Molaga Bajji (Chilli Fritters)

 

I am back here after a really long hiatus. I missed this space and missed my interactions with my fellow bloggers. This is the longest I have been away from this blog. Quite a few of you dropped by to ask if I was OK. Thanks everyone. We just relocated to a new country and I am taking my time settling down. I will resume regular cooking as soon I have my kitchen set up. In the meanwhile, I hope to get to work on some of the really old recipes that are lying in my drafts.

One such recipe which is perfect for a rainy afternoon or evening is the humble molaga bajji. I have walked along the Elliot's Beach very often, taking in the aroma of these delights, but I have to admit, I never did muster the courage to try the stuff.

I attempted to make these once and did everything possible to reduce the heat of the chillies. I deseeded them and then dropped them in boiling water for 5 minutes.

6 large Chillies, slit, deseeded and boiled in hot water for 5 minutes

For the stuffing:

2 Potatoes, cooked and mashed

1 Onion, chopped finely

2 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped

2 tbsp Roasted Peanuts, coarsely ground

1/2 tsp Amchur

1/2 tsp Coriander Powder

1 tsp Cumin Powder

1/2 tsp Garam Masala

1 tsp Chilli Paste

Salt to taste

For the Batter:

1/2 cup Gram Flour (Besan)

1/4 cup Rice Flour

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Hot Oil

Oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients for the batter. Add enough water to make a thick batter.

Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing. Stuff the chillies with the potato mixture.

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Dip the stuffed chillies in the gram flour batter and drop carefully into the oil. Deep fry the bajjis until they turn golden brown all around. Drain on absorbent paper and enjoy.

Do let me know how you like your molaga bajjis.

Vada Pav

The Indian Burger! That would best describe the Vada Pav. I don't remember when I ate my first vada pav. My strongest memory of the batata vadas dates back to the late seventies. As the Dadar Express pulled into Karjat, Amma would start looking out of the window. Somewhere amidst the Kedbari, Feystar, Jings ( Cadbury's, Five Star, Gems) she'd find a Batata Vada vendor and call him. They'd talk in marathi (and we didn't understand a word) and at the end of the conversation we'd have a newspaper with 6 vadas, some garlic chutney and a few green chillies. Every year, we looked forward to this moment. Finger licking goodness!

I got hooked to the Vada Pav much later. I tried several different vendors until I figured this guy outside the LIC building on my way to the station from Nariman Point dished out the best vada pav. I wasn't that keen on making the stuff at home, so I didn't pay attention to his chutney. (When you got it for 2.75 a piece, why would you bother?) I tried it at home years later. It wasn't as good as his, but it was definitely good.

For the Batter:
1/2 cup Gram Flour (Besan)

1/4 cup Rice Flour

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
½ tsp Garlic Paste

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Hot Oil

For the Filling:
3-4 Potatoes, boiled, peeled and cubed

1 tsp Green Chilli Paste

1 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste

2 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped

Salt to taste

Oil for frying


For the Chutney:

6-8 Garlic Pods
4 Red Chillies
Salt to taste


6 Pavs

Mash the potatoes and add the salt, chilli and ginger-garlic pastes, and coriander leaves. Make small balls and keep aside.

Mix all the ingredients for the batter. Add enough water to make a thick batter.

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Dip the potato balls in the gram flour batter and drop carefully into the oil. Deep fry the batata vadas until they turn golden brown all around. Drain on absorbent paper.

Grind together all the ingredients for the chutney. Slit each pav horizontally (not all the way) and spread some chutney. Place a batata vada over the chutney and enjoy your snack.

P.S. S had a new version of vada pav at the Mumbai airport recently. He said the vada was baked int the bun. A little more time consuming I'm sure, but he says it is a very non messy way to enjoy the snack. With all this baking going on, can I say no?

Phaggila Phodiyo (With a Sulekha Update)

Phaggil and Parval – two vegetables that we didn’t see on a regular basis. Maybe that is why I like them. I get a lot of Parval in Delhi and Gurgaon, and I have cooked it once. S doesn’t really like it. He also doesn’t like Bitter Gourd. So, he didn’t take too kindly to Phaggil either. It looks like bitter gourd. It is even called Jungli Karela in Hyderabad. I found this vegetable in the market many months ago. I brought some home, sliced them and stored them in the freezer. Someday, I thought. Someday.


We had invited two couples home for lunch a couple of weekends ago. I decided to make some vangi bhat, vendakka pachadi, rice, sambar and cabbage karumadhu. At the very last minute, I decided to make use of the contents of my Ziploc bag. So, when I started the preparations, I brought the bag out and let the contents thaw. I figured that even if S doesn’t are much for the vegetable, the others might enjoy it. My hopes were dashed when I served these on the table and one of the guests asked, “Yeh karela hai kya?”(Is this bitter gourd?) and S promptly replied, “Haan.”(Yes) I quickly said, “Nahin, yeh karela nahin hai. Ise jungli karela kehte hain.” (No, this is not bitter gourd. This is called Wild Bitter Gourd.) And then S went on to say something like, “It’s the same thing.” That did it. A couple of the guests didn’t even want to touch it. But hey, I don’t get phaggil everyday and I don’t deep fry everyday. So, if my guests didn’t eat it, it is a good thing (for me, that is). A couple of them did try it and maybe they liked it. Even S said, “Hey, this is not bitter at all.”

1 cup Phaggil, sliced

2 tsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
1 tbsp Rice Flour
Oil for frying
Salt to taste

Place the phaggil slices on a plate and apply the salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder and asafoetida. Keep aside for 10 minutes.

Heat the oil in a kadhai.

Sprinkle the rice flour over the phaggil pieces and make a coating of sorts. Deep fry the pieces in the oil and drain on a paper towel.

Serve with some rice,

dali-saar and any masla randeyi and make it a complete amchi meal.

Here's an update on the Sulekha issue:

I got an email from the lady in member relations:

Dear Arundhati Raghavan,

Thanks for the mails.

I would like to inform that based on your report & our investigations; that your blogs were plagiarized by our member “AndhraMirchi” I have deleted all blogs and the blogger completely from Sulekha’s records.

In regards to “saraamulu”. I’m sorry I can’t take action immediately because most of my technical team are away for their vacation’s; Monday being a holiday for the republic day. Please give me a week’s time to check, assess and delete. Meanwhile I request you to please send me a few links that have been plagiarized by saraamulu. I’m sorry for the inconvenience caused. Have a nice weekend.

Warm regards,

Neha

I have sent them this email and shall wait patiently for the week to end:

Dear Neha,

I hope you had a good weekend. I also hope that your technical staff is back from vacation.

Here's an update from my side.

I still find my photograph on this page: http://food.sulekha.com/cuisine/karnataka/capsicum-phodiyo/recipes.htm

The content on this page: http://food.sulekha.com/cuisine/karnataka/cauliflower-phodiyo.htm is still what it was earlier. Saraamulu still seems to be a member.

The photograph on this page: http://food.sulekha.com/cuisine/karnataka/cauliflower-phodiyo.htm is mine.

The photograph on this page: http://food.sulekha.com/cuisine/karnataka/narlya-kheeri/photos.htm is also mine.

This photo: http://food.sulekha.com/cuisine/karnataka/madgane/photos.htm is also mine. Please let me know when all my content will be removed.

Thanks,

Arundhati

Ripe Plantain Fritters

Tea-time. I've really forgotten about that concept. At my parents' place, we had coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. I had a glass of milk both times. There was always a stock of biscuits at home, and tea time didn't mean snacks of any sort. At almost all my relatives' places, tea-time was a ritual. So, while I can't say the concept is alien to me, I definitely don't relate it to it all the time.

We happened to be home one afternoon and I decided to make tea. I also found a couple of plantains in the fridge that didn't seem that raw to me anymore. I made these fritters that are usually made with Rajali Bananas (Nendrampazham). It didn't taste the same, but I we relished them nonetheless. And I was glad I didn't have to throw the plantains out.

2 Ripe Plantains, peeled

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tbsp Rice Flour

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Cut the plantains in half and slice lengthwise. Add the salt and chilli powder and keep aside for 4-5 minutes.

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the rice flour to the plantains and mix well. Drop the plantain slices into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.

Enjoy these with a hot cup of tea. Just make sure the tea is ready when these fritters are. If you make these first and then make the tea, you may not have any left for you by the time you're done making the tea.

Yam Fritters

Yam. It was the one vegetable my brother really hated. Or rather claimed he was allergic to. One day Amma made yam cutlets that he gorged on. Ever since, I always tell him to just say he doesn't like the vegetable. The allergy tstory doesn't make the cut. I, on the other hand, have been rather indifferent to this. I'd be lying if I said I loved it. And I definitely don't hate it. Amma makes a vadakkal with it and I really like it.

I'd not known yam fritters. My senior from University treated me to this when I visited her a few years ago. I relished it. I bought some yam and called her just to find out how it was made. She told me to marinate the yam pieces and then dry them in the sun. I didn't have that much time. So I baked them in my oven and then shalow fried them.

(One point to note is that shallow or deep fried yam tends to smell like fish!)

1/4 cup Yam slices

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Mix the turmeric powder, chilli powder, asafoetida and salt. Apply this to the yam slices. Bake in a moderately hot oven (325F) for 35-40 minutes.

Heat a skillet or a frying pan and shallow fry the yam pieces using a little oil. Cook evenly on both sides.

I had this with some rice and dal at her place the first time I had it. I made it to go with some rice and sambar for a Sunday lunch. Perfectly spicy, perfectly crunchy. Just what you need to make your meal complete!

Baked Kaela Phodiyo (Baked Banana Fritters)

Don't you all love munching on fried goodies? I do. And fritters of some sort used to be on our Sunday lunch menu. Almost always. Raw banana fritters or Kaela Phodiyo topped the list, in terms of frequency and in terms of favourites. I remember this one time when my parents were in Holland and one of the trees in our banana patch yielded the raw banana variety! Since H and I were left to our own devices, we had raw banana fritters almost every other day. OK, so once in a while, we also had vazhaikkai karumadhu. At that age, I don't think we worried so much about the consumption of oil. I was all of 14, and he, 19.

I've been trying to bake several things that are conventionally fried. I've blogged about the Baked Cashew Onion Pakodas earlier. Since these fritters don't involve dripping batter, I've found that baking instead of frying works.

2 Raw Bananas, cut in half and sliced lengthwise

2 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1 tbsp Rice Flour

2 tbsp Oil

Salt to taste

Place the banana slices on a plate and apply the salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder and asafoetida. Keep aside for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Apply the rice flour to the banana slices so that the released liquid is absorbed. Coat the slices with oil and place them on a greased baking sheet. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Cool these fritters on a rack before you attack them.

I enjoyed this round of guilt free eating while S said the fried ones taste better. Of course they do, there's no denying that. But the deep fried version does not make for guilt free eating. So, eat away.

And here's a gentle reminder to all of you. Please send in your entries to this month's AFAM and make my first blog event hosting experience a huge success.

Piyava Baje (Onion Fritters)

Every once in a while, I make something that is deep fried. As an afternoon snack on a weekend. As an accompaniment to a meal when I don't feel like making a vegetable. But the times are few and far between. So, when we do have something like this, it is truly a treat.

This is something I grew up with. The occasional Sunday lunch was accompanied by stuff like this. I made this many months ago as part of lunch as I was too lazy to make a side dish. I have been meaning to post it since and I discovered it in my drafts just today. In time for the Jihva For Ingredients: Onion being hosted by Radhika of Radhi's kitchen.

1 cup Onions, sliced
1 tsp Green Chilli paste
1 tsp Ginger paste
1/2 cup Gram flour (Besan)
1 tsp Chilli Powder
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
Salt to taste
Oil for frying



Heat the oil in a kadhai.

In a vessel, mix all the other ingredients together without adding any water. Drop spoonfuls of this mixture into the hot oil and fry till reddish brown.

Drain on absorbent paper and serve with tomato ketchup or with some rice and dal.

In addition to sending this to the JFI event, I am also sending this to Mansi for her game night party event.

Paneer Pakoda

Too much health food worrying all of you at The Singing Chef? I now bring you a plate of home made paneer pakodas. These are technically bajjis, but paneer is not native to bajjis' hometown, so using musical's reasoning below, I will call these paneer pakodas. (Not pakoras, mind you!)

Oh Raaga, and about pakodas vs. bhajiyas or bajjis, that was really cute, i know that situation :).In Punjabi atleast pakodas is a generic name for both of them, and certain combos have to be pakodas, like say onion or spinach, really crispy! Stuff like cauliflower can be used to make both and veggies like eggplants, potatoes, mirchis etc only for the softer bhajjis. One just specifies karare (this term means kara+crispy) or polle (soft). In several Punju dialects bhajiya or bhujiya would refer to stir fries! Like aloo bhujiya, meaning aloo chopped fine and stir fried with jeera and coriander leaves.

Paneer is the vegetarian's meat. Or so I'd like to believe. Any dish that earned fame as a non vegetarian dish immediately gets reincarnated as a paneer dish. And so was born Paneer Butter Masala. I used to live in Gurgaon in the late 90s. My uncle and aunt were visiting me from Bangalore and I had made a nice meal including some puliyodarai and bisi bele bhat. My landlady had told me that she loved tamarind rice and had devoured it each time she visited her sister in law in Bangalore. So, after my uncle and aunt left, I took some over to her place. I laugh even today at the conversation that followed:

Aunty: Aapke mausa mausi aaye the? (Had your uncle and aunt visited?)

Me: Haan ji (Yes)

Aunty: Yehi sab khilaya unko? (You fed them these things?)

Me: Haan ji. Mixie ke bagair zyada nahin bana pati. (Yes. Without a mixie, I find it tough to make much.)

Aunty: Non veg nahin banaya? (You didn't make non-veg?)

Me: Hum log khate nahin hain Aunty. (We don't eat it.)

Aunty: To paneer hi khila dete kam se kam. (So you should have at least fed them paneer.)

Me: Hamare khane mein paneer dalta nahin hain. (Paneer isn't a part of our cooking)

Aunty: Beta, yeh theek nahin kiya. Ghar aaye hue mehman ko aapne na non veg khilaya na paneer. Aapne unka bada insult kar diya. Paneer to khila hi dena tha. (You shouldn't have done this. You gave your guests neither non veg nor paneer. You have insulted them. Paneer should have been offered.)

And I thought, "Had I offered paneer with my BBB, that would have been more insulting to my aunt."

In any case, I was sick of paneer back then. I couldn't look it in the eye. But so many years later, I have changed. I can eat it, I can enjoy it and I can even rely on it coming to my rescue when all else has failed.

5 months after we moved in to this apartment, I finally found a milk supplier. And since I wasn't used to having milk delivered everyday, I'd gotten out of the habit of boiling it and storing it. One weekend, I found I had a surplus of 2.5 litres of milk. I quickly turned it into paneer by following Arundathi's instructions. I added about 2.5 tablespoons of lime juice to the milk just as it started to boil.

I hung this in a piece of cheesecloth and was left with these solids which turned into the lovely paneer below when I placed a heavy vessel over it.

I have made paneer before and have always been left with crumbs that I can only make bhurji with. I used toned (3%) milk and got this result. I am very happy. Thanks Arundathi.

I turned these into pakodas that we devoured the same night.

1 cup Paneer cubes

1/2 cup Gram Flour (Besan)

1/4 cup Rice Flour

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Hot Oil

Oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients except the oil for frying and the paneer cubes together in a bowl. Add enough water to make a thick batter.

Heat oil in a kadhai or frying pan. Dip the paneer cubes in the batter and deep fry in the hot oil. Remove when the cubes are golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.

Put all the pakodas in a big bowl, keep your bottle of ketchup handy and get comfy in front of the TV. Eat like there is no tomorrow. Err, is there?

Divkadgye Phodiyo (Breadfruit Fritters)

Bread fruit. I am not sure how many of you have actually heard about this fruit/vegetable, let alone seen/eaten it. There is a tree in the garden of my maternal grandparents in Matunga that yields this fruit. Bread fruit or divkadgi in konkani is a cousin of jackfruit (kadgi) and you can read more about it here.

I have not taken these pictures. I did a google image search for breadfruit and these emerged from there. I saved the pictures and so can't remember the sites from where I got them.

The picture above shows a cut breadfruit and the one below shows fruit on a branch. Since finding a tree or the fruit is a rarity, Amma used to get excited whenever she spoted either. And over the years, she has successfully managed to transfer that excitement to me.

I mentioned earlier that I am not too good at transliteration. I just read somewhere that this is also called jeevkadgi. To me it has always been divkadgi.

I had a chance to relish these deep fried beauties during my trip home a couple of weeks ago. Amma had brought a fruit from Bombay and I brought back half the fruit to Gurgaon as I was certain S had no idea what this fruit was and this would be chance to get him to enjoy something I have loved.

But I have had to eat these in moderation. Not just because they are deep fried food, but because breadfruit gives me a stomach ache in addition to being the gassy vegetable that it is. To counter this, I have asafoetida tablets immediately after my meal or drink buttermilk with loads of asafoetida.

1/2 small Breadfruit, peeled

1 1/2 tsp Asafoetida

2 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tsp Turmeric

2 tbsp Rice Flour

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Cut the breadfruit lengthwise in 2 pieces. Cut each piece in 2 cm thick slices. You will be left with triangles like the ones in the picture.

Sprinkle the salt, asafoetida, turmeric and chilli powders over the pieces and mix well. Leave aside for 10-15 minutes.

Heat the oil in a kadhai.

Sprinkle the rice flour over the breadfruit pieces and make a coating of sorts. Deep fry the pieces in the oil and drain on a paper towel.

Enjoy these on the side with your main meal, as a starter or a snack.

The frying was done at Amma's place. When I was back in Gurgaon, I tried to follow the same procedure. Instead of frying, I smeared some oil over the pieces and baked them at 220 C for 10 minutes on each side. They didn't taste as great as the deep fried ones, but they weren't bad at all. We still enjoyed every piece along with our wine.

Off this goes to dear Asha as yet another entry for the RCI Karnataka event.

Capsicum Phodiyo (Capsicum Fritters)

This is one more of the fried goodies that come to the table once in a while at my place. This has been a hit at dinners at my parents' place and I also end up making these along with the Cauliflower Phodiyo.

It is tough to believe that something so simple can taste so good. And whenever Amma made them, I would be asked to taste. It is anyone's guess how many I "tasted" before certifying them as very good.

Ingredients:

2 Large Capsicum, cut into rings

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

2 tbsp Curd

2 tbsp Gram Flour

Salt to Taste

Oil for deep frying

Mix the salt, chilli powder, and turmeric powder together and make a paste using the curd. Apply this to the capsicum rings like a marinade and leave aside for 10-15 minutes. Alternatively, you can place all the ingredients (including the capsicum rings) in a vessel and mix them.

Heat the oil in a kadhai.

The capsicum mixture will have released some water by this time. Add the gram flour to the mixture so that it absorbs the water and mix well.

Deep fry the rings in the oil and drain on a paper towel.

Enjoy them while hot. You'll know what living the good times is all about. This is off to dear Asha for the RCI Karnataka event.

Cauliflower Phodiyo (Fried Cauliflower)

A traditional amchi meal would have sheet (rice), dali saar or dali toy (dal), upkari (steamed vegetable) or talasani, masla randeyi (coconut gravy item), kosumbari (salad) and dhayi (curd) or taak (buttermilk). And then there are papads, vadiyo, and phodiyo. Papad could be the usual urad papads or the special chilli papads. Vadiyo are prepared in the summer and give us endless moments of happiness during the other months.

Phodiyo (plural for Phodi) are made with fresh vegetables. These are not to be confused with Bajey which are like the bajjis of Tamilnadu or the pakoras of the North. While bajeys are coated with gram flour batter and deep fried, phodiyo are smeared with spices and then deep fried. With bajeys you run the risk of leaving the vegetable uncooked, but with phodiyo, there is not the slightest chance.

These cauliflower crisps are very unusual and everytime they are made (which is rare to start with) they disappear before I can get to them.

1 cup Cauliflower florets

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

2 tsp Lime Juice
2 tbsp Gram Flour
Salt to Taste
Oil for deep frying


Mix the salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder and cumin seeds together and make a paste using the lime juice. Apply this to the cauliflower florets like a marinade and leave aside for 10-15 minutes. Alternatively, you can place all the ingredients (including the cauliflower florets) in a vessel and mix them.


Heat the oil in a kadhai.


The florets will have released some water by this time. Add the gram flour to the florets so that it absorbs the water and mix well.


Deep fry the florets in the oil and drain on a paper towel.


Enjoy these as snacks on a rainy day, as an accompaniment to your meal or serve them as starters when you have guests. Better still, have these ready when you sit down for a drink on leisurely evening. These will take you to heaven before you even say "yummy!"


I intend to try and bake these "Nupur style" the next time I make them.







This is off to dear Asha for the RCI Karnataka event. Now you all know why she had to get her eyes fixed before this event. I have started to flood her mailbox and we're less than 2 weeks into the event.