Vegetable Bonda with Mint and Kebab Chutney

Vegetable bonda is a quick, healthy and easy snack that fulfill our hunger. It is almost similar to aloo bonda, but mix of steam cooked vegetables gives our good taste and large quantity too. Just one vegetable bonda with a cup of chai with our family is awesome moment. Mint chutney goes well with bajji, binda, pakodi . Handful of mint and coriander along with little Indian spicy ingredient gives a punch to this chutney.

Cooking time: 15 mins
Preparation time: 20 mins
Serves - 4 nos

Ingredients for stuffing:

Potato - 2 nos (Medium, chopped)
Carrot - 2 nos (Medium, chopped)
Peas - 100 gms
Beetroot - 1/4 cup (chopped, optional)
Coriander leaves - 2 table spoon
Onion -1 (large, finely chopped)
Green Chilli - 2 nos (finely chopped)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Chilli  powder - 3/4 teaspoon
Cumin Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Coriander pwder - 1/2 teaspoon
Garam Masala - 1/4 teaspoon
Cashewnuts - 2 tablespoon(broken into small pieces)
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tablespoon
Hing/ Asafoetida - a pinch
Lemon juice - optional

Ingredients for Batter:

Gram flour - 3/4 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Cooking soda/ aapa soda - 1 pinch
Water - as needed

Preparation Method:

1. Wash and peel skin of potato and dice into small cubes. Similarly wash and dice carrot into small chunks.
2. Wash 3 -4 times green fresh peas. If beetroot is used, then masala turns light sweetish. Its optional to use.
3. Mix all diced vegetable and peas in cooker bowl and steam cook it for 5 whistles.



4. Once pressure goes off, strain the vegetable to remove any water left in bowl and smash well by adding chilli powder, salt, cumin powder, coriander powder and Garam Masala using potato masher.



5. Heat oil in a kadai and finely chopped onion, green chillies and hing. Saute well until onion turns translucent colour. Add mashed vegetable and saute well in medium flame for about 3 to 4 mins. Finally add coriander leaves, cashewnuts and lemon juice and switch off the flame.





6. Once the mixture cools down make medium sized balls out of it and keep aside.



7. In a separate bowl mix together gram flour, rice flour, salt, cooking soda and chilli powder.
8. Add little water at a time and mix the batter to get right bajji consistency.



9. Heat oil in a separate pan, dip vegetable balls in batter and add it to oil. Add 3-5 balls at a time in batches.Once balls are added to oil, reduce the heat and fry it gently until it turns golden brown.




10. Remove bonda from oil and add it to paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Serve it hot with Mint chutney or kebab chutney

Mint Chutney and Kebab chutney for sandwich

I have learnt this recipe Mint chutney from my sister. She make different chutney for her kid for sandwich, dosa, idly and even for rice. It is so simple to make and the secret ingredient is sugar and lime juice. It was so tasty and tangy when I tasted it in her house along with bajji. I tried it next time along with vegetable bonda. This mint chutney can be applied as a base for sandwich and even with little variation we can use for kebab.

Preparation time: 15 mins
Serves - 4 nos

Ingredients:

Mint leaves- one hand full
Coriander leaves- one hand full
Salt - to taste
Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon
Green chilli - 3 nos
Peanut - 2 tablespoon (Roasted and skin removed)
Lime juice - 2 teaspoon
Ginger - 1 inch (chopped)
Garlic - 1 single pod

Preparation Method for Mint Chutney:

1. Wash and clean mint leaves and coriander leaves.
2. In a blender mix all the above ingredients and blend it to a fine paste.
3. Serve this chutney along with Bajji, bonda and pakodi´s.

Preparation Method for Kebab Chutney:

1. Wash and clean mint leaves and coriander leaves.
2. In a blender mix all the above ingredients and blend it to a fine paste.
3. In a bowl, mix 2 teaspoon of mint chutney and 2 tablespoon of thick curd. Mix well along with a pinch of chat masala and adjust salt for taste.
4. This chutney goes well with any kebab varieties.

Karamani Sundal/Black White Eye Bean Sundal

Karamani sundal/ Black white eye bean sundal is rarely prepared when compared to groundnut or chickpeas sundal. It is a good evening snack and more tasty when we prepare a separate spice powder and mix it. Black white eye bean has more health benefits such as it is rich in Iron, less fat and more protein enriched. When bean salad is prepared, it plays an major role along with green gram dal.

Cooking time: 15 mins
Soaking time: 3-4 hrs
Serves - 2 nos

Ingredients:

Black White eyebean -1 cup
Coriander seeds - 2 tablespoon
Channa dal - 2 tablespoon
Red Chilli - 6 nos
Oil - 2 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 10 nos
Hing/ Asafoetida - pinch
Grated coconut - 3 tablespoon
Salt - to taste

Preparation Method:

1. Wash and soak white eyebean for 4 -5 hours.
2. Pressure cook the soaked white bean with little salt for 2 whistle. Drain excess water and keep it aside.
3. Dry roast coriander seeds, channa dal and red chilli in a pan and set them aside to cool off.
4. Grind the dry roasted ingredients into coarse powder.
5. Heat oil in kadai and add mustard seeds, when it splutter add hing and curry leaves followed by pressure cooked bean.
6. Add salt if required and then add 3 tablespoon of coarsely grinded powder.
7. Stir well for 2 minutes and switch off the flame.
8. Finally add grated coconut and mix well and serve.

Tips:

1. Soak white eye bean for 3-4 hours so that in 2 whistle bean cooks well.
2. Always add grated coconut after switching off the flame. Coconut will get cooked with the existing heat of kadai.
3. Serve sundal with finely chopped onions and raw mango as toppings. It gives extraordinary taste.

Wheat halwa / Tirunelveli Halwa

Godhumai halwa/ Wheat halwa / Tirunelveli halwa is one among my long dream to make it at home. I always get scared since it is quite long process. I want to try this recipe on special occasion and made it this time for my husband's birthday. As I am from Nellai background, I still remember in my childhood days who ever comes to my house from my native always get us halwa and mixture. These two are common snacks in Tirunelveli along with evening coffee. Originally this halwa is made out of wheat milk, there are some other easy way to make wheat milk but taste will differ from original.

No artificial colour  is used for this halwa. Sugar is caramelized to get original colour of halwa, which is most secret behind this recipe. Only samba godhumai is used to make this recipe. We can make use of whole samba wheat or broken wheat. If whole wheat is used, milk is taken by grinding in blender, similar to how we extract coconut milk. If broken wheat is used, we can squeeze using hands and filter it to take milk.

Soaking time: 8 hrs
Preparation time: 3 hrs
Cooking time: 1 hr 20 mins
Serves : 4 nos

Ingredients:

Broken wheat/ Samba godhumai Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Cashewnut - 10 nos (broken into fine pieces)

Procedure to make wheat milk:

1. Soak 1 cup of broken wheat in 5 cup of water for 8 hrs or over night in a large bowl.
2. After 8 hrs, start pressing and mixing the samba rava using hand and squeeze out the milk.
3. Filter the milk using fine strainer / tea filter and repeat the process again and again by adding little water and squeezing out the milk.
4. Once we get very thin milk, stop the process.
5. In large jug, pour the squeezed milk and rest it undisturbed for 2-3 hrs. It helps in settling the milk down, leaving the excess water above the jug. This water contains fermented taste.
6. Remove excess water and exactly 1 cup thick milk is collected at last.
7. Add 4 cups of fresh water to the thick milk and keep it separate.




Procedure to make Halwa:

1. Heat 2 1/2 cup of sugar and one cup water in thick non stick kadai/ pan.



2. Stir continuously until sugar gets dissolved and boil until thin one string consistency is attained.



3. Stir wheat milk well and add it to sugar syrup. From this point it takes minimum one hour to get halwa consistency.



4. Stir continuously in medium heat for 15 mins until the mixture turns little thick. At this stage start adding ghee little by little about 2 tablespoon and stir again until poured ghee is absorbed.



5. Simultaneously in separate pan add a tablespoon of ghee and fry cashewnuts until golden brown and keep it aside.



6. In the same pan, add remaining half cup sugar and a 2 tablespoon of water to it. Keep stirring in medium flame. It will get melt and start drying again. At this stage lower the flame and keep stirring until it starts caramelizing. Don´t let the sugar get burnt.



7. Add this caramelized sugar mixture to the halwa and stir continuously. This brings the colour of halwa. It will take some minutes for caramelized sugar to get dissolved in halwa.



8. At every ten minutes interval add 2 tablespoon of ghee and keep stirring in medium to low flame. Never keep the flame high.



9. Around 50 minutes, no more ghee will be absorbed by halwa, at this stage add cashewnuts and stir well.



10. At one point, poured ghee will be start leaving the sides of halwa and entire halwa will be non sticky.



11. Remove excess ghee from halwa and switch off the flame.



After it cools down, we can see crispy layer of ghee and sugar coated halwa is ready to serve.

Tips:

1. Entire process of halwa stirring is done in medium to low flame.
2. Don´t burn the caramalized sugar, if so pour it out and again repeat the new process of caramalizing .
3.Around 1/4 cup of ghee can be collected back once halwa is done.

Kollu podi/ Horsegram spice powder

Kollu/ Horsegram spice powder is a flavorful powder, which goes well with hot steam rice and idli. Horsegram helps in reducing weight, it has more health benefits as it is rich in iron, protein and calcium.  You can also refer Potukadalai podi here

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time : 15 mins
Yields - 250 gm

Ingredients:

Horsegram - 1/2 cup
Red Chilli - 7 nos
Whole black pepper - 10-15 nos
Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dal - 2 tablespoon
Toor dal - 2 tablespoon
Garlic pod - 2 nos
Oil - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste

Preparation Method:

1. Dry roast horsegram in medium heat until you get nice aroma.
2. Add one teaspoon of oil and roast Red chilli, garlic, pepper, cumin seeds, urad dal and channa dal one by one.



3. Allow all ingredients to cool and dry grind in mixer to fine powder along with required salt.

Serve it along with hot steamed rice and ghee.

Tips:

1. Garlic is optional and it add flavour to this spice powder.
2. Don´t add more cumin seeds, it will over power the horsegram smell.

Uluthankali (Karupatti uluthankali)

It is my 100'th recipe. Thank you my dear friends and relatives for your continual support and encouraging me in making my recipe feel special. I was really breaking my head to make my 100th recipe so special. I was literally trying with Italian Panna cota, French Ratatouille and what not, but something hit my head so strong that no other recipes stands before our traditional dish, ya that too South Indian "Nellai Uluthan (karupatti) kali". This recipe was published in Aval Kitchen magazine in 2016. (Uluthankali)

Ingredients:

Urad dal flour - 4 cup
Rice flour - 1cup
Water - 2 1/2 cup
Karuppati (Palm Jaggery) - 1 cup
Gingelly Oil - 1/4 cup

Preparation Method:

1. Dry roast Rice flour and Urad dal flour in medium flame until nice aroma arises. Ensure colour of flour doesn't get changed.



2. In a separate pan, mix jaggery powder in 2 1/2 cup water and allow it to boil, until jaggery completely dissolves. Filter jaggery syrup to remove impurities.



3. In a separate vessel mix jaggery syrup and roasted flour evenly. Ensure no lumps are formed. Now add this to heavy bottom kadai and stir it continuously in low flame.



4. Once the raw smell of mixture vanish off, add little gingelly oil and mix well.



5. Slowly add rest of the gingelly oil and ensure it is evenly spread and mixed well in low flame. Once it turns non sticky consistency, switch off the flame.



6. Allow the mixture to cool off. Apply oil in hands and make balls out of it. Serve it warm .

Tips:

1. Always add flour to jaggery syrup separately and then add to pan.
2. Use black urad dal flour, which is more healthy.

Potukadalai paruppu podi (with Garlic)

Paruppu podi made with fried gram dal and garlic, so simple to make and taste so good with steamed rice and gingelly oil. My mom used to make variety of podi, which we mix with steam rice and have. I personally love both paruppu podi, one made with fried gram dal and other with tuvar dal(toor dal).

Ingredients:

Fried gram dal / potukadalai - 1 cup
Red chilli - 8 nos
Garlic Pod - 8 nos
Pepper - 1 teaspoon
Oil - 1 or 2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - to taste

Preparation Method:

1. Dry roast fried gram dal for just one or two minute in medium flame and keep it aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan, roast red chilli, garlic, cumin seeds and pepper one by one.
3. Allow all the ingredients to cool down and grind together with salt in a mixer to fine powder.
4. Store it in airtight container.

Tips:

1. Excess of cumin seeds might over powder the spice powder flavour.