Chana Dal Pakora | Chana Dal Bhajiya | Kadalai Paruppu Baaji Recipe

Chana Dal Pakora, Dal pakoda or Bengal Gram fritters are easy pakora recipe with chana dal, besan, spice and adding little onion for crunch. Another great snack for tea time, it works great as appetizer for get-together or party too. This chana dal pakoda is similar to Masala Vade I just added besan (chickpeas flour), rice flour to make this into pakoda, it's super yum.

Paneer Bread Dahi Vada | Bread Dahi Bhalla Recipe

Paneer Bread Dahi Vada or paneer stuffed bread dahi vada or dahi bhallas are easy and quick snack option. It's very easy and can be done in jiffy plus it's guilt free as we didn't deep fry the vada. If you look for something easy yet filling specially as after school snack then this is really good recipe and as Holi is approaching I wanted to share this easy bread dahi vada recipe now since dahi bhalla in Holi is must :)

Broccoli Beetroot Cutlets | Broccoli Beetroot Tikki | Easy Snacks Recipes

Broccoli Beetroot Cutlet or broccoli beetroot tikki, beetroot broccoli patties is easy, delicious, healthy and vegan snack for tea time or for kids lunch/snack box. We can also serve this as starter or finger food during party or get-together. This is one of the most easy and delicious cutlet plus very healthy as I have just pan-fried here. We can do this cutlet with many variations to try something new every time. I lost the step by step pictures so there's no for this time, shall try to update some time that.

Paka Kolar Bora | Bengali Kolar Bora | Ripe Banana Fritters

Paka Kolar Bora, Bengali kolar bora is banana fritters where paka means ripe, kolar means banana & bora means pakora or fritters and this is one of the delicious tea time snack. Kolar Bora popular Bengali delicay during Janmashtami and Makar Sankranti as during Sankranti kolar bora is made with new rice to welcome the new year with a bang. If you have ripe bananas with you then you should try this yummy yet super easy snack, we can do this in no time it makes great snack for tea time or kids.

Chicken 65 Recipe | Restaurant Style Chicken 65 Recipe

Chicken 65 or Fried Chicken is spicy, juicy and delicious appetizer and it's difficult to say no to this yummy snack, who doesn't like chicken 65 after all of course ignoring the vegetarian, vegan people here :) Chicken 65 is regular feature item while visiting restaurants and where does the 65 name comes from is a big mystery. I am posting this recipe now so if you are having New Year Party, get-together or potluck then you can try this easy yet delicious chicken fry.

Palak Pyaaz Pakoda | Spinach Onion Fritters Recipe | Palak Pakoras

Palak Pyaaz Pakode, palak ke pakode or spinach onion fritters are easy pakora recipe with fresh spinach (palak) and adding little onion for crunch. Another winter specialty is having fresh, green vegetables with ample of beautiful looking spinach. In North India now spinach is everywhere, fresh and cute and during our trip we were making every second day palak dal, palak pakoda and finally towards the end of our vacation I manage to click the palak pyaaz pakode pictures.

Beetroot Cutlet | Beetroot Tikki (Patties) | Easy Snacks Recipes

Beetroot cutlet or beetroot tikki, beetroot patties is easy, delicious, healthy and colorful snack for tea time or for kids lunch/snack box. We can also serve this as starter or finger food during party or get-together. I wanted to post beetroot cutlets for very long time but I was not able to take pictures whenever I made this until this time it happened finally and sharing this beautiful, perfectly spiced beetroot tikki with you all.

Neer Mor Recipe | Spiced Buttermilk Recipe | Summer Drinks Recipes

Neer Mor, neer more or spiced buttermilk is easy, quick buttermilk recipe with addition of few extra ingredients to take humble buttermilk or chaas to all new level. Buttermilk is great option to keep our-self hydrated during hot summer days or we can serve this as appetizer, beverage too, I made spiced buttermilk, masala buttermilk and other few variations specially to serve with lunch during weekends or to complete a thali menu.

Lobia Vada | Karamani Vadai | Ganesh Chaturthi Recipes

Lobia Vada or pakoda is one of the easy vada recipe to try it's can be done in jiffy without much hassle, just we have to remember to soak lobia/karamani either previous night or even 2-3 hours of soaking is enough making it perfect option for tea time snacks option; soak lobia while making lunch and have a great tea time.  More than whole urad dal vada I make use other dal for vada like moong dal vada, this lobia or black split urad dal, masala vada, maddur vada (one of the favorite) and few others.

Arbi Patta Pakoda | Taro Leaves Fritters Recipe

Arbi Patta or Colcasia (Taro) leaves, Rikwach or Kacchu or Kochai patta as it's called in my in-laws place is a treat to eat.  In my home Arbi Patta only relished while a visit to hometown that also depends on season if it's available, as I never seen taro leaves in Chennai.  But now I have ample of access to this gorgeous leaves at my in-laws place there are plants in our garden, house if not get it from neighbors and if they come to know I want to eat then get extra leafs :).

Saga (Hara) Pyaaz Pakora | Spring Onion Fritters

We all love pakoras, bajji or bhajiya and this Hara Pyaaz ke Pakode or Saga Pyaz as we call fits the bill perfectly these pakodas are crunchy outside and soft inside.  I have mention in my Lauki Pakoda post that my dad doesn't eat potato so after onion, lauki (bottle gourd) another featured pakoda in our home is this hara paayz or spring onion/scallion fritters.  Hot pakoda, tea or coffee along with rain to enjoy and if we are not the one frying the pakode then it's double bonanza for sure right?  Now that monsoon has arrived and no more trouble of hot sun it's time to chill out and munch some hot tasty pakoda.  

Moong Dal Pakoda Recipe

Moong Dal Pakoda is one of the popular pakoda in Northern part, we can also call this moong dal vada or bada as it's made of dal and not besan (chickpeas flour).  Split green gram or chilka moong dal with onion and few more basic ingredients makes this delicious vadas.  Moong dal skin gives this vada/pakdoa crunchy outer layer, just how a pakoda should be.  It's also consume less time compare to other dal base vada or pakoda as soaking time is just 1 hour or even less for this pakores.

Lauki Pakoda | Dudhi Bhajiya | Bottlegourd Fritters

Lauki (bottle gourd) bhajiya is one of the popular pakoda in our home, since my dad don't eat potato so bottle gourd fritters gets featured a lot. As a kid I was not a very big fan of dudhi bhajiya we would remove the bottle gourd/dudhi pieces from pakoda and eat the only the outer skin so my mom has to always make potato pakodas for us.  It's strange that most of the things we use to dislike a kid start to be fond of it in our life later I have numerous things like that in my list and this lauki pakoda is one such item.  Now I don't remove the bottle gourd piece any more from the pakoda and in fact I like to eat this one.

Carrot And Ginger Soup Recipe

Soup is comfort food for me and I mostly make this when someone is not feeling well simply cause nothing is more comfort than having a hot, spicy, creamy soup do you agree?  Since we are falling sick one after another I rely mostly on soup as it's also very easy to prepare.  DH likes tomato soup any day so for him mostly I make that or I do some time Pappa Al Pomodoro aka tomato bread soup to have as dinner, this carrot and ginger soup I made as lunch to have it with bread toast last week.  

Dry Aloo 65 | Potato 65 | Indo-Chinese Recipes

Aloo (potato 65) or also known as Chilli Potato is another Indo-Chinese specialty popular in North India whatever I have seen.  Boiled potato mix with spices, flour and deep fried to perfection, a delight to have as a snack or starter.  Though for me I prefer Gobi 65 over aloo 65 cause there are other things I like to do with potato like tikki than making aloo 65, nevertheless I made these beauties some time back and took pictures in real hurry before it start to disappear.   Aloo 65 is a very simple and easy snack and if you have boiled potato in hand then it can be done in jiffy, a good change from usual pakodas.

Onion Pakoda | Pyaz Ke Pakore | Onion Fritters Recipe

Onion pakoda is one of the pakora that I make most often simply cause I make onion pakoda very good and generally everyone prefer my onion pakoda than any other pakoda or bajji.  If I have guests at home then mostly for evening tea I will make this as this is my no-fail and crowd pleaser recipe.  I wonder now why I took years to post this recipe!

Gobi 65 | Chilli Gobi | Indo-Chinese Recipes

We all love Indo-Chinese recipes and Gobi 65 or Chilli Gobi is no exception I guess unless you don't like cauliflower.  It makes a perfect snack or side dish with fried rice, noodles etc, I rarely make this and whenever I do, I never get a chance to click, it happens with most of my Indo-Chinese Recipes, we attack the food immediately that there's no time to take pictures and I end up with only step wise photos. I have few recipes like this in my draft God knows when the day will come I can use those step wise pictures!

Anyways back to this Gobi 65 recipe I made this during a weekday when me and DH both were working from home along with fried rice, again this time I almost missed to take this pictures as DH kept eating piece by pieces while I was taking pictures!!

Like most of the recipe Gobi 65 also come with few variations specially the South Indian way of making is little different from North India way.  This recipe is more towards the North Indian way of Gobi 65, to be more precise Khadakpur street style Indo-Chinese food.  Crunchy yet soft these Chilli Gobi makes a great party snack and I am posting this during Holi time so you can make this for your get-together.

Check here other Holi Special Recipes

Ingredients for Gobi 65 (Chilli Gobi)

[Serves 2-3]

Cauliflower Florest - 2 Cups
Maida/All Purpose Flour - 1/4 Cup
Corn Flour - 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp {Make your own Cumin Powder}
Coriander Seeds Powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Chaat Masala - 1/2 tsp + to sprinkle
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1/2 tsp
Cooking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Dark Soya Sauce - 1/2 tsp
Vinegar - 1/2 tsp or lemon juice - 1 tsp
Orange Food Color - A Pinch [optional]
Water - 1/2  Cup or as required
Salt - To Taste
Oil - To Deep Fry

Method:

1. Wash and cut cauliflower in florets, in a large bowl add maida, 3 tbsp corn flour, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, chaat masala, ginger-garlic paste, salt, soda.

2. Add water (around 1/2 cup) and mix well without forming lumps to make batter (more of pakoda consistency).  Add vinegar and soya sauce, orange color and mix well.

3. Add cauliflower and mix well, keep aside for 10-15 minutes.

4. Add 1 tbsp of corn flour (this is to make it more crunchy) and mix well.  Check for spices, salt and adjust if required anything.

5. Heat oil in wok for deep frying and drop cauliflower pieces make sure not to make it over crowded to avoid it's getting stick with one another and fry until golden brown all sides, each batch takes 3-4 minutes to fry.
~ If pieces gets stuck with each other, separate it while frying with your ladle.

6. Drain in kitchen tissue, sprinkle chaat masala before serving.

Serve warm with sauce or ketchup or eat just like that.

Have a nice day ~~

Unniyappam | Inippu Appam | Onam Recipes

Wishing all readers Happy Onam.  For me Onam used to be having moong dal payasam, banana chips, unniyappam and other goodies that our Malayali neighbor aunty used to share with us.  After long time I enjoyed Onam last year with colleagues over sadhya of which managed to post Beans Thoran and Puli Inji, I was suppose to carry unniyappam on special demand but last moment I couldn’t do that.  To makeup for that this year I thought of preparing and posting to feast virtually ex-colleagues whom am missing a lot now! 
 

Unniyappam recipe is much easy than it sounds, I got this recipe from our neighbor aunty long ago.  Traditionally it’s deep fried in unniyappam pan which is deeper to hold oil but here I added less oil, you can do in any way you wish.  If you have ripe banana try any day for evening snack, don’t wait for Onam to enjoy these delicious unniyappam.



Ingredients:
Rice Flour - 1 cup
Ripe Banana - 1 [Kadhali pazham/palayam kodan variety preferred]
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Black Sesame Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cardamon Powder - 1/4 tsp
Coconut Pieces - 2 tbsp [ I used grated coconut]
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt - a pinch
Water - 3/4 Cup
Coconut Oil/Ghee -  For frying



Method:

1. Melt the jaggery in water, strain to remove any impurities and keep aside. Fry coconut pieces in ghee until golden brown.

2. Mash banana well in a small bowl and keep aside. In another bowl add rice flour, salt, cardamom powder, fried coconut, sesame seeds.

3. Add mashed banana, melted jaggery water and mix well to form thick batter.

4. Batter should be like idli batter consistency.  Cover and keep aside to ferment for 1-2 hour.   Heat unniyappam or paniyaram pan, add 1/2 tsp of oil or ghee in each hole and fill it up with prepared batter.

5. Cook in medium heat until sides of appam gets brown, gently flip over other side, drizzle little oil and cook until golden brown.

Serve warm.


Notes ~
~ If batter is too thick add little water or milk. Or if batter is runny add rice flour, consistency should be similar to idli batter.
~ For deep frying fill paniyaram pan with oil and fry appam.  Oil will float on top of each hole.
~ You can ferment batter 5-6 hours if time permits.  I heat up my microwave for 30 seconds and keep batter inside for 2 hours.
~ If you don’t have paniyaram pan you can deep fry these in wok like small pakodas.
~ You can use wheat flour instead of rice flour too.

Have a nice day ~~

Maddur Vada | Maddur Vade Recipe

It’s been ages since I took any pictures, relying on old pictures to write posts now a days.  This is again one of those recipe I made during my in-laws visit.  I ran out of ideas for evening tea snacks, how many days to make aloo pakoda, namak para, masala vada or other assorted pakodas,  So I tried this maddur vada for a change though I never ate maddur vade before.  It was a nice change and everyone liked it specially MIL and DH, I followed Prathibha’s Maddur Vade recipe which was part of her FF-TT series. 

If you want a change from usual pakoda, urad vada then have to try this and you will like it.  It easy to prepare and taste crunchy outside and soft inside.  Can you see the layers in vada from below pictures?  A wonderful tea time snack to enjoy and this is also I am going to prepare during Rakhi this year, you can try too.  If you are still looking for Rakhi ideas then check out my previous roundups, lot’s of wonderful years. 

Ingredients: [Yields 18-20 pieces]

Maida/Plain Flour - 1 Cup

Chiroti Rava/Suji/Fine Semolina - 1/2 Cup

Rice Flour - 1/4 Cup

Onion - 1 Large

Green Chillies- 3-4

Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs

Cilantro/Coriander Leaves - 8-10 sprigs

Soda Bi-Carb - A pinch

Salt - to taste

Ginger - 1/2” pieces [optional]

White Sesame Seeds - 2 tbsp

Hot Oil - 2 tbsp

Oil - For deep Frying

Water - 4-6 tbsp

Method:

1. Finely chop onion, green chillies, ginger (if using), curry leaves, cilantro.

~ Finely chopping of onion is essential if not while deep frying onion pieces will float on oil and get’s burnt! So do finely chop it.

2. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl except oil and water and it will have crumble texture due to water in onions.

3. Sprinkle water 1tbsp at a time, until smooth dough is form, keep aside for 15mins. 

4. Meanwhile heat oil in wok for deep frying, add 2tbsp of hot oil to vada mixture and mix everything well, it will be pitiable roti dough type.

5. Divide into equal portions, take one pieces at a time, make a ball and flatten it on your palm or use a plastic sheet/zip lock bag. 

6. Drop 4-5 vadas in hot oil and deep fry until golden brown both sides in slow-medium flame, keep turning the vadas in intervals.  The frying takes little longer than normal vada to have patience. 

Our maddur vade is ready.

Serve with chutney of your choice, we had with Peanut Chutney and tea.

Notes:

~ If dough get’s soggy add little maida or suji to adjust.

~ For more taste add 2tbsp of ghee instead of oil in dough.

~ You can add 1/4 cup roasted & powder oats. 

Have a nice day ~~

Bhaji Pakora Recipe

This easy and interesting bhaji pakora recipe was introduced to me by Sonal, she made this for me when I visited her.  She was making dahi bhalla and reserved little batter to make this special bhaji pakora for me, it’s call bhaji pakora cause along with bada/vada batter bhaji (spinach) and besan (chickpeas flour) is added.  I found it very interesting and ofcourse not to mention it was delicious plus different, so I quickly clicked few pictures below we dig in.  If you are making regular vada/vadai, or dahi bhalla, reserve little batter and try this you will like it crunchy outside and soft inside pakoras.


Ingredients:

Urad Dal - 1/2 cup
Palak/Spinach - 1 small bunch
Onion - 1 [medium]
Besan/Chickpeas Flour - 3 tbsp
Green Chillies - 4-5
Crushed Garlic - 1/2 tbsp
Crushed Kasoori Methi - 1 tbsp
Jeera/Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - To deep fry


Method:

1. Wash and soak urad dal for 4 hours. 

2. Rinse again soaked dal and grind with little water into smooth paste.

3. Finely chop onion, chillies, spinach and add into urad dal batter along with salt, kasoori methi, garlic, garam masala, cumin seeds, soda, besan/chickpeas flour and mix well, meanwhile in a wok heat oil for deep frying.



4. Make small balls of pakora mixture and drop carefully in hot oil 6-7 in one batch, deep fry in medium heat until golden brown.  Repeat same for rest.



Our bhaji pakora is ready.  Serve hot with any chutney or sauce or enjoy as it is.


Variations:

1. If you fresh methi then use that instead of kasoori methi.
2. You can add 1 tsp of crushed ginger.

Other bhajia, pakoda, vada (bada) you can check

• Assorted Pakoras
• Aloo Pakoda
• Lauki Bhajia | Bottlegourd Fritters
• Moong Dal Pakoda
• Onion Pakoda
• Maddur Vada
• Masala Vada
• Sabudana Vada
• Vada (Bada)

Have a nice day ~~