Bhel Puri

I guess its time for me to post some recipes!! This is one of my favorite snacks and took some time to learn this recipe. If you are a creative person you can add stuffs which you like from the pantry, still it would be a perfect snack. Every time I make this recipe I keep adding different ingredients to it and the process never ends. You can add boiled potato, cooked chana (garbanzo beans), roasted peanuts, cucumber, chopped tomato, raw mango, spring onions, carrots, sprouts, any cooked beans like black eye bean, kidney beans, lima beans blah blah and the list goes on and on. So just be creative and add what you like :) Here goes the recipe!!!!

For the bhel

• 2 cups of puffed rice
• ½ cup sev
• ½ cup of papadi’s broken
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 cup boiled chopped potatoes
• 1/4 cup boiled chana
• 2 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
• salt to taste

Green Chutney

• 2 cups coriander leaves
• 1/2 cup mint leaves
• 5-6 green chilies
• 1 tbs lime juice
• Salt to taste

Grind the above items to a fine paste by adding required water

Tamarind Chutney

• 3/4 cup tamarind water (lemon size tamarind soaked in water)
• 1/2 cup dates deseeded
• 3/4 cup jaggery (brown sugar )
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

In a pan add the tamarind water, seedless dates, jaggery, cumin powder, and salt. Bring them to boil and cook for 8- 10 minutes until the mixture reduce to a thick liquid. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool, and grind to a smooth paste.

Method

Mix puffed rice, sev, and broken papadi in a large bowl. Add onions, tomato, cooked chana, boiled potato, add required green and tamarind chutney. Mix well and garnish with sev and cilantro leaves. Serve immediately :)

Notes

• You can store these chutneys in a container and keep refrigerated.

• Add ingredients of your choice to the bhel puri.

• Bombay Bhel puri mix is available in the stores, just buy that and add chutneys and ingredients of your choice.

Murukku

Back home Diwali was never celebrated in big way, and I always envied seeing others. Diwali celebrations in Kerala are on the low keys and my family adopted the same. It was always Onam and Vishu (Kerala New year) was celebrated in a big way at my place though I was brought up at Coimbatore. Slowly after many years my mom started making this snack (murukku) for Diwali. My memories of Diwali would be just this delicious snack, which my mom makes for us. Seeing all the blogs with the delicious sweets and savories I thought I would post this snack for Diwali. Here goes the recipe!!

Ingredients

• 4cups of rice flour
• 1 cup of roasted chana (made into a powder) or Gram flour or chickpeas flour
• 3 tablespoon butter
• Handful of sesame seeds
• 6tsp of red chili powder
• 1 tsp of cumin seeds, and ajwain seeds
• Salt for taste and water to knead
  

Method

• Mix rice flour, roasted chana powder, cumin seeds, sesame seeds, ajwain seeds, red chili powder, sesame seeds and salt. Soften the butter and work into the mixture to form a crumbly mixture. Add water into small quantities and knead into soft dough.
  

• Use murukku maker, place in a lump of dough and pipe out the patterns, forming circles. I placed the patterns in the plate first.
  

• Heat oil under medium high heat. Use sufficient quantity of oil to submerge all frying murukkus without touching each other. Transfer the murukkus from the plate to the hot oil.
  

• Fry to light golden brown color.

• Remove the murukku from oil and place on a paper towel to drain the surplus oil.

• Allow them to cool and store them in a container.

My contribution to Vee of Past, Present and Me for JFI-Diwali Treats.

Wishing you all a Happy Diwali:)

Padavalanga Elisseri- Snake gourd Curry

I called up my mother to get the recipe for Erriseri and she gave the recipe for Elisseri because both sounds little similar when you pronounce it. Elisseri is similar to Koottu curry; the only difference is in koottu curry it has many vegetables with beans or dals. I made Elisseri with toor dal; it can be made with any dal or beans of your choice. This is one of my hubby’s favorite recipes I would say, and I pack this for chapattis. I love the flavor of the coconut and it is super delicious with rice and pappadam. Here goes the recipe!!!

Method

• Pressure cook ½ cup of toor dal, 1 snake gourd finely chopped, ½ tsp turmeric, and salt. Cook until it releases 2- 3 whistles and turn off the heat.

• Once the heat releases out, open the lid and add the paste (Grind to a paste: ¼ cup coconut, 2-3 red chilies, and 1 tsp cumin seeds ) and close the lid and allow to sit for few minutes.

• Heat the pan with 1-2 tsp of oil, add mustard, cumin seeds, curry leaves, 1 broken red chili, 2 tsp of pearl onions, 2 tsp shredded coconut, and saute them .

• Pour the snake gourd mixture to the seasoning and blend the mixture and turn off the heat.
  

Serve with rice and pappadam.

Almond Cookies

Lately I am getting attracted to sweets :(, which is definitely not a good sign. I always admire the sweet recipes in the blog and never had the interest to try it, since me and my hubby are not fond of cookies or cakes. Consuming little sugar in a day is not that bad….so I made up my mind to explore my expertise in baking cookies, cakes, and so on. This recipe I got from sugar and spice and it was originally from here chocolate and Zucchini. The best things about these cookies are – it takes less time to make, few ingredients, and it is yummy. What else you need when the making and out come process is so simple and delicious. Here goes the recipe!!

Method

• Pre heat the oven to 350 F

• Mix two eggs and 1 cup of sugar in a blender/ mixer and blend them until it turns fluffy.

• Add ¼ cup oil, 1 tsp rum, 2 tsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt and blend well with the mixture.

• Add all-purpose flour 1 ¾ cup little by little to the liquid mixture and blend well to a thick proportion.

• Pour this to an oven safe dish greased or lined with parchment paper. Even out the mixture.

• Now place almond or pecans or nuts of your choice on the surface, each with distance of 3cm.

• Bake 20-25 minutes until they turn light golden color. Check them with a toothpick to see whether it is baked. Take out and keep it aside for 5 minutes.

• Cut them into small squares and arrange them in a foil sheet.Keep inside the (turned off) oven for 25- 30 minutes. It will become crunchy:)

Serve with coffee or tea :)

Notes: You can try this recipe without Rum, but adding a tsp of Rum did make a difference in the taste and the aroma , which I loved in this recipe :)

Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney

I: Can you guess this Chutney

He: Is it Coriander chutney?

I: No

He: Mint Chutney?

I: Nope

He: I don’t know :(

I: This chutney is made from ridge gourd peels.

He: Really!! It tastes similar to coriander chutney!!

When I make something different or something new I usually ask my husband to guess the recipe. He can be the worst guesser in this world when it comes to food, still I ask for my satisfaction. Hope he doesn’t read this: D. This chutney I learnt from my mom and she got it from her friend. When I buy ridge gourd I usually save the skin and put in a zip locker or storage box and use it later for making chutney. This can be handy when you run out of cilantro leaves or mint leaves to make chutneys. The recipe is quite simple and saves lot of your time. Here goes the recipe!!!

Ridgegourd peels

Method

• Heat pan with 1-2 tsp of oil, add 1 tsp of urad dal, cumin seeds, chana dal, few curry leaves, 3-4 red chilies and saute them.
  

• Add the peels and saute them for 4-5 minutes until it turns little soft.
  

• Add ¼ cup of coconut or 3-4 tsp of shredded coconut and saute for 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep aside.
  

• Once it cools down, grind the mixture with marble size tamarind and salt.
  

Serve with dosa or ildy.

Notes: You can avoid coconut to make this chutney. You can also season it with mustard, cumin and curry leaves.