Kodubale

I remember having this snack in my childhood but I had forgot its name until recently wen I bought this snack from Indian grocery. I wanted to try this at home and found a recipe @ Aayis recipes. The taste was good but not as very good as the store bought one. Also few rings turned dark in the beginning bcos of the heat. So I reduced the heat later and then it came well. I thought adding rava/sooji also makes it turn dark soon. So next time, I'm planning to try it without sooji.

If you have enough time and patience its worth trying this as it took a lot of time for rolling the rings; maybe I was slow...:) . I'm  happy that my kid also helped me in making some rings and he made his own shapes of alphabets.

Ingredients:

1 cups rice flour
1/2 cup maida (all purpose flour)
1/2 cup rava/sooji
1 tea spn moong dal
1 tea spn urad dal
1 tea spn chana dal
3 red chillies
2 tea spns dry coconut (kobbari)
1 tea spn coriander seeds
1 tea spn cumin seeds
Oil
Salt

Procedure:

Dry roast rice flour, maida(all purpose flour), rava/sooji for few minutes and keep it aside.

Heat oil and add moong dal, urad dal, chana dal, red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, coconut for few minutes. Take care not to burn anything. Grind to a smooth paste using just enough water.

Add the paste to the flour mixture. Add salt, 1 tbsp hot oil and make a dough. Add water if needed

Make small balls of the dough and roll them as thin strings and join them at the ends to make a circle.
Make the rings ready and fry them in oil on medium heat. They get soft if they are not fried well, so make sure to fry them till they are little dark in color.

Store in air tight container.

 

Mini Jangri

Jangri is my favorite sweets back in my childhood. The cripsy outside and juicy inside makes me mouth-watering even now. I found this recipe when I was browsing for some Diwali sweets.

I actually wanted to make the bigger ones but I cudn't get that perfect shape. It started to float on oil before I finished to squeeze them. So I made them as mini ones following Spicy Treats. Believe me the taste was good except for the size. Also they were a little thin I think bcos of the hole size. But it was a great surprise for my family.

Ingredients

Urad dal - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Orange food color - a generous pinch
salt - a pinch

For sugar syrup
Sugar 1 cup
Water 1 cup
Lemon juice few drops

Proceudre:

Sugar syrup:
1. Add water to a vessel and add sugar to it. Keep stirring till it dissolves and boil for half string consistency. This should take around 8-10 minutes. Once it reaches this consistency add few drops of lemon juice and turn it off.
2. You can add a drop of rose essence or cardamom powder to this syrup for flavor.

Jangri:
1. Soak Urad dal for 4-5 hrs (I soaked overnight) and grind it in mixer to a smooth paste with very little water (make sure not to add too much water as we do for medhu vadas)

2. To this ground paste add a pinch of salt, rice flour and food color and mix well. The batter should be thick and if dropped in water should float. If it gets watery add a little more of rice flour.

3. Take a clean new zip lock bag(use the freezer bags as they r thick) and in the center make a whole using hot nail in such a way the whole get sealed and it will tear while squeezing.

4. Then using spatula keep the urad dal batter to the zip lock and bring all dough together and hold on the top or tie using a rubber band.(like we do for henna cone or pastry bag with icing)

5. Now heat oil in a wide pan on medium low. Squeeze the batter directly in to the hot oil randomly (like we do for murukku) .based on your size of the pan, fry 5-10 mini jangris at a time.

6. Turn them frequently and fry till it turns crisp n well done. Drain it from oil and transfer it to the prepared warm sugar syrup.

7. Repeat the same for all remaining batter. Let the mini jangri rest in the sugar syrup for at least 1 hour for fine taste n texture.


Points to note:

Use little water for grinding urad dal. While grinding, turn off the grinder frequently to avoid the batter becoming hot
If you feel your batter to be little watery then add 2-3 tsp of rice flour mix well n use.
Sugar syrup should be warm not hot syrup.
Oil should not be too hot.It should be medium hot. I turned off the heat while removing a batch of jangri, squeezed the next batch and then turned it on so that the oil was not hot while squeezing the jangris.

Roasted Potatoes (Red & Green)

A variety of roasted potatoes in a different flavor. I usually make the red ones. But last time I tried out the green ones too. It tasted great (my pictures were not appealing though). My husband liked it very much. I used the white potatoes for this as they don't get mashed easily. This would be great with Baby potatoes.

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 3-4 medium size. Boil them till cooked. Don't cook too soft.

Red potatoes:
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt

Procedure:

1. Cut the boiled potatoes to cubes.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan (preferably heavy bottomed non-stick) and add half of the cubed potatoes(remaining u can use for the green version)

3. Fry on medium flame and keep stirring so that it gets evenly roasted. Be careful not to break the potatoes.

4. Once the potatoes turn light brownish, add the salt and red chilly powder. Stir well so the powders get coated evenly.

5. Now add another tbsp of oil and keep stirring frequently. If needed reduce the flame.

6. Wait for red brown color and the raw smell of chily powder goes away.

7. Serve them hot as snack or serve with rice. It goes well with sambhar, more kuzhambu and curd rice


Green potatoes:

Coriander leaves - 1 cup
Mint leaves - 2 tbsp
Green chilly - 2/3
Oil - 2 tbsp
salt

Procedure:

1. Grind the coriander leaves, mint leaves and green chilli to a smooth paste

2. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and add the ground paste and salt
(preferably heavy bottomed non-stick)

3. After it starts leaving nice aroma add the remaining half of the cubed potatoes

4. Fry on medium flame and keep stirring so that it gets evenly roasted. Be careful not to break the potatoes.

5. Keep stirring frequently. If needed reduce the flame.

6. Wait for the potatoes to get evenly coated and they are roasted crisp.They may turn light brown spots while roasting.

7. Serve them hot as snack or serve with rice. It goes well with sambhar, more kuzhambu and curd rice

Spicy Mashed Potatoes

This is one of my favorite dish. The traditional name for this is Potato Puttu. It
needs simple ingredients and frequent stirring and we can make this delicious dish
in 15-20 minutes. It goes very well with Kara/puli kuzhambu



Ingredients:

Boiled Potatoes -3
Chopped Onions- 1 big
Chopped garlic - 6 pods
Green chilli - 3 ( can be replaced with chilli powder if you have kids at home)
chopped cashews - 10
turmeric powder - pinch
salt
Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Boil the potatoes well. Mash them with salt and turmeric powder and mix well and make as a dough. (it will be sticky)

2. Heat oil in a pan (preferably heavy bottomed non-stick). Fry the cashews. To this add onions, garlic and green chillies. Fry well. (if you are using red chilli powder add after the onions are sauted well and brown)

3. Add the mashed potatoes and keep stirring. Keep on a medium low flame. Spread the mixture evenly across the pan with the spatula.

4. Keep stirring for every 1 or 2 minutes. It will gradually turn brown on the bottom. If you don't stir it will burn. Do this for 15 minutes or until it turns light brown.

5. Potato puttu is ready.

Stuffed Mushrooms

This is a tasty appetizer which is easy to make. The stuffing can be changed with any of your favorite ingredients like peppers(capsicum), cabbage, potatos etc., I got the recipe from my friend and my special thanks to her. you may prepare this few hours ahead and reheat in the oven before serving



What we need:

Whole Mushrooms - 10
chopped onion - 1/2 cup
chopped garlic - 3 pods
red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
cumin seeds - 1 tsp
pepper
salt
Oil - 1tsp
Shredded cheese (parmesan or mild cheddar) - 1/2 cup

How to make:

Work with mushrooms:

1. Wash the mushrooms a couple of times to remove the mud completely.

2. Remove the stem of the mushrooms which will leave the hollow part inside. Keep the whole hollow part aside

3. Finely chop the stem part of the mushroom


Making the stuffing:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Then add chopped onions and garlic.

2. After its sauted add the chopped mushroom stems. We can add other vegetables also at this time

3. Now add the red chilli powder, a little pepper and salt.

4. cook till its done. we may not need water as mushroom tends to leave out some


Final part:

1. Preheat the oven at 350F

2. Take the whole mushrooms and fill the prepared stuffing inside them

3. Assemble the mushrooms in an oven-safe vessel with the open side facing upwards

4. Now sprinkle the shredded cheese on top and keep inside the oven

5. Cook for 35- 40 mts. Mushrooms will be brown and bubbly. Serve hot.

Tricolor Chapati

I was just bored of regular of making regular chapatis. And luckily came across this different recipe and tried it out. It looks colourful, tastes good and serves healthy too. I used carrots for the orange color, coriander and mint leaves for the green color. You can try other veggies like beetroot, broccoli etc., for different colors.




Ingredients

Chapati flour - 3 cups
carrots -2 (steam and grind to a thick paste)
Coriander and mint leaves - 1 cup (grind with little water to a smooth and thick paste)
salt
oil

Method




1. Add water and salt to 1st cup of flour and make a soft chapati dough. This is the usual brown dough

2. Add grinded carrot paste and salt to 2nd cup of flour and make a soft chapati dough. Add water if needed. You'll get a orange dough

3. Add grinded coriander and mint paste and salt to 3rd cup of flour and make a soft chapati dough. Add water if needed. This serves for the green dough

4. Flatten each dough separately using hand or rolling pin to the size of a roti. Arrange the flattened doughs one on top of other ie., keep brown down on top of it keep orange and then green.

5. Now roll it together cylindrically and cut to the size of a chapati ball using knife. Don't make the ball as this blends the color and you maynot be able to the unique colors

6. Take each piece and roll the colorful chapati and cook over tawa as usual

7. Colorful Chapatis are ready for serving

Mani Kozhukattai

These are smaller versions of regular kozhukattai. And these are then stirred with cooked and crumbled urad dal which gives a different and great taste. I got the recipe from chefinyou but definitely could not beat her picture. The only difficulty in this is to make the small balls as it takes quite time compared to the regular ones.



Ingredients:

Steamed Rice flour/Idiyappam flour - 1 cup
warm water as required
Mustard seeds
Red chili -1
curry leaves
urad dal - 1 tsp
Salt
Oil

Coarse grind
Urad dal - 1/2 cup(soak for1/2 hr)
Red chili - 1
curry leaves
fennel seeds
salt


Procedure:

Coarsely grind the soaked urad dal with chili, curry leaves, fennel seeds and salt and steam them like idly

After cooling down crumble the steamed urad dal. This makes the spicy pooranam

Knead the flour with warm water and salt to a soft dough. Alternatively you can grind rice to a smooth paste and cook it over stove to form a soft dough (pls check the kozhukattai recipe for details)

Apply oil on ur hand and make it to small balls and steam them for 10 minutes

Now heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. After they crack, add urad dal, red chili, curry leaves and saute the spicy pooranam.

To this mix the steamed kozhukattais and serve hot