Bonda

There are numerous snacks in Indian cuisine both delicious and addicitive. The downside though all might not be too healthy. Most of then deep fried and packed with calories but its comfort food and every street is packed with snacks stalls where people throng for a quick evening bite.

My mom is an expert at making snacks and coming home from school or college we used to have hot snacks awaiting. She has the knack of making something delicious with the available stuff.

Bonda is one suck quickie.. If you have Dosa batter at home then you can make quick bondas. The batter has to be thick .. the base batter before adding water up for dosa.. if its too runny its difficult to prepare.

Just take thick batter add onions chillies and anything else you are interested on and then time to get dirty. Take the batter in hands and try to drop a lump of batter into hot oil. some people use spoon to keep hands clean but whats cooking without using  hands.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Dosa batter  - 2 cups

onion - 1 medium

green chilli - 2

curry leaves - 5-6

salt as needed

Procedure:

• In a bowl add all ingredients and mix properly.
• Take a deep and thick bottomed wok.
• add oil till half of it.. or till the bondas can float.
• Take the batter in hand and once the oil is heated try to drop some batter like a tear drop.
• Let it fry till golden brown.. keep moving it around to cook on all sides.
• Serve with any chutney

Coriander coconut chutney

For something so regular in our food like like chutney for everyday breakfast we need varieties to bring a big difference. There is the plain coconut chutney and a coriander twist to it for enhanced flavour.

We make idly dosa atleast 4-5 times a week sometimes twice a day for breakfast and dinner that eating the same chutney has become too boring. So every new flavour added to the plain chutney is making us more excited to eat our food. For all those who wants a new twist for idly/dosa.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

chutney

roasted chana dal - 1/2 cup

grated coconut - 1 cup

coriander leaves chopped - 1/2 cup or take a good handful

green chillies - 2

salt as per taste - 1/4 tspn

seasoning

red chillies -2

cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn

channa dal - 1/2 tspn

oil - 1 tbspn

Procedure:

• In a food processor add all the chutney ingredients. No need to roast or cook anything.
• Dont add water and grind it to a powder.
• Now add water as needed around 1/4 cup and grind it well.
• Salt can be added as needed and dont make the chutney too thick nor too thin.
• Once the chutney is prepared we need to add seasoning /tadka to it.
• In a small wok add oil . 
• Once oil is heated add all the seasoning ingredients.
• Once they start to splutter remove from flame and add to chutney.
• Mix it well with the chutney.
• This chutney can be had with any south indin tiffins.

Broccoli paratha

Broccoli is said to be very healthy and yet we eat them very less. I havent found broccoli in abundance in my childhood , now in cities yes but in small towns and villages its almost never seen in India. But as we found this veggie it has been our favourite and we started experimenting and including it with masala into Indian cuisine.

Broccoli rice for adults and porridge for babies Multi gran broccoli porridge and broccoli and carrot porridge are few noted here but Ive used extensively for my baby.

Another result of our experiments is broccoli paratha. Since we love paratha and try making multiple varieties wanted to try out of box veggies for it.The result is a delicious yet healthy paratha you could never leave.


Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup for 4 parathass
salt - 1/2 tspn as per taste
chilli powder - 1 tspn
water for making dough
oil for frying.

for stuffing:

broccoli - 3/4
onion - 1 medium
cumin seeds - 1/4 tspn
garam masala - 1/4 tspn
coriander powder - 1/4 tspn
amchur - 1/8 tspn
chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
salt as needed - 1/4 tspn

Procedure:

• Take a large bowl and add wheat flour, salt, chilli powder. Make a small well in the flour pour water (around 1/4 cup) and knead it to form a soft dough. Add water as needed. the dough shoudnt be sticky.
• If more water is added then knead it for some time to absorb the water or add flour to balance it.
• cover the dough with a cloth and keep aside.
• Clean the broccoli and remove the florets and finely chop it. Or alternatively can grate the broccoli to get fine pieces.
• Chop onion finely .
• In a wok add 1 tbspn of oil and add cumin seeds.
• Add onions and salt and fry till translucent.
• Add broccoli and stir it and cook in low flame with closed lid for 10 minutes. Can alternatively fry it in high flame but make sure you are always there to prevent burning.
• add all the masala powders and mix well.Once cooked keep aside.

Preparing paratha 

• divide the dough into 4 balls.
• apply some wheat flour on one ball and flatten it into a small thick circle.
• take 2 spoons of filling broccoli and place it in the middle.
• Now close the corners to the center to form a ball.
• apply flour to it and flatten it into parathas.
• Prepare all the parathas and keep aside.
• Heat the griddle/tawa and put a paratha on it.
• cook it in medium flame till its roasted by flipping it.
• apply oil on both sides while flipping to taste better .

Parathas can be had with any pickle and curd/yoghurt.

Onion Karam Chutney

Karam dosa and karam chutney is quite popular in Rayalaseema region of Andhra. Karam usually means spicy as the name suggests it is quite spicy with lots of chillies on it. Some people accompany it with ghee to reduce the spiciness others love as it is.

Onion Karam chutney can be prepared either with or without tomato, I do both the variations and love without tomato one as its quite spicy.

This chutney can be had with all south indian breakfast dishes but best serves with dosa. Karam dosa is prepared with this karam chutney.

This is easiest and quick recipe as we dont need to cook anything just raw chutney.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Onion - 2
tomato - 1/2 (optional)
red chillies - 7
tamarind a pinch 
salt as needed

Procedure:

• Cut the onions into big pieces and tomato too.
• In a mixie add all the ingredients and grind to a paste. 
• Add water as needed but water from onions should be enough.
• It should not be too smooth.
• Instead of red chillies can also use red chilli powder.
• Based on the color of chillies the chutney color might change from bright orange to bright red.
• If its too spicy add little tamarind juice and salt.

Bhindi fry

Ingredients:

Ladys finger - 250 grms
oil - 2 tspn
salt as per taste
seasoning :
cumin seeds - 1/4 tspn
mustard seeds - 1/4 tspn
channa dal - 1/4 tspn
red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn as per taste
turmeric - 1/4 tspn

curry powder:
urud dal - 1/2 tspn
channa dal - 1/2 tspn
coriander seeds - 1/2 tspn
pepper - 1/4 tspn
dry coconut (optional) - 2 tbspn

procedure :

dry roast the curry powder ingredients till aroma comes in. It shud be slightly golden color. make the roasted items into a fine powder and keep aside. this powder can be used later for other curries too.

wash the ladys finger and cut both the ends. slit into 4 pieces and cut them into half. this will give long thin bhindi.

In a wok add oil. once oil is heated add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, channa dal once they splutter add the bhindi, salt and fry it . cook with closed lid for 5 mins and with open lid for 5-7 mins. make sure you saute them in between so that it dosent burn. Dont mix it too much it might make the bhindi mushy.

after its fried add the curry powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder( if reqd) and salt( if needed) and mix it well. fry it for 3 mins so that bhindi is slightly roasted.

This curry can be used as side dish with rice and roti.

Pulihora /Tamarind Rice (Temple Style)

Pulihora/Puliogare is a traditional south indian dish which is treated as  mandatory every festival and anything auspicious. Not sure where and how it started but this dish is treated with utmost respect.

Any temple we go if there is prasadam then it would 90% be pulihora. Every festival we have this dish at home and we never get bored of it. Its tangy taste makes it even more drool worthy.

Its quite easy to prepare but taste differs a lot based on how much tamarind is added. At home though we prepare the tamarind rice but it never gets the taste of temple prasadam. My mom prepares this very good and its comes quite close to how its prepared in temple.

The basic difference is the tamarind being used. In temple old tamarind is used which is blackish in color . A lot changes on the tamarind used too.

My moms temple pulihora recipe for all the temple prasadam lovers.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Tamarind - 1/4 cup

turmeric - 1/2 tspn

Rice - 2 cup

water - 4 cups (for rice)

for seasoning:

oil - 2 tbspn

green chillies - 3

red chillies - 2 (adjust chillies based on spiciness needed)

curry leaves - 10

chana dal - 2 tspn

mustard seeds - 1 tspn

cumin seeds - 1 tspn

split urud dal - 1 tspn

cashews - 3 tbspn

peanuts- 4 tbspn

Pulihora powder :

Sesame seeds - 2 1/2 tspn

coriander seeds - 4 tspn

fenugreek seeds - 2 tspn

peppercons  (black pepper)- 3 tspn

Procedure:

• Wash rice and cook it with twice the water .
• Once the rice is cooked keep the lid open and let it cool down. This will help the rice not be too mushy when mixing.
• paralelly can start preparing the tamarind mixture
• Soak tamarind in water for 5 minutes.
• extract tamarind pulp from tamarind .atleast 3 cups of tamarind pulp.

        pulihora powder.

• Dry roast the ingredients. it should not be completely roasted till the pulses turn almost brownish.
• grind the ingredients to form a smooth powder.

• slit the green chillies long .
• In a wok add oil and once heated add all the seasoning ingredients.
• Once the mustard seeds are spluttered and cashews,peanuts are slightly roasted add the tamarind pulp.
• Add turmeric and salt to the mixture and let it cook for 5 mins.
• Now add the pulihora powder. It would be best to add half of powder and check if its spicy before adding the remaining powder.

     

• Cook till it forms a thick paste or till oil oozes out from the paste.
• Mix the paste properly without mashing the rice.
• Add salt if needed and more powder can be added now as per spiciness.

Methi poori

Pooris are always tempting and quite easy to make. To add zing to it we can flavour it up. Methi poori has been my fav recipe and i love methi amongst all leafy vegetables.

Ingredients:

Methi (fenugreek leaves) - 1 bunch
wheat flour - 2 cups
salt - 1tbspn
oil - 2 tbspn ( for dough)
oil - for frying

Procedure:

Chop the methi to fine. Mix the wheat flour and salt. Add the fenugreek leaves and mix well. Make a well in between and add water. slowly mix the dough ( medium composure not too soft). add 2 tbspn oil and mix the dough for 5 mins till soft.

Make small balls of the dough and roll it with rolling pin into small circles like roti. Heat the tawa(wok) with oil. fry the poori till golden brown. Serve with any curry .though Potato curry is the best side dish.