Mangalore Bonda

This reminds me of my schools days when Patti used to make yummy "mangalore bonda"!! Miss those days!! This will be waiting for us "hot hot hot" when we get back from school. I wasn't a big fan of this but definitely tried it whenever she made it. My mom loved this more than I did. I haven't tried making it even once...this was my first attempt.

A friend of mine had moved to DC and she was visiting us after more than year and half or so and so sweet of her to visit all of us during her short visit and that too with 2 kids (a preschooler and an infant).... she called me in the afternoon and informed that she would visit us in the evening and I did not know what to make for them...so this was the one that came to my mind and she loves trying yummy stuff and the burfi I made on Wednesday came in handy..how much happy I felt after seeing her after such a long time....they could not stay for a long time since they had to meet other friends too during their short visit but I was so happy to see her....I was happy that all of them enjoyed mangalore bonda too...It reminds me of the days when we used to work together....miss those days...

They use sour curds for making this...I first thought of making it with normal curd....and when I was rummaging the refrigerator....found this secret ingredient and I substituted it with that instead...wondering what it could be...my favorite sour cream....was doubtful about using it but no one could tell the difference....it turned out yummy. One thing about this starter is you need to make it just before serving...it tastes good that way...otherwise it will turn soggy if you make it too much in advance.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Maida or All Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Rice Flour
1/4 Cup Fine Rawa
1 Big Green Chilly Finely Chopped
2 Inches Finely Chopped Ginger
1 Cup Sour Yogurt (If you do not have sour curd then try this use 3/4th Cup Curd and 1/4 Cup Sour Cream)
Lots of Cilantro and Curry leaves
Salt to taste (if you are adding sour cream or store bought yogurt do not add too much salt...check the batter before adding salt)
Oil for frying

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients (except oil) and leave it for 4 - 5 hours.
2. You do not need water for mixing it. Just use the curd for mixing the above ingredients
3. Take oil in a pan. When the oil is heated, just take the batter by hand and drop it in the oil. You may drop 6 - 8 pieces (as shown in the picture) at a time depending on the size of your pan. It will start puffing and will start turning brown on one side. Now turn it and cook till the other side also turns golden brown.
4. The yummy snack is ready to be served...one good thing is you do not need to grind anything for this..the only thing is you need to make the batter well in advance....voila! yummy mangalore bonda is ready.

Pesarattu with Upma

I had called my friends home for dinner last night. One of my friend's in laws were leaving to India and I wanted to call them for dinner before they left. I wanted to do something different and not the same stuff that we have at home all the time namely rasam, sambhar, roti.... I also wanted it to be simple, easy ..yet different! My first thought was Adai with Avial....but this we make at home often...this is a famous Tamil Nadu dish...so I put my thinking cap on and their comes the idea of making Pesarattu with upma.

This was the menu I prepared "Papdi Chaat" for starters, Main Course - "Pesarattu with Upma" and "Rasam and Cabbage (incase kids wanted to go for it)"....we were 14 of us in all including kids..

Pesarattu with Upma was a great hit among the kids too....My friends helped me in making the pesarattu. So it was a breeze for me....I just went around and served it when they were making it!! I can proudly say that I have a great set of friends who are always there to help!!

The kids a great time....playing with the cars, building blocks and running here and there (I should say we did not have that much of a place to run around since we live in an apartment)...but it was fun to watch them play. I was glad everyone enjoyed ...

Ingredients for Upma

1 Cup Rava
1 Medium size onion
1 Green Chilly
1 Inch Ginger
6 Whole Cashews - broken into small pieces
1/2 Cup Peas Frozen
Oil
1 Tsp Ghee
Salt
Water
For Tadka - mustard, urad dhal, curry leaves and channa dhal

Take the oil and ghee and heat it. Add the ingredients mentioned for tadka to the oil. Add Green Chillies, Ginger, Cashews and saute it. Add the onions and fry till it is slightly brown. Add the Rava and fry it for  a while (In the mean while boil the water for making upma).  Turn off the gas and add the water to the rawa. If it gets too sticky you can add little ghee to it. The upma is ready to be served along with Pesarattu...now lets get to the next step of making the yum pesarattu....

Ingredients for Pesarattu

1 Cup Whole Moong dhal (pachai payaru)
1 Hand full Rice (oru kai pidi)
2 Red Chillies
2 Green Chilles
1 Inch Ginger
1 Medium Size Onion
Coconut (you can use this too...but I did not)
Salt to Taste
Oil for making Pesarattu

Soak the Moong dhal, Rice and Red chillies for 8 to 10 hours. Set the water aside (that was used for soaking). Use this water to just sprinkle while grinding the mixture (you do not want to make the mixture watery). Grind it along with green chillies, Ginger, Onion and Coconut. Add salt to the grinded mixture. This mixture will be coarse and thick. Do not make it watery.

Take the Tawa and pour the mixture on the tawa in the middle. Make the Pesarattu (just the way you do the dosas). Pour the mixture in the center and using a laddle spread it the way  you do the dosas. Poke a little whole in the center. Pour little oil around the pesarattu and into the whole in the middle. Turn it on the other side and cook. Flip it again. Keep the upma and fold it the way you want (just the way you do masala dosas).

I learn that the pesarattu is served with upma during my visit to Hyderabad. We were invited to a friend's house and that Aunty had made this for break fast...I can still remember the hot pesarattu and upma she served us with ginger chutney. I loved it. This was 4 years ago....Yesterday I made it for my friends and I was happy every one loved it ....including the kids!! Do remember to serve it with Ginger Chutney!!

Rava Idli and Peanut Chutney

As mentioned in my previous posts my family is recovering from bout of cold and related stuff. We have kept ourselves busy by making visits to the Doc and pharmarcies!! We just want to get better and we are looking forward to it. All that said....it was one of the days after our visit to the doc...I did not have much choice and was pretty tired too and with one big goal "to make my son eat" since he was going with out food .. I decided to make the rava idli...I was scared to give it an attempt since that was the first time I was making it and also scared what if it does not turn out well...I would have to make something all over again and keep my family waiting at the table for dinner...but left it to God and ventured to make the idlis.

After all it turned out good...I made sambhar and the peanut chutney (it is always a good hit in our house) to go with it!

Ingredients:
Rava - 2 Cups
Curd - 2 Cups (Back home they use the sour curd to make the idlis...but I some how do not like to use sour curd.)
Carrots - 1 Grated
Tadka - Green chillies, Mustard, Curry leaves, Urad dhal, Channa dhal and Cashews
Onions - 1/2 Cup (optional)
Oil
Salt to taste
Idli Plates

Take a pan and roast the rava with little ghee. (Do roast it for a while even if you use pre-roasted rava)
Before you start mixing the batter. Prepare the tadka and fry the onions for few seconds and add it to the rava.
You may use the raw grated carrots...but since my son may not feel comfortable that way. I microwave the grated carrots for couple of minutes before using it in idlis.
To the rava add the curd and salt.

I learnt from my folks that we need to make the idlis then and there and it should not be allowed to stand in the curd for a long period of time. It yields 16 idlis.
Grease the plates and add the carrots (you may alternatively add it to the dough too) and steam the idlis...serve it with sambhar or chutney of your choice..

Peanut Chutney

Dry roast  Peanuts with skin (about a handful).. and 1 1/2 red chillies I always made it without the skin but recently my friend passed me the tip of making the peanut chutney with the skin...indeed it tastes better!  and grind it well with water and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Serve it with idlis.

Kesari

This simple desert is loved by one and all. This is a quintessential sweet in any wedding/birthdays/engagement etc. If we mention that I just got back from mappillai ayaipu (a function for welcoming the groom - the day before the wedding) to anyone …the typical question you hear is…sojji bajji saptiya (did u eat sojji and bajji)!!


I do not have a sweet tooth but this is still one of my favourites. I make this sweet all the time since preparaing time is less than half an hour. I do this mostly on pournami (New moon day).
Ingredients needed:
Rava – 1 Cup
Sugar – 1 ½ Cup
Water – 1 to 2 cups based on the texture of rava
Ghee – 1 Cup
Cardamom – 6
Raisins, Almonds and Cashew
Orange Food color
Saffron strands
Boil water and keep it aside.
Take a tsp of ghee and roast the cardamom. Cardamom smells good and gets easily powdered when roasted in ghee.
Take a tsp of ghee and roast the nuts and keep it aside. Heat a tsp of ghee and roast the rava till you get the smell. Turn off the stove and add water needed to cook the rava. If it is fine rava then less water is needed. Add the sugar and turn on the gas. Mix it well and start adding the ghee little by little.
Take the saffron strands and mix it well in milk. Add the saffron and cardamom to the kesari. Garnish it with cashew, almonds and raisins.
The yummy kesari is ready to be served.