JFI Chickpea hosted by MS.

I am sending this to Deepa's CFK- Potato

Cup Corn - Healthy snack

I love grilled corn on the cob with chilli powder, salt and lemon juice rubbed on it. Just the thought of it is making me drool. I dont have gas stove here and i tried grilling it with the electric griddle that i have. It took so much time that i lost my patience and interest in it and i settled for this :) This is super good too and it's so easy to fix it. I dont think it even qualifies as a recipe :-)
There was a fruit shop in the same complex where my folks lived until a year back. They had a chaat shop attached to it and they used to sell this and i tasted cup corn the first time there and it was yummy. I dont know if this is exactly how they make it, but all of us liked it and i continue to make it the same way. This makes a great evening snack.


Ingredients :
Corn - 3 cups (approx)
Red chilli powder - 1 spoon (Adjust as per your taste)
Chaat masala - 1/2 spoon
Salt
Lemon juice (Concentrate) - 2 spoons.
Method :
Sprinkle some water and steam it in microwave for few minutes. They should be soft but not mushy. In a pan, heat little oil and add the steamed corn, chilli powder, chaat masala and salt and saute for 2,3 minutes. Let it cool down a little and then add the lemon juice and mix well.
I am sending this also to Sunshinemom's FIC: Yellow

Aloo Tikki / Spicy potato patties

I am still in india and not checking the blogs (yours and mine!) as often as i thought i could. Hope you are all doing good! I thought i will post a recipe that's been in my draft for quite some time.

This is a nice evening snack that my hubby and kids love. It's shallow fried and it's not too oily. I use approximately 1 spoon of oil for 3 patties.

Ingredients :
Potatos - 4 (med)
Peas - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Chilli powder - 1 spoon
Garam masala - 1/2 spoon
Cilantro
Bread slices -3

Method :
Boil the potatoes and add cooked peas to it and mash them with a fork.
Toast the bread slices and dry grind them and add the bread crumb to the potatos.
Add chilli powder, garam masala, hing and salt and mix well. (Adjust chilli powder and garam masala to your spice level).
Take a small portion and make it into a ball and flatten it.
In a non stick pan, add little oil and shallow fry the patty till it is crisp and golden brown.
My first son loves to have it with bread, so i send it as lunch too.

Happy Holidays to all of you!

I am sending this to Deepa's CFK- Potato

Medhu Vada / Urad Daal Vada

This was in my draft for months now. I was in a dilemma as to whether i should post this or not, because it is such a common recipe and there is nothing new about it. But, i want to share few useful tips that i learnt from my mistakes, especially for those who are new to cooking.

The shape of the vadas in the pic are not perfect but are close to it, don't you think? :-) After several attempts i finally got the hang of it, but i had an accident few weeks before i made this and i dropped those vadas in oil hastily, out of fear and hence they were not perfect!

The mistakes i used to make are to grind the batter without adding any water. They would come in perfect shape, but it lacked something. It was not as crispy as my mom's vada. They were kinda thick like MRF tyres (not that i have tasted them ;-)) Then i added too much water and ended up with bondas. Bondas were not perfect either. They looked more like mini dinosaurs trying to come out of eggs. But, they were crispy and yum. So, after few trials and errors i got the hang of it. Adding little water while grinding did the trick.

Now to the recipe...

Ingredients :
Urad daal - 1 cup
Green chillies - 5 or 6
Salt to taste
Hing
Ginger - 1 inch grated (optional)

Method :
Soak the urad daal for 1 or 2 hours. Grind it with green chillies, salt, ginger and hing with little water. If you are using an indian mixer use the ice-breaker mode for few seconds in the end, to make the batter fluffier.
Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Take a plastic sheet (i used a small ziploc bag). Apply some water on it and take some batter and pat it into circle and make a hole in the middle. Dip your hand in water and remove this from the plastic sheet and drop it into the oil and fry till golden brown. Heat the oil in medium high. If it is too hot, the inside of the vadas will remain uncooked.

I tried baking vadas to get a healthier version. It was a total disaster. I added some baking powder to the batter and baked for 30-45 minutes. Can't remember how much time i baked it for, exactly. Anyways, i ended up with these...Have a good laugh ;-) They just tasted like spicy dosa and they were so flat and not very crispy!! :-)

Thattai - A crunchy south indian snack

Since Diwali is coming, i thought i will post something for diwali in advance.

This is everyone's favorite snack at our house.

It is quite simple too. I don't make it too often since it is deep fried, but when i make it, it disappears in nanoseconds ;-)

Ingredients :

Rice flour - 1 Cup

Urad flour - 2 spoons (heaped)

Hing - a pinch

Butter - 2 spoons

Red chilli powder - 1 spoon

Salt to taste

Pottu Kadalai (Roasted channa daal) - a handful

Curry leaves (optional)

Peanuts (optional) - I dont like with peanuts.

Method :

Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.

Mix all the ingredients listend above and add water little by little and mix them into a pliable dough. You should be able to roll them into balls and pat them flat.

Divide the dough into equal size balls. Take a ziploc cover or a plastic sheet and apply some oil on it. Pat the balls into flat circles (like cookie, but not very thick). It should be as thick as marie biscuit (if that helps! :)) This is where it gets the name thattai. Thattai means flat in tamil.

Deep fry them in oil till they are golden brown. Reduce the heat if they become darker in colour.

This is a very poor qualtiy and outdated picture that i have in my pc. Will upload a better quality pic later - if and whenever i download the photos from my camera ;-)

I would like to thank Hema for passing the butterfly award again.

Sending this to Pallavi's Yummy Festival Feast event.

Moong daal dosa and Pakora

Before i goto the recipe, i want to say few things about my grandma (paati). I share a very special relationship with her. She's the friendliest paati i have ever seen. She's really cool and modern :-) Because of her i got away from lot of trouble ;-) My mom was working and me, my brother and my cousins (their moms were working too) would all goto our grandparents house after school and stay till our parents came back from work. She used to take care of all of us with each one being a kind! :D I dont know how she did that because i get totally worn out taking care of just 2! But, i have to give some credit to ourselves too..We weren't half as naughty as these two.

She used to make this dosa and i see that it is also called as Moongdaal chilla in some websites. My grandma used to make this for us and she used to call it Pesarattu, which it is not. I dont know who told her this was Pesarattu. When i came to U.S, one of my telugu friends made Pesarattu and i was surprised to see that she made it with whole moong. I gave my grandma a hard time for making me believe this was pesarattu all along ;-)

Update : Uma, a fellow blogger from Andhra confirmed that this is also Pesarattu, so my grandma was right after all :D

Here is the recipe :

Ingredients :

Split moong daal - 1 cup
Urad daal - 1/4 C (optional)
Green chillies - 4
Salt to taste
Onion - 1 (finely chopped)
Cilantro for garnishing
Hing - a pinch






Method :

Soak the moongdaal and urad daal for a minimum of 2 hours. Grind it into thick batter with green chillies, hing and salt. Consistency should be same as Idli batter.
Heat the dosa griddle and spread 1 ladle of batter into a circle. It should be little thicker than dosa. Spread some oil around it and when it is almost cooked on one side, spread the chopped onions and cilantro on the top and press it slightly with a spoon. Flip the dosa and cook for another minute or more to get crispier texture. Repeat procedure.

Tastes great with chilli powder and/or sambar or chutney.

I had some leftover batter and i made pakoras with it and they were very crunchy and tasty.
Made a great evening snack. Here's how i made the pakoras :

To 1 cup of leftover batter, i added 1/2C of rice flour, 1 onion (finely chopped), 2 green chillies and salt.

Heat oil and drop the batter with a spoon and cook till it is golden brown and crisp.

Carrot Sandwich Spread

It's a simple recipe that my kids love.

Ingredients :

Grated carrots : 1 cup
Cream cheese (Lowfat for adults ;-)) : 3/4th of a cup
Salt to taste

Whip up all the 3 ingredients and spread it on the toasted bread slices. It tastes really good with cream cheese. Alternately you can use it with whipped butter. This spread makes even whole wheat or multigrain bread taste better :-)

Microwave Chivda

I found this recipe in Tarladalal's website. It was so easy and less messy :-)

I didnt follow the recipe exactly.

Ingredients :

Nylon thin poha - 2 cups

Green chillies - 3 or 4 finely chopped

Oil - 2,3 spoons

mustard seeds

jeera

a pinch of turmeric powder

salt to taste

hing

roasted peanuts ( i used unsalted) - a handful

Microwave the poha for 2 minutes. In a non stick pan heat some oil. Pop mustard seeds and jeera. Add hing and green chillies and fry them. Add turmeric powder and keep it in the heat for sometime. Then add it to the poha. Add salt and 2 more spoons of oil. Add the peanuts and mix it well. Microwave for another 2 minutes. Chivda is ready and it was really crunchy and yum!

You can add curry leaves, dalia and roated cashews also. I didnt have them when i made it.

I am going to send this for Pallavi's Sunday Snacks - Fix It