Tasty tiffins , Tastier snacks!

Moong Poha

This is ideal for breakfast - filling , but light !

Sprouted moong 1 cup

Thick poha 2 cups

Onions 2 big

Tomatoes 2 big

Green chillies 4

Ginger 1”

Garlic 2 pieces

Coarsely powdered

Peanuts 1 cup

Grated coconut 1 cup

Cardamom&cloves 2 each

Oil ½ cup

Ghee 2 tsp

Coriander leaves & to garnish

Curry leaves



Grind the poha to rava consistency & soak in 2 cups of water to soften.

Make a paste of onions,tomatoes,green chillies, ginger & garlic.

Fry & powder cardamom & cloves

Heat oil in a vessel,.add ground paste & fry till oil separates.

Add ghee, poha & salt.

Mix well, add sprouted gram & cook for 5 mts.

Remove from fire, add groundnut powder,coconut,finely chopped coriander & curry leaves.

Mix well , adding powdered spices.

Serve hot .

 

Kara Vadai - Snack for Deepavali Breakfast.

Kara Vadai

Ingredients

Raw rice 1 cup

Urad dhal 1/3 cup

Red chilli powder 2 tsp

Hing, salt, curry leaves

Mustard seeds 1 tsp to temper

Oil to fry



Wash well and soak 1 cup raw rice and 1/3 cup urad dhal for 2 hrs.

Drain and grind very fine with salt adding sufficient water.

Ferment for 12 hrs.

Add 2 tsp red chilli powder, hing, chopped curry leaves and a little water to bring it to dropping consistency.

Temper with 1 tsp mustard seeds in 1 tsp oil.

Keep Paniyaram pan ready. ( if not available, You can deep fry like vadas.)

Add 1 tsp Eno’s Fruit Salt to the mixture and mix thoroughly.

Drop in tablespoonfuls in oiled pan.

Drizzle 1 tsp oil around.

When cooked turn on the other side and cook again.

Transfer to absorbent paper to remove excess oil.

Serve hot with any chutney.

This can be shallow fried in paniyara chatti also.

 

Omappodi, Always a Favourite!

Omappodi:

This is generally made as a Deepavali Savoury & a great favourite.

Besan - 2 cups

Rice flour - 1 cup

Hot oil - slightly more than ½ cup

Red chilli powder - 2 tsp

Ajwain or omum - 1 tbsp

Salt

Oil - to deep fry

Mix omum with 1 cup of water & grind it as fine as possible.

Strain & use the water full of omum flavour to knead the dough.

Sieve & mix both flours, oil, chilli powder, salt & omum water to get a soft dough .

Press with the omappodi press into hot oil.

This will cook very fast & so one should be very alert.

If you prefer, you can omit omum & add hing powder instead with the other ingredients.

If your omappodi press has big holes , you can add whole omum & prepare omappodi.

If you have the facility of grinding in a flour mill, take 1 kg of gram dhal, ½ kg of rice & 50 gms omum & get it ground to a fine powder. Omappodi made with this flour has excellent flavour.

 

Thattai-a Delicious Tea-time Snack.

Thattai-a Delicious Snack which is Everybody’s Favourite.

This savoury takes a little more time than thenkuzhal etc since each thattai has to be “patted” individually!

For thattai prepare processed rice flour thus – soak rice for 1 hour, drain & spread on a cloth over newspaper sheets. After it has dried fairly well ( we test it this way – you should be able to hold a handful , but shoud scatter also, as for puttu flour ) , send it to the flour mill or grind fine in a mixi.

Sieve the fine flour & very lightly roast it on a dry kadai for a few mts.

Roast udad dhal till pale brown , cool & powder fine in a mixi. Sieve & use the fine flour.

The traditional way is to use gramdhal soaked in water for 2 hrs, drained & spread on a cloth to dry . Now pottukadalai(pressed or roasted gram dhal is used,in place of that).

Rice flour - 4 cups

Udad flour - ½ cup

Butter - as given in tips for savouries

Pottukadalai or gram dhal - 2 tbsp

Red chilli powder , salt, hing powder, finely chopped curry leaves

Knead - as given in tips for savouries.

Make gooseberry size balls.

In a well oiled plastic sheet , pat each into a thin disc- now puri press can be used for the same.

Prick each with a fork in a few places-to prevent thattai puffing up.

Deep fry 4,5 at a time.

Cool & keep in an airtight box.

 

Ribbon Pakoda - a Delicious Savoury.

First Method:

Fresh besan - 2 cups

Rice flour - 3 cups

Butter or Hot oil - As given in tips for savouries

Oil - To deep fry

Grind to a fine paste:

Green chillies - 7,8(as per your taste)

Hing - 2 level tsp

Salt

Dilute the paste with water & strain.

The strained water is used for kneading the dough.

Mix sieved flours, butter or hot oil to bread crumb consistency.

Add the strained water gradually to get a soft dough.

Press with the Ribbon pakoda press (achu ) into hot oil, circularly without overlapping, for uniform frying.

When well cooked, remove to absorbent tissue.

If liked, you can add 4,5 pieces of garlic when grinding the paste.

This pakoda looks cream in colour & tastes very good.

If you do not want to use green chillies, you can use red chilli powder directly without any grinding.

This pakoda is more reddish in colour.

Second Method:

This method can be adapted by those who have wet grinders.

Boied rice - 4 cups

Besan - 3 cups

Butter - 100 gms

Salt

Oil - to deep fry

Wash & soak boiled rice for about 6 hrs.

Drain & grind very fine with minimum water.

Keep it wrapped in a clean water absorbent towel till as much water as possible is absorbed by the towel.

Now add besan & butter, kneading it thoroughly & completely.

Make ribbon pakoda as usual.

In this method, chilli powder is not usually added.

It is your choice!


Third method which I have now switched over to:

In the first method instead of 2 cups besan, add 1 cup besan + 1 cup frehly powdered fried gram (pottukadalai ) flour.

Sieve all flours & proceed. This gives excellant results.

Yet another mill-ground flour mix:

Send to the flour mill
2 cups raw rice + 1/2 cup fried gram (pottukadalai) + 1/4 cup gram dhal
Sieve the mixture and proceed.

 

Mixture - a Top Notch Favourite for Deepavali.

Mixture:

This consists of literally mixing the following ingredients:

Omappodi - the recipe is here .

Karaboondhi:

Besan - 2 cups

Rice flour - 2 tbsp

Soda – a tiny pinch

Salt

Mix the above ingredients with just enough water to make a bajji-like batter & whisk very well.

Heat oil in a flat ( not very deep ) kadai.

Keep a little large amount of oil to get round boondhis.

If the oil is less, the shape of boondhis will not be round.

Keep boondhi ladle above the oil at a distance.

Pour one big ladleful of batter on it & the boondhis will start dropping into the oil.

Tap the ladle very gently with a spoon, if necessary.

Round boondhis will drop & get fried.

When crisp, take them out on a kitchen tissue.

Gram dhal:

Soak gramdhal in plenty of water with a pinch of soda for 2 hrs.

Wash well, drain & dry by spreading in a dry cloth for 1 hour.

When fairly dry, deep fry in oil in small batches of handful.

Fry crisp & remove to a kitchen tissue.

Now friedgram dhal ( pottukkadalai ) is substituted for the above – but in my personal experience gramdhal soaked, drained & deep fried gives a better taste.

Peanuts , dry roasted crisp are added.

Thin poha, dry roasted in shops is readily available – that has to be bought & cleaned to remove sand particles.

If the above is not available, deep fry less than a handful at a time in oil & quickly remove - remember they will swell very much & get fried fast.

Sweet diamond cuts:

Mix 1 cup maida, 1 tbsp butter or ghee , a pinch of salt & ¼ cup powdered sugar with just enough water to a thick dough.

Make balls, roll thin, cut in diagonal lines to get small diamonds.

Deep fry in oil (if you prefer a good flavour, deep fry this in ghee!)

Potato Chips (optional):

Slice potato very thin & cut each slice into strips 1” long.

Wash well, drain completely, dry in a cloth to remove moisture.

Deep fry in small batches.

Cashews:

Deep fry & add.

Curry leaves;

Wash, dry & deep fry – drain very well in a kitchen tissue since they absorb a lot of oil.

Raw cornflakes ( optional ):

Select raw cornflakes – raw & meant for frying & not the breakfast cereal.

Deep fry small handfuls in hot oil, drain on absorbent paper.

Masala to be mixed & sprinkled:

Powdered salt, red chilli powder, hing powder

Mix all ingredients in a big vessel lined with absorbent paper.
Sprinkle the masalas mixed well on top & with long stemmed ladle, mix compltely from top to bottom so that masala is evenly distributed

 

Maddur Vada - Ideal Snack for a Rainy Day!

For SBS photos, please go to
Maddur Vada
The ingredients for this are readily available at home. When it starts raining, make this & serve with masala chai - this will vanish before the rain stops !
Rice Flour ½ cup

Besan ½ cup

Fine rawa ½ cup

Maida ½ cup

Atta ½ cup

Onions 2 big or 3 medium

Greenchillies 5-6

Ginger 1” piece-2 no:s

Coriander Leaes ½ cup (finely chopped )

Curry leaves few ( finely chopped )

Raw peanuts ¼ cup ( coarsely chopped )

Seasame seeds 2 tsp

Jeera 1 tsp

Cooking soda ¼ tsp

Hot oil or ghee 2 tbsp

Salt


Oil To deep fry

Finely chop or mince onions, add salt, soda & hot oil (or ghee )

Keep it on a plate & knead it very well, rubbing it on the plate.

This releases a lot of water from the onions which should be used for kneading all the ingredients, without adding water.
Now add all the ingredients & bind together, avoiding addition of water, as far as possible (or if at all, just 2-3 tsp) – this is the secret of crisp vadas .

A food Processor using the mincingblade can be effectively used for this.

Heat the oil on a kadai.

Make small balls with the dough & flatten each into a small disc on an oiled plastic sheet.

In hot oil, drop 4,5 vadas, change the heat to medium & then to lo.
Fry turning the vadas over repeatedly till they get a uniform brown colour on all sides – as we do for samosas.
This will take minimum 5 mts for each batch.( I have the habit of timing so that I will not hurriedly remove them !)

Only then the vadas will be very crisp & retain the crispness even afterwards.
Spread on a kitchen tissue & serve with tomato ketchup.

 

Rava Idli - the Easy Tiffin, Difficult to get it right.

Bombay Rava (pre roasted & stored ) - 1 cup

Slightly sour curds - 1 cup ( beat well )

Gram dhal - 2 tbsp ( optional )

Oil - 3 tbsp (no compromise ! )

Fruit salt - 1 tsp ( or cooking soda-1/2 tsp )

Coriander leaves - few, chopped

Salt

To temper:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 2,3 (chopped fine )

Cashewnuts - 5,6 (finely chopped )

Hing powder - 1 tsp

Curry leaves (finely chopped ) - few (optional )

Heat oil, temper all given ingredients, finally add rava & roast lightly so that all ingredients blend well.

Remove, cool, add fruit salt, plain salt & coriander leaves

Gram dhal soaked for 1 hour & drained can be added for a light crunchy taste.

All this can be done ahead & kept ready.

Just 10 mts before serving, keep the idli steamer on stove.

When the water starts boling, quickly whisk the curds into the mixture, mixing thoroughly.

If the mixture is mixed with curds don’t keep it, but immediately steam it.

Steam the idlis for 7-8 mts.

It is optional to add grated carrots, boiled peas etc to add to the taste & colourful appearance.

Many soak rava in curds but I don’t.

I can assure you, this is a fool-proof recipe !

 

1-2-3 Oothappam-This is a sure winner because of its spongy texture !

The fermentation has to be done for 12hrs definitely.

It may come soft, but adding fruit salt ( or cooking soda ) makes it very

porous & absolutely spongy.

Raw rice 3 cups

Curds 2 cups

Thick poha(aval) 1 cup

Green chillies 5-6

Ginger 2 ‘’

Salt

Finely chopped onions 1 cup

To temper in 1 tsp oil:

Mustard seeds 1tsp

Wash rice and poha well and soak together in curds for 3 hours.

Then grind it very fine adding a little water if necessary.

Add salt and ferment for atleast 12 hrs.

Now add minced green chillies and ginger.

Temper.

Add a little water if necessary to get dosa batter consistency.

For 1 cup of dough add 1 tsp Eno’s Fruit Salt and mix thoroughly.

Heat dosa pan and put one ladleful of dough.

Keep the ladle in the centre for a few seconds so that the centre is not too

thick. Do not spread the dough.

Drizzle 1 tsp oil around it & cook it covered.

Halfway through cooking, open the cover, sprinkle onions, cover & cook till

done.

Do not turn it over.

Remove & serve hot & spongy with any chutney