Nippattu

Another fried snack. I prepared this for Ganesha festival, but could not post the recipe till now. In fact, all the recipes from now on for quite sometime is backlog being uploaded. Mummy used to prepare all these together - rave unde, chakkali, nippattu, kodubale. She used to prepare in large quantities with the assistance of my aunts and granny. It used to be a large group gathered when such snacks and festivities were prepared. Now, with everyone busy in their works none of us staying in close proximity to each other, we end up cooking in small quantities and at times not cooking this stuff at all. I have seen more number of people buying from supermarkets and groceries where they sell this stuff ready. I had done it once but did not like the items much and it did not give me the fulfillment and satisfaction i have when i do it myself. So here goes, another of the fried stuff recipe......

NIPPATTU:



Ingredients:

2 cups rice flour
1/2 cup besan (fried gram flour)
1/2 cup dried coconut (grate and powder)
3 tbsp fried, peeled and lightly crushed groundnuts
6-7 dry red chillies (byadagi variety), coarsely powdered
2 sprigs of curry leaves roughly chopped
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp hing
2 tbsp hot oil for mixing the dough
a pinch of salt

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients mentioned above into a dough.
2. Make small balls and flatten it into 1/2 inch thick discs on a plastic sheet.
3. Slide it into hot oil and once reddish brown, remove it from the oil.
4. Repeat the same till you exhast all the dough.
5. Cool it and then store it in a air tight container.

Alasande Husuli (Black eyed beans salad)

Legumes being a good source of protein, i include it quite often in our diet. The kids love eating sprouts and beans when it is a salad. They especially like the green gram and alasande (lobia/black eyed bean) salad a lot. My son eats this as a whole meal instead of as an accompaniment. I prepare this without onions if it is on fasting days and if it is prepared as prasadam.

ALASANDE HUSULI:




Ingredients:

1 cup alasande (lobia/black eyed beans)
1 large onion, chopped fine.
3-4 green chillies (slit lengthwise to make it easy for the kids to remove the chillies when eating)
2 tbspn grated fresh coconut
1 tsp mustard
1 sprig curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1 tsp oil
salt to taste
coriander for garnish


Method of Preparation:

1. Cook the beans for 2 whistles and strain completely
2. Heat the oil in a pan and splutter the mustard seeds, add hing.
3. Add onions and fry till it turns translucent, add curry leaves.
4. Add salt and mix well, now add the beans and mix thoroughly.
5. Add the grated coconut and coriander, mix well and switch off the flame.


Serve this as an accompaniment or as an evening snack

See Kadubu

The preparation for Ganesha festival starts off a week in advance. I remember my mother soaking rice for the preparation of Kadubu dough a week previous to the festival. The main offering to Ganesha on the festival is this Kadubu (also known as modak). There are different kinds of modak, deep fried, steamed and just stuffed. The recipe given below is for the plain stuffed kadubu. For preparing the rice flour for this recipe, rice needs to be soaked for 3 hours, strained and then spread on a clean muslin cloth for drying. Dry this in shade for 1 whole day. Next day it is powdered very fine. My mother, aunt and me would sit and make kadubus with our hands without moulds, when the dough was still hot. Now that moulds are available and i'm the only hand to make kadubus, i use a mould. The kadubus should be made when the dough is hot.

SEE KADUBU:




Ingredients:

For the stuffing
1 cup fried Bengal gram powdered roughly (hurikadale)
1 cup white sesame (fried and roughly powdered)
1 cup jaggery powdered
1 cup dried coconut, grated.
1/4 cup poopy seeds (fried)
6-7 elaichi (seeds powdered)

For the dough:
2 cups rice powder
1 and 1/2 cup water ( adjust according to necessity)
a pinch of salt


Method of preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing and keep it in an airtight container.
2. Boil water and add a pinch of salt, as the water starts boiling, add the rice flour till all the water is absorbed.
3. Keep mixing with a thick spatula (preferably wooden) to avoid lump formation.
4. As you keep mixing, bring the whole flour together into one huge dough.
5. Make lemon sized balls of the dough when it is still hot.
6. Pat this ball flat and put it into the kadubu mould and fill the stuffing powder into it and make hot hot kadubus.
7. You can further steam this kadubu or eat it without steaming.

Kodubale (Cripy Spicy Donuts)

This is another snack i prepared for Ganesha. Preparing these dishes was nostalgic for me.... reminded me of my mom preparing kodubale and rave unde before we went out on a vacation and even for school picnics. I prefer giving both my kids these home made snacks rather than chips which little ones are usually fond of. Thankfully my kids too prefer homemade snacks to readymade.

KODUBALE:



Ingredients:

2 cups rice flour
1/2 cup huri kadale/bhuna chana/putnala pappulu (ground to powder)
1/2 cup grated & powdered dry coconut (dry coconut is best if you want to store the snack)
1 tbspn jeera
1 tbspn red chilli powder
1 & 1/2 tspn salt
1/4 tsp hing
3 tblspn hot oil
Oil for deep frying

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients mentioned above except oil.
2. Once all the dry ingredients are mixed well, add the hot oil and again mix well.
3. Add water and knead dough of the above ingredients.
4. Roll the dough into long cylinders of 6 inches in length and 1/2 inch diameter (apprx measurement). Picture shown below for reference.



5. Bring both the ends of the cylinder and join it.
6. Deep fry 6-7 kodubales at a time for 4 mins depending on the size of the kadai. (You have to fry them thoroughly so that it does not soft after it cools)

Store this in an air tight container. Stays crispy for more than a week.

Rave Unde (Rava Laddu)

It has been very long since i have posted on my blog, most important reason being my settling down in a new place, school for kids, a minor accident. Now i'm back to the comfort zone in my new place and back to browsing the net and continuing my internet activities.....
Ganesh festival celebrations are so extensive in mumbai and it was very nice to witness it first hand after listening about it all these years. In my mom's house we treat Ganesha with a huge spread of home made goodies for the festival. The preparations start a week in advance. I too prepared a simple fare for the Lord starting 3 days in advance. I made Rave Unde, Kodubale, Chakkli, Ellu Unde, Nippattu and Kadubu (with Kadubu pudi).

Rave Unde (Rava Laddu):



Ingredients:

2 cups chiroti rava (very fine variety)
1/2 cup milk (warm)
1 and 1/2 cup sugar (powdered) (You can alter it as per your taste)
3 tblspns cashew and raisins (fried in ghee)
4 tblspns ghee
4 pods cardsmom (powdered)

Method of preparation:

1. On medium flame fry the cashew and raisins in 2 tblspns ghee and remove.
2. In the same kadhai with the left over ghee, add another tblspn ghee and fry the rava. U need to keep stirring it continously to avoid burning.Fry till it gives out a pleasant aroma. This will take around 5-6 minutes.
3. Take this into a large mixing bowl and add cashew and raisins, powdered sugar, cardamom powder and warm milk and mix well.
4. Grease your hand and make rava laddus.

This stays good for 15 days at room temperature but the stock has never lasted beyond a week at my place.

Vegetable Wheat Momos & Tangy Spicy Dip

I have been MIA for more than a month since i have been so occupied in settling down and getting the kids adapted comfortably with their new school and surroundings. However, i managed to click a few photos whenever i have wanted so badly to put the respective recipes on my blog......
I have started preparing low calorie dishes quite often, of late. Wheat momos is one of them where we use whole wheat flour instead of maida.I also made a tangy dip alongwith it.

VEGETABLE WHEAT MOMOS & TANGY SPICY DIP



Ingredients:

for stuffing:

50 gms french beans (finely chopped)
50 gms carrots (finely chopped)
25 gms capsicum (finely chopped)
1/2 cup cabbage (finely chopped)
1 onion (finely chopped)
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 tsp green chilli paste
salt to taste

1 cup whole wheat flour, a pinch of salt and sufficient water for making dough.

for spicy tangy dip:

5-6 dry chillies
1 small clove garlic
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin powder
a pinch of sugar
salt to taste
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp soya sauce

Method of Preparation:

1. Make a dough of the flour, salt and sufficient water. Keep aside.
2. Heat a tbsp oil in a kadai and add the choppped onions, once it turn translucent, add the ginger-garlic paste and chilli paste and fry till the raw smell goes.
3. Add the chopped vegetables and fry well.
4. Add salt and stir fry the vegetables till done.
5. Make a small round with the dough, fill the vegetable filling and bring the edges together. You can either make it round or semi circle shaped. Pleat the ends. Repeat this till all the filling is used up.
6. Now steam this momos in a steamer for 10 mins. You can use a idli steamer. (I used the rice cooker steamer).

7. For the dip, roast the red chillies and grind it alongwith garlic, cumin powder and coriander seeds and a little water. You can season this with a 1/2 tsp oil and heat the dip adding the vinegar and soya sauce, cook this for a minute till the moisture is dried up.

Serve hot.

Chepala pulusu (Fish curry)

My kids love seafood a lot. When we moved from bangalore to mumbai, i was so excited to visit the fish market and was not disappointed at all. I went to the market in malad which is quite big and all kinds of fish is available. The difference from bangalore is definitely the rates and of course the fish was a lot more fresh. The fish are mostly stored in handfuls and not weighed. A handful of jumbo prawns weighing approximately a kg cost only 350. I enjoyed visiting this market. I came back with prawns and 2 seer fish.

I usually prepare only fry out of seer fish, but since there was a lot of it, i prepared curry as well this time.

CHEPALA PULUSU (FISH CURRY) :



Ingredients:

1 kg seer fish (sliced)
2 medium onions
1 big pod of garlic (peeled)
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp dhania powder
a pinch of turmeric
curry leaves
1 big lemon sized tamarind (soaked and the juice extracted)
coconut milk (optional)
coriander leaves (for garnish)
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Method of preparation:

1. Heat oil in a thick bottomed wide dish. Add garlic, fry well.
2. Add onions and fry well till golden brown, add the curry leaves.
3. Now add chilli powder, turmeric, dhania powder, salt.
4. Mix well and add tamarind extract, add some water and let it boil.Add the coconut milk at this stage if required.
5. Once the curry starts to boil, add the fish slices and let it cook for 5-6 minutes, till the fish is cooked.
6. Add the coriander leaves and switch off the flame.

Goes well with idli, dosa and rice.