Thursday, October 19, 2017

Rasam Vadai | Rasa Vada | Snacks Recipe

Rasam Vadai, an delicious way of eating vadai that are soaked in rasam. When i was working in chennai, one of my collegue brought the home made snacks for his birthday and this rasam vadai was one among them. Most of my team members never had heard about this vadai and that was the first time that they were tasting and literally everyone was amazed by its taste and flavor. Though we make rasam vadai and thayir vadai regularly at our home, that's when i came to know that the rasam vadai was not a common dish to prepare at every house like thayir vadai. I always remember that incident whenever i make rasam vadai. 

This dish is very simple, if you have medhu vadai and rasam, then all you need to do is put together and let it soak for few mins, Tada your rasam vadai is ready. As i already have the recipe for both medhu vada and rasam, here i just gave the link for that. And also i didn't mentioned the quantity of vada and rasam, it's purely up to your choice ,if you want more rasam with your vadai, then add more or else vice versa.


Rasam Vadai

Preparation Time : 20 mins | Cooking Time : 0 minsServes :
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
Medhu Vada
Rasam
Coriander leaves -few
Ghee - 1 tsp

Procedure
Take all the ingredients , in the rasam add the ghee, mix it well,then dump the vada into it.
Let it sit for 15 to 20 mins and serve with some chopped coriander leaves on top.
Tasty Rasam Vadai is ready.
Notes:
  • Rasam should be hot, so the vadai can easily absorb it.
  • You can use both hot or left over vadai,it will taste the same.
  • If the vadai is hot, then there is no need of soaking for 20 mins in rasam, within few minutes,you can serve.
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Monday, October 16, 2017

Bajji | Vazhakkai Bajji | Raw Plantain Bajji | Diwali Recipe

Vazhakkai Bajji, a delicious deep fried snack made from the raw plantain / raw banana. It's one of the common snack that you can see across the tea stalls in South India. It's super easy to make and taste awesome with tea or as it is ! 

A week before deepavali itself, in our home, we started to prepare all those sweets and savories which we can keep it for more than 10 days to snack on. In addition to that, on the day of deepavali morning, we usually make uzhuntha vadai,paruppu vadai,susiyam, bajji and rava maida appam along with breakfast which we also offer these as prasadam for the deepavali pooja. 

Although i make bajji very often at home, i keep on forgetting to post it here. So last weekend, when i had prepared this vazhakkai bajji for our evening tea, i took few photos to post here. Is there any combination better than bajji & hot tea on rainy evening?Never, right. 

Bajji tastes absolutely fantastic with coconut chutney and tea/cofee. Here i have shared few tips that i have learned on how to make crispy bajji !!!
I remembered on one incident while editing this post today(Oct 2022). When we were in Houston, one of my friend visited me casually on the week end. Her husband was planned to pick her up on the evening while back home from the office. 

So in the evening, ST returned home with two of his collegues(who are my friend's husband and they all worked together) . As ST informed me earlier, i made bajji along with the tea to offer them.  All of them liked the bajji so much and raved about how good they are !  

The next day, the other friend(one who was not there the previous evening and only her husband was there) called me and asked me the recipe for the bajji and even told that her husband was talking all about the bajjis and  how good they are ! 

I was so happy to hear that and shared her the recipe.  The proportion of the rice flour and the besan is the key to get the crispy bajji and also well balanced seasoning makes all the difference !

Now let's check out on how to make delicious vazhakkai bajji.


Vazhakkai Bajji

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 minsServes : 3 to 4 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
Vazhakkai/Raw Plantain - 1 
Besan - 3/4 cup
Rice flour - 3 tbsp
Baking soda - 1/8 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Ghee - 1/2 tsp
Water - as needed
Oil - for deep frying 

Procedure
In a bowl, add besan,rice flour,red chili powder, turmeric powder,baking soda & salt, mix it well, then add ghee and give a good mix, pour water little by little and make a thick paste.
The batter should be neither too thick not too thin. Set it aside. Peel the skin of the raw plantain and cut into desired length as per your liking.
Cut into thin slices and put it in water until use. Heat the oil for frying.
Take a slice of raw plantain from the water,gently tap it on tissue paper to remove the dripping water,then dip it in the besan batter well and gently drop it in hot oil.
Cook on both sides on medium flame until they are crispy. Remove from the flame and place it on tissue paper.
Tada, Quick and tasty Vazhakkai Bajji is ready. Serve it with coconut chutney.
Notes:
  • Keep the sliced raw plantain in the water helps to avoid the color changing.
  • Don't pour all water at once in the besan, add little by little and mix it. This helps to avoid forming lumps in the batter.
  • You can use either slicer or knife to slice the raw plantain
  • Cook the bajji in medium flame to ensure that the inside also cooked well.



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Thursday, October 12, 2017

Munthiri Kothu | Kothu | Diwali Recipe

Munthiri Kothu/Kothu, a traditional diwali sweet recipe made from whole moong dal and palm jaggery in South Tamilnadu. As they are deep fried in bunches,they are called as kothu(tamil word for bunches). Still i remember that in my childhood days, on every diwali, in almost every home in our area, they used to prepare this munthiri kothu and athirasam,but nowadays only few people are making this on diwali 😞
I want to try this for a while and on last year diwali itself, i got the recipe from my mom and had tried it with very less quantity and it turned it out so good😋 Again i made this yesterday ahead of diwali just to share here. There are two things you should be careful while making this sweet
  1. Jaggery Syrup consistency is very important
  2. Don't grind the moong dal into very fine.
Other than that, it's so simple and even if you can't fry them in bunches, fry one at a time, still it tastes the same.Munthiri kothu is one of the very few sweets that you can make without any ghee,milk and refined sugar, still it taste delicious and also it has very long self life at room temperature. There are quite a few variation in making the inside stuffing and outside coating. Here i have shared the recipe on how we make it in our home. If you're making this for first time, make sure that you read the notes section.

Munthiri Kothu

Preparation Time : 20 mins | Cooking Time : 20 minsServes : 30 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Munthiri Kothu,Kothu Recipe,Tirunelveli munthiri Kothu,Deepavali Sweets,Diwali Sweet, Munthiri Kothu/Kothu, a traditional diwali sweet recipe made from whole moong dal and palm jaggery in South Tamilnadu.
Ingredients
Pasi Payaru/ Whole Moong dal - 1 cup
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Palm Jaggery/Karupatti - 3/4 cup(heaped)
Cardamom - 3
Maida - 1/2 cup
Salt - a pinch
Water - as needed
Oil - for deep frying

Procedure
Heat a kadai, add the pasi payaru and dry roast till it starts  to change the color from green to light brown,by that time, it also be so aromatic.Remove from the heat and transfer into plate and let it cool. In the same pan, add the coconut and start roasting in the low flame.Once the coconut becomes reddish in color, remove from the flame and let it cool completely. Once the moong dal is cooled, add into the mixie jar.Add the cardamom into the jar and grind into coarse powder.Neither too grainy nor fine powder.Transfer that into the bowl, add the coconut and mix it together well.Now for the syrup, add the palm jaggery and water(just enough to soak the jaggery) and bring into boil.Let the jaggery dissolves completely.Then keep the flame in medium and cook it reaches 1/2 string consistency. 1/2 string consistency means take the syrup between your thumb and fore finger, when you separate your fingers, initially it forms the string string and when you move your finger further apart, it breaks. That's the correct stage.Remove the syrup from the flame and pour into the dal mixture. Mix it well with spoon.Once it comes together, let it aside for 1-2 mins until it comes to hand bearable temperature and then make small balls out of it and keep aside.Now for the outer coating, take the maida in a bowl, add a pinch of salt and enough water, mix it well and make a smooth batter and the consistency is like bhaji batter.Heat the oil for frying, take three moong dal balls like a triangle and dip it in the batter well.Slowly drop into the hot oil and cook it for 2 mins on each side or until the outer layer becomes crispy.That's it, Traditional Munthiri kothu is ready.
Notes:
  • 1/2 string consistency is in between sticky consistency and 1 string consistency, so keep the flame in low once the syrup became sticky, that way you don't miss the correct consistency.
  • Filter the jaggery syrup before you pour into the moong dal mixture.
  • After the jaggery syrup is added into the dal mixture, don't let it sit for long time, it becomes hard and you can't make balls out of it. Once it comes to hand bearable temperature, immediately start making balls.
  • If you're making in large quantity, then don't pour the entire jaggery syrup at once, add just little by little and make balls. That helps to prevent the mixture becomes hard at the last.
  • Make sure that you roast the coconut in low flame, then only you get that reddish color on coconut.
  • Roasting coconut helps to increase the self life of munthiri kothu
  • Palm Jaggery gives great taste to the munthiri kothu.
  • I have seen people adding turmeric powder on the maida batter, but in our home, we don't add that, but if you want that yellow color on outside, you can add the turmeric powder.

  

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Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Butter Murukku | Murukku | Diwali Recipe

Butter Murukku, a tasty, crunchy and flavorful snack made from rice flour. Actually i'm looking forward to this diwali season to make all the sweets and savories, it doesn't mean i won't make it on other time, but it kind of gives festive feel in your home and i love it. 
I had tried this butter murukku few times before, but couldn't get the correct texture. It was bit hard to bite,but still it was tasty. Later i tried with less quantity of besan & more of fried gram flour and it turned out the way i like it. Super crunchy and absolutely delicious !!! If you're looking for some fool proof recipe to try on this diwali, then here it is.

Butter Murukku

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 20 minsServes :
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Butter Murukku, Easy Murukku recipe, Murukku Butter Murukku, a tasty, crunchy and flavorful snack made from rice flour.
Ingredients
Rice flour - 1 cup
Besan - 2 tbsp
Fried gram flour(Pottukadalai flour) - 2 tbsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Cumin seed - 1 tsp
Sesame seed - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - for deep frying

Procedure
Measure & take all the ingredients in the bowl except butter and oil. Mix all the dry ingredients well, then add the butter.
Mix it with hands until all the butter is well incorporated with the flour, then slowly add the water and make a smooth dough.
Heat the oil for deep frying, in a murukku press, use the star disc and fill the press with the dough and close it.
Squeeze the murukku into the hot oil, cook till it has nice golden color and also the "shh" sound stop by that time, remove from oil and drain it on tissue paper.
Let it cool completely and store it in air tight box. Tasty, crunchy and flavorful Butter Murukku is ready.

Related : How to make Seepu Seedai

For more sweets and snacks here, check out here 
Notes:
  • Use soft butter,so that it will incorporate with the flour well.
  • Cove the dough always, it helps to avoid become dry.
  • While making pottukadalai flour, make sure that they are fine powder, if it's not sieve it once and use.
  • If the pottukadalai flour aren't fine powder,then there is a chance of murukku bursting in the oil, so make sure that they are super fine.
  • Squeeze little amount of murukku in the oil at a time, the steam from the oil is very hot, so be careful while squeezing.


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Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Nei Urundai | Moong Dal Ladoo | Pasi Paruppu Laddu

Nei Urundai/ Pasi Paruppu Ladoo, an easy and tasty ladoo made from moong dal,sugar and ghee. It hardly takes 15 mins from the start to end for the given quantity and also ideal for making in large quantity to distribute for friends and family on this diwali season.

When i heard the name "Nei Urundai", i thought that it requires lot of ghee to make this ladoo and avoided to try it for so long and even i don't know that it's made of pasi paruppu(moong dal) until i prepared on my own. 

A few weeks before, when i had prepared the list of diwali sweets to make on this year, this ladoo popped up in my head and immediately searched on my drafts  for the recipe which i noted down from some tv shows a few years back.

The recipe seems  so easy and it was not that much of ghee i had thought of, so within a next few days, i tried it and it was so good and taste almost like the stuffing of munthiri kothu which is made from whole moong dal and quiet popular sweet  in Tirunelveli area. 

So that may be the reason for this ladoo is not popular in our area, instead of this, i think everyone prefers to make munthiri kothu. Ok, now let move on to the recipe.


Nei Urundai

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 5 minsMakes : 12 
Recipe Category: Sweets | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
Moong dal / Pasi Paruppu - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Cashews(brown) - 2 tsp 
Cardamom - 2

Procedure
Heat a pan and add the moong dal and roast till nice aroma comes from it. It may take 4-6 mins on medium flame.
Let it cool down completely and add into the mixie jar and grind into fine powder. Put it in a bowl.
In the same mixie jar, add the sugar and cardamom, grind into smooth powder.
Add into the powdered moong dal and mix well until both dal and sugar combined together.
Heat the pan , add ghee and cashews, roast till it becomes golden brown.
Add into the dal mixture and mix it well with your hands and make ladoos out of it.
That's it, Tasty & easy ladoos are ready.

Related : How to make Rava Ladoo.

Notes:
  • If the grounded dal is coarse, sieve it once and use it.
  • Don't reduce the amount of ghee, it helps to hold the ladoos and also give nice aroma.
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