Potato Bonda (evening snack)

When the clock strikes 5:00 pm, and when its raining heavily outside, my thoughts would start wandering about a quick snack which could add spice to the atmosphere apart from the regular tea or coffee. I would then decide that it is time I prepared a snack with my husband's favorite vegetable: The old and gold potato :) ....And I would rush to the kitchen to start preparing the snack before he comes from office. I would owe a thanks to my mom who taught me how to prepare this as it was also my first successfull venture in cooking where frying is involved. So here Iam sharing with you her recipe for Bonda.

Ingredients:
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Potato: 2 large nos
Onion: 2 medium sized nos
Green chilli (minced): 4 - 5 green chillies
Ginger: 1 small piece minced
Garlic: 4 segments minced
Curry leaves finely chopped: 4 or 5 curry leaves
Oil
Salt

For the batter:

Gram flour (besan flour or kadalappodi in malayalam): 2 cups

Salt (a little)

Asafoetida powder (hing): a pinch

Water : required to make thick batter

Masala Powder:

Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon
Chilli powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Garam masala powder (optional): 1 /2 teaspoon

Pepper powder (for those who like it spicy) : 1/4 teaspoon

Asafoetida powder (hing): 1/4 teaspoon

Tadka:

Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
Urad dal (optional): 1/4 teaspoon
Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon

Method:
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1. Cook the potatoes and let it cool. Mash the potatoes once cooled.
2. Chop the onions finely.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a kadai. Add the tadka items one by one until all have spluttered.
4. Add curry leaves, green chilli , ginger, and garlic. Saute them well for about 30 seconds, until the raw taste is gone.
5. Add the chopped onions and saute again until the onions turn light brown. Add the masala powders at this stage one by one, mixing uniformly at each stage. Add salt after the masala powders are added. Mix well.
6. Add the mashed potatoes and mix well again. Take off the fire and wait till the contents cool.
7. Meanwhile prepare the batter by mixing the batter ingredients. You may first sieve the gram flour before adding water, to avoid lumps in batter.
8. **Heat oil for deep frying bonda. Test the temperature by dropping a very small piece of the potato mix in the oil. If the piece starts spluttering instantaneously, it means that the oil is ready for frying.

(** Always be careful while you are handling hot oil. Once the oil has attained the required temperature for frying, lower the fire to medium heat and then start frying)

8. Make small balls out of the potato mix once it is cooled. Coat these with the batter prepared. Fry these in oil, until the outer cover of the bonda turns golden brown. Put the bondas in a paper napkin on a plate so that the excess oil is absorbed.

9. Serve it with tomato ketchup or coconut chutney.

Vegetable Cutlet

I am a big fan of vegetable cutlet. It also has my childhood memories linked with it. The first time I had cutlet was at Indian Coffee house. And I could never forget the taste associated with it. It was like, whenever I used to travel with my dad and mom, when we pass Indian Coffee house, I used to start hinting that I was hungry, infact I was trying to get a bite of the cutlet there :) ....Even in recent years, before I got married, my dad took me there one day and that day I became a bit emotional as I realized that soon I would be leaving my house after marriage.... My husband too likes this snack. I had prepared it for his birthday recently and it became an instant hit. So here I am sharing with you my favorite recipe.

Ingredients:
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Potato: 3 nos
Beetroot: 1 large
Onion: 2 nos
Carrot: 2 nos
Beans chopped finely: 1/2 cup
Green Peas: 1 cup
Garlic: 4 segments
Ginger: a small piece
*Tomato sauce (Optional): 2 tablespoons
(You may use finely chopped tomatoes instead of the sauce)
Oil
Salt

For tadka:
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Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon
Finely chopped curry leaves: 1/4 cup
Finely minced green chilli: 1/4 cup

Masala powder:

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Coriander powder: 1 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder: a pinch

Chilli powder (if you want more spicy taste): 1/2 teaspoon

Crushed pepper (if you want more spicy taste): 1/4 teaspoon

*Cinnamon powder: 1/2 teaspoon

(You may also use garam masala powder that you get in stores to get a different flavor which is also good)

For the batter and coating:

1. Powdered Bread crumbs for making the powdered coating around each cutlet

2. Maida or all purpose flour mixed with water to make a batter with consistency that is a little loose than the batter made for frying bajjis.

Method:

1. Cook the potatoes, peel the skin. Mash the potatoes.

2. Chope the beetroot into very small pieces. (You may make this work easier by first cooking the beetroot and then chopping it later, so that it makes the chopping easy).

3. Finely chop the onions and carrots. Cook carrots, green peas and beans until tender. Mash the garlic and grate the ginger.

4. In a kadai, heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the tadka ingredients one by one, until they splutter properly. Then add mashed garlic and ginger. Stir again. Add chopped onion and stir uniformly. Add the masala powders one by one. stir uniformly after adding each powder. Add the tomato sauce at the end and stir properly. Add carrot, beans, and peas and stir. Then add beetroot and stir again. Add salt. When the vegetables get properly mixed with the masala in the kadai, add the mashed potatoes and again mix thoroughly.

5. Take the kadai off the fire and wait till it cools.

6. Meanwhile spread some oil on a tawa ( a little more oil than is normally used while making dosas). Make small balls of the curry mix and flatten it and smooth the edges. Coat each curry ball in maida, and make sure they are not absorbing a lot of water when dipped, else there is a chance that the cutlet will break while trying to roast it in oil. So for that purpose, after dipping in the maida mix, shake of the excess water and immedietly put the balls in the dish containing the powdered bread crumbs. Coat the balls with the crumbs on both sides. The bread crumbs gives the crunchy taste to the cutlet.

7. Roast the cutlet in the oil in the tawa, add a little drop of oil on each side of the cutlet while roasting. This method of roasting cutlet consumed less oil than if we were to deep fry them. Roast the cutlet until all the sides becomes reddish brown (the reddish brown color comes because of the beetroot). Check if the coating on the cutlet is fully cooked and crunchy.

8. Arrange the cutlets in a plate and serve it along with mint chutney or tomato sauce.

Channa Masala

Channa or chickpeas is a common pulse used in gravy items prepared in India. Its powdered form (Besan flour or gram flour or Chickpea flour) is used as a batter for frying , also in other recipes such as Kheer, Dosa, etc... . Though it is not a recommended thing for people who have gastric troubles, it still is a favorite item in Indian dishes. In southern part of India (especially Kerala), people prepare channa masala (kadala curry), along with a speciality dish called Puttu. I will include the recipe for Puttu another time. Here, Iam including an easy to make channa masala.

Ingredients:

Channa or chickpeas: 1 glass
Tomato: 2 nos
Onion: 2 nos
Tomato sauce (optional): 2 tablespoons
Ginger: 1/4 cup
Garlic: 4 segements
Grated coconut (optional): 1/2 cup
Salt
Oil

Masala powder:

1. Coriander powder: 2 teaspoons
2. Crushed pepper: 1/2 teaspoon
3. Red chilli flakes or chilli powder: 1 teaspoon
4. Cinnamon powder: 1/2 teaspoon

For the tadka:

1. Cumin seeds: 1 teaspoon
2. Fenugreek seeds (green jeera): 1 teaspoon
2. Slitted green chilli: 2 or 3 nos
3. Mustard seeds (optional): 1 teaspoon
4. Curry leaves : a few
5. Coriander leaves: for garnishing

Method:

1. Wash and soak the channa overnight (12 hours). Cook the channa in pressure
cooker, for 3 whistles.
2. Cut the tomatoes, and onions into very small pieces.
3. Grate ginger and crush the garlic. It helps the curry to absorb the flavor of ginger
and garlic if they are crushed and mashed.
4. In a kadai, heat 3 tablespoons of oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek
seeds and saute them until they splutter properly. Then add the slitted green chilli,
curry leaves garlic and ginger. Saute them until their raw taste is gone, say for 20
seconds. Add chopped onions and saute until onions turn light brown. Then add
the tomatoes and again saute until it forms a paste with onion and tomato. Add the
masala powders one by one, make sure that you stir the mixture uniformly, each
time you add a masala powder.
5. Add tomato sauce and stir uniformly. Then add a little salt and again stir. Towards
the end add the channa and stir. Pour some of the water in which you cooked the
channa, into the kadai to cover the channa. Add more water if you need more
gravy. Accordingly add salt. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and grated coconut and mix it. Serve with roti,
or rice.