Bread Bajji - A tasty Fritter for snack time

Bajji is a famous south Indian snack made with besan batter and veggies like potato, onion, eggplant. I read somewhere about the bread bajji and thought of trying it. Just replaced veggies with bread. Its an instant snack which takes no time to prepare. If you have leftover breads, then this is a good try. I usually struggle to finish off the bread before it expires. This recipe turn these bread to a toothsome evening snack. Bread bajji and a cuppa coffee or tea makes your taste buds more happy. 

Ingredients:

Bread - 4 pieces (i used Wheat bread)
Besan flour/ Kadalai mavu - 1 cup
Rice flour / Arisi mavu - 1/4 cup
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp 
Hing/ Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - a pinch (optional)
Salt
Oil to fry

Method:

Cut the all four corner part of the bread. Cut it into to halves lengthwise. 
Mix besan flour, rice flour, red chilli powder, hing, baking soda and salt.
Add water little by little and make a semi solid batter. It should not be watery or too thick.
Heat oil in a wok/ kadai.
Dip the bread piece into the batter and place it in the hot oil.
Two at a time works better. 
Fry both sides till its crisp.
Remove from oil and place it in a paper towel. 
Serve hot with tomato sauce or green chutney.

Gobi Manchurian (Dry) / Dry Cauliflower Manchurian - Step by step recipe

Gobi Manchurian is an Indian Chinese dish made with cauliflower. It taste little tangy, hot and spicy. Frying the cauliflower florets gives the food little crispiness. It can be taken as a plain starter or as side dish for chapatti, roti and fried rice. Both ways they taste good.

Sauce plays the major role in this dish. I have added chilli paste instead of adding chilli sauce, as it was out of stock in my pantry. But adding chilli sauce gives more authentic taste to the dish.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower – 1cup

Onion- 1big

Capsicum /bell pepper – ½ of the full pepper finely chopped.

Chopped ginger – 1/2tbsp

Chopped garlic - 1tbsp

Tomato sauce – 4tbsp

Chilli paste – 1 ½ tsp (grind 4 to 5 green chillies in warm water to fine paste)

Soy sauce – 3tbsp

Vinegar – 1tbsp

Spring onion (white part) – 2tbsp

Spring onion (green part) – 3 to 4tbsp (for dressing)\

Salt – a pinch

Water – 2tbsp

Oil – 2tbsp

For frying cauliflower:

Oil to fry

Maida / all-purpose flour – 1cup

Corn flower – 2tbsp

Rice flour – 1tbsp

Chilli powder – 1tbsp

Salt

Method:

Cut the cauliflower into medium size florets.

Add salt in water and bring them to boil.

Add the cauliflower florist to the water and boil them till they turn soft.

Remove from fire, drain them completely and keep aside.

In a wok, heat 2tbsp oil, add the chopped onion and fry till they turn light 

brown.

Add the chilli paste and chopped ginger, garlic and sauté for few min till they turn light brown.

Add the bell pepper, spring onion white part and sauté for 3min.

Add the tomato sauce, soy sauce, vinegar and sauté for 2min in medium flame.

Turn off the stove.

Frying the cauliflower:

Combine all the flour, chilli powder, salt and make a thin batter adding required water.

The batter should not be too thick or thin.

Heat the oil for frying.

Once the oil is ready, dip the cauliflower florets into the batter and place it in the oil.

Do the same for remaining florets.

Fry till they turn light crisp.

Remove from the oil and place it in a paper towel.

Now add 2tbsp water to the gravy and sauté for few seconds, add the fried florets and sauté till they get coated well with the gravy.

Add the green part of the spring onion and give a quick sauté.

Serve hot.

Note: Fry the cauliflower florets and add it to the gravy just 10 or 15min before serving. Otherwise it will get soggy.

Adjust the sauces as per your taste.

Watch while adding salt, as already soy sauce and some vinegar contains salt. 

Murungai keerai Vadai / Drumstick leaves vada

‘Keerai vadai’ is a famous South Indian snack. Very popular street food, mostly you can find this in tea stalls and in many restaurants. Leafy vegetables (keerai in Tamil) like mint, spinach, methi is added to the regular vada mix and fried like a fritter. Here I have used murungai keerai to make keerai vadai. Murungai keerai is rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, also a good source of iron.

Ingredients:

Murungai keerai / Drumstick leaves – ½ bunch or 2cups
Onion – 2numbers
Chana dal / besan dal – ½ cup
Toor dal – ½ cup
Red chilli – 6 numbers
Asafoetida / hing- ½tsp
Coriander – chopped, 1tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Method:

 

Soak toor dal and chana dal for 1hour.
Ground them coarsely along with asafoetida, red chilli, and salt.

Wash the drumstick leaves thoroughly and chop them coarsely.

Add the chopped onion, drumstick leaves and coriander leaves to the grounded mix and mix well.

Vada Mix
 

Now the vada mix is ready.
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan.
When the oil is ready to fry, make small balls of the vada mix, place them in your palm and flatten them using your fingers.

Slowly place them one after one in the oil. 5 to 6 at a time is best for medium size wok / pan.
Deep-fry both sides, remove from the oil and place them in a paper towel.
Serve hot with sauce or any chutney.

 

Kunuku

Kunuku is an evening snack made using adai mavu. White rava is added to the adai mavu to make the fritter crispier. I usually make this kunuku when lot of adai mavu is leftover in the fridge and bored of making adai. Good snack for surprise visitors as they take less time to prepare. And also you will get 20 to 25 kunuku from 2 cups of adai mavu.

 

 

Ingredients:

Adai mavu / adai batter – 2 cups
Onion – 1big
Green chilli – 2 big
Chopped curry leaves – 1tbsp
Chopped coriander – 1tbsp
Rava / suji (white) – 2tbsp
Oil to fry
Salt to taste

Method:

Add the chopped onion, green chilli, coriander leaves, curry leaves, salt, rava, to the adai mavu and mix well. Now the kunuku mavu is ready. Keep aside for 10min.
Heat oil in a wok. When the oil is ready to fry, make small balls of the kunuku mavu and place them slowly in the oil. 5 to 6 at a time is best.
Fry them like vada both sides and remove from the oil.
Place them in a paper towel to remove excess oil.
Serve hot with tomato sauce.

Vada Curry

Vadakari is a south Indian side dish, very aromatic and little spicy. I have tasted this vadakari in restaurants and now tried this for first time at home. They go well with idly, dosa, chapatti, and parotta. Usually Bengal gram vada is used for vadakari, but here I have used the leftover dal vada to make this vadakari. So if you have leftover dal vada, then it takes only 30 min to make this recipe.

Ingredients:

Paruppu vada / Dal vada – 6 numbers

Onion – 2big

Tomato – 1 (make puree)

Green chilli – 2 big (slitted)

Ginger garlic paste – 2tsp

Fennel seeds – 1tsp

Bay leaf – 1

Cinnamon – 1 small piece

Cardamom – 1

Clove – 1

Red chilli powder – 2tsp

Garam masala powder – 1tsp

Turmeric powder – 1tsp

Chopped curry leaves – 1tsp

Chopped coriander – 1tbsp

Oil – 1 1/2tbsp

Salt to taste

Ingredients for Paruppu vada:

Thoor dal – 1cup

Chana dal / Bengal gram – 1cup

Paruppu Vada

Urad dal - ¼ cup

Chopped onion – 1cup

Chopped green chilli – 1tbsp

Chopped fresh coriander – 1tbsp

Red chilli – 4 to5 (depend on spice of the chilli) 

Hing – 1tsp

Curry leaves – 1tbsp

Oil to fry

Salt to taste

Method:

For making vada:

Soak all the three dal for 1 hour.

Ground coarsely with red chilli, hing, curry leaves and salt to thick consistency. 

Add the chopped onion, green chilli and coriander to the vada batter.

Fry in oil like any other fritter/ vada and keep aside.

For Vadakari:

In a pan heat oil, add fennel seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf, clove and fry.

Add the chopped onion and fry for 2min, add the ginger garlic paste and fry well till the raw smell goes, followed by slitted green chillies.

Add the tomato puree, turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala powder and salt.

Stir them for 2,3min till you see oil oozing out.

Pour some water and let them boil for 5min.

When the gravy is ready, cut the vadas into small pieces using hands and add them to the gravy.

Saute for 2min in low flame.

Now sprinkle some chopped coriander and serve hot.

Urad dal bonda in yogurt/ thayir

I used the same vada batter and made this bonda, except no onion in this batter, just green chilli and salt. They are similar to ‘thayir vada’ except the round shape. This bonda will taste more good if the ‘pulicha’(sour) thayir is used.

Ingredients:

Urad dal – 1cup

Green chilli – 2

Hing- 1tsp

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Curd/thayir – 2cups (thin)

Kara booondi – 2tbsp (store bought) for topping.

Method:

Soak urad dal in water for 1hour.

Grind them in blender adding green chilli, hing and 2 to 3 tbsp water.

Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and mix well.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. When the oil is ready to fry, make the batter into small balls and fry in the oil.

Keep the flame medium. Fry both sides till they turn light brown and crispy.

In the meantime take 2cups of curd in a bowel. Beat them, add pinch of salt and mix well and keep aside.

When the bonda is ready, remove from the oil and transfer them to the paper towel. Immediately place the bonda in the beaten curd. Make sure they are fully coated with curd.

Let they sit in the curd bowl for at least 1 to 1 ½ hrs before serving.

Serving:

Place the bonda in a cup or plate, pour some beaten curd over it, sprinkle some kara boondi and serve.  



Sending this recipe to Nivedhanam's page and Priya's page

Onion Bonda

There is a story behind this onion bonda. I started  making urad dal vada, but accidently sprinkled little more water while grinding the batter, I couldn’t make the round shape vada L so what, I got an idea, Onion bonda!! Just add some onion and green chilli to the batter and fry in oil like vada. So this is the birth story of onion bonda J

They taste really good. Next time I can knowingly add little more water to vada batter and prepare onion bonda ;-) 

Ingredients:

Urad dal – 1cup

Onion – 1medium

Hing – 1tsp

Green chilli – 1for grinding + 2chopped

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Method:

Soak 1cup uard dal in water for 1hour

Grind it smoothly sprinkling water (2to 3tbsp), along with green chilli.

(the batter should be smooth but not watery)

Chop the onion and green chilli and add it into the batter.

Add salt and mix well.

Heat oil in a wok, when the oil is ready, place the batter using spoon or hand into the oil.

Keep the flame medium and fry till you see the crispy light brown.

Then turn them to other side, keep the flame low and fry for few seconds.

When the whole bonda start turning light brown remove from the heat and place it in a paper towel.They taste crispy. If you are a spice lover, add 1 more green chilli.

Serve hot with tomato sauce.



Sending this recipe to Nivedhanam's Page and Priya's Page

 

Vegetable Cutlet - Healthy Evening Snack!

Cutlet is an always “hit” dish. For all season and all occasion. If you have veggies handy then it takes less than 45min to prepare. Tomato sauce or green chutney is best side dish. Taste good even without any side dish. 

Ingredients:

Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp

Red chilli powder - 3 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1tsp

Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Fennel seed- 1/2 tsp

Fresh coriander chopped - 1tbsp

Cashew - broken - 2 tsp

Bread crumbs – 1 cup

Maida/ all purpose flour – 1tbsp

Oil – 1tbsp

Oil to fry

Vegetables:

Chopped carrot – ½ cup

Beans chopped – ½ cup

Boiled corn (or frozen) – ¼ cup

Potato – 1big

If you are using frozen veggies skip boiling them and just ground them into paste.

Method:

Pressure cook carrot, beans, corn with little salt.

Cool down and ground it without adding water.

Squeeze the excess water and keep aside.(You can use muslin cloth or cooking strainer)

Boil the potato, mash it and keep aside.

In a pan heat oil, add ginger garlic paste, fennel seed, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder, chopped coriander, cashew and fry for few seconds.

Add the grounded veggies and sauté till they get bind together.

Remove from the heat and add it to the mashed potato.

Mix well (add bread crumbs if the mix is sticky).

Make maida dip by mixing 1tbsp maida in 3 to 4tbsp water.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan or kadai.

Now flatten the ball using your palm to round shape.

Dip it in the maida water, then into the bread crumbs.

Make sure the bread crumbs cover them fully.

Fry them in oil one by one. Two at a time is best.

Place then in a paper towel and remove the excess oil.

Serve hot.

Pavakkai/Bitter gourd pakora

Though the name sounds bitter they are very good for health. Many have heard Bitter gourd helps in curing diabetic. But many of us don’t like to have it because of its bitter taste especially children, so here is the recipe to make people eat Bitter gourd!!

I had this pakora from some Sweet& Snacks store, it taste really wonderful so tried at home. To my surprise it came well.

Ingredients:

Pavakkai - 1 big

Gram/besan flour - 1/2 cup

Rice flour - 1/4 cup

Red chilli powder - 3 tsp

Turmeric - 1tsp

Salt to taste

Hing - a pinch

Oil to fry

Method:

Wash and cut the bitter gourd round shape

Remove the seed in the middle

Marinate them adding salt, red chilli powder, turmeric, hing and mix them well

Keep aside for 1 hour

Add besan flour and rice flour and mix them well

No need to add water as we added the salt already, if required sprinkle few drops for binding

Heat oil in a wok, fry the mix both side like any other fritter and serve hot.