boondi

Boondi 

Ingredients
1 cup gram flour
1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/4 tsp. cardamom powder
6-8 chopped almonds
ghee to deep fry
perforated flat spoon about 5" diameter
Method
1.Boil the sugar and water together. Add a tbsp. of milk to bring up the scum.
2.Remove scum and boil liquid till the syrup is sticky between the fingers.
3.Keep aide, but keep warm for use.
4.Make batter with gram flour, which should not be too thin.
5.The batter should evenly coat the back of a spoon when dipped in it.
6.Heat ghee, hold perforated spoon a little above the hot ghee, pour some batter on the spoon.
7.Tap very lightly at edge of spoon to allow small droplets to fall in the ghee.
8.Pour back remaining batter and wipe spoon.
9.Stir the boondis in the ghee gently and fry till crisp but not brown.10.Drain and put into the syrup. Keep for 3-4 minutes before draining from the syrup.
11.Spread on a wide plate, add cardamom powder, almonds and mix gently.
12.Cool completely and loosen the boondi with finger till each droplet separates.
13.Store in airtight container.
Note: Take great care while dropping the boondi in the hot ghee so as not to burn yourself. A little practice and it is
very easy.
Making time: 30 minutes.
Makes: 3 cups approx.

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Mirchi Bajji

Mirchi Bajji

Ingredients: 

1.Long, Stout Chilies – 8 
2.Tamarind – Gooseberry Sized 
3.Carom Seeds(Ajwain) – 1 1/2tsps 
4.Salt To Taste 
5.Gram Flour – 1 Cup 
6.Baking Powder – 1/4tsp 
7.Oil To Deep fry

Preparations: 

Take tamarind in a microwave safe bowl and add little water. Microwave this on high for 30 seconds. Stir and microwave again on high for 30 seconds. Keep aside. Take a mixie jar and add Carom Seeds (Ajwain). Add salt and the tamarind along with the tamarind water. If you have any doubt that the carom seeds do not get crushed to a fine paste, first powder them in a mortar and pestle and then add to the mixie jar. Now make a fine paste of the above ingredients. Take it into a plate and keep aside. Slit the chilies length wise and remove the seeds with the help of a spoon. Do not remove the seeds if you want the bajjis to be hot. If you want you can remove half seeds and keep half seeds so that the bajjis will be hot but not burning. Stuff these chilies with the tamarind mixture and keep aside for 4 to 5 hours. By doing this your bajjis will not be hot at all. The chilies get a nice flavor of carom seeds and tamarind and will be tasty. 

Method: 

Take gram flour in a bowl and add salt. Add baking powder also and mix. Slowly add water to get batter in right consistency. Heat a pan and add oil to it. To test whether the oil is sufficiently hot or not, drop a few drops of the batter into the oil. It should first sink and then slowly rise to the top. Then the heat is right. If it pops up immediately then switch off the heat and let it cool. Another way of cooling the oil is to add cold oil to it. Now dip the prepared chilies in the batter and drop them in the oil and fry on medium heat. Fry till golden brown. When done remove them on to the paper napkin to remove excess oil. Serve them hot. 

Points to Remember: 

 Make the gram flour batter 2 hours before you fry the chillies. Then they will puff rightly. Because of baking powder these chillies get browned fast. So fry them only on medium heat stirring all the while to get even browning. Remove the seeds from the chilies according to your taste. If you want them hot do not remove seeds. If you want them less hot then remove half the seeds. If you do not want it hot then remove all the seeds. After removing the seeds you can take some and grind along with the tamarind pulp also and stuff thereafter. It purely depends on your tastes. 

Tip: 

At times the stuffing comes out while frying and the oil gets spoilt. Do not worry. There is one age old tip. After frying the bajjis , take the pan away from heat and add some tamarind to the hot oil . Let the tamarind get fried completely. It becomes black and dry. Cool the oil along with the tamarind. Then strain it through a strainer and you get clear oil . But do not fry the oil repeatedly. It is not good for health as the property of oil changes once it is heated to high temperatures. So take less quantity of oil for frying and fry the chilies in 2 to 3 batches instead of one batch with more oil. Like this the oil remaining after frying will be less to get consumed. But remember not to use this oil for deep frying. Rather use this oil for daily cooking where you use only 2 to 3 teaspoons only. 

Variations: 

After frying these bajjis slit them length wise and keep aside. Chop onions finely, add some lemon juice and mix well with fingers. Stuff this onion mixture in the fried bajjis and serve. They taste excellent. 

 Or

Cut the bajjis into round pieces and spread them in a plate. Sprinkle chopped onions above these pieces. Sprinkle some lemon juice, some fine sev and serve as chat. 

Or

Cut the bajjis into round pieces and spread them in a plate. Take some whisked curd(smoothened curd) and add to the bajji pieces. Add tamarind chutney and green chutney to them. Sprinkle some tamarind chutney and green chutney. Cover with fine sev. Garnish with grated coconut and chopped coriander and serve.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Cabbage Vada

Cabbage Vada

 

Ingredients:

• Black Gram – 150gms (3/4Cup)
• Cabbage – 250gms
• Salt – To Taste (1/4tsp)
• Ginger – Small Piece
• Green Chilies – 4
• Onion – 1 (50gms)
• Chopped Coriander – 1Tbsp
• Oil – For Frying
  
  
  Preparations:
  Soaking Dal:
  Take black gram into a bowl and add water. Wash the dal and drain the water. Add water to the washed dal and soak overnight.
  
  
  Other Preparations:
  Arrange thin slicer blade in a food processor bowl and slice the cabbage. Take the thinly sliced cabbage into a microwave safe bowl and add salt. Mix well and place this bowl in a microwave oven. Cover the bowl partially and cook on high power for 4 minutes. Stir once and add 15ml water if required. Stir once again and place the bowl in microwave oven. Cover partially and cook on high power for 4 minutes. Cool the cooked cabbage and remove water by pressing. Use this cabbage water while grinding the dal.
  Wash ginger and green chilies and make a coarse paste in a mixer grinder.
  Peel the onion and slice it thinly.
  Remove water from the soaked dal and grind to a smooth and thick paste. Add cabbage water while grinding, if required. Add very little water while grinding. As there is water in the cabbage water, add just sufficient amount of salt to the batter that too if required only.
  
  
  Method:
  Heat a pan and add sufficient oil to fry the vadas. Spread a paper napkin in a plate. After frying the vadas, place them on this paper napkin to soak excess oil. While the oil is getting hot prepare the batter.
  Beat the batter with a spoon to make it light. To test, drop a small portion of the batter in a bowl of water. If the batter sinks that indicates the batter is not light yet – so beat for some more time. If the batter floats, that indicates the batter is light—start making the vadas.
  To the prepared batter add ginger-green chili paste, sliced onions, cooked cabbage and mix well. Add chopped coriander and mix once again.
  Take a portion of the batter with wet fingers and place it on a wet plastic sheet. Shape the portion of the batter with wet fingers like a vada. Carefully drop the patted vada batter into the hot oil. Fry two or three vadas per batch. Do not crowd the oil and fry more—allow space for the vadas to get fried in oil. Fry the vadas on medium heat till brown and crisp. Drain the fried vadas from the oil and place them on the paper napkin which will soak all the excess oil. Similarly fry vadas using the prepared batter. Serve the cabbage vadas hot with any sauce or chutney or as it is.
  
  
  Points to Remember:
  Soaking the dal overnight gives a right texture for the batter.
  Add very little water while grinding the dal. Similarly add salt if required only as we have added salt while cooking the cabbage and the dal is ground with cabbage cooked water which has salt.
  Cooking cabbage removes the rawness. Drain water from the cooked cabbage by pressing—if not the consistency of the batter changes. If there is more water in the batter, it will be difficult to shape the batter like vadas and such vadas when fried in oil will soak more oil. So remove all the water from the cooked cabbage and use very little water while grinding the dal.
  Beat the batter to make it light. To test drop a small portion of the batter in a bowl of water. If the batter sinks, beat the batter for some more time till it is light. If the batter floats, the batter is light and start making vadas. Making the batter light is very important—otherwise the vadas will be hard and tasteless. In earlier days they used to grind the dal in a mortar and pestle—while grinding this aeration used to take place and it was not necessary to beat the batter separately. But in present days we grind the batter in a mixer grinder mostly which needs the step of aeration.
  
  These vadas taste better as they are—no accompaniments required, as there is cabbage, onions, green chili and ginger to bring that extra taste. But they also taste good with tomato sauce. In any case serve hot to enjoy the great taste.
  Enjoy !!!!!!!!

 

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Cauliflower Bonda

Cauliflower Bonda

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower Florets – 500gms
• Gram Flour – 250gms
• Rice Flour – 50gms
• Green Chilies – 7
• Red Chili Powder – 1/2tsp
• Salt – To Taste
• Oil – 2Tbsps (To Mix In The Flour)
• Cumin Seeds – 1/2tsp
• Chopped Coriander – 2Tbsps
• Baking Soda – 1/4tsp
• Water – 400gms(Approx.)
• Oil – For Deep Frying
  
  
  Preparations:
  Wash green chilies and grind in a mixer grinder. Add cumin seeds to the ground chilies and crush slightly. Take this chili mixture into a plate & keep it aside.
  Wash cauliflower florets. At times we find worms in cauliflower. To get rid of the worms, wash florets in warm water. Cut the stems of big florets as shown in the movie clip—this will allow the florets to cook evenly. Add the washed florets into a microwave safe bowl and add 30 ml water. Place this bowl in microwave oven and cover it partially. Cook the florets on high power for 5 minutes and allow 2 minutes standing time. We need to just parboil the florets. When raw cauliflower florets are dipped in batter & fried, it will not get cooked from inside—to get evenly cooked & fried bondas we need to parboil the florets before frying bondas. Drain the parboiled florets into a slotted bowl to remove excess water. Cover & keep the drained florets aside to cool completely.
  Take a big mixie jar and add gram flour, rice flour and salt. run the mixer grinder to mix the ingredients. Add 2Tbsps of oil into the flour mixture and run to mix well. Scrape the mixture sticking to the sides of the jar in between and run the mixer grinder to incorporate the oil well into the flour mixture. Now add water little by little and run the mixer to form a smooth batter. Use a spatula to bring the mixture sticking to the sides of the jar and blend adding water. Do not add all the water at one go---to maintain the consistency of the batter add water in small intervals and prepare the batter. finger dipped in batter should coat it evenly. After preparing the batter add red chili powder, chili-cumin paste and mix. Then add chopped coriander and mix again. Take this prepared batter into a bowl and cover it. Keep this batter bowl aside to rest for 30 minutes.
  
  
  Method:
  Heat a pan and add sufficient oil to fry the bondas.
  After 30 minutes, add baking soda to the batter and mix well. Remember to add baking soda just before frying the bondas.
  Spread a paper napkin in a plate. After frying the bondas placing them on the paper napkin will soak excess oil.
  Test the heat of the oil by dropping a portion of batter. If the batter comes up at once, it indicates oil is hot enough to fry the bondas. Dip the parboiled floret in batter and lift to drain excess batter. Carefully add the batter coated floret to the hot oil. Similarly add few more florets to the oil for frying. After some time the bondas will increase in size. So add sufficient batter coated florets to the oil for frying. Fry on medium heat stirring and turning the bondas in between for even frying. When the bondas are golden in color, take them out of the oil with a slotted ladle and place them on the paper napkin. Fry the remaing florets in the above method on medium heat. Serve the bondas hot with sauce, ketchup or any chutney of your choice.
  It is advisable to have buttermilk after eating the bondas. Buttermilk is an antidote for fried items.
  
  
  Points to Remember:
  Use fresh cauliflower whose florets will be crisp & firm.
  Add seasonings (red chili powder, salt etc…) according to taste.
  Wash cauliflower thoroughly. To get rid of worms in cauliflower dip the flower in warm water for a minute or so. Then break the cauliflower into florets. If the florets are too big, cut the stems keeping the floret intact as shown in the movie clip for even cooking and frying. Parboiling the florets cooks the bondas from inside removing the rawness of cauliflower. Remember only to parboil and not boil the florets. Cooked florets will not retain the shape to dip them in batter. so only parboil the florets to get cooked partially and to retain shape. The remaining cooking of florets will take place while frying the bondas.
   Preparing the batter in a mixer grinder is an easy way to make a lumps free smooth batter.
  Remember not to add all the water mentioned at one go. Adding more water makes the batter thin and will not coat the florets properly. Check the consistency of the batter by dipping finger in the batter---batter should evenly coat the finger as shown in the movie clip.
  Remember to add baking soda just before frying the bondas.
  Take care while dropping the batter coated florets into the hot oil.
  Fry on medium heat only to get evenly fried bondas.
  Serve the bondas hot with any chutney or sauce of your choice.
  
  Most important thing to remember is to drink a big glass of buttermilk after eating the bondas as buttermilk is an antidote for fried things.
  
  
  Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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