Kadi-Pakora with Spinach

 Clearly there are two parts to this dish. And by themselves, each can be a stand alone dish. The pakora and the Kadi -Pakoras are fried/baked fritters usually made with besan/chickpea flour and veggies like onions and chilies. They can also be made with spinach as this recipe explains. The second part of this recipe is the Kadi, which is also called Mor Kozhambu in the south with a few differences. Kadi is essentially a yogurt based sauce to which you add some chickpea flour, herbs and condiments for spicing it up. I present to you both recipes, both extremely simple and I hope the pictures I present make you salivate enough to want to make this right away :)

This can be had by itself as a HOT snack :)

Ingredients

For the Pakoras

• 1lb of frozen fresh spinach
• 2tbsp chickpea flour
• 2 spicy green chilies
• 1tsp caraway seeds
• salt
• grated ginger (optional)
• oil to fry

For the Kadi

• 2cups of plain yogurt
• 1tbsp channa dal (or chickpeas)
• 2 fresh (and spicy green chilies)
• 1tsp whole black pepper
• 1tsp cumin
• A pinch of asafetida
• Cilantro - 2tbsp chopped (optional) I use it liberally because i LOVE the smell of it
• Salt

For Garnish

• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1tsp coconut oil
• 1tsp mustard seeds (small ones preferably)
• 1sprig of curry leaves

Method

Preparing the Pakoras

1. Cook spinach with small quantity of water if fresh or thaw out if frozen
2. Drain the water
3. Add salt, green chilies, caraway seeds and besan and mix until it is of thick and "ball-able" consistency. Add the ginger in along with the rest of the ingredients if you are using it.
4. Make the balls and keep

Prepare your Kadi

1. While your spinach is cooking, soak all ingredients except for the yogurt and salt in about 1/2 cup of warm to hot water for about 15 -30 minutes
2. Grind finely in mixera
3. Add salt
4. Place on stove in a pan and cook until it thickens.
5. Allow it to cool for a few minutes
6. Whip the yogurt into a smooth thick paste
7. Add to the pan and mix in well.
8. Add the garnish
9. Now heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the pakoras
10. Drop them hot into the kadi and serve immediately

Note: if you are not serving right away, hold off on making the pakoras until you are ready to eat.
If your spinach remains soggy, you could add more besan or powdered cashews (about 5 -10 nuts)
Enjoy this classic north Indian dish with freshly cooked white fluffy and incredibly aromatic basmati rice :)

Green Moong Bonda

This was an off the cuff recipe I tried after salivating over several Mysore Bonda recipes - It was that time of afternoon when the tiffin pangs struck hard and I said, hmmm, how about I make something delicious like that - then I open my pantry and the first thing that I saw was my pachai pasi or green moong split - I had just made a dal out of it which I have yet to blog and I says, why not give this a shot and see how it turns out and the verdict was totally worth it :) So do try this different Bonda recipe and see if you like it.

Here is the recipe
1 cup  Green moong split
1/2 cup urad dal
1/2 cup grated coconut
Desired amount of ginger (see in picture if you are not certain)
1 tbsp black pepper
1/4 tsp asafetida
2 fresh green chilies
4-5 dry red chilies
curry leaves - optional - I added them after I took the pictures :(

method
Soak in about 2 cups of water for 2 hours
Drain all the water out and grind small amounts into a fine paste till the entire lot i done
Add salt

Ready your frying pan with oil
Drop small balls into the heated oil and fry to a fine brown crisp

Enjoy with Cucumber Sesame Chutney - recipe to follow next :) Enjoy this lovely tea time or any time indulgence with your families

Idli Bajjis A.K.A Seetha aur Geetha Idlis :)

Car update - Dealing with the insurance was LOT less scary than I anticipated. But sometimes expecting the worst could actually be beneficial (this comes from the most optimistic person I know - me :) because when then anything lesser seems to be a huge relief - Saw my sweet van being towed away an hour ago and then started to of lunch - there were my idlis from yesterday and I was feeling bad as in I wanted to be bad, as in taking a perfectly healthy thing and turning into something wicked-good?  so I cut the idlis up into cubes and mixed up a handful of besan/ chickpea flour (kadalamavu) threw in some sambar powder, added water and made the batter  (I want to say 2 tsp), fired up the oil and before I knew it was on my way to eating one of THE most delicious dishes  - Idli bajjis :) I KID YOU NOT!
A simple twist to make a delicious Geetha evil-twin of the healthy idlis :) Seetha Bangayi Geetha- (For those who not have watched Seetha aur Geetha, Seetha is an utterly boring twin sister of the rather spunky Geetha in a Hinid movie from the 70s, which got remade in Tamil as Vani-Rani with Vanishree in the lead) The western connotation would be Dr. Jekyl & Mr Hyde :)

I have not fried anything in my home for over a month now so I quell the guilt - besides when I was out this morning after the insurance was dealt with, met up with my sweet prego friend and enjoyed a wonderful session of girl-chat.
Here is a 4 step pictorial of the process :) Please do try it and let me know how you liked it!

Not wanting to stop at the evil twin, I created another avatar with them which I will blog about next - You can hold your breath - I am not planning to take long to post this next one lol!

Masalvadai

Two big memories crowd my mind when I blog this dish -- The famous cry in the Pondicherry beach (was it) for "Samsa, Masalada, Samsa" and my dance classes... I used to get off the bus on Big Brahmin Street and head on to Mme. Sinhas's dance class and tuition with Ms. Dasappa...the bus would drop us off on (I think it is anna salai) and at the very corner of the street was the Andhi Kadai - He always set up shop at 5 and made fresh hot vadais. Amma gave me a rupee which got me about 5 vadais - fresh off the stove, steaming hot. The other Andhi kadai delicacy was the fried kadala-paruppu which was 10 paise per sachet ... Just good  chick pea stuff :)) Good fuel for all the energy i was to expend dancing and doing math!!!!

Now I make my masal-vadais as a homage to Andhi Kadai Narayanan who in my memory still makes the best Vadais! Funny how we carry all our childhood memories and tastes with us!
Ok- Long enough walk down memory lane - now to business

In Words
Ingredients
1 cup channa dal or kadala paruppu or bengal gram
4-6 green chillies
Oil to fry
1 BIG red onion
curry leaves
asafoetida a pinch

Preparation
Soak for exactly 1 hour, the dal, curry leaves, chillies
Drain all the water our of the dal - NO water needs to be used for grinding-
Grind coarse in the blender - (Use spatula to move the batter around)
Cut the onions small
In a pan place 1 tsp of oil and lightly fry the onions for about a minute or 2
Add it to the ground atta/batter and mix in
Add some safoetida and salt as well and mix in

Heat oil to fry
Flatten a small ball of batter on to your palm and drop it into the oil.. repeat until your pan has a sufficient number
Brown and remove and eat HOT HOT HOT
The unspoken ingredient would be Love without which no measurements work!

In Pictures

Ribbon Poondu karachev

Poondu Karachev for Deepavali is a family tradition which I never want to give up, considering how well-loved it is - Never fails to hit the home run :-) I just used a different disc, for a change.

Here is my recipe from taste buds/brain recollection of my mom's incredible karachev

Ingredients
2:1 proportion of gram flour and rice flour (Kadalamavu/Besan: Rice flour)
1 whole pod of garlic
10-12 dried red chillies (this is adjustable according to your taste)
1 tablespoon of  warm ghee
Approx 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water
Murruku press with 2 slit disc to get the ribbon shape
Oil to fry

Preparation

Sift the flours so that they are fine and knot free
Add the salt to the dry flours and mix well
Add the wamed ghee and knead in
Grind into fine flowing paste the garlic and red chillies with 1 cup of water
Slowly add the garlic paste and mix in simultaneously into the mix until you get s smooth batter - (see picture below for texture and consistency)

Prepare the press
Grease the press on the inside container of the press and and the outside of the presser that you push down. Take a rounded lump of the batter and drop it into the press, put the presser on top and keep ready

Set up for frying
Fill 2/3 of a deep pan with sunflower or corn oil
Allow it to heat up in medium high heat
Drop a small piece of the batter in to test if the oil is ready - the piece should pop up with a bubbling sizzle around it
Now press the batter moving your wrist around the oil to make circular nest like pattern
Turn it over gingerly
Wait for it to turn light golden brown
Remove from heat and place in a paper-toweled colander to let the water drain

Break them up as they get cooler and store in a seal tight container

Pepper Karachev (Milagu Karachev) Deepavali Special

Celebrating Deepavali so far from home is no fun. But we got to make the best of the situation and I want to give my kiddos a small fraction of the fun and enjoyment of this most celebrated festival. So I say to myself, quite whining about stuff and get your act together. My mind went over the sweet and savory treats my mom used to make and I launched on the first of the 3 treats I've plan for this Deepavali and that be - pepper Karachev. I tried to get the flavor of the karachev the even my 2 yr-old so adores from Grand Sweets and Snacks -
Making it by myself somehow feels more satisfying than just buying from the store - there's my silver lining :-)

Very simple recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups of gram flour or kadalmavu
1 cup of rice flour
15-20 kernels of pepper
2 red chillies
5 table spoons of melted butter
oil to fry
1 cup of water

NOTE: you will need a Karachev Press
Preparation

Sift both the flours in a sieve.
Coarsely grind the pepper and add to the dry flour and mix in
Finely grind the red chillies and do the same
Add the desired amount of salt
Melt the butter and slowly to the flour, kneading it in as you go
Add one cup of warm water, slowly kneading as you did with the butter - the consistency is creamy smooth - be careful not make it too watery.

Frying:

Fill a frying pan 2/3 with oil.
Wait for it to get good and hot
Butter both parts of the press and drop a handful of the batter in it and squeeze in oil, rotating arms in making spaghetti nest like formation - picture will explain this better!
Wait until it turns golden brown remove and place in a paper-towel lined container.
break it up after it cools down