Bedmi poori - A delight from the holy city of Varanasi

Varanasi or Kashi, as it is known in South India, is famous for being one of the holiest cities known to Indians. People often spend their last days in this city in the belief that breathing their last there will give them moksham (liberation from the cycle of life and death).
The food of the city is just as good as something that you would expect from "the" holy city. However, it is not as well known outside, as the food of Mumbai or Delhi. Bedmi pooris are usually associated with Agra and New Delhi. However, this is a popular breakfast dish in Varanasi as well. Coarsely ground urad dal with spices is mixed with wheat flour and then deep fried to make these delicious spicy puris. It is usually served with potato curry to make a complete meal.

What you need:

Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Green chilli - 2
Ginger - small 1 inch piece
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Sooji/rava/semolina - 3 tbsp.
Salt
Oil - for deep frying + 1 tbsp.

Wash urad dal well and soak in cold water for 1 hour. Drain and grind along with green chilli and ginger to a coarse paste. Add coriander powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder and garam masala to this along with a little salt. Mix in wheat flour and rava and more salt if needed. Add water, a little at a time and knead to a stiff dough. Knead in 1 tbsp. of oil, cover and keep aside for an hour.

To make puris:
Pinch out small lemon sized balls of the dough. Roll each dough ball into a 4-5 inch circle.
Deep fry in hot oil, cooking until both sides puff up and are slightly reddish brown.
Serve hot with aloo curry.

This is my entry to Week 4 of Blogging marathon #85 under the theme breakfast dishes from different places.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Gobi (Cauliflower) 65

Gobi (Cauliflower) 65 is a popular street food in South India. I've read various interesting stories on the reason for the addition of the number 65 to the dish, but am not sure if any of them is true. Most street vendors add red food color to achieve the bright red color that the dish is associated with and serve it hot in paper plates or newspaper squares.



What you need:
Cauliflower - 1 small , separated into medium sized florets
Oil - for deep frying

For the batter:
Corn flour - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/3 cup
Rice flour - 1/3 cup
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Tandoori masala - 1 tsp
Kashmiri chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander
Curry leaves
Salt
Water

For tempering:
Oil - 1 tbsp
Green chillies - 2 or 3, slit lengthwise into two
Curry leaves - a handful

Take the cauliflower in a large pan. Pour boiling water over it. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and a pinch of salt, cover and let it stand for 5 minutes. Drain off all the water and keep aside.

Mix all the ingredients for the batter into a smooth, slightly thick batter. Add in the cauliflower florets and mix well to coat all the florets with the batter evenly.

Heat oil for deep frying in a pan. Add the florets, a few at a time and fry until reddish brown. Remove on to a kitchen towel. When all the florets have been fried, fry them again in hot oil in batches, to give them an additional crispiness. Set aside.

Heat the oil for tempering. Add slit green chillies and curry leaves to it and saute over a low flame until the chillies just start to brown. Add in the fried cauliflower and mix well.
Serve with ketchup or a little bit of chaat masala sprinkled on top.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Pavakka varuval (Crisp, fried bittergourd)

If you've read some of my previous posts, you know that we are a family that loves bittergourd. Even the little girl loves this veggie and will eat it in any form.
Marinated in spices and then deep fried, this dish will make you fall in love with this much maligned vegetable. The only things to keep in mind are that it takes a good 20 to 30 minutes on a medium flame to fry these bittergourds to the right crispness, and that the oil in which you deep fry these gourds cannot be used again for deep frying something else as it will have the residue of all the spices. So, you either have to discard it or use it for tadkas.
My dinner today was phulkas, chard dal and pavakka varuval. This is my second post for Week 2 of Blogging Marathon #72 under the theme Vegetarian dinners.

What you need:
Bittergourd - 4
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - 1 tbsp soaked in just enough hot water to cover it
Salt
Oil - for deep frying

Cut each bittergourd into half. Then slice each half vertically into two. Deseed and then cut into chunks. Don't cut them too thin, as they will shrivel up considerably on frying.
Take the bittergourd pieces in a large bowl. Add salt, turmeric and red chilli powder. Mix in thick tamarind extract. Mix it all together well. Cover and set aside for at least half an hour.
Drain any liquid that has collected in the bowl, squeeze out any excess liquid and then add handfuls of the bittergourd to hot oil and deep fry over a medium hot flame until it turns brown.
Remove on to a paper towel.

This tastes good by itself or as a side dish for rotis or rice.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Kaima idli - Deep fried idli coated in a spicy veggie masala

Kaima idli, chilli idli, fried idli, idli chilli - the monikers are numerous, but what they all refer to is this delectable dish that is made by first deep frying idli pieces and then, if you can resist the temptation of polishing off the plate of fried idli,  coating them with a spicy mix of vegetables.
I first tasted this dish at Saravana Bhavan in Chennai and believe me, it was nothing short of an explosion of flavors on the tongue. Since then, I have eaten this innumerable times at different restaurants and loved all the variations that the chefs with their individuality have brought to the dish. Here is my take on this dish. I have created a collage of the various steps involved in the preparation of this dish so that it can be recreated with ease by anyone who wishes to try it out.

What you need :

Idli - 8, diced
Onion - 1/2 of a large one, sliced thin and long
Green chilli - 2
Carrot - 1/2, grated
Capsicum - 1/2, chopped fine
Ginger - a small piece, julienned
Garlic - 3 cloves, chopped fine
Tomato - 1, chopped
Oil - 3 tbsp.
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana dal - 1/2 tsp
Oil - for deep frying
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp (adjust to taste)

Dice the idli into pieces. It helps if you refrigerate the idli for at least an hour. Deep fry the cut pieces in hot oil until brown and crisp. Drain off excess oil an set aside.
Heat 3 tbsp. of oil in a pan. Add mustard, urad dal and chana dal. You can also throw in some curry leaves at this point. I skipped that as I didn't have any on hand. When the mustard seeds pop, add the chopped green chilli, ginger and garlic and saute. Lower the heat and add in the sliced onions. Saute until the onions turn pink. Add the grated carrot and capsicum. Stir well and cook covered for a few minutes until the capsicum starts to soften. Add in the chopped tomato, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Stir well and cook covered until tomatoes turn mushy. Add 1/4 cup of water and let it boil for a minute or two or until most of the water has evaporated. Now add in the fried idli pieces and mix to coat well with the vegetable masala. Remove from heat and garnish with some freshly chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot immediately or after a while - the only difference will be that if served immediately the idli pieces will retain their crunch, while if eaten later they will be slightly softened by the moisture from the masala. Either way, it will be a treat for your taste buds.

Cabbage pakoda/Crunchy, crisp cabbage fritters

These are easily some of the best pakodas that I've made. Easy to make, these deep fried delights stay crisp and crunchy for a really long time. The only major chore involved is chopping cabbage, which I am usually not too fond of, but the recent addition of a chopper to my kitchen makes this snack a breeze to make.

What you need :
Cabbage - a small one, chopped thin and long (I measured and got approximately 4 heaped cups of cabbage)
Gram flour/besan - 1 cup (approx)
Rice flour - 2-3 tbsp
Red chilli powder - to taste
Salt - to taste
Onion - 1/4 cup, chopped fine
Ajwain/carom seeds - 1 tsp (optional. I am fond of the flavor and tend to throw this in wherever I can)
Oil - for deep frying

Take the chopped cabbage in a bowl. Sprinkle salt over it and leave aside for 10 minutes. The cabbage would have released quite a bit of water in this time. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well to form a thick dough. You will not need to add any extra water, but if you feel that your dough is too dry and crumbly, sprinkle a tiny bit of water and mix until it reaches a thick, just moistened consistency.
Heat oil in a kadai. Pinch out small bits of the dough and deep fry on medium heat until well browned and crisp. Drain on to a paper towel.
Serve with ketchup or chutney.

This is my second entry to Week 3 or Blogging Marathon #53 under the theme Fritters.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

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.

Crisp murukku

The hostel I stayed has this rule wherein all students stay in a common room for the first few months. Common rooms are allotted based on the batch, year and course of study. So the 7 girls who joined the course I enrolled for got to share a room. Kerala is notorious for its power cuts. Even before the rest of the country woke up to the reality of power cuts, we were used to having no power twice a day for half an hour each. Joining a new course, sharing a room with no fans(or was there one fan?) with seven other girls, trying to read a book in the dim glow of the yellow bulb in low voltage - all this might not seem very appealing, but believe me, when I think back, I hardly remember the lack of creature comforts. What I remember is making 2 minute Maggi for an hour in a kettle that took forever to boil water because of the low voltage, using an iron box to roast papads(trust me....it works.....though I would recommend cleaning the iron really well before using it on your clothes again), eating your friend's dates pickle with bread at midnight because you just felt like it, staying out well past midnight on days there was a fest in the university and days when there weren't any, eating at thattukadas(roadside eateries on wheels) and drinking tea at all times of the day. Though our hostel food was nothing to write home about, all seven of us piled our plates high with rice, helped ourselves to the watery brown thing that passed off for sambar, the vegetable that was usually decent and then, we added our secret ingredient which we hoarded and ate a little of every day - something that was packed with love from home. It could be dates pickle one day, beetroot pickle the next, Vathal kozhambu mix, paruppu podi or curry leaves powder another day - and it is these little parcels of food from home that ensured that our taste buds didn't die a slow death brought on by the sourest yoghurt that mankind ever saw. I got into the habit of eating murukku or ribbon pakoda with rice during my years in the hostel. There were days when bread, jam and murukku translated into a tasty breakfast. This murukku that I am sharing with you today is tasty, crisp and keeps well for a long time if stored in an air tight box.


What you need: (Recipe source : 100 murukkus and mixtures - Mallika Badrinath)
Rice flour - 1 cup
Bengal gram flour/besan - 1 cup
Roasted gram flour/pottukadala maavu - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Red chilli powder - to taste
Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
Vegetable shortening/vanaspati - 1.5 tbsp
Water
Oil - for deep frying(I used Fortune Rice Bran Health oil which I have reviewed here)

Take all the flours in a large mixing bowl.  Add the vegetable shortening and blend well with your finger tips until the flour is crumbly.

 A test to know if you have added enough shortening is to shape the flour into a ball after mixing the shortening well. If it holds its shape you have added enough fat.
 
Add sesame seeds, salt and red chilli powder. Mix well.
 












Now add water little by little and knead to thick dough.

Using the three star shaped disc, prepare small murukkus on a polythene sheet.

Once you have four or five, deep fry them in hot oil.

Drain off excess oil and once completely cool, store in an airtight container.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26
This post is a part of Healthy & Tasty Recipe Contest with Fortune Rice Bran Health Oil & BlogAdda.com 
This goes to Kamalika who is hosting Kids' Delight, brain child of Srivalli, themed on Back to Hostel Food.

Onion capsicum pakoda

There was an era when "I will send you off to a hostel" was used by parents as a threat to make unruly children toe the line. Anybody who has lived in a hostel, though, will laugh and tell you that it is a totally baseless threat. The two years that I lived in a hostel are the years that I look back on with fond memories and a smile on my face. The independence that comes with living away from your folks is something that I feel every person must experience. One of the things that me and my hostel mates loved is the day that we would all come back to the hostel after a vacation. Each one of us carried back to the hostel something special from home - pickles, sweets, snacks, podis and chutneys - food in quantities that would last months in a small household would vanish within days in our room.
There are a lot of things that amma would pack for me and my friends in the two years that I lived away from home and I will catalog some of them in this Blogging Marathon where the theme I have chosen is Kids' Delight - Back to Hostel food.
These crisp, hot pakodas which are made without adding any water to the batter last for 2-3 days at room temperature. However, if you do pack them off to your kids' hostel, I guarantee that the kids will finish it off long before tea-time.

What you need:
Onion - 1, chopped very fine
Capsicum - a small one, sliced very thin and small
Besan/gram flour - 3/4 cup
Rice flour - 3/4 cup(Use 1 cup if you want the pakodas to be very crisp)
Red chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
Hot oil/vegetable shortening/vanaspati/ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - for deep frying( I used Fortune Rice Bran Health oil which I have reviewed here)

Take the chopped onion and capsicum in a bowl. Add 1/2 tsp of salt to it and rub well with your fingers. Cover and keep this aside for ten minutes. Rubbing salt on to the chopped veggies helps them release water.
 
Add the flours, red chilli powder and more salt if needed. Mix well. Add the hot oil and mix again.

 At this stage if the mixture still seems a little dry to you, it is fine. Let it rest covered for at least 30 minutes. 
You will see that sufficient moisture has been released by the vegetables and that you will be able to knead the flour to a thick dough.
 
 Pinch out small marble sized portions of this dough and deep fry in hot oil until it is crisp and well browned. Drain out excess oil.

When it is completely cool, pack in an air tight container and send it to your kids' hostel where it will become a huge hit and you will get requests for it the next time your child is back home.

Note: This can be made with onion alone or by adding any vegetable of your choice to the onion. Cabbage, ladies finger and cashew nut are some of the ingredients that can be added. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26
This post is a part of Healthy & Tasty Recipe Contest with Fortune Rice Bran Health Oil & BlogAdda.com 
This goes to Kamalika who is hosting Kids' Delight, brain child of Srivalli, themed on Back to Hostel Food.

Luchi - deep fried delight

It's time for another Blogging Marathon and this time, the theme I have chosen is Bengali cuisine. Nothing is as quintessentially Bengali as the puffed white puris made of maida - known as luchi.

What you need:
Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Water - enough to knead into a soft, pliable dough
Oil - for deep frying the luchis

Take the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the oil to it and mix well. Now add salt and then water, little by little, and knead well until the dough becomes soft and pliable.
Keep covered for at least 30 minutes.
Pinch out small balls of the dough. Take a few teaspoons of oil in a shallow plate. Roll the balls of dough in this oil and then roll out into thick, small circles.
Deep fry in hot oil, pressing down with a slotted spoon, to ensure that it puffs up well. Turn over once.
Drain off excess oil and remove on to your serving bowl.
Serve hot with any curry of your choice.
I served this with aloo dum, which is the subject of tomorrow's post.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other marathoners doing BM#22.

Muringa ila vada (Drumstick leaves vada)

I live in a city where, during summer you can hear people(me included) groaning about the sweat and the heat, and when it rains, people start talking about how difficult the commute is and how horribly waterlogged the roads are.
I love the rains. I don't mind wading through muddy puddles or getting a little wet. As long as there are no old-I-will-give-you-free-advice types around, I let my daughter play about in puddles and walk in the rain without an umbrella. Mother nature never did me any harm when I was growing up and I am sure she will be just as benevolent with this generation.
Now, the rain sometimes makes me act uncharacteristically. While I love snacking, I very rarely bother to make snacks. However, the rain today had me craving for some hot, sweet, cardamom laden tea and a crisp snack. I soaked some dal to make parippu vada and then thought of adding drumstick leaves to it and turning it into muringa ila(drumstick leaf) vada. I am sure Google will tell me that someone else has had this wonderful brainwave before me, so I am not going to Google to find out if muringa ila has ever been added to vada before. Until I get a comment that tells me otherwise and breaks my bubble, I am going to be happy with "my" snack.

Here's what you need:
Tuar dal - 1 cup (washed and soaked in water for 30 minutes)
Red chillies - according to taste
Garlic - 7-8 cloves
Onion - 1 large, chopped finely
Drumstick leaves - a handful
Oil - for deep frying

Drain water from the dal. Add red chillies and garlic to it and grind coarsely without adding any water. Add the chopped onions, drumstick leaves and salt. Mix well. Take small amounts of the batter....shape it into a ball and flatten between your palms. Deep fry in hot oil until well browned on both sides.
Enjoy with a cup of tea.

Samba rava cutlet

A snack, google search tells me, is a small portion of food, as opposed to a traditional meal. To me, snacks are a meal. I prefer munching on snacks to proper sit down meals. Here is an easy-to-make snack which uses ingredients that are mostly available in an Indian kitchen. The recipe is from a cookery show on Vijay TV.
What you need:
Samba rava(wheat rava) - 1 cup
Potato - 3, medium sized, boiled, peeled and mashed
Carrot - 1, grated
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder 1/2 tsp
Green chilli - chopped
Ginger- a small piece, chopped fine
Garlic - a few cloves, minced
Corriander leaves - a few, chopped fine
Onion - 1, chopped fine
Oil - for deep frying

Soak samba rava in water for an hour. Drain. Squeeze out all the water and transfer to a large bowl. Mix all the other ingredients and knead well. Pinch out small balls of the dough, flatten between your palms and deep fry in hot oil until well browned on both sides.

This can be eaten as it is with some ketchup.
I sandwiched it,along with some raw onion, tomato, cheese and ketchup, between two slices of bread.

This goes to Priya's Bookmarked recipes-every Tuesday event.

Veggie puris, anybody???

All mothers are necessarily inventors. Right from the time a child is born, we take on a new avatar. We invent new ways to put them to sleep, new ways to sleep while they sleep without waking them up(i tell you i can write a book on that), new stories to keep them engrossed, silly songs to make them laugh, devious err...clever methods to sneak those veggies in. One such invention is what I am going to talk about today.
A few days back, I thought of making puris for dinner. The little girl (to see what she is up to, click here) loves puris....and we don't have to go through our usual cycle of threats and tears if puris are on the menu, but she doesn't like eating any side dish with the puri. I started off by taking some atta for the dough and then thought, hey, why not add some ragi to this? And while I was kneading together the ragi and atta, I had another Eureka moment. I decided to add some cooked, pureed carrots and some mashed potatoes to the dough. A little salt, some kashmiri chilli powder and there.....I had a complete guilt-free and tasty meal which the little girl and her friend enjoyed.

What you need:
Ragi flour - 1 cup
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Salt
Red chilli powder (I used kashmiri chilli powder)
Carrot - 3 medium sized, cooked and pureed
Potato - 1 large, cooked, peeled and mashed well
Oil - for deep frying

Mix all the ingredients well. Add water if needed and knead to a smooth, pliable dough. Divide the dough into lemon sized balls. Roll into small, thick, circles and deep fry in hot oil until lightly browned on both sides.
I served this with a simple, tangy tomato chutney. To make this chutney, heat a few spoons of oil in a pan. Chop up some onions and tomatoes into large pieces. Fry some red chillies and then the chopped onions in the oil. When the onions starts to brown, add the tomatoes and fry till mushy. Let it cool. Add some salt and grind till smooth.

This is my entry to JFI-Ragi hosted by Madhuram, Creative Food for Kids hosted at Sara's Corner, and Kid's Delight event hosted by Srivalli.

Diwali savouries 1 - thenkozhal

This Diwali, the little girl tried her hand at lighting sparklers and flower pots, while the mother tried her hand at several savouries and sweets. To read more about how the little girl's Diwali was, click here. To see what I made, scroll down.......

To make thenkozhal, you need:
Rice flour - 3 cups
Urad flour - 1/2 cup
Water
Salt
Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
Butter
Oil - enough for deep frying

Bring butter to room temperature. Mix it well with the flours . Start with about a tsp of butter and then add more butter if needed. When enough butter is added, you will have a crumbly mixture that holds its shape when gathered together and pressed with your hands.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix into a smooth, pliable dough.
You need a murukku press to make thenkozhal. The achu to be used is the one with three holes or five holes. Take a little dough in the press and squeeze out directly into hot oil. Alternately, you can squeeze out a few murukkus on to a newspaper or absorbent paper and then put these into hot oil. Depending on the vessel used and the quantity used, you can fry 4-8 murukkus at a time. When both sides turn golden brown, drain excess oil, and remove on to a kitchen tissue. When completely cooled, store in an airtight container.
This goes to Purva's Diwali Dhamaka.

Mint vada

Mint is one of my favourite herbs. It hasn't always been that way. Growing up, I didn't see mint featured on the regular menus in my home - quite likely because my mother hates it. I started enjoying the flavour of mint only after I began cooking on my own. Aloo pudina baath is something that I make quite frequently.
These mint vadas are adapted from Mallika Badrinath's book - 100 Snack Varieties. The smell of the vadas being deep fried and the minty taste when you bite into the crisp outer shell is an experience in itself.

What you need:
1 cup bengal gram (channa) dal
1 cup fresh mint leaves
A handful of corriander leaves
Salt
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Oil - for deep frying

Soak the dal in plenty of water for an hour. Drain all the water and grind the dal along with mint, corriander and green chillies to a coarse paste. Add salt.
Heat oil in a kadai. Take a small ball of batter in your hand, flatten it on your palm and drop it into the hot oil and deep fry until golden brown on both sides. Do this over medium heat to ensure that the inside gets cooked.
Also check out my Parippu Vada recipe here.

On a different and more serious note, Srivalli of Cooking for all Seasons is organizing a fund raiser to help Lakshmi, her household help and a mother of two toddlers, to meet the expenses of a major heart surgery she has to undergo. Please check this post of Valli's for details and do chip in.

Masala puris

For life to be interesting, you need to move away from the regular path every once in a while.....you have to welcome the unexpected. As Oswald says "A surprise never hurt anybody" (Sheesh....can't believe i am quoting Oswald.....can u tell I watch way too much Pogo these days???)
Well, the same rule applies to food too. Every now and then, you need to experiment, to get out of your comfort zone and just throw things together and cross your fingers and hope that something edible comes out of that strange combo that's in the pan.
Here's one such experiment that I tried....To make masala puris you need:
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Potatoes - 2 or 3 medium sized, boiled, peeled and mashed well
Onion - 1, chopped really fine
Salt
Amchur powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 3/4 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp

Combine all the ingredients together and knead into a smooth pliable dough adding just as much warm water as needed.
Make small lemon sized balls out of the dough and roll it out into small puris.
Heat some oil(enough to deep fry the puris) in a kadai. Slide one puri at a time gently into the hot oil. Turn over once so both sides are cooked and browned evenly. Remove and drain excess oil using a kitchen/paper towel.
Eat hot off the stove with thick yogurt and a spicy pickle on the side.....and trust me, once you've tried this, you'll never want to go back to plain puris ever again....

Speaking of surprises, there are two blogger buddies who made my day by passing on some lovely awards to me.
Sukanya has given me the yummy blog award.
Thank u dear.....it really does mean a lot to me.
As a receiver of this award, I have to list out four of my favourite desserts. I really don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I'll try to list a few that I do like better than the rest.

• Palada pradhaman
• Rosogollas
• Jilebis
• Kaju Kathli

I'd now like to pass this award on to

• MS
  
• DK
  
• Rachel and
• Happy cook

Sowmya has passed on the Nice Matters Award to me. She says “Nice Matters Award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.”
Thank you Sowmya.

The masala puris are off to Srivalli's Roti Mela.