South Indian Style Onion Pakora

South Indian Style Onion Pakora


              These days it rains almost every evening ........... my son too staying home on his school holidays ........ feel like eating something hot and spicy and my son suggested in doing Pakora for today evening ......... Yeah we all love pakora that too south indian style [Pakoda] is our favorite snacks............ whenever I prepare pakoras at home the smell takes me to my childhood days...........my Dad used to buy snacks daily on his return from office.......... myself and my bro will be waiting even when my Mom prepares homemade desserts like kesari, pongal, payasam etc.......... hot pakodas from Jayam Bakery of K.K. Nagar  on rainy days hmmmmmm can't forget those days .......... Even today whenever  I visit my Mom's place we buy it on evenings ............ This south Indian style is what we prefer more than others.............I would like to share my recipe with all my  friends today..............easy and healthy when we prepare at home as we take more care about oil we use.............we cannot expect this in shops............. Here goes my south Indian pakora recipe................

South Indian Style Pakoda

Ingredients:

Red onions horizontally cut   - 2 large

Besan flour  - 2 cup

Rice flour - 1/4 cup

Baking soda - 1 pinch

Green chilies chopped - 4

Ginger peeled and crushed - 1 inch

Garlic crushed  - 2 pods

Curry leaves - 3 -5

Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Canola oil - for deep frying.

Method:

Peel off the skin of onions and cut thin and horizontal.

Finely chop the chilli, curry leaves, crushed  ginger  and garlic

Add all the ingredients to the besan flour  and mix well

If needed sprinkle little water and mix well such that if we take in hands it is to be so sticky.

Use your fingers and scatter  the dough in oil for small pakoras be careful while doing it above the hot oil.

Heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry till golden brown and your hot and spicy pakoras is ready to taste.

Good  snack for a rainy evening.

MY RECENT CAKE

MY RECENT CAKE

My recent cake

Here is my recent Icing Cake which was made a for my friend who was new to baking .......... As she requested me to teach to decorate the cake  this simple and easy cake was made by us .........as she was a little bit nervous to decorate I finished it all by myself................

Batura with Channa Masala and Mattar Paneer

BATURA WITH CHANNA MASALA AND MATTAR PANEER

Batura is one of the favorite dish of my family members........... My hubby and  Son used to prefer different side dishes for most of the dishes I cook.............. In a family of three I cook a lot ............ I sometimes feel Iam  living  in a very large family that to  whenever I see my sink after cooking.................  My hubby like to have batura with Channa Masala........ whereas my Son like to have Batura with Matter Paneer....... Whatever be  I feel obliged in cooking Batura.......... yeah! they both can have one favorite  side dish each whereas  I can have  two ......... hmmmmmmm ........Yummy too.........I like to have both Channa Masala and Mattar Paneer..........They are my favorites toooooo..............

When we see the Twinkling eyes of our children on seeing their favorite dish ........... we feel happy and however hard be the dish to cook we love to cook it for them......... we don't feel the tiredness too.......... Here is my Batura with Channa Masala and Mattar Paneer for U all too..............

Puffy Batura

INGREDIENTS FOR BATURA

All-purpose flour    - 2 cups  

Sooji                        - 4 tbsp

Yeast                       - 1/4 tsp

Sugar                      - 1 tsp

Salt                         - 1 tbsp  

Yoghurt                  - 3 tbsp

Oil                           - 2 tbsp

lukewarm water     - 3/4 cup 


Method:

Add sooji, sugar, and salt to the flour and mix well.

Mix oil and yoghurt with flour. Add yeast water to the flour and make into soft dough

Knead the dough well and divide the dough into equal parts.

Shape dough into balls and roll into roughly 5 to 7 inch circles. Dust lightly with dry flour to help with the rolling.

Heat the oil in a frying pan on high heat. 

Batura should be light creamy brown on both sides. Take the batura out and place them on paper towel to absorb the extra oil. 

Left side is Channa Masala and Right side is Mattar Paneer

Batura with Channa Masala and Mattar Paneer 

CHANNA MASALA RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

Chick peas                   - 1 cup

Onion (chopped)         - 1 medium 

Tomato (chopped)       - 1 medium

Ginger&Garlic paste  - 1 tsp

Garam masala pwd     -  2 tsp

Coriander pwd        -  1/4 tsp

Cumin pwd              -  1/4 tsp

Lemon juice           -  1/2 tsp

Green chilli           -  1

Ghee or butter       -  2 tsp

Coriander leaves   -  for garnishing

Salt                        -  to taste


METHOD:

Soak dry chickpeas in 3 cups of water overnight.

Add salt to taste to the soaked chickpeas. Boil in the same water until chickpeas are tender.

Take a pan heat oil add onion and fry till transculant.

Add ginger and garlic paste.  

Now add tomatoes saute until well cooked

Then  coriander , cumin and garam masala powders. saute well 

Add  the chickpeas along with water [press the channa so that you get a thick gravy}. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Mix lemon juice and stir well.

Garnish with chopped green coriander, and serve.

METHI ALOO

 METHI ALOO

Ingredients:

Medium  Potatoes (boiled and mashed/cubed)  -  4
Big  Onion  -  1
Tomatoes  -  1
Green Chilli  -  2 small 
Dried Kasoori Methi (fenugreek leaves)  -  1/4 cup 
Turmeric powder  -  1/4 tsp
Chilli powder  -  1tsp
Coriander powder  -  1tbsp
Cumin seeds  -  3/4tsp
Minced Ginger (optional)  -  1/4 tsp
Oil  -  1 tbsp
Salt - to taste


Method

Soak the dried methi with enough water for 5 mins, drain'em and keep it aside.  

Heat oil in a skillet, add cumin seeds, followed by onions, ginger and green chilli.

Saute until tender and add the tomatoes, followed by dried methi and saute for 3-4 mins.

Now add the turmeric powder, chilli powder and coriander powder along with salt, mix well and pour 1/2 cup of water.

Let cook for a min or two, then add the mashed/cubed potato mix well and continue cooking.

Then pour 2 cups of water, check salt for taste and cook until right consistency. 

Finally sprinkle chopped cilantro.

Methi Aloo

Serve  with chappathi

Serve hot with chappathi 

DECORATED LANTERN

 During Lantern festival we get a lot of eye catchy lanterns here. I got a crafty idea on seeing plain white lantern, So I bought it and gave it a blue paint............ I had some remaining plastic flowers which I used for making a craft item long before which was staying unused in my craft box .......... I thought of using it also  in this work.............. I cut the waste CD in diamond  shape which resemble like tiny diamond  mirror which we usually get from craft shops during our childhood days........... Then started to work in steps ..............First I colored the Lantern with blue  and pasted the flowers and CD with glue .................. Just made it hang in my living room My chinese Neighbour  was inspired by my work and she also made one for this Chinese New Year.............

Decorated Lantern

Plastic Flowers and CD Pieces

Second doily of this month

Second doily of this month

My latest doily [Strawberry doily]

Strawberry doily