Vengaya vadai

Vadai - Deep fried Indian spicy doughnut; vengayam (Tamil) - onion.

This is another version of masal vadai with more onion. It is a popular snack in the tea stalls of Tamilnadu and Kerala.

Click to read and enjoy the old Tamil song behind:)

Ingredients:

Channa dhal / Bengal gram lentil - 3/4 cup
Red onion - 3 (medium size)
salt - to taste
green chilies - 3 (chopped)
fresh ginger - 1 inch
curry leaves- 1 sprig
fennel seeds (peruncheeragam/ sombu)- 1/2 tbsp
dry red chillies - 3
cooking oil-250 ml. (for deep frying)

Method:

Soak the dhal for 1 hour in cold water.
Grind dhal with red chillies, salt, ginger,fennel seeds to a coarse mixture without any water.
Chop the onion finely by hand (not in chopper, as it will yield more water to batter and a dark vadai).
In a mixing bowl add the dhal mixture, chopped onions, finely chopped green chilly and curry leaves. Mix well .
Heat oil in a frying pan. Wait till it is hot.
Take a lemon size ball of the mixture, slightly flatten in the palm of your hand and then carefully put the vadai in hot oil . Keep flame in medium heat.
Deep fry on both sides to a golden brown color to mild red color.
Remove the onion vadai , drain oil by placing over a  paper towel .

Serving suggestions:

Makes 12 big size vengaya vadai.
Serve hot with Coconut chutney.
Serve with tea or coffee.

Healthy version:
Add 2 tbsp oil to the batter and shape them into thin vadai.
Bake them at 350 deg C for 15 minutes , flip and bake for 5 minutes or till done.

Note:

This batter cannot be refrigerated after adding onion (otherwise the vadai will get dark while frying).

Its awards time!

Sobha Shyam of Good food has passed me this cute award. Sobha, you have a wonderful blog and it's so sweet to get this award from you. Thanks dear.

Teena Mary of Teenz' yummy delights has shared this beautiful award with me. I am honored. Thank you dear.

Teena is hosting a lovely event for Valentine's day.. I am creating some romantic recipes for her event:)  Don't miss it!


I would like to present these to the following friends.
Chitra, Christy, Cham, Deepa, Somoo and also to all my well talented blog friends. I would like to share it with all of my blog friends, but can't type all the names now. Friends,  please feel free to grab them.

Brinjal kothsu

Brinjal - eggplant; kothsu - a curry popular among Tamil Brahmins.

I decided to prepare this kothsu, as soon as I saw this pretty big native brinjal in stop&shop. I know it would yield a lot of kothsu, so after broiling I reserved a portion for my eggplant raitha and the kothsu was handy for 3 days with my chapathi:) I prefer to make some eggplant sides while I do the beans like channa, as it is healthy for digestion. I got this authentic chidambaram kothsu recipe from Madhu of Treks and treats. It was in my bookmark for a long time and glad that I tried it. Thank you Madhu, your recipe is a treasure to me. (I have made some alterations like broiling. Noting down for my reference only).

Cute and big eggplant....compare the size with an apple:)

Broiled eggplant.

For podi / kothsu masala powder:

Dry red chilly - 8
Coriander seeds - 3 tbsp
cumin - 1 tsp
channa dhal / bengal gram - 2 tbsp
methi seeds / fenugreek - 1/2 tsp
sesame oil - 1 tsp
Heat oil in a wok and fry the channa dhal, chillies first. Take it out and fry the others. Powder together.

Ingredients:

Brinjal - 300 gm
shallot - 10 (or) red onion - 1
Asafoetida / hing - 1 pinch
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
tamarind - a key lime size
curry leaves - 1 sprig
sesame oil - 1/4 cup
kothsu podi - (above)
Salt - to taste

Method:

Broil the brinjal in gas stove or flame or inside oven. Peel the skin and chop / mash coarsely.
Extract juice from tamarind. Keep aside.
Heat 1/4 cup oil in a wok and fry the chopped onion till it turns soft. Put the hing powder, curry leaves.
Add the tamarind juice, turmeric powder and boil till raw smell vanishes.
Now pour the mashed brinjal and cook well with salt.
As it starts thickening, add the kothsu powder and mix well.
Bring it to a boil and switch off!

Chidambaram kothsu is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Makes a side dish with roti, chapati or rice.

Chayote (chowchow) kuruma

Chayote potato spicy curry / Bangalore kathirikkai Urulaikilangu kuruma / aloo chowchow subji.

Here is a kuruma for the dieters who long for the regular potato flavored kuruma.

Ingredients:

Chayote (chow chow) - 1
potato (aloo) - 2 (medium size)
tomato - 2
channa dhal - 1/4 cup
Red onion - 1 (medium size)
coriander leaves - a handful.
mint leaves - few
curry leaves - few
curd - 1/2 cup
red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
turmeric powder - a pinch
curry masala powder - 1 tsp
salt - to taste

temper:

oil - 2 tbsp
Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
bay leaf - 1
ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

To grind:

shredded coconut - 1/4 cup
onion - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 4
cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
cardamom - 4
cloves - 2

Method:

Soak the channa dhal for 30 minutes.
Grind the items mentioned along with 1 tbsp of soaked dhal.
Peel and cut the potato and chow chow in to 1 inch cubes.
Chop the onion, cilantro, mint finely.

Heat oil in a pan. fry some fennel seeds and bay leaf.
Add the chopped onion, green chillies ,curry leaves, cilantro and mint leaves. After the onion turns golden brown , add ginger garlic paste and saute well.
Now put the finely chopped tomato and cook till oil oozes out.
Put the turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder, curry powder and fry for a few seconds.
Now add the vegetables, soaked channa dhal and mix well and add 2 cups of water.
close the lid and cook all the vegetables to tender.
Add the coconut masala, curd, salt and boil for 5 more minutes to remove the raw smell.
Switch off immediately .

Chow chow kuruma is ready!

Serving suggestions:

serve hot with chapati or rice.
This is a good alternative to the regular potato kuruma as we can control the carbohydrate by adding the chayote.
Tastes just like the potato kuruma.

Pongal wishes,

Happy Pongal to all my readers, friends and family ,





GoodLightscraps.com

*** world4art.com - Orkut Pongal scraps, graphic and comments ! ***

May this Pongal festival brings peace, good health, cheer, prosperity and every thing we wish for.
Happy Pongal!

Love,
Viki

Pongal Puli curry

Pongal - Indian Thanks giving festival or Farmer's festival ;  Puli - Tamarind;
curry - a side dish.

Recipe source:  My mom used to do this every year during pongal. I got this yummy recipe from my Jeyasri chithi.  Jeyashri chithi prepares lot of dishes along with curry like a sambar with mixed veggies too. I love her recipes very much and practice them for my special days. 

Pongal is celebrated for 3 to 5 days in the middle of January by all people with agriculture background in India. Rice and banana are the major crops in my home town. So pongal is a big festival there. It is a season of happiness for the farmers as well as for every one who loves festivals like me:) The main celebrations include cleaning the house and farm material (Pogi day), offering thanks to Sun and God (Pongal day), celebrating the holiness of cow (mattu Pongal day). The night before Pongal day, the ladies paint big size rangoli kolam in front of the house and tie turmeric plants and sugarcanes in the doorway to welcome the prosperity. On pongal day, just like barbeque party, it is common to prepare the sweet rice Pongal in the front yard in a traditional way. The feast may include a plain rice, sweet rice pongal, avial, puli curry, dhal. It is a tradition to include at least a small piece of every vegetable in that day.
On the third day those who have cows would prepare another batch of sweet rice for the cows and themselves and pamper the cows as always. While in India, I used to befriend a beautiful cow and pamper her everyday.....happy memories :)
The next day is called kanum pongal or tour day.
So the whole January spins around pongal festival in my home town and its a colorful season there:)

Here is the recipe for the pongal puli curry.

(I used yam, potato and arbi only. But given the link to the images of various tubers in my ingredient list for reference. Thanks for the bloggers who have published these images).

Root vegetables:

Yam / elephant foot yam / senai kilangu / suran - 200 gm
potato / urulai kilangu / aloo - 1
siru kilangu / chiru kizhangu - 5
sembu / taro root/ colocasia / arbi - 5
pidi karunai kilangu / yam - 1 (small)

other ingredients:

Tamarind - 1 small lime size
Red chilli powder - 1.5 tbsp
coriander powder - 3 tbsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
water - 2 cups
salt - 2 tsp (to taste)

To grind:

shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
shallot onion - 10
cumin seeds - 1 tsp

To temper:

mustard - 1 tsp
fenugreek seeds- 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
oil - 2 tbsp
asafoetida - 1 pinch


Method:
Wash and peel the root vegetables. Cut them into 2 inch size cubes.
(Take care while handling the yams).
Cook them together till soft (10 minutes). Discard the water and keep aside.

Soak the tamarind in hot water and extract the juice thrice with 2 cups of water.
Add the chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt to the tamarind extract and start boiling with the cooked roots.

Grind coconut, onion and cumin seeds with little water and add it to the boiling curry. let it get thick.

Heat oil in a pan. Crackle mustard seeds , add fenugreek seeds , curry leaves and asafoetida. Pour over the boiling thick curry. Switch off.

Pongal puli kulambu is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with sweet pongal.
Can be used as kulambu / curry over plain rice or with chapati.

Healthy Idly podi

An alternative to the regular idly podi / chutney podi.

Idly - Indian breakfast made of rice. Idly podi - a powdery side dish for idly and dosai.

Ingredients:

Bengal gram - 1/2 cup
(channa dal / kadalai paruppu)
Horse gram (kollu) - 1/4 cup
flax seed - 2 tbsp
Dry red chilly - approximately 15 numbers
(Reduce chillies if you need a lesser spicy version)
Curry leaf - 2 sprig
Tamarind - 2 inch (optional)
salt - to taste (untreated sea salt is best here)
Asafoetida (hing / Perunkaayam) - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Heat a wok and dry roast the curry leaves till they turn crispy. Keep aside.

Again heat the wok. Dry roast the channa dhal till it turns mild red. Take it out immediately.
Roast the horsegram till it smells nice. Keep aside.
Roast the flax seeds for few seconds and wait till it pops. Take it out.

Now put the salt, red chillies. Dry roast till the chillies loose all the moisture and becomes crispy. Add the hing and switch off immediately.
(Adding the salt with red chillies reduces the hot flavors. Otherwise we may start sneezing:) So roast the chillies at the end along with salt).

Put the roasted chillies along with the others above and let them cool completely.

After they get cooled, grind them to a medium fine powder using a coffee grinder / mixer. Store in air tight container (even at room temperature). Holds good for more than a month or two.

Idly podi is ready!

Serving suggestions / tips:

Take a tbsp of podi, mix well with enough sesame oil / ghee and serve as side dish with Idly or dosai.
The fresh podi tastes more always. So prepare them in small batches according to need.
Idly coated with this 'podi-ennai' (podi+oil) tastes great and makes a good packed lunch. It won't get spoiled for a day.
The podi can also be mixed with cooked rice and a drop of ghee as main course meal.
We can use this podi in making side dishes like poriyal also.