Peanut chaat

Marina beach, the crowds, mallipoo (jasmine) sellers, Kwality ice cream carts, roaring waves......these sights, sounds and smells will be indelibly etched in your mind if you visit this beach even once. I love the raw mango, neatly sliced and sold with red chilli powder and salt that is commonplace in this area. Peanut chaat is another popular favourite that is sold along the beach. Boiled peanuts, raw onions, tomatoes, a dash of lime and salt - what's not to love about this simple dish?

What you need :
Peanuts - 1 cup
Onion - 1 small, finely chopped
Tomato - 1 small, finely chopped
Green chilli - 1, minced
Carrot - 1/2, grated
Juice of half a lemon
Salt
Corriander/cilantro - a little, for garnishing

Soak the peanuts in hot water for 2 to 3 hours. Drain, add half a cup of water, a pinch of salt and cook in the pressure cooker until three whistles. Remove and drain water completely. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir well. Enjoy.
This is my post for Blogging Marathon # 45 under the theme healthy tea time snacks. It also goes to Valli's Kids' Delight event featuring nuts and legumes in a lunch box friendly avatar.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#45
 

Moong sprouts kabab aka Disaster management kabab

It was to be just another ordinary day with no post from me commemorating the ordinariness of my everyday cooking. Some moong beans soaked in water the previous night, drained and sprouted were to be combined with onion and tomatoes to make an ordinary salad. However, at the last minute, inspiration struck and I thought of turning the sprouts into deep fried vadas. Then, the rational mind intervened and said, why deep fry? Why not make baked kababs? And that, my dear friends, is how this recipe was born.
I drained the sprouts and ground them with an onion, some garlic and green chillies. This is where the disaster management part of the post title kicks in. Despite ensuring that there was absolutely no water in the beans, the ground mixture had the texture of a thick chutney. Definitely not kabab material. So, in went a boiled potato and some quite a bit of chick pea flour (besan). The resulting mixture, while not dry, could be shaped if I wet my hands frequently. Baking was out of the question as I knew without doubt that the mixture would stick to the pan. So, back to the frying pan it was, quite literally. The end result, though, was not bad at all, and quite possibly something I might attempt again, this time, intentionally, of course.


What you need:
Moong sprouts - 1.5 cups
Potato - 1, boiled, peeled and mashed
Onion - 1, peeled and chopped into large chunks
Ginger - a small piece
Garlic - 7 or 8 cloves
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Besan ( I didn't measure this, but kept adding a spoonful at a time till the mixture was fairly dry. Probably close to 1/4 cup)
Salt - to taste
Oil - for deep frying

Grind the sprouts, onion, ginger, garlic and turmeric powder to a smooth batter without adding any water. Add the mashed potato and salt to this. Mix well. If you are able to shape this mixture into kababs, proceed to deep fry at this point. If not, add besan, little by little, until you are able to shape the batter. Deep fry in oil over a medium flame until both sides are well browned. Serve hot with ketchup/tamarind chutney.

Bhel puri - Yes you too can make it at home

Chaat and Mumbai are almost synonyms. Almost every street here has not one, but several vendors who, once the sun goes down, set up their make shift chaat counters on the roadside. The way they throw a few things together, mix it up and serve it with ease is nothing short of an art that they have perfected. With so many options available, I prefer to have my quota of chaat at the nearest chaat shop but this time, I tried my hand at making it at home. While it is quite easy to put together once you are done with all the chopping and dicing, I think that the experience of standing amidst a crowd of fellow chaat lovers, watching the magic unfold as the flavours are blended together by practiced hands, is something that gives your chaat a certain character that cannot be replicated at home.

What you need:
Puffed rice/murmura
Onion - chopped fine
Tomato - chopped fine
Cilantro/corriander - chopped fine
Green chutney
Tamarind chutney
Chaat masala
Salt
Peanuts toasted in a little oil
Sev - for garnishing

I have not mentioned quantities in the above recipe, firstly because I didn't measure each ingredient separately and secondly because the recipe is very forgiving and you can add as much of each ingredient as you would like. So, if you want your bhel to be spicy, add more green chutney to it, whereas if you want it to be sweet and tangy, add more tamarind chutney to it. Keep tasting and adding or subtracting ingredients as per your wish. You could also add boiled, cubed potatoes, or raw mangoes if you would like to.
Take the puffed rice (which is the main ingredient) in a large mixing bowl. Add in all the other ingredients in the order listed. Mix well. Top with sev and serve immediately.

This post is part of the Blogging Marathon under the theme After school snacks. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 37
It also goes to Sowmya who is hosting Valli's Kids Delight -after school snacks.

Ammini kozhukkattai - savoury steamed rice flour dumplings

Kozhukkattai is a traditional stuffed dumpling that is made during Ganesh Chaturthi. Grated coconut and jaggery, cooked over low heat with a hint of cardamom thrown in, is stuffed into an outer layer of rice flour dough that is shaped by deft hands into a dumpling. This is then steamed, offered to Ganesha whose favourite sweet it is, and then relished by the family.
Ammini kozhukkattai - the bite sized, savoury version - is almost always made on days when the regular sweet kozhukkattai is made. It probably is a dish that was invented when some resourceful woman decided that she would put the left over rice flour dough to good use.
Having grown up in a household where kozhukattais were(and still are) made at the drop of a hat and not just for Ganesh Chathurti, it is little wonder that this bite sized, savoury version is something that I have fond memories of eating.
The only time when dough is made exclusively for ammini kozhukattai, and not as an after thought to the sweeter modak cousins, is during Navaratri when this is made as Neivedyam/prasadam - an offering to the deity.
 
What you need:
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Salt - to taste

Oil - 2 tsp (preferably coconut oil)
Fresh grated coconut - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tsp
Broken red chillies - 2
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Mix rice flour with one cup of water to a thick, smooth paste. Heat the remaining cup of water along with salt in a heavy bottomed, large pan. When the water starts to boil, reduce the heat and add the rice flour paste. Cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture forms a thick ball. Switch off heat. When the dough is warm to the touch, remove it on to a plate, add a teaspoon of coconut oil and knead well. Apply oil on your hands, pinch out small bits of the dough and roll into marble sized balls. Steam these balls in an idli plate/steamer for 8-10 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes after switching off the heat.
In a pan, heat a teaspoon of coconut oil. Add urad dal, chana dal and broken red chillies. When the dals start to brown, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, add in the curry leaves and the grated coconut. Saute on low heat till the coconut turns reddish brown. Add the cooked kozhukkattais to this. Mix well and heat for 2-3 minutes.
Enjoy as an evening snack or a light tiffin.

Variations : Omit grated coconut. Knead in some red chilli powder to the dough and then proceed with the recipe.
For the recipe of the sweet version of kozhukattai, click here.
This is my second recipe for Blogging Marathon #29, showcasing Kerala Iyer snacks.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#29
 

Vella dosai - whole wheat and jaggery pancakes

Kerala Iyers are Tamil brahmins who migrated out of Tamilnadu some time in the early 13th century and settled down in different parts of Kerala. Kerala Iyer cuisine is an amalgamation of the cuisine of both states and so is the language. The Tamil spoken by Kerala Iyers is so heavily interspersed with Malayalam that it is often jokingly referred to as Talayalam.
There are quite a few dishes that are unique to Kerala Iyer cuisine. In our fast paced world where traditional snacks are being replaced by two minute noodles and out-of-a-packet and into-your-mouth pasta, many of our indigenous snacks are forgotten about. Over the next three days, I will be sharing the recipes of three such evening snacks that used to be (and probably still are in some households) made in Kerala Iyer households. This is a part of Blogging Marathon #29 where the theme I have chosen is Course wise meals from a State - the course here being evening snack/tiffin and the state being Kerala - more specifically, Kerala Iyer cuisine.
Vella dosai is something that can be made in almost no time at all, as long as you have wheat flour and jaggery in hand. It does take a little practice to be able to flip the dosa over without tearing it, but even if it does tear, it tastes really good. Rich and iron and protein, this makes for a filling and nutritious after school snack for children.

What you need:
Jagggery - 3/4 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Water - 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch (optional)

In a microwave safe bowl, heat the jaggery and water on high power for 30 seconds. Remove, stir well and keep aside for 5-10 minutes. Stir again until jaggery dissolves completely in the water. Add the wheat flour and mix to get a smooth batter. The batter should be of pouring consistency. Add some more water/flour if needed to get the consistency right. Mix in the cardamom powder.
Grease a skillet with ghee and heat it. Pour a ladleful of the batter on the hot skillet and spread into a thick circle. Cook on a medium flame until the bottom turns brown. Flip over and cook the other side until brown spots start to appear on it.
Serve hot with a blob of butter.

Note :
Jaggery tends to burn fast. So take care and ensure that you cook on a low flame.
Jaggery tends to be sticky. You might find it difficult to turn the dosa over and might find it sticking to the pan or the spatula you are using to turn it over. A good quality non-stick pan will take care of this. If not, grease your pan really well and flip the dosa over only when the under side is well browned.
If you want your dosa to be really sweet, add 1 cup of jaggery.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#29