Kodbale - Spicy Carom Flavored Rings

Kodubale is one of the popular snacks in South India. "KODU" means Horn (like that of a cow) and "BALE" means Bangle. These are named based on their shape. These kodubales are crunchy, hot and tasty. This recipe is slightly different from most of the other kodubale recipes, as i use fine semolina here instead of rice flour which is most commonly used. I suggest you use the finest quality of semolina here. They give a wonderful taste and the initial stage where you grind the coconut, dalia, carom and cumin seeds itself will give you the aroma of the final product.



Ingredients:

2 cups fine semolina
1/4 cup desiccated coconut or dry coconut, grated
1/4 cup kadale or Dalia
1/4 tsp asafoetida or hing
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp carom seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
2 1/2 tbsps chilli powder (can reduce according to your preference)
1/4 cup hot oil + oil for deep frying (preferably sunflower oil)

Directions:

Grind together the coconut, dalia, asafoetida, carom seeds and jeera to form a smooth powder.

Combine the ground powder, fine semolina and hot oil and mix well. Add chilli
powder, salt and combine well. Now add enough water to make a soft dough.

Take about a teaspoon of the dough and roll it on a wooden board with your fingers to form a thin long cylinder, about 4 inches long and thickness of about your little finger. Slowly turn around both the ends together and join them to form a circle (like a bangle) with your thumb and fore finger. Do the same with the remaining dough.

Heat oil on a low to medium heat. Do not over heat the oil or the kodubales would turn raw from inside. Deep fry these roundels of dough. You can add 5 to 10 roundels together depending on the pan you are using. Fry them for 5 to 10 minutes each batch till they turn slightly reddish brown.
Let them cool to take a bite to see if the the kodbales have fried well and they are crispy from in to out.

Enjoy these spicy, crunchy kodbales as an evening snack with a hot cup of coffee.

Murukka ( Crispy spicy savory crackers )

Murukku is one savory snack popular in south India. A special gadget called "chakli varalu" is used to make this snack but you can simply use a Patisserie Cream Syringe like here and here with a ribbon tip or any other small thin tip. Or you can just fill the dough into a plastic seal bag, make a small cut in the edge and pipe it directly into the hot oil. Shape doesn't matter at all. Its the ingredients for the dough thats matters and the end result would definitely be tasty and crispy no matter in what shape it is. I got this recipe from one of my friends mom who cooks real tasty south Indian food. I thank her for this wonderful recipe. Its become one of my husbands new favorite. You should try it to know it.



Ingredients required:

2 cups rice flour
1/4 cup Split roasted gram /Dalia /Hurigadale, ground into powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1 1/2 tbsp red chilli powder
2 tbsps sesame seeds
1/4th cup hot oil
1/2 tbsp salt or as per taste
enough water to form a soft stiff dough
enough oil to deep fry

Directions:

combine rice flour, ground roasted gram, asafoetida and salt, mix well. Add hot oil and combine well. Now add the chilli powder and sesame seeds, mix well. Add enough water to form a soft dough.

Heat oil a deep pan on medium high. Grease your hands and take some of the dough and fill it into the chakli mold or icing bag (with a small nozzle). Pipe out spirals directly into the hot oil. Fry them in batches.

Deep fry the chaklis till golden. Drain on paper towels, cool and store in an air-tight container.

Enjoy with a cup of hot coffee.

Heerekai Chutney ( Ridge Gourd Chutney )

This dish has been one of my childhood favorite. I used to love it when my mom used to make this for me. This chutney goes very well with just plain steamed rice or as an accompaniment with Indian flat bread, chapathi. You can add more or less green chillies according to your taste.


Serves : 4

Ingredients:

2 big ridge gourds, peeled and cut into cubes
2 tablespoons chana dal (bengal gram)
2 green chillies
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/4 cup coconut, fresh or desiccated
2 teaspoons tamarind juice
1 teaspoon jaggery or sugar
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida , optional
few curry leaves
1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Directions:

Take the ridge gourd cubes in a deep vessel and add about a cup of water. On a medium high heat, bring this to a boil and cook until tender. Add a little more water if needed (do not add too much).

In another small pan, fry chana dal, green chilli and fenugreek seeds with little oil till chanal dal starts imparting a nice smell, till you see blisters appearing on the surface of green chillies and the fenugreek seeds start to turn brown. Take the pan off the heat and let cool a little bit.

Tranfer the contents of the pan into a blender. Add coconut, salt, tamarind, jaggery and the boiled ridge gourd (keep the water separate). Blend until smooth. Add the reserved water if necessary to get the right thickness.

Take oil in a pan, add mustard and let it splutter. Now add asafoetida, turmeric and curry leaves and fry for few seconds. Now add the mixture from the blender and stir well.

Serve this wonderful tasting chutney with rice or chapati. Enjoy!

Om Biscuit (South Indian Style Breadsticks)

Om biscuit is one of the most popular South Indian bakery item. "Om" meaning Carom seed in "Kannada", a south Indian language. Its basically pencil-sized sticks of crispy, dry, sweet, Carom flavored bread.


This is one of my favourite snack and i badly wanted to try it out at home. After so many experiments and failures, i finally got this recipe right. I'm glad i did it. I'm sure you'll all love it!

Sending this post to Yeastspotting.

Here goes the recipe..
Makes: Eight 12" Sticks or Sixteen 6" Sticks

Ingredients:
1 cup All purpose flour (Maida)
1 tsp Ajwain or carom seeds
5 tsps Sugar
1 tsp DryYeast
4 tbsps lukewarm water
3 1/2 tbsps Oil (Vegetable or sunflower)
1/2 tsp Salt

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the yeast, sugar and lukewarm water (105° to 115°). Let stand for 10 minutes until bubbly and foamy.

Stir in flour, salt, Ajwain and oil into the yeast mixture. Stir together with a wooden spoon or beat with an electric mixer or just use your hands and knead until the dough is shiny, elastic,and soft, 3 to 5 minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Toss the dough well to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let the dough ferment at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper and keep aside.

After 2 hours, Punch the dough and Knead by hand on a lightly floured surface until very smooth and soft. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts. Using floured hands, stretch and roll each piece of dough into a thin 12-inch-long breadstick. Place the breadsticks about ½ inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. And set aside for about an hour till the dough slightly rises.

Bake at 180 deg C until golden and crisp, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to a rack and let the breadsticks cool completely.

Enjoy and have a great day!!

Pineapple Gojju ( Pineapple Cooked in a Spicy Coconut Sauce)

Pineapple gojju is one of the traditional South India recipe served most commonly during marriage functions or festivals. "Gojju" is the term used in South Indian language "Kannada" for a gravy/curry. This gojju is basically nothing but chopped pineapple cooked in a spicy coconut sauce. This recipe goes well with both sweet pineapple and the tangy one. If you're using a sweet one, then you'll need to add more tamarind and if you're using a tangy one, you'll be using less tamarind. You just need to alter the tamarind, palm sugar and salt quantities accordingly.


Its got the tang, sweet, salt and spicy flavors to bring out all together a new delicious flavor. Its a must try recipe!


Ingredients:

1 pineapple , peel and chop into 1 inch cubes, or the canned pineapples
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsps Urad dal or Black gram
8-10 Byadgi red chillies
1" cinnamon
1 tbsp Poppy seeds
1/2 cup dessicated coconut powder or freshly grated dry coconut
3-4 tbsp jaggery or palm sugar
2 tbsp thick tamarind pulp
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let it splutter, then add the chopped pineapple and enough water to cover the pineapple. Do not add more water. Cover and cook at low to medium heat and let it boil for few minutes till the pineapple become slightly soft.

Meanwhile, fry the masala ingredients, i.e., urad dal, red chillies (broken), coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and cinnamon. When urad dal starts turning golden brown, switch off the heat and add the poppy seeds. You add poppy seeds at the end as it doesn't require to be fried for a longer time. Just the heat which is in the pan is good enough.

Cool the masala ingredients and grind it along with the desiccated coconut adding as much water required to form a thick smooth fine paste.

Now add the ground masala paste, along with tamarind juice, jaggery and salt to the pineapple. Bring it to boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the curry thickens. If the curry becomes too thick, you can add water and bring it to the curry consistency. You can taste the curry and adjust the tamarind, jaggery and salt quantities.. As these 3 ingredients play a major role in getting the tongue tickling taste.

Serve with any of the Indian flat breads recipes in my blog, or with plain steamed rice. Enjoy!

Variation: You can follow the recipe with any other tangy fruit like grapes, or any other berries. Just make sure you dont boil the fruits too much and let them hold there shape. Its nice when you get bits of these fruits when eating.

Goanese Potato Curry

This delicious curry tastes great with parathas or preferably with steamed rice or pulao. Here is a lovely blend of spices and coconut which gives the curry an authentic taste.



Recipe adapted from Tarla Dalal's Curries and Kadhis

Ingredients

4 cups big chunks of potatoes
1 large tomato
2 tbsp oil (sunflower or vegetable)
1 tsp mustard seeds
Salt to taste

For the paste
2 whole onions
2 tsp poppy seeds (khus-khus)
2 sticks cinnamon (dalchini)
2 cloves (laung)
2 peppercorns
2 tsp coriander (dhania) seeds
3 whole dry red chillies, broken into pieces
3/4 cup freshly grated coconut or 1/2 cup dessicated coconut powder
5 cloves garlic
3 tsp oil

For the paste

Put 1 tsp of oil in a frying pan and fry the poppy seeds, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, corriander seeds and red chillies for a few minutes. Keep aside.

Fry the onions in a tsp of oil till they are soft and keep aside.

Put 2 tsp of oil in a frying pan and fry the coconut for 1 minute.

Mix all the above three ingredients along with garlic and blend to a smooth paste in the blender by adding a little water if required.

How to Proceed

Cut the tomatoes into big pieces, add two cups of water and cook. When soft, prepare a soup by passing through a sieve. Keep aside.

Heat the oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds stop crackling add the potatoes, salt and a cup of water. Cover with a lid and cook till the potatoes are done.

Add the paste, tomato soup and salt (if required) and bring to a boil.

Serve hot. Its yumm!!

Mixed Vegetable Kootu

Ingredients:
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup
Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
Vegetables Cut into chunks (Carrot, Beans, Peas, Ridge Gourd(Heerekai), Chayote Squash (Seeme badnekai), Potato) - 2 cups
Groundnuts (soaked overnight) - 1/4 cup
Kootu powder - 3 Tbsp
Greated Dry coconut - 3 Tbsp
Coriander leaves - few
Tamarind juice - 2 Tbsp
Jaggery - 1 Tbsp
Turmaric - a pinch
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Pressure cook Toor dhal, groundnuts, and vegetables with a pinch of turmaric. Wait for 2 whistles. Let the cooker cool.

Grind coconut, kootu powder, coriander leaves to a paste with little water.

Take oil in a pan, when hot add urad dhal. When urad dhal starts turning brown, add cooked dhal and vegetables.

Add the grinded paste, tamarind juice, jaggery and salt to taste. Let it come to boil.

Kootu is ready. Enjoy it with rice and a tsp of ghee.

Vegetable palya

Ingredients:
2 Cups Vegetables(carrots,beans,peas,cabbage..
2 cups Water
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 and 1/2 Tbsp Palya powder
1 Tbsp Tamarind juice
1 tsp jaggery
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Heat some oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add all the chopped vegetables, water and let it boil.
After the vegetables become tender and all the water is evaporated, add salt, tamarind juice, palya powder and jaggery.Fry for 5 minutes and Vegetable palya is ready.

Enjoy it with plain rice or chapati..