Vegetable Puffs

Puffs is a spicy pastry snack of India. The pastry sheets stuffed with various kinds of masala and named after the stuffing.

In my hometown , veg puffs is one of the most popular snack that can be bought only from bakeries. Though vadai, bajji and many other snacks are sold during the evening time by the street vendors, those bakeries would always be crowded with an affluent group of customers, who used to buy the best snacks for their kids (though the simple homemade vada is good for all, who listens...hi hi).  At that time, ovens were not this much prevalent in India. So buying a few puffs in the evening would be more handy and classy, if some guests had arrived. In my childhood, a bakery called 'Queens' in our neighborhood was very popular for their onion puffs, veg puffs, sweet puffs etc.

This is my younger brother's favorite and at one point of time, while returning from my job,  I used to get down one stop ahead in our NGO colony to buy these puffs to see his smile :)

Recently one day,I  bought a pack of these pastry sheets from Indian grocery stores and made these steaming hot along with ginger tea on a weekend. My hubby dear loves this absolutely very much and tells me to repeat every weekend :)

So try this and see a big smile on your love's faces!

Vegetable puffs - after baking !

Preparing the vegetable stuffing.

This is the puff pastry I bought

For calorie facts...Yes !

Thawing instructions.

Pastry sheets with stuffing

Fold the pastry squares into rectangles or triangles ....teach geometry to kids by this fun way too :)

Press the edges using a fork.

Puffs after baking ....

serve the piping hot veg puffs to your loved ones along with tea !

Ingredients:
Pastry sheets - 4
red onion - 1
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
oil - 2 tsp
fennel (sombu) -  1 tsp
tomato - 1
lemon juice - few drops (if needed only)
carrot , beans, peas - handful
salt - to taste
garam masala powder - 1 tsp
red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
green chilly - 1
minced cilantro, mint leaf - 1 tbsp

Preparation:
Thaw the pastry sheets as per direction.
I thawed them by leaving the pack in kitchen counter after lunch and it stayed there for almost 2 1/2 hours (as it was little cool on that day). But other than that follow the directions in the pack.

Filling:
Heat oil in a wok. Add fennel and let it get red. Then add onion and saute till it get red. Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute. Then goes the finely chopped tomato. Let it wilt.
Put all the chopped vegetables, green chilly. Add the masala powders, salt.
Sprinkle a handful of water and cook covered. Then put the chopped mint and cilantro leaves. After it gets cooked, if necessary add lime juice. switch off. The stuffing is ready !

Method:
Preheat the oven to 400 deg F (10 mins).
Line a baking tray with aluminum foil and coat it with tsp of oil.
Keep the pastry sheets flat.
Put 2 tbsp filling (not too much) and fold as per taste.
Then using a fork, press the edges so that they close.
Coat the top with little butter or milk.
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 400 deg F.
Take out when the upper crust seems mild red.
Vegetable puffs is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Serve as tea time snack.

Pottukadalai murukku

Pottukadalai - puffed channa dal.
Murukku in our house always means a urid dal murukku.  I make it for all the festivals as it is my hubby's favorite. When I shared that murukku with my friend Priya during Easter, she gave me this recipe for pottukadalai murukku. She suggested adding chilly powder also, but I made a plain murukku. We finished our Easter murukku very soon and hubby dear started asking me for more of his snack during the next weekend. I too wanted to make one batch exclusively for him to have with coffee.  Thanks to her I could make a snack so easily. This is  a very easy murukku recipe and we can do this as a quick evening snack while preparing coffee.

pottukadalai murukku

Ingredients:
Rice flour - 2 cups
(store bought rice flour)
Puffed channa dal (pottu kadalai) - 1/2 cup
Butter - 2 tbsp
Cumin - 1 tbsp
Hing (Asafoetida) - 1/8 tsp
Salt per taste
Water for mixing - (nearly 1 1/2 cups of water)
Oil - to deep fry (500 ml)

Method:
Grind the puffed channa dal to a fine powder using an Indian mixer. Sieve it and get the very fine powder.
Heat a wok and dry roast the rice flour till it gets loose. Don't let it red.
Put both the flours in a large mixing bowl . Add cumin, asafoetida and butter. Mix well.
Take 1 cup of water and add 3/4 tsp salt for every cup of flour (almost 2 tsp). Mix this salt water with the flour and knead to a soft chapathi dough consistency.
Now check salt and add more mixing with water,if necessary.
Fit a 3 hole plate in the murukku mold and fill it with dough.
In the mean time heat the oil in a wide pan till smoking point. Then reduce flame and press the murukku in circular shape into the hot oil.
Flip once after one side is done.
After the hissing sound and bubbles subdue, take out the murukku. Place them on paper towel and remove oil. Store them in air tight containers after they get cool.

Serving suggestion:
Serve as snack with coffee.
Makes 15 - 20  murukku.

Cabbage Vadai

Almost a generation back it was a culture to prepare some evening-snack along with coffee everyday. Nowadays with the availability of packaged snacks and nearby restaurants, that idea is slowly fading. Here is a vadai recipe my mom's sister shared with us long back. The basic batter is similar to the ulunthu vadai, with some vegetable touch. 'Adding some vegetables to the vadai batter' has always been in our tradition to stretch the quantity. May be our mom's had mastered this quick-fix techniques to cater a surprise guest. When I did this after marriage, it became my mother in law's favorite too.
Recipe source: My Gandhi chithi

Ingredients:

(For 18 medium size vadai)
Urid dhal (black gram lentil) - 1 cup
rice flour - 2 tbsp
corn Oil (for deep frying) - 200 ml
Cabbage (finely chopped) - 1 cup
green chilly - 4 (finely chopped)
ginger - 2 inch
cumin - 1 tsp
whole black pepper - 1 tbsp
curry leaf - 1 sprig

Method:

Wash the urid dhal thrice. Soak the urid dhal in cold water for 2 or 3 hours. (I suggest soaking it inside refrigerator, which makes the vadai to absorb less oil).
Grind it to a fine paste with salt and pepper. If needed add 1 or 2 tbsp water.

Take the batter in a mixing bowl. Taste and adjust the salt now.
Finely shred / chop the cabbage. Finely chop ginger, chillies too.
Mix the finely chopped cabbage, green chilly, curry leaf , cumin , rice flour with the batter.

Heat the oil in a wok. Wait till it reaches the hottest point. Reduce the flame to medium.

Wet a plastic sheet or banana leaf (small square). Take a small ball of batter , place it on the sheet, gently flatten it and make a small hole at the center.

Deep fry the vadai in medium to low heat till it gets the golden red color.

Drain the oil , take out and place on kitchen towel / multi holed basin to drain excess oil.

Cabbage vadai is ready!

Serving suggestions;

Serve with coconut chutney or tomato ketchup along with hot coffee or tea in the evening.
Also makes a good side dish with Idly, Venn pongal, sarkarai pongal etc.

Potato bajji (Urulai kilangu bajji)

Bajji (Tamil) - Vegetable slices coated with spicy gram flour paste and deep fried. (Whereas in hindi , baji means a spicy curry served roti).

We can get this snack in almost all the tea shops of Tamilnadu, India. The valaikkai bajji prepared with unripe banana is more common and claimed as the standard version when served with thick coconut chutney (ketti chutney). But I have seen mom utilizing various vegetables like Potato, onion, cauliflower, unripe plantain (valaikkai), brinjal, unripe tomato, capsicum. Also bajji can be made using boiled egg, fish, bread, appalam (pappad). As it is a simple snack, that can be prepared within 10 minutes, bajji comes handy for me whenever we get surprise visitors, especially during winter evenings.

Memories :I will always remember the 'bajji treat' made by my friend Archana's mom....It was a pleasant surprise for us to see almost all the varieties of bajjis in one place, that too made in front of us , while we were enjoying her tea and waiting to roam(!) around that pool. Thank you Nalini aunty! whenever I make bajji, your treat goes as the main topic in our home :).

Urulai kilangu bajji served with tomato ketchup.

Ingredients (for 10 pieces) :

Potato (big and round) - 1
Besan flour (kadalai mavu) - 3/4 cup
dosa batter - 1/4 cup
(or) rice flour - 2 tbsp
salt - to taste
red chilly powder - 1 tbsp
hing (asafoetida)- 1/8 tsp
baking soda - 1/10 tsp
garlic - 2 pieces (finely ground)
red food color - a pinch (optional)
oil - to deep fry (200 ml)

Method:

Wash the potato, scrub and remove the skin. Slice it into thin (2mm approx) round pieces, using a knife and cutting board. Don't use a chips maker, if it has nonadjustable blades. We may need the slices to be more thick than the potato chips.

Mix all the above with 1/4 cup water to a thick batter. Add more water if needed, but keep the batter like idly batter ,otherwise the bajjis will absorb more oil.

Heat oil in a wok. As it gets smoky hot, reduce flame and keep in medium flame.

Dip the potato slices in the batter and put it on the hot oil. Flip and fry both sides. Drain oil and take out.

Potato bajji is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot as snack along with hot coffee or tea during rainy / winter season.
Coconut chutney or tomato ketchup are good side dishes for these fries.

Masal Vadai

Masal vadai is an evening snack in south India especially Tamilnadu.
When we were in Chennai, I always admire a masal vadai sold in a particular shop in chennai.The shop is a one man show .One day I asked him his secret in his crispy masal vadai. He told me the following recipe and it is a fool proof recipe.
His recipe differs from the normal home made masal vadai by adding yellow peas dhal along with channa dhal and by adding a handful of unground dhal. (I added green split peas).
No wonder that the man maintains a huge customer group and he managed to sell his vadai , paniyaram , bajji for only one Rupee per piece(in year 2006).For your information he maintained strict hygiene also, I mean you can see him making those snacks even from outside.

A plate of masal vadai with coconut chutney.

Ingredients:
yellow/green split peas(pattani paruppu in tamil)-1 cup
Channa dhal/ Bengal gram lentil - 1 cup
salt - 1 tsp
green chilies - 3 (chopped)
fresh ginger(finely chopped) - 1 inch
onion (chopped) - 1/2 cup
curry leaves- 1 sprig
coriander leaves (chopped)- 2 tbsp
cinnamon - 1 inch
fennel seeds (peruncheeragam/ sombu)- 1/2 tbsp
dry red chillies - 3
garam masal powder - 1 tsp
cooking oil-250 ml. for frying


Preparation:
Soak both the dhal for 1 hour in water.
Take out a handful of soaked dhal and keep aside.(This gives a wonderful crispy texture to the vadai.)
Grind coarse mixture with red chillies, salt, garam masal powder,cinnamon,fennel seeds and almost no water.
Add the left over dhal,coarse dhal mixture,chopped onions,chopped ginger,chopped cilantro, and curry leaves.
Mix well .
Take a small ball of the mixture (in the size of a lemon), slightly flatten in the palm of your hand then place in the hot oil .
Deep fry on both sides to a golden brown color to mild red color.
Remove the masal vadai , drain oil by placing over a tissue paper .


Serving suggestions:
Makes 15 big size masal vadai.
Serve hot with Coconut chutney


Note:
You can make the mixture and keep the entire preparation inside the refrigerator for 3 days and use whenever needed.