Thayir Vadai/ Curd Vadai

                           

Thayir Vadai/Curd Vadai is a very yummy and delicious south Indian snack. Whenever we go to an Indian restaurant my first order would be thayir vadai, as it's one of my favorite snack. My mother's preparation of thayir vadai is a super duper hit in our family. In most homes, thayir vadai would be prepared using left over vadais but I make them with fresh vadais like my mother. 

Ingredients

• Thick curd (Yogurt) - 2cups
• Coriander leaves (finely chopped) - 3 tbsp
• Carrot (grated) - 2 tbsp 
• Chat masala - a pinch 

For the Vadai

• Urad dhal - 1/2 cup
• Salt - as per taste 
• Water - as needed
• Oil - for deep frying 

To Grind

• Coconut - 2tbsp 
• Cumin seeds - 1tsp
• Green Chilly - 2
• Ginger (finely chopped) - 1tsp

To Temper 

• Oil - 2tbsp 
• Mustard - 1tsp 
• Dry red chillies - 2
• Hing - a pinch
• Curry leaves  - a spring 

Method

• Soak urad dhal for atleast 2-3 hours. Drain water completely and then sprinkle water little by little while grinding.  
• Don't sprinkle more water to the batter because it will become runny. Grind the batter thick and fluffy in texture. Once the vadai batter is ready add salt and mix well. 

                        

• Meanwhile heat oil. Wet your palm with water, then take a small ball out of the batter and pat it on. Now make a hole in the middle and carefully drop it into the oil.
• Fry the vadai in medium flame, turn over to other side once it becomes light golden brown color. Same way cook the other side also.
• Make all vadais and drain them to remove excess oil with paper towel. 
• Then whisk curd with salt. Add the paste to the whisked curd and mix well. Heat oil and temper the items listed under " to temper ", transfer to the curd mixture. Give a quick mix. 

                          

• Then drop the vadais to hot water, remove it immediately ( this is to make the vadais soft and make it absorb curd well).
• Add the vadais to the curd and arrange them to a plate, then pour little curd mixture over the vadais. 

                           

• Then garnish with grated carrot, boondi, chat masala and cilantro. Now vadais are ready to be served in room temperature or you can serve it cold also. It's your call !!

                            

Tips

• Always make sure that you make the vadai batter fluffy.
• While tempering the curd, you can also add red chillies for flavor.
• Soak the urad dhal for atleast 4-5 hours max.     

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Karamani Sundal/ Black Eyed Peas Sundal

Karamani is also called as "thatta payir" or "black eyed peas". Karamani is one of my favorite legume. It is very easy to make this yummy sundal. This legume is available in varieties of colors. It's very good source of fiber and low in cholesterol. Here you go with the healthy sundal recipe :D

                          

Ingredients 

• Karamani - 1cup
• Grated coconut - 1/2cup
• Mustard - 1/4tsp
• Urad dhal - 1tsp
• Dry red chillies - 2
• Asafoetida - pinch 
• Salt - as needed 
• Oil - as needed 
• Curry leaves - few

Method 

• Soak karamani overnight. Drain water. Pressure cook the karamani with enough water and salt for about 2-3 whistles in medium flame.
• Heat a skillet with oil and temper with the items in the above ingredient table. When it starts to splutter add the cooked karamani and stir for 2 minutes until water evaporates. 
• Add grated coconut stir for few seconds in medium flame.
• Now sundal is ready to be served.

                     

Tips

• If you forgot to soak the karamani overnight, then soak the sprout for 3-4 hours in hot water. 

Check our other sundal recipes black-chickpeas-sundal|kondakadalai-sundal|peanut-sundal       

Kondakadalai Sundal/Channa Sundal

Navratri means "nava"- nine, "ratri"- night, worshiped for nine forms of Devi. It's a festival dedicated to Hindu goddess Durga Devi. The tenth day is commonly celebrated as Vijayadashami or Dasara. This festival is an important one which is celebrated all over India. Kondakalai Sundal is a traditional savory snack for vinayagar chathurthi and navratri. It's very healthy and guilt free sundal. This recipe is easy and flavorful one. Here you go with the recipe :)
                      

Ingredients 

• Kondakadalai / Channa - 1 cup
• Coconut grated - 2 tbsp 
• Salt - as needed 
• Oil - as needed 
• Mustard - 1 tsp 
• Urad dhal - 1/4 tsp
• Red chillies - 3 
• Asafoetida - pinch 
• Curry leaves- 1 spring 

Method

• Soak channa overnight and pressure cook with salt and water for 3-4 whistles.
• Heat a skillet with oil and temper with mustard, urad dhal, curry leaves, asafoetida and red chillies. Fry until it splutter and turns to golden brown. 
• Add cooked channa and stir for 2 minutes until moisture evaporates. 
• Now add grated coconut and fry for a minute. Transfer the sundal to serving bowl.

Tips 

• You can replace red chillies with green chillies.
• Instead of adding coconut as such you can grind coconut and green chillies together and add as a coarse paste at the last. 
• If your soaking the channa overnight you can pressure cook along with salt or the soaking time for channa is less, then you have to add salt at the time of cooking only. 

Try our other sundal recipe peanut sundal  

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Potato rolls

Planning for a picnic/party/potluck? Or...Looking for a tea-time snack? Here is a very easy recipe which can be done in a jiffy if you have some boiled potatoes and bread in hand. 

These rolls are immensely simple, delicious and a  perfect finger food.. The first time I made these rolls I was in my teens *smug look*. haha.. 

truth is I was experimenting with aloo paratha and goofed it up.. So I wrapped the spicy potato stuffing with a bread slice and fried them. 

These rolls are crunchy from outside and soft n spicy from inside. You can either deep fry it or bake it, totally upto you. You can use whole wheat brown/white bread to make it more healthy. Also you can add veggies of your choice along with potato. If you're thinking of a cheat food for your kiddo who hates veggies, this is the one. Let's get to the recipe already...

Ingredients  (makes 10 rolls)

• 10 bread slices, crust removed
• 4 medium sized potatoes, boiled & mashed
• 1 tsp minced green chilies
• 1/2 cup carrot, shredded
• 1/2 cup peas, boiled/defrosted 
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder (optional)
• 1/2 tsp chaat masala (optional)
• 2 tsp butter
• 2 tsp oil
• salt, to taste
• finely chopped cilantro

Method

• Heat a pan, add 2 tsp of oil. Add onion, green chili & saute for  a minute.
• Add mashed potatoes, carrots, peas, salt, red chili powder, garam masala powder and chaat masala. 
• Switch off the heat. Add cilantro and mix well.
• Pre-heat the oven to 350deg F. Grease a baking sheet with butter.
• Roll the bread flat using the rolling pin. Place a teaspoon of potato mixture on the slice.
• Roll it up tightly and seal the edges with the help of water.
• Once you are done with all the slices, brush them with butter and place on the baking sheet.

• Place them in pre-heated oven for 10 mins and flip the rolls and bake for 10 mins or until it turns golden brown in color too.
• Serve them with ketchup or green chutney.

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Cinnamon Cream Cheese Roll-ups

 My husband & I regularly go to the park across the street, watch the sunset  & sometimes I carry snacks with me to munch on. Going to that park is favorite part of my day for various reasons.
1. I love to breathe in summer air 
2. I love watching the sunset, every sunset is beautiful! 
3. I love to see the happy, smiling faces 

I love summer evenings. I want summer forevvvver. OK may be Summer and Fall

So, one such day I was waiting for my husband to arrive from work and was wondering what do I do for snack today. I had some Bread.......
and I had cream cheese frosting.....
and I had GOOGLE to help me out. Hence the idea Cream cheese roll-ups. 
It's actually not at all difficult- Really! You'll thank me later. We are using ready-made cream cheese frosting for filling  & bread instead of pastry. 

Does it look delicious? It is, Trust me!
Crispy n cinnamon-y on the outside, soft n gooey on the inside which showers your taste buds with cream cheese. Sounds good to you? here's how we do it....

Vegetable Pasta

Normally i do this vegetable pasta during weekend night for dinner along with garlic bread and orange juice. Any bachelor can try this recipe it is very easy to make, i used penne pasta but you can use your choice of pasta to this recipe. Here you go with spicy yummy vegetable pasta recipe!!

                        

                       

Sweet Kuzhi Paniyaram

Sweet Kuzhi Paniyaram is a popular and traditional recipe of Chettinadu. This is a snack recipe, which can also be served as breakfast or appetizer for dinner. It is a favorite snack among kids, you can give this sweet paniyaram when they return from the school. They will surely love it. In earlier post, I have already posted the masala paniyaram version. The batter is same for this recipe also. This recipe will have excellent taste of jaggery, coconut and cardamom and healthy too. Here you go with the recipe....

                      

Roasted Peanut Salad

Yippee!! I ll be traveling to India soon and I am thrilled to bits, so SO excited  There are lot of things I miss about India.

  Family and friends of course are at top of the list (Oh! Skype, what would we do without you)

My favorite food- Though we get Indian food and groceries here there are certain few things I am not contented with.One such thing is peanut salad. 

During my college days my friends & I used to go to this restaurant like once a week just to eat this. It was so funny that the waiters stopped giving us the menu card after few days and happily served us the salad. I made my version of this salad and although it wasn't really close to the one I love, my husband loved it :)

So what exactly is this roasted peanut salad ?

It's simply a salad which is protein rich, scrumptious and refreshing since it is made of fresh ingredients & super easy to whip up.

INGREDIENTS

• roasted peanuts - 2 cups
•  chopped onion - 1 cup
• chopped tomatoes - 1 cup
• chopped cucumber - 1 cup
• finely chopped green chilli - 1 or 2
• juice of lemon - 1 tbsp
• chaat masala - to taste(optional)
• salt - to taste
• finely chopped cilantro - to garnish 

METHOD 

Add the roasted peanuts in a bowl.

Add onions & green chillies

 some tomatoes

and some cucumber

add salt, lime juice & chaat masala

 Toss well and garnish with finely chopped cilantro.

Serve it as tea time or mid night snack with some drinks

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Cauliflower Fry

Given a contest between ‘Vegetables & Fruits’, you can easily spot me cheer-leading to my heart's content for the fruits. I am anytime a fruits lover than veggies’. In fact, I am giving most of the vegetables a ‘taste try’ only after marriage and credits to my husband for literally forcing me to. But there are few vegetable dishes I love … for which I might even ditch the fruits (am sorry!!) and take the opposite stand. 

Will it be so obvious if I say those are vegetables that are fried... like potatoes, cauliflower etc. Duh! I know!

I came across this cauliflower fry recipe in an Indian cookery show- Kitchen Super star and I immediately knew I would love it. I gave it a try and as always, I was right! I LOVED IT. So here is the recipe of my favorite cauliflower fry.

Ingredients

Cauliflower - florets - one cup

Equal proportions of Besan (chickpea flour), Corn and Rice flour – I used 3 tsp each.

Turmeric powder - 1 Tsp

Water

Salt

Oil - to fry

To Grind:

Mint leaves - Handful

Coriander leaves - Handful

Curry leaves - 5

Green chilli - 2-3

Garlic cloves – 4

Preparation:

Cut the cauliflower to bite sized florets and soak them in water with turmeric  for 15 minutes. Drain the water and keep the cauliflower aside.

Grind the ‘To grind’ ingredients to a paste using water.

Method:

• Add the paste to the cauliflower along with salt.
• Add the flours and turmeric powder.
• Give it a good mix making sure all the florets gets coated with the paste.
• The flour forms an outer layer to the floret which ensures that the ground paste sticks to the florets. This layer, when fried gives the cauliflower a crisp.
• Keep this mixture aside for 15 minutes.
• Heat oil in a pan; fry the cauliflower in medium flame.
• Make sure the oil is hot before you start frying.
• Drain the excess oil in a strainer or place on the tissue.
• Serve hot.

This post was added to Easy to Cook Meals blog. Please join us in Cunning Ladies' Friday Party.

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Tawa Idly

One cold rainy evening, my stomach started to growl! I went to the refrigerator and saw leftover idlis from yesterday (it looked so inviting to me :-)). I wanted something spicy, so I decided to make "Tawa Idly" with vegetables in a very simple way. The main flavor of tawa idly is the "pav bhaji masala" and squeezing of lemon, which gives some tangy taste to your taste buds.  

                                             

PAV BHAJI MASALA

I remember the first time I had Pav Bhaji Masala in a place called Gangotree Chat house in Chennai. The very moment I fell in love with the aromatic smell of the butter in the pav and the masala. For a long time, I was craving for Pav Bhaji masala ;) so i decided to do this yummy chat recipe. Whenever I go out, I order pav bhaji or bhel puri, without a second thought. They are my all time favourite chat. Pav Bhaji is easy to make, it has almost all vegetables. I followed a simple version of this chat recipe. Here we go with the recipe.
          

Masala Paniyaram

Kuzhi Paniyaram is a popular Chettinadu dish. It's one of my favourite breakfasts. My mom does this dish very often which I miss it now and then :( I have tried my version with vegetables and spices. This paniyaram is perfect for breakfast, snack or dinner with thakkali chutney. The batter for paniyaram should be accurate or else you will not get a soft and crispy one.Lets get started :)