pazham pori ( sweet plaintain fritters)

Discovered this Pazham pori during our train journey from Secunderabad to Ernakulam on Sabari express. My daughter who was around 9 then took an instant liking to this and the kerala family which was travelling with us gave me the recipe. It is made with a particular variety of banana called Nenthram pazham which is sweet and has tiny black seeds. It is the same banana in its raw form which is used to make the famous  plaintain chips of coimbatore and kerala. Even the ripened ones are used to make chips. My perimma was an expert in making this.  Steaming this banana is another form of consuming this. This is called pazham puzhunginathu( steamed fruit) and is a dish by itself as it is satiating and filling. There was a time this variety was not available near my home but with the mushrooming of a few kerala stores in the city, it is easily available especially on weekends when it comes from Kerala on Friday. This is my daughter's favorite.

Ingredients for making Pazham pori

Nendrampazham - 2 nos

Cooking oil for frying.

for batter
Maida - 2 tablespoon
Rice flour - 1 table spoon ( or even slightly less)
sugar - 1 teaspoon
salt - a pinch
orange food color( optional)

Method:

Mix all the batter ingredients and make a thick batter.

Chop the banana into two, peel them and slice them horizontally.

Dip them in the batter and fry them in cooking medium till done. drain the excess oil on an kitchen absorbent paper.

 Needs no accompaniment, tastes good by itself.

kara kara murukku - my mom's special

My mom has a special kai manam ( hath ka jadoo). With her touch even the simplest of ingredients put together make a delicious  dish. But her speciality more than day to day cooking is murukkus and pickles. My neighbours and relatives are fond of the pickles and thokkus( a chutney that is preserved in oil) she makes. Some of them have been taken to the US by our neighbours. Amma would make them more out of neighbourly love and so they were never sold commercially. This time when she had come I insisted she make murukku and share her secret recipe. While she roasted the ingredients, appa went to the nearby flour mill to grind the ingredients and the labour of love was simply crispy and needless to say, there were'nt many left to store in an air-tight tin, it lastled only a couple of days while it can have a shelf life of more than a week. When my children were young and would visit her regularly for vacations, this was one of the snack she would prepare in advance, so that the kids could munch on this as finger food as and when they walk in and out of their play time.The aroma of the roasted lentils, jeera , hing  and my mom's love awakens my senses and makes me drool. Over to the recipe,

Ingredients:

Rice--3 cups
urad dal- 1/4 cup
moong dal - a tablespoonful
fried grams -- 2 tablespoons
jeera - 2 teaspoon
til - 2 teaspoon
salt to taste
hing powder - a teaspoon
red chilli powder (optional)

Cooking medium to fry.

To make the murukku flour:

Dry roast urad dal and moong dal till golden in color. When cooled, add it to the rice along with fried grams, jeera  and get it ground in a flour mill. This murukku flour can be stored in airtight jars and can be used in batches to make fresh murukkus.


Method for binding the dough

:

Take the ground flour and add salt, hing and red chilli powder(optional). mix the ingredients with a ladle of hot oil and water and bind it into a chappati dough consistency. Fill them in extruders and extrude them in hot oil. When the hissing sound stops, flip them over and fry them till golden brown in color. cool them and store it in air tight jars.

                                                           Ingredients to be ground

                                                    The dough made by mixing hot oil and  water. the hot oil renders the murukku crispy

Oma pudi ( sev)

Omapudi is a tasty tea time snack . The main medium for this is besan and its gets name by the ajwain ( omam in tamil) added to it. My daughter's favorite and so this is made when she fancies to eat.

Ingredients:

Gram flour  - 2 cups
rice flour -  1 cup
salt to taste.
asafoetida - a pinch
Ajwain water  (1 cup of water in which a teaspoon of ajwain is boiled,  cooled and filtered)
Cooking medium
Murukku extruder with omapudi plate

Method:

Heat the kadai on low flame with the cooking medium.

In a bowl, add all the above ingredients( except water) and mix them well. Now scoop a tablespoon of heated oil and mix in the flour.( this is for crispiness)

Add required amount of ajwain water and bind them like a chapati dough.

Fill the dough in the extruder to which the omapudi plate is fixed and extrude them in the heated oil (keep on high flame).

Flip over once the hissing sound decreases.

When the hissing sound is not heard, remove them from the oil and lay it on an oil draining plate.

When cool, store them in airtight container.

Masala Pori (spicy puffed rice)

Masala pori or masala mandakki is a low cal tea time snack or anytime snack. 

Ingredients:

Puffed rice - 5 cups

Red chillies - 2-4 no

mustard - 1 teaspoon

haldi  - 1/2 teaspoon

red chili powder - 1 teaspoon(optional, only if you want it more spicier)

garlic cloves - 4-5 no's chopped/crushed

peanuts ---- 1/2 cup

fried grams ----1/2 cup

curry leaf sprigs --- 2-3

salt to taste

oil for seasoning

Method:

1.Take a heavy bottomed pan, add two teaspoons of oil and fry ground nuts. Remove from the pan and keep aside( alternatively you can dry roast on microwave also)

2. Dry roast fried gms also

3, In the same pan, add 2 teaspoons of oil and when heated, put in the mustard seeds, when they splutter, add the crushed garlic till the raw smell evaporates.

4.Lower the flame and add haldi, red chilli powder and curry leaves. Now add, the puffed rice and roast on low flame till the masala coats the puffed rice.  Toss in the roasted peanuts and fried grams. Mix them well.

When cooled, store it in an airtight container. Has a shelf life of 15 days when stored properly.  

You can even add saunf if you wish, it is optional. I have crushed it in a mortar so that the flavour of the spices is enhanced

Roast the crushed spices in two spoons of oil along with haldi, red chilli powder( only if you want it more spicier,else the chillies are enough)

Toss in the puffed rice and mix well till the masal coats the puffed rice

Optional: Makhanas can be roasted lightly and added  along with the puffed rice to add more taste.

Sembu Elai vadai

Sembu(colocassia/taro )  Elai vadai is Taro leaf rolls. This is famous as Patrode in Konkan region. My  Konkani neighbours in Bangalore would do this often at home. It is availabe in super markets now. What surprised me was that it is made in Tamilnadu too. I was not aware of this till recently, when we saw this leaves being sold near Skandagiri and my MIL said she makes it too. 

I am recording the version made at home, though konkanis i remember do not add dals, instead they add imli and jaggery to rice. 

Ingredients  for roll :

 5-6 medium sized taro leaf  or sembu elai

Ingredients for filling:

Raw rice --- ½ cup

Parboiled rice(puzhangarisi)—1/2cup

Channa dal --- 1 table spoon

Tuvar dal ------1 table spoon

Moong dal ----- 1 table spoon

Red chilli – 3 nos

Saunf powder --- 1 teaspoon

Salt ( according to taste)

Method for mixture/filling:

Soak rice and dal for about 2 hours.

Grind  soaked  rice,dals , red chillli coarsely

Add salt and saunf powder to the coarse mixture.

Procedure:

Wash the taro leaves and wipe it with a clean cloth.

Now smear the ground paste on the back of the leaf( allow some free space around the edges)

Roll the leaf  into cigar shape.

Steam them in a vessel.

You can eat it straight away like a  roll or cut them horizontally into roundels.  

Tip: These leaves have itchy property and may leave you with a itchy feeling in the throat after eating. This itchiness can be removed by eating a  clove bud.

Arikkin Nada

The reason it is called arikkin nada is because in olden days, there used to be a lantern called Hurricane lamp. This lamp had a wick shaped like a flat ribbon and this wick looks like a tape( nada )and so arikkin is the tamil version of hurricane. Arikkin nada is also called as Ribbon pakoda or nada thenkuzhal. An easy to make snack served usually during the 3'o clock tea time at tambrahm houses, but it is an any time snack.

Ingredients:
rice flour: 2 cups
Besan: 1 cup
hing powder/hing dissolved water - 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
chilli powder to taste
butter - 50gms
Oil for frying:

Method:
Mix all the ingredients( except oil) and make a dough of chappati consistency.
Take a dollop of dough and put it into extruder which has the mould of ribbon pakoda
Extrude in circular motion in the heated oil. Fry till the sound of the oil subsides. flip it over and remove it when it turns golden brown.

variations: You can also variate by substituting 1 cup of besan with ragi flour/soya flour.

Maddur vada

Maddur vada is a deep fried snack very famous in a small town called 'Maddur' near Bangalore. It has a shelflife of anywhere between 5 -6 days and is very filling. Just one big vada fills the stomach.

Ingredients:

Rice flour ----- 1 cup
Maida -----------1 cup
upma rava or chiroti rava --- 1/2 cup
chopped onions( 1 no)
curry leaf - 1 sprig
chopped coriander 2 table spoons
salt to taste
Chopped green chillies from 2 numbers
oil for frying

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl. Pat them flatly with your oiled palms or use a plastic sheet/plaintain leaf to pat them.

Slip them into hot oil for frying. When the sizzle of the oil drowns, remove them from oil.

Generally in Bangalore hotels it is served with chitranna(lemon rice) but one can eat it as an evening snack with coconut chutney or it tastes good even without any accompaniment.

The above maddur vada(clicked by me) was made at Tiffany's Maddur. I made them at home. will upload those pics shortly

Tip: when you use upma rava, the white rava appears prominently on the vada, else there is not much difference to taste between chiroti rava and upma rava.

Thenkuzhal

A fried teatime snack.

Ingredients:
Raw rice -----1/2 kg
Roasted urad dal ----- 200gms
Roasted sesame seeds ---------- 2 spoon
50 gms ----- dalda/butter
Salt to taste
Cooking medium for frying

Method:

Dry grind the rice and roasted urad dal together in a flour mill.
Sieve the flour. To this add salt and sesame seeds and mix it with butter/dalda and water to make a pliable dough.

Put a fistful of dough in the thenkuzhal extruder( available in the market ), extrude circular patterns in the pre -heated cooking oil and cook till the sound drowns.

Tip: Resting the dough for a longer time yields darker thenkuzhals, so mix the dough and use it immediately to have white thenkuzhals.

sankar peda (thukkuda)

Fried spicy snack ideal for tea time/travel.



Ingredients:
Wheat flour -------- 2 cups
Dry red chilli powder/ground pepper ----- 2 teaspoons (you can add more if you want it spicier)
Salt----------------- 2 tea spoons
Cooking medium (oil) for frying

Method:
Add chilli powder and salt to wheat flour and bind them to a pliable consistency( like chapatti dough).
Take a golf ball sized blob of dough and roll them flatly with a rolling pin like chappati.
Now take a knife or a cutter( specially available in shops) and cut them into square or diamond shapes.
Fry the pieces in pre heated oil till they turn golden brown.





Recipe courtesy and done by my mother-in-law