Patnam Pakodi | Indian Cooking Challenge

This time I forgot about the Indian Cooking Challenge. I suddenly remembered on 14th afternoon and then made this snack in a haste. Since I took this challenge at the last moment I didnt spend time on researching this recipe. Just followed Valli's words.

Honestly we both didn't enjoy this snack much. First reason is that this snack has absorbed more oil when compared to ordinary pakodas/ bonda etc. I think it might be because of the rice flour we add. We should probably add it in lesser quantity just for the crunchy feeling because raw rice absorbs more oil. Another problem I faced was the balls disintegrated after putting into oil - not immediately but after 2-3 minutes. Then I guessed that probably oil should be smoking hot. SO i carefully put the balls in the oil when the oil was smoking hot and then after about 3 minutes reduced the flame of the oil so that the insides cook well.

Nevertheless this is a good evening snack to be enjoyed. I served with hot cup of tea.

Ingredients Needed:

Rice Flour - 1 cup

Fried Gram / Roasted Channa Dal powder - 1/4 cup

Bengal Gram flour / Besan - 1 tbsp

Ghee - 6 tsp

Cooking Soda - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Finely chopped onions - 1/4 cup

Finely chopped ginger - 1 tsp (optional)

Finely chopped cashew nuts - 1 tbsp

Finely chopped coriander leaves - 1 tbsp

Finely chopped green chillies - 2 nos

Salt to taste

Red Chilli powder -  1/2 tsp

Oil for deep frying

Method:

• Melt ghee and take it in a small bowl, add cooking soda and rub with hand till it turn in to frothy.
• In a mixing bowl, take the chopped onion, ginger, green chillies, curry leaves, cashew nuts.
• Add flours, cumin seeds, red chilli powder, salt mix well to combine every thing. Add the melted ghee as well.
• Sprinkle little water and make a dough to make balls, make balls and set a side
• Heat oil in a small kadai and when its hot, drop in the balls gently and cook on all sides. till they turn to a golden colour.
• Drain through a slotted ladle, and remove on to a kitchen towel.
• Serve with tea/coffee 

Note:

The pakodis needs to be cooked in medium flame otherwise the insides won't cook properly.

Instead of making them into balls, we can also make them like pakodas.

Sev Khamani | Indian Cooking Challenge

This is my first recipe for the Indian Cooking Challenge. This time we have a authentic gujarathi recipe. And this is also the first time that I am making an authentic gujarathi recipe.

We enjoy gujarathi sweet recipes but are not a fan of savoury recipes that contain a lot of besan. Somehow eating a lot of besan based dishes gives us stomach problems - probably because we are not used to it.

We liked this recipe though. The end result was very colorful, yellow, red and greens - lovely color combination. H said seems like Gujarathi upma :-) Yes the texture definitely looks like upma.

The recipe is given in Indian Cooking Challenge blog but I also had a look at the recipes for this available in internet. Actually this Khamani sev is most of the times made with left-over dhokla. Or channa-dal is soaked and made into a batter. There were few recipes with besan But I followed the recipe made out of besan.

Ingredients:

For Khamani:

Besan - 1 1/2 cups

Sooji (Rava) - 1/4 cup

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - 1 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

Ginger - 1" piece

Green chillies - 2 nos

Oil - 2 tbsp

Water - 2 cups

Eno fruit salt - 2 tsp

To Temper:

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Jeera - 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Garlic - 5 pods (finely chopped)

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Nylon Sev - 1/2 cup

Pomegranate pearls - 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 3 tbsp

Coriander leaves (chopped finely) - 3 tbsp

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp

Method:

Make a fine paste of ginger and the green chillies.
Mix the besan, sooji, salt, sugar, ginger-green chilly paste, lemon juice and oil. Make a batter similar to that of bhajji batter with the water.
Place a steamer on gas with enough water.
Grease a thali or a small bowl. I used a bowl.
Add the ENO fruit salt to the batter and mix very well. You should see some bubbles
Pour the batter in the Thaali / bowl, and place it in the steamer.
Close the lid and let it steam for 10-15 minutes.
Check with a knife if done, the knife should come out clean.
Once it is cooled, crumble the kamans.

In a kadai pour oil. Add the mustard seeds.

Once the mustard splutters add Jeera, asafoetida, chopped garlic. Fry well until the garlic turns sligtly brown.

Add the turmeric powder and simmer the gas.

Add the crumbled khamans and mix well. Switch off gas.

Transfer into a bowl or serving plate.

Garnish in layers with - coriander leaves, pomegranate pearls, nylon sev, grated coconut.

Drizzle lemon juice on top and serve.