UZHUNNUVADA-KEY TO MAKE CRISPY VADA !!!!

Making this Vada was purely an experiment. I never thought that I could ever make perfect uzhunnuvada.My husband is  a huge lover of this .Upon his compulsion once I tried make it but ended up with soggy ones. I always wanted to make crispy vada which we used to get in shops but I had no idea of the key to make it perfect. But atlast I got it!!! Don’t ask me how J.I made it in my own style .By god’s grace I got it as perfect as those in tea shops, crispy outside and spongy inside.It was a huge hit.Uzhunnavada fan was totally impressed and satisfied. This recipe is going to be a keeper. Let’s impress and surprise your family by this yummy vada J

Shaping Uzhunnuvada is bit difficult. Once we get the batter with right consistency, it would be easy. So here goes the recipe

Ingredients

Urad dal (uzhunnu) – 2cups

Rice flour- 1tbsp and 1 tsp

Onion- 1 small,chopped

Ginger- 1 small piece,chopped

Curry leaves- 2 or 3 sprigs,chopped

Whole black pepper-1 tbsp

Salt- as needed

Oil for deep frying

Method of preparation

1.    soak urad dal for 2 or 3 hours. Keep soaked urad dal in a serrated vessel to drain off the water for sometime

2.    Grind urad dal in small batches in a mixie (mixer grinder) till we get smooth and fluffy batter. While grinding sprinkle very less water ( 1 tbsp. ).Scrape the batter from the sides of the jar and grind again till it well grinded.(see the below pic to know the consistency of the batter)

3.    Once the grinding completed, transfer the batter in to a mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients except oil. Mix well.

4.    Heat oil in a deep bottom pan.

5.    Wet your palm. Take a small portion of the batter. Shape into vadas.Put a hole with your thumb. Gently slip shaped vadas in to hot oil.

6.    Once we put the vada, reduce the flame to medium and cook it for 5 min till it turns crispy and slightly brown in color

Serve hot with chutney or sambar.

Notes : Do not soak the urad dal for more than the mentioned time as it will absorb more water which in turn makes the batter loose.

Add as little water as possible while grinding.

Do not skip adding the rice flour as it is the key ingredient to make the vada crispy

While frying,the flame should be medium.

STUFFED CHICKEN BUNS

Nowadays I am not very fond of cooking. So does the blogging. But I can never stay away from baking.I love sitting in front of the oven while the baking is going on and the sight of rising cakes,or buns gives me intense happiness. I have made this bun on a lazy dinner. Once I have tried this long before but was not happy with the outcome. But this time both the stuffing and bun texture turned out awesome. So I clicked the pics and couldn’t stop myself from sharing this wonderful recipe. I would say it is a must try for all bakery food lovers like me. I tried making it as healthy as possible. I have made Around 12 buns and one good sized cater pillar bread with this measurement. The bun was super soft and melts in mouth kind of texture. For the filling I have used both chicken and vegetables. The filling can be modified according to your imaginations. Here goes the recipe…

Ingredients for the bun

1.    All purpose flour/ Maida- 4 cups

2.    Dry yeast- 1 n ½ tbsp

3.    Warm milk- as required to knead the dough ( I didn’t measure)

4.    Sugar-1/4 cup

5.    Salt-1tsp

6.    Oil-1/4 cup

7.    Curd-2 or 3 tbsp

8.    Egg- 1 lightly beaten ,for brushing the bun

9.    Sesame seeds-white or black for sprinkling over the top

For the filling

1.    Chicken – around 150 gms

2.    Green beans-10 nos,chopped

3.    Carrot-1 medium sized,grated

4.    Cabbage -1 cup,chopped

5.    Onion- 2 medium sized,chopped

6.    Ginger garlic paste-1 n ½ tbsp

7.    Chilly podwer-1/2 tsbp

8.    Coriander powder-1/2 tbsp

9.    Garam masala powder -1 tsp

10    Salt to taste

11    Oil-1 bor 2tbsp

12.   Water-1/4 cup

Method of preparation

1.    Mix yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar in ¼ cup of lukewarm water and keep it aside for 10 minutes for proofing. This is the most important step .If your yeast fails to proof then your bread or bun will become as hard as stone. So make sure the yeast mixture has well risen.

2.    Take the flour in a deep and big bowl. Add curd and salt into this and gently mix. Mix the risen yeast,oil.sugar, warm milk in another bowl.(keep some milk aside as iam not sure of the quantity of the milk needed to knead the dough.)Add this into the flour and knead into soft and smooth dough. Add more milk if required. The dough has to  be kneaded for at least eight minutes. Keep the kneaded dough covered in a warm place for 3 or 4 hours to rise and doubles the volume.

3.    For the filling- Cook chicken by adding ¼ cup of water, salt and little turmeric powder. Once chicken has cooked remove the pieces from the stock. Cook the chopped vegetables in the same chicken stock. (this gives some extra flavor for the filling).chop the cooked chicken and keep it aside.

4.    Heat oil in a pan. Add ginger garlic paste and onion and sauté until onion turns soft. Add the spice powders and sauté until the raw smell goes. Now add the cooked chicken and vegetable Add salt if required and mix everything well. Switch off the flame .Now the filling is ready.

5.    Lets get back to the dough. Punch the risen dough to release the air. Divide the dough into medium sized balls slightly bigger than that of chappathi balls. Flatten the balls into thick discs and shape it into cups. Keep a big spoon full of filling into this and punch the edges to shape them into buns. Grease a baking tray ,place buns with few centimeters gap as it will rise while baking. After shaping all the buns preheat the oven At 250◦c for 10 minutes. By this time the buns will have a second rise. Brush the top of the buns with beaten egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds and bake at 180◦c for 15 minutes or until it is cooked and turned slightly brown.

KOTHU CHAPPATHI

Chappathi is a staple food in all Indian kitchens. Finding a good side dish for chappathi is bit difficult for many. This kothu chappathi spares you from making side dish and also saves time. Moreover, the best way to utilize leftover chappathis. Just like Kothu porotta, cooked chappathi is shredded into small pieces and then sauted with some masalas .I got this recipe from a T.V show .I tried it with little variations .It turned out delicious and we all loved it.

Ingredients

1.    Chappathi-6,nos

2.    Onion-1 medium,chopped

3.    Eggs- 2 or 3 nos

4.    Ginger-1 small piece, chopped

5.    Green chilly-2nos,chopped

6.    Garlic-7pods,chopped

7.    Coriander powder-1tsp ,heaped

8.    Chilly powder-1/4 tsp

9.    Garam masala-3/4 tsp

10.  Pepper powder-1/2 tsp

11.   Tomato-1 medium ,chopped

12.  Oil-1tbsp

13.     Salt

Method of preparation

1.    Cut chappathi into small pieces. ( Using a kitchen scissors will make this job much easier).Keep it aside.

2.    Heat oil in a pan, sauté ginger, garlic and green chilly for a minute. Add in all the powders except pepper powder. Stir for few seconds. Add chopped tomatoes and cook until it turns soft.

3.     Meantime, take a big bowl. Crack open eggs into this and beat lightly. Add pepper powder, chopped onion and salt. Add chopped chappathi into this .Mix well so that all the chappathi pieces can coat well with the egg mix.

4.    Add this chappathi pieces into the prepared masala.Mix well with the masala.

5.    Close the pan .Cook in low flame for few minutes or until the eggs is cooked. Mix again and stir continuously for few more minutes. Enjoy as such or with onion raitha..

LOW FAT KERALA STYLE CHICKEN FRY

I know very well that no one would say no to chicken fry. But to be honest, they are not my favorite :). But once I tried this low fat version I totally fell in love with chicken fry. This recipe uses very less oil and but taste as good or even better than that of normal deep fried one. Here the chicken is juicy inside and crispy outside, exactly the same way we love our chicken to be.

Ingredients

1.      Chicken- 2 drumsticks and 5 boneless medium sized pieces

2.      Ginger-1 big piece

3.      Garlic-8 pods

4.      Chilly powder-3/4tsp

5.      Cumin powder-1/4tsp

6.      Coriander powder-1tsp,heaped

7.      Garam masala powder-3/4tsp

8.      Curd-2tbsp

9.      Salt

10.  Water-1/2cup

11.  Oil-2tbsp(preferably coconut oil)

12.  Curry leaves-a few

Method of preparation

1.      Wash and clean chicken pieces. Make few slits on the pieces.

2.      Grind ingredients 2-9 in to smooth paste. Marinate chicken pieces in this. Keep it marinated for at least 30 minutes. The more the resting time the tastier it will be.

3.      Cook chicken pieces in a cooker by adding ½ cup of water till 1 whistle. Let the pressure comes down by itself.

4.      Take a frying pan. Add the chicken stock (keep the pieces aside).Heat it in high flame until dries up .when the liquid forms like a thick paste reduce the flame and add the kept aside chicken pieces in. Mix well .Add the oil and curry leaves and cook in medium flame for few minutes until outer portion of the chicken pieces turned dark and crispy. When one side is cooked, Flip it and cook other side too. It will not take much time since the meat is already cooked.

Serve it as a starter or side dish. It goes well with rice or rotis

5.       

6.       

MASALA SEMIYA (VERMICELLI)

This is one regular thing in my kitchen .I always being lazy to do a post on this recipe for no reason :).Everyone’s favorite Maggi noodles has been banned and lot of controversies is going on. I guess this is the right time to do a post on this recipe as this Masala Semiya resembles Maggi in appearance and taste as well. Hope this one can be a boon to all desperate magi lovers like me.

Semiya , these cute strings are my utmost favorite. I love to have it any form sweet or savory. While I was kid, it was  my duty to break long strings of semiya for making payasam.But now things are easy as broken roasted semiya is available everywhere. I make sure to buy a packet of semiya on every grocery purchase. Whenever I feel like to binge on something I make this masala semiya.When I made this last time, I was struggling to get my plate from my little Kannan.Yes he also loves it. It was fun watching him gobble up those strings. Whenever he is reluctant to take baby foods, I make this to feed him. This recipe is simple and can be made in a jiffy. This is a basic recipe. Chicken or vegetables can be added to make it more nutritious and flavorful.

Ingredients

1.      Roasted semiya-200gm

2.      Onion-1 small, chopped

3.      Ginger – ½ inch piece, chopped

4.      Garlic-5 pods, chopped

5.      Tomato-1 medium, chopped

6.      Whole spices-1 or 2 cardamoms,2cloves,1 small stick of cinnamon

7.      Coriander powder-1 tsp

8.      Chilly powder-1/2tsp

9.      Garam masala-3/4tsp

10.  Salt

11.  Oil-1tbsp

12.  Water- for 1 cup of semiya around 1 cup of water to be  required. It may vary depends on the type or brand of semiya.So add water accordingly.

Method of preparation

1.      Heat oil in a pan. Add whole spices .when the aroma comes add ginger and garlic. Sauté for a minute.Add onions and saute until onion turns soft. Add in all powders and stir for a minute. Add chopped tomatoes and a tbsp of water .Cook until it turns mushy.

2.      Add salt and required quantity of water. Let it boil. Add semiya in. Mix well. Reduce the flame. Cover and cook until water dries up and semiya is cooked through. Stir in between to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Switch off the flame .Separate  the strings and  give a nice mix  again using a fork and serve hot.