Kuzhi(ku-li) Paniyaram

The Grand Sweets & Snacks, Adyar, Chennai.
During the time when we were in Chennai, I used to make frequent visits to a place called The Grand Sweets & Snacks in Adyar. They had authentic and wonderful variety of sweets, savories, pickles and podi's. Run dominantly by women, their quality was very high. They would hand out complimentary food in "Donnai", leaves knit together like a cup, mostly a rice item which was no match for any home made food in its quality. I have become addicted to their podi's and other things it was difficult to make a change. After moving to US, I wait for my husband to make a business trip to Chennai to bring my favorite items from there. Here, I have to mention that I was introduced to kuzhi paniyaram. They would make fresh paniyaram and serve with sambar and tomato chutney. Kuzhi paniyaram chatti, a special tawa that has small holes is required to make these small balls that a soft and spongy on the inside and crispy on the outside called as paniyarams. Kuzli means "hole", referring to the tawa required for preparation. Idli batter can be used to make these paniyarams, but if want to make these specially, better to make the original batter.
1 cup Urad dal
2 cups boiled Rice
2 cups raw Rice
2 tsp Fenugreek seeds

Soak all in enough water and grind to a smooth batter. Add salt and set aside to ferment for 6 - 8 hrs. Yeast or cooking soda can be added for fermentation.
For the masala:
2 Onions
3 Green Chilies
1” Ginger
Few Curry leaves
1 cup cut peppers - optional
1 cup grated carrot - optional
½ cup grated coconut
Coriander

In a kadai add 2 tsp of oil and make tadka with few mustard seeds, jeera, hing, a red chili, chopped green chilies and ginger, few curry leaves. Add chopped onions and fry for a few minutes, then add finely cut peppers (red, green), grated carrot and grated coconut. Add salt and fry for a few minutes, remove from the flame and let cool. Add chopped coriander.

Add to the batter and mix well. Add a few drops of oil in each hole to the paniyaram pan and gently drop spoonful batter into each hole. Let cook for a few minutes and turn the other side using a pointed stick (given with the tawa). Remove when nicely done. Cook on medium flame for crispiness.

Serve hot with sambar and tomato chutney or coconut chutney.

Garelu and Perugugarelu (Avada)

Kanumu is the last day of the 3 days Sankranthi festival. Heard from my friends that they will have a feast with a variety of non-vegetarian dishes on this particular day. But, for some of us who are vegetarians, there is a saying "Kanumu nadu minugu thinali" meaning; "should eat urad dal on Kanumu". I personally think since urad dal is a good source of nutrition it is a substitute for meat for vegetarians. Anyone who knows why, do please let me know.

2 cups Urad dal
Chili-ginger paste - Optional
2 tsp Rice flour
Oil to fry

Soak urad dal in water for 2 – 3 hours. Drain water and grind to a smooth batter. Add salt to the dal while grinding, by adding it later the dough will become soggy and watery. Add less quantity of water while grinding. Solid dough gives a good shape to the garelu.

For spicy or karam garelu add chili-ginger paste to the dough. Also chopped onions can be added if you like onion garelu (ulli-garelu).

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Add 2 tsp of rice flour to a bowl of water and mix well, keep aside. Wet both hands in this water and take small lemon size dough and place it on the palm of your hand. (A wax paper or Aluminum foil can also be used) flatten it into a nice circle and then make a small hole with a finger in the middle. Gently slide this into oil without disturbing its shape.

Let fry for a few seconds and then keep turning back and forth so it will not burn.Once garelu turn to golden yellow, it’s time to remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

Ginger (allam) or sesame (nuvvu) chutney compliments garelu.

For perugu garelu also called as avada:Take 4 cups of fresh curd in a big bowl. Add salt and beat it well with a ladle. Make tadka with 1 tsp of ghee and 1tsp of oil using few mustard seeds, jeera, fenugreek seeds and vammu. Add a red chili, hing and chopped green chilies, ginger and few curry leaves. Fry till nicely done and add to the curd. Keep aside.

After frying garelu add piece by piece to the curd and let soak for 1/2 hr and serve them.

Methati Pakodi

4 large Onions
10 - 12 Green Chilies -Optional
1 tsp Ginger-Garlic-Chili paste
2 scoops Besan - Senaga pindi
1 tsp Rice flour
2 tsp Curd
Few curry leaves
Cashew nuts

Chop onions into small pieces. Add chili-ginger-garlic paste, salt and let it sit with a closed lid for 7-10 min. Onions sweat out water and excess water is not required to mix the flours. Also the pakodi will absorb less oil.

Add besan, rice flour, curry leaves, a pinch of turmeric(optional), 1/2 tsp red chili powder, cashew nuts and mix with 2 tsp of thick curd thoroughly. Chopped green chilies can be added for spicy lovers!

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Drop a spoon of hot oil in the mixture; this will make the fried item light(gullaga). A pinch of cooking or baking soda can also be used.

Take hand full of batter and gently drop by small amounts in the oil. Wait for 2 minutes before the batch hardens and then turn back and forth so that they will not burn.

Fry till they all turn into golden yellow, remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

These are sponge, soft pakodi that are very soft, crispy and tasty. Might wonder if I am contradicting myself, yes crispy on the outside and sponge/soft like inside. Serve with ketchup of choice of mint or coriander chutney. Plain tastes just fine too. Enjoy with a hot cup of tea.

Vegetable Puffs

Around 4 O'clock trays of freshly baked puff's and samosas used to arrive at a popular bakery in Chennai. It was hard to resist the temptation. They flew off the shelf like hot cakes. Well, they had yummy pastries too, difficult choice!

I never realized it is such a simple procedure to make them and all we needed is an oven to bake them. So, you can imagine my state when I was baking my first batch of puff's. Now, it has become a common thing as my son enjoys them more than his mom.

I use Pepperidge Farm pastry sheets. They are available in the freezer section of regular grocery stores.

Pastry sheets
5 Potatoes
2 Onions
1 tsp Chili Ginger paste
Few Curry Leaves
Lemon Juice

Boil potatoes with salt and turmeric, peel and mash them well.

Take 4 tsp of oil in a skillet and make tadka (poppu) with ½ tsp mustard seeds, ½ tsp jerra and then add chopped onions, chili ginger paste and curry leaves. When onion turns translucent, add the mashed potatoes and mix well.

Check for salt and seasonings remove from flame. Add lemon juice and chopped coriander and mix well.

Keep the pastry sheets outside for sometime. Cut them in desired size, bite size or medium serving size. Place 2 spoon fulls of the curry on one half of the pastry sheet and fold it. Repeat the process for all. Wet your fingers and bring the edges together.
Spray PAM or grease a baking tray, place the stuffed pastry sheets and bake in a preheated (350 degrees) over for 20- 25 minutes or till the layers are crispy on the outside.

Serve warm with ketchup. Perfect as a starter or as a snack. Easier to prepare for a large group. Prepare the curry in advance and bake the puffs just in time for a starter. Do not re-heat puffs in micro oven, use a toaster oven for better quality.

The curry in puffs should be a dry variety with potato as a base. It can be tweaked to suit personal taste, by adding garam masala, certain vegetables like peas, peppers etc.

Corn masala

4 Ears of Corn
2 cups Corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
4 Onions
2 Potatoes
4 – 5 Tomatoes
4 Green chilies
2 tsp Ginger-garlic paste
2 tsp Garam masala
Coriander

Cut corn into 3 inches and keep aside. Peel and cut potatoes. Transfer cut potatoes and corn in a vessel and add salt and turmeric. Transfer the cut corn into a vessel and pressure cook them till nicely done. Drain water from both the vessels, mash the potato and corn to a smooth paste and keep aside.

If you do not have frozen corn cut corn kernels from the corn of the cob with a knife placing on an inverted bowl on a cutting board.

Take 4 tsp oil in a skillet and sauté onions. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry for a few minutes. Now add chopped tomatoes, green chilies and fry for a few minutes. Then add some salt and garam masala (I used homemade garam masala, please refer to Garam masala in pickles and powders). Add the mashed potato and corn mixture and mix well. Add more butter or oil for a greasy gravy and cook till the oil separates and then add cut corn.

Sprinkle chopped coriander and mix well. Cook for a few minutes and remove from flame.

This is a good side dish with white rice or rotti, it can also be eaten as is as a snack.

Chitti Boorelu - Karam Boorelu

These are soft and spongy inside and crispy outside. The blend of all the items, specially green chili, ginger with curd and flour gives it that special taste. They donot absorb too much oil and fry pretty fast. Make a great evening snack.

2 cups Atta - Godhuma pindi
2 cups Rice flour
2 cups Sour curd
Chili-ginger paste
Green Chilies - Optional
½ tsp Red Chili Powder
1 tsp Jeera
Hing

Mix all the above with salt and water as required. The dough should be like chapati dough, soft enough without excess water. Let it ferment for 5 – 6 hours. Spicy lovers can add chopped chilies also.

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Drop a spoon of hot oil in the dough and mix well, this will make the fried item light. A pinch of cooking or baking soda can also be used.

Wet your palm in bowl of water, pick a hand full of batter in the hand and gently drop as small balls in the oil. Keep turning back and forth so it will not burn.

Once they all turn golden yellow remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

Whole Moong Dal Vada - Fritters

2 cups Whole Green Moong dal
1 tsp Rice flour
1 bunch Spring onions - Only Green part
4 - 6 Green Chilies
Few Curry Leaves
Coriander

Soak moong dal over night in water. Drain the water and grind moong dal roughly using as little water as possible. Soft batter makes the vada soft. Grind green chilies also roughly.

Add chopped spring onions (only green part), coriander, curry leaves and salt. Now add rice flour and mix well. It does not require any more water. These are spicy vadas, so, suit your taste and add green chilies accordingly.

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Make small balls of the batter and flatten it in the palm with fingers and gently drop in oil. Keep turning back and forth so they will not burn.

Once they all turn golden yellow, it’s time to remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

Vada make a great evening snack, they do not absorb much oil and fry quite fast. Enjoy with a cup of hot coffee or tea.

Onion Pakodi

4 Onions
10 - 12 Green Chilies -Optional
Ginger-Garlic-Chili paste
2 scoops Besan -Senaga pindi
3/4 scoop Rice flour
Few curry leaves
Cashews

Chop onions length wise. Add chili-ginger-garlic paste, curry leaves and salt and let it sit with a closed lid for 7-10 min. By doing this onions sweat the water out and excess water is not required to mix the flours. Also the pakodi will absorb less oil.

Then add besan, rice flour and cashews and mix thoroughly. Chopped green chilies can be added for spicy lovers!

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Drop a spoon of hot oil in the mixture; this will make the fried item light (gullaga). A pinch of cooking or baking soda can also be used.

Pick a hand full of batter in the hand and gently drop in smaller amounts in the oil. Wait for 2 minutes before the batch hardens and then turn back and forth so that they will not burn.

Once they all turn golden yellow, it’s time to remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

Roasted Corn

Sunday we went to a beautiful Botanical Gardens in our county. It was not a planned trip and so, I did not have my camera and hence no pictures. But on our way back, we stooped by a road side farm for some fresh corn. The maze was not open for public picking yet.

Corn on the cob takes me to memories of childhood. I could never figure the reason I wanted to go to the beach as a child, love of the water or eat corn and bhel mix from the road side vendors. Anyways, I have to mention here that Vizag had the best beaches. They were many, VUDA park, RK Beach, Bhimili, Rishikonda, Harbour were the few we used to visit a lot with our family, friends and as field trips and excursions with our class from the School.

I must say, trips to the beaches are a perk for living in Vizag. I miss those things here, least we have beaches around us, but, with some driving and hassles of parking.

So, for now I will reminisce my memories and enjoy a summer afternoon with roasted corn ears.

Corn grows in "ears," each of which is covered in rows of kernels that are then protected by the silk-like threads called "corn silk" and encased in a husk.

Remove the husk roast the corn on medium/slow flame turning them frequently on all sides.

Take 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp red chili powder in a bowl, squeeze some lemon juice and mix well. Using a half of a lemon apply/coat the corn with the spice mix. Enjoy while it is warm.

Boiled Whole Peanuts

Summer time pass with boiled/cooked whole peanuts.

Boiled whole peanuts.


Cooked peanuts.


Slightly crack the shell of the peanuts. By doing this, peanuts inside will absorb salt and red chili powder while being cooked. Add enough water, salt and red chili powder and cook in a pressure cooker for up to 3 - 4 whistles. Remove, drain water and let cool.

Boiled peanuts can be eaten as is or chop onion, green chili, coriander and add to the peanuts and then add enough lemon juice.

A guilt free evening snack with tea as time pass, squeeze in good conversation with kids while opening the nuts.

Dhokla

3 cups Besan (chickpea flour)
1 cup Curd
2 tsp Oil
Lemon juice
Turmeric
1 tsp Green Chilies paste
2 " Ginger - finely grated
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp Eno Fruit salt

For seasoning:
Few Curry Leaves
Coriander
2 tsp Grated Coconut
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
6 - 8 Green Chilies - slit length wise
1 Green Pepper - slit length wise

Sieve besan 2 times to loosen up the flour. In a bowl mix together besan, salt, turmeric, green chili paste, grated ginger with curd and then using water as required in small amounts. It should have a pan cake batter consistency (not too thick neither too watery). Set aside for 4 to 5 hours to ferment.

Grease a large pressure cooker insert vessel, (place a round parchment at the bottom of the vessel for easy removal) or grease well with oil. Keep  this ready and put the pressure cooker on fire and let the water boil.

In a small bowl add lemon juice, oil, cooking soda and mix well and pour it into the the batter. Keep mixing and now add eno fruit salt. Immediately you see will the batter raise with bubbles, fold well into the batter quickly and pour the batter in the greased vessel. Pour enough water in the pressure cooker and cook on steam without the weight(like idli) for 12min on high flame and 3 min on low flame. Test with a tooth pick before removing to be sure.

Do not remove dhokla from the vessel immediately, let sit on the counter for a few minutes before removing. Grease a plate and turn the vessel on it, using a sharp knife cut diagonally into pieces.

Take 3 tsp of oil in a small skillet add mustard seeds and let splutter, then  add slit green chilies, slit green peppers, sesame seeds, grated coconut, fry for a few minutes and then add 2 tsp of water and turn off the flame. The water in the thadka will help spread the tempering evenly.

Garnish dhokla with coriander leaves and the above tempering. Serve hot with mint or coriander chutney.

5 Layered Tortilla Chips

For those exciting Sunday afternoons, following ESPN on TV, watching Sports, when we are all following the game, this is a quick snack, tailor made to suit individual taste buds(I mean each can choose their own toppings). I chop all the toppings and keep them ready. Each person can make their own special plate.

There is no measurement as is for this one. Your favorites toppings go more. I go nuts with jalapenos and light on cheese! Chips taste good when hot and freshly made.
Serve it right out of the micro oven.

Tortilla chips
Pepper jack Cheese - Or any favorite cheese
1 Tomato
1 Onion
Jarred Jalapenos
Spring Onions

Chop onion, tomato, green of the spring onions and jalapenos into small pieces. Grate the cheese block.

Place tortilla chips on a micro-ovenable plate. Arrange them in a single layer.

Sprinkle cheese on the chips first. Then sprinkle chopped onions, tomato, jalapenos and green of the spring onions. Sprinkle salt slightly.

Place in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes or till the cheese melts, be careful not to over cook and burn the cheese.

This is an addictive snack. Serve as a snack or an appetizer with favorite Soda.

Sundal - Senagala Pokimpu

2 cups small brown Chick Peas -
Vayinam Senagallu
3 Green Chilies
1" Ginger
Few Curry Leaves
4 tsp Grated Coconut
Few Mango pieces - Optional
Lemon juice
Coriander

Soak chick peas over night in water and a pinch of turmeric. Drain and cook them with salt in a pressure cooker. Drain and keep aside.

Take 3 tsp of oil in a skillet and make tadka with 1/2 tsp urad dal, 1/2 tsp chenna dal, mustard seeds, jeera, hing, red chili, chopped green chilies, ginger and curry leaves. When tadka is fried add grated coconut and fry for a few minutes. Grated fresh mango or chopped mango pieces can be added now and fried for a few minutes.

Then add cooked chick peas and fry for a few more minutes. Add 1/2 tsp red chili powder if you like it spicy. Remove from flame.

Garnish with coriander and sprinkle lemon juice before serving.

Can be served as side dish with vegetables or dal and rice or can be eaten as is for an evening snack.

Potato Cutlets

Pan roasted potato cutlets.
4 Potatoes
2 Onions
3 Green Chilies
2” Ginger
Coriander
1 tsp Whole Dhania
½ tsp Red Chili Powder
½ tsp Cumin - Coriander Powder
¼ tsp Pepper Powder
4 Bread slices
4 tsp of Bread crumbs

Boil potatoes with salt. Peel and mash them well.

Add chopped onions, green chilies, grated ginger, coriander, red chili powder, cumin-coriander powder, pepper powder, whole dhania and salt.

Place bread slices under running tap water for 10 seconds and gently squeeze the excess water.

Squeezing it with fingers mix it in the potato base. Make small lemon size balls and place them on the palm and flatten it. Take dry bread crumbs in a flat plate and roll the flattened potato cutlet in them covering all the sides thoroughly.

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Pick each piece, rolled in a plate of bread crumbs and gently drop in oil. Let then fry for a few seconds and keep turning back and forth so it will not burn.

Once they all turn golden yellow, it’s time to remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

Or

Place the rolled cutlets on a hot pan, add oil and cook on medium flame till both sides are toasted nicely. A whole batch can be done at the same time.

Follow pan roasting when using for cutlet chat to avoid the excess oil.

Serve with Ketchup, tamarind or mint chutney.

Cutlet Chat

This is a 2 part dish. To make them happen parallely; cook chick peas and potatoes in a pressure cooker at the same time. Get the gravy stated on one side and prepare the base for the cutlets. When chole is cooking, start roasting the cutlets. Put them all together and serve.

For Chole
2 cups White Chickpeas/Kabuli Channa
2 Onions
3 large Tomatoes / 1 can Diced Tomatoes/ Tomato Paste
2 - 3 Green Chilies
1 tsp Ginger - Garlic Paste
1 cup Half-Half or Fresh Curd
1 tsp Kasuri Methi
2 tsp Chole Masala
½ tsp Amchur/Dry Mango Powder
½ tsp Cumin-Coriander Powder
1 tsp Jeera
4 tsp Mixed nuts powder (from a previous blog in Podis/Powders)


Soak chick peas over night with a pinch of turmeric. Cook in a pressure cooker with salt till the chick peas are soft. Drain and keep aside.

Take 3 tsp of oil in a low bottom non-stick pan and add jeera. When it starts to sizzle, add very finely chopped onions and chilies. Keep stirring at medium heat till the onions are translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for a few minutes.

Mix in chopped tomatoes/can of store bought tomato puree/diced or cut tomatoes (any thing is fine), amchur powder, chole masala, cumin- coriander powder, kasuri methi and salt. Cook the gravy in medium heat, for about 5-7 mins, stirring in between. Now add 2 tsp of mixed nuts powder. This will make the base very thick, rich and creamy.

Mix in cooked chickpeas and water as required. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 8 - 10 minutes, stirring in between. Mix in half-half or beaten sour curd. Add more water if needed, taste for salt and adjust the seasonings.

------------------------------------------------------
For Cutlets

4 Potatoes
2 Onions
3 Green Chilies
2” Ginger
Coriander
1 tsp Whole Dhania
½ tsp Red Chili Powder
½ tsp Cumin - Coriander Powder
¼ tsp Pepper Powder
4 Bread slices
4 tsp of Bread crumbs

Boil potatoes with salt. Peel and mash them well.

Add chopped onions, green chilies, grated ginger, coriander, red chili powder, cumin-coriander powder, pepper powder, whole dhania and salt.

Place bread slices under running tap water for 10 seconds and gently squeeze the excess water.

Squeezing it with fingers mix it in the potato base. Make small lemon size balls and place them on the palm and flatten it. Take dry bread crumbs in a flat plate and roll the flattened potato cutlet in them covering all the sides thoroughly.

Place the rolled cutlets on a hot pan, add oil and cook on medium flame till both sides are toasted nicely. A whole batch can be done at the same time.

Put then together and serve:

Place 4-6 cutlets on a plate. Place 1-2 ladles of Chole in the middle. Garnish with date-tamarind chutney, mint-coriander chutney & beaten yogurt/curd with chat masala. Top it off with chopped red onion, coriander and sev.

Serve when warm for a real treat!

Masala Vada

4 cups Chick Peas
1 cup Rice flour
2 Onions
4 - 6 Green Chilies
1" Ginger
Few Curry Leaves
Coriander

Soak chick peas over night in water. Drain the water and grind chick peas roughly using as little water as possible. Soft batter makes the vada soft. Grind green chilies also roughly.

Add chopped onions, grated ginger, curry leaves and salt. Now add rice flour and coriander, and mix well. It does not require any more water. These are spicy vadas, so, suit your taste and add green chilies accordingly.

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Drop a spoon of hot oil in the mixture; this will make the fried item light.

Make small balls of the batter and flatten it in the palm with fingers and gently drop in oil. Keep turning back and forth so they will not burn.

Once they all turn golden yellow, it’s time to remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

Masala vada make a great evening snack, they do not absorb too much oil. Enjoy with a cup of hot coffee or tea.

Appadams and Vadiyams

Appadam, gummidi vadiyam, sagubiyyam vadiyam and majjiga mirapakayelu.

How about dinner with appadams, vadiyams, rasam/charu and curd with rice?

Simple dinner, when it's time to do groceries.

BTW, have to thank my daughter for teaching me to edit and enhance photos, kotha vidhya.
For quite some time now, I wanted to have borders and words on my pictures. Guess, if I sit on the idea, it won't help. She was checking my blog and thought I could use some borders, so she volunteered to help me.

Bajji - Fritters

A fritter is any kind of food coated in batter and deep fried. A variety of fritters (Potato, Plantain, Onion, Brinjal, Chili etc)to be fried in a wok and eaten as snacks. Fritters are extremely popular as road side snacks all over India.
All memeories of Vizag beach gushed out when I was posting the Bhel mix blog and there was a rumble in my tummy for bajji's. Why? you may wonder! Cause along with the bhel mix the vendors had stuffed bajji also on their tables. Each bajji was 50paise, but all worth it!

2 Potatoes
2 scoops Besan - Senagapindi
1/4 scoop Rice flour
Chili-Ginger paste
1/4 tsp Red Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Vammu

Peel the skin of the vegetable and cut into thin slices and place them in water.
When lemon juice is added to water it reduces the oxidation of potatoes. This will help keep the color of the vegetable intact.

Mix besan, rice flour and chili-ginger paste, salt and vammu thoroughly with water. Batter should have semi solid consistency.

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Drop a spoon of hot oil in the mixture; this will make the fried item light. A pinch of cooking or baking soda can also be used.

Make sure to wipe the water of the vegetable. Place slices of vegetable required for 1 batch in the batter. This will quicken the process of placing in the oil before the ones in the oil will over fry.

Pick and dip each piece of vegetable in the batter and gently drop in oil. Keep turning back and forth so it will not burn.

Once they all turn golden yellow, it’s time to remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

The same procedure can be used for onion, brinjal and plantain/aritikaye(raw banana).

Serve by themselves or with chutney of choice or ketchup.

Chop onion and coriander very finely, add salt, red chili flakes and mix with lemon juice. Slit the fried bajji's and stuff them with this mixture. These are stuffed bajji's.

Garelu - Meduvada

Garelu with allam pachadi and nuvu pachadi.
2 cups Urad dal
Chili-ginger paste - Optional
Oil to fry

Soak urad dal in water for 2 – 3 hours. Drain water and grind to a smooth batter. Add salt to the dal while grinding by adding it later the dough will become soggy and watery. Add as less water as possible while grinding. Solid dough gives a good shape to the garelu.

For spicy or karam garelu add chili-ginger paste to the dough. Also add chopped onions if you like onion garelu (ulli-garelu).

Heat oil in a kadai (I personally prefer a traditional concave shape kadai for maximum usage of space with less oil) and never let the oil be screaming hot! It burns the first batch.

Wet hands and take small lemon size dough and place it on a wax paper or Aluminum foil (it can be done in the palm of a wet hand also), flatten it into a nice circle and then make a small hole with a finger in the middle. Gently slide this into oil without disturbing its shape.

Let fry for a few seconds and then keep turning back and forth so it will not burn.

Once garelu turn to golden yellow, it’s time to remove from the oil. Place them on paper towels so the excess oil is absorbed.

Ginger (allam) or sesame (nuvu) chutney compliments garelu.

Pav Bhaji

3 Potatoes
2 Carrots
1/2 Medium Cabbage
6 - 8 Florets of Cauliflower
2 hand full Beans
2 cups Peas
1 cup Chickpeas - Kabuli chenna
3 Onions
4 Tomatoes or 1 Small can diced Tomatoes
2 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
4 Green Chilies
3 tsp Pav-Bhaji Masala
1 tsp Amchur Powder
1 tsp Cumin-Coriander Powder
1/2 tsp Red Chili Flakes

Peel and cut potatoes and carrots. Cut all the other vegetables.

Place vegetables in this order in a vessel that can be placed in a pressure cooker.
Potatoes, carrots, chick peas, beans, peas, cabbage and on the top cauliflower.
Add enough salt and water and cook in a pressure cooker longer time so the vegetables are all very soft.

Drain the vegetables (do not throw the water away) and using a masher, mash them well so all the vegetables become an even paste. (It is difficult to mash the vegetables with the water.)

In a low bottom non stick pan, take 4 tsp of oil and fry green chilies and onions till they caramelize. Then add the cut tomatoes or tomato paste and cook till done. Then add the mashed vegetables. Add 3 tsp of Pav-bhaji masala, 1 tsp amchur, 1 tsp cumin-coriander powder, 1/2 tsp red chili flakes, turmeric, salt and 2" butter. Add the drained water and bring to a boil, mixing well. Add more water if the bhaji is getting thick.

Check for salt and adjust seasonings accordingly. Garnish with chopped raw onions, coriander and lemon juice.

Serve with toasted bread, pav or any kind of bread or dinner rolls.

Place between bread as a sandwich.