Chilli Tofu

Tofu/Soy paneer also known as Bean curd is a good source of calcium, protein and magnesium. I replacing paneer (Made with cow milk) with tofu as it is low in fat. Chilli Tofu 
is an Indo-chinese dish. For preparing this dish, cubed tofu is dipped in a batter and fried 
until golden and then the fried tofu is tossed in sauces along with bell peppers and onions.

Serves - 4
Ingredients:

• Tofu - 400 grams
• All purpose flour/Maida - 1/4 cup
• Corn Flour - 2 to 3 Tbsp
• Red chilli paste - 1 Tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep fry.

Ingredients For Sauce:

• Garlic Cloves - 3 to 4
• Ginger - 1 inch
• Onion - 1
• Capsicum - 1
• Green chillies -  4
• Vinegar - 1 1/2 Tbsp
• Green/Red chilli sauce - 2 Tbsp or to taste
• Soy Sauce - 1 Tbsp
• Tomato Sauce - 2 Tbsp
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste 

Preparation:

• Take tofu and keep some weight on it for sometime so the excess liquid will come out.
• Cut tofu into cubes.

• In a bowl, mix all purpose flour, corn flour, red chilli paste and salt. Add little water and mix to make thick batter.
• Add tofu pieces to the batter and mix gently.

• Heat oil in a pan and deep fry batter coated tofu pieces until golden and remove them to a paper towel.

Preparing Sauce:

• Remove excess oil from the pan that we deep fried and keep 2 tbsp oil and heat it.
• Add finely chopped ginger and garlic and fry until garlic turns golden.
• Add chopped onion, green chillies, capsicum and fry till onions and capsicum turn little soft.
• Add soy sauce, tomato sauce, vinegar, chilli sauce, pepper and  salt, mix and cook for 2 minutes.
• Add fried tofu and mix well and  cook for a minute.
• Sprinkle spring onions or coriander leaves and serve hot.

Note:

• Adjust seasoning and vinegar to taste.

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Baby Corn Manchurian

Manchuria  is an all time favorite to me and many. We can make many manchurian varieties like mixed veg manuchuria, chicken manchuria, mushroom manchuria, paneer manchuria.... Today's recipe is baby corn manchurian. Crispy baby corn in silky sauce makes perfect starter. Adding rice flour to get crispness to the baby corn.

Serves : 2
Ingredients:

• Baby corn - 18
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
• All-purpose flour/Maida - 2 Tbsp
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Corn Flour - 1 Tbsp
• Rice Flour - 1 Tbsp (optional)
• Salt to taste 
• Oil to deep fry.
• For garnishing - 1 tbsp coriander leaves or green  onions.

For Sauce:

• Garlic - 1 Tbsp
• Ginger - 1/2 Tbsp
• Onion - 1, small
• Green Chillies - 3
• Vinegar - 1 Tbsp
• Chilli paste - 1 tsp
• Light Soy sauce - 2 Tbsp or Dark soy sauce - 1 Tbsp ( I am using light soy sauce)
• Tomato Sauce - 1 to 2 Tbsp
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Corn flour - 1 tsp
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Wash and slit baby corn lengthwise. Mix all purpose flour, corn flour, ginger-garlic paste, salt in a bowl. Add baby corn to the all purpose flour mixture and mix carefully without breaking them. If require add little water.
• Heat oil in a pan and deep fry baby corn till golden brown and keep them aside on a paper towel.
• Remove excess oil from the frying pan and keep 2 Tbsp oil and heat it and add ginger, garlic and saute for a minute.
• Add chopped onion, chillies and fry for 2 to 3 minutes and add soy sauce, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, vinegar and stir for a minute and add water and salt.
• Add 1 tbsp water to the corn flour and add this paste the sauce mixture and cook till it turn little thick.
• Add fried baby corn to the sauce we prepared before serving.
• Garnish with coriander leaves or spring onions and serve hot. 

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Pudina Karapusa/Pudina Sev

Andhra Pradesh is well known for it's culture and food. My mom and Grand mother used tell me many things about culture and arts. My grand mother used to  tell me how they enjoyed Burra Kathalu. Burra Katha is a form of story telling. The troupe contains three members.  Burra refers Tambura and Katha means Story. Burra means human skull, Tambura will be in the shape of human skull and so they got the name Burra Katha. Middle person is the main one and holds the Tambura with right hand and Andelu in left hand and tells the stories by playing them and the co-performers will paly Gummeta, a musical instrument which will be hung around their necks and played with both the hands. By playing Gummeta they ask some questions, tells small stories, poems, dance and crack jokes and entertain people. The topic may be Hindu mythological stories or social issues. Even now a days, government is using Burra Kathalu to spread awareness on some issues.

  
Sev which is known as Karapusa in Telugu is a popular savory snack. Sev will be very thin and used to garnish chaat. In Andhra, Karapusa is a tea time snack and will be little thick, but the process of making is same. The thickness will depend upon the plate/disc we use. Karapusa can be prepared with chickpea flour and rice flour or only with rice flour. We can make plain karapusa or flavor it with pudina/mint, coriander leaves/Kothimeera or tomato. 

Time : 30 Minutes
Serves : 6 to 8 

Ingredients:

• Senagapindi/Chickpea flour - 1 cup
• Rice Flour - 2 Tbsp
• Pudina/ Mint - 1/4 cup
• Coriander leaves - 4 Tbsp
• Green Chillies - 3
• Oil to deep fry
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Grind pudina/mint, coriander leaves and green chillies into paste and  by adding little water take juice from it by using strainer.
• In a large bowl mix chickpea flour, rice flour, salt and 1 tbsp oil and mix well.
• Add pudina/mint juice to the chickpea flour/senagapindi, mix well and knead into dough by adding little water at a time. Dough must be soft.
• Heat oil for deep fry in a pan. Place disc/plate with small holes in jathikala gottam/maker or muruku press. 
• Now take a small amount of dough and fill half of the Janthikala Gottam or Muruku press and carefully press the dough into oil and fry till sev turns into golden color on both sides.
• Fry on medium flame on both sides. It will take very less time to fry. After frying the sev on one side and turning to the other side, if it bends means it is not fried properly.
• Repeat with the remaining dough.

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Janthikalu/Murukku/Chakli

Janthikalu is a popular snack in South India and known as Murukku in Tamilnadu and Kerala and Chakil in kanada. They will be crunchy, savoury and in spiral shape. We can make different varieties of janthikalu/murukku by using different flours like Rice Flour and Urad dal, Basen and Rice Flour,Wheat Flour, Oats Flour and besan with little Rice flour . Today I am making Basen and Rice flour Murukku/Janthikalu.

To make janthikalu/murukku, we must have janthikala gottam or murukku maker, which will come with small discs as shown in images. We have to fill the janthikala gotam or murukku maker with the dough and press it.

Yield: 50 to 55 (Vary depending on size)

Time : 45 to 50 Minutes.

Ingredients:

• Rice Flour - 2 cups
• Senagapindi/Besan/Chickpea Flour - 1 cup
• Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp or to taste
• Vamu/Ajowan - 1 tbsp
• Nuvulu/Sesame seeds -  2 tbsp
• Butter or Ghee or Oil - 2 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying

Preparation:

Mix rice flour, besan/senagapindi, vamu/ajowan, red chilli powder, nuvulu/sesame seeds and salt.

Heat ghee or butter or oil and add to the rice flour mixture and mix well.

Now add water little by little to the rice flour mixture and make into soft dough.

Heat oil for deep fry in a pan. Place star shape disc/plate to get janthikalu as in image or any shape you want in jathikala gottam/maker or muruku press.

Now take a small amount of dough and fill Janthikala Gottam or Muruku press and if using single star plate,  press janthikala gottam and make spirals on a sheet and then carefully drop into oil.

If using another discs, we can directly press the dough into hot oil. Fry them on medium heat till they turn golden brown. Let them cool before storing in a air tight container.

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Soy Chunk Tikki / Meal Maker Cutlet (Pan Fried)

Some foods like mushroom and soy chunks are vegetarians entertainers. Not only vegetarians, but every one will enjoy these. Soy chunks are textured vegetable protein. The dry ingredient left over after extracting oil from soy beans is pressed into cubes. These cubes are soy chunks. Soy chunks are high in proteins and are very good for those who don't eat meat. 

I came to know about these when I am in hostel. Every Thursday, they used to make soy chunk pulao as breakfast, which is everyone's favorite. Not only me, my hubby also love them. But these days, I am not using them in my meal, so I want to make soy chunk paratha to my hubby. But I changed my mind and made soy chunk tikki. 

We can also use soy granules. I have soy chunks, so I grind them coarsely after soaking them. These soy chunk tikki's will be great for burger. I am frying  soy chunk granules to avoid deep fry. These are a big hit with my family and friends.

Yield : 20 Tikki's

Prep Time : 10 minutes

Cook Time : 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• Soya chunks - 1 cup
• Aloo/Potato - 1 large
• Onion - 1 small
• Green Chillies - 3
• Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 2 tbsp and 1/4 cup to fry tikki's.
• Salt to taste
• Egg white's - 2 (If don't like to use egg, mix wheat flour with water and use it)
• Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup 

Preparation:

• Soak soya chunks in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain the water and wash soy chunks and squeeze the water from soy chunks. Coarsely grind them in blender and keep aside.
• While soy chunks are soaking, boil potato and mash it.

Method:

• Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan, add chopped onions, chillies and turmeric powder.
• After 2 minutes add ground soy chunks and ginger-garlic paste and fry for 5 to 8 minutes.
• Mix coriander-cumin powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, salt and coriander leaves and switch off the stove.
• Add mashed potato and make small balls and press each ball into tikki.
• Dip each tikki in egg white and coat with bread crumbs and fry tikki's on both sides until brown drizzling oil.

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Broccoli Garelu

Garelu/Medhu vada is an South Indian popular breakfast recipe. Garelu will be prepared for almost all festivals and functions. In restaurants, we can find garelu/vada in breakfast menu for sure. I wonder how many times I have garelu, I want them the next day.  I love them, not only me, they are many others favorite breakfast or snack.

In olden days, people used to make idly, dosa and vada batter by grinding dals using traditional stone grinder which is known as Rubbu rolu in Telugu. Rubbu means grinding and Rolu is a stone with a hole in the center. We are lucky and unlucky at the same time. Lucky to have electric wet grinders. But, unlucky as recipes made using ingredients that ground in traditional wet grinders tastes super delicious.

 I made plain garelu, cabbage garelu and thotakura (Amaranthus) garelu. This time, I want to try with broccoli. So I finely chopped broccoli and added to the urad dal batter and made garelu/vada which tasted delicious.

Yield : 20 

Ingredients:

• Minapappu/urad dal - 1 cup
• Broccoli -  1 cup
• Onion - 1
• Green Chillies - 5 (optional)
• Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Clean black gram / minnapa pappu with running water and soak for 3 to 4 hours or over night.
• Drain the water and clean the black gram / minnapa pappu once again.
• Grind into thick paste by adding little water. (Don't add water at a time, add little by little if require)
• Finely chop broccoli, onion and chillies and mix into batter along with salt.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Oil must be hot but don't let oil smoke. Take water in a bowl to wet your hand.
• Wet the figures and take small amount of batter and make into ball and flatten it on a plastic paper and make a hole in it at the middle.
• Drop it into hot oil carefully and cook on medium heat until it turns golden brown on both sides.
• Take them on to a tissue paper to absorb excess oil.
• Serve hot with chutney or sambar.

Note:

• Beat the batter to form aeration and to make the batter light. To check the fluffiness add little batter to a bowl of water. If the batter is floating aeration was formed in the batter, otherwise beat the batter again.   If  require add a tsp of water.  (Don't add more water at a time, add little by little if require)

 

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Mixed Vegetable Pakora

It's rainy and breezy... I want to go out and shower in the rain, so that the rain will wash my old ideas and the fresh breeze will bring new ideas into my mind. What you like to have on a rainy day? Silly question, right. May be some spicy, hot snack with a cup of hot tea will make the rainy evening more enjoyable.  We can impress our dearies by cooking something spicy and serving hot on a rainy day. Can we make that something healthy. I say yes. Try this mixed vegetable pakora. May be we have to use more oil, but we also use more veggies. I inspired by vahchef and made this pakora by making little changes to the original recipe.

We can use any vegetable like carrot, green beans, egg plant, potato.... and greens like spinach, mint, methi....

Freshly crushed coriander, fennel, kasuri methi, ginger and garlic will add extra flavor.... We can also add garam masala....
 
Serves: 2 to 3 
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook  Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:

• Senagapindi / Chick pea flour / Besan - 1 cup
• Rice flour - 1 tsp
• Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
• Fennel seeds/Sompu - 1/2 tsp
• Kasuri methi - 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Ajwain seeds/Vamu - 1 tsp
• Garlic clove - 1
• Ginger - small piece
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep fry.

Veggies:

• Carrot - 1/2 cup ( 1 carrot made 1/2 cup)
• Cabbage - 1/2 cup
• Capsicum - 1/2 cup
• Potato - 1/2 cup
• Spinach leaves - 1/2 cup
• Green onion - 1/2 cup
• Zucchini - 1/2 cup
• Green Chillies - 3
• Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
• Curry leaves - 2 springs

Preparation:

• Cut veggies lengthwise. 
• Crush coriander leaves, fennel seeds and  kasuri methi and enjoy the smell.
• Crush garlic and ginger.

Method:

• Mix besan, veggies, crushed masala, red chilli powder, 1 tsp hot oil and salt.
• Heat oil in a skillet for deep frying and take small amount of the mixture and leave into oil.
• Fry both side till they turn golden brown and serve hot.

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Wheat Flour Churros

Churro's and Hot Chocolate, licking chocolate having a bite of crunchy churro dropping sugar every where Mmmmmmmmm Yummy....  These Mexican doughnuts normally eaten for breakfast dipped in hot chocolate and also as a snack. It will taste good without hot chocolate too. Churro's will be crunchy outside and soft inside.

Churro's are prepared generally using all-purpose flour and sprinkled with sugar and have a ridged surface as piped through a star shaped nozzle. Churro's may be straight, curled or spirally twisted.
I made churro's with wheat flour and I never imagined my kid will eat like this. For every churro she had, she told me they was so tasty. Making churro's, we both had lot of fun. She helped me in rolling churro's. 

Yield: 20 - 22 Churros
Ingredients:

• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Sugar/Brown sugar - 2 tsp
• Water - 1 cup
• Oil - 2 tsp

For coating:

• Sugar - 1/4 cup
• Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
• Oil for deep fry

Preparation:

• In a pan combine water, salt, 2 tsp sugar and oil. Bring to a boil on medium heat and remove from heat and mix the wheat flour until forms a ball.
• In a plate, mix sugar and cinnamon and keep aside. 
• Heat oil in a skillet for deep fry. Oil must be hot enough otherwise result in soggy churros.
• Then take a pastry bag with a star shaped nozzle and fill it with the dough and pipe it into hot oil and fry until they turn golden brown.( Can also roll with hand)

• Take them out and drain excess oil. Roll them in sugar-cinnamon mixture and serve. 

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Veg Manchuria Wet

Veg Manchuria Is an Indo-Chinese recipe and is very easy to prepare at home. Veg Manchuria can be prepared in two ways: Wet Veg Manchuria and Dry Veg Manchuria. Dry Veg Manchuria is a starter and accomplish soup. Wet Veg Manchuria is a side Which accomplishes White Rice, Fried Rice and Noddles.

Serves : 2
Total Time: 35 min.

Ingredients For Manchurian  Balls:

• Carrot - 1/2 cup
• Cabbage - 1/2 cup
• Green Capsicum - 1/2 cup
• Green Onion or Onion - 1/4 cup
• All purpose flour - 2 tsp
• Corn flour - 2 tsp
• Rice flour - 1 tsp
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste

Ingredients For Sauce:

• Garlic cloves - 2, finely chopped
• Ginger - 1 t, finely chopped
• Onion - 1/2, chopped
• Chillies - 5, chopped (adjust to taste)
• Soy Sauce - 1 tsp ( I used light soy sauce, to get dark color use dark soy sauce)
• Vinegar - 1/2 tsp
• Tomato Sauce - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Corn flour - 1 tsp
• Green onion - 2 tsp for garnishing
• Water or Veg Stock - 1/2 cup

Preparation for Manchurian Balls:

•  Grate or finely chop carrot and cabbage, finely chop onion or green onion and capsicum.

• Mix all purpose flour, rice flour, corn flour, pepper, ginger-garlic paste, and chopped veggies.Water in veggies will be sufficient, otherwise add 1 tsp water at a time and mix.

•  Make balls with the veggie mixture.

• Heat oil in a pan for deep fry and fry the balls on medium heat until they turn brown. Keep them aside.

Preparation for Sauce:

• Heat oil in a pan, fry ginger and garlic for a min, add onions and chillies and fry  for 2-3 min.

• Now add soy sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce, sugar and salt and fry for a min.
• Now add water or veg broth and cook for 1-2 min.
• Mix corn flour with water and add that paste to the sauce and cook until sauce thickens. ( Add more water or veg stock for more sauce)

• Now add balls and cook for 2 min.
• Garnish with green onion and serve with fried rice or noodles.

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Korean Vegetable Pancake / Yachaejeon

As my kid is a picky eater I try some or other way to feed her more vegetables. Last time I prepared potato pancakes / Gamjajeon and my kid liked them very much. So now I prepared Korean Vegetable pancake / Yachaejeon which is also an Korean pancake.Sometime I feel that I climbed the Everest when I made my kid eat healthy food. May be not only me, all the mothers feel the same I think. She told me they were nice. Not only my kid, but I too love these pancakes.

These pancakes are very easy to prepare. We can also add butter milk to make the batter. Next time I want to prepare these pancakes using multi grain wheat flour to make them more healthy. We can also add french beans, and Asian chives .

Yield: 6
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time : 20 min.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour - 1  cup
• Water - 1.5  cup
• Green onion - 10
• Carrot - 1
• Medium size Potato - 1  
• Onion - 1/2 (optional)
• Zucchini - 1/2 cup ( I did have in hand so I skipped it)
• Cabbage - 1/4 cup
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Red chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Method:

• Chop all the veggies lengthwise like long thin strips.

• Mix flour, water, salt and pepper and mix. Now add chopped veggies to the batter.

• Heat a pan, put oil and spread the vegetable batter and fry until it turn golden brown.

• Flip to another side and press it down with a spoon and fry till crisp. (I fried them soft for my kid) 

• Serve with soy dipping sauce or sauce of your choice. 
• For soy dipping sauce mix vinegar, soy sauce and sesame seeds.

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Broccoli Pancakes

My family don't like broccoli. But as this vegetable is very healthy I want to use it in some or other way in my food. So I simple boil them in salt water and add in salad. My kid don't like to have it too. So started goggling broccoli recipes and I came across this tasty broccoli pancakes. I am very happy with these pancakes as my kid love them. We can have them as  breakfast or snack.

Yield : 8 to 9 (may vary depending on size)
Prep Time : 10 min
Cook time : Less than  25 min
Ingredients:

• 1 large head broccoli
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped onion
• 1 chili or 1 teaspoon chili paste (as per taste)
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil or olive oi
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour or multi grain wheat
• salt as per taste
• 1 large egg or 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup milk (If needed add more)
• 1/2 tsp pepper o as per taste

Method:

• Cut the florets of the broccoli and cut the large ones in half so they are all more or less the same size.  Save the stalks along with any remaining florets to use in soup or a vegetable stir-fry.
• Boil 1/2 cup water in a medium pan, then drop in the broccoli florets, cover, and let steam, for 3 minutes. Strain in a colander.
• Put the steamed broccoli, onions, chili and garlic in a food processor and pulse on and off to chop (do not puree the vegetables), or chop by hand. Transfer the chopped ingredients to a mixing bowl and flour, pepper, and salt. Add the egg or egg whites and milk and mix thoroughly with a spoon.
• Heat a skillet over medium heat, pour 1 tsp oil and spread it. Drop tablespoons of the batter into the hot skillet and cook over low to medium heat on both sides until they turn golden brown.
• Serve hot with any sauce of your choice.

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