Whole Black Gram Spinach Fritters

Ingredients:
Whole black gram (with skin) - 1.5 cups
Onion - 1 (chopped)
Ginger - 3/4 inch (chopped)
Green chillies - 2 (long)
Spinach - few (chopped)
Coriander leaves - few (chopped)
Pepper (crushed after measurement) - 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. (optional)
Salt (to taste)
Oil (to deep fry)

Method:
Wash and soak black grams for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Discard the water. Grind them into a smooth paste.
While grinding, add a little water (used wet grinder).
Grind the ginger and green chillies into a paste (without adding water).
Mix all ingredients to the batter except oil. Heat the oil in a deep and wide kadai.
Moisten both palms. Take a lime-sized ball from the batter.
Flatten them into patties and make a hole in the centre.
Gently and carefully slide the vadai into the oil.
Continue the process making a batch of 8-9.
Fry till they are golden brown.
Remove and place on an absorbent paper.
Enjoy with coconut chutney.

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Semiya Payasam

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Ingredients:
Semiya - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1 cup (boiled)
Sugar - 1/2 to 3/4 cup (or as per taste)
Ghee - 3/4 tsp.
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp.
Cashew nut - 8
Raisins (golden) - 10
Pistachios - few

Method:
Melt 1/4 tsp. of ghee and fry the semiya till golden color.
Pour 1.5 to 1.75 cups of hot water. Cook the semiya till they turn soft.
Meanwhile roast the cashews and raisins till they turn golden in colour in the remaining ghee. Keep aside.
Add sugar and let it dissolve in the semiya.
Pour milk and stir. Cook for 2-4 minutes.
Sprinkle cardamom powder, cashews, raisins and pistachios.
Serve hot or cold.
Enjoy.

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Sambar Podi/Powder

I moved to my own domain name "www.nandinisfood.com". Now Let's continue to sambar powder.

It is natural to have unique preferences when it comes to taste. Similarly, the liking of sambar varies among individuals. The key item in sambar is the sambar powder. The sambar powder has to be customized for grinding. Some like it fiery hot, some like it mild. With a spice grinder/coffee grinder, we can manage for one day or even up to one week's usage. For larger quantities, chillies, coriander seeds and other ingredients (in large amounts) are dried under the sun directly until the chillies become crisp. Then they're collected in bags or in stainless steel vessels and  taken to the rice mills which have a separate machine for grinding these ingredients. After the powder is ready, they're taken back home and are spread on a big sheet of paper or on a large plate to cool as it's hot. It's stored in air-tight containers afterwards and are used for several months.

In this fast-paced world today, you can see various sambar powder brands readily trying to push one another to attract customers in the shelves of departmental stores in the masala section.

For people who live in apartments (and especially in the time of winter), you can saute the ingredients in the humble kadai and powder them.

Ingredients:
Dry whole red chillies - 100 g
Coriander seeds - 175 g
Tur/arhar dal - 20 g
Chana dal/Bengal gram - 20 g
Peppercorns - 10 g
Cumin seeds - 10 g
Fenugreek seeds - 2 big pinches
Turmeric pieces- 3 pieces/5 g
Asafoetida powder - 1/2 tsp. (heaped)

Method:
Dry roast chillies, coriander seeds, arhar dal, chana dal, peppercorns, cumins seeds and fenugreek seeds each separately till a nice aroma arises.
Cool.
Powder them along with crushed turmeric, asafoetida in small batches (My jar became very hot and I ran it after regular intervals).
Cool the powder and store in an air-tight container. Use them in sambar as required.

Note:
Expect to sneeze and cough a lot during the grinding process.

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Patishapta

This is one of the sweet delicacies of Bengali cuisine. You can check up the info about this sweet in the following sites.
1. A Homemaker's Diary
2. Bong Mom's Cookbook

I'm not in the mood to write an intro. Anyways, this is my H's colleague's wife's recipe. A lot of tips came from her typings. I made some tweaks for our finicky taste buds.

Ingredients:
Maida/APF - 1/2 cup
Rice flour - 1/3 cup
Suji -1/3 cup
Sugar - 1 tbsp.
Green cardamom powder - 2 pinches
Milk

For coconut filling:
Sweetened condensed milk
Grated coconut
Cardamom powder- 2 pinches
Nuts - chopped
Raisins - few

For Garnishing (and to enhance more taste):
Condensed milk and chopped nuts

Method:
For crêpes:
In a bowl mix maida, suji, rice flour and green cardamom powder. Pour milk to turn the mixture into a dosa batter without any lumps. Cover and keep aside for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile mix equal quantity of condensed milk and coconut in a pan.
Stir till it reaches a soft moist mass consistency. In between, add the nuts, raisins and cardamom powder. Keep aside.
In the batter, add the sugar and mix well.
In a tawa, spread a small ladleful of batter and drizzle ghee on the sides. When they turn golden colour in the base (if you want you can flip and cook for 30 seconds on other side), place the coconut stuffing in the centre in lengthwise. Fold on both sides with one side overlapping the other. Place them on the plate and pour or drizzle condensed milk with nuts.
Continue with remaining batter.
Enjoy hot or cold.

Note:
For crêpes:
Spread the batter as thin as possible.
After preparing a crêpe, sprinkle little water to reduce the heat of the tawa. Stay safe. Oil or ghee on a heating tawa will give bursts if there is moisture. Now you can spread the batter easily. Continue this process with each crêpe.

For filling:
Variations:
For khoya filling - add some milk and sugar to the khoya and simmer it on heat till it achieves a thick consistency.
For coconut filling - simmer grated coconut with sugar on heat and keep mixing it till it comes to a sticky consistency.

Sent off to "Flavours of Bengal" hosted by Priya and started by Nayna.

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Chidambaram Brinjal/Kathirikaai Gosthu

Ingredients:
Brinjal (small) - 6 (sliced)
Onions - 1 cup (chopped)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt (to taste)
Curry leaves - 3 sprigs
Oil - 1/4 cup
Gosthu podi - 1/2 cup
Tamarind - a small lime size

For Gosthu podi:
Coriander seeds - 3 tbsp.
Dry red chillies - 5 to 7
Asafoetida - 2 pinches
Chana dal/Bengal gram - 2 tbsp.
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp.
Oil - 1 tsp.
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp.

Method:
For podi:
Heat oil and fry ingredients till golden colour. Cool and powder all.

For Brinjal Gosthu:
Soak tamarind in 1 cup of water.
Heat 1 tsp. of oil and saute onions till translucent. If using shallots, peel and use them as whole.
Remove and keep aside.
In the same pan, add 1 tbsp. of oil and saute the brinjals for 2 minutes.
Pour 1 cup of water, cover and cook till mushy. Remove and mash them.
Extract the tamarind water. Combine chilli and turmeric powder, salt, onion and tamarind water in a pan.
Bring it to a boil.
To the gosthu powder, add little water and mix into a paste without any lumps.
Now add the mashed brinjal and gosthu paste to the boiling tamarind mix.
At this stage gravy thickens, if required add little water.
Pour 1/4 cup of oil and curry leaves and stir.
Cook for a minute and serve with rice, pongal or dosai.
Recipe Source: Madhu's Food Journal

Sent to "Bookmarked Recipes-Every Tuesday" event.

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Bread Pakora

Ingredients:
Wheat bread - 6 slices
Oil (for deep frying)

For Stuffing:
Potato masala:
Potatoes (small size) - 2 (boiled)
Onion (small) - 1 (finely chopped)
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp.
Kashmiri red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.
Coriander powder - 1 tsp.
Roasted and powdered cumin - 1/2 tsp.
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp.
Salt (to taste)
Oil
Capsicum - 1/4  (finely chopped)
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp.

For green chutney:
Mint leaves - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Green chillies - 2 (small)
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp.
Chaat masala - 1/2 tsp.
Black salt (to taste)
Thick curd - 1 tsp.
Oil

For batter:
Chickpea flour/besan - 2 cups
Kashmiri red chilli powder - 2 tsp.
Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp.
Baking soda - 1 pinch
Ajwain - 1 tsp.
Salt (to taste)
Turmeric powder - a pinch

Method:
For potato masala:
Mash potatoes without any lumps. Heat oil and add cumin seeds. Allow it to sizzle.
Now add the onions and saute till translucent.
Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes.
Add capsicum pieces and again saute for 2 minutes.
Now add the mashed potatoes, powders and salt and mix well.
Add little water and stir till it becomes dry. Keep aside.

For green chutney:
Saute mint leaves in oil for 3 minutes. Remove. In the same pan, add ginger-garlic paste and saute for a minute.
Combine mint leaves, ginger- garlic paste, coriander leaves, green chilli, black salt and chaat masala and grind into a paste. Finally add the curd and give 2 to 3 pulses. Keep aside.

For batter:
Sieve the besan/chickpea flour in a bowl. Add all the ingredients given under "For batter" and mix well.
Pour water and prepare a batter in such a way that's neither thick and nor thin. Keep aside.

For Pakora:
Take 2 slices of bread. Spread required chutney on a slice and required potato masala on another.
Press both the slices of breads and cut into halves.
Heat the oil in a kadai for deep frying.
Dip the stuffed bread in batter and gently slide in the oil.
Cook on both sides till golden brown.
Continue this process with remainig slices.
Remove and serve immediately with ketchup.

Note:
Make sure there are no holes in the bread.
Toast the bread if it breaks while dipping in batter.
Feel free to use both hands while dipping in batter.
Make sure to coat the bread with batter on all sides. Work fast.
Stuff the breads and cut them before deep frying.
Don't stuff them early or else the bread will get soggy.
If you have any leftover stuffings, use them as a side dish.

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