Masala Vada | Paruppu Vadai

Masala Vada or masala vadai is one of those things that I make once in blue moon, urad dal vada or as we call it bada is more common in our place, I like masala vada as crunchy outside and soft inside it’s just perfect. and lucky for me I got the same effect too.   I made this for my in-laws on a weekend as they don’t know about masala/paruppu vade, as expected they liked it too.   And I thought it’s good to post this recipe for coming Tamil New Year, perhaps some motivation for me to make these beauties again.

Ingredients: [Makes 22-25 vadas]
Channa Dal/Bengal Gram - 1 1/2 Cups
Onion - 1 Large
Green Chillies - 3
Dry Red Chillies - 2
Fennel Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Ginger - 1/2” piece [optional]
Salt - to taste
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
Cilantro Leaves - 4-5 sprigs
Asafoetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp
Cooking Soda - a pinch [sodium bi carbonate]
Oil - To deep fry

Method:
1. Wash and soak channa dal in water for 2 hours or more, drain water, rinse dal 1-2 times. 
2. Keep aside 1tbsp of soaked dal and grind remaining dal with green, red chillies,  fennel seeds, ginger into coarse paste.  Add 1-2 tbsp of water only if required.

3. Finely chop onion, curry leaves and cilantro, add with grinded dal, mix everything well with salt, soda, asafoetida and reserve 1tbsp whole channa dal. Make small lemon size ball from dal mixture and flatten between both palms to shape it like cutlet/tikki.

4. In a deep pan/wok heat oil for deep frying, drop carefully 4-5 vada in oil and cook in medium heat until both sides becomes nice golden brown. 

Serve hot/warm with tea/coffee or with meal. 

And incase you have leftover masala vada then don’t think too much just go ahead and make Vade Curry. 

Variations:
1. You can add mint leaves, it adds good flavour to these vadas.
2. Instead of onion, you can try adding cabbage.
3. If you don’t want to deep fry then try it in paniyaram maker/pan but that will be slight change in taste.
Have a nice day ~~

Aloo Pakoda | Potato Fritters Recipe

 
Gong Xi Fa Cai to all celebrating Chinese New Year, may year of Dragon be more fruitful n joyful.
Coming back to today’s recipes whether we call it Aloo Pakoda/pakora or Bhajiya as at in-law’s call it or south Indian style bhajji, it’s the same thing, now a days we have rain God blessing in Singapore and aloo bhajiya is perfect company along with garama garm Chai aka Tea to enjoy the rain.  Normally potato fritters is made by cutting the potatoes in thin roundels and dipping in gram flour batter which I have blogged in my Assorted Pakoras Post. 


This style of making pakoras is my mom recipe, and this more tasty than the usual aloo bhajiya, she doesn’t add curry leaves but I do as curry leaves adds good flavour to the pakoras and I also add rice flour to bring little crunchiness ….so do try adding both.

Ingredients [Serves 3-4]
Potato - 2 Large
Besan/Chickpeas Flour - 1 Cup
Rice Flour - 2
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig [chopped]
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Cooking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Water - as needed (around 1/8 cup)
Hot Oil - 2 tbsp
Oil - To deep fry

Method:
1. Peel, wash and dice potatoes, transfer in a large bowl and add rest of ingredients except oil.

2. Give a good stir, now add water 1 tbsp at a time and mix until everything comes together, this doesn’t require so much of water so keep adding water only in less quantity. 

3. Heat oil a in wok, take 2 tbsp of hot oil & mix with potato mixture.   Scoop a spoon of batter and drop in oil, do this 4-5 times to get 4-5 pakoras and fry until golden brown in medium heat. 
If using hand, scoop around 4-5 pieces of potato for one pakora and deep fry.

Delicious pakoda/bhaji is ready.

Have it with coconut chutney, sauce or just with hot tea/coffee. 

Have a nice day ~~

Ragda Patties | Chaat Recipes

Ragda Patties is one of the popular street food or chaat item in North India and it’s one of the chaat items that I make the most and never really got the chance to post the recipe for the simple reason that it’s get’s over so fast before any clicking can be done!  So this time I made this for a friend and decided to post the recipe.  Slowly ragda pattices has been one of our favorite chaat cause it’s works perfect as a chaat/snack and also as a meal, I mostly do this for dinner. List of ingredients looks long but it's actually quite easy to prepare and if we have the chutney ready then it's quick too.


Bursting with so many flavors and spices, ragda pattice is a treat.  I have made this couple of times for guests and they started to love these too.  Ragda here is almost same as sundal that we get in Chennai from street hawkers, it was fun to eat hot piping sundal on raining days! I do the same some times too just make the ragda/sundal and relish it.  And ya ofcourse I did disappear for some time now but that’s was not a planned break, let's checkout the recipe now.



Ingredients:

For Ragda: [Serves 3-4 people]
White Dry Peas/ White Vatana - 1 1/2 cups
Water - 4 cups or as required
Salt - To taste
Oil - 2 tbsp
Asafoetida/Hing - 1/4 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
White Sesame Seeds - 1 tsp
Crushed Peanuts - 2 tbsp [optional]
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
Fresh minced ginger-garlic - 1 tbsp [or ginger-garlic paste 1 tbsp]
Onion - 2 medium
Green Chillies - 2
Tomato - 1 large
Red Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Seeds Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Amchur/Dry Mango Powder - 1 tsp Or Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 tsp
Cilantro - to garnish

For Patties (Aloo Tikki)
Please refer the recipe here

For Serving:
Green Chutney - To taste
Sweet Chutney - To taste
Chopped Onion
Chopped Cilantro
Sev



Method:
1. Wash and soak vatana/dry peas over night.

2. Drain, rinse and pressure cook vatana with water and salt for 2 whistles.
 
3. Meanwhile finely chop onion, green chillies, tomato and cilantro, keep aside.

4. In a pan or wok heat oil add Asafoetida/Hing, cumin, mustard seeds and allow to splutter. Followed by peanuts (if using), curry leaves and sesame seeds, allow it to pop. (keep a lid handy, after adding sesame seeds over the pan or it will pop all over) Add ginger-garlic and sauté until light brown.



5. Now add onion, green chillies and fry until onion becomes translucent, Add all powder spices except amchur powder and give a good stir.



6. Add tomato and  cook until tomato mashes well or oil starts to leave side of pan.  Now add boiled vatana/peas and mix everything well.



7.  Add more water if required and adjust salt, add amchur powder or lemon juice, bring it to good boil and simmer in slow for 5 minutes.  Garnish with cilantro.


Our ragda is ready.



To Assemble/Serve
1. In a bowl or flat plate keep 2 pattices/tikki and pour radga over. 
2. Add green and sweet chutney, sprinkle onion, sev and cilantro.
Have it warm and enjoy. 



Have a nice day ~~

Eid Ul Adha Mubarak with Aloo Tikki | Potato Patties Recipe | Chaat Recipes

Wishing Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating.

Now a days there is no festive for any particular Religion, most of us celebrate everything or at least enjoy the holiday coming along with festive.  I wanted to do a sweet post for today but then it didn’t happen, never the less I am here with Aloo Tikki, one of the easy chaat recipe.  The good thing about these tikkies is; it can be a dish by itself or compliments any other chaat items so well, if you ever notice any road side chaat wala hot smoking tawa, there will be always aloo tikki align so beautiful in the corner.  Aloo tikki or patties makes a good party appetizer, a quick snack or breakfast and perfect for kids snack/lunch box. 

Ingredients: [Makes 6 medium size patties]

Potato - 3 medium size
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Corn Flour - 2 tbsp
Cilantro Chopped - 2 tbsp
Mint Chopped - 1 tbsp [optional]
Salt - to taste
Oil - For pan fry
To Serve
Green Chutney
Sweet Chutney



Method:
1. Wash and pressure cook potato for 3 whistles or boil in water until cooked.
2. Once pressure released from cooker, remove potatoes, rinse in tap water and remove skin.
3. Mash potato (avoid any lumps).  Add all the ingredients except oil and mix well to form a smooth dough.  Add more corn flour if needed. 
4. Divide the dough in equal portion and make medium size tikki/patties.


5. Heat a tawa or pan and drizzle little oil around 1 tsp, place patties and cook until golden brown in medium flame.  Flip to other side, drizzle some more oil and cook until golden brown.



Serve hot with Green or Sweet chutney or with tomato sauce/ketchup.  Enjoy these with hot tea or coffee or as breakfast. 


Have a nice day ~~

Dahi Bhalla | Dahi Bhalle (Vada) Recipe | North Indian Street Food

Dahi Bhalla or Dahi Bhalle is similar to Dahi/thayir vada. Today we will learn how to make Dahi bhalla chaat which served with sweet and green chutney along spices which makes these dahi bhalla much more flavorful and a perfect chaat. My mom would make this dahi bhalls on each Diwali morning and we would have this as breakfast along with other Diwali goodies and rest of it will be kept for guests as during Diwali day there will guests dropping by to exchange sweets. If you have people coming over for gift/sweet exchange or lunch/dinner then this dahi bhallas can be very refreshing other than usual sweet and savory items.

Vegetable Sandwich | Street Style

As most of you liked Murukku Sandwich recipe, I thought I should post this sandwich recipe too which is my all time favourite.  I simply love this sandwich for it’s simplicity.  This Vegetable sandwich goes a long way, on our every trip to Elephant Gate (also known as Sowarpet) in Chennai this is must along with fresh, yummy sugarcane juice.  And when I started studying there then it was regular for lunch, we group of friends will go and enjoy juice, chaat items or these sandwich and this used to cost us only Rs. 5 ahh those were the days. 

This is one of most simple sandwich to make and taste so delicious, so far to whomever I have served this all have enjoyed and asked for more.  My nephew love this and he always asks me for second serving.  If you have unexpected guests then it’s a wonderful sandwich to greet them along with tea or coffee or you can have this as a quick breakfast or as evening snack to munch on guilt free.  You can use whole wheat bread or multi grain bread whatever you like.  It’s normally made with white bread. 


Ingredients: [Serves 2]
Bread Slices - 4
Onion - 1/2
Ripe Tomato - 1
Boiled Potato - 1 small
Cucumber - 1/2 or 8 pieces
Green Chutney/Sandwich Chutney - 2-3 tbsp
Tomato Ketchup - 2-3 tbsp
Butter - As needed to spread  [optional]

Method:
1. Cut all the veggies in round shape. I like to separate few of onion circles so I can use less of onion as doesn’t like to have onion smell after eating.

2. Trim bread edges and spread butter (if using) on two slice.  Apply green chutney or sandwich chutney on top of butter and in another two slice spread tomato sauce/ketchup. [ I didn’t use butter]

3. Arrange the veggies as you like on the slice we have applied chutney.  I normally first keep cucumber pieces, followed by tomato, onion and potato, cover it up with another slice of bread.
Try to keep tomato slice in middle so that it doesn’t makes the bread soggy.

Cut in desire shape and enjoy these yummy beauties.  You can arrange the sandwich and make it as toast but I personally don’t like that as the veggie becomes little soggy while we toast. Or you can toast the bread and then arrange the sandwich too then I find the bread becomes chewy   so I just do this way using white or brown bread.

Serve with tea/coffee, juice or anything of your choice.  This can be a quick snack or breakfast if you have chutney ready, I normally keep my green chutney in fridge which lasts me more than a week. 
Arrange the sandwich just before eating or the bread might become soggy due to chutney and veggie.  And this goes to Archana’s Fast Food Not Fat Food, a event started by Priya

Have a nice day ~~

Murukku Sandwich & Sandwich Chutney Recipes

 

Yes, that’s right it’s indeed Muruku Sandwich.   Are you thinking what’s on earth is that, well it’s nothing but vegetable layer between two mini muruku pieces to make sandwich.  It apparently famous in Chennai, I gain knowledge about these sandwiches from my sister.  I liked the idea so thought of sharing with you all, hope you like it too. 

We all know about green chutney and most of us use same for sandwich too but then my dear sister told me about this sandwich chutney which made in a little different way than green chutney.  This recipe is from street vendors whom sell bread sandwich on road side.  In this chutney one ingredient used is cucumber peel, after peeling all the cucumber for sandwiches they use peel/skin to make chutney, interesting right?  I asked my sister 10 times is she sure this the way it’s done and she assured me this is the recipe indeed.  

Sandwich Chutney Recipe

Ingredients:

Cilantro - 12 sprigs

Mint Leaves - 2 springs

Cucumber Skin/Peel -1/2 cup or of 1 cucumber

Roasted Gram Dal/Dalia - 1/2 tbsp

Garlic Pod - 1

Green Chillies - 2

Lemon Juice - 1/2 tbsp

Rock Salt/Kala Namak - 1/4 tsp  [Or chat masala]

Salt - To Taste

Method:

1.  Grab all the ingredients, make sure to wash well cucumber before you peel it.  [ I missed out lemon here]

2.  Grind all the ingredients in a mixer or blender and add 1 tbsp of water only if required.  

Adjust salt n chilli if required and our sandwich chutney is ready. You will get light green colour chutney, I used little extra of mint and got the dark colour! Consume this chutney same day and do not try to store.

Let’s move on and make the sandwich now.

 

For Murukku Sandwich

There is no measurement here as we have to use the ingredients to our taste and requirement.

Mini Murukku - 12 pieces or as required

Tomato Pieces - Few

Cucumber Pieces - Few

Onion Pieces - Few

Boiled Potato Pieces - Few [optional]

Sandwich Chutney or Green Chutney - To spread

Cheese - For Topping

Thin Sev - For garnishing [optional]

Method:

Normally these sandwiches are made from mini murukku smaller than what you see in the picture since I don’t have those super mini one’s I am using these.

~ Cut all the vegetables in tiny pieces, use boiled potato if you wish.  You can also use any other vegetable of your choice. 

To arrange the sandwich apply chutney on muruku pieces, keep one cucumber piece, onion pieces followed by tomato and cover it up with another muruku piece. 

Our muruku sandwich is ready, how simple is that?  In shop it comes as pair of 9 sandwich here I made of 6, you can make as many as you like.

Sprinkle cheese to make it Cheese Muruku Sandwich, in shops it serves with lot of cheese topping.  No wonder kids loves this!

Or instead of cheese you can sprinkle little of thin sev, you can make it as open sandwich too for that don’t cover the sandwich top with muruku piece. 

Use toothpick to make these yummy sandwich as party appetizers, what you say?

Kids love this and so adult.  A very quick snack to make and please your kid, family or guest. 

Have a nice day ~~